.^jS^PRINCfJg-^
<^fOtOGICAL St>»!5^
'BS IH30
CLARK'S
FOEEIGN
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY.
VOLUME II.
HENGSTENBERG'S COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
MDCCCLXIV.
COIMENTAEY
THE PSALMS.
E. W. HENGSTENBEEG,
Dli. A>fr> I'KOFESSOU OF THKOLOGY IN nKRLIN.
VOL. IL
jFowtf) CBBitlon, carefuUe latbisetJ.
TRANSLATED BY THE
REV. JOHN THOMSON, LEITH,
REV. PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D.,
PRINCIPAL OF FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW.
EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
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Ml'UnAT AN1» GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBljEGO.
THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM XXXV.
The Psalmist, sorely distressed by malicious and ungodly enemies, prays the Lord for deliverance, promising cordial thanks, if his prayer should be granted. The Psalm falls into three strophes, in each of which the three elements of complaint, prayer, and promise of thanksgiving, are contained, and which are especially remarkable on this account, that each of these runs out into the vow of thanksgiving, ver. 1 — 10 ; ver. 11 — 18 ; ver. 19 — 28. The middle strophe, surrounded on each side by two decades, in which prayer predominates, is chiefly remark- able for an extended representation of the Psalmist's distress, and of the black ingratitude of his enemies, which calls aloud for the divine retribution.
The relations of David's time manifestly form the ground of this Psalm, which was composed, according to the superscription, by him. A more special ground may be obtained, in 1 Sam. xxiv. 15, where a declaration of David to Saul is recorded, " the Lord therefore, be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see and plead ray cause, and deliver me out of thine hand," — which coincides with the first verse of our Psalm in very characteristic expressions. Still we are not to suppose, on this account, that the Psalm possesses an individual character : what at first sight appears to carry this aspect, is soon perceived, by an experienced judgment, to be a mere individualizing. David speaks in the person of the righteous, from which view it is moi-e easily ex- plained, how the truly Kigliteous One could appropriate tliis Psalm to himself, (John xv. 25, comp. with ver. 19 here, an ap- plication, which led many of the older expositors to give to the
VOL. II. B
2 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Psalm a direct and exclusive Messianic interpretation, (comp. on the Other hand, Introd. to Psalm xxii.) A casual syn- chronism between this Psalm and the immediately preceding one, is indicated by the agreement, which ver. 5 and 6 present to the other, the more remarkable, as these two Psalms are the only ones, in which the Angel of the Lord, in a general way oc- curs. But in both he appears entirely in the same character and connection.
Ver. 1. Of David. Contend, O Lord, with my contenders, consume those who consume me. In the first member, the relation of the righteous to his enemies, appears under the image of a con- test for justice, in the second, under the image of a war. What is expressed in the first member as a wish, is in Isa. xlix. 25, con- verted into a promise, " I will contend with him that contend- eth with thee." But the wish here also rises on the ground of the promise. To beg any thing from God, which he had not promised, were a piece of folly. tDTO signifies, not to fight, but to eat, and HX is not prepos. but marks the accus. The mean- ing of figliting first enters in Niphil. prop, to be eaten, then to be eaten by one another. A destructive warfare against the enemies is not rarely represented as a consuming of these, comp, for example, Numb. xxiv. 8, " He eats up (consumes) the hea- then, and their bones will he break." Calvin: " The sum is, that, overwhelmed with calumnies, and oppressed with cruelty, and finding no help in the world, he commends his life, as well as his good name, into the hand of God."
Ver. 2. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up as my help. The Lord is represented under the image of a hero, who equips himself for the deliverance of his oppressed friend. This representation has its ground in human weakness. As dangers palpable and manifest surround us, God's hidden and invisible power is not of itself fitted to keep us from all fear and anxiety. It must in a manner take to itself flesh and blood. It usually borrows its dress from the danger, which at the time is threaten- ed. In opposition to the arts of lying and calumny, God is set forth as patron or administrator, who takes charge of the affairs of his people. If danger is threatened from rude violence, he ap- pears as a warrior, as in Deut. xxxii. 41, 42, who lays hold of weapons for the defence of his people. In this verse the Psalmist calls upon the Lord to take weapons of defence, in the next weapons of offence, p^ is the small shield, and n^^ the great
PSALM XXXV. VER. 3 — 5. 3
one, as appears from 1 Kings x. 16, 17. Tl^Tyi prop, in my help ; ^ is that which marks, in what property any thing appears or consists, Ew. Small Gr. § 521. Help is elsewhere also not rarely used by David for helper, comp. for example, Psalm xxvii 9.
Ver. 3. And take hold of the spear, and set a barrier against mi/ persecutors ; say to my soul : thy salvation am 1. p"l*^ in Hiph. to empty, then to take out; and here: from the armoury. In the expression : set a barrier, prop, close up against my per- secutors, the figure is borrowed from a host, which comes to the help of its confederates, when threatened with a surprisal by the enemy, and, by throwing itself between them and the enemy^ blocks up the way for the latter. It appears that we have here before us a military term of art, such as was quite suitable in the mouth of the warrior David, and as we have already met with in ver. 1 and 2. We are not to supply some definite noun, such as way. Close up, rather imports as much as, make a close. n5^*1p7? against, in a military connection, for example Deut. i. 44, Jos. viii. 14, is carefully to be distinguished from ^337. Against my persecutors, in that thou dost oppose a barrier to them, dost therewith meet them. Many take "l^D as a noun = aayaoig^ a species of battle-axe. But this exposition forsakes the Hebrew usage, in which the verb ^^D lias the signification of closing up, the noun "TlJlD that of barricade ; it has against it the authority of all the old translations; and is also deserving of rejection from the very form, as names of species almost with- out exception have the V In the second member, the Psalmist is thought by many to wish for an audible communication. But, according to the connection, the speech is rather one embodied in fact. Comp. the first member and ver. 4. God has to speak comfort to the endangered and troubled soul of the Psalmist by the communication of help. The expression : to my soul, is used, as ver. 4 shows, because his soul found itself in danger, because his enemies consulted about taking his life.
Ver. 4. Let them he confounded and put to shame, ivho seek after my soul, let them be turned back and brought to confusion, tuho devise my hurt. That the fut. are to be taken optatively, that the Psalmist does not express hope and confidence, but, as in ver. 1 — 3, prays, appears from the Tl* in ver. 6; Ver. 5. Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord thrust them. Comp. in regard to the angel of the Lord,
4 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ps. xxxiv. 7. !in signifies only to thrust, knock down, never to drive, or to drive away. On their eager flight the angel of the Lord lays hold of them and throws them to the ground, so that they can never rise up again. Comp. on Ps. xxxvi. 12. We are not to supply to nm the suffix, but the participle enters into the place of the noun ; prop, let the angel of the Lord be their pusher. Ver. 6. Let their way he dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. The putting of the sub- stantives darkness and slipperiness, for the adj. gives more strength. Whosoever is pursued by a powerful enemy upon a dai'k and slippery path, which necessarily retards the speed of his flight, he is devoted to certain destruction. Ver. 7. For ivithoiit cause they have hid for me their pit-net, without cause they have made a pit for my soul. The ground is here laid for the wish expressed in the preceding verse, guaranteeing the certainty of its fulfilment. The pit-net is a pit covered with a net. The image is derived from the hunting of wild beasts, which are caught in such pit-nets, covered over with twigs and earth. We are not exactly to supply nH^ to IISH. but to diy stands for, to make a pit. Ver. 8. Let destruction come upon him unawares, and his net, which he has concealed, let it catch him, for destruction let him fall therein. The singular refers here, as in all similar cases, to the ideal person of the wicked. The expression : he knows not, stands often for, unexpectedly, suddenly. As they had surprised the righteous in the midst of his peace, so might perdition again overtake them in the midst of their security. n^\1^ is prop. part, of the verb ^^$2J^J to rush together, and denotes, not destruction in the active sense, but the ruin. This signification is here also demanded by the last member, whei'e HKIS^!! marks the circumstances, under which the fall takes place. His falling into the net is a thing connected with the entire ruin, as is said in Ps. xxxvi. 12, " They fall and are not able to rise up again," Ps. xxxiv. 21, " Evil slays the wicked." The ^^5'lSJ^i distinguishes the evil impending over the enemies from what had already befallen the Psalmist. Ver. 9. So ivill my soul be joyful in the Lord; it shall rejoice in his salvation.
Ver. 10. All my bones shall say: Lord vjho is like thee, who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, and the jwor and needy from his spoiler. The futures are not to be taken optat. as Luther : " Might my soul rejoice," etc. Neither do
PSALM XXXV. VER. 10 — 13. 5
they contain the expression of the Psalmist's hope ; but he seeks to make the Lord inclined to grant the desired help, by declar- ing that it would not be lavished on an ungrateful person, and that, like seed, the help afforded would yield a rich harvest of praise and thanksgivings. The bones denote the innermost nature
The second strophe follows with preponderating lamentation. The design of the representation given of the malice of the enemies in ver. 11 — IG, discovers itself in the words in ver. 17, " Lord, how long wilt thou look on, rescue my soul from their destructions, mine only one from the lions," for which a prepa- ration and a motive were provided by that representation. After the prayer there follows again, in ver. 18, the promise of a thanksgiving, implying that the granting of what he sought would tend to the glorification of the name of God.
Ver. 11. Malicious witnesses rise up, ivhat I know not of, about that do they ask of me, they wish me to express an acknowledg- ment of misdeeds of which I have been quite innocent. The verse is neither to be explained historically, nor to be taken figu- ratively, but contains an individualizing trait, such as very fre- quently occurs in the Psalms, which were sung from the person of the righteous. Ver. 12. They rewarded me evil for good, bereavement of my soul. We are not to render: Bereavement is to my soul ; but the ^^2^ is the accus. governed by : they re- warded. For according to the connection, the bereavement of the Psalmist comes here into consideration, only in so far as it was caused by his enemies. In the following verse, which is merely an expansion of this, he brings out the fact, that he had manifested as tender a love to those who were now his enemies, as is wont to be shown to none but the nearest relatives. In testimony of their gratitude and praise for this, they transplant him into such a condition, that he might feel entirely alone upon the wide world. They themselves attack him with wild hatred, comp.ver. 15,16, and deprive him also of the fellowship of all others. Ver. 13. And /, ivhen they were sick, put on sackcloth, pained my- self ivith fasting, and niy prayer returned back to my oivn bosom. The sickness here is not figurative, but an individualizing mark of the suffering. One must, in severe sufferings, discerning therein the righteous punishment of sin, find matter for re- pentance, and practise fasting as an exercise of repentance. (The form of expression I^SJ H^J^, to chastise his soul, to cru- cify his flesh, comp. the profound explanation in Isa. Iviii. is
() ' THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
talcen from the law, in which tDl^. indicating the form, is still not found.) Whoever acts thus at the sufferings of others, gives thereby a proof of the most tender fellowship and love, which destroys in a manner the distinction between I and thou, regards the suffering and the guilt of another as its own. Here also we are not to think of a figurative, but only an individualizing re- presentation. The most tender fellowship has also, in certain circumstances, been realized under this form. The last words receive explanation from what is said in 1 Kings xviii. 42, upon the posture of Elias in prayer. He, who prays with his head bent down, appears to bring the prayer back, as it were, to the bosom from which it proceeded. Clauss: " We must think espe- cially of the sitting or standing posture of mourners overwhelmed with great affliction ; this is the natural bodily expression of a depressed state, afflictive both in itself and from its attendant pain." We reject the exposition of Luther and others: I prayed from the heart continually, prop, my prayer returned out of (?) my bosom ; and also that of many Jews, revived by Sachs : My prayer might (?) turn into my bosom, receive its fulfilment in myself, so full of love was it. Ver. 14. As if he were a friend, as if he were a brother, I went along ; as one who mourns for his mother, was I in dirtiness bowed down. The words : as a friend, as a brother to me, for : as I would have done to a friend, nay to a brother, are to be explained from the circumstance, that the comparison is often barely indicated. We are not to think in such cases of supplying something grammatically. The ex- pression : I went about, refers, as the context shows, to the outward appearance. 7lX is stat. constr. of adj. 7^^{, mourn- ing. ^1p, to be dirty, which is arbitrarily limited by many to the clothing, refers to the whole appearance, to the countenance also unwashed, and covered with ashes, and indicates, so far as it points to the dress, not black clothing, but dirty, (from the sitting in dust and ashes.) nPlJ^'j to bow down, is not to be understood tropically, but according to the context, which speaks throughout of the external symptoms of pain, of the bodily stooping of mourners. In the whole verse we must keep in our eye the symbolical spirit of the East, especially of ancient times, in which the feelings so readily draw after them their out- ward indication, the mourner sits in sackcloth and ashes, while he, who receives a joyful message, puts on fine clothing and anoints himself. On account of this customary imitation of the
PSALM XXXV. VER. 15. 7
internal by the external, the latter is very often expressed in poetry, where, in point of fact only, the internal is meant. We shall see the external is not to be regarded here, whenever we ])erceive it is not a historical, but an ideal person that speaks. The contents of this and the preceding verse lead to the same result. If referred to a historical person, the representation has the character of something strained and unnatural.
Ver. 15. And noiv at my trouble they rejoice, and gather themselves, gather themselves against me the abjects, whom I know not, they tear and are not silent. The ver. forms the expansion of the " bereavement of my soul," in ver. 12. The Psalmist had shown to his enemies in their misfortune the most affectionate sympathy ; their pain was his pain. But now, in his misfortune, his pain is their joy ; they hasten in dense crowds to insult him, and throw him still deeper into misery, and this is the more sensibly felt by him, as in the company that tlius assembled against him, there were found some of the most despicable of men. ''^7^^ prop, in my halting. The halting, as a state of bodily restraint and weakness, stands here for a mark of wretch- edness, as in Ps. xxxviii. 17. DOJ is the plural of HD^ smit- ten, synonymous with H^i, both alike from HDJ, to be smitten. The smitten are men of the lowest grade, the poorest. This also discovers itself in the very next note : and I knew not, for whom I knew not, who from their peculiarly low condition, were shut out from the circle of my acquaintance. No one could have deviated from the correct exposition, if he had only attended to the strikingly coincident parallel passage in Job xxx, 1, ss. Job there complains, that he had become the object of attacks and insults from those, whose fathers he would have disdained to set beside the dogs of his flock, who in their want and wretchedness sought such miserable support as the wilderness could afford them, who were the very quint- essence of W'hat was low and common. To the CDi here, corresponds there VlJ^n \t2 I^Dl they are beaten out of the land, in ver. 8. The current exposition : beating with the tongue, i. e. calumniating, comp. Jer. xviii. 18, is untenable, because against the signification of the root, (nDJ first ob- tains in Hiph. an active signification,) and against the signi- fication of the analogous formations, it takes the word in an active sense, and because it does not comport with the other
O THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
part of the description: whom I knew not. The latter ground also holds against Hitzig's exposition : fools, derived from Tjl^ not occurring in Hebrew ; which besides destroys the manifestly existing connection with the forms n^i? and i^^^. We pass
over other still more arbitrary expositions, as that of Luther: the halting plot against me without my fault. It may still be asked whether the beaten, those beaten with strokes, are the same who had been discoursed of in ver. 13 and 14 ; or more correct- ly, whether they belong to their number ; or whether the Psal- mist here, as Calvin supposes, joins to his earlier acquaintances, who recompensed him evil for good, the multitude of those who, at an earlier period, were quite unknown to him, glad at having an opportunity to vent their malice against him. The first supposition is the correct one. For the latter would not come within the aim of the Psalmist, who gives here a farther enlarge- ment of the declaration: they recompensed me evil for good, on which he had grounded his prayer to the Lord for the punish- ment of his enemies. On the other hand, the words : whom I knew not, are not to be regarded as contradictory. For this is only a mark of the poorest condition, which would natu- rally have excluded these men from the Psalmist's circLe, had not love and compassion impelled him to let himself down to them, and to act towards them a friendly and brotherly part. — y")p, to tear, most expositors, without foundation, take in the sense of reviling. The image is taken from a garment, from which any one seeks to tear away a fragment. By their not being silent, is meant their constantly raving against him with ■words and deeds.
Ver. 16. The vile, who mock for bread, gnash against me u'ith the teeth. The expression, which in both members con- tains a separate clause, is very concise, — emotion, which here is indignation, loving brevity. In the first member the verb is wanting, they act, or they conduct themselves ; in the second member, the infin. absol. stands for the 3d pi. In the first member the Psalmist, in order to bring out more pointedly the worthlessness of his enemies, describes them as persons who only aimed, through their bitter hostilities, to ingratiate them- selves with a great personage, the centre of the whole opposi- tion, in order to obtain from him the means of allaying their hunger, of prolonging their miserable existence. With such creatures, David may have had enough to do in the time
PS.\XM XXXV. VER. IG — 28. 9
of the Sauline persecution. ''Sini prop, in the vile, for as the vile, conip. Ew. Small Gr. § 521. Vile persons of the mockeries of the cake, are vile persons, to whom the mock- eries of the cake belong, yj^^ is the subst. mockery. An adj. yjp, which most expositors suppose here, has no existence, not even in Isa. xxviii. 11. Mockeries of the cake are mockeries, which are so far connected with it that they are thrown out for its sake, in order to obtain it. The enemies appear, in perfect ac- cordance with the description in the preceding verse, and that in Job. XXX., as mean and base men, who sell their tongues to railleries for a peace of bread. Of " guests," and " parasites," and " roast-smell-flatterers," there is no mention. ;ny^ is not cake, as a sort of a dainty bit, but the common cake of the ashes, which in the East stands in the room of bread. Neither are we to think of witty speeches which were uttered at the table, but of bitter mocking, which men indulge toward the object of their master's hatred, like hounds set on by him. This is clear, partly from the word itself, and partly from the parallel : They gnash, &c. The gnashing of the teeth, for which expositors, who mis- take the sense, substitute " showing of the teeth," is always an expression of indignation, which the persons here referred to em- ploy with all vehemence, in order to render themselves much endeared to their master. I^"'^^ as to their teeth, or with the same. Comp. onPsal. iii. 4. — Ver. 17. Lordhoiu longwilt thou look on ? rescue my soul from their desolations, from the young lions my only one. 'y'\i^T\ stands in its common meaning. The soul is in a mournful, dangerous situation, placed amid desolations and lions. The Lord must bring it away from thence. The ci'z. >.£/. ^'\'^, desolations. For : my only one, see on Ps. xxii. 20. — Ver. 18. So will I praise thee in the great congregation, and among much people will extol thee. Comp. on ver. 9 and 10, and on Ps. xxii. 22, 25.
We come now to the third strophe., ver. 19 — 28, chiefly made up of prayer, which has been solidly founded by the representation given in the second strophe of the Psalmist's circumstances. Ver. 19. Let not them that are enemies to me lying, rejoice over me, nor wink with the eye, who hate me without a cause. Ene- mies with falsehood or lies, are such as forge lying accusations against the object of their malice, with the view of giving a fair
colour to it. py VIp prop, to press the eye together, here of the
10 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
winking to one another with the eye, by which the enemies, who wei'e sworn for the Psalmist's destruction, gave each other joy concerning it. This they do even now, because they reckon them- selves quite sure of their object, comp. ver. 21, but God can em- bitter their joy to them. — Ver. 20. For they speak not peace, and against the quiet in the land they devise words of deceit. The expression : they speak not peace, for: they abolish it, is used by way of contrast to what they ought to do, and points to the rela- tions of Saul's time. Saul's distrust receives continually fresh nourishment from such tale-bearers, yjl"! quiet, peaceful. — Ver. 21. And they open their mouth ivide against me, and say, there, there, our eye sees, namely, the wish of our soul, the misfortune of the righteous. Yev. 22. Yea, thouseest, Lord; keep not silence, Lord be not far from me. Ver. 20, 21, gave the reason for ver. 19. Let them not rejoice, for they, the wicked, deserve not thy help; but thy punishment, and their triumphing over the success of their plans, is for thee a call to interfere. And here a new prayer arises out of the reason given for the preceding prayer. The Psalmist places the seeing of God over against the malicious seeing of the enemy. Ver. 23. Stir up thyself and awake to my Judgment, my God and Lord, to my cause. Ver. 24. Judge me according to thy righteousness, O I^ord, my God, and let them not rejoice over me. Ver. 25. Let them not say in their hearts : there, there, so would we have it ! Let them not say : We have swallowed him up. IJSJ'Si, prop, our soul, for, our wish, because their soul went entirely out into the wish. Ver. 26. Let them be ashamed and blush together, who rejoice at my hurt ; let them be clothed with shame and dishonour, ivho magnify themselves against me. Ver. 27. Let them make jubilee and rejoice who wish my justiji- cation, and say continually : Great is the Lord who ivills the jyeace of his servant. Make jubilee, may the Lord give you oc- casion for it. n"1>f, in opposition to HJ^*], misfortune, in ver. 26, and parallel to the peace, denotes not the righteous cause, but righteousness as the gift of God ; q. d. they wish, that I may be, through deeds, justified by God. Ver. 28. So will my tongue speak of thy righteousness, j^roclaim continually thy praise. The expression : thy righteousness, has respect to : my righteousness, in ver. 27. God's righteousness and the Psalmist's justification stand in the closest connection with each other.
PSALM XXXVI. 11
PSALM XXXV r.
In the conflict, wliich is so apt to arise against the people of God fi-ora the depth and magnitude of human corruption, the Psalmist addresses himself, "Be thou at peace, and rest in the God of thy life." After a superscription, which indicates, that he speaks not from himself and for himself, but in the name and service of God, and consequently for the church, he first de- scribes in ver. 1 — 4. the conflict, as one that seems to prepare hopeless destruction for the righteous, and fills him with painful solicitude. He paints in strong features the intensity of human corruption. The heart of the wicked is free from all fear of God, and every thought of the avenging righteousness of God is choked. Hence, the words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit, and in his actions he gives scope to himself in every thing ; nothing is too bad for him. This representation of the necessity and the danger is followed in ver. 5 — 9, by a repre- sentation of the consolation. God, with his inexhaustible fulness of love, faithfulness, and righteousness, appears in opposition to man and his wickedness. This line of reflection is followed in vei'. 10 — 12, by the prayer and the expression of confidence in its fulfilment : God's love and righteousness can and will unfold themselves in his dealings towards his own, in the support he administers to them, and the destruction he brings upon the wicked.
If we draw the superscription into the compass of the Psalm for which we have here an especial ground, the meditative part will complete itself in the number ten, which again falls into two fives. The prayer and confidence rising on the ground of the Mosaic blessing, is ruled by the number three.
The Psalm as to its subject is nearly allied to Ps. xi. and Ps. xiv. and between it and the latter there is a close resemblance even verbally in the introductions. We are not to think of any particular occasion. The Psalmist speaks for the fearers of God, and in their name. Already does Luther remark in his summaries : this is a didactic Psalm.
In the superscription : To the chief musician, of the servant of the Lord, David, the designation of " servant of the Lord" is the more deserving of notice, as it occurs only once in the su- perscriptions besides, in Ps. xviii. where it bears a manifest re-
10
THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
winking to one another with the eye, by which the enemies, who wei'e sworn for the Psalmist's destruction, gave each other joy concerning it. This they do even now, because tliey reckon them- selves quite sure of their object, comp. ver. 21, but God can em- bitter their joy to them. — Ver. 20. For they speak not peace, and against the quiet in the land they devise ivords of deceit. The expression : they speak not peace, for : they abolish it, is used by way of contrast to what they ought to do, and points to the rela- tions of Saul's time. Saul's distrust receives continually fresh nourishment from such tale-bearers, '^y^ quiet, peaceful. — Ver. 21. And they open theirmouth ivide against me, and say, there, there, our eye sees, namely, the wish of our soul, the misfortune of the righteous. Yer.22,Yea,thouseest, Lord; keej) not silence, Lord be not far from me. Ver. 20, 21, gave the reason for ver. 19. Let them not rejoice, for they, the wicked, deserve not thy help; but thy punishment, and their triumphing over the success of their plans, is for thee a call to interfere. And here a new prayer arises out of the reason given for the preceding prayer. The Psalmist places the seeing of God over against the malicious seeing of the enemy, Ver. 23. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, my God and Lord, to my cause. Ver. 24. Judge me according to thy righteousness, O I^ord, my God, and let them not rejoice over me. Ver. 25. Let them not say in their hearts : there, there, so would we have it ! Let them not say : We have swallowed him up. IJ^Sl prop, our soul, for, our wish, because their soul went entirely out into the wish. Ver. 26. Let them be ashamed and blush together, who rejoice at my hurt ; let them be clothed with shame and dishonour, luho magnify themselves against me. Ver. 27. Let them make jubilee and rejoice ivho ivish my justifi- cation, and say continually : Great is the I^ord ivho wills the j)eace of his servant. Make jubilee, may the Lord give you oc- casion for it. pl^f, in opposition to T\'^'~\, misfortune, in ver. 26, and parallel to the peace, denotes not the righteous cause, but righteousness as the gift of God ; q. d. they wish, that I may be, through deeds, justified by God. Ver. 28. So will my tongue speak of thy righteousness, loroclaim continually thy praise. The expression : thy righteousness, has respect to : my righteousness, in ver. 27. God's righteousness and the Psalmist's justification stand in the closest connection with each other.
PSALM XXXVI.
11
PSALM xxxvr.
Ill the conflict, wliicli is so apt to arise against the people of God from the depth and magnitude of human corruption, the Psalmist addresses himself, "Be thou at peace, and rest in the God of thy life." After a superscription, which indicates, that he speaks not from himself and for himself, but in the name and service of God, and consequently for the church, he first de- scribes in ver. 1 — 4. the conflict, as one that seems to prepare hopeless destruction for the righteous, and fills him with painful solicitude. He paints in strong features the intensity of human corruption. The heart of the wicked is free from all fear of God, and every thought of the avenging righteousness of God is choked. Hence, the words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit, and in his actions he gives scope to himself in every thing ; nothing is too bad for him. This representation of the necessity and the danger is followed in ver. 5 — 9, by a repre- sentation of the consolation. God, with his inexhaustible fulness of love, faithfulness, and righteousness, appears in opposition to man and his wickedness. This line of reflection is followed in ver. 10 — 12, by the prayer and the expression of confidence in its fulfilment : God's love and righteousness can and will unfold themselves in his dealings towards his own, in the support he administers to them, and the destruction he brings upon the wicked.
If we draw the superscription into the compass of the Psalm for which we have here an especial ground, the meditative part will complete itself in the number ten, which again falls into two fives. The prayer and confidence rising on the ground of the Mosaic blessing, is ruled by the number three.
The Psalm as to its subject is nearly allied to Ps. xi. and Ps. xiv, and between it and the latter there is a close resemblance even verbally in the introductions. We are not to think of any particular occasion. The Psalmist speaks for the fearers of God, and in their name. Already does Luther remark in his summaries : this is a didactic Psalm.
In the superscription : To the chief musician^ of the servant of the Lord, David, the designation of " servant of the Lord" is the more deserving of notice, as it occurs only once in the su- perscriptions besides, in Ps. xviii. where it bears a manifest re-
12 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ference to the subject, and as it stands in unquestionable con- nection with the beginning of the Psalm. Like the correspond- ing words in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1. The man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob," it points to the dignity of the person, inasmuch as in that was given a secui'ity for the im- portance of the word : the servant of the Lord speaks not his own word, but God's, not of his own will, but as moved by the Holy Spirit, 2 Pet. i. 2L The Spirit of the Lord spake through him, and his word was upon his tongue," 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. The suggestion of impiety in the wicked, that God is nothing upon earth, is met by the suggestion of God in his servant, that God is every thing upon earth.
Ver. 1. " The oracle of transgression tome, the wicked ivithin my heart;'' there is no fear of God before his eyes. In the first member the Psalmist introduces the wicked as speaking. He would express the thought, that the wicked listens to the sug- gestions of sin as words of God. This thought he clothes in such a manner, that, byan ironical imitation of the introductory words in the writings of the prophets, in particular Balaam's in Numb. xxiv. 3, to which he also referred in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, he makes the ungodly bring in a decree of his God, of wickedness. There should properly have followed the divine sentence, according to Ps. xiv. 1 : " There is no God ;" or Ps. x. 11. " God hath for- gotten, he hideth his face, he will never see." But here the Psalmist leaves the reader to supply the substance of the speech from the second member ; he seeks only to have it first distinctly impressed, that the wicked regards as oracles the suggestions of sin, what it dictates in regard to religion. tDX^ signifies, not a word in general, but a divine word, an oracle. yC^S occupies here the place of Jehovah. The expression : to the wicked, cor- responds to : of the servant of God, as the Psalmist had just de- signated himself; or to: the hearer of the divine word, etc. in Balaam. Here, as the prophets in their introductions, as Balaam, and as David both here and in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, the wicked speaks of himself in the third person ; while presently he speaks in the first : within ray heart, as also Balaam, and David in 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. But there is no difficulty in this; for: to the wicked, is in substance the same as : to me, the wicked. By this remark the quite erroneous reference of the expres- sion : within my heart, to the Psalmist, is set aside ; against which also the parallel passage in Ps. xiv. 1. " The fool
PSALM XXXVI. VER. 1. 13
iiath said in his heart, there is no God," and the similar expres- sions in Ps. X. 6, 11, are decisive. We thus also cut off all temp- tation to read 1^7 his heart, instead of ^y^, by which, indeed, nothing is gained; for there is then found no indication of the wicked being introduced here as speaking, which is still plainly needed. After the example of Luther, who renders: it is spoken from the bottom of ray heart of the ungodly, the meaning of this first member is entirely misapprehended by many exposi- tors, for ex. by De Wette : A speech of the wickedness of transgression is to me in the heart. This exposition discovers itself to be false, in whatever direction we look. Its condem- nation is already pronounced in De Wette's own remark: " The first half of the verse is a kind of announcement, though only of a part of the subject, and by a deficiency in the parallelism the second half passes on immediately to the subject." Tlio real subject of the Psalm is not, " the wickedness of transgres- sion," but, " If God is thy friend and thy cause, what can thine enemy, man, do of any consequence?" It is precisely in the first part, in which the Psalmist merely represents, what passes before his eyes, and what might easily be discerned with- out any divine revelation, that the D5<J is not suitable. The parallelism is by this exposition completely destroyed, and the expression: there is no fear of God before his eyes, has a bald appearance, considered as a commencement, and sounds feeble. Further, this exposition takes ytJ^^ as the object of the speech: Speech of transgression. But the genitive, which follows the very frequently occurring, ^^}, without exception marks always the speaker, and, indeed for the most part, the heavenly author of the declaration, the human only in Numb. xxiv. 3, Prov. xxx. 1, and 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, which leans upon this. This reason of itself is perfectly decisive. In Isa. v. 1, also, in the phrase nn n^"'2J^» to which De Wette refers as analogous, the geni- tive is that of the author ; not concerning my beloved, but of my beloved; the song, which is consecrated to the beloved, which is sung to his honour, which has himself, speaking through the mouth of his prophet, for its author. Then, the exposition ungrammatically takes ^^'17 as a circumlocution for the geni- tive, which can only be ])ut in this way, when the stat. constr. is inadmissible, as it would be here, if the meaning were : a transgression of the wicked, but which would not be suitable, comp, Ew. Small Gr. § 517. The expression: in the midst of
14 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
my heart, which is full of meaning in our exposition: in the in- most depth of the wicked transgression utters forth its oracle, becomes by this exposition quite flat and insignificant, and is never found in such a connection. It is torn away from the already quoted parallel pass. Ps. xiv. 1. etc., which so ob- viously correspond, also torn from the e?/eshere, in ver. 1 and 2, and from the mouth in ver. 3. Finally, this exposition leaves en- tirely out of view the manifest reference to the superscription of the prophecies, and the parallel passage 2 Sara, xxiii. 1, as also the reference to the superscription here. The oracle of sin to the wicked stands opposed to the oracle of Jehovah to the servant of Jehovah, David, as it is communicated in this Psalm. It is hoped this lengthened statement of objections against the cur- rent exposition may serve the purpose of entirely disposing of it, the more so, as the faults hitherto cleaving to the others are removed by our interpretation. Whenever we perceive the fundamental idea of the first member, and view it apart from the clothing under which it is presented, there is seen to be a per- fect parallel between the first and the second ; the heart of the wicked is full of the God-denying suggestions of sin, before his eyes is no fear of God, q. d. the fear of God is not that, on which he directs his eye in his transactions, or by which he is moved in them, comp. Ps. xxvi. 3.
Ver. 2. For he flatters himself in his eyes in reference to the finding of his sin, the hating. The ground is here given, on account of which the fear of God exercises no determinate in- fluence upon the actions of the wicked. He seeks through all sorts of illusions to stifle the conviction, that God's avenging righteousness will punish his impiety. pvPtn, prop, to make smooth, elsewhere with the accus.: his tongue, or his words, to flatter, comp. on Ps. v. 9; here, as in Prov. xxix. 5, in the sense of acting smoothly, hlanditiis iiti, with 7X of the person against whom the smooth acting is directed, who is flattered, as in the passage referred to in Prov., where the injurious, destructive nature of the action was to be marked, with 7^. The self- flatteries, in which the wicked indulges, cannot have respect properly to his moral condition; for, as Sachs justly remarks, though with a wrong application," it is not the wicked as he false- ly represents himself, the would-be holy, that is described in the Psalm, but the palpably wicked." They have respect rather to his might and prudence, to his skill in sinning, by virtue of which
PSALM XXXVI. VER. 2. 15
he succeds in every effort, and believes himself to be beyond the vengeance of an angry God. He says with the ungodly in Isaiah, chap, xxviii. 15, " We have made a covenant with death. and with hell are we at agreement, when the overflowing scourgt- shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." The expression: in his eyes, refers to the other: before his eyes. Because he flatters himself in his eyes, through the arts of flattery and self-delusion builds himself up in a feeling of security, there is no fear of God before his eyes. The last words point to the sphere, within which the self-delusion and flattery are practised, and what on this account he looks away from. In reference to the finding of his sin, the hating, means as much as, that God will not find his sins hateful, will not punish them. The form of expi-ession py K^)^ is to be explained from Gen. xliv. 16, where the sons of Jacob, after the cup was found in the mouth of Benjamin's sack, say, " God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants." According to this God finds out iniquity, when he visits and punishes it. The hating is here added to mark more definitely the quality of the finding, and so, to remove all dubiety. The correct view would not have been so often missed in expositions of this verse, if more regard had been paid to the fundamental passage, Deut. xxix. 19, where it is said of the wick- ed, " And it Cometh to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself m his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart;" and also the parallel passages in the Psalms themselves, such as Ps. x. 6. Among those who concur with us in the reference of V7^s to the evil-doer, several expound: in order to accomplish his sin, in or- der to hate, " in order through his transgression to gratify his hatred toward God, or main," So Luther: " that they may further their evil cause, and slander others." But W ^'^J2 is never used so ; with the hating we miss the object, and to hate cannot stand for, to gratify hatred. Others expound : in consideration of the finding of his guilt, and the hating, q. d. he is so entangled in self-deceit, that he has not attained to the recognition of his sinfulness, and, therefore, he cannot hate and renounce it. But it is against this, that pj; X^jJ^ never signifies : to come to the knowledge of sin ; and still more, that through this exposition the whole character of the wicked, as he is represented in this Psalm, is misapprehended: We have here to do with a bold sinner
16 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
who is not concerned about finding fig leaves for his sins. Many re- fer the sufi". in vSi< to God ; Koester : " for he flatters hitn with his eyes, hence he discovers his guilt, hates it ;" Tholuck : " for they flatter God, according to their view, in order to commit the more securely their evil deeds, and to give loose the reins to their hatred." But the character of the wicked is still by this con- struction grossly misconceived ; with the words : in his eyes, we are by it manifestly embarrassed ; Tholuck's mode of viewing the last word has already been disposed of, and that of Koester steps over into the second stroplie from the first, and slaps the temptation upon the mouth before it has appeared in words. In such a case we must cry out with Job, violence !
Ver. 3. The ivords of his mouth are wickedness and deceit, he ceases to act wisely.^ to do good. The ceasing is to be explained from a silent contrast : instead of ceasing, as he ought, to sin, comp. ynn l^in in Isa. i. 16. 7''2^n signifies to act pru- dently, reasonably, comp. on Ps. xiv. 2, and I2''£0\l7 is not sub- ordinate to it, but co-ordinate, just as in ver. 2, the second inf. with 7 to the first.
Ver. 4. He thinks of mischief upon his bed, he sets himself in a wag not good, he does not escheiu evil. The phrase : on his bed, points to the strength of the evil inclination. The passion so rages in him, that it deprives him of sleep. How may it overreach helpless innocence? The apparently weak expres- sions: a way not good, and: he does not eschew evil, derive their strength from their silent contrast to that, which the ungodly should do according to the law of God.
From the wicked, and what the righteous has to dread at his hands, the Psalmist turns to the consideration of this: And now what have I to trust to? My hope is in thee, the Lord, he brings out, ver. 2 — 9, suddenly and in immediate contrast, with that also, which the righteous has to expect from him. Calvin : " although a gloomy and frightful confusion showed itself, which, like a vast abyss, was ready to swallow up the pious, David was still firmly convinced that the world is full of God's goodness and righteousness, and that heaven and earth are governed by him."
Ver.' 5. Lord in the heaven reaches thy goodness, thy faithful- ness Bven to the clouds. CttSJTin can only signify : in the heaven ; and the current exposition up to the heaven, is to be rejected as arbitrary. But the expression : in the heaven, which imports:
PSALM XXXVI. VER. 5, 6. 17
even still in heaven, comprehends and pre-supposes what is in the other, compare Ps. Ivii. 10, " For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds." In the whole re- presentation, the pillar of fire and smoke, emblem of the divine glory, rises from earth to heaven, so that the expression: in heaven, is only suitable when it comprehends: to the heaven. Quite naturally. For the Psalmist places the image of consola- tion against the image of terror on its own territory. Upon the earth rages the malice of the ungodly, the righteous are alarmed ; in opposition to the loftiness which strives in vain to i-each to heaven, (compare Gen. xi. 4, " whose top may be in heaven," and Ps. Ixxiii. 9, " They set their mouth in heaven,") the Psalmist puts the divine glory, which, giant-like, truly reaches from earth to heaven, so that man hopeless must yield to the might of God. The love and the faithfulness of God are spe- cially named, as the properties which secure help to his people. Their greatness is regarded by the Psalmist as an impenetrable shield against all attacks even from the most intense and power- ful malice. Jo. Arnd : " In all tribulations, let them be ever so high, so deep, so broad and long, God's truth and grace are still greater and higher."
Ver. 6. Thy righteousness is like mountains of God, thy judg- ments are a great flood, man and beast thou helpest, O Lord. With the love and faithfulness he connects the righteousness of God. This comes into consideration here, as appears from the parallelism with the judgments, not properly as it involves faithfulness in promising, so that HpH^ would be substantially = n^1J!3X, but as the property which disposes God to recompense to every one according to his works, to give salvation to the righteous, to suspend misery over the wicked. If God is infi- nitely righteous, the upright may be of good courage, but the wicked should tremble, and the greater their wickedness, the more certain is their destruction. Not a few regard the divine righteousness as compared to the mountains, on account of their firmness. So Luther: it stands as the mountains of God. Jo. Arnd : " It stands firm as the mountains of God, i. e. immove- able, strong, invincible, as the Lord God has made the world fast with mountains, so that no potentate has power to lift up the mighty mountains, and put others in their place. Even so, it is not possible to overthrow God's righteousness, it will as- suredly e.xercise itself upon all men, when God judges the earth
VOL. II. O
18 TIIK BOOK OF PSALMS,
in righteousness." But, looking at the parallel membera, we would rather take the point of comparison to be their greatness and height. The mountains of God are certainly the highest mountains, notsuch, however, simply and alone, but in so far as. they proclaim most loudly God's creative power. Although all nature has been made by God, yet that is pre-eminently attributed to him, which, elevated by its greatness and glory above all that re- sembles it, especially calls forth the thoughts of his glory. So in Ps. l.xxx. 10, the cedars, as kings among the trees, are called cedars of God, (Gen. xiii. 10 does not belong to this; for the discourse there is not of a garden of God, but of the garden of Jehovah, the paradise which had been planted by the Lord, and, according to chap. ii. 10, richly watered.) Here, " as the moun- tains of God," is manifestly spoken with special emphasis: the ob- ject compared contains at the same time a pledge of the truth of what is likened to it. Of the righteousness of him who made the highest mountains, we must entertain no earthly and human thoughts. They would rise as witnesses against us, if we did so. — Judgments, the judicial transactions, by which God brings to nought the evil and assists thegood, are the product of the divine righteousness. Jo. Arnd : " Such judgments of God are always being exercised upon the earth, if the matter is thoughtfully considered." According to many expositors, it is the incompre- hensible and unfathomable nature of the divine judgments, which is indicated. But the words cannot bear this sense. For Dinn never signifies abyss, deep, but always ^oocZ; and the con- text imperatively requires the idea of immeasureableness. Against the flood of human wickedness stands the great flood, the wide ocean, (of this nn DiriH is used in Gen. vii. 11, the only other place where it occurs,) of the divine judgments. — In the last words: man and beast thou deliverest, 0 Lord, the I'salmist turns back to the divine love, with the representation of which he began, and the celebration of which he continues till ver, 9. On the " man," an unseasonable comparison is often made with Matth. v. 45, along with the remark, " just and unjust." The contrast here is the general one of man and beast ; but if the Psalmist had wished to give a closer description of the men who enjoy the divine help and dehverance, he would have, according to ver. 10, mentioned the upright, and such as know God. God's goodness towards the bad, which should move them to repentance, is excluded by the connection. It is such goodness only as might afford consolation in consequence
rSALM XXXVl. VER. 6—8. 19
of the troubles arising out of the ascendancy of the wicked upon the earth. With what design the beast is here named may be understood from the saying of our Loi'd, " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." Jo. Arnd: " God seeks to console us by this, and to strengthen our faith, seeing he much more cares for us." The somewhat singular expression : Thou deliverest, makes it probable that the Psalmist alludes to the great proof of God's preserving love in the deluge, in which, besides Noah, the whole animal creation was delivered, an al- lusion, which is the more probable, as in Fs. xxix. 10; xxxii. 6, there is also reference made to the deluge, as ni"l U\T\T\ points to that event, in which the judgments of God appeared as liter- ally a great flood, and as another reference is found, to Genesis in verse 8.
Ver. 7. How glorious is thy goodness, O God, and children of men trust in the shadow of thy wings. 'Ip'* prop, precious. John Arnd : " David rejoices in the goodness and grace of God, and compares it to a noble, precious, and costly treasure." The general name of God stands here, because it is the contrast between God and man that is expressed. God and man, what a distance ! How great and glorious must the divine love be, which fills up the infinite gulph between the two, and provides, that weak and wretched mortals be the object of God's protec- tion and tender care ! comp. Ps. viii. The confiding trust comes here into consideration in so far as God affords ground and war- rant for it. That children of men were to confide in God, was only meant to be brought out in a general way. The species in the genus, who are not more definitely pointed out here, are the righteous. riDH with 2 always signifies: to trust in, to take refuge under. Because the shadow yields protection from the heat, it not unfrequently stands as a figurative description of protection. The image of wings, only indicated here, is given at length in Deut. xxxii. 11, and Matt, xxiii. 37.
Ver. 8. Tliey drink of the fatness of thy Jioiise, and with the river of thy pleasures thou givest them drink. It is here still iarther brought out, what the divine goodness provides for the servants of God, notwithstanding all the machinations of the wicked. The riches of the divine grace and beneficence are re- presented in both members under the image of a copious drink, with which he supplies them. For that this grace is not exhi-
20 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
bited in the first clause of tlie verse, under the image o^ food, witli vvliich he satisfies them, is manifest from nil- prop, are moistened, comp. Ps. xxiii. 5. The fat must accordingly be taken as a figurative designation of the glorious gifts of God ; Vulgate: ab ubertate domus tuae, Luther: " of the rich goods of thy house," far more correctly tlian our recent expositors, who quite prosaically remark, that the fat is here spoken of as fit for drinking, rather than eating. The house of God is here neither, as some absurdly expound, the world, which is never so named, nor is it, as others suppose, a mere image of a divine storehouse, but it is here, as everywhere else, the national sanctuary, the tabernacle of meeting, in which the ser- vants of the Lord spiritually dwell with him, and where they are tenderly cared for by him as the good householder. Comp. on Ps. XV. ] ; xxiii. 6 ; xxiv. 3 ; xxvii. 4, 5 ; Ixv. 4. Michaelis, correctly as to the sense : ecclesiae tuae. For the house of God was the image of the church. To it belong the treasures of sal- vation, of which God makes his people to partake. — In the second member there seems to be a reference to Gen. ii. 10, " And a river went out from Eden (dehght) to water the garden," which is also alluded to in John iv. 18; Ez. xlvii.; Zech. xiv. 8 — passages in which the thought, the whole earth shall partake of the blessings of the kingdom of God, is represented under theimageof a stream, which, issuing from Jerusalem, refreshes the dry and barren region around. Comp. Christol. P. II. p. 367. In the stream, which of old watered the garden of Eden for the good of man, the Psalmist saw the type of that stream of bliss, with which God's love never ceases to refresh his people.
Ver. 9. For with thee is the fountain of life, in thy light lue see light. The verse confirms the statement of the preceding one, and traces it up to its source. God is the fountain of life; in him, essential life, and whatever properly deserves this name, (comp. on the C^PI at Ps. xvi. 11,) has its origin, as already in Deut. XXX. 20, it was said of God to Israel, " He is thy life;" whosoever does not draw it from him, the one source of life, he is destitute of it, notwithstanding all the means which he may possess for his preservation and support ; on the other hand, whoever has this fountain at command, the malice of the whole world cannot take life away from him ; he will be kept in life, and will drink with satisfaction in the presence of his enemies, Ps. xxiii. 5. Light is here as commonly (comp. on Ps. xxvii.
PSALM XXXVI. VEll. 9— 31. 21
1.) a figurative designation of salvation; the expression, "in thy h'ght we see light," simply means: through thy salvation we see salvation. Since salvation is only from God, the world can never bestow it by any means which it has at command ; neither can it take salvation away; and in the face even of the greatest evils the righteous can say : If God is for me, it matters not who are against me. Although tlie words are verified also upon the spiritual territory, we must primarily, as in Job xxix. 3, think of an external salvation. This appears from tlio context, according to which, the discourse can only be of such things as were feared in consequence of human malice, also from the parallelism with the life, and the comp. with ver. 11. Those, who by the light understand the light of knowledge, violently detach the words from the connection, and destroy the structure of the Psalm.
The Psalmist has hitherto considered in a general way, human malice, and what the righteous have in their God. Now he comes more closely to the distress and assault, which had oc- casioned this general meditation. He brings the two sides of the contrast, which till now he had simply placed over against one another, into immediate contact and conflict with each other, entreats God that he would unfold his love and righteous- ness in his dealings with his own, and especially with Jiim, and would deliver him from the wicked. At the close, he sees, in spirit, this prayer fulfilled, the wicked annihilated.
Ver. 10. Continue thy goodness to those who know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright. 'l^J^, to draw, to draw into length, to prolong. With God there is never a new beginning, but only a continuation; if he continues to act as he has done, he helps us. The knowledge of God has love to him, and life in him, for its foundation. The true and essential knowledge of God is to bo found only in a sanctified state of mind, the gift of God. Comp. 1 Sam. ii. 12 ; Jcr. xxii. 16 ; Tit. i. 16; 1 John ii. 3 ; iv. 8. The righteousness of God here also stands in no special reference to covenant faithfulness, but comes into consideration in so far as he gives to any one what is his, comp. on ver. 5 On the upright see on Ps. xxxiii. 1.
Ver. 11. Let not the foot of pride tread me, and the hand of the wicked pursue me not. The foot comes upon any one, for: he shall be trodden down, violently overborne and oppressed. The proud appear as personified pride. Tliat we must not to the words : let not the hand of the wicked make me flee, supply: out of my land — that they are rather to be regarded as meaning;
JJ THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
let mo not quit the field before him, be obliged to retire into the distance, as David had to do in the times of Saul and Ab- salom, (comp. Ps. xi. l;) is manifest from the parallelism and the contrast in ver. 12. The Psalmist sees there the enemies lying helpless and prostrate, on the very spot where they had thouglit to vanquish him, and put him to flight.
Ver. 12. There are the workers of iniquity fallen, they are cast down and are not able to arise. The Psalmist obtains from the Lord an answer, and in spirit sees his enemies already over- thrown. Q^ always means there, never then, comp. on Ps. xiv. 5. The right view was already perceived by Calvin : " While the ungodly are puffed up by their prosperity, the world applauds them. But David, looking as from the lofty watch tower of faith, descries from afar their destruction, and speaks of it with as much confidence as if it were close at hand." For the last words see on Ps. xviii. 38, and Prov. xxiv. 16, " A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again, but the wicked are destroyed by adversity."
PSALM XXX VII.
The subject of the Psahn is comprised in the two first verses: " Be not angry against the miscreants, envy not the evil-doers, for as grass they shall quickly bo cut down, and as the green herb they wither." He meets the temptation to help himself, to oppose power to power, to contend against wickedness with wickedness, which often presents itself to the righteous when he sees the ungodly prospering, while he himself is in a state of depression : and, indeed, in such a' way, as to shew, under the most different turns and images, how the issue separates between the righteous and the wicked, how God in his own time assuredly recompenses to every one according to his works, to the wicked destruction, to the righteous salvation ; so that the only, and at the same time, the sure means for the righteous to attain to sal- vation is, that he trust in the Lord and cease not to do good.
That we must not labour to find out a connected plan for the Psalm, that the judgment of Amyrald is substantially correct: " There is scarcely an order observed in it by David, no connec- tion of parts, excepting that one and the same subject is handled in it under the most diversified applications and manifold varia- tions, which all lead to nearly one point, although every one of
PSALM XXXVII. 23
them possesses its own proper force, so that they are not other- wise connected together than as so many precious stones or pearls are strung together upon one thread to form a necklace," — this may be concluded even from the alphabetical arrangement — comp. the remarks in tlie introduction to Ps. xxv. The uncon- strained treatment of the subject leads also to the same result, justifying throughout the remark of the Berleb. Bible, "that things are therein once and again repeated and frequently in- culcated, so that the great subject might not be forgotten, and the pious might retain it always in their mouth and heart." Finally, this view is also confirmed by the fact, that the Proverbs hardly pree*ent to any Psalm so many verbal references and re- semblances in sound, as to this, which is to be explained only from an internal relationship with the sententious poetry of Solomon, the Davidic root and origin of which here stands be- fore our eyes. — The delineation is very clear, simple, and smooth, and in accordance with the alphabetic arrangement, leads us to the conclusion, that David speaks here to the " sons" — comp. on Ps. xxxiv. — for whom milk and not strong meat must be provid- ed. We see here also, how David did not please himself in his poesy, but adapted his voice to the necessities of the church, which he served with his poetical gift.
An introduction and a conclusion, which are each made up of the number seven, are distinguished from the main body, ver. 8 — 33, by their prevailing hortatory character, while the rest bears the character of a calm contemplation and simple delinea- tion of the state of things, interrupted only by a solitary exhor- tation in ver. 27. The admonition of the introductory part, is grounded in the body of the Psalm, and that at the close grows out of this.
In regard to the alphabetical arrangement, there are two verses assigned by the rule to each letter. But various irregularities occur here also, which the analogy of all the alphabetical Psalms forbids us to obliterate — comp. on Psalm xxv., and still more the circumstance, that a close examination of them always forces on us the conviction of plan and design. Tiiree letters have only one verse appropriated to them, ver. 7, 20,34, while one letter has three verses, ver. 27, and a letter, ^, is altogether awanting. The strophe, which should have begun with H. bas a 1 placed before it. This state of matters is to be explained in the following manner. It is not accidental, that we so often see the number
24 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ten play an important part in the alphabetical Psalms. It is, like the alphabet, the signature of the complete, what is comprized in itself. Now, for the number ten, the Psalmist would fain se- cure a place here. The whole, therefore, must be made to com- plete itself in four decades. For this purpose the forty-four verses, of which it had consisted, if two verses were distributed to each letter, must some how be shortened. But the Psalmist would not proceed arbitrarily in doing this, he would only ab- breviate, where an internal ground existed for the abbre- viation. At three points an opportunity of doing this, offers it- self. For obtaining the number seven in the introduction and the close, a letter-strophe must each time be deprived of a verse; the lot for this was intentionally cast on the last verse of the in- troduction, and the first of the conclusion, so that the two im- perfect strophes might join to each other, and the second seven stand in due order to the first, whose subject it again resumes. A third occasion arose in ver. 20. The middle of the whole, the half of the forty, must not remain unmarked, and must not fall into the middle of a strophe. Now there was just needed, in order to obtain the number forty, the abbreviation of one strophe. But no other opening presented itself for doing this, in so far as the matter was concerned. Besides, for the letter y no suitable commencement was found by the author, so that he sought to gain his object by dropping this letter, while he gave to the one immediately preceding, D, three verses, in evident and intention- al contrast at the same time to the three letters with one verse, and in skilful arrangement making two verses of usual, en- close a third of unusual length. Finally, that the ) before the strophe with fl, is not accidentally affixed to it, is improba- ble on this account alone, that this strophe is the very last ; and the conjunction placed there, at once brings the strophe into connection with what precedes, and marks its subject as the re- sult of the latter, the sum and quintessence of the whole dis- course.
The reasons which have been brought against the Davidic origin of this Psalm, are of no weight, and are disposed of by the remarks already made on Psalm xxv. When an inclination is shown to regard Jeremiah as the originator of the alphabeti- cal arrangement, it is not considered, that both in form and sub- stance this prophet leans upon an earlier period. The very cir- cumstance, that Jeremiah, in his Lamentations, has employed the
PSALM xxxvir. 25
alphabetical order, shows that he had in this respect important prototypes in the past, and is quite fatal to the opinion of the late origin of the alphabetical arrangement.
For David's being its author, there is, besides the super- scription, the unquestionable fact, that the Psalm forms the basis of a series of declarations in the Proverbs of Solomon. Then, few in Israel could, from actual experience, speak upon the theme of this Psalm, as David could do — few were so called by the leadings of providence, to oppose a barrier to the temptation, which arose from the prosperity of the wicked. David had found many occasions for giving way to this temptation; he had seen the ungodly Saul, the foolish Nabal, the corrupt faction of Ab- salom, sitting in the lap of fortune, while he languished in dis- tress. David knew the temptation itself from his own expe- rience, although God kept him, so that he did not wholly yield to it, but still recovered himself at the proper time. When he cut off the skirt of Saul, he for a moment forgot the words: " be not angry at the wicked ;" if his conscience had not smitten him, he would have proceeded from the skirt to the heart. Still more deeply did he underlie the temptation, when he swore he would cut off Nabal with his whole house. Had not God sent Abigail to meet him, and by her voice awoke his slumbering better self, he would have experienced in himself the truth of his declaration in ver. 8, that anger toward the wicked leads to a participation in their wicked deeds. With deep emotion of heart he says to her in 1 Sam. XXV. 33, "And blessed be thy understanding, and blessed be thou, that thou hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand." David, finally, had from manifold experience, learned the truth of the sentiment, upon which he here grounds the dissuasion from re- venge, that quietness is the sure path to victory, that he, who simply commits his cause to God, shall certainly obtain a happy issue to it, and see the punishment of the wicked. Saul, with his whole retinue, fell under the judgment of God, and David succeeded to his place. In regard to Nabal, whose history is peculiarly illustrative of this Psalm, he could speak in 1 Sam. XXV. 39, " Blessed be the Lord, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil ; for the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head." Already, Luther remarks: " Such ex- amples had David seen in Saul, Absalom, Ahitophel, and the like,
26 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
who were mighty in their godless nature, and yet, ere one could look around him, were gone, so that one might aisk and say, what has become of them?"
The divine recompense, to which David directs the tempted, is here, in unison with the two other Psalms, wliich treat ex pro- fesso of the same theme, xlix. and Ixxiii., only a temporal one ; and in vain have Stier and others laboured to find references in it to a recompense after death. No ground exists for such en- deavours ; we have besides the Old Testament the New, and even on this account one-sidedness in the Old Testament is no defect; it is rather an excellence, if only the side actually brought out is a side of truth, since even through the exclusive predominance of this one side, the truth may be more deeply im- pressed upon the conscience. That there is here aside of truth, has often been boldly denied in recent times ; the doctrine of re- tribution in temporal things has been affirmed to be a Jewish error. But we do not need to attempt the refutation of this view here, as it has already been done in our Beitr. P. III. p. 577, ss.. where it is especially shown, that the New Testament teaches the temporal recompense as well as the old, (the oft repeated prin- ciple in this Psalm, that the meek shall inherit the land, is taken up and confirmed by our Lord in his sermon on the mount), that this doctrine has obtained, in a remarkable manner, the consen- sus gentium, that the opposite view, however well it may look, is nothing else than practical atheism, and that it leads to the most disastrous consequences, while the doctrine of the temporal recompense is not only based in sound views of God, but is also supported by the important testimony of experience.
The New Testament, while it resumes the ground of consola- tion, so much handled in the Old, in respect to the temptation growing out of the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous. — comp. besides the statements and passages referred to above, 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, — in three respects rises above the former point of view, 1. It enlarges the field of recompense, making it run into the life to come. 2. It ascribes to the temporal tribulation and the temporal salvation a subordinate place, while it points to the coming glory as that, with which the sufferings and joys of this life are not worthy to be named. 3. It brings with it even during this life a great richness of internal goods, the possession of which renders the want of the external less painful. The feeling of the New Testament expresses itself
rSALM XXXVII. VER. 1,2. 27
thus, " I have learned in whatever sfate I am, therewith to be content — I can do all things through Christ strengthening me," Phil. iv. 11, 13, and " as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as hav- ing nothing, and yet possessing all things," 2 Cor. vi. 10.
Ver. 1. Inflame not thyself against the miscreants, envy not the evil-doers. Ver. 2. For they shall soon be cut down as grass, and as the green herb they wither. The passage first contains an admonition, then lays the ground of this. Luther: " How immediately does the prophet seize and hit upon the thoughts of the heart in this temptation, and take away all causes thereof, saying, at the first : 0 man, thou art angry, and hast cause for it, as thou thinkest, for there are wicked men, who do un- justly, and commit much evil, while still they continue to pros- per, so that nature thinks it has just cause to be angry. But not so, dear child ; permit grace, and not nature here to rule ; break tliine anger, and be at rest for a little ; let them go on doing evil and prospering ; believe me it shall do thee no harm. Then if men ask : When shall things cease to be thus ? Who can endure so long ? He answers : For as the grass, &c. This is a beautiful similitude, terrible to hypocrites, and consoling to the afflicted. How entirely does it raise us out of our own sight, and place us in the sight of God ! In our sight, the multitude of hypocrites flourishes and grows, and covers the world so com- pletely, that they alone seem almost to exist; as the green grass covers and adorns the earth. But in God's sight what are they? Hay, that must presently be made ; and the higher the grass grows, the nearer is it to the scythe and the hay-cock ; even so the higher and farther the wicked spread and rise aloft, the nearer are they to destruction. Wherefore, then shouldst thou be angry, when their wickedness and prosperity are of so short-lived a nature?" — rTHl to burn, in Hithp. which occurs only here and in Prov, xxiv. 19, to set one's self t)n fire, to go into a passion. The '2 after this verb, always marks the person toward whom the anger is directed. Hence we are not to translate here with most expositors : be not angry with thyself iq:)on, but only against the miscreants, as such a rendering is also the only one in accordance with the parallel, as in the second member, too, the objects towards whom the affection is directed, are indi- cated by a 1: i<^p with a ^ always to envy any one. Men would not have erred from the right exposition, if they had only taken the story of Nabal in 1 Sam. xxv. as a commentary. That story
28 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
shows US very distinctly on what account it is, that such a pointed admonition is given against rage and envy toward the wicked. As it springs from an objectionable ground, from doubt in divine providence, — for so long as there is a firm faith in this, one will not greatly grudge to the ungodly his transitory success, will not be indignant at it, but rather wait, looking to the future, and bearing the suflferings which the Lord has sent as a trial, — so does it lead to the most unhappy consequences. From anger flows revenge, from envy the endeavour to attain by one's own arm the like prosperity. So will there come from indignation and envy toward miscreants, another miscreant, one who will bring force against force, and malice against malice. That it is in this respect the warning is here given against anger and envy, appears in the clearest manner from the express de- claration of the Psalmist's mind in ver. 8, and also what is said of the opposite : do good, in ver. 3, and " of the meek," in ver. 11. — References to ver. 1 occur in Prov. xxiv. 1, 19, — literally as here, only that instead of evil-doers we have the wicked, iii. 31; xxiii. 17. That the Proverbs should present so many coin- cidences with the commencement of the Psalm, fitted, as it is, to make so deep an impression upon the mind of the reader, shows that in the other allusions of the Proverbs to our Psalm the lat- ter must be the original, and refutes the view of those who would reverse the relation. In ver, 2, Jl7^\ on account of the pause, instead of h't2>\ is fut. in Kal from 77^ to be cut down, not from the uncertain root 7^^. John Arnd : " when grass has stood its time, it will be cut down. So, when the ungodly have accomphshed their end by their prosperity, God sends one against them, who cuts them off; as may be seen in Saul and Ahab, who, as soon as they were ripe, were swept away, by an enemy sent on purpose by God. And when flowers and green herbs have stood and bloomed their time, tliey fall of them- selves and wither away. So is it with all the ungodly amid their great temporal prosperity. And then they are such flowers, as when once fallen, revive no more, but for ever cor- rupt and waste, and blossom not again. Ah ! why should we then be filled with anger at them, and begrudge them their short-lived good ? We should rather pity their bhndness."
Ver. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good,inhahit the land ^ and feed on faithfulness. Ver. 4. And delight thyself in the Lord, and he
PSALM XXXVII. VEU. 3. 29
shall give thee the desires of thy lieart. In opposition to the improper feeling and mode of acting respecting the prosperity of the wicked, the Psalmist first places here the correct one, and then points out this as the sure means to the desired end. On the first words Luther remarks: " Here he takes away all im- patient thoughts, and composes the heart to rest. As if he would say : dear child, cease from thine impatience, and curse them not, neither wish them any evil; such thoughts are liuraan and sinful. Put thy hope in God ; see what he will make of it : look thou to thyself; on no account cease to do good, as thou bast begun, where and to whom thou canst, and render not evil for evil, but good for evil." The following imperatives: inha- bit, etc. are to be taken in the sense of promises, q. d. then zuilt thou inhabit, feed, delight thyself. (1^1? with the accus. often to bepasture, in a kind of spiritual sense, to feed on somewhat, Isa. xliv. 20 ; Hosea xii. 2; Prov. xiii. 20. T\\q faithfulness is the faithfulness of God, which unfolds itself in his dealings toward the righteous, so that he can rejoice therein. Several, proverbially: feed securely. To delight one's self in the Lord, is as much as to enjoy his grace and blessing, compare Isa. Iviii. 14 ; Job. xxii. 26, xxvii. 10. The fut.: and he will give thee, etc., serves to explain the preceding imperative. Many expositors take all the imperatives in the admonitory sense, and limit the promise to the words: " And he will give thee (so will he give thee) the desires of thy heart ;" others would give the imperatives, at least in ver. 3, the force of admonitions. But very important con- siderations present themselves against this view. The words : inhabit the land, have something strange in them when viewed thus. The direction has too little of an active character. AVe should rather have expected in that case : remain in the land, or abide therein. ni1^>{ ny"1 must not be translated with Luther : support thyself uprightly, for H^l^^^ is not used as an adverb, and to feed cannot stand for to support. Neither can we ren- der with others : feed thyself in uprightness, or even in faith ; for nn23i< signifies fidelity, faithfulness, and nothing else. Feed thyself in faithfulness, for love, exercise it, were bearable perhaps. Still faithfulness seems here somewhat strange. The delighting of one's self in the Lord, is always used only as a felicity and a gift, never as an obligation and a purpose ; an admonition to delight one's self in the Lord, were without all analogy. The propriety of viewing it in the light of a promise, is confirmed by
30 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ver. 11. But decidedly against the opposite view is ver. 27, where the expression : dwell for evermore, after a preceding imperative of admonition, unquestionably bears the import of a promise, as also the parallel passages, ver. 9 — 11, 22, 29, 34, in which the possession of the land, and the dwelling in it is mark- ed as a reward of righteousness. With a promissory meaning stands also the expression in Prov, ii. 21, " the upright shall inhabit the land," and x. 30. On the last words : he will give thee, etc. comp. Ps. xx. 5 ; xxi. 2.
Ver. 5. Roll thy ivay upon the Lord., and trust in him, he will do it. Ver. 6. And will bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Roll thy way, like one, who lays upon the shoulder of one stronger than himself a burden which he is not able to bear, comp. on Psalm xxii. 8 ; 1 Peter v. 7. That luay here does not denote the experience, as v/ell as the doing, is clear from the parallel passage, Prov. xvi. 3, " Roll upon the Lord thy works ;" and also from the expression : he will do, namely, what is to be done, and what thou canst ViOt do ; tW^ never stands absolutely ; where it appears to do so, the object is always to be borrowed from the preceding. The light is day-light, noon-day, the time when it shines most brightly. By the righteousness many understand tsubjective righteousness; the darkness of misfortune has brought righteousness under the cloud, but God will thereby place it in the clearest light, as he again favours the innocent sufferer. But, since the light is com- monly, and often in the very same connection, an image, not of revelation, but of salvation, (comp. Job xi. 17, " And clearer than the noon-day shall be thy life ; now thou art dark, then thou shalt be like the morning," Isa. Iviii. 8 ; Micah vii. 9), the right- eousness is better taken as the gift of God, as matter-of-fact jus- tification, such as is obtained by the communication of salvation. In accordance with this, we are also to understand by right or judgment, that which is given by God. The righteous, this is the sense, shall in his own time be splendidly and gloriously justi- fied by God. The promise here delivered will find its complete fulfilment in the day, when the saints of God shall shine as the sun, and as the stars of heaven for everand ever. Butvain would be the hope of this, if it were not realized also in the present state ; what hasno place on this side.can havenoneonthat.. Therenothingwill begin, every thing is only perfected. The denial of the temporal recompense is a partial denial of God, and one that by a kind of consequence leads to a complete denial. Jo. Arnd: " See holy
PSALM XXXVII. VEi:. 7. 31
David, Saul with all bis kingly might could not destroy him. God brought David forth at last as a shining light, as the sun at noon-day ; and what a bright light was David over the wbolc land ! How thick a darkness fell upon our Lord Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, in his holy sufferings and death; but, in his glo- rious resurrection and ascension to heaven, and proclamation of the blessed gospel, the true light burst forth, and illuminated the whole earth, so that even the heathen walk in this light, and in the brightness which has proceeded from him."
Vcr. 7. Be still to the Lord and wait on him, inflame not thy- self against him, who is prosperous in his way, against the man that practises devices. In this : inflame thyself not, the conclu- sion of the introduction reverts to the beginning, and thus rounds itself off. The amplification then begins again in vcr. 8, with the same thoughts, which, in our introduction, were marked as the proper ground-note of the whole. tDf21 always means to be silent. Silence is primarily of the speech, as opposed to pas- sionate self-defence, comp. Psalm xxxviii. 13, 14. But if one must help himself by speeches, so also and much more by deeds. The 7 marks him, to whom this silence belongs, with respect to whom silence is kept, q. d. be silent with an eye to the Lord, who will speak better and with more effect, than thou canst do, comp. Psalm xxxviii. 15, " Thou wilt answer, 0 Lord my God," and the parallel here : wait upon him, which is to be considered as an exposition of the y). Arnd : " Wo have heard above, that our dear Lord would bring forth the righteousness of the pious as the light, and as the sun in clear noon-day. Now, because this dear God has such a great work in contemplation for all fearers of God, let them be still to the Lord, and not hinder him in his work, but wait on him in patience." The two members : against him who is prosperous in his way, against the man, who practises devices, define one another, and Luther has properly brought them together, " inflame thyself not upon him, who goes on prosperously in his perverseness." Those, who do not recognize this, would take H^^ in the sense of executing, bring- ing to pass, in which case an indication of wickedness should not have been awanting in the first member. Arnd : " David saw his enemy, Saul, enjoy prosperity, and that his perversenejfs carried him on successfully, but was still, committed it to God, and would not destroy him, though he often came into his hands."
Ver. 8. Abstain from anger, and cease from ivrath, inflame
32
THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
thyself not, so that thoic also dost evil. Ver. 9. For evil-doers shall be cut off, and they that wait upon the Lord, they shall possess the land. '!T>{ is to be taken in its common signification, only. Only to evil-doing, points to this, that anger could have no other consequence than this, no good, but only this mournful result. Luther : " And what avails such rage ? It makes the matter no better, nay only sinks you deeper in the ditch. Thou hast prevented God, so that thou hast lost his grace and favour, and art become like evil-doers, and wilt perish along with them, as follows." In the doing of evil, we must not think of mur- muring against God, nor generally of a faUing off to the manner of thinking and acting characteristic of the ungodly ; it is to be viewed as specially referring to the behaviour toward the enemies. Arnd : " To do many evil things to them from impa- tience and revenge, is what would be rued in eternity." Tlie chief purport of ver. 9 is to shew, that no ground existed for anger, rather must thou carefully restrain thyself from it, for evil-doers, into the circle of whom thou wouldst enter, when thou abandonest thyself to rage, &c. The truth of this : they shall possess the land, (comp. on Ps. xxv, 13), David had himself experienced in a wonderful manner.
Ver. 10. It is but a little, and the wicked is no more, and ij thou thinkest upon his place, it will be gone. Ver. 11. But the meek shall possess the land, and delight themselves in great peace. Upon Cl^y, the meek, not, as Luther, the wretched, comp. on Ps. ix. 12. Because they have maintained peace, peace shall be given them as a reward after the extirpation of the wicked. See ver. 37.
Ver. 12. The wicked plots against the righteous, and gnashes against him with his teeth. Ver. 13. The Lord laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming. The day is by the connec- tion determined to be that of his misfortune. The laughing of God, who has before his eyes the impending ruin of the wicked, (Berleb. Bible : " such poor worms, who make themselves so great upon the earth, and act so loftily in their impotence, see- ing it must so soon be over with them,") is put here in contrast to the human mode of considering things, which remains wedded to the visible. Let this divine mode of considering be adopted by the righteous, let them place themselves upon the high watch tower of faith which gives a distant view, and instead of weeping there shall be laughing for them, even before the divine inter- ference has appeared.
rSALM XXXVII. VER. 14 19- 33
Ver. 14. The wicked draiu the siuord and bend their bow, that they may cast down the poor and needy, and slay the up- right. Ver. 15. Their sivord shall go into their heart, and their bows shall be broken, Comp. Ps. vii. 15, 16 ; ix. 15, 16 ; Ivii. 6. Prov. xxvi. 27.
Ver. 16. The little that a righteous man has, is better than the great possessions of many ivicked. Ver. 17. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, and the Lord upholds the righ- teous. That we must render, " better is a little, which is to the righteous," appears from the parall. pass. Prov. xv. 16, " Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith," xvi. 8. V\t2T] never signifies exactly Wc/te5, always noise, turmoil, and that this meaning must be retained here, ap- pears from Prov. xv. 16, where there is ri/binjt2> and from Ps.xxxix. 6. But the noise of the wicked stands for his riches, which, in the scraping and holding together in, involve him in noise, turmoil, and disquietude. C^*l, not greatness, but many. The Psalmist places the small possession of one righteous person in opposition to the collected goods of a whole mass of the ungodly. The rea- son why the former is to be preferred is given in ver. 17. It is, not because the wicked, even in the greatest external fortune, feel themselves internally unhappy, as Calvin supposes, (by the tur- moil,) but because their external fortune soon goes to wreck, and only serves the purpose of making them feel more deeply their future misery. This ground addresses itself to faith, which sees what is not, as if it were. He, whose arm, the instrument of working, is broken, can no more either hurt another, or help him- self. Comp. Ps. x. 14, Job xxxviii. 14, 1 Sam. ii. 31.
Ver. 18. The Lord knows the days of the pious, and their in- heritance shall be for ever. Ver. 19. They shall not be ashamed in the time of adversity, a7id in the days of famine they shall be full. With the knowing of the Lord his care is necessarily bound up, comp. on Ps. i. 6, The days are not properly the fates, Arnd: " God knows what shall befal us every day and hour, and causes all things to work together for good to them that love him," comp. Ps. xxxi. 15, but the days of life them- selves. God fulfils in them his promise, " the number of thy days will I make full," Ex. xxiii. 26, and hears their prayer, " My God take me not away in the midst of my days," Ps. cii. 24. With the preservation of their life, the holding of the in- heritance is placed in connection. The for evermore does not
VOL. II. D
34 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
carry a respect to a future life, to which the mention of the in- heritance, according to Old Testament phraseology, is unsuitable. It is to be explained in this way, that the Psalmist here pri- marily marks the inheritance of the righteous as a lasting one, notwithstanding the attacks of the ungodly; these shall not be able for ever to wrest it from them. Then, the pious is not to be thought of merely as an individual. Arnd : " Many and great goods are often scattered like the chaff by the wind, and there is no blessing and prosperity with them. On the other hand, small possessions, which are held with God and uprightness, re- main and go with God's blessing to posterity." But the Chris- tian, when he hears of the eternal inheritance, must certainly think before all of " the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, which is reserved in heaven," 1 Pet. i. 4, the assurance of which is contained in this passage in the spirit, if not in the letter. — On ver. 19 comp. Ps. xxxiii. 19.
Ver. 20. For the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord vanish away as the joy of lambs, as smoke they vanish. The for is here quite in its place. The prosperity of the wicked as a matter-of-fact testimony against the divine righteousness, appears to overthrow the truth of what has been said in the pre- ceding context upon the prosperity of the righteous. The Psalmist here, while he removes that objection out of the way, lays the ground of his foregoing principle. But, in another point of view also, in so far as life and property are endangered to the righteous by the wicked, the destruction of the latter is neces- sarily implied in the salvation of the former, and the^r in that way appears suitable. '^p'> is stat. constr. of the adj '^p\ The precious of lambs is not their fat, nor is it their tvool, but their fine grass, the beautiful green of their pasture, agreeably to a great many other passages, in which the grass is employed as an image of evanescence, and in particular of the evanescent prosperity of the wicked, comp. here ver. 2. Many expositors after Luther take Q'^'l^ in the sense of pastures : the excellent of pastures, for, their excellent grass. But that meaning is not rendered certain by the two passages, in which confirmation is sought for it. In Isa. xxx. 23, we are to render: the lambs spread themselves forth, and in Ps. Ixv. 13 : the pastures clothe themselves with flocks. The expression : in smoke — a second independent image — is as to meaning the same with, like smoke, comp. Ps. cii. 3. But, grammatically, we must explain, as (spi-
PSALM XXXVII. VER. 20 — 24. 35
ritual) smoke, comp. Ew. Sm. Gr. § 521. The combination of the two images, carries, perhaps, a reference to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the great type of all judgments upon the ungodly. Arnd : " The land was as a pleasure-garden of the Lord, (comp. Gen. xiii. 10, according to which the district was parti- cularly rich in excellent pasture,) but on account of its great wickedness, the Lord destroyed the whole region with fire and brimstone from heaven, so that a smoke rose up as from an oven," comp. Gen. xix.
Ver. 21. The wicked borrows and repays not, and the righ- teous is compassionate and lends. Ver. 22. For his blessed ones inherit the land, and his cursed ones shall be cut off. The sense of ver. 21 is : the wicked, overtaken by the divine punishment, cannot even restore what he has borrowed ; the righteous, on the other hand, preserved by God and blessed, has the means of shewing himself beneficent. Quite unsuitably some take the not paying of the wicked, and the lending of the righteous, in a moral point of view. This would not accord with the whole theme of the Psalm, nor even with the immediately succeeding context in ver. 22. This would not, then, as the for demands, present the ground of what is said in ver. 21. Also in the parall. pass. ver. 26, is that exposition unsuitable. And, finally, it is disproved by the fundamental passages in the Pent, such as Deut. XV. 6, " For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he pro- mised thee, and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow," xxviii. 12, 44. — The suff. in ver. 22 refer to the Lord, of whom each was naturally thinking, so that there was no need of any further designation.
Ver. 23. By the Lord is a man's course ordered, and he has pleasure in his way. Ver. 24. If he falls, he will not be laid prostrate, for the Lord supports his hand. Many would define more closely the"^^;i : such a man as had hitherto been discours- ed of, the pious. But if it had referred to the pious, the article could not possibly have been wanting ; and for taking the as- sertion in a general point of view, we have the parall. pass. Prov. XX. 24, " Man's goings are of the Lord, and man under- stands not his way," and xvi. 9, " A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps." We shall find no need for taking refuge in this violent exposition, if we only give up the supposition, that the two members of the verse stand in synonymous parellelism : " It is in no man's power to bring his
o6 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
work to a prosperous issue, from God comes salvation and bless- ing," and God has pleasure in his, the righteous man's way, in his undertakings and concerns, so that he cannot but succeed and prosper. — The difference between falling and being pros- trated, is that of misfortune or loss, and ruin. The hand is named, because the fallen need it in order to get up again. Luther: "Thus the Spirit comforts and answers the secret thoughts, which every one might have, saying with himself: I have, however, seen it happen, that the righteous is oppressed, and his cause is trodden in the dust by the wicked. Nay, he replies, dear child, let it be so, that he falls ; he still cannot re- main lying thus and be cast away ; he must be up again, al- though all the world doubts of it. For God catches him by the hand, and raises him again."
Ver. 25. / have been young and am become old, and still have never seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed going after bread. Ver. 26. Always does he shew himself compassionate, and lends, and his seed will be blessed. That the Psalmist had composed this Psalm in advanced life, we are not to conclude from his speaking here of his having been young, and being now old. In unison with the whole character of the Psalm, throughout which the father speaks to his children, the person of the ex- perienced old man may have been assumed by a poetical figure; and that this was really the case, is rendered probable by the circumstance, that the Psalm nowhere else possesses an indivi- dual character. It is the same as : a man may be old and yet never see. It is to be understood of itself, that the dis- course is here of continued desertion and destitution. David himself had often to complain that the Lord had forgotten him, he had in his poverty to beseech the rich Nabal for bread, and the object of the Psalm is precisely to meet the temptation, which grows up to the righteous from temporary desertion. Then it is not to be overlooked, that the experience which the Psalm- ist here utters, is primarily an Old Testament one. (Complete impoverishment belonged to the punishments which were threatened to the impious transgressors of the law, comp. Deut. xxviii. 38, ss.) It is not to be doubted, that God, while he withheld from the righteous of the Old Covenant a clear insight into the future state of being, on that very account unfolded his righteousness the more distinctly in his dealings towards them during this life, so that they might not err concerning it. Still we must beware of carrying the distinction in this respect
PSALM XXXVII. VER. 25 — 29. 37
between the Old and New Covenant too far. He, who seeks first the kingdom of God, shall have all other things given to him. Godliness has promises not merely for the future, but also for the present life. But what is the main point, is : the Lord has commanded us to ask our daily bread. Every command issued by the Lord is at the same time a promise. He enjoins us to pray only for that, which he certainly and without exception will grant, {i. e. without any exception, which really deserves the name ; the man, from whom he withholds the earthly bread, and feeds the more plentifully with heavenly food, so that he is not conscious of the deficiency as a want, has not prayed in vain : Give us this day our daily bread.) But, if on this side we are poorer than the members of the Old Covenant, we are so only because on the other side we are rich- er. What appeared to the members of the Old Covenant as a continued desertion, presents itself to us, who can see with quite other eyes the end of this life, only as a passing one, and, be- sides, the Spirit of Christ can so mightily console and quicken us, that the failure in temporal things presses little upon us. But still, the more that a believer of the New Covenant places himself upon the footing of the Old, so much the more securely must he confide, that God will not for a continuance abandon him in regard also to temporal things. The Berleb. Bible: " God gives not the spiritual only, but also the bodily, and the unrighteousness is not to be borne, which one perpetrates on God, when one thinks, that he sooner abandons those, who surrender themselves to him, and place all their hope and confidence in him, than others. — God has certainly no delight in this, that even a little worm should die of hunger, or a sparrow fall to the ground. How can he then allow his children to perish ? This is not to be believed of him ; it is too dishonourable to him. — Let us then take good heed how we stand in this respect and live before God : whether we have so much faith, that we can trust in him only for a piece of bread, and whether we can give him credit for so much wisdom, and power, and faithfulness, that he will assist and care for us in righteous concerns, and maintain his work itself."
Ver. 27. Depart from evil and do good, so shalt thou dwell for evermore. Ver. 28. For the Lord loves judgment, and forsakes not his saints, they are preserved for ever, hut the seed of the ivicked shall be cut off. Ver. 29. The righteous inherit the land,
38 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and dwell therein for ever. It is evident both from the 071^7, and also from the two following verses, that the imperative dwell stands in the promissory sense, as in ver. 3 and 4, q. d. so shalt thou dwell, namely, in the land of the Lord, with allusion to the formula in the Pent., " that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee," and that we are not to explain with most commentators : remain always at rest. — The unsuccessful attempts to press into the Psalm an ain-strophe, we pass over, since the foundation of them has been taken away by what has been already remarked in the introduction. — On the expression : the seed of the wicked shall be cut off, the Berleb. Bible remarks : " This is deeply grounded in the divine right- eousness, imprinted thence upon the hearts of men, and as with terrible griphins guarded, that no wickedness can remain un- punished, and that the ungodly shall infallibly come to a miser- able end. If such perdition does not always meet the bodily eye or sense, still every thing is only contributing to their deep- er ruin. For the destruction of their poor souls is certainly much more dreadful before God."
Ver. 30i The mouth of the righteous speaks ivisdom, and his tongue utters judgment. Ver. 31. The laiv of his God is in his heart, his steps totter not. The Psalmist had given to the right- eous very rich consolation, very beautiful promises. But now, that these might not be torn from those, to whom they properly belonged, that every one might prove himself whether he had any thing more than the name of a righteous person, he here encloses the characteristic of the righteous. The expression : his steps totter not, is q. d. he advances steadily forward in the good path. The two verses contain again the three-fold division of the decalogue. Ver. 30 refers to the speech, the second half of ver. 31 to the actions, and in the midst of the two stands the heart, as the fountain from which both streams flow.
Ver. 32. The ivicked lurks for the righteous and seeks to kill him. Ver. 33. The Lord leaves him not in his hand, and con- demns him not, when he is judged. )^'^''^1'*, which must not be rendered : he pronounces him guilty, shows that the discourse here is not of a human judgment, (it is rather a judgment stand- ing in contrast to this), that the matter between the pious and the ungodly is represented under the image of a law suit, in which God sits for judgment. Arnd : " The whole church of God, all Christians were, in the times of Maxirain and Hadrian, put
PSALM XXXVII. VER. 34 — 38. 39
to the ban and exiled, hence Tertullian wrote an apology for the Christians to the Emperor, and comforted the Christians by saying : " Si conderanamur a mundo, absolvimur a Deo."
Ver. 34. Wait upon the Lord, and keep his ivay, so will lie exalt thee to possess the land, the extirpation of the wicked thon shalt see. The conclusion begins with this verse, in which the hortatory character of the introduction returns. The two im- peratives sum up in one the commandments of the first and second tables : be pious and be just. The way of God, the way which God wills that men should go in, which he has prescribed to them in his law.
Ver. 35. / saiv a ivicked one, who was insolent, and spread himself forth like a tree green and deep-rooted. Ver. 36. And he passed avjay, and lo ! he was no more, and I sought him and he luas not found. T*'''^^, fearful, powerful, has commonly the related idea of violence. But this is not here the predominating one. We must translate : I saw a wicked one fearful, not a ty- rannical wicked one. For the word manifestly stands in a simi- lar relation to the : spreading himself. The indigenous is a tree, which has never been taken out of its native soil, and trans- planted. Such an one is peculiarly strong. H^TX is elsewhere always used of persons, in contradistinction to a stranger, who has no firm root of being in the land. Here also we are not to supply the word tree, but rather the never transplanted tree appears under the image of one inborn. We must render : as an indigenous one, a green one. — There is no reason for trans- lating : one passed by, for, he passed by, he vanished away. The lo ! suits quite well with the most natural explanation. Berleb. Bible : " which points as with the finger of astonishment to that quick disappearance." On the expression : I sought him, it further remarks: I could scarcely believe it, that the man, who so shortly before had made so great a figure, must al- ready come to nothing, so that I cast about for him in every direction." Though David in this Psalm speaks not so much from his own person, as from that of the sage, yet undoubtedly in this verse he had the image of Saul swimming before his eyes.
Ver. 37. Mark the perfect and behold the upright, for a futurity has the man of peace. Ver. 38. And the impious are extirpated together, the futurity of the ivicked is cut off. The Psalmist confidently demands, that people would observe the fate of the righteous ; for experience will only confirm his posi- tion, that it goes well with him at last. Many, after Luther ;
40 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
continue pious and hold thyself right ; but QH and '^^'< never stand as abstracts, HXI cannot signify : to be diligent in a mat- ter, and: mark and sec, manifestly point here to tbe : I saw, in the preceding verse. — Then some expound: for the man of peace has posterity ; others : for the end of such a man is peace : but the " many-meaning" H'^^HK has only the one signification of the end, and, in particular, never means posterity, (see on Balaam, p. 158, ss.) and ^''X? cannot possibly signify : such a man, and must hence of necessity be joined in stat. constr. with D"17^ (LXX. avQ^M'Kw u^rivrA.<Z, Vulg. homini pacifico.) The man of peace, the meek, ver. 11, who is not inflamed against the wicked, ver. 1, has an end, a future, whilst the wicked, who are carried off in the midst of their days, (comp. on Ps. Iv. 23), are violently robbed of the end or future.
Ver. 39. And the salvation of the rigliteons comes from the Lord, who is their security in the time of distress. Ver. 40. And the Lord helps them and delivers them, delivers them from the wicked, and saves them, for they trust in him. The 1 placed be- fore the n announces this strophe as the sum of the whole. nDTiyJlD is appos. to Jehovah. On the words : he delivers them from the wicked, Luther remarks: " And that it might annoy the ungodly he mentions them by name, and says, he will deliver them from tbe ungodly, whatever pain it may occasion them ; and their fury can be of no avail to them, although they think, the righteous cannot escape from them, he must be extirpated." On the words: they trust in him, John Arnd: "Ah ! says he, God cannot, and will not leave them, without rewarding their fidelity and confidence, else were he not faithful, not righteous, not true to his word."
Luther closes his exposition of the Psalm with the words : " Oh shame on our faithfulness, mistrust, and vile unbelief, that we do not believe such rich, powerful, consolatory declarations of God, and take up so readily with little grounds of offence, whenever we but hear the wicked speeches of the ungodly. Help, 0 God, that we may once attain to right faith. Amen."
PSALM XXXVIIL
This Psalm discovers in its commenceoient a near relation to the sixth, and in its close a near relation to the twenty-second. The coincidences with these Psalms are too literal to be acci-
PSALM xxxvin. 41
dental, and just as little could they orignate in unintentional reminiscence. The contrary is evident from their occurring precisely at the commencement and the close, and from the en- tirely original and independent character which the Psalm pos-
The Psalmist begins with a prayer to the Lord, that he would not further punish him in anger, and rests this prayer on the circumstance, that it had already been carried to an extreme with him, that the time had now come, when, with the righteous, love must necessarily take the place of anger, deliverance of punishment. This delineation of the suifering of the Psalmist is given in two sections. In the first, ver. 2 — 8. after having spoken in the general of God's hand lying heavy upon him, he complains, in enlargement of the statement, " that there is no soundness in his flesh," with which he begins ver. 3, and which re- turns again at the end of ver. 7, of his miserable bodily condition^ and then of the deep distress of his soul. In the second, ver. 9 — 12, he points, after the introductory words in ver. 9, first again to the mournful situation in which he found himself, ver. 10, and then goes more deeply into the external distress, by which he was surrounded, as being completely abandoned by his friends, and left to enemies, who were eagerly bent on compassing his destruction, ver. 12. After this representation of the greatness of his sufferings, there follows in ver. 13 — 15 the protestation that he possessed the indispensable condition of the divine help, — patience, the still and devoted waiting upon God ; and while showing, how much he had cause to wait upon God, how much he stood in need of God's help, he here takes a new glance, in ver, 16 — 20, at his sufferings, and gives a brief delineation of them : he has attained to the painful consciousness of his sins, and he is threatened with destruction by his numerous and power- ful enemies, who persecute him, because he strives after what is good. In the conclusion, ver. 21, 22, the prayer is raised on the ground thus laid, that God would not forsake him, but would make haste to help him.
The Psalm is alphabetical as to its number, that is, the num- ber of its verses coincides with that of the letters of the alpha- bet. It is in allusion to this alphabetical character, that in the two concluding verses three members make the last letter of the alphabet follow the first, i^^Tyn St^, etc. Along with the al- phabet, the number ten, as very often happens, has a pronjinent
42 THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
place in the arrangement. The main subject occupies twenty verses, followed by a conclusion of two. (Of course this sup- poses the superscription to be a part of the Psalm.)
Of any particular occasion there is found no trace in the Psalm. What at first sight seems to point to this, is soon discerned by the experienced sense to be a mere individualizing, and rather concludes the other way. The alphabetical arrangement alone makes it probable, that the Psalmist speaks from the person of the righteous.
According to many expositors, the situation must be that of a sick person, according to several, that specially of a leper, who at the same time is pressed by enemies, and so indeed, that the sickness is the Psalmist's chief suffering. But there are decisive grounds for holding, that the proper substantial suffering of the Psalmist, stood only in the assaults of the wicked, and that the bodily prostration of which he complains, was only oc- casioned by these. As soon as it is perceived, that the Psalm did not originate in any particular occasion, it must from the first appear improbable, that a double and quite separate cause of suffering should exist ; and this being the case, we can have no difficulty in concluding, that the sickness may very well have been the consequence of the assaults, but not the reverse ; first, because in all the afflictions of the Psalms generally, and in particular of the Psalms of David, those occasioned by the as- saults of the wicked come out so prominently ; then, from the analogy of so many Psalms, in which the wretched bodily state appears as the result of the assaults ; but especially from Ps. vi. and xxii., to which the author has himself referred us,— which together shut us up to the conclusion, that the assaults were the proper and substantial suffering. Further, in the resumed sur- vey taken of the sufferings in ver. 18 — 20, the sickness is entirely omitted ; there are first only on the one hand, the conscious- ness of sin, and, on the other, the malice of enemies. Finally, the prayer at the close does not plead for healing, but only for help and assistance, according to the customary language of the Psalms, against the enemies, clearly manifesting that neither sickness, nor the painful conviction of sin, was the ori- ginal cause of his sufferings, — that these were to be considered merely as the effects of hostile oppression, which should vanish along with their cause.
The following view of the situation hence presents itself as the correct one. The Psalmist, or he, in whose name he speaks, to
PSALM XXXVIII. 43
whom he ofifers the weapons, with which he can prevail in the con- test, is hard pressed by ungodly enemies. The sting of his pain in this temptation is this, that by the principle, perpetually true in itself, and, in the Old Testament especially, distinctly announced, that there is no suffering without sin,orthat allsuffering is punish- ment, he sees in his enemies so many accusers sent against him by God, and in their superior power a testimony that God is visit- ing him for his sins, which appear to him now in a very different light from what they had done during his prosperity. What he could easily have borne otherwise, prostrates him when so con- sidered, both in body and soul. In his distress he turns himself to the Lord, with a prayer for deliverance from his enemies, Avhich, at the same time, conveyed the matter-of-fact announce- ment of the forgiveness of his sins, and by which consequently liis suffering was removed.
A Psalm of David foi' remembrance. The person who is to be put in remembrance by the Psalm, is not, as is generally sup- posed, the Psalmist himself, or the whole church, but God, who seemed to have forgotten the Psalmist. Several expound : to praise the Lord, with an allusion to 1 Chron. xvi. 4. But y2]T\ always signifies only to mention, never to praise, corap. on Ps. XX. 7, and for the same reason in the passage of Chroni- cles referred to, according to which the business of the Levitical singers stood in this, SShSi H'ninSl I^DIilTl, to remind, and to praise, and to extol, the '^y]T[ can only form the anti- thesis to the two other verbs, to which also the prefixed ") points,
The Levites had partly to sing the songs of lamentation and prayer, and partly also those of praise and thanksgiving. The exposition : for remembrance, is confirmed also by the subject of the two Psalms, which have this in the superscription, where- in it is to be noted, that in Psalm Ixx. the superscription thus in- dicated is the more remarkable, since that Psalm contains pre- cisely the complaining and supplicating part of Ps. xl. with the exclusion of the praising and extoUing part : and then by the connection with the niDTX, remembrance-offerings, offerings through which God was brought by his people into remembrance, to which T^n? probably alludes, comp. Ps. cxli. 2, Rev. viii. 4, where the prayers of the saints appear as a spiritual incense and remembrance-offering. The opposite is rniJl'?, for praise, in Ps. c. 1. This superscription of itself contains a hortatory ele- ment. When God appears to have forgotten us, we must re-
44 THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
member him ; the earnest prayer to God for help is the only and the sure means of attainino^ this.
Ver. 1. Lord, punish me not in thy rage, and chasten me not in thine indignation. It was already shown in Ps. vi. 1, that the contrast is not that of chastisement in love against chastisement in anger, but that of the desired deliverance against chastisement, which always proceeds from the principle of anger. — In what follows, the Psalmist gives the ground, upon which his prayer for deliverance rests. The burden of his suffering is so great, that though he must bear it, yet God cannot permit his own to be destroyed.
Ver. 2. Fo7^ thine arrows stick in me, and over me came thy hand. inniJj the Niph, found only here, of nnj? to go down, *^, not upon, but in me. The arrows denote the chastisements of sin depending on God. Hitzig maintains arbitrarily, that by the arrows only a particular form of these is to be understood, sickness ; the reverse of which is shown by the original passage, Deut, xxxii. 23, where " I will send all my arrows against them," stands in parallelism with, " I will heap mischiefs upon them," and where presently hunger, burning, disease, are particularly named. Then also, in the very passage upon which Hitzig rests his view, Job vi. 4, " The arrows of the Almighty are in me, their poison drinketh up my spirit," the arrows denote the whole suffering which Job had already experienced, not merely his bodily sickness, but also the loss of his children and his sub- stance, the cooled love of his friends, and even of his wife. — For the second member compare Ps. xxxii. 4, xxxix. 10. — The gene- ral is followed by the particular; the Psalmist represents to God, in detail, the mournful condition in which he was placed in order to move him to compassion.
Ver. 3. There is no salvation in my flesh because of thine anger, there is no peace in my bones because of my sins. Ver. 4, For my iniquities go over my head, as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. The Psalmist begins with the mournful state of his body. UT\f2 from Ut2r\> without injury, soundness, does not stand as an abstr. for cone, but we must translate litei'ally: not is sound- ness in my flesh. This is shown by the parallelism, " not is peace :" to my flesh is unsoundness, (and therefore) from my bones peace is far, (the violent pain presses through marrow and bone.) The anger of God is in so far the cause of the mournful bodily condition, as it hangs the infliction of enemies
PSALM XXXVIII. VER. 5 — 7. 45
over the Psalmist, sins, in so far as they provoke that anger, q.d. because of the hostile assault, in which I recognize the expres- sion of thine anger, the punishment of my sins. What is simply indicated in the expressions ; because of thy anger, because of my sins, is more fully carried out in ver. 4. The transgressions of the Psalmist bear upon him in their consequences with insup- portable weight, comp. Ps. xl. 12, " for innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold on me." In the expression : they go over my head, the image is taken from billows ; they flow over me like one who is nigh to drown- ing, Ps. cxxiv. 4.
Ver. 5. They are corrupt, my sores fester because of my folly. ppl2 in Niph. to melt, here of the sores, which dissolve into a boil. The verse is not to be taken figuratively indeed, but as an individualizing mark of the state of bodily dissolution, in which the Psalmist was placed, and which might also manifest itself in other forms under certain circumstances. Folly here indicates a bedimming of the understanding, in an ethical point of view, comp. on Ps. xiv. 1. It is to be considered, not as the immediate, but as the primary cause of the miserable bodily condition. The folly has called forth the punishment of hostile oppression, and through grief, on account of this, did the Psalmist become so much the more corporeally wretched, as he could only recognize in it the chastisement of his folly. That the im- mediate cause is the hostile oppression, appears from the com- parison of Ps. xxxi. 9, 10. The extraordinary agreement of Isa. i. 6, with this verse must be the less accidental as DHD also occurs there, which is nowhere besides found, excepting here in ver. 3 and 7. Isaiah has employed what is here an individu- ahzing description, as an image of the mournful condition into which the people had fallen by their sins. In this allusion there is found a confirmation of the superscription, as referring the Psalm to David.
Ver, 6. I am beside myself, bowed down very much, continu- ally do I go in sadness. Ver. 7. For my loins are quite dried up, and there is no soundness in my fiesh. The Niphil of Hl^ occurs in Isa. xxi. 3, in parallel with being horrified, elsewhere ofmoraZperverseness. It is here precisely our: being crazy. The Psalmist's pains rob him of all recollection. The commonly re- ceived signification : to be crooked, bowed down, has no sure foundation. Upon "•niH^J' and "TXp comp. on Ps. xxxv. 14.
46 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The first member of ver. 7, literally : for my loins are full of the dried, assigns as a reason for the distress of the Psalmist, his bodily emaciation, comp. on Ps. xxii. 17. The loins are espe- cially named, from being a chief seat of fat in the healthy, comp. on Job XV. 27. The exposition which is now current : my bowels are full of fever-burning, deserves rejection on every account. As the words are enclosed on both sides by the expression, "sound- ness is not in my flesh," and are designed for an expansion of its meaning, they can only refer to the external state of the body ; for the loins the bowels are arbitrarily substituted ; rhp signi- fies not to burn, but to roast, dry up ; the burnt, or more pro- perly, the dried, cannot stand for the burning. In the expres- ^ sion: there is not soundness, &c., the representation turns back
to the commencement, and so rounds itself off.
Ver. 8. / am very feeble and sore broken, I howl from the groanings of my heart. y\^ to be cold, stiff, dead. CH^, signi- fies not less than JIJ^^J^, to roar, and instead of T\12T\1 there might have been H^X^. The emphasis lies upon the words : of my heart. The bodily cry of the Psalmist is only a fruit of the spiritual. In his inmost heart pain was raging. — The re- pi-esentation of the Psalmist has here reached its acme ; he in- dulges himself in a moment's rest, and then proceeds more softly. The first section is completed in the number seven, and the seven is so divided, that two strophes, each of two verses, have before, after, and in the middle of them, a strophe of one verse. The main burden, the representation of the bodily dis- tress, ver. 3 — 7, which rounds oiF by the resemblance of the beginning and the close, and by its having five as the num- ber of its verses points to a further addition, is hemmed in by a beginning and a close of general import. — The second section, ver. 9 — 12, is comprized, if we except ver. 9, which bears entirely the character of an introduction, in the number three, and in such a way, indeed, that each verse contains a separate dehneation of the Psalmist's suffering. If we reckon together the seven verses of the first, and the three verses of the second period, the whole representation of his suflFerings will be contained in the number ten.
Ver. 9. O Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my sighing is not hid from thee. The Psalmist had, at the close of the pre- ceding period, painted his afiliction in such a manner, that if he had had to do with a human friend, there would very naturally
PSALM XXXVIII. VEIL 10, 11. 47
have been the suspicion of colouring. Hence, before he proceeds farther in his lamentations, he appeals to the omniscience of God, who would bear him witness, that the strongest language he could use to express his misery, and the earnest desire of his heart after help, far from exceeding the reality, still fell short of it — q. d. Thou knowest how great my suffering is, and that I am not magnifying it to thee, in order to move thy compassion. The verse has for all sufferers the import of an impressive ad- monition, not to seek help from God for pretended or imaginary sufferings, and in their complaints not to go beyond the mea- sure which the occasion itself warrants. The help of God, the omniscient, directs itself, not according to the greatness of the lamentation, but according to the greatness of the suffering.
Ver. 10. My heart beats, my strength has left me, and the light of my eyes, even that is not with me. Upon the light of the eyes, comp. on Psalm xiii. 3. The words are in nomin. absol. The expression : even they are not with me, instead of what we would have expected : even that is not with me, occa- sions no difficulty. If the glance of the eyes has gone, they themselves are at the same time gone too ; for it is that, which makes the eye what it properly is. The lamentation upon the inward distress, that is, upon the sad condition in which he was placed as to soul and body, produced by the attacks of his ene- mies, the Psalmist now follows up by the complaint upon what was merely external, first, the faithlessness of his friends, then at the close, that, from which all the rest proceeded, the malice of his enemies.
Ver. 11. 3Iy lovers and my friends stand over against my stroke^ and my neighbours stand afar off. Many : they consider me as one smitten by God, and fear to join themselves in fellow- ship with me. But this is not in the words. These only bring out the deep pain, which is occasioned by those who, when the sore pressure of affliction upon us calls them to come nearer and manifest an active love, by endeavouring, through their compas- sion, to alleviate our sufferings, on the contrary, remove farther away, and abandon us to our pain, after the manner of the world, where the prosperous are envied, and the unfortunate forgotten, (comp. on Psalm xxvii. ver. 10,) luhenever there is danger in taking j)art with a person and acknowledging him. The stroke of the Psalmist consists in the attacks of tlie enemies, and the devastations in body and soul, which were thereby produced
43 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
upon him. IJl^^, over against, so that they do not come close to him. John Arnd : " This was fully verified in the passion, as the disciples of our Lord were horrified at the stroke, which he had to bear upon the cross. When the same is repeated in our experience, as the holy Job says : my friends are my railers, but mine eye weeps to God, we must console ourselves with the example of the Lord Christ, for the servant cannot be above his Lord ; and it will avail for this purpose, if we commit ourselves to no man, nay to no creature, but to our dear Father, Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, whose faithfulness never fails." While the friends are far, the enemies are near.
Ver. 1 2. And they lay snares for me, ivho pursue after my soul, and they who seek my hurt, speak mischief, and meditate upon deceit perpetually. They speak mischief; not precisely, they con- cert mischievous plans against me, but as the two following verses shew, and even the last member of this , they belch out mischievous calumnies against me. In the last member, n^H is better taken in the signification of meditating, than of speaking. For then are deed, word, and thought bound with one another, and we have here a complete counterpart to the decalogue, where prohibition to injure our neighbour, proceeds from deeds to words, (thou must not speak false witness against thy neigh- bour, corresponding to this here : they speak mischief,) and from words to thoughts, (thou shalt not covet.) The greatness of the suffering, however, does not alone suffice as a ground for the servant of the Lord praying for help ; the manner in which he has borne these comes also into consideration. Patience, calm surrender, is an indispensable condition of deliverance. Among men at large, according as every one seeks to help him- self in passionate excitement by means of words or deeds, (the latter are here particularly pointed to, because the enemies of the Psalmist sought especially by words, by false accusations, to destroy him,) he drives away from him the divine help. Hence, the Psalmist delineates, in ver. 13 — 15, his patience under the assaults of the enemy, amid which, trusting in God as the judge of his cause, he abstains from every passionate justifi- cation, every attempt to maintain by violence his right from those, who can have no ear for a quiet representation of what they are unwilhng to acknowledge.
Ver. 13. And I, as a deaj'man, hear not, and I am as a dumb man, who opens not his mouth. Ver. 14. And I am as a man
PSALM XXXVIII. VER. 15, 16.
49
that hears not, and who has no replies in his mouth. Ver. 15. For upon thee, O Lord, do I hope ; thou wilt answer, O Lord my God. John Arnd : " This was peculiarly, and in the high- est sense fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, since he answered nothing to his calumniators and accusers during his holy pas- sion, but remained silent as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that is dumb before his shearers and openeth not his mouth, (comp. Matt. xxvi. 62, 63. John xix. 9.) This we must also learn to practise : " in stillness and confidence is your strength, Isa. xxx." For the expression : as a dumb man, we are to supply from the special: I hear the general; I be- have myself. It may be explained from 1 Sara. x. 27, where it is said of Saul, when he was taunted by wicked men, " And he was as one silent." Luther, in rendering: but I must 6e as a deaf man and hear not," etc., missed the right sense. Accord- ing to him, ver. 13 and 14 describe, not the patience of the Psalmist, but the shamelessness of his enemies, who would not permit him to speak.— Ver. 14 is in substance not different from ver. 13. The apparent tautology is justified by the endea- vours of the Psalmist to bring clearly out his unimpassioned stillness, and his renunciation of all dependance on self. This appears the more in its place, as we have before us here an in- direct exhortation.— Ver. 15 carries back the patience of the Psalmist to its ground ; it is a daughter of faith. He answers not, because he is convinced that God will answer, whom he must not forestall. The divine answer is a matter-of-fact one. —After the Psalmist has referred back his stillness and patience to his conviction, that God will help him, its proper ground, he shews on account of what he sets his hope in God, and betakes to him for refuge. He is afraid, that otherwise his enemies will triumph over him, ver. 16, and while he shews how much reason he has for this fear, how near destruction is to him, he throws out in ver. 17—20, a new representation of his sufferings.
Ver. 16. For L say, lest they should rejoice over me, who, on the slipping of my foot, lift themselves high against me. 'Tr\m, not, I pray, but, I think. Before ]S is to be supphed, it is matter of concern, or it is to be feared, or something similar. The second half of the verse is a relative clause, which, accord- ing to Hebrew custom, is but loosely appended. We can either expound : who, (now already) since my foot slips, (a mark of misfortune as distinguished from entire ruin) magnifj' themselves
VOL. 11. ^
50 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
against me ; or, who, if my foot slipped, (if T came entirely- down), would magnify themselves against me. The first exposi- tion has on its side Ps. xxxv. 26, where the insolent behaviour of the enemies is viewed not as a matter of dread, but as an oc- casion of distress, and especially the next verse, where the halting corresponds to the slipping of the foot.
Ver. 17. For I am given over to suffering, and my pain is he- fore me continually. The Psalmist shews how his present posi- tion justified his fear of the triumph of his enemies : he finds himself in great misery. The first member is literally : for I am ready to halt. The being ready cannot just mean, being near; but is as much as : at hand, given over, adjudged. For the halting cannot denote the full ruin, but only the misfortune, comp. Ps. xxxv. 15, where it is used of a state, in which the Psalmist already finds himself, not which he dreads ; and the misfortune was not simply near to the Psalmist, but he was al- ready in it. Elsewhere, also, for ex. Job xii. 5, p^J with 7, is used of what already exists. !!15«5^/b> pain, not subjectively, but objec- tively, therefore entirely corresponding to the figurative halt- ing. It is before me continually, q. d. it is my inseparable com- panion, corresponding to this : I am ready. The assertion that he finds himself in great misery, the Psalmist grounds in ver.- 18 — 20 by recounting his sufferings.
Ver. 18. For my guilt must 1 confess, I am sorry for my sin. The^r denotes the relation, not merely of this verse, but of the whole section ver. 18 — 20 to ver. 17. The suffering of the Psalmist consists first in this, that he has come to the knowledge of his sins, and rues these with poignant regret. — To this sense of sin there are added next, the assaults of numerous and mighty enemies, all the more sensibly, as the Psalmist had formerly done them good. Ver. 19. And mine enemies live and are mighty, and many there are who hate me luithout cause. Ver. 20. And they that render evil for good are enemies to me, because that I followed after the good. The first member of ver. 19 is literally : and mine enemies, living, are strong. CTl cannot be joined as an adj. to ^^''J^, for it must then have the article. It contains an entire declaration, as much as : who are living. While the Psalmist finds himself in a state like to death, is dead while living, they are living and powerful. Q""^!! is quite suitable, whether we refer the 1JD^^y to the qua- lity, or to the quantity of the enemies ; they are strong in num-
rSALM XXXVIII. VER. 20, 21. — XXXIX. 51
ber, in agreement with the second member ; and the conjecture Din» without cause, is to be rejected. Certainly no one would have thought of putting in place of this, the more difficult nD''*n- To follow after the good, is not quite the same with well-doing. It rather denotes a zealous moral striving in general. This striving, however, in the Psalmist, bad been specially directed towards his present enemies. Comp. Fs., xxxv, 12. The rare form of the infin. '•fin'! has been changed by the Masorites into the common one.
Ver. 21. Fo7'sake me not, O Lord ; my God be not far from me. Ver. 22. Make haste to help me, Lord, my salvation. Calvin : " In this conclusion he brings shortly together the whole sum of his wishes and his prayer, viz. : that God would take up and help him, who had been abandoned by man, and in every way most wretchedly plagued." The conclusion stands in designed verbal reference to Ps. xxii. 19. On the expression : Lord, my salvation, compare this : " say to my soul, I am thy salvation." in Ps, xxxv. 3.
PSALM XXXIX.
Hard pressed by the wicked, (comp. ver. 1 and 8), the Psalm- ist has finally purposed to bear his sufferings in quietness and patience, and not to transgress by murmuring against God. But the conflict exceeds his powers, and breaks asunder the cord with which he had closed his mouth. His compressed heart takes wing to itself, and he disputes with God, desires impatient- ly to learn from him the end of his life, and of his afflictions, snd casts up to him the shortness and the nothingness of human life, ver. 3 — 6. In reference to this part of the Psalm, there is force in the remark of Calvin : " It is to be observed, that David, in this Psalm, does not proclaim his own virtue, while he ex- presses before God wishes comformable to the rule of piety; but that he rather confesses the fault of his infirmity, which had led him to give way to immoderate grief, and violently dragged him into disputation with God. In his own person he places before our eyes a mirror of human weakness, so that we, warned cf the danger, may learn to flee with all haste under the wings of God." — But the Psalmist soon raises himself from his fall, ver.
52 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
7 — 13. The faith, which had withdrawn into the lowest depths of his heart, breaks forth when he sees his enemy, doubting Despondency, thus triumphing, and throws him down with the strong hand of violence. It puts into his heart and mouth the great word : " And now, Lord, what wait I for ? My hope is in thee," and now it is an easy matter for him to give up all murmmings and disputings. In the place of these comes now the affecting, but mild and submissive prayer to the Lord, that he would still deliver him, who had been deeply bowed under the sufferings, in which he could not but recognize the righteous punishment of his sins, and would grant some enlargement to him before the close of his brief sojourn.
The Psalm accordingly falls into two parts. The first is treated by the Psalmist historically. He selects the situation of such an one as even now overcome the temptation, re- presents, first, ver. 1 — 6, what already had passed in him, and then, in ver. 7 — 13, what now is passing. The main portion consists of seven verses.
A my raid already notices the remarkable difference between this Psalm and such as Psalm xxxvii., and endeavours to trace it up to its source. The thirty-seventh Psalm, says he, David wrote when in a quiet spirit he reflected on the matter as it /•eally stands. This Psalm, on the contrary, he wrote when in hot persecution and violent conflict. Hence is it that the former is easy, simple, polished, but in this the reverse ; and while it sets before our eyes the alternating and conflicting thoughts of the Psalmist, it drags the mind of the reader hither and thither, and the deep commotion of spirit, out of which it proceeded, makes it difficult to be understood.
It is not to be overlooked, that the Psalm possesses in part an Old Testament character. While still there was no clear insight into a future state of being, a long-continued state of suffering must have sunk very deep into the heart. " When a man dies, will he live again ?" — says Job, of wliose speech the Psalm con- tains the germ — " all the days of my war-service will I wait, till my discharge come." With every day of his short and miser- able existence was the space narrowing for the display of the re- tributive justice and grace of God : and when the powers of body and of soul began to fail, then the disconsolate thought would press upon him, that he never would come to partake of the blessing which God had promised to his people — it would scarcely be
PSALM XXXIX. VER, 1. 53
possible to avoid sinking into perplexity and despair. But this special Old Testament character of the Psalm, far from depriv- ing the Psalm of its edifying signification for us, rather serves the purpose of enhancing it. The declaration : My hope stands in thee, which the Psalmist uttered in circumstances vi'hen it was against all reason to hope, may well put us to shame, who are easily brought into despair by light and temporal afflic- tions, while we have the prospect of an exceeding weight of glory ; and the more that he hoped, while there was the less to hope for, so much the more readily should our hope be kindled by the light of his.
The superscription runs : To the Song-master, Jedithun, a Psalm of David. Jeduthun, from T\)1'^) laudatio, with the ending from proper names p, or Jedithun, as he is here called, and in Ps. Ixxvii, 1 Chron. xvi. 38, Neh. xi. 17, in order to avoid the double dark sound, is mentioned in 1 Chron. xvi. 41, 42 ; XXV. 1, 3, 2 Chron. v. 12, as one of the leaders of sacred music in David's time. That here after the general : to the song-master, with which the superscriptions for the most part content themselves, (comp. on Ps. iv.) there should be added the particular : Jeduthun, has certainly no practical aim ; but is to be explained from the design of David to honour Jeduthun, and to hand down his name to posterity, since the superscriptions contain nothing, which carried only a temporary significatioi Many would, with an allusion to pHIT* 7^ at the commence- ment of Psalms Ixii. and Ixxvii., explain : to the chief musician of the Jeduthunite, Jeduthun marking, not the individual, but the musical chorus of Jeduthun. But 115^^ is never construed with 7, always with 'py ; the 7 in the superscriptions is employed only to designate the author and the chief musician, and on this very account the 7^ must have been used for avoiding the dubiety, even though the connection of Tl"^^ with 7 had else- where occurred ; quite analogous to pnn''S n^^tt/j according to our exposition is "TH? nin'' l^y?, of the servant of the Lord, David^ in Ps. xviii. xxxvi. Still more arbitrary is the ex- position of Gesenius : upon an instrument, or according to a melody, invented by Jeduthun.
Ver. 1. I said, 1 will keep my tvays, that I do no sin with my tongue, I will keep the bridle in my mouth, ivhile still the wicked is before me Calvin ; " He knew how many snares
54 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Satan is wont to lay ; he therefore looked to the one side and to the other, and set a watch everywhere, lest some temptation, stealing in from the right or left, might reach his mind. To that the avenues were shut on all hands, unless through excess of grief his steadfastness had been violently disturbed and broken down." On the expression, " I spake," Venema: " that is, I firmly resolved, and prescribed to myself this law." The ways are the entire compass of the actions, within which are included also the words ; the tongue was that through which the offence on this special occasion might be committed. Wherein the sin- ning with the tongue consisted, appears from ver. 4, ss., where the Psalmist, carried away by the violence of his pain, actually falls into this sin against his purpose, — not, as some suppose, by an unseasonable comparison with Ps. xxxvii, 1, xxxviii. 13, 14, in an intemperate outburst against the enemies, but in an impa- tient and disrespectful murmuring against God, an expression of doubt in regard to his righteousness and grace. Exactly parallel, therefore, are the passages, Job i. 22, " In all this Job sinned not, and spake nothing foolishly against God," and ii. 10, " In all this sinned not Job with his lips," To keep the bridle to the mouth, is as much as to keep it carefully in check. In the words: while the wicked is still before me, the Psalmist must, according to some, declare his purpose to guard himself against unbecoming speech, especially in the presence of his enemies, in order not to afford them the double triumph of finding him in despair, which might also draw forth their rail- ing at his misfortune, and of seeing him sin against his God. But this exposition is to be rejected, even on this account, that it does not pay regard to the still, which is hence also left out for the most part by those who follow this translation. And then, one does not see how respect to the enemies could be a reason to the Psalmist for entirely refraining from murmuring against God, and maintaining the right with him, as the discourse here still manifestly turns on that. For why should this be done in their presence ? We have also the verses beginning at ver. 3, in which the Psalmist suffers himself to be drawn into this murmuring, when certainly the enemy could not be thought of as present. The right view is, rather, that the words point to what had been able to seduce the Psalmist to sin with his tongue, what had pressed him hard with the temptation to this. The wicked, of whom it is said in Ps. xxxvii. 2, " They
PSALM XXXIX. VER. 1, 2. 65
shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb," were still continually before him, since, according to his opi- nion, the words, " He passed away, and lo : he was not, I sought him, and he was not found," ver. 36, might have been too long in receiving their fulfilment. The wicked is to be conceived of, according to the nature of things, and according to verse 8, where the Psalmist prays, " make me not the reproach of the foolish," as at the same time the Psalmist's enemy, so that with his continued existence, the Psalmist's misery also continued. The best commentary on the expression, " while the wicked is still before me," is to be found in David's circumstances .during the time of Saul, which here come the more into account, as in no other had David so much occasion for this still. Certainly David at that period had many conflicts such as the one here represented. . , .
Ver. 2. / grew dumb and was still, I was silent, not for good, and my pain was stirred. The Psalmist says, he had indeed executed his purpose declared in the preceding verse, but that ill had thereby accrued. The obstinate and constrained silence, so far from producing good, had rather made his pain rise to a frightful magnitude. In sicknesses of the soul, not less than in those of the body, whatever hinders the necessary crisis, serves only to increase the evil. In the state of mind which now be- longed to the Psalmist, the sinning with the tongue was bet- ter for him, than the merely constrained and legal silence; only through the fall could he rise again, only through a sinful speaking could he attain to a proper evangehcal silence. Upon the accus. rf/JD*!*!' prop. I grew dumb in silence, q.d. I grew wholly and perfectly dumb—seeEw. Large Gr. p. 591, Small Gr.§ 486. In ver. 9 ; I opened not my mouth, corresponds to the rT'ib'n added here. The unpleasant consequences of silence are first express- ed negatively, 1311022, far from good, without its having pro- duced any good effect; then positively: and my pain was stirred, quickened. mtD/!2 has been subjected to many false interpre- tations. The most general is that which regards the expression : from good, as an abbreviation for : from good even to evil, in Gen. xxxi. 24, 29 : 2 Sam. xiii. 22, q. d. I kept silence from every thing. But such an abbreviation can the less be thought of, since this phrase was not a common one, as its occurring in these solitary places shews. The silence of the Psalmist can refer only to the evil, and the phrase, from good even to evil,
56 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
would be unsuitable. In the passages referred to, there is indeed the expression, not to speak, but not, as here, to be silenty from good, even to evil. Others ; I was silent about prosperity, not demanding this loudly and imperiously, renouncing in a spirit of resignation my pretensions to it. But this unsuitable mean- ing is verbally quite inadmissable ; the |D after the verb of silence never marks the object regarding which it is kept. Others again : I was perfectly silent of good, although my sufferings violently drove me to a loud lamentation. But the bono orbus is tame, and not suitable to the connection.
Ver, 3. Warm was my heart iri my bosom, in my musing the fire burned, I spake with my tongue. On the two first members comp. Jer. xx. 9, where it is said of the scorn and enmity of the world, (not, as many, of the impulse of inspiration) : " And it was in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and could not do it." The object of the musing, is the sufferings which the Psalmist had to bear from the wicked. The expression : with my tongue, refers to ver. 1 : I spake with my tongue, on which I imposed silence. So that the remark of Koester falls of itself, that we see from this passage, in which the speech with the tongue is a heartfelt speech, pro- ceeding from a deep emotion of mind, what is plainly to be un- derstood by the tongue-speeches of the New Testament. Our words are related to ver. 1, precisely as those in Job iii. 1, " After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day," to chap. ii. 10, and i. 22. The Psalmist now in ver. 4 — 7, which are to be re- garded as distinguished by inverted commas, communicates the words which he spake, when he sinned with his tongue.
Ver, 4. " Make known to me, 0\Lo'rd, my end, and ivhen the limit of my days shall come, I wish to know when I may cease." The Psalmist impatiently demands of the Lord, to let him know when his sufferings, and what in his judgment coincides with these, his life, should come to an end, and complains, as in re- gard to a great hardship and terrible injustice, that it was not yet brought to a close. To this lamentation upon the greatness and hardship of his extraordinary sufferings, which made death appear to him as a blessing, its delay as an evil, there very suit- ably follows in ver. 5 and 6 a lamentation upon the shortness and nothingness of human life generally. In connection with this the complaint of our verse first receives its proper strength. It is frightful, if to poor man his short and fleeting existence.
PSALM XXXIX. VER. 4. 57
which of itself is punishment enough for sin, is besides so em- bittered, that he must sigh for his end. The same desire for death, upon the supposition, that the suffering shall only end with it, and in despair of the return of salvation, is often uttered by Job, for example, in chap. vi. 8, ss., " Oh that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing I long for ; even that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. What is my strength, that I should hope? etc." Thus also Job frequently complains of the disproportion between the greatness of sufferings and the shortness of human life, comp. for example, chap. vii. 7, " Oh remember that my life is a breath, mine eye shall no more see good ;" chap. xiv. 1, ss., " Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down ; he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not. And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me before thy judgment ? Seeing his days are determined, etc." chap. xvi. 22. From these parallel passages the relation of this verse to ver. 5 and 6 derives its proper light. By the end we can either understand the end of life, or the end of suffering. That the Psalmist combines both into one, that, despairing of the salvation of the Lord, he looks for the end of his sufferings only with the end of his life, appears from the second member ; which is literally : and the extension of my day what it, for : how is it proportioned thereto, what compass has it ? But that we are primarily to think of the end of the sufferings, we gather from the parallel passage, already cited from Job vi. 12. In the last number also, literally : I wish to know, what I ceasing, for, what is the state in regard to my ceasing, when that shall at last take place, (HD never signifies precisely ivhen, here also it is to be explained after the preceding XT! T\12)> the Psalmist asks not when he shall cease, cease to exist, but, as appears especially from a comparison of Job xiv. 6, when he shall cease to suffer — which object of the ceasing is very naturally suggested by the connection. He asks, in the middle, after the end of his day, only on this account, that he might learn the end of his suf- ferings ; the ah ! will not be uttered earlier, and to this point his question is directed from the beginning to the close. 7in is never used of existence, but always in reference to a particular condition within the limits of existence. The real meaning of the verse has been for the most part missed by expositors, the
58 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
occasion of which, as connected with the matter, is this, that the Psalmist, restrained by a lingering feeling of reverence, is un- willing to speak fully out, and does not entirely let go the bit, which, according to ver, 1, he had put in his mouth, but only holds it less tightly. The canon for putting the exposition to the proof is this, that the discourse, according to its relation to ver. 1, on the one hand, (the Psalmist does here what in ver. 1 he had engaged not to do, he sins with his tongue), and to ver. 9, on the other, (the Psalmist there grows perfectly dumb, so that his discourse can only have arisen from murmuring impatience), must necessarily contain a sinful element. Now, by this canon, we must renounce the current exposition, according to which the Psalmist entreats God for the right knowledge of his frailty, so that he might set his hope only upon him, or even with an entire abandonment of the Old Testament territory, that he, despising the temporal with its joys and sorrows, might seek after what is eternal : " Cause me, 0 Lord, to consider my end, and what the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am." Besides, he, who is plunged in deep distress, has less need of nothing, than the knowledge of human frailty, and he requires no special divine instruction in order to obtain it. The Psalm- ist declares it in the next verse, of his own hand, in as strong lan- guage as it is almost possible to do. If we only read the book of Job, we shall everywhere find a superfluity of this knowledge. In no prayer, as uttered in the Psalms by the pious in affliction, can a similar petition be pointed out. Finally, this exposition cannot stand with the words. It arbitrarily substitutes : make me consider, for; teach me, and renders 7in, which means only ceasing, hj frail. — A mournful lamentation upon the oppressive- ness of his extraordinary sufi'erings, follows now upon the short- ness and vanity of human existence generally, which, perfectly grounded in the position occupied by the Old Testament saints, would, with the pious, as soon as they moved out of the region of quiet resignation, into that of reckoning and contending with God, be repressed and held down by faith, from the dominion of which the Psalmist here for a moment emancipates himself, in order that he might afterwards return the more unreservedly to it. This faith was, under the Old Testament, a blind one in the good sense. Were the end of this poor life the end of the way of God with his own, to whom he had given so many as- surances of his tender love, then its very shortness could not be
PSALM XXXIX, VER. 5, C. 59
justified, and especially when viewed in connection with the se- vere afflictions by which this life is embittered. It is the strong- est testimony to the vitahty and depth of faith under the Old Testament, that it did not go to wreck on this stumbling stone. Whoever is at pains to disfigure or conceal the true position of matters in this respect, he does not thereby increase the edifying power of the Old Testament, but diminishes it.
Ver. 5. "Behold as an handhreadth thou gavest my days, and my life is as non-existence before thee, only for utter vanity was every man ordained^ Selah." The first member literally: Behold spans hast thou given my days, thou hast made them for spans, my life only a span long. niHSb is, precisely like *'^'>, governed in the accusative by the verb, and is not to be taken in an adverbial signification. pj< never signifies nothing^ always rather not-being.
wTl prop, continuance, then life ; my life, which has its name from continuance, as, lucus a non lucendo, is like non-existence. Comp. on Psalm xvii. 14. The expression : before thee, is not to be explained by an unseasonable comparison of Psalm xc. 4 : a thousand years are as one day before thee, as if the meaning were : in comparison of thee ; but it brings out what was neces- sary in the connection, that the appointment proceeded from God, q. d. under thy direction and by thy disposal. To the ex- pression in the first member : thou gavest, and in the second : before thee, corresponds y^^, constitutus est, in the third. This is necessary to the sense. For here the reference is not to the mere being, but to the being made (by God.) It is not suitable to render, " every man who stands firm," i. e. " the firmly established and prosperous," since here and also in ver. 9 the discourse is manifestly of the condition of man in general. The Psalmist would precisely say, that all men without exception are only an all of vanity. The Selah, which here and also in ver. 11 occurs after a representation of the nothingness of the earthly life, is intended to afford time for our brooding over this deep mournful thought, perhaps also in some sense for God, that he might lay to heart this doleful lamentation.
Ver. 6. " Only as an image tvalks man, only in vain are they disquieted, he gathers and knows not who will enjoy it." dS^I prop, in an image, for, as an image, comp. Ew. Small Gr. § 521. The image comes into view only in so far as it has no reality, no power, no life in itself, but possesses only a shadow of these. Elsewhere we find in a similar connection shadow, for ex. Ps
60 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
cxliv. 4, " Man is like to vanity, his days are as a shadow, that passeth away." H/bn, to make a tumult, marks the restless striving and exertions of men. The suff, in QSDK refers to the collected whole.
The tone of the Psalmist now suddenly takes a different air ; all at once a new David steps forth ; and it becomes apparent, that the maxim, " A quarrel between lovers revives love," is true also in regard to the higher love.
Ver. 7. And noiv, ivhereupon do I wait ^ Lord ? I hope in thee. The now, as in Ps. ii. 10, draws the consequence from what pre- cedes. It is commonly expounded : Since every thing earthly is fugitive and transitory. But we must rather expound : Since thou showest thyself so hard. For it was God's hardness upon which the Psalmist had complained in ver. 4 — 6, and the tran- sitoriness of life he had thought of only in so far as it furnished an evidence of this liardness. The words : whereupon do I wait, Lord ? rest on the supposition, that man cannot exist without an object of hope. The answer : My hope stands on thee, comes quite unexpectedly after what had preceded. That the Psalmist still throws himself into the arms of God, of whose hardness he had so complained, is a wonder that mocks every natural explanation.
Ver. 8. From all 7ny sins deliver me, let me not he a mockery to the fool. The Psalmist would be delivered from his sins, if God removed the consequences and punishments, the assaults of the wicked. The Psalmist would be the object of the fool's scorn, if God should allow the former to bring him to the ground. These words, as also the following, " Since the wicked is still before me," in ver. 1, shew clearly, that the external suf- fering of the Psalmist, his " stroke" in ver. 10, consisted not, as some imagine, in sickness of which no trace is to be found in the Psalm, but rather in the hostile oppression of ungodly men,
Ver. 9. I am dumb, I open not the mouth, for thou hast done it. J. H. Michaelis remarks excellently, that the discourse is here of a composed and evangelical silence, as above of a legal and constrained one. As the Psalmist continues still to speak in what follows, the being dumb can only mean his being so in a determinate respect, that indicated more precisely in ver. 1 and 3, according to which, it points not to speaking against the enemies, but to speaking against God. Instead of this : thou hast done it, q. d. thou my God, who tenderly lovest thine own.
PSALM XXXIX. VER. 10 — 12. 61
hast laid upon me this suffering, which therefore must be de- signed, not for destruction, but only for salvation. Luther and others falsely : thou wilt order it well. Comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 10.
Ver. 10. Remove from me thy stroke^ through the blow of thy hand I am consumed. Upon yjj, comp. on Ps. xxxviii. 11. Ver. 11. When thou chastisest one ivith rebukes for iniquity, thou dost consume, as by a moth, what he loves ; only vanity are all men. Selah. What the Psalmist had said in the second half of the preceding verse, of himself, gives rise here to a mournful consideration of the lot of man in general, a sad ex- emplification of which was to be seen in himself. Through the woeful representation of this miserable state, he hopes to move God to compassion, under whose hand he humbles himself, mn^in properly marks only correction with words, and is used of punishments only in so far as they are a sermo realis, a mat- ter-of-fact reproof, and correction. D^m. prop, thou makest to melt, hiph. from HD/b- As the moth, in Scripture, is always the image of what annihilates, never of what decays, we must expound, " as the moth," not, " as if it were a moth," but only, " as the moth causes to perish," or brings to nothing. niDH is everywhere a proper part. pass, the desired, loved, q. d. all wherein he has his joy and satisfaction; and we are not to ren- der it, his beauty, or his glory. John Arnd: " Just as moths eat a woollen cloth, nay consume the most beautiful garment, so that it is no more fit for use, though formerly it was ever so fine ; in like manner is it now with man's beautiful form, (taking the TlDH too narrowly.) When the hand of the almighty presses one, and God abandons him for a little, he becomes in a few days so changed to the worse by anguish of soul and sad- ness, that no one can know him, as may be seen by the example of Job, since his friends, that came to visit him in his affliction, knew him not, and began to weep, and could not for seven days speak to him, for they saw that his distress was great."
Ver. 12. Hear my prayer, Lord, and yive ear to my cry ; at my tears be not silent ^ for lam a stranger ivith thee, a pil- grim as all my fathers. First, the prayer, then the grounding of it. On the expression: at my tears be not silent, John Arnd : " This is the effect of tears, when one sees or hears any one weeping sadly, one cannot well remain silent, as the Lord Jesus said to the woman at Nain : weep not, and to Mary Magdalene; woman, why weepest thou ? This nature teaches us. Xow if
62 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
a man can scarcely be silent at a person's tears, how much less the Lord God ! Therefore it is said in the Ivi, Psalm, that God numbers the tears of believers, and in the xxvth of Isaiah, that he will wipe away all tears from our eyes." The prayer is grounded by pointing to the impotence and helplessness of the Psalmist, who, not less than all his fathers, has nothing except what the Lord administers to him, is wholly dependant upon his compassion, and must perish if this is refused him. A stranger and pilgrim, (prop, a lodger, tenant, one that dwells upon the property of another,) has nothing of his own, he is quite de- pendant upon the goodness of those with whom he lives, is everywhere on the footing of a beggar. As the fathers of the people were strangers and pilgrims with the Canaanites, (comp. Gen. xxiii. 4, where Abraham says to the Hithites: " a stranger and pilgrim am I with you, give me a possession of a burying- place,") so after the reception of the land all Israelites were strangers and pilgrims with the Lord ; comp. Lev. xxv. 23. •' For the land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." They had nothing in andfor themselves, but only in their I^ord of the manor and patron. In remarkable agreement with thispassage, David says in IChron. xxix. 15. " for we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as all our fathers ; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no hope." This agreement supplies an important proof of David's being the author of this Psalm, and of the genuine- ness of the superscriptions generally. This proof cannot be disposed of by the supposition, that the declaration in Chroni- cles may have been derived from our Psalm. For it bears there throughout the character of independence. While here the al- lusion to the Israelitish nothingness serves as a groundwork to the prayer for divine help, there it is set against the imagina- tion, that one can give any thing to God, in order to deserve anything at his hands. The words: as all my fathers, represent the relation of the Psalmist, as not an individual, but a general, national one, (1 Kings xix. 4,) and hence unalterable.
Ver. 13. Leave off from me, that I may -he revived, before I go aivay, and he no more. The first member, literally; look away from me, that I may brighten up, q. d. turn away from rae thy angry look, so that my sorrowful one may be made cheerful. There is no reason for taking the Hiphil of H^^ (the form de- rived here from y^^,) and of '^'2, here intransitively. We
PSALM XL. 63
are rather to supply to the former : thy countenance, and to the latter: my countenance. All the words of this closing verse occur in different places in the book of Job, clearly proving that the author of that book was acquainted with this Psalm. Comp. vii. 19, " How long wilt thou not look away from me," xiv. 6, " Look away from him," x. 20, " That I may brighten up," ver. 21, " Before I go away," vii. 8 and 21, " And am no more."
PSALM XL.
The Psalmist announces, that the Lord had granted to him a glorious deliverance, and thereby much confirmation to his faith, ver. 1 — 3, and pronounces blessed, primarily on the ground of this experience, that man, who has placed his confidence upon the Lord, while for the farther grounding of this encomium of bliss, as connected with his personal experience, he rises aloft to the entire circle of the glorious manifestations of God in the history of his people, ver. 4, 5. This is what God has done to the Psalmist. How must he shew his gratitude for such kind- ness? This question is answered in ver. 6 — 10. The first pre- sentation of thanks in ver. 6 — 8, is by deed. Here God has in all external gifts, as such, no pleasure, he desires only one thing, obedience, and to this he has made the heart of the Psalmist willing. Hence he comes forth ready to do the will of his Lord, which has been made known to him out of the written law of God, which with desire he fulfils, because the law does not merely stand before him as an outward letter, but is written in his heart. The second presentation of thanks in ver. 9, 10, is by word : the Psalmist is unwearied in proclaiming what the Lord has done for him. — But still, though the sufferer has been fortunately delivered from one great distress, he is al- ways encompassed by great sufferings and dangers. He there- fore turns himself in the second part, ver. 11 — 17, with importu- nate supplication to the Lord, that he, who, from the tenor of the first part, had evidently not lavished his gifts on an ungrateful person, would rescue him from the multiplied troubles that had come upon him in consequence of his sins, and would put his enemies to shame, expressing toward the close his con- fident hope of the fulfilment of his prayer.
An artificial, formal arrangement, unquestionably presents it- self to us in this Psalm. The first part, occupying itself with
64 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the divine aid already received, is made good in the number ten ; the second, taking the new aid into consideration, in seven. The two divisions of the first part, the former representing what God has done, the other what the Psalmist will do, have each five verses, thereby appearing as two connected halves. Each of these divisions again falls into a subdivision of three, and one of two verses. In the second part, which takes into account the new divine help, we find likewise, in accordance with the four subdivisions of the first part, four such, three of two verses, and a conclusion of one. In the position of the name of God also, there is evidently design. It is found ten times in the Psalm, (nine times Jehovah, and once Adonai) five in each of the two main divisions, which are even by this discovered to be two con- nected halves, as the two subdivisions of the first part by the number five of the verses.
The situation is that of one who, on one side, set free from a heavy afl^iction, is still oppressed on the other. The question, whether for this an individual occasion afforded the ground, is to be answered in the negative. Especially in the second part the not-individual character of the Psalm comes clearly out. The prayers have the standing characteristic which we perceive in the not- individual Psalms. That the first part has more of an individual cast is to be explained from the circumstance, that it is taken up with the main thought of the Psalmist, the necessity of an active expression of thankfulness, as a foundation for ac- ceptable prayer. After he has brought out this main thought in striking colours, he surrenders himself to the customary path, treading very close especially on Ps. xxxv. By so doing he taught the lesson, that thankfulness is always the groundwork of prayer, and also brought the first part of the same Psalm into remembrance, in which that thought was not expressly uttered. But even the first part bears, with all its peculiarities, undeniable marks in another respect of a not-individual character. In the first half, the distress of the Psalmist, from which he was de- livered by God, is obviously delineated in so general a manner, that the description suits every great distress. In the second half, the hortatory tendency is but thinly veiled, and behind the words: I come, etc., the meaning: thou must come, etc., may be descried. — This manifest not-individual character of the Psalm already suffices to disprove the exposition, otherwise ex- tremely constrained and arbitrary, which Hofmann gives of ver.
PSALM XL. 65
6 — 8 in his prophecy and its fulfilment. According to it, these verses contain a meaning, which exclusively applies to David.
The direct Messianic exposition, which was very wide-spread in former times, has but a weak foundation in the quotation of ver. 6 — 8 in ITeb. x. : and affirmations such as that put forth by the author himself at the beginning of his career: " there can be no doubt, that he, who acknowledges the divine authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews, must decide for the Messianic ex- position," lose all weight when a deeper insight has been ob- tained into the way and manner in which the New Testament, and especially the Epistle to the Hebrews, handles the decla- rations of the Old Testament. In the sacrifices, particularly the sin-offerings, a double element was contained, — what the man performed in presenting them, and what God imparted through them. Now, in this Fsalm, the subjective side alone is brought into view, but what is said in reference to them, that they were not substitutionary, but oxA^ representative, that under their image the man himself, his personal obedience was de- sired by God, this holds also of the objective. How could they properly be efficacious here of themselves alone, and there only indicative ? As through the sacrifices the personal guiltiness of men was only imaged, not contained, so was also the substitu- tion through them only represented (the necessity of it indicat- ed, conscience kept alive about it) not provided. So that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews could not produce for his assertion : " it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin," a more apposite passage from the Old Testament than ver. 6 — 8 of this Psalm, which he puts into the mouth of Christ at his entrance into the world, and thus makes him frighten those, who placed a foolish confidence upon the slievj-sacrifice.
The second part of the Psalm returns again with several alter- ations, as Ps. Isx. Also here, as with Ps. liii. in relation to Ps. xiv., with 2 Sam. xxii. in relation to Ps. xviii., everything bears the mark of intention, nothing of accident. The superscription ^"•^in? (for remembrance,) by which Ps. Ixx. is designated as a suplica- tory prayer, (comp. Ps. xxxviii. supersc.,) points to the design of the undertaking. In Ps. xl. two elements were combined to- gether, thanks and prayer, which occur also thus combined in Ps. ix., (comp. on the design of such connection, vol.i. p. 138.) For the good of those who had not already received any mani-
VOL. n. F
66 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
fest tokens of divine grace, and for whom there was needed only a short form of prayer, the author gave independent exist- ence to the second part. But he would therehy have us to understand, that we have in that not an original whole, but only a selected part of a whole. This he accomplishes by means of the number ^ye, the sign of incompleteness — the half. In order to obtain this number, the two first of the seven verses, which compose the second part, are cut away, the more striking, as these stand in immediate connection with the first part. So also he makes the names of God complete themselves in the number five, and changes, for the sake of doing so, the Tihi^y " ^'2/ Crod," in Ps. xl. 17, which could not be reckoned, (because everywhere those names of God only, which are not burdened with suflSxes, are taken into account,) into Jehovah. The same purpose also is served by tlie omission of H^l, " ^et it please thee," which gives to the beginning an abrupt character, and to the whole the nature of a fragment. Besides, there are other changes. Various words, not absolutely indispensable to the sense, are dropt, the author being disposed thereby to shew that he would abbreviate in the little, as he had done also in the great. The change here could not have occurred by accident, were it only because the relation between two texts is never a reverse one. While in Ps. xl. only Jehovah occurs, Ps. Ixx. inter- changes Jehovah with Elohim, insomuch that in the first and last verses the rise is to Jehovah from Elohim ; Elohim thus standing at the beginning, and Jehovah at the end, while in verse 4, Elohim is used, because Jehovah has just preceded. This con- nection of Jehovah and Elohim, intimating what was so consola- tory for the tempted, that the God of Israel is at the same time the Godhead, is to be met with also in the speeches of David in the historical books, (comp. my Beitr. Th. II. p. 312,) and again in Ps. Ixix. at the close of ver. 32, ss., to which, as we shall see by and bye, Ps. Ixx. stands in a very close relation. Instead of )f2^\ they are confounded, in Ps. xl., Ps. Ixx. has )y\l^\ they shall turn back, give way, an agreeable variation which the un- doubtedly original IDSJ^^ must not supplant. Instead of ''^ ^^T^'' ver. 5 has ''^ ntJ^in» make haste to me, obviously that the close might point back to the beginning, so that here also we cannot think of an accident.
Scarcely even the semblance of an argument has been brought against David's being the author of both Psalms. The assertion
PSALM XL. VER. 1,2. 67
of Hltzig, that " whoever the author of Ps. xl. might be, he is identical with that of Ts. Ixix.," we admit, but deny that the latter Psalm contains any thing, which is afe variance with its Davidic authorship, and find in this very internal agreement of the two Psalms, which the superscriptions attribute to the same author, an instance corroborative of the authority of the super- scriptions. What Ilitzig alleges against David, from ver. 7, that the author must have lived in a time, when people wrote with reeds and ink on parchment, which he thinks could not be be- fore Jeremiah's time, has been already set aside by the proof brought forward in my Beitr. Th. ii. p. 489, etc., showing that the use of skins for writing was the original mode, and that the Pentateuch was from the first written on polished skins of beasts.
Ver. 1. / waited for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry. The inf. Hip being placed first, brings the action strongly out : I waited. This strong emphasis on the wait- ing has the force of an admonition ; it suggests to the sufferer that everything depends on waiting. Berleb. Bible : " If we only wait in patience upon God, he will presently mani- fest himself" As the HtDi unquestionably occurs often in the sense of inclining one's self, there is no reason for supposing an ellipsis: he inclined his ear. Ver. 2. And drew me out of the roaring deep and out of the mud, and set my feet upon a rock, established my goings. 1^'^^ has always the meaning of noise, roaring, even in Jer. xlvi. 17, as is shown by comp. Amos ii. 2, and Jer. xxv. 31, li. 55; and it is hence arbitrary to trans- late with some: pit of destruction, the more so as in Ps. Ixv. 7, Isa. xvii. 12, the word is used of the noise of great waters. It is urged against the application of this meaning here, that the water in a pit does not rage and make a noise. But that 11^, which even occurs of Sheol, Ps. xxviii. 1, is here a figurative designation for a water-pit, and that we are not to think of a cistern, is clear even from HX^J^, also from the comparison of Ps. Ixix. 2, " I came into deep waters, and the floods overflowed me," and especially ver. 15, " Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up;" further, from a com- parison of the parallel passages, such as Ps. xviii. 4, 16; xxxii. 6 ; cxliv. 7 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 5 ; finally, from the circumstance, that the rock forms no suitable opposition to a cistern, while it does so to a deep of raging waters. Hence, by the mud also we must understand, not a muddy cistern, but the mud of a deep of waters.
68 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
in agreement with Ps. Ixix. 2, " I sink in deep mire, and cannot stand." On |Vn D'*tD comp. the lutulentum ccenura of Plautus, The |V which occurs only here and in Ps. Ixix., appears to be the stronger : out of slimy mud. The steps are made firm, when they receive a sure foundation ; comp. the : I cannot stand, in Ps. Ixix. 2. — Ver. 3. And hast given in my mouth a new song, praise for our God ; vnany will see it and he afraid, and trust in the Lord. The new song, (comp. on Ps. xxxiii. 3), is not pre- cisely this Psalm, which is rather to be regarded as only a par- ticular form of it. The rich new theme admits of many varia- tions; the new song may divide itself into a multitude of par- ticular songs. The expression : our God, not my God, prepares the way for the following : many shall see it, etc. The seeing does not refer to the new song, but to the object of that, the deliverance. In point of meaning, " he has given me a new song," is q.d. " he has manifested towards me new acts of kindness." The /ear is, as its connection with the trusting al- ready shows, reverential fear : God's glorious manifestation will fill them with a holy dread of his majesty, and at the same time with confidence in him, whose help also they may be looking for. The paronomasia between IJ^'T' and IJ'^T'^ points to the intimate connection between seeing and fearing, and consequently to the greatness of the salvation experienced by the Psalmist.
Ver. 4. Blessed is the man, ivho sets his hope on the Lord, and turns not himself to the proud, and such as bend aside to lies. The Psalmist himself speaks here, not the " many" of the pre- ceding verse. He draws from his experience, as exhibited in the preceding verse, the conclusion, that nothing is better and safer, than to place all his hope in the Lord. riDl/D, object of trust. To turn one's self to any one, is as much as, to take up with his side, to go over to his party, to espouse his principles ; comp. in Job xxxvi. 21, " turn not thyself to iniquity," and in Ez. xxix. 16, ''in^ nJS- — The proud — the adj. ^pll only here, come here into consideration, either as those who place their .confidence upon their own strength, or as those who, in the proud imaginations of their hearts, put in the place of the eternal God the workmanship of their own thoughts and hands, and on that rest their confidence. D1^» occurring only here, is equivalent to HDJJ^j to bend aside, deviate. They fall away from the right object of confidence to the false. Lies marks here, either everything beside the living God upon which man
PSALM XL. VER. 4, 5. C9
places his confidence, which belies him that rests upon it, feeds him with false hopes, his own and other men's power, (comp. Ps. Ixii. 9, men of low degree are vanity, men of high degree a lie,") also idols, or it must be understood specially only of the latter, comp. Jer. xvi. 19. According to the exposition given, there are placed in opposition to those, who, in the time of trouble trust in the Lord, those who, misled by high-mindedness, put their trust upon their own strength, and upon idols, or only upon the latter. According to some, the expression : " to turn one's self" is the same as: to seek help; "the proud": those, from whom help is sought, and who must be named lying, because they cannot afford the aid which they promise. But the proud manifestly stand in opposition to those, who humbly trust in the Lord; ^O ""DSJ^ cannot signify, faithless of the lie, but only the turning aside of the, = to the, lie : turning aside from God, the legitimate object of confidence, who alone does not disappoint the trust placed in him, to a lie.
Ver. 5. 3Iany makest thou, O Lord my God, thy wonders, and thy thoughts towards us : nothing is to be compared to thee. I will declare and speak of them ; they are not to be numbered. The ascription of blessedness to the man, who places his confi- dence on the Lord, which the Psalmist derived, in the first in- stance, from his own experience, he here grounds farther by ris- ing from the particular to the general, to the larger manifesta- tions of God throughout the entire history of Israel. A pre- cisely similar transition from the particular to the general is to be found in the thanksgiving of David in 2 tiam. vii., wliich pre- sents so strong a resemblance generally to the first part of this Psalm : " For there is none like thee, neither is there any God besides thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears," etc. ver. 22 — 24. The words : and thy thoughts towards us. are in the nom. absol., and it is in reference to his thoughts toward Israel that God is designated as incomparable. The H^y is inf., hterally : there is not to be compared with thee. Many expositors, after Luther : Great are thy w^onders, and thy thoughts toward us. But then we have a trailing period ; the parallelism is destroyed; the "thoughts" should be characterised more minutely than as being salutary : the last words refer im- mediately to the "wonders" and "thoughts," which can therefore not be separated from them by a parenthesis.
70 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The Psalmist declares, in the second half of the first part how he will show his gratitude for the goodness manifested toward him.
Ver. 6. Sacrifices and meat-offerings please thee not, ears hast thou dug through for me, burnt-offeriags and sin-offerings thou desirest not. At the beginning and at the end, the Psalmist rejects a false way of presenting thanks, and in the middle he puts the right one, the one acceptable to God. In what respect it is said here, that God did not wish sacrifices, since he had ex- pressly commanded them, appears from the contrast. Obedi- ence, the willing performance of the divine command, is set over against presentation of offerings. Offerings, therefore, are rejected in so far as they form a compensation for that, in so far as they would in a manner satisfy, put off God. It is not such offerings that are demanded in the law. They are rather the caricature, which the natural man makes of them, always seek- ing to get rid of the most difficult of all sacrifices. Comp. on Ps. L. Those have quite erred from the right view, who have supposed, that offerings are here not absolutely rejected, but only placed in subordination to obedience. Offerings are either of no worth, or quite equivalent to obedience. Not a mere de- preciation, but rather an unconditional rejection of offerings is also to be found in 1 Sam. xv. 22, to which the expositors in question refer : " behold to obey is better than sacrifices, (which indeed are nothing worth,) and to hearken than the fat of lambs." With perfect justice does the Berleb. Bible add besides : " And so also, in regard to words and prayers, and all outward services, without the obedience of faith." Offerings come into consideration only as a species in the genus, comp. Isa. i. where, along with this, many other kinds are expressly named. As to the particulars, the sacrifice nil3T» here as often = U^u7^ fiyi, peace-offerings, united into a pair with the un- bloody offering, nni^, the symbolical representation of good works, (comp. Bcitr. P. III. p. 649, 650,) because both belong to those, who are already justified and pardoned; sin-offerings' and burnt-offerings are placed together because they have this in com- mon, that the offerer partook of no part of them. — We turn now to the middle member. Many commentators explain : cars hast thou dug to me, supporting themselves by this, that D'*J?^< has not the article, and that rTlD signifies to dig, and not to dig through. But the want of the article in poetry is very common,
PSALM XL. VER. 6. 71
comp. for ex. in jlX itself, Lsa. 1. 5, and so small a modification of the meaning may very readily obtain, especially in the poetic style. We might however, say: thou hast dug to me the ears, for dug through. But it is to be urged against this, that the supposi- tion that D''iTX marks here precisely spiritual ears, in opposition to bodily ones, runs counter to all analogy, and that in the re- lated modes of expression ]T^^ nn3> ]TX hSi the discourse is always of the ear. Now we can understand the expression : thou hast dug through the ears to me, in a twofold manner. Some take it thus: thou makest me to understand, to discern, thou givest me an internal revelation on the point, that sacrifices are not well pleasing in thy sight. But, according to others, the Psalmist must, in these words, place the obedience, to which lie was internally drawn by God, in contrast to sacrifices, q. d. thou hast made me hearing, obedient. Against the first exposi- tion, and for the second, the following reasons are decisive : 1. The subsequent context requires, that in this verse it should be contained, not merely what God does not desire, but also what he does desire. 2. The doctrine that sacrifices, as opus opera- tum, are of no value, cannot be indicated as the object of a special revelation. It is, as Stier justly remarks, " a truth, from the first openly declared to Israel, although certainly not received by many." No Israelite of real piety was in doubt upon this subject. 3. Precisely the same contrast between obe- dience and sacrifices exists in the parallel, probably fundamental passage, 1 Sam. xv. 22: "And Samuelsaid, Hath the Lord delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as that one should hearken to the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to hearken is better than sacrifice, and to attend than the fat of lambs." The exposition of obe- dience is likewise confirmed by the parallel passage, Jer. vii.22, 33 : " For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, a word of burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but this word did I command them, obey my voice, ... and walk ye in all the ways which I have commanded you," compare ver. 24: "' but they hearken- ed not, nor inclined their ear." See also a similar contrast in Hosea vi. 6, Ps. li. ]6, 17.— The LXX. have rendered the words by ffiS.aa & xan^orieu imoi, but a body hast thou prepared for me ; and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has adopted them, because the thought is not altered by this translation. The contrast there also is the presentation of thanks through the
72 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
whole life and conduct, in opposition to single and merely external offerings : thou hast given me a body, so that I will- ingly serve thee in the execution of thy will. Compare the words : Lo, I come, in ver. 7.
Ver. 7. Then I said ; Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is prescribed to me. Then, under tliese circumstances, since thou dost not desire offerings, but obedience, and hast made me internally willing to perform what is desired, I come, in order to do what is well pleasing to thee. The second member in- dicates, that the Psalmist, in his readiness to do the will of God, has the means furnished him, through which he might know this will with certainty, and in its whole compass, through which he is taken out of the region of his own imaginings in respect to it ; in the written law of God, it is told him, what is good, and what his God desires of him, so that he has no need to speculate and make curious inquiries, but can proceed straight to action. As God has given him the inclination to obedience, so has he also given him a law for that. The volume or roll- book, is the Pentateuch, which from the first was written on parchment. The ground which some have found against the reference to the Pent., from the want of the article, is of no force, since the article is more rare in poetry, which is fond of brief and ornate expressions, than in prose, and might the more readily be dispensed with here, since, in the time of David, when no other sacred book existed, every one would at once under- stand what was meant by the roll-book. ^TO with 7j^ prop, to write over any one, therefore to write, that the thing written lies upon him, occurs in 2 Kings xxii. 13 in a quite similar con- nection in the sense of prescribing : " Because our fathers have not hearkened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written upon us," )y^)^ ^inDD h^^ Parall. pass, are Josh. i. 7, " That thou mayest observe to do according to all this law, which Moses, my servant, commanded thee,"" and 1 Kings ii. 3, where the dying David says to Solomon, " That thou walk in his ways and keep his commandments .... as it is written in the law of Moses." These parallel pasages, as also the connection, decide against the exposition of the Messianic interpreters : it is written of me. The exposition of De Wette : I come with the book-roll written to me in the heart, destroys the parallelism, leaves the parallel passage out of considera- tion, and is contrary to all analogy, since it is often said of the
PSALM XL. VEI{. 8 — 10. 73
Jaw itself, that it is written in the heart or interior, but not of the law-book, that it is written upon men. The exposition of Gesenius: " Lo, I come with the book's roll, which has been prescribed to me," likewise destroys the parallelism, and leaves the parallel passages unnoticed; then it refers what is written to the book, instead of making it refer, as it should, according to this view, to the roll ; finally, it cannot be said of the book, that it has been prescribed, at least no parallel passage is anywhere to be found.
Ver. 8. To do thy will, my God, I delight, and thy law is in my inner part. prop, within my bowels. But these denote the inner part, in opposition to the exterior. To be convinced how groundless the opinion of Hoffmann is, that 7 in HI^J?^ could not be dependent on Tl^Sn, which would have had '2 with it, we have only to cast a glance at Ps. cxliii. 10, and the places cited by Gesenius, in his Thes. p. 507. The law in the in- wards of the Psalmist forms the contrast to that which had been externally prescribed to him. Where matters are as they should be, there the law is not merely prescribed, but also in- scribed. The Messianic expositors have maintained, that the substance of the verse is not applicable to David, who presently complains, that his sins are more numerous than the hairs of his head : and Jeremiah, in chap. xxxi. 33, disclaims the writing of the law in the heart as belonging to the old covenant, and speaks of it as peculiar to the new. Tholuck still thinks, that the Spirit of God had, in a hallowed hour, put words into the Psalmist's mouth, which, in the full sense, could be used by no one but the Son of God, But to have the law of God in the heart, and to sin, is no contrast, else would the promise in Jere- miah, even under the new covenant, not have been fulfilled. That the distinction between the old and the new covenants, in this respect, was only a relative one, has been shown in my Chris- tology, P. III. p. 577, ss. But we cannot rob the old covenant of the writing of the law in the heart, without making its mem- bers destitute of all true and living piety ; and consequently be- ing put to the blush by such persons as David and many others. Already in Deut. vi. 6, it is said : " And these words, which I command thee thisTay, shall be iqjon thy heart," (not merely upon the stones, Deut. xxvii. 3, and upon the book-roll.) David describes, in Ps. xxxvii. 31, the righteous as one, in whose heart the law of his God is. Solomon directs in Prov. iii. 3, vii. 3 :
74 TflE BOOK OF PSALMS.
" Write them (the commandments) upon the (able of thy heart." In Isa. li. 7, God addresses the people, in whose heart is his law.
With the giving of thanks by deeds must also be coupled the doing of it by words. Ver. 9. / preach righteousness in the great congregation ; lo, I ivill not close my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. Ver. 10. Thy righteousness I conceal not in my heart, of thy faithfulness and thy salvation I speak, I conceal not thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. It may seem, on a superficial consideration, as if David used here too many words. But they will judge quite otherwise, who understand the natural coldness of the human heart, its luke- warmness in the praise of God, its forgetfulness and unthank- fulness, and the inclination of the lazy mouth to silence. For such every word here will be as a sharp arrow in the heart. pn^, in ver. 9, is to be distinguished from Hp"!^ i" ver. 10, thus, that the first marks the merely being righteous, showing one's self righteous, as that was here brought in, while the lat- ter marks righteousness as a fixed property, compare Ew. Large Gr. p. 313. The: 0 Lord, thou knowest, points to the fact, how easily one can deceive himself and others, by the imagina- tion and the appearance as to his readiness for the praise of God. Let each consider, whether he can, with a good con- science, appeal in this respect to the testimony of God.
The second part begins now, in which the building of the prayer raises itself upon the foundation laid in the first part. Ver. 11. Do thou, O Lord, ivithhold not from me thy tender mercies, let thy loving -kindness and thy truth continually pre- serve me. Ver. 12. For innumerable evils compass me about, my transgressions have taken hold upon me, so that I cannot see, they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart lias fail- ed me. In the relation of the " withhold not," to the, " I will not withhold," in ver. 9, there is expressed the doctrine, that the measure of the further salvation proceeds according to the measure of thankfulness for the earlier. This internal reference of the second part to the first, serves also for a proof against those who think that the second part was appended by another hand. The second part is properly that, to which the other points. The didactic aim of the whole is to shew, how we may pray acceptably in the time of distress. This can only be done by the prayer having thankfulness for its foundation, first mani-
rSALM XL. VER. 11, 12. 75
festing itself in tlie walk, and then in acknowledgment. As the expression, " withhold not," refers to " I will not withhold," so the words: " let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continu- ally preserve me," point back to: " I will not conceal thy lov- ing-kindness and thy truth," with which the Psalmist had closed his promise of thanksgiving. That we will not conceal God's loving-kindness and truth, is the sure means, but also the indis- pensable condition of its further manifestation in our experience. pi^J^ with 7J^ is stronger than '•J133X in Ps. xviii. 4, as has al- ready been remarked by Calvin, " he says, that he is not only surrounded on all sides, but that a mass of evils lay upon his head." Hlil^ signifies here, as always, not punishments, but transgressions, which, however, overtake the sinner in their consequences, so that in substance : my transgressions, etc., is as much as: the punishments for my transgressions; comp. Deut. xxviii. 15, " all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee," 1 Sam. xxviii. 10. That the Psalmist speaks here of his numerous offences, and treats of his suffering as the righteous punishment of these, forms an irrefragable proof against the di- rect Messianic exposition. This cannot derive support from Isa. liii. For here there is no word to indicate, that the offences, which the sufferer describes as his, were only those of others laid to his charge. And of such we can the less think, on ac- count of the many almost literally agreeing parallel passages in the Psalms, where personal sins alone can be thought of, and especially on account of the repetition in Ps. Ixx. The expres- sion : I cannot see, many expound: I cannot survey them. But against this there is the want of the suffix, and the circumstance that to see cannot mean to look over, or survey. The argument, which is derived from the assumed parallel: they are more than the hairs of my head, is nothing ; for this corresponds to the expression: without number; as: I cannot see, to: my lieart has failed me. The right view was already given by Luther in his gloss: " that my sight gives way under great sorrow." The expression elsewhere always marks the failure of the eyesight, comp. 1 Sam. iii. 2, '•' his eyes began to be dim, and he could not see," iv. 15; 1 Kings xiv. 4. Such a darkening of the visage takes place under deep pain, which exhausts all the powers comp. Job xvi. 16, " lighten mine eyes," Ps. xxxviii. 10, " the light of mine eyesis gonefromme." The heart is here not exactly the feeling, spirit, but is rather considered as the seat of the'
76 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
powers of life. " My strength faileth me," in Ps. xxxviii, 10. is parallel.
Ver. 13. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me, Lord hasten to me for help. Ver. 14. Let them be ashamed and abashed to- gether, who seek after my soul to destroy it ; let them recoil back- wards and be put to shame, who have pleasure in my misfortune. Ver. 15. IM them be confounded for their shame, ivho say to me : there, there. Ver. 16. Let all those rejoice and be glad in thee, tvho seek thee ; let them say continually. Great is the Lord, who love thy salvation. As ver. 13 and 14, so also these two form a pair. The petitions stand in the two pairs of verses in reverse order ; the first: deliver me, then : put to shame my enemies ; here first : put to shame my enemies, then : give to me and to all those, who in heart sigh after thee and thy favour, occasion of joy through thy salvation. These two pairs form the kernel of the second part. They are shut in by the introduction in. ver. 11 and 12, and the conclusion in ver. 17. Upon ^pj^ 7^, on account of, comp. the lex. and on the words : who say to me, there, there, Ps. xxii. 7 ; xxxv. 21, 25. On ver. 16, see Ps. XXXV. 27.
Ver. 17. And I am poor and needy, the Lord will care for me, my help and my deliverer art thou : my God tarry not. John Arnd : " Thou art my help in heaven, because I have no helper and deliverer on earth. Therefore delay not. I know, thou wilt choose the right time, and not neglect me. For this our faith certainly concludes: God cares for thee, hence he will choose the right time, and will not unduly delay."
PSALM XLI.
He, who shows tender compassion to the unfortunate, wins for himself thereby the divine blessing, deliverance, when mis- fortune overtakes him, preservation from the rage of his enemies, restoration when he has been brought by grief to the bed of sickness, ver. 1 — 3. The Psalmist, who always has a heart full of compassion, finds himself in a position, which occasions and justifies him in laying claim to the reward appointed to the love of compassion. He finds himself in misfortune, and malicious enemies surround him, who anxiously wish for his destruction, and seek with all their powers to accomplish it, ver. 4 — 9. So
rSALM XLI. 77
that he turns himself to the Lord with a prayer for help, and, consoled by the assurance thereof, gives utterance at the close to his joyful expectations concerning it, ver. 10 — 12.
The formal arrangement is the same as in Ps. ii. The whole is completed in the number twelve, and falls into four strophes, each of three verses.
According to the current supposition, the sufferer in the Psalm must have been in violent sickness. But there is no reason for supposing sickness here to be an independent thing, or even the chief trouble of the Psalmist; it rather comes into consideration, as in the Psalms generally, as the attendant merely of the as- saults of the wicked. The expression in ver. 3, "The Lord will strengthen him on the bed of languishing," is preceded, in ver. 2, by " give him not into the will of his enemies." The ene- mies appear in ver. 5—9, not simply as malicious spectators of the suffering, which, independently of them, the Psalmist was enduring, but they take pleasure in their own work, and seek by further machinations to accomplish it : they gather materials for mischievous slanders, ver. 6, meditate evil against the Psalm- ist, ver. 7, rejoice in the knavish trick, from which they confi- dently expected his entire destruction, ver. 8, and lift up the heel against him, ver. 9. In the prayer, ver. 10, and the ex- pression of confidence that it would be heard, ver. 11, mention is only made of the victory over the enemies, which was at once to put an end to the whole suffering of the Psalmist.
The kernel of our Psalm is contained in Ps. xxxv. 13, 14, which is the more deserving of consideration, as the second ])art of the preceding Psalm bears throughout a reference to that Psalm. The fundamental idea is this, that he who is compassion- ate, will receive compassion, that he who has the consciousness of having wept with the weeping, may console himself with the assurance, that his own weeping shall be turned by God into laughing. The Psalm has therefore a very individual aspect, it opens up to the suffering a remote and hidden source of con- solation.
The penmanship of David is testified by the superscription, and he certainly speaks here from his own experience. Assur- edly his tender and loving heart was often impelled to embrace the wretched ; assuredly was his confidence, in the time of his own wretchedness, often awakened thereby in the divine com- passion, and often had this confidence veri^ itself in his
78 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
experience. But the Psalm nowhere contains any indiviual traits, which might justify the supposition, that he had an eye to some particular period of his life; it rather hears, if we look away from tlie form, the cliaracter of a didactic Psalm, and the "I" of thePsalm is not thePsalmist,buttherighteous as suffering. The more readily, therefore, might the Lord appropriate to himself in John xiii. 18, and elsewhere, the ninth verse of this Psalm so expressly and unconditionally — he, in whom the idea of the righteous one became a reality, who could first say, with perfect truth, " Blessed is he that considereth the poor," in whom the two factors of the divine deliverance, viz. his own com- passion guaranteeing divine help, and the rage of enemies jus- tifying the sufferer in laying claim to it, existed in a strength, which they did never before or since, and in whose case espe- cially, the trait contained in ver. 9 was most strikingly realized. The direct and exclusive Messianic exposition, to which many of the older expositors were drawn by these considerations, is refuted alone by ver. 4, where the righteous recognizes in his sufferings a just punishment for his sins.
Ver, 1. Blessed is the man, who acts wisely toivard the poor; in the day of distress the Lord will deliver him. Ver. 2. Tlie Lord will preserve him, and keep him in life ; he shall be blessed in the land, and thou wilt not give him to the ivill of his enemies. Ver. 3, The Lord will assist him on the bed of sickness ; all his couch dost thou change in his sickness. According to the com- mon view, the Psalmist must be regarded as beginning with eulogizing the blessed state of the compassionate, " because he had experienced the precisely opposite treatment, malice and scorn." We, on the contrary, would rather supply to his first words, " as I have done," and refer everything to the Psalmist, who here points out his right to the divine help in the time of distress, shews in ver. 4 — 9, that such a time now existed, and in ver. 10 — 12, first lays claim to the help, and then expresses his confidence in obtaining it. In the current exposition, the three first verses appear as a pure hors d'oeuvre, which might be cut off without prejudice to the main thought, as a moral re- flexion standing irrespective of that, and as such, most unsuit- ably placed at the commencement ; the individual character of the Psalm, which according to our view, presents itself to us in this very commencing verse, is thereby completely destroyed : in the fundamental passage, Ps. xxxv. 13, 14, the Psalmist is him-
PSALM XLI. VER. 1 — 3. 79
self the merciful and compassionate one ; the feeling utterance: thou wilt not give him to the will of his enemies, is then only in its proper place, when the seemingly general declaration refers to the Psalmist. John Arnd remarks on the sentiment in ver. 1 : " A gracious, compassionate, and beneficent heart wishes and wills, that it may go well with all men, as God himself cordially wishes well to us. On this account also, does the Lord so re- compense again all good people with such blessings, that it may also go well with them, for what a man sows, that shall he reap, and what he seeks, that shall he find. Strive and labour after compassion, and so shalt thou find it ; if thou wilt sow the reverse, thou shalt certainly reap the same. Such also is the case with the inner man of the heart, for if in faith thou dost e.xercise goodness and compassion, the heart is united in peace and quietness with God and in God." /^itJTl expositors take for the most part in the sense of attencl- iny to, but the more common meaning, and that which lies near- er the radical one, of acting prudently, wisely, (comp. for ex- ample, Ps. ii. 10 ; 1 Sam. xviii. 14; Jer. xx. 11 ; xxiii. 5), is here more suitable and also recommended by the ^^. Wherein the acting prudently consists, viz, in the manifestations of a tender fel- low-feeling, appears from Ps. xxxv. 13, 14, and from the opposite line of conduct pursued by the enemies of the Psalmist, as described in ver. 5 — 9. 7n signifies properly, thin, lean, slender, and then designates him, who finds himself in a depressed situa- tion, with whom matters go ill and hard. — Instead of ^2J^5^'', the marginal form is *1^^1, the pret. with the cop. One feels of- fended at the want of connection. That 7X cannot stand for ^, is self-evident. But the preceding and following fut. are not, on this account, to be regarded in the light of optatives. The Psalmist turns himself suddenly to the Lord, and entreats him to do what he actually does according to the preceding and following verses. Upon ^^^'2 \T\1 see on Ps. xxvii. 12. — "2,^^12 is never the act of lying, the lying down, but always signifies a coucli or bed; the couch stands here for the state of the sick ; God changes his couch of pain and sickness into one of convalescence and joy, and that entirely; Berleb. Bible: "let it be as afflicted and miserable as it may." It is further remarked there, in suitable reference to ver. 5, ss. : " Thou wilt not permit it to go accord- ing to the wish of the spectators, who come to see, whether he
80 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
will soon die, and what will happen after his death, but wilt help him up again, contrary to all expectation."
The Psalmist, who with perfect right could appropriate to himself the words : " Blessed is he who acts wisely towards the poor," goes on to mention, in two strophes, that now it was the day of distress for him, now the rage of his enemies was boiling against him, now he was prostrated with pain, so that it was time for hira to receive the fulJSlraent of the promise : he will deliver him, etc.
Ver. 4. I spake : Lord he gracious to me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. Ver. 5. My enemies speak evil of me; ivhen will he die, and his name jjei'ish ? Ver. 6. And when he comes to behold, he speaks deceit, his heart — he gathers mischief to himself he goes out and speaks. The Psalmist says : /spake, not: I spake, because he here appropriates that to himself, which, in the preceding context, had been ascribed in the gene- ral to the merciful, q. d. I find myself now in a situation for lay- ing claim to the salvation appointed to the merciful. That the Psalmist desires salvation for his (much oppressed) soul, shows, that the state of bodily distress only proceeded from sorrow and grief. If the soul was healed through the appoint- ment of salvation, deliverance from the enemies, the body would presently again become sound. In the words : for I have sinned against thee, the Psalmist announces the cause, on account of which he needed healing. The connection between sin and suffering is so intimate, according to the scriptural mode of contemplation, that the expression : I have sinned, is sufficient to convey the thought : I have in consequence of my sins be- come miserable. This misery is next described more particularly in what follows. — The '<^, in v. 6, in reference to me, as concerns me. y'n not simply evil, as n^n i" ver. 7, but evil in the moral sense: in malice they speak so, as follows. The Psalmist, in con- sequence of their assaults upon his body and soul, is miserable and broken, so that they are in hopes of his speedy dissolution, which they could scarcely venture to expect, and accord- ing to what follows, seek to hasten forward through the con- tinued manifestation of their malice. In ver. 6 the subject is the ideal person of the wicked. To behold, namely, how it goes with me. He speaks deceit, hypocritical assurances of love and sympathy. We must not expound : his heart gathers, but : his heart, what concerns his heart, in opposition to the friendly
PSALM XLI. VER. 7 — 9. 8 I
mouth, he gathers mischief to himself. For the gathering can- not be fitly attributed to the heart, and it is, even beforehand, probable, that the wicked is the subject of the expression : he gathers, as ho is in the three remaining members of the verse. Mischief, i. q. matter for malicious calumnies. He goes out, speaks, scattering things among the people, when he has left me, and using also his tongue against me.
Ver. 7. All who hate me, ivhisper with each other against me, meditate evil against me. Ver. 8. A knavish device over- hangs him, and he ivho lies doiun, will not rise vp again. Ver. 9. Also my friend, ivhom I trusted, who eats my bread, lifts against me the heel. '•7 T\'j^1, evil to me, q. d. evil, which is destined for me, which they would bring upon me. The eighth verse contains the words, with which the enemies betray their joy at the plan, which they hatched against the sufferer, and through which they confidently hope to give him, already pro- strate in distress, the last thrust. Compare Ps. Ixiv. 6. The first member, literally : a matter of mischief is poured upon him. Syvl always signifies what is useless, in a moral sense, worthlessness, compare on Ps. xviii. 4, and consequently the discourse here can only be of a knavish device, not of any thing directly pernicious. That the enemies themselves call the mat- ter by the right name, is quite accordant with their moral posi- tion. The expression : poured on him, for, hanging close on him, so that he can by no possibility get free of it, receives il- lustration from Job xli. 15, 16. The lying down refers to the condition in which the Psalmist was already placed. That he should not again rise up, they hoped to accomplish by the knavish trick. — 3Iy Friend, prop, my peace-man. Veu. : " he who, on visiting me, continually saluted me with the kiss of love and veneration, and the usual address : peace be to thee." The expression, " he said, Hail Rabbi, and kissed him," Matt. xxvi. 49, may fitly be compared here. The peculiar expression : the peace- man, Jeremiah has appropriated to himself, from his predilection for expressions of the kind, chap. xx. 10, xxxviii. 22, whence Ilitzig, by inverting the relation, concludes that Jeremiah had composed this Psalm. The added clause : in whom I trusted, (which our Lord omits, as not suitable in his case, thereby furnishing an evidence against the direct Messianic interpretation,) who eats my bread, denotes the friend as one, who lived on a footing of confidence with the Psalmist, to whom the latter had given
G
82 TflE BOOK OF PSALMS.
many proofs of his love, who owed everything to him, and con- sequently serves to shew the greatness of the heart-distress, the delineation of which reaches the highest point immediately be- fore the prayer is entered on. The eating of the bread may be illustrated from 2 Sam. ix. 11, " As for Mephibosheth, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons," compare ver, 13, xix. 29, 1 Kings xviii. 19. It is falsely referred by some to the in- terchange of hospitality, so that it might have been : whose bread I ate. The participle, besides, points to something con- tinued. In Judas the expression : who eats my bread, receives its full, its frightful truth, while he participated in the feast of the Supper. He lifts up the heel against me, as a horse that kicks at his master. — The personal relations of David, as toward Ahitophel, 2 Sam. xv. 12, 31, plainly form the ground of the representation in the verse, though we are not therefore to think of an individual reference.
There follows now in the last strophe, the prayer growing out of the position of matters as described in the preceding con- text, ver. 10, and the confidence of i'ts fulfilment, ver. 11, 12.
Ver. 10. And thou, Lord, be gracious to me, and help me up, so will I requite them. Ver. 11. By this 1 perceive, that thou hast delight in me, that my enemy shall not exult over me. Ver. 12. And I— because of my blamelessness thou dost uphold me, and dost place me before thy countenance for ever. The expression : " be gracious to me," is taken again from ver. 4, after a foundation has been laid for it in the pre- ceding verse. The " help me up," has respect to " he that lies down, will not rise up again," in verse 8. In the words : so will I requite them, (falsely many : in order that I may requite them,) many expositors have failed to discover the meaning. The purpose of requiting his enemies, which the Psalmist here declares, appears to clash with Matth. v. 39, 40, with David's own fundamental principles, Ps. vii. 4, and practice, — he frankly forgave a Shimei, 2 Sam. xix. 24 — with Prov. xx. 22, " Say not thou, I will recompense evil," and with many other declarations in the Old and New Testaments. Various expedients have been resorted to for the occasion : many of the older expositors, as Calvin, conclude from these words, that it is not David that npeaks here, but Christ to whom vengeance belongs : others call to mind David's kingly office, not considering that an exclusive reference to David is inconsistent with the entire character of
PSALM XLI. VER. 10 — 12. 83
the Psalm : according to Stier the author spealvs here in the " friendly-ironical style," and the recompense he meditates, must consist in shewing forgiveness and favour. But the pas- sage will at once bo harmonized with those apparently opposed to it, if we distinguish between recompense from revenge, which the injured individual as such, seeks and exercises, and recom- pense ia the service of God, in vindication of the goods and rights confided to us by him. Only the first is reprobated in both Testaments, while the last is every where recommended. It not merely belongs to one in whose person a high office conferred by God has been insulted, as with David respecting Shimei, to whom, for reasons extraneous to the matter, he granted a tempo- rary impunity, but delivers him to his successor for punishment, 1 Kings ii. 9, as also the Lord in the pai-able, Luke xix. 27, de- clares how he would execute vengeance on his enemies, and has fearfully done so ; — but the private individual also often comes into relations, in which he is not merely warranted, but also bound to requite. No one would be so unreasonable as to adduce against the father, who chastises his froward son, when guilty of flagrant disobedience, Matth, v, 39, 40, when only he does not abandon his just right from personal fondness. Just as little should he be blamed who drags into judgment, or even casts into prison, the malicious defaraer of his honour, which every man is bound sacredly to preserve, because without it he can- not fulfil the purposes of his life, the less so, as such conduct is the true manifestation of love also to the calumniator himself, so that the maxim : viri boni est prodesse quibus potest, nocere nemini, quanquam lacessiti injuria, sustains no damage thereby. To offer to the person who gives us a stroke upon the right cheek the other also, may, so soon as it is done, not merely with the heart, but in outward act too, in certain circumstances, be the most unkind hardness. Between ver, 10 and 11 lies the great fact of the assurance of being heard. Through the cer- tainty of victory, which the Lord imparts to the Psalmist, when every thing appears to him to be lost, he is strengthened in the conviction of God's gracious satisfaction in him, "which the enemies would dispute with me," (Berleb. Bible.) That my enemy shall not exult over me, namely, as thou hast given me in- ternal assurance thereof. — The expression : and 7, is used in contrast to the enemies devoted to destruction. QH never signifies well-being, but always in a moral sense, hlamelessness.
84 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
This is here the cause, in which the divine ministration of help, as its effect, rests, compare Ps. xviii. 20. The contrast between, " in my blaraelessness," and " I have sinned against thee," in ver. 4, is only an apparent one. This very blamelessness is burdened with much weakness. On account of this he is visited with manifold, and often very severe sufferings, but the blamelessness prevents entire destruction. The person, whom God " places before himself," is an object of his protection and watchfulness -, compare Ps. xvii. 15, " I will behold thy face in righteousness." Ver. 13. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity, Amen. Amen is no component part of the Psalm, but the doxology, which forms the close of the first book. Cora- pare 1 Chron. xvi. 36.
PSALM XLII. XLIII.
SepaRxVTed from the sanctuary, in circumstances which con- strain him to recognize therein the mark of God's desertion, the Psalmist expresses his lively desire, that access to the sanctuary, and through that to the grace of God, might be again thrown open to him. His pain is still further increased by the scorn of his enemies, who, from his misery, and especially from his exile from the sanctuary, infer the want of any true relation on his part to the Lord ; and iiici eased also by the remembrance of his earlier prosperity, his participation in the delightful service of the Lord, (ver, 3, 4.) But amidst the uproar of a disturbed soul, faith calls him to " wait on the Lord," and promises that the Psalmist shall still have occasion to thank him for his salvation, ver, 5,
The power of the temptation is broken by this address, but still it is not entirely vanquished. The pain revives again, but the Psalmist, recurring to the " wait on the Lord," carries it im- mediately to him. The substance of the second sti-ophe is briefly summed up, in ver, 6, in the words: " My God, my soul is troubl- ed within me, therefore remember I thee," which is more fully ex- panded in what follows. First the words : " my soul is troubled within me," iji ver. 7, in which we see all the floods of distress going over him; then: " I remember thee," in ver. 8 — 11, wherein he shews how the Lord gives him grace, so that amid these un- speakable sufferings he can praise the Lord, cheerfully pray to
PSALM XLH. XLIII. 85
him, and lay before him his distress. What still remained in his soul of trouble and disheartening, is removed at the close by the repeated call upon his spirit to wait upon the Lord ; and the Psalm concludes with the full triumph of faith.
In Psalm xliii. the Psalmist prays the Lord, that he, as his God, would support him against his malicious enemies, and bring him back again to his loved sanctuary. At the close the spirit silences the soul with the same address, which had already proved so effectual.
The formal arrangement is very easily perceived. Psalm xlii. falls into two strophes, each of five verses ; ver. 6 is not reckon- ed with the second, because it has merely the character of a prelude. Ps. xliii. has also five verses, and thereby discovers itself, precisely as Ps. Ixx. in relation to Ps. xl., as a kind of half, incomplete, which has respect to a larger whole.
That the two Psalms stand in very close relation to each other is manifest from this very circumstance, the number five in xliii. pointing to the number ten in xlii ; then, from the agreement of the closing verse in xliii. with xlii. 5, 11, as also, from the re- petition xlii. 9 in xliii. 2 ; farther, from the similarity of situa- tion, which is clear as day; and, finally, from the want of a t^uperscription in Ps. xliii. But we must not therefore think, according to the idea now prevalent, of throwing both Psalms into one. The more their agreement lies upon tiie surface, the less can it be supposed that the division into two Psalms had first taken place at a later period. ISTo one would have thought of this, if it had not been met with abroad. Besides, the analogy is against it. Where we find elsewhere a marked cor- respondence between two Psalms standing beside each other, there they always appear, not as parts of an original whole ar- bitrarily separated from each other, but as a pair of Psalms, comp. particularly Ps. i. and ii., ix. and x., xxxii. and xxxiii., which have also this in common with those before us, that the second Psalm wants the superscription. Then, the supposition of an actual oneness destroys the organism. The second strophe of Ps. xlii. carries an internal reference to the first. The words : my God, my soul is troubled within me, with which it com- mences, have for their foundation the close of the first : why troublest thou thyself ; and what is still more important than this formal connection, the second part starts from the consola- tion already described in the first, and an orderly advance may
86 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
be clearly perceived. On the other hand, in Ps. xliii. a quite new commencement meets us ; it bears the character, not of a third strophe and stage, but of a compend of the whole. To which we may add, the far lighter and simpler style of Ps. xliii. to be explained in this way, that here the lamentation and the consolation are given in their simplest main features ; the refe- rence of, " the salvation of my countenance," in Ps. xlii. 11, to " the salvation of my countenance," in Ps. xliii. 5, which is dark- ened the moment we attach the latter to the same Psalm with the former ; and, finally, the formal arrangement, the supposi- tion of the two Psalms forming properly but one, leaving un- noticed the number ten in Ps. xlii. as an indication of what is complete in itself, and the number five in Ps. xliii. as the broken ten, and presenting to us, instead of the significant ten and five, the number fifteen, which signifies nothing.
The Psalm bears in the superscription the name of 7'*^^^, instruction, comp. on Ps. xxxii. The character of a Psalm of this description meets us in the very form. The spirit appears in xlii. 5, 1 1, and xliii. 5, as a teacher of the soul, and makes it, the foolish, wise. Since, according to the superscription, the Psalm was given up to the chief musician for .being used in pub- lic, the maskil cannot be referred merely to the immediate, in- dividual occasion of the Psalmist; it indicates an appointment to teach the pious in general, how they must keep themselves under the cross.
Then, in the superscription the Psalm is described as belong- ing to the sons of Korah, as Psalm xliv. — xlix. Ixxxiv. Ixxxv. Ixxxvii. Ixxxviii. These were, according to 1 Chron. vi. 16, ss., ix. 19, xxvi. 1, 2; 2 Chron. xx. 19, a Levitical family of singers. Their musical gifts they probably owed to one of their members, the Heman who lived in David's time. According to the view of many, the Korahites must be named, not as the authors of the Psalms marked with their names, but as the persons who had charge of their performance in public. Against this, however, there are the following grounds. 1, When a song is marked in the superscription as belonging to any one, every one immedi- ately conceives from this, that it belongs to him, as its author. Hence, where the name of the author is not given besides in the superscription, there the delivering of the Psalm for musical performance cannot be indicated by 7 without any thing fur- ther, and in all the superscriptions of the Psalms there is to be
PSALM XLII. XLIII. 87
found no case, where this might seem probable. 2. Among all Korahite Psalms there is not so much as one, in which David, or any other not a Korahite, is named as author. 3. In one par- ticular Psalm, which bears at its head, besides the " Sons of Korah," the name of the author, that author is himself a Kora- hite, Heman — in Ps. Ixxxviii. 4. In by far the greater number of the Korahite Psalms there is a common predilection for the name Elohira, which has had the effect of the mass of such Psalms being assigned to the commencement of the second book, which contains the Psalms that make predominating use of Elo- him. Such a peculiarity is hardly explicable on the supposition, that the Korahites were only the singers. — With the certainty be- sides, that the Psalms marked with the name of the Korahites pro- ceeded from the bosom of this family, still nothing is determined as to the time of their composition. For as this family continued to exist for a long time as a singing family, and no doubt did so long as Psalms were being made, (comp. 2 Chron. xx. 19, where the Korahites are mentioned in the time of Jehoshaphat), there is nothing against the supposition, that these Psalms be- longed to very different times.
While the superscription attributes this Psalm to the sons of Korah, internal grounds not less strong favour the conclusion, that the person speaking in it is no other than David. To this first of all, point the special references to the personal circum- stances of the speaker, such as are very rarely found elsewhere; comp. especially the following : " Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and Mount Hermon, from the small mountain." Such references are to be found elsewhere only in Psalms, which have respect to persons who occupied a position of importance for the whole community, above all to David, and from the nature of things can only be found in these, as the Psalms were certainly intended for the public worship of God, Then, the situation remarkably agrees with a similar one in the life of David, the period of his flight from Absalom. David was then deprived of access to the sanctuary under the same circumstances as the speaker here, so that he saw thci'ein a mark of the divine displeasure, regarded his exclusion from the sanctuary as at the same time exclusion from God, and the return of the favour of God and return to the sanctuary as inse- parably united ; comp. in the latter respect 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26 : " And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into
.88 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the city ; if [ shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again, and shew me himself and his habitation. But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him." This coincidence alone is a very individual one: similar relations certainly occur most rarely. David, further, betook himself at that time to Mahanaim, on the other side of Jordan; in the land beyond Jordan does the speaker here call God to remembrance. The coincidence re- garding the situation is strengthened as to its present bearing by the circumstance, that this Psalm agrees in an extraordinary manner with Ps. Ixiii., which, according to the superscription, was composed by David when he was fleeing before Absalom in the wilderness of Judah. To tear asunder this Psalm and Psalm Ixiii. were as improper as to do so in regard to Psalm xliv. and Ix. Finally, we find a proof against the Korahite, and for David as the object, in ver. 4, where the speaker painfully reminds him- self of the blessed time when he went at the head of the wor- shipping multitude, as their leader, to the house of God. This trait points either to one of the leading priests, or to the king. It does not suit the Korahites ; for these, as mere Levites, could not have been choir-leaders. But we find David exercising a quite similar function at the introduction of the ark of the cove- nant, 2 Sam. vi. 14, " and David danced with all his might before the Lord, and David was clothed with a linen ephod," because he found himself as it were in the priest's function, comp. ver. 18, whence David blessed the people in the name of the Lord.
The superscription, which names the children of Korah as author, and the internal grounds, which point to David as the object of the Psalm, have equal justice done to them, if it is sup- posed, that one of the sons of Korah had sung this Psalm as from the soul of David. This supposition has certainly nothing improbable in itself. There is nothing more natural, than that David, who so often sinks himself in song, that he might dis- pense consolation to others, should now experience the same good office at the hands of one of the people ; nothing more natural, than that, beside the love which was eager to impart bodily refreshment to David, there should also have been in active exercise, that love which breaks to the hungry the bread of life. It was a time, in which the love of the faithful proves itself quite as lively as the hatred of the rebellious, and tliat amonir the first were all those who stood in nearest relation to
P.^ALM XLII. XLIII. Oy
the sanctuary, arises from tlic nature of things., and is shewn tc liave been the case by 2 Sam. xv. 24. Besides, we liave a per- fect analogy in Psalm Ixxxiv. which, according to the super- Bcription, was in like manner composed by the sons of Korah, but who, according to ver. 9, speak from the soul of the king, when in a state of exile. — By the view now given, we can ex- plain the relation of this Psalm to Psalm Ixiii. The latter, com- posed by David himself when still on his flight in the wilderness of Judah, formed the natural point of contact for ours, which be- longs to the time of sojourn in the land beyond Jordan.
The reasons which liave been brought against the reference to David, are of no force. The enemies are missed in Mahanaim who taunted the Psalmist on account of his faith, ver. 3 and 10. But the raillery does not turn upon faith in Jehovali generally, but on faith in Jehovah as the God of the speaker, and is quite analogous to that in Psalm iii. 2 ; xxii. 8. The objection, that Mahanaim did not lie in Herraon itself, arises from a false view of ver. 6, where the Psalmist, by " the land of Jordan and of Hermon," describes the whole of the region beyond Jordan.
As for those who are inclined to transpose the Psalm to a very late time, that of the Babylonish captivity, or who, as Hitzig, to that of the Maccabees, besides the grounds already given for the reference to David, there is against it the circum- stance, that already Joel, in chap. i. 20, had the first verse of the Psalm before his eyes, and that, in Jonah ii. 4 there is an undeniable reference to ver. 7. Koester's idea, that the Psalm is a lamentation of the children of Israel on their exile, is exploded by the fifth characteristic alone presented by Venema, " that this man was merely deprived by his banish- ment of the worship of God, while the seat of religion and its exercise was not destroyed, but still remained." Opinions such as those, which would make Jehoiakin, when carried into exile, the author, may safely be left to their fate.
The following words of Luther furnish the best preparation for a deep insight into the current of thought pervading the Psalm : " God is of a twofold sort. At times he is a conceal- ed and hidden God ; as, when the conscience in temptation feels sin, feels other injuries, whetherbodily or spiritual, it clings to these with heart and thought, and cannot find consolation in the grace and goodness of God. Those who judge of God after such a concealed form, fall without remedy into despair and
90 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ruin. — But there is still another and manifested form of God, or a disclosed and not concealed God, viz. the real form of the good, gracious, compassionate, reconciled God. As also the sun is of two sorts, though there is in reality but one sun, just as there is but one God ; for it may be named another sun, when it appears dark and covered with clouds, compared with what it is when shining bright and clear from the heavens. And if one were to judge when the sun is dark and veiled in clouds, he would conclude that there would never more be clear day, but only eternal night. Now, however, is this an art, and in truth a golden art, to be able to hold, that though the sun, when covered with clouds and fog, cannot give a clear light, yet it will break forth through the clouds and fog, and again beam upon the world with a bright lustre. So does the prophet act here, when under temptation, comforting himself, and desiring to see the sun when it should break forth tiirough the clouds. He thinks in his heart upon another image than he at present sees before his eyes. And though his conscience is affrighted, though all evil threatens, and he is ready to sink amid doubts, he yet elevates himself in faith, holds fast by hope, and consoles himself that God will help him, and again appoint him to see the service of God in the only place, which God had chosen for it on the surface of the earth."
To the chief musician, an instruction of the sons of Korah. Ver. 1. As a hart which pants after the water-brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God. 7"'J^ is a common noun, comp. Ew. § 367, although it generally denotes the male hart, the hind being designated by ^7''^^• That it must here be taken as a designation of the hind, appears from the verb being in the fern. The Psalmist chose the hind that ^^l^H niight correspond to ^"lyri) but chiefly because the hind rather than the hart is suitable, as compared witii the feminine soul, which is like it in its weakness. Since ^ always means as = like, never = so as, the relat. is to be supplied after 7''{<i. y]\^ to pant, with '>J^, in so far as'the desire hangsoveritsobject,restsuponit,with7i<, in so faras it is directed upon that. Upon D''p''£K brooks, comp. on Ps. xviii. 15. That in the hind's panting after water, we are to think, not of ex- haustion caused by pursuit, but of the prevailing drought, is clear from a comp. of Ps. Ixiii. 1, " My soul thirsteth for thee in a dry land," and Joel i. 20, " the beasts of the field long after thee, for the rivers of water are dried up, and fire hath
PSALM XLII. VKU. 1. 91
devoured the pastures of the wilderness." The latter passage manifestly depends on this ; the pecuhar expression : they long after thee, naturally suggests the thought, that there is here an allusion to an older passage ; excepting in these two places yy\^ does not occur again, and the 'T^i^ yi'}^r\ literally agrees. The prophet has there applied to beasts what is here said of the soul, in a connection with beasts, which naturally suggested such an application. — The words: after thee, O God, refer, as appears from the following context, not alone to the wish of the Psalmist, of his internally participating in the grace of God. But as little, on the other hand, must we substitute: after thy temple, for: after thee. The longing of the Psalmist is de- scribed as directed towards God himself, not towards the place of his worship. The temptation to turn aside into one of these bypaths, will be removed by the following remarks. Under the Old Testament, it was of great importance that one possessed access to the place where God had promised, as God of Israel, to be present. The outward nearness was the medium of se- curing the inward, (in this respect Calvin remarks, that as the godly of the Old Testament knew, that wings for flying failed them, they availed themselves of ladders wherewith to mount up to God ; and we need these helps to weakness no longer, simply because they have been furnished us in Christ in a far more real form,) and then the Israelitish church-life con- centrated itself there, and contemplation and love were in the individual mightily roused and called forth by the public fellowship. If, because God is to his people a God of salva- tion, there is contained in every withdrawal of blessing, in every severe affliction, a testimony against our sins, a matter-of-fact declaration of God, that he has driven us from his presence, it is impossible that so long as such an affliction continues, we can come to the full consciousness of fellowship with God and his grace. Hence, as certainly as under the Old Testament, it was the greatest evil to be separated from the sanctuary of God, so certainly must such a separation, effected by God, have carried the import more than any other evil could of a matter-of-fact excommunication. And though in such a case the consolations of God might have internally re- freshed the soul, still the return to full peace and blessedness, could only take place with the return to the sanctuary. From what has been said, it is obvious that the tribulation, in which
92 THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
the Psalmist vras involved, was peculiar to him only as con- cerned its form, and that we are brought into a similar situa- tion to his, as to what is properly essential, in every heavy affliction. Most closely analogous are the circumstances in which the Lord withdraws from us his felt ne?<rness — the states of internal drought and darkness, amid which his form fades in our souls.
Ver. 2. My soul thirsts after God, after the living God. When shall I come and appear before God's face? The ad- dition : after the living God, draws attention to what the Psalmist had lost in tliis God, and indicates the ground of his fervent desire and his painful longing after him. His God is not a phantom, which, itself dead, is also incapable of imparting life ; he is the living, and consequently the life-giving; comp. the corresponding phrase, " Tbe God of my life," in ver. 8, rich in salvation for his people. The question : When, etc. q. d. when at length, 0 si rumpatur mora, etc., even the short period of separation from such a God, extending in his apprehension, to eternity. That in the appearing before God's face we must think primarily of a re-opened access to the sanctuary, not of a purely internal access, is evident from the words ; when shall I come ; also from the comparison of ver. 4 with Ps. xliii. 3, 4, and, finally, from the usage, according to which the expression : to appear before the face of the Lord, is regularly employed of the appearance before God in his sanctuary. But according to what has been remarked, the opening of the approach into the sanctuary is to be regarded as the actual manifestation of God's restored favour, and so the question : when shall I appear before the face of God, incloses in itself also this : when shall I behold the countenance of God ? (Ps. xvii. 15,) when wilt thou place me before thy countenance ? (Ps. xli. 1 2,) q. d. when shall I enjoy again thy favour ? To appear before God's presence is elsewhere niiT' *'!i^ SX HX'nl Ex* xxiii. 17, but here the preposition fails, as in Deut. xxxi. 11. Isa.i. 12. Ex. xxiii. 15. Some have found such difficulty in this, that they would substitute the kal for the niphal, nK15<5 Luther : that I may behold God's face. But the construction is either to be explained by this, that the appearing here has the nature of a verb of motion, or by this, that ^J3 here takes tlie character of a particle, in presence of, for wliich latter exposition only Deut. xxxi. 11 occasions difficulty.
PSALM XLII, VER.
4. 93
Ver. 3. My tears are to me food day and night, while they con- tinually say to me, where is thy God? On the first words J. Arnd, " When one is in great sadness, he cannot eat, his tears become in a manner his food, he drinks and eats, as it were, more tears than bread or other food, as David says in Ps. Ixxx : thou feedcst them with bread of tears, and givest them tears to drink in great measure." That we must expound thus, not with Calvin : " he finds in nothing more consolation, than in tears, they are his refreshment, as others enjoy themselves with food;" nor yet with Stier : " they are my daily bread, and mingle them- selves with my daily bread ;" that the sense simply is : instead of eating, I drink, appears from the parallel pass. Job iii. 24, " for my sighing cometh before I eat," 1 Sam. i. 7, where it is said of Hannah, " slie wept and ate not," Ps. cii. 4, " I forget to eat my bread." While they say; the speakers, David's enemies, are not more definitely marked, because the allusion bears not upon their person, but only upon their discourse, which found in the Psalmist's feeling so mournful an echo. On the continually (QVn 7^ signifies here as always, the whole day, not every day,) Stier remarks : " For although the railers may not incessantly cause such things to be heard, yet the oppressed soul continually hears their raillery clanging in itself." On the words: where is thy God, Calvin: " What wilt thou? Seest thou not, that thou art rejected by God ? For assuredly will prayer be made to him in the holy tabernacle, from access to which thou art cut off." But the separation from the sanctuary comes here into consideration only as the pinnacle of the mis- chief impending over the Psalmist, which the enemies turned to account as a matter-of-fact proof, that he had been cast off by God — comp. Shimei's words in 2 Sam. xvi. 7, 8, Ps. Ixxi. 11, cxv. 2.
Ver. 4. Thereon will I think, and pour out my soul in me, that I marched with the multitude, proceeded before them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, among the midti- tude keeping holiday. Some, and last Stier, refer the ^I7^{ to the preceding, the scorn of the enemies, and take the fut. niyj^ and Ulli^ in the meaning of the fut. Luther : When I think on this, I pour out my heart in myself, for I would indeed go ; Stier : I consume myself, pour out my soul in longing after this, tliat I (once more again) might go away. But in thus re- ferring the this to the " mournful question, which David cannot
94 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
answer, but of which he must constantly think," we get en- tangled in the difficulty, that the question of the enemies : where is now thy God, or the position of the Psalmist, which gives oc- casion to this question, and the going with the multitude and proceeding to the house of God, form no proper and fitting con- trast. It were somewhat different, if the discourse here were only generally of the coming to the sanctuary, to its again open- ed way of approach. To this belongs the comp. of ver. 6, where the object of the thinking is, not the scorn of enemies, but God and his earlier salvation, and the comp. of the quite parall. Ps. Iv, 14. We would, therefore, with the overwhelming majority of expositors, refer the this to what follows, and must take the fut. as indicative of the frequently repeated action in the past precisely as they occur in Ps. Iv, 14. The pain of the Psalmist is increased, when he brings into view his earlier blessedness, and places it beside his present misery. There is no propriety in taking, with many expositors, the two fut. with the M, of striving, at the commencement, in the meaning of the common future : thereon think I and pour out; nor with Ewald, of substituting for, I will, I shall, or 7nust think and pour out. The common import of this fut,, according to which it denotes " the striving of the mind, thedirection of the will upon a determinate aim," isquite suitable here. The Psalmist will purposely aggravate his pain. He will recal his earlier prosperity to mind, in order thereby the more sensibly to feel his present misery, his separation from the sanc- tuary. It is peculiar to deep sorrow, that it seeks out what tends to feed it, in particular, purposely loses itself in the mourn- ful remembrance of the happier past. That the common im- port of the fut. parag. is to be retained, is decisively proved also by the comp. of Ps. Ixxvii. 3, which place further shews, that the object of the thinking is not the scorn of the enemies, but the vanished prosperity, as is also confirmed by ver. 6 and 11. The heart pours itself forth, or melts in any one, who is in a manner dissolved by grief and pain, — comp. Job xxx. 16, " and now my soul is poured out in me," I's. xxii. 14, " My heart has become like water, melts in my mwards," and the passages there referred to. Some improperly supply: in sighing and tears. '•7^ unquestionably signifies ni a large number of places with me, and Gesenius, in his Thes. p. 1027, justly notices other passages, which, though if considered by themselves, another ex- position might be possible, yet are so similar to these, that they
PSALM XLII. VER. 4. 95
cannot be dissevered from them. However, it is carefully to be remarked, that '7^ occurs in the sense of with only in a certain connection, " in speeches which refer to the heart, the soul, the mind, with their concerns and changes*." This ftict shews, that we must not drop from our view the radical meaning of the pre - position. The >7j; in such passages signifies with me, alluding to this, that the soul is the glory, the better part. Quite cor- rectly Koester : " everywhere (besides here ver 5, 6, 11 ; xliii. 5.) our poet uses 7j; of the soul, whereby the soul is indicated as the ruling principle in man." — *r[D, multitude, here of the companies of worshippers, of their solemn processions to the temple. CD"n^s is hithp. of mi, to go slowly along, which elsewhere occurs only in Isa. xxxviii. 15, in the song of Heze- Iviah: " 1 will go slowly all my days in the bitterness of my soul," as one, who was at once freed from death, and appointed to death. Here it refers to the measured, solemn step of the procession. The suffix appended to it, referring to the collect. 1p, requires a modification of the verbal idea, since the supposi- tion, that the suffix accus. stands here for the dative, is unten- able. The Hithp. standing properly as reflexive without an object, often receives one, if the language in reflexive gra- dually insinuates a possibly active application of the idea, Ew. § 243. So here the idea of the moving one's self slowly, goes over into that of the leading slowly, which the verb, however, contains only by its construction with the accus. The expression: I moved to and fro to them, could not be used. — The mention of joy and praise shows, that it was customary to go to the sanc- tuary with songs of praise to the Lord, such as are found in the *" Pilgrim-songs," Ps. cxx.— cxxxiv. The use of music in the processions is clear from 2 Sam. vi. 5, 6. The ^ is placed at every secondary matter, which accompanies the action, comp. Ew. § 521. Before the last words it is better to supply the i from the immediately preceding, with a multitude keep- ing holiday, or to suppose, that they stand formally as quite independent, "a hohday-keeping multitude," than to consider them as appos. to the suff". in rZHl^, which would make a trail- ing period, p^n prop, tumult, is used also of the festival-hold- ing multitude in 2 Sam. vi. 19. The verse gives us a deep insight into the nature of the true service of God under the Old Testament, shews how the minds of the assembly were
96 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
seized by a mighty impulse, and the fire of devoti'on and ado- ration was fanned into a bright flame.
Vcr. 5. W/iy art thou troubled^ my soul, and art so disquieted within me ? Hope in God, for I shall still praise him, the salva- tion of his countenance. Calvin : " David represents himself here to us as divided into two parts. In so far as he rests through faith in God's promises, he raises himself, equipped with the spirit of an invincible valour, against the feelings of the flesh, and at the same time blames his weakness." It is the spirit mighty in God, which here meets the trembling soul, that in the book of Job appears personified as Job's wife. The weakness of the Psalmist manifests itself in a twofold manner, first, through deep dejection, (nn^j iw hithp, to bow one's self, to be troubled,) then through noisy restlessness, — T\f2ir\, fre- quently of the roaring of the waves of the sea, comp. Ps. xlvi. 3, Jer. iv. 19, v. 22. The means of help for his weakness, is hope in God, and the ground of hope his believing confidence, that the Lord, who is still always his God, will by his deliver- ance give him occasion for thanks. The expression: the salva- tion of his countenance, is appos. to the suffix of the verb. The salvation is attributed to the countenance of God, with reference to the Mosaic blessing, in which the bestowal of grace and peace goes forth from the countenance of the Lord, which is turned to- ward the blessed, compare Ps. xxxi. 16, xliv. 3, xvi. 10, xvii, 15. On the plural Hiyit^^ compare on Ps. xviii. 50. Some exposi- tors, after the example of the LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, read : ^nSxi ""jS riyiE^S the salvation of my countenance and my God, while they draw the ^H/X of the following verse to this. They rest on the circumstance, that it is required in order to maintain uniformity between this, and the two terminating verses, 11, and xliii. 5. But that the Israclitish poets were accustomed, for the sake of shunning sameness of sound, such as might carry the appearance of want of feeling, to introduce into their reite- rations small changes, is shown by Ps. xxiv. 7, 9 ; xlix. 12, 20 ; Ivi. 4, 11, lix. 9, 17. In our religious poetry, also, this is to be met with. In the song : " wer weiss wie nahe mir mein ende," for ex. the regular form of reiteration is: " mein Gott ich bitt' durch Christi Blut, mach's nur mit meinem Ende gut," wliile in the last ver. it runs : " durch dcine Gnad und Christi Blut machst du mein letztes Ende gut." The reading of the text,
PSALM XLII. VER. 6. 97
besides having the external proof on its side, is supported by the following reasons: — 1. In the other passages which agree with each other in these Psalms, the coincidence is never a literal one, but is always accompanied with some slight variation. If we are to change here, we must also, to be consistent, change the ^n hi^ of ver. 2, into the ^^H Sx of ver. 8, the 1)^X1 of ver. 3, into the D'1/!2N^ of ver. 10, as also conform to each other xlii. 9, and xliii. 2. 2. The " my God" cannot be wanted in the fol- lowing verse. The address to God : I remember thee, comes in too abruptly, if it is cut off. 3. There manifestly exists between "his countenance" here, and "my countenance" in ver. 11, a very perceptible connection. The salvation goes forth from the friendly countenance of God, and upon the afflicted countenance of the Psalmist. The light of the countenance of God illumi- nates the darkness of his countenance.
Ver. 6. My God, my soul is troubled in me, therefore do I think of thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermons, from the small mountain. The Psalmist, following out the admoni- tion to wait on God, seeks, amid the deep pain, which his sepa- ration from the sanctuary had occasioned him, consolation in this, that he thinks of God, and vividly realizes his grace and compassion, of which at an earlier period he had received so many proofs. Calvin : " For how can it be possible, if God withholds his grace from us, that we should overmaster so many evil thoughts as every moment press in upon us ? For man's soul is as a workshop of Satan to produce in a thousand ways despair." Many expositors have not been able to lay hold of the thoughts of the verse. Thus, Stier remarks : " This otherwise just sense does not fit itself well into the internal or- ganism of the song, rising as it does, at this time, from lamenta- tion into consolation. It is not for consolation, but primarily in doleful longing, that the Psalmist here thinks of God, who once was his God, and appears now to have forgotten him in his removal and banishment." Hence several of these expositors seek to extort the sense wished for by them, exactly at the ex- pense of the ascertained meaning of the words : they explain '^y p, which never signifies anything else than therefore, by because, and thus exchange what, in the text, appears as the symptom of the affliction into its ground. Others, who cannot consent to this, expound: because the Psalmist feels himself so unfortunate, he thinks with painfid longing of his country's God. But the
VOL. IL II
98 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
reason derived from the organism of the Psalm against the expo- sition given above, amounts to nothing. Even according to that exposition, the Psalmist ascends from lamentation to consolation; but that the lamentation here does not figure so largely as it does in the first strophe, and that the consolation immediately meets it, must appear highly natural, as the exhortation to " wait on God" had just preceded. This exhortation could not possibly die away without producing an effect. But that the thinking is of a consolatory^ not of a painful sort, is clear from the following con- siderations;— 1. The verse evidently gives in rapid outline, what in verses 7 — 10 is more fully delineated. The formal arrangement itself is in favour of this. According to it, there must necessarily be an intercalated verse in the second strophe; and no such verse excepting this one can be found. Now, ver. 7 is an expansion of the thought : my soul is troubled ; ver. 8 — 10, an expansion of this : I think of thee. But in these verses the Psalmist repre- sents his consolation and his help as being in God, who quickens him through the manifestations of his grace, who gives him joy- fulness for his praise — joyfulness to pour out his heart before him in child-like confidence, and unfold to him all his necessity and his pain. 2. The prayer of Jonah, which manifestly leans throughout on passages of the Psalms, presents in ver. 8 the oldest commentary on this verse : " Then was my spirit troubled in me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to thee into thy holy temple" — where, it is clear as day, that the remembering is of a consolatory nature, the antidote to the afiliction. The expression : " my soul is troubled in me," the Lord has appropriated to himself in Matt. xxvi. 38, John xii. 27, not without profound reason borrowing the words, which indicated his sorrow, from a Psalm rich in consolation, so that, ■whosoever should take up tliese words from him, might with him also descry this consolation in the back-ground. It is remark- able, that the two Greek forms of the declaration in the Gospels AFC found in the LXX ; in ver. 5 they have 'jrifiX-jTo; sJ ?j -^ux^ fiov, comp. Matt.,andin this ver. 55 •4'i^%'2' fJ'Ov Ira^a^drj, comp. John. The phrase : I remember, think of thee, has respect to that in ver. 4 : I think on this. The thought of the Lord forms the coun- terpoise to the thought of the lost salvation. The land of Jor- dan of itself may mean the Cisjordanic, as well as the Transjor- danic land. We must not regard this designation as isolated, but must view it in connection with the following : and of the
PSALM Xm. VER. G. 09
Hermons. Hermon represents also in Ps. Ixxxix. 12, theTrans- jordanic region, as Tabor the Cisjordanic : " Tabor and Her- mon rejoice in thy name." That the Psalmist was situated, not precisely on Hermon, but only generally in the Transjordanic region — that we are hence perfectly justified in thinking here of David's sojourn at Mahanaim, on the further side of Jordan, to the north of Jabbok, upon the boundaries of the tribes Gad and Manasseh, comp. 2 Sam. xvii. 24, 27, 1 Kings ii. 8, is clear, not only from the mention of the Jordan, but also from the plural : the Hermons. As this nowhere else occurs, we cannot go along with the current supposition, that it is not a single mountain, but an entire mountain-range, just as we say now : the Alps, the Appennines ; for it is not probable, that a geographical de- signation should find a place only here. We would rather un- derstand the plural according to the analogy of Lev. xvii. 7, where " the bucks" denotes the buck-god and others of his brotherhood — comp. Beitr. P. ii. p. 120, — and 1 Kings xviii. 18, where the Baalim stand for, Baal and his companions; the Hermons = Hermon and the other mountains of the Transjor- danic region. The plural indicates, that Hermon comes into consideration only as a representative of the species. Finally, the special mention of Hermon would be quite unsuit- able here, since the Psalmist manifestly did not wish to deter- mine exactly his place of sojourn in a geographical point of view, but only to indicate this in so far as to make it clear, how much reason on that account he had to think of the Lord. But this reason was not specially connected with Hermon ; it belonged generally to his retreat beyond Jordan. The Cisjordanic land was the land of Canaan in the proper sense, comp. Josh. xxii. 11. The transactions related in that chapter between the Cis- joi'danic and Transjordanic tribes abundantly explain the pain- ful emotions, with which the Psalmist mentions here " the land of Jordan and the Hermons." The people on the farther side of Jordan betray their fear, that their brethren might come to say, the Jordan separates between those who are, and those who are not the people of the covenant. The people on the other side say to them, ver. 19. " And if the land of your possession be xinclean, then pass ye over into the land of the possession of the Lord, wherein the Lord's tabernacle is." To be driven out into this land, and thereby cut ofi' from all access to the sanctuary of the Lord, the Psalmist must have felt to be a heavy affliction. From what has " been said, it is at the same time clear, that
100 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
though we should take Mizhar as nom. propr. of a mountain, on which the Psalmist stood, still a reference must even then lie at bottom to its appellative signification, the small mountain, as it cannot be designed to give a geographically exact description of the Psalmist's place of retreat. The name of the hill is to the Psalmist an omen of the condition of the whole land, in which he is located. Comp. Ps. Ixviii. 16, Isa. ii. 2.
Ver. 7. contains an expansion of the thought : My soul is troubled. Flood calls to flood through the noise of thy water- torrents, all thy waves and thy billows go over me. The floods are the roaring sea-billows of suffering and pain. Flood calls to flood, one invites, as it were, another to pour itself forth upon the Psalmist. In "l^l^^ SlpA through the voice of thy channels, the Psalmist points to the origin of these floods : a new opening again of the windows of heaven, Gen. vii. 11, has brought this new deluge upon him, by which he is already well nigh drowned. For the reference throughout here, as in xxix. 10, xxxii. 6, is to the deluge. The 7 in 7lp'7, is that of the cause and the au- thor, comp. ^h^rh in Numb. xvi. 34, Gesen. Thes. 729, Ew. § 520. The expression : through the voice, points to the patter- ing of the rain, perhaps also to the accompanying thunders. The expression : of thy channels, (Berleb. Bible : " through which thou pourest forth great rain of tribulation,") for, thy water torrents, has an exactly correspondingparallelin Job xxxviii. 25, 26 : " who hath divided the water-flood channels, and a way for the lightning, to rain upon a land uninhabited, the wil- derness without man." We present the current exposition in the words of Stier : " Lebanon is full of springs, water- falls, and lakes, and this scenery, surrounding the Psalmist, (that is according to the false exposition of ver, 6,) supplies him with an image for the overwhelming waves of sorrow and distress, which pass over his soul." It is fatal to this view, that DinD is throughout commonly used of sea-floods, Q''"'^ and D''1i^^ always. The reference to the sea is peculiarly manifest by a comparison of Jonah ii. 3, which unquestionably has reference to the passage before us : " all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me" — compare also : the floods compassed me about in ver. 5. Finally, by this exposition *l"li5J has, without any reason, the sense of water-fall pressed upon it : at the noise of thy water- falls. The signification of water- channel, canal, is ascertained by the only passage in which the ord is found besides, 2 Sam. V. 8, and by tlic related 'iPiV in Zcch. iv. 12. In regard to
PSALM XLII. VER. 7, 8. 101
the substance, rightly, John Arnd : " This language is de- Bcriptive of a great temptation. For just as on the sea, when there is storm or tempest, wind and sea roar, and the waves and billows mount the ship, now high aloft, now into a great deep, so that one sees on all sides nothing but one abyss call- ing, in a manner, to another, and one thinks the abyss will swallow all up, and the mighty waves will fall upon the ship and covei' her ; so happens it invariably with the heart in heavy trials. But God has the floods in his hand and power, can soon alter and assuage them, and by his word still them, as the Lord Christ commands the wind and sea and it becomes a great calm."
There follows now the more full expansion of the idea : " I think upon thee," the representation of the comfort in God in the midst of the trouble from God.
Ver. 8. Bi/ day the Lord appoints his goodness, and by night his song is ivith me, prayer to the God of my life. For the sense, a but must be supplied at the beginning. As the words : " day and night," are the usual phrase for indicating continuance, and as an evident reference is found in them to the day and night in ver. 3, (to the day and night of the Psalmist's continued pain, there are here opposed the day and night of the abiding con- solations of God), we must not, with Jarchi, Venema, and others, understand by the day, the time of prosperity, by the night the time of adversity. It is a mere merismos, when the favour is attributed to the day, the song to the night, q. d. by day and by night the Lord sends his grace, and gives me to sing and pray to him, compare Ps. xcii. " to show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness in the nights." The " goodness" or favour of God consists in the inward consola- tions which are granted to the Psalmist in the midst of his out- ward misery. Li and along with the favour the song is also at the same time given. For the person, who is comforted through God's favour, is enabled to sing praise to him. An example of a song in the midst of distress we have in Ps. xl. 1 — 10. There also upon the song and out of it follows the prayer. Then with the words, " by night his song is with me," we are to compare Job xxxv. 10, (the miserable cry over their mis- fortunes,) " and he does not say, where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night." Of the grace of prayer, granted to him, the Psalmist makes use in ver. 9. 10. According to the current exposition, the Psalmist must speak in this verse of his
102 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
former prosperity, and in the following* one of his present dis- tress: " at one time did the Lord impart to me of his goodness by day, and by night his song was with me, and my prayer flowed out in thankfulness to the God of my life ; but now must I say to this same God, my rock', wherefore hast thou for- gotten me?" But this view is disproved by the following rea- sons: 1. If the Psalmist might have left out the forrnerli/ and the now, upon which in this connection every thing turns, he must, at least, by the use of the pres. and fut. in some measure have distinguished the two spheres. Not indeed in itself, but in such a connection, as this, the designation of the absolute past by the future is quite inadmissible. 2. The D/fin is by this exposition understood of thanksgiving. But the reading of two MSS. n7nn is not, as De Wette thinks, a good one, but a bad gloss. n7£n always means prayer^ supplication, even in Hab. iii. 1, and Ps. Ixxii. 20, where the designation is to be taken as such a potiori. In this signification also it is always used in the superscriptions of the Psalms, Ps. xvii, Ixxxvi, xc, cii. Never is it found before songs of praise and thanksgiving. Comp. besides, Jonah ii. 7. It forms here the opposite to ^'*^, which of itself, indeed, has the common signification of song, but is pre- dominantly used of songs of praise, Ps. xviii, xlvi, Ixvi, Ixvii, — an opposite quite naturally, as bymns of lamentation and prayer with their depressed tone do not rise to the full height of the song, 3. Then manifestly follows in ver. 9 and 10, the nSSfl spoken of here, or rather a particular specimen of the same. How could the Psalmist have well assigned the Tw^T) to the fortunate past, and then presently made a TO^T) to follow out of the unfortunate present. How little the fut. parag. is tolerable with the current exposition, is clear from the translation : I must speak, to which its advocates are driven. The ground for the current view, which is derived from the connection, has already by the remarks on ver. 6 been com- pletely set aside. The Psalmist calls the Lord the God of his life, because to him his life belonged, because he preserved and supported it, and must awaken him out of the death to which he seemed now appointed.
Ver. 9. 1 will say to God, my rock : why dost thou forget me? Why go I mourning under the oppression of the enemy? Ver. 10. It is as a murder in my bones, that my enemies reproach me, whe7i they continually say to me: Wlierk now is thy God?
PSALM XLII. VER. 9, 10. 103
Under the consolations of God, the Psalmist had at the last, in ver. 8, brought out the fact, that the grace of supplication had been granted to him. The fut. parag. stands at the beginning and here in its usual signification : I ivill say. The figurative ex- pression : my rock, is in Ps. xviii. 2, explained by the proper one: ray deliverer. The ivhy^ in this connection, in a prayer, which the Psalmist has announced as the manifestation of a pre- cious gift imparted to him in the midst of his sufferings, and has directed to God, is only in appearance expressive of murmuring impatience, or of hopeless despondency, and in reality opposes this, comp. on Ps. xxii.l. The why forgettest thou, etc., is in sub- stance, q. d. : thou canst not possibly forget me longer, or allow me to go on still mourning. The expression : thou forgettest me, the Psalmist uses from the feeling of the flesh, which contends that God's favour has quite gone, if it does not visibly ap- pear, while he was assured in spirit of the favour of God, and could magnify and praise him. In ver. 10, the sense requires that why should be supplied, comp. Ps. xliii. 2. The Psalmist continues to represent the contrast between his relation to God, and God's procedure toward him, which contained the ground of a speedy change in the latter. His rock cannot longer give him up to the heavy affliction, Avhich comes upon him from the taunting language of his enemies, saying : Where is thy God ? The first member literally: in murder in my bones my enemies reproach me. The ^ serves not rarely to indicate, of what na- ture anything consists, comp. Ew. § 521, so that : in murder, is as much as : as murder ; it is like a murder, has that character. The verb Pl^l always means in Kal to murder, as also in Piel in Ps. Ixii. 3. The noun has the signification murder in the only other place where it occurs, Ez. xxi. 27. It is by looking exclusive- ly to the connection, that many expositors have here ascribed to it the meaning of shattering, bruising. The temptation to this rendering, is set aside by the remark, that the murder here is used figuratively for designating a deadly anguish of soul : the reproaches are to the soul of the Psalmist, what murder is to the body. Comp. Luke ii. 35, " A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also." That the murder is represented as having its seat in the bones of the Psalmist, is designed to mark the pain as going through the marrow and bones, wounding the heart. What rendered the reproaches of the enemies so very sharp to the
104 THE BOOK OF TSaLMS,
Psalmist, appears from the nearer indication of their subject in the second member. They mocked at his pretension to a close relation to God, as one that was sufficiently refuted by his pre- sent situation ; and this taunt received its sting from the fact, that in the Psalmist himself it found an echo, since he was at the time doubtful of his interest in the grace and election of God, and through that doubt had sunk into the deepest abyss of misery. The enemies had been right in their mockery, if the misery of the Psalmist had been a lasting one. That it might not be such, that God might soon remove the ground of offence, which it occasioned to his faith, is what he here prays for in faith.
At the close, what still remained of trembling in the " weaker vessel" of the soul is put away by the call on the spirit of joy. Ver. 11. Why troublest thou thyself, my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope in God, for I will still praise him, the salvation of my countenance and my God. My countenance never stands as a mere circumlocution for the person. The pain occasioned by the distress, and the joy by the salvation discover themselves pre-eminently in the countenance. The Psalmist's (countenance, formerly blanched by pain, and reddened by shame, deprived of its bright glance, shall now become fresh and clear. The expression : my God, stands opposed to the ques- tion : where is now thy God, in ver. 3 and 10 ; and the Psalmist therefore closes with the most complete victory over the tempta- tion, into which the reproaches of the enemies had thrown him.
PSALM XLIII.
Ver. 1. Judge me, O God, and plead my quarrel against a p)eople without love, from the man of deceit and unrighteousness deliver me. The constr. of y*^ with p may be explained by the circumstance, that the idea of deliverance lies enclosed in the words : plead my cause. In the i)^ is contained the idea, not of the profane, but of the multitude. That this word can by no means serve to prove that the Psalmist was oppressed by the heathen, is shewn, for example, by Isa. i. 4. The negative description of the enemies of the Psalmist : people not loving, is to be explain- ed from the contrast it presents to what they should have been, and what the Psalmist actually was. I'^DH denotes such an one, as has love toward God and his brother, comp. on Ps. ir. 3.
PSALM XLIII. VER. 2 — 4. 105
The man of deceit is an ideal person. The mention of deceit suits better to domestic, than to foreign enemies.
Ver. 2. For thou art my guardian- God,vjheref ore dost thou cast me off ? why should I go mourning under the oppression of the enetny ? In laying the ground for his prayer, the Psalmist draws the Lord's attention to an opposition between his relation to the Psalmist and his treatment of the Psalmist, in case this treatment did not soon come to an end. In place of my guardian-God, prop, my fortification-God, there was the corresponding : my rock, in Ps. xlii. 9, comp. Ps. xxvii. 1, xxxi. 4, xxxvii. 39.
Ver. 3. Send thy light and thy truths let them lead me, bring me to thy holy hill and to thy dwelling. The light of the Lord is a figurative description of his help-affording favour, *lDn, which elsewhere is commonly formed into a pair, with his truth, his fidelity in fulfilling his promises, the preservation of his covenant; comp. Ps. Ivii. 3, " God will send forth his mercy and his truth," and the fundamental passage in Ex. xv. 13, " thou in thy favour hast led the people, which thou hast redeemed, to thy holy habitation," which must be fulfilled anew in the experience of the Psalmist. The favour of God is described as light, be- cause it serves to enlighten for his people the darkness of their misery, comp. Ps. xxxvi. 9. That the Psalmist speaks of the holy hill of the Lord, Mount Zion, which was first made by David the seat of the sanctuary, shews that we are not with some expositors to refer this, and the preceding Psalm, to the times of Saul. The centre of all the Psalmist's wishes is his re- turn to the sanctuary, because the exclusion from that was, of all the marks of the divine displeasure under which he suffered, the most palpable. In his return to the sanctuary he would find a matter-of-fact justification, a pledge of the return of God's grace. Hence it appears, that this prayer is, merely as regards its form, peculiar to the Psalmist, but is in substance, common to all those who are involved in distress.
Ver. 4. And I will come to the altar of God, to the God, ivho is my joy and delight, and praise thee upon the harp, God, my God. The words : And I will come, q. d. I wish, that thou wilt give me the opportunity to come. Instead of: my joy and de- light, prop, my jubilee-joy, q. d. my God, in whoni I rejoice making jubilee, even now in my distress, comp. xlii. 8, and still
106 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
more, when the clouds are dispersed, which now hide from me thy gracions countenance.
Ver. 5. Why art thou troubled^ my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the salvation of my countenance and my God. The words : I shall praise him, here refer back to : I will praise him in ver. 4. What the soul hopinglj wished for, that has the spirit in faith already apprehended, so that the soul though poor and bowed down can comfort itself and stand upright.
PSALM XLIV.
The Psalm contains the prayer of the oppressed church for help against foreign enemies. It begins with the praise of the earlier benefactions of God : by his help were the heathen driven out of the land, and the possession of that brought to their hand, ver. 1 — 3. Upon the foundation of these earlier glorious mani- festations of God, there arises to the church a firm confidence in his aid during the present emergency, with which she triumphs beforehand over all merely imaginable dangers, ver. 4 — 8. But while she comes forth with this believing confidence into the realities around her, she finds these realities in fearful con- trast with this confidence : God has given up his people into the hands of mighty enemies, who have put his host to flight, laid waste the land, which the Lord had given to Israel for an inheritance, and carried away its inhabitants into exile, ver. 9 — 16. This contrast between the reahty on the one hand, and the matter-of-fact idea, on the other, attested as real, can so much the less be an abiding one, as the people had not occasioned the evil by their infidelity, had not made void God's covenant and promise through their rebellious- ness, but rather had suffered it for the sake of God, on account of their steadfastness toward him, ver. 17 — 22. Now the prayer for the restored salvation has been completely prepared for, and with it the Psalmist concludes in ver. 23—26. The train of thought comes very clearly out : Thou hast helped us, thou must help us, but thou hast not helped us, yet have we not by any guilt on our part cut ourselves oflf from thy help, do thou therefore, help us.
We are furnished with a secure starting-point for the histori-
PSALM XLIV, 107
cal exposition here in Ps. Ix., which presents so many remart- able coincidences with this, both as to the general situation and in expression, comp. ver. 9 and 10 with Ps. Ix. 1, 2, 3, 10, ver. 5, ss. with Ps. Ix. 11, ver. 26 with Ps. Ix. 11, that the one cannot be separated from the other. Now, in Ps. Ix. the historical oc- casion is announced in the superscription: " Of" David, when he beat Aram of the two floods, and Aram Zobah, and Joab return- ed and smote Edora in the valley of Salt, 12,000 men." The relations, to which allusion is made in this superscription, were the following. While David carried on war in Arabia, and on the Euphrates with the Syrians, probably at a time when he had suffered a heavy loss in battle from them, (comp. Michaelis Hist. Belli Nesibeni, in the Comment, p. 82, ss.) the Edomites, always intent upon turning the calamitous situations of Israel to account, for the satisfaction of their hatred, made an irruption into the land. The small forces left behind in the land were not able to resist them. The greatness of the danger, in which Israel was plunged, and of the injuries which he sustained, appears, (though nothing is said of it in the books of Samuel beside communicating the last result of the battle,) from the incidental notice in 1 Kings .\i. 15, according to which Joab buried the Israelites, who liad been slain by the Edomites, and who had lain till his arrival un- buried ; it appears also from the frightfulness of the revenge, which, according to p Kings xi. 15, 16, David inflicted upon Edom, — a war of extermination was carried on against all the males in Edom — and from Ps. Ix. 1 — 3. But before the Edo- mites could plunder the capital, which they had threatened, things took a prosperous turn. The Syrians were completely beaten by David, and he could now send his general Joab against the Edomites. Joab overtook them in the valley of Salt, on the south of the Dead Sea, whither they had in all probability retreated on hearing of the return of the Israelitish army, after they had penetrated much farther, slew them in a body, and took possession of their land, comp, 2 Sara. viii. 13, 14: " And David gat him a name, when he returned from smiting of the Syrians, (in that he slew) 18,000 men in the valley of Salt. And he put garrisons in Edom."
Through these circumstances was the Psalm before us first call- ed forth. The sons of Korah sang in the midst of the suffering, probably while the king was absent at the Euphrates. David folloived them after the beginning of help had already appeared. The Psalm before us is a x{joii ixinaoi fa " Lord have mercy upon
108 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
US,") which the nation at that time raised to God in the temple, and which, in later times, it used in similar circumstances. The Psalm has, as the superscription itself indicates, the character of a didactic Psalm. It instructs the church of God how to act in times of hostile invasion, how to assure itself of divine help. The I'salm contains nothing which may not be explained of that histo- rical occasion. The words : " thou hast scattered us among the heathen," in ver. 11, by which so many have been misled, contain nothing against this. For though the other parts of the Psalm do notpermit us to think of a great carrying away,yet a carrying away of a smaller sort occurred even in the most flourishing times of the state, nay, regularly in every hostile invasion, comp. 1 Kings viii. 46, ss., where Solomon expressly notices the case of Israel being carried away into the enemies' land far and near, Joel iii. 4, Amos i. 6 — 9 ; and here, where express men- tion is made of the killed, we might confidently reckon on others carried aiuay, the more so, as from the passage of Amos, the burn- ing desire of the Edomites for Israelitish slaves comes out, — the possession of whom was of importance as a matter of-fact coun- ter-proof to the decree, " the elder shall serve the younger," which was so often cast up against them by Israel.
The supposition of the Psalm being composed in the times of David derives very important support from ver. 17 — 22. The consciousness of fidelity toward the Lord thus uttered, was scarcely possible at any other period than that. Next the joy- ful hope of victory in ver. 4 — 8, in particular, the expression : " in thee will we push down our adversaries, in thy name tread down our enemies," as also this: " thou goest not forth with our armies," in ver. 9, and the prayer in ver. 23 — 26, which rests upon the supposition, that the distress could be removed by a stroke — all point to the relations of David's time, in which, behind the foreground of misery and distress, there always lay concealed a rich background of salvation, strength, and joyful hope.
If, notwithstanding all that has been remarked, the lamenta- tion should appear too deep for the times of David, we would bring to remembrance the fact, that Israel's loss in battle from the heathen was estimated by a different measure from what is common. The people were so fully persuaded of their divine election, and of the necessity of salvation arising out of that, that very small losses in themselves went much to their heart, and occasioned painful questions and supplications. How small,
PSALM XLIV. 109
for example, was the loss before Ai ; and yet, warlike as the people then were, " their hearts melted and became as water. And Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord, until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads."
A series of expositors from Calvin to Hitzig, have referred this Psalm to the times of the Maccabees. The only thing that gives the least countenance to this hypothesis is derived from the words in ver. 22 : " for thy sake are we killed continually," it being " Antiochus Epiphanes, who first hated and persecuted the Israelites on account of their religion." It would certainly, however, be wonderful if this were the case. The fact is in- comprehensible in the same proportion that it must be re- garded as an isolated one. According to the right view, the heathenish enmity to Israel as a people only culminated in Antiochus, which, beginning at the time of their elevation to that dignity, continued to operate through their whole history. The election in question, that entire isolation of them, which might naturally be regarded by the heathen mind as an odium generis humani, was all along an incitement to the bitterest hatred among the nations with whom Israel came into contact. Comp. Christol. Part III. p. 198, ss. Where could we find such rooted enmity, continuing with such violence through centuries, between two of these nations ? Edora, for example, could less easily bear with Israel's assumed prerogative, as the two had a common origin ; and how different was his position toward Moab, from what it was toward Israel ? Amalek, so early as the sojourn in the wilderness, attacked Israel on the ground of its pretension to be the people of God, so that the war, then waged, was essentially a religious war, comp. Ex. xvii. 16, " Amalek lays hold of the throne of the Lord, there- fore is there war to the Lord against Amalek through all gene- rations." According to Ps. Ixviii. 16, the high hills, emblems of worldly kingdoms, envy the mountain which the Lord had chosen for his dwelhng. The predictions of the prophets against the heathen nations proceed throughout on the sup- position, that the ground of their hatred toward Israel was a religious one. It is only on this supposition that we can explain how the guilt, which they drew upon themselves by their enmity to Israel, came to be regarded as so peculiarly heavy.
The special grounds speak so decidedly against the reference
?5,
110 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
to the times of the Maccabees, that we do not need to apply the general grounds against the existence of any Maccabee Psalms, which are suppHed by the history of the canon. This alone is of itself sufficient, that the people here appeal in the presence of God to their covenant faithfulness, and on the ground of this, lay claim to divine aid, ver. 17 — 22. In all the three sources of the history of Epiphanes's oppression, the oppression is uniformly designated as a consequence of the abominations committed by the covenant-people themselves, as a righteous re- tribution; see the proof in Christol. P. 11. p. 501, ss. The suppo- sition that the Chasideans speak here, does not helpthe difficulty. For here it is the whole people who speak, Jacob in ver. 4 ; and of an internal contrast, no trace is to be found. Then, it de- cides against this supposition, what we have brought forward to prove, that the distress of which the Psalmist complains, has as yet only reached the surface, in particular, the words : " thou goest not forth with our armies.'" Finally, it is contradicted by the style and mode of representation, which is throughout of a pure, noble, and classical character.
The hypothesis of Koester, who refers the Psalm " to the mournful times of the return from the Babylonish captivity," and of Ewald, who ascribes it to the fourth century, towards the end of the Persian supremacy, deserve no further notice, as they are alike disproved by the words : " thou goest not forth with our armies."
Several decide for the times shortly before the exile, either un- der Jehoiakim or under Jehoiachin. But let men only read what Michaelis has written in his Praef. in Jerem. of those times, and see whether they can be brought to accord with ver. 17 — 22 : " impiety and senseless idolatry had so taken possession of the minds of the people, that notwithstanding what Josiah had done, they soon returned again with the greatest levity to their old behaviour, Jer. iii. 4, v. 10, and proceeded not in the course of righteousness, but, with a hypocritical return to God, they continued alienated from him in fixed aversion, ch. viii. 5, G, satisfied with the outward worship of God and the ceremonies, ch. vi. 20, and foolishly confiding therein, ch. vii. 4, as if these could cover their manifold misdeeds, and especially their ido- latry."
What Tholuck brings forward as proof, that the Psalm may with propriety be referred to the times of Jehoiachin, is not
PSALM XLIV, 111
sufficient proof. It is indeed related of that king-, he says, in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, " that he did what was displeasing to the Lord, but it is clear from Jer. xxii. 10, ss., that the youthful king, mourn- ed for by many, only suffered according to the unalterable decree of God for the sins of the people. It was in fact with Jehoiakim tliat idolatry ceased to be practised. It is declared, in 2 Kings xxiv. 3, 4, that, on account of the sins of the idolatrous Ma- nasseh, the people should be given up to their enemies. How much more could a godly man among the people, under the * blameless Jechoniah ' say, that such oppression was come upon them not for their apostacy." But, on the other hand, it is to be remarked, that the " blameless Jechoniah" is not only condemned in the Chronicles, but not less decidedly so also in the book of Kings, 2 Kings xxiv. 9 : " and he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done." In Jer. xiii. 18, misery is announced to him as a deserved punish- ment ; in xxiii. 1, he is reproved under the shepherds, who destroy and scatter the Lord's sheep ;" in Ez. xix. 5, ss., he appears as a dreadful young lion, comp. J. D. Michaelis Bib. Hebr. in loco. In Jer. ch. xxii. there is nothing in praise of Jeho- iachin. The passage, 2 Kings xxiv., which speaks of the rejection of Judali under Jehoiakim on account of the sins of Manasseh, affirms nothing either of Judah, or of Jehoiakim being guiltless. Manasseh and Jehoiakim form no contrast : Jehoiakim the re- volting tyrant, the decided enemy of the truth, the persecutor of the servants of God, Jer. xxii. 18, 19, xxvi. 20, ss. xxxvi. 13 — 17, 23, ss., walked in the ways of Manasseh, his existence was a continuation of that of Manasseh, and hence were Manasseh's sins punished in him. Besides, what would be gained, if there were obtained a blameless Jehoiachin ? Here not the king merely, but the whole people protests its fidelity to the Lord, and that, in- deed, a fidelity reaching to the inclinations of the mind ; comp. the words: our lieart is not turned back. Could Jehoiachin have accomplished during his three months' reign a total regenera- tion of the people ? Other reasons against the reference of the Psalm to the times shortly before the exile, naturally suggest themselves from what has been already remarked.
After the superscription, to the chief musician, of the sons of Korah, an instruction, follows the first strophe, ver. 1 — 3, in which the church reminds the Lord, of what he had done for her in former times.
112 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver. 1. Godf ivith our ears ive have heard, our fathers have told us the deed, ivliich thou didst in their days, the days of old, AVhat the Lord had done to his people in the past, forms a pledge for the salvation to be imparted by him through all times, causes the want of salvation to appear as an anomaly, and lays an excellent foundation for the prayer for relief. Comp. the re- markably corresponding passage, Judg. vi. 13, " And Gideon said to him. Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where are all thy wonders, which our fathers told us of, saying : Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt ? And now the Lord hath forsaken us, and given us into the hand of Midian," 2 Chron. xx. 7, Hab. iii. 2, where the church of the Lord, which had done so gloriously in the past, prays, that he would revive his work in the midst of the years. The expression, " we have heard with our ears," forms the con- trast to what they at present see with their eyes ; comp. Ps. xlviii. 7, " as we have heard, so have we seen." On : our fa- thers have told us, comp. Ex. x. 2. The deed (not deeds are here spoken of, but one great deed) is not the work of deliver- ance from the land of Egypt, but, as the following context shows, the driving out of the Canaanites, It is precisely in regard to this, that the present condition of the Israelites forms the great- est contrast. The : in their days, the days of old, stands oppos- ed to : in our days, the days of the present time.
Ver. 2. Thou hast with thy hand driven out the heathen, and planted them, hast destroyed peoples, and spread them abroad. The emphatic thou,, and the addition : with thy hand, prop, as to thy hand, comp. on Ps. iii. 4, in opposition to their sword and their arm in ver. 3, both serve the same purpose, viz., to ascribe that great work to a divine cause. Only in so far as it was of such a nature was it a pledge of salvation for the future, and constituted a sure foundation for the prayer of the Church for deliverance from their distress. The image of the planting al- ready occurs in Ex. xv. 17, " Thou wilt bring them and plant them on the mountain of thine inheritance," and is enlarged upon in Ps. Ixxx. 8, " Thou broughtesta vine out of Egypt, thou didst cast out the heathen and plant it." The image is conti- nued in the expression : thou hast spread them abroad, prop, hast sent them forth, the twigs of that tree, or the shoots of that vine ; comp. the paral. pass, alluding to this ver. Ps. Ixxx. 11, " it sent out its boughs to the sea, and its branches to the
PSALM XLIV. VER. 3 — 5. 113
river," Ez. xvii. 6, 7. In the general sig. of extending, spread- ing forth , Tw^ cannot be taken. It is always used only of branches, twigs, or roots, Jer. xvii. 8.
Ver, 3. For not by their sword got they the land, and their arm helped them not, but thy right hand, and thy arm, and the light of thy countenance, for thou ivast favourable to them. The first clause with ""^ grounds the declaration, " thou alone hast planted them, set them forth," of the preceding verse, while it excludes the other possible cause of the fortunate result. The second clause with ^'^ grounds this exclusion, by setting forth the real cause. The third clause with *>'2 cai-ries back the operation of this cause to its source, to God's free and undeserved love, — comp. the enlargement in Deut. ix. and x. On the first clause comp. Josh. xxiv. 12, '• not by thy sword nor by thy bow." The light of God's countenance is the favour with which his countenance beams, like a clear sun, and which illuminated the darkness of his people, comp. Ps. xliii. 3.
Xow follows the second strophe, ver. 4 — 8 : what thou hast done in the past, that do also in the present ; for this we pray, for this we hope in faith.
Ver. 4. Thou art he that is my king, O God, command the salvation of Jacob. As certainly as God is the king of Israel — this his past deeds plainly testify — so certainly must these deeds again revive, must he also at the present time dispense salvation to his people. Against the supposition of Gesenius and Ewald, (§ 548,) that Kin takes the place of the copula, even with a difference of person, comp. the remarks of Strauss on Zeph. p. 72, ss. Here, as in 2 Sam. vii. 28, the relative is to be sup- plied, which, in a similar connection, is expressly written in 1 Chron. xxi. 17, thou he my king, for, thou art he that is my king, thou art so certainly, and thou alone. Commandis, a con- fident expression for, thou wilt command. Michaelis : " Be- cause he had named God his king, he makes use of a word which points to kingly authority and irresistible power."
Ver. 5. In thee shall ive jmsh down our enemies, in thy name tread down our adversaries. Some expositors refer this and the following verse to the past, supposing the people in them to be still praising the earlier deeds of God. This view has been oc- casioned by their not knowing how to reconcile the joyful hope here expressed, with the lamentation contained in ver. 9, not perceiving that here faith speaks, which leans upon the divine
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114 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
election historically evinced, while in ver 9, the visible state of things standing in plain contrast to this faith, draws upon it the attention of the church, and causes her to pray to the Lord, that he would remove this contrast. Against our understanding it of the past, we have the imperative in ver. 4, the constant use of the first person, while the forefathers are always spoken of in the third, the use of the fut., while the Psalmist had always spoken of the past in the praet., the relation of ver. 6 and 7 to ver. 3, etc. — That we must not take the fut. optatively, that they express not petitions, but confidence, appears from ver. 8. — The first member refers to Deut. xxxiii. 17, where it is said by Moses in the blessing on Joseph, " his horns are buffalo- horns, with them will he push peoples," comp. 1 Kings xxii. 11, where the false prophet Zedekiah embodies the image of this passage in a symbolical action. The name of God denotes God in so far as he shews himself to be such in a completeness of deeds, comp. Ps. xx. 1 ; xxiii. 3. On Qp comp. on Psalm xviii. 39.
Ver. 6. For I do not trust to my boiu, and my sword luill not help me. Ver. 7. But thou helpest us from our enemies, and dost put to shame those who hate us. The two verses correspond exactly to ver. 3. As there, in reference to the past, the salva- tion was ascribed wholly to God, so here in reference to the future.
Ver. 8. God we extol continually^ and thy name we praise for ever. Selah. By the ^ God is marked as the object, in whom the extolling terminates, comp. Ew. § 521. On the second clause, comp. Ps. Ixxi. 6, " in thee is my praise perpetual." The exposition : Of God we boast ourselves, is to be rejected. ^^^n never signifies to boast one's self, comp. on Ps. x. 3.
With the third strophe begins now, ver. 9 — 16, the representa- tion of the contrast, which the reality carries to the confidence of the people, as stated in the preceding verses, or rather ap- pears to carry.
Ver. 9. And now thou dost cast iis of, and puttest us to shame, and goest not forth with our armies. The &J< is here, as in Job xiv. 3, P^-^. Iviii. 2, as to meaning the same as, however, though it preserves its original and common signification, also, (Ew. § 622.) It points to an addition of a very rare and incom- prehensible kind, which the experience of the present has brought to that of the past, the reality to the historically con- ceived idea. Those who take ftX as indicating a cHmax, must
PSALM XLIV. VER. 9 — 14. 115
resort to arbitrary supplies. — How much the words : thou goest not forth with our armies, (comp. the contrast in 2 Sam. v. 24, where the Urim and Thumraim say to David : " the Lord goes out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines,") carry us back to the noon-day of Israelitish glory, discountenancing the supposition of our Psalm having had a later origin, is evident from the fact alone of Koester and others substituting : thou iue7it€st,a,ndsimi\ciY\j in the following verse. — Ver.lO. TAou turn- est us back before the enemy, and our haters spoil for themselves. The 1^7 indicates, as was already remarked by Calvin, that the enemies had plundered according to their heart's desire, and without any effective restraint. Comj), besides 1 Sam, xiv. 48; xxxiii. 1, — Ver. 11. Thou makest ics like sheep for slaughter, and among the heathen thou dost scatter us. The giving is not rarely q. d. to put into a condition. But we can also expound : thou givest us away, comp. Micah v. 2. — Ver. 12. Thou sellest thy people for nothing, and receivest nothing for it. The sense is : Thou hast given thy people into the power of their enemies without trouble, without causing the victory even to be dearly bought, as one who parts with a good for any price, which he despises and hates, desiring merely to get rid of it ; so that there is an abbreviated comparison. Parallel is Jer. xv. 13, " thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil with- out price." Isa. lii. 3 does not belong to this class. The first member literally : thou sellest thy people for not riches, i. e. for a trifling sum. The phrase is to be explained by the silent contrast between the reality and the idea. The oft-repeated affirmation, that such collocations are properly of an ascending character, is groundless. The second member literally : and thou dost not increase (the riches) by their price. Hll'l. ac- cording to the common force of the Pi., and according to the only passage where it occurs besides, Judges ix. 29, can only mean increase. Consequently, the supplying of pn from the first member must be justified as necessary. — Vei-. 13. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to those round about us. — Ver. 14. Thou makest us for a simili- tude among the heathen, and that the peoples may shake the head over us. 7^f2 stands here, as in the original passage, Deut. xxviii. 37, in the common signification similitude — comp. my Balaam, p. 77, ss. The misery of Israel is so great, that people would figuratively call a miserable man a Jew, just as liars were
116 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
called Cretans, wretched slaves, Sardians. So far are the people from being now " the blessed of the Lord," in whom, according to the promise, all the heathen are to be blessed. TlJlb object of the shaking of the head, comp. Ps. xxii. 7. — Ver. 15. Continu- alhj is my confusion before me, and the shame of my countenance covers me. Ver. 16. On account of the voice of the slanderer and blasphemer, on account of the enemy and avenger. The re- proach is continually before the church, so that she must inces- santly see it with pain, and can by no means get it out of the way, Ps. xxxviii. 17. The shaming is ascribed to the counte- nance, because it always betrays itself, especially there. Comp. Ps. Ixix. 7 ; Jer. iii. 25, — Ver. 16 points to the cause of the re- proach and shame.
The fourth strophe, ver. 17 — 22, shows that on the part of the people no cause existed, why the contrast between the re- ality and the idea should be a lasting one.
Ver. 17. All this has come upon us, and yet have we not for- gotten thee, nor dealt falsely luith thy covenant, ^p^, not to lie, but to deceive, with '2 of the object, on which the deceit has been practised, or to which it refers, comp. Ps. Ixxxix. 33. — Ver. 18. Our heart has not turned back, nor our steps declined from thy ivay. Ver. 19. That thou hast bruised us in the place of jackals, and covered us with death-darkness. Upon the ^^ in the sig. of quod, that, q. d. that thou wert thereby led to bruise us, comp. Ew. § 454. The jackals appear often as inhabitants of waste and desert places, comp. Jer. ix. 11, " I will make Je- rusalem heaps, a dwelling of jackals, and the cities of Judah a wilderness without inhabitant;" Isa. xiii. 22; xxxiv. 13 ; xliii. 20. Here, as the parallel, " with death-darkness," shews, we are to think of a spiritual desert, a miserable condition ; and of a desolation produced by enemies, there is no mention. Who- soever finds himself in the place of jackals, is even thereby bruised by God, and we must not regard the bruising as a kind of second thing, a suffering additional to the other. — Ver. 20. If we have forgotten the name of our God, and stretched out our hands to a strange God / According to the common supposi- tion, this verse must contain the premise, the next the conclu- sion : if we, etc. would not God require it ? But QX is more correctly taken here as an oath-particle, with a failure in regard to the curse-formula, comp. Ew. § 625 ; Josh. xxii. 22 : " The Lord God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know, if we have
PSALM XLIV. VER. 21, 22, 117
acted in rebellion, and if in unfaithfulness against the Lord, let him not save us tins day." So also throughout Job xxxi., of which this verse forms the germ,Qj^isused in the lengthened pro- testation of innocence. Ver. 21. Would not God require this ? For he knows the secrets of the heart. The oath is only of im- portance, as recognising in a vivid manner the divine omnis- cience, and implies, that sin falsely abjured is nevertheless open before God, and the object of his vengeance. This conviction the church here expresses. The this denotes the apostacy, from which we have protested our freedom. — Ver. 22. For for thy sake we are killed contimially, we are counted as sheep for slaughter . The ^^ announces a reason for the chief matter of ver. 17 — 21, the assertion that the church had not fallen away from God. The best proof of that is, that they are persecuted for the very sake of God. IjvJ? prop, upon thee, then, on thy account, the effect rests upon the cause, comp. Ps. Ixix. 7, 9. — The verse is in Rom. viii. 36 referred to the church of the New Testament as a continuation of that of the Old.
Many expositors have failed to understand aright the subject of ver. 17 — 22. The church appears here at first sight to be not properly mindful of the admonition, that " no one should think more highly of himself than he ought to think." J\Iost of the older expositors suffered themselves to be drawn by this into the idea, that the church does not speak of her conduct be- fore the present sufferings, but seeks to make the Lord inclined to help her by the protestation, that she had withstood the great temptations to fall away from him, which her sufferings them- selves presented, and had continued faithful to him, — against which ver. 19 is alone decisive. It is in itself improbable, that the church would come before the Lord with prayer for help, without distinguishing to some extent what the law taught re- garding the condition of such prayer, whether it consisted in a protestation of adherence to the covenant, or in imploring sup- plication for the pardon of sins, through which it deserved chas- tisement. Tholuck accuses the Psalmist of a superficial view of sin, (comp. on the other hand, the impressive reference to the heart, ver. 18 — 21), whereby he was led to charge God with breach of fidelity, instead of seeking the blame in the church. The following remarks, it is hoped, will remove the difl&culty. 1. When the church here maintains, that she had not broken God's covenant, this manifestly refers only to fidelity in the
118 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
main, as to the chief matter, and manifold smaller infidelities and weaknesses are not thereby excluded. These smaller devi- ations justify the chastisements of God, faithfulness in the main excludes a total rejection. 2. When the church regards the suf- fering, that had come upon her, as an anomaly, she does so only in so far as this appears to carry the aspect of continuance, — comp. the words: cast us not off for ever, in ver. 23. The whole of the last strophe shews, that the temptation will be at an end, the moment God has in point of fact removed this ap- pearance. But this would not have been the case, if the suffer- ing had formed in itself a stone of stumbHng for the church. 3. It is not to be overlooked, that we have here before us a di- dactic Psalm. What is declared in the form of history, forms at the same time indirectly an impressive admonition. 4. We must not expect, that every Psalm shall fully exhibit all particular points of truth, and so, render all misapprehension impossible. They rather, on the contrary, require somewhat to be supplied. There follows now, in the fifth strophe, the prayer that God would turn again the misery of his people. Ver. 23, Awake, why ivilt thou sleep, O Lord? wake up, cast not off for ever. Comp. Ps. cxxi. 4. Matth, viii. 25. Ver. 24. Why wilt thou hide thy countenance ? forget our misery and opjjression ? Ver. 25. For our soid is bowed doiun in the dust, our body cleaves to the earth. We are as to body and soul smitten and thrown down, glued as it were to the ground, so that we cannot raise ourselves up. Ver. 26. Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake. nrH]}^ is nomin., as help, comp. Psalm Ixiii. 7; xciv. 17. On the rt see on Psalm iii. 2.
PSALM X LV,
In the introduction, ver. 1, the Psalmist announces the praise of a glorious king to be the object of his song. He praises this person on account of his beauty, and the grace poured especially upon his lips, ver. 2, on account of his heroic might and glory, through which ho was to perform great deeds, and achieve blessed results in the conflict for truth and righteousness, and annihilate his enemies, ver, 3 — 5, on account of the eter- nity of his dominion founded on his divine nature, and going hand in hand with absolute righteousness, ver, 6. Because of
PSALM XLV. 119
his righteousness this divine king is endowed by God with greater joy than all other kings : he is clothed in wedding ap- parel, on the very point of celebrating his marriage with a band of noble virgins, daughters of kings in palaces of ivory, of whom one is peculiarly distinguished, shining in gold of Ophir on his right hand, intended for a consort of the first rank, ver. 7 — 9. To her the Psalmist now turns, while till now he had constantly directed his address to the king, which is also again resumed toward the close. He urgently admonishes her in ver. 10 — 12, to forget her people and her father's house, and also, through an unconditional surrender to her husband and Lord, to make herself worthy of his love, promising her, as the reward of this surrender, the reverential homage of the most flourishing nations. This address is directed to the king's daughter in her father's house, to which the king has come to conduct her home. The procession from the paternal roof into the palace of the king is described in ver. 13 — 15 ; with the king's daughter are brought forth at the same time to the king other maidens, closely con- nected with her. The Psalmist promises to the king, in ver. 16, a brilliant posterity, which, under his auspices, should reign over the whole earth. He concludes in ver. 17, with vowing to give perpetual praise to this glorious king, which shall be followed by a loud response from the people.
The question has been started, whether this Psalm is a nuptial song, or a song in honour of a king ; and in the answer to this question, expositors are of different opinions. But the ques- tion is ill put, for the Psalm is both a nuptial song, and a song of praise. The expressions: " upon lilies," i. e. upon lovely brides, and : " a song of the beloved," in the superscription, are quite decisive in favour of its being a nuptial song. In praise of the king the Psalmist begins at once with his beauty, which, in a general song of praise would certainly not have been done. From ver. 7 to the very close everything refers to the relation of the king to his brides. If this relation came into consideration only as a particular element in praise of the king, it certainly occupies an undue place. That the song is to be regarded as sung on the wedding-day, with which the supposition of a general song of praise does not well accord, is clear from the mention of the fragrant garments of the king, and of the queen on his right hand in gold of Ophir, from the exhortation to the queen to for- get her people and the house of her father, from the descrip-
4
120 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion of the wedding procession from the father's house to the palace of the prince, and from the reference to the blessing of children. The allegation that the mention of the warlike quali- ties of the king is not suitable in a nuptial song, is, according to the literal interpretation, of the greatest weight. But in the allegorical, the heroic virtue of the king and his imposing ma- jesty, by which he subdues the world to himself, is quite to the point. How suitable the king's praise, as found in ver. 1 — 5, is to a nuptial song, appears from ver. 10 — 12, where, as its practi- cal design, an admonition comes out to the king's daughter, " to forget her father's house and her own people," for which the other had laid the foundation. But, on the other hand, it is not to be denied, that the Psalm is also a song of praise upon a king. The purpose of praising the king is declared at the be- ginning and the close. To the king the whole is addressed. What is said in commendation of the brides, is manifestly not for them, but for the king, wJio has such brides : so that views, such as De Wette's : " I hold the Psalm to be a poem in honour of the king beside his consort," entirely miss the right point of view. We must therefore conclude, that the Psalm is an eulo- gistic song upon a king on the occasion of his marriage.
We come now to investigate the subject of the Psalm. Nearly ; all the older Christian expositors understand it of the Messiah.! The wedding is in their view a spiritual one, the queen Israeli " the virgins behind her, her companions," the heathen nations.: On the other hand, a great number of modern expositors have defended the non-Messianic exposition. But they have not succeeded in determining the application so as to agree upon the person of the king. The greater part think of Solomon and j his union with an Egyptian princess ; others, after the example of Hitzig, of Ahab of Israel, and his union with Jezebel ; Bleek (Ep. to the Hebr. P. II. p. 154,) of one of the later kings of' Judah, considering any more exact determination impossible; and others again of a Persian king.
The Messianic expositior is supported, first, by the fact of, this Psalm's admission into trie number of the Psalms, and the canon of Scripture, which can be explained only on the suppo- sition, that the allegorical interpretation at that time was uni- j versally admitted. And this can the less justly be denied, as' the Messianic exposition is also found in the Chaldee paraphrase, and in numerous passages of the old Jewish writings, (comp. the
PSALM XLV. 121
Coll. in Schoettgen, de Mess. p. 234,) and the currency of which among the Jews, is impHed in the citation in Heb. i. 8, 9. The farther proof that the Psalm could have been admitted into the Psalter and Canon, only on the ground of its allegorical meaning, we might leave untouched, as the recent opponents of the allegorical exposition see themselves necessitated to allow this. Ewald admits, that the Psalm, interpreted literally, has no analogy in the whole Psalter : " there is elsewhere no exam- ple of art so expressly consecrated to a king. Not properly God, but rather the king, is here the object and the aim of the praise. And in this praise are not merely included things pro- perly divine. The song is alone in the Psalter, and resembles more the poetry of the world." Koestersays: " when we con- sider the Psalm as having a place in the Psalter of the Syna- gogue, the fact can only be explained from an allegorical view of the union of Messiah with the church of Israel. The LXX. shew themselves to have been already well acquainted with this view, as they render in ver. 6 and 7 : 0 God ! as an address." Hitzig : " though a worldly song, contributing to sensual joys and pleasures, did not perish, yet its place was not in a collec- tion of this soi't, and it is to be regarded as an exception, if one of that kind has received a higher honour."
The predilection in favour of the Messianic exposition of this Psalm, which we have derived from the fact of its reception into the canon, fully approves itself to us if we more narrowly inves- tigate its contents. Even the superscription, which is distin- guished from all the other Psalms by its multiplied designations, indicating by the very circumstance, that there is something un- common, extraordinary, treated of in it, presents a fourfold argument for the view in question. L The expression: " to the chief musician," shews, that the Psalm was destined for use in the public service of God, that it was sung in the temple at the holy assemblies, that it was a church-song. 2. The sons of Korah are named as the authors of the Psalm. The histori- cal books mention these to us as servants of the sanctuary ; all the other Psalms of theirs, which have been preserved, bear a spiritual character, and this Psalm stands amid a circle of spi- ritual songs of the Korahites. 3. The Psalm is described as a ?'^'2^12, instruction, as a song of an edifying character, comp. on Ps. xxxii. 4. The superscription itself contains in the phrases : " upon lilies," and : " a song of the beloved one ,"
122 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
a double allusion to a number of brides of the king ; and this afterwards conies very distinctly out in the Psalm itself. Ac- cording to ver. 7,. a greater joy is experienced by the Psalmist in this respect, than by his fellows ; according to ver. 8, he is made glad out of ivory palaces; according to ver. 9, king's daugh- ters are among his honourable ones ; according to ver. 14, 15, there are along with the king's daughter also other virgins, her companions, brought to the king, and introduced into his pa- lace. Hence arises to the defender of the non-Messianic expo- sition an invincible difficulty, as it has never been moral to take more than one wife at the same time. The attempts, which have been made to get rid of this difficulty, only show how great it is. The reference to the number of the brides, which lies in the words : " on the lilies," and : " a song of the beloved ones,' has been attempted to be set aside by arbitrary exposi- tions, as we shall see, when we come to the superscription. The king's davghters in ver. 9, according to Bleek, must not be brides, but the dischai-ged mistresses of the king — which is suf- ficiently refuted by the words : " out of the ivory palaces," and : " they make thee glad," in ver. 8, and also : " he has anointed thee with the oil of joy above thy fellows," in ver. 7. The maidens in ver. 14, 15, are, accoi'ding to Bleek, mere handmaids of the bride, who were given her on the part of her father's house, and who now, in the train of their mistress, were brought along with her to the king. But the separation of the young women from the king's daughters, is manifestly but an evidence of embarrassment ; the designation, " their companions," implies a footing of equality, and does not suit " mere handmaids ;" the expressions : " they are brought to thee," and : " they are con- ducted," points to the circumstance, that these young women as well as the bride, must unite themselves with the king in love; the handmaids remain with the queen, and have nothing to do with the king ; the very fact, that the companions of the bride are named virgins^ virgines illibatie, indicates that they must enter into a closer connection with the king, and the great number of sons also in ver. 16 points to a marriage connection with the virgins. — If we follow the Messianic interpretation, the whole difficulty vanishes. The companions of the queen, who are inferior to her indeed in rank, but still are substantially like her, and, not less than she, must be united with the king in love, are then the heathen nations, the daughter of Tyre, the daugh-
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PSALM XLV. 123
ter of Babel, etc., before whom Israel, as the old covenant-peo- ple, has a certain outward precedence, but who, notwithstand- ing, according to the uniform announcements in the prophets and Psalms regarding the Messiah's kingdom, are made partak- ers along with them. So already the Chaldce and Kimchi : filiae regum sunt gentes, quae omnes ad obsequium regis Messia) redigentur. A quite similar figurative representation is found in the Song vi. 8, 9 : " There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number ; but one is my wife, my pious one, etc." There is here therefore declared in a figurative form the very same thing, which in plain terms is stated in the other Messianic Psalms, such ibr example, as ii. 8, that the Mes- siah would receive for a possession all people from one end of the earth to the other; Ps. Ixxii. 8, that he should reign from sea to sea, from Euphrates to tlie ends of the earth, etc. Hof- mann thinks, that what is uncommon in the lower relations, which form the ground of the figurative representation, that appears also unsuitable in reference to the higher. But what poet could have satisfied himself with such a canon ! It would certainly be a very tame poetry, which shouhl bind itself so slavishly to the common reality. What is uncommon in earthly love, the num- ber of brides, is in the spiritual marriage precisely accord- ing to the truth of things. The confidence, with which such palpably false positions are set forth, may well fill us with as- tonishment.
The strongest proofs for the Messianic exposition present themselves in ver. 6 and 7, where the king is named God, and his dominion is described as eternal. The words : Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness, therefore has God anointed | thee with the oil of joy above thy fellows, i. e. greater marriage \ blessings are conferred on thee, than on them, is not to be comprehended, if we regard the brides as real, and not ideal persons. An allegorical representation is also implied in the circumstance, that " the ivory palaces," out of which the king's daughters were brought to the king, stood so near to the palace of the king, that it required only a marriage procession to bring them from these to him. In a matter of real life it must have been quite otherwise. The non-Messianic interpreters are embarrassed by ver. 12, where the queen is assured of the ho- mage of the Tyrians, as these never stood in a relation to Israel, which could have led to such a thing being so much as thought
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124 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of. Then, by tins interpretation, it remains incomprehensible, how this homage should be promised to the queen as a reward for the entire surrender of her heart to the king, and is made to depend upon this. In ver. 16, it is said that the king will set his sons for princes over the whole earth.
Against the reference to Solomon, there is still the special \ objection, that the king in ver. 3 — 5, is addressed as a hero, — j not as a person, who, in fitting circumstances, might be this, as Hofmann supposes, for the sake of that interpretation, but one who assuredly will be so, — compare especially ver. 5. So also ver. 16, which implies that the king should have an entire series of royal ancestors. Neither does it consist with any later Jewish king, that " kings' daughters should be among the hon- ourable w^omen," or that there should be such kingly state and glory as meets us throughout the whole Psalm, and which gave occasion to Venema's just remark, that " no other can possibly be thought of here than Messiah or Solomon." The reference to Ahab, whose father first seized the throne for himself, has ver. 16 as an insuperable obstacle in the way ; and at any rate we cannot think of a love song on an Israelitish king in the Jewish canon, composed by ministers of the temple in Jerusalem, and for employment in the divine service of that temple. The re- ference to a Persian king is now, at last, generally abandoned. Beside other grounds, which at once present themselves, its close relation to Ps. Ixxii. is decisive against the idea.
In such a state of matters, we can only ascribe it to the power which a prejudice, having once obtained a firm footing for itself at the beginning of rationalism, even now exerts over the minds of men, when a more impartial view of things is wont to be taken, that the Messianic exposition still finds so little favour. We see, at least, that the dislike to it appears without founda- tion. That the doctrinal matter of the Psalm stands entirely upon the ground of the old covenant, is clear as day. For every single figurative trait of the Messiah contained in it we can bring exactly corresponding parallel passages. Compare with ver, 3 — 5, Ps. Ixxii. and Isa. xi. with ver. 6 and 7, where the king is addressed as God, Isa. ix. 5, Ps. ex. Micah v. 1, Dan. vii. 13, 14, Zech. xii. 10, xiii. 7, and the Christology there. The ad- 1 mission of the heathen into the kingdom of God in the times ' of Messiah is the uniform doctrine of the Psalms and prophecies, I compare, for example, Ps. ii. Ixxii. Isa. xi. 10 : " the root of
PSALM XLV. 125
Jesse, which stands for an ensign of the peoples, which the Gen- tiles shall seek." In like manner also, there are analogies that may he hrought for the mode of representation in all its parts. That the personification of people as women, and spe-l cially as maidens, is a very common one in the Hebrew poetry, i^ well known, compare Isa. xlvii. liv. 1, es., Jer. xlvi. 11, Gesen. Thes. p. 320. In this very Psalm the city of Tyre appears as the daughter of Tyre. The representation of the higher love under the image of the lower is of frequent occurrence in the poetry of the East. Kistemaker, Cantic. Cant, ex hierographia orient, illustr. p. 28, ss., gives examples from Persian literature. From the Arabic comp. the poem. Bordah, pub. by Uri, and by Von Rosenzweig under the title : Sparkling planets in praise of the best of creatures, (Mohammed) Vienna, 1824, and EbnFaredh in De Sacy's Chrestora, and the Journ. As. The Turkish poem : Giilgiil and Blilbiil, that is, Rose and Nightingale, pub. and trans, by Von Hammer, Leipzig, 1834, concludes with "an ex- planation of the secret sense, which is contained in this sad his- toi'y and lamentable narrative for the mystics," beginning with the words : " Thou who seest these leaves, take not as a fable that which now comes from the fable, the instruction (moral) at length follows the fable." In the books of Scripture, the re- presentation of the relation of God or Christ to the people of the Old and New Testament under this image, is very common. The germ of the representation is found even in the Penta- teuch, comp. my Beitr. P. ii. p. 48, ss. It meets us in the most extended form in the Song : see the proof for the correctness of the general interpretation of that book in theEv. K. Z. 1827, p. 177, ss. General agreements are found in Isa. liv. 5 ; Ixii. 4, 5. Jer. iii. 1. Hos. i. — iii. Ez. xvi., xxiii. Matth, ix. 15 ; xxii., XXV. John iii. 29. Rom. vii. 4. 2 Cor. xi. 2. Eph. v. 27, 32. Rev. xix. 7; xxi. 2; xxii. 17. Finally, for the representation of Israel under the image of a wife of the first rank, and the heathen nations under the image of wives of an inferior stand- ing, the relations of Solomon's time, as appears especially from 1 Kings, chap. iii. and xi. presented the substratum. Besides the wife of the first rank, the daughter of the king of Egypt, Solomon had also a great multitude of outlandish women, in whom the poetic vision could easily discern the types of the nations to be some time reigned over by Solomon's great suc- cessor, as in him also it discerned the type of this successor.
126 THE BOOK OF PSALMS
By such wives were these nations first represented in Jerusa- lem.
The arguments against the Messianic exposition have already been refuted in Christol. I. p. 123, ss. Nothing new since then has been advanced.
For the composition of the Psalm in the time of Solomon, there is the fact, that the relations of that time form the basis of the representation, and then, the near relationship it holds to Psalm Ixxii. which appears to have been the forerunner and occasion of this, as Psalm Ixiii. of Psalm xlii. and xliii, ; Psalm Ix. of Psalm xliv, : also its relation in another aspect to the Canticles.
To the chief musician, upon lilies, of the sons of Korah, an instruction^ a song of the beloved ones, (PL) The inscription to the chief musician, indicates that the Psalm was designed for employment in God's service ; and hence, that it possesses a sacred character — opposing at the very threshold, every profane interpretation, and demanding that we penetrate from the shell into the kernel of the Psalm. Then follow four designations which make two pairs, each pointing at once to the form and to the nature, the one rising from the form to the nature, the other descending from the nature to the form. The Psalm employs itself on lilies, beautiful virgins, lovely brides, but it is composed by the sons of Korah, ministers of the sanctuary, whose song can have, not an earthly, but a heavenly love for its object. The song is an instruction ; it bears a didactic character, pre- scribes for the spiritual life, so that the loved ones of whom it sings, could be those only of a heavenly bridegroom. — As V^'^'^ and J^i^ elsewhere occurs in the sense of lilies, so we can only translate CJ^SJ^ 7^, upon lilies. The current exposition : After the manner of a song, or upon an instrument named lilies, are manifestly but indications of embarrassment. That we must here, and in the analogous superscriptions of Psalms Ix., Ixix., Ixxx., strike out an entirely new way of explanation, is clear a- lone from the remark of Ewald, Poet. B. I. p. 174 ; " evidently dark words, if people ask for anything like a tolerable sense." We take the lilies as a figurative description of the lovely virgins, whose marriage with the king the Psalmist celebrates. 1. In a large number of Psalms the object of the Psalm is introduced in the superscription by 7^ or ^^{, and indeed for the most part
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PSALM XLV. 127
in figurative enigmatical terms ; and the reference to the object, in designations of the kind almost uniformly approves itself as the correct one, wliere a reference has been supposed to lie to the melody, or to some instrument. So Psalms xxii., liii., and Ixxxviii., (comp. introd. to Psalm xiv.) Ivi., v. : comp. also Hab. iii. 1, (see introd. to Psalm vii.) 2. This exposition is supported by the ninnS the loved ones, which corresponds to " the lilies," according to this exposition, and is to be regarded as its expla- nation, precisely as in Psalm Ix. the figurative lilies is explained by the hteral statement that follows. So too, in the Psalm itself, with " the king's daughters," and " the honourable," in ver. 9, " the virgins" in ver, 14. 3. In the Canticles, the cha- racter of which is so nearly related to our Psalm, not only do the lilies appear in general as an image of what is lovely, chap. v. 13: " his lips are lilies," iv. 5; vi, 2, 3 ; vii. 3 (comp. Hosea xiv. 5,) but the bride is specially designated by this name. She calls herself in chap. ii. 1, "a lily of the valley," and the lover says of her, in chap. ii. 2, " as a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters." 4. In the other Psalms, the super- scriptions of which make mention of lilies, the reference to the loveliness of the object sung of, everywhere approves itself as the right one. Comp. on Psalm Ix. etc. — As ^'^'2'^12> instruction, comp. on Psalm xxxii. our Psalm gives itself to be formally re- cognized in ver. 10 — 12. The exhortation: " forget thy peo- ple and thy father''8 house :" — " 0 man, how dost thou not un- derstand and go to meet thy king, who humbles himself so much to come to thee, and so faithfully interests himself in thee! Do but receive him now with joy, provide for him an access to thy heart, that he may enter into thy mind, and that thou may- est enjoy his goodness," — this discovers itself to be the proper kernel of the Psalm, and all besides serves merely a preparatory part. The words : HIT'T' '^^ can only be rendered : a song of the beloved ones, a song, whose object are the loved, — comp. 'y\i^ with the object following in Ps. xxx. The loved are the lilies, the king's daughters, and honourable in ver. 9, the virgins, who according to ver. 1 4, were brought to the king. The designation corresponds to our Br aut- lied {x\u^ticA song), only thatitalludes to the number of the brides ; a song for a simple marriage would be TTW 1^^- This allusion at the very threshold to a number of brides, which presents an insuperable barrier in the way of a literal interpretation, is so fatal to the advocates of this, that
128 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
they seek by sacrifices to get rid of it. The greater part, among the last Hofmann, would explain HIT'T' • lovely things. On the other hand, Clauss has already pressed the objection, that no analogy is to be found in the superscriptions of such a boastful note of excellence, and Ewald, that such a combination of words, song of lovely things, for lovely song, may be sought in prose. We remark, besides, that by this exposition the al- ready produced parallel passages in the Psalm itself are left with- out attention, that 'T»T' is always used in the sense of beloved, never in that of lovely, not even in the passage Ps. Ixxxiv. 1, (that we must there keep the common signification of beloved, is clear from the very next verse). Ewald (Poet. B. I. p. 29), and others expound : love-song, a song of the love kind. But ^''T* is never, as its form also might lead us to expect, used as a sub- stantive. Even n^TT* ii^ Jer. xii. 7, signifies only love in the sense of, the beloved. — It is still to be remarked, that ^H** and ^*T'*I^ after the example, and on the ground of Deut. xxxiii. 12, is put as a designation of those, who are loved of the Lord ; Solomon, according to 2 Sam. xii. 25, bore the name of Jedi- diah : " and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord," comp. in ver. 24, " the Lord loved him ;" Jcdidah, the loved (of the liOrd), was ^he name of the mother of Josiah, according to 2 Kings xxii. 1, see Gesen. Thes. If the word, therefore, was commonly used of holy love, the right view was not far to
Ver. 1. 3Iy heart boils ivith good words, I speak : my ivorks to the Jcing, my tongue a style of a quick writer. This is the in- troduction. The expression : my works to the king, forms the centre. A consequence of this is the goodness of the word, which is directed upon the glory of the object, and that the tongue must resemble the style of a quick writer. The exalted subject fills the Psalmist with animation, so that he has no need to seek for words, but they flow in upon him of themselves and flow out again. K^H*!? to boil, points to the internal excitement and fulness. It belongs to verbs of fulness, and on this account has the accusative with it, Ew. § 484. John Arnd : "Now mark and learn here the new heart of the faithful, in which Christ dwells through faith, and which is so full of Christ the Lord that it runs over like a fountain, and cannot be silent, it must break forth." The expression : my works to the king, is to be taken as an exclamation, as also the third member, comp. Ew.
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PSALM XLV. VER. I, 2. 129
§ 585. The *Tr7Jb in prose would have the article, — compare upon the want of the article in poetry, Ew. § 533. We must not explain : my works, by : my poem. For this signification is entirely without proof, the plural is then extraordinary, and the common signification is proved by this, that the works ac- cording to the common trilogy, stand here beside the heart and the tongue. Hence the meaning can only be : to the ser- vice of the king must all my doing be consecrated. But this, from the connection, is certainly said with special respect to the work, which the Psalmist had now in hand. y7\'l2 is always hastening. The sig. active, expert, is not proved by any of the passages brought in support of it. Ezra derived his name, " the quick writer," Ez. vii. 6, after the Jewish custom, from this pas- sage. The view of several of the older expositors, according to which the writer must be the Holy Spirit, the words an explan- ation regarding the inspiration, has been in vain revived by Stier. Ezra already understood by the writer, a scribe, otherwise he would never have supposed himself at liberty to appropriate the name.
Ver. 2. The praise of the king begins. Thou art the most beautiful among the children of men, grace was poured upon thy lips, therefore God blesses thee for ever. Against the supposi- tion, that n''3''fi'' is a form with reduplication of the two first radicals, it is to be objected, that such forms elsewhere do not occur. The easiest method is, with Schultens, to take the form as standing for fl'^S'* ''3\ prop, thou art beautifulness beautiful, for, thou art perfectly beautiful. For this explanation, which is far more natural, than that struck out by Ewald, § 256, many ana- logies can be produced, comp. Ew. § 486. The beauty here, since it is described, in what follows, as the ground of the divine blessing, cannot be simply outward beauty, but only, the expression and image of spiritual perfection, which the poet, like the painter, sees so exactly in this mirror, comp. what is said in the poem Bordah, v. 39, of Mohammed, with Rosenzweig's remarks. Here the extolling of the beauty was favoured by the particular design of the Psalm. That the beauty is throughout beauty of expression, is implied in the second member. The grace, which is here specially ascribed to the lips, is manifestly but a reflec- tion of the loveliness of the speech, which streams from the lips, and parallel are 1 Kings x. 8, where the Queen of Sheba says to Solomon : " Happy are thy men, happy these thy servants, who
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130 THE BOOK OF P8ALM3.
Stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom," and Luke iv. 22 : " And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gra- cious words (sCT ToTi Xoyoig r^g %«g""os,) which proceeded out of his mouth," — in which passage there is a very pointed reference to this verse. The p 7^^, many expositors, because they cannot comprehend how the beauty should be the reason of the bless- ing, take in the sig. of because; but it means always without exception, therefore, comp. Winer, s. v., and unquestionably oc- curs in that signification in ver. 7 and 17. Then, with the ren- dering because, the for ever appears also unsuitable. By com- paring ver. 7 and 17, we shall have to refer the blessing, which God imparts to the king, specially to the enlargement of his dominion. Thus also ver. 3 — 5 join fitly in.
Ver. 3, Gird thy sword on thy thigh, O hero, thy majesty and thy glory. Ver. 4. And in this thy glory ride on victoriously, because of truth and meekness-righteousness, and thy right hand will teach thee terribleness. Ver. 5. Thine arrows are sharp, peoples fall under thee, they pierce the heart of the ene- mies of the king. It is here represented how the king appro- priates to himself the blessing, which God imparts to him on ac- count of his grace, by his heroic virtue, glory, and majesty. The imperatives have prophetic import. The Psalmist calls upon the king to do that, which he shall surely perform. This is clear from the connection, as in what precedes and follows, it is not wishes that are contained, but declarations on the glory of the king, also from the circumstance, that the discourse, after having begun with imper. proceeds with fut. : shall teach thee, shall fall. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, as one does in the prospect of warlike undertakings, comp. 1 Sam. xxv. 13. Thy majesty and thy glory stand in apposition to: thy sword. Many expositors render : thy ornament and thy comely dress. But the usage decides against this rendering. y\T\ (from miH to praise, prop, praise; the signification turgor, vigor, which Gesen. in many places adopts, and on the ground of which he rejects this so natural derivation, and prefers another much more re- mote, is in no place well founded), and *Tiri, glory, so united, are the common designation of the divine glory, Ps. xcvi. 6, civ. 1, cxi. 3, Job xl. 10, and of the reflection of the same in earthly kings, — comp. on Ps. viii, 6. and Ps. xxi. 5, where it is said of the Davidic race, " his glory is great through thy salvation, honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him." IIH also alone, is fre-
PSALM XLV. VER. 3 — 5. 131
qucntly used of divine and kingly majesty, corap. 1 Chron. xxix. 25 : " And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Isreal, and bestowed upon him royal majesty, Tin r\)d7t2> which had not been on any king before him in Israel," Dan. xi. 21. On account of this very apposition, we might take the sword figuratively : the glory and majesty, the spiritual sword of the hero, with which he subdues the peoples. But the analogy of the arrows in ver. 5 is against this. It only re- mains, therefore, for us to suppose that the sword of the hero- king is, indeed, a proper sword, but that the Psalmist, viewing it with the eyes of the spirit, sees in it a symbol of his glory and majesty, so that these (viz. the glory and majesty) are, as it were, girded with the sword, which they use and manifest them- selves thereby. The sword, spiritually considered, is everywhere as the man is, who bears it. That which is materially alike, as- sumes to the spiritual eye a quite different aspect. The subject of the verse becomes concentrated in the name El Gibbor, God- hero, which Isaiah ch. ix. 5, ascribes to the Messiah ; the glory and majesty corresponds to the El. Under the image of a mighty hero bringing the peoples under him, the Messiah also appears in. Ps. ex. 5, ss. Of New Testament scripture we are to compare Rev. i. 16, where the sword has the same import as here, and Rev. xix. 15, " And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he might smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron," comp. ver. 21, ii. 12. — In ver. 4, the term : thy glory, is emphatically repeated, in order to indicate, that this is what affords the sure pledge of a prosperous issue. We can take the word either as nomin. absol.: and thy glory — may it be prosperous, proceed onwards ; or as accus. : and in respect to thy glory, comp. Ew. § 483. n?^* not to press through, not to break up, not to fall upon, not to spring up, not to impose ; of its ascertained meanings there is only one : to have suc- cess, to be prosperous, comp. Isa. liii. 10, which is applicable here. PI^IJ is to be closely connected with yy^ : may be prosperous, go forward, for, proceed prosperously, victoriously, comp. Ew. § 539. ^2^, of the king, who goes to battle in a chariot, also in 1 Kings xxii. 34, 35, is used as here abso- lutely, without naming the chariot, for ex. in 2 Kings ix. 16. The ^lil 7y in this connection signifies constantly on account of, and for this reason alone we cannot suppose, that 7^ marks the seat, which the king as^cends. HDN always means truth,
132 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
never faithfulness. Upon HliJ^, humility, then the meekness and gentleness springing from humility, comp. on Ps. xviii. 35. p1^"ri1jy cannot be regarded as asynd. : meekness and right- eousness. Against this there is the Makkeph and the form n*ljy> instead of the more common 11*1^^, according to Stier's just remark, a middle formation between stat. constr. and absol. The two words form rather a kind of nom. compos. But meek- ness-righteousness is not righteousness coupled with meekness, or tempered by it — such a contrast between righteousness and meekness is quite foreign to the Old Testament usage — but righteousness, which primarily and chiefly manifests itself in meekness. Meekness is the kernel of righteousness. Comp. Zeph. ii. 3: " Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the land, who do his judgment, seek righteousness, seek meekness," where the meek are those, who do the judgment of the Lord, and where the striving after righteousness manifests itself first of all in a striving after meekness. The expression : on account of truth, etc. cannot indicate the properties of the king, on account of which he deserves victory, for then H?^ must have stood after i^l- It rather means as much as, for the truth, which stands opposed to deceit and lies, comp. Hos. iv. 1, Isa. lix. 14, 15, for the good of him who possesses it, for the support and salvation of the truthful, the meek, the righteous ; Luther right in the main : to maintain the truth aright, and the poor in their cause. Exactly parallel are Ps. Ixii. 4, " He shall judge the poor of the people, save the sons of the needy, and break in pieces the op- pressor," comp. V. 12, Isa. xi. 4, " And he judges with righteous- ness the poor, and performs equity and justice for the meek of the land, and smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he slays the wicked." — In ver. 5 we must supply to, under thee : thou who comest with thine arrows upon them. Since then : under thee, is as much as, under thine arrows, we can have no difficulty in supplying arroius in the last member, and there is no reason for so constrained an interpre- tation as that of De Wctte (thy sharp arrows — peoples sink at thy feet — pierce the heart of the enemies of the king,) and of Hitzig: thy strong arrows, thou, under whom the peoples fall, stick in the heart of the enemies of the king — against which, besides the want of the article in CJIi^i', (comp. Ew. § 537, who here, however, concedes more than ought to be conceded,) there is the circumstance, that so trailing a period is intolerable in a
PSALM XLV. VER. 6. 133
song of such raciness. " The enemies of the king," is a dignifi- ed expression for thy enemies. The idea in the verse is : the glory of the king, who secures for himself glorious results in the conflict for truth and righteousness, provides for him an easy- conquest over his enemies. Arnd : " In this we have the glo- rious consolation, that our king fights for us, pierces the hearts of his enemies with arrows, so that they must be frightened and appalled, but the heart of faith he governs softly, gently, and affectionately."
Ver. 6. Thy throne, O God, remains for ever and ever, a sceptre of equity is the sceptre of thy kingdom. The perpetual continuance of the dominion in the first member, and its inter- nal character in the second, stand in the closest connection with each other. They are related to one another as cause to effect, comp. Isa. ix. 7 : " that he (the Messiah) may establish and set- tle it by judgment and righteousness, from henceforth even for ever." The Messianic expositors take Elohim as the vocative, 0 God, in unison with : 0 hero, in ver. 3. That this exposition must be one that most readily and naturally occurs, appears even from the fact, that all the old translators, with whom also concurs the Ep. to the Hebrews, express the vocative. The non- Messianic expositors at first adopted this view likewise, and al- leged, that the name Elohim might be used of judges, kings, etc. But since this opinion has been found untenable, (comp. against it, for example, Gesen. on Isa. ix. 5, and in the Thes. I. p. 98, Christol. p. 118, ss.) they have felt it necessary to resort to another mode of exposition. But they have not been able to bring forward anything grammatically tenable. Several render : thy God-throne, i. e. thy throne committed to thee by God, stands forever, while they suppose a stat. constr. interrupt- ed by a suff. The only passage in which such a stat. constr. really appears to have place, is Lev. xxvi. 42, where ^p^^ TlH^. my Jacob's covenant, stands for, my covenant with Jacob. But this passage, even apart from the circumstance, that the exposi- tion is not quite certain, (Ewald, § 406, takes the ^ not as suff., but as the ancient external mark of the stat. constr.) presents on this account no suitable analogy, because in it the violation of the general rule, according to which, the suff. in the stat. constr. can only be appended to the second noun, is justified by this, that there that is a proper name, and hence is capable of no suff., while here the second noun bears an appellative character,
134 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and therefore both can and must receive the sufF. Hofmajin, in- deed, maintains, that the Elohim in this Psalm, as also elsewhere in those of the Korahites, has the nature of a proper name, and stands precisely for Jehovah, and therefore could receive no sufF.; but, on the other hand, we have only to cast a glance at the 'l''n7X in the immediately following verse. Elohim is everywhere used in the Korahite Psalms in no other way, than it is throughout the whole of the Old Testament. The alleged analogies, which Maurer still brings forward, vanish at once on nearer inspection. In Psalm Ixxi, 7, T^ '•DPl/b is not : my refuge of strength, but the i^ is loosely appended to "•DMDj my refuge, strength, which is strength, or strong. The same holds of 2 Sam. xxii. 33, Ez. xvi. 27, Lam. iv. 17. — Others expound: thy throne is God's throne. So Ew. § 547, and Gesenius, who, however, vacillates in uncertainty between this and the first rendering, and prefers sometimes the one, and sometimes the other, (comp. besides Thes. p. 1036,) which itself is no mark of a satisfied exegetical conscience. But there has not been produced a single well established example, where the just named subject in stat. constr. is repeated in thought at the same time as part of the predicate. For the W Vri'lT'p (Ew.) is not a case in point. It is not to be translated : his walls are walls of wood, but : his walls are wood. According to this analogy, we must, taking the Elohim as predicate, translate here : thy throne is (wholly) God, which gives no sense. Only to this also does the analogy of ver. 8 lead, (Ew.) There it does not indeed mean : myrrh, etc. are of thi/ garments, but are thy garments, they consist, as it were, entirely of it, are simply myrrh. In the Song i. 15, (Gesen.) we are to translate : thine eyes are doves, what doves are as to their eyes, not (eyes) of doves. So that the construction of Elohim as vocat. is the only one which can be grammatically justified. For removing the objection raised against it by Ewald, that the " for ever and ever" is always a mere accompaniment, never itself a predicate, Psalm Ixxxix. 36, is alone sufiicient. — With the expression : " thy throne remains for ever and ever," is to be compared the original passage, 2 Sam. vii. 13, " I establish the throne of his kingdom even to eternity," and ver. 16, '• And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne shall be established for ever," and the parallel passage of the whole house of David, of the ideal son of David, Psalm Ixxxis.
PSALM XLV. VER. 6, 7. 135
4, 36, 37, " his seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me ; as the moon it shall be established for ever," Psalms xxi. 4, xviii. 50, Ixi. 6, 7, cxxxii. 12 ; and of the Messiah, in whom the stem of David was to culminate, Psalm Ixxii. 5, " They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations," Psalm ex. 4, and Isa. ix. 6. By comparing these original and parallel passages, from which it is impossible to separate this, it follows: 1. That the reference is inadmissible to a heathen, or to an Israelitish king, or any refe- rence to a particular human individual of the royal house of Judah, as they shew, that the " for ever and ever" must be taken in the strict sense. 2. That the DTl7i< is vocative. In both the original passage and the parallel passages, the subject of dis- course is the eternity of the throne, or the dominion in itself, not the precise constitution of this. — On the second member, the parallel passage, Isa, xi. 4, is to be compared. Tl^''22. prop, ivory, is found, besides there and here, only in Psalm Ixvii. 4, in a moral sense.
From the praise of the glorious king, the Psalmist now passes on to the theme of the royal marriage, for the celebration of which that praise was only to serve as introductory and pre- paratory.
Ver. 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness, there- fore, O God, has thy God anointed thee with the oil of joy above thy companions. By means of the words : Thou lovest right- eousness, etc., the beginning of the second part joins itself close- ly to the termination of the first, in which the righteousness of the kingly government was celebrated. This connection also, particularly the therefore, shows that the first part does not stand independent of the first, but serves as its foundation. Grammatically the rendering : God, thy God, has anointed thee, would have nothing opposed to it, comp. Ps. xliii, 4, etc. But if we compare ver, 6, where the Elohira is in the vocat, we must so construe also here, the more so, as the Elohim at the beginning of the second part corresponds with visible intention to the Elohim at the close of the first. By this significant posi- tion of the Elohim, we are made to see, that it governs the whole. It was customary to anoint with oil on joyful occasions, hence to anoint any one with oil, is for, to impart joy to him. The further designation of the oil as oil of joy, has respect to this, that the Psalmist, among the different kinds of anointing,
136 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
has that specially in his eye; corap. Is. Ixi. 1, where the oil of joy stands opposed to mourning. That here the discourse is not of the joy in general, which God gave to the king, but, in particular, of the joy which accrued to him from the great num- ber of the glorious brides that God brought to him, of his joy " in the day of his espousals, in the day of the gladness of his heart," Song iii. 11, appears from the next verse, in the first mem- ber of which it is represented, how the joy of the king mani- fests itself, and, in the second, whence it springs : it comes from the palaces of ivory, in which are the king's daughters. The expression : above thy companions, i. e. all other kings, is to be explained from 1 Kings iii. 11 — 13, where God says to Solomon: " I give thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee, before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. — And also I give thee riches and honour, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days," comp, 2 Chron. i. 12. — If it is certain that the joy of the king is no other, than what arises from his possession of the brides, the non-Messianic interpretation necessarily comes into a great strait. The possession of a numerous harem is a rare recompense for the love of righteousness and the hatred of wickedness. On the other hand, the therefore appears deeply grounded, according to the Messianic exposition, in which the brides re-prosent peoples, comp. Ps. Ixxii. 12, ss., " for he delivers the poor that cries," etc., with ver. 8 — 11, where the extension of Messiah's dominion over all nations is set forth.
Ver. 8. Myrrh, aloes, and cassia, are all thy garments y out of palaces of ivory , from which they rejoice thee. The garments of the king are simple myrrh, etc., they smell as sweetly of the precious spices, as if they were wholly made of these. It is self-evident, that the discourse here is of the king's garments in the day of the joy of his heart. The connection shews this in- contestably, and the possession of fine-smelling clothes was in itself too unimportant to be here particularly mentioned ; every kingdom could provide that for itself. Palaces of ivory, i. e- such as had their chambers ornamented with ivory, appear to have been the common dwellings of kings and great men, comp. be- sides 1 Kings xxii. 39, according to which Ahab is said to dwell in such a palace, Amos iii. 15, " houses of ivory shall perish," vi. 4, Song vii. 4, " Thy neck is as a tower of ivory." We may see from these passages, with what right Hitzig would find in
PSALM XLV. VER. 8. 137
the mention of the palaces of ivory, an undoubted proof of the reference of the Psalm to Ahab. This appears so much the more arbitrary, as here it is not one palace of ivory, but palaces that are spoken of. The passage, Amos iii. 15, Hitzig endea- vours to get rid of by the remark, that Amos spoke at Bethel, and knew Samaria probably by mere hearsay ! — The ivory pala- ces are here the dwelling-places of the king's daughters, ver. 9. — As ^J)^ so often occurs in the Psalms as the prep. \f2 with the so-called '• parag. comp. xliv. 10, 18 ; Ixviii. 31, etc., Ewald. § 211, b, we must take it so here also, if it should be found suitable. We obtain a very natural and fitting sense, if we consider it as an expressive repetition of p before '•t'^TI, which is properly to be supplied again after the "^^^ : out of the ivory palaces, therefrom they rejoice thee, etc. : the joy, of which I speak, comp. ver. 7, comes to thee from no other place, etc. Exactly analogous is Isa. lix. 18: ^^^'< 7^^ rhf2^ '^^D, according to their gifts, accordingly he will recompense. Hofmann, taking the same grammatical view of '>^^, translates : more than the ivory palaces, yea more than these do they (the garments) re- joice thee. But thereby the reference of the expression, " they rejoice thee," to the oil of joy in ver. 7, is left without notice, an undue importance is attached to the clothing, the whole verse is torn from its connection, etc. The now current exposition is: out of ivory palaces stringed instruments rejoice thee. CJJ3 in this sense, Ps. cl. 4. But this is liable to the following ob- jections. 1. The Hebrew language does not know a plural end- ing in \ The examples, which, according still to Ew. § 359. must " certainly belong to such," all vanish on a nearer inspec- tion. The i!2]} in 2 Sam. xxii. 44, signifies, not peoples, but my people, comp. vol. i. p. 320. So also in Lam. iii. 14. In 1 Sam. XX, 38, the Ketib is not to be pointed with Ewald "'5fn, but ''^;^ comp. ver. 36 and 37. ^SJ'^StJ^ in 2 Sam. xxiii. 8, is sing,, as h^l, foot-goer, for, foot-people. Ewald himself at an earlier period denied this ending. Small Gr. § 296. 2. The reference, which : they rejoice thee, has to the oil of joy in ver. 8, is also against this rendering. It destroys the intermediate member between the oil of joy, and the king's daughters. Then, by this construction we must, instead of : frotn palaces, rather have expected: in palaces. Finally, if we understand the words generally of the musical joy, which the king partook of, then the sense is a truly childish one,— Tjiin^b is best taken inde-
138 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
terminatelj : one rejoices thee, thou art rejoiced. The more exact description of those, from whom the joy comes, follows in the next verse : they are the daughters of kings, whom the king takes home from the ivory palaces.
Ver. 9. Daughters of Hugs are among thy honourables, the consort stands at thy right hand in gold of Ophir. What is said here figuratively is repeated in plain terms in Ps. Ixxii. 8 — 11, the sum of which is declared at the close in the words : " all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him." Comp. also Ps. xlvii. 8, 9, according to which the nobles of all the heathen gather themselves to the people of the God of Jacob. "T|'*rii*lp''^j an Aramaic form for "TJ''r\il|5''!3, compare Ewald, § 464, with Dag. Euphon,, is not : among thy dear ones, in the sense of beloved, but in the sense of: among thy glori- ous ones. For *np'» signifies only dear = precious, glorious, compare Prov. iii. 15, vi. 26. This signification also is, accord- ing to the whole context, to be adhered to in the only passage beside this, which Gesenius brings forward for the meaning, beloved, Lam. iv. 2. To the idea of pomp and glory points also the second member : splendid are all the consorts, the most splendid is the consort of first rank. Against the meaning we adopt, Stier objects: " who then were the others, that belonged to the wedding party, since all have been named ?" But the '2, denotes the class to which the brides belonged: if there were no more of them, more at least might be thought of. Quite analogous, for example, is this: " the Lord is among my help- ers," in Ps. cxviii. 7, comp. liv. 4, Judg. xi. 35. Many, after Luther expound: daughters of kings are in thy ornaments, in thy jewels, clothed therein, Hllp"' being probably taken in this signification in Zech. xiv. 6, comp. Christol. in loc. But it is not to be supposed, that the king's daughters, whom the king for the first time, leads away from the palaces of ivory, would be clothed by him even before the marriage, as that would be against the custom of all nations, and especially of the orientals. — hy^, used in Dan. v. 2, 3, and Neh. ii. 6, of the Chaldee and Persian queens, is the rare and unusual designation of a consort of the first rank, which, as being such, poetry peculiarly appro- priates to itself. The native appellation, nTi^< was still in common use in the age of Jeremiah, compare Jer. xxix. 2, xiii. 18. She is here named consort, who ought to be so. The place on the right hand is the plncc of honour. The ro)-al
PSALM XLV. VER. iO. 139
bride takes this place in the house of her father, com- pare ver. 10, his ivory palace, ver. 8, whence the king, according to the oriental custom, (I Mace. ix. 37, ss.), has come to conduct her away, and where even the festive procession is arranged. The Psalmist then delivers to her in ver. 10 — 12, a kind of mournful address, admonishing her, while she is going to leave outwardly her father's house, to do so also inwardly, with her inclination, and then begins the procession to the palace of the king. Gold of Ophir was already in David's time known in Jerusalem, compare against Hitzig, 1 Chron. xxix. 4, under Solomon it came thence in great abundance.
Ver. 10. Hear daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people, and thy father's house. The Psalmist now addresses the bride, of whom he had hitherto spoken. What is said immediately to the bride, is substantially spoken also to other brides. According to the current exposition, the Psalmist must address the bride as his daughter. So understood, this address serves for confirmation of the figurative interpretation of the Psalm. Hofmann indeed thinks, that this address is un- suitable in the figurative, not less than in the literal interpreta- tion. But he overlooks, that in an ideal relation a description corresponding to the nature of things may be perfectly appro- priate, which is shut out as improper by the laws established for the relations of common reality. But we can also convenient- ly suppose, that the daughter stands here for king's daughter, or that the Psalmist so addresses the royal daughter, because she must now pass from the relation of a daughter into that of a consort. For this speaks the " king's daughters," in ver. 9, the " king's daughter," in ver. 13, and especially " the house of thy father," here. What the daughter must hear, see, (HX*! also of spiritual seeing.) and to which she must incline her ear, is the exhortation of the Psalmist : however, as the ") before ^H^^ shews, primarily this only in the general ; hear what I shall say, and forget. The repeated calls for attention imply, that the Psalm- isthassomethingimportantand difficulttoaskof the queen. Solo- mon's wives plainly violated the demand pressed also upon them, to forget their people and their fathers' house : of them it is said in 1 Kings xi. 4, " it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods." — The v word : forget, etc. carries a very significant reference to Gen. j xii. 1, where God said to Abraham, " Get thee out of thy country '
140 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee." This call, which was then addressed to the father of the race, is given anew to the people. Berleb. Bible: " If we could only sail away over these rocks, we would soon come in sight of the city of God." There is perhaps a re- ference besides to Gen. ii. 24.
Ver. 11. And cause that the king shall have desire toward thy beauty, he is thy Lord, and thou must worship him. Many expound : and so will the king desire ; others : he desires not- withstanding. But by this exposition justice is done neither to the fut. apoc, nor to the for. We must rather expound : let the king sigh after thy beauty, give him occasion to do this by forgetting thy people and thy father's house, — throw no hin- drance in his way regarding it, by not fulfilling this indispen- sable condition of his love to thee. The for, etc., points to the ground of obligation for the required conduct. She must entire- ly live for the satisfaction of her lord, who desires of her the forgetting of her people and her father's house. On the words • for he is thy Lord, comp. Gen. iii. 16, xviii. 12 ; 1 Pet. iii. 5, 6 ; and on : worship thou him, 1 Sam. xxv. 41 ; 1 Kings i. 16, 31.
Ver. 12. So will the daughter Tyre implore thee ivith gifts, the rich among the people. Luther : " Hold thy bridegroom in honour, and thou shalt be in honour among all people, for he is so very powerful." The " daughter Tyre," for the city of Tyre, with a reference not to be mistaken to the daughter in verse 10, contains a clear indication, that under the latter, an ideal person, a personification, is to be understood. That we must not explain : the daughter of Tyre, but : the daughter Tyre, is evident from what \vas formerly remarked on Psalm ix. 14. We are especially to compare : the virgin daughter Sidon, Isa. xxiii. 12. The construction Hi with the plural presents no difficulty as to the sense. The verb hSI always signifies to be weak, sick ; in Pi. with the exception of the phrase used here, to make weak, sick ; in Pu. to be made feeble, sick. Therefore H?!! C»J£5 can only mean, to make weak, to soften the countenance, to intreat so beseechingly, that the other cannot reject the suppliant, and cannot show himself hard. The exposition of Gesenius, verbally unfounded : to stroke the countenance, has this also against it, that the phrase commonly occurs of Jehovah. The object of the earnest entreaty is reception into the community of the people of God, comp. Isa. xliv. 5, Psalm xlvii. 9. That Tyre should seek to gain the favour of
PSALM XLV. VER. 12. 141
the queen with fervent supplication and presents, in order to gain the favour of the queen, and to make her inclined to fulfil her desire, is inexplicable on the literal interpretation. The proud island-city never stood in a relation of dependance to Israel; she alvi^ays held it to be beneath her dignity to make a humble suit for his favour: Israel's king and queen had nothing which she could have sought from them with imploring eai-nestness. In this view also, one does not see how the humble solicitations could be made dependant on the place the queen had in the heart of the king. On the other hand, every difficulty vanishes with the figurative in- terpretation. Only when the church of God really occupies the position of^ the church of God, can prayer be directed to her for reception into her society. The church exercises a drawing power toward those that are without, in exact proportion to her own in- ternal connection with the Lord. Her surrender to the Lord forms the ground of the heathen's surrender to her. According to other passages also, the church of God, in Messianic times, is the object of earnest desire, as generally of the whole heathen world, which brings its riches to her, comp. Ps. Ixxii. 10, Isa. Ix. 6, ss.. Hag. ii. 7, 8, so in particular of proud Tyre ; in the like- wise Korahite Psalm Ixxxvii. Tyre, ver. 4, is expressly named among other powerful nations for reception into the kingdom of God, and according to Isa. xxiii. 18, the gain of Tyre shall one day become holy to the Lord. — Q^ n'*SJ^>^. as apposition to "1^ ni> wot the rich of the peoples, but of the people, or among the people, q. d. the richest persons, indicates why it is, that precisely Tyre's solicitations for favour are promised to the queen, viz. that she is singled out of the mass of the other hea- then nations, whose homage is promised to the queen in and with hers, only as being the richest city of the old world, comp. in regard to the riches of Tyre, Isa. xxiii., Ez. xxvii. — The ex- position of Hitzig is quite different from the one now given : And, O daughter of Tyre, with presents the rich of the people flatter thee. It has already been objected against this by others, that there is great harshness in taking *1^^ HI with the prefixed copula as vocative, that the queen's (Jezabel) much richer native city is thus brought to remembrance with special emphasis in the most unsuitable place, and that ^^ HI is too universal a designa- tion of the city itself, for our understanding by it a Tyrian princess. We add further, that the reference pre-supposed in this exposi- tion, to the marriage of Ahab and Jezabel, has against it the
142 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
name of the Korahites in the superscription, since these had no connection with the kingdom of the ten tribes ; that in a verse, in which the discourse is of rich gifts and rich people, that ex- position has the presumption in its favour, by which the bringers of the rich gifts, and the rich people, are the Tyrians, whose riches were proverbial ; and finally, that the produced parallel passages are in favour of the exposition we have given. Hence, that view of Hitzig may be regarded as entirely exploded.
After the Psalmist has finished his address, which found a full response in the heart of the bride, the procession advances from the house of the bride's father, into the palace of the king.
Ver. 13. All splendour is the king's daughter within, her cloth- ing of gold fabric. T]^''^^ always means inwards, in respect to the within, in the interioi", comp. Lev. x. 18, 1 Kings vi. 18, 2 Kings vii. 11, never into, (Ew.), nor also in any other than a local sense, (against Kohlbriigge and Stier, who think, that the glory of the queen is thereby indicated as a hidden, spiritual one.) It can only mean : in the interior of the palace, where the king stands on her right hand, ver. 9, parallel to: out of the ivory palaces, in ver. 8, and forming the contrast to : she is brought to the king, in ver. 14, they come into the palace of the king, in ver. 15.
Ver. 14. In variously wrought garments she is brought to the. king, virgins behind her, her companions, are brought to thee. The 7 in Hllbp^? marks the kind, to which the garments of the queen belong, to variegated, hence that they belong to the variegated. Somewhat differently Ew. § 520. As the clothing was already described in the preceding verse, many expositors would render : upon variegated coverings, or carpets, with refe- rence to Matt. xxi. 8, and what interpreters, for ex. Kuinoel. liave there collected. However, the beginning of our verse can very fitly be taken as the resumption of the close of the preced- ing one, serving the purpose of making it manifest, that the splendour of the queen is that of a wedding. The march of the king was described in verse 8, on the occasion of his coming to the bride, the march of the queen is described here, on the oc- casion of her coming to the king. As the king conducts away the bride, comp. verse 9, the expression : she is brought to the king, can only signify as much as : she is brought into the pa- lace of the king, comp. verse 15. The exposition : behind her
PSALM XLV. VKK. 15— IG. 143
points to the precedence held by the bride over the brides ; the designation : her companions, to the essential similarity, so that she still appears, as also in the N. T., as the first among equals.
Ver, 15. They are brought in joy and gladness, they come in- to the palace of the king.
Then follows now, in verses 16 and 17, the closing address to the king.
Ver. 16. Instead of thy fathers shall he thy sons, thou wilt set them as princes over the whole earth. This verse rests upon the custom of wishing to the married pair a numerous and mighty offspring, comp. Gen. xxiv. 60, Ruth iv. 11, 12. What in com- mon relations can appear merely as a wish, assumes here the character of a prophecy. The sense of the first clause : thy glorious forefathers, David, Solomon, and their successors, shall be cast into the shade by thy still more glorious sons, and re- tire into the back-ground before them, comp. Isa. Ix. 17. Of what sort these sons are to be, is determined by the nature of the connection, from which they are produced: they axe spiri- tual sons. In the second clause, the relations of the Psalmist's time appear to form the ground of the representation. Solo- mon had divided his land, according to 1 Kings iv. 7, into twelve departments, and, according to 2 Sam. viii. 18, David appointed his sons as sub-regents. A similar plan was adopted by Ileho- boam, 2 Chron. xi. 23. As the fathers of the king did with their limited territory, so will this king do with the whole earth. The naked idea is expressed in Ps. Ixxii. 11 : all kings will do ho- mage to thee. — In order to oppose the Messianic exposition, Hof- mann would again revive the rendering of V'^xn S^l by : in the whole land. " The poet had nothing farther in his mind, than that the king will have sons enough, so as merely to dis- pose them everywhere in the land, in which he holds the high- est oflace." Already has De Wette described this exposition as prosaic, and, indeed, the conclusion would form a rare contrast to the whole elevated subject of the Psalm, so rare, that we might more truly call such an exposition ridiculous. The refe- rence to the king's glorious march of victory, ver. 3 — 5, is thereby left entirely out of view, so also verse 12, according to which Tyre stands in a relation of subservience to the king, and verse 17, according to which the peoples praise him. There is no choice, therefore, but between the Messianic exposition, and De Wette's " hyperbolical flattery."
144 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver. 7. / will proclaim thy name among all generations, therefore shall peoples praise thee for ever and ever. The expres- sion : I will proclaim, is spoken by the Psalmist, not as an indi- vidual, but as a representative of the evangelists. He carries the praise no farther, than simply announcing the name of the Lord, his glorious attributes. By these remarks, and only by these, is the therefore capable of explanation.
PSALM XLVL
This is " a fine consolatory Psalm, wherein God's marvellous working is praised, as he protects his little flock of believers, and preserves them through such great necessities of war and persecutions, that it might seem as if the world was going to wreck," Arnd. The theme, the security of the kingdom of God in the midst of those storms, which shake the world, is distri- buted into three strophes, which are also externally separated by the thrice repeated Selah, ver. 1 — 3, 4 — 7, 8 — 11. The fundamental idea uttered at the commencement : God is our re- fuge and strength, returns, with only a slight change of form, at the end of the second and the third strophe, and consequent- ly of the whole Psalm, so that the close refers back to the be- ginning. From the last strophe : " Come, behold the works of the Lord, who eifects desolation on the earth," it is clear, that the fundamental idea of the Psalm had been made living to the Psalmist by some particular historical occasion, which he ex- pressly refers to in the third strophe, after he bad in the two first confined himself alone to the everlasting idea, rising up thereto from its particular developement.
The historical occasion of the Psalm cannot with certainty be determined. It was called forth by a catastrophe, which befel the kingdom of Judah, (comp. in verse 8: come, behold the works of the Lord,) and has for its immediate object Judah's deliverance. Otherwise, the particular in the last strophe would not serve as a foundation for the generalin the two first strophes ; especially this : " God helps her at the break of morning," would not be comprehensible, as it pre-supposes a heavy oppression on Judah. The admonition also in verse 10: *' Leave off and know that I am God," has only then a motive laid for it, when the desolation effected upon the earth, verse 8,
PSALM XLVI. 145
and the cessation of war in verse 9, could be recognized by all as done in behalf of Israel's salvation; for only then was the fact a dissuasive for the heathen against fighting with Israel, a demonstrative proof of the godhead of his God. In like man- ner, it is then only that verse 11 appears as properly explained. But, at the same time, this catastrophe was an important event in the world's history, the annihilation of the power of a world- conqueror : with Judah the whole circle of the earth also is de- livered, in so far as it could be surveyed from Palestine, verse 9, and the Lord has thereby glorified himself through all the earth, verse 10. By observing these distinctive marks, hypotheses, such as those of De Wette, who thinks the Psalm refers to foreign wars, which God had silenced, and of Hitzig, who refers it to a sudden scaring of the Syrians and Ephraimites from the Jewish territory, are entirely set aside. In the whole Israel- itish history, there is only one event, of which we can here think, the destruction of Sennacherib's army before the gates of Jeru- salem, Isa. xxxvii. 36. That whole chapter and the xxxvi. must be read, if we would come to the full understanding and enjoy- ment of the Psalm. After the exodus from Egypt, there was no occasion more appropriate than this for bringing vividly out the leading idea in this Psalm. The entire might of the world, which, as formerly in Egypt, so then was concentrated in As- syria, the most powerful of kingdoms, up till that time resist- less in its march of conquest, came against Jerusalem. To the words : " Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying, the Lord will deliver us ; hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria ?" — there was an equally impressive answer given then, as formerly to the question of Pharaoh : Who is Jehovah ? When all seemed al- ready to be lost, the holy city was, by an immediate exercise of divine omnipotence, delivered, without any co-operation on the part of its feeble inhabitants, without even any interruption to the undertaking of the Assyrians from their chief enemies, the Egyptians. Then, when real greatness was great also in ap- pearance, when the power of the world had assumed a dazzling splendour, at such a time it was, that it was said to the posses- sors thereof, as is done here in ver. 10, " cease and know, that 1 am God." In expression also there occur allusions to what was spoken and written at that time. The Immanuel, which Isaiah, in ch. viii. 10, calls out to a blustering heathen world, while lifting itself up against the people of God, forms here the key
VOL. IL I,
146 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
note, com p. ver. 7 and 10. As Hezekiah, in Isa. xxxvii. 20, entreats God : " And now, 0 Lord, our God, deliver us out of his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know, that thou alone art the Lord," so here the Psalmist calls aloud to the heathen, after the prayer had been granted, " Know that I am God, exalted among the heathen, exalted upon earth." It is perhaps also not unworthy of notice, that the discourse here is only of the city of God, comp. ver. 4, 5. It was this, which was then at stake. All the other strong places had Sennacherib already taken away, Isa. xxxvi, 1, and Jerusalem alone remain- ed, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. — Besides, it is self- evident that the subject of the Psalm, upon which Luther's " Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott," rests, is no Old Testament idea. There is only one church of God through all ages, and to it this idea belongs. When Christ supports his church, the gates of hell may rage ; this is only the New Testament form for the general fundamental truth.
After Venema, Hitzig maintains Isaiah to be the author of the Psalm, on the ground, that it contains much in common with the prophecies of Isaiah in respect to the Assyrian times. But there might have been still more of this than there really is, (only the linmanuel is of any moment,) without at all invalidating the authority of the superscription, which expressly testifies against this hypothesis. A certain dependance of the holy Psalmist up- on the prophet, direct or indirect, is what might be expected beforehand.
If we include the superscription, the Psalm completes itself in the number twelve, which, as in the disposition of the camp in the wilderness, is distributed into three and four : three strophes of four verses.
In the superscription : To the chief musician of the sons of Korah, after the virgin-manner, a song, the T\yu7^ 7^ is accord- ing to 1 Chron. xv. 20, unquestionably to be taken as marking the kind of tone ; Gousset : vox clara et acuta, quasi virginum. Such musical designations occur verg rarely in the superscrip- tions, comp. Ps. vi. iv. viii.
Ver. 1. God is to us a refuge and strength^ a help in necessities is he found most truly. Ver. 2. Therefore we are not afraid, though the earth is changed, and the mountains shake in the heart of the sea. Ver. 3. Its waters roar, foam, mountains tremble
PSALM XLVI. VER. 1 — 3. 147
through its loftiness, Selah. The church of the Lord is secure with his protection, in the midst of the stormy commotions, by which what is most glorious in the world is given over to de- struction. What Hezekiah, according to 2 Chron. xxxii. 7, said to the captains of war, is in substance parallel, " Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him, for with us is a greater than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to fight our battles." NX/bJ not : he tvas, but he is found to us, he shows or proves himself to us. Calvin remarks, that ver. 1 refers not to all persons, but to all times ; the Psalmist teaches how God must conduct himself towards his own, places God's chosen people in opposition to the profane world, which is left destitute of any such support. — In ver. 2, *)^J^ri is not to be changed, still less to shake, but it is used in its common signification, to change. The infinitive stands impers., as in Ps. xlii. 3, Ez. xxiii. 44, Job XX. 4, Ex. ix. 16 ; though one changes, for, though is changed. This use of the infin. was the more natural here, as ^)f2 is used only in this conjugation. The change of the earth, which comes into consideration here, according to ver. 6, as the seat of the earthly kingdom, marks great revolutions, through which its form is altered, what is uppermost is turned into the lowermost. The authors of the change are the nations in search of conquest, according to ver. 3, " through its loftiness," and ver. 6, " the peoples rage ;" but, according to the words, " he utters his voice, the earth melts," the last and highest cause is the Lord, comp. Hag. ii. 21, 22, " Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah : I shake the heavens and the earth, and overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen." Such a change of the earth had taken place in the recent past, when Assyria, the rod of his anger and the staff of his indignation, " removed the bounds of the people, and robbed their trea- sures, and put down the inhabitants like a valiant man," Isa. X. 13. That the sea and the mountains are to be taken figura- tively, appears alone from the form of expression, (the natural mountains are not in the heart, i. e. in the innermost of the sea ; the exposition : and the mountains sink into the middle of the sea, is verbally inadmissible ; for tDH signifies only to shake, and must be taken in its common signification, were it only for
148 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ver. 5 and 6) ; appears further from ver. 3, the suffixes iti which, referring as they do to the sea, cannot bo otherwise explained, from the contrast between the still flood and the roaring sea in ver. 4, and from the words, " the peoples rage, the kingdoms shake," in ver. 6, by which the explanation is given of " the mountains shaking in the heart of the sea." Now what is to be understood by the mountains admits of no doubt. They are a figurative description of empires, comp. on Ps. xxx. 7, Rev. viii. 8, and Isa. xxxvii. 24, where the king of Assyria says : " I as- cend the height of the mountains, the sides of Lebanon ;" comp. the enumeration of the conquered kingdoms = the ascended mountains, in ver. 11 — 13, x. 9. Seas and overflowing floods are not rarely an image of hostile masses of people, which take de- light in making conquests over the face of the earth, comp. Isa. xvii. 12, viii. 7, 8, Jer. xlvii. 2, xlvi. 7. But the image cannot have this import here. For here the mountains, the conquered kingdoms, are in the heart of the sea. Here the sea is rather the symbol of the world, the masses of people generally, which are kept in constant motion by their principle — pride, ambition, comp. Isa. Ivii. 20 : " the wicked are like a troubled sea." The proper parallels here are Isa. xxvii. 1 , according to which Baby- lon is a monster in the sea, Dan. vii. 2, 3, " the four winds strove with each other on the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea," Rev. viii. 8, and xvii. 15, where, in explanation of the symbol of the whore, who sits upon many waters, i. e. rules over many nations, it is said : The waters, which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and na- tions, and tongues." The mountains in the heart of the sea de- note the mightiest kingdoms of the world. — The suffixes in ver. 3 are to be referred to the sea, which is plural only as to form. Instead of the inf. with '2 the sentence is carried forward with the verb. fin. The sea is conceived of as in constant motion. Even mountains are not able to withstand its raging. But the city of God must not be afraid. HX^ stands here in its usual signification, pride, haughtiness, comp. CD**!! niX)l Ps. Ixxxix. 9. The raging of the sea is here described the more fitly as loftiness, since the discourse is of the spiritual sea, the world, which is kept in perpetual agitation by the prevalence of that pride ; comp. the delineation of the loftiness of the king of Assyria iu Isa. X. 12, ss.
PSALM XLVI. VER. 4 — 7. 149
Ver. 4. The River — its streams rejoice the city of God, holy through the dwellings of the Most High. Vcr. 5. God is in the midst of her, therefore ivill she not move, God helps her at the break of morning. Vcr. G. The peoples roar, kingdoms shake, he makes his voice to resound, the earth melts. Ver. 7. The Lord, the Lord of hosts is with us, our strong fortress the God of Jacob. Selah. In opposition to the raging and destroying sea stands the quiet and soft-flowing, refreshing and quickening river. The contrast to the figurative sea, and the fact, that Je- rusalem possesses no river, (in vain would the literally historical ex])ositors perpetually think here anew of the brook Siloah, which at the most could only have suggested the image, comp. Isa. viii. G), show, that the discourse here is of a spiritual river. The blessings of the kingdom of God, his royal graces, appear under the image of a river, resting upon Gen. ii. 10, (comp. on Ps. xxxvi. 8), in a w'hole series of passages, Ps. xxxvi. 8, John iv. 18, Ez. xlvii., Zech. xiv. 8, E.ev. xxii. 1, " And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." ^H^? the num. absol. The Psalmist first sets forth the whole, because this forms a suitable contrast to the sea. He then mentions the particular streams, in order to draw attention to the manifold ways, in which God makes his grace flow out to the church. In Zech. iv. the number of pipes to the candlestick, seven for each of the seven lamps, points in like manner to the variety of ways, in which the grace of God flows out to his church, as also to its richness, comp. Christol. II. p. 57. Here the royal graces are primarily thought of in refe- rence to the dangers, to which the city of God was exposed on the part of an ambitious world, although we must not confine the application entirely to these. The dwellings of God are, accord- ing to the standing usage, the temple. But the holy of the dwellings of the Most Higli, from being in apposition to the city of God, and from the following verse, can only be the holy city. We must either expound : the place, which is holy through the dwellings of the Most High, or the holy place, where the dwell- ings of the Most High are. t^)1p, the holy = the holy place, (comp. Ex. xxix. 31, Lev. vi. 9, 19), occurs also at Ps. Ixv. 4, and perhaps Isa. Ivii. 15. Calvin : " The sentiment of Horace on the just man : si fractus illabatur orbis, imj)avidum fcrient ruinae, appears excellent at first sight. But as such a person as he draws has never been found, he merely trifles. This greatness of soul,
150 THE BOOK OF PSALMS
on the other hand, is based solely on the protection of God, and on the promises which he has made to his own people, and in this way easily overcomes the terror which threatens de- struction to all creatures. Happy those, who have passed out of the territory of the sea into that of the river ! — The ex- pression : God is in the midst of her, in ver. 5, holds true of the church of the New Testament, unspeakably more than of the Old, as God is present with her in the fullest sense in Christ. npl riliS?, lit. : about the turning of the morning ; the n^S here, to turn one's self, for the purpose of coming. That we are not to expound with Hitzig : as often as the morning breaks, but rather : as soon as the morning breaks, ap- pears from the original passage in Ex. xiv. 27 : " And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared," comp. Judges xix. 26, and the exact paral. Ps. xxx. 5, " weeping may endure for a night, but joy Cometh in the morning," Ps. xlix. 14, cxliii. 8. Distress with the Lord's people can have only, as it were, a night's quar- ters. Whenever the morning breaks, the Lord drives it from its resting-place, and sends another, an abiding guest, salvation. There is probably an allusion to the overthrow of the As- syrians. Then, in reality, did there stand but one night be- tween the highest pitch of distress and the most complete deliverance, comp. Isa. xvii. 14 : " And behold at evening-tide trouble, before the morning comes, it is no more," xxxvii. 36 • " And they arose in the morning, and lo ! they were all dead corpses." — Ver. 6 and 7 form a contrast. Ver. 6 represents the dissolving of the world, ver. 7, the security of the kingdom of God. The whole earth is in uproar and confusion, peoples rage, kingdoms reel ; but that God, who decrees for them a spiritual earthquake, is the protection and help of his people, so that they stand firm and secure amid the general desolation. That the pret. *l^ri and ItOtt are to be taken in the pres. sense, appears from the fut. ^IJjn. and the wliole context, in which the discourse is not of a single event, but of what is constantly taking place. On : the peoples roar, comp. Isa. xvii. 12, " Hear, a roaring of many peoples, as the roaring of the sea they roar," Jer. v. 22. In the second half of ver. 6, according to the cur- rent exposition, the stilling of the peoples' uproar must be ex- pressed : De Wette : " Jehovah commands quiet, and man
PSALM XLVI. VER. 4 — 11. 151
obeys;" Tholuck : " Let the God of Jacob utter his voice, and however fiercely the peoples roar, they must be dumb." But this exposition is quite inadmissible. y\^ does not signify to be afraidy (De Wette,) nor to be dumb, but to melt, and the melt- ing of the earth everywhere else denotes the dissolving effect of the divine judgments, comp. Ps, Ixxv. 3, " The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved," Amos ix. 5. Immediately be- fore goes the expression, " they shake," not, " they roar ;" the voice, therefore, cannot be a silencing, but a frightening, dissolv- ing, destroying one. The whole verse is rather parallel to ver. 2 and 3, and the contrast is not contained in it, but first appears in ver. 7. In its second part the idea suggested is, that it is the Lord that is the ultimate cause of the roaring of the peoples, as of the shaking of the kingdoms; and the ground is, consequently, prepared for the reception of the seed of promise in ver. 7. Though the Lord should let the people roar, his people must not tremble before them, as it stands unalterably fast, that he can help them. Comp., besides. Hag. ii. 21, 22. l7lpl jHiD- prop. : he gives with his voice, is to be explained in this way, that the giving, according to the connection, is as much as, giving a sound, edere sonum. So also in Fs. Ixviii. 33. — The names of God in ver. 7, indicate, at once, his almightiness, and his relation to his covenant people. Calvin : " That our faith may stand fast in God, these two things must be considered, namely, the infinite power with which he is provided for sub- jecting the whole world, then his fatherly love, which he has disclosed in his word." On the Selah the Berleb. Bible : " Lay this once more deeply to heart in quiet, that it may be firmly rooted." Arnd : " Because of the sins of the people earthly kingdoms are changed, as experience teaches ; therefore the mighty kingdoms of the world, the four empires, are passed away, and Christ has, at the same time, preserved his word and kingdom."
The Psalm turns now, in the last strophe, from unlimited con- fidence in God's protection and help, to the event of the recent past, which laid so glorious a foundation for this confidence. Ver. 8. Come, behold the works of the Lord, who makes desola- tion on the earth. Ver. 9. Who silences wars to the ends of the earth, breaks bow, and cuts spears asunder, burns chariot with fire. Ver. 10. Cease and know, that I am God, exalted among the heathen, exalted on the earth. Ver. 11. The Lord, the Lord
152 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of hosts is ivith us, our fortress the God of Jacob. Selah. In the, come, behold, in ver. 8, the Psalmist calls to all without distinction. VIJ^l, not in the land, but, as the following context shows, on the earth. On the earth, because the de- solation concerns the powers of the world, which hold under their sway the orbis terrarum, comp. " to the end of the earth," in ver. 9, and " the whole earth is at rest and quiet," in Isa. xiv. 7. The expression may also have a reference to the iact, that the God of Israel does not conceal himself, shut him- self up in the heavens, but makes known his almightiness on the earth, by the overthrow of mighty peoples, so that all can behold in his works the proofs of his alone godhead. For pl^^J' the sense of desolation is established by Isa. v. 9, xiii. 9, xxiv. 12, comp. Jer. xxv. 12. The sig, adopted by Ewald, stupenda, rests on no foundation. That the desolation must have for its ob- ject those, who had raised themselves against the people of God, and threatened to swallow them up, has been already remarked. For nirT" in many critical helps is found DTl^JC- But the former has by far the preponderance on its side of critical au- thorities, and the Elohim, not justified even by Ps. Ixvi, 5, in the smaller number of these, is capable of explanation on the same grounds, which make our modern critics so much inclined to that reading, the fact of the Elohim being so common in the Korahite Psalms of the second book. Jehovah is here far more suitable, as every thing has respect precisely to the point, that the works here mentioned belonged to the God of Israel, and as here the experimental proof is brought in support of the immedi- ately preceding declaration : Jehovah, the God of Jacob, is withus. From what Jehovah has done, the proof is broughtin ver. 10, that he is God, Elohim, — The means, by which God silences ivar to the end of the earth, ver.9, is the overthrow of the wild conquerors and tyrannical lords, comp. the triumphal song, raised on the same grounds as existed here in reference to Assyria, over the pride of the king of Babylon in Isa. xiv. where, among other things, it is said : " How does the oppressor rest, cease from his oppression! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers. The whole earth rests and is quiet, breaks forth into singing." The bows, arrotvs, chariots, are those of the plunderers. These are rendered as incapable of prosecuting their devastations, or even of preserving what they had won, as if their implements of war were destroyed. The active opera-
PSALM XLVIl. 153
tion, which the Lord here unfolds, is an earnest of that which he will manifest at the end of time, comp. Isa. ii. 4, Mic. iv. 3. That the destruction of the conqueror, who is here spoken of, must necessarily have taken place under such circumstances as those of Assyria, so that the hand of Jehovah could not be over- looked, we shewed before, comp. 2 Chron. xxxii. 23, "And many brought gifts to the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah, king of Judah, and he was magnified in the eyes of all heathen henceforth." — In ver. 10 the Lord directs his speech to the peoples of the earth. Cease not in regard to war at large — for in this case the reason given is not a suitable one, — but from war against my j^eojyle, which, as the foregoing fact shews, is a contest of feebleness against omnipotence, ruinous to those who undertake it. On the last words John Arnd : " How, then, could we have a stronger support ? If only our support does not depart from us, we may say, as Joshua and Caleb did of the heathen, fear ye not, they are as bread to us, for their support has departed from them. If God remains our support, what then can man do to us with all their mi<!;ht !"
PSALM XLVIL
All the nations of the earth are called upon to unite in joyful praise to the Lord, ver. 1, because he is terrible, and the al- mighty ruler of the whole earth, ver. 2, according to the clear testimony of the events that had just taken place, the victory which he had accomplished for his people over many enemies, the protection which he afforded to his endangered laiid, ver. 3, 4. The Lord returns, after he had successfully managed the affairs of his people, to his heavenly habitation : the Psalmist exhorts to the singing of praises to him on his ascent, as to the king of the whole earth, who had manifested himself as such, ver. 5—7. God reigns over the heathen, God sits upon his holy throne, this the occurz'ent transaction teaches, and thereby ob- tains for the Psalmist a prophetic import : he sees how the princes of the peoples assemble, in order to acknowledge God, as their God, and to have themselves received into his church, ver. 8 and 9,
The Psalm falls into two equal strophes (including the super-
154 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
scription), which are separated by a Selah, ver, 1 — 4, and 5 — 9. Both contain a call to praise the Lord, with its grounding. In the first, this call is addressed to the heathen, in the second, to Israel. In the second, there is appended, besides, a general conclusion. The whole is completed in the number ten. The name Elohim occurs seven times.
The occasion of the Psalm was, according to verse 3, an over- throw of several heathen peoples, accomplished by the visible in- terposition of God, who had leagued themselves against Israel, and who, according to verse 4, had set out with the purpose of expelling Israel from his land. If we keep in view these distinc- tive marks, we shall easily be convinced of the untenableness of the hypothesis of Ewald, according to which the Psalm belongs to the time after the return from the exile, and must represent Jehovah's sovereignty going out of Zion to the conversion of the heathen, (verse 3 manifestly speaks of a constrained subjection, to which also the terrible points in verse 2), as also that of Hitzig, who refers it to the victory of Hezekiah over the Philistines, 2 Kings xviii. 8, — to say nothing of older hypotheses, which refer- red the Psalm to the occasion of removing the ark of the cove- nant in the time of David or Solomon, or even to the ascension of Christ. The only thing that suggests itself as a fit reference is the victory of Jehoshaphat over the combined Moabites, Am- monites, Edomites, and Arabians, in 2 Chron. xx. Several na- tions were then united agahist Israel ; they were set upon no- thing less than driving Israel wholly out of his land, comp. 2 Chron. xx. 11 ; the overthrow of the enemies followed under circumstances, which caused the hand of God to be clearly dis- cerned. Surprised by an attack in the rear from a host of free- booting sons of the wilderness, the enemies fled in a j^anic, and as the spirit of mistrust fell upon them, and each people thought itself betrayed by the other, they turned their arms one against another. So Israel obtained a victory without a battle. The reference to that event is favoured by the circumstance that then, according to 2 Chron. xx. 1 9, the Korahites are expressly mentioned as having been present in the army, that the imme- diately following Psalm refers to the same event, as also Psalm Ixxxiii. (these three Psalms perfectly suffice for a defence of 2 Chron, xx. against the attacks of modern criticism), finally, that on this supposition we obtain a suitable situation for verse 5, from 2 Chron. xx. 26, " On the fourth day they assembled them-
PSALM XLVII. VER. 1 4. 155
selves together, in the valley of praise, for there they praised the Lord." Before the people left the field of slaughter, to re- turn back to Jerusalem, they held a solemn service in that val- ley of praise : from that valley God made as it were, his ascent to heaven, after having achieved redemption for his people. As the army returned into the holy city, so the leader of the host re- turned to heaven. This Psalm was sung in the valley of praise, as the following one in the service of the temple. — The objection a- gainst the reference to the victory of Jehoshaphat, that then the ark of the covenant was not in the field, as here according to verse 5, would have some force, if verse 5 really presupposed the presence of the ark. For notwithstanding all that Movers says upon the Chron. p. 289, there is not a single passage that certainly bespeaks the presence of the ark with the host, after the time of David. But verse 5, rightly understood, says no- thins: of the ark of the covenant.
To the chief musician, of the sons ofKorah, a Psalm. Ver. 1. Exult vnth hands all peoples, shout to God with jubilee-voice. Ver. 2. For the Lord, the Most High, is terrible, a great King over all the earth. Ver. 3. He subdues jjeoples under us, and nations under our feet. Ver. 4. He chooses our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. Selah. The clapping of the hands in verse 1 is a gesture of joy, Nah. iii. 19, comp. Ps. xcviii. 8, Isa. Iv. 12. They must exult to the Lord with heart, mouth, and hands. Of homage there is no trace ; this is only dragged in by Stier. The ground of joy to the heathen is an- nounced in ver. 2 — 4. In the victory which Israel had just gained, the glory of the Lord manifested itself, and since he is the God of the whole earth, this glory belongs also to the hea- then. What was done primarily for Israel, must be a just occa- sion of living joy for the whole world. For even those, to whom immediately it brings no salvation, have still therein a matter-of-fact promtse of this, a pledge of their obtaining it in the time to come. While it shews the greatness of God, it shews also what they may expect from this God in the future. The call of the Psalmist could certainly not be responded to by the heathen at that time, just because they were still heathen. But while he declares what they properly ought to do, he stirs up all the more powerfully the heart of Israel to praise. Simi- lar calls to the heathen, to praise the Lord on account of his wonderful doings for Israel, are found also in Psalm Ixvi. and
156 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ps. cxvii. The original passage is Deut. xxxii. 43 : " Rejoice ye nations, rejoice his people, for he avenges the hlood of his servants '' comp, on Ps. xviii. 49. — In ver. 2, the Psahnist points to the attributes of the Lord, which justify the call to the hea- then to praise him. Then in ver. 3 and 4 he brings forward the proof of these attributes from his doings. Terrible — so has God shewn himself in the destruction of the enemies of his people, comp. Ps. Ixviii. 35. He has proved himself to be a great king over the whole earth, as opposed merely to being king of Israel, by the victory over huge masses of people, who threatened to de- vour Israel. — Ver. 3 and 4 might of themselves be referred to the active operation of God, as appearing in the whole history, in con- quering the enemies of his people, and preserving his inheritance. ■ — But ver. 5 sliews, that the question is about a ^^ar^icwZar act of God, and indeed one that had recently occurred, in which the truth declared in ver. 2, furnishing an occasion for triumphant joy to the heathen, had now brilliantly shone forth. " The friendly sense," maintained by Stier in 3, is excluded by I'^nn, to drive, to subdue one's self, which imports a violent subjuga- tion, by a comp. of the parall. pass. Ps. xviii. 47 : " The God, that avengeth rae, and subdueth the peoples under me," (comp. on, "under our feet" of the second member, "they fall under my feet," in Ps. xviii. 38,) and by the terrible in ver. 2, the proof oi which is given in the verse before us. Calvin's objection, re- peated by Stier, against the exposition we have given, that we cannot suppose persons, who had been constrained to serve by fear and violence, would exult with joy, is obviated by the re- mark, that the peoples here are different from those in ver. 1, — there the whole heathen world, here the particular peoples, whom Israel conquered, — and that a bitter shell can very easily conceal a sweet kernel. Hoiu far the victory over Israel should be the object of joy to the peoples, is expressly declared in ver. 2. It is not the particular event in itself — this was either a matter of indifference to the peoples, or the occasion of ruin — but the gen- eral truth unfolded in that particular event, viz., the proof for the being of God in the full sense which that event furnished, to the joy of every human heart which longed for help, consolation, and salvation. — If in ver. 4 the discourse is simply of the inheritance of Jacob, we can only understand by that tlie holy land, which is frequently so described, comp. Isa. Iviii. 14, Deut. iv. 38, xv. 4, etc.: and it is arbitrary with Stier and others, upon the ground
rSALM XLVII, VER. 4—9. 157
of a false meaning of ver. 3, to think of the promised " fuhicss of the gentiles," which can just as little, without any thing fur ther, be designated as the pride of Jacob. This can only mark a preference, which Israel already enjoyed. Against this expo- sition also is the 'HH^j which, according to it, must mean, he will give us. The sense of the first member is simply this : God has by his conduct distinctly shewn, that the holy land, the inheri- tance of his people, lies near to his heart, just because it is the inheritance of his people. The expression : he chooses, is to be explained by considering the inheritance as chosen, as it were anew, when a signal proof is given of the choice, xh denotes those, out of love to whom the choice of the inheritance is made. In the second member, the inheritance of the Lord is epexegetically described as the pride of Jacob, that of which Jacob might be proud, corap. Nab. ii. 3, Am. vi. 8, because it had been rendered glorious by so many proofs of the might and grace of his God, which Amos himself, in chap. viii. 7, designates the pride of Israel, his glorious possession. The expression, " whom he loves," indicates what was merely implied in the us of the first member, that the preference the Lord gives to the land, has its ground in love to the people. If this were not parall. we could still refer the ^^^ to the pride, by comp. Am. vi. 8, and Ps. Ixxviii. 68. But so, Mai. i, 2 is rather to be comp. The verse stands in close connection with the preceding one. The vanquishing of the peoples, which would drive Israel out of his inheritance, comp. 2 Chron. xx. 11, is that which forms the con- dition of the choosing = the delivering of the inheritance.
Ver. 5. God goes up with rejoicing, the I^ord with the sound of a trumpet. Ver. 6. Sing praise to God, sing praise, sing praise to our king, sing praise. Ver. 7. For king of the whole earth is God, sing a song with edification. Ver. 8. God reigns over the heathen, God sits upon his holy throne. Ver. 9. The princes of the peoples are gathered together to the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth are God's, he is greathj exalted. That in ver. 5, the going up of God to heaven, is his return to his heavenly throne, his invisible procession to heaven, which takes place after he had displayed on earth by outward deeds his almightiness and love, and carried there the interests of his people, as a prelude to the ascension of Christ, appears from ver. 8, and the comparison of all other passages, in which the going up of God is mentioned, Gen. xvii. 22, Judg.
158 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
xiii. 20, Ps. vii. 7, and especially Ps. Ixyiii. 18, which, having a typical reference to the ascension of Christ in the New Testa- ment, has at the same time an important bearing on our verse. The call to praise the Lord on his ascension to heaven is based in ver. 7 on the circumstance, that he, the king of Israel, has, by the very deeds of his almightiness, shewn himself to be king over all the earth. On 7^^2J^D comp. on Ps. xxxii. super. Every song in praise of God, on account of his glorious deeds, con- tains a rich treasure of instruction and improvement. Here the instruction which should be drawn out of the foregoing deeds, is expressly declared. It is this, that God is king over the whole earth, that he reigns over the heathen, that these shall also sometime own his sovereignty. This general truth is parti- cularly set forth in the two closing verses, as the special lesson of the particular transactions. The holy throne of God is as much as, " the throne high and lifted up," in Isa. vi. 1, comp. on the idea of holiness in Ps. xxii. 3. The consequence of God's sitting on the throne of his holiness, is his universal sovereignty, comp. Ps. ciii. 19, " The Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all," Isa. Ixvi. 1. — In ver. 9 the Dy is to be taken as accus., as it is commonly with verbs of gesture and motion, comp. Ew. § 477. This idea is con- tained in the expression : they gather themselves. To gather themselves = to come gathered. With a poet, we certainly can- not regard this accusative as " somewhat hard." We are not, with others, to explain: the princes of the people are gathered as a people of God. For DH^iJ*? ^'Tw^ D^j cannot mean one, but only the people of the God of Abraham ; neither can the princes be called a people, and after the conversion of the heathen there is not properly several peoples of God, but there is everyvi'here only one people, into which the converted heathen are received. The Psalmist beholds the future as the present, which many ex- positors, from failing to perceive, have lost themselves. He prepai'es for himself, from the manifestation of Israel's true godhead, which he has before his eyes, a ladder by which he first rises up to this true godhead, and then ascends to the recognition of it over the whole earth. He sees, how the heathen princes hasten, that they may be received among the people of the Lord, comp. in the Korahite Psalm Ixxxvii. 4, Zech. ix. 7, and the Christol. there. The designation of God as the God of Abraham, points, as appears, to the promise of blessing on all
PSALM XLVIII. 159
peoples. — The words: for the shields, etc., resume the subject of verse 8. God is the rightful Lord of all the mighty ones, and this his right, which has been impaired by their blind rebel- lion, must be again re-established. Nature must force for itself a way through what is against nature, comp. on Ps. xxii. 28. The Princes are called the shields of the earth, as protectors of their people, comp. Hos. iv. 18.
PSALM XLVIIL
We have here also a song of praise to the Lord after the de- liverance of the people of God from great danger. Before the Psalmist refers to the particular proof of the divine favour, he points to the general relation to Israel, out of which this iavour sprung. He celebrates in verse 1 — 3, the dignity and elevation of Jerusalem as the city of God. Then ho turns him- self in 4 — 8 to the transaction, in which this dignity and eleva- tion had presently discovered itself. Hostile kings had assem- bled against Jerusalem, but scarcely had they looked at the city, when they hastened away from it in anxious flight. This fact, in which the history of the olden time again revived, connects the present state of God's people with the past. The second part of the Psalm, separated from the first by a Selah, begins, in ver. 9—11, with joyful thanks for this dehverance. Then in ver. 12 — 14 is addressed the call to proclaim the matter to pos- terity. For this purpose the city must be exactly surveyed in all its parts, so that it may be understood how the enemies were ISO utterly powerless against it, how not a hair of it, in a manner, was turned.
Expositors take as the historical occasion of the Psalm, either the victory of Jehoshaphat, (so in particular Movers on the Chron. p. Ill, ss.) or the deliverance from the Assyrians under Hezekiah. To the latter hypothesis, it is to be objected, 1. That the discourse here is of many independent kings, who had leagued themselves in a common undertaking against Jerusalem. It is nothing to allege, on the other hand, the saying of the king of Assyria, in Isa. x. 8, " Are not all my princes kings?" For that here the discourse is not of such, as possibly once were called kings, appears from liyiJ in ver. 4, as also from the fact, that here it is always kings that are spoken of, never a king of
IGO THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
kings. We never find it thus in the numerous passages which refer to the Assyrians. 2. That here the discourse is of troubled flicjlit, not of utter destruction. On the other hand, every thing is in perfect accordance with the victory of Jehoshaphat. Then in reality, several kings were gathered together against Jerusa- lem. They came into the immediate neighbourhood of the city, into the wilderness of Tekoa, which is certainly not further than a journey of three hours from Jerusalem, which commands an extensive prospect, and in particular of the environs of Jerusa- lem,— comp. Robinson, P. ii. p. 407 ; (upon the march of the Moabites and Ammonites, comp. ih. p. 426). Their anxious and troubled flight is described quite similarly in the Chronicles. With: " We think, 0 Lord, on thy loving-kindness in the midst of thy temple," in ver. 9 here, which bespeaks tlie Psalm to have been sung as a song of praise in the temple, as the preceding one on the field of slaughter, comp. 2 Chron. xx. 27, " All Judah and Jerusalem returned, and Jehoshaphat in the fore front of them, back to Jerusalem with joy : and they came to Jerusalem with harps, and cytharas, and trumpets to the house of the Lord." A special reference to Jehoshaphat's time is also found in ver. 7. The omnipotence with which the Lord destroys the enemies, is there placed beside that, with which he breaks the ships of Tarshish. The occasion that gave rise to this compari- son is recorded in 1 Kings xxii. 49, 2 Chron. xx. 36, 37. Je- hoshaphat had united with Ahaziah in getting ships of mer- cliandize, but the ships were wrecked, I'Hi^J. The internal connection between the two events was the greater, as in that annihilation of the ships of Tarshish, there was discerned, ac- cording to 2 Chronicles, a judgment of God.
In the superscription, A song of praise, of the children oj Korah, (comp. 2 Chron. xx. 19.) T't^, as always, when it stands absolutely in the superscription of the Psalms, has the sense of
Ver. 1. Great is the Lord, and exceedingly glorious, in the city of our God, npon his holy mountain. Ver. 2. Beautiful by its elevation, the joy of the ivhole earth is Mount Zion, in the ex- treme north, the city of the great king. Ver. 3. God is in her palaces known as a refuge. On ver. 1, Calvin remarks : " As- suredly there is no corner so concealed but that God's wisdom, righteousness, and goodness, and his other attributes, penetrate
PSALM XLVIII. VER. 3. 161
into it. But because he desires that they should be especially visible to his church, so the Psalmist does not in vain hold this mirror before our eyes, in which God more vividly presents his image." Upon 77r\}2> pi'op. praised, then glorious, comp. on Psalm xyiii. 3. The words : his holy mountain, stand in appos. to : in the city of our God. The holy mountain was the centre of the city of God, and viewed spiritually, this stood wholly upon Zion. In the following verse, the city, for the same rea- son, is in appos. to the mountain. — The key for the exposition of ver. 2, is found in the remark, that the Psalmist describes not the external but the internal glory of Jerusalem, views it not with fleshly eyes, but with the eye of faith, speaks not as a geographer, but as a divine. That the a.'r. \iy. pjlJ signifies height, elevation, is generally admitted now. (The stat. constr. alone is quite decisive against Luther's: Mount Zion is like a beautiful little twig, after the Chal. where pl^lJ is taken for a twig.) Beautiful of the height, is q. d. beautiful in respect to height, or through its height. In the external height, the Psalmist dis- cerns the image of the spiritual; and it is only in this respect that the former is of any importance to him, comp. Ps. Ixviii. 16, where the outwardly high earthly mountains envy the spiritually high Zion on account of its elevation, Isa. ii. 2, Ez. xl. 2, Rev. xxi. 10, Matt. V. 14. Jerusalem is also called tliejoij of the whole earth in Lam. ii. 15, probably with reference to this Psalm. Jerusalem is so dear, especially when considered with the eye of the Spirit, that it may justly be reckoned the object of joy to the whole earth, comp. Ez. xvi. 14. — jlS^ ''^i'^^ prop, the extreme of the north, is to be taken as in appos. to |V^ ^H- The only legitimate exposition is that which proceeds from a comp. of Isa. xiv. 13, 14. There the mountain of the gods is described as situated in the fur- thest north, which, according to a representation far spread in the East, must rise out of the earth up to heaven, forming a sort of intermediate link between heaven and earth : comp. in Isa. : "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God," and this: " I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High," which will by no means permit us to regard the mountain of the gods as belonging merely to the earth, but rather proceeds on the supposition, that it rises from earth up to the highest heavens. What the hea- then dreamed of such a mountain, that Mount Zion was in reahty. Its foundation was on earth, its top in heaven. That we cannot here think of a geographical delineation, is clear
VOl. II. M
1G2 THE BOOK OF rSALMS.
from Ez. xxxviii. G, 15, xxxix. 2, where the furthest north pre- sents the contrast to the mountains of Israel. It is only figura- tively that Zion is called the extreme north, precisely as in Ez. V. 5, " This is Jerusalem, in the midst of the earth have I set her, and round about her are the lands," — according to the connection we can only think of a spiritual centre of the earth. That the heathenish representation of the mountain of the gods, in the extreme north, could not yet have been known in Israel under Jehoshaphat, is maintained without any solid reason. The exposition of Luther : On the side toward midnight lies the city of the great king, is, along with a number like it, disposed of by the remark, that QTl^*)^ always denotes the inmost and furthest of a thing, and specially T\tit ^fl^*)'' is everywhere : the extremity of the north. Against the exposition of De Wette and Gesenius : (the joy) of the whole earth,* we oppose the fact, that such a resumption of the stat. consti'. is without ex- ample, not occurring even in Job xxvi. 10, which Ew. quotes for it. The special naming of the extreme north after the whole earth would be unsuitable. — The words appended in apposition, " the city of the great king," point to that on which all the glorious predicates rest, which had been ascribed to Mount Zion in the preceding context. God is named tlie great king in op- position to the kings in ver. 4. — In ver. 3, yilJ is to be taken in its common signification, knoiun, comp. Psalm Ixxvi. 1. God is knoivn in the palaces of Jerusalem as a fortress, because he has proved himself to be to them as a fortress, comp. ver. 13.
Ver. 4. For, lo, the kings tvere assembled, they vanished alto- gether. Ver. 5. IViey saw, so they were astonished, were fright- ened, fled away. Ver. 6. IVenibling took hold on them there, anguish as a woman with child. Ver. 7. By the east ivind thou breakest the ships of Tarshish. Ver. 8. As ive heard, so lOe saiv in the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God : God establishes it forever. Selah. The commentary on 1'^yi^, prop, to be appointed, then to come togethei*, especially on the ground of an agreement, is given in Ps. Ixxxiii. 4 — 6. "H^y some would expound by approaching, but the impressive brevity is in favour of the sig. of vanishing aivay. — Upon the p without the pre-
* There seems to be some mistake in the original here, and I presume it should be, not: (the joy) of the whole earth, but; (the joy) of the extreme north. At the same time, this is not the rendering adopted by De Wette in ' that edition of his -work on the Psalms (the iii.) which is in my possession. — Trant.
PSALM XLVIII. VER. G — 11. 163
ceding ^^5^^ in ver. 5, see Ew, § 347, a. The object of the see- ing is without doubt the holy city. For its dignity and eleva- tion must certainly be pointed out. The veni, vidi, vici of Caesar is to be compared, and scarcely any expositor overlooks it. Upon TSri) to hasten for fear, in Niph. to be hastened, hastily and an- xiously to flee, comp. on Ps. xxxi. 22. — In ver. 7, from the live- liness of the affection the address is directed to God, as after- wards in ver. 9 — 11 throughout. The breaking of the ships of Tarshish is introduced here only as an individualizing descrip- tion of the almighty working of God, q. d, thine omnipotence, this the present event shews us, nothing can withstand, not even what is most lofty and glorious, — the ships of Tarshish are used as an individualizing example of this also in Isa. ii. 16. Against Koester, who, with a miserable historising interpre- tation, would refer the verse to the destruction of a fleet, which had supported the operations of the hostile sovereign, the fut. alone is decisive, the pret. being always used of the his- torical events in the preceding and subsequent context : — the same remark applies to Hitzig, according to whom the ships of Tarshish must be regarded as a proper description of the war- like force of the enemy. That great ships of burden generally are denoted by " ships of Tarshish," has been maintained with- outfoundation. — In ver. 7, the seeing, i.e.ihe personal experience, is opposed to the hearing^ i. e. to the knowledge of God's grace and power from the tradition of past times. Comp. Job xlii. 5, " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee," and the complaint regarding the contrast between the hearing and the seeing in Ps. xliv. In the church of God the .seeing is at all times bound up with the hearing which, every century, receives fresh materials. God never directs her alone to what he has done in former times. He demands faith in the past always only on the ground of vvhat he is doing at the present time. That we must not expound : at, but only : in the city, ap- jjears from ver. 1 and 3. The last member — not : he shall esta- bh'sh it, but, he establishes it — jioints to that which was borne witness to both by the past and by the present.. The expression : unto eternity, for ever, is only apparently contradicted by ex- perience. The Jerusalem that has been laid in ruins, is not that which the Psalmist means. It is only its lifeless corpse. Matt, v. 18 furnishes the canon, according to which all such declara- tions are to be judged.
Ver. 9. We think of thy grace, O God, in the midst of thy
164 THL BOOK OF PSAl-MS.
temple. Ver. 10. As thy name, God, so is thy j^rahe even to the ends of the earth, thy right hand is full of righteousness. Vcr. 11. Mount Zion rejoices, the daughters of Judah exult on account of thy judgments. From ver. 9 it is evident that the Psahn was sung as a song of thanks in the temple. In ver. 10 it is usually expounded : Wherever thy name is but knovi^n upon the whole earth, there also thy praise is known, thou art not like the idol- gods, which are mere names without deeds. But since, in Scrip- ture phraseology, the name of God never stands for the mere name, but rather for tlie name only as the product of the deeds, comp. on Ps. xxiii. 3, we must understand by the praise of God, the praise which he has now won for himself, q. d. as in former times thou hast by thy deeds obtained for thyself, and spread abroad far and wide, a glorious name, so hast thou now again filled the whole earth with thy praise. Exactly corre- sponding are the words : " As we heard, so we saw," in ver. 8. Comp. 2 Chron. xx, 29, " And the terror of God was on all the kingdoms of the countries, when they heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel." Therighteousnessof which, as experience has just shewn, the right hand of God is full, is the matter-of-fact justification, which he imparts to his own, comp. Ps. XXXV. 28. The daughters of Judah in ver. 11, are, ac- cording to the connection, the other cities of Judah, a phraseo- logy which had become so common, that it occurs even in the plainest prose, comp. Josh. xv. 45.
Ver. 12. Walk about Zion, and go round about her, number her toiuers. Ver. 13. Attend to her bulwarks, consider her /?a- laces, that you may tell it to the generation following. Ver. 14. For this God is our God for ever and ever, he guides us in dying. On the design of the call in ver. 12 and 13, comp. the introd. Such stability and glory after such moans as had been levelled at their destruction ! How must this survey tend to the glorifying of the God of Israel, and to the strengthening of faith ! 2^0 ''^nd t]'^pn occur in connection as in ver. 12, so also in Josh. vi. 3, 11. "'Tl, the outermost circumference of the
city, forms the contrast to the palaces in the interior. In the n, which is beyond doubt the suff., the Mappik is awanting. The ctT. >.iy. y^^ in Chal. to divide, divides, according to the con- nection : in the consideration, attention. Against the parall. many : ra7ige through. In ver. 14 the call, given in ver. 12 and 13, is referreji back to its ground. The deeds of such a God as the God of Israel, one must attentively consider and carefully
rSALM XLIX. 1G5
hand down to posterity, which has in them pledges of simiL-ir deliverances. This God, who has now done so great things for us. Tlie 7^ is not to be taken in the unascertained significa- tion above, but in the sig. at, comp. Gesen. Thes. p. 1027: at dy- ing i. q. when it comes to dying. Parallel are Ps. Ixviii. 20, " God is to us a God of deliverances, and the Lord frees us from death," Hab. i. 12, " My God and my Holy one, leave us not to die," Ps. xlix. 15, Ixxxv. 7. The discourse here is not of a blessed im- mortality, but only of deliverance from the dangers of death, cir- cumstances threatening the people of God with destruction. For changes in the text there is not the least occasion. Luther's trans. : he guides us as the youth, rests upon the reading already indicated by the Chal. H^ib^J^, with the arbitrarily supplied ^.
PSALM XLIX.
The Psalm meets the temptation, which arises to the ric/hteous from the prosperity of the wicked, (whose persecution it sets forth,) with the very consolation, whichis presented for it through- out the Old Testament, (comp. the Inti'od. on Ps. xxxvii. nearly related to the one before us, as also to Ps. Ixxxiii.), viz. that the issue divides between the righteous and the wicked, that the glory and the ascendancy of the latter are only temporary, that they end in terrors, while the righteous is delivered by God.
The Psalm consists of an introduction in ver. 1 — 4, the chief portion in ver. 5 — 15, and a conclusion in ver. 16 — 20. In the chief portion the thesis is first set forth, ver. 5, 6, then follows the grounding of it in ver. 7 — 15, which fall into three strophes, each of three verses. The whole has twenty verses.
The introduction : let all the world hear, for the Psalmist speaks wisdom. Ver. 1. Hear this, all peoples give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world. Ver. 2. Both common men and lords, both rich and poor together. Ver. 3. My mouth shall speak tvisdom, and the meditation of my heart is understanding. Ver. 4. I ivill incline my ear to a similitude, open to the cythara my riddle. The call upon all men to attention with- out distinction of land, situation, or means, must, as the fol- lowing context shews, be designed to indicate the high import- ance of the instructions, which the Psalmist has to convey. If the problem here handled was falsely solved, all fear of God must
166 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
be overthrown. Oa the ground of Dcut. xxxii. 1, it has been ver}' common, at important announcements, to call the whole world to listen, comp. Ps. l. 1, Mic. i. 1, 1 Kings xxii. 28. Upon *l7n prop, continuance, then world, comp. on Ps. xvii. 14. On li^''^ ^J!!li prop, sons of man, on Ps. iv. 2. D"1X '•Jl. children of men, is limited by the contrast to the great mass of the people. Against De Wette, who denies the distinction between the de- signations, comp. Gesen. in Thes. on D1X- Here this is favour- ed, not only by the D^"D)I> as well, as also, but also by the fol- lowing : rich and poor. What the Psalmist has delivered, serves to the rich for warning, comp. v. 5, 6, 16, to the poor for consola- tion. Ver. 3 and 4 lay the ground for the call that is contained in ver. 1 and 2. — The Psalmist must utter w^isdom without reserve, for he gives only what he has received. The plur. in ni^DDH and Hl^nn is used for the purpose of giving force to the idea. In the Proverbs the use of ni)l3!Dn is quite simi- lar, as indicating wisdom, Jtar i^oyj^v, sapientia hypostatica, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie concealed. Of a plural in the common sense Pl/tD^n in particular is not cap- able. Comp. my Beitr. P. II. p. 258. In the woi*ds : I will incline my ear to a similtitude, it is plainly implied, that the wisdom, which the Psalmist would communicate, is no self-sprung possession, but one that has been acquired by him ; comp. Isa. v. 1, where the song, which the prophet sings to his beloved, is at the same time a song of his beloved, 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. Calvin : " It certainly becomes all the prophets of God to be so affected, as to take God willingly for their master in common with the rest of the people, and first of all to receive his word, wliich they are to declare to others. But the prophet's design was, to gain authority and reverence for his instruction, since he did not prate about his own notions, but only brought forth what he had learn- ed in the school of God." Upon 7^J3, similtitude, see Balaam, p. 78. rnTlj riddle, a discourse of difficult comprehension, of deep sense. Both as here connected in Ps. Ixxviii. 2. Open, as in Amos viii. 5, for openly to bring forth the treasure-cham- bers of the heart or the mouth.
There follows now the thesis ; ver. 5. Whei^efore should I fear in the days of adversity, when the iniquity of my treaders-down compasses me about. Ver. 6. Those that confide in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches. Calvin : " The prophet now enters upon the instruction itself, namely, that the sons of God should not be above measure disturbed by
PSALM XLIX. vr.R. 7—9. 167
ndversity, although the wicked may wantonly oppress them, and according to their pleasure, hold them enclosed on every side, because the Lord, though he may connive and be at rest, still does not sleep in heaven." Before the second member of ver. 5, we are not to supply some word like ''^''^, but it contains the closer description of the days of misfortune ; the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, abrupt, for : in which surrounds me.
Ver. 7 — 9. The righteous has no reason to be troubled on ac- count of the might and riches of the wicked, or the wicked to boast himself of them. This would only then be the case, if the wicked could assure himself of an eternal life through his riches, an eternal possession of his riches. But since he can by his riches deliver neither himself nor another from death, the king of which is quite inaccessible to him, he must therefore hang in constant dread of the destruction which inevitably a- waits him ; it is for him therefore and not for the righteous, to be afraid.
Ver. 7. His brother can no one redeem, nor give to God his atonement. Ver. 8. And precious is the ransom of their souls, and he m,ust 2'>ut it off for ever. Ver. 9. That he may continual- ly live and not see the grave. In ver. 7, the ^''^5. any one, namely among the ungodly rich, is the subject, the PIJ^ is accus., the object placed before, in order to bring out distinctly the contrast in regard to the rich himself. The suff. in "IIS^ refers to the rich ungodly man. He cannot, with all his riches, once redeem another, to say nothing of himself. Many expositors render : a brother can redeem no one, no other can redeem the ungodly rich. But as the nothingness of the riches of the wick- ed must be indicated, the brother is not the person who redeems but the person to be redeemed. The brother is also to be thought of as such in ungodliness, who in consequence of that has to fear destruction, comp. Gen. xlix. 5. The prefixed inf. mS brings strongly out the idea of redemption, marks it as that, on which ultimately every thing depends. Whatever that be with which a man cannot redeem, free others or himself from death, that is of no value, such as that one should boast himself of it, or that others should be afraid of him on account of it. The discourse here is not of death generally, but of untimely, violent death, from which God defends his own, comp. ver. 15. The words : he cannot give God his atonement, is said in reference to Ex. xxi. 30, according to which one might transact with men in cer- tain circumstances regarding ransom -money. There just as here
1G8 THE BOOK OK PSALMS.
"733 'i"cl tins ^^Q united. The plural suffix in vcr. 8 : their soul, refers to the brother of the ungodly rich man, and to the ungodly man himself. This pi. suffix also shews, that the rich man is the person who redeems, and that the suf. in 1133, must be referred not to the brother, but to him. In ver. 9 the Psalmist lets the brother drop, and confines himself only to him, whom it here es- pecially concerns, the rich man himself. It is arbitrary to maintain, that this verse stands connected with verse 7 and not with verse 8. The expression : it ceases for ever, at the close of verse 8, substantially means, he never brings it thither, he never comes therewith to a conclusion ; and with this fitly joins on the follow- ing : that he may live. Comp. on the vau of sequence before the abbrev. fut., corresponding to the Latin ut with theconj., Ew. § 334, a.
Ver. 10 — 12. The ungodly lives on in presence of the univer- sal sovereignty of death which shows him that God may call him away every moment, as if he had never to remove from this earth. The dream of immortality possesses his whole being. But the Lord arouses him in a very rough manner from his dreams. Like the irrational beast, which formerly had no sus- picion of its death, so he now is compelled suddenly to think of it. Ver. 10. When he sees, that wise men die, altogether fools and senseless ones perish, and must leave their substance to others : Ver. 11. This is their heart, that their houses last for ever, their dwellings remain for ever and ever, and their names are praised over, their lands. Ver. 12. But man remains not in honour, is like the beast, they shall be extirpated. When even wise men die, what dominion must death then have over the human race ; how carefully should we reflect, that we cannot lay hold of his do- minion ; how foolish is it then to think, that one shall escape an untimely death, in case one has deserved it ! When the wise and good die old and full of days, this is for the foolish and wicked a matter-of-fact announcement, that he shall be taken away in the midst of his days. But if he will shut his ears on this indi- rect announcement, the direct one must still force itself on him, which reaches him through the untimely and violent destruction of his companions in folly, (of this T^X^ while of the wise HI/DO The expression in ver. 11 : their inward is their houses for ever, q. d. so is the whole heart full of thoughts, wishes, and endea- vours, that their houses continue for ever, etc., comp. 31pin Ps. V. 9. The LXX., whom the Vulgate follows, have in their ne- gligence interchanged Dllp with D13p- The Dti^l Nip. ^^ call, since one rests in the name of any one, partly to call upon
PSALM XLIX. VER. 12 — 15. 16D
with emotion, partly to call out with emotion, with reverence and admiration, here the latter, comp. Isa. xliv. 5. In ver. 12 there is the contrast to this their foolish, counter-experience course. A man, q. d. the ungodly, because with all his glory he still is only a man, and as such is liable to death, the avenging judg- ment of God. The T") some take in the general sense of re- maining, but it is better to regard it as possessing the special sig. of passing the night, in reference to the quick and sudden destruction, comp. in ver. 14 : and the righteous lord it over them in the morning, and Ps. xlvi. 5, where the speedy deliver- ance of the righteous is in like manner described. They are like the beasts, which without any apprehension is overtaken by death, " which sports in pleasure and joy, and feels not approaching death." For 1X2"Il we conceive, more emphatically than the beast, the ungodly to be the subject.
Ver. 13. This is their ivay, fouls are they, and still men have pleasure in their mouths after them. Selah. Ver. 14. Like sheep are they laid in hell, death feeds them, and the righteous have dominion over them in the morning, and their form must pass a- ivay, hell is a habitation to them. Ver. 15. Bat God shall redeem my soul from the j^oiver of hell, for he takes me. Selah. Since in what immediately precedes the discourse is of what befals the ungodly, the expression : this is their way, is q. d. this is their fate. Because it happens thus to them, so is there to those, who were quite full of the thought of their immortality, /o%— 7DD i» this sig. Eccl. vii. 25, comp. Ps. Ixxxv. 8. Against the sig. : hope, there is the 7^DD "i ver. 10, the chastisement of their folly in ver. 11, and the suitableness of the contrast: they are fools, and yet. The Psalmist, then, declares his astonish- ment, that although the fate of the wicked so manifestly beto- kens their folly, there are still always found persons, who adopt their principles, and thereby procure for themselves like de- struction. n^*1 with ^ is always to have pleasure in something. One has pleasure is = there are always found such, who etc. Their mouth, q. d. their discourse, principles. The A^e/a/i admon- ishes, that we should not belong to the number of fools, who will not be frightened by the result of their principles.— IHC^ ver. 14, from nHJ:^ = Hl^. comp. Ps. Ixxiii. 9, they lay, for, one lays them, they are laid. Like sheep, Calvin : " For proud man the whole world is hardly sufficient. From that towering elevation in which they stretch themselves far and wide, the Psalmist crowds them together and gives them up to death to
170 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
feed them." ny*l many expositors take falsely iu the sense of feeding on; Luther: death gnaws them. Instead of : therighteous have dominion over them, most modern expositors: they trample upon them. But the sig. of trampling for TTH, is quite uncertain in tlic only other passage which is brought in support of it, Jo. iv. 13, and with 1 it is currently used in the sig. of reigning over.) comp. particularly, Tsa. xiv. 2. This sense is here also quite suitable. Saul, for example, after his death, was reigned over by David in his family and dependents, in the overthrow of the arrangements fixed by him, etc. It is said to be in the morning, because the destruction of the ungodly takes place in the night, by which its suddenness and unexpectedness is ex- pressed,— comp. " the tempest steals him away in the night," Job xxvii. 20 ; or perhaps, just in the next morning, for, in a brief moment, comp. ver. 12, Ps. xlvi. 5. The words d"*if ni7^7j pi'op. their figure is for annihilation, their beauty is consumed. The last member literally : Sheol is to him away i'rom a dwelling, q. d. a dwelling, which is no dwelling, p simi- larly as in 1 Sara. xv. 23, Jer. xlviii. 2, Isa. lii. 14. — In ver. 15, the fate of the righteous, at present oppressed, is placed in con- trast to that of the triumphing wicked. Tf^^, only denotes the certainty of the result, only this and nothing else shall happen, it is therefore equivalent to yea. According to the connection and the contrast, the redemption of the soul of the righteous from hell, can primarily mean nothing but deliverance from im- mediate danger. But what accomplishes this, at the same time pledges redemption from actually approaching death. As T\p7 neither means to receive nor to demean one's self, we must, in the second member, supply from the fi,rst: out of the hand of sheol. While the wicked are laid down in sheol, the righteous are withdrawn from it.
The conclusion follows in ver. 16 — 20. Ver. IG. Be notthon afraid, ivhen one is made rich, ivhen the honour of his house is great. Ver. 17. For he shall not in his death take luith him all, his honour shall not go after him. Ver. 18. For he blessed Ids .soul in his life, and men praise thee., because thou dost treat thy self well. Ver. 19. He shall come to the generation of his fathers, never more do they see the light. Ver. 20. A man in honour without understanding, is like the beast, they shall be rooted out. The expression : be not afraid, resumes, after the proof has been given, the question: wherefore should I fear? in ver. 5. 1!\2'2 denotes vvealtii, not in itself, but only in so f;xr as it surrounds
PSALM XLIX. VEK. 16 — 20. 171
its possessor with honour and glory. Tlie death, which accord- ing to ver. 17, deprives the ungodly of all his glorious privileges, is to he thought of according to the preceding context, as near at hand. In ver. 18, the reason is given why God does not per- mit the glory of the wicked to follow him, why it comes to so sudden and complete an end. His whole life was set on enjoy- ment, he has already enjoyed enough, already has he treated himself luxuriously enough, and he cannot complain if he should now come to want. We may compare Luke xvi. 25, a pas- sage resting upon ours, and serving as a commentary to it, " But Abraham said, Son, remember, that thou in tliy life-time, receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented," On this: for he blesses his soul in his life, is to be compared the address of the rich man to his soul, Luke xii. 19. In the second member, the ungodly rich man is addressed, and the irony thereby made more cutting: thou dost indeed treat thyself so kindly, that men generally praise thee as a virtuoso, as a hero in wine-bibbing, etc., comp. Isa. v. 22. At the beginning of ver. 19, the address is still continued, " thou shalt come," but then it just as suddenly ceases again, as it had commenced, of his fathers ; in which many cannot see their way, and hence take i^^H ^s 3 fem., and refer it to the soul of the rich man. Under the generation of the fathers are here to be understood, not so much the corpo- real ancestors of the ungodly, as his predecessors in wickedness, (although both often coincide), with reference to the common expression : is gathered to his fathers. — In ver 20, ver. 12 is re- peated with a slight variation, (as is quite customary in such cases, (comp. on Ps. xlii. 5,) so that there is no need of attempt- ing, like Ewald, to correct the one passage by the other), in or- der to close the whole with the emphatic and pregnant de- claration : the ungodly dies as an irrational beast. Luther excellently: in short, when a man, etc. The object of Vy^, which is never placed absolutely, is to be supplied from the con- nection : the nothingness of riches, which are obtained and held without God.
PSALM L.
The Psalm contains a rebuke to the hypocrites, who thought to satisfy God by going through the round of outward services.
172 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and keeping the law on their lips. As formerly, at the giving of the law on Sinai, so now God appears on Zion for the expla- nation of it, and for judgment against its transgressors, ver, 1 — 6. He discovers first, after an introduction in ver. 7, in ver. 8 — 15, the reigning errors in reference to the first table of the law, and shews wherein the true service of God consists. We have not to do with him about the external sacrifices as such. For were he to be served with these, since he is the Lord of all that lives, they are at his command in infinite fulness, so that he does not need to apply to men for them, ver. 8 — 12 ; and how, indeed, could he be served therewith, since he is a spirit? ver. 13. Because it is spirit, it is only spiritual sacrifices that could be acceptable to him, a heart full of gratitude and love ; whoever offers these may depend upon his help in all troubles, ver. 14, 15. From the first table of the law, the discourse turns in ver. 16 — 21, to the second. It reproves those who have the law of God constantly in their mouth, and, at the same time, wickedly transgress it in their behaviour towards their neighbour. In an impressive conclusion, ver. 22 and 23, the subject of God's dis- course is briefly resumed.
Asaph is named in the superscription as author. The most natural supposition, that this Asaph is identical with him, who in 1 Chron. xv. 17, 19, is named as one of the first master-musi- cians of David, and in 2 Chron. xxix. 30, (comp. xxv. 1,) along wnth David as a composer of Psalms, has nothing against it in the contents. The fundamental thought, that the sacrifice of the heart is alone well-pleasing to God, is also declared in the fol- lowing Psalm composed by David, which, on account of this very agreement, has been placed immediately after it. The times of David presented very peculiar occasion for giving em- phatic announcement to this thought — comp. the introd. to Ps. XV. and to Ps. xxiv. It is remarkable, that the voice against the false estimate of the external worship of God, proceeded from the quarter which was expressly charged with its administration. Asaph, according to 1 Chron. vi. 24, was of the tribe of Levi.
We have still some remarks to make on the doctrinal matter of the Psalm. The less that sinful man is able to conceal from himself, that God has demands to make upon him, the more im- portant does he feel it to have God for a friend, and also the more difficult to present what alone is truly well-pleasing to him. Hence, in order to silence the voice of conscience, ho makes all sorts of efforts to be quit of him on easier terms through
PSALM L. 173
something external. Now, under the Old Covenant, this feeling ran out upon the sacrifices and the other holy services. The opposition between the moral and the ceremonial law is not properly that of the internal and the external ; it is rather of the naked, and of the veiled internal. Every ceremonial law is moral ; the external action is always commanded simply for the sake of the internal, which it expresses, represents. There is never body without spirit. But the fleshly sense savours not the spirit, and cleaves simply to the body, which thus isolated be- comes a corpse. Now, if the revelation under the Old Cove- nant had been confined to the law of Moses, there had been room for the complaint, that in it this error had not been more decidedly testified against. It contains in this respect only some scattered indications, com p. for example, Gen. iv. 3 — 5, where, with an external similarity, the sacrifices of Cain and Abel are quite diflferent in their results with God, and this diflference is carried back to the diversities belonging to their personal state, which amounts to an explicit declaration, that sacrifice derived its importance from being an expression of the internal condition Lev. xxvi. 31. But Moses himself points to the continuation of the revelation, when he announces the sending of the prophets as divinely called expositors of the law. And these executed their commission in this respect, in so powerful a manner, that only the most settled waywardness could continue in error, comp. for example Isa. i. Ixvi. ; Jer. vii. 22 ; Mic. vi. 7. AVith them the Psalmists also unite, especially the author of this Psalm, who, with the view of again disclosing the misapprehend- ed import of the law, makes God appear in the same majesty on Zion, in which he formerly appeared at the first giving of the law on Mount Sinai.
The Psalm has been in many ways misunderstood. The entire rejection of the Mosaic sacrificial worship has been sup- jjosed to lie here. Hence the older expositors refer it to tlie times of the New Testament, and to the abolition of the Mosaic worship through Christ ; while the later would find traces of an opposition between the Mosaic law and an en- lightened, that is, naturalistic manner of thinking, comp. the re- futation of the latter view in the Ev. K. Z. A. D. 1835, p. 041, ss. As well might one conclude from the words of 11. Miiller, in his Epistolical Scblusskette, p. 858 : " Also has existing Chris- tianity four dumb church-idols, after which it follows, the bap-
174 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tismal font, the pulpit, the confessional, the altar," that he wished to abolish baptism, preaching, confession, and the com-
Ver. 1. God, the almightij, the Lord speaks, and calls the earth, from the rising of the sun even unto its going down. Ver. 2. From Zion, the perfection of heautij, God shines forth. Ver. 3. Our God shall come, and he keeps not silence, fire de- vours before him, and round about him it is very tempestuous. Ver. 4. He calls to the heavens above, and the earth, that he judges his people. Ver. 5. " Gather to me my saints, wlio close with my covenant on sacrifice.'' Ver. 6. And then the heavens declare his righteousness, for God judgeth. Selah. The whole appearance is first brought out in ver. ], in brief outline: and is afterwards delineated at length. The expression, " he speaks," occurring as it does in the very outline, indicates that what God does speak, as given in ver. 7 — 23, is the principal matter in the whole Fsalm. The three names of God stand in apposition ac- cording to the accents, the parallel passage, Jos. xxii. 22, and other reasons, comp. against the exposition : of the God of gods, my Beitr. P. II, p. 261. The heaping up of names must fill the hypocrites with terror, as these bring before their eyes the ma- jesty of him, whose judgment they underlie. In the relation of these designations there is a gradation. Elohim is more than El., to which its singular Eloah is equivalent. The plural marks the fulness and the richness of the divine nature. Jehovah is the highest name according to its derivation — it marks God as the only real being — and, according to the usage also, which as- cribes to Jehovah the most glorious manifestations of God to and in behalf of his people, comp. Beitr. as above. That the earth is called upon not properly to be itself judged, but only to be present at the judgment upon the covenant-people, is ex- pressly declared in ver. 4, and is abundantly apparent from the whole contents of the Psalm. That the earth and the heavens (ver. 4,) come into view not pro[)erly as instruments and ser- vants of God in judgment, (Stier) but only as witnesses — that they are merely called upon to be present in order to make the scene more solemn, in order to shew, that the transac- tion which is here taking place, and the -discourse that sets it forth, is of the greatest moment, worthy of being handled by the highest of all authorities, and of being heard by him, appears from the comj). of all the parallel passages of the Old Testament.
PSALM L. VER. 1 — 6. 175
Particularly decisive is here Deut. iv. 26, " I take to witness against you this day heaven and earth, that ye shall soon utterly perish," where the calling upon heaven and earth cannot pos- bihly have any other signification, than that of giving solemnity to the scene. Coinp. besides Deut. xxxii. 1, which is properly to be regarded as the original passage, Isa. i. 2. — The ySIH i'l ver. 2, prop, to make, to glitter, or shine, then to appear shining, to shine, is here, as in Ps. Ixxx. 1, borrowed from Deut. xxxiii. 2. 'J'hat tlie Lord appears not from heaven, but from Zion, shews that the judgment to be held is a theocratic one. Even from this it is evident, that the Psalmist, throughout, proceeds on theocratic ground, and that his design cannot be to abolish the sacrificial worship, which stood in closest connection with the theocracy, and especially with the presence of the Lord on Mount Zion. Li what sense Zion is named the perfection of beauty, (which Luther, after the LXX. falsely refers to God,) is clear from what has been remarked on Ps. xlviii. 2. The greater the spiritual glory of Zion is, resting as it does upon the mani- festations of her God in her, so much the more deserving of punishment are her inhabitants, who have not honoured, by truly keeping his commandments, the God who has made himself known in her, in his church. The expression : our God, in ver. 3, points to the ground of the appearance of the Lord. As Is- rael's God, who having given much, also requires much, he could no longer overlook the great misapprehension of his law. Instead of: he does not keep silence, some have: he shall not keep silence. But there is no ground for this ungrammatical rendering, (the 7J^ always denies subjectively.) That he does not keep silence, has for its foundation : he shall not keep silence; and, besides, implies, that what God is going to do, is in accord- ance with the wishes of the Psalmist. This indication of being well pleased with "the doing of the Lord is very common with the prophets and the Psalmists. The speaking in the proper sense, comp. ver. 1, as it follows in ver. 7 — 23, forms primarily the contrast to the keeping silence. But on that immediately follows, if this first step in the way of chastisement has no efiect, the matter-of-fact discourse, comp. ver. 21. On the words: fire devours before him, comp. Ps. xviii. 8. Pl^iySJ'Jj it storms, comp. fire and storm, as symbols of the anger of God, his punitive right- eousness, are as here, combined in the often misunderstood pas- sage 1 Kings xix. 11, 12. The fire alone already meets us in this
176 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
quality in the pillar of fire and cloud, comp. especially Ex. xxiv. 17. In Deut. xxxii. 22, the divine indignation, by which Israel is consumed, appears under the image of a great fire, comp. 2 Thess. i. 8. In Deut. iv. 24, ix. 3, Heb. xii. 2y, God himself is described as consuming fire, on account of his punitive right- eousness, his indignation against sin. In reference to the winds and storms as symbols of the divine judgments compare the author's Commentary on Kev. vii, 1. The Psalmist manifestly alludes here to the frightful manifestations at the giving of the law, Ex. xix. 16, xx. 15. The appearances mentioned here have, in common with those there, the object spoken of it in Ex. xx. 17, " that his fear may be upon you, that you sin not." They ought to fill the heart with holy fear before the heavenly judge, while they place behind the foreground of chastising luords, a back- ground of avenging c/eetZ^. — The judging mentioned in ver. 4, is according to the remarks made on ver. 1 , not to be explain- ed of others: that they judge, but that he judges, for behoof of the judgment to be held by him upon his people. After the Lord has appeared in the place of judgment, and all the witnesses are already assembled there, he gives in ver. 5 the command to bring the accused before him. The call is address- ed to the (ideal) servants of the divine judgment. If the Psal- mist had designed to speak more definitely, he would have named the angels, comp. Matt. xxiv. 31. It is at first sight strange, that those, whom the Lord will judge as transgressors of his covenant, should be described as his saints. But the allu- sion to the height of their standing and destiny is particularly fit- ted to cause shame, on account of their present actual condition. Quite analogous is Deut. xxxii. 15, where Israel, in the very midst of the representation of his shameful revolt, is called Je- shurun — comp. the Jesharira of the whole people, in Num. xxiii. 10 ; analogous is Isa. xlii. 19, " AVho is blind, if not my servant, and deaf as the messenger, whom I send ? who is blind as the devotee of God, and blind as the servant of the Lord ?" 'fl^T ^7^ is commonly expounded : under sacrifices, q. d. under sanction by sacrifices, comp. Ex. xxiv. 4 — 8. But as the words, wneh so understood, are almost unnecessary, and as justice is scarcely done thereby even to the participle, it is better to explain : who make my covenant, upon sacrifice, upon the foundation, or un- der the condition of the sacrifice presented by them. Comp. 7^ of the foundation, uuon which any thing rests Gen.
PSALM L. VER. 6 — 15. 177
xxvii, 40, Deut. viii. 3. The misunderstanding of the stipulated sacrifice, in the presentation of which, when it is spiritually con- sidered, (comp. ver. 14 and 23, and the Beitr. P. iii. p. 137,) the whole obligation of the people of God consisted, is set forth and censured in what follows, so that the words, thus under- stood, very fitly designate the theme of the succeeding context. Now, when beside the witnesses, the accused are also gathered, the judgment begins : " and then the heavens declare," etc., ver. 6. The heavens declare the righteousness of God, in so far as the judicial voice of God, manifesting his righteousness, sounds forth from thence, comp. Ex. xx. 19, to which the expression, " for God judges," of course with words, makes express allusion. Through the partic. tDSSJ^ " the action is treated as a fixed, abiding image before the eyes," q. d. he is in the judging, comp. Ew. § 350. Nin is the copula.
Ver. 7. Hear, my j)eople, and let me speak, Israel let me con- jure thee : I am God, thy God. Ver. 8. Not on account of thy sacrifices will 1 reprove thee, and thy burnt- offerings are conti- nually before me. Ver. 9. / willnot take out of thy house bullocks, nor he-goats out of thy /locks. Ver. 10. For mine are all the beasts of the forest, the cattle upon the hills, where they go by thousands. Ver. 11. Iknoiv all the fowls of the mountains, and what moves upon the field is knoivn to me. Ver. 12. Were I hungry, I would not tell thee, for mine is the world and ivhat fills it. Ver. 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, and drink the blood of goats ? Ver. X^L.Offer to God praise, and thu& pay to the highest thy vows. Ver. 15. Then call on me in the day of trouble, and Iiuill deliver thee, and thou wilt praise me. With ver. 7 begins the speech of God as judge introduced in the preceding verse. Upon the im- perative with the vau of sequence, comp. Ew. § 618. T'Vn with ^ signifies here, as not rarely, to protest, to warn, implor- ingly and with the solemnity of an oath. The commencement • I am God, thy God, serves the same purpose, as the preface at the giving of the law in Ex. xx. 2. It is intended to prepare the way for the following discourse. The same design is served also by the descriptions of the persons addressed. On the one side, my people and Israel, the people of God and of the covenant, on the other side God, the God of heaven and of earth, thy God^ the God, who has bound Israel to himself by so many benefits, has purchased his obedience so dearly. The sense of verse 8 is : not the outward sacrifices, which ye regularly bring, but some
VOL. H. N
178 THE BOOK OF rSALMS.
thing much greater is the object of my accusation. In this verse it is clear, that if the outward sacrifices had not been offered, this also would have been a ground of complaint. — There follow in ver. 9, ss. the grounds on account of which, God concerned himself so little about the outward sacrifices as such — first, in ver. 9 — 12, if he needed the sacrifices, he would not require to seek them from men, as his whole creation stands at his com- mand ; then in ver. 13 his spiritualiiy, from which the outward sacrifices, as such, can yield him no satisfaction. On the 1 in ^n^n, ver. 10, borrowed from Gen. i. 24, see Ew. § 211, 6. The hills of the thousand, the hills where thousands of beasts are found. — As the expression : I know, so also the with me in ver. 11 is to be referred to the knowledge. Knowledge and posses- sion are here inseparable from one another, just as omniscience cannot exist without omnipotence, and universal dominion. — In ver. 14 and 15, the true sacrifices are set forth in the place of the false, and a rich blessing promised to their presentation, the ob- hgation in verse 14, the reward in verse 15. Praise {TVOT\ has only this meaning) is here mentioned merely for the sake of in- dividualizing, as one species of the inward worship, performed by the heart, in opposition to the purely external. But much account is made of thanksgiving. John Arnd : " The giving of thanks comprehends many virtues in itself — acknowledgment of God, as the fountain of all good ; fear of God, namely, the child- like fear, which receives all benefits from God as a child from the father ; humility, confessing that we have nothing of our- selves, but obtain all from God," etc. The expression : And pay, is q. d. so shalt thou pay. Vows consisted in great part of thank-offerings, comp. Lev. vii. 11, 16, Ps. cxvi. 17, 18. He only who has rendered the substance of this thank-offering, thanks, has truly paid his vow. The common import put upon : and pay, as conveying an admonition, is inadmissible, because it takes the expression, of paying the vows without farther explanation, in a spiritual sense. — The whole 15th verse is of a promissory/ nature. It announces the reward which is appointed for the spiritual worship of God. Whoever thanks God in the right manner for deliverance obtained, may console himself in the time of distress with the assured hope of a neiu deliverance. Then call upon me, is q. d. if thou dost then call upon me. Thou shalt praise me, thou shalt have occasion to do this. The : call upon me, cannot be taken as a
PSALM L. VER. 16 — 21. 179
command to trust in God in the time of trouble. Even hypo- crites call on God in their own way.
Ver. 16. And to the wicked God says : what hast thou to do to declare my laws, and to take my covenant into thy mouth ? Ver. 17. Since thou still hatest correction, and castest my vwrds behind thee. Ver. 18. When thou seest a thief, then thou dost consent to him, and with adulterers is thy part. Ver. 19. Thou givest thy mouth to what is wicked, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Ver. 20. Thou siitest, speakest against thy brother, against the son of thy mother thou speakest calumny. Ver. 21, That didst thou, and I kept silence, then thoughtest thou, I was as thyself. But I will chastise thee, and will set it in order before thine eyes. — From the first table the Psalmist here turns to the second. ytJ'T in ver. 16 is, as very commonly, the wicked in the narrower sense, the evil-doer against his neighbour. The commonly un- derstood contrast of the properly wicked against the erring members of God's people, is an untenable one; and the Psalmist has here to do with the same individuals as in ver. 7, ss. To oifer to God outward, in place of spiritual sacrifices, is an error springing from heavy moral guilt ; and they, who do it, always appear in scripture, as at the same time evil doers. In Isa. i. 15, for example, the hands of the merely external worshippers are at the same time full of blood, comp. Ixvi. 3, 4. According to the parall. and the connection, by the covenant must be meant the law of God, especially in so far as it requires love toward our neighbour. This usage is found already in the law itself, comp. for example, Ex. xxiv. 7, xxxiv. 28. The wicked takes the law into the mouth, prop, upon the mouth, for upon the lips, Ex. xxiii. 13, 2 Sam. xiii. 32, in order to display his knowledge of the will of God, to teach others, and to judge others, Rom. ii. 18 — 24. — That such have no right to take the law of God into their mouth the Psalmist shows in ver. 17, from the fact of their not endea- vouring to reprove themselves by it, and not correcting their own deficiencies, for which the lawwas given to them, being there not for being spoken about, but for being done, comp. llom. ii. 13. John Arnd : " Such a person was Ahab, who could appear so pious, but when Ehas rebukes him, he curses, and persecutes the prophets to death, which shows he was a hypocrite, and would be taken for a pious man. But those are truly pious people, who are without hypocrisy, and to whom God's word is a reality, who could suffer themselves to be reproved, and confess their
180 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sins, as David, when reproved by Nathan, was not indignant, but said : I have sinned against the Lord ; they who act so are no hypocrites." — The Psalmist refers in ver. 18—20, to the three commands of the decalogue : thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not speak false witness against thy neighbour. He shows the sinner how little right he had to take the commands of God into his mouth, since he violated them in succession. HVI with Q^ in verse 18, not : to have pleasure in any one, but to be satisfied with any one, to be of one mind with him, comp. Job xxxiv. 9, Rom. i. 32, and what is related of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gibeah. Luther has, after the LXX. and Chald., derived the form falsely from r*1'^. The tlhli^ with ^ in ver. 19, immittere. Without foundation in the words themselves, some : thou lettest loose in thy mouth the reins to what is wicked. The expression in ver. 20 : thou sittest, is a delineation to the life of babbling companies, comp. on Ps.i. 1. The expression ''31 jHU (''3*1 only here) from the general con- nection,— in ver. 19 and 20 the discourse is only of sins of the tongue — from the parallelism, and from the obvious reference to the command, thou shalt not speak false witness against thy neighbour, can be understood only of evil backbitings and ca- lumnies. jHi is best taken in the common sig. of giving, ''3T i'^ that of blow = words, through which he, or his honour, is struck down. Against the son of thy mother^ is an ascending clause, since ^^^ not rarely marks brother in a larger sense, q. d. even against thy dear brother. — The keeping silence, in ver. 21, forms the contrast to a matter-of-fact discourse. / kept silence, in my long-suffering, w'hich should have led thee to repentance, Rom. ii. 4, but thou, falsely interpreting my silence, thoughtest that I was (the inf. constr.) wholly as thyself, equally well inclined to- wards sin. Since to this silence, the expression : I will chastise thee, and thereby give convincing proof of the opposite, forms the contrast, it must refer, not to the preceding rebuke of God in words, but only to his matter-of-fact speech, the actual chas- tisement, comp. ver. 22. The words : I will set in order before thine eyes, (comp. on the "TT^y on Ps. v. 4,) is excellently ex- pounded by Calvin: "He declares, that they will soon be drawn into open light, that they shall be compelled to see with their eyes the shameful deeds, which they had imagined they could conceal from the eyes of God. For so I understand the setting in order, that God will lay before them in exact order a full
PSALM L. VER. 22, 23. 181
catalogue of their misdeeds, which they must read and own, whether thej will or not.
Ver. 22, 23, contain the impressive conclusion of the speech of God. First, in ver. 22, the threatening against stiff-necked sinners, then in ver. 23, tlie promise to those, who suffer them- selves to be led into the right way. Ver. 22. Mark now this, ye for getters of God, lest I tear you in pieces without deliverer. Ver. 23, Whosoever offers praise shall glorify me, and whosoever, prepares a way, to him ivill I show the salvation of God. This, every thing that has been said in the preceding context for the unmasking and terrifying of imaginary saints, but, in particular, the threatening at the close of the preceding verse. Under the name oi the forgetters of God are thrown together the friends of the merely outward service, and the wicked. On the words : lest I tear thee, etc., Arnd: " Even as a i-avenous beast permits no one to take his prey from him, so can no one deliver from the anger of God, when it burns ; it is a frightful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and to be dragged away to punishment." The expression : he shall glorify me, in ver. 23, can, according to ver. 15 and the parallel : I will show him my salvation, only mean, he shall have occasion to glorify me. ^rn Q'lK' occurs in Ezek. xxi. 20, Isa. xliii. 19, comp. xHx. 11, in the sig. of making or preparing a way. Hence expositions such as : who considers upon the way, or : orders his way, etc., are to be set aside. Several of those, who correctly apprehend the nature of the expression, expound after the example of the LXX. and Vulgate : he treads the way, which I will cause him to see, agreeing as to the sense with Luther, who followed the false reading CD2J^ there. But in this case the second part of the speech of God in ver. 16 — 21 would be allowed entirely to drop in the conclusion. We can arrive at a satisfactory sense only when we render : whosoever prepares a way, q. d. who- soever regulates his life by sure principles — the opposite in Ps. cxxv. 5 ; " who turn aside upon their crooked way." Thus have we in each of the two members a condition and a conse- quence. The first is a compend of ver. 14 and 15. To the pro- mise of salvation for those, who truly fulfil the obligation to- ward God, there is added the promise of salvation for those who occupy a position toward their neighbour, the reverse of that condemned in ver. 16, ss. The salvation of God is for my salvation, in order to indicate what it imports, to be partakers of the salvation of God.
182 THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
PSALM LI.
David, after his adultery with Bathsheba, aroused from his sleep in sin by the admonition of the prophet Nathan, humbled himself before God, and gave utterance in this Psalm to his heart- felt desire for forgiveness and renewal. It falls into two main divisions, of which the first completes itself in the number twelve, the second in the number seven. In the first, ver. 1 — 12, the Psalmist asks for that, which the Lord must grant him, in ver. 13 — 19, he represents how he will show his gratitude to the Lord for the love conferred on him. The first division falls again into two halves. In the first, ver. 1 — 6, the Psalmist gives, after a short and rapidly uttered prayer, ver. 1 and 2, the grounding of it, he acknowledges his sin, ver. 3 and 4 ; and : to man conceived and born in sin divine truth and wisdom can come only from God, ver. 5 and 6. In the second, ver. 7 — 12, there is raised out of the thus laid foundation the enlarged pray- er, first, for forgiveness of sin, ver. 7 — 9, then for the restoration of the gift of the Spirit, ver. 10 — 12. In the voiuing portion, the Psalmist first declares, how he will personally show himself grateful, when the Lord hears his prayer, by inviting all sinners on the ground of his own experience to repent, he praises God's righteousness and makes known his praise, as that has been manifested in his reception to favour, ver. 13 — 15 ; then pro- claims this, and the broken heart, which is the source of such a celebration of God's praise, to be the true thank-offering, while the external sacrifices, as such, are not acceptable to God, ver. 16 and 17. Then he promises the thanksgivings of the whole church, to be displayed in a fulness of hearty sacrifices, should God show himself gracious to them in their head, and further make them the object of his supporting and sustaining agency, ver. 18 and 19.
That the Psalm was composed by David on the occasion in question, appears from the superscription, (the authenticity of which is evidenced both by its own internal character, and partly also perhaps by the circumstance, that, by including it, the Psalm falls into three decades), and also from the wonderful agreement of the contents with 2 Sam. xi. and xii. That we have to do here as there with a sinner of high rank, is probable even from ver. 13 — 15, according to which, the compassion to be shown to the Psalmist shall operate beneficially through an extensive circle,
PSALM LI. 183
but quite certain from the conclusion, ver. 18 and 19. That the Psalmist there passes on to pray for the salvation of the whole people, presupposes, that this salvation was personally connect- ed with himself, that the people stood and fell with him, as was rendered palpable by the history of the numbering of the peo- ple. That the Psalmist was a king, Ewald also concludes from these verses, although he denies the composition of it by David. In ver. 14, the Psalmist prays for deliverance from blood-guilti- ness. Such guilt David had incurred through the death of Uriah, occasioned by him, and of those who fell with him, and Nathan had threatened, him in the name of God with the divine vengeance for it ; comp. 2 Sam. xii. 9, 10. This is the more remarkable, the more singular the case is in its kind. Of a true worshipper of God, the whole history of the Old Testament contains nothing similar. It is a poor shift to maintain, that blood might also be taken generally for guilt and punishment. That in the passage Isa. iv. 4, upon which alone stress is laid, the discourse is of blood in the pro- per sense, appears from the comp. of chap. i. 15, 21. — Ver. 4 is quite replete with references to 2 Sam. xii. As David there says: I have sinned against the Lord, so here: against thee only have I sinned. The words: " evil have I done in thy sight," is seen at once to be an echo of the address of Nathan in 2 Sam. xii. 9, " Wherefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in his sight ?" Finally, in the words : " that thou mightest be justified in thy speech, pure in thy judg- ment," respect is had to a sentence which the Lord had passed in the case of the Psalmist, of a judgment which he had exercised upon him. We swim in mid-air so long as we do not perceive the reference to the discourse of Nathan.
Besides, the correctness of the superscription is still farther evidenced by the relation of our Psalm to Psalm xxxii. which refers to the same matter, and which is only distinguished from this by the circumstance, that while here the Psalmist prays for the pardon of sin, and strives for it, there he has respect to the al- ready finished conflict, and invites all his companions of faith to enter into the participation of the like salvation through an un- feigned confession of their sins. What the Psalmist there does after the received forgiveness, that he here promises to do in case he received it, ver. 13 — 15, comp. especially ver. 13 with Psalm xxxii. 8
184 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
With the other Psalms of David also the Psalm presents close resemblances. Thus the relation of the first part to the second here is quite similar to that in Psalm xxii. ; and Psalm xl. 6 — 10, presents an extraordinary agreement with ver. 13 — 17.
The grounds which many have brought forward against the correctness of the superscription, and for the assumption, that the Psalm was composed during the Babylonish captivity, (De Wette, Hitzig,) or shortly before it, (Ewald,) maybe very easily disposed of. It is said, 1. That the Psalm is not worthy of Da- vid ; its " melting language" indicates a later age. But the Psalm must still carry in it somewhat of concealed glory, which they only can recognize who read it with the heart, out of which it issued, comp. 17. How, otherwise, were the fact explicable, to which already Luther alludes? " This Psalm has been named by every one a Psalm of penitence, and there is no other in the Psalter which is oftener sung and prayed in the church." The " melting language" is perfectly natural to a broken and contrite heart. 2. " The Psalm does not quite suit the.situation indicated in the superscription. According to the narrative in 2 Sam. xii. David had announced to him immediately the par- don of his sin ; here first he implores this most earnestly." But that David was enabled instantly to appropriate to himself the pardon, of which Nathan assured him, is not so much as hinted in 2 Sam. xii. This must have been so much the more difiicult to him, the deeper his fall had been in proportion to the grace already conferred on him. It was certainly a great deal, if, through the external announcement, he was kept from utter despair, and only received as much confidence as was needed for striving after the internal assurance of pardon. With justice does Calvin already remark : " Although God, through the pro- mise of forgiveness, freely invites us to peace, we are still to lay to heart our guilt, that deeper pain may penetrate our hearts. Hence it comes to pass, that with the small measure of our faith, we cannot at once take in the entire fulness of the divine grace, which has been brought to us." 3. " Here the discourse is not of one, but of many sins, (ver. 1 to 3,) and prayer is made for improvement generally," (ver. 6 to 10, ss.) But David had then actually committed more than one sin. Besides his adultery with Bathsheba, which again comprehended many particular acts of sin, upon him rested the death of Urias, and the death of those who perished with him. And then, in how many respects
VSALM LI. 185
did these acts represent themselves as sinful, so that each might appear as a sort of assemblage of sins, for ex. it is urged on Da- vid in the book of Samuel, that he had given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. The impenitence and hypocrisy of David also, continued through a whole year, is to be taken into consideration. But that he " sought for improvement in general," is a necessary consequence of this, that David, like every one who seriously grapples with sin, did not stand at the mere outward appearance of sin, but pressed into its secret workshop, to its troubled fountain. Whenever the knowledge of sin extends so far, the prayer for forgiveness and sanctifica- tion must necessarily be more comprehensive. Luther : " In this sin, as in a mirror, David sees his whole impure and corrupt nature, so that he arrives at this thought : Lo ! I, who have go- verned so well after God's command, I, who have so finely or- dered the church and service of God, how have I fallen into such an abomination, into so many great and horrid sins ! Therefore was David led from knowledge of one sin, to the knowledge of his whole sinful nature. As if he would say : Be- cause I, so great a man, endowed with so much grace, have fallen at once as from heaven into hell, must not so grievous a fall be to me and to all others a palpable sign, that there is no good thing in my flesh." 4. *' In ver. 4, the Psalmist says. Against thee alone, 0 Lord, have I sinned ! These words are difficult, if we hold to the correctness of the superscription. David's adultery and murder were crimes against men." But that we must not conclude from these words, that the Psalmist had committed sins only against the first table of the law, ap- pears from ver. 14, where the Psalmist prays for deliverance from blood-guiltiness. The difficulty vanishes as soon as it is perceived, that what makes an offence against a neighbour a sin, is his relation to God, that is, his bearing God's image, and having God for his redeemer, so that in him God is wounded. The more lively and faithful the conviction of sin is, the more readily will the soul penetrate through the shell in these trans- gressions against the neighbour into this kernel. Besides, Da- vid speaks substantially the same in the books of Samuel. For there also he continues to stand only at the transgression against God, and the " alone" is merely awanting in form. 5. It is alleged, that ver. 18 and 19 could only be written when Jerusalem had already been prostrated. For the prayer, " build
186 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the walls of Jerusalem," presupposes that they were laid down ; and " then wilt thou have pleasure in sacrifices of righteous- ness," implies that then, without a temple, and far from the holy land, sacrifices to God could not be acceptable. But the Psalmist does not pray that God would hivild up again the walls of Jerusalem, but simply that he would build them. We would only then have to think of a rebuilding, if, in the preced- ing context, mention had been made of a prostration, from which nii might derive the restricted sense of rebuilding. But that we are to take the expression figuratively, in the sense of pro- tecting, is clear from the entire context, from the parallel " do good," and the analogy of that, which the Psalmist sought for himself. On the words : " then shalt thou have pleasure in sacrifices of righteousness," to gloss : " Now with a prostrat- ed temple are sacrifices to God unacceptable," is quite ar- bitrary. The sense is simply this : then, when thou grantest our prayer, will we show our gratitude to thee by sacrifices. That in the time of the Psalmist, no external hindrance existed to the presentation of sacrifices, appears from ver. 16, " else would I give it thee," — which has no meaning, if at that time the offering of saci'ifice was rendered impossible by the over- throw of the temple. To offer elsewhere than in the temple, was a thought that could have occurred to no Israelite. — Many, latterly Maurer and Tholuck, have improperly surrendered ver. 18 and 19 for the removal of this objection, and declared them to be a later addition. It is a groundless assumption, that these verses stand in opposition to verses 16 and 17 ; it arises from this, that one overlooks the word p*!^ in ver. 19. In ver. 16, it is not sacrifices generally, but heartless sacrifices that are rejected, and in ver. 19, hearty ones are promised. The reason suggested by Tholuck for the addition of the two verses, that as sacrifices ap- peared to be too much depreciated in ver. 16 and 17, it was at- tempted to re-establish, as it were, their importance by this ad- dition, is untenable, because it is not supported by a single ana- logy from the whole of the Old Testament. Besides, what could any one think of making by any such rectification, so long as Psalm l. existed, and soraany other strong declarations against sacrifices I Positive grounds for the genuineness of both verses are also to be found in the consideration, that ver. 17 forms a quite unsatisfactory conclusion, and that the regard expressed in these verses for the general weal, is precisely characteristic of Da-
PSALM LI. 187
vid, and has already had preparation made for it by ver. 13 — 15. — 6. " The notion of an original corruption in man" is later than David. But allusions to the doctrine of a hereditary corruption are to be found even in the oldest portions of revelation. The account of Adam's fall can be understood in its full compass only if in it the whole human race fell, which can no otherwise be conceived than on the supposition of the propagation of sin by generation. That Adam's fall is the fall of the human family, is implied in the punishment, which affects not the individual, but the entire race. Everything which stands immediately con- nected with the account of the fall, the narrative of Cain's fra- tricide, etc., is inexplicable, if we limit the fall merely to the in- dividual Adam, and there is a breaking down of the bridge formed in the generation between him and his posterity, to which express allusion is made in Gen. v. 3, " And Adam begot like him and after his image," {in every respect, and hence also in reference to sin, which had now become a property of his nature). The whole subsequent relation is designed to show, how fruitfully the principle of sin implanted in nature through Adam, developed itself. According to Gen. viii. 21, the thoughts and imaginations of the human heart are only evil from his youth.
This Psalm owes its position beside Psalm l. to the circum- stance of their both alike expressly declaring the worthlessness of merely external sacrifices, — a fact from which Hitzig has rashly concluded, that they were composed by one hand.
Some passages from Luther's very extended exposition will best prepare for the more profound understanding of it. " But that we may lay hold of the Psalm, we must know, that we have here set before us thedoctrineof a true repentance. Now, to true repentance there belong two parts : first, that we acknowledge sin, then grace. That is, we must, on the one hand, have a real fear of God, and terror on account of our sin, and on the other, must also know and believe, that God is willing to be gracious and compassionate to all who believe in Christ. These two parts of repentance has David here most strikingly delineated to us in this prayer. For he first, in a masterly manner, presents sin be- fore our eyes, and thereafter the grace and compassion of God, without the knowledge of which men must sink into despair. But this knowledge of sin is no speculation or fine imagnation, but an earnest feeling, a true experience, and a great conflict of
188 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the heart with sin. As his conviction then is, so he speaks: for I confess my transgression, that is, I feel it so, that my con- science trembles for God's indignation, and faints at the thought of death. For this is what the Hebrew word properly signifies: not that one thinks and considers with himself alone, what he has done or not done, but feels the great load and burden of the wrath of God upon his heart, and the knowledge of sin is nothing else than to feel and experience sin. And he is a sin- ner, who is so pressed and disquieted by his conscience, that he knows not where to turn himself So that when one feels and experiences thus, he must obtain the further knowledge, and that also not as a poetical fancy, but as a matter of true and solid experience, whereby he learns, hears, and sees what is the grace, what the righteousness, what the will of God toward him is, who has not given him the knowledge of his sin to sink him to hell, there for ever to remain, but to raise him up again through Christ, his own dear Son. These are the two kinds of know- ledge with which theology and Scripture has to do, and which David teaches us in this Psalm, so that the sum and substance of the Psalm is, that man must learn to know himself according to theology and holy Scripture. Likewise, that he must learn to know and regard God according to Scripture : not in his majesty, that he is eternal and almighty, for to a poor sinner such knowledge is terrifying and not comforting ; but that he is wilhng to make the sinner holy, righteous, and blessed. This is the sum of all Scripture, and whosoever thinks or teaches in another manner of God and man, he errs. . . But now that such an excellent exalted man, full of the Holy Spirit, replenish- ed and adorned with all high and great works of divine wisdom, and endowed above all others with the gift of prophecy, should make so grievous a fall, this happens to us for an example, that when at times we have been overtaken in a fault or in sin, or when our consciences frighten us with God's wrath and judg- ment, we may have consolation. For in his great example ap- pears manifestly the goodness and compassion of God, which is ready and prepared to forgive sin, and to make us holy and righteous. And in order to prevent us from resorting to the pretext, that we have not sinned, we behold tiiis man, though he has sinned against the command of God, yet finding pardon for such sins as he did not seek himself to justify."
First tlie superscription : To the chief musician, a Psalm
PiSALM LI. 189
of David when Nathan the prophet came to him, as he came to Bathsheba. On the : chief musician, the Marburg Bible re- marks : " See there a public penance by a king of Israel ! For David wrote this Psalm not for himself alone to be used as a prayer, but for those also who had charge of the temple music, that he might again edify, by his repentance, the people of God, whom he had offended by his sin ; and till then he had no rest in his bosom, as he confesses in Psalm xxxii. 2." This publicity in the confession of sin was quite as great a work of God's grace in David, as the depth of his knowledge in regard to it. Nature must have struggled hard against it. But the design of the publicity he gives us in ver. 13. He would through his repent- ance, lead others to the same. With justice does Luther always come back to this, that every thing in our Psalm is an indirect instruction, that David when confessing teaches, and when teaching confesses, that he only reads the Psalm in the right spirit, who in the words : be gracious to me, etc., thinks pre- eminently of himself, and of David merely as his prototype. The "I^J^D cannot fitly be taken as a particle of time. When so used it stands like our " as " only in actions, which were quite or nearly contemporaneous to those previously mentioned, comp. for example. Gen. xx. 13 ; 2 Sam. xii. 21. But Nathan's coming to David was certainly a year distant from his adultery with Bathsheba. The use of ^^ {^U also in both members shows, that the author was desirous of indicating the internal reference, which had place between the coming of Nathan and the coming of David. Nathan came to David, just as David came to Bath- sheba. Where sin has found an entrance, there inevitably fol- lows, especially with the faithful, who, more than all others, are the object of God's avenging and delivering righteousness, comp. Lev. X. 3; Amos iii. 2 ; 1 Peter iv. 17, the divine punishment; first, that of the word, and then, when that has failed, h\j deed. Precisely so stands ^"^^^ in Micah iii. 4, " Then shall they cry to the Lord, but he will not hear them, he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have made their actions bad," where Michaelis : causalis significatio includitur, magis tamen justitia talionis in relatione poenae ad culpam consimilem innuitur. — In reference to the relation between David's sin and the coming of Nathan to him, Calvin makes the following pro- found psychological remark : " We are not to suppose, that he was so devoid of all feeling, as not in general to acknowledge
190 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
God as the judge of the world, to pray daily to him, and not only to exorcise himself in his worship, hut also to endeavour to have his life and behaviour conformed to the prescriptions of the Law. Let us, therefore, understand, that he was not wholly destitute of all fear of God, but only blinded in one respect, so that he lulled to sleep his sense of God's anger by perverse flat- teries. Thus his piety, which had S3ut forth many bright ema- nations, was in this department quenched." It is only in this point of view, that David's conduct, after the reproof of Nathan, admits of explanation. It pre-supposes, that in him along with the evil, the good principle had also been in existence, which, though long overborne, now at length immediately started into vigorous operation, as also appears from the prayer in ver. 11 : take not thy Holy Spirit from me. For this implies, that the Holy Spirit had not wholly left him, as it liad previously done Saul. It was with David, therefore, precisely as with Peter, in whom, notwithstanding his previous fall, still faith did not ut- terly fail, as it did in Judas, (Luke xxii. 32).
The two first verses contain the preliminary prayer : Be gra- cious to me, O God, according to thy goodness, according tu the greatness of thy compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. David still does not venture again to call God his God, but in the simple word " God " there yet is for him a rich fulness of consolation and confidence. " The heathen (says Luther) speak with God after the thoughts of their heart, without and away from his word and promises ; but the prophets speak with God, as clothed with his word and promises, and revealed through these. This God, if he is attired in the corporeal and beautiful form of his promises, can be known and apprehended by us, and can be seen by us with the joy of faith. But the mere God, without the word, is like an iron wall, which the more we strike at and storm it, we shall but hurt ourselves the more. There- fore Satan never dares to ply us, that we would run against the mere God, and so do ourselves hurt. Hence David does not speak with God merely as such, but with his fathers' God, that is with the God, whose promise he knows and regards, and whose compassion and grace he has tasted. Now, if on this ac- count a Turk, a false worshipper, or a Monk should say : God be gracious to me according to thy goodness, it were just as good as if he remained silent and said nothing. For he misses
PSALM LI. VER 1, 2. 191
God, not apprehending him in such a form as that, ia which he can be apprehended by us, and properly understood, but he re- gards God in his high majesty ; from which nothing can happen but despair and the fall of Lucifer from heaven into the abyss of hell." On the words: be gracious to me, according to thy goodness, comp. on Ps. vi. 4. In regard to the plural : my transgressions, Stier thinks, that it is quite wrong to take into account, in how many ways David may have sinned in the mat- ter of Uriah. We have here to think of the entire impurity and apostacy of heart in general, now become evident to bim. But against this speaks y^fi, which always denotes a particular sin- ful act, and indeed a sin of such a heinous stamp, that excepting in this case David did nothing hke it, in which he acted wicked- ly toward his neighbour's wife and life, comp. on Ps, xix. 14. Then it is also opposed by the "blood-guiltiness," in ver. 14, and the great stress laid on the particular transgression in the re- buke of Nathan. It is also by no means a sound state, it would rather be an irregularity, if the particular here at once fell back behind the general. This then acquires too readily an attenuat- ed character. Then according to Stier, in the " blot out," prop. " wash of or out," must not merely forgiveness be prayed for, which makes the done become as undone, but " at the same time the removal of the reproach, 2 Kings xxi. 13, or the purifi- cation, which only comes prominently out in ver. 2," But, that the prayer : blot out my transgressions, which raises itself on the ground of Nathan's : the Lord hath made to pass away, T^iKH, thy sin, refers simply and alone to forgiveness, is evident from the nature of the thing, as the transgressions or misdeeds, (im- purity and apostacy of heart in general is not the subject dis- coursed of here, as was shown already), can only be the object of pardoning mercy ; and from ver. 9, where we have parallel to the " blot out my transgressions," " hide thy face from ray sins," as also from the parallel passage, Isa. xliii. 25 ; xliv. 22. Ver. 2 also refers only to the forgiving grace. This ver. 7 shows, which resumes the subject, so that in the preliminary prayer the discourse is only of the chief, and fundamental blessing, forgive- ness. The extended prayer also employs itself first of all exclu- sively with this, ver. 7—9. Then in ver. 10—12 it turns to the second, which necessarily follows from the reception of the first, the experience of the sanctifying grace of God. By the words : according to the greatness of thy compassion, David shows, that
192 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
he recognizes the entire compass of his guilt. For there lies at bottom a silent contrast to the greatness of his sins. If he had felt himself to be a sinner only in a small degree, he would have satisfied himself with : according to thy compassion. But hefeels that he has need of the entire riches of the divine compassion, if he is not to be hopelessly lost. Jo. Arnd : " This is the property of true repentance, that one rightlyapprehendsGod'sgrace and God's word, and indeed does not make God's compassion smaller than our sin, or our sin greater than God's compassion. For that is no right knowledge of God, and gives rise to despair, as Cain said : my sin is greater, than that it can be forgiven mo. Thou liest Cain, says St. Augustine, for God's grace is greater than all man's misery. The holy Sirach says in the 2d chap, that God's grace is as great as he himself is, but God himself is infinite, immeasurable, therefore is his grace also infinite ; Isa. Iv. there is much compassion with him ; Ps. cxxx. there is much redemption with him, therefore will he redeem Israel from all his sins. Now, because David fully apprehends the richness of God's grace, therefore he says, blot out my sins according to thy great compassion. As if he would say : great sins require great compassion, I have great sins, and so thou must show toward me great compassion." — In ver. 2, the reading of the text niin is to be taken as inf. absol. in Hiph. from nn* The rule is that the verb, whichstandsimpersonally, indicating only a subordinate circumstance, is placed after the chief verb, comp. Ew. § 539. But here the Psalmist has placed it before, because it is upon the much, that the emphasis must rest. This occurs the earliei that the inf. ni^lH might come the more freely and entirely to occupy the position of an adverb. The Masorites, who could not see their way here, would read ^IH as imper. apoc. in Hiph., a conjecture, which is to be unscrupulously rejected. — As D^D? in accordance with its primary meaning, comp. Gesen. in Thes., is always used only of clothes and never of per- sons, comp. especially Numb. xix. 8, where the D2I3 of clothes, and Vn*) of persons, are united, so we must suppose, that here and in ver. 7, an abbreviated comp. is found : cleanse me, as one washes a stained garment, comp. Isa. Ixiv. 5. In both members sin is considered, in explanation of the Mosaic washings, as stain- ing and impurity, and the sin-extirpating grace of God as puri- fying water.
Upon the prayer follows the grounding of it, first in ver. 3, 4 ;
PSALM LI. VER. 3, 4. 193
tlie Psalmist acknowledges his sin, and is therefore in the con- dition in which the compassion of God can unfold itself. Ver. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Ver. 4. Against thee only have I sinned, and done what is evil in thine eyes, so that thou mayest he righteous in thy speech, pure in thy judgment. According to many, the Psalmist must here mention what impelled him to seek for pardon : he can no longer endure without it. So Jo. Arnd : " This is a conclusion of the following sort : whosoever is properly alive to the vileness of his sins, and has the horribleness of these always before his eyes, he is most anxious and concerned to be set free from the evil. I acknowledge my iniquity. Therefore purify my conscience from this abomination," According to others again, the Psalmist must point to a reason for the granting of his petition : forgive me my sin, for the indispensable condition of forgiveness is now found in me. If we take into account the high importance which is attached to the confession of sin, in reference to the same event in Psalm xxxii., the inseparable con- ; nection in which forgiveness is there placed with it, (comp. es- I pecially ver. 5,) as also in the history, 2 Sam. xii. 13, and in I other declarations of holy writ, for ex. Prov. xxviii. 13, " He who covers his sin shall not prosper, and he who confesses and forsakes it, finds mercy," — we shall be inclined to give the pre- ference to the latter exposition. But those who follow it, with one voice draw attention to the point, that the acknowledg- ment of sin is not to be considered as the efficient cause of for- giveness— as such David had already mentioned the divine grace and compassion — but only as its indispensable condition. So Luther : " That little word for must be understood so, as not to imply that his sins must be forgiven him because he had confessed them ; for sin, is always sin, and deserving of punish- ment, whether it is confessed or not ; still confession of sin is of importance on this account, that God will be gracious to no one but to those who confess their sin ; while to those who do not confess their sin, he will show no favour." — On the words : my sin is always before me, Luther remarks : " That is, my sin plagues me, gives me no rest, no peace ; whether I eat or drink, sleep, or wake, I am always in terror of God's wrath and judg- ment." Jo. Arnd : " Sin and iniquity, where the conscience is evil, stand always before the eyes ; one cannot lose sight of it and forget it — as the historians of the Gothic king, Theodoric
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of Verona, describe how having in Italy caused the two valiant men, Symmachus and Boethius, to be killed, and a large fish- head being soon afterwards set before him at a banquet, he could not get rid of the conviction, that it was the head of Sym- machus, and was so shocked at the thought, that he soon died. So did the images of the people, whom Nero had murdered, come before him." — How well grounded and deep his know- ledge of sin is, the Psalmist shows in ver. 4, while he rises from his fellow-creatures, whom he had primarily oflFended, to God, who had been offended in them, and indeed so, that he only views him in them, that his whole sin changes it- self, in his view, into a sin against God. This manner of con- sidering sin, which everywhere discovers itself, where there is true knowledge of sin, must infinitely heighten the pain con- nected with it. How must David have trembled, how must he have been seized with shame and grief, when he referred every thing up to God, in Uriah saw only the image of God, the Holy One, who deeply resented that injury, the gracious and com- passionate One, to whom he owed such infinitely rich benefits, who had lifted him up from the dust of humiliation, had so of- ten delivered him, and had also given him the promise of so glorious a future ! The same manner of considering obligation and sin already appears in the books of Moses, so that it is in- comprehensible how expositors should have so often stumbled here. The arrangement of the Decalogue proceeds on it : thou must honour and love God in himself, in those who represent him on earth, Exod. xx. 12, in all who bear his image, ver. 13 and 14, comp. my Beitr. P. III. p. 604. The love of God appears constantly in Deuteronomy as the iv xai 'ttuv, as the one thing which is necessary, as the fulfilment of the whole law, for ex. ch. X. xii. In Gen. ix. 6, the punishment of murder is grounded on the fact of man's bearing God's image. When in other pas- sages of Scripture, the command of brotherly love is made co- ordinate with that of the love of God, this is done only for the sake of hypocrites. What besides immediately serves to deep- en the pain connected with sin, has also at the same time, a consolatory aspect. If David had sinned against God alone, it is with him also alone that he has to do in regard to forgiveness, and therefore he must not consume himself in inconsolable grief, that he cannot make restitution to Uriah who has been long sleeping in his grave, or seek forgiveness from him.—
PSALM LI. VER. 3, 4. 195
Those who have missed the right sense, have taken up with many erroneous modes of explanation. Thus many ex- pound : before thee have I sinned, though i^tDH with 7 always means ; to sin towards, or against any one, comp. 1 Sam. xix. 4, ii. 25. After the example of Arnobius, Cassiodorus, Nic. of Lyra, and others, Koester remarks: " So could only a king pro- perly speak, who was raised above all responsibihty toward man, and could easily make compensation for any injustice done to his subjects." But before the judgment-seat of God the king is not less responsible for offences done to a neighbour, than the meanest of his subjects, and of this responsibility alone is the discourse here. De Wette endeavours to help himself in the matter, by alleging that the " thee only" expresses the depth of the feeling, not a contrast of the understanding. — In the words also : that thou mightest be righteous in thy speech, pure in thy judgment, the greater number of expositors have lost themselves. It appears to them incredible, that David's sin here must be applied to the purpose of bringing to light God's righteousness. Many, latterly Stier, have sought to get rid of this burdensome sense by supposing that the )XJ1j7 stands ekbatically : so that thou mayest be righteous, for ; so that I must thus recognize thy judgment, as it has been pronounced upon me by Nathan, to be a perfectly righteous one. But '^U? never signifies so that, always as a particle of aim, in order that, comp. Winer, and Gesen. in Thes. Tn the pass. Isa. xliv. 9, Deut. xxix 18, the sig. that, in order that, is quite in place, as soon as we do not overlook the allusion to the secret efficacy of God. Others refer the declaration here, not to the sin, but to the confession of it, through which David gave God the honour of it, and vindicated his judgment from all unright- eousness: I make declaration, that I have sinned against thee alone, only that, etc. But it is hard and arbitrary to supply : I confess, especially as in ver. 3, the discourse was not of the con- fession, but only of the knowledge of sin. But, if we will only grant to the declarations of Scripture, and the facts of expe- rience, their due weight, we shall be obliged to lay aside the aversion of imputing to God every kind of participation in siu, which has also in many other passages given rise to manifestly false expositions — comp. the investigation regarding the harden- ing of Pharaoh's heart, in P. III. of my Beitr. p. 462, ss. The Bin, indeed, belongs to man. At any moment he may become
196 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
free from it bj repentance. But if he does not repent, the forms in which it is to appear are no longer in his power, they are subject to God's disposal, and God determines them as it pleases him, as it suits the plan of his government of the world, for his own glory, and at the same time also, so long as the sin- ner is not absolutely hopeless, with a view to his salvation. He appoints the sinner to situations, in which he shall be assaulted by this or that particular temptation ; he binds the thoughts to some determinate object of sinful desire, and secures, that they continue wedded to this, and do not start off to some other. It is from the consideration of sin in this point of view, that David proceeds, when, in 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, he derives the hatred of Saul from the Lord's having stirred him up, and when, in 2 Sam xvi. 10, ss. he says of Shimei, " the Lord has said to him. Curse David, and who will say, Wherefore hast thou done so ? Let him curse, for the Lord has bidden him." So also elsewhere was such a concealed influence maintained upon David, as link- ed the sinful inclination already existing in him to a determi- nate object; comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, " And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." In the matter here referred to, such a co-operation of God is quite unde- niable. That David, through his own guilt, filled with sinful lust, must see precisely Bathsheba, that she became preg- nant, that Uriah did not comply with the wishes of David, who, that believes in a providence generally, can overlook such a co- operation in the circumstances ? Pointing now to this co-opera- tion of God, David says here, that he must have committed so heinous a sin, that in the judgment, which God primarily held upon him through Nathan (it is only of this, not of " an internal word of judgment," that we must think; for the result, which alone is spoken of here, could only be called forth by means of a public and generally known act), his righteousness, purity, and hoHness might be disclosed, and hence his name glorified and his honour increased ; Gesen. in Thes. p. 1052 : eum in finem peccavi, ut illustretur justitia tua. It might be objected, that this allusion to the co-operation of God in the matter does not suit with this connection, because it softens the guilt of David, which must here be represented in the strongest light. But this cir- cumstance could only appear of a mitigating character when superficially considered. There can be no stronger accusation
PSALM LI. VER. 5, 6. 197
against the sinner, no stronger testimony against the depth of his sinfuhiess, than his being used by God as an unconscious in- strument for the glorification of his righteousness. For this is only done with those, of whom nothing can be made by kind- ness. Besides, the Apostle in Rom. iii. 4, has already followed the exposition now given, whose commonly misunderstood words are first made clear by it. He must have taken the passage in a sense, in which there appeared to come from its application the result, that human unrighteousness was not punishable, be- cause it brought to light God's righteousness, so that one must sin for the honour of God — allegations, which he partly refutes in the following context, (ver. 6), and partly rejects with abhorrence.
There follows in verses 5 and 6 the second grounding of the prayer: sin is deeply implanted in human nature, man is even in his first existence poisoned ; but God desires true and inter- nal righteousness, true and internal wisdom. What remains, therefore, but that he impart these imperishable goods to man, and that he first of all communicate to the Psalmist their foun- dation, the forgiveness of sin ? Ver. 5. Behold in iniquity tvas I born, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Ver. 6. Behold, thou hast pleasure in truth in the imvard parts, and in the hidden part do thou teachme wisdom. The double behold manifestly points to the circumstance of there being an internal connection between the two verses, and such an one has place only according to the exposition we have given. In reference to ver. 5 Luther remarks: " If one would speak and teach rightly of sin, it is necessary to consider sin more deeply, and to discover out of what root it and every thing ungodly proceeds, and not simply to stand at sins already committed. For from the error of not knowing, or un- derstanding what sin is, there necessarily arises another error, that people cannot know or understand what grace is. — There- fore is it a great part of wisdom, for one to know, that there is nothing good in us, but vain sin, that we do not think and speak so triflingly of sin as those, who say, that it is nothing else than the thoughts, words, and deeds, which are contrary to the law of God. But if thou wilt rightly point out according to this Psalm, what sin is, thou must say, that all is sin, which is born of father and mother, even before the time that man is of age to know what to do, speak, or think." Calvin : " Now he does not confess himself guilty merely of some one or more sins, as formerly, but he rises higher, that from his mother's womb he
198 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
has brought forth nothing but sin, and by nature is wholly corrupt, and, as it were, immersed in our sin. And certainly we have ho solid convictions of sin unless we are led to accuse our whole nature of corruption. Nay each single transgression ought to lead us to this general knowledge, that nothing but corruption reigns in all parts of our soul." The expression, " in sin," as is manifest from the paral. clause, " I was born in iniquity," does not refer in such a manner to the mother, as that the sinfulness of the Psalmist was derived from sinful lust in the parents at his concep- tion : — it is impossible to assign a place to sin at the birth. If we refer the, " in iniquity," " in sin," generally to the mother, we must explain : of a mother, who was a sinner, have I been con- ceived and born. Parallel then is Job xiv. 4, " who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one." But in this exposition it is strange, that the mother only is named, and not the father. Then, according to this view, no account can be given, why the rise is made from the birth to the conception. Finally, it is hard to explain " I was born in iniquity," of a mother laden with sin, as the mother in this first member is not, as in the second, ex- pressly named. We must rather refer the expressions: "in iniquity," " in sin," to the Psalmist himself, q d. I was even in my birth, nay in my very conception, laden with sin ; in which case we are then to comp. Ps. Iviii. 3, " the wicked are estranged from the womb, the liars go astray from their mother's belly." and Gen. viii, 21, " the heart of man is evil from his youth." According to this view, the doctrine of original sin, for which the church has always considered this verse as a peculiarly locus classicus, is not directly contained in it, as in Job xiv. 4, but still it is so, indirectly, and that so plainly, that nothing but the most prejudiced mind can deny it. For when David confesses, that even before the development of his consciousness, before the time of his distinguishing between good and evil, that even at his birth, nay at his very conception, sin dwelt in him, and had so poisoned his nature, that he was quite incapable of at- taining to true righteousness and wisdom, he places himself in direct collision with those who consider sin merely as a product of the abused freedom of each individual, and leaves room for no other derivation of sinfulness, than this, that it goes down from parents to their children, according to the word, "what is born of the flesh, is flesh." But that David considers the sin, which we bring with us into the world, not as a sort of blame-
PSALM LI. VER. 5, 6. 199
less overwhelming evil, that he considers it as guilt, in agree- ment with the testimony of our conscience, is evident from the P'ly, which is never used otherwise, than of a delictum imputa- bile. In ver. 6, in the expression, " thou hast pleasure," there lies indirectly enclosed the prayer, which is expressly uttered in the second member, since, according to ver. 5, man with a heart corrupt from its first origin cannot impart to himself the truth : q. d. so give thou me, therefore, the truth, in which thou delight- est, and make known to me wisdom. In the exposition thou hast delight in truth, and hence teach me wisdom, an improper dis- tinction is made between truth and wisdom, and, at the same time, we destroy the synonymous parallelism, which from the analogy of the whole context we would have expected. The truth in contrast to lies, show, hypocrisy, is the true upright, in- ternal and sincere righteousness. So " the truth" is often found the current language of Scripture, for example in Jos. xxiv. 14, " And now fear the Lord and serve him in righteousness and truth," 1 Kings ii. 4, " If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart, and with all their soul; " 1 Kings iii. 6, " Thou hast showed unto thy servant Da- vid my father great kindness, according as he walked before thee in truth and righteousness," comp. 2 Kings xx. 3 ; Psalm cxlv. 18 ; John iii. 21 ; 3 John 3. ninD> prop, the covered, drawn over, denotes according to the parallel with tDHDj the concealed, and according to the passage in Job xxxviii, 36, " who hath put wisdom in the inwards ? or who gave to the under- standing judgment ?" the inward in opposition to the outward. The sig. adopted by many, reins, is without any foundation. The truth, which has its seat in the inwards, stands opposed to the appearance, which strikes out for itself a seat in the exterior. — DHD^j in the concealed, in the secret depth of the heart, which in the natural man is always pre-occupied by folly, how- ever much he may outwardly glitter with wisdom, (comp. Rom. ii. 29, where to xs^-j^rh stands connected with n xaodla), must, from the accents and its position, be connected, not according to Stier, withn^^n, the concealed heart-wisdom, but rather with the verb. In this way the parallelism with niflD^ is not destroyed, which belongs to wisdom. For the region, where the instruction must take place, — that the 1 is to be taken locally, is evident even from the parall. with HlHtOi — is at the same time that in which wis- dom has its proper seat. Wisdom in connection with truth cannot
200 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
be the theoretical, as many here very unseasonably think, of a spiritual understanding of the types of the Old Testament, but only practical wisdom for the life. The making known or teaching cannot refer to an external method of instruction, which might not reach to the heart, but it is internally wrought b}^ the spirit of God. — The Psalmist points here at once to the ultimate object at which God might help him, as it was unattain- able by hitn with his own powers, viz. the possession of wisdom and truth. In what follows, the way is more exactly determined, by which he is to arrive at that, the method by which God is to conduct him thereto, viz. through pardon of sin and the commu- nication of his Spirit. — Many expositors, recently Tholuck, ex- plain : Behold, Thou lovest truth in the concealed, in the inner- most Thou teachest me wisdom. By truth and wisdom they un- derstand the thorough knowledge of sin, as the Psalmist had re- presented it in the preceding context. '" So manifestly does the Psalmist feel the resistance of his sinful nature, to yield itself un- reservedly up under such a confession, that he owns himself in- debted for his discernment to divine illumination." But it ap- pears doubtful to take truth and wisdom in so straitened a sense, without any special intimation of this in the text, still more doubtful to take the fut. in the sense of the present, since all the following fut. are to be taken optatively. The latter doubt is removed if we expound: truth {q. d. a tho- rough apprehension of sin,) desirest thou, and as this exists, so dost thou also teach me wisdom. But still the first doubt re- mains, so far as it respects the truth, the synonymous parallelism is destroyed, the wisdom appears strangely isolated, the expres- sions " in the inward" and " in the concealed," do not properly correspond, etc.
After the grounding of the prayer, it breaks forth more at large, and, indeed, in ver. 7 to ver. 9, which carry an immediate re- spect to ver. 1 and 2, the Psalmist again primarily prays for that, on which all the rest depends, for the forgiveness of his sins. Ver. 7. Purify me with liyssop, that I may be clean, wash me, that I may be whiter than the snow. Ver. 8. Cause me to hear joy and gladness, the bones to rejoice, luhich thou hast broken. Ver. 9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. That the fut. are to be taken optatively, appears from the imper. in ver. 9. Ver. 7. has respect to the symbolical nature of the Mo- saic law. He, who had rendered himself Levitically unclean by
PSALM LI. VER. 7 — 9. 201
touching a corpse, was, according to Num. xix. 18, purified by a branch of hyssop, dipt into the water, which had the ashes of the red heifer. According to ver. 4, the hyssop was significant of the divine condescension, Hliy, comp. on Ps. xviii. 35, which manifests itself in the pardon of sin, an ingredient of that puri- fication-water itself, and so also according to Lev. xiv. 4, ss. of the blood with which the lepers were cleansed. The hyssop and the cedar inseparably connected with it, stand opposite to each other in these laws, as in 1 Kings iv. 33. The most ex- treme contrasts in the kingdom of created things image forth those in the Creator, which meet in the work of reconciliation, viz. the highest exaltation and the deepest condescension, Isa.lxvi. 1, 2 ; compare the illustration in " Egypt and the Books of Moses," p. 183, which has not been overthrown by the objec- tions of Kurtz, in his Mos. Opfer. p. 317. This author has not properly considered the inseparable connection, in which hyssop and the cedar stand with each other, and has treated too lightly the passage, 1 Kings iv. 33, which points to the ground of this connection, nor has he reflected how invariably in Scripture the cedar is spoken of with reference to its greatness and loftiness. The allusion of the Psalmist to the Levitical purifications appears so much the more suitable, when it is considered, that the law regards external impurity as the image of sin, and that ever}? thing, which was done in it, was a symbolical action, representing what must be done in reference to sin. This the Psalmist understood. When he speaks of purification through hyssop, he only changes, as the prophets often do, (comp. for example, Isa. i. 18,) the symbol into figure. The declaration in Numb. xix. 20, " and the man that is unclean and does not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation," rung with fearful emphasis in his soul. He per- ceived, that it applied far more truly to him, than to the person of whom it was primarily spoken. It is false to speak in such cases of allegorizing the law. The Psalmist does not allegorize, but he discloses the great real allegory of the law. — Thejoy and gladness, for which the Psalmist prays in ver. 8, are to come to him from that very purification, for the internal sealing of which, through the testimony of God's Spirit, he only sought the more fervently, after he had received the external assurance of par- don through Nathan. Luther : " As if he would say : sprinkle and cleanse me so, that I may be joyful ; that is, that through the word of grace I may have a peaceful, joyful heart, which
202 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
shall not tremble for sin and thy wrath. I have hitherto heard long enough the law and Moses, who has a hard speech and an unpliant tongue, ill to be understood, of a very ungracious ad- dress. Deliver me now from hearing him ; for nothing can be heard of him but only the anger of God. Therefore beg I of thee, dear Lord, to make me henceforth hear joy and gladness, which comes through the word of grace and forgiveness of sin, so that my bones, which thou hast broken, shall be gladdened, — the bones which were broken through the sense and terror of sin, that the law had produced in the heart." Berleb. Bible ; " When God deals with us regarding a word of life, the poor soul is brought up from the prostrate condition into which it had been plunged. That word consoles it, lifts it out of the grave, and redeems it from all its sufferings and distresses ; as to it, then, this deliverance is an unspeakable word of joy. It would be very difficult to describe the joy of such a soul, which, like another Lazarus, sees itself at once drawn by means of the living word from the grave." In regard to the words : that the bones might rejoice, which thou hast broken, see on Ps. vi. 2. Luther : " The bones, however, are not alone spiritually, but also corporeally broken under such terror of the law, and anger of God, that is, all power and strength are thereby taken from the body, so that it becomes very much enfeebled." Jo. Arnd: •' What these bones broken are, no one can tell, but hewho feels, in great temptations, the wrath of God, the curse of the law, the sting of death which is sin, and the power of sin which is the law. Then one experiences what the office and strength of the law is."
In reference to ver. 10 — 12, Luther e.xcellently remarks: " Hitherto we have handled and set forth that admirable portion of this Psalm, in which we have heard the highest articles of the Christian faith, namely, what repentance, what sin, what grace, what Christian righteousness, is, and how one may become blessed. What now remains to be considered in this Psalm, methinks, has respect to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which fol- low upon forgiveness of sin. Of such gifts the three next verses speak, as in the whole three the name of the Spirit is repeated, being called in the first a sure Spirit, then the Holy Spirit, and in the third the joyful Spirit."
Ver. 10. A clean heart make me, O God, and a fixed Spirit do thou renew in my inwards. Ver. 11. Cast me not away from thy
PSALM LI. VER. 10—12. 203
pi'esence, and take not from me thy Holy Spirit. Ver. 12. Re- store to me the joy of thy salvation, and with a joyful spirit do thou support me. In reference to the make in ver. 10, Jo. Arnd : ' He confesses in this, that such purification and renewal of heart is the work of God, and that no one could do it but God, being beyond the ability of any man. For just as forgiveness of sin, and justification, is God's work alone, so also is renewal and sanctification, and because it is God's work and gift, we must therefore pray to God, for we cannot have it by any power of our own." Calvin : " By the word making he ac- knowledges, that if we are born again to God at first, or after having fallen are restored, what is good in us is the gift of God. For he does not pray that his weak heart might be supported by some measure of help, but he confesses, that there is nothing good and right in his heart, until it has come to him from with- out." Parallel are Jer. xxiv. 7, " I give to them a heart, that they may know me," Ez. xxxvi. 26, " And I give to you a new heart," etc. 1 Sam. x. 9. The clean heart, besides here, in Ps. xxiv. 4, Ixxiii. 1, Matth. v. 8, Acts xv. 9. p^J, when it is used in connection with the spirit or heart, always means fixed, so that the exposition : a prepared, willing spirit, is to be rejected. A fixed spirit may either be such an one as is fearless from con- fidence in the Lord, comp. Ps. cxii. 7, " he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord," Ivii. 7, or a true, constant one, ready for every assault, as contrasted with the spirit of the natural man, to which every temptation is as a play-thing, compare Ps. Ixxviii. 37, " and their heart was not steadfast with him, neither were they faithful to his covenant." According to the connection and parallelism, we must here pre- fer the latter. Because the Psalmist had formerly possessed this fixed spirit, he prays that the Lord would renew him to the same. In the expression : cast me not away from thy sight, David seriously considers the mournful example of Saul, comp. 1 Sam. xvi. 1 — 7. John Arnd : " Here he first of all confesses, what he had deserved for his sins, namely, that God might have cast him off, and perpetually rejected him according to his righteousness, as it is written in Ez. xxxiii. where it is declared, that if the righteous turn from his righteousness, and do evil, he cannot live ; when he sins, his righteousness shall not be ac- counted of, but he shall die in his wickedness, whicli he has done." How the Holy Spirit came upon David, is recorded in
204 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
1 Sam. xvi. 13, " And Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward," — a passage, which has often been erroneously understood of peculiar and exclu- sively kingly gifts, and hence it has been inferred even here, that David's prayer has respect only to such gifts, in opposition to ver. 10, where he prays for o. fixed, and ver. 12, where he prays for a willing spirit : gifts which are common to him with all the faithful. The contrary, indeed, is shown in the very next verse of Samuel, " And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrified him," — we can as little think of the loss of kingly gifts in the one place, as of their be- stowal in the other, — and the same also appears from the parall. pass. 1 Sam. x. 6, 10, according to which Saul prophesies, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and Isa. xi. 2, according to which, the Spirit of the Lord, which rests upon the branch of David, is not merely a spirit of counsel and strength, but also a spirit of discernment and of the fear of the Lord. This Spirit of the Lord David had indeed grieved, comp. Eph. iv. 30, and in consequence thereof, he had been deprived of the greatest part of his gifts, as his prayer in the following verse shows, that God would make in him a new heart, would begin anew the work, that had been as good as completely destroyed in him. But that he was conscious of having not wholly, and to the last residue, lost him, is evident from his prayer here, " take not thy Holy Spirit from me," into which it has been vainly attempted to shove in a for ever (Kiiiichi : ne auferas in perpetuam, sed reddas), or an again (" he speaks as now converted, after having received the Spirit through true repentance and faith," against the whole context, in which David prays for the pardon of sin and the gifts of the Spirit, as for gifts which he had still not re- ceived). If David had entirely lost the Spirit, he could not have received him again. For the person who has altogether fallen from grace, cannot, according to the doctrine of Scripture, regarding the sin against the Holy Ghost, comp. Heb. vi. 4, ss., again come to the possession of the Spirit. However deplorable David's sin was, it was still predominantly a sin of weakness, (comp. upon the difference between malicious, intentional, and presumptuous sinning, and sinning from weakness,* Vol. L p. 341,
* David's sin, however, was not an occasion for the presentation of sin-of- forings. These belonged only to such sins as had not the pun'shmcut of cut-
PSALM LI. VER. 10 — 12. 205
S8.) which did not comprehend in itself an entire apostacy, but could only lead to this by degrees through a process of harden- ing, nay, must have done so, if mercy had not been again ex- tended to him. — The joy of God's salvation in ver. 12, is the joy over his salvation, which he had experienced, of the pardon of his sins and (over) the Holy Spirit, which he had received. ^/!DD liere as in Gen. xxvii. 37, with double accus., because to support, is q. d. benevolently to present with, comp. Ew. § 479. With Luther and others, to raise the Spirit, into the subject : and let the joyful Spirit uphold me, is not suitable, as the hke forms in the preceding context are given as an address to God. ini prop, a driven one, such a person as has in himself a living impulse to good, an internal constraint thereto, therefore T\T\ nini a free, noble, inspirited feeling. Liberal the word never signifies, and the gradation of meanings adopted by Gesenius must be abandoned. Arnd : " Because we are naturally disin- clined and averse to all good, we must pray for a joyful and willing spirit. Accordingly, the works are here thrown away, which are done under constraint of law, for these proceed not from faith. Faith does nothing by constraint, but wiUingly from pure love and thankfulness. Such works are well-pleasing to God, though it were only the giving of a drink of cold water." It is on purpose that the Psalmist brings in at the end the joy- ful spirit. For the spiritual thank-offerings must proceed from it which he presently promises to yield to God, comp. Ps, liv. 7.
In reference to the second chief division of the Psalm, begin- ning with ver. 13, Luther very justly remarks : " Here the pro- phet first begins to speak of his good works, after he has al- ready been justified by faith, and through the Holy Spirit has again been born anew. For the tree must be made good before the fruit, as Christ says in Matt. xii. 33. Therefore has David hitherto kept silence about his good works, and prayed only for the treasure which God was to put in him by his word and Spi- rit. But the works of which David speaks here, are, that thanks be given to the good and compassionate God for his gifts, that these should be much esteemed, and that through means of them also, other people might be taught, and induced to come for such grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit. As pious persons in
ting off appointed to them. But in the actual application of this principle, the law could maintain only an objective existence, on account of the short-sight- edness of those who were called to administer it.
i^06 THE BOOK OF I'SALMS.
the gospels did when they were made whole by Christ. For although Christ charged them to be silent, yet they could not but declare and celebrate the goodness of Christ, so that others might be drawn also to him. Those are the most excellent works, which show that the unfruitful tree has been turned into a fruitful one." The division falls into three parts ; first, the Psalmist says positively how he will display his gratitude, ver. 13 — 15, then he abjuresj^aZ^e thanksgivings, and sets over against them the true, ver. 16, 17, finally, he passes from personal ex- pressions of thanks to those of Zion, ver. 18, 19.
Ver. 13 — 15. 1 will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Ver. 14. Deliver me from hlood- yuiltiness, thou God my Saviour, so shall my tongue joy fully extol thy righteousness. Ver. 15. Lord open my lips, so shall my mouth show forth thy praise. To the words: I will teach, in ver. 13, a then is to be supplied. The Psalmist declares what he will do, when his prayer, uttered in the preceding verses, has been fulfilled. But that this is already to some extent un- consciously done, appears even from the purpose, which he here announces. For the wish to bring others to salvation, and thereby to promote the honour of God, cannot arise in a heart, which itself is quite alienated from the experience of sal- vation and from the glory of God. The expansion of the pur- pose, which the Psalmist here declares, of the vow which he here takes upon himself, is given in Psalm xxxii. comp. especi- ally ver. 8, " I will teach thee the way, which thou shalt go : be not as the horse and mule," etc. The ways of God may be the ways which he himself goes, his course, his actions, here his conduct toward repentant sinners, which David from his own experience would teach, and thereby lead others to repent, comp. Psalm xviii. 30, and the pass, in Gesen. Thes, Then would " thy righteousness" in ver. 14, and, " thy praise," in ver. 15, correspond ; also at the close of Psalm xxxii. would God's way be celebrated in this sense. Or, the ways of God may mean those which God wills that men should go in, the course of life which is well-pleasing to him, Psalm xviii. 21, here specially, that the sinner should repent. The latter view is sup- ported by Psalm xxxii. in which, what the sinner has to do, is throughout the predominant sentiment, comp. especially ver. 8; then also here the second member, " and sinners shall, (through my endeavours,) return to thee," where thewayof Godfor thesin-
PSALM LI, VER. 13 — 15. 207
ner appears to be more closely defined as the way of return to God. — The first member of ver. 14, since the Psalmist, through the whole section, occupies himself exclusively with the ques- tion, how he will express his gratitude, is consequently to bo viewed as in close connection with the second. The prayer for deliverance from blood-guiltiness has to do here only in so far as it is the condition of that influence which the Psalmist was to exercise upon others ; therefore, q. d. if thou deliverest me, my tongue shall show forth thy righteousness. The blood comes here into consideration, according to the " deliver me," comp. on Psalm xxxix. 8, only in so far as it cries for revenge, as it pursues, like a ferocious enemy, him who shed it, Ps. vii. 1, therefore, q. d. deliver me from the punishment of death, comp. with Gen. iv. 10, " The voice of the blood of thy brother cries to me from the earth," ix. 5, " Your blood, wherein is your soul, will I avenge," ver. 6, " Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," — which passages fell heavily upon the soul of the Psalmist, and incessantly plagued him, 2 Sam.
ix. 10, " Urias the Hittite hast thou slain with the sword
And now shall the sword not depart from thine house forever." pi, to exult, stands here as in Psalm lix. 16, poetically with a double accus., to praise with rejoicing. The righteousness of God is here also the property, according to which he gives to every one his own — to those who penitently return to him, the forgiveness of their sins, which he must grant to them accord- ing to his compassion, and which he promises to them in his word, comp. 1 John i. 9, " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- righteousness." Falsely many : the righteousness which thou extendest to sinners. This is already refuted by the corre- sponding : thy praise, in ver. 15. — The two members of ver. 15 are related to each other just as those of ver. 14, q. d. if thou openest my hps to me, I shall, etc. God opens the lips of the sinner by imparting forgiveness of sin, in consequence of which he breaks forth into rejoicing. The proclamation of the praise of God, of his glory, which he has unfolded in the bestowal of pardon, appears here as the best thank-offering which man can present to God. Luther : " Therefore, if we have through faith in Christ received the righteousness and grace of God, we can do no greater work than speak and declare the truth of Christ". For what concerns external works, not only could any other
208 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
persons, but even irrational beasts do, such as fasting, working, watching. It is also said, that in one respect Turks bear a very hard and laborious life. But when one is brought to confess Christ and his word, he is conscious of the joyful spirit of which David has spoken above."
The relation of ver. 16 and 17, to the preceding, has Luther already quite correctly indicated : " In the following context he shows the cause, wherefore he, after having now received God's righteousness, could not refrain from praising God through the proclamation of his name and giving thanks to him." Ver. 16. For thou desirestnot sacrifice, else ivould I gweittliee,and buryit-offerings please thee not. Ver. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart luilt thou, God, not despise. The /or indicates the reason, why the Psalmist, in what precedes, offers to God spiritual thank-offerings, not be- cause the corporeal are too good for him to give to God, but be- cause they are too bad. In what respect it is said, that God did not wish sacrifices, is evident here, just as in the remarkably corresponding passage. Psalm xl. 6, from the contrast with an actual rendering of thanks, in which the Psalmist was to take part with his mind and spirit. In this connection, the external sacrifices must have been regarded only as by themselves, and without respect to the mind of the offerer. Arnd : " Wherefore then ? God himself has ordered it so. Do his own works, then, please him not? Nothing, we reply, pleases God, but what is done in faith, and from sincere love and thankfulness. Now, what God has appointed, that has he appointed for this end, that it be done in faith, in love, and thankfulness. For God regards the heart, not the works." Those who have failed to take this, the only correct view, divide themselves into various classes. Against the position, that sacrifices are not here abso- lutely rejected, but that a subordinate place merely is assigned to them, see what has been already said in Ps. xl. 6. Against those who, following Abenezra, in an arbitrary limitation of what is said generally, make David say, that his sin was so great as to place him beyond the reach of the sin-offerings appointed in the law, it is a sufficient objection, that here, according to the connection, the discourse cannot be of sin-offerings, — the whole section is taken up with the kind of thanks the Psalmist is to offer — and in point of fact is not. The Psalmist does not speak particularly of sin-offerings, nor even of offerings in general, so
PSALM LI. VER. IG, 17. 209
that the former might have been comprehended in these, but only of the offerings, which the ah-eady justified presented, sacrifices and burnt- offerings. For it is clear as day, that wc must not render DTlIlT, as is too commonly done, by offerings, but rather by sacrifices, through the presentation of which the offerer thanked the Lord for his goodness, bringing along with these the burnt-offerings, in which the man who had obtained deliverance devoted himself anew to the Lord and his service. Gousset, who has the merit of having gone deeper into this in- vestigation than the recent lexicographers, must admit, that the sin-offering and the burnt-offering are never expressly named n^T, and his position, that they are sometimes comprehended under the word, proves itself to be quite groundless in the pas- sages brought forward in support of it, among which this here is included. Finally, the opinion of De Wette, who expounds, " thou hast now, while the temple lies prostrate, no pleasure," has against it the complete arbitrariness of this insertion, the violence of tearing asunder the parallel passage, and the expres- sion, " I would give them," which presupposes the possibility of presenting them. On the niflXlj and 1 would give them, if they were acceptable to thee, comp. Ps. Iv. 12. — In ver. 17 we have the sacrifices of God, which are lu ell pleasing to him, as appears from the contrast presented by this to ver. 16, and from the parallelism ; compare the ways of God in ver. 13. The plural is used " to indicate more distinctly, that the sacrifice of repent- ance alone suffices instead of every other," The broken spirit, the contrite heart, denotes deep, but soft and mild distress ; compare on Psalm xxxiv. 19, cxlvii. 3, the object of which here, according to the connection, is the offence done to God by hei- nous sinning. It may be perceived, at the first glance, that the Psalmist delineates such a heart as forms the God-pleasing sacri- fice and thank-offering. It might have appeared, according to ver. 8 and 12, that the disquietude reaches its end with the ex- perience of the forgiveness of sin. But the joy on account of received grace, which is there spoken of, does not ex- clude pain on account of sin. This must, especially after so grievous a fall, continue to remain. Its measure is at the same time the measure of thankfulness for the pardon of sin, of praise for the divine grace and righteousness, to which the Psalmist pledges himself in ver. 13 — 15, so that substantially he promises here the same thing as there. He, to whom mucli is given,
VOL. II. P
210 THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
loves much, and the consciousness, that much has been forgiven him, can only he preserved by him, who constantly mourns over his sins.
From the promise o^ personal thanksgiving the Psalmist turns liimself, at the close, to that of thanksgiving on the part of the 7vhole church, in order that God might the more readily grant to him, what would be gratefully acknowledged by so many. Ver. 18. Do good according to thy good pleasure to Zion, build up the walls of Jerusalem. Ver. 19. Then shall thou have pleasure in sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and whole offerings, then shall bullocks ascend thine altar. To the prayer, tliat God would build the walls of Zion, and do good to it, David was led by the conviction, that his sin, in case it should not be forgiven in case the sword should really be drawn, which, according to 2 Sam, xii. 10, was not to depart from his house, must bring de- struction upon the whole. The certainty of his prayer being heard for the whole, he received, when the word was addressed to him personally: " be of good, cheer, my son, thy sins be for- given thee," and it is properly but this, for which he prays here. Then in ver. 19, when thou hearest this prayer, when thou, in showing favour to me, at the same time givest the assur- ance that thou wilt not throw down the walls of Zion, — this mode of speech figuratively in Ps, Ixxxix. 40 — but farther build them up. " Thou shalt have pleasure," is, according to the connection, which shows that the verse must have a promissory character, and according to the parallelism, q. d. thou shalt delight thyself in them. Sacrifi,ces of righteousness are such, as are presented by a righteous man, or upon the foundation of his righteousness, comp. on Ps. iv. 5. Such sacrifices could never be without the soul, and only formally are they different from those that are purely spiritual. Only with them is God delighted, in the law which itself declares to the ungodly, that he " would not smell the savour of their sweet odours," Lev. xxvi. 31. 7"'7^, a perfect offering, is such an one as was entirely burnt. As this was done even in the burnt- offerings, of which the offerers had no part, as in the Schelamim and Sebachim, so 7'*7^ denotes the same class of offerings, as TU)'^ does, But it is not therefore em- ployed in vain ; for it indicates on account of what in particular burnt-offerings were promised, namely, just because they were whole offerings, in which alone the grateful mind found tlie
PSALM Lir. 211
corresponding expression of its feelings, the resolution of its complete and undivided surrender to God, its Saviour, of whom it was full. Berleb. Bible : " In the New Testament, such are brought, when the soul, as it were, burns with love to God, and spends itself wholly in his service." Besides, the last words and verse, which still manifestly refer to the Olot. — l'7y* — 1 Sam. vii. 9, " and he offered it as olah wholly, tS^, to the Lord," is against the separation of ni/^ and 7''73.
PSALM LII.
The words in ver. 1 : " Why boastest thou thyself of mischief, thou hero ? the favour of God endureth for ever," contain the theme, which is then more fully handled in four strophes, each of three verses, the first and second of which is also externally bounded by a Selah. First, the wickedness of the hero is deli- neated in ver. 1 and 2, then it is shown how little reason he had for boasting himself of it, in as much as God, in his loving-kind- ness toward his people, has appointed him to merited destruction, ver. 4 and 5, to the lively joy and edification of the righteous, ver. 6 and 7, while, on the other hand, the Psalmist shall attain to salvation, of which inwardly he is as confident as if he already had it, ver. 8 and 9.
According to the superscription, David composed this Psalm after he had heard the report, that Saul, on the information of Doeg regarding what had passed between David and the high- priest Ahimelech, caused eighty-five priests to be killed. With this the situation entirely agrees. It must have filled David with grief and terror, when he received the tidings of this villany. In the confliot with an enemy capable of using such weapons, he must certainly /aZ^. He must have despaired of his own life, when, in spirit, he looked upon the corpses of eighty-five priests, who, solely for his sake, had been killed, to inspire all with dread of sharing the same fate, and upon Saul, as it were, beside them, asking him in triumph, how he was fur- nished for such a conflict. Then, if ever, had he occasion for uttering the words: Wliy boastest thou thyself of mischief, thou hero? the favour of God endureth for ever. — The superscrip-
212 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion has often been misunderstood to intimate that the Psalm was directed against Doeg. It does not say that, but only that the Psalm was composed on the occasion of Saul's receiving in- formation from Doeg, and of what thereupon followed. It men- tions Saul along with Doeg, and that the former name is to be written large, not the latter, is probable alone from the circumstance, that David commonly has respect to Saul himself in the Psalms composed during the Sauline period of his histor}--, and not to his subordinate instruments, whose agency was considered as embodied in that of the ideal person of the wicked one, who, in Saul, had become concrete. The subject fully jus- tifies this view of it. The enemy appears throughout the Psalm, as one who threatens destruction to the Psalmist, and w^hat he has already done to others comes only so far into con- sideration, as it shows what the Psalmist had to expect from him. So at the outset : why boastest thou thyself of mischief, q. d. why boastest thou, that with the mischief, the frightful effects of which lie before the eyes, thou shalt soon make away with me? But history knows nothing of Doeg's having undertaken to remove David out of the way. It knows nothing of the en- mity of Doeg to David, who had kept silence regarding what had taken place between David and the high-priest, till the so- lemn charge of Saul to his servants appeared to render further silence inconsistent with his duty of service. Quite otherwise must he have acted if he had been the sworn enemy of David, which the hypothesis in question would make him. — The ad- dress, " thou hero," suits much better to Saul, whom David, in his lamentation, 2 Sam. i. 19, still repeatedly calls a hero, who had even in his crime displayed the energy of the hero, than to Doeg, the chief herdsman of the royal flocks, of whom history records no heroic deed, but the massacring of the hapless priests, which none of Saul's luarriors would undertake to do. In order to make the reproach of lying, in ver. 1 — 3, of calum- nious and deceitful words suit Doeg, it is necessary to enrich the history with imaginary circumstances. In the whole history of the transaction with the priests, there is no indication of Doeg's having been guilty of lying and deceit. He simply re- ports the fact; the hateful interpretation is added by Saul, comp. 1 Sam. xxii. 9, 10, 22. On the other hand, this reproach is perfectly suited to Saul. He accused David, without any foundation, of high-treason, in order to h^ve him taken out of
PSALM LII, VEIL 1. 213
the way with some show of light, and brought the same accusa- tion against the innocent priests, comp. 1 Sam. xxii. 17, without paying the least regard to the simple eloquence of a good con- science, with which the high-priest defended himself, because he had resolved to give an example for the destruction of David. The words: " he trusted in the abundance of his riches," in ver. 7, suit Saul better, who understood how to employ his riches for the establisliment of his throne, (comp. his own declaration in 1 Sam. xxii. 7), than Doeg, who, though as the chief of the herds- men, and as such, the foremost among the servants of Saul, comp. 1 Sam. xxii. 9, certainly possessed considerable means, yet made, no use of these to procure for himself servants and abettors to persecute David and the righteous in general. Final- ly, it is scarcely conceivable that David, in the presence of Saul, should have been fired with such zeal against a merely common instrument of his, which Doeg manifestly was, and should have laid claim to help from above against him. — With this rejection of the reference of the Psalm to Doeg, the attacks of De Wette and others are at the same time set aside against the superscription, which proceed simply and alone upon the misunderstanding, that it was directed against him.
To the chief musician, an instruction of David. When Doeg tlie Edomite came, and informed Saul, and spake in him: David is come to the house of Ahimelech. It is not without reason, that the expression, " an instruction," (comp. on Psalm xxxii), is immediately connected with that, " to the chief musician." The Psalm was only then appropriated to be sung in the sanctuary, when it had something more than merely historical import, when it contained a kernel of eternal and general instruction. To the designation in the superscription of an instruction, cor- responds, in the Psalm itself, the regard to the righteous in ver. G and 7, and in ver. 9. At the end of the superscription is an etc. to be supplied. The history is supposed to be generally known, and hence it is simply pointed to. The Psalm could not be composed before David had heard the report of themwr- der of the 2^riests.
Ver. 1. Why hoastest thou thyself of mischief, thou hero? the favour of God endures for ever. There is here represented, beforehand, the essential matter of the whole Psalm, in brief, striking features. In presence of the malice of his enemy, the frightful operations of which David had just seen, he must have
214 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
been the more alarmed, as the bearer of this malice was a man of rare energy, of manly and heroic vigour. But a glance to- ward the favour of God, which he enjoyed, gave him unlimited confidence in opposition to this powerful malice, and enabled him to laugh at its proud assurance. This favour must provide for his enemy, in spite of all his malice and strength, destruction ; but for himself salvation. To the words here, " thou boastest thyself of mischief," corresponds, in ver. 7, " he is strong through his wickedness." ^\2'^ is hero. The sig. tyrant, mad- man, which many expositors adopt, is entirely unsupported. — Gesenius adduces only this verse for it — and has this against it, that God, in the second member, with especial reference to the strength of the enemy, assumes the name of '7^5, of strengtii, whereby also is rejected the irony supposed by many ; then, too, that in ver. 7, as here, the heroic virtue, so there the abun- dance of riches, is coupled with malice. Not the malice alone, but that in connection with the power, was what could fill Da- vid with trouble. OVH/Dj not all days, but the whole day, for continually. — The malice of the enemy comes in for the first time, in the expanded description ver. 2, 3.
Ver. 2. Thy tongue, as a sharp razor, thinks upon mischiif, thou that ivorkest deceit. Ver. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good, lying more than to speak righteousness. That we must take nin, not, with Luther, in the sig. of misfortune, loss, hurt, but in that of mischief, appears from ver. 7. The tongue here comprehends also the spiritual part, whose organ it is. The com- parison with the sharp razor is here the more suitable, as the calumnious accusation of high treason, which Saul brought against David and the high-priest, his charge, " Ye have con- spired against me thou and the son of Jesse," was indeed the cutting-point of his malice. For the measures he adopted against them, were only the consequences of this. The last words of ver. 2, Luther has falsely referred to the tongue, in- stead of taking them as an address to the enemy. Ver. 3 de- rives its strength from its contrast to that, which the wicked should do according to the prescription of tlie divine law, comp. for the second half, Deut. xvi.20, "Righteousness, righteousness, thou must follow after it, that thou may est Jive and possess the land which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee." Righteousness here is not = truth, but it has respect to this, that the enemy, while he speaks lies, violates righteousness.
PSALM LII. VER. 4 — 7. 215
In the second strophe, we have now the grounding of the position, that the enemy unjustly boasts himself of his wicked- ness, while God's favour toward the Psalmist will show itself in destroying him. Ver. 4. Thou lovest all words of destruction, tongue of deceit. Ver. 5. Therefore shall God destroy thee for ever, take thee away as a coal, and2:>luck thee out of the tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. That ver. 4 is a mere re- sumption of ver. 2, 3 — q. d. because thou so lovest, etc. God shall, in righteous recompense to thee, etc. — appears be- sides the Selah and the fact, that the other strophes of the Psalm are divided into two verses from the contents, which only repeat in other words what had been already said. The design of the resumption is to point to the intimate and inseparable connection of guilt and punishment. The same design is served by the D^l, also, in ver. 4, which marks the punishment as the necessary complement of the guilt, comp. Ps. xcv. 9, Ez. xvi. 43, Mai. iii. 9. Our two verses, therefore, represent the revenge as the two preceding ones the wickedness. y7lj pausalf. of y'^iiprop. devouring. The verb nnn in ver. 5, everywhere else signifies : to take away the coals, and this sig. is here the less to be abandoned, as also in the words, " he shall destroy thee for ever" — make thee a monument of eternal ruin, there is an abbreviated comparison at bottom, as also in the words : he will root thee out, nay also in these : he will pluck thee out of the tent, q. d. he will snatch thee forth, as one who is dragged with strong gripe out of a tent. How this prophecy found its fulfil- ment in Saul, is recorded in 1 Sara. xxxi.
The third strophe, ver. 6 and 7, describes the joy of the righ- teous at the manifestation of the glory of God in his judgment upon the wicked. Ver. 6. The righteous shall see it and be afraid, and laugh over him. Ver. 7. " See there the man, who does not make God his portion, and trusts in the abundance of his riches, is strong through his wickedness." The fear is not a slavish, but a childish one, such as always arises in the minds of believers, when God manifests himself in his glory. The ex- pression : they will laugh over him, forms no contradiction to that in Prov. xxiv. 17, " Rejoice not when thine enemy fallcth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth," Job xxxi. 2i), where it is characterised as a heinous sin to rejoice at the misfortune of an enemy, or 2 Sam. i. 19, ss., where David ex-
216 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
presses the acutest pain on account of Saul's overthrow. John Arnd : " There is a twofold laughter. One, when a man, out of an evil spirit of revenge, laughs at his enemy. This no Christian virtuous mind does, but it exercises compassion to- ward an enemy. But the other sort of laughing arises from a consideration of the wonderful judgment and righteous- ness of God, as when a man sins so presumptuously, that he cares neither for God nor man, and will contend with God, as Pharaoh says : I ask nothing after the Lord, nor will I let Is- rael go, and soon thereafter was made to sink in the Red Sea. Is it not a matter of ridicule for a man to fight against God, and God gives him a fiUip in the ear, so as to make him fall, or God commands the vermin to plague such great kings as Pharaoh ? Herod would himself be God, and was eaten up of worms — is not this a great God ? Should one not laugh at this, and adore God's judgment ? Is it not laughable, that the king of Assyria threatens Hezekiah, that he would send so many horses and footmen into his land, as would be sufficient with the soles of their feet to drink up Jordan, and there would not be enough of dust in the land for every one to fill his hands withal, while yet in one night they were all slain in the camp by the angel of the Lord ?" On ver. 7, which contains the words with which the righteous mock the wicked, John Arnd remarks : " A rich man full of wickedness is like a bear, while he still walks at large in the forest ; every one must take care of meeting him ; but when he is caught, then a ring is put into his nose, a chain is thrown over him, his teeth broken out, and his claws cut off; and then one laughs at him and says : Thou poor rogue, it is done with thee at last." For the being strong through his wickedness, we must not substitute : holds himself for strong.
The thought : God's favour endures for ever, has hitherto been but imperfectly brought out. It must be shown not merely in the destruction of the enemies of the Psalmist, but also in the salvation which is imparted to him ; it must not simply bring down and destroy, but also raise up and edify. And this is what the last strophe unfolds. Ver. 8. And I am as a green olive tree in the house of God, I trust in the favour of God for ever and ever. Ver. 9. 1 will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it, and hope in thy name, because it is good, before thy saints. The house of God, in ver. 8, is the temple " where God dwells with his grace, blessing, protection, help, and consola-
PSALM LII, VER 8, 9. LIII. 217
tion," (Arnd,) and where tlic righteous spiritually dwell along with him, comp. on Ps. xv. 1, xxiii. 6, xxvii. 4, 5, xxxvi. 8. The Psalmist not merely expresses here, as elsewhere, the hope that he would dwell or abide in this dehghtful place, but that he would there joyfully prosper. The green olive-tree as an image of joyful prosperity, also in Jer. xi. 16, as in Ps. xcii. 12, the cedar and the palm. The position of De Wette, that the house of God is here to be taken figuratively, is to be rejected, (comp. on the other hand what has been said on the passages referred to), equally with the exposition, which here, where a much higher thing is spoken of, finds the expression of David's hope of an external return to the sanctuary, though this could cer- tainly not be left out. The trusting in the favour of the Lord^ has, according to the words, " spes confisa deo nunquam con- fusa recedit," the manifestation of that favour for its inseparable accompaniment ; so that we may supply : and hence shall never be put to shame. According to ver. 9, the Psalmist will continu- ally praise the lord for the deliverance already internally ob- tained, (comp. the TT'^yj) and for the future continually during his troubles will wait in believing hope upon his trustworthy helper. The object is awanting for J^''^^: that which I hoped. That in cases like this HS^^ never stands absolutely, the object being always to be supplied from the preceding context, was al- ready shown in Ps. x.xii. 31, xxxvii. 5. On the name of God, q. d. his glory, as that has been actually di>;played, comp. on Ps. xx. 1, xxiii. 3. The expression, "before thy saints," points to this, that the faith of the Psalmist, acquired through his present de- liverance, will prove advantageous to the whole church, he will thereby build up this. That we must connect " before thy saints," with " I will hope," and must not translate with Luther: and will hope on thy name, for thy saints have joy therein, is clear from a comp. of the parall. pass. Ps. liv. 6. That Psalm agrees so remarkably with this, that the supposition of their being composed by the same author is rendered certain, and the superscriptions are consequently confirmed, which ascribe them to the same.
PSALM LIIL Compare on Psalm xiv.
218 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LIV.
This Psalm is distinguished both in its form and its subject by great simplicity. The whole is completed in the number seven, which, as so often happens, is divided into the numbers three and four. First in ver. 1 — 3, the prayer for deliverance from malignant and God-forgetting enemies, then in ver. 4 — 7, the confidence united with a promise of thanksgiving, for the deliverance, which the Psalmist sees with the eye of faith as al- ready present.
According to the superscription, David composed the Psalm when the Ziphites informed Saul, that David concealed himself in their country. Such information was conveyed twice, 1 Sam. xxiii. and xxvi. But that we are here to think of the first, is probable from the literal agreement of the words of the Ziphites here with those in 1 Sam. xxiii. 19. Against the correctness of the superscription, it has been objected, 1. That the enemies are named strangers in ver. 3, whereas David was then menaced by his countrymen, Saul and his associates, comp, our remarks there; and, 2. That the superscription is partly borrowed from 1 Sam. xxiii. 19, — which, however, can prove nothing, since the agree- ment solely refers to the words of the Ziphites.
To the chief musician, for music on a stringed instrument, an instruction of David, when the Ziphites came and spake to Saul: Does not David hide himself luith us ? On the expression : for music on a stringed instrument, comp. on Ps. iv. Delitzsch on Hab. p. 203, has proved, that T^^y^ denotes not any particular stringed instrument, but the music on such instruments, the plu- ral indicating music formed by numerous notes running into one another, not various instruments. On the " instruction," (comp. on Ps. xxxii.) the Bcrleb. Bible : " We should learn from the ex- ample of David, that even in the greatest danger we should re- sort to no forbidden means, nor grow faint, but should call upon the name of God, and commit to him all our concerns as to the Supreme Judge." The participle ^nHD/^ marks the action continuing in the same state, and we must neither translate : has not then David concealed himself, nor with Flitzig : conceals himself not then David commonly with us ? The form in which the Ziphites gave the information, had something striking in it, and for this reason it was, that their words had sunk so deep
PSALM LIV. VER. 1 — 3. 210
into the memory. It pre-supposed Saul's earnest seeking after David. The Ziphitcs, surprizing Saul, express their wonder at this, that having such an object in view, he should still be igno- rant of the notorious secret, that David lay concealed among them.
Ver. 1. God, through thy name deliver me, and through thy poiuer judge me. Ver. 2. God, hear my prayer, attend to the words of my mouth. Ver. 3. For strangers are risen up against me, and the violent seek after my soul, they have not got God before their eyes. From the earth, which presents to him nothing but despair, the Psalmist turns himself to heaven, — from men who are against him, to God his helper ; hence the general name of God is used quite appropriately. The name and the power of God he sets against the usual human means of help, of which he is wholly abandoned. The connecting the name of God, (comp. on Ps. hi. 10), with his s^ren^^A, shows quite clearly how false the position is, that the name of God is, q. d. God him- self. The judge me is not quite synonymous with the deliver me. It points to the righteousness of David's cause, which leads him to call in the divine help against his enemies as a work of divine righteousness, comp. Ps. vii. 8 ; xxvi. 1. John Arnd : " From these words we learn, if we would pray rightly, and in- deed would make a strong, powerful prayer, we must have a good cause, so that our conscience may not condemn us and render our prayer impotent." Besides, the delivering is not of itself contained in the judging ; it only is so, when the per- son praying for the judgment is a righteous man. — In ver. 3, the Chaldee, instead of £D''1Tj strangers, reads CD**"!!, proud, which Luther also follows. This reading has partly proceeded from an unseasonable comparison of the parallel passage, Ps. Ixxxvi. 14, in which Q*'^! is intentionally changed into t^**"!!, and part- ly from the difficulty, which strangers presents, when compared with the superscription, according to which the enemies are do- mestic ones. This difficulty is legitimately removed by the re- mark, that David here figuratively designates his countrymen as strangers, because they, who were united with him by so many ties, his "friends," and his " brethren," according to the law of God, in their behaviour toward him were not different Irom strangers. Precisely the same figurative representation occurs also in Ps. cxx. 5, where the Psalmist, heavily oppressed by his countrymen, complains, that he dwelt in Mesech and Kedar,
220 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
heathenish tribes, q. d. among heathens and Turks. Analogous also are the numerous passages, in which Israelites either in general are described as aliens or lieathens, or are coupled with the name of a particular outlandish people, in order to mark their degeneracy and ungodliness. The transition to the figu- rative use of CDHT) was the more easy, as it almost invariably carries the related idea of hostile, comp. Gesen. Thes., who is so candid as to admit here this figurative use. Upon T^IJ^, power- ful, with the subordinate idea of violence, comp. on Ps. xxxvii. '6b. On : " tliey have not God before their eyes," corresponding to the: " they fear not God," in Ps. Iv. 19, Arnd remarks: "Not to have God before the eyes, means to s])eak and act without dread, whatever one pleases, nay what is contrary to God and his holy word, as if God did not see and hear it ; nor to be afraid of God's anger, or of his judgment, and to have no remembrance of God in the heart. This is a great and horrible blinding of wicked Satan, growing out of pride and the abuse of power."
Ver. 4. Lo, God helps me, the Lord is among those, who up- hold my soul. Ver. 5. He shall return the evil upon my adver- saries, according to thy truth annihilate them. Ver. 6. With free-will gift will I sacrifice to thee, praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good. Ver. 7. For he has delivered me from all trouble, and my eye sees its desire upon my enemies. The lo is a note of great strength of faith. The Psalmist sees with his eyes, how God helps him, although what is visible presents nothing to him but certain destruction. John Arnd : " This is a fruit of prayer and of the Holy Spirit, that the heart is comforted and rejoiced after prayer, and it is a sure indication of being heard, for so does the Lord answer us, when we pray from the heart. When prayer goes from the heart, the heart assuredly receives the consolation of God." Soul is according to ver. 3, — the upholders of the soul here, stand opposed to those there, who seek the soul — as much as, life. The '2 in '•^j^JD^ is not the so called Beth es- sentiae, for then the singular must have been used, but it means simply among. The Psalmist makes two parties, the opponents and the helpers, and is full of triumphing confidence, as he sees the T^ord upon the side of the latter. That the Psalmist must have had other helpers besides the Lord, we must not conclude from the plural. The plurality is an ideal circumstance ; the plural denotes the class, the party, which in reality might have been embodied in an individual Quite analogous is Ps. cxviii.
PSALM LIV. VER. 4 — 7- 221
7 ; Judges xi. 35. — In ver. 5 the reading of the text is the fut. in Kal. l^^^ comp. vii. 16. The marginal reading y>^i he,
God, shall recompense, which in many MSS. is pressed into the text, and is also expressed by many of the old translators, owes its origin merely to the endeavour to bring the two members into conformity. The evil is that, which the adversaries wished to inflict on the Psalmist. In the second member the confident expectation of what the Lord shall do, in the strength of feeling, takes the character of a demand upon the Lord. This im- perative, which arises out of confidence, is carefully to be dis- tinguished from those of the first part, wliich contain prayer simply. r\^i^ always signifies truth, never faithfulness, comp. Ps. XXX. 9. The truth of God must work the annihilation of the ungodly enemies, because in his word he has given to his people the promise of his protection, and still more, because his whole being contains a matter-of-fact declaration of the same promise. John Arnd : " There are two strong grounds from which it may be concluded, that punishment shall certainly overtake the per- secutors of the church. For the righteous God, who can only for a little exercise long-suffering and patience, will at length repay wickedness. Besides, God's faithfulness and truth are also certain, and must at last manifest and disclose themselves." — In ver. 6, 111*131 is expounded by many: with free will, volun- tarily. But that the signification generally recognized as the common one, free-will gift, such an one, namely, as the heart impels one to bring, (Ex. xxv. 2, xxxv. 29), is the only one, ap- pears from a closer examination of the passages brought in sup- port of the sig. tuillingness, or animus promptusad aliquid.* Ac- cordingly we must also translate here, " in free-will offering," so that the gift has the character of one freely bestowed ; now, with it, in the law the free-will gift stands in regular contrast to the vow, by which a person was bound, whenever he had uttered it iu a time of trouble. This contrast the Psalmist would here also indicate ; of his ready mind he would be impelled to present his
* That in Numb. xv. 3, (where sacrifices stand opposed to each other, those which were offered after a tow, and those rma) we must expound " as a free-will offering,"
appears from the comp. of the parallel passages, Lev. vii. 16, and xxii.23. In Deut. xxiii. 24, the rendering : " What thou hast vowed to the Lord as a free-will gift," presents nothing against this, nor Hos. xi\. 5 *. I will love them with a free-will gift, comp. Ew. § 483.
^22 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tliank-ofFering, to pay his vow, which in many cases was nothing more than a preservative against one's own lukewarmness, dis- inchnation, and unthankfulness. Still we might, referring to Deut. xxiii. 24, where also the vow is marked as a free-will of- fering— though certainly but an isolated passage — suppose, that the free-will offering stands opposed to such as was legally com- manded. That significance is ascribed to sacrifices here, only in so far as the mind takes an active part in their presenta- tion, appears from the parallel second member, from which many of the older expositors have erroneously concluded that by the sacrifices purely spiritual ones are to be understood — comp. on this second member, Psalm lii. 9. — The expression in ver. 7 : he has delivered me, is to be explained from the cir- cumstance, that David, in the exercise of that faith, which builds upon the internally received assurance, sees what is not as if it were, what, indeed, he was already, in ver. 6, prepared to do, when speaking of praising and giving thanks to God, which pre- supposes the deliverance as already obtained. On the words : and my eye sees its desire on my enemies, Calvin remarks: " If any one asks, whether it is permitted to the children of God, when God takes vengeance on crimes, to feast himself on such a spectacle, the answer is easy — only let his eyes be pure, and he can piously and holily refresh himself with the manifestations of God's justice ; but when they are infected with any evil desire, all is then drawn to a wrong and perverse end." John Arnd : " This is not a fleshly lust, a private revenge, an exultation over another's misfortune, all which is unchristian, but it is an admi- ration of the righteousness of Go.l, an acknowledgment of God's judgment, a satisfaction, that God's honour and God's name are vindicated, whereby all may fear, praise, honour, and glorify him in all his works."
PSALM LV.
The Psalm contains three parts. The first, ver. 1 — 8, de- lineates the desperate condition of the Psalmist, and prays for deliverance. The second, ver. 9 — 15, describes the prevaihng wickedness and ungodliness, as a symptom of which it is men- tioned that the Psalmist has one of his nearest friends for his
rsALM Lv. 223
bitterest opponent, and calls upon God to come tojudtjment upon the wicked. The third, ver. 16 — 23, contains the expression of confidence, which raises itself from the same foundation, on which also was raised in the preceding context the prayer : God is called upon at once by his love and his righteousness to inter- pose.— If we regard, as we are perfectly justified by the matter, ver. 1 as an introduction indicating, by way of preliminary, the prayer, and ver. 23 as the conclusion, recapitulating the confi- dence in short and striking lines, we have three strophes, each of seven verses. — The internal character of the Psalm is indicated by the " making a noise," in ver. 2, and the " crying aloud," in ver. 17. It \s,i\\2Ltoif3igxesit excitement. Berleb. Bible: " David is here very depressed, and thinks of no leaps over the walls as elsewhere." The Psalmist wishes to show (the Psalm is desig- nated in the superscription an instruction) how, in such a situa- tion of excitement, a person should conduct himself, how ho should carry up what has occasioned it to God, and compose himself to rest again through the consideration of God's love and righteousness.
The superscription ascribes the composition to David. For a particular occasion, and against the view propounded by Luther, that we have here a general prayer prescribed for the godly when assaulted by the wicked, is manifest even at the first glance from ver. 12 — 14, and ver. 20 and 21, where the person of a faithless friend meets us. But this faithless friend is a standing figure in poetry, as it is in life. Precisely in the same form in which it occurs here, has it already appeared in the earlier non- individual Psalms, in Ps. xxxv.ll,ss.,and especially in the passage which remarkably agrees with this, of Ps. xli. 9. David Avas desirous of employing for the good of the Church the painful experiences, which he had found on this territory, particularly in connection with Ahithophel, 2 Sam. xv. 12 ; was anxious to comfort others with the consolation with w^hich he had himself been comforted in the trial he met with from " false brethren,'' (the predominating reference to this, forms, in regard to the matter of the Psalm, its individual characteristic). Against the supposition of a particular occasion, it is enough to awaken in us misgivings, that those who maintain that, cannot agree among themselves regarding it. A presumptive counter-ground, on the other hand, is the general character of the references, the inten- tional nature of which comes especially out in ver. 9, where, by
224 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
" the city," every one must obviously think of that particular city, to which he himself belong-s. It is against the Sauline persecutions in particular, that in them we can point to no ori- ginal of the faithless friend, and against the revolt of Absalom, that not the smallest reference is to be found here to the royal dignity of the Psalmist, which is, however, a characteristic trait of the individual Psalms of that time, nay, in ver. 13, where the Psalmist describes the faithless friend as his associate and com- panion, a datum is given, which excludes that idea. Then the defenders of the reference to Absalom's time are involved in difficulty on this account, that they are unable to point out in the history the combination of circumstances which appear here : on the one hand the Psalmist is still in the city,— he expresses his wish, in ver. 6 — 8, to be able to flee into the wilderness : as also in ver. 9, he sees violence and strife in the city. On the other hand, the wickedness has already come to a full outbreak, the Psalmist is already hard pressed by his enemies, faithless- ness has already become openly manifest. Tholuck, who sup- poses the Psalm to have been composed when David was flying before Absalom in the wilderness of Jordan, must get rid of one half of the circumstances, and Stier, who places its composition in the period that preceded the revolt of Absalom, overlooks the other. The allegation of Ewald and others, that the Psalm be- longs to the last century before the destruction of Jerusalem, can bring no probable argument for its rejection of the super- scription. For such delineations as it contains of prevailing de- moralization, in ver. 9 — 11, David had abundant occasion in his own experience during the times of Saul (compare especially 1 Sam. xxii. 2) and Absalom. It is absurd to take such descrip- tions as the starting point for the historical exposition, and then perhaps to complain with Ewald : " the circumstances of the position of this poet can scarcely be more exactly determined."
To the chief musician, upon stringed instrument music, an in- struction of David ; Ver. 1. Attend to my prayer, O God, and hide tlcy self not from my supplication. ny^T\T\^ prop, to hide one's self from any thing, purposely not to notice, to be igno- rant of it, compare Deut. xxii. 1 — 4, Isa. Iviii. 7, and on Ps. x. 1. John Arnd : " In great straits, it seems as if God hides himself from us, as the prophet Jeremiah speaks in chap. iii. of his La- mentations : Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through. But our gracious God cannot
PSALM LV. VER 2—8. 225
hide himself from our prayer, tlic prayer does still press through the clouds and find him. God's fatherly heart does not permit him to hear us cry and beg, without turning to us, as a father when he hears his children cry."
There follows now the developement of the prayer uttered in a general way in the introduction, in two strophes. First, the Psalmist prays for deliverance from the great distress, in which he was plunged, ver. 2 — 8. In ver. 3, he describes this distress, in ver. 4 and 5 he unfolds the sad internal condition, in which he was situated, having troubles without and fears within, and heaves, in ver. 6 — 8, the wish that he might rather dwell in the wilderness, than, in such circumstances, continue longer in human society — such vexation had they caused him. Ver. 2. Attend to me and hear me, I give free course to my sorrow^ and trill cry aloud. Ver. 3. Because of the voice of the enemy, he- cause of the oppression of the iuicked,for they hend mischief over me, and in ivrath they persecute me. Ver. 4. My heart moves about in my iniuards^ and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Ver. 5. Fear and trembling have come upon me, and horror covers me. Ver. 6. And I said : Oh had I ivings as a dove, then luould I fly away and abide. Ver, 7. Lo ! I would fiy far off, 1 luoidd lodge in the luilderness. Selah. Ver, 8. / would make haste to a refuge, from the strong wind, from tJie tempest. TT'S^l "iHi^ in ver. 2, signifies literally : I let (my thoughts) swim, or move themselves about in my reflections, for, I give my sad thoughts free course, that God may be the more moved to compassion since pain in its full strength presents itself be- fore him. 11^ occurs in Kal. in the sense of moving one's self, Jer. ii. 31, Hos. xii. 1, and in liiphil in the sense of moving, shaking, Gen, xxvii, 40, compare my Beitr. III. p. 296. As the supposition, that the Hiphil here stands in the signification of Kal, is an arbitrary one, the object, " my troubled thoughts," must be supphed from TT'ti^i- The rf^ thought, reflection, is often used especially of the reflection one has over misfortune, of sorrow, because nothing more powerfully draws the thoughts around it, than pain, nothing invites one more to sink down into it, to brood over it. But the word in such cases maintains still its common signification. Din to throw into confusion, to bring into disquiet, in Hiphil to make disquiet, noise, comp. j\Iic. ii. 12, and the corresponding " to make a noise," in ver. 17. There is just as little reason here as in Ps. xlii. 4, to take the future with the n of
VOL. n. Q
226 TIIL' BOCK OF PSALMS.
striving in any other than its common sig., against which also the, " I will think and cry aloud," in ver. 17 is decisive. The Psalmist, or the righteous, in whose name he speaks, will cmn- plain very lotidly, because this is the surest means of making God hear, comp. in ver. 17 : thus does he hear my voice. — By the voice of the enemy in ver. 3, we have to think of re- proaches, (ver. 12,) threatenings, and curses. tOlJ^ to shake, iu Hiphil to make to shake, to throw down, Ps. cxl. 11. p^$ never signifies misfortune, always wickedness, comp. on Ps. x. 1, Delitzsch on Hab. p. 158, who maintains the opposite, has too little considered, that, for the sig. misfortune, at least one passage was indispensably necessary, in which that sense alone could be admitted. But no such passage exists. Luther : they would show toward me a malicious disposition, is hence to be preferred to De Wette : they pour upon me hurt. The wickedness in the form of a mischievous device, Ps. xli. 8, in which it embodies itself, is thrown upon the Psalmist. — On ver. 4 Calvin : " When it goes well with us, every one appears as an invincible warrior, but as suon as we come into the real conflict, then does our weakness discover itself." ^Tl is a cognate form of the Kal 7")n, sig. to circle, which is figuratively used for the feeling of deep pain, sore anguish. The sig. to tremble, is not sufficiently proved. The terrors of death seize the Psalmist, because the enemies threaten his life. — Ver. 6 has been imitated by Jerera. m ch. ix. 2 : " O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them ! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men." That the Psalmist names the dove, not merely on account of its speed of flight, but also on account of its defenceless innocence, is clear from Ps. Ivi. supers. In the imitation in Rev. xii. 11, the eagle has been substituted for the dove, with reference to Ex. xix. 4. To the words : and would abide, we must supply : in the place, whither I fled, ratlier than continue longer among my tormentors. The ivilderness in ver. 7, stands opposed ta human society. As every one naturally has the wish to continue in it, it must have become sadly degenerate, if one desires to flee from it into the desert. After the word of heavy import: in the wilderness — what must be for " friends" and " brethren," from whom it is sought to be away into the wilderness ! — the Selah stands quite suitably. — The Psalmist had, in ver. 6, uttered m a general way the wish, that he might escape from the evil
PSALM LV. VER. 9 — 15. 227
which pressed hard upon him, thereby indicating the heaviness of his temptation, and seeking to move God to compassion and help. In ver. 7 be has defined this wish more exactly, in that he desired to go far away into the wilderness, and in ver. 8 he still further adds, that he would hasten his escape. Precisely as the relation of ver. 7 and 8 to ver. 6, is that of ver. 10 and 11 to ver. 9. nt^^^^^ is fut. in Kal of ^^n = ^)'n, comp. Ixxi. 12. The Hiphil also occurs in the sig. of hastening, Judg. xx. o7. D/S/bj place of refuge, is accus., as it stands with verbs of motion. The ""^ is used as in ver. 18. Against the sig. of the forms with ^ most expositors : I would hasten to mo the flight. The p i» miD and "l^DD most take as that in ^)p!^ in ver. 3, from strong wind, from tempest = as the dove flies from the storm and tempest to her place of refuge, so the Psalmist from the storm of his enemies. But that we must rather take the 'tf2 as not. comp. after the example of Drusius, appears from the ex- pression "from the hastening wind," (n^D according to the Arab, to run, hasten), the more so, as ri^D connects itself with J^'Tl in the first member. It is also very common elsewhere, to have re- spect to haste in mentioning wind and storm, comp. Hab. i. 11, iii. 14, Jer. iv. 13, Job xxx. 15.
There follows in ver. 9 — 15 the second part of the prayer: Let God judge, for the reigning wickedness cries aloud to heaven The prayer for the destruction of the wicked is announced brief- ly at the beginning, at the end it comes out more at length in ver. 15. In the middle part its grounding is given, inasmuch as> first, in a general way, the reigning wickedness is described, ver. 9 — 11, then allusion is made to the faithlessness of the friend, as to a frightful symptom of prevailing corruption. — The numbers three and seven, which govern the arrangement of the whole, re- turn again also in the arrangement of the particular strophes. As the first strophe falls into three parts 2. 2. 3, so also the second, 3.3. 1. — Ver. 9. Devour, Lord, divide their tongue for 1 see violence and strife in the city. Ver. 10. They compass it day and night upon its lualls, and mischief and sorrow are in the midst of it. Ver. 11. Iniquity is in the midst of it, and there depart not from its market oppression and deceit. Ver. 12. For it is not an enemy that reproaches me, else would I bear it, not my hater that magnifies h imself against me, else would I conceal my self from him. Ver. 13. But thon art my companion, my friend, and the man of my confidence. Ver. 14. V/e ivho took sivect counsel together.
-28 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ivalked into the house of God in the tumult. Vor. 15. Desola- tion upon them., let them go down alive to hell, for evil is in their dwelling., in their midst. — According to the current ex- position y'^l devour, must, as well as the divide, refer to the tongues ; but that we must rather supply the enemies as the object, is clear from, "let them go down alive into hell," in ver. 15, the more so, as there the first part of this verse is manifestly resumed again and expanded. If the reference there to the de- struction of the company of Korah is generally recognised, it is here also not to be overlooked, the less so as in Numb. xvi. 32, our very y'^^ is used. Devour, is q. d. annihilate them, as for- merly at thy command the earth swallowed up the impious rebels of another time, comp. ver. 19, where the Psalmist, upon whatGod had done since the days of old, grounds his confidence of a present interference. John Arnd : " It was a frightful thing for the earth to open and swallow up those wicked men, but it is a great consolation to the persecuted church, when she reflects upon the preceding examples of vengeance and of righteous judgment, as God by his word and appointment has always ordered it, and will certainly carry on matters to the end, if we betake to him for refuge." The 'relation of the expression, " divide their tongues," to the devouring, Luther has discerned quite correct- ly, who by transposition of the sentence renders : make their tongue divided. Lord, and cause them to go down. The divi- sion of their tongue was one of the chief means, which the de- stroying agency of God should employ, q. d. precipitate them into destruction, especially in this way, by making them dis- united among themselves, and so driving into collision with one another those, who were leagued together for the destruction of the righteous. A tongue is here attributed in figurative lan- guage to the ungodly, as in Gen. xi. a lip to the whole earth. This tongue is divided by the Lord, q. d. he effects, that their discourse becomes full of discord. The allusion here to Gen. xi. cannot be mistaken, comp. especially ver. 7 : " let us confound their lip, that they may not understand one another's lip;" ver. 9 : " then did the Lord confound there the lip of the whole earth ;" then also ch. x. 25, w^here the verb Jl^S occurs. This allusion to what God had already done in the days of old, gives a peculiar emphasis to the prayer. John Arnd : " This history is an image and figure of great pride and presumption, which im- pels man to undertake projects, which they cannot execute, and
PSALM LV. VER. 9 — 15. 229
wliich are contrary to God, only for the sake of making to themselves a great name in the earth. Hence comes our hlessed God and confounds such peoples thoughts and counsels, so that they devise plans only for their own destruction." The /or is to be explained thus, that the grounding of the prayer for judg- ment carries a reference to f^uilt : where the carcase is there the eagles are gathered together. The article in "Tipl mani- festly stands gmericalbj, precisely as in m"|Dl i» tl^e wilder- ness, in verse 7. Every righteous man suffering assaults from the wicked, must think of his city. In verses 10 and 11, " the city" is farther expanded. In order to express, that the city was wholly and utterly filled with wickedness, we have first in verse 10, the walls and the interior contrasted, then in verse 11, in the reverse order, proceeding from the interior to the ex- terior, the middle part and the market place lying before the gates, comp. Gesen. s. v. As the wickedness engrossed all the space, so did it also all time, comp. " day and night" in ver. 10, and " there depart not," in ver. 11. iHD i» ver. 10, sig. not pro- perly to go about, but to compass, comp. on Psalm xxvi. 6 : the compassing about and the interior form a very suitable contrast. That yioZe?ice and strife— t\\e^e are the subject to nillD^— appear under the image of warriors, who environ the city round about its walls, appears from ver. 19. But the point of comparison is altogether and alone the compassing about, the forming of a circle, and the supposition of an ironical representation, as to how matters now went in the city of God: " 0 happy city, in which such watchmen are placed, "is to be rejected as far-fetched, and not supported by the connection. By pj< we are not here to understand, with many expositors, suffering, (De Wette: and evil and distress are in the midst of it), not even though this meaning were generally established, which is not the case. For violence and strife upon the walls require for the interior a correspond- ing mark of wickedness. This is also demanded by ver. 9, the expansion of which we have here before us, and by ver. 11. where in like manner wickedness is described in both members. In reference to the T\W\, wickedness, in ver. 11, comp. on Ps. v. 9. The mention of the market place is the more suitable, 'as there, in the place of justice, iniquity was concentrated. — The for in ver. 12 is for the most part misunderstood by expositors ; according to De Wette, " it is scarcely to be ex- pressed:" tlie supposition of others, that it is co-ordinate
230 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
with the distant for in ver. 9, is also nothing more than a shift for the occasion. The Psahnist grounds the picture of the reigning wickedness given in the preceding context by narrating his own experience, which liad led him, (who was a Psalmist, and not a prophet, and whose part it is to lay to heart the general state of things as such), to give that picture. Where poisonous herbs exist, such as are described by him in what follows, there also must be found a poisonous soil: where such things occur to the individual, the inference is not far to seek regarding the rampant moral dissipation. To the words, " for not my enemy reproaches me," we are to supply : in the case, which I have at present before my eyes. Tiie Psalmist has also enemies who Iiad been such from the beginning. The H^'li^? according to the connection, marks these — but here he looks away from what he has to suffer from them, because it was not so great as the suffering, which faithless friends caused him, and which bespoke the magnitude and depth of the reigning corruption. On the words " else would I bear it," the Berleb. Bible remarks : "for from such one would expect nothing better, and might still find consolation respecting it from one's friends." Tl'^^ in ver. 13 signifies valuation, not precisely worth ; for the former sig. also holds in the passages. Lev. xxvii. 3, Job xxviii. 13. The valuing of any one, is partly the valuing, which has been taken of any one. Lev. v. 15, etc., and partly that, which concerns any one. By the first we shall have, " thou art a man, whom I value :" but the 3 appears strange, and elsewhere valuing does not stand, without something farther, for valuing highly. If we follow the latter, we must not render, with many expositors : whom I value like myself. For in this case the Psalmist must have been described more particularly as the valuator. We must rather expound, " according to my valuing," that is, " valued like myself," as the Chaldee, Syriac, and Luther: my fellow. Friendship, according to the rule, " binds only equals," and these, wherever it actually obtains, with peculiarly intimate bonds. — In ver. 14, we are also in the second mem- ber to supply the together. First, as the internal friendship manifested itself in the parlour, then as it came forth into public life, in the fellowship of devotion, which entwines the hearts of men with the most tender cords, such as only the rough hand of wickedness can rend asunder. In reference to IID. confidence, comp. on Ps. xxvi. 14 ; to make confidence sweet, for, to hold sweet confidence. The opposite to T)^ forms ^*T\,
PSALM LV. VEU. 9 — 15. 231
prop, shouting, then of the tumult of the multitude moving up and down in the outer courts of the temple, comp. |1/bn> noise, then the holy-day keeping multitude in Ps. xlii. 4. In Ps. Ixiv. 2, HID and HtJ'^'n a^re in like manner united together. — In ver. 15 the Psalmist resumes the prayer for the judgment of God against the wicked, after having urged with God motives for doingso. The reading of the text is ni^''^N desolations, (let them come) upon them, as formerly upon the hardened sinners in Sodom and Gomorrah. The marginal i-eading, which in many MSS. and editions has pressed itself into the text, and which also the older translators for the most part express, is niJj '•J^'', let
de::th deceive upon them, ^^* fur ^''^% Hiphil from ^ly^ to deceive. This reading is merely a bad conjecture, produced through a false endeavour to make the first member entirely con- formed to the second : to scheol must correspond death, to the living ''^'». It is the case also in ver. 9, that the two members are not a synon. parallelism, but in each is allusion made to a particular judgment of bygone days, and its repetition desired- the construction of Kti^J with 7J^ is intolerably hard, and with- out example. The second member refers to the destruction of Korah and his company, comp. on ver. 9, which easily explains the living, alive. An abbreviated comparison has place, q. d. let them be hurried away by death in the fulness of life and ^strength, comp. ver. 23, as once the transgressors of a bygone age went alive into hell. On the words, " for evil is in their dwelling," Muis : " Because they are so wicked, that wherever the}! set down their feet, they leave traces of their wickedness, and defile all places with their impurities." The dwelling and the lieart do not stand in an ascending relation (Stier: in their dwelling, nay still more in their heart,) but rather of simple juxta- position, comp. ver. 10 and 11, and ver. 14. It is a part of the individual physiognomy of this Psalm that it loves such heapings together — a peculiarity, which is an expression of its funda- mental character, of the excitement which pervades it.
The third strophe, ver. 16 — 21, is that of hope and confidence, which grows upon the Psalmist from the consideration of the im- portant grounds, upon which he had built his prayer. As the two first strophes, so this also falls into three divisions, and indeed, into such as exactly correspond with those of the second, 3. 3. 1- In the first, ver. 16 — 1 8, the Psalmistexj)resse8hisconfidence in the
232 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
general, and then grounds this upon the greatness of his distress, (com p. ver. 2 — 8, where the prayer is built upon the same foundation) ; in the second, ver. 19 — 21, the confidence sup- ports itself by the corruption of the enemies, (comp. ver. 9 — 15) ; in the third, ver. 22, out of the confidence grows the admoni- tion of the Psalmist to himself, to commit his cause to the Lord. — Ver. 16, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall deliver me. Ver. 17. Evening, morning, and mid- day, will I meditate and cry aloud, thus he hears my voice. Ver. 18. He redeems with peace my soul out of the ivar against me ; for there were many luith me. Ver. 19. God shall hear and answer them, he ivho is throned of old, Selah; them, to whom there is no discharge, and %vho fear not God. Ver. 20. He lays his hand upon them, v)ho live luith him in peace, jyrofanes his covenant. Ver. 21. Smooth as milch diet is he in regard to his mouth, andivar is his heart, its words are softer than oil, and yet are mere swords. Ver. 22. Cast upon the Lord thy salvation, and he shall take care of thee, he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. In ver. 17, many have found the three timesof prayeramongthe Jewsalready indicated, comp. Dan. vi. 11, Actsx. 9, Beitr. P. I. p. 143. Others again think, that the beginning, middle, ;ind close of the day, serve only for a designation of it in its entire compass. Even in this latter view, however, we have here at least the foundation upon which the custom of the several seasons of prayer arose, and most probably in the time of the Psalmist had already arisen — evening and morning prayers, we have already often met with in the Psalms, and they must at any rate have been as old as the evening and morning sacrifice. For when the whole day is here described by evening (this stands first, because the Hebrews with it began the day), morning, and mid-day, these are thereby recognised as the chief turning-points of the day, the natural con- sequence of which is, that on these periods prayer to the Lord of life concentrated itself. If we follow the first view, then evening, morning, and mid-day, are simply to be regarded as the most pro- minent points on the territory of prayer. For the Psalmist mani- festly wished to say, that he would pray without ceasing, Luke xviii. 1, 1 Thess. v. 17. In y^Ci^*'"! the •) is used in its full sig., as 1 of sequence : thus ho liears. Prayer and hearing are re- lated to each other as cause and effect. In ver. 18, the pre- terite n*l3 is to be explained from the confidence of faitli* \M}^'2i in peace, with peace, bringing or giving peace. The
PSALM LV. VER. 16 — 22. 233
expression : my soul q. d. my life : comp. the terrors of death in vcr. 4, and the retributive punishment longed for on the ene- mies in ver. 15. Out of the war to me, q. d. in which I am en- gaged. That inp is a noun and not the inf., (as many regard it, " so that they do not come near me," — Luther, " from those who would be at me"), appears from ver. 21, and the contrast of peace. The for rests upon the general principle, that God is necessitated to administer help by the distress of his people, that upon which also the prayer in the first strophe was raised. In reference to the C^"l^, in many, comp. Ew. § 521. H^y sig. here, as always luith me. The hostile lies not in the preposition, but is only grounded in the subjects. — In ver. 19 D^y is to bo taken as fut. in Kal. : he will answer them, namely, for their threat- enings and curses, which they pour forth upon the Psalmist, comp. ver. 3, 12. Just as the Lord hears the voice of the Psalm- ist, comp. ver, 17, and answers him, comp. ver, 2, so he hears also the rough voice of the wicked, and gives to them thereupon a sharp answer. If people would compare parallel passages, such as Ps. xxxviii. 15, " thou wilt" answer, 0 Lord my God," they would not think of expounding with Luther and most mo- dern expositors, " and he will humble or plague them," the less so, as the sig. plague, which the Piel of H^y has, is quite uncer- tain for the Hiphil. 1 Kings viii. 35 is manifestly to be render- ed : for thou wilt hear them. Now, the following context con- tains the grounding of the confidence here expressed in the intro- duction. This is primarily derived from the consideration of God : and he that is throned of old (shall answer.) The sitting is peculiar to judges and kings, comp. Ps. xxix. 10. The sitting of the olden time = he who from of old is enthroned, comp. Deut. xxxiii. 27 : " and dwelling is the God of the old time," Hab. i. 12, " art thou not he from of old, Jehovah, my God, my Holy One, so shall we not (even now) die," Ps. Ixxiv. 12, " and God is my king from of old." The deeds, by which God had already showed himself from of old as the righteous king and judge, the judgments, for example, upon the wicked in the land of Shinar, ver. 9, the company of Korah, ver. 9 and 15, the cities of the plain, ver. 15, pledge his still ready interposition. He, who had already so long held the throne, must now also show himself as king and judge, he cannot now at so late a period be another. John Arnd : " The Holy Spirit here looks upon the examples, in which the almighty God has through all ages delivered the
231- THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
faithful and punished the persecutors: and concludes thereup- on, that as the same righteous God still lives, he shall assuredly also still reign and govern, as from the beginning. Therefore is it a great consolation when one is in trouble and persecution to think, how God still lives and has always proved himself to be a gracious God towards those, who fear him, as is declared in Ps. cxix. : " when I consider, how thou from the first has judg- ed, so shall I be comforted." The Selah does not at all stand " quite unsuitably," but points to the deep subject of the few words, the rich fulness of consolation, which they present, and invites the mind to stand still by them. — The grounding of the confidence is then further derived from the character of the enemies, and indeed so, that what is contained in ver. 19 forms a compendium of ver. 9 — 11, ver. 20 and 21 of that, which had been said in ver. 12 — 14 of the faithless friend. By '^'^^ etc. those are deci'ibed, who must participate in the answer of him who has been throned from of old he will answer them to whom, prop, them, to whom. If the relation of these words to ver. 9 — 11 is first rightly perceived, then light of itself falls upon the manifoldly significant mSvPl- The word is used in Job X. 17, xiv. 14, in a military sense, in the sig. of discharges, re- lief-troops, and this sig. appears quite suitable, as in ver. 10, violence and contention are mentioned under the image of v)ar- riars, who day and night go about the city on its walls ; comp. also in ver. 11: " depart not from its market-place;" they, to whom there are no discharges, and who fear not God, q. d. who incessantly and constantly serve sin and fear not God. The most general exposition is : to them, for whom there is no im- provement, q. d. delay would here be out of place, because no repentance is to be expected for those, who are hardened in their wickedness. But it is matter for serious consideration on the other hand, that neither the noun, nor the verb, ever occur in a moral sense, and also that the plural is not easily explained on this view. Ewald's arbitrary exposition by mutual fidelity, friend-fidelity, oath-fidelity, has already been disposed of by Mau- rer, through the remark, that HS vH (prop, the changed), denotes not alternate I'eciprocation, but alternate changing. — In ver. 20 and 21, the Psalmist turns from the ground of hope for divine interference, which he derived from the moral condition of the ungodly in general, to that, which was furnished by the special conduct of the unfaithful friend. The constancy, with which
PSALM LV. Vt,K. IG — 22. 23.''>
the author here and in A^er. 12 — 14 uses the singular, when speaking of this person, does not admit of our substituting with Luther and many others the plural for it. The situation must be that of a person, who has been violently hated by one false friend, as indeed in real life one does not commonly meet with many such experiences at the same time. The sub. tDw^ sup- plies here, as in Ps. Ixix. 22, poetically the place of the adj., the peace, for, who lives with one iu perfect peace. That we must not with many invert the relation, and tal^e QI/SJ^ for an origi- nal adjective, appears from the fact that the word is used in an adj. sense, very rarely, and never except in poetry. That the sufF. must not, with Luther and others, be referred to God, " they lay their hands on his peaceful ones," is clear from a comparison of ver. 12 — 14, also from what is said in continuation in ver. 21, (comp. especially there : war is in his heart), and finally from the parallels, " my peace man," in Ps. xli. 9, " my peaceable one," in Ps. vii, 4. The sufF. also in in''1i re- fers not to God, but to the friend. The expression of profaning the covenant, which constantly occurs in a religious sense, appears quite suitable to this construction, if we only think of a covenant like that, which was made between David and Jonathan, which proceeded from the Lord, and hence was a holy one, 1 Sam. xviii. S, XX. 16, 42, xxiii. IS. — The first member of ver. 21 means literally: sraoothis cream-food as to his mouth, for, what concerns his mouth, there is in it vain smooth cream-food, words smooth as this, hypocritical flatteries, comp. on Ps. v. 9, xxxvi. 2, IIos. X. 2. The expression, " smooth is," renders prominent at the outset the point of comparison between the cream-food and the words, the reason why his words are named figurative cream- food. nN/!3n^ signifies something made out of cream. As JliX/^STl/lD is the Stat, absol., we are not to expound : the cream-food of his mouth, but only : his mouth, for, as to his mouth, in opposition to his heart, by which we obtain also a more suitable meaning: not his cre-am-food is smooth, but he has perfectly smooth cream-food. The conjecture n*15^/l3n23 is indeed very old (it is adopted by the Chald. and Symm., and Luther : " their mouth is smoother than butter,") but still utterly to be rejected. It is against such a translation as Luther's, that a plural from nX/^H, cream, is not elsewhere to be found, nor indeed could it properly exist, and that the connection of the sing. VS with the 1p7n is insuf-
236 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
forablj hard. If we translate with De Wcttc and others: they are smoother than butter as to their mouth, we still avoid only the latter difficulty, and receive in addition the new one, that here the discourse would be of false friends in the multitude, while the Psalmist throughout knows but of one false friend, — In ver, 22 the strong part of the soul speaks to the weak, comp. Ps. xxvii. 14, Ps. xlii. and xliii. The supposition, that the Psalm- ist addresses all oppressed saints, rests on a misunderstanding. The relation is thereby quite destroyed of this ver, to ver. 16 — 21, from which here the result is derived — so therefore throw. The Psalmist has to do throughout only with himself, or rather with the suffering righteous, in whose name he speaks. ^M"' (as ir\p) or ^ri'' from ^rT* to give, ar. Xg/. the gift, the portion. That we must here think specially of the portion of nourish- ment, through which is figuratively marked the communication of every good gift, comp, on Ps, xxiii. 5, appears from, " he will cherish or care for thee;" comp. Gen. xlv. 11, xlvii, 12, l. 21, Gesenius would, indeed, expound " he will protect thee;" but 7^7^ never has this meaning. One throws his part on the Lord, when, according to the word " The Lord is my portion and my cup," one expects from him provision, as the child from the father, when one lays it on him to furnish what is needed, when one says in faith: Give us this day our daily bread. The exposi- tions thy solicitude, thy com[)laint, thy burden, are all not only without grammatical support, but also unsuitable, on acccount of the clause: he will care for thee. Parallel passages, such as Ps- xxxvii. 5, 1 Pet. v. 7, are not to be too closely pressed. That we must not expound, " he will not let the righteous be moved for ever," but only, " he will for ever not let, &c." is shown by the paral. passages, Ps. Ixix. 2, cxxi. 3.
There follows now the conclusion, in ver. 23. And thou, 0 God, shall precipitate them into the well-pit. The men of blood and of deceit shall not bring their days to the half, but I confide in thee. The well-pit is school, comp. on ver. 15 ; n^H to halve, l)oet. to bring to the half, comp. Ps, cii, 23. In the expression: I confide in thee, there is enclosed the idea : and shall be de- livered, comp. on Ps. lii. 8.
PSALM LVI. 237
PSALM LVI.
The Psalmist, hard pressed by men, raises liimself in faith to God, and implores his help, ver. 1 and 2. He expresses the firmest confidence in God, whose word and promise he has for himself, ver. 3 and 4. He paints the malice of his enemies, who continually annoy him, and pursue after him, with the design of taking away his life, ver. 5 and 6. He begs of God the overthrow of these malicious ones, and for himself deliverance, which he cannot but confidently expect, be- cause God watches with tender love over his people, ver. 7 and 8. He receives the assurance of being heard, loudly celebrates this precious word of God, in which he had found an interest, declares anew his confidence in God as mightily strengthened thereby, and already in spirit sees his enemies giving way, ver. 9 — 11. He concludes with the promise of joyful thanks for the glorious deliverance, which faith contemplates as already pro- vided.— The whole Psalm runs its regular course in strophes of two members. Only in the representation of the certainty of being heard the strophe extends itself into three verses. The triumphant joy bursts the vessel, which was too narrow for it. That ver. 10 and 11 only on this account run into each other, appears from their relation to ver. 4.
In the superscription, To the chief musician of the dumb dove among strangers, a secret of David, when the " Philistines seized liim in Gath," the occasion of the Psalm is first given figu- ratively and then in plain terms. The 7^ denotes, as so often in the superscriptions of the Psalms of David, comp. on Ps. xxii. the object of the Psalm. The dove is an image of defenceless innocence. That by it we must think only of the Psalmist, is clear from a comparison of the immediately preceding Psalm, ver. 6 and7: "Ohthat I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and dwell, far away would I fly," pTl^J^, etc., comp. also Ps. Ixxiv. 19, where Israel is described as the turtle-dove of the Lord. D7X occurs also in Ps. Iviii. 11, in the sense of becoming dumb. In what sense the Psalmist calls himself a dove of dumbness, a dumb dove, is evident from Ps. xxxviii. 13, where lie marks his passive and resistless innocence under suff'ering, by the words : '* And I as a deaf man hear not, I am as a dumb man, who opens
238 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
not his mouth," D''pni is a second gen. governed by H^V- l^'ic dumb dove is described as one that dwells afar — so, and not of the distant place, is D''pn'1 to be explained, comp. Ps. Ixv. 5, — because the Psalmist finds himself far from home among enemies. The designation DJlD^) secx'et, for, song of secret, mystical subject, comp. on Ps. xvi. is especially justified by ver. 9 — 11, where the Psalmist boasts of a divine revelation, which had come to him in the secret depths of his inner man. This emblemati- cal part of the superscription, any other signification of which (most : after the " dove of tlie far terebinth," with the arbitrary change of CD/S^ into D/K) is disproved by the paral, passages already referred to, contains the proof of its composition by David. Only from the poet himself could such a poetical superscription be expected ; it was precisely David's custom to prefix such emblematical superscriptions to his Psaltus; and every one of the very peculiar words is found again in the Davidic Psalms — the dove in Ps, Iv. which certainly not by accident, our Psalm immediately follows — the superscription was to derive its explanation from it, — the being dumb in Ps. Iviii. the far- dwelling in Ps. Ixv. the secret in Ps. xvi. — The second ])art of the superscription is to be regarded as an explanation of thefirstpart. The Philistines are the "far-dwelling;" David seized by them, " the dumb dove." The history is given in 1 Sam. xxi. David fled, as he no longer found security in his fatherland, to the Philistines. Alone there he waited for his new danger. He, the conqueror of Goliath, was conducted as a formidable enemy before the king, and only by an artifice delivered his life. In vain does De Wette attempt to bring the superscription into con- flict with the narrative in 1 Samuel. There, he alleges, it is not stated that the Philistines laid hold of David. But he has, ill this overlooked the certainly but small DT*^ i" 1 Sam. xx. 14, in their hand, q. d. where they held him. — The subject of the Psalm is in perfect accordance with the superscription. In the highest degree characteristic is ver. 8; " thou numberest my flight." The Psalmist accordingly found himself on the flight, and indeed in a wearisome, highly peculiar, very rarely occurring situation. The trait is the more significant, as the re- ference to the people and its sojourn in exile, which has been defended by many, is refuted by ver. 12, which implies the ex- istence of the worship and temple. The exile must therefore
PSALM LVI. 239
have been a mere personal one. That the Psahn was composed when death was threatening, appears from ver. 6 and 13. The expression in ver. 5, " they wrest my words," receives an ad- mirable comment from the history of David, who, in the face of his protestations of innocence, was declared by Saul and his re- tainers to be a traitor. So also the expression in ver. 7, " in wickedness they seek deliverance," applies well to the circum- stances of David, since the wickedness, which Saul and his com- pany exercised toward David, was nothing more than an attempt to avert the judgment suspended over him and his house. — The ascription of the Psalm to David, and the correctness of the superscription, is confirmed by the agreement it presents with the following Psalm, likewise composed by David, according to the superscription, during the Sauline persecutions, which is so great, that even Hitzig and Ewald conclude from it, that they had one and the same author. Both Psalms begin with the entreaty '• be gracious to me :" and the peculiar word ft^$^ is common to them, Ivi. 1, 2, Ivii. 3 : common also is the lively motion, the brisk and fresh style which we meet with in so many songs of David, especially of the Sauline period. — The reasons are very unimportant, which have been alleged against the correctness of the superscription. De Wette thinks, that it is of itself suspicious, that this Psalm and Psalm xxxiv. had, ac- cording to the superscription, the same occasion. But the situ- ation in the two Psalms is throughout different ; here David prays for help in the midst of danger, there he gives thanks for it as already obtained. Then, it is maintained, that in the re- presentation which the Psalmist gives of his enemies, one could not recognize the inhabitants of Gath. But who would say, that the representation has respect to these alone? The Psalmist has rather, as this lay in the nature of the thing, Saul and his company pre-eminently before his eyes, to whom also belonged what he had to suffer from the people of Gath. Ewald would conclude from ver. 4, 5, 10, 11, that the author was a prophet ; but only the latter passage belongs to that head, as it alone treats of an internal revelation of God ; and also from this the supposition of Ewald would by no means follow ; else all the Psalms must have been composed by prophets, for it is a rule that their authors glory in internal revelations from God, through which they obtain the assurance of being heard. Nay the passage is conclusive against the prophetic origin of the
240 THE BOOK OK PS.vLMS.
Psalm. For where the pi'ophets I'eceive such reveLations, the rule is, that these have a general reference ; but here the word of the Lord comes to the Psalmist in regard to his private af- fairs ; it belongs entirely to the category of the words of which P. Gei'hard speaks : His spirit utters to my spirit many a sweet word of consolation, how God administers help, etc. — Besides, the superscription is not to be understood so, as if David had composed the Psalm at the time indicated precisely as it exists here. We are to refer to that only the substance, comp. on Ps. xxxiv. etc.
Ver. 1. Be gracious to me, God, for man snuffs after me, the devourer always oppresses me. Ver. 2. My adversaries snuff after me continually, for many devourers have I j)rondly. PlXtJ^ to snuff up, in the manner of a wild beast, which greedily hunts after its prey to devour it, with the accus. of that upon which the greed goes, discovering itself in the snuffing. ^)^i^ man, with the subordinate idea of weakness, comp. on Ps. viii. 5, points to the circumstance, how perverse it is that the impotent should proudly and impiously lift himself up against those, who are under the protection of the Almighty, and how necessary it is for God to put down this perverseness. The sing, is used for the sake of giving prominence to this contrast between man and God, the impotent and the almighty, the opposition between the being and the doing of man, which God can by no means tolerate. tDn? sig. not to contend, but to devour, comp. on Psalm XXXV. 1, (the very peculiar expression occurs both times in Psalms which bear the signature of David,) and this the only certain meaning is here also specially recommended by the par- allel snuffing. Calvin : " David, when he was brought to the king of Gath, was like a solitary sheep in the midst of two bands of wolves, since he was mortally hated by the Philistines, and his own countrymen raged against him." The two expressions of snuffing and devouring appear to the Psalmist as so singularly fitted to move God to compassion regarding his desperate con- dition, that he repeats them in ver. 2. CDn*? stands, as in ver. 1, in the sig. of the noun, not: many devour me, but: many de- vourers are to me. CD*11!2, prop, height, then here adverbially loftily (Luther), comp. in Psalm Ixxiii. 8 : " out of the height, □"ll/tSD. they speak," andMicahii. 3, where n/^Dlllil^ewise occurs adverbially ; it forms the contrast to \y)^i^ man. When the man of the earth, Ps. x. 18, comp. i* II). who has his name from
PSALM LVI. VER. 1 4. 241
weakness, haughtily attacks God in his people, this is a predic- tion of his overthi'ow, and a strong call upon God to hring him down. John Arnd : " This is the way of all enemies, who, con- fiding in human strength, in external force and earthly might, are full of pride and insolence ; but they, who commit them- selves to God's grace, are humble, confide in God, boast them- selves not, for they know, that every thing depends on God's grace, in which all believers are included, are secure against the rage and swelling of the enemies, overcome at last by patience, and see their high minded adversaries overthrown."
Ver. 3. When I am afraid, then trust I in thee. Ver. 4. God extol I, his ivord^ upon God I trust, lam not afraid, what should flesh do to me ? QV is "ot the accus. but nom. : day, then am 1 afraid. When the relation of itself is clear, it is often not dis- tinctly expressed in the words. With 5<*T*J^ the QV stands in Stat, constr. Ew. § 507. Hitzig's artificial translation : at the time, that I should be afraid, is refuted alone by ver. 4. The X^**}"} must still be used here not otherwise than there. How little reason there is for it, is shewn by the remark of Cal- vin : " Fear and hope, indeed, appear to be opposite affections, which cannot dwell in the same bosom, but experience shews, that hope first truly gains the ascendant there, where fear holds possession of one part of the heart. For hope is not exercised when the mind is in a quiescent state, but is, as it were asleep ; then, however, does it begin to put forth its strength, when it elevates the mind dejected by cares, soothes it when disquieted with trouble, sustains and fortifies it when seized with terror." That the Psalmist was actually afraid, is clear especially from ver. 1 and 2, where he vehemently cries to God for help. The fear which discovers itself there, is here met by confi- dence.— To boast in God, in ver. 4, is q. d. to extol God, comp. Ps. xliv. 8, which parall. passage refutes the exposition of Ewald : through God praise I his word. The exposition : of God I boast myself, takes 7711 in an unascertained signification. At Y\21 we must not supply ^ from CDTl7Ni ; we are rather to consider it as the common construction of 7711 with the ac- cusative. The word of God is by the context more exactly de- termined as the word of promise ^ comp. on Ps. xxxiii. 4. We are not here to think of an internal communication, assuring the Psalmist of divine help. For this, the holy Psalmist would not have received quite at the beginning ; it everywhere forms rather
242 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the close, and with it the internal emotion reaches its end. Then ver. 9 — 11 are especially conclusive against this supposition. It is there that the Psalmist first receives the divine communica- tion. Just as little must we think particularly and exclusively of the promise of royal dignity, which had been conveyed to David by Samuel. So special a reference must not without urgent reason, be admitted into a song, which was destined for use in public worship, and the expression is also by much too genera) for such an allusion. We must hence understand by the word of God, all his promises, which had hitherto been given to the Psalmist, through the law, {comp. Ps. cxix. 25), through Samuel through internal communications during his earher history. This word of God, and God himself, who had therein promised to be his God, the Psalmist extols as his firm shield, which is sufficient to protect him against the whole world. John Arnd : '' As Saul and the potentates of this world boast of their hosts of war, their thousands of men, and their munition, I will glory in God's word and promise, which are my warlike force, my for- tress, and support ; let them trust in their chariots and wag- gons, we shall think of the name of the Lord." The Psalmist calls man flesh by way of contempt, because where there is cor- poreity there is no real strength, comp. Isa. xxxi. 3, " The Egyptians are men and not God, their horses are flesh and not spirit," xl. 6. John Arnd : *' He sets against each other the mighty God, and impotent flesh, which is as grass and as the flower of the field."
Ver. 5. Always do they wrest my luords, all their thoughts are, that they do me evil. Ver. 6. They gather themselves together, they lie in wait, they mark my heels, as they hope for my soul. y^'^, vex, wrest, here and in Isa. Ixiii. 10. When the Psalmist solemnly protests his innocence, as in Ps. vii. 3, 4, his enemies accuse him of hypocritical insincerity ; Saul with his company, still constantly cry out against him, notwithstanding his protes- tations, as a traitor, who is making attempts on his life. Falsely many : they vex my affairs. The vexing can be poeti- cally referred to words, because they are in a sense inspirit- ed, but not to circumstances. — 111^'' in ver. 6, many expound: they are afraid; but that we must take it in the sense of gathering together, as it is unquestionably used in Isa. liv. 15, and Ps. lix. 3, " for they lie in wait for my soul, they gather themselves together against me the strong," appears
rSALM LVL VER. 6 — 8. 243
from this last perfectly correspondent passage, comp. also Psalm xxxi. 13. |fi^ elsewhere sig. to hide, Ex. ii. 3, Jobxiv. 13. We can either from the context supply the object : the snares, as indeed also in the Kal, in which it appears to have the meaning of waylaying, such an object must properly be supplied, corap. on Ps. X. 8, — or, we may also give to the Hiphil here the sig. ot acting in covert, concealed, secretly to ensnare. The Masorites have, according to their custom, substituted for the Hiphil, the more common Kal. To watch the heels of any one, is q. d. to wait on him in all his steps and movements. In the last mem- ber literally : so as they hope my soul, — the soul the object of their hopes, q.d. as they hope to take my life from me, comp. Ps. cxix. 95, " the wicked have waited for me to destroy me," — the Psalmist points to the ground of the waylayings of the ene- my, to what gave life and zeal to their persecuting disposition ; the watching runs exactly parallel to their hope of my entire ruin. "n^KD* as in Ps. li. supers., comp. Numb, xxvii. 14, Many ex- pound : because they waylay ray life. But Hip never signifies with the accus. : to waylay, always : to expect, hope for some- thing. Besides, the expression : as they hope, etc., refers only to the immediately preceding member. This appears from the otherwise inexphcable rUbTl- They gather themselves together, lurk, and indeed these perverse men have no other object in their zealous machinations, than to deprive the Psalmist of his life.
On the representation of the malice of the enemies, who have nothing less in view than the extinction of the Psalmist's life, follows the prayer to the Lord, that he would judge them, and help the Psalmist in his great distress, combined with the un- doubting hope, that he will do this. Ver. 7. From their wick- edness they hope for deliverance^ in anger throw the peoples down, God. Ver. 8. My flight thou numberest, put my tears in thy bot- tle,standthey not inthy book? The7yin ver. 7, indicates that, on which to themthehopeof deliverance rests, its foundation. to'^S is here as in Ps. xxxii. 6, infin. nominasc. The objection, that if the discourse were of this hope, this would not have been so modestly represented, rests upon the false supposition, that the object of the hope was deliverance from the power of the Psalm- ist, instead of the impending divine judgments, comp. Isa. xxviii. 15, where the wicked say, " We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement, for we have made
244 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." Saul's entire conduct against David proceeded on the endeavour to avert, through his wickedness, which trampled under foot all divine and human rights, the divine judgment which threatened him with destruction. The exposition: in their wickedness shall they find deliverance ? is to be rejected, as a question without any word of interrogation can only be introduced, when there is no doubt respecting it. — In the second member, the Psalmist prays the Lord to disappoint the wicked of this conceit regard- ing their deliverance. His prayer is properly directed to the one point of judgment upon his enemies. But since thespecial agency of God in judging, is only an exercise of his general and all-com- prehending agency, and faith in the former must have its root in faith in the latter, therefore the Psalmist prays God to come forth as the Judge of the world, and to bring down all peoples opposed to him, and put his enemies beneath his feet. — Comp. Ps. vii. 7, from which parallel passage it is abundantly clear how unjustly it has been concluded from the words before us, that the Psalmist had to do with the heathen, Ps. lix. 5. — The prayer of the Psalmist against his enemies is followed in ver. 8, by one for his own deliverance. This takes the form of confi- dence in the first and last member, which many have in vain sought to dispose of in regard to the first by an ungrammatical construction of the preterite in the sense of the optative ; in the middle member it presents itself also after the form as a prayer, so that it is recognized even there, where it conceals it- self behind the confidence. *T)i sig. not to move about, but to fly, Ps. xi. 1. Ewald, against the usage and the sig. of "iSD. to number, would understand Tl^ of internal disquietude. There is no ground for this in the parallel tears. The flight and the tears stand related to each other as cause and eftect, so that there is the closest connection between them. Such an one is certainly demanded by the play on the words ^U and llXi- Nothing similar is ever found without deep meaning. Quite correctly was this connection perceived by John Arnd : " It cannot but happen, that such persecutions should make weeping eyes, for it is a sad thing to be counted as a sheep for the slaughter, as a curse and ofFscouring of the whole world, and a prey to the enemies, as matters go in the Turkish dominions, and to wander up and down in misery with women and children. But here lies a powerful consolation, that God gathers up such
PSALM LVI. VEU. 9 — 13. 345
tears, and puts them into his bottle, just as one would pour precious wine into a flagon, so precious and dear are such tears before God, and God lays them up as a treasure in the heavens ,• and if we think that all such tears are lost, lo ! God hath pre- served them for us as a treasure in the heavens, with which we shall be richly consoled in that day, Ps. cxxvi. 5." On the last words; are they not, for, certainly they are in thy book, comp. Mai. iii. 16.
The great turning-point now appears ; the Psalmist, well pre- pared for it as the form of his prayer in ver. 8 shews, receives the assurance of being heard. Ver. 9. Then must my enemies turnback, ivhen I call; this I know, that God is to me. Ver. 10. God I praise, a word, the Lord I praise, award. Ver. 11. On God I trust, I am not afraid what man can do. The tlien in verse 9 refers to the expression : in the day when I call, q, d. then, when as now I call on the Lord, my enemies must give way, as I now see to be the case with joyful astonishment before ray eyes, (those of the spirit.) That God to me, q. d. that I have him, comp. Ps. cxxiv. 1, 2, Ixxiii. 25, and consequently a helper and redeemer, shield and reward, Gen. xv. 1. Falsely many: for me. In ver. 10 the repetition marks the triumphing joy of the Psalmist, in regard to the assurance obtained of being heard. There lies, however, in the " Jehovah" an ascent. The expres- sion : a word, in distinction from : his word, in ver. 4, is carefully to be observed. There the discourse is of the promises of theLord in general, here of the word of promise, which sounded as it were, in the interior of the Psalmist.
The conclusion in verse 12 and 13, contains the promise of thanks. The Psalmist is so certain of his deliverance, that he considers every thing, which God has to do, as already done, and himself alone, as the one who is in arrear. Ver. 12. My vows, O God, I owe to thee, Iivillpay thee thanh offerings. Ver. 13. For thou deliveredst my soul from deaths my feet from sliding, that 1 may walk before God in the light of the living. The 7^ in ver. 12, marks, as very commonly, obligation. The vows con- sist of offerings. To the kind, the vows, the Psalmist, however, adds the species, thankoffei'ings. Before God, q. d. under his gracious observation, comp. Gen. xvii, 18. The hght of the living is the clear day-light, which illuminates the earth, comp. Job xxxiii. 30. Elsewhere : in the land of the living, Ps. xxvii. 13.
246 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LVII.
The Psalmist puts forth the prayer, that God would be gracious to him, and is thence in good expectation, that he will hear him, and will complete the begun good work in him, in spite of the greatness of the necessity and the danger, which sur- round him, ver. 1 — 4. Thus prepared, the Psalmist receives the internal assurance of being heard, views himself as already free from the danger, and his enemies as overtaken thereby, and declares his purpose of giving thanks to the Lord for his great grace, ver. 5—11,
We have two strophes, the one of four and the other of seven verses. The seven verses of the second are again divided into 4, the praise of God for the assurance of being heard, ver. 5 and 6, the promise of thanks, ver. 7 and 8, and 9, 10, the return to the praise of the Lord, ver. 11,— thus 2 . 2 . 2 . L
The expression of hope and confidence meets us here at the very commencement, and it does not here, as elsewhere, cost the Psalmist a severe conflict, before he attains to it. There is only needed a, " be gracious to me, God be gracious to me," and the cloud, which prevents him from seeing God, vanishes.
The superscription runs : To the chief musician, destroy not, of David, a secret, ivhen he fled from Saul in the cave, q. d. when in his flight from Saul he abode in the cave. The ex- pression : destroy not, which is found besides here in the super- scriptions of Ps. Iviii. lix. and Ixxv. has been differently explain- ed. According to many, it must denote either the melody, after the manner of the song : destroy not, or the key. According to others it must be a maxim, which David at that time continually revolved in his heart, and must indicate the quintessence of the Psalm. So already the Chaldee, which paraphrases : de angus- tia, quando dixit David : ne destruas; Cocceius: " These words David, no doubt, in his great distress, constantly repeated, and afterwards, when he composed this Psalm, committed them to the church and to believers of all ages, that they might make use of them in times of opposition and persecution." A prepos- session in favour of the latter view, is awakened even by the circumstance, that similar dark words in the superscriptions are
PSALM LVII.
247
usually found to refer, on nearer investigation, not to the musical execution, but to tliesubject, and especially that no single undoubt- ed case of the commencing words of another song being quoted is to be found. But there are also the following particular rea- sons for it. 1. If the words had indicated the melody or the key, we would have expected the preposition 7^ to have preced- ed them. Ewald, Poet. B. I. p. 173, attempts to account for the want of it, because it could not so readily stand before a verbal, as before a nominal term. But it must still be matter of wonder, that the 7j^ regularly, and without exception, fails, and nothing short of the extremest necessity would warrant an exposition, which everywhere finds itself obhged to supply the omission. 2. The expression : destroy not, viewed as a watchword of David, has its foundation in Deut. ix. 26, where Moses says : "and I prayed the Lord and said, 0 Lord destroy not, nHt^n 7^^ thy people and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth from Egypt with a strong hand." The pre-existence of such an old foundation explains at the same time the fact, that the expression : de- stroy not, occurs not only in three of the Psalms of David, but also in one of Asaph, which otherwise might have been pressed as an ob- jection against the view, which refers it to the subject-matter.
3. All the Psalms, in which the expression occurs, rise up to God, amid the vexation which the oppression of the world pre- pares for the children of the kingdom, Ps. Ixxv. indeed, in the form of praise, behind which, however, the prayer is concealed.
4. The fact also, that the three successive Psalms, in which the : destroy not, occurs, refer to the times of Saul. What can be more natural than the supposition, that it was the maxim, which David revolved in his heart during precisely that period ? If viewed as a musical term, one does not see, why it should not have been prefixed to those Psalms of David, which originated in other occasions. We might, perhaps, consider as an echo of this, " destroy not," which was spoken to God, what David, ac- cording to 1 Sam. xxvi. 9, (comp. v. 15, 2 Sam. i. 14,) said to Abishai, when he was going to kill Saul : destroy him not, 7X innTI^JTl- David understood, that he could with success say to God : destroy not, only so long as he restrained himself from taking the matter of relief into his own hand, and destroying the anointed of the Lord.
The designation of the Psalm as a secret (comp. on Ps. xvi.)
248 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
is especially justified by the wonderful fact, which impelled the Psalmist to break forth at once into the praise of God, a fact in reference to which it might be said, that " flesh and blood had not revealed it to him, but his father in heaven."
The Psalm was composed when David found himself in the cave, while he fled from Saul. As David during that period not once merely betook himself to a cave, as the history expressly makes mention of his sojourn in two different caves, 1 Sam. xxii. 1, and xxiv. 1, the article here and in Ps. cxlii. superscription, cannot point to a definite cave, well known to the reader ; it must rather be taken generically , the cave, as opposed to any other place ; so that : in the cave, is substantially much the same as : in a cave. It has reference to this, that the Psalm contains thoughts appropriate to a cave. In the cave all is darkness, no sun nor moon shines in it ; to abide in such a place is for a poor, persecuted man, the symbol of his whole con- dition, comp. Heb. xi, 38, where among the sufferings of the prophets, it is brought out with special reference to David, that they were compelled to dwell in caves ; but amidst the cave-darkness there appears for the righteous a light from the Lord, which conducts them to the hope of salvation.
In unison with the description of the occasion, which is of a general kind, is the circumstance, that the Psalm does not any- where refer to some particular danger, by which David was en- compassed in the cave, but the relations are rather to be regard- ed as common to the whole Sauline period. — If we would more closely determine what the superscription has left indetermi- nate, there is at least one important reason for the cave Adullam in 1 Sam. xxii. Into this cave David withdrew immediately on his escaping the danger with Achish, the king of the Philistines. To that danger the Psalm immediately preceding refers, and the one here must the rather be contemporaneous with it, as the two are closely related to each other. The circumstances of both Psalms are in the general the same, the prayer, the confidence, the exultation at the assurance of being heard, the promise of thanks. Both Psalms begin with the words, "Be gracious to me," and in both is the enemy marked out by the peculiar designation of one snuffing after.
There are, besides the superscription, other positive grounds for ascribing the Psalm to David, and in the situation indicated. The close contact into which it comes with Psalm Ivi. suits ad-
PSALM LVII. VEU. 1. 249
mirably to both superscriptions. Then there is an entire series of remarkably agreeing parallel passages in other Psalms of David, especially those belonging to the times of Saul, such as Psalm vii., comp. the exposition. So also the fact, that the conclusion of this Psalm recurs as the commencement of Psalm cviii. which bears on it the name of David. The stress laid on reproaches in ver. 3 and 4 accords with the history, as David had to suffer much in that way during the time of Saul, and is generally to be met with in the Psalms of that period. The lively and spirited nature of the contents even Kocster regards as accrediting the superscription. — The reasons which have been alleged against this are of no weight. The assertion, that in such situations one does not write poetry, is easily disposed of, as David continued a long time in the cave of Adullam, and even if he had not, still the objection would be of no moment, comp. on Psalm Ivi. The argument derived from ver. 4 against the superscription rests upon the gross literal interpretation of the verse. Hitzig's allegation, that the intermingling of the roots ^t^y and y^^, points to an author later than Jeremiah, as also the use of the fut. parag. in ver. 4, without the optative sense, is a conclusion from facts arbitrarily made. — That the Psalm is a song for the night, has been improperly inferred from ver. 8.
Ver. 1. Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me, for on thee my soul trusts, and under the shadow of thy ivings I confide, until the mischief is past. The repetition of ^J^H shews the fervour of the prayer, and consequently the greatness of the danger. The prayer is grounded upon this, that the Psalmist, partly assailed and partly abandoned by all the world, places his confidence on God as his only Saviour. God, " who has compassion upon all that fear him, that hope in his name," can- not possibly leave such an one without help. Psalm Ivi. 1 is to be compared, where that, which impelled the Psalmist to throw himself into the arms of God as his only remaining hope, is expressly named the hatred and persecution of the world. The contrast there implied between Cri75< and 2J^")JJ< at the same time shews why the Psalmist here makes use of the name Elohim : from the earth he turns to the heaven, against man he seeks protection in God. Wherever such a contrast occurs, the general name of God is in its right place. The soul is mention- ed, because it is endangered by the enemies, comp. 1 Sam. xxiv.
250 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
12, *' Thou huntest my soul to take it," Ps. liv. 4, Ivi. 6, and here, ver, 4. On the expression : to trust under the shadow of the wings of God, see on Psalm xxxvi. 7. The shadow which provides shelter against the heat of a burning sun, corap. Psalm cxxi. 5, 6, is generally taken in the Bible in the sense oiprotec- tion or shelter. nilH is better taken, according to Psalm lii. 2 and 7, in the sense of mischief, than that of misfortune. The plural points to the fulness of malicious action. The verb in the masc. sing, is to be explained in this way, that the mischief presents itself to the Psalmist as a ravenous wild beast, before which he flees for shelter under the protecting wings of God.
Ver. 2. I call to God, to the Most H'ujh, to the God, who ac- complishes/or me. The calling corresponds to the trusting in the preceding verse. Calvin: " He makes the calling upon to follow the confiding^ for it cannot fail, but that those, who trust in God, should direct their prayer to him." The calHng upon God rests on a double foundation, or it is a double considera- tion, which invites the Psalmist to it. First, that God is the Most High, = because he is the Most High, against whom even the greatest multitude of enemies upon earth, however vast their might, and high their position, can prevail nothing. Now that he takes in view the Most High, the giants of the earth become changed into pitiful dwarfs, comp. in Psalm Ivi. 4, 11, " In God I trust, I am not afraid for what flesh can do to me," and the address of David to Saul, after he had gone out of the cave, in 1 Sam. xxiv 13, 16. Then, again, turning from the power to the will, he sees that God, the true and faithful, who had already given him so many proofs of his grace, had imparted to him such glorious promises, could not fail to com- plete his begun work in him. With God the beginning always furnishes a pledge for the finishing, the word for the deed. "1/!3l has the sense of completing, (elsewhere : of being complet- ed,) also in Psalm cxxxviii. 8, and in the proper name n^D^ The '^y marks the substratum of the divine action. The ex- pression in ver, 4 : God sends his truth, is to be compared, and in Psalm Ivi. 4 : God I praise, his word. On the principle, that the beginning is a pledge for the completion, the word for the deed, proceeds what Saul said to David in 1 Sam. xxiv, 21, " And now, behold, I know that thou shalt reign, and the house of Israel comes into thy hand," comp. 1 Sam, xxiii, 17, xxvi. 21. That God did not finish the work begun in him, is the per-
PSALM LVII. VER. 2 — 3. 251
petual complaint of Job, see for ex. x. 8. In Psalm xxii. 11, there arises out of what th^ Lord had already done for the Psalmist, (ver. 9 and 10,) the prayer : Be not far from me. But the most exact parallel is the already quoted passage, Psalm cxxxviii. 8. '" The Lord will accomplish for me, 0 Lord, thy grace is ever lasting, the work of thy hands do not forsake," comp. besides, Phil. i. 6. Through these parallel pass, we reject Luther's ex- position : who makes an end of my complaint. The sig. of 723^ to do good, must be the less assigned with many to 1^^, which never elsewhere interchanges with it, as yf2^ properly has not that meaning, but only that of giving, and the other is entirely a derived one, comp. on Psalm vii. 4.
Ver. 3. He sends ft^om heaven and delivers me, he reproaches that snufs after me ; Selah. Send will God his mercy and his truth. In the expression : he sends from heaven, the object is wanting. We are not to supply it from the second half of the verse, so that the second : he sends, would be a mere repe- tition ; the word : he delivers me, standing between, is against that. There is no necessity whatever for supplying any de- finite word, his hand, as in Ps. cxliv, 7, or his help, as in Ps. xx. 2. The that is sufficient for a beginning to the Psalmist. If it (the sending) really exists, it will soon find way for the what. From heaven, which here is opposed to the earth, that on all hands presents only despair, the Psalmist can expect nothing but good. The expression : my snufier reproaches, for, since or when my snuffer reproaches, (comp. in Ez. iii. 6: " I send thee," for, " when I send thee," Ew. § 626,) points to the neces- sity and the danger, against which the Psalmist expects help from heaven. Reproach and calumnies were the most frightful weapons, which Saul and his party plied against David. Many expound : he (God) reproaches. But that the reproach- ing belongs to the enemy, to whom even the change in the mode points, appears from the parallel passages, Ps. Iv. 12, 21 ; Ivi. 5; hx. 7 ; xlii. 10 ; xliv. 16. Of the reproaches of the ene- my more is said in ver. 4. a^n is never used of God, always only of men, who revile God or their brethren. The exposition of De Wette and others : he, whom my persecutor reproaches, gives an unnatural sense, and is against the passages referred to. Finally, to connect the words with the following : he who snuffs after me mocks, so, etc. does not suit on account of the accus. The Selah shews how much the reproaches of theene-
252 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
my went to the heart of the Psalmist. Oa the last member, comp. on Ps. xliii. 2, " Send thy hght and thy truth," where the light corresponds to the mercy.
Ver. 4. My soul is among lions, I will lie upon those that are on fire, children of men, ivhose teeth are spears and arroius^ and whose tongue a drawn sword. The verse is an enlargement of what had just been said of the reproaching. On this account alone we must not take it as a mere complaint and represen- tation of danger, which would also suit ill in this connection, after the Psalmist had raised himself to confidence, and the con- fidence and assurance, which must immediately bound one an- other, would be improperly separated from each other. These observations accord well with the fut. and the pl of striving, ri^32J^{<, which we are not warranted to take in the sense of the common one. The Psalmist, full of faith, makes offer to lie upon those in flames, and hence the words : my soul is among lions, must be taken as substantially meaning ; although my soul is among lions. In reference to the figurative designation of the enemies as lions, (not lionesses), which Ewald in vain at- tempts to set aside, comp. Ps. xvii. 12 ; Ps. xxii. etc. '2,'2'^ with the accus. of the couch, on which the Psalmist was to lie. An abbreviated comparison is made, q. d. my intercourse with my raged-inflamed enemies is as deeply felt by me, as if I were laid down upon fire-brands. The image of the flaming, of the spiritual fire-brands, suits excellently to that of lions ; for the point of comparison in both is the dreadful fury. On the ex- pression : whose teeth spears and arrows, comp. Prov. xxx. 14, " There is a generation whose teeth are swords, and their jaw- teeth knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men." On : and whose tongues a drawn sword, comp. Ps. Iv. 21 ; lix. 7 ; Ixiv. 3 ; it points to this, that the enemies by their horrible deeds and by their malicious words, seek to destroy the innocent, as indeed with Saul and his com- pany both constantly go hand in hand.
In ver. 5 and 6, the Psalmist receives the assurance of being heard. Ver. 5. Praise to thee in heaven, O God, upon the ivhole earth let there be honour to thee ! Ver. 6. A net prepared they for my steps, bowed down my soul, dug before me a pit — they themselves fell in. Ver. 5. The deliverance, of which the Psalm- ist has just been internally assured, is so glorious, that God must be praised on account of it in heaven and on earth. Upon
PSALM LVIl. VER. 5, 6. 253
nDII, be exalted, comp. on Ps. xxi, 13. The 7^ in both mem- bers marks the place, where the Lord is to be praised in conse- quence of the manifestation of his glory. On the expression : in the heaven, comp. the exclamation of the Seraphim in Isaiah • " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, all lands are full of his glory ;" also in Ps. ciii. 20, 21 : " Praise the Lord, ye his angels, ye mighty heroes, ye who fulfil his word ; praise the Lord, all his hosts, ye his ministers, who do his will;" and especially Ps. xxix. 1, " Give to the Lord, ye sons of God, give to the Lord glory and power," where David, by calling upon the angels to praise God's glory and power, indicates how illustrious the mani- festations of these are as represented in what follows ; also ver. 9, " and in his temple every one says : Glory !" where the an- gels, after the manifestations of the divine glory have been given, do that to which the Psalmist had previously called them, and in consideration of what he had pointed to. According to the customary view, the verse must not be a call to the praise of God on account of the hearing obtained, but must contain a prayer : high above all heavens must God display his majesty, and far above the whole earth his glory. But in this way the n^n is taken against the usage in the sense of: shew thyself exalted ; the 7J^ must be understood alike in both members, and hence cannot signify in the first " above ;" that God should shew himself exalted above the heavens, sounds strange, and has no parallel for itself; in ver. 11, where the same words re- turn, the call upon God is quite unsuitable ; the Psalmist has already received the help in spirit, and no longer thinks of any thing else, than praising and extolling God ; the exposition for the second half is given by the Psalm itself in ver. 9 : I will praise thee among the peoples, 0 Lord, that for the first half in ver. 10 : for great to the heavens is thy goodness, and to the clouds thy truth : because in its glorious manifestation it rises far above the earth into heaven, it must be praised in the heavens.— In ver. 6, we have the great fact, upon the ground of which the Psalmist calls for the recognition of the glory of God in the whole world, as the holy, holy, holy of angels and men. The real cue is in this: they are fallen in, the rest is only preparation. Parallel is Psalm vii. 15. We must not expound: my soul is bowed down ; for b^^ is always transitive, and throughout the whole verse the enemiesare the subject. The interchange of the singular
254 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and the plural is very common, especially in respect to the ene- mies; the wicked are the subject. The image is derived from wild beasts, who, entangled in the net, sink down helpless. The expression : my soul, is not all one with me, but the endangered life appears under the image of an overwhelmed wild beast.
There follows in the two strophes, ver. 7, 8, and 9, 10, the promise of thanks. Ver. 7. Fixed is my heart, O God, fixed is my heart, I will sing and give praise. Ver. 8. Wake up my honour, wake up harp and psaltery, I will stir up the morning- dawn. A fixed heart is such an one as in confidence on the Lord is fearless, comp. on Ps. Ivi. 11. On the expression: my honour, as an emphatical designation of the soul, comp. on Ps. vii, 5 ; xvi. 8, and especially Ps. xxx. 13. 7l3J and *l"lji give together the idea of music, and are hence to be regarded as a kind of compound noun ; the article belongs to both in common. Psaltery and harp have in a manner slept, keeping silence till the Psalmist received the promise of divine aid. On the words : I will stir up the morning dawn, the Berleb. Bible : " that is, an- ticipate it with praise ; it shall not awake me to this, but shall find me already occupied with it." In like manner with Ovid does the cock wake up at the break of day : non vigil ales ibi cristati cantibus oris evocat auroram. Metam. xi. 597. Many expositors, who could not enter into the bold, poetical expres- sion, have expounded : I will be up at the time of the morning- dawn. But the Hiphil cannot fitly be taken intransitively im- mediately beside tlie Kal ; the word : awake, and : I will stir up, stand in manifest connection ; IHSJ^ is never found with the omission of the preposition or adverb in the sig. of early morn- ing. Without foundation Ewald concludes from this verse, that the Psalm was an evening song. It is not on some one occasion merely, but always, that the Psalmist will awaken himself up with his thanksgiving and praise. The thought is that of great zeal in the praise of God. Arnd : " The little word early is not to be understood merely of the morning season, but of great diligence, activity, desire and love in the praising of God."
Ver. 9. / will praise thee among the peojyles, O Lord, sing praise to thee among the nations. Ver. 10. For great to the heavens is thy goodness, and to the clouds thy truth. The proof here exhibited of the glory of the Lord is so great, that only the peoples of the whole earth'are a sufficient auditory for its praise.
PSALM LVIII. 255
Michaelis : " But that has even been done by this Psalm, pre- served for all nations and the latest posterity." On ver. 9 comp. Psalm xviii. 49. On ver. 10 Psalm xxxv. 5.
The sum of the whole is given in ver. 11 : Praise to thee, 0 God, in heaven, upon the ivhole earth, glory to thee ! to be given ; because of what he did God was to be praised throughout the whole world. The conclusion of joy for the deliverance reverts to its commencement, ver. 5.
PSALM LVIII.
The Psalmist describes his enemies in the first strophe, ver. 1 — 5 as unrighteous, mischievous, utterly corrupt, hardened and seared, and in the second strophe first builds upon this their condition his prayer to the Lord, that he would overthrow them, ver. 6, then elevates himself, ver. 7 — 11, to the joyful hope, that this shall be done, to the joy of all the righteous, and to the glory of God. — The Psalm is of similar character and contents to those of the preceding and following, which have respect to David's relations in the Sauline period ; already the T\T\^T\ /K of the superscription shews, that we must not separate it from them ; the manner in which the Psalmist here expresses him- self, entirely agrees with the expressions of David during the pe- riod in question, recorded in history ; comp. for ex. 1 Sam. xxvi. 10, xxiv. 13; characteristic in this point of view is the promi- nence given to the speaking of lies, by the enemies, in ver. 3. Against the authorship of David, and in the time specified, and in favour of the hypothesis, that the Psalm contains " the com- plaint of a Jew over unrighteous judges," whether foreign or domestic, at the time of the exile, stress has been laid on the circumstance of " unrighteous judges" being spoken of in ver. 1. As if David had not, during the Sauline period, been made to underlie an unrighteous judgment — as if even then his judges had not been his persecutors, and everything had not been or- dered so, as to conceal the persecution behind the appearance of a righteous judgment. But that the unrighteous judges meant are not of the common stamp, appears from this, that they are spoken of as at the same time the j^^rsonal enemies of the Psalmist, who persecute him for the purposes of their own
256 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
hatred, whereas it is a standing trait in regard to common un- righteous judges, that through bribery they pervert judgment, comp. for ex. Isa. v. 23, and therefore are not impelled by hat- red, but by self-interest.
To the Chief musician, destroy not, of David, a secret. Ver.
1. Are ye then indeed dumb, that ye will not speak ivhat is righteous, and judge what is upright, ye children of men ? Ver.
2. Even in the heart ye commit iniquities, in the land ye weigh out the unrighteousness of your hands. Ver. 3. The ivicked go astray
from the mother's lap, err from the mother's womb the speakers of lies. Ver. 4. Poison have they like serpent's poison, like a deaf adder he stops his ear. Ver. 5. Which hears not the voice of the charmer, of the conjurer, who can conjure well. The Psalm begins with an address to the wicked, ver. 1 and 2, but he presently perceives, that he can make nothing of them, that they are per- fectly hardened, and deaf to all admonition, and so, in what follows, he speaks o/them, and brings out this distinctive mark of their condition. The expression : Are ye then indeed, in ver. 1, points to the unheard of and incredible nature of the fact that they should beyMC?(/e5, and dumb in regard to righteous judgment — which is a contradiction, especially in respect to Deut. i. 16, 17— and admonishes, that they might still bethink themselves. U7^ occurs only once besides, in Ps. Ivi. supers., and indeed in the sense of being dumb. That this is here also to be retained, ap- pears from the mention of deafiess, in ver. 4, 5 : they are dumb when they should speak, deaf when they should hear, comp. Ps. xxxviii. 13, where D/5< and SJ^'^n likewise occur united. The abstract stands emphatically in place of the adj. dumbness, for quite dumb. In the following words the sphere is indicated, in which the dumbness operates : that ye speak, etc., in reference to the speaking. D''*]^'*/!}, uprightness, which is never used ad- verbially, (comp. on Ps. xvii. 2,) is q. d. and upright judgment, comp. Ew. § 486. — The first member is expounded by many : speak you actually dumb judgment. But the paraphrase of Stier : " Would ye (not at length, as always in duty bound) bring to utterance the (alas ! long enough) dumb judgment," shews what the Psalmist must have said, if he had wished to express this mean- ing. The not must then have been here, the indeed must have been awanting, as Gesen. would, for the sake of this interpreta- tion, thrust it out of the text. The doubting question : speak ye then in reality dumb judgment, would imply that there was at
PSALM LVIII. VER. 1—5. 257
least the appearance of a return to the righteousness, tliat had heen renounced, which, however, we cannot imagine. The ex- position of Maurer, who presses upon q'^X the sig. of pactum, foedus, and the conjecture of Ewald, who would read DvXj " ye gods," are to be rejected on the ground alone of the corre- spondence here between " the dumbness" and " the deafness" in ver. 4 and 5. — The expression, " Ye children of men," re- minds the high ones of the earth of the Higher, to whom they must give an account, and has therefore the import of a ground- ing to the call to righteous judgment : if the children of men are dumb when they should speak, God shall speak with them ; comp. the Elohim in ver. 6 and 11, and the contrast between Jehovah and the children of men in 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, as also be- tween the children of men, who oppose the Psalmist, and Elohim, who helps him, in Ps. Ivii. 4. Arnd : " From this we see and learn, that the persecuted Christians have no audience and no help with worldly and spiritual jurisdictions when false doctrine is in vogue ; though men ought there to declare and speak, stil they are dumb ; though the cause also be ever so good, yet no one will open his raoutli. and lend a good word in its behalf. Hence the Holy Spirit asks them, through the mouth of David, whether thisbe right, namely, to speak against righteousness and truth." — In ver. 2 the positive is added to the negative. t|X is not a par- ticle of gradation, but is used in its common sig. of also, comp. on Ps. xviii. 48, xliv. 9 : Ye omit what ye ought to do, also ye do what ye ought to omit. The opposite of the, " in heart," consists, not of, " in the land," but of, " your hands." The expression " ye do wickedness in the heart," instead oi meditating evil in the heart, points here, as in Mic. ii. 1, to there being also actions of the heart, which God will bring into judgment. The words " ye weigh out the unrighteousness of your hands," contain an abbre- viated comparison : instead of the righteousness, which, as the judges appointed by God, ye ought to weigh out, (comp. the mention of the balance of righteousness, in Job xxxi. 6,) ye prac- tise injustice. \^'\ in ver. 3 is pret. Kal. To " the wicked" wo must supply : in the number of whom are my enemies. What makes human corruption so dreadful is the fact of its growing out of original sin, comp. on Ps. li. 6, and consequently it has its root in the inmost depths of the heart. Those, with whom na- ture is allowed free scope to develope itself as it will, and who shut out grace from access to their heart, must attain to a ripe-
VOL. II. S
258 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ness in sinning, which would be incredible if nature were origi- nally, and still predominantly good. The opposition is not be- tween those who have been corrupt from their mother's vvomb, and who ai-e not so now, but between those in whom the corrup- tion common to all has uninterruptedly developed itself, and those in whom the developement has been hemmed in and broken through. That the inborn depravity is quite a general one, ex- tending over the whole family of man, appears from Gen. viii. 21, the confession of David himself in Ps. li. 6, and Job xiv. 4. Arnd: " The godless are wayward from their mother's womb, from their childhood upwards there is nothing good in them ; the godly, although they also are conceived and born in sin, yet live in the new birth, in daily repentance." — In ver. 4 H^n stands in stat. cons, before the preposition, on account of the close connection. The second half of ver. 4 and ver. 5 describes, by way of grada- tion, their poisonousness : the serpents on whom the charmers can make no impression, (comp. on the charming of serpents my Egypt and Books of Moses, p. 97, ss.) are the most poisonous — instead of JJ^HJ there i« hei*e jHS- What the ineffectual charms are in reference to the excessively poisonous serpent, that are with the venomous and wicked man the prayers and entreaties of those, who suffer injury from him and his friends, as an exam- ple of which we have only to think of David's representations to Saul, and Jonathan's intercessions, both so persuasive, that their fruitlessness presents to our view the wickedness of Saul, which is a reflection of man's generally, as a deep abyss. Not only, however, does the resemblance hold in regard to such prayers and entreaties, but also to the admonitions of the ser- vants of God, and last of all, to the reproofs and warnings, which God himself brings to bear on men through their con- science. How powerfully these resounded in the dark soul of Saul, may be seen in the conviction often uttered by him, that David, upheld by God, would escape his persecutions and gain the day. But although his conscience called to him aloud, that bis striving was wrong and to no purpose, the strength of wick- edness in him was so great, that he could not desist from it. The subject in CtDi<{'' is not the adder, (commonly, " which stops its ear"), but the wicked. The stopping requires hands, and what is already deaf by nature has no need to stop. It is just by means of stopping, that the wicked make themselves like the deaf adder. Arnd : " As we see in the history of the holy
PSALM LVIII. VER. 6 11. 259
martyr Stephen. When he made his confession before the ec- clesiastical council at Jerusalem, and said : ' Lo, I see the hea- vens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God,' to the J.ewish prelates that was so insufferable a testimony, that in order to retain their pois^on, they stopt their ears, and cried aloud."
There follows in ver. 6 — 11 the prayer and the confidence. Ver. 6. God, break their teeth in their mouth, the tusks of the young lions break in pieces, O Lord. Ver. 7. They shall dis- solve as waters, flow away ; he takes aim ivith his arrows, as if they were cut in pieces. Ver. 8. As a snail, which melts away, he vanishes, as an abortion they behold not the sun. Ver. 9. Before your pots feel the thorn, raw or sodden, he shall carry him of as by a storm. Ver. 10. The righteous shall rejoice, be- cause he sees vengeance, his steps bathe in the blood of the ivicked. Ver. 11. And men will say : truly the righteous hath fruit, truly God judges in the earth. — At the beginning of ver. (J, Elohim is used, because the Psalmist raises himself up from the children of men to God. On the expression, " break their teeth," Arnd : " There is here described the great hatred and wrath of the ene- mies toward the church of God. They are as the hungry and i-avenous lions. So vehement is their feeling toward us, that if God had permitted them, they would have swallowed us up bodily." niynS/b is etymologically the correct, but unusual form for niy/H^- — That the fut. in ver. 7, ss. are to be taken as ex- pressive of hope and confidence, appears from the preter. proph. Iin in ver. 8.— "iD^^itD^ from D^?^, for DDi^, is instead of ^D/!2*'- The subject in I^Snn'' is not the waters, but the wicked. This appears from 1^7 an ironical dat. comm. : they shall have this thereby, that they flow away. Tt*!*!, to bend, for, to fit in a bent form. The arrows are, as to the effect to be shot off, as if they were cut, deprived of their heads and blunted. Such hope could spring up in David only from a living faith. If he viewed the matter without this, the thought which pressed upon him must have been : " his arrows are sharp, they pierce the heart of the enemies of the king." — D/^H in ver. 8 is the 3d fem. of the ab- breviated fut. of HD/b "= DD/b- The subject in "^'Tl'' is the wick- ed. Instead of: as the snail which melts away, dissolves, he vanishes, many : as the snail which meltingly vanishes, properly, which walks dissolution. But '^y)11^ can hardly be masc, there is no such noun as D!in> to walk dissolution is very hard, and so
260 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
also is that which must be supplied by this rendering : they shall be. Before 7^i we are not precisely to supply like, but it is to be explained: as a (spiritual) abortion. The subject in "lIPl is not the singular '^Sl (many : beholds not the sun), but those, who are the subject both before and after, the wicked. The preterite is to ,e explained from tlie confidence of faith. The wicked are so far like an abortion, as they, like it, hurried away by an untimely and violent death, do not see the sun. Job iii. 16 rests upon this pas- sage. Job, the righteous there wishes for himself, as good fortune, the fate of an abortion, which is here predicted of the wicked as a punishment : so God appears to exchange with each other the fates of the righteous and the wicked. — In ver. 9 the discourse at first addresses the ungodly, as in ver. 1 and 2, but soon it be- comes more placid again, and speaks of them : he shall overthrow liim, whereas from the commencement we would have expect- ed: you. On the words: before your pots feel the thorn, the Berleb Bible : " that is, before the fire thereof, which quick- ly burn and heat, has got fairly within, before the flesh in your pots has become warm or ready, that is, your plans shall at an early period be destroyed or executed," IDD'IXSIJ as well— as. ••n and p*in. pi'op. glow, then glowing heat, refers to the con- tents of the pots, the flesh, which is boiled in them. As here in poetry, Tl and p^n, so in 1 Sam. ii. 15 are Tl, living or raw, and ^^i/!D, boiled. To the raw flesh correspond the unripe plans, to the sodden the ripe. The expression : be it raw, be it sodden or ready, is q. d. without taking any account of this, whether ye have finished your cooking, and not good-humour- edly granting you the necessary time for executing your pro- jects against the righteous. It means without anything farther, at once : away with you,— and however painful it will also be to you, to find all your preparations in vain, however pleasant it may be for you to eat wdiat you have boiled, God makes no account of it : thus Saul was obliged to go ofif before he carried his designs against David into execution. The subject in ^i^iyb^'' is the Lord, and the suffix refers to the wicked ; this is evident from Job xxvii. 21, referring to our passage ; " The east wind carrieth him away and he departeth ; and as a storm hurleth him out of his place." It is not the flesh- pot that is torn away from the wicked, but the wicked from his flesh-pot, his projects, on which the history of Saul gives the best commentary. The other expositions are to be re- jected. Against Luther's: Before your thorns are ripe in the
PSALM LIX.
261
thorn-bush, besides many other grounds, it is decisive that thorns are always D'''T'D) never HITD: excepting in Amos iv, 2, where it is used of an instrument Hke a thorn, the word always signifies pots. Against the exposition : " before your pots perceive the thorn, as green as burning, they are plucked away," it is to be objected, amongst other grounds, that '•pt is never used of green thorns, nor in any similar import. — On the expression : because he sees vengeance, in ver. 10, comp. 1 Sam. xxiv. 12, where David says to Saul, " The Lord shall judge between me and thee, and the Lord shall avenge me of thee ; but my hand shall not be upon thee." How the vengeance should be an object of joy to the righteous, viz. because of the manifestation given in it of the judgment and righteousness of God, of the nourishment which his knowledge and fear of God draws from it, appears from ver. 11. On the second member, Arnd : " That he shall bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked, is not to be under- stood literally, as if the fearers of God must avenge themselves by the shedding of blood, or have pleasure therein, but so, that if they entreat vengeance of God, God wonderfully vindicates their cause. When Saul fell upon his sword, sore pressed by the Philistines, that was God's vengeance, and David bathed his feet in the blood of the wicked and incurred no guilt by Saul's destruction. When Ahab was shot in the battle, so that his blood ran through the chariot, and the dogs licked it, that also was God's vengeance, and the prophet Elias bathed his feet in the blood of the wicked." — 'TJX in ver. 11, stands as a particle of assurance : only, it is not otherwise than so. The plural in CtDS^ springs with that in DTl'^N fi'om one root, comp. on Ps. xi. 6. The general name of God stands in opposition to D'l^^. " men recognize God as judge," but at the same time also in con- trast to the sons of men at the beginning, to which the close re- fers back : God exercises on earth the righteous judgment, whicli they withhold.
PSALM LIX.
The Psalm falls, like so many others, into two chief divisions, the one of 10 verses, and the other of 7. The ten, as usual, are divided into two fives, the seven fall into three and four. The
262 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
first strophe in both parts contains the prayer for the overthrow of the ungodly enemies, and the deliverance of the Psalmist, ver. 1 — 5, and ver. 11 — 13 ; the second, tlic hope of this over- throw and of this deliverance ; and the confident expectation of the same, ver. 6 — 10, and 14 — 17. At the conclusion of the prayer-strophes, which are distinguished from the two others even by the use of the imperatives, the Selah is both times used, externally also bounding them off. Hence the main divi- sions do not lie loosely beside each other ; in the second hope- strophe the first is again resumed. The first verses of both take up the beginning of the first and expand it, their last ones the conclusion. It is not accidental, that in the second main divi- sion the confidence externally predominates over the prayer, (4 — 3), while in the first the hope occupies the same space with the prayer, (5 and 5). It is in perfect accordance with this, that in the second hope-strophe, the hope has received a firm foundation in the internal assurance of being heard, and has thereby risen to confidence, which discovers itself especially in the two concluding verses.
The occasion of the Psalm is given in the superscription : to the chief musician, destroy not, (Ps. l\u.), of David, a secret, (Ps. xvi, Ivi, Ivii), ivhen Saul sent, and caused his house to be watched, that he might kill him. The history is contained in 1 Sam. xix. 11, ss. Saul caused the house of David to be sur- rounded, with orders to kill him, whenever he might come out. David was delivered through the artifice of his wife Michal, which was blessed by God, but this transaction formed the com- mencement of his long' continued flight, during which he had to encounter unheard-of dangers, and to endure nameless suffer- ings. The fact being of such importance, we are prepared to expect, that David would perpetuate its remembrance by a Psalm, the superscription of which would expressly make men- tion of it (comp. on Psalm xxxiv). Such a superscription was the more necessary, since, according to David's manner, the refe- rences to the event in the Psalm itself, which was naturally com- posed immediately after the danger had been surmounted, are very general— the special references to it, which have been sought in ver, 6 and in ver. 14 and 15, are not found in these. So much only is clear from the Psalm, that it was called forth by some plot upon the life of the Psalmist ; for the rest, the relations are the general ones belonging to the Sauline period.
PSALM LIX. 263
Many modern expositors have rejected the announcements of the superscription, and denied the composition by David. But their reasons are anything but convincing. The description of the enemies as mighty or powerful in verse 3, it is maintained, suits better heathenish oppressors, tyrants, than the messengers of Saul. As if David had not, in all the Psalms of this period, primarily and chiefly before his eyes Saul himself, and his in- struments merely as such, merely as members of that body of wickedness of which he was the head ! The idea that the hea- then being once and again mentioned, verses 5 and 8, indicates that the Psalm refers to foreign enemies, rests upon a false ex- position ; see our remarks on these verses. As to the multipli- cation of titles of God in verse 5 proving, as is alleged, that the Psalm belongs to a later age, this is disproved by a single glance at the prayer of David in 2 Sam. vii. which is distinguished by a heaping together of the names of God, and where, particularly in verse 27, " for thou Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, God of Is- rael," the address here is literally repeated, with the omission merely of Elohim.
The positive grounds for referring this Psalm to David, and at the period in question, are, besides the superscription, to which the Psalm itself appears to contain a reference in ver. 9, and the enigmatical character of which (indicated by, "destroy not," and, " the secret,") bespeaks David for its author — the use, characte- ristic of David, of military expressions, ver. 4, 9, 16, the strong asseveration of innocence ver. 3 and 4, and the lively conviction, also so characteristic of David, of the reality of a divine recom- pense, the connection between a venomous slandering, and vio- lent deeds, which meets us in all the Psalms of the Saulino period ; to which may be added the circumstance, that all the strikingly agreeing parallel passages belong to the Psalms of David, and especially to such as were composed in the times of Saul ; compare the exposition.
Those, who reject the superscription, wander hither and thither, and each one excogitates his own hypothesis and satis- fies himself. According to De Wette, it is a plaint of the peo- ple, and has respect to the circumstances which arose in the time of the exile. x\ccording to Ewald, the poet is one of the last kings of Judah, who was besieged in Jerusalem by a multitude of heathenish enemies, the surrounding nations in league with the Chaldeans. Of such a combination history says nothing.
264 THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
Koester refers the Psalm to " the nocturnal assaults of the Samaritans in the time of Neheraiah," but himself also discreet- ly adds, that " there is no absolute certainty on the subject." Hitzig pleads for the times of the Maccabbees.
The objections to these hypotheses are that the assaulted is throughout only one, in the presence of a great number of mighty adversaries, no hint being ever given that a multitude lay concealed in this oneness, the Psalmist expressly distinguish- ing himself, in verse 14, from " his people ;" that the reproach particularly discovering itself in the Psalm of venomous slan- dering, and malicious lying, compare verses 7 and 12, does not at all suit heathenish enemies, nor does the epithet of " men of blood," in verse 2, which is never used of heathenish national enemies ; that the heathen are excluded by verses 14, 15, ac- cording to which Israel has the spectacle of the humiliation of the wicked constantly before his eyes, sees them wandering about in misery and want ; that the threatening of a hungry and wretched existence in verses 6 and 15 is suitable only to indivi- duals, not to nations ; finally, that the overthrow of the wicked could afford a proof that " God rules in Jacob," verse 18, only if the Psalm refers to domestic enemies, to conflicts among the people of God, upon whom he exercises judgment.
The Psaimist prays for deliverance from his enemies, ver. 1 and 2, grounds this prayer by alluding to the powerful malice of the enemies, and his own innocence ver. 3 and 4, and reminds God, that as the Almighty and the Covenant God of Israel, He cannot let wickedness rage with impunity among his own peo- ple.— Ver. 1. Deliver me from my enemies, my God, and defend me from those who raise themselves against me. Ver. 2. Deliver me from the evil-doers, and from the men of blood redeem me. Ver. 3. For lo ! they lay wait for my soul, the strong gather themselves against me, without my crime and my sin, O Lord. Ver. 4. Without my faidt they run and plant themselves frmly ; aivake and meet me, and see here. Ver. 5. And thou, Lord, God, of Hosts, God of Lsrael, wake up to visit all the heathen, be not gracious to all wicked men ofj)erfidy. On ver. 1 and 2, Arnd: " Although these words are in themselves plain and simple, yet we must look mainly upon the heart and the spirit of David, how firmly he held by his faith and confidence in God." Upon '2'^^, to lift up, in the sense of " deliver," com]), on Psalm xx. 1. — On the expression : tlicy lay wait for my soul, in verse 3,
PSALM LIX. VEK. 1 5. 265
comp. 1 Sam. xix. 11, " And Michal liis wife said to David, If thou deliver not thy soul this night, to-morrow thou shalt be slain," Fsalm vii. 2, 5. That iy, strong, (not, rash, Ew.) is used in its common signification, appears from "j^y in ver. 9, Tj^y in ver. 16, ^ly in ver. 17, and Psalm xviii. 17. Arnd : " The strong gather themselves against me, as if he would say : But I am weak, be thou, however, my strength, and vindicate my inno- cence." *1"|J, as in Psalm Ivi. 6, in the sense of gathering them- selves ; the exact agreement with that passage implies, since both bear the mark of originality, the identity of the writers of both Psalms. The words, " not my crime, and not my sin," is a concise form for, " not on account of my sins." Where the rela- tion in itself is clear, there not rarely the word expressive of the relation is omitted. Most render: not is my crime. But the supplying of the 25 isnot enough, and theninstead of the5<7 there would rather have been pj^. The crime, comp. on Psalm xix., is the particular, the sin the general. It were, for example, a crime to project a plan for murdering the king ; while under sin, all disobedience and unfaithfulness is comprehended. When David here denies, that sin is the cause of his suffering, he thinks of the human cause. He was deeply penetrated by the conviction, that before the divine judgment- seat, an entirely different standard is to be taken ; there he recognized with bit- ter anguish in every suffering a deserved jmnishment. We are to compare the similar protestations of the innocence of David in 1 Sam. xxiv. 10, and in Psalm vii. 3 — 5. On the " 0 Lord," Kimchi : " Thou Lord knowest it." David can appeal to the knowledge of the Omniscient for his innocence in respect to Saul. — How necessary it is to have this innocence coupled with the assault, if it is to be an occasion for God to step in is indicat- ed by the Psalmist, while in ver. 4, he rises from the innocence to the assault, as in ver. 3 he had risen from the assault to the inno- cence. Only the assault of the innocent comes under the idea of perfidiousness, which the Psalmist in ver. 5 describes as the ob- ject of divine judgment. Upon ''7^. without, comp. Ewald, § 506. To this: without fault, naturally suggests itself to be supplied: on my part. The " run," is used, as in Psalm xviii. 29, in a war- like sense. )^y\y, fut. Hithp. from Y]^, with compensation of the n charact. by Dag., which is common with this verb, is for the most part expounded : they prepare themselves. But we have the less reason for renouncing here the elsewhere common
266 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sig. of the Hithp., " to be settled, established," as the preparing of themselves does not follow the tempestuous onset, but goes before it. It is beyond doubt a military expression : to fix one's self, to get firm footing, of the attacking host, which, planting its firm foot in the walls of the beleaguered city, is ready to rush in over them, or rather through them, as being al- ready broken through into the city, comp. Job xxx. 14. On n*liy, not with Ewald, stir thyself, but : awake, corap. Ps. vii. G, xliv. 23. Meet me, as a true member of the covenant for my relief. At the, " see," the object is awanting : their wickedness and my danger. Calvin : " When he says, see, he m.ingles the feeling of the flesh with the teaching of faith. For as if God, with shut eyes, had overlooked till then all unrighteousness, he prays, that he would now begin to see ; this after the weakness of the human mind. Meanwhile, he confesses, while he attri- butes seeing to God, that nothing is concealed from his inspec- tion. Yet it is to be noticed, that David, while he so stammers after the manner of a man, at the same time is satisfied, that his sufferings, as well as his own innocence, and the wickedness of his enemies, are known to God. But he gives over in these words the whole cause to the judgment of God for trial." — On ver. 5, Geier : " He here resumes more fully the address al- ready begun in the preceding verse, while he describes Him more narrowly, whose awaking he wishes. But the names con- tain at the same time, the reasons for the divine help being im- mediately extended to him." The " Jehovah" is the deepest and most comprehensive name of God. The following names divide its import into the particular parts. Jehovah is first Elohim, God in the full sense, (God) of Hosts, (comp. on Sabaoth at Psalm xxiv. 10,) the Almighty ; he therefore cannot want power to restrain the mighty ones of the earth, whose strength is sheer impotence in respect to him ; he cannot find, should the right not prevail, the justification that so often exists in the case of human judges. Then, Jehovah is the God of Israel ; Arnd : " that is, who has taken the church, with all the believing mem- bers, under his powerful support." Has he, as God and as (God of) Sabaoth,the ^oi^er, he must as the God of Israel have the luiU to punish and deliver. The God of Israel (comp. ver. 13) must establish right and righteousness, without which Israel comes to nothing. We may compare Jer. xxxv. 17, where God is call- ed the God of Israel as Judge of the wicked in it ; there, and in
PSALM LIX. VER. 1 — 5. 267
chap, xxxviii. 17, Jehovah, the God of Hosts, the God of Is- rael, are taken from this verse, only with the putting of ''THK instead of DTlS'i^ here. The proper wish and the proper prayer of the Psalmist here is contained in the words: be not gracious to all wicked perfidious persons, prop, all perfidious persons of wickedness ; perfidiousness in Israel, the people who are all friends and brethren, is every violation of neigh- hourly love not called forth by the commission of any miscon- duct, comp. on Psalm xxv. 2 ; wickedness (comp. the jlJ^ ^h*^^ in ver. 2, through which the opinion of Koester, in itself of no weight, that |1K here denotes idolatry, is disproved,) is that, through which the perfidiousness has been committed : toward brothers and friends to be wicked is perfidiousness. That these words alone could contain the proper prayer of the Psalmist, is clear simply from this, that they alone admit a reference to enemies from amongst the covenant-people : only in Israel was wickedness at the same time perfidiousness. Now, since the enemies could not be of a twofold kind, at once heathens and Jews, the preceding supplication, " awake and visit all hea- then," can only have the force of a preliminary step to the pro- per prayer, and that so much the more, as the wicked perfidious persons are manifestly those of whose unprovoked attacks the Psalmist had complained in ver. 3 and 4 — comp. in Psalm xxv. 3 : those who without cause are perfidious. In substance : a- waken to visit all heathen, is q. d. thou, who judgest all heathen. Because every special judgment of God is a consequence of this, that he is judge of the whole world, as already Abraham calls him, 80 the holy Psalmists very often place him as such before their eyes, ere they call upon him to judge in their own cause, comp. on Psalm vii. 7, 8, Ivi. 7. The right view is given by Calvin : " He reasons from the greater to the less, since not even the profane and aliens can escape the hand and vengeance of God, a more sure and severe judgment must impend the do- mestic enemies, who, under the name of brethren, are inimical to the pious, and disturb the order divinely settled in the church. At the same time also, he wrestles with a temptation, with which it is probable he was much disquieted. For he was not pressed by four or five wicked persons, but by a great multitude. On the other hand, however, he elevates his mind, considei'ing it to be the proper oflfice of God not only to bring a few into order, but to inflict punishment on the crimes of the whole world. For
268 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
as God's judgment extends to the farthest hounds of the earth, he ought not to be frightened by that multitude, which was still but a small portion of the human race." That the point brought out last by Calvin is to be kept most prominently in view ; that the Psalmist on this account especially places God here before his eyes as the judge of all the heathen, so that he might be no more disturbed by the great number and might of his ene- mies, is manifest from ver. 8.
Inthesecondstrophe of the first main division, the prayer is fol- lowed by the hope. Ver. 6. They shall return hack at even, howl like a dog, and run through the city. Ver. 7. Behold they belch ivith their mouth, swords are on their lips ; for who hears ? Ver. 8. And thou, O Lord,laughest at them, thou mockest all the hea- then. Ver. 9. His strength will I preserve to thee, for God is my fortress. Ver. 10. My God will luith his favour surprise me, God makes me see my desire upon my adversaries. The Psalmist in ver. 6 sees his enemies the strong, ver. 3, brought down, wan- dering about in hunger and sorrow. Because in their conduct they resemble hounds, with hound-like fury had attacked him, comp. on Ps. xxii. 16, 20, they must now also experience a hound- like fate; in regard to which we must consider, that the dogs in the east run about without any master, and seek their food wherever they can find it. Ver. 11 gives the commentary on this passage : " Make them wander about through thy power, and overthrow them," the more so as in ver. 15 there is a re- sumption and farther expansion of what is said here. Whence it is clear, that our passage must not be referred, with many, to the want of success of the plan against David, that it rather con- tains the hope of the overthrow of the wicked themselves. They shall return back at even, namely after they have in vain sought the whole day for food. The dog cries or howls for hung- er. They also run through the city at even, in order, perhaps, to obtain somewhat of nourishment. Many expositors find here, not the hope, but the wish of the overthrow of the wicked : might they return. But this is refuted by all the other contents of the strophe, which throughout expresses, not a ivish, but a liope, and the resumption in ver, 14 and 15, comp. especially the se- cond half of the latter verse. Then, according to some, the verse must refer, not to the fate of the wicked, but, as ver. 7, to their procedure, (Ewald, Maur.) But ver. 14 is opposed to this view. When there is a similarity in the words, a differ-
rSALM LIX. VER. G — 10, 269
ence In the sense is not to bo supposed ; this would certainly have been indicated by a change in the expression. Then, by this exposition, we cannot explain why precisely the evening is thought of, unless one should take refuge in some far-fetched supposition. — The Psalmist, in ver. 7, casts a glance back on the malice of his enemies, only in order to give opportunity for hope in God to break forth the more vigorously. The consideration of the need is only a preliminary step to him, on which he can raise himself to the contemplation of the helper for the time of need. Behold, they belch, ^c. is in meaning, q. d. let them belch, &c., thou, 0 Lord, mockest them. On yUl. to make to belch forth, comp. on Ps. xix. 12. What they belch or bubble forth, is not expressly mentioned here, as it is in Prov. xv. 2, 28, compare Ps. xciv. 4. It may be easily understood from the character of the persons ; according to that, we can only think of a torrent of lies and calumnies, which instrumentally serve the purpose of their actual persecu- tion. Arnd : "Just as smoke precedes the fire, so do lies and slanders precede open persecutions." The verb retains its common meaning. The Psalmist says only, that there was an entire flood of what they bring forth. On the expression : swords are on their lips, Calvin : " they vomit forth as many swords for the murder of the poor, as they utter word.s." Arnd : " Just as a naked sword inflicts wounds, so do such lies and ca- lumnies cut in pieces innocent hearts," comp. Ps. Iv. 21, " his w^ords are smoother than oil, and they are drawn swords," Ps. lii. 2, " upon evil thinks thy tongue, as a sharp razor, thou worker of deceit," Ps. Ivii. 4, " whose tongue is a sharp sword." These parallel passages especially preclude us from thinking of insults, and oblige us to understand only false charges and ca- lumnies. This trait is applicable only to internal enemies ; heathenish ones wield not the sword of the word. Who hears ? is commonly regarded as a speech of the wicked : for, say they, who hears and judges. " God certainly hears it not, he will oeither hear nor punish" (Arnd), comp. similar speeches of the wicked in Ps. x. 11, 13. But we can also conveniently take the words as a sad lamentation of the Psalmist, that God, through his past inaction, has strengthened the wicked in their wicked- ness, comp. a similar lamentation in Ps. x. 5. Hitherto God had actually not heard, comp. the see in ver. 4. — The malice of the enemies does not distress the Psalmist, it only leads him to
270 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
raise bis mind with the loftier elevation to God, and when he sees God laugh at them, he shall also treat them as a mockery, verse 8. On the expression : thou laughest, comp. Ps. ii. 4, " he who is throned in heaven laughs, the Lord holdstheminderison," Ps. xxxvii. 13. Thou mockest all the heathen, q. d. how should- est thou not mock them, how should it not be a light tiling for thee, to annihilate all their malicious projects, since all the hea- then, with their far greater might, can do nothing against thee, comp. verse 5. — In verse 9 the suffix in )]^ refers to the strong, 2"»TJ^, in verse 3. The singular refers, as so often happens, to the ideal person of the wicked. Since in the other Psalms of the Sauline period, the singular constantly interchanges with the plural, it can only be regarded as purely accidental, that in this Psalm the enemy is nowhere else mentioned in the singu- lar. The "T|''75<, to thee, so that thou keepest it, and in refe- rence to it doest what is necessary. 1J52^. to keep, to secure, as in Ex. xxii. 6, and here in the supers. The Psalmist, con- scious of his own impotence, will have nothing to do himself with the strength of his enemies ; he rolls it wholly upon God, who will already know what he has to make of it. The expression : his strength is here used in a designed refe- rence to " thy power" in ver. 16, my strength in verse 17, similar to that between : his countenance, in Ps. xlii. 5, and my countenance, in ver. 11 : the enemies' strength, he delivers over to the Lord, he celebrates God's strength, and for his own strength he gives thanks to him. This designed reference is destroyed, if we read with many here i]\J : my defence, upon whom I wait, (Ew.). Ver. 17 speaks against, not for this change; for deviations usually occur in the reiterations, comp. on Ps.xlii.5, and ''ty would, if it had been original, have been preserved by ver. 17; nowhere should we hesitate more in changing the reading, than precisely where the reiterating verses deviate from each other. Those, who abide by the common text, usually expound : what concerns their strength, I have thee in my eye. But ''^y would then probably have stood by itself; that it is the accusative, which is governed by the verb, appears from the analogy between ver. 16 and 17. — In the first member of ver. 10, the reading of the text should be npH ^ bii- Where the distinction stood merely in the vowels, as here in the \17X. there the Masorites wrote no Kri on the margin, but where, as here, the context of itself led to the conclusion, that the vowels
PSALM LIX. VER. 11 io. 271
could not belong to the reading- of the text, tliey gave to iho Chetib exactly the vowels of the Kri, or, where that was not the case, they gave to the word a double punctuation, comp. on Ps. vii. 6. We can either expound : my God, his favour shall surprise me, comp. Ps. Ixxix. 8 ; or : my God shall with his fa- vour surprise me, comp. Ps. xxi. 3, where the Wlp occurs with a double accus. The latter mode is recommended by the par- allel. That of the Masorites : my favour-God, is a bad con- jecture from ver. 17. On the second member, comp. Ps. liv. 8. 6, where all the words have already occurred. Calvin : " The sum is, however God may withhold, or delay his aid, he will be present at the critical moment."
There follows now the second main division, first the prayer, in ver. 11 — 13. Ver. 11. Slay them not, lest my people forget, make them wander up and down through thy power, and over- throw them, thou our shield, O God. Ver. 12. Sin of their mouth is the word of their lips, and let them be taken through their pride, and on account of the cursing and lies, luhich they speak. Ver. 13. Consume in anger, consume, that they may he no more, and that it may he known that God is ruler in Jacoh, even to the ends of the earth. That the : slay them not, in ver. 11, re- fers not to the individuals hostile to the Psalmist, as such, but to their race, appears from ver. 13, where he seeks for the same persons their destruction, as constantly, indeed, in the Psalms belonging to the Sauline period. The enemies must serve for monuments of the divine righteousness, not less in the abiding wretchedness of their race, than by their own sudden destruc- tion. Parallel to this verse, and to ver. 6, 14, is the curse whicii David utters upon Joab, in 2 Sam. iii. 29, " let there never fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, and a leper, and that leaneth on a staff, and that lacketh bread ;" then, the threat- ening of the man of God to Eli, in 1 Sam. ii. 36, where, after announcing the violent death of the evil-doers themselves, cor- responding to ver. 13 here, it is said, " and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever is left of thy house will come, and crouch to him, (the new high-priest), for a piece of silver and a bit of bread, and will say : Put me, I pray thee, in something of the priest- hood, that I may eat a piece of bread." Christian exposi- tors have all along drawn attention to the fact, that the substance of our verse, as that also of ver. 6, 14, has gone into fulfilment on the Jews. " They have been scattered into
272 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
all lands, and must go and stand before the eyes of all Chris- tians, as a living witness, that they have crucified the true Mes- siah and saviour of the world. So that if you see a Jew, think on this word," (Arnd). The Psalmist calls all Israel his people; so the expression : my people, often occurs, for ex. Judg. xiv. 3, Fs. xiv. 4. Many think without reason exclusively of the right- eous seed ; tlie ungodly needed the warning example of the divine punitive righteousness still more than they. On the ex- pression : let them wander about, comp. the divine judgment on Cain in Gen. iv. 12, Numb, xxxii. 13, " Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he caused them to wander in the wilderness forty years," and Ps. cix 10, " Let his chil- dren be continually vagabonds and beg." On the : through thy power, (falsely Hitzig : through thy host), Calvin : " David invokes God's power for the destruction of the wicked, because they, trusting in their earthly power, thought themselves invin- cible ;" comp. : they gather themselves together against me strong in ver. 3. On the: overthrow them, prop, make them come down, Calvin : " He wills that they should be thrown down from their honourable position, be cast, as it were, before one's feet, so that they may afford in their misery and dis- grace a standing spectacle of the divine indignation." The designation of God as the shield of the righteous, is of fre- quent use in the mouth of David, comp. Ps. iii. 3, xviii. 2, xxviii. 7. By saying " our shield," he indicates that his cause is that of the whole church, comp. in ver. 5 : thou God of Israel. David was the bearer and representative of the good principle, and this was endangered in him. Saul's victory would have inflicted a deep wound on the kingdom of God. — The words Sin of their mouths is the word of their lips, in ver. 12, are q. d. they sin, as often as they speak. That the wish of their destruction is to be supplied here, which the simple representa- tion of the matter-of-fact includes in itself, is evident from the second member. The 1 in tDlX^l is explained by the follow- ing p. The pride must be viewed as the cause of their de- struction, in so far as it served to draw down upon them the divine vengeance. Pride was manifestly the root of Saul's hatred to David ; the more he was devoid of true greatness, the more in- supportable to him was the thought of true greatness beside him, it filled him with i*age, and he would, at whatever expense, have it driven out of the world ; comp. the account of the first
PSALM LIX. VER. 14 — 17. 27S
origin of Saul's enmity to David, in 1 Sam. xviii. 8, and xix. 8, ss. The curse is connected in Psalm x. 7, as here, with lying and deceit. There are curses which the wicked pronounces upon himself, so that his deceit prospers with him, his lie finds currency. Saul protested loudly and vehemently, that David sought occasion against his life. Before I'lfiD"' the rela- tive is to be supplied. The word is used in its common sig. : they tell under solemn protestations lies for truth. That the entire verse is unsuitable to heathen armies, is clear as day, comp. Psalm v. 9. — In ver. 13, the first words of which are seen reflected in the fate of the Jews, when they were " mercilessly extirpated at the destruction of Jerusalem," not less than in ver. 6 and 13, but the immediate fulfilment of which is exhibited in the signal overthrow of Saul, we must connect ; that it may be known to the ends of the earth, that God is ruler in Jacob, not that God is ruler in Jacob to the ends of the earth, which is also opposed by the accents, and in which case too an and should have been prefixed before unto. Calvin : " David indi- cates an extraordinary kind of punishment, the report of which would reach to the most distant people, and force even on blind and profane men the fear of God." It is characteristic of David that he everywhere thinks also of the heathen as interested in that which God did among the Israelites, for ex. Ps. xviii. 49, Ivii. 5, 9, 11. In remarkable agreement with our passage David says to Goliath in 1 Sam. xvii. 46, " And all the earth shall know, that the God of Israel is God." On the expression : that God is ruler in Jacob, it is justly remarked by expositors : not Saul or any other person whatever. From this contrast we are to explain the position of the general name of God.
The Psalm closes in ver. 14 — 17 with the second hope-strophe, in which, as the result of the whole, the destruction of the ene- mies, and the Psalmist rejoicing at his own deliverance, are represented. Ver. 14. Yea, they shall return hack at even^ make a noise like a dog, and run through the city. Ver. 15. They shall wander about for food, although they shall not he satisfied, so shall they stay over night. Ver. 16. But 1 will sing of thy strength, and praise thy favour in the morning, for thou wert my fortress and my refuge in the time of my necessity. Ver. 17. My strength will I sing to thee; for God is my fur- tress, my gracious God. — Ver. 14 is a resumption of ver. 6. Ver. 15 serves only for expansion and colouring. Instead of
vol.. II. T
274 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the fut. in Kal py")i^ the Masorites would read the tut. in Hiph., merely because in ver. 11 the Hiph. is used, and without any- tolerable sense. The D^^ is found not rarely where we put " al- tliough," Ges. Thes. Ew. § 625. So they stay over nighty so must it still happen to them, that the night overtakes them in this condition. Hence it is the image of a wretched existence in hunger and pain. — The : in the morning, ver. 16, stands in obvious reference to the expression in ver. 6 and 14 : in the evening, and on that account alone we must not think of the exposition, which is also ungrammatical : every morning. The morning is not uncommonly mentioned in connection with salva- tion, comp. for example, Ps. xc. 14, xcii. 2, cxliv. 8, because it pre- sents an image of that ; comp. 2 Sam. xxiii, 4, where David thus describes the salvation of the future, " and as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth ; a morning without clouds." Job xi. 17, " Now art thou dark, then shalt thou be as the morning." The fancy, occupied with images of future prosperity, will dwell with special delight on the morning, and conceive of this as the time of an uninterrupted prosperity. To the enemies the Psalmist assigns the evening and tlie night, because their lot is a matter of darkness, but he himself sings praise to God in the morning, because his lot is a morning, p*! with the accus. as in Ps. li. 14. On i;i^D here, and in ver. 9, comp, Ps. xvii. 2. In reference to *^^f , distress, necessity, see on Ps. xviii. 6. In ver. 17, the words: my strength will I sing to thee, q. d. I wull praise thee in a song as the author of my strength, which thou hast imparted to me, after thou hast thrown down the strength of my enemy. The Psalmist alludes to what is said in ver. 9 : his strength will I preserve for thee. Just as he had laid aside the strength of his enemy for the Lord, so will he now also not keep for himself, but righteously attribute to its real author his own strength (which he already possesses in faith after having received the assurance of being heard — comp. the : thou wert in ver. 16.) At the same time, the words refer to that in ver. 16 : I will sing of thy strength. The compion construction is indamissible, which takes : my strength, as an address to God. For ^f2)\ is never connected with 7^{, always with 7. That the unusual construction has been called for by ver. 9, we are not warranted in saying ; for there the construction is just as un- usual according to the common view.
PSALM LX. 275
PSALM LX.
Acknowledgment is first made by the Psalmist, or rather by the people in whose name he speaks, of the deliverance already im- parted : the Lord has visited his people with severe sufferings, but he who has sent has again removed them, and that because he is faithful and true, (ver. 1 — 4). May God continue to impart deliverance : the Psalmist grounds this prayer on the sure foundation of the word and promise of God, by which Israel is assured of continued possession of his land, and of victory over the neighbouring nations (ver. 5 — 8). In looking back upon this promise, the Psalmist expresses his confidence, that the expedition against Edom, on which, at the time, he was setting out, shall be crowned with success, (ver. 9 — 12).
The Psalm consists of twelve verses, and is divided into three strophes, each containing four verses, and the first ending with Selah. If the title be added, the number of verses is fourteen. That this number was designed by the author is evident from the circumstance that in Ps, cviii., where the title is wanting. the text contains two verses more. This circumstance is worth, being attended to. It shows that in other passages also we are warranted in bringing the titles, with all their contents, into the domain of the formal arrangement of the Psalms. If so, it furnishes a proof of the originality of the titles generally.
It is evident from the title, " On the Lily of Testimony," that the second strophe forms the heart of the Psalm, pointing as it does to the word and the promise of God as the sure pledge of deliverance. This is evident also from a considera- tion of the Psalm itself. That the first strophe is intended to quicken faith in the reality of this promise, inasmuch as it points to those events in which it has been already fulfilled, is evident from the expressive clause, " because of thy truth," with which it closes. The third strophe is in reality connected with the se- cond by a therefore.
The perpetual subject of the Psalm is : that the church of God ought to be always patient in trouble, and joyful in hope, inasmuch as she contains securely within herself those noble pro-
276 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
mises by which her God secures, in presence of a hostile world, the maintenance of her position and her final victory over every enemy. Under the New Testament this ground of support has not lost, it has gained in point of significance. For the promises of the Old Testament have passed on, in all their completeness, to the New, and in addition to these there are others peculiar to itself, which are nobler still.
The title runs : To the chief Musician, on the lily of testi- mony^ a Secret of David, to teach. Ver. 2. When he had con- quered Aram of the two floods, and Aram Zobah, andJoabhad returned and had slain Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thou- sand men of them. — The term nH^* properly testimony, has only one sense, that of the law, which gets this name, because it bears testimony against evil-doers. Compare at Ps. xix. 7. The sense, assumed by many, as next to this, namely, that of revelation, is to be rejected, because it is only founded on the passage before us, and on the title of Ps. Ixxx. The titles, from their dark and enigmatical character, are not proper pas- sages for establishing new senses of words : at least, if it can anyhow be made to answer, the sense which is otherwise most clearly ascertained shouldbe adopted in them. Generally HHy refers to the law of God as existing in the books of Moses, which are simp^icfer termed nny • comp. 2 Kings xi. 12. The ZiYy ge- nerally denotes something lovely ; compare at Ps. xlv. 1. " The Lily of the Testimony" is therefore " something lovely contain- ed in the law." Hence a lovely promise is introduced in the se- cond strophe, which, as we have already said, is to be consider- ed as the kernel or middle point of the whole Psalm. On DHD^. 05 secret, compare at the title of Ps. xvi. The expres- sion, " to teach," intimating that it was intended to be taught to the people, points to the public and national character of the Psalm, and stands in singular accordance with the fact that it is not the Psalmist, but the people, who speak throughout. It refers also to Deut. xxxi. 19, " and now therefore write ye this song, and teach it to the children of Israel, and put it in their mouths." — The sketch of the historical circumstances, by which the Psalm was called forth, shows that it moves within the same domain as Ps. xliv. ; and we would simply refer to the introduction to that Psalm. We would only remark, that from an oversight we did not then correctly state the relation as to time in which the two Psalms stand to each other. Ps. xliv. is the earlier
PSALM LX. 21 l
of the two : the sons of Korah sang in the midst of distress, pro- bably whilst David was absent at tlie Euphrates; Day'iA followed them after succour had been in some measure obtained. The cha- racter of the two Psalms is in remarkable accordance with the titles, which ascribe them, though composed at the same time, to different authors. " The liveliness of our Psalm, its rapid transitions, (ver. 6 — 8,) its brief yet comprehensive language, pre- vent us," observes Hitzig " from entertaining, for one moment, the idea that its authorship is the same as that of Ps. xliv." — Expositors generally translate, when he made war : but it ought rather to be translated, when he had overthrown or conquered ; — literally, when lie had beat down or pidled down : (H^i is used in Kal in the sense of beat down or pidled down, in Jer. iv. 7, and. also in Niphal). For Joab the commander in chief of the main army, which took the field against the Syrians, could not return till after the full victory had been gained over the Syrians. According to 2 Sam. viii. 13, the expedition against Edom followed immediately after the termination of the war with the Syrians, and it w^as not a detached division of the army that went against them, but the main body, which had en- gaged in the campaign against the Syrians ; finally, it is with the Idumeans, not with the much more terrible Syrians, that the Psalmist has to do, — it is to the victory over them that he refers when he speaks, in the first strophe, of a salvation wliich the Lord had already wrought out for him. — Aram of the two rivers is not spoken of in the narrative of this war in 2 Sam. viii. but only Aram of Zobah. We learn, however, from the account of David's second Syrian expedition (2 Sara, x.), that David, when he had to do with Aram of Zobah, had also necessarily to do with the Mesopotamians, inasmuch as the king of Zobah, whose situation cannot be very exactly fixed, but is generally supposed to lie between the Euphrates and the Orontes, to- wards the north-east of Damascus, held the kings of Mesopo- tamia in a state of vassalage. We read, ver. 16 : " And Had- adeser (the king of Zobah) sent and brought out Aram, which is beyond the river, and their Lord came, and Shoback, the cap- tain of the host of Hadadeser was at their head : ver. 19, and all the kings who were servants to Hadadeser saw that they were smitten before Israel, and served them." That the kings oi Mesopotamia were not allies but vassals of Hadadeser, is evident from the term, " the servants of Hadadeser," ver. 19, from the
278 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
circumstance that his commander in chief commanded their ar- my, and from the expression, " he drew out." This name of Mesopotamia, occurring in the title, furnishes a strong presump- tion in favour of its originality. For it is exceedingly improha- ble that any composer of later date would have obtained from the incidental and obscure notices of 2 Sam. x. knowledge of a state of matters, which, as appears from ver. 19, ceased to exist even under David. — In reference to the valley of Salt, Robinson remarks, (P. III. p. 25) : " This valley can be nothing else than the district adjoining the Salt-Mountain, to the south of the Dead Sea, which in reality formed the boundary between the ancient territories of Judah and Edom." The victory over Edom is here attributed to Joab, but in 2 Sam. viii. 13, David himself is mentioned as the conqueror over Edom, while in 1 Chron. xviii. 12, it is said to have been Abishai, the brother of Joab. We might suppose a contradiction to be here, were it not that the historical books give us nothing else than a short notice of the whole transaction. The most exact account is that of Chronicles. 2 Sam. x. 10, where Abishai holds an im- portant office under his brother Joab, confirms this. It was Abishai who smote the Edomites ; but it was also Joab, for he was commander in chief of the whole forces. In like manner it was also David: we read in Chronicles, no less than in the books of Samuel, " and the Lord helped David in all his under- takings."* Instead of 12000, we have 18000 in Samuel and in Chronicles : — a difference which may be explained either from the different methods of reckoning, or by the supposition that all such estimates of numbers are given at random. Both de- viations however furnish a strong presumption in favour of the originality of the title : one of later date would have contained the facts exactly as given in the historical records.
The title contains within itself very important proof of its ori- ginality; and this proof is confirmed by the contents of the Psalm. This confirmation has in it all the greater weight, that the con- tents are not of such a kind as naturally to have suggested the circumstances noticed in the title. And this circumstance shows the mistake of those who deprive themselves of the aid which the titles supply. The warlike confident tone,
* Michaelis is short and good : " David, as king, Joab, as commander in chief, and Abishai, as sent by his brother on this particular expedition, defeated the enemy."
I
PSALM LX. 279
the triumphant contempt of the enemy expressed at ver. 8, point to a time of highest prosperity in the state. And, in particular, the reign of David is indicated by the circumstances, that the three hostile neighbouring nations, spoken of in this verse, were all signally defeated by David, and that in ver. 6 and 7, the countries on both sides of Jordan, and also Ephraim and Tudah, appear as united in one kingdom, of which kingdom Judah was the head — a state of matters which ceased to exist immediately after Solomon, and to whose time it is impossible to refer the Psalm, on account of the prevailing warlike cha- racter by which it is distinguished. Finally, it is evident from ver. 9 — 13, that the Psalm was composed in view of an expedition against Edoni. The exact date of the composition of the Psalm may be determined from comparing this verse with the title, — viz. after the victory over Edom in the valley of Salt, and before the actual occupation of the country.
From this induction of particulars we might have expected a perfect agreement as to the occasion on which the Psalm was composed. Such, however, has been the passion for scepticism and arbitrary interpretation, that even here a monument in its favour must be erected. It is on utterly untenable grounds tliat the title has been explained as unsuitable. The assertion that the kingdom under David never was in such a shattered state as is describedin ver. 1 — 3, is refuted by the xliv. Psalm. The other objection, viz. that there is a hope expressed in ver. 6 and 7, of conquering the whole of Palestine, of which David had long be- fore that time been in entire possession, depends upon a false exposition, as is abundantly evident from the triumphant and confident character of the Psalm, and also from the fact that it is the safe possession of his own land that forms the basis of the immediately designed expedition against Edom, — The complete worthlessness of those attempts which have been recently made to define positively the occasion on which the Psalm was com- posed, as different from that pointed out in the title, may be easily seen. Thus the idea of Koester and Maurer, that the Psalm was composed in exile, or immediately after the return from exile, is put to shame even in ver. 10 ; and Hitzig's assertion, that it was composed in the time of the Macca- bees, which is founded on a false translation of ver. 4, is re- butted by ver. 7 : Ephraim is the strength of mine head. Really it is not worth our trouble to go farther into such arbitrary notions.
280 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The first strophe is ver. 1 — 4 : The Lord has sorely tried his people, but he has now gloriously vindicated his truth and his faithfulness to his promises, by repairing their loss. — Ver. 1. O God, thou, ivho didst cast us off, and break us, wast angry ; now thou comfortest us again. Ver. 2. Thou didst make the earth to tremble and to rend, heal its breaches for it shakes. Ver. 3. Thou didst show thy people hard things, thou didst make us drink intoxicating wine. Ver. 4. Thou hast given those who fear thee a banner to lift up because of the truth. It appears probable, from ver. 10, that l^nriT and I^JH^^lS are to be taken as a relative clause : and this is rendered more evident by the term of the last clause, evidently in opposition, Hl^H. which has to do only with, " thou wast angry." The clause, which pre- cedes this one, points out in what way God has shovm his anger. On linn^T comp. Ps. xliii. 2, xliv. 9. The pS is like p3 p3, with 1: comp. 2 Sam. v. 20, which passage is the more remark- able in as much as it shows, when compared with vi. 8, thatpP), in the sense in which it is used here, is a genuine Davidic expres- sion: to break a waller a besieged city, (under which image Israel is spoken of here as in Judges xxi. 15 : compare Job xvi. 14, xxx. 14), is to make a breach. It is obvious, on comparing Ps. xliv. that these words, and also ver. 2 and 3, refer to the severe losses which Israel had formerly sustained in the war against the Sy- rians, and especially through the irruption of the Edomites. On comparing this Psalm, we reject at once the reference to the miserable condition of the people in the last days of Saul. The context, which follows, shows that iHI^JTl is not to be taken in the sense of a ivish or a prayer, but is the present tense. Verses 2d and 3d are an expansion of thou wast angry, and in verse 4, lllt^n is expanded and shown to indicate that God now, by a return of prosperity, had gladdened the hearts of his people. The use of the present tense shows, in unison with the title, that the season of prosperity had/usf noiv commenced. " Thou causest to return to us" is obviously to be supplemented by " that of which in anger thou didst deprive us, our former safety." — The figure of ver. 2 is, that of violent earthquakes which rend the earth. The Psalmist compares the former miserable condition of the kingdom to the earth when thus rent and divided. " Thou hast made the earth to tremble and to rend," i. e. '^in our case." As the salvation had already taken effect, (compare the title, " thou causest to return to us" in ver. 1, and ver. 4,) we are to understand " heal its breaches" as spoken under a
PSALM LX. VER. I 4. 281
realizing sense of the past misery, and, — " heal (wo said) its breaches," we are to regard as spoken from that position. Comp. Ps. XXX. 9, 10. — Intoxicating ivine in ver. 3, is wine which is fol- lowed by intoxication, wine mixed with roots which increase its strength: comp.Ps. lxxv.8. The two nouns stand next each other in the status abs. This construction, which occurs frequently in other passages, (comp. Ewald's Large Grammar, p. 627, Small Gr. § 515), is similar to one in the German language, in which the case-termination, indicating the relation in which the one noun stands to the other, is frequently omitted, as, for example, taumelwein not taumelswein. The sending of divine judgment is frequently represented by the figure of presenting such wine. The passage before us is the fundamental one ; Ps. Ixxv. 8, and Isa. li. 17, 22, (to which last Jer. xxv. 15, xlix. 12 allude,) re- fer to it. Compare Kueper, Jeremiah, p. 139. It is not the effect of suffering in the mind that is depicted by this figure, the despair, or the terror: the point of comparison is the helplessness and misery of the condition ; drunkenness is a state of entire prostration of bodily strength. Compare Isa. li. 18, 20. — We have already observed that ver. 4 is related to ver. 2, and to ver. 3, exactly in the same way as in ver. 1 ^^l^fl is related to what precedes. The Psalmist had thought upon the depth of the misery only because this brought the delivering grace of God more prominently into view. That the verse be- fore us is to be understood in this way, is rendered probable by a comparison of Ps. cviii. There also the first part, which is different from the first part here, contains an ascription of praise to God for a favour which had been already granted. On this there follows, in close connection with the second part here, and with only a few alterations, the prayer for further grace. The Psalmist compares the salvation which the Lord bestows upon his people to a highly exalted banner, which serves as a signal, to one lying prostrate in his misery, to rise up, with an allusion perhaps to Numb. xxi. 8, " And the Lord said to Moses, Make thee a serpent, and set it upon a stand- ard-2)ole, and it happened that every one who was bitten and looked at it lived ;" at any rate, that passage in which the ser- pent is a symbol of the healing power of God may serve to il- lustrate the passage before us: compare "heal its breaches." That DDUnn is nothing else than the Hiph. from DDJ in the sense of " to be elevated," is evident from the passage Zcch. ix. 16, from the connection with Dl properly " something lifted
282 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
up," and from the reference, which it is impossible to mistake, to the miserably low condition of those who had drunk the wine of intoxication, ver. 3. Hence we are to reject not only the derivation from Dli, " to fly," but also the translation " to stand up." The Psalmist in the expression, " because of the truth," points out the cause of the salvation imparted to the people. It proceeds from the divine truth or faithfulness ; see Rom. XV. 8. The sense " truth" is confirmed by tDS^p in Prov. xxii. 21, and by the Syriac. The idea of " bow," ^m = r\^p may be left to the wandering fancies of the old translators. That " the truth," is the divine steadfastness to truth, is evident from what follows, where every thing refers to the truth of God: compare especially " because of thy truth" in this verse with the corresponding clause in ver. 6, " in his holiness." Hitzig and others give a false rendering: " to rise for the sake of the truth," or, '•' in defence of the true religion." The " truth" is obviously placed, from design, at the end of the sentence. The following paragraph, where the hope of future aid is made to rest on the truth of God, could not have been better intro- duced, than by closing the sentence with a reference to the deliverance already obtained as resulting from the truth of God. In the second strophe^ ver. 5 — 8, the church utters a prayer for further deliverance, and makes it to rest on the glorious promises which God, who is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent, has put on record. Ver. 5. In order that thy beloved may be relieved, help luith thy right hand and hear us. Ver. 6. God has spoken in his holiness, there- fore will I rejoice, I tvill divide Shechem^ and measure the valley Succoth. Ver. 7. Gilead is mine, and 31anasseh is mine, and Ephraim the strength of my head, Judah my laivgiver, Ver. 8. Moab is my washing-tub, on Edom I cast my shoe,Philistia rejoice to me. Calvin on ver. 5 : "In adding prayer, he reminds us that God, when he lifts us up on high by his gracious deeds, ought to be modestly and humbly entreated to promote his own work." The fundamental passage, for " thy beloved," is Deut. xxxiii. 12, where Benjamin is referred to as the beloved of the Lord, not in opposition to the other tribes, but on account of the part which he has in the affections of the whole community. David also, in reference undoubtedly to this passage, designated Solomon, (2 Sara. xii. 2,5), by the name Jedidiah. In reference to the accu- sative ^y'J2'^ comp. at Ps. iii. 4. The Keri " hear me," instead of " us," has been adopted, only because the singular is used in the
PSALM LX. VER. 5—8. 283
following clauses. It Avas not observed, that there the singular number denotes phirality. — The Psalmist in ver. 6-8, founds his I hope of having his prayer answered on the divine promise. The question may be asked, to what divine promise does the Psalmist here refer. Most expositors refer to one not other- wise known to us, and given in the time of the Psalmist. The real reference is to the general aspect of the assurances given in the Pentateuch in regard to the possession of the land of Canaan in its widest extent, and victory over hostile neighbours. Asfar asregards the former of these, the Psalmist has particularly in his eye the blessing of Jacob in Gen. xlix,, the very language of which he employs in ver. 7, and the blessing of Moses in Deut. xxxiii. ; and as regards the latter, the prophecies of Balaam. In favour of this view we may urge, besides the constant references to the Pentateuch, " the lily of the testimony," in the title, the circumstance, that here the enemies in the north, w4th whom Da- vid had so much to do, are not even mentioned, the expressions, " I will divide," and " I will measure," which can only be explain- ed, if considered as spoken at the era of Moses, before the land was occupied, and finally, that the historical record gives no no- tice of any such promises having been ever made to David in re- gard to the extension of his kingdom. — The expression " in his holiness," (comp. Ps. Ixxxix. 36, Amos iv. 2), — not " by his holi- ness," and still less "in his sanctuary," — is equivalent to, "as the Holy One," " ashe who is separated from all created and finite be- ings, (see Ps. xxii. 3, )and therefore above all deceit and vacillation :" comp.Num.xxiii.l9. — Thesw^s^mice of the speech of God is given, though in an indirect form, in what follows. We may gather what it was, from the reply as grounded on it, which is made by the people : " God has given to me glorious promises, which as the Holy One, he must fulfill, and on the ground oi i\\eva. I luill re- joice," &c. For it is clear as day that we cannot, with Ewald, consider what follows as being spoken by God : the clauses, " Ephraim is the strength of my head," " Judah is my law- giver," are sufficient to show this, as is indeed verse 6 itself: for though God be supposed to speak there, yet it cannot be said that he has divided to Israel Succoth and Shechem : on which still every thing depends. Hence we cannot read the words, / will rejoice &c., with marks of quotation. — That in the expression, " I will rejoice," &c., we arc not to suppose that David is the speaker, as many have done, and thereby have wrought cor.fu-
284 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sion,) but Israel, is evident from " hear i«," at tlie end of ver. 5 ; also the use of the plural in the whole of the first strophe, and in the passage from ver. 10 to ver. 12, and finally from the clause, " Judah is my lawgiver," which, on the other supposition, would be wholly destitute of meaning. — "I will rejoice," refers to the wliole of the divine promises. These are divided into two parts, as referring to the possession of Canaan, and to victory over the neighbouring nations. " I will
divide my lawgiver," refers to the first. The sense is : —
" the whole of Canaan is my inalienable possession, I will do and act in it without control ; no man shall succeed in removing portions or tribes of it from the whole." The invasion of the Edomites has opened the eyes of the Israelites to the high value of those divine promises, which guarantee their occupancy of their own land, and to the importance of these promises at the present juncture. This thought is individualized by naming in succes- sion several particular places, objects and tribes, which, to- gether, make up a description of the whole land, in all its ex- tent. First, with this view, we have Shechem named on the one side of Jordan, and Succoth on the other. The representation in the passage before us, of the two great divisions of the land by these two places, is made in manifest reference to Gen. xxxiii. 17, 18, where Jacob, on returning from JMesopotamia, first settles at Succoth, where he builds an house, and afterwards goes on to Shechem, where he builds an altar. The Psalmist sees in that action of Jacob — it is really very remarkable that Jacob makes a formal settlement in both places, and all the more so, that it is expressly intimated in ver. 18, that Shechem was the first station, properly speaking, to which he came within the limit of Canaan, — a type and a pledge of the occupancy of the land by his posterity, an assurance that they would possess it on both sides of the Jordan, The clause : " I will divide and measure," indicates, in general, the free grant : yet the choice of this par- ticular phrase for expressing the free grant, manifestly shows, that the writer had in his eye the point of time when the pro- mise was originally made, comp. Josh. xiii. 7, xviii. 8. — Next, in ver. 7, several places are named, for the purpose of showing, that in virtue of the divine word, both divisions belong to Israel in all their extent. First, there are selected, in immediate con- nection with Succoth, the place last named, Gilead and Manasseh, the two great divisions of the whole. The half tribe of Manas-
A
PSALMLX. VER. 0-
285
sell did indeed, on the one side, occupy a portion of Gilead ; but this, in the present case, is kept out of view, and attention is directed to Bashan, which formed the main portion of the pos- sessions of that tribe. Comp. Deut. iii. 12, 13, Raumer, p. 229. Gilead was occupied chiefly by Reuben and Gad. On this side Jordan, Ephraim and Judah are mentioned, the two leading tribes of the nation, which could not be separated from it with- out endangering its whole existence, and with which, therefore, the whole must stand or fall. It is expressly said that these are noticed as the main divisions of the country. There is no necessity for explaining : " Ephraim is mine, the strength of my head, and Judah, my lawgiver" ; ver. 8 is against this. " Is mine" is implied in " is (" and continues to be") the strength of my head." " The strength of my head" is to be explained from Ps. xxvii. 1. " The strength of life," in that Psalm, is the fortress which protects life ; and the strength of the head can only be the fortress which protects the head. The " hecur is named as the part most exposed to a fatal wound ; compare Ps. Ixviii. 21, ex. 4. " The helmet of my head" is entirely without foundation. Ephraim is mentioned in Gen. xlviii. 19, as a par- ticularly rich and powerful tribe ; he is signalized in the blessing of Jacob ; in Deut. xxxiii. 17, it is said of him : "his horns are the horns of a buffalo, with them he shall push nations." "Ju- dah is my lawgiver," == " Judah is my (Israel's) ruling tribe." " The rod of authority," is an arbitrary invention. Reference is made to Gen. xlix. 10 : " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet," that is, " he shall always take the rule over Israel." — The Lord has promised to his people, not only the undivided possession of their own land, but also victory over the surrounding nations, ver. 8. This ver. points to that portion of the divine promises, to which we have here arrived, according to the title and the last strophe. In ver. 6 and 7, the enemies could not succeed in their attempts to injure Israel ; here the enemies shall submit to Israel, in view of his expedition for the subjugation of Edom. The enemies are brought forward in geographical order, beginning at the east, and thence along the south to the west. This suf- ficiently explains the fact, that Edom, against whom the expe- dition is directed, is placed in the middle intead of being found at the end : Ewald draws an entirely false conclusion from this circumstance. Moab is named before Edom also on account of the
286 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
prophecy of Balaam ; see on Balaam, p. 184. " Moab is my washing tub," is expressive of a state of ignominious bondage, such as that to which David reduced the Moabites : compare 2 Sam. viii. 2, " And so the Moabites became David's servants." The vessel used for washing the feet was a dishonourable vessel, comp. Herod. 2, 172. When, keeping in view the idea of wash- ing the feet, a person throws his shoes, which he has taken off, to any one to be taken away or to be cleaned, — "l**?^!! with '^y and also with '^J^, 1 Kings xix. 19, is " to throw to any one," — the individual to whom it belongs to perform such an office, must be a slave of the lowest kind: comp. Matt. iii. 11 ; Acts xiii. 25. The expression is not used in Scripture as an emblem of " taking possession of property :" it is not so used in Ruth iv. 7 ; the putting off the shoe there is symbolical of giving xip one's right. " Rejoice over me Philistia," is to be explained by " re- joice with trembling," Ps. ii. 11 ; it is the shout of a king that is meant, the outward expression of subjection for the purpose of averting the threatened punishment ; compare also, *•' The sons of strangers feign to me," in Ps. xviii. 44. In Ps. cviii. 9, it is suitably varied by, " I will rejoice over Philistia." The transla- tion, " lament over me, Philistia," is negatived by the parallel passage : the Hithp. besides, has the sense of " rejoice," in the only other passage in which it occurs, Ps. Ixv. 13. The Philistines who, during the period of the judges, had severely oppressed Is- rael, were brought down to the very dust by David : comp. 2 Sam. viii. 1, 14 ; 1 Chron. xviii. VS. — In the third strophe, (ver. 9 — 12), the people ground upon the glorious promises of God, referred to in the second, tlic hope of success in the expedition against Edom, and a prayer for the same. — Ver. 9. Who will bring me to the strong citg, who conducts me to Edom. Ver. 10. Dost not thou, 0 God, who didst put us aiuay, " and mar chest not forth, O God, among our armies." Ver. 11. Give us help against the enemy ; and deceptive is the help of man. Ver. 12. In God we ivill do va- liantly, and he shall tread down our enemies. — The 9th verse is in reality connected with the second strophe by a therefore : as I have in my favour such a sure word of God. The strong city is the wonderful rock-built city Petra, the most import- ant city of Idumea in later times ; See Robinson, § 1, p. 128. It is evident, especially from 2 Kings xiv. 17, that Petra is exclusively referred to : " Amaziah slew Edom in the valley of Salt, (comp. title of the Ps.) and took Sola in war, and called
rSALM LX. VER. 9—12. 287
it Joktel to this day." The ^^l^jb 1^^, " city of strength," is used also in Ps. xxxi. 21, which is a Davidic Psahn, and in Micah vii. 12. The pret. ""ini is the pret. of faith, which anti- cipates the future, and so represents the matter to itself, as if God had already led forth. — " Who hast put us away," &c. is not to he considered as equivalent to " even wliile thou," &c. but to " although thou hast put us away." The man who has the word and promise of God in his favour, cannot be shaken from his hope of deliverance by any contrary experiences : — these only serve to put his faith to the test. He regards every thing of a contrary cliaracter as a thin cloud, through which the sun of salvation shall assuredly burst forth in his own time. The words, " who marchest not out," &c., are to be read with marks of quotation. They are quoted from Ps. xliv. 9, and are to be re- garded as equivalent to, " thou of whom it used to be said," &c. That Psalm was evidently composed when the author was in a state of misery, as is clear from the use of the future tense. — The n*lT^ hi ver. 11, and in Ps. cviii. 12, is used instead of the usual form HITJ^- " And deceptive," = " luhile deceptive." Calvin : " If in our contests with man we are not permitted to share the glory between ourselves and God, must it not be a much more intolerable offence in the work of salvation, to place the power of free will along side of the grace of the Holy Ghost, as if the two wrought in equal proportions together ? Those men also perish through their pride, who, without God, attempt even one particle of virtuous conduct." — Tn the words, " in God we shall do valiantly," there is a manifest allusion to the clause in the prophecy of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 18, " And Israel does valiantly," after the subjugation of Edom andMoab by the sceptre which was to rise out of Israel had been previously an- nounced. The Psalmist virtually introduces the verse thus : As the Spirit of God said by Balaam^ la God shall ive do valiantly. /"•n ntJ^y always signifies to act powerfully, mightily, valiantly ; compare on Balaam, p. 185. On " he shall tread down," see Ps. xliv. 5. 2 Sam. viii. 14, shows how David's hope was fulfill- ed, as far as the Edomites were concerned : " And he put garrisons in Edom, throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all they of Edom became David's servants : and the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went."
288 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LXL
The Psalmist prays in great distress to the Lord for deliver- ance vcr. 1, 2, grounds this prayer on the fact that God is his Saviour, ver. 3, and expresses his firm confidence in God's help, ver. 4. The basis of this confidence lies in this, that the God who hears his prayer has promised him an eternal dominion ; may God, in fulfilment of this promise, vouchsafe to him deli- verance, thus he shall continually thank him, ver. 5 — 8. The Psalm consequently is divided into two strophes, separated by Selah, and consisting each of five verses, ver. 1 — 4, and ver. 5 — 8. In the first we have prayer and confidence, and in the second, the ground of the confidence.
That David was the author of the Psalm is evident not less from its title than from its contents. The mention of the taber- ?^ac^e-temple, ver. 4, leads us to the time of David. And inas- much as the Psalm was undoubtedly composed by a king — for it is as such that the Psalmist claims salvation as grounded on a divine promise — this king can be none other than David. This, moreover, is evident even from ver. 5. For there the author refers to the promises contained in 2 Sam. vii. as having been imparted to him in answer to his prayer.
The question may be asked, whether David composed the Psalm for any particular occasion, or merely for his own com- fort, and that of his successors on the throne, in disastrous times, and for the purpose of confirming the courage of his subjects. In favour of the first view, we have the clause, " from the ends of the earth," which would seem to intimate that the Psalmist was at the time in exile, and that therefore the Psalm must have been composed during the rebellion of Absalom, when David was beyond Jordan : comp. Ps, xlii. 6. This special occasion, however, must not lead us to lose sight of the general reference. It could only be by keeping this reference in view that David issued the Psalm for public use. The Psalm, even in our days, has its complete use, inasmuch as the promises in 2 Sam. vii. have undoubtedly their complete fulfilment in Christ. Gener- ally, whenever the kingdom of Christ is in danger, we may, in addition to other considerations, plead with God as the Psalm- ist does, on the ground also of this particular promise which he there made.
PSALM LXI. VER. 1 — 4. 289
Title: To the Chief Musician^ on David's instrumental music, of David. " On David's instrumental music" (comp. on nyy^ in Ps. liv.) is to be explained by Hab. iii. 19, where the church calls the musical instruments of the temple its musical instruments. It is obvious that 1)lh niust be connected with the preceding noun, because that noun is in the stat. constr. But this cannot be its onhj connection. For, in that case, there would be no reason for the existence of the 7, and, besides, in the titles, in? is the usual mark which points out that the Psalm was composed by David, and finally, a notice to this effect cannot be wanting here in the midst of Psalms, all of which are inscribed with the name of David. We must, therefore, assume that "7*1*1/ both supplies the place of a genitive to M^Jli* and also serves to point out the authorship of the Psalm, — an idea which har- monizes well with the enigmatical character of the titles com- posed by David. The idea that the stat. constr, is used instead of the stat. abs. and that HJ^JlD is to be pointed as if it were a plural, are mere attempts to cut the knot, and have, more- over, the analogy of the title of the following Psalm against them, a title which corresponds exactly to the one before us.
The first strophe, ver. 1— 4.— Ver. 1. Hear, O God, mij cry, and attend to my prayer. Ver. 2. Ft'om the end of the earth 1 call to thee in the trouble of my heart, wilt thou, lead me to a rock which is too high for me. Ver. 3. For thou art my confi- dence, a strong tower before my enemies. Ver. 4. 1 ivill dwell in thy tabernacle for ever, I will trust in the shelter of thy wings. — riXn T\*i^ in ver. 2, is the constant expression for " the end of the earth," " its extreme part ;" comp, for example, Deut. xxviii. 64; and it will not do to translate it either " from the end of the land;'' or " low down on the earth," with Luther, (cara- pestris: e terra, quae longissimo tractu a coelo distat), nor " from the extreme depth of the earth," with Clauss. The end of the earth is at the same time the end of the heaven, (comp. Deut. iv. 32, Is. xiii. 5), and therefore that portion of it which is most remote from the throne of God, which was supposed to stand in the middle : comp. Ps, cxxxv. 7, Jer. x, 13, li. 16. David, when he was driven out of the Lord's land, properly so called, into the country beyond Jordan, (comp, p. 99), felt as much distressed as if he had been banished to the utmost extremity of the earth, far from the face of God, And as there is, after all, in the expression an element of feeling, we may perhaps consider it as equivalent to " I feel as far from ^OL. II. U
290 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
thee as if I were banished to the utmost extremity of the earth." Still, that the idea conveyed by the expression contains as its principal element a matter of fact, is evident from the parallel passage in Ps. xlii. 7, from the circumstance that immediately after ver. 5 David speaks in his own name, and from the refe- rence in the following Psalm to the time of Absalom. The rock is noticed as a place of security ; compare Ps. xl. 2, " Which is too high for me," is, " which is so high that I cannot in my own strength ascend it." — The nVH in ver. 3 is to be taken in the sense of the present, compare Ps. lix. 16. The Psalmist grounds his prayer not only on what God has been, but on what he always is towards him. Prov. xviii. 10 refers to the second clause : " the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe :" all the more so, that the second part is strictly connected with the conclusion of ver. 2. — The " I will dwell" in ver, 4, is an energetic expression for, " I shall dwell." The Psalmist is so sure of his privilege that he proceeds im- mediately to take possession of it, without any regard to the misery of his present condition, which appears effectually to ex- clude him from its enjoyment. On " dwelling in the house of the Lord," in the sense of " enjoying his grace," see Ps. xxvii, 4, and the passages quoted there. The 2''^7iy, pro- perly " eternities," next " eternal," shows that David, with his eye on the promise in 2 Sam. vii. looked upon himself as identi- fied with his posterity: comp. Ps. xxi. 4. So far from his ene- mies having it in their power to rob him personally of what the grace of God had given him, he is safe through this promise even to the most distant ^Jos^erzV?/. For the second clause com- pare Ps. xxxvi. 7.
The second strophe {ver. 5 — 8) contains the ground of David's confidence, viz. that sure word of prophecy, wliich guaranteed to him eternal dominion : against this rock all the waves of re- bellion must dash in vain. — Ver. 5. For thou, O Lord, heardest my vows, thou gavest the inheritance of those who fear thy name : Ver. 6. Thou shalt add days to the days of the king, his years last for many generations. Ver. 7. He shall sit enthroned for ever before God, appoint mercy and truth to preserve him. Ver. 8. Therefore will I sing praise to thy name continually, paying my vows every day. — The " vows" in ver. 5 are prayers mingled with vows, like Jacob's vow. We gather the object of this prayer for the first time from ver. 6: it is the continuance of his do- minion. That the promise of Nathan was given in answer toardeut
PSALM LXI. VER.
5-8. 291
prayer on the part of David, we see also from Ps. xxi. 2, 4, which are to be considered as entirely parallel to the words here : " thou gavest him his heart's desire, and didst not withhold the request of his lips, — he desired life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever." The inheritance of those who fear the narne of the Lord is salvation: — several translate as much against the grammar as against the sense, " thou gavest their inheritance to the fearers of thy name," as if the constr. case could be used instead of the absolute. — In what this inheritance of the Lord consists, (for the expression, being general, requires some limitation), is seen in ver. 6, which stands in the same relation to ver. 5, as in Ps. xxi. verses 3 and 4, stand to verse 2. David's fear of God has received as itsrevvard the pro- mise of eternal dominion. Those who perceive at all the con- nection (at the end of ver. 5, there should be a colon), will not for a moment think of taking the usual future P|''Din in an opta- tive sense. David speaks designedly of the days of the king instead of his oivn days, as might have been expected from what had been said, for the purpose of showing that he considered the promise of eternal dominion as relating not to himself person- ally but to his family — the royal family of David. In the se- cond clause we supply from the first, " thou shalt increase." "As generation and generation," — so that they resemble the continuance of a whole succession of generations. — " Before God," in ver. 7, is " under the protecting guardianship of his grace :" compare 2 Sam. vii. 29, " And now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant that it may continue for ever be- fore thee." The p, imper. from HltS hi Pih., is to instruct, to appoint, — the ^QH and T\t2i^ are accusatives. Mercy and Truth appear as God's servants, whom he instructs to protect his servant (the royal family of David) : comp. " God shall send his mercy and his truth," Ps. Ivii. 3, and Ps. xliii. 3. The " appoint" rises from the ground of "he shall appoint :" — the im- perative, therefore, has a close affinity to the future : see similar imperatives in 2 Sam. vii. 29. — The " therefore" in ver. 8, " is ?/thou fulfiUest this prayer and thine own promise." David un- dertakes for his posterity in regard to the vow of thanks. At all times the call of grace should be accompanied by the correspond- ingcall of thanks. In reference to the*if27^7, " paying therefore my vows," (for thanks formed the soul of a vow), or "so that I pay," compare Ewald, § 544.
292 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LXII.
The Psalmist begins immediately with the expression of hia unlimited confidence in God : it is in God only that his soul finds rest, because God only is his Saviour, ver. 1, 2. Then he turns his eye towards the occasion which had led him to seek refuge under the wings of God ; — the diversified wickedness of his nu- merous enemies, which had aimed at robbing him of his dignity, and at the same time of his life, ver. 3 and 4. The considera- tion of this leads him to exhort his soul to seek rest only in God as his only helper, ver. 5 — 7, in whom he invites all men to trust, ver. 8. The exhortation to trust in God is followed by a warn- ing against trusting in any thing else except God, — the help of man, violent oppression, unrighteous wealth and uncertain riches, ver. 9 and 10, — and, as the basis of this exhortation, he points ver. 11, 12, to the infinite power and love of God.
The Psalm consists exactly of twelve verses. It is divided into three strophes, which contain each four verses. In favour of this we have the Selah at the end of ver. 4 and ver. 8, and each strophe beginning with " only," which is unquestionably the characteristic mark of the Psalm. We might at first sight feel inclined to suppose, that one strophe must necessarily end with verse 7, where the Psalmist finishes having to do with the state of his own heart, and that verse 8, where he turns his at- tention outward, and begins to exhort and to teach others, must necessarily begin a new one. But a closer inspection is sufii- cient to satisfy us that this is not the case. The difference is one of form merely between the direct and the indirect exhoi'- tation. Even in ver. 1 — 7. the Psalmist addresses the church : he lays before them, for their imitation, what is passing in his own soul : My soul rests in God," contains in its back ground, " let your soul rest in God." This is evident even from " To the Chief Musician" of the title. No Psalm could have been set apart for public use if it were not of general applica- tion.
In favour of the Davidic authorship of the Psalm asserted in the title, we have one of the characteristic peculiarities of Da- vid's compositions occurring throughout, viz. the inseparable blending together of what is individual with what is general: corap. for example, Ps. xxxii. li. The assertion of Ewald, that
PSALM Lxir, 293
the writer, according to verse 11, must have been a prophet, is founded on a mistake. The divine revelation, of which the Psalmist there speaks, belongs to the same class as that men- tioned in Job xxxiii. 13, and as those which are common to all believers.
In favour of the supposition that the Psalm was composed during the time of Absalom's rebellion, or at least that the circumstances of that period are primarily referred to, we have the 4th verse, where it is said, that the whole object of the ene- mies is to deprive him of his dignity, the 5th verse, where the Psalmist calls God his honour, and the resemblance to Ps. iii. and iv. Ewald, in his remarks on these Psalms, shows how exactly analogous the circumstances of the Psalmist were to those of David at that time : " The enemies by whom he is distressed appear, according to verse 3d, to be a set of thought- less, slanderous citizens, elated with their newly accquired im- portance, and endeavouring to bring the Psalmist to the dust, and to annihilate him, because they cannot bear his spiritual eminence and superiority."
The remarks of Amyraldus relative to the peculiar nature and characteristic featui'es of the Psalm, are worthy of notice : " There is in it throughout not one single word (and this is a rare occurrence), in which the prophet expresses fear or dejection, and there is also no prayer in it, although, on other occasions, when in danger, he never omits to pray.... The prophet found himself remarkably well furnished in reference to that part of piety which consists in •rA>jgepog/a, the full assurance and per- fection of faith, and therefore he designed to rear a monument of this his state of mind, for the purpose of stimulating the reader to the same attainment."
The particle 1^^ is of great importance in reference to the determination of the peculiar nature of the Psalm : it occurs no less than six times ; and this frequent repetition is of itself suffi- cient to point it out as the soul of the Psalm. The " yea," by which most translators render it, is far too insignificant to bear this frequent repetition. If we adhere to the usual rendering, " only," we find, what indeed was requisite, that all the posi- tions which are introduced by the " only," are arranged in a continuous series : only in God does my soul find rest, because it is only God who is my helper, at a time when my enemies
294 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
are only considering how they may destroy me. The lesson taught is this, that when we are exposed to relentless hatred on the part of powerful enemies, and when generally in extreme necessity and danger, it is only by going decidedly and directly to cast ourselves without reserve on God, that we obtain quiet and peace to our soul. If we apply to the contest against sin, what in jthe Psalm before us is said, in the first instance, and directly, of our relation to outward enemies, we obtain '' by faith alone."
The title. To the Chief Musician over Jeduthitn, a Psalm of David. The president of the choir of Jcduthun was, according to I Chron. xxv, 1, 3, under David, Jeduthun himself: the choir consisted of his Sons. It is therefore manifest, that the diflerencc is not great between the title and that of Ps. xxxix. — " To tht? chief musician, Jeduthun." As the H^i stands connected with 7^, the existence of a Jeduthunic choir in the time of David, and indeed in later times, is sufficiently ascertained, (see Ps. Ixxxvii. 1), and as the title thus interpreted is in entire accordance with that of Ps. xxxix., there is no reason whatever foi adopting, in preTerence to this translation, one less satisfactory, viz. "accord- ing to Jeduthun," that is, " in the way invented by him."
The first strophe is ver. 1—4. The Psalmist finds rest only in God, because it is only from him that there can be salvation, in the face of powerful and determined wickedness. — Ver. 1. Only to God is my soul silent, from him comes my salvation. Ver. 2. Only he is my rock and my salvation, my strong hold, I shall not be much shaken. Ver. 3. How long do you rage all of you like a storm let loose against a man, {do you) murder {him) all of you, like a bending partition, a wall which is violent- ly struck at. Ver. 4. Only from his dignity do they think to thrust him down, they have pleasure in lies, they bless with the mouth and in the heart they c?«rse.— The first clause of ver. 2 is htcrally, " Only to God is silence my soul," that is, " Only the direct turning of my soul to God gives it quiet and peace." The " silence" T\b)1 (is always a substantive, it occurs no- where else except in the Psalms of David, and was probably a word of his own formation), is not patient trust, quiet resigna- tion, so as to be considered as parallel to Is. xxx. 15 : it denotes the opposite of that state of tumultuous agitation which pre- vails in the soul as long as it looks any where else for help, when in great trouble, than to God : compare Ps. xlii. 5, especially
PSALM LXII. VER. 1 — 5. 295
" thou art disquieted in me," and Ps. xxii, 2. Jo. Arnd : " When we put God out of view, and have not recourse to prayer, the sea is not more agitated in a storm than is the heart and soul of man. For there come in succession, pain, fear, terror, con- cern, impatience, and so forth, until despair follows, which sinks the poor ship of the soul to the bottom." In reference -to the " only," the same author thus writes: " When in affliction, turn whithersoever you like, if you turn not to God you will find no rest." The " to God" is " ad Deum directa." Several transla- tors give the first clause as an exhortation with reference to verse 5. But in such repetitions, there is generally a slight change, and that the " is" ought to be supplied here, is evident from the analogy of the second clause. The " for," in verse 5, shows that this second clause contains the basis of the first: /o?* from him is ray salvation : only in God my soul finds rest, for he only can help me. — The basis is continued in verse 2. There is a progression of thought here : the " only" is emphatic : — he and he only is my Saviour. The accumulation of names of God is as characteristic of David, (comp. for ex- ample, Ps. xviii.) among the writers of the Psalms, as it is of Paul Gerhardt among Christian poets. Calvin : " The reason why he heaps together so many names of God is, that he may meet and throw back the assaults of Satan, by, as it were, so many shields." It is only raw inexperience that can find in such passages " clattering talkativeness." In reference to " my rock," and " my stronghold," see Ps. xviii. 2. The HI*! is used adverbially : " much," " greatly." A small misfortune, a tran- sitory aflliction may assail me, (ior David sang the Psalm in afflic- tion), but not entire ruin : comp. Ps. xxxvii. 24. In ver. 6, " I shall not be moved," stands alone : the mere stumble not being considered worth speaking of, is left out of sight. The reason why " Elohira" is used throughout the Psalm, becomes evident from the verse before us, and from the preceding one. It is, because the Psalmist is speaking of God, in opposition to every thing of an earthly and human nature : comp. ver. 9 and 10. When such a contrast is drawn, the most general name of God is the most suitable. — In verses 3 and 4, the Psalmist, first in the form of an address to his enemies, and then in the form of re- marks made of them, points at what it was that compelled him thus to complain to God as his only Saviour. We oome to learn what we have in God, and to know that he is our only Saviour,
296 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
when \ve are brought to a state of distress, which, humanly speak- ing, is irremediable, when we are contending against determined wickedness. It is only in this school that we learn effectually the " only" of both verses, so that it never again disappears from the mind. The nniH is the Po : of the ccttu^ Xsy nnn, in Ara bic, " to break," here with 7^, manifestly " to break in upon." " All of you" stands in contrast to " a man." All appeared to have conspired against the one man David : comp. Ps. iii. 2, 3. In in^in there is combined a double reading ; viz. ^n^nrij the rare Pihel form, in which the Dagcsh is wanting and com- pensated by the long vowel; and the usual form ^Hiiin: comp. Ewald's Large Grammar, p. 277. The first is evidently the original. n^*) has always the sense of " to murder," (comp. at Ps. xlii. 10), and this sense is very suitable here, and not to be exchanged for that of " to shatter in pieces." The whole attempt of David's enemies was a murderous one ; his death was the end of all their efforts. In "a bending partition," the comparison is, according to the usual practice of poets, merely indicated : — so that it is with me as with a partition which is be- ginning to fall, a wall, which cannot any longer stand against the continually repeated thrusts which are made against it. It is evident from the clause in the 4th verse, " they think to thrust him down" that it is not the enemies but David who is refer- red to in this figure. There is a similar figure in Isa. xxx. 13. — The " only" in ver. 4 indicates that the design of the enemies of David was utterly to destroy him. When this is the case with any one, it is only in God that rest and deliverance are to be found. The nX2J^ is " dignity," high station, as in Gen. xlix. 3, and all other passages. Corresponding to this is nnn. " to push down," a phrase which was in David's mouth at the time referred to, 2 Sam. xv. 14. In what follows, the Psalmist points out the shameful means which the enemies employed to gain their shameful object, and by which they made his condition so desperate. A chief weapon which the world has always em- ployed in its bitter contest with the church, has been that of lies; compare with, " they have pleasure in lies," (in opposition to the abhorrence which they should have exhibited rather than pleasure), Ps. iv. 2, " ye sons of men (here ver. 9), how long will ye turn my glory to shame, how long will ye love vanity and seek lies" On, " with the mouth," &c. comp. Ps. v. 9. By hypocritical deceit the rebels had secured David and gained
PSALM LXII. VER. 5 — 8. 297
success fur their enterprise. The singular suffix in VD refers to the ungodly ; and, as its position here is in accordance with a practice, which is common in the Psalms, of passing from actual plurality to ideal unity, and conversely, there is no ground for maintaining with Ewald, that the singular affix is admissible here only because the language is indefinite : compare a similar ex- pression at Ps. Ixiii. 10.
In the second strophe, which comprehends ver. 5 — 8, the Psalmist has no longer to do with his enemies. He turns with renewed zeal from them to God, exhorts his soul to seek rest only in him, because only he can and will help, and exhorts all to unite with him in this surrender to God, as the only Saviour. — Ver. 5, Only to God, O my soul, he thou silent, for from him comes my hope. Ver. 6. Only he is my rock and my salvation, my place of defence, I shall not he moved. Ver, 7. In God is my glory, my strong rock and confidence is God. Ver. 8. Trust in him at all times, ye people, p>our out your heart hefore him, God is our confidence. — The almost verbal repetition of ver. 1 and 2, in ver. 5 and C, shows us, that the Psalmist, after having gone forth among his enemies, returns back to the jjoint from which he had set out, that the consideration of our sufferings and dangers should only serve to bring us anew to God. " Be silent to God," (comp. at Ps. xxxvii. 7), so that the being silent belongs to him : only in him, in whom alone it is to be found, and not in the world, (ver. 9 and 10), seek rest* the allaying of thy agitation. " Be thou silent, 0 my soul," differing from " my soul is silent," of ver. 1, gives indication of human weakness. Calvin : " Our souls are never so completely quieted that they do not experience some secret agitation, as in the sea when a gentle breeze blows, there are no great waves, but there is still always some agitation. Then we see how Satan often raises, into new agitation, those who seemed to have been brought to complete rest." " My hope," = " the thing for which I hope," " my salvation :" comp. ver. 1. — I shall not he moved, ver. 6, however much my enemies strive to thrust me down, ver. 4. — On ver. 7, Calvin : " The epithets which David applies to God, in reference to his power to uphold, are like so many pillars, by which he supports his steadfastness, like so many bridles, by which he restrains the waywardness of his flesh, so that he seeks no part of his salvation any where except in God." *' My help is over (7^) God" is, " it rests upon him," " it has
298 THE BOOK OF PSALMS,
him for its foundation."" D'^ri/Xl in or on God, so that he is it:- comp. ver. 8. — The expression, " at all times," implies not only in prosperity, or in troubles of a comparatively easy cha- racter, but even in the severest affliction, when certain destruc- tion seems to threaten. Q^, ye people, is used as at Psalm xlv. 12. . In reference to " pour out (Arnd : as when a vessel is 80 completely emptied, that nothing whatever remains in it) your hearts before him," Calvin says, David exhorts us to lay aside the fault natural to us, which leads as to conceal our pain, and rather to give way to murmuring and despair, than to ease ourselves by pouring out pious complaints and prayers before God." The heart comes into view in connection with the cares and sorrows with which it is filled ; so that 1 Pet. v. 17 is par- allel as to sense, " Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you ;" comp. Ps. cxlii. 2, " I will pour out my complaint before him," 1 Sam. i. 15, and Lam. ii. 19. " God is our confidence," here, in relation to " my confidence is God," at ver. 7, shows how easy and natural is the transition from the /to the you.
In the third strophe, ver. 9 — 12, the Psalmist first rejects all other objects of trust, and then turns, in the conclusion, to- wards God, as the only steadfast ground of hope. — Ver. 9. The children of men are only vanity, the sons of man are lies, they mount up in the scale of a balance, they are altogether vain. Ver. 10. Trust not in oppression, and be not proud on the spoils of robbery : if wealth springs vp to you, set not your heart upon it. Ver. 1 1 . God has spoken one luord, yea there are two which 1 heard, that " might is God's." Ver. 12. And thine, O Lord, is loving -kindness, for thou rewardest every one accord- ing to his work. — It is evident from verse 10th, that " the children of men are only vanity" in ver. 9 implies " trust not in men, for they are only vanity." Arnd: " If there were any one among men, immortal, not liable to sin, or to change, whom it were impossible for any one to overcome, but who was strong as an angel, such a one might be some- thing, but inasmuch as every one is a man, a sinner, mortal, weak, liable to sickness and death, exposed to pain and terror, like Pharaoh, even from the most insignificant animals, and liable to so many miseries, that it is impossible to count them, the conclusion must be a valid one : ' man is nothing.' " Com- pare Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4. " The sons of man," in relation to " the sons of men," forms a climax : comp. on Ps, iv. 2. Lies ; — becau.^e
PSALM LXII. VER. 9—12, 299
they cannot fulfill the promises which they make, but entertain with false hopes : comp. at Ps. xl. 4, Jll'^yS ; — " tliey are for going up," — they must go up, they are so light : compare Ewald, 544. Tliey are of nothing ; — they belong to it: comp. Is. xl. 17, xli. 24. — After the human help of ver. 10, there is named, as the second object of false confidence, oppression, by which the ungodly world so often endeavours to prop up its might and dominion. The third object is property, of which others have been robbed, property acquired by unrighteous means. Both of these objects, form in so far a common opposi- tion to the fourth, inasmuch as in their case, the insecurity which attaches generally to all earthly things, is aggravated by their lying under the curse of God. The second clause is lite- rally, " be not nothing on what has been stolen ;" — whoever puts his trust on what is nothing, shall become nothing himself, com- pare 2 Kings xvii. 15. The lli " to sprout," " to grow up of its own accord," depicts the opposite of what has been ac- quired by violent means. 7^1 is not might, but substance : comp. Deut. viii. 11, ss. The heart should not be set even on riches which have been obtained by lawful means, because they are insecure, (1 Tim. vi. 17), and not permanent. Arnd : " Riches are like a stream, which soon flows to a person, and may also soon flow away, so that where one had first to pass, with a boat, he may in a short while be able to cross by a step, and by and by to walk over with dry feet." — Pointing to the warning contained in ver. 9 and 10, and at the same time, laying the basis of the exhortation of ver. 8, the Psalmist says that God is mighty, in opposition to every thing of an earthly character, and intimates that this is a truth which God has again and again impressed deeply upon his heart. The parallel passages. Job xxxiii. 14, and xl. 5, show beyond a doubt that the " one," " two" mean more than once, and set aside all other expositions : " God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not." Calvin ; " He wishes to say, let this lesson be thoroughly learned, as what is frequently announced to us re- mainsmore firmly with us." — In the 12th verse, the Psalmist adds to this word of God, a second, in his own name, which serves to supplement it. For that the words, " and thine, 0 Lord, is lov- ing-kindness," do not form part of what God uttered, is evident from the succeeding clause, in which a reason is assigned for the
300 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
affirmation there made, and in which the Psalmist addresses God. "Next to power, according to which God, and God alone, canhelp, he has loving -kindness or love, according to which he ivill help his own people, who alone are the objects of his love: and, moreover, he must have loving-kindness, inasmuch as it is in- volved in the very idea of God, as the Righteous One, that he recompense every one according to his work, and therefore manifest himself as compassionate to the righteous, while he de- stroys the wicked, Rom. ii. 6, and Rev. xxii. 12, depend on the second half. These two positions, that God is mighty, and that God is gracious, form the strong pillars on which the trust of the righteous in God depends, — their word, " my soul is si- lent only to God."
PSALM LXIII.
The whole Psalm contains the full number of 12 verses, on the assumption that the title is to be considered as an Introduction, to which the 11th verse corresponds as a Conclusion. The main body contains ten verses : and is divided into two fives. In both halves there is depicted the cordial union of the Psalmist with God for the present in the midst of trouble, both times in three verses, ver. 1 — 3, and 6 — 8, and on the ground of this there rises hope in reference to the future, ver. 4, 5, and ver. 9, 10, in the first half, hope of his own deliverance, and in the se- cond, hope of the destruction of his enemies. The conclusion in ver. 11 sums up the whole, and expresses both in a few words.
The Psalm is aptly described by Clauss as " a precious confes- sion of a soul thirsting after God and his grace, and finding it- self quickened through inward communion with him, and which knows how to commit its outwai'd lot also into his hand." Its lesson is, that the consciousness of communion with God in trouble, is the sure pledge of deliverance. This is the peculiar fountain of consolation, which is opened up to the sufferer in the Psalm. The Berleb. Bible describes it as a Psalm "which proceeds from a spirit really in earnest. It was the favourite Psalm of M. Schade, the famous preacher in Berlin, which he daily prayed with such earnestness and appropriation to him- self that it was impossible to hear it without emotion."
The title runs: " A Psalm of David when he was in the wil- derness of Judah." The wilderness of Judah is the whole wil-
PSALM LXIII. 301
derness towards the east of the tribe of Judah, bounded on the north by the tribe of Benjamin, stretching southward to the south-west end of the Dead Sea, eastward to the Dead Sea and tlie Jordan, and westward to the mountains of Judah : — passages in Josephus, Eobinson, II. p. 494, and Matt. iii. 1, as compared with ver. 6, show that even the country in the neighbourhood of the Jordan, as far at least as it belongs to Judah, was a complete wilderness. Without any proof, and against the natural import of the name, against the passage before us, and against Matt, iii., it has been repeatedly maintained, that it was only a part of this wilderness, in which Jericho stands like an oasis, that went by the name of the wilderness of Judah : accord- ing to Raumer, the region next the Dead Sea, and accord- ing to Robinson, " the wilderness along the west side of the Dead Sea." This wiklerness is not unfrequcntly designated simply The Wilderness. In this wilderness David was often found when flying from Saul. In the same wilderness also he took refuge during the rebellion of Absalom. Tliat he did so is self-evident, inasmuch as the road from Jerusalem to the Jor- dan leads through it : it is, moreover, expressly asserted in more than one passage in the books of Samuel : 2 Sam. xv. 23, 28, xvi. 2, 14, xvii. 16. We cannot refer our Psalm to the time of Saul, because mention is expressly made of a king m ver. 11. On the other hand, in favour of the time of Absalom, besides this reason we have a very marked reference, in ver, 1, " In a dryland, and is weary, {V^^), without water," to 2 Sam. xvi. 14, " And the king and all the people that were with him came weary, (tD'*3''y)> and he rested there;" — comp. chap. xvi. 2, ac- cording to which Zibah broui^ht out in the way, wine, " that such as Yfere faint in the wilderness might drink," and the '^y* in chap. xvii. 2.
This reference affords very strong proof in favour of the cor- rectness of the title : a proof which is strengthened by the cir- cumstance, that, according to ver. 11, the speaker must neces- sarily be the king of Israel. It could only be from not observing the relation in which this concluding verse stands to what goes before, summing up, as it does, the contents of the whole, that any expositors could have been led to consider tlieking as a differ- ent person from the Psalmist, who speaks throughout. Besides, the Psalm stands in close connection with the Davidic Psalms generally, and in the closest connection with such of them as be-
302 THE BOOK OF PS ALMS.
long to the time of Absalom, especially with Ps. Ixi (Ewald re- marks: both Psalms have a striking similarity, and were undoubt- edly composed by the same poet) and Ps. iii. and iv., which are immediately related to the Psalm before us, inasmuch as they were composed during the first night of David's flight, and with Ps. xlii., which belongs to the period when David got beyond Jordan. Modern criticism ought to be somewhat distrustful of itself, as the fact is evident, that, in general, only those Psalms are related to each other, which are announced by the titles to belong to the same era.
The first strophe is ver. 1 — 5. The Psalmist has a heart- longing after God, ver. 1, in consequence of this he enjoys the most vital communion with him, ver. 2 and 3, and this insures to him the return also of his former prosperity, ver. 4 and 5. — Ver, 1. O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirst- €th after thee, my flesh fainteth after thee in a dry land, and is weary without ivater. Ver. 2. Therefore 1 behold thee in the sanc- tuary, seeing thy power and thy glory. Ver. 3. For thy loving- kindness is better than life, my lips p)raise thee. Ver. 4. There- fore I shall praise thee in my life, in thy name I shall lift up my hands. Ver. 5. As luith marroiu and with fatness my soul shall be satisfied, and with joyful lips my mouth shall jyraise thee. — It is a proof of the sincerity of David's faith, that he loves so well the expression " my God," with which he begins, (comp. Ps. iii. 7, xviii. 2, 28, xxii. 1, 10), and that he can utter it even when in the deepest misery. Arnd : " Just as a magnet has lost all its power when it does not quickly turn to the north, so faith has lost all its power and is dead, when it does not without delay, turn to God and say, ' 0 my beloved God.' " On " my soul thirsteth," (comp. xlii. 2,) he says: "Just as bodily hunger and thirst are appeased by meat and drink, so the spiritual hunger and thirst of the soul are satisfied only with God." That after the soul, even the_^e5/iis spoken of, shows the earnestness of the desire (comp. on Ps. xvi. 9.) Every strong emotion is ac- companied with bodily effects : comp. Ps. Ixxxiv. 2. The 5]''^ is generally connected with T'lJ^. but the reference to "my flesh," or even to the person is much more natural, as the V'^^{ is generally feminine, and is used with n**^ in the feminine in the preceding clause, and as the parallel passage in the books of Samuel puts the matter beyond a doubt. The more recent ex-
PSALM LXIII. VER. 1 — 5. 303
positors consider the residence in the wilderness, and the beini^ weary, as a^ mere /r/?tre, descriptive of a miserable condition. This in itself is possible ; but the parallel passage in Samuel shows that we must abide by the literal rendering. The particular feature, however, is not to viewed by itself, but as symptom- atic and descriptive of the whole condition in which the Psalm- ist was placed. For this it was singularly suited: a king who could not get even a drink of water to quench his thirst ! All human fountains of consolation and happiness were dried up to the Psalmist. But he thirsts all the more earnestly after the divine fountain which still remained open to him. It is by this that he is known as a child of God. When the children of the world are in a dry land, and are wearied and without water, the last remains of any desire after God disappear from their souls. But real piety, in proportion to the severity of personal suffer- ing, becomes all the more intense in its longings after God. By the extent to which a man, in severe sufferings, can say " I seek thee," &c. may he decide on the state of his soul.
The Psalmist in ver. 2 says that he comes, by these his ear- nest desires, into the most intimate connexion with God, and that he shall participate in his favour. The p has its usual sense "therefore," "in consequence of this," comp. Ps. L\i. 8: — because the whole desire of my heart goes after thee. " To behold God," signifies " to be assured of his love," " to enjoy his grace," comp. at Ps. xvii. 15. Such a beholding of God can only take place in the sanctuary ; for this is the tabernacle ofnueting, the type of the church; there God permits his peo- ple to approach him, there they are beside him, even though they are far off in body, yea, even though in a desolate wilder- ness. Instead of, " I behold thee in the sanctuary, we may render, without any alteration in the sense, " Therefore I dwell with thee in the sanctuary:" comp. at Ps. xxvii. 4, and the pas- sages quoted there, Ps.lxi. 4. The infinitive with Lamed stands in explanation of, as at Ps. xxi. 3, Ixi. 8, to see = so that I see. Where God is beheld, there is also his power and glory seen : whoever is partaker of his grace, has these unfolded to him : comp. Ps. xxvii. 13, where to see the goodness of the Lord is to experience his excellence. The power and glory of the Lord are in tJte first instance developed (and this is what is here spoken of, comp. ver. 3, and the opposite in ver. 4,) in iniuard comfort, whereby the soul is quickened in the midst of sufferings : compare Ps. xlii.
804 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
8, "The Lord commands his loving-kindness in the day time, and in the night his song is with me," i. e. by day and by night the Lord makes me partaker of his loving-kindness, and thus it enables me to sing songs of praise in the midst of suffering. The verse has had the misfortune to have been frequently and in various ways misunderstood. The interpretation comes nearest the truth : through this desire after thee, or in con- sequence of it, I walk, in the wilderness, in as intimate commu- nion with thee, as if 1 were in the sanctuary : — an abbreviated comparison. Against this, however, we have the widely spread parallel passages in the Davidic Psalms, according to which, whosoever enjoys the grace of God, wherever he may be, is really, in a spiritual sense, in the sanctuary, and beholds God there. The following interpretations are altogether at fault : "there I look after thee in thy sanctuary, might I only behold thy might and glory :" — this is contrary to the sense of j^ and nTH; " therefore might I behold thee" — contrary to the sense of the perfect, and it is impossible to explain "therefore," as in ver 1, mention is made only of desire ; " then I behold thee in. the sanctuary," i. e. " then, when I have found thee whom I de- sire, I will rejoice in view of the sanctuary :" — without any foundation, as in ver. 1, the subject spoken of is wot finding but seeking, and ver. 3 and 4 would become unintelligible ; " there- fore I beheld thee formerly in the sanctuary :" — it is impossible to explain " therefore," — as I long after thee, therefore I beheld thee! in like manner, ver. 3, and against ver. 4, where p de- notes consequence. The true translation contains a most com- forting truth, viz. that in the deepest misery an approach to God and to his grace stands open to us, that he always, and without exception, comes down to us in the exercise of love if we only stretch out to him the arms of desire. " Therefore," says Calvin, " we should learn from his example, that when God deprives us of all outward tokens of his favour, we should behold God in the midst of the abyss with the eye of faith, in order that we may not turn the back upon him, as often as what is visible is withdrawn from us. Yea, even when tyrannical power deprives us of the holy ordinance of the supper and other means of grace, we ought to be upon our guard that we do not turn away the eyes of our mind from God." — The Psalmist in ver. 3, gives his ground for saying that he beholds God in the sanctuary, and that he experiences his power and glory : — His
PSALM LXIII. VER. 4, 5. 305
loving kindness expresses itself even now in those consolations which quicken his soul, he can still, so strong are those consola- tions, love and praise him. In view of such proof of fellowship of love with the Lord, the proof to tiic contrary, which outward suffering seems to afford, is not worth being regarded : — " for thy lovmg kindness, which I do possess, is better than the life, of which I am deprived." David's life at that time, consider- ed outwardly, might more properly be called a death than a life : — corap. on life as equivalent to salvation or prosperity, Vs. xvi. 11, XXX. 5, xxxvi.^lO, and xlii. 8. "My lips praise thee," stands related to the first clause, in the same way as in Psalm xlii. 8, " in the night, his song is with me," does to " the Lord commands his loving kindness in the daytime." The man who can praise God must be richly blessed by him, must see his power and glory. — The "therefore," in ver. 2, draws an infe- rence from ver, 1, and the "therefore," in ver. 4, draws an infe- I'cnce from verses 2 and 3. As, from the inward longing of the Psalmist after God, there flows inward union with him, in the midst of the trouble of the present, so from this there flows again assurance of the deliverance of the future ; for God cannot leave his own people, even outwardly, in death. The man who can praise God in death, has a pledge that he shall yet praise him in life, that the Lord will again make him partici- pate even outwardly in his favour. The whole, therefore, de- pends upon this one thing, that the soul has a longing after God. Wherever this is, there is salvation in trouble, and salvation after trouble. The clause, " I shall bless thee," {i. e. I shall thank thee : — compare Ps. xvi. 7, xxxiv, 1), in reference to " my lips praise thee," shows that the j3, which refers in reality to the whole contents of verses 2 and 3, is more immediately connected with the conclusion of verse 3. The '•"TI^. " ii^ my life," ^. e. " when brought back to life or to salvation," is explained by many, " during my whole life": but in this way the connection, so full of meaning with D'^Tl/lS in ver. 3, is destroy- ed, and, besides, the explanation is grammatically inadmissible, — compare at Ps. xxx. 5. On the lifting up of the hands as the gesture of prayer, see Ps. xxviii. 2. The connection and the parallelism show that the language refers to prayers of thanks. On the " name of God," " his glory as it has been manifested in his deeds":— in this the Psalmist, when rendering thanks, lets himself cZoii/u ; — compare at Ps. xx. 1, 5, lii. 9, liv. 1. — Ver. 5 con- tains the continued expression of the hope of future deliverance,
VOL. II. "T
306 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
which appears under the emblem of a banquet : compare at Ps. xxiii. 5. In reference to " according to lips of joy," i. e. " with them," see at Ps. iii. 4.
The second strophe, is ver. 6 — 10. The Psalmist enjoys most intimate communion with God, and from this he has the sure pledge of the destruction of his enemies. — Ver. 6. Whe7i I think of thee on my bed, I meditate in thee in the night watches. Ver. 7. I^or thou art a help to me, and under the shadow of thy ivinga I can rejoice. Ver. 8. My soul depends on thee, thy right hand holds me fast. Ver. 9. And those go down who seek after my life, they come into the depths of the earth. Ver. 10. They are given over to the power of the sword, they become the prey of the foxes. — The sense of the sixth verse is ; when the Psalmist awakens during the night, his every thought on God is like a meditation in him, he sinks so deep in his reflections on the grace and compassion of God of which he has been a partaker, (ver. 7), that he cannot again fall asleep. On nJlH with ]3, compare at Ps. i. 2. " In the night-watches," is " throughout the whole night : compare on the night-watches, Ps. xc. 4. — In the 7th verse we have the reason why the Psalmist cannot get quit of his meditation on God. On the first clause Arnd says : '• But God often conceals his help under the beloved cross." On " under the shadow of thy wings," a favourite expression of David, compare xvii. 8, xxxvi. 7, Ivii. 1, Ixi. 4. — In verse 8, there are the mutual relations between the believing soul and the Lord : it depends on him, and cleaves to him, like a bur to a coat, and he takes hold of it, and holds it up with his powerful right hand, so that it does not sink into the abyss of destruction and despair. On "V^T) with ^j to take hold of, to hold up, to hold fast, see Ps. xvii. 5. The right hand is the seat of strength, Ps. xviii. 35, xliv. 3, Ix. 5. Arnd : " God holds heaven and earth with his hand, he will there- fore be able both to hold up and to bear such a little atom of dust as thou art." — On nX"lSJ^> " ruin," in ver. 9, compare at Ps. XXXV. 8. The common translation is, " And they who seek my soul to destruction": but £2^*)^ 2^p^ needs no addition, and it stands without any such, as for example, in 2 Sam. xvi. 11, and according to the analogy of verse 10, we must expect an independent declaration of the destruction of the enemies in both halves of the verse. They shall come into the deep jjlaces of the earth, as did once the fierce rebels in the days of old : compare Num. xvi. 31 — 34, to which David alludes also in
PSALM LXIV. oUi
Ps. Ivi. 16. — The Hiph. of n^lJ means always "to pour out." The third plural stands indefinitely, and instead of the passive — " Over the hands," after the verb of " giving over" is equiva- lent to " into the power." Tha jackals go after a dead body : — "they become their prey," is " tlicy romam unburied." Com- pare, in reference to t\\e fulfilment of tlie expectation expressed in verses 9 and 10, 2 Sam. xviii. 7, 8,
The conclusion is in ver. 11. And the king shall rejoice in God, every one that sweareth by him shall glory, because the mouths of liars shall be stopped. Instead of " I," the Psalmist says the •• king," in order to point to the ground of his hope and con- tidence. That the suffix in )^ refers not to God but to the king, is evident, because it is not Jehovah but Elohim that goes before, and swearing by God was common to both parties, it was only swearing by the king that was a sign of fidelity : comp. Gen. xlii. 15, 16. These, by the salvation which the Lord imparts to the king, shall have occasion to glory, that is, to triumph. On the rebels as liars see Ps. Ixii. 4. Verses 9 and 10 show how their filthy mouths are stopped.
PSALM LXIV.
After a prayer for protection against the wicked, the Psalm- ist takes occasion to paint their machinations for the destruction of the righteous, and then describes how, when they are upon the very point of accomplishing their purpose, through means of all the power which cunning and wickedness can command, God himself interposes, and turns the destruction upon their own head, to the terror of their friends and admirers, to the edification of the whole world, to the joy of all the right- eous.
The Psalm consists of ten verses, which are divided into two fives. At first sight, the first strophe appears to consist of six, and the second of four verses. But the fut. with a vau conv. in ver. 7, can scarcely begin a strophe ; and it appears to be suitable (and we are saved from tearing asunder what is intimately and inseparably connected together) that at the beginning of the second strophe at ver. 6, it is intimated that the completion of the wickedness and cunning of the enemies is on the eve of deal- ing the deadly blow.
The fundamental thought of the Psalm is, that the complet- ed wickedness of the enemies is no ground for despair, but ra-
308 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ther ior joyous hope: — the nearer they are to gaining their end, the nearer are they to their own destruction. To those who have to contend with such wickedness, the Psalmist calls, " lift up your hearts."
Although the events of Saul's time form, in the first instance, the basis of the Psalm, as is shown by the great prominence given throughout to slander, as a weapon of assault, employed by the wicked for the destruction of the righteous, and although the Psalm is nearly allied to those other Psalms of an indivi- dual character which were composed by David at that time, es- pecially to the vii. and the lii. Psalm, yet we cannot assign to it any individual occasion. We are prevented from so doing, first, because all the allusions are of a general character, and se- cond, becausethe"!" is exchanged inverse 4 for the innocent man.
The authorship, which is asserted in the title to be David's, is confirmed by the resemblance, as may be seen by the exposi- tion, which the Psalm bears to others which were composed by him. The great prominence given to slandering shows that the Psalm does not refer to heathen enemies.
The first strophe is ver. 1—5 : may God help the righteous against the wickedness and cunning of men. — Ver. 1. Hear, O God, my voice in my grief, protect my life against the terror of the enemy. Ver. 2. Conceal me from the intimacy of the ivick- ed, from the tumult of evil doers. Ver. 3. Who sharpen their tongues like the sword, and stretch as their arrow a bitter word. Ver. 4. To shoot in a lurking place at the innocent, suddenly they shoot at him without fear. Ver. 5. They strengthen for themselves an evil plan, they tell how they will lay snares, they say, who shall look at them. — The expression, " in my sorrow," properly, " in my thought," (compare at Ps. Iv. 2), shows that the prayer for help is not a superficial one, but proceeds from the deepest ground of a sorely grieved heart. The "' terror of the enemy," is the terror which goes forth from him, the ter- rible danger which he threatens. " Protect my life," shows that the Psalmist (contrary to Tholuck's view) was exposed to personal danger, to danger of life. — The IID is to be taken in the sense of "intimacy," not " secret assemblies," and l^^^, in that of " tumult," and not " tumultuous crowds," is evident from the parallel passage Ps. Iv. 3. The intimacy is found in the secret counsels for the destruction of the righteous, (sco Ps. Ixxxiii. 3) : and the tumult in the execution of these counsels.
PSALM LXIV. VER. 1 — 10. 309
p^^ is a standing word in Davidic Psalms. Calvin : " He re- commends his case on the ground of the wickedness of the enemy ; for the more unreasonahly and cruelly they act towards us, the more sure may we he that God will be gracious to us." — The comparison of a slandering tongue to a sword, and of slander to an arrow, in verse 3, (comp. Ps. Ivii. 4, and lix. 7, and the passages quoted there), shows that it is not ordinary slanders that are referred to, but such as, in violation of the 6th commandment, aim at the destruction of a neighbour, — such slan- ders as those which David had to do with in the days of Saul. " They stretch," is " they lay stretched": compare Ps. Iviii. 7. The " bitter word," i. e. a painful, destructive word, (compare Deut. xxxii. 24, 1 Sam. xv. 32), is not in apposition : Q^jn is to be explained, " as their bow," and corresponds to " like the sword." — In ver. 4, the slanderers, on account of their hidden cunning and dark efforts, are compared to robbers who commit murder, who waylay the defenceless traveller, in a secret place, inorder to destroy him; comp. Ps. x. 8, 9. " Suddenly," is, "while he is thinking there is no harm." It is evident from, " who fear not God," in Ps. Iv. 19, and "all men are afraid," in ver. 9, that " without fear" refers to the fear of God and of his punishment. — " They strengthen for themselves an evil word, or an evil plan," in verse 5, by acute consideration and increased improvement, to which every one contributes his share. ^^D stands, as in Ps. lix. 12, in its usual sense, to " recount" ; every one in their secret councils makes his speech, proposes his plan. As the HXI is never used with 7 of the object, we cannot translate, " them," meaning thereby, either the snares, or the wicked; "1^7 signifies as at the beginning of the verse, " to them," i. e. to their hurt. Who? — will God? — he does not trouble himself about human affairs, and therefore no man need trouble himself about him : compare Ps. lix. 7, x. 11 — lo.
The second strophe is from ver. 6—10. Every thing is fully prepared, when the vengeance of God breaks in upon the wicked. Ver. 6. They examine thorougldy into wickedness " we are ready, a well matured plan," and the inside of a man and the heart is deep. Ver. 7. There God shoots at them with a sudden arroiu ; there are theiii ivounds! Ver. 8. And they are confound- ed, their tongue comes upon themselves, all their admirers flee aivay. Ver. 9. And all men are afraid and make known the deed of God, and understand his work. Ver. 10. The righteous
310 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall trust in him, and all the up- right shall glory. — " They examine thoroughly into iniquities," in verse 6, (the plural HI/IJ^ is used only here, and in Ps. Iviii. 2), they allow no corner of these to be unexamined, they make it their study to bring their wicked plans to as great perfec- tion as possible. In the words, " lue are ready, a thorough- ly matured plan," (properly a thoroughly seai'ched search), the Psalmist introduces the wicked telling that, as the result of their zealous studies in wickedness, they had brought their vil- lanous plans to perfection, and expressing joy on that account. As the DDn is always intransitive, and in particular *\^'f2T\-> in- stead of ')i''/|2n> is so, in all the three passages in which it else- where occurs, we cannot translate, " we have completed a tho- roughly matured plan." In the last words, " the inside," &c. reference is made to the greatness of the danger to which the righteous man is exposed. Human wickedness is unfathomable, it is impossible to know it, and all its wicked plans, much less then to be on our guard against them. How then will it go with the poor righteous man. " Deep" is often used in the sense of what is difficult to be searched out or known. Thus, Ez. iii. 5, " deep of speech," is, " difficult to be understood," Job xi. 8, Prov. XXV. 3. Jer, xvii. 9, is exactly parallel, " The heart is steep above all and diseased, who can know it," where " steep" occupies the place of " deep." Both are equally inac- cessible. The " inside," compare at Ps. v. 9, denotes the op- posite of what may easily be seen on the outside, and therefore there is no room for the tautology at which Clauss stumbles. — The " There" in verse 7, is when they are in the midst of their joy over their completed plan, and when they are just on the eve of carrying it into execution. Such picturesque represen- tations of vengeance suddenly breaking in are characteristic of David's Psalms ; compare for example, Ps. vii. 11, liii. 5, Ivii. 6. The arrow of God here corresponds to the arrow of the wicked at verses 3 and 4 ; compare at Ps. vii. 13. It is evident from verse 4 that DXHS? agreeably to the accusative, belongs to the first clause. The second clause gives in an abbreviated form the substance of what we have at length in Ps. vii. 14 — 16. The emphasis is on the suffix : there are thkir wounds! They were thinking of wounding the upright, but behold they are \tounded themselves. — The beginning of the 8th ver. is literal- ly, " and there they bring them to fall," the 3d plural being used
PSALM LXV. 311
as at Ps. Ixiii. 10. " Their tongue comes upon them," inasmuch as it brings upon them the punishment and the judgment of God. From the second half of the verse to the end the Psalm- ist describes the salutary effects of this judgment, first upon the companions of the wicked ; second, upon all men ; and, finally, upon the righteous. The first, (Ht^'H with 2, as in Ps. lix. 10) fiee, that they may not be involved in the punishment ; compare Num. xvi. 34, " And all Israel w^ho were around them (the sons of Korah) j^ed, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up also." — In the 9th verse, men in general occupy the middle position, between the two opposite extremes. On " they are afraid," comp. Ps. lii. 6. On the second and third clause, comp. Ps. Iviii. 11, " and men say, verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily God judgeth on the earth." ?'^'2'^T\ is not " to give con- sideration," but " to understand :" the great mass of people ob- tain insight into the works and government of God for the first time, when they see the destruction of the wicked before their eyes. On ver. 10, compare Ps. Ixiii. 11.
PSALM LXV.
God gives his church abundant opportunity to praise and to thank him, he hears prayer, he forgives sin, and he bestows upon his people the good things of his house, 1 — 4. As God of the whole world and of nature, he manifests himself in the wonderful deliverances of his people, in establishing mountains (and kingdoms), in stilling the tumultuous sea and the agitated nations, so that the manifestations of his power and glory fill the whole world with reverence, ver. 6 — 8. As such he manifests himself particularly, in the fertility which he, whose fountain is always full of water, imparts to the earth, by his fertilizing rain, in the blessings of harvest, which spread abroad a univer- sal joy, ver. 9 — 13.
The formal arrangement is, in substance, exactly the same as in Ps. Ix.: the whole consists of 14 verses, and the main body of 12, divided into three strophes, each of four verses. The only dif- ference is, that the concluding verse here corresponds to the se- cond half of the title there, containing, as it does, a description of the occasion on which the Psalm was written, and manifesting its connection with the title by the IT'gy, " they sing," with
312 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
which it concludes, corresponding to the ^''^, a song, with which the title ends.
The object of the Psalm is announced in the concluding verse. It should be sung when " the flocks are covered with lambs, and the valleys are clothed with corn." Hence the whole, from ver. 1 — 8, is to be considered as an introduction. We are led to the same result, by observing that it is only the goodness of God, as seen in the blessings of harvest, that is dwelt upon at length, while every thing else is touched upon briefly and slightly; that the whole Psalm ends with such aspecial delineation without returning to those general views with which it opened ; and finally, that the ninth verse, with which the de- scription of harvest begins, is of such disproportionate length as to show that in it the Psalmist enters for the first time upon his proper subject.
On the relation between the first and second portions of the Psalm, (ver. 1 — 8, and ver. 9 — 13,) Luther remarks : " Al- though the special intention may be to thank God for good weather and a propitious season, yet it is the custom of the pro- phets, when they speak of the mercies and gifts of God of one kind, to speak also of others, especially of his rich grace : so, in the present instance, having designed to thank God for do- mestic government or for agriculture, the Psalmist takes a wider range, and introduces other two kinds of government." This is just as it should be : every individual gift of God should lead us to a lively consideration of all the blessings which we receive from him ; and it is only when this is the case, when all the rest harmonize with the one string, that we render thanks in a suitable manner even for the one more immediately in view. It is for tliis reason that natural and providential blessings were so blended together at the Jewish festivals.
Although the Psalm refers to the harvest, yet it is incorrect to maintain that it is peculiarly a song of thanksgiving for har- vest, and especially to suppose that it was sung at the passover, on the second day of which the first fruits were presented in the temple, upon which harvest began. Luther says more correct- ly : he thanks God for " good weather and a propitious season." It was intended to be sung when favourable appearances had ])resented themselves in reference to the harvest, when God had given the former and the latter rain in their seasons, (Jer. v. 24), and when, in consequence of this, every thing was flourish-
I
PSALM LXV. 313
ing and growing luxuriantly. This is manifest from the con- cluding verse, according to which, the Psalm was intended to be sung at a time, when the valleys are clothing themselves with corn, (not have been clothed,) and from ver. 9 and 10, where the Psalmist speaks of rain as if he saw it just descend- ing. Hitzig has taken altogether a wrong view, according to whom, the Psalm was composed for the Feast of Tabernacles, " when the fruits of the earth had been gathered in, and the seed, recently committed to the ground, was waiting for the early rain.
There are no traces whatever of any particular historical oc- casion. It is altogether without the least shadow of reason that the vile passion for historical exposition has referred the ex- pressions in ver. 9 to a peculiarly fertilizing rain, or a peculiar- ly fruitful year. Israel had been led, in Deut. xi. 10 — 17, to consider the fruitfulness of their land, and in an especial man- ner, the regular periodical appearance of rain, on which it de- pended, as a blessing bestowed upon their nation in connection with its moral state ; and it is the design of our Psalm through- out to awaken these feelings in the minds of the people— a Psalm designed in like manner from the beginning for all times.
The title bears testimony on behalf of the Davidic authorship of the Psalm : — " To the chief musician, a Psalm of David, a song. Compare on '^'^^ " a song," = " a song of praise," the title of Ps. xlviii, xlii. 8 : — a sense which is especially de- manded here by the clause in the concluding verse, " they sing" standing in immediate connection with " they rejoice." The originality of the title is confirmed, by its having a place within the formal structure of the Psalm, and by the corre- spondence which it obviously bears to the concluding verse. In- ternal reasons for the Davidic authorship of the Psalm, are, the rT'to^j an expression altogether peculiar to David, which occurs at the very beginning, (compare at Ps. Ixii. 1), the individual Davidic character of ver. 4. the allusion in ver. 5 to 2 Sam. vii. 23, and, finally, the exact agreement in regard to formal arrangement between our Psalm and other Davidic Psalms, es-, pecially the Ix. The language in no part refers to great and lasting national prosperity. The people are rather, as they were in the time of David, happy, and in the full enjoyment of the divine favour.
The objections against the Davidic authorship are altogether
314 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
nugatory. Ewald supposes that the poem is not nearly so light and sprightly as David's Psalms generally are, and that it is •only towards the end that the style rises. But it is not in the nature of things that the tone of a poem which returns thanks for seasonable rain, or for a similar blessing, should rise above a certain height. Even in our common hymn books, there is a decided difference in this respect, for example, between har- vest hymns and Easter hymns. Much more may we expect such a difference between such Psalms as the one before us, and those which were composed by David as songs of war or vic- tory. The bounties of God, as the Ruler of nature, as they regularly came round with the return of the seasons, are fitted to call forth rather quiet joy than loud triumph. De Wettc supposes that verse 3 indicates on the part of the people a consciousness of some (?) crime, and that the age appears later than that of David. A single glance at Leviticus xvi. is sufficient to show what use we are to make of such an asser- tion. In reference to the idea, that the mention of the temple ill verse 4th, is unfavourable to theDavidic authorship, compare Ps. V.
The first strophe is ver. 1 — 4 : " Compassionate, gracious, merciful, forgiving iniquity to every one daily."
Ver. 1. Thou art praised in the silence, 0 God, in Zion, and to thee vows are ijaid. Ver. 2. Thou luho hearest prayer, to thee all flesh comes. Ver. 3. Oar iniquities prevail against us, our transgressions — thou forgivest them. Ver. 4. Blessed is the man tuhom thou choosest and causest to approach to thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. Ver. 5. We will be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, of thy holy temple. — The "p in ver. 1, stands exactly as in Ps. Ixii. 10, 11, "thine is praise," i. e. " thou art praised." The praise, however, comes into notice. in so far as it testifies of God's glory, who furnishes for it rich, and continually new occasions : comp. at Ps. xxii. 3. r\''J21 n^nn must be considered as a kind of compound noun, like p-^^-niiy in xlv. 4 : compare also Ps. Ix. 3. Silence-praise is praise which is bound up with silence, has silence for its con- sequence, or has the effect of allaying that tumultuous agita- tion, tliat distressing excitement, which prevails in the soul till it has attained to a living knowledge of the glory of God : against this, his praise, which quiets all the tumult of the soul, is the only effectual remedy ; the more a man praises God, the
PSALM LXV. VER. 1 — 5. 315
more quiet does his soul become : compare at Ps. Ixii. 1, 5, xlii. 5, and cxxxi. 1. Against the exposition, " to thee is con- fidence, praise," there may be urged, besides the harshness of the asyndeton, the fact that rT'XS'l never signifies any thing else than " silence," and in particular never signifies " trust." The Berleb. Bible has : " It is not loud praise that corre- sponds to the infinite majesty of God, but a reverential silence before his presence, which holy souls employ in giving expression to their intensest love." To this exposition we reply, the Psalmist d-oe^ speak. Against Ewald's " reveren- tial and quiet song of praise, of those who contrast the infinite greatness and goodness of God, with their own un worthiness," we urge the fact that n''^1 is entire silence, and also the 'T'25^ of the title and the "IT'^'' of the concluding verse. A careful com- parison of the other passages in which n''^1 occurs will be suffi- cient to remove all doubt as to the correctness of the interpreta- tion which we have given, God is praised in Zion, because he there unfolds the treasures of his salvation in the most perfect manner, (compare ver. 4, Ps. xlviii. 1, cxxxii. 13,) and because the only legitimate place of worship was there. Luther : " God had bound to that place all men who desired to meet with, and to worship the true God, so that although they might not be bodily present, they should be compelled with their hearts to turn and look thither. This was the case before Christ appeared. But now God has built for this purpose in Christ a greater and more glorious Zion. Wherever he is with his word and sacra- ments, there also is the old Zion. On this account, whoever now believes in Christ, and acknowledges him, gives thanks to the true God, in the true Zion." Those who belong to this Zion, the church, may say now for the first time with "perfect truth : " Thine is praise, O God, in Zion." The paying of vows followed after salvation had been obtained, (compare at Ps. Ixvi. 13), and is in- troduced here in this connection : by sending salvation, thou givest men reason to praise thee, and to pay their vows. — God is a living God, who hears prayers, ver. 2, he is the fulness of strength and of love : he is rich not only for a few, but for all : all to whom the name of man belongs come to him, (flesh has the sense of weak- ness and need : compare at Ps. Ivi. 4,) in order to draw from his inexhaustible fountain. Luther : " Whither, to thee ? In former ages to Jerusalem, or in Zion, but now no where, except in the Lord Christ :" comp. Math. xi. 28. We cannot with Ewald un- derstand by " all flesh," all " who at that time lived in Judea.
516 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The 5tli verse, " thou art the confidence of all the ends of the earth," and the 8th verse, are decisive against this. The diffi- culty which has called forth this false interpretation, may be fair- ly set aside by the remark, that every necessity, and every want, is, though an unconscious, yet a real coming to God, a real pray- er to him, who is the only helper : compare Ps. civ. 27, where all the beasts wait upon God, that he may give them their meat in due season, Job xxxviii. 41, where the ravens cry to God, and Gen. xxi. 17, where God hears Ishmael, not when he i& praying, but when he is crying. We dare not however, on this account, take up the position of Tholuck, that all prayers, even those which men address to idols, meet with acceptance from the true God. — In ver. 3, we have God pi-aised on account oi the forgiveness of sin which he imparts to his people. The optative exposition (Luther : " O that thou xvouldest forgive our sins,") is as assuredly wrong as the Psalm before us is a song of praise : the future in- dicates, as in the preceding and following context, a custom. The niiiy nn i^ properly matters of iniquities, — they are a matter which is two strong for me : compare at Ps. cv. 27, 1 Sam. x. 2, 2 Sam. xi. 18, 19. The iniquities are too strong for the people, (who here speak as one man, /or me), as regards their consequences, which they are not able either to avert or to endure: comp. Ps. xxxviii. 4, " Mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me :" Ps. xl. 12, " innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me :" and Ps. cxxx. 3. After " our ini- quities"— transgressions are thus treated as in a climax, in order that the grace of forgiveness may shine forth more gloriously, — we are to suppose a hyphen added. One would have expected, " they lay me on the ground." Then God comes forward at once, Siwdi forgives the iniquities, which threaten destruction. Luther: " Now he has so gloriously celebrated that which was not so abundant at that time, as it was afterwards in Christ: but we should sing this verse more joyfully, and exult without any in- termission, if we have the heart to understand, and the eyes and ears to see and hear !" — Happy are the people, ver. 4, (com- pare the '•^K^i^ in Ps. xxxiii.l2,) whom this God has taken into his immediate confidence ! Happy we to whom this happiness has been imparted ! A ricli salvation, the full possession of the good things, and the gifts which God imparts to the inmates of his house, is the consequence of this. The liouse of God, his temple appears here as the place where his people, without
PSALM LXV. VER. 5 — 8. 317
any regard to bodily presence or absence, dwell continually beside him, and where they are cared for by him with tender love: compare at Ps. xxvii. 4, xxxvi. 8, Ixxxiv. 4. The ex- pression, " that he may injiabit thy courts," (De Wette " the exercise of the worship of God") shows that we are not to rest satisfied with the external idea. The, " we will be sa- tisfied," etc. contains in reality the basis of the declaration of blessedness. This is expressed in the form of a mutual exhor- tation to ])artake of the rich feast, which the Lord has prepared. The good things of the house of the Lord are not only "the spiritual joys in God's house," but they comprehend also the whole of the blessings which the Lord bestows upon the mem- bers of his family (Eph. ii. 19.) from the forgiveness of sins to outward mercies: compare Ps. xxxvi. 8, Ixiii. 5. "The holy (place) of thy temple" (compare Ps. xlvi. 4), stands in apposi- tion to " thy house." The ^)1p is independent and emphatic, because it is in the holiness of the temple, that the Psalmist sees the ground on which there had been given to it such a fulness of blessings.
The second strophe, ver. 5 — 8, forms in so far a transition to the third, as, in it, only those manifestations of the glory of God are brought forward in which he makes himself known, as the Lord of the world and of nature. — Ver. 5. Thou impart- est to us what is terrible, in righteousness, O God, our salva- tion, thou confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the sea of those afar off. Ver. 6. Who sets fast hj his power the hills, is girt about ivith might. Ver. 7. Who stills the tumults of the sea, the tumults of their ivaves, and the noise of the nations. Ver. 8. And the inliabitants of the ends {of the earth) are afraid at thy tokens, the outgoings of the morning and evening thou makest to rejoice. — Thou returnest for answer to us ivhat is ter- rible, ver. 5, is, " Thou impartest to us when we pray to thee in trouble, astonishing deliverances." The answer comes in the shape of some event — a practical word. Li " terrible," reference is made to such events as happened before and after the depar- ture from Egypt, as Calvin perceived, " 0 Lord, thou hearcst us always, so that thy power now appears in wonderful deli- verances, as it did formerly when our fathers went out of Egypt." " God has always preserved the church," Calvin gives this as the general sense of the expression, " not by common and ordinary means, but by terrible power." The reference to such occurrences as happened in Egypt, is demanded by
318 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the parallelism and the connection, from which it is evident that only such events can be meant as those by which God mani- fests himself as the God of the whole earth. The word {^*^1J is used of such events in Deut. x. 21, " He is thy praise, and he is thy God that hath done for thee these great and terrible things which thine eyes have seen," and in the re- markably similar expression of David's in 2 Sam. vii. 23 : — which last passage at the same time shows that the Hl^^^l'li '8 not an adverb but is the second accusative after T\y^T\ '• comp. on T\y^ with two accusatives, Ewald, p. 479. The pllfl denotes the righteousness of God, the property, according to which lie gives to every one his own, as the root of those answers which on account of it are peculiar to Israel: corap, p**"!^ in Deut. xxxii. 4. Many expositors, without any reason, translate " in grace" or " for salvation." In the second clause the Psalm- ist says, that the God, so superabundantly rich for Israel, is not poor even for all the rest of the earth. God is called the con- fidence of all the ends of the earth, in reference to what he is actually in himself, not in reference to his being acknowledged as such. Even the rudest heathen has in God the foundation of his existence, receives from him all that is requisite for his life, and without him must perish. The knowledge of God cannot be always wanting in places, where he himself is really present. What the living God wasfor the whole earth even at the time when the knowledge of him was confined within the narrow limits of Canaan, was a prophecy which foretold that that knowledge would be spread abroad over the whole earth. The sea of those afar off, of those who dwell afar off, (compare Psalm Ivi. title,) denotes those who dwell on the most distant sea, just as " the ends of the earth" denote those who dwell on its utmost ex- tremity. The mercies of God are co-extensive with human need. Luther : "One may run over the wide world, even to its utmost extremity, yet thou art the only foundation on which the trust of man's heart can stand and remain." Psalms xviii. 49, xxiv. 1, 2, xxii. Ixviii., Ivii. 9, and the prominence given to Elohim in the prayer of David, 2 Sam. vii. show that it has been without any good reason that an inference in favour of a later date has been drawn from, " the wide extent of the inhabitants of the earth, conscious of Jehovah's power." — Iii ver. 6, the mountains are named as being the most secure objects in nature, in the es- tablishing and keeping fast of which, (compare in reference to the participle at Ps. xxxiii.7),the omnipotence of God, which is prais-
PSALM LXV, VER. 0 — S. 319
ed in general in the second clause, is exhibited in the strongest manner. The conclusion of verse 7 makes it probable that the Psalmist thought at the same time upon mountains in a figura- tive sense, viz. kingdoms: compare Ps. xlvi. 3; Jer. li. 25; 1 Kings ii. 12. Luther : " Who is he that has such a kingdom, as that there be under one single individual so many subjects, who inust obey him, and so many lands and nations who are held in subjection ? This can be none but God. Therefore he ought to be praised and thanked wherever this government remains. For the devil does not behold this with joy, but opposes it in all places, outwardly, through means of wicked neighbours, and inwardly, by disobedient subjects." — The connection of the quieting of the tumultuous sea, (this also is connected in Jer. V. 22 — 24, with the giving of rain in its season, comp. also Ps. Ixxxix. 9,) with the tumultuous nations in ver. 7, appears all the more suitable, inasmuch as the sea is the usual emblem of the power of the world ; compare Ps. xlvi. 3. In reference to this last expression, Luther : " Like as he stilled Pharaoh with all his people, when he stormed and raged against Israel, as if he would liave devoured them. In like manner as he stilled the king of Assyria when he roared and raged against Jerusalem." Calvin thus gives the sense of ver. 8 : " From the rising to the setting of the sun, God is not only dreadful but also the author of joy:' But that the fear and the joy do not stand in opposi- tion, as might be supposed from this remark, but that the fear implies reverence, or holy awe, is evident from what follows, where " the tokens of God" manifestly mean only such tokens as are fitted to fill the mind with reverence and not with terror. The tokens of God are the manifestations of his glory, every thing by which he makes himself known as God, such as those that are named by way of example in the preceding context, and such as those by which he is described in the following verses : our verse is the point of transition from the second to the third strophe. The more lively the sense of deity is, the more su?;- ceptible is it of impressions from these signs. And even the man who, with hardened mind, suppresses those feelings of gra- titude, which are due to God, cannot altogether withdraw him- self from all sense of these, or from all secret misgivings in regard to them. Who, for example, is so deaf, as that the thunder, after striking upon his outward, does not penetrate his inward ear ! And even though there were more exceptions to the " they are afraid," than there appear to be, still these
320 Tllli BOOK OF PSALMS.
are so completely irregular and unnatural, that the Psalmist might well disregard them. " The outgoings of the morning and evening." (comp. on X^"l/I3,the place of outgoing, Christol: P. III. p. 300 ; "npl and ^^^ are not places on the earth's surface, but periods of the day), are the places, the points in the heavens, from which the morning and the evening go out, the east and the west. And the east and the west stand, according to the parallel- ism, {tlte inhabitants of the ends,) for those who divellm the east and west.
The third strophe is from ver. 9 to ver. 12 : the gloi'y of God, which manifests itself in the whole world, is revealed especially in his spreading blessing and prospei'ity over the whole earth, even to its most remote boundaries. — Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, and sendest it a flood, thou makest it very rich, the foun- tain of God has plenty of water. Thou providest their corn, for thus thou providest for it. Ver. 10. Thou luaterest its furrows, thou layest down its ploughed fields, thou makest it soft with rain, thou blessest its increase. Ver. 11. Thou craivnest the year of thy goodness, and thy paths drop with fatness. Ver. 12. The pastures of the wilderness drop, and the little hills are girt round with joy. — The verbs in ver. 9 refer, as is manifest from the in- terchange of preterites and futures, to something going out at the time. It is evident from the connection between the third and the second strophe, and especially between this verse and the 8th one, that V^isTl is not "the land," but "the earth." On, " thou visitest the earth," Arnd : " The Holy Spirit makes use of a homely word, when, in describing the fertilizing genial rain, he terms it a visiting of the earth. When a visit is made by rich and affectionate friends, they do not come empty, but bring with them a blessing, a good gift, to testify their fa- vour and love. Thus, although God is Lord over all, and fills heaven and earth, he does not at all times leave traces or marks of his presence. But when in time of drought he gives a gra- cious fertilizing shower, it is as if he paid us a visit, and brought along with him a great blessing, that we might mark his love and his goodness." The pp^ is Pil, from p1^, to overflow : comp. the Hiph. in Joel ii. 24 ; iv. 13. The nil is the stat. constr. pro- perly, there is much of the " thou makest it rich;" comp. Evvald, p.
507. The nilSyyn is the form of the Hiph. with . Arnd :
" A rich lord can by many gifts make a poor man very rich. So
PSALM LXV. VER. 9 — 12. 321
the earth, when it is not watered by God, is very poor, and cannot nourish us. But when God gives rain, the land becomes very rich." The channel, or the brook of God, is in opposition to the channels and brooks of earth. Arnd : " If these upper foun- tains do not give water from above, no fountain or stream on earth can help being dried up, where there is no rain." Espe- cially in Canaan did men seek and long for this upper foun- tain : see Deut. xi. 11. What is said here directly of water, is true of salvation generally, both temporal and spiritual ; com- pare Ps. xxxvi. 8. Arnd : " God's fountains of grace have wa- ters of consolation in abundance, for all troubled and sad souls, so that none may go away comfortless." The suffix in Q^JT refers to men, Ps. iv. 7 : the suffix in HJOn to the earth. God, like a good house-holder, provides for men their corn, in thus providing rain for the earth to make it fruitful. Luther : " Thou art the right master-cultivator, who cultivates the land much more and much better than the farmer does. He does nothing more to it than break up the ground, and plough, and sow, and then lets it lie. But God must be always attending to it with rain and heat, and must do every thing to make it grow and pros- per, while the farmer lies at home and sleeps, and has done no- thing but prepared the ground." — The T\T\ and nil J are in- finitives, and not imperatives, which are not suitable in this con- nection, and in a Psalm of thanks. The reference to the mere ac- tion is enough, as the exact application is given in what pre- cedes and follows. The pressing down of the furrows — D''Tn)l is properly •' cuts," in all probability a purely poet- ical term of the Psalmist's own formation, as the proper term is D^^n — indicates the richness of the rain. ),y\'[2 is properly to make to flow. Every thing helps to praise the fatherly goodness of God. What he does in the temporal matters, is, at the same time, a pledge and a symbol of the care with which he watches over his own people in spiritual matters, to which every thing admits of being applied. — As the status constr. is never used instead of the status absol. we cannot translate ver. 11, in any other way than : the year of thy goodness, i. e. to which wholly thy goodness belongs : comp. Deut. xi. 12, "A land for which the Lord thy God careth, to which the eyes of the Lord thy God are always directed, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." The crown which God puts upon the year of his goodness, (comp. Ps. ciii. 4), is composed of the
VOL. II. Y
322 THE BOOK OF PsJALMS.
instances of that goodness. The "fatness," is a figurative ex- pression for good things, comp, Ps. Ixiii. 5 : this follows him in all his footsteps ; his rain (comp. "thouvisitcst," in ver.9), makes every where hlessing and plenty. — " They drop," ver, 12, with fatness, in consequence of thy visit. The "wilderness" is named as the most parched place on the earth, where the blessing is visible in the most striking manner as such : comp. Job xxxviii. 26, 27. The "joy" with which the little hills are girt, is that of men rendered happy at the prospect of an abundant year.
The conclusion is ver. 13. The flocks are clad with lambs, and the valleys are clothed with corn ; they shout for joy and sing. The flocks are clad with lambs, i. e. are rich in them. The blessing of God manifests itself in the increase of the flocks, which find rich nourishment in the pasture fertilized by the rain. On C''*1D only lambs, not pasture, comp. Ps. xxxvii. 20. Against the sense oi pasture, we have here particularly the article in jj^^^ri- If this were in the accusative and therefore like "13, it would be, as the latter is, without the article, or *H also would have the article.— all the more, as the article in that case would denote the flocks in opposition to the corn. The se- cond clause of the 12th verse shows, that the subject of both the two last verbs is the " valleys" — (not men sing). The reference, however, to the title and to ver. 8, shows that the song of the valleys doos not come from themselves, but from the joyful men who inhabit them. The nj5 stands, as in Ps. xviii. 48, only as a particle of connection, Ps. Ix. 8, and cviii. 9, show that the Hithpa of yn means simply to " shout for joy."
PSALM LXVI.
The Psalm is a song of thanksgiving of the church of God, after a protracted and severe trial. It is divided into three great parts. In the first, God is praised, 1 — 7, on account of what he does to Israel at all times, in the second, 8 — 12, on account of what he had just noiv done, and in the third, 13 — 20, the church vows her gratitude.
Wholly similar to the relation in which the second division stands to the first, which is not that of something old to some- thing new, but that of the general to the special, is the plan
rsALM Lxvi. 323
adopted in Ps. xlvi, in which the general idea is first brought out, and then, in the third strophe, the matter of fact is touched upon in which it had been at present specially realized. In the same way also, Ps. xlviii. and Ixxvi. first describe the general relation of God to Israel, and then the individual instances of the divine favour.
All the three parts close in a significant number ; the first in seven, which again breaks up into a three and four, the se- cond in twelve, and the third in twenty. The first main division is closed with a Selah : at the close of the second, this mark is wanting, because the division is sufiiciently well indicat- ed by the context : but instead of this, at the end of the first sub- division of the first and of the third part,ver. 4 and 16, both times, as also in ver. 7, before the imperative which introduces a new portion.
The Title is. To the Chief Musician, a song of j^raise. Its originality is supported by the first verse, which, if taken with- out the title, seems tooshort and abrupt, — the ly^n forms a sort of parallelism with ^'•^. The title announces neither the author, nor the occasion, nor the date of the Psalm ; and modern criti- cism therefore is left at full liberty to indulge its diseased pro- pensity to bring down the Psalms to as late a date as possible. It pretty generally affirms that the deliverance, celebrated in our Psalm, is the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. The contents,however, are altogether against tiiis idea. The expres« sions, " he suffered not our feet to slide," in ver. 9, and, " I call- ed to him with my mouth, and a song of praise was on ray tongue," i. e. *' I had scarcely called upon him, when, by delivering me, he gave me occasion to praise him," exclude every reference to a calamity so grievous and so protracted as the Babylonish cap- tivity. The detailed representation of suffering in ver. 9 — 12, does not contain one word about the leading aivay of the people into captivity. The temple appears in ver. 13 as standing, and there is no expression to indicate that it was in ruins ; it is im- possible to entertain the idea of a re-built temple, inasmuch as the people express their determination to give thanks to God in the temple for their deliverance, immediately after having ob- tained it, and a succession of years intervened between the completing of the temple and the return of the exiles. Finally, the idea of the captivity is excluded by ver. 18th, where the people give great prominence to their ?y»J0ccwce, and affirm that God, for this reason, had heard their prayer for deliverance.
324 THK BOOK OF PSALMS.
The captivity in Babylon was throughout distinguished as being a richly merited punishment of sin. Comp. Introd. to Ps, xliv.
If we must thus keep on the farther side the captivity, we shall be compelled, as appears from another reason, not to fix a date for the composition higher than the time of Hezekiah. The ex- pression, " Come behold the works of the Lord," in ver. 5, a- grees literally with Ps. xlvi. 8 : and we cannot imagine this a- greement to be accidental, as HI 7^5^ occurs only in these two passages. But we may quite as well suppose that the 46th Psalm refers to the one before us, as that it refers to the 46th : and, in favour of the priority of our Psalm, and its composition in the time of David, there is positively the ground, that all the nameless Psalms which stand among the Psalms of David and those of his singers are connected with those that precede them, so as to form with them one whole, and that thus the notices given of the authors of these apply also to the others.
The trouble and the deliverance are, with manifest design, desci'ibed so generally — under a fulness of figures, out of which only one thing comes forth as a plain matter of fact, viz., that it is a deliverance from the danger of an enemy that is treated of— that we cannot help assuming that our Psalm was intended to be a song of praise which might be used generally on every occasion of deliverance from hostile power. The significant allusion in Ps. xlvi. 8, a Psalm which celebrates the deliverance through the Assyrians, shows how the Psalm before us accompanied the people of God in all ages. Such songs, however, for the church of all times, would ordinarily be sung only in those times, the event« of which awakened in the spirits of men a lively sense of their contents.
The first strophe is ver. 1 — 7. After an exhortation to the whole earth to praise God, ver. 1 — 4, (compare at Psalm xlvii. 1,) there follows, in ver. 4 — 7, the basis of the same: the Lord manifests his glory in a multitude of mighty deeds, deliverances on behalf of his people, and judgments on the insolent heathen world. The Psalmist, before passing on to what is particular, marks out for it its proper place, by taking a rapid glance at the mighty whole into which it was to be put. — Ver. 1. Shout for joy to God, all lands. Ver. 2. Praise the glory of his name, give glory to his praise. Ver. 3. Say to God, How terrible art thou in thy works, on account of the fulness of thy strength
PSALM LXVI. VEU. 1 7. 325
thine enemies must feign (submission) to thee. Ver. 4. All lands worship thee, they praise thee, they praise thy name. Se^ lah. Ver. 5. Come and see the ivorks of God, who is terrible in his deeds to the children of men. Ver. 6. He turns the sea into dry land, they go through the flood on foot, there we will rejoice in him. Ver. 7. He rides eternally by his power, his eyes spy out among the nations, the rebellious may not exalt themselves. Selah. On, " the glory of his name" = "' the glory which be- longs to him according to his glorious deeds and manifestations," comp. Ps. xxix. 1, 2. The parallel passages, Jos. vii. 19, Fs. xxix. 1, Isa. xhi. 12, Jer. xiii. 16. John ix. 24, show that we can- not translate the second clause, " make his praise glorious," but only " give glory as his praise," or, " to his praise" : nn^j is the thing to be given, and the second object is IH^nri- The angels give formally glory to God, in Fs. xxix. 9 : compare " Holy, holy, holy, all lands are full of his glory," in Isa. vi. — In verses 3 and 4, we have the words in which the nations of the earth should give glory to God. The translation, " how terrible are thy works," is not grammatically incorrect, but, on comparing ver. 5, it becomes manifest that we must translate, " how terrible art thou in thy works," — the 'Viy^'Oi as well as the n^by, be- ing an accusative; comp. Ew. § 483. The " thou" is want- ing, as in Fs. Ixviii. 36, " dreadful, God, (art thou,) from out of thy sanctuary." In reference to " they feign," compare Fs. xviii. 44. That all who oppose must be subject to God, must hum- bly submit, must conceal their aversion, shows how great is his might, how terrible is his doing. Fharaoh is an example of such forced submission, compare ver. 6. In ver. 4, " they feign" ren- ders it necessary for us to consider " they worship" as equiva- lent to " they may worship." — The " come, see the deeds of God," in ver. 5, to which allusion is so strikingly made in John i. 46, 47, indicates the prominent place which the manifestation of the glory of God occupied before the eyes of the whole hea- then world; it is not with idle phantoms but with real deeds that they have to do ; and this is the very reason why the confi- dent hope is entertained that the heathen world shall be won over to God through the influence of what has happened. The church still addresses the same language, " come and see," to all who, whether inwardly or outwardly, stand afar off. The deeds of God are dreadful even to those to whom deliverance is brought. For his tremendous majesty is thus made known ; comp. Ps. Ixv. 5, 8. The '^y points out the children of men as
326 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the object on which the deeds of God are performed: — the patient in opposition to the agent. — The preterite *^Sn stands as the following future shows in the sense of the present. The Psalmist refers to the passage through the Red Sea and the Jor- dan, but not as to transactions which took place and were con- cluded at a given period of time, but as happening, really in every age. God's guidance of his people is a constant drying up of the sea and of the Jordan, and the joy over his mighty deeds is always receiving new materials. The idea, that the sole reference is to these particular transactions, which took place at the origin of the nation, is inconsistent with what goes before, " Come and see the deeds of the Lord," which imphes that it is something actually present that is referred to. It is also inconsistent with the aspect of entire generality which the 7th verse bears, with the future ll^^** following the preterite, and lastly, (even although all this could be interpreted consistently with past events), with the nH^D^Jj which can be translated in no other way than by " we will rejoice,'^ (comp. Ps. xlii. 4, Iv, 2), — a resolution to do that for which God is giving a rich and a present opportunity, and where we are not to think, except in a case of absolute necessity, of considering that " we" is used in the sense of national generality. More- over, there is the less reason to maintain, in spite of all these arguments, the reference to past events, inasmuch as the deliverances which took place in the days of old, are not unfre- quently in other passages spoken of as pledges of deliverances yet to come, and the succeeding events of God's gracious pro- vidence are described in figurative language borrowed from for- mer events: comp. for example. Is. xi. 15, 16, where the drying up of the Red Sea, and of the Euphrates, are spoken of as events which were expected to take place, Zech. x. 11, " and the Lord passes through the sea, afQiction, and smites the waves in the sea and all the floods of the Nile shall be put to shame," and the Christology on these passages, especially on the last. When the sense of the verse generally is correctly defined, there remains no reason for departing from the usual sense in regard to " the flood," by which is meant of course, the Euphrates : — especially, as in Is. xi. 15, the Euphrates is substituted in room of the little Jordan, and in Zech. x. 11, the Nile is named for the purpose of announcing that the wonder at the Jordan was to be repeated on a greater scale. "There," is, " on the theatre of these glorious transactions." " We ivill rejoice," is an energetic expression for ♦* we may rejoice." — The expression, " his eyes spy among the
PSALM LXVI, VER, 8 — 12. 327
heathen," ver. 7, indicates that the self-sufficiency of earthly power is only apparent. God from his high watch tower beholds everything, guides everything, tames every insolence which, ima- gining that the earth is contained in itself, rises against him and his kingdom. In the last clause, the expression assumes a horta- tory character : " they may not exalt themselves," i. e. *' I would advise them not to do so." For the contest against Omnipotence must bring evil upon them, and pride comes before a fall, as sure- ly as God is in heaven. Compare the 7i< in Ps. xxxiv. 5, xli. 2, 1. 3. The 123^ shows that what is undertaken, with a view to their own advantage, turns out to their own loss : Ps. Iviii. 7, Ixiv. 5. Instead of the Iliph. to which we must supply the head, or some similar word, (Ps, ex. 7, Ixxv. 4), the Masorites read Kal : — this, however, is unsuitable, as it does not express the idea of action.
The second strophe is ver. 8 — 12. The constant use of the preterites, throughout this passage, makes it evident that wc have here a description of some special case, an individual trouble and dehverance, in which God had manifested his glory, which had been described in general terms in the preceding verses. Ver. 8. Praise yepeojjles, our God, and cause the voice of Ids praise to he heard. Ver. 9. Who sets our soul in life, and does not suffer our foot to slide. Ver. 10. For thou didst prove us, 0 God, thou didst purify us as silver is purified. Ver. 11. Thou hroughtest us into the net, thou laidest affliciion upon our loins. Ver. 12. Thou didst let men ride upon our head, we came into fire and into water, and thou didst lead us out to affluence. — In ver. 9 the calamity is represented as a death, and the deliverance as a setting of the soul in life — a revivification : compare Ps. XXX. 3, " thou hast brought up my soul from hell," and at Ps. Ixiii. 3. In reference to the " sliding," see Ps. xv. 5, Iv. 22. —On " thou didst prove us," the Berleb. Bible : " Thou hast by many heats of trouble tried the worth and the steadfast- ness of our faith, hope and patience, as men examine metals by the fire" : compare Zech. xiii. 9, 1 Pet. i. 7. The " thou didst purify us," in ver. 10, shows that the protestation of innocence in ver. 18th, has reference only to fundamental integrity, and does not exclude manifold sins of infirmity, which justified di- vine chastisement. The purification removes the dross ; Isa. i. 25. " I will purify, as with prepared water, all thy dross, and I will take away all thy tin," Zech. xiii. 9. Silver requires
328 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
a particularly continuous and repeated purification: comp. Ps. xii. 6, Isa. xlviii. 10, "I have refined thee, but not as silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." — The HpiyD, in ver. 11, is straitness, oppression, sorrow : compare Hpy i" P^* Iv 3. . The loins are named as the seat of strength : comp. Deut. xxxiii. 11, Ps. Ixix 23, and Gesen. Thes. When they are weakened, the strength generally is gone, and the man is weak and miserable. Several translate erroneously : straitening/, op- pressing fette^^s ; others : an oppressing burden. But fetters are not put on the loins, and loins do not carry burdens. — In verse 12th, the head is named as the noblest part, without strict re- gard to whether, in the case of beasts, the rider sits on the head or not. In reference to Ji^lJX) comp. at Ps. viii. 4. The more miserable the master is, the more oppressed is the servant. On '* we came into fire and water," comp. Isa. xliii. 2. The ri''1*1 occurs only here and in Ps. xxiii. 5. Calvin : " The sum is, al- though God at times may chastise severely his own people, yet he always gives them a happy and joyful issue." Arnd : " Many thousands of pious Israelites, under the Old Testament, and many thousands of Christians, under the New, have been liter- ally delivered out of such troubles, and many thousands have had to lay down their lives, whom God has delivered and brought to life as to their soul, as the pious martyr Babylas said when he was led to death : ' Be now joyous, 0 my soul, God is doing good to thee.' "
The third strophe is from ver. 13 to 20. Calvin : " The sum is, the glory of God would be unworthily suppressed, if, as often as he asists us in trouble, our joyful thanksgivings did not follow our deliverance." Instead of the " we," which occurs in the preceding paragraph, we have here " I." The speaker cannot be the Psalmist, or " any individual heart." Against this we have the magnificent character of the sacrifice, and the circumstance that the trouble and the deliverance which are here appropriated to one individual, are manifestly the same, as what are spoken of, as belonging to the ivhole, in the preced- ing part of the Psalm. In like manner, it cannot be king Heze- kiah, because the general character of the whole Psalm is a- gainst such a historical view. The speaker is rather an ideal person, the personification of the people. It is evident from the address to the fearers of God in ver. 16, that we cannot exactly say that it is the people who are introduced as speaking
PSALM LXVI. VEIL 13—20. 329
Similar personifications of the people are frequent : comp. for example, Ps. Ix., Ixv. 3, — Ver. 13. / will come into thy house with burnt offerings^ I ivill jmij to thee my vows, Ver. 14. Which my lips have littered, and my mouth hath spoken in my trouble. Ver. 15. Iivill bring to thee burnt offerings of fat lambs with the smoke of rams, I will offer bidlocks luilh goats. Selah. — Ver. 16. Come, hear, and let me tell, all ye that fear God, what he hath done to my soul. Ver. 17. / called upon him with my mouth, and a song of praise was under my tongue. Ver. 18. Had I regarded iniquity in my heart, the Lord ivould not have heard me. Ver. 19. But the Lord has heard me and marked my cry. — Ver. 20. Blessed be God, who has not removed my prayer nor his grace from me. — This last strophe contains the complete number of seven verses : the twentieth is to be considered as a conclu- sion : and the strophe is divided into two parts, consisting, the one of four, and the other of three verses. — The outward offer- ings, in ver. 13 — 15, are to be considered only as an embodiment of the gifts of the heart. The soul is the thanksgiving of the heart. Vows have burnt offerings for their object. The full enumera- tion of the animals, to be offered in sacrifice, shows the zeal, with which the thanks and the offerings are given. — The *1^3 in ver. 14, is "to open the mouth wide," and, secondarily, "to talk," Job XXXV. 16. The expression indicates the pain which called forth the vow, so that the")^;^ contains in itself the in " my trouble" of the second clause. — DT^Dj^^^. in ver. 15, is fat sheep. The smoke of rams, (used only here in this sense: in other passages always of incense), is the kindled fat of the rams. The H^J^, to make, then to prepare, to set in order, is frequently used of the bringing of offerings. — In ver. 16 — 19, the reference to the opportunity afforded of rendering thanks to God, namely, the answer which had been vouchsafed to the speaker, prepares the way for passing on to the leading idea of this paragraph, viz. the expressive declaration that this ansiuer had been vouchsafed to him only on the ground of his innocence, the didactic and hor- tatory tendency of which is only slightly concealed, viz. that there is no way to salvation except that of well doing. The soid is named m ver. 16th, because it had been exposed to danger: comp. ver. 9. — The D/b11 in ver. 17, is a noun, — a lifting up, praise: see its plural mJt2Jb11> Ps. cxlix. 6 " Under my tongue," compare at Ps. x. 7, indicates the fidness of the song of praise.
330 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
As soon as the Psalmist cried, he got occasion, through the de- liverance vouchsafed, to praise God: comp. Ps. xviii. 3, " I cried unto the Lord, and I was delivered from my enemies," Ps. xxxiv. 4 — 6. We cannot translate, " I cried," etc. " and now there is" ; for the reference to the loresent must have been indicated. According to the analogy of the first clause, it is only the pre- terite that can be supplied in the second. Even the deliverance itself belongs now to the past. But still less can we translate : " I praised God in confident expectation of his help." For in this case, it would not be the result that would be reported ; and yet in what follows, it is taken for granted that this has been done. The following are parallel passages to verse 18th : Prov. XV. 29, " The Lord is far from the wicked, and he hears the prayer of the righteous ;" John ix. 13 ; Isaiah i. 15, " Though ye pray ever so much, I will not hear you, your hands are full of blood ;" Isa. iix. 2, 3, " But your iniquities have separated be- tween you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear, for your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers Avith iniquity ;" 1 John iii. 21, " If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God, and whatsoever wc ask we receive of him :" compare on the con- nection between righteousness and salvation, Ps. xvii, xviii, xxxiv. 11. The nX'l is, as at Gen, xx. 10, " to have before the eyes." The p5< is always unrighteous^ ivickedness^ never va- nity^ in the sense oi false gods. The exposition, " if the design of my prayer had been directed to anything evil," has resulted from doctrinal scruples. The language does not refer at all to the object of the prayer, but intimates that the fundamental condition of being heard consists in this, that notwithstanding all weakness, the fundamental aim of the soul is pure and blameless, that the heart is free from all secret wicked- ness— recondita malitia. — But God has heard, etc. ver. 19, and therefore has shown that this hindrance to salvation does not exist in my case. — Ver. 20th, if given in full, would have been, " Who has not removed my prayer from him, and his grace from me."
PSALM LXVII. 331
PSALM LXVII.
The church of the Lord expresses a wish that he would impart to her blessing and salvation, in order that the manifestation of his grace, in the guidance of his people, may bring all the hea- then to him : verses 2 and 3. This wish depends on the firm basis of the word and the deeds of God, and therefore the con- fident assurance comes next, (verses 4 and 5), that the nations in future shall praise the Lord, on account of his righteous and good government, with which they in the first instance be- come acquainted from the guidance of his people. In verses 6—8, the church grounds this confidence, specially on a bless- ing enjoyed at the present time, namely, the rich harvest which God grants to his people.
The only reference to a matter of fact contained in the Psalm, viz : " the land gave its increase," is suflScient to determine the occasion on which it was composed : the title, To the Chief Musician, for instrumental music, a song of praise, is alto- gether general. The Psalm was composed on the completion of harvest; and that it was designed for the temple service, is ob- vious from the title, " to the chief musician," and from the re- ference to the priestly blessing in ver. 1st.
The Psalm contains the complete number of seven verses, which is divided, as generally, into a four and a three. The se- cond part is distinguished from the first, by the fact, that the blessing of God, presently enjoyed, is first made mention of in it — the circumstance which had given rise to the thought of the Psalm, " that the blessing of God upon Israel shall at a fu- ture time allure to him all the nations of the earth." By this thought the Psalm is connected with the preceding one. The same thought which had been called forth by a deliverance of the people, is here suggested by the usual operations of nature. Every manifestation of the power and grace of God awakened in Israel the hope, that the unnatural relation, in which the hea- then stood towards him would, in future cease to exist. This Psalm, along with the two which precede it, forms a Trilogy. At the beginning and at the end there is a praise-song of David, which celebrates the goodness of God in nature, the former to be sung in pros[)ect of an abundant harvest, and the latter after the harvest has been gathered in, and in the middle there is a song
332 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of praise to God because of his goodness in the dispensations of his providence.
The constant use of the general name of God, Elohim, is oc- casioned by the contents of the Psalm, which announce the con- version of all the nations of the earth. The name of Jehovah is to be regarded as in fact standing along side of it, and Elohim only gives prominence to the idea of generality which is coupled with that of the greatest limitation, but for this reason was fre- quently misunderstood. The word Elohim must have served to recall this idea always afresh to the minds of the people : comp. the Beitr. P. II. p. 299, 312.
The first part of the first strophe is ver. 1 and 2. — Yer. 1. May God be gracious to us, and bless us, may he cause his face to shine ivith us. Ver. 2. That thy way may be known upon the earth, thy salvation among all nations. The Psalmist at first speaks of God, because he confines himself strictly to the blessing of Moses, Numb. vi. 24, 25; but as soon as he leaves it he addresses God. The wish, in ver. ], is for grace and bless- ing, in this connection. The seventh verse renders it manifest that temporal blessings are not excluded, but are in the first in- stance referred to : compare also the expansion of the blessing in Deut. xxviii. 1 — 14. In the fullest sense, however, (and we may say this both of the prayer and of the intention of itj, the fulfilment is only in Christ. It is after God has procured all the blessings of grace and salvation in him to his own people, that there follows really and comprehensively the effect upon the heathen world which is the object of the Psalmist's wishes and hopes. In reference to the liglit and the shining of the face of God, comp. Ps. iv. 6, xxxi. 16. Instead of the " upon" of the priestly blessing, we have here " with," — the HJ^ being used exactly as it is in Gen. iv. 1, — so that his shining counten- ance guides us on our way. — On ver. 2, Calvin says : " The prophet wishes, that the favour of God towards his chosen peo- ple may become visible, in order that, by its splendour, it may lead the heathen to the hope of sharing in it." The way of God is liis procedure : from the experience of Israel, the heathen shall know how God acts, what are those treasures of salvation which are laid up with him for his people ; as, even at the pre- sent time, there are not more powerful means of bringing the world to God, than the perception of the gifts which he im- parts to the living members of his church : comp. Ps. xxv. 10,
I'SALM LXVI. VER. 3 — 7. 333
" all the ways of God are grace and truth" : ciii. 7 "' He has made known his luays to Moses, his deeds to the children of Israel." The parallel term, " his salvation," is sufficient against the translation, " his religion" : com p. Ps. xcvi. 2, xcviii. 2. The idea, that the blessings of Israel would exert an attractive in- fluence on heathen nations, occurs in the promises made to the patriarchs, Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4, " And all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in thy seed," i. e. they wish for, and they earnestly desire for themselves the lot of Israel as the highest good, and this wish shall be the means of their obtaining the blessing, (being blessed, Niph. Gen. xii. 3, xviii. 18), inasmuch as it will lead them to the author of the blessing. Isa. Ix. 3 is also parallel : " and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."
The second part of the first strophe is ver. 3 and 5. — Ver. 3. The jjeople shall praise thee, O God, all the peojjle shall jyraise thee. Ver. 4. The nations shall be glad and shout for joy, be- cause thou judgest the people righteously, and guidest the nations upon earth. There is first an announcement of the future con- version of all nations, and then a reference to the basis of this. The latter is to be supplemented from ver, 1 and 2 : — because, as the example of Israel shows, or as they see from the experience of Israel. Calvin saw that, according to the expression and connection, the language refers only to these nations who were subject to the dominion of the Lord, and who speak as at Isa. ii. 3. As an expansion of " he judges," these may be considered what is said in Psalm Ixxii. 12 — 14, of the judicial conduct of Messiah. Each bestowal of salvation is a judicial act of God. On *^^^'^J2, properly, " even," then "evenness," in a moral sense, in the accusative here, as D^l^i^^JD i" Ps. Iviii. 1, comp. at Ps. xlv. 6. On " thou guidest," comp. Isa. Iviii. 11, " And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought."
The second strophe is ver. 5—7. — Ver. 5. The nations shall praise thee, O God, all the nations shall praise thee. Ver. 6. The land gave its increase, God, our God, blesses us. Ver. 7. God blesses us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. — For ought to be supplied before ver. 6. The Psalmist tells us in these verses what it was that had given occasion and ground to his hope that the heathen, at a future time, sliould praise the Lord. First, a special event, which had just occurred, and which is expressed in the preterite tense ;. and, second, a, general truth, which had received from that event a recent confirmation,
334 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and, in the annunciation of which, the future tense is employed. The words in which the first is represented are borrowed from Lev. xxvi. 4 so literally, as to render it manifest that attention was designed to be directed to the faithfulness of God in fulfill- ing his promises: " And I give you rain in due season, and the land gives its increase, and the trees of the fields give their fruit," — a reference which refutes the idea that the 'p'lJ^rt here denotes the whole earth, (the " our God" serves the same pur- pose), and that the fruit of the land is a figurative expression for blessings generally. In reference to the thought, Calvin : " We must maintain, that as often as God adorned that ancient people with his benefits, he, at the same time, shone upon the whole world with a burning torch, so as to allure the heathen to seek him." In ver. 7, " God blesses us," is repeated for the purpose of connecting immediately together cause and effect : — ■" And because our God blesses us," etc.
PSALM LXVIII.
The Psalmist, in ver. 1 — 6, praises the Lord, as the saviour of the righteous, and the destroyer of the wicked. Then he casts a look upon the grand manifestations of his almighty grace on behalf of his people, as seen in history. First, in ver. 7 — 10, what he did for them when he led them through the wilderness, until he brought them to the promised land. Next, in ver. 11 — 14, the victory and the happy peace which he granted to his people in the time of the judges, until the erection of the sanctuary on Mount Zion. Then, ver. 15 — 19, the Lord has chosen Zion, which, in spite of all the assaults of the world, he shall never leave, and where he sits enthroned in the sanctuary, with all the fulness of his might : he has made himself knoivn as the God of Zion, in the victories gained over the enemies of his people. From this point forward, the Psalmist, in ver. 20 — 23, turns, as manifestly directed by the 20th verse, back from what is special to what is general, so that the first is enclosed within the last ; " God annihilates his own and his people's enemies." Next there follows, in ver. 24 — 27, the description of the triumphal procession in celebration of the victory. In ver. 28 — 32, there follows, as based on what God has done at the present time, the prophetic hope of the conversion of all the heathen to the glorious God of Israel ; and in ver. 32 — 35, all the kingdoms of the world are exhorted to praise this God. — -
PSALM LXVIII. 060
It is manifest that in these two last strophes, there is to be found the reason why the Psalm has been annexed to the two preceding ones, in which the hope is expressed, that what God had done for Israel, would operate effectually on the heathen nations.
The originality of the title is supported by the l^'^JJ^ and tKe )1t2il, in ver. 4, the D^Ei^ and the W^^^ in ver. 25, and the y\''^ and ll/t^T) i" verse 32, in relation obviously to y^ ^t2]^- As regards the formal arrangement, there are seven strophes, each of four verses, corresponding to an intro- duction of seven verses. The seven are, as usual, divided into three and four. At the end of the third strophe, there occurs an intercalary verse, ver. 19th, (as is often the case, for example in Ps. xxii. xlii.), in order that the chief division may be indi- cated by the number 20 : the whole 36* verses contain three twelves. This intercalary verse is marked out as forming a con- clusion, by its striking resemblance to the conclusion of the whole, verse 35.
The title confines itself to the announcement that the Psalm was composed by David, and set apart by him for the public service ; but is silent as to the occasion on which it was com- posed. For determining this last point, we have nothing there- fore to look to except internal reasons. Many expositors, and latterly Stier, have come to the conclusion, that the Psalm was written on the occasion when the ark of the covenant was brought to Mount Zion : comp. at Ps. xxiv. Others again have adopted the idea, that the occasion must have been the termi- nation of some war, when the ark was brought back to the holy mountain. TJiis last view is the correct one. A strong argument in its favour is drawn from the circumstance, that God is through- out celebrated decidedly as the Lord of battle and 0/ victory. The introductory clause, " God arises, his enemies are scattered, and they -who hate him flee before him," gives forth at the very beginning the fundamental tone, and the subject of the whole Psalm ; while, at the same time, in a Psalm composed for such an occasion, and of such a length, many other subjects would certainly be introduced. Farther, we are led to a victory as the occasion, by the 18th verse, which, Hke the 6th verse of Psalm
* These remarks are founded on the Hebrew mode of numbering the verses. The title being marked ver. 1st, the 19th verse in the English translation is the 20th verse in the Hebrew Bible, and the 35th, the 3 6th.
336 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ixvii. " the earth gave its increase," announces the matter of fact which called forth the Psalm, and which ought to be considered as supplementary to the title, and should properly be printed in large characters, Then we have the epithets which are applied in ver. 17 to Benjamin and Judah, and, finally, the close fitting in to the victory-song of Deborali : inasmuch as the author, in ver. 7 and 8, at the very beginning of his chief division, refers verbally to the beginning of the chief division of this song, he declares, as distinctly as possible, that he walks in the footsteps of Deborah, and that his song is to be considered as a continua- tion or resumption of hers, exactly, as with manifest design, by the reference, in the opening verse of the Psalm, to the language of Moses, he intimates, that the text and the subject of the whole are taken from him.
We have two data to guide us in our enquiry, as to what par- ticular battle and victory the triumphal procession in the sanc- tuary belongs, at which, according to ver. 24 — 27, the Psalm was sung. First, the Psalm must have been composed at a time when the sanctuary of the Lord was on Mount Zion, (ver. 15, 16, 29, 35). The choice is thus very much narrowed. There remain only two great victories, the Syrian-Edomite, and the Ammonitic-Syrian. Second, in the war referred to in this Psalm, the ark of the covenant must have been in the field, according to ver. 1 and 24. It is evident from 2 Sam. xi. 11, that this was the case in the Aramonitic war. We may therefore witn great probability conclude, that the Psalm was composed after the capture of Kabbah, (2 Sam. xii. 26 — 31). which terminated that war, the most dangerous with which David had to do. It was quite in accordance with David's usual manner to celebrate a great religious festival at the close of such a war. The closing character, which our Psalm so manifestly bears, is in favour of this view. That war was the last important external war in which David engaged, and from existing circum- stances, he might pretty confidently conclude that it would be so. Tne name of Solomon, which soon after this he gave to his son, shows that he considered peace as secured for a long time.
Modern criticism has attacked also this Psalm. Many, with Ewald at their head, would bring it down to a period after the captivity : a mistake well fitted to fill the mind with astonishment ! The character of the language and of tho
PSALM Lxviir. 337
description, which Amyraldus* first referred to in very appro- priate language, is sufficient to prove this. Boettcher (Pro- ben p. 64,) says : " From its antique language, its impres- sive descriptions, its fresh, powerful tone of poetry, it belongs assuredly fo the most remote age of Hebrcvi' poetry." Ilitzig : " Before every thing else, the Psalm, to an attentive reader, conveys the impression of the highest originality. . . . The poem may be pronounced with confidence to be as remarkable for its antiquity as for its originality: the later writers could avail themselves of the use of models, and they have actually used them and imitated them." The idea of Ewald, which he makes use of to counteract these considerations, viz. that the Psalm is made up of a series of splendid passages from poems now lost, must be characterized as merely an arbitrary one, at least so long as not one single passage can be pointed out, as borrowed from any of those pieces at present in our possession, which were composed after the time of David. The difference between these passages assumed to be borrowed, and others where the sense is plain and easy, is the same, for example, as in Ps. xviii., which even Ewald allows to be genuine. — There is a close connection between that Psalm and the one now before us, so much so, that the description given by Amyraldus applies with equal truth to both: there are also characteristic references in particular expressions to other Davidic Psalms, and to these alone.
But the reasons, drawn from tue matters of fact, referred to in the Psalm, are much mure decisive. Here it is of great impor- tance, that, according to ver. 27, Zabulon and Naphtali take part in the procession, next after Judah and Benjamin. After the cap- tivity, some of the descendants of the ten tribes might be found united with Judah, but assuredly there could be no such thing as the distinct tribes of Zabulon and Naphtali with their princes. During the whole period when the two divided kingdoms ex- isted in a state of juxtaposition to each other, there could be no union between Benjamin and Judah and Zabulon and jN^aphtali ; and even though they were sometimes united, by wliich Hitzig would interpret the 27th verse, yet, apart from the considera-
* " There are in it poetic descriptions, and bold metaphors, frequent apostrophes, magnificent prosopopoeias, and words which are of rare occurrence, and well selected, and therefore not easily understood. — It has also others which are quito easy ; it has doctrines sufficiently well explained to be un(^£rstood, and which are expressed in ordinary language."
VOL. IL Z
338 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion, that next to Judah, Ephrairn was the tribe that would have been named, and that the naming of the northern and southern tribes is equivalent to naming a part instead of the whole, espe- cially when Ps. Ix. 7 is compared, it is utterly impossible that these tribes could ever have marched in company as part of a triumphal procession in the temple at Jerusalem. We must, more- over, go higher than the division of the kingdom to the time of David. For under Solomon there was no such war and victory as the Psalm before us refers to. Farther, the epithets applied to Judah and Benjamin, in verse 27, can be explained only from the relations which existed in the time of David ; the mention of Egypt, as representing the power of the heathen world, shows that the Psalm was composed before the rise of the great Asiatic monarchies, especially the Assyrian ; Israel appears everywhere as a warlike and victorious nation, (compare especially ver. 21 — 23) ; and an event such as that which, according to verse IS, formed the subject-matter of the Psalm, could not have taken place subsequent to the captivity.
The reasons which have been urged against the Davidic au- thorship of the Psalm are very trifling. In reference to the mention of the temple in verse 29, compare at Ps. v. 7. That in verse 30 and 31 there are no traces whatever of a hostile relation to Egypt, which did not exist in David's time, and that Egypt is named simply as representing the might of the world as separated from God, which it still did in David's time, and continued to do until the rise oi' the great Assyrian monarchy, is evident, from the circumstance that Cush, which never was in a state of hostility to Israel, is named next after Egypt.
The Introduction contains first the title, after that the praise of God, as the Almighty destroyer of the wicked, and the de- liverer of the just, ver. 1 — 3, and finally, an exhortation to praise him as the helper of all the miserable, ver. 4 — 6. — Title. To the Chief Musician, of David, a song of praise. Ver. 1. God arises, his enemies are scattered, and those that hate him flee before him. Ver. 2. As smoke vanishes before the xvind, thou makest them to vanish, as ivax melts before the fire, the wicked perish before God. Ver, 3. And the righteous are glad, they shout for joy before God, and exult for gladness. — Ver. 4. Sing to God, sing praise to his name, make a luayforhim who rid- ethforward in the deserts, he is called Lord,and rejoice before him. Ver. 5. A father of the orphans, and a judge of the widows is God,
PSALM LXVIII VER. 1 6. 339
in his lioly habitation. Ver. 6. God makes the solitaru to dwell in houses, he brings out the lorisoners to prosperity, while the rebels divell in a dry land. — On verse 2, Calvin : " This verse forms as it were the preface, in which David announces the subject on which he is to speak throughout the Psalm. The substance is : though God rests for a time while the ungodly cruelly and boldly oppress the church, yet at last he rises up as the avenger; and the faithful have sufficient protection in his help, as soon as he only stretches out his hand against the un- godly." As the preceding Psalm rises on the basis of the Mo- saic blessing, the present one is closely related to the words, which, according to Num. x. 35, Moses uttered on the setting forward of the ark of the covenant, '• Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee be- fore thee," There is all the greater propriety in this reference, inasmuch as these words were spoken for all times, and were designed to inspire with courage in every age the little flock in presence of a whole hostile world : one single look at the ark of the covenant, whose place, under the New Testament, Christ occupies, (compare Christology, Part III. on Jer. iii. 16), and all enemies sank down into nothing. There are two variations from the fundamental passage. 1. What Moses expressed in the form of a prayer — arise, — David expresses in the form of an invariable sequence : he rises == he needs only to rise. Seve- ral interpreters translate erroneously: "May he arise": David in this case would assuredly have written n/!3lp: the language, moreover, in the following verses, is not that of pray- er, but of affirmation. 2. Instead of Jeliovah, David uses Elo- him ; and this name is the one which is generally used through- out the Psalm ; Jehovah occurs only twice, in ver. 16, and 20, and Jah twice, in ver. 4 and 18. The reason of this has been adverted to in the Beitrage, 3, p. 299. It lies in the misuse of the name Jehovah, which changed the name that was in itself the stronger, into the weaker. It is also remarked in the same place, that in such passages Jehovah is in the back ground, and that the simple Elvhim is equivalent to Jehovah Eluhiui : comp. the Jah Elohim in ver. 18th. — Tholuck has given an admirable view of the contents of this verse, " as the great theme which ' is continually being repeated, always under new forms, in the history of the kingdom of God upon earth, until the final judg- ment shall comprehend and complete, all earlier judgments of
Q^
340 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
God." Luther, after Augustine, has given great prominence to the verification which the verse received at the resurrection of Christ : " When Christ died, God acted as if he were asleep and did not see the raging Jews, he permitted them to gather strength and to assemble, and the poor disciples fled and were scattered. But when the Jews thought that they had gained the victory, now that Christ was laid in the grave, God awakes and calls Christ from the dead. Then the tables are turned : the disciples assemble, the Jews divide, some to grace who be- lieve, others to wrath who are destroyed by the Romans." What happened to the keepers at the sepulchre, (Matt, xxviii. 4), was a remarkable illustration of the contents of this verse. The Berleb, Bible : " St. Antonius, as Athanasius relates, is re- ported to have made great use of these two verses when he was assailed by the Devil. And there is no doubt that one may make very important use of them, in each and every assault and
temptation of the evil one, when under his power Ah! that
we would only permit him (God) to rise up! But we often sup- press his work within us. Hence it is no wonder that the work of our salvation goes forward so slowly." — Luther on verse 2 : " Two beautiful emblems, smoke and wax ; the smoke disap- pears before the wind, the wax before the fire. It is most con- temptuous to compare, to smoke, and wax, such mighty enemies, who think that they can combat heaven and earth." For the sake of the similarity in the termination, we have the rare in- stead of tlie usual form Cft^lJin^ of the infinitive in Niphal of P|'°fJ (the word is used in a similar connection in Ps. i. 4) ; in like manner the Nim is retained in ftUHj and for the same rea- son the suffix is dropped, which could be easily spared, refer- ring to the haters of God : compare on the omission of the suffix, for similar reasons, Ps. xl. 3, lii. 6. The image of wax is em- ployed also in Ps. xxii. 14. It appears, that in this and in the following verse, there is a reference to the conclusion of the song of Deborah, ver. 31 : " So let all thine enemies perish, 0 Lord, but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might;" just as at the beginning of the main divi- sion there is a reference to the beginning of the same song. — By the '* righteous" in verse 3, in opposition to the " w'icked," in ver. 2, the Psalmist means, in the first instance, according to the occasion of the Psalm, Israel in reference to heathen enemies. We are not, however, on this account, to imagine that he consid-
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 1 — 6. 341
ered every Israelite after the flesh to be a righteous man : comp. the introduction at Ps. ix. The wicked among the Israelites are, on the contrary, by this very designation of those to whom the salvation of God is appointed, excluded from the promise and thrown into the region of the threatening. The ^^^^ stands in opposition to >J3^ in verses 1 and 2. Destruction goes forth from the angry face of God against the wicked, the righteous rejoice before his gracious face.— The exhortation to "^ praise God in ver. 4, first rises out of the rejjresentation of his glory in ver. 1 — 3, and has afterwards a wider basis assigned to it in ver. 5 and 6. On " his name," comp. Ps. Ixvi. 2. In the phrase, make a way (77D is " to throw up a military road," " to make ^ way")/o?' him who rides forward in the deserts, Czy^ is used as at ver. 33, where 1 marks the ground rode over), there lies at bottom a spiritual application of the march through the wil- derness, to which reference is made in the first verse, and of which the Psalmist speaks at length in verses 7 — 9. God always goes at the head of his people through the deserts* of suffering and i>€ed ; in the deserts of trouble they find in liim a true leader. Verses 5 and 6 are to be considered as the expansion of " rid- ing through the deserts," and leave no room for doubt as to its meaning." Compare on similar spiritual appHcations of the march through the wilderness, the Christology, P. III. on Hos. ii. 16, and also the observations made on Ps. Ixvi. 6. The pre- paring of the way before the heavenly king, by which he comes in to us, in the wilderness of life, and guides us in it, can be no- thing else, in this passage, than songs of praise, the joyful recog- nition of his mighty deeds and of his glory ; for it is of this only that the Psalmist speaks in the preceding and following verses. Comp. Psalm l. 15, 23. Isaiah xl. 3, 4, rests on our passage, where, however, the preparation of the way is that of repentance, and Mai. iii. 1 rests again on Isaiah. *' Ilis name is in Jah" = " he is called Jah" : compare on the 1, Ewald. The name Jah, a contraction of Jehovah, is first used in the song of Moses, Ex. xv. 2 ; and there can be no doubt that this pas- sage is to be considered as the proper fundamental passage to all the rest. The name did not come into common use, but was generally borrowed only from that passage. For otherwise we
* Compare in reference to n^'^jr the author's treatise on Balaam, p. 230. rtssf, in a geographical sense, is the heart of the country on which the Israelites moved during the forty years' journey.
342 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
would not find it occurring only in expressions of a highly poetic character, Stier has correctly remarked that Jah, as the concentration of Jehovah, is the more emphatic term. At all events, there is less regard paid here to the derivation and original sense of the name, than there is to the fulness of asso- ciations connected with it throughout the whole course of time. — In verses 5 and 6, we have the foundation of the exhortation to praise God, in the exposition given of the glory of God in ver. 4, and, at the same time, an explanation and expansion of the clause, " he rides forward in the deserts." " The import is," says Calvin, " by whatever kind of troubles we are assailed, let consolation be in the hand of God, whereby he may ease our pains and unburden us of our cares. And even though the ungodly prosper for a while, yet, in the end, those very events, which seemed to be prosperous, will work out their ruin." Arnd : " And the meaning of the Holy Ghost is, that God the Lord is a gracious, a friendly God and King, whose first, highest, and principal work it is, to give most attention to the miserable, that is, to those who ought to be most pitied because they are helpless and comfortless. Great potentates in the world do not act thus ; they respect the noblest and the richest in the land, the men who may adorn their court and strengthen their power and authority. But the highest glory of God is to com- passionate the miserable." That by the widows, etc., we are not exactly to understand Israel, is evident from the plural, from those passages in the law, in which widows and orphans, in the proper sense, are represented as objects of peculiar regard to God, and are entrusted as such to the care of the righteous, (compare for example Deut. x. 18, Ex. xxii. 21), and finally, from the parallel passages, such as Ps. cxlvi. 7 — 9. On the other hand, the reference to the suffering church, is demanded by tlie whole tendency of the Psalm, and especially by the 7th and following verses, where manifestly, what is here said in general, is brought forward historically in detail : compare particularly " thine heri- tage when it was weary thou hast strengthened," in ver, 9, and " for the poor" in ver. 10. We must therefore hold that " the orphans," " the widovA's," etc., are expressions designed to individualize the miserable, and that God's care over these in general is praised, in special reference to what he does for his afflicted people. IIos. xiv. 4, for example, is altogether similar. " With thee the fatherless find mercy," and therefore also thy
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 1 — 6. 343
destitute people. Even there the "fatherless" are not exactly Israel, but only an individualizing designation of the helpless. —In verse 5th, Elohim is the subject of the affirmation, as it is at ver. 6. The jH occurs elsewhere only in 1 Sam. xxiv, 16, and there also as coming from the lips of David ; compare Ps. liv, 1. The holy, that is, the sacred and glorious, (compare at Ps. xxii. 3), habitation of God is heaven, (coriipare Ps. xi. 4), in opposition to earth, the seat of unrighteousness and of cold- ness of heart. Sursum corda is for the widows and fatherless. . — The solitary in ver. 6, are " those who are destitute of all human help" : compare Ps. xxv. 16, where solitary stands con- nected with miserable. The immediate blessing, of which these stand in need, is, to obtain a place where to lay their head, to be brought under roof and shelter: compare Isa. Iviii. 7, "And that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house." The Lord manifested himself to his people as one who caused the solitary to dwell in houses, inasmuch as he granted to them pos- session of Canaan, (compare ver. 10), and protected them there- in against their enemies, ver. 12. In like manner, he has proved himself to be such to the continuation of the community of the Old Testament, the Christian church, when " that which had previously been every where trodden under foot, obtained a firm and permanent settlement in the Roman empire, as hap- pened under Constantine, when the early persecutions ceased." Berleb. Bible. The same annotator, in the style of true theo- logical exposition, rises above the literal interpretation in his remarks on " those that are bound :" " partly under the heathen emperors, during the early persecutions ; partly, and still more, themenwhoare bound under the tyranny of the devil, of sin, and of death ; particularly also those whose spirit within is bound, so thatitcannotrisetothe joy of faith; and also those who are bound outwardly tovain pursuits." kw^on,'' heleads out" : " particularly brings them out from the slavery of wild lusts and heresies of the oldAdamintothehbertyofthe churchandof the children of God." Iliickert renders ill'l^lD hy " prosperity." The " rebels," or the " refractory," are the stiff-necked enemies of the Lord and his church. These were, as it were, banished by God, into the wilderness, and shut out from the experience of his fatherly good will. Rebellious Israel (compare Luke ix. 14, and John xix. 15,) has had to experience the truth of these words no less than the rebellious heathen, Amalek, (Ex. xvii. 14, 16), and
344 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Pharaoh at their head. The " only" is " it is not otherwise than thus," " it always happens so": compare Ps. Iviii. 11.
To the general praise of the glory of God there is now annex- ed a representation of several instances of this, as they took place in the history of his chosen people, first, in ver. 7 — 10, what God did to them at the time of the journey through the ivilderness : — he revealed himself to them, in the giving of the law from Sinai, ver. 8, he fed them and revived them wonderfully, ver. 10, iie finally led them into Canaan, ver. 11. — Ver. 7. O God, whenthou didst inarch before thy people, thou didst walk for- ward in the wilderness. Selah. Ver. 8. Then the earth moved, the heavens also dropped before God, it was at Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. Ver. 9. Thou didst send a rain of gifts, 0 God ; as to thine heritage, the loeary one, thou didst strengthen it. Ver. 10. Thy host dwelt in the land, thou dost prepare through thy good- ness, a home for the miserable, O God. — Verses 7 and 8 are borrowed, almost word for word, from the song of Deborah; (Jud. V. 4, 5), whose genuineness has now again become generally ac- knowledged: comp. the Beitr. 3, p. 116, Keminck, de Carm. Deb, p. 24. Judges V. 4 leans again on Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; Ex xix. 15 : comp. Beitr. p. 117. The " thou didst march before thy people," does not refer to the march out of Egypt, which is represented as having already taken place : " to march before," is applied, as it often is, Num. xxvii. 17, Ps. xliv. 9, Ix. 10, to the leader of the host, going forward at its head to some enterprise. In the Pentateuch, God is represented as the commander in chief, and Israel as the army led on by him against the Canaanites : comp. Ex, xii. 41, " All the hosts of the Lord went forth out of Egypt," ver. 51, and chap. xiii. 18. There is very probably in the song of Deborah and here, a special reference to Ex. xiii. 21, where the Lord marched at the head of his host in a pillar of cloud and fire. Arnd : " Now, although it was a great glory of the Old Testament, that God was present to his people then, in a pillar of fire and cloud, yet the glory of the New Testament is great- er still, because the Son of God has become man : that was mere- ly a shadow and a type, this is the highest consolation, and reality itself." The p;^''^'' is probably from Deut. xxxii. 10. The Selah stands, exactly as in Hab. iii. 3, between the general an- nouncement, and the expansion, and serves to direct attention to thelatter. Theconnection, thus established between versesTand
PSALM LXVIII. VER, 7 — 10. 345
8, indicates that the 7th verse is introductory, not only to the 8th, but also to the whole paragraph which has to do with the march through the wilderness, onward till its successful termi- nation.— For the first time, in ver. 8, we have the appearances at the giving of the law. The question may be asked, why the Psalmist begins at Sinai, and passes over altogether the mira- cles wrought by God on behalf of his people on their departure from Egypt. The answer is : it was at Sinai that the covenant for the first time was formally and solemnly concluded : comp. Deut. xxxiii. 5, " And he was king in Jeshurun, when the tribes of the people were gathered together." According to several expositors, the verse before us refers, not only to the appear- ances at the giving of the law, but also to the whole march through the wilderness. But against this, we have the empha- tic explanation given by the Psalmist, "•^''D DT? the reference, which it is impossible to mistake, to passages in the Pentateuch, and, finally, the connection and the train of thought in the song of Deborah : see the Beitrage. The appearances at the giving of the law, however, are introduced in this passage (where every thing that is mentioned, is brought in, as an expansion of " the righteous rejoice, &c.," and, " a father of the fatherless, &c.") notasconsideredin their special import, as an illustration of "our God is a consuming fire," but as illustrating, in their general as- pect, the supreme love of God seen in his thus making himself known to mortals : comp. Deut. iv. 33. In reference to the ft5«{, comp. Ps. xviii. 48. There is no ex])ress mention made in the his- torical narrative of the rain, (the heavens dropp)ed), but a dense c/ouri is spoken of. The'»JSD is from Ex. xix. 18. ThenTji^asc, stands instead of the neut., as Eccl. vi. 9, " This was Sinai," " it happened there." The usual translation, " this Sinai (moved)" will not do : " moved " is not the word, which the sentence supplies, but " dropped," and this will not suit. After this fin- ger mark, the " before God" is once more repeated, for the purpose of connecting it with the " God of Israel." It has hap- pened so, because it is thus God who has done it — because it has been done for the sake of Israel. — Ver. 9 refers to the provision^ made by God for his people, in temporal matters, during their marchings through the wilderness, — the manna, the quails, the water out of the rock, etc., according to verse 4th, a type and a pledge of what God does for his poor ones at a/Uimes. The Pinj means always " free-will gifts :" comp. at Ps. liv. 6. This fact
346 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
is sufficient to set aside the idea that, according to the transla- tion, " a freely given," or " aplentiful rain" a rain in the proper sense is meant, of which the history of the journey through tho wilderness knows nothing, and which, in the connection, would be far too insignificant, as it would have had to be mention- ed at the expense of the giving of manna, etc., facts which, in such a connection, are alivays thought of. The figure of rain, which was specially occasioned by the mention of rain in the proper sense in ver. 8, points, on the one hand, to the abun- dance of the divine gifts, — and this all the more, that it is not an ordinary rain that is spoken of but a violent shower, (comp. Ex, xvi. 4 ; Ps. Ixxviii., " And he rained down manna upon them, and gave them of the corn of heaven," Gen. xix. 24, " And he rained on Sodom fire and brimstone,") — and on the other, to the pleasing, reviving, and refreshing nature of these gifts. The reviving rain, so often used as an indivi- dualizing designation of blessing, is used also as an emblem of it comp. Isa. xliv. 3, "For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and rain upon the dry ground ; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." The Dl^, which, in Hiph. signifies always to move backwards and forwards, and never to sprinkle, — so that it is even inadmissible in point of grammar, besides being in violation of the accents to connect "iri/rii with the first clause, — indicates that the rain of gifts did not fall in some spots only, but goes forth in equal measure in all dii'ections, these blessings were imparted to the whole people : comp. Ps. Ixxviii. 27, 28, " he rained quails upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like the sand of the sea, and he let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their habita- tions." The inheritance of God indicates, as usual, not the land, but the people of the Lord. The " And {indeed or even) the weary {one)," points to the greatness of the divine beneficence, which was imparted to a people, in such a condition, to whom no restoration appeared to be possible : God, who alone in such circumstances, was able to help, (the emphatic, thou), stretched out his hand to them, when they lay on the ground wholly worn out through fatigue from travelling through the wilderness, through hunger and vexation. The pi^ is not " to revive," but " to establish," " to fortify :" comp. 2 Sam. vii. 13, Ps. xl. 2, xc. 17. — The crowning act of the glorious work of guiding through the wilderness, is, (ver. 10), the introduction
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 7—14. 347
of his people to the land of promise. Tlie HTI occurs in the sense of " an host," besides this passage, only in 2 Sam. xxiii. 11, 13. It appears as if this term were one peculiar to the time of David. In 1 Chron. xi. 15, instead of •' host of the Philistines," we have " camp of the Philistines." The suffix in Hi relates to the land, of which no mention had been expressly made in the preceding verses, but which the Psalmist had steadily before his eyes ; — it was indeed the very object of the march through the wilderness. The suffix is used, exactly in this way, in ver. 14, and in Isa. viii, 21. The second member contains an indeipendent proposition. The object is to be sup- ])lied from what goes before : a habitation : comp. " God makes the solitary to dwell in houses," in ver. 6. We cannot translate, " which thou hast provided :" in that case the future would not be used, and to prejmre will not apply to the land. Israel is called miserable, in reference to their reduced condition, (comp. the nxSj in ver. 9), and their utter helplessness in view of the powerful nations who possessed the land.
The second strophe ver. 1 — 14, contains what God did for his people from the time of their entrance into the land, till the setting up of the sanctuary in Zion : — he gave them glorious victor}/ and happy peace, which are celebrated each in two ver- ses.— Ver. 11. The Lord gives theiuord; of the female-messengers of victory there are great hosts. Ver. 12. The kings of the hosts fled, tliey fled, and the dweller at home divides the spoil. Ver. 13. When ye rest betiveen the boimdaries, ye are like the ivings of doves covered luith silver, and their feathers ivith the gleam of gold. Ver. 14. When the Almighty scatters kings in it, it snoivs on Salmon. — The word which, according to ver. 11, the Lord gives, is determined by the connections and parallelism to be one only of joyful import, the announcement of a victory, recently obtained ; and it cannot mean a song of victory. The victory, when gained, was celebrated by women in songs, plays, and dances ; comp. Ex. xv. 20, Judges v. 12, 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7. These are the female-messengers of Joy : comp. the damsels in ver. 25: the 1^^ is used also in Ps. xl. 9, of the triumphal an- nouncement of a salvation already externally made known to the Psalmist. The great band of the female-messengers <fjoy is made up of the union of all the separate quoirs during tlie centuries of the time of the judges, till the erection of the sanctuary on Mount Sion. Against the exposition, " messengers of victory to the great host," there is, first, the article, second, the adjec-
348 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
live would in this case be useless, and last, the salvation is not announced to the army, but to the people remaining at home. — According to the common idea, in ver. 12 and 13, the female messengers of victory are introduced speaking. But for this there is no foundation, and the regular progression of thought is altogether against it, — the victory, in ver. 11, the flight and the dividing of the spoil, in ver. 12, and the happy rest, in ver. 13, after the battle, imparted by the Lord to his people. " She that is dwelling at home," (the T\)1 is the stat. constr. fern, of niJ), according to the common idea, should denote the wo- men of the house, who distribute among themselves, or, each among the inmates of her own house, the booty brought home by the men. But we never read of the women per- forming any such action in reference to the booty : this task is one which belongs to the men. " She that is dv^elling at home," denotes Israel dwelling again peacefully at home after the flight of the kings : comp. " then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates," Judges v. 11, "the shout of those who divide the spoil between the watering troughs." In this way the 13th verse is well connected with the verse by which it i« preceded. For in it the Psalmist depicts the happy condition of " her that is dwelling at home," that is, of the people dwelling in peace in their own houses after the victory : a state of matters which, in the book of Judges, is described by the usual phrase, " the land had rest" : comp. the con- clusion of chap. V, and viii. 28. The victory and the spoil, which the Lord imparted to his people, in the season of their childhood, was a type of a far more glorious victory, and a more precious spoil. Arnd: " Is it not a valuable spoil, that so many thousands of men have been converted from heathenism, among whom have been so many glorious teachers and lights of the church, such as Justin, Augustine, Ambrose, not to speak of the innumerable martyrs, who were all brought out of heathenism, and were put to death because of their attachment to the Chris- tian faith." — The " when you rest," in ver. 13, not, " when you rested," indicates that the Psalmist docs not refer here to one past event. The y2^ implies peaceful rest, as at Numb. xxiv. 9, and is equivalent to V^*!, Gen. xlix. 14. The DTlSt^'* which is used only here and in Ez. xl. 43, and the DTlSD^^. i" the fundamental passage. Gen. xlix. 14, and in Judges v. 16, borrowed from it as in the verse before us, signifies either
PSALM LXVIIl. VER. 11 — 14. 349
" sheep-folds," or " boundaries." Against the former of these two senses, there is the consideration, that in that case the pas- sage in Ezekiel would be too much disjoined from the others : the sense of " sheep folds" is, accurately considered, not suitable even in Judges v. 16, for he who lies between the sheep-folds does not hear the shepherd's flute, but is the shepherd himself. At all events, however, the term denotes a state of peaceful rest. In this condition the Israelites, to whom the address is directed, are, taken figuratively, wings of the doves, etc., or they are like doves, whose wings glitter with silver and gold. The allusion is to the play of colours on the wings of the dove in sunshine. The real import is not at all, as some, with very little taste, would have it, " rich dresses of silver and gold, for the women, derived from the spoil," nor, even generally, riches of silver and gold, but the peaceful, and, at the same time, splendid condition enjoyed by Israel in the lap of peace : compare the corresponding second figure, snow, applied to the same condition, in verse 14. It is not quite ne- cessary to connect nSHJ with '^^'^'2 ; it may be also connected with niV ; — " the wings of the dove, which is covered with sil- ver, and as to its feathers," (ace), or " whose feathers (are co- vered), with yellow gold." — Ver. 14 points to the bright gleam of prosperity which covered the land on the prosperous termin- ation of the war, in room of the darkness in which it was en- veloped during the season of hostile oppression : — when the Lord scatters kings, the light of prosperity illuminates the darkness of the land, just as dark Salmon becomes white when covered with snow. The ti'lS i" I'ili- is originally " to stretch out," afterwards, " to scatter," as in Zech. ii. 10, (compare that passage against Hitzig and Maurer), and the Niph, is " to be scattered." The God of Israel is called Almighty, because he alone by his omnipotence could bring about the result here spoken of. The kings are the kings of armies of verse 12, such as Cushan, Jabin, Agag, etc. The suffix in Hi refers to " the land," in the former verse, which is not indeed expressly named, but which is clearly pointed at in, " when you rest between the frontiers." The JPw'D is used, as many similar verbs are, imper- sonally ; " it snows." The snow is mentioned here, because it has the colour of purest light; compare li. 7, Isa. i. 18, "they shall be white as snow," Mai'k ix. 3, " And his clothes glittered, very white like snow, such as no fuller on earth can whiten," Matt.
350 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
xvii. 2, where, instead of " white as snow," we have *' white as light" xxviii. 3, Rev. i. 14. Zalraon is " a hill mentioned in Judges ix. 48, which was covered over with great thick wood, (even according to that passage), so that it might be called a dark forest, the black or dark mountain." Luther. There is no need for supplying any mark of comparison before Zalmon : it is rather to be considered as used in a figurative sense for the la7id, just as snow is a figurative expression for the clear brightness of prosperity. In favour of this simple exposi- tion, we have the agreement between this and the preceding verse ; and second, it is in this way that we can see any reason for mentioning Zalmon : the mountain, destitute of any significa- tion itself, would (except in this view) be held as introduced only for the sake of its name. The most obvious interpreta- tion as to sense, "it becomes clear in the darkness," is nega- tived by the consideration, that p237^ is never used as an ap- pellative, and that Jl''7^n neither means, nor can mean, " to be white"' or " clear." And against the exposition, " it (the land) was snow-white with the bones of the slain like Zalmon," we have to urge, that Zalmon was not a snow mountain, that PXD^XI never can mean " like Zalmon," that ^V^n cannot bo translated " snow-white," and, fintiUy, that this exposition would bring us back from the region of peaceful prosperity to that of prosperous war.
The third strophe, ver. 15 — 19, describes the glory of God in Sion, after he had taken up there his abode. God maintains his position there in spite of all the machinations of the world though it should be united in hostility against Israel, verse 15, 16 : he sits enthroned there in the complete fulness of his om- nipotence, ver. 17 : he has exhibited this in victories gained over the enemies of his people, ver. 18 : praise to him the Saviour of his people, ver. 19. — Ver. 15. A mountain of God is Mount Basan, a summit-mountain is Mount Basan. Ver. 16. Why do ye lay snares, ye summit-mountains, against the'^ mountain which the Lord chooses for his seat ? the Lord shall dwell on it for ever. Ver. 17. The chariots of ^od are two myriads, many thousands, the Lord is among them, Sinai is in the sanctuary. Ver. 18. Thou goest up on high, thou didst lead the prisoners away, thou receivedst gifts among men, yea among the rebellious, to dwell, O Lord God. Ver. 19. Praised be the I^ord every day, they lay burdens on us, the Lord
PSALM LXVIIl. VER. 15 — 19. 351
is our salvation. Selah.— In ver. 15 the Psalmist tells what Mount Basan is, and in the 16th verse he rejects the false pretensions which it raises on the basis of its real worth ; it is great, — yet Mount Zion is infinitely greater, and vain are all its efforts to change this relation. Many expositors read the 15th verse with vocatives, but Boettcher, with good reason, prefers the exposition with subject and predicate : " A hill of God is the hill of Basan," remarking " that accumulated vocatives are very flat, and that individual appellations become very drawling." A hill of God is such a hill as, by its magnitude, reminds us of the creative power of God, and has the appearance of being favoured by him ; comp. at Ps. xxxvi. 6. It will not do to take the hill of God as equivalent simply to a superior hill, because there is an op- position between the hill of God (Elohim, the most general name of God) and the hill which the Lord chooses for his habitation — an opposition which would be altogether destroyed by this expo- sition. The hill of God is here used as an emblem of the king- doms of the world, powerful through the goodness of God : comp. on the hills as an emblem of kingdoms, Ps. Ixv. 6, and in addition to the passages quoted there, I^s. Ixxvi. 4, Hab. iii. 6. The hill of Basan is the high snow-summit of Anti-Lebanon, or Hermon, the extreme limit of Basan, yet really belonging to it; compare Beitr. III. p. 242. In Ps. xlii. 6, the land on the other side Jordan is named the land of Hermon, and Hermon also in Ps. Ixxxix. 12 represents the country beyond Jordan. The other hills of Basan are proportionably lower ; the name hill of God is not suitable for them ; they do not admit of being em- ployed to represent the might of the world, and they possess no superiority, even on the lower view, over Zion. There was, more- over, a peculiar propriety, arising from its position on the very boundary between Judea and the heathen world, in employing it as a symbol of the world's might : even in verse 22, Basan is named as the boundary of Canaan on the side of the heathen world. Compare Psalm xxix., where the wilderness of Kadcsh is named as forming one pair with Lebanon and Sirion ; the symbols of the world's might, on the north and the south of the land of the Lord, are seized with terror at the sound of his voice. Perhaps also the Psalmist noticed that the original name of Hermon, Sion, the lofty, (compare Beitr. 111. p. 241), and the Sidonian name, Sirion, (Deut. iii. 9), are both alhed in sound to Zion. The term, summit-mountain, indicates that Basan is not
352 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
an individual hill, but a gigantic, rugged mountain range. — In verse 16, the " wherefore," (comp. Ps, ii. 1), points to the folly of the hostile conduct of the kingdoms ; Boettcher : " why so fruitlessly." The word *^^f*^, which occurs nowhere else except in this passage, " to lay snares," '* to plot against," not " to envy," or " to look askance," (comp. Ges. Thes, — even the 17th verse leads to hostilities expressed in outward actions), makes it mani- fest that the hills are symbolical of kingdoms. The summit-moun- tains,— a kind of compound noun, (comp. at Ps. Ix. 3), — are either the individual summits of Hermon ; or the symbol of the preced- ing verse is here extended. The p^^^ " yea," points to the insepa- rable connection between the choice and the constant habita- tion : comp. Gen. xxvii. 33, " I have blessed him ; yea and he shall be blessed." The thought of both verses, — that grace is superior to nature, that natural gifts must yield to spiritual ones, that the world, in spite of all the power which God has given it, must yield to the church, in which God is present him- self with his omnipotence, — is expressed in a similar form in Is. ii. and Micah iv. 1 — 3, where the temple-mountain will, it is predicted, be exalted above all the mountains of the earth : comp. also Isa. viii. 6, where the brook Siloah symbolizes the kingdom of God, and the Euphrates the power of the world. — In verse 17 the Psalmist, in the words, " the Lord shall dwell there forever," announces the absolute safety of Zion against all the plots of the power of the world. The main strength of the hostile armies, particularly the Syrian, in the war which had just been brought to a termination, (compare 2 Sam. xviii. 4, x. 18), lay in war-chariots. As expressing emphatically the thought that the God, who dwells on Zion, is infinitely superior to these hosts, the Psalmist represents him as surrounded by such a number, as no human king ever possessed, of invisible chariots, led on by the hosts of his angels. That the mention of chariots of war has been called forth in this way, is evident from the paral- lel passage, 2 Kings vi. 17, where the servant of Elisha, when his heart failed him, at the sight of the " horses and chariots of the mighty hosts" of the Syrians, is comforted by a sight of " the mountain full of fiery horses and chariots round about Elisha." Tivo myriads, the number usually employed to de- note an infinite multitude, is doubled. " Perhaps allusion may be made to the two wings, on each of which there are ten thou- sand ; Gen. xxxii. 1, 2," Berleb. Bib, Thousands of repetition
PSALM LXVIII. VER 15 — 19. 353
or duplication^ thousands multiplied by thousands. Daniel vii. 10 is similar : " thousand times thousand serve him, and ten thousand times thousands stand before him." The Psalmist next directs attention to the point that this magnificent army derives its chief importance from this, that he, who alone is in a condition to avert a thousand deaths," is in the midst of it. The last words are to be translated : " Sinai is in the sanctuary" : Wlp'2, just as at ver. verse 24. The preceding context must determine, unless we wish to guess at random, in what respect Sinai is in the sanctuary. According to it, Sinai and Zion have in common only the presence of the Lord in the midst of the innumerable hosts of his angels. This, as far as Sinai is concerned, is emphatically attested by Deut. xxxii. 2, " he comes out of myriads of holiness," and verse 3, " all his holy ones are in thy hand," " they serve thee, 0 Israel" : — a passage to which the Psalmist refers. Compare also Gal. iii. 19, and Heb. ii. 2. The sense given by Stier is altogether wrong : " by the presence of the ark of covenant and the tables of the law, Zion itself was at Sinai." Even at verse 8, Sinai was thought of in reference to the majestic appearance of God. Even the exposition of Boettcher and others must be rejected, as not in keeping with the context : " Sinai with all its splen- dour of thunder and lightning is now in the sanctuary." — Ver. 18 gives the matter-of-fact proof for the assertion made in ver. 17. That the Lord sits enthroned in Zion in the whole fulness of his might has been made known, even now, by a great vic- tory obtained over the enemies of his people. The constant use of the preterites makes it evident that the verse refers to one particular event, and cannot be applied to what God is con- tinually (\omg '. and the connection with what goesbefore, accord- ing to which the expressions here can refer only to a favour which God imparts out of his sanctuary, renders it evident that it is not those enemies that are meant, " who were completely subdued, when the ark got its position on mount Zion," accord- ing to Stier, who maintains the hypotbesis that the Psalm was composed, on the introduction of the ark of the covenant to its seat on Zion. The ascending of God, which corresponds to " return thou on high" in the remarkably similar parallel pas- sage, Ps. vii. 7, presupposes his descending : compare Eph. iv. 9. It denotes his ascent to heaven, after he had made himself known, on earth, in deeds of omnipotence and love, that he niay there manage the affairs of his people; comp. at Ps. xlvii,
VOL. IT. ~ A
354 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
5. CD'llDrii the height, always denotes heaven, never mount Zion : corap. at Ps. vii. 7, xviii. 16, xciii. 4, cii. 19. Even in ver. 33, God is described as " he whose seat is in heaven": comp. 34th, " his power is in the clouds." The j^risoners, whom God leads away, the gifts which he receives, cannot be taken by him into heaven ; he takes them, only that he may give them to his people, " his hosts," at whose head he had gone forth to battle, and leave them behind him, when he ascends to heaven, just as the gifts of Israel to him were imparted to his servants, the priests. Hence it is evident that by the '' he gave," which occurs in Eph. iv. 8, instead of, " thou takest," the sense is not altered, but only brought out : the " giving " presupposes the " taking," the " taking" is succeeded by the " giving," as its consequence. The Apostle gives prominence to this consequence, because it was only this that served his object, as common to the type with the antitype. The passage in his view has this complete sense:. " he received gifts among men, and he gave gifts to men." That by gifts is meant, " gifts given reluctantly," is obvious, from " thou didst take ;" the same remark exactly may be made of niri^> which Gcsenius has made of nH^/D: — " the tribute was thus designated, which was exacted from a conquer- ed people under the milder name of a gift," compare 2 Sam. viii. 2, " and the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts," so of the Syrians, in verse 6. The 2 in D*Ii^!l, as in Ql, verse 17, has the sense of among. The men on the earth stand in opposition to Gbd on high : compare Ps. Iviii. 11, Ixiv. 9. Men, far from heaven the seat of God, fancy that they are se- cure, but they must learn wisdom by painful experience. The gift presupposes a giver ; and this giver is denoted by Q"7i<i; the history of David knows nothing either of " prisoners who were sent as gifts to the sanctuary," nor of " proselytes who gifted as it were themselves to God," but a great deal, of gifts in the sense adopted by us ; the connection between prisoners won by victory and riches is a constant one, especially in the transactions of David's times. By the " refractory" are meant those who, even after the appearance of the Lord and the mani- festation of his conquering power, still dared to persist in their rash opposition, such as the Ammonites, in opposition to those who yielded at once, like the servants of Hadadeser, 2 Sara. x. 19. That even the former must at length give presents, shows with what might God has assailed them on behalf of his people. And even the refractory must give presents to tliee, are such
PSALM LXVIII. VEU, 15 — 19. 355
from whom thou takest presents. To dwell, O Lord God : tliat thus thou, after thou hast completed all this, mayest dwell m heaven gloriously, inaccessible to the vengeance of the con- quered, as the Almighty, there: comp. Isaiah Ivii. 15. Several interpreters connect these words with what goes before : " and even the rebellious shall dwell with God." A. singular exposition ! p2J^j with the accusative, can never mean " to dwell with any one." It can only be by a false exposition, that any thing can be supposed in the preceding context to be said of grace to- wards the enemies, or of their conversion ; the refractory, ac- cording to verse 6, and Ps. Ixvi. 7, can be considered as refer- red to, only as objects oi punishment. Others: " And the re- bellious must rest": — but pgj' signifies always to dwell, and is so used in verse 16. Compare verse 4. We observe, farther, that the quotation of our passage in the Epistle to the Ephe- sians is not a mere accommodation, as the character and manner of that quotation show. The descent of God on behalf of his church, and the rich load of gifts bestowed upon it, here spok- en of, formed a prelude and a pledge of the appearance of God in Christ, and of the whole riches of his goodness and gifts im- parted in him to his church. That which was imperfect, affords on the domain of revelation, inasmuch as it points out the reality of the relation by which that which is perfect is demanded, security for the latter. — The Psalmist in verse 19, rising from the particular to the general, praises the Lord, as him who is always the saviour of the church. The D23^ sig- nifies to lay upon, not to carry, (as Ew. takes). The subject is undefined : men lay burdens on us. But in reality it is suf- ficiently obvious that we are to think of men, from the oppo- sition to God, (compare Psalm xxvii. 1, cxxiv. 2, and other passages), and from verse 18. Even in verses 16 and 17 the subject spoken of is the help of the Lord Almighty, a- gainst the enmity of the world. The 20th verse makes it evident that 7t^n is not " even this God," but that the article points to the peculiar God of Israel, as is frequently the case with tDTlSj^n : compare, for example, 2 Sam. xii. 16. The same consideration sets aside the idea that God is the subject to DSy^ •• " he loads us, he, God, is our help" Kiickert. The " Se- lab" here can only indicate the end of a section.
In verses 20 and 23, the general thought is further expanded, that God is the helper of his people against the wickedness of
356 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the wovld, to which the Psalmist had ah-eady risen in the verso of transition, the 19th verse. Ver. 20. God is tons a God of salvation, and Jehovah the Lord has the issues from death. Ver. 21. Yea, God dashes to pieces the head of his enemies, the hair- skull of him that ivalks on in his iniquities, Ver. 22. The Lord speaks, out of Basan I loill bring hack, bring back out of the depths of the sea. Ver. 23. So that thou dashest the foot in blood, the tongue of thy dogs (gets), at the enemies, from it. The 7Xn in verse 20, parallel to Jehovah, is equivalent to " our God." On niy^"l/b) salutes, Calvin : " Not without reason does ho make use of the plural number, that we may know that al- though even innumerable deaths assail us, God has also in rea- diness innumerable ways of deliverance." " Of death" : threat- ening and already approaching. The Psalmist refers, in the first instance, to deliverance from great dangers and troubles, (comp. Ps. xlviii. 14) ; but in reality the expression applies to death, properly so called, and even to spiritual death. Only he who has the keys of death and of hell, (Rev. i. 18), can render help in every danger and trouble. — On the 21st verse, Calvin : " Because the church, attacked on all sides, by strong and rag- ing enemies, can obtain nothing otherwise except by a strong and powerful defence, the Psalmist brings in God armed with terrible power, for the destruction of all the ungodly. It is to be observed that all who annoy the pious, are called enemies of God, so that we need not doubt that he will interpose for our defence." The " only" stands as in verse 6. On " he dashes to pieces the head" comp. Ps. ex. 6. The " hair-skull" can be only the skull covered with hair. The epithet, as appears, serves the simple purpose of poetic effect and description. As ^ygJ^ is in the Stat. abs. we can translate only the hair-skidl ivalking, (so that the head represents the whole man), not of him that walks : compare Boettcher on the passage. — That in verse 22, the object to be supplied to " I will bring back," is not Israel, (comp. Is. xlix. 12), but the enemies who had just been named, is evident from the following verse, where the dashing to pieces of the enemies is mentioned as the consequence of bringing them back. According to this view, verses 22 and 23 merely expand and individualize the clause, " he shall dash to pieces the head of his enemies." The remarkably similar parallel passage, Amos ix. 2, 3, may also be appealed to in favour of this view. In re- ference to the enemies of God among Israel, the prophet there says : " No one shall escape, no one shall flee away, though
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 20 — 23. 357
they dig" into hell, yet shall mine hand take them thence, though they mount up to heaven, yet will I thrust them down, and though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from thence, yea, though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, &c." I shall bring them hack, when they are returning into the land, laden with booty, after a prosperous inroad ; thus David for example slew the Edomites in the valley of Salt after they had successfully arrived at the boundary of their own land. Basan is named, as in ver. 15, as the boundary of Canaan, after reaching which, the enemies appear- ed to be safe, from the vengeance of Israel, and of Israel's God. This, however, shall reach them even there, as Abraham former- ly reached and slew the kings from central Asia, on the extreme boundary of Canaan : Gen. xiv. 14. — The 23d verse is generally translated : " in order to dip thy feet in blood" : Ewald : " that thy foot glitter." But T*n^ always signifies to " strike," to "dash to pieces," compare (Ps. ex. 6, Num. xxiv. 8, 17), and it must be used in this sense here, especially as it is used in the same sense in the 21st verse, which stands in the closest connec- tion with the verse which we are now considering — a connection which manifests the folly of the conjectural reading T*n*in — '■ God dashes to pieces his enemies, he dashes them to pieces even when they seem to be perfectly safe. Hence we must hold that at "{^nDn the object is wanting, as it is in verse 22 and 2 : in order that tliou, O Israel, mayest dasli them in pieces ; the words Din "J^JI form a subordinate idea : tliy foot in blood. The second clause is generally translated : " that the tongue of thy dogs may have its part from the enemies." But Vl2 is never used as a substantive in the sense of part, and p^J'^ is never masculine. TVe must therefore translate : that the tongue of thy dogs may get, from the enemies, of it (the blood). Arnd : " As we see in the Old Testament, in Ahab and Jezebel, the malicious enemies of the church, and the murderers of the pro- phets, and in the New Testament, in the case of Julian, Licinius, and Maxentius, in whose blood the conquerors did freely dye their feet ; and this happens still, as often as the church of God and the gospel wonderfully gain tlie victory, are upheld, and protected against the bloody practices of its foes. And so will it remain till the end, according to Eom. viii: 'for thy sake we are killed, all the day long, and are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter, but in this we are more than conquerors, for the sake of him who hath loved us.' "
358 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
In \^er, 24 — 27, the description of the procession in celebra- tion of the victory, in which it becomes manifest that the Psalm was also intended for posterity, for this description is pre-emin- ently adapted to its necessities, — Ver. 24. Theij behold thy proces- sion, O God, the procession of my God and King in the sanctuary. Ver. 25. The singers go before^ after that the players on instru- ments^ in the midst are the young ivomen striking timbrels. Ver. 26. In the assemblies praise God, the Lord, ye from Israel's foun tain. Ver. 27. There is Benjamin, the little one, their ruler, the princes of Judah, their stoning, the princes of Zebulon, the 2')rinces of Naphtali. — The "IXI in ver. 24, is either used imper- sonally, they see, or the subject to be supplied is those who do not take part in the procession, the great multitude of spec- tators, in opposition to those named in ver. 25, 27. The n*lDvri, properly something gone, (used only in the plural), and next a solemn procession. On " my God and King," com- pare Psalm V. 2. On ^np^, which must have the same meaning as at verse 17, in the sanctuary, and which can be connected only with th eproces^zon, it has, with much forced inge- nuity, been remarked : Jehovah goes no more up and down in the holy tent. Even verse 26th leads us to a procession in the temple ; for it was only in the temple that the assemblies were held : and so do the expressions, " because of thy temple," in verse 29, and " out of thy sanctuary," in verse 35. It is not possible to see what objection there could be to a procession in the temple, as there were courts connected with it. Delitzch has^ whtflly misunderstood our verse at IIab.iii.6. — The singers, according to ver. 25, go before the music, the players on instruments follow them, beCcTuse, in intellectual true religion, the Word takes every- where the first place. Our Psalm itself was manifestly sung. The ^^^^, properly in the stat. constr, and a preposition, is frequently used as an adverb, behind, with the noun or pronoun omitted when it may be easily supplied from the connection, as it can be in the present instance with them or these. The hand-kettle-drum, a piece of skin stretched across a hoop, with metal plates on the rim, is at this day in common use in the East. The " in the midst" refers only to the players on instru- ments. The 26th verse contains no more than the rest of the Psalm does, " the words of the singers." Even in Judges v. 9 the poetess herself addresses the nobles of Israel : " praise the Lord" : compare also Ps. xxii. 23. On ni/Hp/tD. used only here and in Ps. xxvi. 12, compare at that passage. The assump-
PSALM LXVIII. VER. 24 — 27. 359
tion that the plural signifies one but a full assembly, has no foundation whatever : in the assemblies, and particularly in this one. Is. xlviii. 1, and li. 1, furnish a commentary on " Ye from Israel's fountain," — In the enumeration in ver. 27, of the tribes which were present at the procession, the Psalmist must be con- sidered as naming a few as representatives of the whole. In the choice of these he may have been guided, in the first instance, by geographical considerations : Benjamin and Judah are on the south, Zebulon and Naphtali on the north. But this assuredly was not the only, it was not even the chief considera- tion that guided him. The epithets, which are applied to the two first tribes, and the circumstance, that those only are named, which were particularly distinguished in the field, show that it was considerations of this kind, that chiefly influenced the Psalmist. The first judges belonged to the tribes mentioned, Othniel to Judah, Ehud to Benjamin ; Zebulon and Naphtali distinguished themselves particularly in the conflicts under Deborah and Barak, — compare Judges v. 18, " Zebulon and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field ;" — and Saul was from Benjamin, and David from Judah. A comparison of the song of Deborah leads to the same result : every thing that is there said of the tribes bears upon their relation to the enemies. There is Benjamin, the little^ their ruler. There, in the pro- cession. The naming of Benjamm before Judah, is explained only by the circumstance that Saul, as conqueror of the hea- then, preceded David : compare 1 Sam. xviii. 7. Benjamin is called little, in reference to his place among the sons of Jacob, Gen. xliii. 33 ; which, at the same time, typified the position of the tribe in Israel. That even the little Benjamin should be ruler over the heathen, shows the greatness of the grace of God : compare 1 Sam. ix. 21, where Saul, on his being appointed king, says with astonishment : " am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel." The suffix in Sll, who rules over them, which is not the Kametz but the Tseri, denotes the accusative. The suffix is to be referred to the enemies, whom the Psalmist throughout has in his eye : the omission of the suffix in verses 2, 22, 23, is analogous. A commentary on this epithet of Ben- jamin is furnished in 1 Sam. xiv. 47 and 48 : " And Saul took the kingdom over Israel, and fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon,
360 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and against Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines, and whithersoever he turned himself, he vexed them. And he gathered an host, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of them that spoiled him." Several expositors give : there was Benjamin, the Little, as their leader. But the view cannot be adopted that Benjamin was leader of the whole procession, — at no time, except during the reign of Saul, did the tribe occupy such a position as to entitle it to this honour — ; HTl never means to lead, or even to reign, but always to have the dominion, or the mastery over, and the standing object of dominion is the heathen : compare the trea- tise on Balaam, p. 187. This last remark also sets aside the forced interpretation : tliere is Benjamin, his leader. HTl can- not possibly be used of the patriarchal power of the head of a tribe. D^^ is a word of frequent occurrence, and never has any signification in Heb. except to stone. Hence HD^I. the word here used, cannot be translated in any other way than by stoning. Judah is called the stoning of the enemies, in allusion to David, who put to death by a stone Goliath, the representa- tive of the might of the world. The translation, " the princes of Judah and their multitude," (Gesenius and others), takes T\'!2y^ in an unascertained sense, requires " and " to be added, without any authority, and is besides connected with a sense of DTn which has been already shown to be a false one. It is de- serving of being noticed, that the same tribes which appear in this procession as distinguished among the people of God in battle against the world, occupy a very prominent 'place also in the New Testament. Paul, " the least of the apostles," 1 Cor. XV. 8 — 10, was from Benjamin, Phil. iii. 5, the second Saul radically ; from Judah, " the lion of the tribe of Ju- dah," James and John, James, Thaddeus, and Simon, and the rest of the apostles were from Naphtah and Zebulon, or Galilee, (Math. iv. 13).
In the 6th strophe, ver. 28 — 31, the Psalmist, out of the glo- rious consequences which the Lord, after such a short abode on Zion, had already secured for his people, prepares for himself a ladder by which he may ascend to the hope of the future subjuga- tion of the whole world-power under his sceptre. Ver. 28. Thy God hath appointed thy strength ; he strong, O God, ivho workestfor us. Ver. 29. Because of thy temple over Jerusalem^ kings shall bring presents to thee. Ver. 30. Rebuke the beast of the reeds
PSALM LXVIII. VER.
i— 31. 361
the herd of the strong ones with the calves of the peoples, who sub- mit themselves to thee ivith bars of silver ; he scatters the people ivho love war. Ver. 31. Nobles shall come out of Egijpt, Cush stretches forth its hands to God. — In verse 28, Israel is first ad- dressed, then the Lord. God has appointed thy strength, in his eternal determination which was made known to thee by his servant Moses. Be thou then strong, O God, on behalf of thy people, and realize therefore thine appointment of his strength, thou who luorkest for us, who are helpless in ourselves, and hence are looking to thee alone in reference to the strength or- dained for us by thee: compare Is. xxvi. 12, " 0 Lord, give thou us peace, for thou workest all our works for us." The HI stands instead of 1^5< : it cannot mean "as" — The exhortation which had arisen from the basis of hope, returns again to hope in verse 29. By ^yr\ is here meant, in the first instance, the holy tabernacle on Zion : and the temple of Solomon is to be considered as its continuation. Compare Ps. v. 7. xlviii. 9. Ixv. 4. The sanctuary, both in a literal and spiritual sense, lies over Jerusalem. The sanctuary of God over Jerusalem is the sym- bol of his protecting power, of his help-sending grace, which hovers over Israel : and therefore, " because of thy temple," is equivalent to, " because of thy glorious appearances as Israel's God": compare " the height is over Israel" in verse 34, and " dreadful is God out of thy sanctuaries," in verse 35. The translation, " for thy temple," is quite an arbitrary one : the connection between the first half of this verse and the preceding one is violent. As a prelude to the hope here expressed, it is recorded in 2 Chron. xxxii. 23: " And many (in consequence of the manifestation of the glory of God in the subjugation of the Assyrians) brought gifts to the Lord at Jerusalem." In reality, however, the hope is a Messianic one, inasmuch as it was only in the days of the Redeemer that the reality of the sanctuary over Jerusalem, the kingdom of God upon the earth, was brought into proper light. Compare Is. Ix. 3, " And nations shall come to thy light," and verse 6, " the multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from Sheba shall come, they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord." There also, the salvation which the Lord imparts to his people, the same as the temple over Jerusalem, is the magnet, which, with irresistible power, attracts towards him the heathen world : compare on
362 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ps. Ixvi. and Ixvii. The ''^ occurs elsewhere only in Is. xviii. 7, and Ps. Ixxvi. 1, and in both places in the same connection as hero : — a circumstance which admits of explanation from the fact that the passage before us is the fundamental one. — The 30th verse begins with an exlwrtafion^ " rebuke": but that this, as rising on the basis of confidence, has in reality the import of a prophecy, corresponding to " they shall bring," in verse 29, is manifest, from the words of the conclusion, " he scatters," (which it has been proposed inconsiderately to change into an imperative), and also from " they submit themselves," equiva- lent to " they shall yield, restrained by thee": — all which stands just as it would have stood, had the opening words of the verse been " thou slialt rebuke." The beast of the reeds can only be such a beast as has its usual place of abode among the reeds, and to which this belongs as its characteristic mark. It cannot therefore be the lion nor even the crocodile, which is spoken of in Ex. xxix. 3, as the symbol of Egypt, where the king of Egypt is addressed as " the great dragon who rests in the midst of his Nile": compare xxxii. 2. It must mean the second natural representative of Egypt in the brute creation, the hip- popotamus or behemoth, of whom it is said in Job xl. 26, " he lieth under the shady tree in the covert of the reeds and fens," {the nip is used of the reeds of Egypt also in Isa. xix. 6, xxxv. 7), while nothing of a similar kind is said of his colleague, the leviathan or crocodile. The HTl* which is never used of any particular animal, leads to the same result : compare the Bei- trage 11. p. 258. The express naming of Egypt in verse 30 furnishes a commentary on " rebuke thou the beast of the reeds." The following expressions, " the strong ones," and " the nobles from Egypt," render it manifest that the hippopotamus does not, in the first instance, symbolize Egypt, but denotes its ruler^ just as in Ex. xxix. 3, the crocodile is the emblem of Pharaoh. The preceding naming of the kings, and the clause which imme- diately follows, and is at the same time a general one, " the crowd of the strong ones," show that Egypt comes into notice here only as the representative of the power of the world, and is mentioned as being the most powerful of the existing heathen kingdoms, on whose submission all the rest would yield as a matter of course. " The strong ones" is a poetic expres- sion for " bullocks," as it is at Ps. xxii. 12. Powerful kings are termed hidlocks, and their subjects calves, according to the ex-
PSALM LXVIIl. VER, 28 — 35. 3G3
press explanation of tlio Psalmist. In " the calves" either a- mong or ivith : ^ occurs in the same way again in ^^J'^^. The singular masculine DS'lH^ refers to the whole of what had been spoken of in the preceding context. The D31 is " to tread with the feet," and in the Hiph. " to allow one's self to be trodden upon," " to submit." " With pieces of silver," which they bring as gifts of allegiance : compare " thou receivedst gifts among men," ver. ] 8, and " their silver and their gold with them," Is. Ix. 9. He scatters, &c. : all nations, even those who are most remarkable for their strength and love of war, must yield to his omnipotence, when once the time has come " to as- semble all the heathen." — In verse 31 Cush is named, next af- ter Egypt, as representing the power of the world, as a mighty kingdom, and one invested with that peculiar splendour which attaches to whatever is distant : compare Isaiah xlv. 14, xviii, 7, Zeph. iii. 10. The name Hasmonean, adopted by the Mac- cabees, was, without doubt, according to the practice of later times, (Ps. xlv. 1), taken from this passage. The Hiph. of V)") signifies always " to cause to run," or " to cause to hasten." The hands, according to verses 29 and 30, (compare Ps. Ixxii. 10), are stretched forth, not in the attitude of prayer, but as fill- ed ivith gifts of allegiance : compare Gen. xxxi. 10. Cush shall not manifest greater haste in any thing than in bringing gifts to the Lord. Arnd: " There was a noble church in Egypt at Alexandria, where the holy Athanasius was bishop. The trea- surer of the Queen of Ethiopia was converted at Jerusalem, and many miracles were performed in that country, by the Apostles themselves."
In the seventh strophe, verses 32 — 35, all the kingdoms of the earth are exhorted to praise the God of Israel : compare at Ps. Ixvi. 1. — Ver. 32. Ye kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing praise to God. Selah. Ver. 33. He rides forward in the highest heavens of old time, behold he causes his voice to be heard, the mighty {voice). Ver. 34. Give glory to God, ivhose height is over Israel, and ivhose poiver is in the clouds. Ver. 35. Dreadful art thou, O Lord, out of thy sanctuaries, the God of Israel, he gives might and strength to his people. Praised be God ! — The 33d verse contains the basis on which the exhorta- tion of the 32d verse rests. The heaven of heavens = the high- est heavens : compare 1 Kings viii. 27. The " of old time," serves likewise to exalt the excellence of God's seat, and at the
364 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
same time to point to his supremacy. Allusion is made to Deut. xxxiii. 26 : " There is none like God, Jeshurun, who rideth in the heavens, as thy helper, and in his excellency in the clouds :" compare x. 14, " behold the heavens, and the heavens of hea- vens are the Lord's thy God, the earth and all that is therein :" The second clause forms a compend of the xxix. Psalm. On ^Ipn |nj compare at Ps. xlvi. 6. — On " give might" in verse 34, compare at Ps. xxix. 1. What remains contains the grounding. His height is over Israel : his majesty and his glory guide and protect Israel, and the image of these is brightly re- flected from Israel's experience. His power is in the clouds, out of which be causes his mighty voice to sound, ver. 34. His-^ tory and nature alike manifest his glory. — Out of thy sanctua- ries, ver. 35, O Israel: the plural is used, because the sanctuary of God is manifold, as bearing upon the maintenance, the de- fence, and the government of his church : compare at ver. 29. The conclusion is exactly the same as Ps. xxix. 11, " the Lord gives strength to his people": compare Is. xl. 29, 31. Calvin: " In fine, he lays down the ark of the covenant as if it were a banner of confidence to the faithful, in order that, in reliance on the promise, ' I dwell in the midst of you,' (Ex. xxv. 8, xxix. 45), they may rest with safety under the wings of God, and may without terror call upon him."
PSALM LXIX.
The Psalm is " a prayerof onesuffering severely from men, for the sake of God." The sufferer gives a representation of his mis- ery, ver. 1 — 4, next intimates that he suffers for the sake of God, that he has drawn upon himself the hatred of his abandoned foes, on account of his zeal for the glory and the pure worship of God, ver. 5 — 12, prays on this solid foundation thus laid that God would dehver him, ver. 13 — 18, turns back and describes his necessity, and the vvickedness of his enemies, ver. 19 — 21, and thus prepares for the expression of his desire that they may be destroyed, ver. 22 — 28, intimates, after a short expression of his hope, ver. 29, his resolution to glorify the Lord by render- ing thanks, and his hope that the faith of all the pious will be confirmed by his deliverance, ver. 30 — 33, and concludes with
PSALM LXIX. 365
the joyful expectation, arising from the revelation of God in his own experience, that God shall deliver Zion and build up the cities of Judah, ver. 34 — 36,
The prayer for the vengeance of God upon the enemies, and likewise the conclusion, are contained in the complete number of seven, which in the last case is divided into a four and a three. The preceding part contains 21 verses, 3 times 7, but there are no farther traces in detail of a formal arrangement.
The remarks made on Ps. xxii., and also on Ps. vi. xxxv. xxxviii. xl. and xli., as to the subject, are equally applicable here. The Psalm does not refer to any individual sufferer : the speaker is the suffering righteous man ; there are no individual references whatever. In ver. 26, as in Ps. xvi. 10, a plurality which had hitherto been concealed under a unity, comes for- ward. Calvin ascertained the correct view : " David wrote this Psalm not so much in his own name, as in the person of the whole church, and it is like a glass, in which the common lot of all the pious is placed before our eyes." The remarks made on Ps. xxii. are conclusive against the idea adopted by many, that the subject of the Psalm is the people.
In common with all the Psalms referred to above, there is in this one the appearance of exaggeration in the description of the sufferings. This is to be accounted for by the circumstance, that the various features which occur scattered among indivi- dual sufferers, are brought together in these Psalms into one great martyr-image. The peculiarities which are here pro- minent on the ground common to all these Psalms are : 1st. The copiousness in the description of just judgments upon the enemies, designed to serve as a strong bulwark to the righ- teous man against despair, in view of their wickedness, by which, in the end, they do nothing more than draw down upon their own guilty heads the terrible vengeance of God : and, 2d. The strong prominence given to the circumstance, that the suf- ferer suffers for the sake of God, extending to all placed in similar circumstances a strong support, on which they may rest their hope of deliverance.
In the New Testament there is no one Psalm, with the excep- tion of the 22d, which is so frequently quoted and applied to Christ, as the one before us, (compare the passages referred to in the exposition), not only by the Apostles, but also by Christ
366 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
himself : — a fact, the consideration of which ought to be enough to make De Wette ashamed of his opinion : "a Psahn compos- ed in a plaintive style, in an exaggerated tone, and with deprav- ed taste." Many old expositors have hence been induced to a- dopt a direct Messianic exposition. But these quotations do by no means justify such an exposition, inasmuch as the Psalm, even though it refer to the suffering -righteous man, is still a prophecy of Christ, in whom the idea of righteousness was personified, and in whose case, the intimate connection spoken of in the Psalm between righteousness and the opposition of sinners, was exemplified in living reality, — as seen in the sufferings which he endured from an ungodly world : compare on Ps. xxii. No ar- gument against the Messianic view can be drawn from the exe- crations directed against the enemies as inconsistent with the magnanimous and forgiving character of Jesus ; but a very de- cided one is furnished by the confessions of sin, which can nei- ther be removed by exposition, nor made to refer to imputed sin: compare at Ps. xl. Then, it is impossible to disjoin the Psalm from those above quoted.
The title intimates that the Psalm was composed by David. A very weighty argument in favour of this assertion, may be drawn from the fact, that all the Psalms which are nearly re- lated in thought and language to this one, and that too, in such a manner as to demand the assumption of the identity* of the author, as they all bear the character of originality, have the name of David in their titles. It would be a singular fact, if the author of the titles had ascribed all these Psalms to their real author, and had made theia over to the one David. Mo- dern criticism has here a problem which it may attempt to solve.
The arguments against David are not of such weight as to counterbalance this strong evidence. Much stress has been laid on " the reference" to " the captivity," in ver. 33 — 36. Even
• Ewald remarks, and Koester agrees with him, that " our Psalm manifests 6uch a strong similarity, not in the least proceeding from imitation, to Fsalm XXXV. xxxviii. and xl. that it must have been composed by the same author." Hitzig says : " The author of the xl. Psalm, whoever he was, must be identi- cally the same with the author of the Ixix." In reference to Ps. vi. xxii. xxxi. the same remarks are applicable : compare the exposition. Hitzig : " The similarity between Ixix. 32 and xxii. 26, can only be explained by the assump- tion, that they have been the product of the same mind."
PSALM LXIX. 367
though there were really such a reference in these verses, it would be necessary to set it aside by ascribing this portion of the Psalm to a later author. For the temple is spoken of in ver. 9, as still standing.* But, from the correct exposition, it is manifest, that these verses contain nothing more than a general expression of hope of salvation for Israel, and of the removal of all troubles, such as those of whicb David saw so mucli with his own eyes, in the days of Saul and Absalom. We must certainly consider it as singular, when it is further asserted that relations such as the one here in question, existed for the first time in later days, when the state came to be in a declining con- dition, and when ungodliness was fearfully predominant. These relations were certainly in those days very distinctly marked ; and the bistory of Jeremiab for example, is alto- getber one peculiarly well fitted to represent to us the situa- tion of the subject of our Psalm. But, in point of fact, the condi- tion of the world, as far as the troubles of the godly are con- cerned, has been substantially the same in all ages, ever since the days of Cain and Abel, (compare Matth. xxiii. 35) ; and in these matters, it is preposterous to attempt to define year and day. David had suflficient opportunity, from personal experience, to know as much of this condition as to enable him to generalize what bad come under his own immediate notice. It was his fear of God, his zeal for the glory of God, and for the purity of the worship of God, that formed the deepest ground of his suf- ferings, in the days of Saul and Absalom. We may compare the mention of the enemies of the Lord, of what it was that exasper- ated the enemies of David, in 2 Sam. xii. 14, and of " the ene- mies" and "the revengeful," in Ps. viii. 2. Should it be maintain- ed, that the execrations upon the enemies, are what one would not have expected from David, it will be sufficient to read 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, 2 Sam. iii. 29, and other passages.
Title. To the Chief Musician, on the lilies, of David. "On the libes" points to the beauty of the subject treated of: com- pare at Ps, xlv. We may understand that by this is meant, either, on comparing with Ps. xlv. the righteous, at ver. 28, or the servants of the Lord, at verse 36, or even the lovely consola- tions and aids of the Lord, his T\)'}^)\i^\ at verse 1 and 29, on comparing with Ps. Ix. The similarity in point of sound be-
* Ewald's attempt to set aside this troublesome fact serves only to show that it is completely impossible to do so.
368 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tween U*'^^)l^ ^^'^ ''iyS^in, with which the Psalm begins, is perhaps not accidental, but was designed by the Psalmist to serve as an index, pointing to the true interpretation of a title which proceeded fi'om himself.
First, in ver. 1 — 4, the complaint. Ver. I. Help me, O God, for the water goes into myfsoul. Ver. 2. 1 sink in the slime of the deep, ivhere there is no bottom, I have come into deep ivaters and the floods cover me over. Ver. 3. / have wearied myself with crying, my throat is hoarse, my eyes fail while I ivait for my God. Ver. 4. Those who hate me without cause are more in number than the hairs upon my head, my destroyers, my lying enemies are mighty, I shall restore that ivhich I did not take away. — In reference to the figure of water in the first and following verses, compare at Ps. xl. 2, When one is covered over with water, the water comes into his soul = his life : com- pare Jer. iv. 10, Jon. ii. 5. — In the first clause of verse 2, the P% which occurs only here and in Ps. xl. 2, is not " a slimy cistern," but " the slime of deep water." This is evident from n7l!i/bj the deep, the abyss, which is always used of " the deep sea," and from the parallelism in the second clause. The Berleb. Bible : " If the abyss be only full of water, a good swimmer has still the hope of rising again to the surface." H^y^ is not the partic. Hiph. (in that case ''^t^ would have accompanied it), but a noun formed from it. — On " I am wearied in my crying," (that is, " with it" — the effect resting in the cause), in the 3d verse, compare Ps. vi. 6, " I am weary with my groaning." The crying also is to be thought of, " in my throat is burnt," " has inflamed itself," (the Niph. fr. yT\), as the exciting cause. The eyes fail : lose their power of vision, when a person keeps them long on the stretch, fixed upon a distant object, in hope of it coming nearer, till the outlines become better defined. The Berleb. Bible : " Just as it happens to those who look for a long time steadily at any thing, so is such a soul sensible of its own weakness, the eye of its faith becomes weaker and weaker ? Compare Ps. cxix. 82, Lam. iv. 17. The cause of the failing is given in " the waiting upon my God." Sn**^ is the nomin. and not the genitive. The Psalmist goes on as if he had written ">yy '•H'^SD- — On " they are more numerous than the hairs of my head," in ver. 4, compare Ps. xl. 12. Who hate me without cause," and *' my lying enemies," occur connected together exactly in the same way, in Ps. xxxv. 19 : the quota-
PSALM LXIX. VER. 1 — 12. 369
tion in John xv. 25, is to be referred to both passages: comp. also Ps. xxxviii. 19. These verbal references to one another, as they are peculiar to those Davidic Psalms which describe the Righteous one, are manifestly designed to exhibit these Psalms as so many links of one great chain, or parts of one great picture. The expression, " I shall replace what I did not take away,'' like the similar expression, *' they ask me what I do not know," in Ps. xxxv. 11, is to be understood neither historically nor figuratively, nor proverbially, but as an individualizing trait, which, in the circumstances, might really occur. David him- self experienced something similar when Shimei said to him, 2 Sam. xvi. 8, " The Lord recompenses on thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose room thou hast been made king, and the Lord gives the kingdom into the hands of thy son Absalom."
The sufferer must indeed see in his misery the deserved punishment of his sins, but yet, notwithstanding this, he can claim the assistance of God ; because not to deliver him would be as much as to put to shame all the faithful, as he is suffering for the sake of God, ver. 5 — 12. — Ver. 5. O God thou knowest my foolishness, and mine iniquities are not hid from thee. Ver. 6. Let not those ivho wait on thee he put to shame for my sake, O Lord God, God of hosts; letnot those who seek thee be put to shame inme, OGodof Israel. Y er. 7. Because for thy sake 1 bear reproach, shame covers my face. Ver. 8. 1 was strange to my brethren, and estranged from the sons of my mother. Ver. 9. For the zeal for thy househas consumedme, and thereproaches of those who reproach thee havefallen upon me. Ver. 10. And Iiueep, my soid fasts, and it is turned to my reproach. Ver. 11. I have put on sackcloth, and 1 serve them for a proverb. Ver. 12. They think upon me, who sit in the gate, and upon songs the drunkards. — Ver. 6. is gene- rally understood as a protestation of innocence on the part of the sufferer : " thou knowest whether I am chargeable or not," that is, that I am not." But on comparing Ps. xxxviii. 3—5, especially the words which occur there, " because of my fool- ishness"— the T\)y^ occurs only in that Psalm and this passage — and Ps. vi. 1, xl. 12, xli. 4. it is manifest that the words are to be taken in their obvious sense, {my foohshness, my iniquities, comp. ver. 19), as an acknowledgment of guilt on the part of the Psalmist, which, according to the just judgment of God, had brought upon him the unjust persecution of his enemies.
VOL. n. 2 B
370 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The connection between the 5th and 6th verses is not outward- ly marked. As regards the sense, there is, in verse 5 an "indeed," and in verse 6a" but" : " My suffering is indeed deserved, hut tliou canst not let me perish, because in me all thy faithful peo- ple would be put to shame." The y*I with ^7, is to know in reference to something, or about something. — On verse 6 com- pare on Ps. XXV. 3, " those who wait on thee shall not be asham- ed, those shall be put to shame who act perfidiously without a cause." This position would be annihilated were the sufferer to be destroyed. For in him as their representative, or in his casa through his fate, all who wait on God would at the sanie time be put to shame. The names of God point to his omnipotence, which guarantees the power, and to his relation to Israel, which guarantees the will to prevent such a scandal. Calvin : " He represents to God this danger, not as if he needed to be remind- ed, but because he encourages us to deal in confidence with him." — In verse 7, the sufferer lays the foundation for his as- sertion that all who fear God would be put to shame by his de- struction : he suffers for the sake of God ; and this is a sure proof, that he belongs to their number, and that their interests are inseparably bound up with his. In reference to the 'T/^, for thy sake, compare Ps. xliv. 22, and Jer. xv. 15. The 9th verse here gives the commentary. On " it covers my face," compare at Ps. xliv. 16. In reference to the prominence given to reproach, Calvin : " which is more bitter to an honour- able man than to suffer a hundred deaths. For many will be found ready to suffer death, who cannot bear reproach." — The more full expansion of ver. 7 follows in verses 8 and 9 : the ex- pansion of " I bear reproach," in verse 9, where the magnitude of the reproach is indicated by the individualizing feature, that even the nearest relatives draw back afraid, (compare at Ps. xxxviii. 11, this, .David himself had probably, in the time of Saul, experienced in a painful manner, Ps. xxvii. 10, if even his parents forsook him, what had he to expect from his brethren, who as little understood him, and 1 Sam. xvii. 28) ; next the expansion of " for thy sake," in verse 9. The two clauses of the verse do not stand in synonymous parallelism, but are to be thus explained : zeal for thy house hath consumed me, andybr this reason, the reproaches of those who reproach thee, have fallen upon me, i. e. even my nearest relatives are estrang- ed from me, because, in consequence of my burning zeal for the
PSALM LXIX. VER. 5 — 12. 371
house of the Lord, the reproaches of his enemies have assailed me, and covered me with shame. " It consumes me," does not refer at all to the outward consequences of zeal, — according to Stier, " it brings upon me loss, inasmuch as it has drawn upon me persecution and death from the adversaries" ; but to its in- ward intensity, — it wears me away, as Luther says, " I am zeal- ous almost to death," and in accordance with John ii. 17. This is manifest from the parallel passage, Ps. cxix. 139, " My zeal consumes me, that my enemies forget thy words." It is clear from Is. i. 11 and following verses, what we are to understand by zeal for the house of the Lord, — the temple, as the centre of the whole Israelitish religion. Samuel was zealous for the liouse of the Lord, when he said to Saul, " behold, obedience is better than sacrifice." David himself displayed this zeal, when he inculcated the utter uselessness of merely outward offerings, and of the whole of mere outward worship, and when he cried out his p'oatZpro/anr to all hypocrites : compare for example, Ps. iv. 5, XV. xxiv. xl. 6, li. 16, 17. Every one who is animated with this burning zeal for the glory of God, will naturally draw upon himself the reproaches of all the enemies of God. The first half of the verse is quoted in John ii. 17, and the second half in Rom. xv. 3. — In ver. 10 — 12 the sufferer individualizes and enlarges still farther upon the thought, that his zeal for the house of the Lord had drawn upon him the reproaches of the openly ungodly and of the hypocritical world. The repetition in ver. 10, out of verse 9, points to this relation. The fasting and weeping are united here as they are in 2 Sam. xii. 16, 21, 22, where also they come from the lips of David. The fasting there is expressive of repentance, as it is at Ps. xxxv. 13. The sufferer represents himself here as mourning, repenting for his people, in order to prevail upon God to pity him, and to miti- gate the threatened judgment. But this, his holy mourning, which should lead all to repentance, is made the subject of pro- fane ridicule by the enemies of God. The connection with ver, 9 is decisive against the assumption that the Psalmist is speak- ing of mourning over his own sufferings. The 50ztZ appears also in the law as having particularly to do with fasting : compare at Ps. xxxv. 13. — On verse 11 compare Ps. xxxv. 13, and in refer- ence to 7^^ at Ps. xliv. 14. — The pl^tJ^ with ^, means here, as always, to thinJc upon. That it is a thinking with a view to sal- lies of wit at the expense of the rueful enthusiast, the holy, or
372 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
would-be- holy hanger of the head, is manifest from the connec- tion with what goes before, and still more clearly from the second clause, where in''SJ''' requires to be added. The gates were the place for the transaction of serious business: compare Lam. V, 14, Ruth iv, 1, 2, Jos. xx. 4. Stier is therefore cor- rect : tarn in consessibiis seriisquam ludicris. The gates are never spoken of as " the place of social rest."
The preceding prayer was followed by the basis on which it rests, viz. : the greatness of the trouble, and the circumstance that the sufferer had been brought into it for the sake of God. IS'ow is the time for the prayer to come in again in a more ex- tended form, verses 13 — 18, and in close dependance on the de- scription of the distress in verses 1 — 3 : inasmuch as I have been brought into such distress for thy sake, do thou deliver me out of the shme, &c. — Ver. 13. But I pray to thee, O Lord! a time of grace, O God, through the fulness of thy con^oassion, hear me through thy delivering truth. Ver. 14. Deliver me out of the slime, and let me not sink, let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep luaters. Ver. 15. Let not the water flood overfloiu me, and let not the deep swallow me up, and let not the well shut its mouth up)on me. Ver. 16. Hear me, O Lord, for good is thy compassion, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, turn thou to me. Ver. 17. Atid conceal not thy face from thy servant, for 1 am in trouble, make haste and hear me. Ver. ] 8. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it, set me free because of mine enemies. — In ver. 13, the ^JX is emphati- cally placed first : as in Ps. xxxv. 13, and xli. 12, The Jl^ is not the accus. at the time, (HJ^ is never thus used), but the nom. : " (May it be, or may there come) a time of grace." A time of grace is a time when God makes his grace known: comp. Is. xlix. 8, where the parallel expression is a " day of salvation," and Ixi. 2, where, in opposition to " a year of grace," there is " a day of vengeance." Verse 16 furnishes a commentary, (comp. Ps. Ixxi. 2), on 2, through, in virtue of. " Through thy salvation-sending truth," (according to which thou fulfillest the prophecies given to thy people), of the third .clause, is parallel to " through the fulness of thy compassion," of the second. — In verse 14, the " out of deep waters," taken from the 2d verse, is explained by the preceding " from those that hate me": compare at Ps. xviii. 4. — In verse 15, the " well" is a figurative expression, as "the pit," ^)2 is at Ps. xl. 2, for " deep water"; the well shuts its
PSALM LXIX. VER. 13—21. 373
mouth over him whom the billows overwhelm. The connection will not permit us to entertain the idea of a cistern and its lid. The word, moreover, has not this sense. — The compassion ot God, verse 16, is good, because it is great: compare the parallel expression, " according to the fulness of thy tender mercy," and " the fulness of thy compassion," in ver. 13. ^1^ never has di- rectly the sense of " great." Calvin : " It is certainly a very dif- ficult thing to represent God as gracious to us, at a time when he is angry, and as near at hand, when he is far away." — On "draw nigh," in versel8,comp. " be not far from me," in Ps.xxii. 11. My soul, exposed to danger: compare verse 1. Ps. xiii. 4, " lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against me. mine ad- versaries rejoice not, when I fail," furnishes a commentary on " because of mine enemies."
In verses 19 — 21, the Psalmist turns back to the descriptio'^ of his trouble, and of the wickedness of his enemies, for the purpose of thus laying a foundation for the second group of pe- titions, which are directed to righteous judgment upon his ene- mies. The three verses of this paragraph are connected with the seven of the following, so as to form together one decade. — Ver. 19. Thou knowest my reproach and my shame, and my dishonour ; mine adversaries are all before thee. Ver. 20. Re- proach hath broken my heart, and 1 am sick, and 1 wait for sympathy, and there is none, and for comforters, and I find none. Ver. 21 . And they give me gall to eat, and in my thirst they give me vinegar to drink. — As God knows the sufferings of the righteous man, he cannot but avert them, and as he knows the wicked- ness of his enemies, he cannot but judge them, ver. 19 and 22. It is a great consolation in unmerited sufferings, when reflections on the omniscience of God take full possession of the soul. — The ^1^ in verse 20 = 2J^J^<, to be sick: compare Ps. vi. 2. After the enemies had succeeded so far with the sufferer as to have wound- ed himin body and mind, they might have been supposed to have becometerrifiedattheworkof their own hands, and to have chang- ed their hatred into sympathy. But their unfeeling heart aggra- vates his misery : instead of giving him cordials in his sickness, which they should have done, they gave him gall and vinegar, ver. 22. — The "'Jl'lli^i, (^compare the cognate noun, and verb in 2 Sam. xii. 17, xiii. 6, 19), is not " in my food,"" but " as my food," according to the second clause, where the vinegar is the drink itself, and not some bad substance mixed with it. The ^X*l occurs undoubtedly, and is generally allowed to do so, io
374 THE BOOK. OF PSALMS.
the general sense of " something very bitter," in Deut. xxxii. 32, 33, Job XX. 6: the assumed special sense of "some particular bitter and poisonous root," is not necessarily demanded in any of the remaining passages : the general sense is everywhere suit- able ; " bitterness and melancholy" suit very well together.* In all probability, the word, according to Ps. cxli. 4, Ex. xxx. 23, and Song of Sol. iv. 13, is to be explained by " the head of bitterness," or " something bitter as gall." Several times EJ'K'I has the kindred sense oi poisonous, which in the Old Tes- tament is generally connected with bitterness. But the con- nection with vinegar makes it manifest that it is only the sense of " something bitter," which it bears here. The "'{<ib!i7 is pro- perly " for my thirst." Vinegar quenches thirst, but in an un- pleasant way. , Two circumstances at the crucifixion of our Lord stand in reference to this verse. First, " they gave him vinegar to drink mixed with gall, and when he had tasted he would not drink it," Matt, xxvii. 34. Matthew, in his usual way, designates the drink theologically : always keeping his eye on the prophecies of the Old Testament, he speaks of gall and vinegar for the purpose of rendering the fulfilment of the pas- sage in the Psalms more manifest, Mark again, xv. 23, accord- ing to his way, looks rather at the outward quality of the drink : it was, according to him (sour) wine mixed with myrrh, the usual drink of malefactors. This drink, as given to male- factors, was a kindness, but as given to the personification of suffering righteousness, it was a severe and bitter mortification. Second, Jesus cried, according to John xix. 28, (compare Matt, xxviii. 48,) when he knew that every thing was accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled, " I thirst," and after this there was vinegar given him to drink. The dying Saviour, in fulfilment of this passage, cried " I thirst": the action was a symbolical one, and it embodied the figure of the Psalm,
In ver. 22 — 28 we have the wish for righteous judgment on the enemies, and the prayers for the same. — Ver, 22. May their table before them become a snare, and their peace, their fall. Ver, 23. May their eyes become dark, so that they do not see, and may their bones continually shake.
* Gousset remarks : " as fjn is applied to so many kinds of subjects, it seems properly to denote no one kind in particular, but any one in which the quality resides."
PSALM LXIX VER. 22—28. 375
Ver 24. Scatter upon them thy ivrath, and may the hot fire of thy indignation reach them. Ver. 25. May their habitation he desolate, and may no one dwell in their tents. Ver. 26. For they persecute him ivhom thou hast smitten, and they talk of the pain of those who are jnerced through by thee. Ver. 27. Give iniquity upon their iniquity, and let them not come to thy righteousness. Ver. 28. May they be blotted out of the book of the living, and may they not be ivritten with the righteous. — That in reference to this paragraph, we cannot entertain the idea of " a zeal which belongs to the Old Testament but not to the religion which commands us to love our enemies," and that the Pisalmist does not stand in need of the generosity of those who would frame an excuse for his " too sensitive heart," is obvious, apart from general considerations, from the fact, that the Saviour in his last moments, emphatically referred to the Psalm, the peculiar character of which is unquestionably taken from this paragraph, that, in Matth. xxiii. 38, he quoted the 25th verse as descriptive of the destruction which was to come upon Judah, that the same verse, in Acts i. 20, is quoted by Peter as fulfilled in Judas, Judah's type, and that Paul, in Rom. xi. 9, 10, finds in verses 22 and 23, a prophecy of the fate of the Jews. The luish for divine judg- ment on ungodly wickedness, can be considered as objectionable, only if we are prepared to deny this judgment itself, in manifest contradiction to the New, no less than to the Old Testament : comp. for example, Matth. xxi. 41, xxii. 7, xxiv. 51. Assuredly, it becomes us to approach passages of scripture such as those in this Psalm with fear and trembling : and assuredly, in ungodly lips, they may be used in a very ungodly manner. Luther: " Be- come first a Peter, Paul, James, David and Elisha, and assuredly thou mayest curse in the name of God, and thereby perform an acceptable service to God." Calvin : " There is need of ivisdom, to make a distinction between the reprobate, and those who are still within the reacli of salvation ; of purity, that every one be not partial to his own self; and of moderation, which inclines the spirit to quiet patience." — In ver. 22, the sense is: because they have aggravated my misery with terrible wickedness^ therefore may their happiness, (their table, their richly furnish- ed table, compare Ps. xxiii. 5, with reference to the figure of the preceding verse), become the cause of their destruction. Calvin: " This vengeance of God, should fill us with no small degree of alarm, as the Holy Ghost says, that all the blessings of life may become fraught with death to the reprobate." The
376 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Dl7^> properly a noun, comes in, as the adjective does in Ps. Iv. 20, " who are altogether peace" : compare 1 Thes. v. 3. — In ver. 26, those pierced of the Lord, according to the parallelism and according to Isaiah Ixvi. 16, and Jerem. xxv. 33, " those, pierced through by him," or, " those wounded even to death," are those who are severely distressed, viz. those who are so by the wicked, comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 11, where David says, " let him curse, for the Lord has bid him") ; for in the whole Psalm there is no mention made of any suffering, except that inflicted by the enemies : comp. " by those who hate me," in ver. 14. Regard- less of " res sacra miser" (comp. Job xix. 21, 22, " have pity upon me, ye, my friends, for the hand of the Lord has afflicted me : wherefore will ye persecute me, as God ?") they persecute, when they should help, and rejoice, when they should mourn : — as the Tews, when Pilate brought forth Jesus to them, instead of being awakened to thought by the sight of his sufferings, (Luke xxiii. 31), cried out, " crucify him, crucify him," On '^SD with 7, compare at Ps. ii. 7. The connection and the parallel passage, Ps. xli. 8, show that, they talk of the pain, in the sense of triumphing, exulting, exhorting one another, to complete their work by giving the sufferer the last blow. — The second clause of ver. 27 is to be explained : give transgression^ in its conse- quences, (compare at Ps. xl. 12) upon their transgressions, as the punishment : compare Jer. xviii. 23, " Yet, Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me, forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight." It is manifest, for example, from Rom. ii. 6, that the Psalmist is not praying, merely as his sufferings may prompt him, but is utter- ing at the same time the language of prophecy. Many expositors understand the words of an increase of iniquity and punishment. Luther : Let them fall into one sin after another." But there IS no parallel passage in favour of this sense ; and the second clause here, and the following verse, are against it ; the lan- guage there refers to the judgment, and the visitation of the guilt of the wicked by God, and to an increase of these. J^ll with i, signifies always, " to come in to any thing," and here, as in Ex. xvi. 7, in the sense of " to be partaker of." Righteous- ness is here, as it frequently is, not an inherent quality, but the gift of God : compare Ps. xxiv. 5, cxxxii. 9. The man whose sins God visits, is shut out from his righteousness. — " To be blotted out of the book of life," verse 28, of which mention is first made in Ex. xxxii. 32, is to be devoted to death, with
PSALM LXIX. VER. 30 — 36. 377
reference to the eai*ly and sudden death threatened to the wicked in the law : compare Ps. xxxvii. 29, The book refers here to temporal, but in the New Testament to eternal life : Phil. iv. 3, Kev. xx. 15. " To be written with the righteous" is the parallel clause. For the righteous are written in the book of life, or are ordained to life.
In the 29th verse, by an easy transition, as the prayer rests on such a sohd basis, hope takes the place of prayer : — And I am miserable and a sufferer, thy salvation, O God, shall exalt me. " And I" marks the opposition to the enemies devoted to destruction in spite of their prosperity. The chief thought is in the second clause, which should in reality be preceded by a " hut," just as the first clause should have an " indeed." On "2)^ compare at Ps. xx. 1, lix. 1.
The confidence of deliverance gives rise, in the last strophe, to the resolution to give thanks, verses 30 and 31, to the hope that this deliverance shall strengthen the faith of the righteous, verses 32 and 33, and finally, in verses 34 — 36, to the lively hope of Zion's salvation, a pledge of which the Psalmist sees in his own, which, in the exercise of faith, he anticipated as certain. The threefold consequences of the deliverance of the Psalmist, anticipated in faith, are peculiarly well fitted to prevail upon God, to whom the praise of his own people, the confirming of the righteous, and the enlivening of the hope of Zion's deliverance, cannot but be well pleasing, to grant this deliverance, — Ver, 30. / will praise the name of God in a song, and exalt him with songs of praise. Ver. 31. This shall pleo.se the Lord better than hulls, bullocks with horns and hoofs. Ver. 32. The meek see it and rejoice, ye ivho seek God, may your heart live. Ver. 33. For the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his fetter- ed ones. Ver. 34. 3Jay the heaven and earth praise hhn, the sea, and every thing ivhich moveth therein. Ver. 35. For God shall deliver Zion, and build up the cities of Judah, and they dwell there, and occupy it. Ver. 36. And the seed of his ser- vants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell therein — In the 3l8t verse, the inward offering of the lieart- believer is opposed to the merely outward offering of the hypo- crite: compare at Ps. l. li. Where such spiritual thank-offer- ings are to be expected, God cannot be otherwise than inclined to help. The predicates of the bullocks — the D''1SD> accord- ing to the analogy of J^'lp/b? not cleaving the hoofs, as Lev. xi.
378 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
4, but having hoofs, as Lev. xi. 3, and other passages — represent the whole brute creation, and intimate that such a mere mate- rial offering cannot be an object well pleasing to God, who is a spirit. All bodily service belongs to the same class with bul- locks that have horns and hoofs. — On the second half of verse 32 compare the exactly parallel passage Ps. xxii. 26. — On verse 33, "/or, as my example shows, &c.", compare Ps. xxii. 24. The " fettei'ed ones of the Lord" are either those whom he has fettered, that is, visited with severe suffering, according to verse 26, or those who are fettered for his sake, according to ver. 7. — In the 34th and following verses, the Psalmist beholds in the special deliverance vouchsafed to him, a pledge of a deliver- ance of a general character, in the distinction made by God be- tween him and his enemies, security for the victory of the whole church of God, and for the salvation to be imparted to her. God helps Zion, verse 35, inasmuch as he overthrows the wicked, by whom it is assailed, without distinction as to whether they belong outwardly to Israel or not, and in this way rebuilds the cities of Judah which they laid waste : comp. on Ps. li. 18. The mention made of the temple in verse 9, shows that we are not to think of a destruction such as happened during the Babylonish captivity, but only of such troubles as were occasioned for ex- ample by Saul. The subject to " dwell there," is " the needy" of verse 33, " the suffering righteous men": compare verse 3G. What is here said of " the dwelling of the righteous" is the op- posite of what is said in verse 25. — On verse 36 compare Is. Ixv. 9. Calvin : " Although that land, until the appearance of Christ, was given to the chosen people, yet must we still remember that it was the type of our heavenly native land, and that therefore what is here written of the protection of the church is more truly fulfilled at the present day.''
PSALMS LXX. AND LXXI.
There are strong reasons for believing that these Psalms, like the first and second, are connected together, so as to form one pair, the 70th being like an introduction to the 7l8t. In the 7l8t there is no title ; — a want which exists nowhere throughout the first and second books of Psalms, except where a pair of Psalms occurs. The fact, that the 70th Psalm is mere-
PSALMS LXX. AND LXXI. 379
ly a repetition of a part of the 40th, is very unfavourable to its being considered as occupying an entirely independent position but admits of explanation, if the two Psalms be viewed as con- nected together. To this may be added, the analogy of the beginning of the 71st, which is borrowed from Ps. xxxi. Then both Psalms are wrought together by an alphabetical arrange- ment ; the beginning, the middle, and the end of the whole are indicated by the three first letters of the alphabet. The 70th Psalm begins with ^^, the 71st with '2, which is doubled, for the purpose of rendering it less doubtful that this beginning is ac- cidental, and concludes with y, which alternates with Hi the ap- propriate letter for a conclusion, — H^ and yr\- Finally, if we add the verses of the 70th to those of the 71st, we obtain the remark- able number 'SO, three decades.
The ground on which the relation of the 70th to the 71st Psalm depends, cannot be doubtful. It is the same which in Ps. Ixxi. itself has been the cause of the passage at the begin- ning being borrowed from the 31st Psalm, and of the verbal references which occur, in the course of it, to the 22, 40, 35, and 38 Psalms, viz. the purpose to connect our Psalm with the other Davidic Psalms which refer to the suffering righteous man, and to point it out as a link of that chain : compare at Ps' Ixix. But particularly, Ps. Ixx. forms a transition between the Ixix. and Ixxi. ; the three together forming a kind of Trilogy. The 70th is a compend of the 40th Psalm, to which the 69th is very closely allied, and therefore is particularly well fitted to serve as the link of connection between the 69th and the 71st.
As the variations between the 70th and the 40th Psalms have already been considered, in our remarks on the latter Psalm, we shall proceed at once to the 71st.
The Psalm begins, ver. 1 — 3, with the prayer for deliverance^ in which there is a short reference to the ground which affords security for its being heard. After the Introduction, which is borrowed from Ps. xxxi., there follows, in ver. 4 — 13, a more extended developement of its contents : God has manifested great favour to the Psalmist from his early youth, ver. 4 — 8, therefore may he not reject him in his helpless old age, when mighty enemies threaten him with destruction, ver. 9 — 13. On the same basis on which the prayer rested, there rises the hope, in ver. 14 — 21. The conclusion consists of a promise, ver.
380 THE BOOR. OF PSALMS.
22 — 24, to render thanks for the assistance which is confidently anticipated.
The whole Psalm contains 24 verses, twice 12. The first division, which contains the prayer and its basis, is complete in 10 verses, and is divided into two fives ; the second half, which contains the hope and the thanks, consists, in like manner, of 10 verses, and is divided into a seven and a three. Between the two main divisions there is an intercalary verse, the 14th, con- taining the substance of the second part. This intercalary verse, together with the three verses of the introduction, and the six verses of Ps. Ixx. (including the title, the originality of which is very strongly supported by its having a place within the formal arrangement), makes up the third decade.
The same remarks are applicable to the subject of the Psalm which have already been made on Ps, Ixix. : it is the suffering righteous man. In verse 20, we have, as in Ps. Ixix. 26, a plurality, concealed under a unity. The appHcation of the Psalm to the whole of the community (Luther, Cocceius, and others, consider the Psalm as a prayer of the church in its old age) is to be considered as false only if it be exclusively adopted. Be- sides the analogy of those other Psalms which are in- timately connected with this one, there is the constant use, except in ver. 20, of the singular, which is sufficient to show that the Psalm was also, and in the first instance, designed to apply to individual suffering righteous men. We would not however be justified in rejecting altogether the application to the whole community, (compare Isa. xlvi. 3, 4, Ps. cxxix. 1), or even in considering it as a mere adaptation : compare at Ps. xxii.
The particular aspect of the general subject embraced by the Psalm, is the opening of the fountains of consolation for the suiFering righteous man in his old age. The Psalmist teaches him how to be patient in tribulation, and joyful in hope, by con- templating that grace of God which he has already enjoyed, and how to drive away the bitterness of his pain by praising God, as he dwells with his whole soul upon the recollection of those deeds, which are so many pledges of fresh deliverance. It is certain that we cannot, with many of the old expositors, consider the mention of the aged man speaking, and of his feebleness, as a particular individual feature, restricting the Psalm to the relation in whicK David stood to Absalom. The
PSALM LXXI. 381
colouring, which in every thing else is entirely general, and the analogy of the kindred Psalms, are decisive against this. There may he truth, however, in the assumption tliat David here com- forts the suffering righteous man in his old age with that same comfort wherewith he himself had been comforted in his old age. That this, however, cannot be maintained with perfect confi- dence, and that it is even possible that David may have only supposed himself to be in such a situation, is evident from par- allel instances. The Countess Amelia Juliana, of Rudolstadt, for example, in the poem, " I leave God to rule in all," says, " I am not in high esteem, and not like others great and rich," etc., and, " I strive not after high estate, the best by far is middle rank."
Tlie authorship, asserted in the title to be David's, is confirm- ed by the near relation in which the Psalm stands to those Da- vidic Psalms which have been already referred to, (compare at the Ixix.), a relation which is of such a character that it must have proceeded from identity of authorship, and not from copy- ing. The 20th verse, on the other hand, has been appealed to, as aflfording evidence that the Psalm was composed during the captivity. But there is nothing more in that verse than the ex- pression, in general terms, of the hope of deliverance out of great trouble. And the entire absence, both here, and through- out all the rest of the Psalm, of every individual reference of the trouble, is sufficient to show that it is utterly impossible to find out any historical occasion.
Our Psalm, in common with all the Psalms of the same kind, is characterized by an easy style of language,— which is to be accounted for from the fact that David is reciting a prayer for the use of sufferers, to whose necessities he kindly accommo- dates himself. The fact, which many have perverted to throw doubt on the Davidic authorship of this Psalm, is to be judged of by what Schmolk says of his own poems : " Simplicity has ruled the lips and the pen. Thus it was necessary to pray with the simple. High words do not always come from the bottom of the heart." {B. Ringwald and B. Schmolk, von Hoffman v. Fallerslaben, p. 55).
The introduction is ver. 1 — 3. The third verse closes the portion borrowed from Psalm xxxi., and in the fourth verse the author begins his own composition ; the introduction, therefore,
382 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
cannot be extended into the fourth verse. Ver. 1. 0)i thee, 0 Lord, do I trust, may I never be put to shame. Ver. 2. Through thy righteousness deliver me, and redeem me, incline thine ear to me, and lielp me. Ver. 3. Be to me a i^ock of habitation, to which I may come continually, ivho hast ordained to help me : for thou art my rock and my fortress. The quotation here, as in similar cases, is made in a free manner, and with variations which are particularly significant inverse 3, when the author is just about to pass on to the original portion of his Psalm. That the quotation did not arise from recollection, but was introduced designedly, and that it serves an important object, is manifest from the fact, that it opens a Psalm, which, from beginning to end, with the exception of a few references of a similar description, bears an independent and peculiar character. Instead of a " rock of se- curity," Tiy/2, there stands here, " a rock of habitation," WJ2 '• compare on the word at Ps. xc. 1, and on variations of this sort, Vol. i. p. 282. It is scarcely worth mentioning that the Chaldee and the several MSS. propose to change the reading into that of the fundamental passage; this pernicious practice is indeed every- where adopted. The additional clause " to which I may come continually," that is, " as often as necessity compels me," is very suitable after " habitation." The clause, " who hast or- dained," (ni^f is used as at Ps. xliv. 4, Ixviii. 28,) contains the basis of the petition, exactly as at Ps. vii. 6, " who hast ordain- ed judgment": — the imperative there, as here, is inconsistent with grammar. " For my rock," etc. gives the basis of both, the wish, and the fact by which it in the first instance is sup- ported.
The first main- division, ver. 4 — 13, contains the expanded prayer and its basis. Ver. 4. O my God deliver me oat (f the hand of the wicked, and out of the fist of the evil-doer, and of the abandoned man. Ver. 5. Fur thou art my hope, O Lord God, thou art my confidence from my youth. Ver. 6. On thee have I leant from the womb, from my mother's lap thou hast been my conductor, of thee is my praise continually. Ver. 7. I ivas as a luonder to many, but thou aH my strong confidence. Ver. 8. My mouth is full of thy praise, and continually of thy glory. — Ver. 9. Therefore cast me not off in the time of old age, in the failure of my strength, forsake me not. Ver. 10. For my enemies speak against me, and those who lay luaitfor my soul take coun- sel together. Ver. 11. And say : God has forsaken him, perse- cute, and seize him, for there is no deliverer. Ver. 12. O God.
PSALM LXXl. VER. 4 13. 383
be not far from me, make haste to help me. Ver. 13. Let them be confounded and consumed ivho are enemies to my soul, let them put on reproach and dishonour who seek my hurt. — T'^J and ^D(b) in ver. 4, are parallel as they are in the title of Ps. xviii. rXSn occurs only here, it is from T*/^n, to be sour, and is the same as T*1J!3n> Isa. i. 17, the abandoned. The Berleb. Bible, in true theological exposition : " Do thou deliver the soul from unbelief, which, like an old tyrant, seeks to strangle faith. If the spirit is not always on the watch, this enemy gets together nations of vain thoughts to besiege the soul." — The prayer, which is shortly expressed, is succeeded, in ver. 5 — 8, by the basis on which it rests, and after that the prayer is expanded in ver, 9 — 13. The parallel expression, nDl3^> " the object of my trust," makes it evident, that " my hope," in verse 5, stands objectively for " thou art he on whom I hope": comp. Ps. xl 4. The Psalmist does not in the least praise his own faith, but the grace of God, which he had experienced from his childhood. The 16th verse shows that we cannot, contrary to the accents, tear nirT* ''Tl^ from each other : Ps. Ixviii. 20, Ixix. 6. It points to the fulness of might in God, which peculiarly fits him to be an object of hope to his people. — The Niph. IjIbDJ retains its passive signification : on thee have 1 leant, = thou hast been my support, my prop : compare " on thee was I cast from my mother's womb," in Ps. xxii. 10. In the whole verse there is nothing whatever said about the senti- ments of the sufferer, but merely about good deeds done to him. "•Jl-H is difficult. It is evidently the infinitive of ))^ : plT-H in the sense of " to do godd to," which many adopt here, is a forced one, in Hebrew, and ''])X according to this rendering, is too far removed from the fundamental passage, Ps. xxii. 9, " for thou wast my breaking out, Tl)^, from my mother's womb." But it is a question whether the verb here is transitive, my guiding, or bringing out, — in favour of this it may be urged, that in other passages the verb is used only transitively, — or intransitive, my being brought, or my coming forth, — which is favoured by the form, (for it is only intransitive verbs that have their infinitives and participles in 0), and also by the fundamental passage. " In thee is my praise" is, " thou art the object of my praise," or " thou hast given me occasion to praise thee": com- pare at Ps. xliv. 8, and " of thee is my praise in Ps. xxii. 25. — On " I was a wonder to many," in verse 7th, equivalent to " I, by the
384 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
greatness of my sufferings, drew uponmyself their astonishment and wonder," compare Deut. xxviii. 46, where the woes of Israel are to be for a sign and for a wonder^ Is. lii. 14 and 1 Cor. iv. 9. On nSIDj t^i^ object of astonished ivonderment, not a sign, com- pare the Christol. II. p. 45.* Among the Arabians also, the term ivonder is applied to any exceedingly great, or as it were wonderful misfortune. Schultens, in the passage quoted in the Christology : apud Arabes il^o^ est omne portentam, et praesertim portentosa calamitas, et homo cut ea incumhii. But it is said in the second clause, that in all his wonderfully great misery, the Psalmist has experienced God to be his almighty confidence and help : compare on T^ ''011/13 at Ps. xlv. 6, page 134 of this volume. — In the 8th verse Luther has given, by mistake, " let my mouth be full," instead " of my mouth is full," The Psalmist is not praying, but recounting what had happened to him, and thereby laying a basis on which his prayer may rest: compare the conclusion of verse 6th. The nii^Sn never sig- nifies praise, but always honour, glory : compare Ps. xcvi. 6, and the Chrintol. on Zech. xii. 7. Inasmuch as the mouth is full of the praise of the Lord, it is also full of his glory ; for this is the ohject of praise. — The second half of the strophe begins with the ninth verse ; God, who has proved himself to be the Saviour of the Psalmist from his early youth, cannot forsake him now in his old age. The more weak and helpless he is now, the more certainly must God be his strength and help. What is said here and in ver. 18, is applied by Is. xlvi. 3, 4, to the Church of God in its old age. Arnd : " When the Church of God was yet in its youth and blooming, there was true zeal, faith, knowledge, love, steadfastness, so that many thousands of holy men laid down their lives for the sake of the gospel, gave up all their substance to aid in extending it. Now that the Church has reached its feeble old age, there is scarcely any faith, no strong prayer, no steadfastness, no knowledge, no love, no fidelity, but all has sunk so low, that no- thing is left for us to do, except to sigh and mourn." A
* Gesenius strangely remarks in reference to the exposition giyen there : inania sunt; sumsitenim, non probavit radiccm ^^^\ adviirationis potcstatem habere. In support of this sense, reference was there made to the testimony of Schultens drawn from the Arabic Lexicographers. All the Lexicons give it ; Freytag for example : ^s] res mira, prodigium, calamitas.
PSALM LXXI. VER. 10—21. ' 385
" therefore" must be supplied before " cast me not off." — On ver. 10, Calvin : " It happens generally to the children of God, that the ungodly go their utmost lengths against them, when they suppose that they have been given over by God to them for a prey. For as they judge of the favour of God by present circumstances only, they suppose that those whom he gives over to suffering, are rejected, forsaken and given up by God." As n^X must always be followed by what is said, verse 10 is to be closely connected with verse 11. On '•7, either in reference to me, or to me, compare Ps. iii. 2. Who watch for my soul, i. e. my life, that I may not get away with it. — On verse 11th, com- pare the similar speeches of the enemies in Ps. iii. 2, xli. 6, and 2 Sam. xvii. 1, 2, where Ahitophel says : " I will arise and pur- sue after David, and I will come upon him while he is weary and weak, — and I will smite the king only." On the last words see Ps. vii. 2. — On verse 12, compare Ps. xxii. 19, xxxv. 22, xxxviii. 21, 22, xl. 13, and Ixx. 1. — On ver. 13, Ps. xxxv. 4, 26, xl. 14, and Ixx. 2. Even according to the parallel passages, the futures are to be considered as optatives.
The prayer, in the first part of the second strophe, is followed by hope, Ver. 14. And I will continually hope andshall multiply all thy praise. — Ver. 15. My mouth shall make known thy right- eousness, and thy salvation continually ; for I know no numbers. Ver. 16. / will come ivith the deeds of the Lord, 1 will make mention of thy righteousness only. Ver. 17. O God, thou hast taught me it from my youth, and hitherto I have made known thy xvonders. Ver. 18. And even to old age and gray- hairs forsake me not, until I make knoivn thine arm to the gene- ration to come, and thy power to all those who shall come after. — Ver. 19. And thy righteousness^ 0 God, stretches to the height, who hast done great things, O God ; who is like thee ? Ver. 20. Who hast caused us to see manifold troubles and evils, thou shalt return and quicken us, and, returning, shalt deliver us out of the floods of the earth. Ver. 21. Thou shalt multiply my great deeds and shalt turn thyself, and comfort me. — On ver. 14, Cal- vin : " 0 Lord, because I have been long accustomed to thy good deeds, I do not doubt that a new accession shall give me new opportunity to praise thy grace." All thy praise, which I have already celebrated. The preterite ^riSDIH is expressive of confidence. — " I know no number", in ver. 15th, lays the basis
VOL. n. 2 c
386 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
for the resolution, expressed by the Psalmist in full expectation of his deliverance, to praise the righteousness of God, (compare at Ps. xxxvi. 6), and his salvation. Calvin : " There is nothing which inflames our spirits more to sing the praises of God, ''/han when he has laid us under obligations by innumerable acts of kindness." The expression in Ps. xl. 5, " they cannot be reckoned up," ought to be compared : — it sets aside also the translation of Ewald : no limits. — n*11!!l!l5 means only " great deeds," and never '•' praise"; ^^"li with ^, can only mean, in ge- neral, " to go forward with something," and not " to come with something into the temjyle." The exact idea becomes manifest from the parallel clause, and from the connection. From these, it is evident that, " to come with the great deeds of the Lord," must signify "to go forward praising them, or making them known." ^l^^TH signifies always " to mention," never " to praise" : comp. at Ps. xx. 7. Nothing else deserves to be made mention of, does not come into notice. " Thy righteousness on- ly," i. e. not my sword, my bow, or my arm, Ps. xliv. 3, 6, my chariots, or horses, Ps. xx. 7. — The teaching of ver. 17 is carried on by a matter- of fact discourse. The object of the instruction, the praise of God, is marked out by the connection, and by the parallelism. — The generation, in verse 18, is the succeeding generation : compare at the parallel passage, Ps. xxii. 30 On " thine arm," compare Ps. xliv. 3. — On " to heaven," (lit. even to the height), in ver. 19, compare Ps. xxxvi. 5, Ivii. 10. On the following clause, compare Ex. xv. 11, Deut. iii. 24, but especially the expression of David, in 2 Sam. vii. 22, " where is a God, in heaven or on earth, who does according to thy works and thy mighty deeds." — On ver. 20 the Massorites, not understanding the subject, make a useless effort to get quit of the plurals : " thou has caused us to see," " thou shalt quicken us." The myn may be either an adj. as in Gen. xli. 19, 20, or a subst. as in Ps. xxxiv. 19, That ^ICJ^fl. in both places, is not an adverb, but is used in the same way in which it is in Ps. xc, and in the parallel passages quoted there, is evident from the correspond- ing word, in ver. 21, ^Dn» which is never used as an adverb. On, " thou shalt quicken us," compare Deut. xxxii. 39, " I kill and I make alive, I wound, and I heal." Calvin : " We must descend even to death, that God may appear as a deliverer. For as we are born without feeling and observation, the first origin
PSALM LXXl. VER. 20 — 24. 387
of our life does not point out to us its author in a manner sufficiently emphatic. But when God comes to our help, at a time when we are in a state of despair, our rising out of this state becomes a glorious mirror for reflecting his grace." " Floods of the earth" are the floods which overflow the earth, as at the deluge : compare great trouble and oppression set forth under the emblem of the overflowing of water, in Is, viii. 7, 8, and the allusions to the deluge in Ps. xxxi. 10, xxxii. 6, and xxxvi. 6. The Psalmist sees, in the deliverance of righteous Noah, at the great waters of old, a pledge of his own deliver- ance out of the waters of adversity, — as the whole passage is an expression of /tope and con/o?ence, the apoc.fut.^^rij as frequently throughout the Psalms, is to be taken in the sense of the usual future. The 11711^ and Twl^ signify always, " something great," never "greatness," even in Ps. clxv. 3, compare ver. 4. " My great deeds", are " the great deeds which have happened for my sake" ; compare 2 Sam. vii. 23, where David says, " to do for you great things, and terrible for thy land," (in like manner also rhl^ hi ver. 21), Ps. xl. 5, Many, 0 Lord, are thy wonder- ful works which thou hast done," and here, ver. 19, " who hast done great things."
In the second half of the second strophe, we have the pro- mise of thanks for the assistance which faith regards as already imparted. Ver. 22. Also I will praise thee with the psaltery, thy truth, my God ; Iiuill sing praise to thee upon the harp, thou holy One of Israel. Ver. 23. 3Iy lips shall shout for joy, for I will sing praise to thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed. Ver. 24. Also my tongue shall meditate upon thy righteousness continually, because they are put to shame, because they are made to blush, who seek my hurt. — The " also", in ver. 22. points to the intimate connection between the praise and the salvation. The " Holy One of Israel" is the God of Israel who is holy : comp. on ^Hp at Ps. xxii. 3. The passage before us is thefundamental one^ for that name of God of which Isaiah is well known to be particularly fond. — On verse 23, compare Ps. xxxiv. 22, " the Lord redeems the souls of his servants." — The DJ in verse 24, does not belong specially to the tongue, but applies to the whole sentence. On HJin compare at Ps. xc. 9.
388 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM LXXII.
The Psalm, like many others, as for example the xcth, falls into two strophes, one of ten, and another of seven verses. The ten of the first strophe is divided into two fives. In the first half, ver. 1 — 5, God grants righteousness to his king, in conse- quence of which, righteousness and the fear of God hecome prevalent among the people, and these again bring peace in their train. The second half, ver, 6 — 10, depicts the extension of the dominion of the righteous, the righteously acting, and therefore the salvation-sending king : its extent is as wide as that of the earth itself. The seven of the second strophe is divided, as in Ps. xcth, into a five and a two. In ver. 11 — 15, the Psalmist directs attention to that which shall induce all na- tions and kings to do homage to this king : it is exactly that which appears throughout the Psalm, as the root of the rest, viz. the absolute righteousness of the king. Ver. 16 and 17, which describe, in short and graphic terms, the fulness of blessings which await this king, and to his glory and greatness, form the conclusion. — The verses, as far as the 14th, consist of two clauses, with the exception of the fourth, wliich has three. Towards the end the verses become larger: the 15th and the 16th have, each three clauses, and the last verse has four.
The fundamental thought of the Psalm is this : That the re- alization of the idea of the king in a moral respect, to be looked for in future times, the developeraent of the ideal image of righteousness, below which even David remained at such a dis- tance, shall bring along with it the perfect realization of the idea of the kingdom of God, the righteousness of its subjects, their salvation, and its extension over the whole earth.
Solomon is named in the Title as the author of the Psalm. Attempts have been made, to no purpose, to interpret 11^7^7 here, as in Ps. cxxvii., in another sense. The ^, when it occurs in the Titles, without anything to limit its application, alivays indicates, as here, the author : comp. page 86 of this volume. The remarks of Stier, (" it may by all means be understood : of Solomon, for Solomon, dedicated to, delivered to Solomon"), show what dreadful confusion would arise, were it used, in other senses than in this well ascertained one. What is
PSALM LXXII. 389
meant by the expression, " by all means", it is not possible to conceive ; — such an expression, no writer in possession of his wits could have used. In favour of the announcement in the Title, we have first the remarkably objective character of the Psalm, common to it with the other writings of Solomon, and in striking contrast to that flow of feeling, which forms such a marked feature in the Psalms of David. And, in the second place, there is also the fact, that it is the circumstances of Solomon's time, that form the ground work of the Psalm. The references to these circumstances, partake too much of an individual character, as v/ill be seen in the progress of our exposition, to admit of our supposing with Stier again that they are prophetical. There are no reasons of any importance against considering Solomon as the author. It is maintained by Stier, that on account of the ty- pical reference to Solomon, the authorship is suitable only to David. But, in reply to this, it is sufficient to advert to Psalm ii. and ex., where David himself, out of the grace imparted to him in his contests against the enemies of the kingdom of God, constructs a ladder, by which he rises to the contemplation of the infinitely more glorious victories to be won in battle by his Descendant. Why should not Solomon, in like manner, see in his righteous m^no/ peace, a type of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace? Even the circumstance, that at the end of this Psalm, there is appended the subscription, that " the prayers of David are ended," is by no means decisive against the author- ship being Solomon's; compare the Dissertation on the super- scriptions at the end of the 3d volume. Ewald maintains that the kingdom of David appears in the Psalm, as sunk into a dimin- ished, poor and low condition, " the dominion over the world was lost, and had to be recovered in some other way," and that, therefore, the author cannot be Solomon. In.opposition to this, we have to observe, that there is not one single trace throughout the whole Psalm, of anything like a diminution of the kingdom of David. It is, on the contrary, upon the basis of a glorious pre- sent, as in Ps. ii. and ex. that there rises the hope of a still more glorious future. This is particularly manifest in the 8th verse. In the passages of the Pentateuch which give the boundaries of Israel, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Euphrates represent the extreme points. The points of termination in the Pentateuch are the points of beginning here, and the end of the dominion ia the same as the end of the earth. It is hence evident, that
390 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the boundary spoken of in the Pentateuch had already been reached, and that the land between the sea and the Euphrates, had already been, and was still occupied. Had it been other- wise, this original land would not possibly have been passed over in silence; its occupation would have first of all been brought into notice. Finally, the idea of Hitzig, " that the diffuseness, the want of colouring, the absence of all arrangement in the Psalm, show that we have before us a worthless j^oem, belonging to a vitiated age," disappears of itself, as soon as we become more intimately acquainted with the strophe-arrangement, and the train of thought in the Psalm ; and the objection recoils upon the head of him who brought it forward.
It has been acknowledged even by the Jews, that Messiah is the subject of the Psalm : compare Christ. I. i. p. 129. And nothing but a dependance upon tradition in " the progression party," can account for the fact, that this exposition, which had been thoughtlessly abandoned in the heat of their destructive zeal, should still find so little favour, especially as a return has long since been made to the ecclesiastical interpretation, in these re- markably similar passages, Is. ix. xi. and Zach. ix. The begin- ning^ however, of a return, even in this case, may be already perceived. The Messianic interpretation is defended by Kiister, with the remark : " It would be inexplicable if an idea of such importance in the Hebrew religion, as that of the Messiah, should not have found a place in the Psalms."
In the first place, the announcement as to the eternal dura- tion of the dominion of the king, in ver. 5, 7, and 17, is in fa- vour of the Messianic interpretation. This announcement could be made either of the family of David, considered as one whole, as in 1 Sam. vii. and Ps. Ixxxix. 36 and 37, or of the Messiah: — between these two, we must make our choice. Now, to main- tain, with Hoffman, (prophecy and its fulfilment, I. p. 177), accord- ing to whom Solomon prays generally for himself and the king of Israel, that the Psalm refers to the family of David, is alto- gether inconsistent with the fact, that throughout the whole Psalm, which in this respect, differs essentially from 2 Sam. vii., there does not occur one single trace of a personification, or of an ideal person : — the parallel passages also, such as Is. ix. 5, 6, may be added, which do not admit of this interpretation. — Far- ther, it is brought forward as emphatically as possible, that the kingdom of this great sovereign, as distinguished from that of
PSALM LXXII. 391
his predecessors, shall extend over the whole earth, that a^^ kings shall submit to him, and that all nations shali serve him ; with the evident design of guarding this thought from every sus- picion of being a poetical exaggeration. The Psalmist would have rendered himself ridiculous, if he had promised such a dominion to any of the ordinary posterity of David, and nothing similar ever occurs of any such. On the other hand, the an- nouncement of the extension of the dominionoverthe whole earth, is what constantly occurs in Messianic prophecies -, comp. Ps. ii. 8, Is. ix. and xi. Zech. ix. 10, Mich. v. 4. Finally^ the king gains his power over the world, according to ver. 11—15, not by weapons of war, but by the righteousness and the love which he manifests in protecting and delivering the miser- able. There is no example of any Israelitish king, of the ordin- ai-y stamp, having brought, in this way, even one single nation into a state of subjection. No such king was ever in circum- stances to practice the virtues of righteousness and love in the midst of distant nations, powerful states not in subjection to his dominion. Such an eflfect can be produced only by a king of a higher than human nature, — one who, in the language of the parallel passage, Is. xi. " smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and slays the wicked with the breath of his lips."
The violent assumptions which must be made, by those who do not adopt the Messianic interpretation, show how impera- tively that interpretation is demanded by the contents of the Psalm. The most common subterfuge is, that the futures in ver. 2 — 11, and in ver. 16, 17, are to be taken in an optative sense. But, such a long succession of wishes, without hope and confidence, produces a mournful impression, and has no- thing analogous to it in the whole Book of Psalms. Besides, this interpretation becomes embarrassed with difficulties, in the 12th and following verses. To be consistent, you must adopt the optative sense there too : — Maurer really does so. But it is clear as day that this will not do. And if you take the futures there as promises^ you find yourself doing what is inadmissible, speaking of the effects as wishes, and of the causes as promises. The frequent use of the fut. apoc. has been appealed to, in fa- vour of the optative interpretation. But there are two cases of this form, DH^ and '•Jl^'j in the sense of the usual future, as is frequent throughout the Psalms, and the two remaining cases, Tn\ in ver. 8th, and ^HS in ver, 16th, must, according to the analogy
392 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of these, be interpreted in the same way : the first occurs, more- over, in the fundamental passage, Num. xxiv. 19, in the sense of the usual future. Besides, were the author expressing mere wishes, he would alternate imperatives with futures. But this does not occur after ver. Ist. — Moreover, it is clear as day, that this arbitrary -change of promises into mere wishes, will not even gain the object : wishes, if they are not to be utterly ridicu- lous, must keep within the range of possibility and probability. Several expositors, sensible of this, have added to the first, a second subterfuge. They suppose that, in verse 8th, the domi- nion of the king, is not at all extended over the whole earth, but only over Canaan to its utmost limits, " from the south-east, or the Arabian Sea, to the north-west, or tlie Mediterranean, and again, from the north-east, or the Euphrates, to the south-west, where Canaan terminates in the desert without any well defined bound- ary." We cannot but express our astonishment, that even Ewald should have adopted this exposition, — an exposition better fitted for the past century, than for the present time : HTl. which is always applied to dominion over the heathen, (compare for ex- ample, Ps. Ixviii. 27, 1 Kings v. 4), the fundamental passa2:e. Num. xxiv. 19, from which even the form is taken, the ex- pression, " from sea to sea," which is always applied to the ut- most circumference of the earth, (compare Amos viii. 12, Mich, vii. 12), and finally, " even to the ends of the earth," are all de- cisive against it. Compare the refutation at length of the refe- rence to the boundaries of Palestine, in the commentary, on the passage borrowed from this Psalm in Zech. ix. 10, in the Christology, II. p. 139. But if there were any doubt whatever remaining, it would be removed by what follows. In ver. 9 and 10, when the thought is individualized, only such nations are named, as were beyond the boundaries of Canaan, and in part at a great distance from it. The 11th verse, which recapitu- lates what had gone before, mentions all nations, all kings. — Hoffmann, p. 176, endeavours to set aside the proof for the Messianic interpretation furnished by ver. 11 — 15, by affirming that the sense is, " that the goodness and the righteous- ness of the king, with which God has adorned him, will incline God to grant him an unlimited extent of dominion." But the matter appears as the result of the free-will inclinations of the nations themselves ; and the 15th verse is specially against this view, — a verse which would be martyred, were it forced to ftivour
PSALM LXXII. VER. 1 — 5. 393
this exposition. This verge, (compare " the gold of Seba," with the 10th verse), is also decisive against those who, with the view of bi'inging out the influence of an ordinary Israelitish king, in favour of the poor and miserable, of which the Psalmist there speaks, take the sense to be, that the conduct of the righteous king among his oiun people, will induce foreigners, to do him ho- mage. The idea of De Wette, adopted to meet this exigency, that by the poor and miserable, we are to understand oppressed foreign nations, seeking protection from the Israelites, requires only to be looked at, in connection with the 4th verse, (where manifestly it is oppressed individuals that are spoken of), to bo abandoned. — We may well give up a view, which does so much violence to our sense of what is right in exegetical matters.
The first half of the first strophe is ver. 1 — 5 : God grants to his king righteousness, ver. 1, and his righteous government produces righteousness among the people, in consequence of which peace advances ; in like manner, his righteous government produces among the people in all time coming, the ascendancy oi piety, ver. 4, 5. — Ver. 1. O, God, give thy judgments to the king, and thy righteousness to the king's son. Ver. 2. He shall judge thy people in righteousness, and thy miserable ones with judgment, Ver. 3. The mountains shall bring forth peace to the people, and the hills through righteousness. Ver. 4. He shall judge the miserable of thy p>eople, he shall help the sons of the needy, and crush the oppressor. Ver. 5. They shall fear thee ivith the sun, and before the moon through all generations , — That the petitions of ver. 1, like those of the Lord's prayer, and like all real prayer, are based on confidence, and do not partake of the wavering character, referred to in James i. 6, is obvious from the circumstance that, in the following verses, futures are made use of, on the supposition of the prayer being granted. Where prayer is based on the word of God, and is made in his Spirit, the transition from imperatives to futures, becomes exceedingly natural and easy. The " he shall judge, &c." in ver. 2, is an- nexed to with the " thou shalt give," which lies concealed in the " give" of ver. 1. W^^Ut2 is very often " decisions," *' legal sentences"; and ver. 4th, shows that this is the sense, and not that of " laws," " commandments," which must be adopted here. The decisions of God are opposed to the decisions, which the king gives at his own hand. The judgment is God's, Deut. i. 17 :
394 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
compare Ex. xxi. 6, xxii, 7, 8, Prov. viii. 15, 2 Chron. xix.6. It comes to this, that the essence of all justice lies in the con- formity of the decisions of the earthly judge, to the decisions of the heavenly Lord of Justice ; and this only takes place when there rests upon the former, " the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." The great king here spoken of, shall, according to Isaiah xi. 2, obtain this without measure ; and thus the prayer, " give thy judgments to the king," is fulfilled to anun- limited extent. Solomon, in type, prayed, in 1 Kings iii. 9, that the Lord would give him an understanding heart, (Vatabl. men- tem docilem Deo et Spiritui S. audientem), that he might judge his people ; and it is recorded of him, 1 Kings iii. 28 : " and all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment." ^7)^ stands poetically without the article, as in Ps. xlv. 1 ; compare at the passage. — On ver. 2d, compare Is. xi. 3, 4. The " miserable ones of God," are the mis-- erable among his people : comp. ver 4. — The mountains and hills are not at all named, as the most unfruitful places of the land, — which they really were not, in Palestine, compare Deut. xxxiii. 15, Ps. cxlvii. 8, " who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains," Ps. Ixv. 12, — nor even because what is on them can be seen every where, and from all sides, (Tholuck), — com- pare against this, Joel iv. 18, " the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk," Is. Iv. 12, — but, as being the most prominent points, and ornaments of the country, and therefore, as representing it, well fitted to ex- press the thought, that the country shall be every where filled with peace.* Peace appears every where as a characteristic mark of the time of the Messiah : compare, for example, Is. ii 4, ix. 5, 6, xi. 9, Ixv. 25, Mic. iv. 3, Zech. ix. 10. In the second clause, " shall bring forth peace to the people," is to be supplied from the first. And in like manner, the " through righteous- ness" of the second, is to be added to the first clause. For peace is brought forward, here and throughout, only in so far as it is the product and consequence of that righteousness, which is inherent in the king, and which has been introduced by him
* It is obvious from Is. ix. 6, compared with ver. 4, ii. 4, Zech. ix. 10, among other passages, that OfVO has here its usual sense, and not that of salvation s.ni. prosperity.
PSALM LXXII. VER. 1 5. 395
among his people. Peace appears, even in the law, as the pro- duct of righteousness : compare Lev. xxvi. 3 — 6, " if ye walk in
ray statutes, and keep my commandments and do them
I will give peace in the land and the sword shall not
come into your land." Peace was represented in type as a re- ward of righteousness, in the time of Solomon, to whose name there is manifestly allusion made here : compare 1 Kings v. 4. Ilighteousness and peace are connected together, also in Is. ix. 6, as cause and effect, in the time of the Messiah. Ewald with his ungrammatical interpretation, " and the hills, blessings of grace/' (X^J never occurs with ^ of the object, Hpl^ never sig- nifies blessings of grace, and most assuredly cannot have this sig- nification here, compare verses 1, 2, and 4, which serve as a com- mentary), gains nothing except that he dissevers the consequence from its cause, and thus destroys the whole train of thought. The righteousness of the king, is the centre of the Psalm, that, on which every thing else absolutely depends. — Ver. 4th is to be closely connected with verse 5th, otherwise, it appears as a mere idle repetition of verse 2nd: the righteousness of the king, and, in consequence of this, the righteousness of the people and peace in ver. 1 — 3, the righteousness of the king, and, in conse- quence of this, the fear of God among the people, ver. 4 and 5. Isaiah xi. 4, remarkably agrees with this verse, and is probably dependent on it. The judging of the miserable, is not at all to pronounce a just sentence upon them, but stands in opposition to neglecting to take up their case: compare Is. i. 17, 23, " they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come before them." The " needy" is here an ideal person, the personified species, and thus the particular needy individuals appear as his sons. — In verse 5th, the address is directed, as it is throughout the whole Psalm, not to the king, but to God. The train of thought is lost, if this be not kept in view. The passage, however, does contain a proof in favour of the Messianic interpretation of the Psalm. For the fear of God, is an everlasting consequence of the righteous dominion of the king : and, therefore, this dominion itself also must be everlasting : the continued existence of the effect, presupposes the continued existence of the cause. That there is here at least an indirect assertion, as to the eternity of the dominion of the king, is obvious from the parallel passages, verse 7, 17, and Ps. Ixxxix. 36, 38. " With the sun," is " as long as it
396 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
is by them": " before the moon", " as long as they are shone upon by it": compare Job viii. 16. According to the doctrineeven of the Old Testament, the heavens and earth, in their present form, shall pass away, Ps, cii. 26, but not for a very long time, and the boundary line of this era is so distant, that it frequently disappears from the eye.
The second half of the first strophe, is ver. 6 — 10. Verses 6 and 7, resume the contents of the first strophe, the right- eousness-creating, and therefore peace-producing, conduct of the righteous king, for the purpose of adding to this another sub- ject, strictly connected with them, viz. the infinite extension of his dominion — 'Ver. 6. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, and like showers that water the ground. Ver. 7. The righteous man shall fiourish in his days, and abundance of peace until the moon is no more. Ver. 8. And he rules from .sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Ver. 9. Before him the inhabitants of the wilderness shall bow doivn, and his enemies shall lick the dust. Ver. 10. The kings of Tarsus and of the islands shall pay gifts, the kings of Saba and Seba shall bring presents. — The figure of rain, which produces fresh verdure, occurs as descriptive of the blessings of Messiah's time, also in the last words of David, in 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Ewald's translation is flat : it shall fall down. The following verse also is against it, where the righteous man is spoken of as flourishing in consequence of the rain. |J is used of mown grass also, in Amos vii. 1. Luther, falsely : " the skin." — In ver. 8th, if we suppose that by the first sea is meant the Mediterranean, the second will denote any imaginary one. But the passages Mic. vii. 12, and Amos viii. 12, favour the idea, that the first sea also is to be taken indefinitely, and then it will not be necessary to under- stand also the Euphrates by the word "river," without the article. There is, also, as appears only a general reference to the passages of the Pentateuch, such as Ex. xxiii. 31, where the boundaries of Canaan are marked out by naming the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates : the land which Moses gave to the Israelites stretched merely from the Mediterranean Sea to the river Eu- phrates; but, on the contrary, the dominion of this king extends from any one sea to any other sea, and from any river even to the ends of the earth, — it is a kingdom of boundless extent. Our verse is quoted word for word in Zech. ix. 10. It is more than can be established to invert the relation, as Ewald and Hitzig do. The fact that Zechariah, in the first half of the verse, has bor-
PSALM LXXII. VER. 6 — 10. 397
rowed from Mic. v. 9, is against this idea ; compare the Christ- ology on the passage. — In individualizing the thought expressed in ver. 8, the Psalmist, in ver. 9, mentions first the inliahitants of the wilderness, (D*'*'^ denotes here, as usually, the beasts of the wilderness, Ps. Ixxiv. 14, Is. xxiii. 13), on account of their wild- ncss and love of liberty. They lick the dust, i. e. they indicate in the most humiliating way their reverence and submission • compare Is. xlix, 23. — Next, in the 10th verse, there are the in- habitants of the distant wealthy West, and of the distant wealthy South. The historical basis of the announcement made in this verse, with which Ps. Ixviii. 29, xlv. 12, Is. Ix. 6 — 6, ought to be compared, is to be found in 1 Kings iv. 21 " and Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life," and in 1 Kings x. 24, " and all the world sought a sight of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart: and they brought every one his pre- sent, vessels of silver and vessels of gold," all the more in the last passage, and also in the history of the visit of the Queen of Sheba and her presents, (comp. 1 Kings x. 10, which assuredly gave oc- casion to the naming of the Sabeans in this Psalm), as the free- will recognition made of Solomon from the heathen world was a prelude, though only a weak one, to the subjection of the world beneath the sceptre of his Son. Gousset has given the correct interpretation of the clause nPliJ^ y^T], which also occurs in 2 Kings iii. 4, xvii. 3. It signifies " to give gifts in the ivay of return or recompense" ; and refers to gifts or tribute, when given as thank-offerings in return for acts of favour shown, as, which also was considered as such, when the conqueror spared the conquered. The expression here is illustrated verses 11 — 15, where the good deeds are detailed by which the king lays the heathen world under obligations, and gives it occasion to do him homage. The '\y^'' contains within itself the germ of this paragraph. It alone is sufficient to set aside the exposition of Hoffmann already adverted to.
The first part of the second strophe, ver. 11 — 15, gives first in ver. 11, the substance, out of the second part of the first, for the purpose of adding, in ver. 12 — 15, the explanation of the great fact which it announces. " True love conquers, men feel it at last, weep bitterly, and fall down on their knees like children." — Ver. 11. And all kings worship him, all the heathen serve him.
398 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver. 12. For he delivers the needy man who cries, and the miser- able, and him who hath no helper. Ver. 13. He spares the poor and the needy, and he delivers the souls of the needy. Ver. 14. He delivers their souls from oppression and violence, and their blood is precious in his eyes. Ver. 15. And he lives and gives him of the gold of Seha. and prays for him continually, ever- more he shall bless him. — The agreement of ver. 12th with Job xxix. 12, " For I delivered the poor that cried, and the father- less, and him that had no helper," is too great to admit of its being considered, with any appearance of probability, as accidental. As the words stand here in a very significant con- nection, and on this account were the more easily impressed on the mind, and better adapted for being introduced with grace as an appropriate allusion, (" for /," as a type of the mighty king of the future, etc.), and as, in the other passages where Job and the Psalms come into contact, the originality of the latter is manifest, (compare at Ps. xxxix. 13, Ps. Ixxviii.), and finally, as the Book of Job belongs most assuredly to a period later than that of Solomon, the passage before us must be con- sidered as the original one. — In reference to TTin? oppression, in ver. 14, compare at Ps. x. 7, Iv. 11. On " their blood is pre- cious in his sight," i. e. " he values their lives highly, and hence uses every effort to protect them," compare Ps. cxvi. 15, 1 Sam. xxvi. 21, 2 Kings i. 14. — In ver. 15, every exposition must be abondoned which implies a change of subject. It is only in a passage where there can be no ambiguity that such an interpre- tation, where the nominatives are not mentioned, can be adopted. The question may be asked, is it the Jci^ig or the needy man that is the subject of the whole verse ? Without hesitation we de- cide in favour of the latter. " He lives," can be applied only to him who had been assailed or threatened with death ; and the king, according to verse 10th, must be the receiver, and not the giver of the gold of Seba. The verse before us returns back to the conclusion of the first strophe, after the basis of the fact announced there, had been detailed in the second. The reasons which have been adduced against the idea, that it is the poor man throughout that is the subject, are not of any consequence. The transition from the plural to the singular is of the less mo- ment, as the singular is made use of also in verses 12 and 13. The subject is the ideal person of the needy man. The objec- tion that the needy man has no gold, disappears with the re-
PSALM LXXII. VER. 11 — 17. 399
mark, that by the righteousness of the king, he is restored to the possession of his goods : — there is therefore no reason for taking the gold of Seba, contrary to ver. 10th, in a figurative sense, as denoting the inward thanks of the delivered man. The assertion of Hitzig, "that intercessions are employed only be- fore God, who is near at hand, on behalf of those who are far off," is met by the xxth Psalm, (a prayer of the people on be- half of their king), by 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, and the beginning of our Psalm itself. The anxiety of the old ecclesiastical expositors, lest the prayer for the king should be considered as derogatory to the divine nature of Christ, is quite uncalled for, because we do pray for the coming of Christ's kingdom, and therefore for himself. The analogy of the apocopate futures throughout the Psalm, is sufficient to show that Tfl must be translated, " he lives," not " that he may live."
Verses 16 and 17 form the conclusion, in the first instance, to the second strophe, and next to the whole Psalm. — Ver. 16. There shall he abundance of corn in the land, upon the top of the mountains, its fruit shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth. Ver. 17. His name shall be for ever, his name shall endure before the sun, and men shall bless themselves by him, all the heathen shall praise him. The historical basis of ver. 16 is furnished by 1 Kings iv. 20, where it is said of Solomon's reign : " Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea, eating and drinking and making merry," In the first clause the blessing spread abroad under this righteous reign, is denoted by the individualizing de- scription, " the abundance of corn": compare Deut. xi. 14, Jer. xxxi. 12, Zech, x, 18, (see the Cbristol. on the passage) : — in the last clause, the idea occurs as it does here in connection with the abundance of the population. In like manner also, in Isa. xxvii. 6, " In future, Jacob shall strike his roots, Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." The translation of nD3 by " abundance," is not quite ascertained. But the translation, " there may be want, still there will be," etc. (DDS=DfiJ^. compare Ps. xii. 1), is opposed by the consideration, that TT' can scarcely be taken otherwise than the rest of the apoc. futures, particularly '>n^ in ver. 15. The mountains are named, not as being unfruitful, but as being the most prominent points of the country, and, therefore, when covered with corn, present- ing a picturesque appearance. Lebanon comes into notice a3
400 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
covered with its waving cedars, which occur to the mind as soon as Lebanon is named. It is never spoken of as fertile in corn. In the second clause, the subject is to be supplied from T^D? the inhabitants of the city. The abundance of the population, as a sign of the joyful prosperity of the people, occurs also in Zech. ii. 8, Isa. xlix. 20. " As the grass of the earth," is to be found in Job v. 25. On " out of the city," compare Num. xxiv. 19. — In ver. 17, the eternity of the name is based upon the eter- nity of the kingdom, and of the deeds out of which the name con- tinually grows up afresh : comp. Is. ix. 5, 6, Ps. xvl. 2, 6, and Ps. cii. 12, where it is said of Jehovah, " thy remembrance is to all generations." The reading in the text |'»i'' is the Hiph. of a deno- min. verb from V'^,offs'pring,yfh\c\i does not elsewhere occur, and was probably formed by the Psalmist himself : " the name shall produce posterity," poetically, instead of " shall renovate itself," inasmuch as by the new deeds of the king, it always acquires fresh life. The Kri in the Niph. has originated from the Massorites not understanding the boldness of poetical expression. The Hithp. of ^VSZ signifies always " to bless one's self," with the i of that from which the blessing is desired, Isa. Ixv. 16, and Jer. iv. 2, or whose blessing is desired. Gen. xlviii. 20. That it is the latter of these senses that must be here adopted, that " they bless themselves by him," is equivalent to, " they wish themselves to be as blessed as he is," is obvious from the pa- rallel clause, " they shall praise him," and from the reference, which it is impossible to mistake, to the fundamental passage in Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4. What is there said of the posterity of the patriarchs, is fulfilled, in the first instance, in the glorious king, and through him, in his people. " To bless by," is in that passage, as it is in this, followed by " to be blessed through," as its consequence : the acknowledgment of the blessing calls forth the wish to partake of it, as in Isa. xliv. 5, where, in conse- quence of the rich blessing which is poured out upon Israel, the nations become anxious to adopt Israel's name. In Genesis, the Niphal, " the blessing themselves by," goes before and alongside of the Hithp., " the being blessed through :" compare xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxviii. 14. That we are not to explain the passages in which the Niph. occurs, from those in which the Hithp. occurs, but rather, on the contrary, that these latter are to be supple- mented out of the former, is manifest from the fact, that the Niph. of "TX^ bas never been proved to occur in the sense of
PSALM LXXIII. 401
the Hithp., from the constant joyful repetition of this announce- ment which every where appears as forming the very summit of the promises made to the patriarchs, from the reference of the blessing upon all the tribes of the earth to the curse pronounced on the "earth after the fall, from the connection with the pro- phecy of Japhet dwelling in the tents of Shem, Gen. ix. 27, and the ruler proceeding from Judah to whom the people are to be obedient, Gen. xlix. 10. The union which binds these announce- ments to each other, would be destroyed, were we to force the sense of the Hiph. upon the Niph. in the promises made to the patriarchs.
Verses 18 and 19 do not belong to the Psalm, but contain the doxology which forms the conclusion of the second book. This doxology, which is the most copious that occurs, agrees very well with the contents, and was undoubtedly composed in refe- rence to these. " May the whole earth be full of his glory," (as it shall be when all nations shall do homage to this his anoint- ed), is taken, word for word, from Num. xiv. 21. In reference to ver. 20th see the treatises at the close.
PSALM LXXIII.
After the Psalmist, in verse 1, has shortly expressed the truth which had been awakened, in an especial manner, in his own heart, and which he desires to awaken in the hearts of the members of the church, " that God is always good to his own people," he represents, in ver. 2—11, the facts which had caus- ed him almost to waver in this belief, in a picturesque descrip- tion of the prosperity of the ungodly, depicts, in verses 12—16, the conflicts and struggles into which he was thereby brought, and in verses 17—20, the victory which he gained, when brought by the grace of God to know that the prosperity of the wicked, and the sufferings of the righteous, are alike transitory, com- plains of his own foolishness, as the source of his doubts, and praises the grace of God, which had removed these from him, verses 21 — 24, and expresses his unqualified assurance of the divine assistance, and of salvation, verses 25 — 28.
The main division has twenty verses, two decades. These are followed by two concluding strophes, each of four verses. VOL. II 2d
402 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The whole contains four sevens. The main turning point lies exactly in the middle.
The Psalm is very nearly related to the xxxvii. and xlix., as far as its contents are concerned. Amyraldus took quite a cor- rect view as to what distinguishes it from these Psalms and forms its individual physiognomy. " In Ps. xxxvii. the prophet merely shows how beHevers ought to conduct themselves when they per- ceive the prosperity of the ungodly : he himself did not stumble at it. But here Asaph, though a great and pious man, acknow- ledges that the providence of God, in this respect, did sometimes appear to him mysterious, and that he felt great difficulty in justi- fying it. Yea, from the beginning of this Psalm we see how he merged out of the deep thoughts into which his spirit, agitated and vexed by doubts, had sunk, until, in the end, better views ob- tained the ascendancy He has adopted this method in order
that believers might contemplate, as in a picture, the conflict to which, at times, they are exposed, and might see what weapons they have to seize against the assaults of the flesh."
Several recent expositors have endeavoured to force upon the Psalm a national interpretation. But there is no mention what- ever made of the heathen throughout the whole of it; it is the wicked only in general that arc spoken of. How little good ground there is for interpreting such descriptions as these ex- clusively of the relation in which Israel stood to the heathen, (the relation here, at all events, is only that of the election, ver. 1), is manifest from Jer. xii. 1, 2, where there occur complaints altogether similar to those of our Psalm, and which were occa- sioned by the injustice of the people of Anathoth.
There is nothing in this Psalm, more than there is in Ps. l. against supposing that the Asaph named in the title as the au- thor, was David's chief musician. For the assertion that n")N1^/53, in verse 18th, a word of very rare occurrence, but common to our Psalm with the Ixxiv., which was composed after the destruction of the temple, shows that both Psalms were composed at the same era, is met by the 17th verse, where the sanctuary of the Lord is represented as still standing, and also by the fact that the 13th verse of our Psahu is alluded to in Prov. XX. 9. Besides, it may be maintained that the author of the Ixxivth Psalm may have borrowed the word from this one. In favour of the authorship of the Psalm belonging to the time
PSALM LXXIII. VER. 1. 403
of David, we may urge the originality, freshness and life by which the poem is distinguished.
Ver. 1. God is only good to Israel, to such as are of a pure heart. The *nX, according to many expositors, is " yet", that is, " in spite of every thing which would lead the Psalmist away from this truth, and deprive him of its consolatory power." But *!|X has never this sense; and the usual and fully ascertain- ed sense, (comp. ver. 18), is quite suitable—" Onhj good,"— not as foolishness, looking on the outward appearance, supposes, in certain circumstances also evil. It is exceedingly difficult to say this " only" from the heart. He only can do so, who has come into the sanctuary of God. l*ltD is not a subs., (Stier: the true good and prosperity), but an adj.; it is employed as such in ver. 26, and it is constantly used of God, for example, in Vs. xxv. 8, xxxiv. 8, cxviii. 1, Nah. i. 7, Lam.iii. 25. Good:— not evil, as the righteous man may well suppose^, when he is plagued continual- ly, tormented every morning, while the wicked swim in prosperi- ty. That God is good, is manifested in his goodness towards his own people:— assuredly lltD has the sense of kind neither here nor any where else. Towards Israel : — both in its collec- tive and individual capacity. Those who are Israelites only in appearance and the heathen form the opposition. The limiting clause, " such as are of a pure heart," (compare verse 13, and at Ps. xxiv. 6), shows that by Israel the Psalmist understands only the Election, the true Israelites in whom there is no guile, to the exclusion of the false seed, the souls who, according to the ex- pression of the law, are cut off from their people, even although they are found to be outwardly living in the midst of them, compare on Ps. xxiv. 6. It is only to these true Israelites that the promises of God are given: it is they only therefore who, in the event of these promises remaining unfulfilled, would have any reason to doubt of his goodness. The distinction which the Psalmist makes among the IsraeUtes themselves, at the very be- ginning of the Psalm, goes directly against those who consider the Psalm as having a national reference. The wicked among the Israelites are by that distinction put exactly on a level with the heathen.
Ver. 2. And I, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well nigh slipped. Ver. 3. For I envied the haughty, the peace of the wicked I beheld. Ver. 4. Fur they are not fettered to death, and
404 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
their Strength is firm. — Ver. 5. They are not in the sufferings of mortals, and they are not plagued with men. Ver. 6. There- fore pride encompasses their neck, the garment of haughtiness co- vers them. Ver. 7. Their eyes stand out from fat, the thoughts of their hearts flow over. Ter. 8. They scoff, and speak in xvicTcedness, they speak oppression from on high. — Ver. 9. They set their mouth in the heaven, and their tongue xoalks up and down the earth. Ver. 10. Therefore he turns his people hither, and wa- ters in abundance are sipped by them. Ver. 11. And they say: how should God know, and knowledge be in the Most High. — The " I" in the 2d verse emphatically occupies the foremost place : — T say this not at all superficially, but from my own ex- perience of the contest and of the victory. The reading in the text ^^tOi, is the stat. absol. of the particip. Pa., not according to
some, the stat. constr. ""iliOi, one inclined in my feet. The Keri VtOi. the 3d PI. Praet. is to be rejected, as having been adopted as explanatory of the meaning. The HtO^ is used of feet inclined to fall, as it is at Ps. Ixii. 3, of a wall. Instead of nD52J^j the third sing. fern, of Pu. according to the frequent use of the plural with the fem. sing.of the predicate, the Masorites substitute ^1^3^. A similar Keri reading, and one equally useless, occurs on the same word in Deut. xxi. 7. The footsteps, when one cannot stand firm, are as it were spilt, like water which flows down on all sides: comp. Ps. xxii. 14. The subsequent part of the Psalm defines the danger to which the Psalmist was exposed, and shows in what the struggle consisted which had almost brought him to the ground. The prosperity of the wicked filled him with doubts as to the divine righteousness, and these shook the whole edifice of his piety to its very foundation. — On " I envied," in verse 3, compare at Ps. xxxvii. 1 ; and on D v/IH, " haughty," at Ps. v. 5. Pain and vexation are such natural attendants of the sight of the peace of theiuicked, that there is no need for expressly mentioning them. — The nil^lH, in verse 4, must, according to Is. Iviii. 6, and the Arabic, be translated " fetters"; the sense of " pain" has nothing whatever to support it. The " fetters" denote figuratively the death-bringing circumstances which God suspends over the guilty : compare Job xxi. 17, " how oft is the candle of the wicked put out, and their destruction cometh up- on them, God sends them cords in his anger," and at Ps. xi. 6.
PSALM LXXm. VER. 2 — 11. 405
The Psalmist is, through the grace of God, assured in ver. 17 — 20, that this, which he here finds to be wanting, will make its appearance at the end ; and thus the conflict is brought to an end ; for its peculiar difficulty is not that the wicked are in pro- sperity, but that this prosperity is, to all appearance, to last for ever. The 7IX, strength, (compare 2 Kings xxiv. 15), occurs in Job xxi. 7, " wherefore do the wicked live, continue, and are powerful in strength" not as several arbitrarily, "in body." The " great in strength" may very well be designated poetically as fat, well fed. — The " misery of men," in verse 5, is the misery to which weak mortals are so abundantly exposed : compare on ^\^'i^ at Ps. viii. 4. The D"15<, without the article, and in the singular number, denotes the whole human race in its wid- est extent. The wicked alone appear to form an exception to the mournful rule, " there can and may be nothing else, all men must suffer, nothing that moves and lives on the earth can escape suffering." Reason has a difficulty ; she finds here a singular anomaly ; she supposes that the rule ought rather to be limited to those who appear to form the exception from it. — On this account, verse 6 : on account of this their freedom from punishment, p^y is " to surround like a neck-ornament." The reason which led the Psalmist to speak of pride as a neck orna- ment of the wicked, for the purpose of expressing the thought that they are wholly beset with it, was in all probability the fact that it was their manner of carrying their neck that chiefly exhibited their pride : compare Is. iii. 16, Job xv. 26. The )f27 pVoperly " to them," is explained by the modification of the sense of dtO^ : compare the plDD with 7 in Is. xi. 9. — In the first clause of verse 7, the Psalmist describes in a graphic man- ner a well-fed wicked man, whose eyes stand out with fat from his body. The external appearance comes into view only as a reflection and expression of their carnal mind, which so often displays itself by such appearances : compare on Ps. xvii. 10, where also, the arbitrary senses of y^H, which have been brought forward on this passage, are set aside. As the eyes of the wicked stand out of their bodies, so their thoughts rush out from the'iv hearts : this is a sign of their might and power : — they will not practice the least forbearance, but give instant and full expression to their thoughts in words and in deeds, according to the expression, " that of which their heart is full, &c." The naked "123^ does not signify ''■ to transgress," but " to overflow,"
406 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
like a river, for example, which cannot be confined within its banks, Is. viii. 8. — In the 8th verse DII^JD cannot be taken ad- verbially, in the sense of " proudly": it must be translated " out of the height," " from above." This is manifest from what fol- lows: and, moreover, its usual sense is, " from heaven's height." The thought appears to be resumed in the following verse, chiefly from the parallelism of heaven and earth. " They speak oppression": that is, words which tend to oppression : see Is. lix. 13. — The U^'t2i^'2 and V'^^'2 signifies, as it always does, when the two words come together, " in heaven and on earth;" and, therefore, " against heaven," and " to the heaven" are to be rejected. The sense of the first clause is very well express- ed by Luther : What they say must be said from heaven. "TJ7n signifies only " to go," " to go up and down, "^ and the stronger senses are to be considered as arbitrarily adopted. The going simply denotes their activity. Their wicked and do- mineei'ing tongue is always employed. — In verse 10, the text- reading is the fut. of Hiph, ^"•^'' : the reading in the margin, ^125^^, owes its origin entirely to want of insight. The sub- ject is the wicked: and it is to this that the suflSx in '■^ his people" refers. The idea that it refers to God is inadmissible, as God had not been spoken of. " The wicked turns his people thither" thus signifies, " by his freedom from punishment, and his prosperity, he prevails upon others to leave the right path, and to adopt his sentiments." The people of the wicked stands in opposition to the generation of the children of God in verse ] 5. Among this people there are many who appeared at one time to belong to the Lord's people, but whose conduct has made it manifest, that their external piety was at bottom, nothing else than hypocrisy. The true members of the church of God may stumble, but they do not fall ; for God stretches out his hand to them when they are ready to sink, and they lay hold of it by faith. In the second clause ^"^fy^ is the Niph. of n^/!2, " to sip." The 5^7/53, " full," occupies the place of a noun : water in abun- dance. The rich prosperity which the apostates enjoy, as the reward of their apostacy, appears under the figure of a rich draught presented to the thirsty : they sip prosperity in full measure. Others refer the words to the eagerness with which they have adopted dangerous principles, which they drink in, as it were, in full streams, (compare Job xv, 16) ; but the figura- tive use of water for prosperity is the common one, and, on the other hand, the expression does not clearly bring out the other
PSALM LXXm VER. 12 — 16. 407
sense. — These apostates, through the prosperity of their prede- cessors in wickedness, and their own according to ver. 11, are soon brought to deny the providence of God altogether : com- pare Ps. X. 11, Job xxii. 13, 14.
In verses 12 — 16, the Psalmist depicts the struggles and con- flicts into which he had been brought, from observing, that to all appearance righteousness had been wholly deprived of its re- ward, and wickedness of its punishment. — Ver. 12. Behold these are the wicked, and the eternally secure increase their xvealth. Ver. 13. Only in vain I have purified my heart, and luashed my hands in innocence. Ver. 14. For I have been plagued conti- nually, and my chastisement is every morning. Ver. 15. If 1 say, '' I tvill announce this," behold I woidd act treachei^onsly toivards the generation of thy sons. Ver. 16. And I meditated on this, that I might know : it ivas a pain in my eyes. — Accord- ing to the common view, verses 12 — 14 are to be considered as a continuation of the speech of the apostates. But the Psalmist had spoken of these in the plural, and he must conti- nue to do so, otherwise it would not be possible to distinguish his own observations from theirs. The description, moreover, of the ungodly as the people of the wicked, and their openly ungodly speech in verse 11, do not suit with verses 13 and 14, ac- cording«to which it is a sincerely pious man that speaks here. The expression, " these are the wicked", in verse 12, is also against this interpretation. The apostates have already become wicked themselves, and are not likely to apply this name to their pre- decessors in wickedness. Finally, the person who speaks here, is, according to verse 14, still in a state of suffering ; but the apostates are, according to verse 10, in prosperity. We must, therefore, conclude that the Psalmist, in vers. 12 — 14, describes the impression made upon him the representative of real and living piety, by this contradiction between sight and faith, be- tween the reality and the idea. These (the men to whom such things happen) are the wicked: — the same men whom I behold swimming in affluence, are the very wicked men, who, according to the word of God, must be brought to shame and misery. And those secure of eternity, i. e. those who now already are se- cure for a whole eternity, — D /l^ is to be explained as the lan- guage of sense: the prosperity of the wicked, which is objective- ly bounded by a definite period of time, appears to impatience as if it were a whole eternity of impunity — increase their wealth.
408 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
or reach forward to still greater riches : compare on 7"'n in Deut. viii. 17, Fs Ix. 12, xlix. 6, 10. — On verse 13, Calvin : " As- suredly, I have striven in vain to have a pure hand and a pure heart, whereas continual conflicts await me, and are ready like watch-men to lay hold upon me, as soon as morning dawns." The necessary limitation to " I have purified and washed," is given in Prov. xx. 9, " who can say, I have purified my heart, I am free from my sin," namely, otherwise than in the sense in whi'jh the Psalmist says it, whose words are not to be mis- understood, — in that of a sincere struggle after righteousness. The first clause points to " such as are of a pure heart" in verse 1. On the second clause compare Psalm xxvi. 6. — On verse 14, compare Job vii. 18, " And thou visitest him every morning, and triest him every moment." " I have been plagued" stands in opposition to " they are not plagued," which is said of the wicked in verse 5. The nnD"in> censure, is used, as it is in Ps. xxxix. 11, of such censure as is convey- ed in the shape of a sermo realis : the connection and the par- allelism will not allow us to think of any thing else. — It is, therefore, very weighty reasons that have perplexed the Psalmist. But another voice rises from within, warning him with great earnestness not to come forth as a preacher of un- godliness, ver. 15. " If I say : I will announce thus, &c." is equivalent to, "should I make these doubts public." ^SD i^ " to recount," '• to make known," " to preach." What had gone before was merely a soliloquy. Those who fear God, never let their inward doubts become known abroad. They do not repair with them to the streets, where the ignorant people would make them the occasion of open ungodliness ; but they take them to the sanctuary of God ; and give expression to their doubts, like the Psalmist, when they can at the same time, make known their victory. The arbitrary translation of 13D by " think," is also rejected by the second clause : mere thinking would not produce such consequences. The 1^^, which is merely the separate form of "2, is never anything else than the mark of comparison ; and the expositions in which it is taken in any other way are to be summarily rejected. There is an ellipsis : like, namely, what had preceded, my doubts as to the divine justice, my opinion, that it is to no purpose to lead a blameless life. The omission of what is said after '^'f2'^> wiien it can be obviously supplied from the context, is quite analagous to this : compare on Ps. iv. 4, Vol. i. page Q5. On ^^2, to act
PSALM LXXIII. VER. 12 16. 409
faithlessly, used of every violation of duty towards our neighbour^ generally with ^, here poetically with the accus. in the sense of " to treat faithlessly," compare at Ps. xxv. 3. The faithless- ness consists not in the mere abandoning — this could scarcely bo denoted in this way — but in misleading: comp. what Eliphaz ob- jected to Job, of whose words, ver. 12 — 14, contain the essence, ch. XV. 4, " thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God." "The generation of the children of God"=" the righteous generation," of Ps. xiv. 5, and=" Israel" of ver. 1st. The sonship of God always implies, in tlie Old Testament, the most endearing love, such as that of a father to his son : compare on Ps. ii. 7. Vol. i. page 31 : — whoever misleads the beloved of God, or robs them of their most valuable possessions, commits a serious offence. Stier is wrong, when he asserts that this allusion is a singular one for the Old Testament. Deut. xiv. 1, 2, corresponds exactly. What is there said of Israel, is applicable, like every thing else of a similar nature, only to the kernel of the people: and it is manifest from ver. 1, that the generation of the sons of God here, are Israel — the others are, indeed, of Israel, but they are not Israel. — The Psalmist, according to ver. 16th, makes every effort to understand this, — the contradiction between idea and reality, in the lives of the wicked and the righteous ; but it is ne- cessary for him to know, that human speculation, and research, can in this matter accomplish nothing : the thing remains for ever a suffering in his eyes, which torments and pains him, more than even the suffering itself which had called forth the question ; for its greatest grievance lies in this, that it has perplexed him in reference to his God, Several expositors have : " it was troublesome, difficult to conceive of," and refer to Eccles. viii. 17. But ^OJ? signifies always in the Psalms, where it occurs very frequently, suffering, trouble. The Keri ^?1^ Is intended probably to apply to the wicked.
In ver. 17 — 20, the victory in the severe conflict obtained through the grace of God. — Ver. 17. Till I come to the sanctuaries of God, noiv will I m.ark their end. Ver. 18. Onlg on slippery places settest thou them, thou lettest them fall to ruins. Ver. 19. How are they so suddenly annihilated, they perish and come to an end with terror. Ver. 20. Like a dream through awak- ing, thus despisest thou, 0 Lord, in the city, their image. — In ver. 17, several explain, " till I pressed into the divine secrets." But this explanation is altogether an arbitrary one. The word
410 TflE BOOK OF PSALMS.
lyipt^ signifies always the sanctuary, and is the constant one for the tabernacle and the temple; comp, in reference to the plural, Ps. Ixviii. 35. There is no occasion whatever for departing from the fully ascertained and literal sense, if we only look upon the sanctuary with the eyes of the pious Israelites of the Old Testament dispensation. The substance of the temple to them was the presence of God, and just on this account, accord- ing to their view, any man could externally repair to the temple without being truly in it, and, in like manner, a man could bo truly in it, even when outwardly at a distance from it : compare at Ps. Ixiii. 2, and the passages quoted there. The Psalmist thus goes here also with the feet of his heart into the sanctuary, draws near to God, and gets from this clear fountain, the insight which natu- ral reason could not give him. 7^{ X")]^, which is used of coming to the sanctuary, as for example, Ez. xliv. 27, makes it manifest that ^npJb is used here, as it always is, in a local sense. In Eze- kiel's vision of the new temple, that spiritual aspect of the sanc- tuary, which runs through the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, assumes, as it were, flesh and blood. The expression, " I will think upon their end," (several falsely, " I thought"), is connect- ed with the first clause, as cause with effect. The end is here, in the first instance, temporal : compare Ps. Iv. 23, according to which, the wicked are carried off in the midst of their days. This appears clearly from the mention of " ruins" in ver. 18, from the clause "in the city" ver. 20, and also from the agreement of the numerous parallel passages in the Psalms : compare at Ps, xxxvii, xlix. It is maintained, in opposition to this, that it is against all experience that the wicked do not prosper till their end. But experience only shows that the rule has exceptions : — exceptions confirm the rule. Lactantius on the death of Per- secutors, Leo's History of the French Revolution, the Life of the poet Burger, no less than that of the Emperor Napoleon, furnish remarkable proofs in its favour. The exceptions are designed to perplex those who have not gone into the sanctuary of God. The recompense also, on this side, should, according to the de- sign of God, remain always an object of faith. Here also God conceals himself, in order that he may be found by those who seek him. That this is so seldom done, even by the well dis- posed, that even they are so much inclined to look upon the righteousness of God as inoperative in this hfe, is a melancholy proof of the degeneracy of the church, and of the lamentable
PSALM LXXIII. VEU. 17 — 20. 411
prevalence of infidelity. In the time of the church's vigour, the eyes are open for the tremendous judgments of God, and the sight of these forms the roots of the living hope of a future judgment. The necessary consequence of modern ideas is, that those sacred narratives, in which the avenging hand of God is introduced as every where visible, have had given to them a mythic interpretation. Finally, there is in all probability a reference to Deut. xxxii. 29, " if they were wise they would un- derstand this, they would consider their end," Cn*lin{<s'7 l^''!!'' : — the language there also refers to a temporal i-ecompense, a judgment realized in the actual history. — In the first clause of the 18th verse, the object is to be taken from the verb : — " thou settest to them", i. e. " thou pointest out to them their posi- tion, their place." Slippery places, are places where one may easily shde and fall ; compare Ps. xxxv. 6. The 1.^ is " only there.''' The sense of "ruins" is ascertained for niNI^JtO, in the only other passage where it occurs, Ps. Ixxiv. 3. — In ver. 19th "ISD is "ot to be derived from HSDi but from CjlD, " to cease," " to end." The p is the particle of cause : compare Job xviii. 11, " Terrors alarm him on every side, and pursue him wher- ever he goes." Sodom and Gomorrah, Pharaoh and the king of the Assyrians, who, in the midst of their prosperity, were over- whelmed in sudden destruction, furnish examples illustrative of the Psalmist's position. — In verse 20tli, the verb in the first clause is to be supplied out of the second : as a dream is de- spised upon awaking, or through awaking, the J/J3, as in ver. 19. The waking puts the dream in its true light, as a mere fancy : — thus through the judgment of God, the prosperity of the wicked is seen to be but as a shadow, a fleeting spectre, a hol- low mask. The dS^, " the image," is opposed here, as at Ps. xxxix. 6, to the reality. The contempt is manifested in con- temptuous treatment. In the city ; — where they have carried on their mischief, and have strutted before all : comp. Job xxxiv. 26, " on account of their wickedness, he smites them in the open sight of others." The other translations of ^^^'2^ are to be re- jected. Several give, " in wrath"; — but ^"'^ has never this sense : in Hos. xi. 9, *T*y2 is " in the city": — " I enter not into the city," compare Gen. xxiii. 10, says God, corresponding to what goes before, " I am not a man." Others suppose it to stand instead of '"I'^^n^, when thou, aiuakest, or aiuakenest them up. But the n of theinfin. Hiph. is very seldom omitted after 2,
412 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and was most unlikely to have been omitted here, as the most ob- vious sense of'T'yi3,is undoubtedly "in the city." Tlie suffix would not have been wanting. De Wette himself is obliged to admit that the figure gets from the " awakening" a somewhat obscure turn. The " awaking" would not fsuit. Finally, Job xx. 8, is parallel : " he flies away as a dream and is not found, and is dri- ven away as a vision of the night." The verse awanting in the half decade is supplied by ver. 1st, which now for the first time, after the clouds of doubting have been dispelled, shines forth in its full light.
In ver. 21 — 24, we have the great foolishness of the Psalmist, and the grace of God, which did not reject him on account of it, but delivered him from it. — Ver. 21. For my heai^t was embitter- ed, and 1 ivas pierced in my reins. Ver. 22. And I tuas dumb and knew not, I was a beast before thee. Ver, 23. Yet I remain- ed continually by thee, thou didst lay hold of my right hand, Ver. 24. Thou guidest me by thy counsel and bringest me to h.onour. — The ''^ in verse 21, does not connect verse with verse, but paragraph with paragraph. The grounding, lies in the more detailed contrast. " Although," will not suit, and ""^ cannot be translated " when." VJ^'H is to sour, to be sharp, Hiph. to sour onself to exasperate oneself to fret. The second clause, " and I was pierced in my reins," is : I was preparing for myself a piercing pain. — The 1J^^, in verse 22, signifies brutish dumbness : compare xlix. 11, Prov. xxx. 2. The object of the knowledge, is the matter in hand. The plural HI^H^, is explained by what was said in the Beitr. p. 257, &c. of the use of the plural, even for an individual being, or an in- dividual thing, when the idea appears as perfectly complete, so that there is a plurality really present. ril^^H, as used in the Proverbs, is analogous, — wisdom, x.aT. sg. ; but Behemoth, in .Job xl. 15, as an appellation of the hippopotamus, is exactly the same. We have, therefore, the Psalmist using the strong- est possible language in condemnation of his own foolishness : — he acknowledges himself as chargeable with whatever there is of brutish dumbness, or of irrational conduct. That "Tp]^ is to be interpreted, " beside thee", or "in thy fellowship", is manifest from the 'lJ2i]^ of the following verse, which refers to it. The Psalmist had poured out his complaints before God, had given free course to his murmuring doubts, had conducted himself irrationally in his presence. — The expression, " and I was continually by thee," is, according to the connection, and
PSALM LXXin. VEIL 21 — 24. 413
the parallelism, not to be considered as an expression of self praise on the part of the Psalmist, — I was faithful to thee, — but as spoken in praise of the divine compassion and faithfulness. The " by thee,'' refers back to the " by thee" of the preceding verse : — he who conducts himself like a beast, is away from de- cent company. But God has condescended to keep the Psalm- ist by him, and has delivered him from his painful perplexities, instead of punishing him on account of them. To lay hold of the right hand of any one — ^^^ here the right side, hence the St. constr. — is to keep up one who is sinking, and to prevent him from altogether falling down. — In ver. 24th, we have the con- fidence which the Psalmist obtained, after being delivered by the gracious assistance of God, from his irrational doubts and despair. He knows now that God, like a faithful shepherd, leads and guides him by his counsel and loving care, and that he will bring him from reproach to honour, and from suffering to joy, so that " the wise inherit glory, and shame is the pro- motion of fools," shall be fulfilled in his experience. The second clause, literally, "after honour thou takest me", implies, "thou takest me and bringest me in its train, or to honour." The translation, " and afterwards thou takest me with honour, or in honour," is to be rejected, because *]i3 is never used adverbial- ly, and n^7 signifies neither to take to, nor to take on, (comp. at Ps. xlix. 15), and stands too bare without the whence, and the whither, and in Tll^ *T\b\, Zech. ii. 12, Tfl^^, is a preposition, and finally, because " after that", is not suitable. It is not after the guidance, but through the guidance of God, that the Psal- mist is brought to honour. Against the exposition which adopts the idea of eternal glory — " thou takest me finally to glory" — it may be urged, that ^HJ^j has not the sense of " finally," and that *n!lD, cannot simply denote the heavenly glory, of which there is not one single word throughout the whole Psalm. Finally, as to the translation, " after honour", that is, " after thou hast brought me to honour," (compare Zech. ii. 12, where " after honour", stands for, " after ye have been brought to honour"), " thou wilt take me away," either merely " from the earth," to " thyself," we would observe that accord- ing to it, ''jnpn is too bare.
The Psalmist concludes, in ver.. 25 — 28, with an expression of triumphant confidence in God, and in his salvation. — Ver. 25. Who is there to me in heaven, and besides thee I desire none upon
414 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the earth. Ver. 26. My flesh and my heart waste away, God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever. Ver. 27. For, be- hold, those who are far from thee jjerish, thou destroy est all those who ivhore against thee. Ver. 28. But I. — nearness to God is good for me, I place my confidence upon the Lord Jehovah, that I may proclaim all thy works. — In verse 25 the second clause is to be supplemented out of the first : who is there to me whom I desire, namely, as a helper and saviour. The soul which has wandered from its God searches all heaven and earth for helpers and saviours. But when it has again found him, and been delivered from his doubts, he is sufficient for it, and it re- nounces all others, comp. Ps, xvi. 2. The opposition is not be- tween God and other good things, (the Berleb. Bible considers our passage as a locus class., for the pure love of the mystics), but between God and all other saviours. — In verse 26 the Tv7'2 is to be taken hypothetically : — Though it were come to the last extremity with me, to death ; but, by the grace of God, it will not come to this. The heart is named as the seat of vita- lity ; and God the rock of the heart, as its true supporter: compare Ps. xviii. 2. In reference to " my portion," that is, " my helper and saviour," compare Ps. xvi. 5. The verse is to be considered as a compend of Job xix. 25 — 27 : compare es- pecially the 26th verse, " and after my' skin, this body is de- stroyed, and without my flesh I shall see God." Even Job does not think that it will come to this with him, as indeed it cannot; but though it were to come to this, yet even in this case, confiding in the power and love of God, he is sure of his deliverance. It is clear as day that this passage contains the germ of the doctrine of the resurrection. — The "for" in verse 27th refers to the whole contents of verses 27 and 28. The righteous recompense of God is the ground of the confidence previously expressed. " Thy far ones" = those who keep themselves far from thee. " To whore" is used in the Penta- teuch of other kinds of declension besides the worship of idols, Lev. XX. 6, Num. xiv. 33 ; and that it is not to be confined to this here, is manifest from the preceding description of the wicked, in which great prominence is given to their moral depravity. — That the " nearness of God," in verse 28, is equivalent to " that I keep myself to God," (compare Zeph. iii, 2, James iv, 8, Is. Iviii. 2 is different), is manifest from tlic parallelism — to " the nearness of God" there corresponds " trust placed in him," — and from the opposition : " thy far ones." The ^llO) good = salva-
PSALM LXXIV. 415
tion-bringing, in opposition to " they perish," in the preceding verse, stands as neutr. The clause corresponding, in the second part of the verse, is, " to make known (with the consequence that I get occasion to make known) all thy works" ; whoever keeps near God, receives salvation, whoever places his trust in him, gets occasion to praise him.
PSALM LXXIV.
The prayer to help the people sunk in the deepest misery, ver. 1 and 2, is followed by its basis, which consists of a j^ictiire of this misery, in ver. 3 — 9 : the sanctuary is destroyed, and all traces of tlie presence of God among his people liave disap- peared. The prayer briefly renewed in ver. 10 and 11 seeks ver. 12 — 17, its support and stay in the consideration of the omnipotence of the God of Israel. At the conclusion, ver. 18 — 23, the prayer breaks out in an expanded form.
Expositors refer the Psalm partly to the Chaldean destruc- tion, and partly to the time of the Maccabees. But there is one reason against the latter view, defended with much zeal byHitzig, which is perfectly decisive. The temple appears in the Psalm as entirely destroyed in all its parts, and that by fire. From 1 Mac. iv. 38, where the condition in which Judas found the sanc- tuary is described, it is evident that at that time the chief build- ings of the temple were untouched, and that it was only the gates that had been burnt. 2 Mac. i. 8, viii. 33, are in entire accordance with this. The reason why the Jews, according to 1 Mac. iv. 28, build the holy and the most holy place, is said in ver. 43, as distinctly as if it had been -expressed in so many words, to have been, not because these had been destroyed, but because the stones which had been removed, as being polluted, had to be replaced with others. This ground is perfectly sufficient for any unprejudiced person. To this we may add, that we find nothing here of what charactererized the time of the Maccabees, no trace of an apostate party among the Jews themselves, which Venema in vain endeavoured to dis- cover in the Psalm, no trace of any attempt to bring the Israel- ites to idolatry, no trace of a religious war. We stand here entirely upon Assyrian-Chaldean ground, as will be obvious on comparing 2 Kings xviii. and xix., (compare particularly xix.
416 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
4 with the 10th verse of our Psalm) : — the contest is not, God against God, hut Man against God. Finally, in 1 Mac. vii. 16, 17, the closely allied Psalm, the Ixxixth, is quoted in such a way as is done only with sacred scripture. — The reasons against the Chaldean destruction will be answered in the course of our ex- position. In favour of it, we may yet further urge the agree- ment between our Psalm and the Lamentations, and Jer. lii. 12.
Several expositors, from the vivid representation of Vv'hat was at the time going on in ver. 5 and 6, have been led to adopt the idea that the Psalm was composed at the time when the work of destruction had just begun. But verses 3, 7, and 8, arc decisive against this ; for there the destruction is represented as already completely finished. The author of the Psalm must have been one of the few Israelites who were left by the con- querors in the land.
Asaph is named as the author of the Psalm. In those Psalms which bear his name, we must, when there are no strong rea- sons against it, conclude that the person meant is the Asaph who lived in the time of David. For that he occupied a promi- nent place among the sacred poets, and that therefore there must be some of the Psalms of his composition, is evident from 2 Chron. xxix. 30, according to which Hezekiah brought into use, in the worship of God, not only the songs of David, but also the songs of Asaph, and where Asaph is named the Seer, or the di- vinely illuminated, and from Neh. xii. 46, where the days of the flower of Israelitish sacred poetry are called the days of David and of Asaph. For these reasons, we are perfectly justified in considering this Asaph as the author especially of Ps. l. lxxiii. Lxxviii. : and these are altogether well fitted to have procured for him his poetic fame. But here we cannot have the least idea of the authorship belonging to David's time. We must not, however, on this account, convict the title of a mistake : for just in proportion as the contents are decidedly and manifestly inconsistent with David's age, was it unlikely that the title would announce that the Psalm was composed at that time. Asaph was the founder of a family of singers, who went by the name of the sons of Asaph, even in the time of .Isaiah, compare 2 Chron. xxxv. 15, yea even in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, Ez. ii. 41, iii. 10, Neh. vii. 44, xi. 22 That the Holy Ghost, who inspired the founder, continued to exert his influence upon the members of this family from age
PSALM LXXIV. VER. 1 — 2. 417
to age, is manifest from the example of Jchaziel, one of the sons of Asaph in Jehosaphat's time, on whom the spirit of the Lord came down in the midst of the assembly, 2 Chron. xx, 14. All the sacred compositions of the different members of this family, from time to time, were designated songs of Asaph, just as in the title of the Ixii. Psalm, Jeduthun stands for the Jeduthunic choir. If the family had not possessed a founder so very fa- mous in this department, these Psalms, like those which bear the name of the sons of Korah, would have had inscribed on their titles " the sons of Asaph."-
The peculiarity of this Psalm is marked by the very frequent use of the H^l/or ever : ver. 1, 3, 10. It shows how the church of God, and the individual believer, have to act in times when every thing appears to be lost, and to lie in ruins. More particularly, we are instructed, that in such desperate cir- cumstances, we have to represent to ourselves that it is not our cause but the cause and glory of God that are at stake; com- pare 2 Kings xix., where, at the Assyrian invasion, it is the conduct of the enemy directed against the Lord, that is brought most prominently forward in order to kindle zeal for his glory into a flame.
Ver. 1 and 2. — Ver. 1. An Instruction of Asaph — Why, O God, hast thou cast us of for ever, does thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Ver. 2. Remember thy congre- gation, which thou hast acquired of old, thine inheritance which thou redeemest, Mount Zion, on which thou hast dwelt. — On " thou hast cast off" compare at Ps. xliii. 2, xliv. 23 ; and on " for ever," at Ps. xiii. 1, and Lam. v. 20, " why wilt thou forget me for ever". A feeble faith supposes in the severe visitations of God, that all is over for ever. The object of the Psalm is to deliver the congregation of God from these thoughts ; and hence its title, a Psalm of Instruction. The smoke comes into notice as the attendant of fire: compare Ps. xviii. 8. That |X^1 is not to be connected with the " anger" but with the " smoke", is evident from the fundamental passage, Deut. xxix. 20, " the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man," and from the parallel passage, similar to our verse, and which leans on Psalm Ixxx. 5, " Lord God, how long wilt thou smoke against the prayer of thy people." That the Jl^y^lD is not the " feeding", but the " food", is evident, besides the form, from Hos. xiii. 6, (compare Michaelis), and Jer, xxv. 36,
VOL. n. 2 E
418 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
also X. 21, where the " pasture" stands for the " flock who feed on it." Israel is named the pasture-flock of the Lord, be- cause he gave them possession of the fertile land of Canaan. Compare Hos. xiii. 6, Jer. xxv. 36, 38. The reference is pecu- liar to the times of the captivity, when Israel was driven away from his rich pasture : compare Ps, Ixxix. 13, c. 3, Calvin : " It is to be observed that the faithful, when oppressed by the pro- fane, lift their eyes to God, as if struck by his hand. For they knew that it was only in consequence of the anger of the Lord that the profane had been permitted to injure them. And hence, under the conviction that they have not to fight with flesh and blood, but that that they are afflicted through the just judgment of God, they consider that the proper cause and fountain of all their troubles, is, that God, whose favour had formerly imparted to them salvation, had now cast them ofi", and considered them asno longer worthy of being his flock." — The Psalmist grounds, in verse 2nd, his pi'ayer for the deliverance of Israel, upon the election of God and upon the manifestations of this given from the earliest antiquity, which would not per- mit him now to dissolve the connection of love which, through his grace, had so long existed, Moses in his day, in Deut. ix. 26, 29, based his prayer that the Lord would not cast off his peo- ple, upon their deliverance from Egypt. God acquiredh\& con- gregation, by delivering it from the bondage of Egypt. In the second clause, nXz-H occupies the place of a noun : — think of " thou hast redeemed," — think of the redemption, compare verse 18- nSni tOlE^, the inheritance-rod, is the staff* with which the inheritance is measured ; tO^^ = mDn lUp, the land- surveyor's rod, Ez. xl. 3 : and this is used as 7'TlJ, the lot, is for the portion, for the inheritance itself Others explain '' thy in- heritance-tribe," and refer to Is. Ixiii. 17. But the fundamental passage is in favour of the measuring-rod, Deut. xxxii. 9, " but the. Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his inheritance-line," (compare Ps. cv. 11) ; and b^^, tribe, is never used to denote the whole of Israel. This peculiar expression occurs again in Jer. X. 16, li. 19, — a reference which can scarcely be acci- dental.
Ver. 3 — 9. — Ver. 3. Lift up thy footsteps to the eternal ruins, the enemy has destroyed every tiling in the sanctuary. Ver. 4. Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy places of revelation, they make their signs for signs, ^-^er. 5. He makes himself look
PSALM LXXIV. VER. 3—9. 419
like one lifting up the axe in a forest thicket. Ver. 6. And now they break down its carved work all at once with hatchet and hammer. Ver. 7. They set thy sanctuaries on fire, they dese- crate to the ground the habitation of thy name. Ver. 8. They say in their hearts, We will recompense it all at once, we will burn all the places of the revelation of God in the land. Ver. 9. We see not our signs, and there is no longer any 'prophet, and there is no one by us who knows how long. — In reference to the ni^^CJ'^j ruins, in verse 3, compare at Ps. Ixxiii. 18. The Psalmist speaks oi eternal ruins, because the complete destruc- tion had cut off all human hope of a restoration. The prayei for deliverance from misery runs on, in the second clause, into a description of that misery, which is carried forward as far as verse 9th. This description begins with the general expression ; " the enemy in the sanctuary has laid every thing waste." Then follows its developement in detail; the whole scene of destruction is pictured forth in vivid colours before the eyes : — they roar, they lift the axe, they cut down, they burn. In the 8th verse, the conclusion assumes the general form of the intro- ductory clause : they burn all the places of revelation of God in the land. — In verse 4, the reading TT^J^i/b with a lod, which is given by very many MSS. and editions, and is in agreement with the plu. in verse 8, is proved to be the correct one, by the feminine sufSx which refers to it in verse 6. The plural is to be explained as D'*2J'"lpD is, compare at Ps. Ixviii. 35. The tem- ple, according to many expositors, got the name of " the place of meeting," because the people were wont to meet there for pub- lic worship. But there is a manifest allusion to the name of the tabernacle: " The Tabernacle of meeting." Now the import of this name is expressly given in Ex. xxv. 8, xxix. 42, 43, 45, 46, Num. xvii. 19 : — the tabernacle was so called, not because the people assembled there, but because God met his people there: comp. Beitr. P. III. p. 628, et seq. Inasmuch as 7X I^IDis the place where God himself dwells among his people, it appears to be the very height of all that is dreadful, that there his enemies roar, (comp. Lara. ii. 7, " they have made a noise in the house of the Lord"), that there they lift up the signs of their dominion. If *Iiy/b be rightly interpreted, it will be impossible to enter- tain the idea that the Psalm was composed during the time of the Maccabees. In this case the word would denote the synagogues. It is, however, fur too lofty a word to admit of
420 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
being thus used. The prerogative of the temple would be in- jured. There was only onej)lace in the land which God chose to put his name there, Deut. xii. 6, 11. The signs of the ene- mies must, at all events, be interpreted as " the signs of their dominion." The connection will not allow of any thing else. When they let their signs be seen in the house of the Lord, their object can only be to proclaim themselves as masters of that house. The word never signifies usages. There is no- thing said as to what the signs consisted of, because nothing depends on that. But inasmuch as the Chaldeans, and also the Assyrians (compare Is. x. 13) made their oii'w s^ren^^/i their God, (compare Hab. i. 11, 16, and Delitzsh on the last passage), and concerned themselves very little about religion, there is no rea- son whatever for supposing that the enemies brought in the images of their gods into the temple as signs of their dominion, and set up the worship of them there. The signs of their dominion are rather to be considered as of a m?7t7ary character; and the more so that the description directs attention not only to the setting up of military standards, but to the whole furious conduct of the enemies, for example, their shouts, their ges- tures, verse 5 : — where formerly every thing had testified of the dominion of God, now every thing testifies of the dominion of the heathen. — The sense in the 5th verse is ; they destroy and cut down with as much indifference as if they were felling trees in a forest. The subject is the enemy of verse 3. — The suffix in nTlinS* ver. 6, cannot, except arbitrarily, be referred to an omitted noun, or be taken as standing in a general sense. It re- fers, according to the usual construction of the plural with the feminine, to D"''7y"lD in verse 4; and the reference is quite a natu- ral one, inasmuch as the temple has all along been the subject spoken of. Before the Chaldeans set fire to the temple, which, according to Jeremiah, happened a month after the capture of the city, (Jcr. lii. 12); they removed out of it all the precious metals, ver. 17: &c. 2 Kings xxv. 13, &c. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 18. But they could not get at these without destroying the walls, which, according to 1 Kings vi. and vii., were in part overlaid with the purest gold, and especially without destroying the beau- tiful carved work on the walls, spoken of in 1 Kings vi. 29. There are no traces of any such destruction in the time of the Macca- bees. The second temple, from its poverty, had not so much to tempt the avarice of the enemies. ]\Ioreover, such a work supposes that the tcmjile was devoted to destruction, which
PSALM LXXIV. VER. 5—9. 421
■was not the case in the time of the Maccabees. At that time it was merely devoted to heathen worship. — Instead of "It^^pJb. hi verse 7, many MSS. and editions read *1''2J'1p^ in the plural, thy sanctuaries ; compare at Ps Ixviii. 35. The cir- cumstance that the plural rarely occurs is in favour of this read- ing. And it becomes necessary, if we refer the first clause of ver. 8 to the sanctuary. " They desecrate to theground" is illus- trated by Lam. ii. 2, " he has thrown down to the ground, de- secrated." There was nothing in the least like this in the time of the Maccabees, The temple was not then levelled to the ground, and thus polluted. It remained standing. — In verse 8, the D^''^ is fut. with the connecting vowel Kamets instead of Tseri, as is the case with D'T'J in Num. xxi. 30 ; it is from H^S to rage here, to destroy in a rage. The suffix is generally supposed to allude to the Israelites, and a reference is made to Ps. Ixxxiii. 4. But we must refer it to the sanctuaries, as this word forms the subject throughout the whole passage, and especially in the parallel clause. That by " the places of revelation of God" we are to understand the temple, with all its apartments, is evident from the word itself, (compare at verse 4), from the whole con- nection, (compare at verse 3), and from the first clause, in which the "all at once" corresponds to the expression here " all in the land." The expression, " all in the land," has been incorrectly supposed not to be applicable to the temple. The sanctuaries in Jerusalem, were all the places of revelation of God that were in the land ; and the circumstance, that when the temple was destroyed, there was not another such place to be found, must have peculiarly aggravated the pain which an Israelite felt, and was a proof of the extent to which God's honour was at stake, and his interests endangered. The assertion of those who are in favour of the Maccabean origin of the Psalra, that these words describe the destruction of the synagogues, is met by the remark, that in all the copious accounts which* we have of the transac- tions of these times, there is nothing said of any such work of destruction. — The " signs of the Israelites," in verse 9, are the signs of the dominion of their God, whose places had been oc- cupied by the signs of the enemies, verse 4. The wonderful works of God, Ps. Ixxviii. 43, Ixxxvi. 17, form the most promi- nent of these, by which the people had been delivered, when in similar circumstances, on former occasions, such as the bondage of the Egyptians or the invasion of the Assyrians. Then fol-
422 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
lows 2)ro2jhecy, — of the cessation of which the Psalmist express- ly complains in the second clause, which stands related to the first as the particular to the general. The expression, " there is no longer any prophet," has, without good rea- son, been maintained to favour the Maccabean reference: it is rather against it. For it takes for granted that the people of the Lord had a little ivhile ago enjoyed the presence of prophets. It is only of fresh wounds that the Psalmist com- plains, not of the loss of something of which the people had been deprived for a hundred years, and with the want of which they had long since become familiar. The words are to be explained from Ez. vii. 26, where it is threatened, " and they seek (in vain) the face of the prophet," from Lam. ii. 9, " and their prophets find not the face of the Lord," and from 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 15, according to which Saul got no answer from the Lord through the prophets. Jeremiah did in- deed survive the destruction of the temple, (and to this refer- ence has been made in support of the Maccabean exposition), but his prophetical office terminated with it. It was assuredly the cessation of his office that more immediately gave occa- sion to the painful cry: there is no longer any prophet. This standing ruin of the prophetical class proclaimed, even in louder accents than the non-appearance of other prophets, that God was no longer Israel's King. It was necessary, that along with the other signs of the dominion of God, this one also should cease for a long period of time, that the people might be taught how they had treated it, wherein they had offended, and might, at the same time, be led with tears of repentance tc^ seek its re- turn.* By the " knoiving how long," is meant a living know- ledge. The exact length of the captivity had been foretold by Jeremiah as fixed ; but on the first infliction of the stroke, no man could take the comfort of this announcement, and no man ought to have done so, till the inffiction had served its purpose. Ver. 10 and 11. — Ver. 10. How long, O God, shall the adver-
* Arnd: " Sucli punishments were frequently inflicted upon the Jews, as it is written: At that time there was no word of God, and no prophet in the land. This is the most soTcre punishment and soul-destitution, as, on the other hand, the pure word of God is the greatest consolation, as Jeremiah says, ch. xv: " thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." This is not observed till God and the precious treasure are away. Then men may dig holes in the earth, and run after it like a hungry dog; but it cannot be found."
PSALM LXXIV. VER. 10 — 17.
423
sary reproach, the enemy despise thy name for ever ? Ver 1. Why drawest thou back thy hand, and thy right hand ? Recom- pense out of thy bosom.— In reference to the apparent contradic- tion, "how long— for ever," in verse 10, corap. at Ps. xiii. 2.— "Thy right hand," in verse 11, contains the more exact idea, just as " sun" stands related to " light" in verse 16. The right hand is the scat of strength. The annihilation, (compare m in Ps. lix. 13), proceeds from the bosom of God, inasmuch as his omnipotent right hand is at the time reposing inoperative there. The reading of the text is ppl without the lod, the more rare form : Prov. xvii. 23, Job xix. 27 : the Massorites, as usual, have substituted the more common form with lod.*
Ver. 12— 17.— Ver. 12. And God is my king of old, ivho
works' salvation in the midst of the land. Ver. 13. Thou break-
est through the sea by thy strength, thou cleavest through the
heads of the dragons in the water. Ver. 14. Thou dashest to
pieces the heads of leviathan, thou givest him for food to the
people of the ivilderness. Ver. 15. Thou cleavest fountain and
flood, thou driest up perpetual streams. Ver. 16. Thine is the
day, thine also is the night, thou hast prepared light and the
sun. Ver. 17. Thou hast set all the boundaries of the earth,—
as to summer and winter, thou hast made them.— On verse 12,
Calvin : "The faithful mingle contemplation with their
prayers, in order that they may collect new power of faith, and
grow more full of earnestness in prayer. For we know how
difficult it is to rise above all doubts, so as to feel free and joyful
in prayer. Here also the faithful recall to their recollection the
memorials of the compassion and the power of God, by which
he has made it known throughout all generations that he is the
king of his chosen people." God is named the King of Israel,
as being their loving d eliverer, guardian, and provider. And m-
asmuch as he has manifested himself as such of old, by the mighty
deeds by which he delivered his people from Egypt, he must
continue yet farther to do so. What he was, guarantees what he
• Still Hitzig falsely maintains that the reading m the text should be DT • Kil- ler has given the correct explanation of this, and a whole class of similar cases, de Arcano Chethib. et Keri, p. 29:notandum est hie, ubi Van aut lod in vocalibus homogeneisquiescentes, inuna lectione expressje, in ultcra neglectse fuerunt, pla- cuisse Massorethis quiescentem in Chethibo transponcre vel post vocalem ejus literam scribere heterogeneam: in margine autem vel transpositam quiescentem vel nou trans- positae quiescentis homogeneam, comp. p 251.
424 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
will be. The participle denotes the usual dealings of God. The plural niyiSJ''' point to the rich fulness of salvation. That we can- not, with Stier, explain " in the midst of the land'' as meaning in " the midst of the earth" is obvious from the reference to Ex. viii, 22 and verse 8. The words denote the comprehensive nature of the salvation : whoever has obtained possession of the in- terior of a country has got the ascendancy over the whole boundaries, — whatever is done there, extends to the whole cir- cumference : compare, besides Ex. viii. 22, " that thou mayest know that I the Lord am in the midst of the land, i, e. over the whole extent of Egypt," Is. x. 23. — In ver, 13 — 17, the Psalm- ist turns to the contemplation of those mighty deeds, which gua- rantee the divine omnipotence^ to sink into which is so very com- fortable to \\e\}^\e&^ feebleness. That it is only the divine omni- potence, and not the love of God that is brought before our minds, is evident from " thy strength", at the very beginning, and from the consideration of every separate particular. The sevenfold repetition of the emphatic " thou" is assuredly not accidental, standing as it does in striking contrast to the powerless " I ": it forms in fact the delivering right hand which rescues it from the deep waters. That the preterites in ver. 13 — 15, although they stand connected with a description of historical events, denote something going, something which God is still doing, (compare at the parallel passage Ps. Ixvi. 6, " he turns the sea into dry land," &c.), is probable from " thou givest" in verse 14, and the mention of i\\e floods in verse 15, while the history records the drying up of only one stream, the Jordan. In verses 13 and 14, the only matter-of-fact subject is the restraining of the sea by God, in reference to the dividing of the Red Sea : the dragon and leviathan are merely poetical figures. These appear as monarchs of the sea, and their subjec- tion as a sign of its. The two ideas, the subjugation of the sea, and that of the great sea monsters, appear in connection in the passage Is. li. 9, 10, which the Psalmist had decidedly before his mind : " Awake, awake, put on strength, 0 arm of the Lord, who bringeth down pride, (not brought down, for in that case the 11th verse would not connect well, — it is, as here, something going on), pierces the dragon ? Art thou not he who drieth up the sea, the waters of the great flood, who maketh the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?" and also in Job xxvi. 12, 13, " by his hand he puts in motion the sea, and
PSALM LXXIV. VER. 12 — 17. 425
by his understanding he smites the pride of the raging sea : by his breath the heaven becomes clear, his hand pierceth the fly- ing serpent." The latter appears there as the Queen of the sea : compare also Ps. civ. 26. The inhabitants of the ivilder- ness, (compare at Ps. Ixxii. 9), are the inhabitants of the deserts which bound the sea, particularly the Ai-abian sea, the Ichthy- ophagi, who depended for their support upon the sea beasts cast up on the land. According to the common interpretation, the dragons and leviathan are intended figuratively to represent the Egyptians and Pharaoh, (compare Ez. xxix. 3, 4, where the cro- codile occurs as the emblem of the Egyptians) ; and the inha- bitants of the wilderness are the beasts of the desert, who got for their food the carcases of the Egyptians. But, in opposition to this, it is to be observed, that throughout the whole para- graph it is the dominion of God over nature^ and not over men, that is described : — the sea, verses 13 and 14, i\\e fountains and rivers, verse 15, the day and the night, &c. ; that also in the passage quoted from Job, the piercing of the flying serpent oc- curs in connection with the general manifestation of the power of God over nature ; that the Psalmist has previously applied the word Cy? to the inhabitants of the wilderness, as if for the pur- pose of intimating that it was men and not beasts that he meant. The use of the word in Prov. xxx. 25, as applied to ants, who are there termed a "folk," will not prove that it may stand for beasts here. There is in that passage a reason in the connection for the reference ; but there is none here : the similarity of the ants to men is what is there spoken of. And, finally, to all this we may add, the remarkable agreement between the passage and what the ancients have recorded of the Icldhyophagi* The |ri''l7j in ver. 14, denotes the species. The plural never occurs. — The historical foundation of ver. 15 is to be found in the supplies of water granted in the wilderness, Ex. xvii. and Num. xx., and in the opening of the passage through the Jordan. The Psalmist considers these wonderful works of God, as being always re- peated. •' To cleave" is a poetical expression for *' to cause to break forth by cleaving": compare Job xxviii. 10. Constantly- enduring rivers, are large rivers which are not dried up in the
* Compare the passages in Bcchart, Georgr. S. 1. 4. c. 2. " Agatliarcliides says: tliey live upon the whales cast up on the shore; Diodor. : they arc supported by the whales cast up on the shore, having at the time abundance of food on account of tha great size of the leasts found, S,c."
426 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
heat of summer. The epithet tends to exalt the wonderful power of God. The Berleb. Bible : " Thou art also he wlio driest up the rivers of passion when they are like to break forth in such a way as to overflow every thino." — The church turns from the manifestations of the omnipotence of God in his- tory to his mighty deeds at creation, verses 16 and 17, which are constantly continued in provide^ice. Day and night are thine, — they belong to thee, according to the parallelism, as their creator. The light and the sun are related to each other as the special to the general, compare verse 11 : the sun being the most glorious of the heavenly luminaries, compare Gen. i. 16. — The boundaries of the earth, in ver. 17, are its boundaries next the sea. The Psalmist here refers again to the history of the creation : compare at Ps. xxiv. 2.
At the conclusion, ver. 18 — 23, we have the expanded pray- er.*— Ver. 18. Remember this : the enemy reproacheth the Lord, and a foolish people despiseth thy name. Ver. 19. Give not to the greed-life thy turtle dove, the life of thy poor ones forget not for ever. Ver. 20. Remember thy covenant, for the dark- nesses of the earth are full of the habitations of violence. Ver. 21. O let not the oppressed turn back ashamed, may the miser- able and the poor praise thy name. Ver. 22. Arise, O God, carry on thy war, remember thy repi^oach by the foolish man continually. Ver. 23. Forget not the voice of thine adver- saries, the tumult of thine opponents riseth up continually, — That in ver. 18 the address is not to the foolish, (compare at Ps. xiv. ■ — think of this, thou foolish man, who despises the Lord, — but, as it is throughout the Psalm, to God, is evident fr^im the 8econdclause,and from verses 2 and 22. — In ver. 19, ^Si^ stands, as it not frequently does, in the sense of greed: the greed-life is a poetical expression for the rapacity of the enemies, which is similar to that of wild beasts, to whom the innocenc defence- less and timid dove is given over for prey. Many expositors translate : give not up to the ravenous beast of prey the soul of thy dove. But n**!! cannot be the stat. absoL, and the form of this case, which in general is not well ascertained, in H — , cannot be adopted with this word, which is one of very common
* Amyraldus on vor (8: " From this verse to the end, the prophet brings forward and blends together with wonderful skill all those considerations which might move God partly to compassion, and partly to zeal."
rsALM Lxxiv. VER. ]8— 23. 427
occurrence. Besides H^H, is not used of wild beasts, without an epithet, except in reckoning, as in Gen. vii. 14.* Others : " give not thy doves to the greedy host, the host of thy poor ones for- get not for ever." But ri^H, in the sense of a " host," appears to belong exclusively to the age of David, (comp. at Ps. Ixviii. 10) ; and it is scarcely suitable here to apply the word " host", both to the scattered little company of the miserable remnant, and to the great throng of the wicked. — Look to the covenant, verse 20 : the right method of prayer is to hold up before God his covenant and his promises.f In the second clause the refe- rence is to Gen. vi. 11, 13, where it is said of the time before the flood : " for the earth was full of violence through them, and behold 1 recompense them with the earth." This significant reference shows that by the p5^ we are not to understand the land, but the earth. The pj^ '•DCmD stands opposed to the ^1S*^ •'^^JTl/!:, and signifies, " the earth is full, on which there is darkness, as there is on Sheol": compare Ps. cxliii. 3, " for the enemy hath persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground, he hath made me to dwell in " dark places, where are the dead of eternity," Lam.iii. 6, where the same ex- pression occurs, and Ps. Ixxxviii. 6. The common interpreta- tion is: the lurking places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. But against this we would urge, with Michaelis, " that the plural Q^ri^JTl/tS always involves the notion of misery ;" further, the proud conquerors do not conceal themselves with their wickedness in lurking places ; and one does not see how the lurking places could be full of habitations,— the expression
* Venoma: The word ^sn without au epithet added, does not denote a wild beast, but is accustomed to have every where an epithet along with it, either " of the field," " of the earth," or " of the reeds/'
t Arnd: The prophet here grounds his prayer, faith, and help, upon the covenant of grace, which God had made with the people of Israel. God had confirmed this covenant by a strong oath, and by many wonderful works, with the beloved land; and it was the peculiar source of consolation, and a refuge to the Jews in all their trouble: thus Daniel prays, ch. ix. " O Lord whokeepest covenant and grace to those who fear thee," thus we read in Ps. cxi. " He remembers his covenant forever," and thus aged Zecharias, Luke i. says, « He hath remembered his holy covenant, and his oath which he swore to our father Abraham." We also may therefore rely firmly and surely upon the eternal covenant of grace, which God in the New Testa- ment has made with us in Christ, through his merit and death, whereby he has re- conciled us, and obtained forgiveness of sin and eternal life."
428 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ought rather to have been, " they are habitations." — '• May they praise," in verse 21, is equivalent to " grant that they may be able to praise." — On " the tumult ascends continually," in ver 23, compare Gen. iv. 10, xviii. 21, xix. 13. " Forget not " stands in the back ground, and therefore there is no reason to adopt the somewhat flat rendering of some, '•^ which rises."
PSALM LXXV.
The people praises the Lord in trouble, sure of salvation from him, verse 1, for he has promised to appear for judgment, and, with the omnipotence which he manifested at creation, to establish the tottering earth, verses 2 and 3. Supported on this promise of God, Israel turns round to his haughty foes, and ex- horts them to bring down their pride, inasmuch as the hope of his deliverance is founded not on his earthly neighbours, but upon God in heaven, who even now is preparing judgment upon the pretended conquerors, verses 4 — 8. At the conclusion, the people express their determination to praise the Lord continual- ly, for the salvation of which in faith they are sure, and their confident assurance, that they shall triumph in the Lord over all wickedness, verses 9 and 10.
The Psalm contains the complete number ten. This is divid- ed into a three, (at the end of the third verse, there is a Selah), and a seven. The seven is divided into a five and a two. The two of the conclusion, and the three of the introduction, give five, corresponding to the five of the first part of the second half, so that thus both the usual divisions of the ten, are here artificially wrought together.
There are very decisive reasons for maintaining that the Psalm was composed during the time of the Assyrian distress under Hezekiah. The triumphant tone of the Psalm, does not allow us to descend to the time of the falling, or rather fallen state. Ver. 4 — 8, render it quite evident that the Psalm was called forth by some severe distress on the part of the church of God ; compare especially " the wicked of the earth," in verse 8. We have here, as in Ps. xlvi. a catastrophe of a universal character: according to ver. 3, the whole circle of the earth is shaken, and
PSALM LXXV. 429
the whole circle of the earth shall be calmed by the manifesta- tions of might on the part of God. The catastrophe of tlie Assyrian invasion was the only one of this kind that ever oc- curred in all history. According to ver. 2 and 3, the people were quieted in the midst of their trouble, by an assurance of divine assistance. This happened at the time of the Assyrian invasion, by the prophecy of Isaiah. In ver. 6, the places nam- ed, from which Israel might possibly obtain human assistance, are, the East, West, and South. The omission of the North, in- dicates that the enemy had come from that quarter ; — and the Assyrians did make their entrance into Canaan from Syria. To this we made add, that the Psalm is closely related to the xlvi. (compare at Ps. iv), which undoubtedly belongs to the Assyrian period, and that the following Psalm, which is also closely re- lated, and is inscribed with the name of Asaph, (compare atPs. Ixxiv), belongs also to the same era.
The question may be asked : was the Psalm composed before, or after the Assyrian invasion. Evvald adopts the latter sup- position. The inspiration, he supposes, has descried in it the first visible beginning of a great general judgment of God upon all nations. But there are decisive reasons in favour of the former view, which indeed would never have been abandoned, had it not been supposed, that there was an incongruity in con- ceiving of a song of triumph sung by the church, before the victory, and while the trouble was still immediately lying upon her. In the very Title, " To the chief musician, destroy not, a Psalm of Asaph, a Song of praise," the expression, " destroy not," (compare at Ps, Ivii. 1), which does not occur in the Ixxvi, where we find the celebration of the victory, after it had been gained, shows that, under " Lord God, we praise thee," there lies concealed, " Lord, have mercy on us."* On the supposition that the Psalm was composed after the deliverance had been obtained, there is assuredly too little said about it, and the basis laid for hope in the future, is too narrow. The thanksgiving and the praise in verse 9, are merely promised iov future assis.tance, — a proof that as yet none had been imparted. Finally, the folloiving Psalm, which was
* The Berleb. Bible : " As these words are really a prayer, while at the same time the Psalm is thrown into the form, not of petitions, but of a thanks- giving, it ought to be considered as a thank-prayer, uttered before hand, and containing petitions within it."
430 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
also composed by xVsaph, expresses thanks and joy, for the assistance which had been already obtained. The two Psalms make up one entire whole, if the Ixxvth be considered as a song of triumph over what had beenpromwerf.
The Psalm is consequently to be considered as a lyrical com- panion to the prophecies, which Isaiah delivered in view of the threatened destruction, as a testimony of the living faith, with which the church at that time received the word of God, and as an intimation to the church at all times, that through a similar faith, she shall participate in a similar deliverance. The exhortation which Hezekiah in his time, addressed to the people, according to 2 Chron. xxxii. 7 and 8, is exactly parallel : " be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, for there is one greater with us, than with him : with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and fio;ht our battles."
Ver. 1 — 3. — Ver.l. We praise thee, O God, we praise, and near is thy name, they publish thy wonders. Ver. 2. '" For 1 si tall fix a time when I shall judge righteously. Ver. 3. The earth, with all its inhabitants, is dissolved, I have iveighed its pillars." The object of the praise of God in verse 1, is his glory, to the con- templation of which the church has been raised by the announce- ment of salvation from him. The name of God, (compare at Ps. XX. 1, xxiii. 3, xxix. 2), may be considered as near with a two-fold reference: objectively, as when in his historically illus- trated glory, he comes near to deliver his people, (compare Dent. iv. 7, Is. xxx. 27, " behold the name of Jehovah comes from afar") ; and subjectively, when the consciousness of this glory has been awakened in the mind, compare Jer. xii. 2. The name of the Lord is here said to be near in this latter sense. " Thy name is near," stands in the middle between, " we praise thee", and " they publish", and is connected with the former, not with a " because", but with an " and," The " wonders" of God are those which are past, and those which are anticipated by faith as future. One of God's wonders placed before tlie eyes, gives living reaUty also to all the others. With the future, the past also is brought to the present. — In ver. 2 and 3, we have the grounds of the confidence which the church expressed in ver. 1 : God has promised to her his help. Both verses con- tain the words of God, which are uttered in reply to the address
PSALM LXXV. VER. 1 — 3. 431
of the church : you may well be thus full of my praise, for, &c. Tiy;^ is the point of time which God has fixed for executing his purposes: compare Ps. cii, 13, thou shalt arise and have mercy on Zion, for the time to be gracious to her is come, yea the set time, Hab. ii. 3, Dan. viii. 19, xi. 27, 35. To this, .God's point of time, the eye of faith should, in the midst of suffering, be steadily directed. Arnd : " Our God, who governs the world by his omnipotence and wisdom, has appointed to all things a boundary, and has also fixed a time and an hour for his judgment, and when this comes, he reveals his judgments, and no man can hinder them. God withholds his punish- ments for a very long time, but at last it comes with cer- tainty, and makes no delay. Even the heathen have learned this from experience, according to the saying : sera tamen tacitis poena venit iJecUbus, and also in the words of Val. Maximus, tarditatem poence gravitate compensat." Thsct point of time comes when the chastisement of the church has been brought to a close : compare Isa. x. 12, " And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, 1 will punish the pride of the king of Assyria." Several, after the example of the Sep- tuagint, give : " luhen I take a point of time." But in this case verses 2 and 3 stand too much like an aphorism : their connection with ver. 4 is not indicated. On DHSJ'''^ compare at Fs. Iviii. 1. We have in this and the two following verses the substance of Isaiah's prophecies as delivered at that time : compare, for example. Is. xxxvii. 33 — 35, " Therefore, thus saith the Lord to the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, by the way by which he came by the same shall he return, and I defend this city," etc. — The earth, in consequence of the success of the conqueror of the world is, as it were, dissolved, sunk back into its ancient chaotic state ; but the same omnipotence which at that time brought its dissolution to an end, shall aid it now. That the first clause refers to the dissolution wrought by the victorious invasion of the Assyrians, is evident from the parallel passage Ps. xlvi. 6, 7, " the peoples roar, the kingdoms
shake the earth melts' : comp. ver. 2, " therefore we are not
afraid, though the earth is changed, and the mountains shake in the heart of the sea." Several expositors take Tl^DH as a prophetic praeterite : I will set fast its pillars. But pH never signifies " to set fast", but always " to weigh," " to value"; and
432 IHI': BOOK OF I'SaLMS.
therefore the word must refer to the creation: — I have weighed, and, in proportion to their size, I have placed them, compare Job xxxviii. 4 — 7. *' Whatever our God has created, that he can (and must) maintain," — in this way, what God has once done is a guarantee for what he will now do.
Ver. 4 — 8. — Ver. 4. I say to the proud, " be not jyroud," and to the wicked, " lift not up the horn." Ver. 5. Lift not up your horn on high, speak not insolently vnth proud neck. Ver. 6. For not from the rising of the sun, and not from the going down of the sun, and not from the wilderness of mountains. Ver. 7. But God judgeth ; he putteth doivn one, and setteth up another. Ver. 8. For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, and it is foaming u'ith wine, it is full of mingled drink, and he poureth out of it, and its dreg all the wicked of the earth must .np), they must drink. — The people, confiding in the promise of the Lord, address, in ver. 4, in a triumphant tone, their haughty enemies. It is clear from ver. 9th and 10th, that it is not the Psalmist, but the Church that speaks: compare also, " we praise", in ver. 1. Ac- cording to some expositors, (Koester), the address of God is still continued in this verse ; according to others, (Tholuck), in ver. 5th : and according to others, (Hitzig), even in ver. 6th. But ver. 7th, where God is spoken of in the third person, hangs together with verse 6th, by " for", and this ver^e again, with ver. 5 by " for," and verses 4 and 5 cannot be disjoined from each other. To this we may add, that by these assumptions, the formal arrangement of the Psalm is destroyed, the Selah stands at the end of the preceding verse, and the expression, " I say", at the beginning of this one, indicates a change of speaker. In reference to D V/in, com- pare at Ps. V. 5. Ixxiii. 3. Lift not up your horn, i. e. furiously, and from a sense of your strength, and with the intention to strike : compare the fundamental passages, Deut. xxxiii, 17, and 1 Sam. ii. 1, 10, and also Ps. Ixxxix. 7, 24, xcii. 10, cxlviii. 14. — In verse 5, pn^ is, according to the accusatives, and the pa- rallel passages Ps. xxxi. 18, xciv. 4, 1 Sam. ii. 3, the accus., insolent. Is. xxxvi. xxxvii., furnishes the commentary, where samples of the insolent speeches of the Assyrians are given. " In the neck" is, so that the neck is rendered prominent by it : — the nock more particularly displayed the pride, compare Job XV. 26, Jer. iii. 16. — In verses 6 and 7, we have the reasons why the wicked sliould give up the arrogance and haughtiness,
PSALM LXXV. VER. 4 8. 433
with which they come against the Israelites. They might in- deed do so, were the Israehtes, in the approaching contest, looking for help from the earth, — for help from the east, the west, or the south, against the north. The enemies might in- deed scoff at such foolish hopes. But, inasmuch as the decision comes from ahove, from Israel's God, who puts down one, viz. the heathen might, and hfts up another, viz. his own miserable people, it is not a time to triumph but to tremble, in dread ex- pectation of the coming judgment. Ver. 6 is to be supplement- ed out of the 7 : — for it is neither from the east, &c. that the decision comes, that we expect the enemy to be brought down and ourselves to be raised up. That the Psalmist is not speak- ing of the quarters of heaven generally, but especially of coun- tries around Palestine, not from the countries towards the east, &c. of our land, is manifest from " the wilderness of mountains." This is a poetical term, designed to denote the mountainous districts of Idumea and Arabia situated to the southward of Canaan, and in which lay Horeb and Sinai : comp. Deut. xi. 24, and Joshua i. 4, where the wilderness is named as the southern boundary of Canaan : — what is there in prose denoted by the article is here expressed by Dnil- The mountainous desert was designedly named last, and with special accentuation : — it was on this side that Egypt lay, on whose assistance Israel founded his hope of deliverance, according to the foolish imagination of the Assyrian, who, like the world even in our own day, could not conceive of a living confidence in a heavenly helper: comp. Is. xxxvi, 4 — 6, " Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria,
On what trustest thou that thou risest up against me ?
behold thou trustest on this broken reed, Egypt : whoever trusts on such a thing, it will go into his hand and pierce it : thus is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him." Several MSS. read 1^1)^22, the status absolutus; and several expositors, heed- lessly enough, following this reading, translate: and not from the wilderness cometh elevation. This reading, however, is merely the product of exegetical imbecility. The mere " elevation comes" is not sufficient ; it would have been necessary to have added the idea of " that of the righteous over the enemies," in order to explain the connection of ver. 6 and 7 with ver. 4 and 5, and of ver. 8 with ver. 6 and 7. — In ver. 7th the '^'2 retains its usual sense of " for"; although, from viewing the relation under another aspect, we may use " but". " God" stands opposed to the earthly powers in the east, &c. The church looks always VOL. n. 2 F
434 THE BOOK OF PSALAIS.
above. He brings doivn one : the Berleb. Bible, " wlio is proud, and fancies himself secure," But setteth up another : " the miserable" : compare 1 Sam, ii. 7, " the Lord makes poor and makes rich, he brings down and lifts up." The Psalmist appears to have had the song of Hannah distinctly before his mind, — The Lord will soon shoiv that the decision proceeds from him, as he is stepping forward against the wicked, judging and annihilat- ing, verse 8, On " the cup of the Lord*' as an emblem of judgments, compare at Ps, Ix, 3. The TjDJJJ is not " mingling," but *' mingled drink", wine with which roots have been mingled, (compare the exposition in Isaiah v. 22), by which its intoxicat- ing power was increased ; so that we can refer the K^lbj and also the ^/^Pl to the cup and not to the wine. The *T|{< stands in its usual sense " only": they sip only, that is, there is no- thing else for them than to sip its dregs (the dregs of the cup — Dli is used with both raasc. and femin.), or they must sip it out to the dregs,
Ver, 9 and 10. — Ver. 9. And I will declare for ever, I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. Ver. 10, And I ivill cut off all the horns of the wicked, the horns of the righteous shall be exalt- ed.— At " 1 will make known'', in verse 9, the object is to be taken from what goes before, — the judgment of God. — I will cut off, — through the grace of God, and in the strength which God grants me. How little reason there is for supposing, that God speaks here again, is evident from comparing the fundamental passage in Deut. (see at verse 4,) from which, at the same time, it appears, that the speaker here is not a single individual, but the people : compare also Num. xxiii, 22,
PSALM LXXVL
The Lord, who has glorified himself among Israel by his deeds, and has fixed his habitation at Zion, has there broken the might of the conqueror of the world, ver. 1 — 3. This event is celebrated in the main division, ver, 4 — 10 : the Lord is mightier than all the plunder and victory-thirsty kingdoms of the world; this has been manifested by the overthrow of the mighty ene- mies accomplished by his omnipotence, and by the rest procur- ed through his judgments to the wildly agitated earth. In tho conclusion, ver. 11 and 12, the Psalmist grounds on this great
rsALM Lxxvi. ' 435
event an exhortation, to the faithful to thank God, and another to the heathen to do homage to him by gifts.
The division of the Psalm into four strophes of three verses each is inadmissible. Verse 10 cannot possibly be disjoined from the preceding verse, "with which it is connected by a " for", and be bound up with what follows. The Selah at the end of verse 9 is not decisive in favour of this assumption, which vio- lates the sense. It stands in reference to " the earth was afraid and became quiet", at the end of verse 8 : this rest of the earth shall meet with an echo in the souls of believers. The Psalm may be much better divided into a main-body of seven verses, an introduction of three, and a conclusion of two : these latter making up five, the signature of the half. The arrangement is the same as that of Psalm Ixxv., with this difference, that here the whole number is 12, while there it is 10 verses, and that the main-body here consists of 7, and there of five verses. It is perhaps not accidental, that the two Psalms, which are strictly connected together, contain between them, including the titles, twenty-four verses.
It is very extraordinary that Koester should still maintain that it is not possible to learn from the Psalm itself the occasion on which it was composed. There are very satisfactory reasons for referring it, as the translators of the Septuagint and the Vulgate saw, to the Assyrian catastrophe. The preceding Psalm was composed in prospect of this, and the Psalm before us after its actual commencement.*
The enthusiastic feeling, the courageous tone which charac- terizes the prophecies and also the Psalms of the Assyrian period, (comp. besides, Ps. Ixxv. especially Ps. xlvi.), meets us in this Psalm. It celebrates, according to verse 3, a mighty overthrow of the enemies, which put an end at one blow to the war. This overthrow took place, according to the same verse, before Jerusalem ; on which Jarchi remarks, that within the whole compass of sacred history, there occurs no other example of the overthrow of the enemy before Jerusalem. The overthrow took place without any co-operation on the part of the people, and by an immediate exercise of divine omnipotence, ver. 3, 6, and 8, God has manifested himself as one who cuts ofi" tlie breath of
* The relation of the two Psalms was therefore correctly stated by Gurtlcr; " it tells that the divine judgment which was promised in Ps. Ixxv. had been executed on the enemies of the church "
■iS6 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
princes, ver. 12: the enemies are not only driven away, they are put to death. The catastrophe is an event in the world's Jiistory : all the meek of tlie earth are delivered through the judgment of God, ver. 9, the tumultuous earth is, in conse- quence of it, quieted, ver. 8, and God has manifested himself as terrible to the kings of the earth, ver. 12. The exhortation to the heathen to honour God by presents, ver. 1 1, is in accordance with the narrative as given in 2 Chron, xxxii. 23, that they ac- tually did so in consequence of the destruction of the Assyrian, army.
The title " To the Chief Musician, for stringed instruments, a Psalm of Asaph, a song of praise,'' is followed by the introduc- tion, ver. 1 — 3. — Ver. 1. God is known in Jiidah, in Israel is his name great. Ver. 2. And his tabernacle was in Salem, and his habitation in Zion. Ver. 3. Thither he broke the fames of the bow, shield and sword, and battle. Selah. — God's being known in Judah, ver. 1, comes into notice as it presupposes a rich fulness of deeds of omnipotence and grace, by which h.e has made himself known. If God was known and celebrated by his church under the Old Testament dispensation, he is infinitely more so now under the New, for which there has been reserved the most glorious revelation of his power and grace. In Israel: — which at that time only existed in Judah. He was the heir of all the ancient associations of the whole people. — '• His ta- bernacle" renders it evident that we cannot translate Tl"'') in verse 2 by " it is", but only " it was." The sanctuary could be thus named, only in so far as, at tlie beginning, on its being first placed on mount Zion, it had still the form of a taber- nacle or tent. The ancient name Salem, Gen. xiv. 18, of which Jerusalem was merely an enlarged form, (Salem, the sure and peaceful place, Jerusalem, D'^i^i^tJ^I'^V — compare " On Balaam," page 20, — the peaceful possession), is used here to in- dicate that it is significant : wherever the Lord dwells, security and peace are there, compare Ps. xlvi. 4, 5.* — The n^^ ver. 3,
* Much doubt lias been c;ist upon tlie identity of the Salem in Gen xiv. 18, and Jerusalem. But tlie following are decisive reasons in its favour: 1. The passagt before us. 2. The Jewish tradition, (Oukelos, Josephus). 3. Adonizcdeck = Mel- chisedeck, is called the king of Jerusalem, in the time of Joshua: Jos x. 3. In all probability, this was the standing name of the kings of the Jcbusites. 4. ^ n the king.s dale, which according to Gen. xiv. 17. was situated near Salem, Absalom, according 2 Sam. xviii. 8 placed a monument, assuredly not in some remote corner, but in the neighbourhood of the mctropclis. 5. In all the Old Ti'stamcnt, there is no such thing
rSALM LXXVI. VEU. 1—3.
437
means always " thither", never " there": comp. the Christ 1 . HI. 105, and llavernick on Ez. xlviii. 35. By this are set aside the attempts which have been made, (attempts at fault even on the supposition of this false sense), to remove the catastrophe from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. " Hence" = so that they fall broken on it. In the same way as in the remark- ably similar passage Ps. xlvi.9, "Who makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth, bow breaks and spear cuts asunder, cha- riot with fire burns," there is here also an abbreviated compari- son : God has rendered the conquerors as helpless as it their arrows had been broken, &c. The ^^ means always " flame. The flames of the boiv, are the shining glittering arrows : cov^^ pare Job xxxix. 33, Nah. iii. 3, and Deut. xxxii. 41. It :s evi- dent from Fs. xlvi. 9, that by HDhSd we are to understand the war itself, and not mihtary equipage. In the whole verse, the subject treated of is not one single defeat, but a catastrophe .uch as the Assyrian, which put an end at one stroke to the whole war. The " war", occurring at the end of the verse, points expressly to this. Arnd : "We have here to learn tho gracious deliverance granted by God from bodily enemies, how he breaksallthehuman earthly power which is turned against the church. For the power of the enemies is human, earthly, flesh- ly, but the power of the church is spiritual, divine, and heaven- ly There contend and fight with each other, the spirit and the flesh : spiritual power, by faith and prayer ; and earthly power,
as a Salem near Jerusalem. It has been repeatedly said, that there is one in Gen ^xx. 18: but a closer investigation shows that aS». is there used as an ^dj^^t— ^a I Is not " Jacob came to Salem,," but. " Jacob ca,ne in safety^ - spite of the y.llage thm found by Robinson, P. II I. p. 322 ; in the neighbourhood of Nablus or S:chem. Th"y of SiLmwasSichem, as is expressly observed, the first c,ty m Can^^^^^ per y so called, where Jacob settled on his return from Mesopotamia, Jacob s commg to ^ p L n safety, v as in fulfilment of the promise made to him on h,s eparture f:rMesopotamia to the land of promise, Gen. xxxi. 3and .:', and also of the earher promise made to him when he set out to Mesopotamia in ch. xxvuu -her^ JJ' of the 21st verse corresponds to dW here— Phe only reason agamst the identity of Sl em and Jerusalem,'viz : that according to Judges xix. 10, Jerusalem ha former- ly been called Jebus, is of no weight. This name is no more exclusive o the name of Salem, or Jerusalem, than Kirjath-Arba, and Mamre are exclusive of Hebron : Beitr III. 187. Had Jebus been the only name of the city, the name Jerusalem must have originated with David. The analogy, however, of Zion, the circumstance that the name has no connection whatever with any thing that occurred m David s time, and the absence of every account, in the historical records of this time, which are peculiarly copious- are all against this supposition.
438 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
by the sword, the bow, and the spear. Thus fought Goliath and David, Hezekiah and Sennacherib, Jehosaphat and tlie Moabites, Asa and the thousands of the Moors, and thus from the beginning, tlie church has fought against all the power of tyrants, and will still continue to fight till the end of the world ; — yea, the church gains the victory, and conquers through the cross, according to the beautiful figure of the 19th chapter of Revelations, where we read that ' the Son of God rides upon a white horse, and that out of his mouth there goeth a sharp sword, and that there follows him a great army.' " Within the spiritual as well as in the external domain, the Lord reveals him- self, as one who breaks the arrows of those, who are the enemies of his church and of his faithful ones.
Ver, 4 — 10. — Ver. 4. Thou art illustrious, more glorious than the plunder mountains. Ver. 5. The strong hearted have disap- peared, they have sunk into their sleep), and all the men of might have not found their hands. Ver. 6. Before thy rebuke, O God of Jacob i both have sunk into a sleep, chariot and horse. Ver. 7. Thou art dreadful : and who can stand before thee, since thine anger ? Ver. 8. Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven ; the earth was afraid and was still. Ver. 9. When God rose up to judgment to deliver all the meek. Selah. Ver. 10. For the wrath of man praises thee, and with the remainder of wrath thou girdest thyself. — The plunder mountains of verse 4 is a figurative expression for powerful plundering nations, conquering kingdoms. On " the mountains", as a figurative term for " kingdoms", compare at Ps. Ixv. 6, Ixviii. 16, and es- pecially the strikingly similar passage Ps. xlvi. 2, 3. The epi- thet " plunder" is illustrated from Nab. ii. 11, where Nineveh is called " the habitation of lions, and the feeding place of the young lions," iii. 1, " the blood}' city, from which the prey de- parteth not," and from Song of Solomon iv. 8, where the high hills, the emblems of the kingdom of the world, which the Bride is instructed to leave, that she may turn to her Bridegroom the Lord, are described as " the habitation of lions, the abode of leopards." — "l77iriJJ'i<. in verse 5, the Aramaic form, is gene- rally translated " they are robbed", " plundered"; but this sense is not quite suitable here., and the sense " to be plunder- ed" is inadmissible in the only other passage where the Hiph. occurs, Is. lix. 15. The sense demanded there, " to be made a
PSALM LXXVI. VE. 4 — 10. 439
prey of," ' to disappear," is the one which must be adopted in this passage also. Even ^'^)^ in Job xii. 17, 19, is not " to be plundered," but " to be made a prey of." The disappearance, without leaving a trace behind them, of tlie strong spirits, the pretended lords of the world, fits in well with the second clause. The sleep in it is the sleej) of death: comp. at Ps. xiii. 3, Jer. li. 39, 57, and particularly Nah. iii. 18, " thy shepherds slumber, 0 king of Assyria, thy nobles are at rest," and 2 Kings xix. 35, "and behold they were all dead corpses." The expression, " they found not their hand," is used in contempt of the strong men, who, at the very moment when they wished to turn their hand against the holy city, could not find their hand : death had deprived them of it.— The p in verse 6, is the p of cause. The Q*)^i is the partic. and expresses the condition. The pretend- ed " Latinism" (Koester), )~), {et—et), " as well as," occurs in Num. ix. 14, Dan. viii. 13, and in other passages. The chariots are as it were cast in a deep sleep when their rattling has ceased. Tholuck : " The poet describes the scene, as if we were walking along with him through the camp, which such a short while ago was so full of life, but is now silent as death."— The tX23 i" ver. 7 has its usual sense : " since," " since thy anger," " as soon as thou wast angry."— In verse 8, " the earth was still," is not " a poetical expression for the gloomy silence of nature under the divine judgment," (Koester), but it denotes the cessation of the wild uproar of the earth, the termination of the war : compare " the nations roar," Ps. xlvi 6, " who makes wars to cease to the end of the earth," verse 10, and here verse 3, Is. xiv. 7, "the whole earth is at rest and quiet," Jos. xiv. 15, and other passa- ges. The earth, as opposed to heaven, comes into notice more particularly as regards the noisy uproarious part of it, which is reduced to eternal silence in consequence of what is spoken from heaven. — The meek, in verse 9, are in the first instance, and chiefly, to be found in Israel. Still the Psalmist has his eye also upon the heathen nations, who are classed along with Israel on account of their fellowship in suflferings and violent oppression. This assumption of the heathen into the number of the meek is unusual, and is to be explained from the relations of the times, which led to the prevalence of milder views. — In verse 10 the connection indicated by " for", (the " for" does not refer to what immediately precedes, but to the whole con- tents of the strophe, — it leads back the fact, celebrated in it.
440 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of the destruction of the enomies, to its basis), the paralJeh'sm, and the history prevent us from regarding the praise as the free will praise of God. The thought is one which is frequent- ly expressed in Scripture, viz. : that wickedness, even rebellion against God and his kingdom, must promote his glory, inasmuch as its punishment gives occasion for the manifestation of his god- head : comp. Ex. ix. 16, and Ez. xxxviii. 16, " I bring thee into my land, that the heathen may know me when I shall be satisfi- ed in thee :" ver. 23. Rom. ix. 17. To gird one's self, is to arm, to prepare for battle ; the girdle, is the war-girdle to which the sword was fastened : comp. Ps. xlv. 3, 2 Kings iii. 21, 1 Kings XX. 11, Judges xviii. 11, God girds himself with the remainder of the wrath directed against him, (we can only think of this, and not of the wrath of God, as the sufBx is wanting), i. e. the wrath of the enemies must, even to its last remnant, (compare DHEJ'^ in Ps. Ixxv. 8), serve him as a weapon by which to ac- complish their destruction.
Ver. 11 and 12. — Ver. 11. Voiv and jyay to the Lord your God, all ye who are round about him : Gifts may be brought to him, the dreadful One. Ver. 12. For he cuts off the breath of princes, he is terrible to the kings of the earth. — In the first clause of verso 11, the address is to those who are members of the people of the covenant. This is evident from " the Lord your God", from the fundamental passage, Deut. xxiii. 21, " when thou makest a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not be slack to pay it," and, finally, from " all ye who are round about him"; — nothing similar to this is ever used of the heathen, but of Israel it is frequently said, that the Lord dwells in the midst of them, and in Num. ii. 2, we read " they shall encamp round about the tabernacle of meeting." This last reason shows, at the same time, that several interpreters have very inconside- rately connected " all ye who are round about him", contrary to the accus. with the second clause. As vows are generally made at the time of trouble, and not after deliverance has been ob- tained, the " vow and pay," must be held as equivalent to " pay what you have vowed": — the fundamental passage Deut. xxiii. 22, also is in favour of this. The indefinite expression, " they bring", of the second clause, receives its exact limitation from the fundamental passage, Ps. Ixviii. 18, on which also as was shown at it. Is. xviii. 7, depends. The words are to be consi- dered as if read with marks of quotation. Probably, the refe-
PSALM LXXVII.
441
rence to the heathen is intended to be placed beyond a doubt by the ^^, which is always used of gifts from strangers. That the heathen responded to the exhortation of the Psalmist, is evident from 2 Chron. xxxii. 23, " and many brought gifts to the Lord to Jerusalem."— The 12th ver. contains the basis of the exhortation: for, i.e. as the preceding event shows. The m^ here is the breath of lifei (comp. Ps. civ. 29) ; and the idea of pride, has been adopted without any foundation. The l^^."? " to cut", is generally used of vim dressers, (compare Rev. xiv. 18, 19); and the representation of the enemies, under the figure of vine dressers, occurs in Jer. xlix. 9.
PSALM LXXVIL
The congregation of the Lord cries to him in deep pain for help, and the recollection of what the Lord has done in times past, does not tend to ameliorate this pain, but rather tends to increase it, ver. 1 — 3, ver. 4—6, and leads to doubt as to whether Israel still holds the place of God's chosen people, ver. 7 — 9. But faith soon rises in its strength, and leads on to re- signation, while it makes use of those events, as sure pledges of deliverance, in which, at first, doubt had sought its nourishment, particularly the deliverance from Egypt, and the passage through the Red Sea, ver. 10—12, 13—15, 16—18, 19 and 20.
As to its formal arrangement, the Psalm is ruled by the num- bers three and seven. It has seven strophes, each of three verses, with the exception of the last, in which the incomplete- ness of the sense is represented by the absence of the third verse. This defect in the conclusion, is compensated at the be- ginning, by the title, — so that the whole number is 21. The thrice repeated Selah, which stands each time at the end of a strophe, corresponds to the number three of the verses. The seven in the strophes is, as usual, divided into a three and a four : the great turning point, the transition from trembling de- spondency, to the joy of faith, is in verse 10.
That the Psalmist speaks in name of the people, is evident, particularly in ver. 5 and 6, (compare the exposition) : still the national reference is designedly brought forward with very little prominence, in order that individuals may find here a fountain of consolation in their particular troubles.
442 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
As regards the occasion on which the Psahn was composed, the strong prominence given to the deliverance from Egypt, leads to the conclusion, that the people at the time, were in a condition similar to that in which thy were, at the commence- ment of their existence as a nation, that a second Egyptian bondage was either at the time in actual existence, or was at the very door. Several expositors have adopted the period of the Babylonish captivity. But there are decisive reasons against this. Our Psalm is related in such a striking manner to the 3d chapter of Habakkuk, that the agreement can only be explained by the supposition that the one writer made use of the expressions of the other. Delitzsch on Hab. p. 119, et seq. has endeavoured at great length, to show that our Psalm is the original composition. Among his reasons, there are at least two, the validity of which cannot be denied : 1st. The 3d chap- ter of Hab. is throughout formed after the model of the Psalm- poetry. The supposition that the prophet made use of this Psalm in writing that chapter, accounts for this. 2nd. Habak- kuk describes a future deliverance in figures borrowed from a past one. It is very unlikely that the Psalmist, who is occupied with the deliverance that was past, would have described that deliverance in language borrowed from the prophetic descrip- tion of a deliverance yet to come. — Now, as Habakkuk undoubt- edly prophesied under Josiah, the Psalm before us could not be composed at a later period than that of this king. The con- tents do not authorize us to adopt a later date, as it appears clearly, that the lamentations of Habakkuk are equally deep and painful. The ten tribes had, by that time, been carried into captivity, a fact which, according to the indications of ver. 2 and 15, formed the most aggravating cause of the Psalmist's pain ; and the single remaining tribe of Judah seemed to be continual- ly threatened with a storm from the north. Jeremiah, who ap- peared first under Josiah, proclaimed from the very commence- ment of his undertaking, that this tribe would presently be re- moved in a frightful manner, and the eyes of Habakkuk were continually directed towards this dark cloud. The comparison with Ps. Ixxiv., shows how very different would have been the tone of lamentation, had the author already witnessed the de- struction of the city and temple, to which there is not, through- out the Psalm, the least reference. Kiel's idea that the Psalm was composed in the time of David could at the most be admit- ted only if external grounds were in its favour.
PSALM LXXVII. VER. 1 3. 443
The object of the Psalm is to instruct us, liow we may obtain consolation and peace in the severest distresses, by plunging into the earlier manifestations of the grace of God,
In reference to the Title : to the Chief Musician mi Jeduthun, a Psalm of Asaph, compare at Ps. Ixii.
Ver. 1 — 3. — Ver. 1. I will call upon Gotland cry, I luill call upon God, and, do thou attend to me. Ver. 2. In the time oj my troid)le, I seek the Lord, my hand during the night hangs open ivithont ceasing, my soul ivill not be comforted. Ver. 3. I will think iqjon God, and cry, I will meditate, and my spirit is sunk, Selah. — In ver. 1, according to "I will cry," there is to be supplied, also at " my voice," not " is" but " may be." Accord- ing to several expositors, the fut., w^ith the H of effort, here and in the following clauses, stands in the sense of what is usual : but there is no foundation whatever for this, and the great lieap- ing up of these futures, and the ^I'^^I^^ i" ver. 11, where mani- festly this future has its original sense, are all against this as- sumption : comp. the H^DIX in ver. 4 and 12. The pit^H. is the imperative : comp. the ni''Ii<nj hi Ps. v. 1, xvii. 1, xxxix 12. In the first part, God is, according to the rule, spoken of, and in the second clause, the address to him first preponderates, after the Psalmist has again come nearer to him. StiU it occurs also in ver. 4. The imperative has very generally the abbreviated form, 7tOpn ; still the form TlOpH does occur, Is. xliii. 8, Jer. xvii. 8. Ps. xciv. According to the common view, y)i^T\, should be either the infin. used instead of the future, — " he will hear"; or the Praeter. with the Vau relat. — and at that time he attends to me. But the Psalmist would be anticipating himself, were he here expressing the confident assurance of being heard. The deepest complaint goes on to ver. 9, and it is there that, for the first time, we meet the great turning point. This construction would be admissible, only if we could consider the verse as an introduction, giving a view at one glance of the whole contents of the Psalm. But this will not do, as it forms an integral part of the first strophe. — In ver. 2, the Psalmist, as is manifest from the last words, and indeed from the whole connection, is not prais- ing his own zeal in prayer, but depicting the depth of his pain. The n^Jli> does not signify simply, " it is stretched out", but only "it is open": comp. 2 Sam. xiv. 14, Lam.iii. 49. The stretch- ed out, weak and powerless hand, conveys the picture of relaxa-
444 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
tion of the whole body. The y\^, to be stiff, to he dead (comp. at Ps. xxxviii. 8), is here to rest : comp. Lam. ii. 18. The last clause alludes, as does also Jer. xxxi. 15, to Gen. xxxvii. 35, where it is said of Jacob, when he got intelligence of the death of Joseph, " that he refused to be comforted." On comparing ver. 15, it is clear that the Psalmist had before his eyes, the second loss of his son Joseph which Jacob suffered, viz. the de- struction of the kingdom of the ten tribes. — According to verse
3, the Psalmist has resolved to give himself up specially to think- ing upon God and his salvation in times past, (compare Ps.xlii.
4, and here verses 6, 11, 5), which must aggravate still more se- verely the pain which he feels from his present trouble. On n\!:nN and nn^Si'J^. compare at Ps. Iv. 2, 16.
Ver. 4 — 6. — Yer. 4. Thou holdest firm through the night watches my eyes, I am terrified and cannot speak. Ver. 5. / think upon the days of old, the years of ancient times. Ver. 6. / will think of my song in the night, I will meditate in my heart, and my spirit must enquire. — The condition of the Psalm- ist, as described in the 4th verse, is called forth by the consider- ation of the earl}' conduct of God towards his people. Thou holdest firm, namely, by thoughts upon those things spoken of in verses 3, 5, and 6. The common interpretation is : thou holdest the watches of my eyes, i. e. my eye-lids. But T\1f2^i never occurs in this sense, and the form is clearly against it. We must rather consider the word, (which occurs only in this passage), as having the same sense as 'n'~\f2^^, night ivatches, Ps. Ixiii. 6, which differs from it only by the Ji{ prosth. and therefore not essentially. The accus. is employed to mark a point of time, when the action runs through the whole period. The parallel passage confirms this exposition. Lam. ii. 19, " arise, cry out in the night,m thebeginning of the ivatches, pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord ": comp. here ver. 2. The apparent contradiction between " I cannot speak", and the beginning, where the Psalmist announces his intention to pour out his complaint in loud lamentations, is explained by Calvin in the single remark, " that sufferers do not continue long like them- selves, but at one time break out in sighs and lamentations, and at another time, are silent as if their throat were tied." — Arnd: " In such troubles a man is often quite powerless, so that he cannot speak, but only thinks upon God and hopes in him ; thus his thoughts and his hope are instead of words ; and God, who
rsALM Lxxvii. VER. 4 — 9. 445
searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the spirit."— In the 5th verse, allusion is made to Deut. xxxii. 7. — The first clause of verse 6th resumes, " I will think on God", in ver. 3d. The comparison of this verse, and ver. 11th, show the incorrect- ness of Koester's rendering : 1 will take hold of the comforting harp. The Psalmist is resolved to call to recollection the early grace of God, for the purpose of aggravating therehy his pain : for, from a comparison of the hotter past, the whole misery of the comfortless present came before his mind. That " in the night" is to be connected with " my song", (not " I will think during the night"), is manifest from the parallel passages, Ps. xlii. 8. (compare at this passage), Ps. xcii. 2, and especially Job XXXV. 10. In the stillness of night, those who feared God thank- ed him for his favours. The Psalmist is resolved to recall to his recollection this his thanksgiving, and with it, the gracious deeds by which it had been called forth. These gracious deeds are those which, in the second part, were described at length, the manifestations of the divine favour which had been imparted to the whole jMople in former times. This retrospect of the past, gives occasion to the Psalmist to inquire and to ask the ques- tion, whether it be the case, that God has now completely re- jected his people, whom, in former days, he had so richly favoured : he cannot think so, — the supposition seems incon- gruous,— yet facts are altogether in its favour. The object of the inquiry is, in this way, described in the third strophe, which should be preceded by a colon.
Ver. 7 — 9. — Ver. 7. Shall then the Lord cast of for ever^ and manifest his grace no more ? Ver. 8. Is his compassion at an end for ever, and has his word disappeared for all genera- tions ? Ver. 9. Has God for gotten to be gracious, or shut up in ivrath his compassion.^ — The expression in ver. 8, "is his word at an end," is equivalent to, " shall God never speak more, has he withdrawn his word altogether ?" According to the connec- tion, the matter referred to, is promises of assistance and deliver- ance, which God had often, in times past, granted to his people by the prophets, as for example, at the time of the Assyrian op- pression. The complaint is expressed also in Ps. Ixxiv. 9, that there is no longer any prophet, that there is no one who can tell the people the end of their sufi'erings. Calvin: " The answer to the objection, that to those who are in possession of the law of God his word can never be wanting, is that, from the weakness
^4^6 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
of the times special promises were necessary," — On niirij in ver. 9, the infinitive of ppt, comp. E\v. § 238, e. Has he forgotten to be gracious, ho who has so emphatically called himself in his word gracious and compassionate. Ex. xxxiv. 6, comp. Ps. ciii. 8. The nXl in his anger, = being angry, comp. Ps. xxvii. 9, Ivi. 7.
The matter takes suddenly another turn. From the glorious manifestations of God in the past, which had hitherto tended to nourish doubt, as to whether Israel still held the place of God's chosen people, there arises at once the firm belief thdit he does.
Ver. 10 — 12. — Ver. 10. Then I said : it is my sickness, the years of the right hand of the Most High. Ver. 11. / make known the deeds of God^ for I will recall to my mind thy won- ders of old. Ver. 12. And 1 think upon all thy doing, and will meditate upon thy works. — In verse 10 the Psalmist expresses his resolution of quiet resignation, which could be adopted only on the basis of trust in God and of hope, and in verses 11 and 12 he points out what it was that had led him to adopt this re- solution. The two clauses of verse 10 are to be supplemented from each other. The TwT] signifies always in Pi. to be weak, to be sick : compare at Ps. xlv. 12. My sickness, is the sick- ness laid upon me by the Lord, who is expressly named in the second clause as its author, and which therefore must be borne quietly and patiently: compare Jeremiah x. 19, "Woe to me because of my wounds, my stroke is painful, but I said, this is only sickness, and I will bear it," and " thou has done it," in Ps. xxxix. 9. The years of the right hand of the Most High, are in themselves only the years which the right hand of the Most High has brought in. Their more immediate limitation, Si^ years of suffering, is got from the first clause: compare 1 Peter v. 6, where also " the mighty hand of God" is limited by the connection to be his punishing hand. The Hl^S^ is used in the 5th verse in the sense of years. Those translations are to be rejected which take it as the infinitive of H^^ : " a change of the right hand of the Most High", or " the right hand of the Highest can change everything," (Luther), or " an alteration for the worse." — The means by which the Psalmist reaches to this elevation, is the manifestation of the deeds of the Lord, ver. 11. and he reaches to it by getting absorbed in his meditations on these deeds. The reading Ti^TK, which has external evidence in its favour, is demanded by the sense. The reading in the margin destroys the sense of the " for". The X7£) stands very
PSALM LXXVII VEIL 13 — 15. 447
frequently in the singular, also where a series of wonders is spoken of, as the whole taken together is considered as one great wonder.
In ver. 13 — 15. the Psalmist begins his announcement of the deeds of the Lord, and his meditation on them, and goes on in the same strain to the end of the Psalm. — Ver. 13. O God, in holiness is thy tvm/, where is there a God, who was great as God ? Ver. 14. Thou art the God who dost wonders, thou hast made knoivn thy power among the nations. Ver. 15. Thou hast redeemed ivith poiver thy people, the sons of Jacob and of Jo- seph. Selah. — The way of God, in the 13th verso, is his doing, his conduct. This is in holiness, rests upon it, i. e. it is sacred and glorious : compare at Ps. xxii. 3. Several translate : in the sanctuary, viz. the heavenly sanctuary, compare Hab. ii. 20, " the Lord is in his holy temple, all flesh is still before him," Ps. xi, 4, xviii. 6, xxix. 9. But the fundamental passage is de- cisive against this, Ex. XV. 11, "who is like thee among the gods, 0 Lord, who is like thee, glorious in holiness ?" ^"Ip : compare " glorious in power," H^^, in verse 5. On the second clause, besides the passages already quoted in Ex., Deut. iii. 24 must be compared. Calvin : " He does not, by the comparison, recognize in the least the existence of other gods, but he throws contempt upon the foolishness of the world for not being more careful to cultivate the friendship of the One God, whose glory is so manifest." — On " thou hast made known among the peo- ple thy power," ver. 14th, compare Ex. ix. 16, xv. 14. — In ver. 15 the deliverance out of Egypt is brought forward as the greatest and most wonderful of all the works of God, and hence as containing the strongest pledge of future deliverance. The Psalmist had this especially before his eyes in the 13th and 14th verses, but from this verse to the end of the Psalm he is occupied with it exclusively. With the arm, so that the arm thereby was brought into action, that is, with outstretched arm, Ex. vi. 6. The naming of Joseph next to Jacob stands in refe- rence to the ten tribes, whose head wasEphraim, descended from one of the sons of Joseph, (compare Ps. Ixxviii. 67, Ixxx. 1), and shows how much the loss went to the Psalmist's heart, and how he sought in the history of the past a pledge of its deliverance. On the " Selah" the Berleb. Bible : " do thou at the same time sink into the quiet and stillness of souls which depend on God, and be baptized, at the end, into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
448 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver. 16 — 18. — Ver. 16. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, they were afraid, and the floods trembled vehe- mently. Ver. 17. The clouds streamed water, the clouds caused the thunder to be heard, and thine arrows went abroad. Ver. 18. The voice of thy crash whirled round, lightninr/s illuminated the earth, the earth moved and shook. — The sea appears in verse 16, as the enemy of the people of the covenant, and at the sight of God fighting on their behalf, it is afraid and gives up its feeble opposition : compare Hab. iii. 10. — The D'^T? in verse 17, Po., is to cause to stream, to cause to flow. The ar- rows of God are the lightning : comp. verse 18, Hab. iii. 11, Ps. xviii. 14, cxliv. 6. The description is here throughout a poeti- cal one. For the passage of Israel through the sea (and it is this only, and not the destruction of the Egyptians that is spoken of, so that Ex. xiv. 24 might bo compared), did not take place during a storm. It was to them a source oi encouragement when they heard the thunder above them, and saw the lightning around them. In verse 18, " in a whirl" = " whirling," de- notes the rapidity with which the peals of thunder followed each other :comp are Ez. x. 13, where the wheels, on account of their rapid movements, are said 7J7JI, The word is never clearly used of a whirliuind : that it is not so used in Ps. Ixxxiii. 13, is manifest from the parallel passage Is. xvii. 13.
Ver. 19 20. — Ver. 19. In the sea was thy way, and thy paths in many waters, and thy footsteps were not known. Ver. 20. Thou didst lead like a flock thy people, by Moses and Aaron. — In ver. 19, the Keri reading, "l7''^2J^, thy path, is merely a bad correction from the parallelism. The last words point to the wonderful circumstance, that the waters returned after the Lord had gone through with his people. Berleb : " were not known by the Egyptians, that they might walk in them. For the waters returned immediately to the place which thej' had formerly occupied as soon as the Israelites had crossed, and thus covered the Egyptians," Ex. xiv. 26 — 28. Several main- tain falsely that the words refer to the wonderful passage : — whoever goes through the water leaves no trace behind. But the Israelites went through on dry land. Hab. iii. 15 is an imi- tation of this verse. — On verse 20 compare Micah vi. 4. Arnd ; " We have therefore here the consolation that God will lead us out of all our troubles, and that, tliough they be ever so great and deep, like the lied Sea, God can make a way tlirough con- trary to all human reason and thoughts."
PSALM LXXVIU. 449
PSALM LXXVIII.
The Psalmist gives notice in the Introduction, ver. 1 — 4, tha+ his object is to use, for the instruction and warning of the pre- sent, the events of the time of Moses. In prosecution of this object, he represents, first, ver. 5 — 8, the destination of Israel: they should have been guided into the fear of God by the deeds and the commandments of God, and not fallen into the bad manners of their forefathers in the time of Moses. He shoves next, that Israel had proved unfaithful to this destina- tion : so long as they continued under the guidance of Eph- raira they forgot the deeds of God, violated his commandments, ver. 9 — 11, and were in all respects Zi^e their forefathers, whose unbelief, hardness of heart, and perversity, in view of the glorious deeds of God, are described at length in verse 12 — 40 ; they forgot unthankfully the glorious deeds of God by which he redeemed his people out of Egypt, (a copious description of which occurs in verses 43 — 55) ; they provoked the Lord by their apostacy and rebellion, and brought down thereby his judgments upon them : he forsook his habitation in Shiloh, gave the ark of the covenant into the hands of the enemy, and his people to the sword, ver. 57 — 64. Now he has again taken compassion upon his people, and received them under his pro- tection, but he has at the same time transferred the prerogative of Ephraim to Judah, in selecting Zion for the sanctuary, and David for the King, ver. 65—72.
There is no formal arrangement throughout the Psalm, and there are no strophes, unless we are to confound paragraphs with strophes. In Psalms of such length, and especially in those of such a decidedly historical character, the absence of a strict formal arrangement is quite common ; and therefore there is no necessity for attempting, with Koester, to force one here. It is, however, not accidental that the whole number of verses in the Psalm is 72 — 6 times 12, the signature of the peo- ple of the covenant, — and also that the description of the great deeds of the Lord in ver. 43 — 45, occupies 12 verses.
The general object of the Psalm is to warn Israel, who had escaped the judgments of God, not to provoke a fresh judgment
VOL. IL 2 G
450 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
by a fresh apostacy. The Conclusion, however, ver. 65—72, indicates, that besides this general object, the Psalmist designed to warn the Israelites against a special sin to which they were peculiarly liable from the circumstances of the times. The dan- ger was, that of not being willing to acquiesce in the divine ar- rangement, by which the prerogative of Ephraim was transferred to the tribe of Judah, of regarding that as a usurpation which was in fact a divine judgment, and of rebelling against the sanc- tuary in Zion and the dominion of David and his tribe.
The history renders it clear that this object was both an im- mediate and a very important one. The numerous, powerful, and haughty tribe of Ephraim, had been in possession of precedency during the whole period of the Judges. The sanctuary in Shi- loh was in the heart of it. How very determined were its claims for precedency appeared from its objections to Gideon, Judges viii. 1, and its opposition to Jepthah, Judges xii. 1.* It became hence a matter of great difficulty for this tribe to acquiesce in the new arrangement of things under David ; and assuredly this would never have taken place, had not David been marked out in such a decided manner by God himself. For seven years David was king over Judah alone. The success of the rebellion of Absalom may assuredly be attributed, to a very great ex- tent, to the jealousy of Ephraim as its cause.f Similar conse- quences followed the insurrection of Sheba, who was supported by the whole of Israel, while the tribe of Judah remained faith- ful to its king, 2 Sam. xx. 2. Under David and Solomon, how- ever, participation in that national glory, the foundation of which was laid by these powerful kings, counterbalanced the jealousy of Ephraim, and thus broke the energy of that tribe ; just as during the splendid career of Napoleon, the republicans of France remained quiet. But, after Solomon's death, it burst out into a violent flame ; and the consequence of neglect- ing the warning of our Psalm, was the melancholy division which inflicted a death wound on the Israelitish nation.
• Compare the important treatise of Verschuir, Be JEmtdatione Isr. mutua.
t Compare Verschuir, p. 85 : " It arose from the jealousy and envy of the tribes, who eagerly seized every occasion of attempting a revolution, and of rebelling, . . . . . . not so much for the purpose of placing the son on the father's throne, as with a view to take advantage of a state of confusion, for the purpose of finding out a way by which to tear the kingdom from Judah, and to free themselves from his yoke."
PSALM Lxxvin. 451
The means by which the Psalmist seeks the accomplishment of his object, is by directing attention to the events of the time of Moses. These were well fitted, first, to bring the Israelites to a sense of their ingratitude, during the period of the Judges, and to fill them with righteous abhorrence of their former sins, — a state of mind which supplies the most powerful warning against fresh transgressions. This tendency is particularly ob- vious in the second historical paragraph, verses 42 — 55. And, second, to make clear to them their apostacy by the example of their fathers, and in this way to open their eyes to the divine judgments, the perception of which formed their only security against fresh guilt. This tendency is particularly predominant in the first historical paragraph, verses 12 — 40. In this para- graph the Psalmist holds up before the people the history, which had. been written for the very purpose of promoting this object, as a glass in which they might see their own face.
The assertion is altogether unfounded, that the historical por- tion of the Psalm is only by-work, and that the author acts con- trary to his plan in going so much into detail. The introduction itself announces, that the peculiar object of the Psalm is to in- fluence the present generation, by directing attention to the events of the time of Moses. The assertion also is incorrect, that the author details the history of the Mosaic era and that of the Judges for warning. It is only the first of these periods that serves the author as a torch, (as it does to the author of the xcv. Psalm) : the history of the Judges is the subject to he illustrated.
That the Psalm, which in the title is called " An Instruction of Asaph," belonged to the age of David, and was therefore com- posed by the famous Asaph, (comp. at Ps. Ixxiv.), cannot be con- sidered as doubtful, if we take a correct view of its contents and object. The last matters oi fact on which the author touches, are the kingdom of David, which by the fut. in ver. 72 is ex- hibited as still standing, and the settlement of the sanctuary on Zion. His object is to warn the people against & possible revolt from David and from the sanctuary in Zion ; he cannot therefore have possibly composed the Psalm after this event had taken place. He acts in the prosecution of his object with such great tenderness, — not naming expressly even once the disruption which it is his purpose to prevent, and making no express mention
452 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
whatever of anj' inclination to this, which might exist at the time, but leaving his readers to make for themselves the practical ap- plication,— that it is obvious that he must have written at a time, when it was of importance not to irritate, for fear of increasing the dissatisfaction, by even supposing it to exist, and not to call forth the idea of the disruption, by naming it.
The passion for bringing down the Psalms to the latest pos- sible date has been brought into exercise even in regard to this Psalm. To deny that the Psalm belongs to the time of David, manifests an utter misunderstanding of its contents. Most of tho recent expositors agree in the assumption, that it was composed after the captivity. Do Wette, Ewald, and Koester, consider it as the " product of religious hatred against the Samaritans," proceeding on the assumption, which is contrary to history, that the Samaritans were the continuation of the kingdom of the ten tribes : compare against this the Beitr. P. II. p. 3, et seq. Hitzig assigns the Psalm to the age of Antiochus, because it warns against a revolt, in utter ignorance of the special object of the Psalm, as dwelt upon in the concluding verses. — The 69th verse shows that it must have been composed before the Chaldean destruction. The Psalm is made use of in the book of Job : compare at ver. 64. It has been urged against the an- tiquity of the Psalm, that it rises very little above the style of prose. But Venema has correctly observed : " the style is plain and easy, such as a narrative of events requires."
If the Psalm undoubtedly belongs to the age of David, it is evident that important results flow from it, bearing on the criti- cism of the Pentateuch. Those references to the Pentateuch, and that too as to the generally known and recognized book of national religion, by which all the Psalms of David's time are pervaded, occur here, in unusual numbers, and in a peculiarly literal manner, — a circumstance sufficiently accounted for by the length and character of the Psalm. Should any one be still dis- posed to maintain, that the Pentateuch in David's time did not exist in a complete state, and was not generally acknowledged^ (which last presupposes its composition by Moses), he will find materials enough in tliis Psalm to show him that such an opi- nion is utterly untenable.
The assertion has even been hazarded, that our Psalm is to be regarded as a product of *' the national animosity" and arro- gance of the Jews. The remarks made by Lange in the pre-
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 1 — 4. 453
face to P. I. of the life of Jesus, p. 10, with so much propriety against a similar hypothesis, with which the New Testament had been attacked, apply with equal force to this assertion. Men display very little knowledge of the Scriptures, when they attempt to discover in them the petty passions of ordinary life. Asaph, who was undoubtedly recognized by Jewish antiquity as a. jjrophet among the psalmists, (2 Chron. xxix. 30, Matt. xiii. 35), had indeed to say what was very unpleasant to Ephraim ; but in this he acted not as a Jewish partizan, (an idea quite out of place with hira, who belonged not to the tribe of Judah but to the tribe of Levi), but as a servant of God. The posi- tion which he occupies was not one which he had assumed himself; he comes forward, as Jeremiah also did, as an inter- preter of the deeds of God. That the accusation, which he brings against the Ephraimites, in the first instance, and also against the ivJiole people, was a well founded one, is rendered sufficiently obvious by the division of the kingdom, and by the subsequent history of the ten tribes, who may be considered as represented here by Ephraim. The same vile spirit which, in that history, is conspicuous throughout, — Jeroboam was its re- presentative,— was assuredly in existence during the period of the Judges, and, at the time when Ephraim was the ruling tribe, wrought consequences as disastrous to the whole nation, as it did at a later period to Israel. We meet with this spirit in a very offensive manner on the two occasions above adverted to in the history of the Judges.
The Introduction is ver. 1 — 4. The Psalmist resolves to re- count the great deeds of the past, for the instruction and warning of the people of God, to transmit to posterity the inheritance of their fathers, so urgently called for and needed at the present time. — Ver. 1. Hear my people my laiv, incline your ear to the words of my mouth. Ver. 2. Iivill open my mouth ivith a similitude; I ivill make known riddles from times of old. Ver. 3. Which we have heard, and know, and our fathers have told us. Ver. 4. We will not hold them back from their children, making known to the generation to come the praise of the Lord and his mighty deed, and his wonders which he hath done. — miD, in verse 1, has never the sense of ^' doctrine," but always the sense of " law ;" and this sense is suitable here. The Psalmist comes forward as one who has authority : the " Seer," and " Prophet," does not deliver well meant exhortations, which he
454 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
submits to the judgment of his hearers, but laws, which leave no choice but between obedience and destruction : compare Is. i. 10. " My people" indicates the love in which the effort of the Psalmist originated. — In reference to ny^X? in verse 2, properly, " I will sputter out," compare at Ps. xix. 2 ; and on ^^J2 and rn^n at Ps. xlix. 4. The Psalmist does not designate as similitudes and riddles, his remarks which follow, merely as such, but the historical events which his remarks expound to the people. Thisis evident from the expression " from times of old," and also from the 3d and 4th vers. These appellations are found- ed on the fact that sacred history has, in every part of it, a con- cealed back ground of instruction, that it is a prophecy turned in the contrary direction, to which throughout the maxim is ap- plicable, mutato nomine de te fabula narratur, and upon which are virtually written in legible characters the words, whosoeveu READETH, LET HIM UNDERSTAND : comp. Gal. iv. 24, and particu- larly 1 Cor. x. 6. These appellations, moreover, call upon us to separate the kernel from the shell, and to press out the wine of instruction from the grapes of history. Dip, pa^i time, is the com- mon term applied to the Mosaic period, (comp. Ps. Ixxiv. 2, Ixxvii. 5, 11), and is to be taken here in this sense, and not as denoting the whole of antiquity. In the quotation in Matt. xiii. 34 and 35, the emphasis is laid on the first clause, " I will open my mouth in parables," and the Evangelist gives this part of the quotation literally from the Psalm. So that when a prophet of the Old Testament, leaving the field of naked thought, teaches in parables, in which the naked thought is clothed with flesh and blood, conveys instruction in the form of history, and thus stamps with his authority this method of instruction as one adequate to accomplish the end in view, the Evangelist, with good reason, beholds a prophecy, that Christ, the pro- phet, the best teacher, who must fully employ every adequate means of instruction, shall avail himself also of this method. In the second clause Matthew allows himself greater liberty, and gives rather an application than a proper translation. — In ver. 3 the Psalmist explains more precisely what it is that he means by "similitudes" and " riddles:" these are the universally known, the well accredited deeds of the Lord, which had been handed down from generation to generation. We are not, with most expositors, to connect this verse immediately with the 4th verse : — the similitude and the riddle are, when taken by them-
PSALM LXXVm. VER. 1 — 4. 455
selves, somewhat obscure, and require explanation. The last clause also, " which our fathers have told us," serves as a pre- paration immediately for verse 4. Exodus x. 2 ought to be compared : " that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son and of thy son's son what things I have wrought in Egypt," also 2 Sam. vii. 22 and Ps. xliv. 1. Though the knowledge of the deeds of the Mosaic times is here derived from oral tradition, this is not exclusive of scripture. Even in the Pentateuch -itself oral tra- dition is mentioned, (Deut. xxxii. 7), in reference to those very deeds of which it contains the full account ; and in many pas- sages we meet with pressing exhortations to be assiduous in con- tinuing the stream of oral tradition. Scripture is the stay and corrective of oral tradition : it does not supplant, it supplements it. A single glance renders it evident, that the Psalmist him- self drew his account directly from Scripture, and not from oral tradition. But the Scripture would have been to him a shut book, with which he would not have known how to commence any thing, had he not been surrounded from his early youth with the atmosphere of tradition. — Ver. 4. intimates that it is the sacred duty of the church, at all times, not to intercept in a faithless manner the property of tradition entrusted to her care by her forefathers, but faithfully to deliver it over to posterity, and thus justifies the attempt of the Psalmist, who sets about the discbarge of this duty in the following part of the Psalm. The Psalmist does not say " our children," but " their child- ren," although he meant the former, because his object is, to point out the duty of transmitting : what we have got from our fathers, we owe to our "children, inasmuch as they did not hand it to us for our sakes only, but generally, for their children's. ni7rin> properly praises, indicates the rich fulness of praise which the Lord has acquired by his deeds. Tlie " wonders" of the Lord form the centre point of the following representation. The Psalmist does not merely recount these : he represents also the position which the people, on the other hand, took up, and points out the disastrous consequences which resulted from their false position.
In the first paragraph we have the destination of Israel, the object which God has appointed him to fulfil : God has given him his law, containing a summary of his deeds and ordinances, in order that, by the transmission of it to posterity, they might be brought to a living trust in God and to obedience to his command-
456 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
ments, and might be preserved from the bad habits aud the re- bellious conduct of their fathers in the wilderness. This there- fore, was the problem proposed to Israel in the time of the Judges. — Ver. 5. He erected a testimony in Jacob, he laid down a laiu in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children. Ver. 6. In order that the generation to come might learn it, the sons who should still be born, and rise up and 7'elate it to their children. Ver. 7. And place their trust in God, and not forget the deeds of the Lord and keep his com- mandments. Ver. 8. And might not be like their fathers, a re- bellious and refractory race, a generation which does not pre- pare its heart, and does not keep its spirit faithfid to God — The paragraph leans on those passages in the Pentateuch, in which the people are exhorted, faithfully to transmit the law to their posterity ; for example, Ex. xiii. 14, Deut. iv. 9, 23, vi. 6, and following verses. — By the testimony and the law in verse 5, are meant the whole contents of the Pentateuch, the direct commandments contained in it, and the deeds of the Lord which are to be considered as indirect commandments : for all the deeds of God contain a kernel of instruction, of duty, and of warning ; " I have done this for thee, what dost thou for me ?" " be very thankful," '* to day, hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, saw and felt my works," &c. That we are to exclude neither these indirect, nor (with Steir) the direct commandments is evident, from the usus loquendi, (" testimony" and " law" must certainly denote the law usually so called), from those passages in the Pentateuch, in which the exhortation faithfully to transmit to posterity, refers at the same time to the deeds and to the commandments, and finally and incontrovertibly, from verses 7th, 10th, and 11th, where the deeds and the commandments are expressly mentioned as the contents of the law. The fathers are specially the Israelites of the Mosaic period. By the teaching or making known is meant not a mere external transmission, but one of such a kind as goes from heart to heart. The Berleb. : " And even to persevere in teaching, and to press it upon them with all earnestness." —In ver. 6, the object to be taught and learned is the law and testimony, which God .erected in Jacob and laid down in Israel. The generation to come is the Israelites existing in the time of the Judges. At 1^p"> (QV-j is not to arise, but
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 5 — 8. 457
to rise up : God has erected, in ver. 5, therefore they should rise upj, the copula is designedly omitted, for the purpose of connecting closely together and blending into one " the know- ing" and " the rising up" : wherever, within the domain of religion, there is a true, a real knowledge, such as that spoken of in ver. 7, there, there is also preaching : whatever fills the heart flows out at the lips ; whatever a man feels to be of vital importance, he endeavours to set it before his family. — The sub- ject in ver. 7 is " the following generation," the sons who should be born, Israel during the period of the Judges, which appears as the second generation succeeding the Mosaic one, which is the first. We cannot make the sons and the grand- sons at the same time the subject. On the first clause the Berleb. : " The law which God erected in Israel, is a law full of love and trust. It requires nothing else, than that men know the blessings of God, that they be grateful to him for these, that they love him, that they depend upon him for his bounties, and that they surrender themselves to him without reserve." The fundamental passage is Deut. xxxi. 11, "Thou
shalt read this law before all Israel in order that
they may hear and learn, that they may fear the Lord your God, and observe carefully all the words of this law" : compare on the last clause, Deut. iv. 40, xxxiii. 9. — In verse 8th, the fathers are again the Israehtes of the Mosaic time. The re- proaches which Moses uttered against his contemporaries are to be compared, Deut. ix. 6, 7, xxxi. 27. The yyiD, and rTlD, are from Deut. xxi. 18. The man who had a stiflf-necked and rebellious son, as there spoken of, may be considered as an em- blem of God, in relation to Israel : compare Deut. xxxii. 5. The phrase 1^7 p^H, cannot be interpreted by the p^J in ver. 37. It does not mean, " to set right the heart," but " to pre- pare the heart" : compare Sir. ii. 17, " they who feared the Lord, prepared their hearts," iroifMoiaovsi, xviii. 22. This is clear from the want of " to the Lord," here, and in Job xi. 13, and from the construction with '7, in 2 Chron. xx. 33. In 1 Sam. vii. 3, the phrase signifies : to prepare the heart unto the Lord, so as to turn to him.
In ver. 9 — 11, we are told how far the Israelites, during the pe- riod of the Judges, satisfied the positive destination pointed out for them according to ver. 5 — 7: they acted contrary to the very design of their existence. They did the very opposite of what
458 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
they ought to have done, — they forsook, in a cowardly spirit, the duties assigned to them in war, they did not walk in the commandments of their God, and forgot shamefully his deeds and wonders. Ver. 9. The sons of Ephraim are (cowardly ) bowmen, they turned hack in the day of battle. Ver. 10. They did not keep the covenant of God, and woidd not walk in his law. Ver, 11. And they forgot his deeds and his wonders which he let them see. — In ver. 9 the first clause is to be supplemented from the second, which contains the ground of the comparison of the sons of Ephraim to bowmen: they are compared to bowmen, because they turned back in the day of battle, and therefore they could be nothing else than coiuardly bowmen. Those who do not supply in this way, suppose that bowmen are used figu- ratively, to denote those who turn their backs in battle and fly, because the practice of these troops is, when attacked, to fly, and in their flight to shoot at the enemy. But this feigned flight does not suit here. It might, with greater probability, be supposed that the bowmen are named, because, from their light armour, they were better adapted for real flight. But of such an inclination on the part of tlie bowmen to fly, there are no traces whatever, and it is not even clear that they were light armed troops, although Jahn asserts that they were, Archaol. 2. 2. p. 424. The reason why they are named in this individualizing way, is undoubtedly because, among the Hebrews and the na- tions with whom they had to do, bowmen formed the main body of the army : comp. Hos. i. 5, Ps. Ixxvi. 3, Ez. xxxix. 3. That the Ephraimites are merely compared to cowardly bowmen, and that it is only in a figurative sense that the Psalmist speaks of their flight in the day of battle, as indicating their apostacy in the day of their trial, appear from ver. 57th, where the Eph- raimites, who are here compared to the rnera, are compared to boivs which will not do their work, from the connection with what goes before, according to which we are led to expect here a description of the way in which Israel fulfilled the destination appointed him by God, and with what follows, which, from this point forwards, speaks of the violation of the covenant by Israel. The sons of Ephraim do not stand here at all in opposition to the rest of Israel, but they represent the whole, as they formed, during the period of the Judges, the ruling tribe. This is evi- dent from the connection with ver, 5 — 8, where the Psalmist speaks of the whole of Israel during the period of the Judges,
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 9 11. , 459
and from the 41, 42, 56, and following verses, where what is here said of Ephraim is said of the whole of Israel. It is clear as day that the conduct of Ephraim and of the whole of Israel, as here described, belongs to the period of the Judges ; and we must say, that that man understands nothing whatever of the whole connection and tendency of the Psalm, who finds here the apostacy of the ten tribes. The whole Psalm ends with the government of David. In the 4l8t and follovring verses, the Psalmist speaks of the same apostacy of Ephraim or Israel. In the 59th and following verses, he is expressly spoken of as ex- isting in the time before the ark of the covenant was carried away by the Philistines ; and this event, as well as the defeat, the rejection of Shiloh, and the bringing of the sanctuary to Judah, are represented as his punishment. The verb p^J sig- nifies always " to be armed," and not, as Gesenius assumes, " to stretch the bow," contrary to 2 Chron. xvii, 17, and other pas- sages, and contrary to the sense of p^^- That r\^p ''f^'\*^ sig- nifies " bowmen," and nothing else, appears clear from Jer. iv. 29. The armed of the bowmen, are " those of the bowmen who are armed," or " those men who are both armed and bowmen." The "^Sn, in the sense of " to turn round," is from Judges xx. 39. The Berleb. : " This representation is given to us for instruction and reflection, that we may not grow weak in faith, and fall away in the time of battle. This is commonly the case with those who rely too much upon themselves, and have not unre- servedly surrendered themselves to God. They fancy them- selves strong, so long as there are no enemies before them, and prepare to fight them in imagination. But as soon as real ene- mies come within sight, they fly before them and become un- faithful."— In ver. 10 we have the opposite of the duty assigned to Israel in ver. 7, " to keep the commandments of God;" and in ver. 11 the opposite of the " not forgetting the deeds of God." The deeds and wonders of God are those done in Egypt, and during the sojourn in the wilderness. These had been seen by the fathers, as the representatives of the Israelites of all times. Hence the explanation of : which he let them see.
The opposition between what the Israelites were, and what they ought to have been, was drawn in ver. 9 — 11, to the one point at the conclusion of the paragraph which describes the destination of Israel, in ver. 8, viz. that they should not be like tlieir fathers, a rebellious race. The design of the
460 THB BOOK OF PSALMS.
Psalmist, is not merely to refer, in short terms, to the manner in which they acted in reference to this point, but to enter into detail, according to his purpose as expressed in the introduc- tion, to hold up the glass of the fathers to the sons in order that they might see in it their own image. He hence, first, depicts, at great length, the way in which the fathers acted : the theme of the whole paragraph is : " the fathers were a rebellious and re- fractory race, a race who did not prepare their hearts, and whose spirits did not continue faithful to God." He next shows, in the 41st and following verses, that the Israelites, dur- ing the period of the Judges, were like their fathers.
We are first told in ver. 12 — 16, with a view to placing the rebellious and refractory conduct of the fathers in its true light, what God did to the fathers, how he allured them to love and to good works, — Ver. 12. Before their fathers he did wonders in the land of Egypt on the plain of Zoan. Ver. 13. He clave the sea and let them pass through, he placed the waters as an heap. Ver. 14. And he led them during the day by a cloud, and during the tvhole night, by the light of fire. Ver. 15. He clave the rocks in the luilderness, and gave them drink as out of a great flood. Ver. 16. And brought streams out of the rock, and made water flow down like rivers. — The wonders of God follow each other in historical order. There are first, in ver. 12, the wonders and the signs in Egypt. These are only briefly referred to, be- cause the Psalmist intends, at a subsequent part, and in another connection, (ver. 43 — 55), to take up the consideration of them at length. Ver. 12 cannot be connected with ver. 8 — 1 1 , as many would do, in their excessive zeal for a strophe formation, of which there is not here one single trace. For it does not at all contain a general statement to be developed in what follows, but it forms part of a description of particulars, namely, the wonders in Egypt, which are succeeded in tbe following verse by others, the wonders during the sojourn in the wilderness. The clause " be- fore their fathers," which refers back to the 8th verse, is to be considered as if printed in Italics, Next to the land of Egypt, in opposition to the sea and the wilderness, we have the plain of Zoan, the country round the ancient royal city Tanis, pointed out as the theatre of the great deeds of God. The author has pointed out, in his treatise on " Egypt and the Books of Moses," p. 41, that there is here expressly said, what is only alluded to in Num. xiii. 22. The X/S. stands collectively as at Ps. Ivii. 12
PSALM LXXVIIl. VER. 12 — 15, 461
— In verse 13, there is the passage through the Red Sea. " As a heap," is from Ex. xv. 8, to which passage allusion is else- where made : compare at Ps. xxxiii. 7. The Psalmist reserves the D"'7T11 in that passage, for ver. 16. — In ver. 14 we have the guidance of the pillar of fire and of cloud in the march through the wilderness, according to Ex. xiii. 21, 22. — In ver. 15 and 16, the sending of the waters at Rephidim in Ex. xvii. 6, and at Kadesh in Num. xx., are joined together. That we must not, through excessive historical caution, (as in what follows, deeds are re- ferred to which happened before the second of these events), re- fer the allusion merely to the first, is evident from the plural, D''1^> and from the undoubted quotation of the first half of the 16th verse, from Num. xx. 8. The agreement is verbal, with this exception, that instead of the prosaic word D^Dj which is there used, we have here Dv^J - compare at ver. 13. Ver. 15th refers to both occasions, and verse 16, to the second as the greater. This is evident from the J^^D. which, in the Pentateuch, is used only of the second occasion, because it was only then that water came from the rock. In Ex. the word '^^^^ is always used : comp. the Beitr. III. p. 379. This, as the general term, (compare on ^1^f, properly not a rock, but a stone, at Ps. xviii. 2), might be used in the plural, and applied to both occasions. He " clave," refers back, in the first instance, to, " he clave," in ver. 13th, but, at the same time, in connection with this first cleaving in grace, it directs attention to its opposition, that cleaving in wrath, in the days of old, of which we read in Gen. vii. 11, " all the fountains of the great deep were broken up' compare similar allusions to the history of the deluge in Ps. xxix. 10, xxxii. 6. It is only from the allusion to this passage, that we can explain how the great flood should send forth water, (as if it had something to do on the occasion), which at a former time, at the deluge, sent forth its waters for the destruction of the sinful world. We require only to see this allusion, to aban- don the idea that nil, contrary to the accusative, may be con- sidered as an adverb : richly. The plural niibpn denotes the flood in an absolute sense, the mundane sea, and is used in the same way as Behemoth, Chokmoth, Ps. Ixxiii. 22. As in reality there is only one flood meant, the adjective stands in the singular number : compare Ewald, § 569. Berleb. : " should they not now have drunk with the mouth of faith, and praised the great work of God."
There follows in ver. 17 — 20, the rebellious and refractory
462 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
conduct, with which Israel requited God. — Ver. 17. But they went on still to sin against him, and rebelled against the Most High in the wilderness. Ver. 18. And they tempted God in their heart, to ask meat for their souls. Ver. 19. And they spoke against God, they said : will God be able to provide a table in the luilderness? Ver. 20. Behold he has struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed, will he be able also to give bread, or will he prepare flesh for his people? — " They went on," in ver. 17, refers in reality to Ex. xvii. 2, where an account is given of the sinful and refractory conduct of the Israelites, previous to the first sending of water, when they said, " Is the Lord in the midst of us or not?" (Ven. sicut jam antea potus causa, ita et deinceps mox propter cibum), and also to Ex. ix. 34, where the very same expression is used of Pharaoh, the personification of obstinacy and rebellion. The expression, " they rebelled against the Lord in the wilderness," (properly " in a dry land," with reference to what is before re- corded as to God sending them a supply of water), refers to the fundamental passage, Deut. ix. 7: compare ver. 24, xxxi. 27- The n*l)!2n here, and in verse 40, occurs frequently in the Pentateuch. The construction with the accusative, which oc- curs also there occasionally, Deut. i. 26, 43, ix. 23, is to be ex- ])lained from a modification of the sense : — with the preposition it is, " to act rebelliously towards," with the accusative " to treat." — The tempting of God in verse 18, consists in this, that they unbelievingly and insolently demanded, instead of wait- ing in the exercise of faith, and supplicating. They wished to put God to the proof, with a view to renounce him altogether, in case he should not give them what they wanted, whereas they ought to have been firmly convinced, long before, that he was both able and willing to give, and that he would give in due time : compare Ex. xvii. 7, Deut. vi. 6, where the tempting of God by Israel is said to consist in their sayiilg, " Is the Lord in the midst of us or not?" that is, " we shall now see and try, it will be shown whether he is so." God has a right to try man, because man is a being of ambiguous and uncertain character: but man cannot try God without being guilty of great offence, and injurious conduct ; to try God, is to doubt whether he is God or not. " In their hearts," points to the evil fountain of the heart, from which the words of the mouth proceed, (comp. Matth. xii. 35), and serves therefore to aggravate the offence. Man is always disposed to separate the mouth from the
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 17—20. 463
heart, and to claim immunity for the latter : compare Matt. xu. 37. The emphasis lies on " tliey demanded,'' not on " for their soul." The tJ^fiJ denotes the animal, the food-craving soul, (comp. Numb. xi. 6, Dent. xii. 20), and not the desire for Ahat is necessary. The sin lay not in what they desired, but in the way and manner in which they desired it. What follows, shows that the Psalmist connects together a double demand and temptation, the one recorded in Ex. xvi. and the other in Num. xi. The first one was followed by the sending of manna, and preceded the first giving of water ; but the Psalmist, with poe- tical freedom, has wrought together into one figure, the two oc- casions on which bread was given, as he formerly did with the water. It was enough, that the more aggravated temptation, and the more remarkable sending of food, happened later. — The 19th verse contains in substance exactly what the Israelites really said, and the 20th verse gives rather what they would have said had they spoken honestly and sincerely, with a view to exhibit clearly the unjustifiable nature of their conduct. It is characteristic of unbelief, to remain wilfully in ignorance of what God has previously done to exhibit his godhead ; and it therefore acts towards him as if he had revealed himself now for the first time. But "when this cloak is removed, it stands in its entire nakedness. The tiVh, isnot/oot?, but bread, compare Ex. xvi. 3, 12 ; the manna was given them as bread, ver. 25, the quails as flesh, ver. 27.
In ver. 21—31, we are told how God acted towards the re- bellious and refractory generation: his wrath burned against it; he gave them what they desired, bread and flesh, and in this way made them ashamed of their unbelieving wicked doubts, and thus manifested his real godhead, but after this happen- ed, there followed severe punishment.— Ver. 21. Therefore, when the Lord heard it he was angry, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and wrath rose up against Israel. Ver. 22. Be- cause they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation. Ver. 23. And he commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven. Ver. 24. And rained upon them manna to eat, and gave them the corn of heaven. Ver. 25. Every one ate the food of the strong, he sent them provisions to the full. Ver. 26. He caused the east wind in heaven to bloiv, and brought for- ward by hisjyoiver the south wind. Ver. 27. And rained upon them flesh as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea^
464 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Ver. 28. And let them fall in the midst of the camp round about their habitations. Ver. 29. And they ate and iverefidly satis- fied, and he gratified their appetite. Ver. 30. They were yet in- dulging their appetite, the food was still in their mouth. Ver. 31. Then the wrath of God rose up against them, and he slew the fat ones among them, and struck down the young of Israel. — " The Lord heard and was angry," in ver. 21, signifies " when the Lord heard, he was angry :" comp. Num. xi. 1. The /re is not a literal fire, as many imagine from an unseasonable com- parison of Num. xi., where there is a narrative of an event which has no connection whatever with the one before us, but the fire of divine wrath : comp. at Ps. xviii. 7. This is most manifest from the repetition in ver. 31, where it is only divine wrath that is spoken of, (it is also named here in the way of ex- planation in the third clause), and where its manifestations are likewise described as in Num. xi. The germ of this figurative re- presentation occurs in Num. xi. : compare ver. 10, " and the auger of the Lord was kindled greatly," and ver. 33, " the an- ger of the Lord burned against his people." The p^^ is not, as Havernick on Ez. p. 615, supposes, " to prepare," but " to kindle ;" were it not so, why should the verb be always used in connection with fire ? The H 7^ is used of ascending wrath in 2 Sam. xi. 20. — On verse 22 compare James i. 6, 7, " let him
pray in faith, nothing doubting let not such a man
think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." But when, as in the present instance, a man receives any thing for the gra- tification of those desires by which he has tempted God, he re- ceives it in wrath, while faith would have got its portion in mercy. On " they believed not," compare Num. xiv. 11 ; on " in his salvation," Ex. xiv, 13, xv. 2. — There is a reference in " he opened the doors of heaven" to " the windows of heaven were opened," in the history of the deluge. Gen. vii. 17, in the same way as in ver. 15. — On ver. 24, compare Ex. xvi. 4, " be- hold I rain bread from heaven for you." On " corn from heaven," Berleb. ; " instead of the fruit, from which, in ordinary cases, men are accustomed to prepare meal and bread." On the manna, see the author's treatise on Balaam. — Ex. xvi. 6 renders it evident that by 2J'''K is meant " every man." The term " to satisfaction", in the second clause, which in like manner refers to the rich supply of provisions, corresponds to it. By " the strong ones," many, after the example of the Septuagint, the
PSALM LXXVIH. VER. 21 — 31. 465
Chaldee, and the Book of Wisdom xvi. 20, (for it is beyond a doubt that the expression dyyBAuv r^oipriv i-^^ufiisag rov Xaov ffou re- fers to the passage before us), understand "angels," and others " men of rank," — " bread of the men of rank," " rare, costly food:" corap. Judges v. 25, " in a lordly dish." Against this latter idea, it may be urged, that the passages which have been adduced for the purpose of showing that ^'•^X, strong, is also used of princes and nobles, are not satisfactory. In Job xxiv. 22, xxxiv. 20, Ps. Ixviii. 30, the sense of " strong" is demanded by the connection. In 1 Sam. xxi. 7, Doeg is called " the strong (one) of the herdmen," not at all as being the principal one among them ; decisive evidence as to the contrary of this is furnished by ch, xxii. 9, where he holds a military office, in all probabili- ty, however, as the commander of the troops who were entrust- ed with the care of the royal cattle : — the strong guardian or patron of the herdmen. On the other hand, the entirely analo- gical expression in Ps. ciii. 20, " the powerful heroes," shows that d*''*l''i>i is a very suitable term for referring to angels. "We are not, however, to adopt the idea of " meat serving for the nourishment of angels," — such a strange representation as this lies without the field of Scripture ; the Psalmist also gives no- thing new in reference to the history of the times of old ; he merely clothes in a poetical dress the account given by Moses, — " meat from the region of the angels," corresponding to the bread or the corn of heaven in the Pentateuch, and in verse 24. This is the idea adopted in the Chaldee : '* food which came from the habitation of the angels." The most com- plete collection for the translation of this passage, is to be found in Jac. Ode, de Angelis, p. 799, et seq., who does not himself consider that this passage refers to angels. " He sent them provisions" refers to Exodus xii. 39, " they had provided no provisions." The ^^SJ''? is from Exodus xvi. 3. — The murmuring Israelites had desired not only bread, hut Jlesh, according to ver. 20. The 26 and following verses describe how this was given to them. " He caused the east wind to blow in heaven," rests on Num. xi. 31, " and there went forth a wind from the Lord" ; from which passage it is clear that " the heaven" is introduced as the habitation of God, corresponding to " from the Lord," and being parallel to " by his power." In the fundamental passage it is only the wind in general that is spoken of; we have here the east wind and the
VOL. II. 2 H
466 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
south wind. The Berleb. : " Both of these are winds which by their strength carry along with them every thing that comes in their way ; and were therefore employed to collect and carry forward the fowls." It is self-evident that the Psalmist does not understand the two winds as blowing together, but in suc- cession.—On ver. 27 comp. Ex. xvi. 3, Num. xi. 31, 32. The ^tl^f^" to put the quails on the same footing as the manna. — On " he let fall in the midst of his camp," in ver. 28, (the suffix is to be refer- red to Israel), comp. Ex. xvi. 13, " they covered the camp." On yjD, Num. xi. 31. — The expression, " they were fully satisfied" in ver, 27, shows that their wish was gratified not only complete- ly, but to excess : compare Num. xi. 18 — 20. The niKM) iust, is from Num. xi. 4. In preference to, " he gave them what they wanted," we may, on account of what follows, translate, " he brought to them (Job xlii. 11. 1 Kings ix. 9,) the object of their lust," or " the thing for which they lusted." — On ver. 30 com- pare Num. xi. 33, " the flesh was still between their teeth, it had not yet been finished," r\iy k7- Corresponding to this last expression we have, " they were not parted from their lust," — ^[1 is " to turn back," " to be removed," " to be estranged from." Hence, and also in accordance with the pa- rallelism, n"li<n cannot here mean " lust," (several : still they were not disgusted at their passion), but only "the object of lust." This translation also is the only one that corresponds to the history. The depopulating sickness originated even with the loathing and the surfeiting. Even while their wish was being gratified, their punishment was preparing: compare Num. xi. 20 with ver. 33. The otherwise strange expression Y)] has been in- troduced from the allusion to Num. xi. 20, " and it was loath- some," ^^1Tb, properly, " for estrangement," — outwardly they were not separated, but inwardly they were all the more so. — On verse 31, compare Num. xi. 33, " and the wrath of Jehovali burned against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague." Among those who were struck down " the fat ones," (compare Isaiah, x. 16, Judges iii. 29, Ps. cv. 15), and " the young," are singled out and brought prominently forward, as the healthiest and the strong- est, who, in spite of their health and strength, were unable to resist the power of the depopulating disease which God sent among the people. The yTl with 3[, is " to strangle among." But the Israelites, in the days of old, fully manifested them-
rsALM Lxxviii. VER. 32—40. 467
selves to be a rebellious and a refractory generation, in that they were not, even by those severe visitations, brought to a right state of mind, but continued still to persevere in sinning against God. They were therefore visited with an annihilating divine judgment. They turned to God when this lay immediate- ly upon them, but their repentance never was any thing else than superficial. It was thus that they acted towards their Gud, who was full of compassion and love. Truly, therefore, Israel, in the days of old, was a refractory and a rebelHous generation ; — this it was the immediate design of the Psalmist to show. — Ver. 32. With all this they sinned yet more, and believed not for his wondrous works. Ver. 33. Therefore he caused their days to be consumed in vanity, and their years in terror. Ver. 34. When he sleiv them, they inquired after him and returned and soicght God. Ver. 35. And remembered that God was their rock, and God the 3Iost High their Redeemer. Ver. 36. And they dissem- bled to him ivith their mouth, and they lied to him ivith their tongue. Ver. 37. And their heart was not firm with him, and they were not steadfast in his covenant. Ver. 38. And he is compassionate, forgives their iniquities, and destroys them not., and often turns away his wrath and awakens not all his zeal. Ver. 39. And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath which passes away without returning. Ver. 40. How often did they rebel in the wilderness, and vex him in the desert ? — It is evi- dent from Num. xiv. 11, and also from the following verse, that " they sinned yet more," in ver. 32, refers to the conduct of the Israelites after the return of the spies. The correct trans- lation of the following clause is not, " they believed in his won- derful works," but " they believed (God, comp. ver. 22) through his wonderful works." This is evident from the fundamental passage. Num. xiv. 11, " And the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people provoke me, and how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed among them ?" — Ver. 33 refers to the condition into which the Israelites were brought in consequence of the divine judgments subsequent to the sending out of the spies. The vanity denotes the useless character of their existence, and the state of entire godlessuess into which they fell. The terror refers to the extraordinary tokens of divine wrath which broke in upon them, and by which they were hurried off the earth : compare, " when he slew them," in the following verse and in Ps. Ixxiii. 19. — The
468 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
expression, " when he slew them," in verse 34, refers to the judgments from the sending out of the spies till the death of Moses, beyond which it is not possible to go, throughout this description, without destroying the entire organism of the Psalm. — On verse 36, Berleb. : " What a large book might be written on the similarity, in this respect, of the people in our own day ! The seats of repentance might speak here !" — In re- ference to p;3l in verse 37, compare at Ps. li. 10. — In verse 38 and 39, with a view to place the conduct of Israel in a correct light, prominence is given to the truth, that they acted in this way towards their God, who was full of compassion and love. Ver. 38 is thrown into a very general form, but the general af- firmations are made with a special application, as the inserted preter. M^'in shows, to case on hand : and he is, according to the proof afforded by his conduct at this time, compassionate, 8i,c. Allusion is made to the fundamental passage, Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7 ; — instead of "^^^ there stands there ^{tJ^J. and instead of p^Tlli^r] as in Deut. iv. 31, there is there np]J- Berleb, : " He destroy- ed them not altogether and suddenly ; he did not direct against them any judgments which would have destroyed them utterly, so as to requite them in his wrath all at once, as he had often threatened to Moses that he would do," Ex. xxxii. 10, jSTum. xiv. 12, xvi. 21. — On ver. 39, compare " er kenntdasarm Gemachte, Gott weiss wir sind nur Staub," &c. in the poem, Nun lob, meine Seele, den Herrn. The suffering and the brevity of this life, form a reason why God does not act altogether strictly with us: compare Ps. ciii. 14 — 16. On the second clause, compare the dependant passage in Job x. 24, " Ere I go without return (to the upper world), to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death."
The Psalmist, in considering how the Israelites, during the period of the Judges, acted in regard to the exhortation, " be ye not like your fathers," having exhibited a picture of this rebellious and refractory race, now proceeds, in prosecution of his object, to show the similarity of the Israelites during the period of the Judges. After a short notice, in ver. 41 and 42, there follows, in ver. 43 — 45, vrith a view to exhibit their guilt in its true light, a representation of the grace and the mercies by which God had laid them under obligations, no less than he had their fathers at an earlier period.— Ver. 41. And they tempted God anew, and dishonoured the Holy One of hraeL
PSALM LXXVIII. VER, 41—55.
Ver 42 They did not remember his hand, on the day when he redeemed them from the enemy. Ver. 43. Who laid down his siqns in Egypt, and his ivonders in the plain of Zoan. _ Ver. 44. Be turned their rivers into blood, and they drank not their ivaters. Ver 45 He sent against them vermin, which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them. Ver. 46. He gave to the cater- pillar their increase, and their labour to the locust. Ver. 47. He destroyed their vines by hail, and their sycamore trees by frost Ver 48 He gave up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the flames. Ver. 49. He sent against them the fierceness of his wrath, anger and indignation and trouble, a host of afflic- tion-angels. Ver. 50. He made a way for his ivrath, he spared not their soul from death, and gave their life over to the pesti- lence Ver 51. And slew all the first born in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham. Ver. 52. Then he caused his people to go forth like sheep, and led them like a flock m the ivilderness Ver. 53. Jnd he led them on safely, and they feared not but the sea covered their enemies. Ver. 54. And he brought them to his holv boundary, the mountain which his righthawi had procured. >er. 55. And he drove out before them the hea- then and caused them to fall to them as an inheritance, and the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.-Th^t, in the 41st verse, Israel, during the period of the Judges, is the subject, is evident from the expression standing in opposition, in the 40th verse, - in the wilderness," from the circumstance, that in the enume- ration of the wonderful deeds of God,the introduction to the land of Canaan is mentioned, and finally, from the 57th verse, where those here referred to are distinguished from the fathers m the wilderness. The temptation followed here, according to ver bQ where the subject is resumed, through the apostacy to idol worship, by which they put God to the proof, whether he would indeed demonstrate his true godhead. ihere is no necessity whatever for endeavouring to seek the uncer- tain aid of the cognate dialects in interpreting H^HH It oc- curs in Ez. ix. 4, undoubtedly in the sense of, " to set a mark upon": and in like manner, in the Pih. in 1 Sara. xxi. 14, Num xxxiv 7. 8. The mark, according to the connection, is one of disgrace, just as the Latin word notare, is used in the sense of dishonour, to disgrace. This sense accords well with the ap- pellation given to God, " The Holy One of Israel :" compare at Ts. Ixxi. 22. To cast reproach upon such a God, the Holy
470 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
and the Glorious One, is the height of iniquity. — On " his hand" in verse 42, i. e. " how his hand manifested itself at that time," comp. Ex. vii. 5, xiii. 9. On " the enemy," Deut. vii, 8, In re- ference to the paragraph, ver. 43 — 45, which the 42nd verse in- troduces, Veneraa remarks : " The design of this paragraph is, in the way of parenthesis, to exhibit in the most aggra- vated form the crime of tempting God, as conjoined with that of extreme ingratitude." — Verse 43 is connected with verse 12. The signs, and the wonderful deeds of God, which were there shortly referred to, as exhibiting the depravi- ty of the fathers, are here depicted at length, in illustration of the depravity of the sons, for whose sakes, as well as their fathers', these were brought to pass, and who were, equally with them, laid under the deepest obligations. The fundamental passage, to which also Ps. cv. 27 refers, is Ex. x. 1, 2, " I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might lay down these my signs before him, and that thou mayest tell to thy son, and to thy grandson^ what I have done in Egypt, and my signs which I have laid down before them." — The enumeration of the wonders and signs begins with the first, and ends with the last ; in the middle, however, the Psalmist speaks with considerable latitude. — In ver. 44, the first of the wonders wrought, or the first plague, was the turning of the ivater into blood. The D^IX^ is from Ex. vii. 19, (compare Egypt, p. 119), and denotes here in a wider sense, ih.Q arms and the canals of the Nile, the latter of which are called, in that passage, streams. The second clause refers to Ex. vii. 18, 20. — The gnats are al- together omitted ; the third and the fourth plague are inverted in ver. 45. On Arob, properly mixture, dirt, then Jlies, com- pare Eg. p. 114. The expression, " and they consumed them", is not at all against this sense. Philo, in describing the dog-flies of Egypt, says : " They rest not until they have satisfied them- selves with blood and flesh," Schafer in Mich. Suppl. " it gorges itself with blood, and makes bloody boils, severe pains." The n^nSi^n, is fi'om Ex. viil. 20, where it is used of the vermin, here mixed up in one pair with the frogs. — On b^'DTli in ver. 26, originally an appellative of the locust, 1 Kings viii. 37, and after- wards poetically a name given to them, (^DH is used in Deut. xxviii. 38, of " the feeding of the locusts"), comp. Chris. III. p. 157. — The vine is not particularly mentioned in the Mosaic record, as it is here in the 47th verse, and in Ps. cv. 33, in connection
PSALM LXXVIir. VER. 41 — 55. 471
with the devastation produced by hail. The " blunder against history" recoils upon tlie head of the critic, who brings such an accusation against the Psalmist. Compare the proof that in Egypt the vine was cultivated, and wine made from the earliest times, Egypt, p. 12.— As in verse 47, the destruction in the vegetable world is described which was caused by the hail, after that, m verse 48, the ruin which it brought upon the cattle, and thus by gradual ascent, man himself is reached, verses 49 — 51. The second clause refers to the fire amongthe hail, which is expressly mentioned in Ex. ix. 23, 24: compare also Ps. cv. 32, Wis. xvi. 16. The ^^ means always Jlaine, never lightning: although in this passage, it is certainly the fire of heaven, or lightning, that is meant. This observation also sets aside the miserable conjecture, '^11' pestilence, for "T^^. — Ver. 49 — 51, refer singly and alone to the last and the severest plague, the death of the first born in Egypt, as is seen from the manifest reference to it in verse 49. The three days' darkness, as well as the gnats and the destruction of the cattle, ai'e passed over wholly in silence. In the first half of ver. 49th, the accumulation of terms, signifying divine wrath, is designed to set forth the dreadful nature of this last judgment, which is mentioned for the first time in plain language, at the end of the whole description in verse 51. In the second clause^ D^y*^ is to be taken in the sense of mala^ as for example, at Prov. xii. 12, the genitive of the object. ; compare HI^D ""^J^/D. in Prov. xvi. 14. The fundamental passage is Ex. xii. 13, 23, according to which, the death of the first born in Egypt is said to have been accomplished by the destroyer, JlTl^/bH : com- pai'e Heb. xi. 28. It is doubtful whether the nTl&J^D is used in Exod., collectively, for an army of destroying angels, as in Lam. xiii. 17, or denotes merely the angel of the Lord appointed to execute vengeance, a sense which is favoured by 1 Sam. xxiv. 16. In this latter case, the Psalmist must be supposed to point expressly, only to the retinue by which the " Captain of the Lord's host," as the Angel of the Lord is called in Joshua v. 15, would, as a matter of course, on such an occasion be attended : — the commander goes forth to battle, only at the head of his army. The translation, *' an host of evil angels," might, if necessary, be justified grammatically, — angels who belong to the class of evil angels. But the reference to the passage above quoted in Exodus, where no mention whatever is made of evil angels, and where the destroyer appears as in intimate com-
472 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
inunion with God, — the analogy of the judgment of God upon the Assyrians, which was effected by the Angel of the Lord, 2 Kings xix. 34, and the whole doctrine of Scripture on the subject of angels, are altogether against it: — Jac. Ode, de Angelis, p. 741, et seq., shows that God sends good angels to punish ivicked men and employs had angels to chastise good men. The idea, how- ever, that " bad" stands instead of " evil bringing," is undoubted - ly contrary to the language. It is better to translate: angels of the wicked, i. e. sent to punish them. — In verse 50, the ^)n re- quires attention. In the account, as given in Exodus, there is nothing expressly said, as to the death of the first born being occasioned by pestilence. Still, chapter ix. 15, and the natural analogies, lead to this: compare Egypt, p. 126, et seq. — In the 51st verse, " the beginning of their strength", a poetical expres- sion for "the first born", is taken from Jacob's blessing, Gen. xlix. 3 ; as it is also in Deut. xlix. 3. Egypt is called the land of Ham, in reference to Gen. x. 6, according to which, the Egyptians descended from Ham. — In verse 52, " he made his people to go forth," is from Ex. xii. 37 : compare xv. 22. The wilderness began on this side the Red Sea, Ex. xiv. 3, so that the guidance of the Israelites through it, which in verse 53 is brought prominently forward, as the point from which their being guided like a flock is viewed, forms a portion of their guidance through the wilderness. — In " they were not afraid", it is not the faith of the Israelites, according to the connection, that is praised, but the grace of God, which removed from them all cause of fear. The second clause renders it evident, that the Psalmist's thoughts are chiefly dwelling upon the pas- sage through the Red Sea : compare Ex. xv. 19, where the safety of the Israelites, and the destruction of the enemies, are both connected together. — In verse 54, Mount Zion is named next after the Holy Land, as the centre of it, and as representing it. Although this mountain was not brought under the power of the Israelites till the time of David, it is viewed, as if from the beginning it had formed part of the land. It had already been hallowed, by a transaction which occurred in patriarchal times, Gen. xxii. (compare the Beitr. III. p. 195), and in the dim obscurity of prophecy, it had been pointed out, as the spiritual centre in future times of the land, Ex. xv. 13, 17. The verse before us is founded on this last passage. These fundamental passages, especially the concluding clause of the second, " to
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 56—64. 473
the sanctuary, 0 Lord, which thy hands have prepared," exclude a reference, which several expositors have sought to find to the land of Canaan, in connection with Deut. iii. 25, where it ia called " this goodly mountain." Ewald's idea that Shiloh is referred to, is set aside by the considerations, that it would have been utterly inconsistent with the object which the Psalmist had in view, to have given prominence to Shiloh, ver. 68, 69, where the Mount Zion, which the Lord loves, appears as the definite seat of the sanctuary, (compare Ps. Ixxiv. 2, Ixviii. 1 6), and finally, from the circumstance, that the ruins of Shiloh are situated upon a little hill, which is overshadowed by the mountains in its neighbourhood, Robinson, III. l,p. 303.— That, in ver. 55, we must interpret, " he caused them, {i. e. their territory), to fall as an inheritance," (the SlH is properly the measuring-line, and not unfrequently, the portion of land measured, compare at Ps. xvi. 6), is evident from the fundamental passage, Num. xxxiv. 2, " this is the land which has fallen to you as an inhe- ritance," nSnj:i, and from the parallel passage, Ps. cv. 11.
In ver. 56—64, we have the continued representation of the rebelliousness of the Israelites during the period of the Judges, and attention is directed to the divine judgments which over- took them, as they had overtaken their fathers in a former age, after they failed in fulfilling the appointment which had been made to them, not to do as their fathers had done. Ver. 56. And they tempted and grieved God the Most High, and did not ob- serve his testimonies. Ver. 57. And turned back and luere faith- less like their fathers, they changed like a deceitful bow. Ver. 58. And enraged him by their high places, and provoked him by their idols. Ver. 59. When God heard, he was angry, and cast Is- rael far off. Ver. 60. And forsook the habitation of Shiloh, the ta- bernacle which he erected among men. Ver. 61. And gave up his strength to captivity, and his glory into the hand of the enemy. Ver. 62. And gave over his people to the sword, and was ivroth a- gainst his inheritance. Ver. 63. The fire consumed their young men,and theirmaidens were not celebrated. Ver. 64. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not weep.— On ver. 56— 58, comp. Judges ii. 7, and following verses.* Ver. 56 refers to
• Venema : " The prophet having brought to a close this parenthetical review of the ndgments of God, upon the enemies, and of the benefits conferred on Israel, resumes the thread of his discourse, and enlarges at considerable length, upon the statement
474 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Deut. vi. 16 and 17 : "Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God as ye tempted him at Massah ; ye shall observe the command- ments of the Lord and his testimonies." — " As their fathers," in ver. 57, points hack to ver. 8. '* They changed," in contrast to what they should have been and had been, indicates an inci- pient change of conduct /or the better : compare Judges ii. 7. — • A deceitful bow, is one which disappoints the trust placed in it, just as streams which, in summer, when they are most needed, become dry, are said to be deceitful and faithless, Is. Iviii. 11, Job vi. ]5. The Israelites, instead of being compared to cow- ardly soldiers, as they are in ver. 9, are here compared to use- less weapons. Hos. vii. 16, " they are like a deceitful bow," depends on our passage. — The D''J^Dn, in ver. 58, is from Deut. xxxii. 21, and the K"'Jpn from Deut. xxxii. 16, 21 ; comp. Ex. XX. 5. — Ver. 59 is intentionally the same as ver. 21 : — they were faithless like their fathers, and therefore there is repeated upon them the punishment of their fathers. Israel is here the whole nation^ as at ver. 55. It is against them, and not against the ten tribes only, that the charge of apostacy is brought, ver. 56 — 58, it was upon them that the punishments described in the following verses fell, from the forsaking of the sanctuary in Shiloh onward, which involved them in all that followed, and from which all Israel, and not Ephraim only, had to suffer. On ver. 60 Calvin : " It is a most impressive expression, that God should have been offended by the constant tr*ansgressions of his people, so as to be constrained to forsake the only place (?) which he had selected upon earth." The holy tabernacle was at Shiloh, during the whole period of the Judges : compare the Beitr. III. p. 52, et seq. That God did forsake his sanctuary in that place, so that it became like a dead carcass without a soul, was visibly demonstrated to all men, by the catastrophe described in the following verses, and more especially when the ark of the covenant actually came into the hands of the Philis- tines. The men of those days were informed, by facts which took place before their eyes, that God would never again dwell in Shiloh : — the ark of the covenant was not brought back to that
which had been briefly made in yer. 41, as to the temptation and rebellion of the peo- ple." On this, we would observe, that the word, " parenthetical", must be either removed, or at least, explained and modified. Comoare the introduction.
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 56 — 64. 47 o
place, and the holy tabernacle was removed from it, first to Nob, 1 Sam. xxi. 2, and subsequently, after the destruction of that city by Saul, to Gibeon, 1 Kings iii. 4. Jeremiah repre- sents this catastrophe, as a declaration made by God in deeds that he would not again dwell at Shiloh. In chap, vii, 12, after warning the people not to substitute a blind confidence in the temple in Jerusalem, in room of true repentance, he says: "Go to my place at Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell, at the beginning, and see what I have done to it, on account of the wick- edness of my people Israel :" compare ver. 14, xxvi. 6, passages which do not at all refer to a destruction of the place by ene- mies, of which the history knows nothing, but to a desolation of it, following in consequence of the removal of the sanctuary, which in reality proceeded not from man, but from God. The matter, however, did not end with this removal. The sanctuary was, and continued to be a corpse, until it rose in a glorified form on Zion : compare ver. 68 and 69, according to which the true sanctuary passed directly from Shiloh to Jerusalem, Beitr. III. 48. pJJ^ signifies in Pih. to make, or to cause to dwell, (compare Deut. xii. 11, and other passages), and never, to dwell. Luther falsely : when he dwelt among men. " To cause to dwell" is applied to the sanctuary in Jos. xviii. 1, " And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled toge- ther at Shiloh, and they made to dwell there (the Hiph. instead of the Pih.) the tabernacle of meeting:" compare chap, xxii. 19. The erection of the holy tabernacle was only in a lower sense, that is, as far as its boards, &c. are concerned, the work of men, who even here wrought under the direction of God. As far as regards its substance, the sanctuary was singly and alone, erected by God, who, in fulfilment of his promise, " I will dwell in the midst of you," Ex. xxv. 8, breathed into the body the liv- ing soul, and caused his name to dwell there, Deut. xii. ] 1. The church is, in spite of all builders and carpenters, always built only by the Lord. It is only in consequence of not adopting this spiritual sense, that some expositors have felt them- selves obliged to have recourse to the violent assumption of a double ellipsis : — the tabernacle (where) he caused {his name) to divell among men. Compare Ez. xi. where the substance of the tabernacle, the Shechinah, went back into heaven. The words call down a woe upon the wickedness of the people,
476 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
by which they rendered themselves unworthy, and robbed themselves of such a glorious privilege. — In ver. 61, the ark of the covenant is called the strength of God, (Tj; has only this sense), because it was the pledge of the manifestation of divine power on behalf of Israel, and, as it were, its seat and foun- tain, so that, in consequence of the loss of it, they were given up as a helpless prey to their enemies : compare Ps. cxxxii. 8, 1 Sam. iv. 3, and the Beitr. III. p. 54. In like manner, the ark of the covenant is called the ornament of God, as the place of mani- festation of his glory. As such, the ark of the covenant is call- ed also the honour or the glory of Israel, 1 Sara. iv. 21, to whom Luther, after the example of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, falsely refers the suffixes in this passage. — Ver. 62 refers more particularly to the great slaughter by the Philistines, in which thirty thousand Israelites perished, 1 Sam. iv. 10. — In ver. 63, the fire is the fire of battle : compare Num. xxi. 28. Instead of, they were not celebrated or praised, Luther has : they must re- main unmarried. The praises of the bride used to be cele- brated on the day of her marriage. Now, that the young men are slain, the voices of the bridegroom and of the bride are alike hushed in silence. — The first clause of verse 64 refers to the death of the sons of Eli, 1 Sam. iv. 11, 17. The weeping is the solemn mourning : compare Gen. xxiii. 2. This presup- poses the presence of the dead body, and takes place at the in- terment. Compare Jer. xxii. 18, where it is said of Jehoiakim : " They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother, Ah, Lord, he shall be buried with the burial of an ass." It is clear as day, that our passage is the original one, and that Job. xxvii. 15, " where his widows weep not," occurs word for word, is the copy. For the singular affix, as there used, where it is the un- godly that is spoken of, has a strange appearance as applied to an ideal person ; and this strange appearance is assuredly of itself sufficient to indicate the original.
Now the Lord has again received his people into favour, but, in the exercise of his sovereign authority, he has at the same time made a change in regard to internal arrangements ; and woe to the man who will not acquiesce in these appointments ! Ver. Qb — 72. — Ver. 65. Then the Lord awaked like one sleep- ing, like a warrior rejoicing with ivine. Ver. 66. And he struck back his enemies, he gave them a.n eternal reproach. Ver. 67.
PSALM LXXVllI. VER. 65 — 72. 477
But he rejected the tents of Joseph, and selected not the tribe of Ephraim. Ver. 68. And selected the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion ivhich he loved. Ver. 69. And built like high mountains his sanctuary, like the earth tvhich he has founded for ever. Ver. 70. And he selected David his servant, and took him from the flocks of sheep. Ver. 71. He brought him from the suckling sheep, that he might feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheri- tance. Ver. 72. And he fed them with upright heart, and guided them with skilful hands.— In the song of Moses, it is said to be the way of God, that he first punishes the sins of his people, and then delivers them out of the oppressive power of the in- struments of his punishment. The Psalmist announces, in ver. 65 and 66, that God, on this occasion also, adopted this me- thod. These verses refer to the prosperous events which hap- pened under Samuel, Saul, and David, the commencement of which is related in 1 Sam. v. The JinHD is not to be derived from the imaginary root, pn, to overpower, Hiph. to be over- powered, which would furnish an incongruous (for a man recover- ing from intoxication does not rejoice) and an ignoble figure, such as is never employed in Scripture, but from the very com- mon root ni, to rejoice, to shout for jog :— a warrior rejoicing with wine, one who has increased by wine the strength and cou- rage which always belong to him : compare Ps. civ. 16. It has been erroneously said, that this does not suit with the " awak- ing." There might be some force in this objection, were the expression, instead of " like one sleeping," " from his sleep,'^'^ which, in Judges xvi. 14, 20, is used of Samson. " To awake," however, is used in a figurative sense, and denotes the return from repose to action.— On ver. 66 Luther, instead of " back," has, '•' on the back parts," with reference to 1 Sam. v. 9. But ^)T\^, in such connections, always signifies " back," although sometimes it has the sense of " behind," and, at the most, there is an allusion to that circumstance and double sense. The eternal shame is in accordance with the history. The Philistines went downward step by step, till they disappeared from the scene altogether.— The expression, " and he rejected," refers back to ver. 59 ; the rejection of all Israel had come to an end, but the rejection of the house of Joseph, and especially of the tribe of Ephraim, who held the sceptre of that house, still re- mained. This rejection is limited by the connection. It did
478 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
not relate to their forming part of the Lord's people. This privilege Ephraim at that time retained in all its integrity : and even at a later period, when he had actually apostatized, it was not wholly withdrawn : as the sending of the prophets from time to time made manifest. It relates singly and alone to the pre- cedencr/, which was transferred to Judah. Ephraim had irrevoc- ably lost this. — In ver. 48, the Psalm.ist says in general, that the Lord had selected Judah and Mount Zion ; and Zion comes into notice as invested with a twofold excellence ; — it is the seat of the sanctuary and of the Israelitish monarchy. And in ver. 69 — 72, both of the prerogatives, imparted to Judah and Zion, are men- tioned separately ; the sanctuary in ver. 69, and the monarchy in ver. 70 — 72. — The Jirst clause of ver. 69 refers to the loftiness and spiritual height of the sanctuary on Zion ; and the second to its unchangeableness, in opposition to Shiloh, from which it was removed : — it is high as the mountains, firm as the earth, and therefore it presents an impenetrable bulwark against every at- tempt which might be made to remove it. Wl^^, high, not heights, is a poetical expression for high mountains. To the eye of faith, the sanctuary in Zion, which at that time present- ed externally an insignificant appearance, seemed to rise like a mighty giant to heaven. Against the translation, " like heaven's heights," we may urge, that Ql is the common term applied to a mountain, (compare for example, the H^Ij in so many of the proper names of high-lying places), while it is never applied to heaven, and that the sanctuary on Zion is never compared to heaven, but frequently to high hils, — comp. Ps. Ixviii. 15, 16, and the passages quoted there. On the second clause, corap. Psalm Ixviii. 16, " the Lord shall dwell there for ever," and Psalm cxxxii. 14, " this is my rest for ever." The Psalmist has no anti- cipation of an impending destruction of the temple, foretold as it was by the oldest of the prophets. Still, this is not absolutely excluded by the expression, " for ever." For even the eternity of the earth is not absolute, according to the doctrine of the Old Testament : comp. Ps. cii. 27. — The call of David from the con- dition of a shepherd, ver. 70, 71, indicates '• the pious and pru- dent shepherd-concern of the chosen king," (Steir). Who is the man that would rebel against such a king, graciously granted by God, instead of rendering him thanks ! " It is for this reason also, that mention is made of the suckling sheep, because, in at-
PSALM LXXVIII. VER. 65 — 72. 479
tending to these, the faithfuhiess of the shepherd is most con- spicuously seen :" comp. Gen. xxxiii. 13, Is. xl. 11, and for the whole, 2 Sam. vii. 8, " I have taken thee from the sheep-cote, from following the sheep, to feed my people Israel," 1 Chron. xi. 2. The ny*! with i, is " to tend," or, " to perform the duties of a shepherd among the sheep." — Sticr: " Serve therefore this king whom God has given you with faithfulness, come together under his shepherd's rod to the sanctuary of Zion, and do not revolt like your fathers :" — this is the concluding fundamental tone of the whole Psalm.
END OF VOL. II.
MimRAY AXD GIBB, PKINTERS, EDIKBURCiil.
BS1430.H5131863V.2 Commentary on the Psalms...
Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library
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