THE BOOKPsalms 1-41_______________ Psalms 1 1         Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2    But his delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3    And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That bringeth forth his fruit in his season; His leaf also shall not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 4         The ungodly are not so: But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 5    Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6    For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; But the way of the ungodly shall perish. AND Division and Composition. Four Codd. Kennic., and 3 De Rossi, as many of the Jews and the Fathers take the first and second Psalms together as one whole; comp. Wetstein on Acts 13:33, where the Apostle Paul cites a passage from our second Psalm as from the first Psalm (according to the corrected reading). This however does not decide, for two Codd. De Rossi do not number our Psalm at all, and the Apostle Paul may have shared that conception, in accordance with which Basil calls it a “short preface” which the compiler placed before as an introduction (Calvin, Amyrald [Hupfeld, Riehm, Hitzig, et alii]). Besides some similarity in the structure of the strophes, there are, it is true, turns in the closing verse of the 2d Psalm which are strikingly similar in part to the beatitude with which the 1st Psalm begins, and in part to the threatening with which the 1st Psalm closes; and in the hagah, Psalms 2:1, there is an antithetical reference to Psalms 1:2. These facts cannot be overlooked. But with the diversity of subject and treatment which otherwise prevails, they do not even justify the conclusion of one and the same author, whom Hengstenberg supposes to be David, Hitzig the compiler of the Psalms. These are not without predecessors. Nevertheless, design may be acknowledged at any rate only with reference to the arrangement, and not with reference to the poetry. This is clear from the following facts: (1) that two Psalms, without titles, should stand at the beginning of a group of Psalms which have David’s name in their titles, the second of which carries out into a concrete historical situation the truth expressed in Psalms 1 in general terms; (2) that the entire first book is opened (1:1; 2:12) as well as closed (40:4; 41:1) by two Psalms, with ΰַ ?ωְׁ ?ψֵ ?ι ashrκ. But Psalms 32 of the same book likewise begins with ashrκ, so also Psalms 112; Psalms 119; Psalms 128 in a later book. Again, the mention of David as the author by some of the Fathers and of the MSS. of the Septuagint has no historical foundation. The historical application of the subject to the persecution of David by Saul (Venema) or to the rebellion of Absalom, is a false use of history. So likewise the explanation from the circumstances of the Maccabean age (Rόdinger, Olshausen,Hitzig). We would urge against so late a composition not so much the simplicity and freshness of the Psalm (Kφster) as the following considerations: 1) The designation of the scorner leads to the sententious style of the age of Solomon, to which also the loose structure of the strophes points [Delitzsch]. 2) Psalms 1:2 decidedly looks back to Joshua 1:8, whereas Psalms 1:3 is carried further out in Jeremiah 17:5-8. Ezech. 19:10, 11 expresses only a corresponding thought in a similar form [Riehm]. The same idea is particularized, Psalms 92:12. There is a possible allusion, 2 Chronicles 22:5. [Ewald supposes this Psalm to be an introduction to a more ancient and smaller collection of Psalms, giving the pith of many of them, the disposition with which an ancient poet selected and grouped them, and the spirit with which he would have them read. Delitzsch says that the collections of the prophecies of Isaiah and the Psalms are alike in that they both begin with a prologue. Barnes considers it as a general introduction to the book of Psalms, stating the general principle of the Jewish theocracy, “that a righteous life will be attended with prosperity and happiness, and that the life of the wicked will be followed by sorrow and ruin.” The true view is this: The Psalm was probably composed as an introduction to the earlier collection of the Davidic Psalms, made in the age of Solomon, perhaps under his direction, retaining its place at the head of the entire collection after it had been formed.—C. A. B.] Of the three verses of the 1st strophe, two are of many members; those of the 2d strophe are all of two members, but they run along entirely parallel in their subject, that is: the description of the righteous and the wicked according to their respective behaviour and destiny. Str. I. Psalms 1:1. ΰַ ?ωְׁ ?ψֵ ?ι = Ashrκ, etymologically, from the signification of the straight and direct course, gives the idea of welfare, grammatically, it is an exclamation of congratulation, or rather a declaration of recognition and of praise: beatitudines illius viri. The substantive renders the language more emphatic than the verb fin., Psalms 41:2, or the partic, Proverbs 3:18. Luther aptly: “The prophet, when he sees that there are few such people on earth, suddenly bursts forth and says, ‘Blessed is the man.’ ” The use of the plural to mark the abstract with emphasis is ancient, especially in the Hebrew (Ewald, Ausfόhrliches Lehrbuch VII. Ausg. § 179). Walketh—standeth—sitteth,etc.—The three perfects in Psalms 1:1, the change of the verbal into a nominal sentence in Psalms 1:2 a, the future (correctly called imperf. by Ewald) in Psalms 1:2 b give a shading to the thought. This shading cannot be entirely expressed in translation owing to an entire difference between the Hebrew and the English conjugations. It is effaced by the remark of Aben Ezra that the Hebrew authors used for the present partly the preterite and partly the future. [The perfect is used to give the abstract present of our language, indicating an already long-continued and still enduring condition or characteristic, vid.Ges.Heb. Gram., edit. Rφdiger XX. Auf. § 126. Ewald, § 135. Barnes: “It is the characteristic of the man, always and habitually that he does not thus walk.”—C. A. B.] It is questionable whether the three members of Psa 1:1 form only three parallel clauses of like signification as poetical variations of the thought that we must have no intercourse at all with evil in any way (Musculus, Rosenm., De Wette, Hengst., Hupf.), or whether there is not illustrated in the choice of expression an intensification of the possible participation in the chief forms of iniquity (Aben Ezra, Stier, Delitzsch, Hitzig [Barnes)] somewhat after the type impii corde, peccatores opere, illusores ore. By the former view we are usually referred to the assertion of David Kimchi, that going, standing, and sitting are the three chief conditions of the human body when awake. The latter view is not shaken by the fact that we cannot ascribe to ψωςrβsha’, etymologically the meaning of wild restlessness, and passionate agitation, whence follow disturbances of the peace (Geier et alii). Hitzig supposes from the Ζthiopic that the fundamental meaning is forgetfulness (of God). Bφttcher (Neue exeget. crit. Aehrenlese, II. 220), likewise from the Ζthiopic interprets it as greasy, stained, soiled, and hence derives the idea of guilty. Hupfeld finds in the idiomatic use of the word a simple contrast to φγιχ. This general meaning, extending far beyond the idea of guilty (Sachs), suits very well the use of the word in the 2d strophe of the Psalm. In any case the characteristics of rasha’im, given in Isaiah 57:20, remain essentially indisputable, and the statement is of a ςφδ = council of these same persons who might serve as a model and measure for the walk of others. This is shown by the construction of halach with α. This expression always refers to the sphere of sinful emotions of the heart whether we are to think of the resolutions of the will formed within the heart or the counsel imparted to others. [Hupfeld states that ςφδ, like the Latin consilium, has a twofold meaning: 1) absolutely, a resolution formed within the heart; 2) relatively, working upon another either as example or advice. He thinks that it is here used in the relative sense especially as example.—C. A. B.] There is no occasion for the correction ςγδκdah = congregation, company (Olsh.,Emendationen zum A. T., 1826). For there is no reference to place except in moshab, whether this word denotes dwelling (Kφster), or seat (Sept., Vulg., Hengst., Schegg) as 1 Samuel 20:18; 1 Samuel 20:25, or session (Syriac, Arab. et al.) as Psalms 107:32 [A. V., assembly.—C. A. B.] For derech is a figurative designation of manner of acting, conduct. We cannot see why ’amad, with α, should not retain the meaning of stand fast, persevere in, the more since, according to Hupfeld, we need not infer with De Wette from the fundamental meaning of ηθΰ, “slip, fall,” that of “evil from weakness or ignorance;” but rather are brought to that of “sinning habitually.” Moreover the description of the scorner in the proverbs of Solomon (appropriately explained by Hupfeld) reaches the climax of wickedness. In the pictorial description, however, we are not to take every expression as dogmatic. The translation of μֵ ?υ by pestilence, which expression Schegg applies to the influence of the devil, has no support in the language. Neither is the fundamental meaning that of turning (Paulus), but partly of lisping and stammering, partly of laughing and mocking. [Hupfeld: “This is not a scorner of religion in our sense, nor one who says there is no God, because the religion of the Old Testament was not theory, but essentially disposit on, practice. He is one who is frivolous, disregarding the Almighty, making sport of all things, of the worst class of the wicked.” Barnes: “We have here a beautiful double gradation or climax, in the nouns and verbs of this verse, indicating successive stages of character; walking, standing, sitting; irreligious men in general, those who disregard known duty and violate human obligation, and those who openly mock at virtue and scoff at the claims of religion.” Hengstenberg says that “scorners of religion are as old as the fall. Isaiah 5:19; Jeremiah 18:15.” Ewald: “He who meditates evil is already a ψως, one driven by passion, he who does the advised evil is ηθΰ, a sinner, he who is already so accustomed to suppress a good conscience that he scorns and perverts good in society, is μυ, a scorner.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 1:2. On the contrary.—λִּ ?ιΰִ ?ν, literally, “but if,” after negative sentences introduce the contrast with emphasis (Ewald, § 354 a). With Joshua 1:8 in view, which is anticipated, Deuteronomy 6:6 sq.; Deuteronomy 11:18; Deuteronomy 17:19, we cannot doubt that the thτrah (literally instruction) does not mean here the revelation in general (Michaelis, Stier) but the written law of Moses [De Wette, Hupfeld, Hengst., et al.] (Psalms 40:7, the volume of the book). The repetition of this word in the second member of the verse is not tautological, so that we could be induced to regard thτdah=praise (Paulus), and not the thτrah, as the subject of the meditation. The remarks of Geier: “Repetitur denuo nomen legis ceu rei adeo carζ ac pretiosζ cujus vel solo nomine intime delectantur pii,” certainly misses the sense. Hagah might, in itself, be a poetical designation of discourse, Psalms 35:28, especially as the etymology leads back to the idea of murmuring, and has formed the meaning of thinking, meditating, only from the point of view of discourse within the soul. But the latter signification is set aside, not so much by its connection with α as by the phrase day and night; for there is no reason to understand the phrase as figurative of happy and unhappy times. But it does not mean a brooding over the letter in the sense of Judaism, nor any other kind of theoretical contemplation, as is shown partly by the mention of delight (literally inclination), partly from the context which is throughout practical (Clauss against De Wette) [Delitzsch beautifully: “The quiet soliloquy of investigation and meditation.”—C. A. B.] [Day and night.—Hupfeld regards it as the usual formula for continual, perpetual, as in all languages, Psalms 32:4; Psalms 42:3.—C. A. B.] The expression “night” has a special appropriateness here, in that among the Jews the night was from 6 o’clock in the evening till 6 o’clock in the morning. Psalms 1:3. And so he is like a tree planted by brooks of water.—The perfect with vav consecutive shows that we have here not the reason of the beatitude, but a further expansion of it by a statement of the consequences of the conduct of the pious, just described. The etymology of τμβι (Alex. διέξοδοι) does not compel us (Hupfeld) to think of canals (De Wette). [Hupfeld: τּ ?μβ = cleave, divide. The usual name of brooks in Hebrew, as in Arabic and Ζthiopic, for streams. Riehm: “Because brooks and streams cleave and divide the surface of the earth.”—C. A. B.] The double plural refers partly to the abundance of water, which is very important in the Orient; partly to the rich distribution of brooks for the fructification of every tree of that kind. Luther reminds us of the ever green date palms in the Jordan valley at Jericho, Sir 24:18; Deuteronomy 34:3. [Delitzsch: “In the relative clause the emphasis is not entirely upon αְ ?ςִ ?ϊּ ?εֹ (Calvin) but τִ ?ψְ ?ιεֹ is the first and αְ ?ςִ ?ϊּ ?εֹ the second emphatic word. The fruit expected, it affords, and indeed at the proper time, without ever in the course of the seasons disappointing the hopes.” “The fresh foliage is a figure of faith, which changes the water of life of the divine word into sap and strength, and the fruit is the figure of works which gradually ripen and spread their blessings around.”—C. A. B.] λμ cannot be nominative, for the intransitive meaning of the following verb (Sept., Vulg., Vatabl., Rosenm.) rests only upon the doubtful pointing of Jdg 18:5. The subject of the sentence is either in the causative signification Jehovah, or since this is too distant, and the transitive signification is the usual one, the pious. Some suppose that tree is the subject because ςωδ and φμη are used with it, Isaiah 5:4; Isaiah 37:31; Ezech. 17:9, 10; but such a repetition would be feeble and cold [Hupfeld]. Str. II. Psalms 1:4. Not so.—These words are repeated at the end of the first member of Psa 1:4 by Sept., Vulg., and Syr. The following figure describes not only the destiny, but, at the same time, the condition of the wicked contrasted with the figure of the righteous, which likewise embraces both points. If this be overlooked, we mistake the close connection with Psalms 1:5. [Hupfeld, πγσ = drive, or chase away. In the East the threshing-floors are in the open air, upon heights (Isaiah 17:13), on which the winds more readily blow the chaff away. (De Wette and Barnes, in loco; also RobinsonBib. Researches, I. 550, II. 83; SmithBib. Dict. ‘Agriculture.’) “Hence it is the usual figure of the rapid and traceless destruction of the enemies of God and the ungodly. Psalms 35:5; Job 21:18; Hosea 13:3; Matthew 3:12. There is here also an illustration of their inner condition, their emptiness and nullity, in contrast with the good grain, which remains behind and abides.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 1:5. [Therefore. Hupfeld: “not a consequence of the moral condition of the unrighteous, as indicated in the figure of the chaff, but rather a logical consequence from Psalms 1:4. From the general statement of the destiny of the unrighteous follows the special: that they are by Divine judgment severed from the congregation of God.”—C. A. B.] Many of the older interpreters suppose that there is in χεּ ?ν an exclusion of the wicked from the resurrection (Sept. οὐκἀναστήσονται). But this is against the meaning of the word and the context. The judgment is not directly nor even exclusively the Messianic (Chald. and the Jewish exegetes), still less human judgment or judgment in civil cases (Rosenm.), but it is the Divine judgment, Psalms 1:6. For it is made prominent in Jehovah, as well by the participle as the characteristic attribute, that He knoweth the way of the righteous. That this knowing is not only a theoretical knowledge, but a nosse cum affectu et effectu, is involved in the fact that it is Jehovah of whom this is declared. Therefore it gains the closer meaning of “acknowledge in loving care.” Yet this meaning is not to be brought into the vocabulary of the word (Kimchi, et al.). Since now the participle precedes, Psalms 1:6 a merely confirms the consequences threatened before, the sure occurrence of which rests upon the fact that error and deception are excluded by the idea of Divine judgment. The most of the interpreters push inio the text itself that which should only be its consequences as a comforting application to the pious. Moreover, they often give to way, Psalms 1:6, a different meaning from that of Psa 1:1, viz. (quite frequently), that of destiny, the way in which they are led. But they thereby sensibly weaken the last member of the verse, with its dreadful closing word, which leaves nothing for the way of the wicked but the prospect of Abaddon (Proverbs 15:11; Job 26:6; Job 28:22). The Codd. and the ancient interpreters of the Vulgate do not read in Psalms 1:5 in concilio, as the later editions corrected according to the Hebrew; but in consilio, according to the reading of the Septuagint, ἐνβουλῆ . The Vulgate follows the Sept. version likewise in Psalms 1:4 b, only that, weakening the proper figure still more, it understands ὁ χνοῦς the dust; ὅνἐκρίπτειὁ ἄνεμοςἀπὸ προσώπουτῆςγὴς. According to our exegesis the verse does not treat of a sudden, still less of a premature, but rather of an inevitable ruin of the ungodly, bearing the character of just punishment brought on by Divine judgment; and the closing verse contains not only an expression embracing both sides of the fundamental thought, rounding off the Psalm, but it directs its glance to the inevitable and endless destruction of the wicked. [Delitzsch: “This same fearful ϊֹּ ?ΰαֵ ?γ closes Psalms 112, which begins with ΰַ ?ωְׁ ?ψֵ ?ι.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. For ethical and religious consideration there is only one, yet a decided contrast among men, before which all other differences retire, that is: the contrast between the ungodly and the righteous. Their lot in time and eternity corresponds with their disposition towards God. 2. The ungodly, even, partially and for a while unite with one another, come together in societies, in which they converse about evil things to their heart’s desire, plunge ever deeper into sin, and mutually strengthen one another in their wickedness by evil counsels, bad examples, and cunning wiles. Yet only the righteous form a congregation, that is: a people of God, organized according to Divine order, based on Divine institutions, governed according to the word of God. 3. As long as the congregation of God remains in this world it is opposed not only by external bands of the wicked, but it has sinners in its own midst, partly because its true and living members are not yet perfect and sinless saints, partly because there are false brethren, hypocrites, apostate and wicked men mingled with the congregation in its external appearance, as it presents itself in moral and human forms under the influence of its relations to this world. 4. On this account the external society, connections, and points of contact are more extensive than the internal membership relations and influences. Yet this does not cause a perplexity of conscience, or a suppression of the righteous, or an equality in the lots of the evil and the good. But there are characteristics which mark the ungodly and the righteous, as well as a Divine saving and sifting judgment, and a reward corresponding with the moral and religious conduct of men. 5. The marks of the righteous are negatively, principally, their turning away from the counsels, the walk, and the companionship of the wicked; positively, their joy in the revealed word and will of God, and their occupation in meditating upon the testimony of the Lord given as the rule and guidance for our faith and life, and this without regard to the changes of the hours. Contrasted with this are the counsels of the wicked, wherein they disclose the thoughts of their heart, as their walk is opposed to the manner of life ordained by the law of the holy God, and their assembly is the opposite of the assembly for the worship of God. They are to be earnestly avoided; for it is much easier and more frequent for men, when in the circle of the scorner, to be ruled by the prevailing tone of the company, and even to be carried away with it, than to withstand it, and witness against it, and confess the Lord as those who love His word and His way. 6. The ungodly are not always, and especially not immediately at the beginning, in the lowest grade of wickedness, in which the scorner is, who cannot be taught or improved, but in the overflow of haughty presumption (Proverbs 21:24; comp. 1:22; 9:7, 8; 13:1; 15:12, etc.) hates correction, and scorns discipline, and replies with scoff and persecution, and in the intoxication of boasting, treats everything except himself with petulance, and especially makes sport and scorn of holy things. But the gradations of evil pass ever into one another, and often tread closely upon one another. Even the first steps are already in opposition to the will of God, and evil thoughts are no less worthy of condemnation and dangerous than evil deeds. Those only can be called happy who do not associate in any way with the ungodly, or their practices, devices, or efforts. 7. Piety gives the righteous the power to withdraw from the society of the wicked, and to withstand their temptations. It nourishes him in the marrow of his life, and strengthens him by the supply of heavenly nourishment; whilst by his absorption in the holy law of God, it sinks the roots of his life into the revealed ground of salvation, and by his delight in the instruction of the Lord, affords the constant supply of the streams of grace, which make the man who belongs to God to grow and mature in fruits of righteousness. 8. Consequently man is righteous, not by birth, or nature, or through his own power, skill, or activity, but by the Divine agency, through the means of grace which Divine mercy has established for us; as a tree planted by an abundant and flowing brook, if he, like the tree, take up into his own life from the means afforded him by God, that which is necessary to his life and growth. Then he has the experience described in 1 Timothy 4:8, of the blessings of righteousness. 9. Although the ungodly are in similar circumstances with the righteous, yet they derive no profit from this favorable circumstance. They are spiritually dead and withered. That which has matured in them has faded prematurely; for they have not appropriated to themselves the nourishment of life, and they have not formed in themselves the faculty for this appropriation. Without root and without sap they have not attained any vigor, nor brought forth any fruit, (Matthew 21:19). Thus they have ripened only for distruction; unsubstantial and worthless as chaff; the sport of the wind, until scattered by the storm they go to destruction, and leave no trace behind but the way on which they are whirled away to a ruin whose misery is inconceivable; for the way proves itself a “lost way.” 10. This sad condition of the ungodly, as well as their terrible fate, may be for some time concealed from themselves and others, but both will be disclosed by the divine judgment, which has its foundations in the ever ruling righteousness of the Almighty, its execution in the judgment of the world; yet its operation already appears in history, judging and sifting in theocratic acts, yea, according to the threatening (Leviticus 20:2) with respect to certain kinds of wickedness, already vindicates itself in bitter earnest in the regular administration of justice. “If the Scriptures speak of the ungodly, then see to it that you do not refer it to the Jews, or the Heathen, or any other people, but tremble yourselves at this word, for it concerns you and means you.” (Luther). 11. There is here a strong encouragement on the one side to turn away from all kinds of iniquity, and on the other to continue in righteousness by a conscientious use of the means of grace in the possession of the congregation. For God desires a pure and holy congregation (Leviticus 11:44; Eph. 6:27), and He knows the way of the righteous. There is no reference here to the well-known heathen maxim: that it must fare well with the good, and ill with the wicked; but the emphasis is upon this fact that Jehovah, the God of historical revelation, who has ordained and called His people to be a righteous congregation, is also the experienced Guardian of the purity of this congregation, and the infallible Judge and Rewarder. There is a striking parallel in the New Testament, 2 Timothy 2:19. Now, since no one except Jesus Christ is perfectly righteous, the most of the ancient interpreters have by direct Messianic interpretation, referred the first strophe to Him, as the ever green tree of life; and since no one is justified by fulfilling the law in his own strength but by faith in Jesus Christ, many, especially of the Evangelical interpreters (Calov. Bib. Illust.) have referred to the close connection between the first Psalm, the summa legis, with the second Psalm, the summa evangelii. AND Either blessed or lost—so God’s word declares, so God’s judgment warns.—The pious and the wicked are together in the world; but their ways are entirely different from beginning to end.—Man’s lot is not determined by chance, but by righteous and infallible judgment.—It is not enough to avoid this or that single sin, we must walk in the way of life.—The Divine law shows the way in which the pious walk, and keeps God Himself in view as knowing that way.—He who would remain in the congregation of the righteous must avoid the society of the wicked, whilst he must use diligently the means of grace entrusted to the congregation of God. All things finally redound to the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of the wicked. He who is planted where the waters of life flow, should appropriate them in order that he may grow as a tree of life, and bring forth fruit in his season.—The lot of the pious is as delightful as that of the wicked is terrible.—Tell me the way in which you walk and the company you keep, and I will declare to you the end which you will attain.—The things in which you delight will either make you blessed or destroy you.—Divine judgment comes certainly, strikes surely, judges righteously, and decides our everlasting weal or woe.—He who diligently seeks communion with God, will earnestly avoid intercourse with the ungodly.—How shall we distinguish between the righteous and the wicked? The one keeps God’s law with de-light, the other transgresses it with contempt: the one associates with scorners, the other remains in the congregation; the one prospers with God’s assistance, the other perishes by God’s judgment.—True fear of God receives the noblest praise, the best blessing. Starke: A Christian is not only to avoid the commission of sin, but as far as possible is to avoid temptation.—Sin grows constantly: At first we pass it by, then we stand still, then we sit with seornera. Blessed are those who shun the beginning (Sir 21:2; Job 4:6).—It is true, believers have their greatest pleasure in the Gospel, yet the law is likewise agreeable to them in Christ, for they are freed from its curse, and it is their joy by it to know God’s will, and to fulfil it with the power given unto them.—Among other characteristics of a state of grace is this: that we have a heartfelt desire for the word of God, and indeed that we are no more tired of it than a sound body is of its daily bread. As with a palm tree, all that is in it is profitable, leaves, wood, and fruit, so also with the Christian, all that he does is to redound to the honor of the Divine name, and the benefit of his neighbors.—It is as foolish to rely upon the ungodly as to fear them—they are like chaff.—Choose in time, and prudently, the society in which you wish to remain forever.—Luk. Osiander: To err and fall is human, but to continue in error and sin is the work of the devil.—One thing is necessary; to hear and learn the word of God (Luke 10:42; Romans 1:16; 2 Timothy 3:16).—Selnekker: Piety and the fear of God mean: (1) to avoid false doctrine and a scandalous life; (2) to desire the law of the Lord; (3) to freely and openly confess and speak of it.—No one can know the nature and the will of God without the Divine word.—Where there is no fear of God nor truth, talent and intellect are mere poison.—We must, as the fig and palm trees, show the fruit before the leaves.—Four promises are given to those who desire and love the word of God: 1) The grace of God; 2) fruitfulness and usefulness in their calling; 3) a sure and constant employment; 4) blessing and success.—Geier: We all naturally seek happiness; but only those attain it, who seek it in the revealed word of God. All depends upon the way we choose (Matthew 7:13).—Renschel: Avoid evil and keep God’s word, then you will be happy in this world and the next.—Frisch: Thou standest between two ways which lead to everlasting weal or woe. Open your eyes and choose the best.—The Psalm begins with blessing and glory, but it ends with woe, in order that where the hope of blessedness is not strong enough to encourage us to the service of God and piety, the fear of the unhappiness and misery to be endured may deter us from wickedness.—Rieger: The fear of God teaches the righteous to avoid evil, whether quiet as a counsel, or common as a way, or fixed as a seat.—Without attachment to the good the hate of wickedness is not constant.—What is there in an ungodly man? A counsel and trust in his deceit; a way and a defiance of the crowd which travel in it; a seat from which he will not be driven. But what will become of him? Because he has no weight of truth from the Divine word in himself, he will be driven away as chaff. Since he has made so light of it in his mockery, he will be obliged to experience how incapable he is of standing in the judgment. Since he has ever sought only the society of sinners he will not then remain in the congregation of the righteous when he most desires to retain a place with them. So long as they are in the way many may think that they are as good as those who are called righteous, who likewise have their faults; but the issue will be different from what they expect—Otto von Gerlach: The ungodly maintain their position by chance because it is calm, and outward circumstances are favorable to them; but since they have no vital power, no support in God, the first misfortune drives them away.—Tholuck: He who has nothing sure in heaven can have nothing firm on earth.—Taube: He who has pleasure in God’s word, exercises himself therein without ceasing. [Matt. Henry: The ungodly are forward to give their advice against religion; and it is managed so artfully that we have reasons to bless ourselves from it, and to think ourselves happy if we escape being tainted and ensnared by it.—We must not only set ourselves to meditate upon God’s word, morning and evening, at the entrance of the day and the night, but these thoughts should be interwoven with the business and converse of every day, and with the repose and slumbers of every night.—Barnes: If a man desires permanent prosperity and happiness, it is to be found only in the ways of virtue and religion.—Spurgeon: Our worst things are often our best things. As there is a curse wrapped up in the wicked man’a mercies, so there is a blessing concealed in the righteous man’s crosses, losses, and sorrows. The trials of the saint are a divine husbandry, by which he grows and brings forth abundant fruit.—The righteous man ploughs the furrows of earth, and sows a harvest there, which shall never be fully reaped till he enters the enjoyments of eternity; but as for the wicked he ploughs the sea, and though there may seem to be a shining trail behind his keel, yet the waves pass over it, and the place that knew him shall know him no more forever. The very “way” of the ungodly shall perish.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [This Olshausen is an entirely different person from the author of the well-known commentary on the New Testament.] [Wordsworth regards the two first Psalms “as distinct, and as constituting a general introduction to the whole book, and as addressed to the whole world; and as the whole book is a composite one, not due to David alone, these two Psalms, which are a prologue to it, are not identified with him. These two Psalms form a pair. The first of them looks backward to the law of Moses (Psalms 1:2); the second looks forward to the Gospel of Christ. They join the two Testaments together. Both of them speak of the blessings of obedience, and of the malediction which is reserved for rebellion against God. They stand at the beginning of the Psalter, like a Gerizim and an Ebal;—and they reveal the awful transactions of the Great day of Doom, when the Judge will gather all nations before Him, and place some on the right hand and others on the left.”—C. A. B.] [Hupfeld: Like the formula of the beatitudes, Matthew 5:8-11—C. A. B.] [Barnes supposes that there is an allusion to the Oriental method of making artificial rivulets to irrigate their land. He refers to the practice in Egypt and in the gardens of Damascus. This is, however, a great mistake The Psalmist alludes to those brooks or streams which, having their source in some perennial fountain, flow through the wadies and valleys, fertilizing the land. Wherever these brooks are found, as at Engedi and in the wady Urtas, their banks are crowded with a rich luxuriance of plan’s and trees. These were the favorite streams in the time of Solomon, and the Psalmist probably had them in mind, vid. Robinson Bib. Researches, l., 477, 505. Psalms 46:4; Psalms 65:9; Son 1:14; Son 4:12-16, etc. It is true these brooks were diverted into many channels in order that their blessing might be more widely diffused, as is the case with the Abana at the present day. Its waters are divided by art into a hundred water courses, using every drop of water to fertilize a hundred villages. But this is a derivative idea, and was not the Psalmist’s ideal, which was the living brooks from the perennial fountain—an allusion to the garden of Eden with the river of life and the tree of life, frequently alluded to in the Psalms vid., Psalms 36:8 sq.; Psalms 46:4, etc.—C. A. B.] [The fertility of the plain of Jericho is caused by the large fountains of Es Sultβn and Dϋk, with the streams they pour forth over the land, vid. Rob. Bib. Researches, I, 556.—C. A. B.] Psalms 2 1         Why do the heathen rage, And the people imagine a vain thing? 2    The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, 3    Let us break their bands asunder, And cast away their cords from us. 4    He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision. 5    Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, And vex them in his sore displeasure. 6    Yet have I set my King Upon my holy hill of Zion. 7    I will declare the decree: The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee. 8    Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9    Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 10    Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11    Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling. 12    Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, When his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. AND Character and Composition. The 1st Psalm first declares the truly pious servant of Jehovah blessed, without deciding whether the description is only an ideal one, or there is truly such an ever green tree of life; and then draws the counterpart without intimating the possibility or way of salvation of those who walk in wrong ways to destruction. The 2d Psalm, which in isolated expressions reminds us of the 1st Psalm, begins with a description of the world rebellious against God and His government, which passes over into a dramatic tone (Psalms 2:1-3); describes over against this the action of Jehovah likewise running out into a dramatic mode of expression (Psalms 2:4-6); then, without naming Him, makes the anointed of Jehovah Himself speak so that He explains the decree of Jehovah by a reference to a former ordinance of Jehovah (Psalms 2:7-9); and closes with an exhortation to the rebellious to repent, which passes over into a declaration of the blessedness of those who make known their allegiance to the kingdom of the Messiah (Psalms 2:10-12). The prophetic or direct Messianic explanation can alone explain this Psalm (all ancient Jewish and ancient Christian interpreters, with some from all periods); neither the typical (Hofmann), nor the historical (the later Jewish and many recent interpreters), nor the poetical (Hupf., as a general glorification of the theocratic kingdom), nor indeed the explanation to be found in the transition from the typical to the prophetic (Kurtz) can suffice. This the explanation which follows will show. [Perowne: “He begins to speak of an earthly king and his wars with the nations of the earth, but his words are too great to have all their meaning exhausted in David, Solomon, or Ahaz, or any other Jewish monarch. Or, ere he is aware, the local and the temporal are swallowed up in the universal and eternal. The king who sits on David’s throne has become glorified and transfigured in the light of the promise. The picture is half ideal, half real. It concerns itself with the present, but that only so far as it is typical of greater things to come. The true king who, to the prophet’s mind, is to fulfil all his largest hopes, has taken the place of the visible and earthly king.”—C. A. B.] The author is unknown. Most interpreters, indeed, from different stand-points, think of David, whilst they grant that Acts 4:25 is not decisive. They differ likewise widely from one another in their estimate of the historical situation (comp. De Wette). [Perowne refers it to the events 2 Samuel 10. The confederacy of Syrians, Ammonites, and others who had formerly been subdued (2 Samuel 8:3; 2 Samuel 8:12), and who now make a last effort for independence.—C. A. B.] Rosenm. (I. Edit. only), Paul. Ewald, Bleek, think of Solomon. Maurer thinks of Hezekiah with reference to 2 Chronicles 28:18; Hitzig of the Maccabean prince, Alex. Jannζus; Delitzsch thinks of the period of the prophecy of Immanuel, Isaiah 7-12, perhaps the prophet Isaiah himself, partly because of the similarity of circumstances, partly on account of the similarity of subject and even modes of expression. Str. I. Psalms 2:1. Why.—The question thrown up by the Psalmist, which already begins to be solved in Psalms 2:1 b as the change of position and the mood of the verb show, is only a rhetorical one, a question of displeasure, of astonishment, and of derision=wherefore then? why then? [De Wette: “The poet transports himself at once into his situation and feelings. He looks upon the undertakings of the rebels with indignation and contempt, and breaks forth in the exclamation, Why?=to what end?”—C. A. B.] Rage.—The Hebrew verb does not denote actual rebellion, but that intimation of the speedy outbreak of rebellion which is given by crowds surging in gloomy and confused resentments, murmurs and alarms. [Imagine.—In old English this word had the meaning of scheme, devise, plot, vid.Worcester’sDict. This meaning has now passed out of use. It is better, therefore, to substitute devise, with the meaning of meditating evil. This is the same word as is used Psalms 1:2 b. De Wette: “of wicked, Proverbs 24:2, here of rebellious undertakings;” Hupf.: “of wicked and deceitful devices,” Psalms 38:12; Isaiah 59:3; Isaiah 59:13.—Vain thing.—ψִ ?ιχ, “here substantive, a foolish and vain device—what is proved to be idle by the result.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 2:2. The idea of sitting together passes over into that of deliberation, here that of conspiring. This is described by the perfect as an accomplished fact, as Psalms 2:1 a, and as preceding the hostile setting themselves, which in the imperf. appears as enduring and still continuing, as Psalms 2:1 b, and as finishing the description in Psalms 2:1 a.Psalms 2:3. The rebels are immediately introduced speaking, and they speak in figurative language, taken from refractory bulls, which express their carnal love of liberty and their unruliness.Str. II. Psalms 2:4. The ancient translations express all the imperfects in the antistrophe Psalms 2:4 sq. by the future, [so A. V.]; Ewald, Delitzsch, et al., at least those in Psalms 2:5 [this is better—C. A. B.]; but, according to Hupfeld, they are all to be regarded as present, though subsequent to one another. Laughing is often an expression of the feeling of security and of the consciousness of superiority in contrast to fear; scorn rejects the presumption of the impotent with deserved contempt, and discloses their weakness: wrath punishes them. [De Wette: “With the rage and exertion of his enemies the poet sets in beautiful contrast the laughing quiet of his God, who can with one word bring these proceedings to naught.” Hupfeld: “A beautiful gradation in thought from the quiet laughing to the agitated scorn, and from this to wrath, which breaks out in the following verse in word and act.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 2:5. Jehovah speaks here with real words, not in thunder (Herder), although the words whiz and roll along like thunder and lightning [in the style]; and αδμ, according to Hupfeld, is frequently used for terror, which confuses, and especially that which is caused by God, and drives into mad flight and leads to destruction. Psalms 2:6. [Yet have I.—De Wette: “εְ often makes a contrast—here it is with the riotous proceedings of the kings. The pronoun I is emphatic.”—C. A. B.] Bφttcher has shown (Aehrenlese, p. 4) that we must not translate: anointed, but set (according to the Sept. and Vulg.). Some translate “But I have been constituted king by him.”—[My King.—Hupf.: “My king so far as he is appointed by God as king over His realm, comp. 1 Samuel 16:1, and by virtue of the theocratic idea, His representative.”—C. A. B.] Zion was not the anointing place either for David (1 Samuel 16:13; 2 Samuel 2:4), or for Solomon (1 Kings 1:39), or for Christ (Zechariah 9:9), but the seat of government of the Anointed (Psalms 110:2; 2 Samuel 5:9). The assertion that Zion in the Old Testament constantly is used as the equivalent of Jerusalem, and that it is the name of a special height is disproved by 2 Samuel 5:7; 2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Kings 8:1; Hupfeld, however, asserts that according to prophetical and poetical usage it indicates synecdochically the entire holy mountain city as the seat of God, and naturally rejects the translation of J. H. Michaelis and Hofmann ςַ ?μφִ ?ιּ ?εֹ ?ο ‘al Zion, over its citizens, the people of God; so likewise the translation, mountain of my sovereignty (Herder, Rosenm., et al.). [Delitzsch: “Zion is the hill of the city of David (2 Samuel 5:7; 2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Kings 8:1) including Moriah. That mountain of holiness, holy mountain, which is the place of the Divine presence, and therefore towers above all the heights of the earth, is assigned to him as the seat of his throne.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 2:7. Declare.—In this strophe it is not the poet which speaks, but the anointed of Jehovah. This is not David nor any other historical king of Israel, moreover not the personified theocratic kingdom, but the Messianic king; not in bodily reality, it is true, nor speaking magically from the Psalm, but appearing in the Psalm dramatically as a person. This does not mean, by any means, as a poetical figure. For the person of the Messiah, as promised by God, and therefore surely coming, existed in the faith of the Psalmist not less than in the faith of the prophets and the church, although, in lyrical parts of Scripture the expressions of faith concerning him appear in different forms from those in the historical or didactic, and the prophetical writings in a narrower sense. The Messianic king in this place appeals for the explanation of Psa 2:6, not only to a feigned oracle (De Wette) but to a ηχ, an ordinance (whether regulation or arrangement). There is also in its meaning a reference to an express, inviolable, and peculiar declaration of Jehovah of a historical kind, such as that which is found for the relation in question, in 2 Samuel 7:14 sq., alone. This promise of God, given to David through Nathan before the birth of Solomon (2 Samuel 12:24), is the historical root of the biblical prophecies of the seed of David, who likewise stands in the relation of sonship to Jehovah. This expression does not denote the divine origin of royalty, or a management of the government according to the will of Jehovah (De Wette), but, first of all, a relation of love to Jehovah, and especially with reference to care and training, which however, at the same time, includes a reference to faithfulness, so much the more as the covenant of God with Israel is regarded as a marriage covenant (Hengst., Hupf.) In this last turn of thought there is a thread of meaning, which has been for the most part neglected; yet which alone can lead us to a correct understanding of the passage, viz.: If Israel stands partly in a relation of sonship to Jehovah, the God of historical revelation, partly in a marriage covenant with Him as the only living, true, and faithful God of the covenant, and indeed the latter, in the sense of Monogamy, over which God watches with jealousy; then the following consequences ensue, viz.: (1) That every attempt to make a parallel with the sons of Elohim (whether angels or princes, Psalms 82:6) and with the children of Zeus is entirely unsuitable, and entangles the entire conception. (2) That the use of the word ιμγ (which seldom means to beget, but generally to bear) is not to be regarded as merely a rhetorical variation of the idea of sonship, but gives rise to this thought; that in a determined case some one has been placed in this relation by God Himself, and indeed in the midst of the history of revelation, in which sense Israel also is called the first-born son of Jehovah (Exodus 4:22). (3) That in such a case to-day has not only a mere poetical, or indeed a metaphysical, but a historical meaning. The meaning is not of an eternal, or of a temporal, or spiritual begetting of a person, a setting him in existence; so also not as is frequently supposed of the establishment of an Israelitish king in the government, which was disputed by mighty opponents. In connection with this supposition an unknown writer in Paulus,Memorab. III., regards the Psalm as a coronation address composed by Nathan when Solomon ascended the throne. It is certainly a king of Israel, an anointed of Jehovah, who speaks, but this happens partly after his establishment on Zion by Jehovah, and partly as a demonstration, not indeed of his theocratic title (for this he had as the one appointed by Jehovah), but of his personal capacity for the government in question, which was to overcome, and embrace the world. Moreover, a general call to the position of sonship to Jehovah would not have been sufficient, because such a call is also ascribed in general to pious Israelites, Deuteronomy 14:1; Psalms 73:15; Proverbs 14:26. Therefore in this place he appeals to a special ordination, and indeed so that he refers to an appointment of Jehovah with reference to this very thing, as a word spoken to him as a personal being who already was in existence; that is, the speaker wishes to make known: (1) That he, and no one else, is the one to whom this appointment applies; (2) that he has not been made the son by it for the first time, but declared to be the son; (3) that this declaration was in time and not in eternity, and has the meaning of a historical recognition. At the same time the form of the declaration shows it to be an explanation, and indeed not only of the previous oracle in Psalms 2:6 (Herder, Hupf., et al.), but also of the appointment of Jehovah mentioned. There can be no doubt but that ρτּ ?ψ has this meaning of “more exact account or explanation,” Psalms 50:16. Even this shows this declaration to be an advance in the declarations of Revelation. But the same is also shown, in fact. For a word of Jehovah of this kind is found only, Psalms 89:27 sq., mentioned with reference to David, and 2 Samuel 7:14 with reference to David’s son. But in the passage Psalms 89:27, it is likewise not David who speaks, but this passage and the prophecy, 2 Samuel 7:14, indeed first after his death, were rather referred to him and his seed, and interpreted as Messianic, so that a remarkable agreement is evident with the passage in which we are now engaged. Both Psalmists already treat that historical word of God as Messianic, and find the right to this conception in the fact that the prophecy of Nathan treats of the government of the world with invincible power and of eternal duration. This declaration prevents the necessary consideration of the immediate reference of the oracle to Solomon, and in connection with other prophetical statements respecting the seed of David, especially after the death of David and Solomon, gives to his Divine sonship a narrower, a specific, namely a, Messianic signification. This also comes forth, in the Psalm before us, not merely typically, but directly. For David cannot be the speaker introduced by the Psalmist, since the ordination of Jehovah, to which the sovereign who claims the name Son of God appeals, is referred to the son of David and we cannot think of Solomon, because the circumstances alluded to in the Psalm do not at all suit his government, which is expressly mentioned as peaceful (1 Kings 5:4-5; 1 Kings 5:18). If, then, we are compelled to go beyond this king, there is no further support for the typical idea in any one of the succeeding rulers, and the historical explanation is satisfied only when it finds the fulfilment of the declaration of this Psalm in Jesus, the historical Messiah, that is to say, treats it as directly Messianic, as is frequently the case in the New Testament. Comp. the doctrinal and ethical thoughts which follow, and my exposition of Heb 1:5. [Alexander: “These words are cited in Acts 13:34, and Hebrews 1:5, to prove the solemn recognition of Christ’s sonship, and His consequent authority by God Himself. This recognition was repeated, and as it were, realized at our Saviour’s baptism and transfiguration, where a voice from heaven said (Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5): ‘This is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 2:8. Ask of me and I will give thee.—[Perowne: “A poetical figure, by which is represented God’s willingness to give to His anointed the kingdoms of this world. The Father’s love will withhold nothing from the son.” God will have His own son, His beloved, ask of Him; He delights in giving, but He likewise delights in being asked, and exhorts to the asking with promises of bestowing. As with all His children, so with the Messiah above all. In this connection it is well to recall Jesus’ habit of prayer to the Father. This verse asserts the share of the Gentiles in the blessings of the Messiah’s rule, yet not as heathen, but as submissive to the Messianic kingdom. This is the constant idea of the Psalmist and the Prophets.—C. A. B.] Psalms 2:9. Break.—According to the Sept., with other vowel points, “to rule” [ποιμαίνειν] with reference to Micah 7:14. The Messiah is thus represented also, Revelation 12:5; Revelation 19:15. This already shatters the objections of De Wette and Hupfeld to the Messianic interpretation. This form, moreover, presupposes the prophecy, Numbers 24:17, and has its internal reasons in the fact that the Messiah is at once Judge and Saviour, vid. Doct. and Ethical. [Potter’s vessel.—De Wette: “With little trouble, and to entire destruction, Jeremiah 19:11; Isaiah 30:14.”—C. A. B.] [Str. IV. Psalms 2:10. Delitzsch: “The Psalmist closes with an application of that which he has seen and heard, to the great ones of the earth. The warning is directed not to those who have been seen in rebellious commotion, but to kings in general, with a glance at that which he has seen and understood in prophecy.”—Judges of the earth.—Delitzsch: “Not those who judge the earth, but those judges and regents who belong to the earth in its length and breadth.” Psalms 2:11. This verse stands in beautiful contrast to Psalms 2:3, as it is based upon what has been seen in prophecy, Psalms 2:8-9.—Serve the Lord with fear.—This must be taken in a religious sense, as is usually the case, but the political sense is likewise involved, as we see from Psalms 2:8-9. The religious and the political submission are combined in the Messianic kingdom (vid. Riehm and Perowne).—Rejoice with trembling.—Delitzsch: “Their rejoicing lest it should turn into security and pride, is to be with trembling, trembling with reverence and self-discipline, for God is a consuming fire, Hebrews 12:28.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 2:12. Kiss the son.—That is, do homage to him (1 Samuel 10:1; comp. 1 Kings 19:18; Hosea 13:2; Job 31:27.) The Aramaic αַּ ?ψ for αֵּ ?ο is also found, Proverbs 31:2, and the absence of the article suits entirely the Messianic interpretation. The word then stands in the transition to a proper noun. According to the example adduced by Delitzsch, an Arabic interpreter would explain: kiss a son and what son? All the ancient translations, except the Syriac, have different interpretations, whilst they either take αַּ ?ψ as an adverb = pure, clean (Aquil., Symm., whom Jerome follows: adorate pure); or read αֹּ ?ψ (= purity, chastity, modesty) and πωׁ ?χ in the sense of lay hold of, embrace. Hence ςράξασθεπαιδείας (Sept.), apprehendite disciplinam (Vulg., Chald.), lay hold of purity (Ewald, Kφster). The Arabic translation of Saadia interprets: Prepare yourself with purity, that is, with sincerity, to obey Him. Hupfeld regards the original meaning of the verb as to join, to follow, and translates: “submit yourself sincerely and honestly.” But since there is no evident use of αψ in this sense, he supposes, with Olsh., a mistake, and would read αεֹ = submit yourself to Him (join Him); whilst he grants that even this construction is not found elsewhere. The same objection applies to the translation: Submit yourself to duty, namely, obedience (Hitzig).The kiss, as a sign of reverence is, in the Orient, for the most part given on the hand, or the clothing of another (Rosenm.,Altes and Neues Morgenland, III., no. 496; IV., no. 789), yet at times even on the mouth, or thrown by a movement of the hand, which is regarded as an act of homage. Even with the Messianic interpretation, it is questionable whether the subject of the following clause is the son (Hengst.), which is the most obvious, or Jehovah (with Aben Ezra and most interpreters, with the supposition of a change of subject which is frequent in prophecy and poetry) because this corresponds better with the consciousness of the believing Israelite. But both clauses, with lest and when, contain merely confirmed warnings in the mouth of the Psalmist, entirely the same as that which immediately before he has had the Messiah speak; and if there is in the closing clause the word often used of believing refuge in Jehovah, yet this does not decide, in view of the Divine majesty and power ascribed to the Messiah. It would rather seem to be decided by the fact that in Psalms 2:11 already again Jehovah Himself is named as Sovereign, whom the kings and judges of the earth are to serve. But this very passage favors, in the highest degree, the Messianic character of the entire Psalm. For the discourse is of the previously heathen princes and leaders of the nations, who are not to be made Jews by compulsion, as it happened for the first time under Alex. Jannζus, to whom on this account Hitzig brings down this Psalm; but who are exhorted to conversion to Jehovah, ere the crushing judgment of the Messiah shall be fulfilled on all those who are not members of the people of God, even the mightiest. These also declare, with all their expressions of joy, still ever that holy awe, and that indelible trembling of the creature before the Almighty and Holy God, which is mentioned likewise in the New Covenant, e.g., “working out salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12; Hebrews 12:28). The context itself is against the interpretation of the hypocritical joy at the homage festival, of those who have been overcome by force, and who obey from fear (Ilgen in Rosenm., and part also Hengst.) [From the way.—Alexander: “By the way.” Riehm: “In order that you may not perish with regard to the way = go in a way which is destruction for you. γψκ is an accusative of reference, (Hitzig, of limitation.)” So also Delitzsch, et al.—C. A. B.] The construction of the closing clause being disputed, we cannot gain from it any evidence of the Messiahship of the Anointed, but since this Messiahship is proved elsewhere, the contents of the clause forbid a reference merely to an earthly king, Psalms 118:9; Psalms 145:3, but not to God’s King, whose solemn name of Messiah and Son of God has here its first biblical expression and abiding support. Instead of “little” some translate with the Sept., “in short,” “soon;” but in hypothetical connections only the first meaning of the Hebrew word can be safely shown. Sachs’ translation “as nothing,” is too strong. [Hupfeld, ηεֹ ?ρֵ ?ιαּ ?εֹ, “not to put their trust in Him, but to seek or take refuge with Him.” So Hitzig et al. This meaning is clear in ξַ ?ηֲ ?ρַ ?δ = refuge, in the shadow of His wings, Psalms 36:8; Psalms 57:2; under His wings, Psalms 91:4; Rth 2:12; of a rock, shield, etc., Psalms 18:3; Psalms 18:31; Psalms 144:2; Deuteronomy 32:37, etc.—C. A. B.] With Bugenhagen we say, at the close of this Psalm, “epiphonema dignius ut mediteris quam ut a me tractetur.” AND ETHICAL1. When those who are without the kingdom of God oppose it and attack it, even though they assemble themselves in masses, riot against it after the manner of the nations, according to the ways and in the interests of the kingdom of this world, combine under mighty princes and wise leaders, yet their rebellion is not only deplorable, but is also miserable, abject, and blameable; yes, it is from the beginning condemned as without reason and without effect. They consult together, it is true, but nothing comes of it. They would undertake something, but they cannot, and properly they are not allowed to. They are as cowardly as they are boastful. They merely excite one another, and stimulate one another with presumptuous words to wicked and impotent pretensions. Furit in unum populus et miseretur omnium Christus.2. The enemies of Divine sovereignty on earth are of many minds and split into parties, yet they agree in the wish to limit its extension as far as possible. So far as it is in heaven, they do not trouble themselves about it, but with every advance it makes in the world, they feel that their interests are threatened. Although they are still without its limits they have a presentiment that Divine Sovereignty is in all earnestness an absolute Sovereignty embracing the whole world. They feel that by this very fact they are assailed in their natural claims, which they call human rights, and in their native tendencies, to cherish which they regard as their most sacred necessity. When it is demanded that they should obey the will of God, and submit to His ordinances, which bind all men without exception, they regard it with indignation as a direct attack upon their human rights of sovereignty, and consequently as a personal insult. They little think that the cords thrown out to them from the kingdom of God are holy bands of moral communion, and cords of love to assist them in pious discipline and life. That which is weaving itself about them and their children into a net of grace for their salvation, they regard only as a yoke of compulsion to their unsubdued hearts, and abuse it as a fetter to their freedom, and a restraint to their consciences. It seems to them a point of honor, based on natural rights, and enjoined by circumstances, to tear away and strip off those cords which are wound about them, and hold them in this way. “Even to-day we see that all the enemies of Christ find it as burdensome to be compelled to submit to His authority as to undergo the greatest shame,” (Calvin). 3. The internal contradictions of such reflections upon the world are truly great, but the blindness of those who are entangled therein is equally great. ‘Their pathos is as hollow as their power and their rights; their talk as empty as their counsel; their efforts as frivolous as their conceit; their ability as vain as their intentions. Thus they perform a drama whose fearful earnestness they are no more able to conceive than the absurdity of the part they play in it, and whose comic side ceases to excite laughter when history discloses it as really tragedy, and reveals to the anxious heart of man, that even the bright glance of the serene eye of God emits the lightnings of wrath, which work ruin and set the world in flames; and that the word of the scorner will come forth from the mouth of the Almighty in the crushing thunders of judgment. “Thus God decrees, that the ungodly should storm and rage against the pious, excite all their counsels against them. But all this is as the stormy, swollen waves of the sea, which rush along as if they would break down the shore, but before they reach the shore they quiet down again, vanish in themselves, or break up with a little foam upon the shore.” Luther. 4. And yet God has made preparations in history against the destruction of the world, and these are embraced in the Messianic institutions of salvation, which were not only typically symbolized in the theocratic institutions of the Old Covenant, but were historically prepared and foretold by the prophetic words of Revelation. From these prophecies, even in the darkest times, the severest afflictions, the bright light of consolation streams forth, because these not only point with certainty to the providence of God in history, but also to the indestructible power, the sure and constantly approaching victory of the kingdom of God over all the powers of the world. As these prophecies are consoling to the citizens of the kingdom of God, so are they threatening and calculated to terrify its foes. 5. The Messianic prophecies explain the entire history of the world and of salvation, illuminating it with the light of Divine revelation. These again have their centre of light in the declarations respecting the person of the Messiah. The faith in this person, that He will surely come and appear in history, has its living root in the hearts of believers. But this root does not spring from the soil of human longings, or the national spirit of the people of Israel, but it grows under the influence of the Divine Spirit from the soil of special Divine revelations made to Israel, and it develops in testimonies, which may become prophecies, as in the circumstances of this Psalm. And these prophecies on the one side strengthen and nourish faith, and on the other find their true development and progress in history.—“Such a hope as this we must firmly maintain, and not deviate from it for any cause whatever,” (Luther). 6. On account of this historically growing and developing character of Biblical prophecy, it is possible that its elementary beginnings, which on account of their germinal nature embrace and contain in embryo the forms which afterwards appear separately, were neither clearly understood by their contemporaries, nor always explained in the same way by subsequent writers. If, however, the explanations maintain the direction indicated by the writing itself, and lay hold of that thought which is prominent, and which alone is authorized, then there is not the least occasion for ambiguity, or of a perplexing manifold sense. But these thoughts, which alone are authorized, have found their expression successively in the Scriptures themselves, so that we need not seek for any other rule. The fulness of meaning in the biblical expressions Anointed, and Son of God, cannot be derived either simply from etymology of the words, nor directly from the first historical use of these terms; it can be gained only from a consideration of the use of these terms made by the biblical writers in the time of the fulfilment in the New Testament. If therefore Psalms 2:7 of this Psalm makes the first biblical use of this expression with reference to the Messiah, on the basis of a Divine decree, then we can conceive the right of the Messianic use of this and other verses of this Psalm in the New Testament in various forms. This is the case in express citations, as Acts 4:25 sq., where Peter and John, with the rest of the Apostles, treat as a fulfilment of the words, Psalms 2:1-2, the rebellion against Christ, in which the unbelieving Jews had shown that they were entirely agreed with the princes of the heathen, who not only ruled them but led them; furthermore, Acts 13:33, where Paul derives from Psalms 2:7 the propriety and reasonableness of the resurrection of Jesus as the Son of God; finally Hebrews 1:5, where the argument for the super-angelic nature and rank of Jesus as the Messiah is derived from the same verse. So also these words are used literally, in the Messianic sense; thus Hebrews 5:5, where the idea is advanced in connection with words from Psalms 2:7, that Jesus Christ was placed in the glory of His high priesthood by God, who had declared Himself his Father long before, and in contrast to His predecessors; furthermore, Revelation 12:5; Revelation 19:15, where the judicial activity of the Messiah is described with words from Psalms 2:9. Finally there are parallel facts mentioned, such as the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 7:16), the Sovereignty of God and His Messiah over the world (Revelation 11:15), which might have been suggested by other passages, it is true, but which yet confirm the Messianic character of the Psalm. If we should reject this Messianic character we would be finally forced to the evasion made by the Arabic translation of Saadia, which translates in Psalms 2:7 the Hebrew ben with friend, because the most obvious meaning cannot be understood. 7. It is worthy of special consideration that in this Psalm the generation referred to Jehovah, or rather the birth of the Messiah, is understood as a Divine declaration of the Messiah as Son of Jehovah, made by a word of revelation upon a historical day; that likewise the corresponding Divine declaration, Psalms 89:27, transfers the title of first-born, which was previously given to the people of God, to the Messiah in His type David; that then John and Paul, in connection with the deeper insight of the New Testament into the idea of the Divine Sonship applied the name of first-born to Jesus, the historical Messiah, (Daniel 9:24-25; Luke 2:11; John 1:49), and indeed partly with reference to His birth from God, before the creation of any creature (Colossians 1:15), partly with reference to His relation to the Church brought about by His resurrection from the dead (Colossians 1:18; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:20; Acts 26:23; Revelation 1:5). Again, in close connection with this is the fact that Paul, Acts 13:33, treats the resurrection of Jesus as the actual fulfilment effected by God upon a historical day of the declaration of the Messiah as His Son, expressed in the words, Psalms 2:7 (comp. Romans 1:4); furthermore, that Hebrews 1:6, immediately after the use of the Psalm already mentioned, briefly speaks of the exalted Messiah with reference to His second advent, under the name of the first-born; finally that in Revelation 12:5 the entrance of the Messiah upon His sovereignty over the world, when snatched away to God and to His throne, is regarded as a birth from the Church according to the analogy of Isa 66:7; Micah 4:4; Micah 5:1-2. Once, when Melanchthon was asked by some one, through his servant, why we sing every year, at Christmas, “Born to-day,” answered, “Ask your master whether he does not need the consolation today.” 8. The kingdom of God is not only to acquire a historical form on earth among the people of Israel and in the land of Canaan, but is to be spread abroad among all nations, even to the ends of the earth, yet not in the form of the theocracy of the Old Covenant, but in the Messianic form, or the Christocracy. The assurance that the power of the Divine kingdom over all people is conferred upon the Messiah rests upon the will of Jehovah guaranteed by the promise (comp. Psalms 82:8); but the historical fulfilment of this promise is made dependent upon a demand yet to be made by the Messiah, whose time, manner, circumstances and conditions are not mentioned here, compare Luke 22:29; Revelation 11:15. 9. The Messiah’s power over the kingdom of God is destined to be a Divine government, not only to embrace the world, but also to conquer the world: and it has not only this destiny, but has also sufficient means in its own constitution to accomplish both of these purposes. We must distinguish, however, (1) the means of grace, which are offered previously to all the world (Matthew 24:14; Matthew 28:19), the use of which conveys a blessing to all those who willingly submit themselves to him (Mark 16:16), so that those who take refuge with God and His anointed are not cast down and buried beneath the ruins of a world which is judged by the Lord (Luke 28:30), but they find deliverance; and (2) the powers which infinitely surpass all the powers of this world, and which are greatly to be feared when they unfold in their strength, in the exhibition of wrath (Romans 2:5), in the Messianic judgment (John 4:22). 10. In the intervening time the Divine word addresses itself not only to the lowly and the weak, but very emphatically to the powerful and those in high positions in the world, who are in especial danger of over-rating themselves and of boasting, and, in consequence of this, of misunderstanding, neglecting, and transgressing the laws of the kingdom of God, which lie at the basis of all human order, and therefore they need an earnest and gracious admonition to be mindful of their responsibility to the Heavenly King and Judge, and to lead their subordinates in witnessing faithful obedience to their Lord and God, who not only has established the office of magistrate in the world and maintains, protects and blesses the power of the magistrate among men, but also would stand in a personal relation and communion with those who are clothed with this power, in order that the sceptre and sword, money and property with which they have been invested by Him, may be used to the glory of God, the good of the kingdom, and the benefit of men, and that they may work out their own salvation on the one side with fear and trembling, and on the other with sacred joy. Spes sine tremore luxuriat in prζsumtionem, et timor sine spe degenerat in desperationem (Gregory). AND It is as impossible to destroy the kingdom of God on earth as to take heaven by storm. God will not allow Himself to be dethroned.—The sovereignty of Christ is to believers an easy yoke, to unbelievers an oppressive fetter; therefore, obedience is to the former a sweet pleasure—to the latter an insupportable burden; but it cannot be shaken off—the sceptre of blessing becomes a rod of iron.—All persons in authority should assist in the carrying out of God’s will on earth, and use their powers to this end; but it is allotted to the Son of God alone to set up the kingdom of God and carry it on in the world.—Rebellion against the Lord and His anointed is shameful as it is presumptuous; foolish as it is daring; impotent as it is wicked and audacious.—The higher our position in this world, the greater our accountability to God.—The Lord proclaims the presence of His grace, as well as His coming to judgment, and so no one has excuse. God gives time for repentance to the individual as well as to nations; blessed is he who uses this time of grace and takes refuge with the God of all salvation, who reveals Himself in History as Saviour and as Judge.Starke:—Where the kingdom of Christ breaks forth with power, the world is excited and rebellious, but all in vain.—This is a perverse generation which finds the snares of Satan easy and pleasant, but rejects as cumbersome the cords of Jesus’ love.—He who would be a true anointed of the Lord cannot and must not oppose the Messiah, but must build up this kingdom.—The Lord and His anointed are so inseparably united that their enemies must combat them both together.—It is pleasurable to be a servant of sin (Romans 6:12), and at the same time a servant of perdition (2 Peter 2:19); but to be a servant of God and of Jesus is regarded as too troublesome for the flesh (Acts 24:25), prejudicial to freedom (John 8:33), and dishonorable (John 9:28).—When our Lord in His time had sufficiently proved the faith and perseverance of His Church, He deprived His persecutors of their courage, so that those who had previously been the source of fear to every one, feared and trembled themselves.—Christ was, according to His office, a preacher; according to His majesty, a King on Mount Zion, therefore, true man; a Son begotten to-day, therefore true God; a wonderful Hero and Lord!—Christ is a universal King, therefore He has His Church in all parts of the world.—The enemies of Christ suppose that His sceptre is still a reed, as in the time of His sufferings; but they will be obliged to experience, some day, to their greatest shame, the iron sceptre in His hand.—Generally those who are the highest in dignity acquire self knowledge and humility with difficulty, yet this is indispensable to their improvement.—What is more reasonable than that those who have received more honor than others should render the most reverence to God? (2 Samuel 12:7 sq.).—Those are the best friends of magistrates who remind them of their duty to the Son of God, in order that they may not be exposed to His wrath.—How great a change of heart there must be, if we are to resolve to serve and truly hold Him for our Lord whom formerly we despised and opposed.—Christ is gracious, so that He willingly allows Himself to be kissed; but if he is not kissed at all, or with a Judas kiss, He can be as angry as He is gracious. Moller:—God speaks to the ungodly more by His arm than by His mouth.—Selnekker: All will go well with those whose hopes are in Christ, who know Him by faith, accept Him and confess Him.—Dauderstadt: We have only God to serve with fear, not Satan, not the flesh, not the world.—Geier: The flesh always seeks release from restraint, but to its own destruction.—To be truly wise is to know ourselves and our danger at the right time.—Francke: Just as it is the part of man constantly to ask, so also is it the part of our Heavenly Father constantly to give.—Renschel: Although the enemies of Christ rage still, yet He remains King.—He who serves and honors Him will live with Him forever.—His kingdom, the Church, will survive when all His enemies perish.—Herberger: The Lord Jesus has many and mighty enemies, but He is greater than they all; therefore, the best advice is to gain His love and be blessed forever by Him.—The enemies of the Christian religion speak their own shame.—The longer the storm is coming, the harder it beats; the longer God withholds His wrath, the more terrible the punishment.—That which has been established by our Heavenly Father, no devil or tyrant will overthrow.—The Church is oppressed, but not suppressed.—Beware of God’s wrath, for wrath and destruction are close together.—Bengel: In the kingdom. of Omnipotence all things must be arranged for the best.—Umbreit: Only those who reject the breath of love, feel the iron of justice.—R. Stier: The kingdom of the Anointed Son of God, which is ever invincible to rebels, will be graciously offered to faith, before it is asserted with judgment.—Guenther: David beholds the victory of his successor on his eternal throne, and shall we tremble when unbelief seeks its booty on Christian thrones—Taube: Christ is the Man of decision for all; in Him is rooted the contrast between the righteous as believing subjects, and the ungodly as unbelieving enemies.—Diedrich: When human powers are opposed to the Messiah’s kingdom they are like earthen vessels to iron. [Matt. Henry: One would have expected that so great a blessing to this world should have been universally welcomed and embraced, and that every sheaf should immediately have bowed to that of the Messiah, and all the crowns and sceptres on earth should have been laid at His feet; but it proves quite contrary. Never were the notions of any sect of philosophers, though never so absurd, nor the power of any prince or state, though never so tyrannical, opposed with so much violence as the doctrine and government of Christ. A sign it was from heaven, for the opposition was plainly from hell originally.—Spurgeon: We shall not greatly err in our summary of this sublime Psalm if we call it the Psalm of Messiah the Prince; for it sets forth as in a wondrous vision the tumult of the people against the Lord’s Anointed, the determinate purpose of God to exalt His own Son, and the ultimate reign of that Son over all His enemies. Let us read it with the eye of faith, beholding as in a glass the final triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ over all His enemies.—It was a custom among great kings to give to favored ones whatever they might ask (Esther 5:6; Matthew 14:7), so Jesus hath but to ask and have.—There must ever be a holy fear mixed with the Christian’s joy. This is a sacred compound, yielding a sweet smell, and we must see to it that we burn no other upon the altar. Fear without joy is torment; and joy without holy fear would be presumption.—Our faith may be slender as a spider’s thread, but if it be real, we are in our measure blessed. The more we trust, the more fully shall we know the blessedness. We may therefore close the Psalm with the prayer of the Apostles: “Lord, increase our Faith.” Plumer: It is easy for God to destroy His foes … Behold Pharaoh, his wise men, his hosts and his horses, ploughing and plunging, and sinking like lead in the Red Sea. Here is the end of one of the greatest plots ever formed against God’s chosen. Of thirty Roman emperors, governors of provinces, and others high in office, who distinguished themselves by their zeal and bitterness in persecuting the early Christians, one became speedily deranged, after some atrocious cruelty, one was slain by his own son, one became blind, the eyes of one started out of his head, one was drowned, one was strangled, one died in a miserable captivity, one fell dead in a manner that will not bear recital, one died of so loathsome a disease that several of his physicians were put to death because they could not abide the stench that filled his room; two committed suicide, a third attempted it, but had to call for help to finish the work, five were assassinated by their own people or servants, five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths, several of them having an untold complication of diseases, and eight were killed in battle, or after being taken prisoners. Among these was Julian the Apostate. In the days of his prosperity he is said to have pointed his dagger to heaven, defying the Son of God, whom he commonly called the Galilean. But when he was wounded in battle he saw that all was over with him, and he gathered up his clotted blood and threw it into the air, exclaiming, “Thou hast conquered, O thou Galilean.” Voltaire has told us of the agonies of Charles IX. of France, which drove the blood through the pores of the skin of that miserable monarch, after his cruelties and treachery to the Huguenots.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Delitzsch: “Because in the New Testament David’s Psalm and Psalm are corresponding terms.” This is generally admitted by German commentators, though it is not generally allowed by English and American writers, such as Wordsworth, Barnes, Alexander, etc. Delitzsch is probably correct in his statement.—C. A. B.] [Ewald: “In this Psalm we hear the voice of a king who, a short time before, was solemnly anointed in Zion. The tributary nations are rebellious and threaten to regain their freedom. The young king stands over against them, self-possessed, conscious of his union with Jehovah as His son and representative, inspirited by the prophetic word at his anointing, and strong in the power of Jehovah. This young king was Solomon—this Psalm his own composition, like those mentioned 1 Kings 4:32.” It is more than likely that the tributary nations plotted together, hoping to throw off the yoke of the young king. It is not necessary to suppose an actual rebellion. The Psalmist speaks of rebellious thoughts and designs. I think that this Psalm and the former are Psalms of Solomon.—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “At Christ’s passion the heathen world represented by the imperial power of Rome, combined with the rulers and people of Israel against God and His Messiah. ‘We will not have this man to reign over us’ was their language, Luke 19:14—‘We have no king but Cζsar,’ John 19:15”—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch: “The Anointed Himself now takes the word, and speaks out what He is, and what He can do in virtue of the Divine decree. There is no word of transition, no formula of introduction to indicate the leap of the Psalmist from the word of Jehovah to the word of His Christ; the poet is a seer; his Psalm is a mirror of that which is seen, an echo of that which is heard.”—C. A. B.] [Hupfeld: “The language does not allow of the translation of αώώώώψ as Son, for the following reasons, (1) αַ ?ψ in this sense is not a Hebrew word, but an Aramaic word, and only occurs in Proverbs 31:2, in a passage of very late composition, which has likewise other Chaldaisms, whilst this Psalm is the product of the best period of literature, and it is inconceivable that poetical license even would excuse such a word. (2) It is without sense apart from Jehovah, and without the article. (3) The subject of the following clause is Jehovah, as in the preceding verse, which makes it improbable that a new subject should step in between. It is difficult to take αψ in any other way than as an adverb, as Sym., and Jerome.” Hupfeld is correct here, I think; we must not be misled by the beauty of the idea, kiss the Son, or a desire for another Messianic allusion. There is sufficient reference to the Messiah in the 3d strophe, and this allusion would have no significance apart from that. Then again αֵ ?ο is used in that strophe for the Messiah. It would seem strange for the Psalmist to select an Aramaic form so soon after.—C. A. B.] Psalms 3 A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son1         Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. 2    Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. 3    But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; My glory, and the lifter up of mine head. 4    I cried unto the Lord, with my voice, And he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. 5    I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. 6    I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, That have set themselves against me round about. 7    Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God; For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. 8    Salvation belongeth unto the Lord:Thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah. AND Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.—The title Mizmτr and the use of Selah (vid. Introduction) indicate the use of this Psalm in the service of the temple. It is particularly suited by its tone and subject for a morning Psalm (Psalms 3:5) in times of trouble, especially in the dangers of war. There is not the least occasion, in fact, or in the language, to deviate from the traditional view of the origin of this Psalm as it is expressed in the title. There are reflected in this Psalm the particular features of the story of the trouble of David in his flight from Absalom, especially 2 Samuel 15:13; 2 Samuel 16:7 sq.; 2 Samuel 17:1; 2 Samuel 17:11. [Delitzsch: “The derision of David as one forsaken by God, 2 Samuel 16:7; the danger by night, 2 Samuel 17:1, the myriads of people, 2 Samuel 15:13; 2 Samuel 17:11, and the high and honorable position of the Psalmist.”—C. A. B.] The expressions, especially of Psa 3:6, transcend the description of the troubles of a private man of piety. If this fact is recognized against Seb. Schmidt, Olsh., Hupf., the supposition of an unknown king (De Wette, Sachs) is an unjustifiable criticism of the traditional view; for nothing speaks against David, and many things for him. The transfer of its time of origin to the period of the supremacy of Saul, especially the troubles of David after the destruction of Ziklag by the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 30:6 (Hitzig) is incompatible with Psalms 3:4 (vid. exegesis of the verse). It is true there is no apparent reference to Absalom, and many exegetes miss it; but they do not notice that we have here a lyrical effusion of a specific religious character, and this not here the expression of the experience of a sick and anxious father, as 2 Samuel 15:11, but the lamentation and the trust of a chieftain and sovereign, who is hard pressed, yet cheerful in prayer, and these experiences resound in such terse sentences and pithy words, that the reader hears the royal Psalmist sigh, cry, and weep from his inmost soul. [Ewald: “The grandeur, color, and language of David are unmistakable.”—C. A. B.] At the same time, the rythmical arrangement of the four strophes (three according to Geier) is so artistic that it may properly be regarded as written down at a later time, and yet we have no reason to suppose that it was a later composition (Rosenm.), or that there was a long time between its conception and its production (Hengstenberg). Moreover, the origin of this Psalm of prayer does not, most naturally, fall upon the evening (Hengst.) of the first day of the flight, 2 Samuel 16:14, (Kimchi), on which David went bare-footed and weeping up the Mount of Olives, and experienced many bitternesses and mortifications, but in the morning hours, after the intervening night, in which Ahithophel would have fallen upon him, 2 Samuel 17:1, (J. H. Michaelis [Ewald]). The Hollanders sang this Psalm according to their Psalm-book when they marched against the Belgians, Aug. 1st, 1831. Str. I. Psalms 3:1. [How.—Mβh, an expression of lamentation (De Wette), on account of the crowd of enemies (Hupf.)—Increased.—Barnes: “How are they multiplied; or how numerous they are. Perhaps the idea is, that at first they seemed to be comparatively few in number, but had now so multiplied as to endanger his crown and life.”—Hupfeld: “That trouble me—in general of enemies or opponents.—Rise up against me.—Properly not rebels, but adversaries in general, those who stand up against him to oppose him.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 3:2. [Hupfeld: “His need has become so great and threatening that many doubt his deliverance, and deny that he has any help to expect from God.”—C. A. B.]—My soul.—This circumlocution for the person is not without significance (most interpreters). It is used in Hebrew not only with reference to the life (Gesen. [Barnes]), but also with reference to the spirit, and will (Hupfeld), and it here expresses the fact that the words spoken partly about David, and partly to him, as well by open enemies (Hitzig), as by friends who have become perplexed, wound his inmost soul (Hengstenb.), and pass in judgment his inmost character, and his personal relation to God (Delitzsch).—Help.—According to the context, the reference is to deliverance from danger to his life, which it is pretended David has no longer to expect from Elohim. The speakers here are not Atheists, who mistake the Divine power (De Wette), but men, who regard the ruin of David as unavoidable, and wish to express the opinion that now even prayer will not help. Herein is expressed their view that God will not, or does not wish to help the afflicted one; and this turn of expression must have stung the soul of David with all the more bitterness, as his heinous sin with Bathsheba had already brought upon him a series of Divine chastisements. But we are not to infer from this, that the speakers would say that there is now no more salvation with God for David, or he has been thrust out from the Divine grace (Delitzsch). The termination athah [termination of the Hebrew word for help—C. A. B.] is neither intensive (Kimchi), nor demonstrative (Gesen.), nor euphonic (Aben Ezra and the most of the later interpreters), but the accusative of design (Hupfeld [Delitzsch]), which in the Hebrew is about to pass out of use, and is only preserved in fragments in certain feminines in –ָ.δ in the poets (derived from the view of direction towards an end). Str. II. Psalms 3:3. [Hengstenberg cites Luther as saying: “The Psalmist here contrasts with the previous clauses three others. He has spoken of many enemies, he opposes them with, the Lord is his shield. Then, as they have set themselves against him to disgrace him before the world, he opposes them with, the Lord sets him in honor. Finally he laments over those who slander and insult him, against whom he boasts that it is the Lord who lifts up his head.”—C. A. B.] [Shield.—Vid.Genesis 15:1, where God is Abraham’s shield, Deuteronomy 33:29, where he is Israel’s shield. It is also a favorite expression of David, Psalms 7:10; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 28:7.—For me.—αַּ ?ςֲ ?γִ ?ι. A better rendering is “around me,” “about me,” “round about me,” so almost all exegetes. Hitzig: “Jehovah stands behind him, and holds His shield before him (Zechariah 12:8; 2 Samuel 6:16).” Alexander: “Covering the whole body, not merely a part of it, as ordinary shields do.”—My glory.—Hengstenberg: “Because David’s glory, the exalted dignity with which he was clothed, had its source in the Lord.” Psalms 62:7.—Lifter up of my head.—Hengst.: “Indicates that he is delivered from the state of depression in which he went about in sadness, without spirit, and with bowed head.” Delitzsch, upon this verse as a whole, says: “Hourly he has to fear that he will be fallen upon and ruined, but Jehovah is the shield which covers him. His kingdom has been taken away from him, but Jehovah is his glory. With covered head, bowed to the ground, he ascended the Mount of Olives, 2 Samuel 15:30; but Jehovah is the lifter up of his head whilst He comforts and helps him.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 3:4. My voice.—Most exegetes suppose that χεμִ ?ι is the accusative of instrument, or according to Ewald more correctly accusative of closer definition, and indicates that the call was a loud one. Hitzig, on the other hand (Begriff der Kritik, p. 23), Bφttcher (Collectanea, p. 116), and Hupfeld, suppose that there is here a poetical use of a double subject, and that the active member appears, first, as the nearer subject in the nominative, and then, the person himself appears again in the verb. It is disputed here whether the imperf. is to be taken in the historical sense as preterite (Hupf., Hitzig, Baur), or as an expression of continued action, Delitzsch, et al. If we separate the imperf. in the latter sense with De Wette from the poet’s real hour of affliction, and regard it as a description of the constant state of his soul, so that the perfects in ver 5 must, contrary to usage, be taken in like sense; then this explanation which reduces it, “to be accustomed,” is clearly wrong. But the strict historical explanation is likewise carried too far when Sachs translates the following imperf. conversive: “and he has answered.” Hitzig puts even Psalms 3:6 in the past. But the poet expresses rather, what he has in Jehovah now and at all times, according to his faith and his experience (Psalms 3:3), in connection with his prayer (Psalms 3:4 a), and with the promise that he should be heard Psalms 3:4 b); and then passes over to the description of what has happened to him through Jehovah’s help, since the last evening (Psalms 3:5 a) until the present morning (Psalms 3:5 b), and in what frame of mind he now is (Psalms 3:6). It is out of this frame of mind corresponding with the dangers of his situation that the true cry of prayer then breaks forth.—Holy hill. Hitzig would think of the hill of God (1 Samuel 10:5), or the Mount of Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4, comp. 2 Chronicles 1:3; 1 Chronicles 21:29), if not of Sinai (1 Kings 19:8), or Bashan (Psalms 68:16). But there is no reference to a consecrated mountain on which at any time Jehovah appeared and spoke to men, or accepted their worship; but to the abiding-place of the revelation and authority of Jehovah among His people, whither the prayerful turn with the assurance of receiving an answer. This place was from the time of Moses above the ark of the covenant, and the ark had been brought by David from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem, 2 Samuel 6; 1 Chronicles 13:5, and in his flight from Absalom it was not taken with him, 2 Samuel 15:25. It can therefore only mean Mount Zion. The entire hypothesis of Hitzig is thus shattered. [Delitzsch: “He was now separated from the place of the Divine presence by hostile power. But his prayer presses through to the throne of the cherubim, and there is no wall of separation, either in space or the creature, to the answer given by Him who is there enthroned.”—C. A. B.] [Str. III. Psalms 3:5. I laid me down and slept.—A reference to the past night (Delitzsch). Barnes: “Notwithstanding these troubles and dangers, I had such confidence that God hears prayer, and such calm trust in His protection, that I laid me down gently and slept securely. The Psalmist mentions this as a remarkable proof of the Divine protection and favor.”—I awaked.—“Still safe and secure” (Barnes). Delitzsch: “It is because Jehovah has sustained him, the hand of God is his pillow, the gracious and omnipotent hand is under his head, he is inaccessible and without fear.” Psalms 3:6. Barnes: “This exaltation may be regarded in some measure as the result of the calm and refreshing slumber which he had enjoyed. The mind as well as the body had been refreshed and invigorated. With the bright light of a new morning he looked with more cheerfulness and hope on the things around him, and felt new strength to meet the dangers to which he was exposed.”—Ten thousands.—Myriads without any definite number being thought of, only a very great multitude. This is not a supposed case, for all Israel had gone over to Absalom (Delitzsch). Delitzsch: “Selah is lacking at the end of this strophe, because it is not spoken in a tone of triumph, but of humility, and as a quiet expression of confidence and faith.”—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 3:7. Arise.—The accentuation kumαh instead of kϊmah (Rise up! arise! a cry to Jehovah, for the first time, Numbers 10:35) is best explained by Hupfeld as: with the design of special emphasis [Delitzsch: “God arises when He interferes to decide the events of this world.”] The cry for help is based upon the following clause with λִ ?ι; and the perfects are the so-called prophetical perfects, which indicate the action as one certainly to be expected (De Wette), but a real one (almost all recent interpreters). The objection of De Wette that then the prayer would be superfluous, because no more enemies were present, is not to be refuted on the ground that λμ, kol, all, is not to be regarded as numerical (Hupf.), or refers to many particular events (Delitzsch). The word refers rather to the myriads which now surrounded the Psalmist in hostility. He fears them not, because in previous cases God has always brought the enemies of the poet (my enemies) to shame and ruin, whether many or few. [The perfects here are real perfects, with Ewald, Delitzsch, Hupf., Alexander, Barnes, et al., and the reference is to the foreign enemies, Philistines, A morites, etc., and his enemies of the house of Saul, whom the Lord had destroyed before him. This is the most natural and logical order of thought. The Psalmist, in the last strophe, strengthens himself with reference to the experience of the past night, and in this strophe by remembrance of the experiences of his past conflicts with his enemies. As the experience of the past night gives him confidence, the experience of the past deliverances stimulates him to renewed prayer as he recalls his present dangers.—C. A. B.] As God is represented under the figure of a warlike hero and hunter, so the enemies are represented under the figure of ravenous beasts, from whom all power of injuring the friend of God has been taken away by crushing their jaws, and the teeth fixed therein. God prepares for them a complete and shameful overthrow (Hengst. and Delitzsch). The double accusative of the object, Psalms 3:7 b, should be noticed. Psalms 3:8. “In the lamed of possession and the generic article before ιωׁ ?εֹ ?ςδּ there is an exclusiveness of possession and the free power of disposal” (Delitz.).—[Thy blessing be upon.—This is not the statement of a fact (A. V.: Thy blessing is upon Thy people), but an intercessory prayer. David prays for his own deliverance, and then, that the salvation of the Lord may rest upon his people. Thus almost all recent commentators.—C. A. B.] The closing word which “casts a clear light into the depths of the noble soul” (Ewald) turns now from the personal to national affairs (De Wette). It refers not only to that part of the people which had remained faithful to David, as the only genuine people of Jehovah (Aben Ezra), but it implores blessings instead of curses, and has as its antitype the words “Father, forgive them” of the other David whom His people had crucified (Delitzsch). Bφttcher, however, considers this verse as a later liturgical addition. Bugenhagen, aptly: “benedictio Dei est Dei beneficentia.” AND ETHICAL1. If the first word in severe affliction is to call upon the name of the Lord, then lamentation is changed into prayer, and the soul no longer swims in a sea of trouble, it lays hold of God again, and begins to believe and to hope.2. The conspiracy of the adversaries is worse than their number; and the arrows of scorn are sharper than the sword, in piercing the heart. But the heart is wounded much more deeply when the complaints and condemnations of opponents cannot be refuted by a pure conscience as merely hateful slanders and wicked abuse. Then to the external affliction there is added internal conflicts which beget suffering for the soul, and lead to spiritual struggles. George von Anhalt showed his brother John three remedies against such struggles: Faith in the forgiveness of sins, in the resurrection, and in an eternal life. 3. In spiritual conflicts human judgment does not decide. Only the afflicted must not allow themselves to be pressed away from God, or to be wearied and lamed by doubting the Divine mercy. For those who resign themselves to Him, God is always as the faithful God of the Covenant, a Shield protecting on all sides, as He was for Abraham, Genesis 15:1, and for all Israel, Deuteronomy 33:29. It is God, who not only maintains the honor of His servants, restores them again when disgraced, and surrounds the abused king with the splendor of majesty, but He Himself is the essential idea of all honor, majesty, and glory; and the world cannot deprive the pious of Him even in the uttermost misery. Moreover, it is God who not only lifts up the head of the afflicted which is wearied, and has fallen upon the breast, and raises again the crown of fallen princes which has been thrown down; but does the same thing to the penitent sinner who has bowed his face to the dust, and with the down-trodden righteous man whose head lies upon the ground. 4. The assurance that prayer will be heard is a great comfort to the afflicted, especially if these have already had personal experience of it. Although separated from the place where God has previously given them the experience of His gracious presence, yes, although they are obliged to be deprived of the help of Divine service, and all the ordinary means of grace, the voice of prayer presses above all to God, and the answer of the Lord comes to those who sincerely supplicate Him. 5. Those who awake after a night full of danger, and give the Lord the glory with thankful recognition of the protection and assistance of the Almighty, whose hand has been under the head of the slumbering (Song Son 2:6), those are usually filled with fresh courage and faith. From the thankfulness of the morning psalm springs joyfulness for the work of the day; fearlessness, in spite of all the enemies which surround him, and heartfelt confidence in Divine help; and thence again prayer and supplication take a fresh start with an earnestness and a fervor which urges to the boldest importunity, yet without overstepping the bounds assigned to the creature. 6. Whoever has the true God for his God may be forsaken by all the world, and experience that human assistance is of no profit; but “if all kinds of misfortune, affliction, and tribulation, are heaped upon him, yet it is the Lord who then saves him; in His hand is help and blessing” (Luther); and whoever, on the basis of the revelation of the covenant is in communion with Him by faith, makes the experience in his heart through faith, that he is comforted by Divine promises, and has the experience in his life that to the previous help he has received from the hand of God, new deliverances are constantly added. 7. However it is not enough merely to have a God, to believe in Him and call upon Him; the question is: What God? For Jehovah, the God of the historical revelation, is the only God who possesses and distributes those things which afford help, deliverance, and salvation, in bodily and spiritual needs, for time and for eternity. 8. Those who are truly pious think not only of their own deliverance, and their personal salvation; if they earnestly care for this, they pray at the same time for Divine blessings upon the whole people, that Divine judgment may be turned away from the guilty, and for the salvation of all who return in repentance to God. Deus est satis idoneus patientiζ sequester. Si injuriam deposueris apud eum, ultor est; si damnum, restitutor est; si dolorem, medicus est; si mortem, resuscitator est (Tertull. de patient. 15). AND To truly flee for refuge is to flee to God, for that leads us, 1) from the tumult of the world into the peace of God; 2) from earthly oppression to everlasting salvation; 3) from the power of men to the hands of God.—He who can pray in time of need is in the way of salvation; for 1) he looks beyond the multitude and strength of his oppressors, to the power and favor of the Most High; 2) he hears not the scorn and threatenings of his enemies, but the comforting voice and answer of his God; 3) he experiences, amid all the afflictions and anxieties of his heart, the comfort of communion with Him, who is the sole help in time of need, and the true deliverer of the faithful.—The sword of the enemy threatens his body, the scorn of the ungodly aims at his soul, but God is a shield and protection against both.—He who prays in faith, casts all his care on the Lord, therefore he goes to sleep trusting in Divine protection; even after a day full of calamity he is calm, and awakes to the battle of life full of fresh boldness of faith, with renewed prayer for the help of the Lord.—Let him, who would not be ruined in time of danger, take refuge with the Lord, for then: 1) He does not complain, but prays; 2) he does not doubt, but trusts in the living God; 3) he does not tremble, but gains hope and courage. Personal experiences of grace bring an enduring blessing; for: 1) They protect against the scorn of unbelievers in times of calamity; 2) they strengthen the assurance that our prayers will be heard in time of strong opposition; 3) they lead to a lively resignation to God in days when all human greatness, skill, and power, seem to be nothing.—Against the enemy of our country we fight not only with the sword, but with those spiritual weapons: 1) prayer; 2) trust in God; 3) humiliation under the strong hand of God; 4) ηxaltation in the name and power of the Lord.—The necessity of the times is no sign that we are forsaken by God, but, 1) reminds us of our weakness; 2) refers us to the works of the Lord; 3) encourages us to pray; 4) warns us against devotion to the world; 5) exhorts us to seek the blessing of the Lord.—He who gives the glory to God, makes the best provision for his own elevation: 1) From a previous fall; 2) from present need; 3) from impending death.—A king can present to his people nothing more noble than a lively piety; nothing more precious than salvation by Jehovah; can ask nothing better than the blessing of the Lord.—We may have many enemies, but our help comes from one only true God, who is the best friend to those who trust in Him.—The blessing of God belongs to the people of God. Starke: David had fled from God his true Father, now he must flee from a rebellious son. This is the retribution of God; like with like.—Even blood relationship is destroyed by sin and Satan.—Unhappy children, who drive away their parents; blessed parents, who are driven to God by the wickedness of their children.—Pray to God, who is able to convert even lost sons.—If the Lord show thee the multitude of thine enemies, He will likewise show thee the riches of His help.—We must not heed the talk of the enemy, but hold fast to the word of our God—The world judges perversely; the pious are always accused of being ungodly, whilst on the contrary the irreligious would be considered nearest God.—God often lets His children appear to be forsaken in their own eyes, and the eyes of others, that their faith may be tried, their belief in the Word of promise purified, and their childlike hope crowned.—Faith and prayer go together. For faith is experienced by prayer and prayer receives from faith its true form and validity.—Our strength is derived from both.—If the danger and the necessity are great, the inward strengthening of God is regulated accordingly.—Whoever desires God to grant his prayers for assistance, must be able to call the Lord his God, not only because He is Creator and Redeemer, but also because He sanctifies those who accept Him.—With the pious the cross has ever a sorrowful beginning but a joyful ending. Luther: There is no trouble, however severe it may be, that is to be compared with that against which Jeremiah (17:17) prays with trembling, when God contends with man. Osiander: When God’s promises are received with faith, they give to a godly man a peaceful heart, because he trusts himself to God, his true Father.—Strigel: We must above all notice the gradation of thought: When attacked he prays, when he prays he is saved, when saved he gives thanks.—Selnekker: Whoever will serve God must suffer persecution, and must have the whole world, yes, his own flesh and blood, for enemies; but whoever trusts God belongs to Him, and shall remain His, though the whole world persecute him.—Arndt: It is the essential character of faith: 1) That it lays the care and burden of the heart upon God, 2) that it expels fear and terror; 3) that it trusts God against all enemies.—Frisch: When faith brings peace into the heart the body is likewise benefited.—Herberger: Distress teaches to pray, and prayer drives all trouble away.—The heart as well as the head belongs on high.—Rieger: Although relief is delayed, still the blessing of the Lord is with His people. [Matt. Henry: True Christian fortitude consists more in a gracious security and serenity of mind, in patient bearing and patient waiting, than in daring enterprises with sword in hand.—A child of God startles at the very thought of despairing of help in God; you cannot vex him with anything so much as if you offer to persuade him “there is no help for him in God.”—A cheerful resignation to God is the way to obtain a cheerful satisfaction and confidence in God.—Promises of salvation do not supersede, but engage our petitions for it,—Barnes: That we are “awaked” in the morning, after a night’s refreshing slumber; that we are raised up again to the enjoyments of life; that we are permitted again to greet our friends, and to unite with them in the privileges of devotion, should always be regarded as a new proof of the goodness of God, and should lead to acts of praise.—Who has not experienced the influence of the slumbers of a night, and of the light of the morning, in giving new vigor, and inspiring new hopes, as if the returning day was an emblem of brighter scenes in life, and the passing away of the shades of night a token that all trouble and sorrow would flee away?—Spurgeon: May we ever wait with holy confidence in our hearts, and a song upon our lips.—Search Scripture through and you must, if you read it with a candid mind, be persuaded that the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is the great doctrine of the Word of God.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Delitzsch: “The first two Psalms, which are prologues, are succeeded by a morning Psalm, Psalms 3, and an evening Psalm, Psalms 4, as we would naturally expect such Psalms to come first in a Psalm book.”—C. A. B.] [Barnes: “He gave utterance to the deep anguish of his soul in words. So did the Saviour in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39).”—C. A. B.] Psalms 4 To the Chief Musician on Neginoth—A Psalm of David1         Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; Have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. 2    O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? How long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. 3    But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: The Lord will hear when I call unto him. 4    Stand in awe, and sin not: Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. 5    Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the Lord.6    There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. 7    Thou hast put gladness in my heart, More than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. 8    I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: For thou, Lord, only Makest me dwell in safety. AND Title and Division.—This Psalm, assigned to the chief musician (vid. Introduct.), was not to be accompanied with wind instruments, or instruments of alarm, but only with string instruments [Neginoth vid. Introduct.]. This agrees with the character of the Psalm as an evening Psalm (Psalms 4:8), and with the soothing rhythm especially of the last strophe. This last strophe, which brings the Psalm as well as the Psalmist to repose, is of three members, as the first strophe, which contains a cry to God for help; whilst the three intermediate strophes are of lour members. Of these, moreover, the first two are divided by Selah into a warning and an exhortation; the third, which contrasts the courageous faith and joy in God of the pious Psalmist, with discouraged and earthly-minded men, has not the musical interlude. Whilst Seb. Schmidt, Claus, De Wette, Hupf., et al., deny the marks of David, and regard the individual features at once as general, Olshausen at least has recognized their individual character, and Ewald has beautifully explained the Davidic features of the Psalm. With the most of the interpreters he puts this Psalm side by side with the previous one in the dangerous times of the rebellion of Absalom. Even Hitzig recognizes the connection between these two Psalms, but he assigns it as previously Venema, to the situation of David, according to 1 Samuel 30. Lightfoot and J. H. Michaelis suppose it refers to the rebellion of Sheba, 2 Samuel 20. [Delitzsch: “A Davidic evening Psalm follows a Davidic morning Psalm. The connection is clear from the mutual reference of 4:6 to 3:2, and 3:5 to 4:8. These two are the only Psalms in which the language of others is cited with ‘many that say.’ The one is explained historically from the title of the other. It follows from 4:2, ‘how long,’ and the words of the fainthearted, 4:6, that Psalms 4 is the later one.” Perowne: “The thoughts and turns of expression in the one are not unlike those in the other. As in the former he heard many saying to his soul, ‘There is no help for him in God’ (Psalms 4:2), so in this he hears many saying, ‘Who will show us any good?’ (Psalms 4:6). As in that he knew that though at a distance from the Tabernacle, he was not at a distance from God, but would receive an answer to his prayer from the ‘holy mountain’ (Psalms 4:4), so in this, though the priests have returned with the Ark to Jerusalem, he can look for the ‘light of Jehovah’s countenance,’ which is better than the Urim and Thummim of the priestly ephod.”—C. A. B.] Str. I. Psalms 4:1. My God of righteousness [O God of my righteousness—A. V.].—This translation embraces very well the various references of the Hebrew expression. “Jehovah is the possessor of righteousness, the author of righteousness, the Judge of righteousness, and He justifies righteousness when it is misunderstood and persecuted” (Delitzsch). The following translations are likewise grammatically indisputable: God of my right (De Wette), comp. Psalms 17:1; God of my righteousness (Hupfeld [Wordsworth, Perowne]); my righteous God (Hengst. [Barnes]). The following perfect is limited by Hitzig to the deliverance from the calamity which he has just experienced and lamented in Psalms 3. Hengst., Delitzsch, et al., on the other hand, refer it to a series of previous experiences, and therefore translate it as present. [Delitzsch: “Many times he had been in straits, and God made room for him. The idea is of the expansion of the breathing and of space. It means—space for the anxious heart, Psalms 25:17; Isaiah 60:5; space for the straitened situation, Psalms 18:19; Psalms 118:5.”—C. A. B.] Ewald and Hupf. regard it as a relative clause, on account of its position between two imperatives. [Perowne: “Thou (that) in straitness hast made room for me.” This seems to be the best rendering. It makes the strophe more harmonious. It then refers to the deliverance from that critical situation in which he was placed before he received intelligence from Jerusalem, and crossed the Jordan into a wider and safer region. Here he could breathe more freely and make preparations to meet his foes.—C. A. B.] De Wette, in spite of the failure of the vav consec., views it as imperative, and supports this view by citing parallel passages, which he falsely explains. Str. II. Psalms 4:2. Sons of men.—According to Hitzig, denotes men in contrast to women, and refers to those which accompany David. According to Hupfeld, it refers to the human weakness and carnal mind of the many (Psalms 4:6), who might be addressed emphatically as: ye children of men. [Barnes: “As having human feelings, passions, and purposes, in strong distinction from that righteous God to whom he had just made his solemn appeal.”—C. A. B.] According to most interpreters, the reference is to the prominent men among the crowd, among whom, then, here, the few unsatisfied and perplexed companions of David, the heroes (Tholuck), beloved men (Luther), or since Kimchi, the aristocracy, whose instrument Absalom was, the “great fellows” in Luther’s margin, who dishonored the royal dignity at the same time that they violated David’s personal honor. [It does not seem necessary to give to ’ish an emphatic signification. There is no contrast here with ’adam. The contrast is with God, as Hupfeld and Barnes show. Yet the reference is not so much to human weakness and a carnal mind, as to the fact that whilst men dishonor him, God has honored him, and will honor him again by hearing his prayer. And then when man is contrasted with God, even though a vir or an ’ish there is necessarily implied in this contrast human weakness and littleness.—C. A. B.] Vanity.—This hardly means: worldly vanity (De Wette), but either the vanity of their designs (Kimchi), or, still better, the vanity of their reasons, to which they appeal in their rebellion, which conceal from themselves and others its true character. It is not necessary, therefore, to regard the rebellion itself as marked with the name Lie [Leasing—A. V. Old English word for lying and falsehood.—C. A. B.] (Calv.). Lying and deceit have been the means of their demands. Comp. 2 Samuel 15:7 sq. (Hengst.). The Septuagint follows a different reading: ὑιοὶ ἁνθρὡπωνἕωςπότεβαρυκάρδιοι; so also the Vulgate, many ancient Fathers, and Augustine. The graves corde are then supposed by the interpreters to be: people either of idle and cowardly or of hard, obstinate and unfeeling hearts. Psalms 4:3. Wonderfully selected [set apart—A. V.].—The verb contains the idea of discrimination (Exodus 8:18), more closely, the meaning of extraordinary distinction in the Divine government (Exodus 33:16; Psalms 139:14). The comparison of Psa 31:21 with Psalms 17:7 only shows that there is no essential difference between δτμδ and δτμΰ (as 37 Codd. Kennic, and 28 De Rossi read here δτμιΰ, Deuteronomy 28:59; Isaiah 28:29). It cannot be decided from the word itself, whether we are to suppose here Divine distinction = wonderful guidance in general (Luther and most interp., Sept., ἐθαυμάστωσε, Vulg., mirificavit, for which, in many Psalters. admirabilem fecit or magnificavit, which already inclines to the other explanation), or whether there is meant here special selection = elevation to the royal dignity. With this last interpretation Calvin, partially following the example of the Syriac with Rabb. Isaki and Kimchi, unites directly to the verb the μεֹ which follows somewhat later in the passage; whilst Hengstenberg unites it closely with the noun which immediately precedes it, as those do also who advocate the first mentioned explanation. These, then, translate, mostly, “his holy one” (the plural of the Vulg. is against the text), and take it in the ethical sense = his pious one, following the Sept.: τὸνὅσιοναὐτόυ. The grammatical connection is then usually more correctly explained after the analogy of Psa 17:7 (Rosenm.), at the same time, with a different meaning of the word. Thus Ewald, Maurer, Olsh, De Wette translate: he that is faithful to him; Camphausen: he that is devoted to him; Hitzig: his friend; J. H. Michaelis: gratiosum sibi. Hupfeld endeavors to show that the parallel passage, Psalms 31:21, favors the connection of μεֹ with the verb, and that ηָ ?ρִ ?ιγ, a denominative of ηֶ ?ρֶ ?γ, must derive its meaning from the specific idea and terminus of the grace and mercy of God, first of all towards Israel, then towards the individually pious; and that the passive form of the verb also, according to the passive meaning = favored, standing in a condition of grace, in a covenant of grace with Jehovah in the Old Covenant, is almost the only prevailing meaning; whilst the meaning accepted here by Calvin (benignum), and by him and Hengstenberg (one who has and exercises love), as the original and justifiable usage, seldom occurs (e. g., of God’s grace towards men, Psalms 145:17; Jeremiah 3:12; of the kindness of men towards one another, Psalms 12:1; Psalms 18:25; Psalms 43:1; Micah 7:2; as a religious practice well pleasing to God, Hosea 6:6, according to its nature and derivation as ηָ ?ρִ ?ιγ of Elohim or Jehovah, 1 Samuel 10:14; 2 Samuel 9:13), and originated from transfer, which goes to the farthest extent, Jeremiah 2:2. Delitzsch hesitates respecting the derivation and meaning of this word upon which he erroneously lays the chief emphasis. But the emphasis, according to position and sense, belongs partly to the verb which, according to him, means not only mere selection, but wonderful selection, partly to the pronoun, whose position also at the end of the sentence, according to the grammatical connection which he approves, in any case attracts attention, and according to my view expresses this thought: that he who is distinguished by God is, in his position of grace and honor, not only of some importance for men, but also for God, and is designed, and stands ready for the Divine service and glory. This suits the situation better, and means more than if the Psalmist merely said that to which the grammatical separation of μεֹ from the verb would lead: he has not been brought into his high position by men but by God, or also he has already experienced previously many wondrous guidances. But the analogy of Scripture is against the view that he sought the reason of his election, elevation, and support, in his subjective piety, goodness, or any other moral excellence, or that he would base on these the assurance that his present prayer would be heard. But it is frequently to be seen in sacred history that Jehovah has selected from the crowd of those whom He has favored, some one for His special use, who also is conscious of this relation, and may appeal to it for comfort. Str. II. Psalms 4:4. Tremble.—[“Stand in awe,” A. V.], viz.: before the wrath of God. The translation of the Septuagint ὀργίζεσθε, as Ephesians 4:6 [Be ye angry and sin not] is grammatically possible, for the Hebrew verb denotes in general, to be shaken, to be unquiet; and indicates as well, trembling on account of wrath as of fear (Augustine, Luther, Hitzig). But in no case can the negative be drawn to the verb, (as Dathe, and even Hengstenberg). The context favors the view that here also, as in most cases, the trembling of the creature before the appearance of God (Hupf.) is used as the motive of warning. [Delitzsch: “He warns His adversaries of blind passion, and advises them to quiet meditation and solitary consideration that they may not ruin their own salvation.” Riehm: “You may continue to be angry (until by Divine help your anger is shown to be unreasonable), but at least do not sin by abusing the man who is favored by Jehovah, but instead of giving vent to your anger in abusive words, speak in your heart upon your bed, and be silent. This suits the context, and since ragaz can scarcely mean holy fear of God without ξτּ ?πι this explanation is preferable.” Wordsworth supposes that “David now turns from his enemies to his friends, and checks their wrath. David may be supposed to be addressing such zealous partisans as Abishai his nephew, who, when David was flying from Absalom, was transported with indignation against his persecutors, and craved leave to take off the head of Shimei, who cursed David, and was restrained by him in the spirit of this Psalm. See also David’s merciful charge with regard to the life of Absalom himself, 2 Samuel 18:5.” The historical allusion of Wordsworth seems to be the most correct, the grammatical explanation of Riehm the most proper. It seems more harmonious with Wordsworth (vid. further below) to make the change from enemies to worldly-minded friends here, Psalms 4:4 instead of Psa 4:6, as is generally done.—C. A. B.] The addition of in your heart [“with your heart,” A. V.] indicates the speaking [“commune,” A. V.] as an internal one, which every one does within himself, and indeed as spiritual consideration and deliberation; for the heart, according to Hebrew ideas, is not so much the pathological seat of the feelings, as the sphere of ethical, rational consideration in order to form determinations of the will. The quiet of evening, and the silence of the night which works mightily upon the inner life of man, is especially suited to such consideration and reflection as involves moral resolutions. The couches are therefore to be regarded as beds (Aben Ezra) and not as divans in the assemblies (Mich. Or. Bibl. X. 126). Be still, could mean the silence from calumniation (Aben Ezra, Ewald, Kφster, Olsh.) or even the keeping quiet, as well in the sense of quiet submission to the Divine will in contrast to murmuring and contradicting, as in that of discontinuing his movements (Hupf.) It is not correct to suppose that it is the discontinuance of the raging of the rebels in consequence of reflection (Hengst., Delitzsch). The explanation of Hitzig: those who are excited to anger might occasionally be angry, but not lend any words to their ill-humor towards God lest they sin, leaves entirely out of consideration the fact that even the language of anger kept close in the heart is a sin, and that Jehovah is a discerner of the heart. [However they might quiet their anger by meditation in the still hours of the night. And if this is addressed to his own followers, Joab and Abishai, etc., they had reason for righteous indignation, to be angry in the sense of the Apostle, but not to sin. They were to restrain their wrath by meditation, and be still, lest it should burst forth beyond its just limits and become sin. Perowne: “Let the still hours of the night bring calmer and wiser thoughts with them.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 4:5. Offer sacrifices of righteousness.—The difficulty of finding the true connection vanishes with the consideration that already in the previous verse the rebels received a Summons in the form of a warning to act righteously, and indeed essentially with reference to religion, and that this demand already passed over into direct exhortation; furthermore, that the rebels who were in possession of Jerusalem performed the sacrifices, but lacked the proper disposition which was likewise demanded by the law; finally that there is expressed not so much a contrast to a mean and vain trust in their own prudence, power, and earthly possessions, (De Wette), which their opponents were, it is true, in possession of (Psalms 4:7 b.), and still less an encouragement to his timid companions to trust in God, but rather the contrast between those who depend on Jehovah, and those who depend on the ceremonies and lip service which they practice; for the rebellion against the Anointed of Jehovah can be consistent only with the latter and not with the former.—Sacrifices of righteousness are not only those which are performed correctly according to the ritual; not only the sacrifices due on account of sins that have been committed, after the presentation of which they are to turn with hope to Jehovah (Ewald, Olshausen); so also not righteous works and moral actions in a symbolical sense (with which interpretation Hitzig regards as most correct, righteousness itself as the sacrifice which is to be brought, and indeed perhaps not righteousness towards the Psalmist, but proper behaviour towards Jehovah, whilst the glory due to Him is given, and the obligated trust is bestowed upon Him); but true sacrifices performed with a disposition in accordance with the will of God, and the meaning of the law.Str. IV. Psalms 4:6. Many.—These are no longer those previously addressed (the most interpreters, even Hitzig); but also not the people in general (Calv.); nor men of the world, who long after earthly blessings (Hupf. [Barnes]); nor companions in suffering in general, especially among the fellow-countrymen of the Psalmist (De Wette); nor unsatisfied complainers (Sachs); but those constantly increasing in number in David’s little band who were discouraged. The words are not an ordinary proverb of the carnal disposition of the multitude (Venema), nor a question of impatience or of reproach (Hupf.), but a doubting question of despondency in view of the future (Delitzsch). It is better to take it as a question than as an optative, (De Wette) although the latter is possible. Lift upon us the light of thy countenance. These words are treated by Hupfeld and Camphausen as still the words of the many, but it is more suitable to ascribe them to the author, in whose intercession the two solemn expressions of priestly blessing, Numbers 6:25-26, “make shine,” “lift up” melt pregnantly together. It is doubtful whether there is not still a third reference entwined with the others by an allusion of the form πְ ?ρַ ?δ (for the pointing compare Sommer’s Bibl. Abhandl. I. 110) to πֵ ?ν = banner, standard (Sachs: let stream; Delitzsch, better: let wave). But since Delitzsch himself grants that the derivation (Isaki, Rosenm.) from πρν is not allowable, and the reference is only to be recognized by the eye, and not by the ear, it is advisable, with Aben Ezra, Luther, et al., to hold fast to this; that πְ ?ρָ ?δ is like πְ ?ωָׂ ?ΰ (which is indeed the reading of 1 Codd. Kenn.), especially as the last mentioned form of the imperative is used also in Psalms 10:12 instead of the usual form, ωָׂ ?ΰ. E. von Ortenberg (Zur Textkritik der Psalmen, 1861, p. 2) wishes also to make the alteration even there. The Vulgate has signatum est, according to the Sept.: ἐσημειώθη = made known by a sign, which is explained by most interpreters: it beams so that it may be known. [Riehm: “instead of despairing, he believes; instead of complaining, he prays. He opposes his own prayer to the unbelieving question of the many.”—Upon us. Alexander: “indicates the expansive, comprehensive spirit of true piety, extends the prayer to his companions in misfortune.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 4:7. Greater than [More than—A. V.].—This sentence is very much contracted, and contains really three ellipses: (1) of an adjective, greater or better; (2) of the idea compared, joy; (3) of the relative either after time (Gesenius), or after new wine (J. H. Mich.), especially if we would translate according to the accents: than at the time of their corn and new wine, when they are abundant; and if we would not take the following ψαּ ?εּ as an independent clause: they are many. For the particulars comp. Hupfeld. Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Flaminus, Sachs, avoid the ellipses with the exception of that of the relative by the translation: since that their corn, etc. This translation is, however, connected with historical explanations which are entirely untenable The translation of the Vulg. follows the reading of the Sept.: of the fruit of their corn and wine and oil they had abundance. But instead of a fructu, many ancient Psalteries read (vid. Schegg) a tempore, which leads to the reading ἀπὸ καιροῦ instead of ἀπὸ καρποῦ. Ewald, Olsh., Camph. explain the suffix as impersonal. Hupfeld refers it to the many (Psalms 4:6); most others, correctly, to the enemies of the poet, and indeed most properly thus: that the quiet joy of the royal Psalmist, who rejoices in God, whilst he is suffering want in a time when food can only occasionally be brought to him, owing to the hostility excited against him in almost the entire land (2 Samuel 16:1; 2 Samuel 17:26 sq.), is set far above the loud raging of his enemies, who revel in the abundance of harvest; consequently the historical reference is maintained even here against the supposition that the poet merely uses a proverbial expression (Hupf., Hitzig, Camphausen, et al.) in order to put his religious joy higher than the highest worldly joy. [Delitzsch: “David had come to Mahanaim, whilst the rebels were encamped in Gilead. The land round about him was hostile, so that he had received provisions as stolen for his support, 2 Samuel 17:26-29. Perhaps it was about the time of the feast of the Tabernacles. The harvest of grain and wine was past. A rich harvest of corn and new wine had been brought into the barns. Absalom’s collectors of revenue had a strong support in these rich provisions of which they had the disposal. David and his little band had the appearance of a band of beggars and freebooters. But the king, who has been brought from the sceptre to the beggar’s staff, is even more joyous than the rebels. What he has in his heart is a better treasure than they have in their barns and cellars.” Wordsworth: “Many among you (David is speaking to his followers, who accompanied him in his flight from Jerusalem over the Mount of Olives, and look wistfully and despondingly on the city from which they were driven), many among you are saying, Where is any hope left? Who will show us any good? And he turns from them and raises his eyes to God: ‘Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. ’We cannot now, it is true, offer the sacrifices of victims before the Ark at Jerusalem, but we may offer the sacrifices of the spirit. We have not access to the Urim and Thummim on the High Priest’s breast-plate in the sanctuary; but God will lift up the light of His countenance upon us. We cannot now receive the benediction of the Priests: ‘The Lord bless thee and keep thee: the Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace’ (Numbers 6:24-26); but the Lord Himself is ever present with us to bless us, and He lifts up the light of His countenance upon us. There is our true good. There is our genuine gladness,—a gladness of heart,—greater than any which our enemies can feel on account of the increase of their material blessings of corn and wine (Psalms 4:7).”—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 4:8. The rapid change of experience which is admitted to prevail is so inconceivable to some interpreters, that they do not even regard the assurance of the praying Psalmist that he has received joy from the Lord, as a principle derived from experience (with Hupfeld), to which the praying man can refer in joyful remembrance, with a glance towards the gracious light of the Divine countenance; still less, with Hengstenberg, do they allow without question that it is an expression of the comfort of faith received into the heart in consequence of the prayer just uttered, and of the assurance of faith in its being heard; so also they do not put a pause somewhere between Psalms 4:6-7 as indispensable, that the agitated breast of the poet may have time to breathe, in order that his feelings may become composed; but they suppose a longer space, and postulate for it a joyful heart, which then Hitzig has spun to the conjecture that Psalms 4:7-8 might have been subsequently added by the poet. If a particular event is insisted on between Psalms 4:6-7, then it is easier, instead of conjecturing any unknown good fortune, to suppose the fact well known to all experienced believers, that in ardent prayers made in times of severe calamity, they receive a Divine promise of certainly being heard, and are transported with a bound from sickness to joy by the gracious countenance of God shining upon them personally in the most fearful night of calamity. But even this spiritual explanation is entirely unnecessary here, for the supposition of a change of sentiment is simply forced into the text. Already in Psalms 4:3 the Psalmist has expressed the confidence that his prayers would be heard, in the assurance of his peculiar relation to God, and from this position called upon his enemies to repent. From the same situation and confidence he continues to speak when he draws forth from their sighs and murmurs, the question circulating among his followers which had remained true to him, though discouraged. This question must be answered, and he answers it at once, but not theoretically or didactically, but practically, religiously and ethically, so that the hearers who are spiritually wretched may be drawn into his comforting exercise, viz., to prepare themselves a peaceful and quiet sleep in the midst of their enemies by invoking Divine grace, by thankful confession of blessings already experienced, and by resignation to the protection of the Almighty. Directly will I lay me down and sleep.—The adverb, according to Hupfeld, is without emphasis and merely serves to unite two synonymous verbs. But it is this very coincidence of that which the two verbs thus combined express, that is here undeniably expressed by the adverb, Psalms 141:10; Jeremiah 42:14 (Ewald, Delitzsch, Camph., Hitzig), which, after Aben Ezra, is explained by some: at the same time with my enemies; by others: together with my enemies. [Perowne: At once will I lay me down and sleep—as soon as I lie down, I sleep, not harassed by disturbing and anxious thoughts.—C. A. B.]—Alone in safety.—It is doubtful whether the adverb is to be connected with Jehovah according to the authority of the Punctators, for which, among recent interpreters, Ewald, Olsh., Camph. decide, and Hupfeld also at least inclines to this, because the reference to Jehovah as the only ground of his safety corresponds with the previous contrast (Calvin: the alone sufficient One, who recompenses the whole world); or whether it belongs to the speaker in the signification “alone,” “separate,” with which the idea of safety and intimacy is connected (especially clear in Jeremiah 49:31). I decide for this last interpretation, which is found in Sept., Vulg., and all ancient translations, and Sachs, De Wette, Von Lengerke, Delitz., Hitzig, among recent interpreters, because this not only gives a good sense, but because only Deuteronomy 32:12 can be adduced in the language for the possibility of the first signification, whilst all other passages are in favor of the latter, especially Deuteronomy 33:28 is analogous, and perhaps typical, just as for the last words of the Psalm, Leviticus 25:18-19. Hengstenberg, who makes this prominent, would unite both references and adduces as a real parallel, Deuteronomy 33:12. [Riehm: “The thought that Jehovah is the only protection, is without motive in the context, as it is not said that he lacked other protection, nor of the many that they sought other protection anywhere else. The μαγγ and μαθη are parallel, and express a common idea as the two verbs in the first member.” So Alexander: “Alone in safety thou wilt make me dwell.” These remarks of Riehm are convincing. Delitzsch: “The iambics with which the Psalm closes, are as the last sounds of a cradle song, which dies away softly, and as it were, falling to sleep itself. Dante is right; the sweetness of the music, and harmony of the Hebrew Psalter, has been lost in the Greek and Latin translations.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. He who knows the moral nature of God, stands in a gracious personal relation to Him, and experiences Divine assistance; has, even in severe times, joyfulness in prayer, courage for the struggle ordained for him, confidence in the help of God, and comfort with reference to the issue of his affliction. 2. Righteousness and Grace are not opposed to one another in God, but man must not forget that he must enter into positive and active relations with reference to both of these attributes of God, if he would obtain and retain righteousness, peace, and joy. “He who is perplexed with Divine government amidst the confusion in the world’s movements, and asks: where then is Providence? demands that he should be directed to the sun in clear noonday” (Chrysostom). 3. He who is assured of his election, and his favor with God, loses all fear of man. But he must value the position given him, and should not only defend himself therein against calumniation, and stand out against assaults, but should strengthen himself in it by submission to God, and remind others, even his adversaries, of their duty, and stimulate them by warning, admonition, and summons, to perform their obligations. 4. Where God causes His face to shine, there man is enabled to behold what he desires to see for his comfort and consolation in hours of gloom, which either he could not perceive in the hour of affliction, or could not profit by it, owing to the care, and fear, and unbelief, and doubt, which darkened his soul. The hope of faith is opposed to the doubt of unbelief, and the protection of God is better than many thousands of guards, and warlike companions. AND We do well, first of all, to speak with God, and then to transact business with our neighbors.—When the world is at enmity with us the friendship of God is: 1) The best consolation; 2) the surest help.—There is no night too dark to be illuminated when God shows us the light of His countenance—The best care for our welfare is: 1) The thankful acknowledgment of God’s mercy; 2) the consideration of God’s justice; 3) the fervent supplication for confirmation of God’s faithfulness and omnipotence.—All the ways of the pious begin and end with trust in the faithful God.—He who appeals to his state of grace must see to it: 1) That he makes his own calling and election sure; 2) that he helps others to be saved.—The pious have these constant gains: 1) Righteousness, from faith in the grace of God; 2) joy in God, raised above all anxiety and desire for the world; 3) the peace of God which passeth all understanding.—A pious man may be sorely afflicted in the world, yet he will never feel that he is forsaken by God.—The righteous have always joy and peace.—The worst darkness is that of the soul which believes it can see no future good.—He who lives in the favor of God, serves the Master by day, commits himself to God’s protection by night, and so has joy and peace.—Our happiness does not consist in eating and drinking, but in having a gracious God and a good conscience.Starke: Prayer is the comfort of a sorrowful heart; for we know that God hears our prayers.—When we pray to God we should, as it were, support the prayer with the previous mercies of God; for experience worketh hope, which maketh not ashamed, Romans 5:14.—Whoever would be great with God must be unimportant in the eyes of the world.—All that worldlings esteem to be great is only vanity, nothingness, and perishable; when they regard it as in the highest degree necessary, yet it does not last, or stand the test.—God’s ways, in dealing with His own, are not crooked ways, which lead to hell with lies and deceit of a corrupt nature, but He leads them secretly, in holy truth and wisdom.—All disorderly affections are sinful; learn, Christian, to be still, and to judge with composure that which would move you to anger.—The sacred fire of indignation for the honor of God and against evil, must on no account be confounded with the strange fire of carnal anger.—He, who is honored with the favor of God, can easily overcome the contempt of the world.—That security which is to be condemned, comes from the flesh, but that which is blessed comes from faith, and produces true peace.—There is no true rest or safety to be found without communion with God; no hurtful disquiet or danger need be feared when under the gracious protection of the Master.—Luther: What can goodness have, which God has not?—Bugenhagen: No one can truly hope in God, and trust in Him alone, without offering to Him the sacrifices of righteousness.—Osiander: When we suffer similar need, we may yet be cheerful, if only we have a gracious God.—He who trusts in God is safe from all danger, or is sure, in the midst of danger, of having by His action a safe issue.—Selnekker: Do what is commanded thee,—do not mind the cunning and artfulness of others,—commit all that to the righteous God,—He will smooth all difficulties.—Moller: Many who seek rest, sin through impatience, because they do not console themselves with the mercy of God.—Arndt: The joy of the believer should not come from the flesh, but from God alone.—Bake: I have prayed, and pray still, and will pray all my life; I will die a suppliant.—Frisch: The movements of the heart cannot be prevented so far as their first impulses are concerned; yet a believer may refrain from giving his approbation, and prevent an outbreak in gesture, word, or deed.—Taube: The blessed relation of a child of God to the world: 1) He is alone in the world, but depends entirely upon his God; 2) he testifies before the world of their evil life and ways, as well as of his God and his religious life, and both in the spirit of truth and love; (3) he rests in God, with a joy and peace, which the world does not possess or know. [Matt. Henry: Godly men are God’s separated, sealed ones; He knows them that are His, hath set His image and superscription upon them.—Spurgeon: Observe that David speaks first to God, and then to man. Surely we should all speak the more boldly to men, if we had more constant converse with God. He who dares to face his Maker will not tremble before the sons of men.—Election is the guarantee of complete salvation, and an argument for success at the throne of grace. He who chose us for Himself, will surely hear our prayers. The Lord’s elect shall not be condemned, nor shall their cry be unheard. David was king by Divine decree, and we are the Lord’s people in the same manner; let us tell our enemies to their faces that they fight against God and destiny, when they strive to overthrow our souls.—Stay, rash sinner, stay, ere thou take the last leap. Go to thy bed and think upon thy ways. Ask counsel of thy pillow, and let the quietude of the night instruct thee! Throw not away thy soul for naught! Let reason speak ! Let the clamorous world be still awhile, and let thy poor soul plead with thee to bethink thyself before thou seal its fate and ruin it forever.—Corn and wine are but fruits of the world, but the light of God’s countenance is the ripe fruit of heaven. “Thou art with me,” is a far more blessed cry than “Harvest home.” Let my granary be empty, I am yet full of blessing, if Jesus Christ smiles upon me; but if I have all the world, I am poor without Him.—Sweet Evening Hymn! I shall not sit up to watch, through fear, but I will lie down; and then I will not lie awake, listening to every rustling sound, but I will lie down in peace, and sleep, for I have naught to fear. Better than bolts or bars is the protection of the Lord.—A quiet conscience is a good bed-fellow. How many of our sleepless hours might be traced to our untrusting and disordered minds. They slumber sweetly whom faith rocks to sleep. No pillow so soft as a promise; no coverlet so warm as an assured interest in Christ.—Spurgeon’s Treasury of David.—Thomas Watson: We set apart things that are precious; the godly are set apart as God’s peculiar treasure (Psalms 135:4); as His garden of delight (Song Son 4:12); as His royal diadem, (Isaiah 43:3); the godly are the excellent of the earth, (Psalms 16:3); comparable to fine gold, (Lamentations 4:2); double refined, (Zechariah 13:9). They are the glory of creation, (Isaiah 46:13). Origen compares the saints to sapphires and crystals; God calls them jewels (Malachi 3:17).—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Wordsworth, in accordance with this view, which seems to be more correct, speaking to his followers: “Ye are now excluded from the privilege of access to God’s altar on Mount Zion: but still you may offer sacrifices of righteousness, the sacrifice of the heart. Offer sacrifices of righteousness in mercy and meekness, not with hands stained with blood.”—C. A. B.] [De Wette supposes that the Psalmist reflects upon the many who suffer with him, and includes them in his prayer. The prayer is the optative expressing the longings of their soul and his own. “O that we might see prosperity.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 5 To the chief musician upon Nehiloth, a Psalm of David.1         Give ear to my words, O Lord,Consider my meditation. 2    Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: For unto thee will I pray. 3    My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord;In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. 4    For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: Neither shall evil dwell with thee. 5    The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. 6    Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. 7    But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. 8    Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; Make thy way straight before my face. 9    For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; Their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue. 10    Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee. 11    But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. 12    For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; With favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield. AND Respecting the title, vid. Introduction. This is a morning prayer, which is not only in general a testimony to the Divine grace and righteousness in defending and blessing the pious, and in excluding the wicked from their society, to their own destruction (Venema); or a prayer against hypocrites and false prophets who mislead the people of God and the inheritance of Christ with their human precepts (Luther); but the prayer of a pious man, surrounded by ungodly enemies, which are deceitful rather than powerful; and he prays for Divine guidance, blessing, and protection for himself, and punishment for his enemies, who are at the same time adversaries of God; and he bases both petitions on the righteousness of God, who rules over Israel as king. We thus have not only a subjective source for a didactic Psalm, in which the poet speaks in the abstract as a righteous person (Hengst.), but the reference is to a special circumstance, which yet does not appear in such a way, that we are obliged with the Rabbins to consider Doeg or Ahithophel as the real opponents of the Psalmist. Psalms 5:7 is not necessarily against David as the author of this Psalm (vid. exegesis). The interpreters differ very much in the analysis of this Psalm. It seems to me most natural; since the symbolism of numbers, accepted by Hengstenberg, is not favored at all by the structure or contents of the Psalm, and there is no sign of a homogeneous structure of the strophes, to divide according to the contents: a) An introductory invocation of God. Psalms 5:1-3; b) reasons for the Psalmist’s confidence in prayer, Psalms 5:4-7; c) petition for his own person, with reasons, Psalms 5:8-9; d) petition with respect to his opponents, Psalms 5:10; e) closing statement respecting the consequences of such a prayer being heard, with reasons, Psalms 5:11-12. Str. I. Psalms 5:1. Hear my sighs [“consider my meditation,” A. V.] The construction of the verb with the accusative, does not allow the translation “listen to.” Instead of sighs it may be translated “meditation,” (Syr., Rabb., Hengst.), since this word, which occurs only here and Psalms 39:4, is derived from a root which denotes thinking, as well as a dull tone, a low sound. Either translation gives a suitable contrast to the loud cry mentioned, Psalms 5:3. Psalms 5:2. My king.—[Hupf.: “Here, and generally in the Old Testament, not only in a general sense as Ruler of the earth, as the ancient nations called their gods kings, but in a special theocratic relation to the people of Israel, as a subject to his king, whose righteousness and protection he invokes, and can expect with confidence, Psalms 10:6; Psalms 44:4; Psalms 48:2; Psalms 68:24; Psalms 74:12; Psalms 84:3; 1 Samuel 12:12.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 5:3. In the morning.—This word has the same meaning in both members of the verse, its first use and its repetition. Hupfeld even has rejected the figurative, soon, early, but yet would find in the local reference only a poetical force; whilst Delitzsch, on the contrary, in justification of Hengst., remarks that then the allusion to the daily morning sacrifice would be done away with. But ςַ ?ψַ ?κְ is the usual word for the arrangement of the wood of the offering, Leviticus 1:7, and of the pieces offered, 1:8, 12; 6:5; the holy lamps, Exodus 27:21; Leviticus 24:8; the show bread, Exodus 40:23; Leviticus 24:8; and the arrangement of the wood for the lamb of the morning sacrifice was one of the first duties of the priest as soon as the day began. Psalms 55:17 mentions three times for prayer. [Wordsworth: “David lays his prayer on the altar as a sacrifice to God. The wood and the victim are of no avail without the spiritual sacrifice of the heart of the offerer.”—C. A. B.] This figure, Look out (Look up, A. V.), is used, Micah 7:7; Habakkuk 2:1. [Barnes: “The idea is that he would watch narrowly and carefully (as one does who is stationed on a tower) for some token of Divine favor.—This is perhaps equivalent to the Saviour’s oft-repeated command “watch and pray!” Perowne: “As the priest might look (or as Elijah looked on Carmel) for the fire from heaven to descend and consume the victim.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 5:4. For thou art not a God,etc.—The Psalmist bases his courage in drawing near to God in prayer, and his confidence of being heard on attributes which are derived from the Being of God; and indeed his confidence is based on the holiness of God, and his courage on the abundance of Divine grace; the former negatively, the latter positively. Be a guest [“dwell,” A. V.]. πּ ?εּ ?ψ is usually connected with ςν, but also with the accusative, and indeed of the person, when the idea of place is applied to persons (Hupf.) Comp. Psalms 58:4; Psalms 68:18; Psalms 120:5; Genesis 30:20. It indicates not only the right of external entrance into the temple, but the enjoyment of the rights of hospitality which include that of protection. The same figure is used, Psalms 15:1; Psalms 23:6; Psalms 27:4; Psalms 31:20; Psalms 36:8; Psalms 61:4; Psalms 84:4. [Thus Ewald, Hupf., Perowne, et al. Perowne “Evil (personified) cannot be a guest or friend of Thine; cannot tarry in Thy house, as 15:1; 61:5; not merely, however, with a reference to the temple, but to that spiritual abiding in the presence of God, and in the light of His countenance, which is the joy only of them that are true of heart. To the wicked the light of God’s countenance is a consuming fire.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 5:5. In this connection it is proper in the following verse to think of the privilege of standing before the eyes of God. It may mean however not to endure the judicial glance of God, as is usual. Instead of fools comp. Psalms 73:3; Psalms 75:4, others translate vain-glorious and haughty, or mad, raging. For the etymology of the word and its many meanings, vid. Hupfeld in loco. [Hupfeld thinks of the privilege of the nobles and others, who stand in the presence of the King, Proverbs 22:29, and the angels which are said to stand before God, Job 1:6; Job 2:1. Perowne seems to favor this view. It is the privilege of the pious to stand before God as a gracious symbol of their intimate relations with Him as Sovereign and Friend. This idea makes the entire strophe harmonious and beautiful. The three negative clauses, Psalms 5:4-5 a, are followed by three positive clauses, Psalms 5:5 b and 6, which unfold and carry out the ideas advanced positively and emphatically. There is a beautiful gradation and correspondence in the six clauses. Thus the statement that God has no pleasure in wickedness is carried out into, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity;” that evil cannot be a guest with Thee, that is, have Thy care and protection, and enjoy Thy hospitality passes over into, “Thou destroyest them that speak lies; that the foolish cannot stand in Thy sight,” that is, in Thy favor, regard, and affection, as Thy friends and favorite subjects, becomes, “the bloody and deceitful man doth the Lord abhor.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 5:7. Palace [“temple,” A. V.]. The preceding word “house” had already made many interpreters doubtful of the Davidic authorship of this Psalm; the expression “palace” seems to them entirely irreconcilable with it. As far as the former is concerned we know that bait (beit) in the Semitic languages denoted originally, the place where the night was passed, and that the signification afterwards became more general; but the reference to night-time, especially, passed out of use (vid. Fleischer in Delitzsch, Comm. on the Psalms.) It is in accordance with this that the place where God appeared to Jacob in the open field was named Beth-El, Genesis 28:17. Accordingly every place of prayer, as the place of the Divine presence might bear this name. And is it otherwise with “palace”? As soon as God is conceived as King this reference is natural and proper. That it does not at all matter about the material, follows from the designation of heaven as the palace of God, Psalms 11:4; Psalms 18:6; Psalms 29:9, and that we are not compelled to think of a large building, but that the reference is to the place of Jehovah’s throne, is proved from the fact that it is just the most holy place that is called the palace of the house, 1 Kings 6:3. Naturally also the entire temple of Solomon might be called the palace, as well as the house of God (2 Kings 23:4). But the assertion that the entire manner of the reference presupposes the temple, cannot be proved. On the contrary, the heavenly relations are throughout, the ideal and type of that which is presented on earth. Accordingly, Moses even beholds the pattern of the tabernacle (Exodus 25:40; Exodus 26:26 sq.; Hebrews 8:5), and the legal places of sacrifice were according to Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26, to be in the house of the Lord. The real sanctuary bears the same name, Joshua 6:24, and at the time of David, 2 Samuel 12:20. What form then had the “tabernacle” which David erected over the ark, 2 Samuel 6:17? We have as little knowledge of this as of the form of the house of God at Shiloh, which in 1 Samuel 2:22 is called “tabernacle of testimony” (Luther, “tabernacle of the covenant”), but 1 Samuel 1:7; 1 Samuel 1:24,”house,” and 1 Samuel 1:9; 1 Samuel 3:3, “palace.” of Jehovah (Luther always translates hekal by temple). The same interchange of names Psalms 27:4; Psalms 27:6; comp. Ezekiel 41:1. In this passage the reference is not to “prayer in the temple,” but of turning in prayer to the holy place of the throne of Jehovah. In this I agree with Hengst., but not in the statement that the object of the future coming and worship was the thanksgiving here promised on account of the deliverance wrought by the divine grace, as Psalms 66:13. The reference is certainly not to the greatness of love towards God, but to the divine grace; but so that its fulness is designated by him as the accomplishment of the Psalmist’s entrance into the sanctuary. It is necessary to regard the imperfects as future, on account of the character of the Psalm as a morning prayer, but the contrast with the preceding words limits the potential coloring = I may and will (Hupf., Delitzsch, Hitzig). Oraturi quasi c�lum ingressuri et coram majestate infinita locuturi (Hugo). Str. III. Psalms 5:8. Lead me in Thy righteousness, according to some, at least Hengstenberg, refers to the attribute of God as the righteous helper and avenger, Psalms 31:1; Psalms 31:3. But the opponents, although not exactly called “capricious” (Aquil., Jerome, and most others), are yet described, not as oppressors threatening with external danger, but as those who prepared danger with their mouths, and this character of these persons is expressed Psalms 5:9 as the reason of the petition, that God would lead the pious Psalmist in righteousness, which discloses itself in an inoffensive walk (Psalms 27:11). This righteousness, however, is not merely the virtue which God demands and is well pleasing to Him (De Wette), but a characteristic of the pious, which is indeed well pleasing to God, but yet at the same time has its source and its standard in God Himself (Hupf.), whose action is in all respects righteous. Make thy way level before me [straight before my face, A. V.).—Either make it straight before me that I may see it and find it (Hitzig), or better, make it level for me to walk. Yet this does not suppose an easy exercise of motion, without trouble, but a removal of hindrances, which are not in the person who walks, but which lie in the Divine way of righteousness, in which the Psalmist would have God lead him. In order that he may walk in safety, he requests Divine help, and indeed either by removal of the mountains of trouble, the ambushes of enemies, or the setting aside of stones of stumbling, and occasions of temptation. The decision on this point must be in accordance with the explanation of the preceding member of the verse, since this second member is added without any connecting word. Even with the latter interpretation, which we prefer, the connection with the following clause which gives the reason of the petition, although overlooked by Hupfeld, is very evident. According to another reading, approved by Grotius, the Sept., Vulg., Arab., translate: “level my path before Thee.” But Syr., Chald., Aquil., Symm., Theod., follow already the present text, and it is confirmed by the investigation of Jerome. Psalms 5:9. In their mouth.—The singular suffix among nothing but plurals, and referred to a plural, is not so much a collective as a distributive (Delitzsch) “in ore uniuscujusque eorum.” ΰֵ ?ιο is separated from its genitive by a word which is shoved in between, as Psalms 6:5; Psalms 32:2.—Abyss [“very wickedness,” A. V.] either of destruction (Psalms 38:12; Psalms 52:4; Psalms 55:11; Proverbs 17:4), or the wicked lust (Proverbs 10:13; Proverbs 11:6; Micah 7:3; perhaps Psalms 52:7; comp. Hupf.). Psalms 5:10. By their own counsels, so that these are the cause of their fall=overthrew, as Hosea 11:6, etc. (Hengst., Hupf., Camph.). Others (Olsh., De Wette, Ewald, Delitzsch), comparing Sir 14:2, refer these words to the frustration of their counsels and translate “from,” or add to it “away” [Ewald, “let them fall from their plans.”—C. A. B.], Luther even in the sense that the enemies should fall, be ruined, without being able to carry out their counsels. Hitzig maintains his explanation in accordance with the Arabic figure of “down from the counsel which they ride.” So also in the following member many translate: “owing to,” “on account of,” and understand the thrusting out [“cast out,” A. V.] as their overthrow. But since the verb in question is very frequently used for the rejection of the Israelites, and their dispersion among foreign nations, it probably means hero “their thrusting away” (Sept., Vulg., Mich., Rosenm., Delitzsch), and, indeed, whilst they thought to live in their sins, John 8:21; John 8:24—[For they have rebelled against Thee.—Perowne. “The enemies of David are the enemies of David’s God. ‘Whoso toucheth you, toucheth the apple of Mine eye,’ ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou Me?’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 5:11. And they will rejoice [“Let—rejoice,” A. V.].—Luther continues the imperative of petition. The imperfects may indeed be taken as optative, but it is better to regard them as future, since these clauses state the lot of the pious and their behaviour subsequent to the hearing of their prayer and the judicial act of God. “Ille placet Deo, cui placet Deus” (Augustine). [Psalms 5:12. Shield.—The φִ ?πַּ ?δ, Tsinnah, is a large shield, larger than ξָ ?βֵ ?ο, mβgκn, covering the whole body, used of the shield of Goliath, 1 Samuel 17:7, vid. Smith’sBib. Diet., Art. Arm.—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. He who sides with God, must be prepared as well for hostility and persecution on the part of the ungodly, as he is assured of protection on the part of the Almighty; but he must also hold fast to his communion with God, and cultivate it by prayer and Divine service, and show its power by walking in the ways of righteousness. 2. Walking in the way of righteousness has its difficulties, restraints and dangers ; but God makes the way level for those who fear Him ; God leads those who are devoted to Him upon it; God protects in it those who trust in Him. 3. To be reminded of the nature and Providence of God is a terror to the wicked, but a consolation to the pious; for the former are condemned, the latter saved thereby: therefore, also, the former feel that they are frightened away from the place where God reveals Himself a»d is worshipped; the latter, on the other hand, are drawn to this place ; and whilst the latter render prayer, praise and thanksgiving’; the former commit grievous sins with their tongue without shame or repentance. The frightful extent of natural corruption, since the fall of Adam, appears everywhere in essentially the same characteristics, hence the use made of this Psalm, in Romans 3:11 sq. 4. If those who blame us are to be declared liars, those who complain of us, slanderers, those who persecute us at the same time fools and evil-doers, and if our adversaries in general are the enemies of God, then we ourselves must be found in the closest communion with God and therefore we must diligently and faithfully make use of all the means of His grace. AND We cannot solemnize the morning more properly than by prayer and worship; we cannot consecrate the day better than by walking in the way of righteousness: we cannot make the evening more delightfully blessed than by praising the name of God, and by again committing ourselves with thankfulness to His protection.—The righteous government of God shows itself: 1) in the judgment with which He punishes the wicked ; 2) in the grace with which He blesses the pious.—God has revealed His name not only that we may know Him; we ought likewise to call upon Him, and praise Him, that we have not received the grace of God in vain. He who would receive grace must likewise use the means of grace. The ungodly devices of the wicked are the reason of their fall, the cause of their destruction; on the other hand, the pious are saved, not by their righteousness, but by the grace of God in which they have taken refuge by faith.—Blessed is the man, whose mind is fixed in righteousness, whose life is supported by the Divine grace, whose daily work is surrounded and penetrated with prayer.—God hears not only the cry, but also the sigh of prayer.—Pious kings regard themselves as the subjects of God. Starke: God is righteousness and piety itself; therefore it is impossible that the ungodly should stand before Him.—It is true, that believers have sins in themselves, but they are not evil-doers, who wantonly sin and make a business of sinning.—Although the vices of lying, blood-thirstiness and deceitfulness are in the highest degree accursed and injurious, yet they are usually found together.—O man, learn to tame thy mouth and bridle thy tongue, else thou art like a wild beast in human form.—The man who is guided by God is not led astray; he who is led by God does not err or stumble, neither in faithnor in life; and this grieves his enemies.—What an abomination is an unconverted man! What a poisonous, wicked heart man has by nature I No sin is too great for him to commit, if not restrained by the grace of God.—The reason of condemnation is not the lack of grace, the love of God, and the redemption of Christ, but the guilt of wanton obstinacy. The joy of believers in the righteous judgment of God upon the ungodly, is no revengeful satisfaction in the misfortunes of their enemies, but a sacred satisfaction in the preservation of the Divine truth, holiness, righteousness, and the honor of His name.—The grace of God is the believer’s ornament and crown, but likewise his shelter, protection, and shield. Grace adorns him with righteousness, and protects him from condemnation.—Here is the labor, there is the reward; here is the conflict, there the crown ; a crown of grace instead of the crown of thorns borne in this world. Although we should pray for our enemies, who either have slandered our persons, or persecuted us from ignorance of the truth, Matthew 5:44; yet we ought not to pray for those who blaspheme against known truth, or persecute those who confess it; for they sin against the Holy Ghost and unto death, Matthew 12:32; 1 John 5:6; yet we may likewise pray against them not from revengeful feelings, but from a zeal for God, Psalms 59:5. Luther: We should be pious before man, and stand in fear before God.—Calvin: God Himself will be to us such a God as we need; and we can and should make such a God of our God.—Osiander: Although God has no bodily ears, for He is a Spirit (John 4:24); yet He hears very sharply (Psalms 94:9).—We should avoid giving our enemies occasion to blaspheme the name of God and His holy Gospel, on account of our ill treatment of them.—Arndt: The righteousness of faith and Christian life are a mighty protection and victory over bodily and spiritual enemies.—Trust in God brings blessing and grace.—Menzel: We should hold fast to the righteous God and His sure Word; come what will, it will have a good issue, as the contrary does not fail that crowd which forsakes Him.—Franke: When the children of the world are in need and misery, they run about and seek here and there for help, and leave God in the heavens. On the other hand, a true child of God lets all others go, and goes to his Father in his need.—Renschel: Sin without fear, and hypocrisy, have as their reward punishment and hate; piety has the crown of grace.—Frisch: In order to overcome the enmity of the world, David goes first to the sanctuary, then he gives himself to prayer, humiliates himself before God, and calls upon Him for help and assistance for the sake of the Messiah; finally he undertakes to walk in God’s ways, and resigns himself to the holy government of God.—Even the righteous and pious have still so many weaknesses that they cannot do without the Divine guidance.—Herberger: The more wickedly our enemies rage, the riper are they for punishment, the nearer their ruin.—What God roots out and casts away you should not plant, cherish, and praise.—What we lack in our houses, we may seek in the house of God.—As the wagon goes on two tracks so Christianity runs on in two parts, in pure faith and irreproachable life.—It is better that God should precede us with his favor, than follow us with the sharp rod.—He who is to dwell in the heavens, God crowns with four crowns: (1) With the crown of grace and mercy, Psalms 5.; (2) with the crown of virtue and piety (Sirach 1.); (3) with the crown of the cross and adversity, Isaiah 22:17; (4) with the crown of life, of honor, and of everlasting bliss (James 1:12).—Rieger: To walk before the eyes of our heavenly Father is very desirable.—The more we know and experience of the world and human wickedness the more we desire the gracious government of God.—Taube: A model of a prayerful life for the children of God. Notice (1) how devout David’s soul is towards God; (2) how well acquainted he is with God; (3) how humble before God; (4) how bold towards his God; (5) how happy in his God. [Matt. Henry: Four things David here promiseth, and so must we. (1) That he will pray; that he will make a conscience of it, and make a business of it; “unto Thee will I pray.” Others live without prayer, but I will pray. Kings on their thrones must be beggars at God’s throne. (2) That he will pray in the morning. Morning prayer is our duty; we are the fittest for prayer when we are in the most fresh, lively, and composed frame, got clear of the slumbers of the night, revived by them, and not yet filled with the business of the day. (3) That he will have his eye single, and his heart intent on the duty. As a marksman directs his arrow to the white; or as we direct a letter to a friend at such a place. (4) That he will patiently wait for an answer of peace. We must look up or look out, as he that has shot an arrow looks to see how near it has come to the mark.—Spurgeon: There are two sorts of prayers—those expressed in words, and the unuttered longings which abide as silent meditations. Words are not the essence, but the garments of prayer.—Here is a grand argument why God should answer prayer—because He is our King and our God. We are not aliens to Him: He is the King of our country. Kings are expected to hear the appeals of their own people. We are not strangers to Him; we are His worshippers, and He is our God; ours by covenant, by promise, by oath, by blood.—While the dew is on the grass, let grace drop upon the soul. Let us give to God the morning of our days, and the morning of our lives. Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. Devotion should be both the morning star and the evening star.—We should be careful to keep the stream of meditation always running; for this is the water to drive the mill of prayer. It is idle to pull up the flood-gates of a dry brook, and then hope to see the wheel revolve.—Neither on earth nor in heaven shall evil share the mansion of God. Oh, how foolish are we if we attempt to entertain two guests so hostile to one another as Christ Jesus and the Devil! Rest assured Christ will not live in the parlor of our hearts if we entertain the Devil in the cellar of our thoughts.—Spurgeon’s Treasury of David.—Gurnall: For want of looking up, many a prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this, but to take His name in vain? O, Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise.—Haldane: What proceeds out of their mouth is infected and putrid; and as the exhalation from a sepulchre proves the corruption within, so it is with the corrupt conversation of sinners.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [“Meditation” is the better translation adopted by Ewald, Hupfeld, Perowne, Delitzsch, et al.—C. A. B.] Psalms 6 To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith. A Psalm of David1         O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 2    Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. 3    My soul is also sore vexed: But thou, O Lord, how long? 4         Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: Oh save me for thy mercies’ sake. 5    For in death there is no remembrance of thee: In the grave who shall give thee thanks? 6    I am weary with my groaning; All the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. 7    Mine eye is consumed because of grief; It waxeth old because of all mine enemies. 8         Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. 9    The Lord hath heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer. 10    Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. AND Respecting the title, compare the Introduction. The Church has with propriety made this Psalm the first of the seven penitential Psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.). For we recognize here, not the prayer of one who was greatly troubled (Francke Introductio p. 64), but the supplication of a man who has been brought by Divine chastisements (Psalms 6:1) to the border of the grave (Psalms 6:5-7), who yet is assured of being heard (Psalms 6:8-9), directed (Psalms 6:2), and sustained (Psalms 6:4) by grace. And yet he feels the wrath of God not in sickness (Aben Ezra, Ewald), but in distress through ungodly enemies (Psalms 6:7-8; Psalms 6:10), and he grieves so much, that bodily weakness is the consequence of his anguish of soul (Psalms 6:2-3; Psalms 6:6-7). The opinion, that the description of sickness is only a highly colored illustration of trouble (to which Hupfeld inclines), is not supported by the text, still less the conjecture that the sufferer is the Jewish nation, or the better part of it which was in exile (Aben Ezra prophetically, De Wette historically). The points of contact with Jeremiah (Hitzig, Maurer, Olsh.) are of the kind that they presuppose rather the greater antiquity of the Psalm; for Jeremiah 10:24, corresponding with this Psalm, is directly followed, Psalms 6:25, with words from Psalms 39:6 sq. (Delitzsch). Hengstenberg, very properly against Hitzig, refers to 1 Samuel 30:6; 2 Samuel 12:16 sq.; 1 Samuel 15:30, as historical proofs of a similar disposition in David, and Delitzsch reminds us of the consequences of his intercourse with Bathsheba, whilst Ruding refers to the rebellion of Absalom. Not a few of the penitential hymns of the Church have grown out of this Psalm. Str. I. Psalms 6:1. Rebuke me not in Thine anger.—The position of the words shows that an emphasis is to be put upon “anger.” But in the course of the Psalm the Psalmist supplicates for the deliverance of his soul and body, and is finally convinced of his complete deliverance from the power of those who afflict him. He prays moreover not for a loving chastisement (Psalms 94:12; Psalms 118:18; Proverbs 3:11 sq.), for the sake of training the favored one, in contrast to a chastisement in anger as it comes upon the unconverted ungodly; so also not for a moderate punishment in contrast to a severe passionate treatment; but simply for a prevention of the chastisement, which because it is received as the punishment of sin, has an essential connection with the wrath of God, and would bring about the ruin of the one thus punished, unless it should be prevented by grace, Jeremiah 10:24 sq. (Calv., Hengstenberg, Hupf.). Domine quousque? was Calvin’s motto. [Riehm: “In his present condition it is as if he prayed, ‘punish me no longer.’ ” Perowne: “The Psalmist prays that the rod may altogether be removed, and that because body and mind are alike growing weary. The chastisement has been so heavy and has endured so long, and his sense of sin is so grievous, that he begins to fear lest God should shut up His tender mercies in displeasure and should consume him in His wrath.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 6:2. [I am weak—ΰֻ ?ξְ ?μַ ?μΰָ ?πִ ?ι, umlal ani. The pronoun βnξ was supposed by Gesenius to be for the affirmative = ΰֻ ?ξְ ?μַ ?μְ ?ϊִּ ?ι first pers. perf. of the pulal of ΰָ ?ξַ ?μ = to languish, to droop as plants and flowers, and thus by transfer, of trouble and care. Others (Hupfeld, Hitzig) regard it as part. pulal = ξַ ?ΰֻ ?ξְ ?μָ ?μ, the ξ being omitted, as not unfrequently in this participle, and the kametz shortened into pathach on account of the accentuation, the two words having in fact but one accent. It is better, however, with Ewald (Lehrbuch, § 157 b) and Delitzsch to regard it as an adjective, like the form ψַ ?ςֲ ?πָ ?ο, with the same change in the kametz, kindred to ΰֲ ?ξֵ ?μָ ?μ, Neh. 3:34. Barnes: “Here applied to a sick person whose strength is withered and gone. The condition of such an one is beautifully compared with a plant that withers for lack of moisture; and the word is here used in this sense as referring to the Psalmist himself when sick, as the result of his outward and mental sorrows.”—C. A. B.] Bones.—Hupfeld shows that this in poetical usage denotes, not only the frame of the body or the entire body, in all that concerns the feelings of life, but also the entire man as a sensitive being, and indeed also in spiritual or ethical and religious relations and expressions of life, comp. Psalms 35:10; Psalms 51:8. Yet there is here a reference to a shaking of the body, because the still more violent commotion of the soul is directly mentioned (Psalms 6:3). Therefore also the soul (Psalms 6:3) is not a circumlocution for the person, or substratum of the suffering subject (Hupf.); so also not a designation of the life which is endangered (J. H. Michael., Hengst.); but that real soul, which after death continues its existence with departed spirits in Hades, but yet has no complete life in itself. [Wordsworth: “The Septuagint has here ἡ ψυχήμουἐταράχθη. words adopted by our Lord Himself in His sufferings (John 12:27; Psalms 42:3-7).”—C. A. B.] Str. II. [Psalms 6:4. Return.—Perowne: “For it seems to the sufferer as if God had been absent during his affliction; and there is no hope for him but in God. Therefore the repeated prayer, ‘Do Thou be gracious unto me: how long wilt Thou be absent? Return Thou,’ etc. And observe not only ‘be gracious for I languish,’ but ‘deliver me for Thy loving-kindness’ sake.’ Any man may use the first; only one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious can use the last.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 6:5. For in death there is no remembrance of Thee.—The petition has as its motive the fact that the Divine interest itself is concerned in the deliverance of the man who can render thanks well-pleasing to God, only as living and not as one lost in death and swallowed up in Hades. Yet this is only one side of the thought. The other side (which is frequently overlooked) is likewise brought into view, namely, that the petitioner has at heart, to render thanks and praise to the glory of God. The relation is therefore in no respect a selfish one, in which the interests of selfishness prevail, but a moral and religious one. The etymology of Sheol [incorrectly rendered in A. V. “grave.”—C. A. B.] is doubtful, but not the idea which the Old Testament has of it as the gathering-place of departed spirits in a gloomy and Sorrowful place under the earth, from which there is no possible escape by human help, and in which the departed lead a shadowy existence rather than a real and complete life. Christ has not only made a change in the ideas concerning the condition of the dead, but has also partly brought about and partly made possible a change in the condition itself.Psalms 6:6. I make of my bed a flood of tears [“I water my couch with my tears,” A. V.].—Camphausen literally: “I make my bed to flow away.” We are not to substitute countenance for eye . The life of the soul as well as the body is mirrored in the eye; therefore in descriptions of bodily and spiritual condition and qualities it is often mentioned as the representative of the countenance and the entire man (Hupf.). Psalms 6:7. Hupfeld justifies the signification grief against Hengstenberg as a poetical generalization of the word which certainly in Hebrew means primarily indignation and ill-will, particularly with respect to another’s folly and unfaithfulness. [Alexander: “Mine eye has failed, grown dim, a common symptom both of mental and bodily distress; from vexation, not mere grief, but grief mixed with indignation at my enemies.” Barnes: “It waxeth old, experiences the effects commonly produced by age in blunting the power of vision. This is not an uncommon effect of grief and sadness.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. [Psalms 6:8. Alexander: “Here the key abruptly changes from the tone of sorrowful complaint to that of joyful confidence. No gradual transition could have so successfully conveyed the idea, that the prayer of the Psalmist has been heard and will be answered. The effect, is like that of a whisper in the sufferer’s ear, while still engrossed with his distresses, to assure him that they are about to terminate. This he announces by a direct and bold address to his persecuting enemies.” Perowne: “Mark the sudden change as of sunrise upon night. Already the prayer and the weeping have been heard. Already faith has triumphed.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 6:10. They will be ashamed.—The imperfects are not to be taken as optatives [“Let all mine enemies be ashamed,” etc., A. V.], but as futures, for the hearing of his prayer is so certain to the Psalmist that he has already, on this account, called out to those who afflict him in a tone of triumph: depart from me (Psalms 6:8). ωεּ ?α [A. V., return] means not penitential turning back of his enemies to the Psalmist (Aben Ezra, Kimchi), is moreover not an auxiliary to express the adverb, again, anew (Venema, Paul), but it means the external side of the failure of their attack, as αεֹ ?ω [A. V., be ashamed], the internal. Delitzsch calls our attention to the musical cadence. AND ETHICAL1. Sin draws after it punishment, and the judgment of an angry God is terrible; but only the impenitent sinner is lost, not the penitent. It is true, in bitter, heartfelt grief over his sins, he experiences a sorrow, which not only grieves the soul, but also withers the body; but he feels at the same time that he is mightily drawn towards God by this godly sorrow. He confesses his guilt and the justice of the punishment with which the holy God visits him, and makes known that he is well aware how richly he deserves the disfavor and wrath of God, and how he has forfeited his life with his sins. But he perceives in this very punishment that God is still interested in him, and he himself has still a longing after God. He can still believe in grace, and therefore pray for life; and in this consists the saving change which takes place in his condition. Ne desperando augeamus peccata, propositus est p�nitentiζ portus; rursus, ne sperando augeamus, datus est dies mortis incertus (Augustine) 2. As long as nothing is to be expected after death, but a realm of shades in the world below for the gathering of departed souls, so long fear of death is the prevailing power with the sinner, and his prayer for deliverance is chiefly directed towards the preservation of his life which is threatened. A germ of further development lies in the recognition of the fact that this preservation is a work of grace. But as long as communion with God is not yet recognized and desired as the true good in the life which has been saved by grace, and there is not found at the same time in this deliverance which is longed for, a restoration to this communion which has been destroyed by sin, so long there is lacking the assurance that there is a life higher than the earthly, and that life with, for, and in God is the only true life. But such assurance now forms the fruitful soil for thoughts of eternal life, and for faith in the resurrection of the dead. Yet this does not come into consideration here. However a step in this direction is taken by the expression of the conviction that God can receive the recognition, honor and praise due Him, only from the living, and not from the dead. 3. The relation of man to the world in general, and to other men in particular, very much depends upon the relation in which he stands to God. If a man is regarded as forsaken of God, the number and audacity of his enemies increase, he is regarded as an easy prey, and those who are themselves evil-doers think that they can judge, condemn and crush their opponent on account of his sins. But if God turns His grace upon the penitent, and accepts the contrite again, so that the hand of God is seen in his affairs delivering and blessing him, then people look more to the change of his condition than the reason for it, and but seldom does it accomplish their conversion; but they feel ashamed and retire. Quanto benignius de Deo, tanto indignius de me sentire cogor (Anselm).—Egrediente natura ingreditur Deus (Tauler). AND The severest afflictions are turned into blessings, if they (1) remind us of our guilt by which we have drawn upon us the wrath of God; (2) if they urge us to the godly sorrow of repentance; (3) if they stir us up to believing supplication for the grace of God.—It is better to fall into the hands of God than of men, for God punishes earnestly in His righteous wrath; but He likewise is gracious towards those who turn to Him in repentance.—The most bitter part of affliction is the sense of Divine wrath; but this bitterness is a healing remedy, if it excites us to seek with penitence and lay hold of the grace of God by faith.—We learn to overcome even the peril of death, if we attain to the point of seeking life with God and gaining the preservation of life from God.—Prayer and tears are the strongest weapons man can have; by them God allows Himself to be overcome.—The most fortunate turns in life take place (1) when we turn to God as converts; (2) when God turns again His grace upon us; (3) when our enemies turn away ashamed.Luther: To realize sin aright is torment above all other torments.—To wait, is in all the movements of the heart very hard and irksome.—Starke: God lays hold of the ungodly with the punishment of His wrath, but the pious with the chastisement of discipline, in order that those who bring forth fruit, may bring forth more fruit.—No one can be strengthened by God, or rightly experience the grace of God, without first experiencing his own weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).—We do not deserve any grace by the toil and anguish of our penitence for sin; yet we can present it before God, because He has promised in such disposition of the bruised heart for Christ’s sake to bestow His grace.—How long? how long? are the usual words of lamentation of cross-bearers in general, but especially of those who are inexperienced, which God is ready to receive favorably, if only they are not without faith and tranquillity.—When God turns away with His grace from man, it is the soul’s greatest sorrow; when God turns again to man with His grace, that is the redemption and hope of the soul.—The children of the world desire a long life for the sake of carnal gratification: but the children of God in order to glorify the Divine name; and thus a Christian may ask for a prolongation of his life.—Christians should not be ashamed of tears; in those who are truly penitent they are the witnesses of a painful sorrow for sin.—It is not for the laughing mouth to be truly penitent; it demands the inner repentance of the heart, body, and soul, and all the powers.—O great folly to make so much of the external beautiful form of the body, and make a show of it! how soon may it be destroyed by sickness of body or of spirit.—What sad consequences sin has when conscience awakes!—Truly he must be a loving Father who hears the supplication, weeping, and prayers of His children, even when He seems to be angry and punishes them on account of their sins.—Let no one delay to repent and be converted; for God’s punishments descend suddenly.—August.: Woe to human life, be it never so estimable and precious, if the mercy of God is not there.—Osiander: We need the chastisement of God; but we should pray that this may not be too hard for us to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).—Thus it happens, that as good days swiftly pass, one day spent in trouble and anguish appears to be a year long. Trouble and internal vexation consume all the powers of body and spirit; but God can give us new powers again.—Bugenhagen: Only he who implores the mercy of God can escape the wrath of God.—Selnekker: When thou art frightened on account of thy sins, and know not how to get rid of them, flee to God, and confess thy sins to Him; uncover them to Him, in order that He may cover them.—Eccard: It is very dangerous for a man, when it comes to this, that God punishes him in His wrath, and scourges him in His fury.—Oh and woe are among all men the best teachers and tuners of prayer.—We should flee from the angry God to the reconciled God, and we should appeal from His strong righteousness to His paternal goodness and mercy.—Three heart breakers most violently assail us: (1) When God lays hold of that part of us which gives the most pain; (2) when many needs and sorrows come together; (3) when they last long, and as it seems to us, without end.—Baumgarten: As God’s grace is better than life, so is His wrath worse than death itself.—Renschel: God has two modes of punishment: (1) The punishment of wrath; (2) that of discipline.—We may very properly pray for the prolongation of temporal life, chiefly for this purpose, that we may declare the praise, honor, and name of God.—Frisch: God sees not so much the weeping eye as the broken heart.—Herberger: On the sick bed there is no work more sacred than con fession and repentance.—When misfortune hurts the body, the soul has its consolation; when it hurts the soul it only lasts a little while to the pious.—Not to be in favor with God is the greatest pain.—Thinking and thanking belong together.—The best and the most profitable sorrow in the world is for the sins we have committed.—The prayers of the pious do not vanish in the air, but press through the clouds of heaven.—Rieger: Where a man has not attained the experience of his nothingness and weakness, and that all carnal ability, strength, and wisdom, go to ruin in him, he cannot share in the grace of God.—The sighing of the soul includes the whole of repentance, painful regret, faith, desire of Divine grace, hunger and thirst after righteousness.—Tholuck: To the man of God the bitterest drop in the cup of trouble is the sense of the wrath of God, which he experiences in the chastisements of God—Guenther: It very naturally happens that when we will not humble ourselves under the strong hand of God, the first affliction is only the weak beginning of a chain of afflictions, in which we will at last be choked unto eternal death. [Matth. Henry: Those heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them; but those are getting ready for mercy who, under God’s rebukes, sow in tears.—David, that could face Goliath himself, and many another threatening enemy, with an undaunted bravery, yet melts into tears at the remembrance of sin, and under the apprehension of Divine wrath; and it is no diminution at all to his character.—Spurgeon: This is the right way to plead with God if we would prevail. Urge not your goodness or your greatness, but plead your sin and your bitterness. Cry, “I am weak,” therefore, O Lord, give me strength, and crush me not.—Send not forth the fury of Thy tempest against so weak a vessel. Temper the wind to the shorn lamb. Be tender and pitiful to a poor withering flower, and break it not from its stem.—When we seek pardon, we are not asking God to do that which will stain His banner, or put a blot on His escutcheon. He delighteth in mercy. It is His peculiar, darling attribute.—Repentance is a practical thing. It is not enough to bemoan the desecration of the temple of the heart, we must scourge out the buyers and sellers, and overturn the tables of the money changers. A pardoned sinner will hate the sins which cost the Saviour His blood. Grace and sin are quarrelsome neighbors, and one or the other must go to the wall. Weeping is the eloquence of sorrow. It is an unstammering orator, needing no interpreter, but understood of all. Is it not sweet to believe that our tears are understood even when words fail? Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers, and of weeping as a constant dropping of importunate intercession which will wear its way right surely into the very heart of mercy, despite the stony difficulties which obstruct the way.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [It is said the most intense grief and trouble could not extract from him another word.—C. A. B.] [ωׁ ?ΰεֹ ?μ. Gesenius, Ewald, Bφttch., Maurer, e’ al., regard it as from the r*ot ωΰμ = ωςμ = to dig, hollow out, like ωׂ ?ςַ ?μ= hollow of the hand. ξִ ?ωְׁ ?ςεֹ ?μ = hollow way, thus meaning a hollow, subterranean place. Germ., Hφlle = Hφhle = hollow, cavern; Eng., hell. Hupfeld derives it from ωΰμ, an old root similar to πωׁ ?μ ,ωׁ ?μδ ,ωׁ ?μμ ,ωׁ ?εֹ ?μ, the radical letter being μ, with the idea of loose, lax, hanging down, in a double direction, expressing the idea of sinking down and separation (as χάω. hio χαλάω, etc.), hence the derivative idea of being swallowed up, abyss, depth (as in the poetical ϊַ ?ηְ ?ϊִ ?ιεֹ ?ϊδΰψυ), and also that of chasm. hollow empty space, as in Germ. Hφlle and in χάσμα, χαος (also used for hell). So also Delitzsch. The former derivation is preferable. Delitzsch: “The Psalmist knows only one gathering-place for the dead in the depths of the earth, where they indeed live, but only a quasi life, because they have departed from the light of this world, and what is more lamentable, from the light of the Divine presence.” The Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades were alike. As the grave was the place of the dead body, Sheol or Hades was the place of departed spirits. This was taken for granted in the Old Testament, together with the doctrine of immortality, and there is a remarkable absence of revelation concerning it. The joy of God’s people was in the theocracy as existing in this world, and in the Messianic future, and it was not until the Messiah came, and died, and passed through the grave to a resurrection, that light shone upon the abode of the departed spirits, and even here a light only so far as that the light of a glorious resurrection shines through the riven grave and Hades (2 Timothy 1:10). Perowne: “The argument here employed is no doubt characteristic of the old dispensation. They who then feared and loved God, nevertheless walked in shadows, and their hope was not yet full of immortality. Hence their earnest clinging to life, so different from St. Paul’s ‘desire to depart,’ to which there is nothing parallel in the Old Testament. It was not that they dreaded annihilation, but rather a kind of disembodied existence apart from the light of God’s presence.—The Old Testament saints pleaded with God for life, in order that life might be consecrated to His service. And it is very touching to see how, with the weakness of man’s heart, trembling at dissolution, there mingles the child-like confidence which fears not to advance the plea that God’s glory is concerned in granting its request.” Compare Hezekiah’s sickness, Isaiah 38:18-19, also Moses’ prayer for the life of the people, Numbers 14:13-21.—C. A. B.] Psalms 7 Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the LORD, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite1         O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: 2    Lest he tear my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. 3    O Lord my God, if I have done this; If there be iniquity in my hands; 4    If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) 5    Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it;Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, And lay mine honor in the dust. Selah. 6    Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: And awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. 7    So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: For their sakes therefore return thou on high. 8    The Lord shall judge the people: Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. 9    Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. 10    My defence is of God, Which saveth the upright in heart. 11    God judgeth the righteous, And God is angry with the wicked every day. 12    If he turn not he will whet his sword; He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. 13    He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. 14    Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, And hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. 15    He made a pit, and digged it, And is fallen into the ditch which he made. 16    His mischief shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. 17    I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: And will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. AND Title.—For an explanation of Shiggaion, vid. Introduct. Ewald, Maurer, G. Baur, Hitzig, find the tradition of the composition of this Psalm confirmed by its contents and language. Yet Hitzig refers to 1 Samuel 26, whilst Hengstenberg more properly regards 1 Samuel 24. as indicating the circumstances; but he aptly reminds us that the greater portion of Benjamin for a long time adhered to the house of Saul (1 Chronicles 12:29), and is disposed to refer the title to the author himself. Most interpreters properly take Cush to be a proper name, but suppose, on account of the time, not the message of Cushi mentioned (2 Samuel 18:32), but one of the tale-bearers mentioned only in general (1 Samuel 24:9). There is no occasion to find in Cush the figurative designation of a man of black wickedness (the Jewish interpreters, except Aben Ezra), and then think particularly of Saul. Kimchi and Hengst. find even a reference to his father Kish. The reference to the slanderer Shimei (Luther et al.) with a similar figurative interpretation does not agree with the time of composition. [Riehm: “Since Psalms 7:4 b agrees entirely with the fact that David, according to 1 Sam 24. and 26., protected Saul’s life from his companions in arms, David, also at that time, as in this Psalm, asserting his innocence and appealing to the judgment of God, (1 Samuel 24:12 sq., 1 Samuel 24:16; 1 Samuel 26:18; 1 Samuel 26:23 sq.), the supposition that David composed the Psalm towards the end of the persecution of Saul is very reasonable. We might then conjecture that the slander of this Cush caused his departure to the king of Achish of Gath.”—C. A. B.] It is not to be recommended to translate: “with regard to,” as Jeremiah 7:22; Jeremiah 14:1; Deuteronomy 4:21, instead of “on account of the words.” The structure of the strophes is very uneven, and not very complete, hence they have been very differently divided. In my opinion, after the introductory cry for help which the threatened Psalmist makes, Psalms 7:1-2, there follows a strong protestation of his innocence with respect to the accusations raised against him, Psalms 7:3-5. On this he bases his invocation of Jehovah to begin and carry on his judgment, Psalms 7:6-7. The Psalmist then, with a good conscience, claims this judicial activity of God especially for himself, Psalms 7:8-9, expresses his trust in Divine protection, as well as his confidence in the punishment of the unconverted by God, Psalms 7:10-13, sees the ruin of his enemies already before his eyes, Psalms 7:14-16, and closes with the assurance of his joyful gratitude, Psalms 7:17. [Perowne. “ ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right,’ might stand as the motto of this Psalm. In full reliance on God’s righteousness, David appeals to Him to judge his cause. The righteous God cannot but save the righteous and punish the wicked.”—C. A. B.] Str. I. Psalms 7:1. [Delitzsch: “With this word of faith, hope, and love, this holy captatio benevolentiζ, David begins likewise, Psalms 10:1; Psalms 16:1; Psalms 31:1; compare 71:1. The perfect is inchoative: in thee have I taken my refuge = in thee do I trust.Psalms 7:2. The persecutors are regarded as wild beasts, as lions who rend their prey and crush their bones. Thus do they thirst for his ‘soul,’ that is for his life.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 7:3. [Barnes: O Lord, my God.—“A solemn appeal to God for the sincerity and truth of what he is about to say.”—C. A. B.]—If I have done this.—Most ancient interpreters refer this to the accusation of his opponents presupposed as known, most recent interpreters since Rosenm. following Isaki, to that which follows; vid. however the reasons for the former reference in Hitzig, which are worthy of consideration. Most ancient translations then unite ωμξιψς, Psalms 7:4, whose accentuation also most MSS. have and give as the sense: If I have recompensed him, who has recompensed me with evil. So also among recent interpreters: Sachs, Bφttcher, Olsh., Hitzig. Hitzig rejects the assertion of Hengst. and Hupf. that ωμν has the meaning of recompense only in the Piel, yet he translates: “If I do evil to him who recompenses it to me.” He prefers the connection of the words which is indicated in only one MSS., an Erfurt Codd. (vid. variations in J. H. Mich.), yet which lies at the basis of the translations of the Chald., Kimchi, Luther, Calv., Rudinger, Hengst., Hupf., De Wette, Delitzsch. All of these however find the idea of friend expressed (literally, he who is at peace with me), according to the fundamental meaning of the word in question, in the Kal: to be whole, that is, negatively, unhurt; positively, perfect, thence partly, ready, complete; partly, well, sound, in good condition; then by transfer, favorable, moral entireness and freedom from harm (Hupf.), comp. Pss. 20:10; 41:9; Jeremiah 38:22. βξμ moreover means not only recompense, but properly to render something to some one (comp. 1 Samuel 24:18) with the idea of meritoriousness or obligation of such action.—And plundered,etc.—This clause, regarded as defective by Olsh., is taken as a parenthesis with the Rabbins by Calv., Rud., J. H. Mich., Ewald, Kφster, Thol., Hupf. [A. V.], and explained in the sense rendered possible by the signification of the word: “Rather I delivered.” But the propriety of the use of the word for booty taken in war, is derived from the fundamental meaning of the word in the Kal: to draw off (shoes, clothes) which also occurs in the Aramaic for the Piel, and in Hebrew is at least undeniable in the noun, whilst otherwise at least the signif.: “draw forth, deliver,” (Psalms 6:4), is proved in the Piel. The majority, even Hengst. and Delitzsch, refer it with this interpretation to the occurrence in the cave where David cut off the skirt of Saul’s garment (1 Samuel 24:4-5). Hitzig, with Chald., supposes a metathesis for the sake of the explanation: and oppressed, etc. The interpretation of the Sept., and Vulg., as conclusion and imprecation, = then will I retire from my enemies empty, that is, conquered, misses the sense. Psalms 7:5. Honor means either dignity, and indeed as well particularly the royal dignity of David (Calv., Geier, J. H. Mich.) as personal honor in general (Hitzig), otherwise also designated as crown (89:39; Isaiah 28:1) and power (Isaiah 63:6); then the dust indicates the smut of the deepest humiliation; or as Psalms 16:10; Psalms 30:12; Psalms 57:8; Psalms 108:2; Genesis 49., soul here = life, then dust = grave, Isaiah 26:19 (Rabb. most interpreters). Disgrace and humiliation are included in the expression at all events (Hengst., Hupf.). Respecting the soul as the reflection of the Divine λαεֹ ?γ, vid., Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychol., II. ed., 1861. Str. III. Psalms 7:6. Arise.—So Psalms 9:19; Psalms 10:12, after the example of Moses (Numbers 10:35; comp. Psalms 3:7). It is parallel with the following lift up thyself, as Psalms 94:2; Isaiah 33:10, and awake, as Psalms 35:23; Psalms 44:23; Psalms 59:5. The character of the expression as merely figurative follows from Psalms 121:4.—For me is a pregnant construction. We must supply: turn. For the Psalmist requests first of all judicial interference. Yet we cannot translate: Up for me in judgment! Thou makest booty (Hitzig), or: stir up judgment for me, (Chald. and some interpreters mentioned by Rosenm.), or: awake for me in judgment that Thou hast commanded (Sept., Syr., Jerome [A. V.]). Moreover the last clause is not imperative: order judgment (Rosenm., De Wette). Yet it is allowable to unite the last clause with the relative (Kφster, Hengst.) for which Ewald puts the participle, or with a particle of cause (Geier, et al.), since the Psalmist bases his prayer on the general Divine arrangement of justice, and His administration in judgment (Calv., Hupf.) [Hupfeld translates thus: “Awake for me; judgment hast thou commanded.” This seems to be the best construction.—C. A. B.] Instead of against the overflowings, Sept., following a false derivation, translates: “In the limits.” [“Because of the rage of mine enemies,” A. V., is incorrect, it should be, “against the rage of mine enemies.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 7:7. [Let the congregation of nations surround Thee.—It is better to take this as an optative in harmony with the preceding; so most interpreters. The Lord is exhorted to “arise,” “lift up Thyself,” awake, and so also to assemble the people about Him to witness His judgment, His vindication of the Psalmist.—Over it (for their sakes, A. V., is incorrect).—Perowne: “God is represented as coming down to visit the earth, and to gather the nations before Him, and then as retiring and sitting down above them on the judgment seat.” Delitzsch: “The Psalmist now arranges, so to speak, a judgment scene: the assembly of the nation is to form a circle about Jehovah; in their midst He holdeth judgment, and after judgment has been pronounced, He is to return, ascending back to heaven as a conqueror after battle.”—C. A. B.]—On High is not the judicial seat (Tarnow, Geier, Maur., et al.), or the high seat on Zion (De Wette), in which God will sit down again after that He had apparently left it in the intermission of His judicial activity (Kimchi, Calv., Hupf., yet with a reference to heaven); but heaven, whither God returns after having accomplished judgment in the midst of the assembly of the nations (Ewald, Delitzsch). The Psalmist asks the Judge of the world for historical justice, and in mentioning the Divine triumph, not only expresses the assurance that the historical transaction of justice for which he has called upon God, will be successfully carried out, but he asks God that He will carry it out without delay. Thus all the pretended difficulties vanish. As the tribes of Israel are called “people,” Genesis 49:10; Deuteronomy 33:3, Jerome, Kimchi, Hitz., et al., think of them here, especially because congregation is mentioned, as Genesis 26:3; Genesis 35:11. But the reference is not to a political, but a judicial assembly (Hupf.), and it is a Divine attribute, as the following general clause directly declares, to be judge of the nations. Str. IV. Psalms 7:8. In order to escape these convincing reasons, Hitzig supposes that γιο = to direct, govern the opinion, manage, and does not allow that there is a reference to Genesis 18:25, for an explanation, but to Micah 4:13. It certainly does not mean that from the highest court the highest justice is to be expected, and that God, because He judges the peoples, is therefore the regular Judge of the individual, in which case “children of men” should be placed instead of “nations.” No more is the thought expressed, that God by His Spirit leads the assembly of the elders, which represents the tribes of Israel, being invisibly present in their midst (Deuteronomy 33:5; Leviticus 26:12), in order that, in the judgment of the nations, not human righteousness, but the Divine decision, might have authority. The Psalmist expresses rather the thought, that his cause is not a private affair, but is of historical importance to the world.—To me [“in me,” A. V.].—It is most in accordance with the context to find the thought of recompense expressed in Psalms 7:8 (Chald., Olsh.), and then it is more correct from the language to supply: come (Hupf.), than the explanation “happen to me” (Rosenm., De Wette). The language likewise permits the supposition that it is an emphatic repetition of the suffix with a relative supplied (Vatab., Geier, et al., [A. V.]). Thereby the attribute of righteousness would be made prominent, yet not as a finishing stroke of the pencil (Hitzig), nor as a shield about the person (Hengst. I.), but as the quality found in the person yet to be distinguished by Him (Delitzsch). [Psalms 7:9. Hupfeld: “The personal petition is generalized into the petition that God would make an end of the doings of the unrighteous, but would protect the righteous, as it is to be expected from the omniscience of the Judge who searches the secrets of the heart.”—For the trier of hearts and reins is a righteous God—Riehm: “The reins as the seat of strong feelings, inclinations, impulses.” Barnes: “The particular idea here is, that as God searches the hearts of all men, and understands the secret purposes of the soul, He is able to judge aright, and to determine correctly in regard to their character, or to administer His government on the principles of exact justice. Such is the ground of the prayer in this case, that God, who knew the character of all men, would confirm those who are truly righteous, and would bring the wickedness of the ungodly to an end.”—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 7:10. Upon God [“of God,” A. V.].—This can mean that the protection is the duty of God (Venema, Ewald, Hengstenb.), but better: God has undertaken it (Hitzig, Delitzsch). The usual translation “with God” is too feeble. Bφttcher conjectures ingeniously that originally instead of ςμ, the text was ςμι, over me = who covers me. [Psalms 7:11. Delitzsch: “Although God finally lets His wrath break forth, yet He does not do this without previously having threatened the ungodly every day. Comp. Isaiah 66:14; Malachi 1:4. He lets them experience this His wrath in advance that they may be alarmed for their good.”—Angry.—Hupf.: “That is, toward the wicked = taking vengeance, punishing, inasmuch as the wrath, that is, the abhorrence which holiness has of evil, is the principle of all Divine punishment.”—Every day.—Barnes: “Continually; constantly; always. This is designed to qualify the previous expression. It is not excitement. It is not temporary passion such as we see in men. It is not sudden emotion, soon to be succeeded by a different feeling when the passion passes off. It is the steady and uniform attribute of His unchanging nature, to be always opposed to the wicked,—to all forms of sin; and in Him, in this respect, there will be no change. The wicked will find Him no more favorable to their character and course of life to-morrow than He is to-day; no more beyond the grave than this side of the tomb. What He is to-day, He will be to-morrow, and every day.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 7:12. If one turn not [“If he turn not,” A. V.].—In the first clause the subject is the wicked man, in the following clause God (the ancient translators and most interpreters), yet so that it does not mean the special enemy of the Psalmist, but the ungodly as a class (Hengst., Hupf.). Others regard the first word as a particle of assertion, and take the verb in the sense of the adverb “again,” but differ from one another, in that some (Olsh.) regard Jehovah as the subject, others (Ewald, Baur) the wicked man, who will truly whet his sword again, etc. Still others understand likewise the entire description, Psalms 7:12-13, as the verses which follow, in the latter sense of the wicked man and regard the words, if he does not turn, (but) whets his sword, etc., either as the conclusion of the previous verse (Rosenm. following Kimchi), or as the antecedent of Psa 7:14-15 (Syr., Geier, et al.). These then suppose μεֹ, Psalms 7:13, which is placed before with emphasis, to be reflexive and indeed either = to his purpose (Kimchi, Ew.), or, to his destruction (Aben Ezra). With our explanation of the wicked man not previously mentioned, the subject appears plainly as the object aimed at.—[He hath bent his bow.—In Hebrew, he hath trodden his bow, alluding to the ancient mode of bending the large and stout bows used instead of modern light artillery, with the feet rather than with the arm and hand.—C. A. B.] Psalms 7:13. The arrows are made into arrows of fire usual in sieges (Cocceius and recent interpreters), not into sharp or poisonous arrows; or hotly pursuing (vid. Rosenm.); or for the burning (Sept., Vulg., Syr.), which according to Ferrand means consumed with wrath, according to Chald., Isaki, Kimchi, Calv.: the persecutors themselves (so A. V.). It is difficult to follow the change of tense in these verses. The first two imperfects, it is better to take as futures on account of the judgment which is surely impending; the perfects then describe the actions which follow and the circumstances described as future; the last imperfect is incidental, thus a real imperfect, that is relative time instead of the participle; or we are to regard “his arrows” as in apposition and the following as a relative clause (Hupf.). Str. VI. Psalms 7:14. The imperfect stands first, then two perfects follow. Therefore the ancient and usual interpretation is incorrect, which regards the travailing and conception as indicating design, and contrasts it with bringing forth as expressive of the consequences, and thus is compelled to accept a hysteronproteron in the position of the travailing. For the same reasons it is not advisable to refer the first verb ηαμ to conception according to the Arabic (Seb. Schmidt, Hitzig) in order to derive the gradation which Luther supposes there is in the thought. The first clause rather (as the accents indicate) is in contrast with the two following; yet not as Calv., J. H. Mich., and Hengst., express by the insertion of “but,” as if the first clause expressed the evil design, the contrast consisting of two parts, its consequences; but rather that the first member of the verse states the proposition in general, the second explains it more definitely according to both its factors (Ewald, Kφster, Olsh., Hupf., Baur., Delitzsch) which specify the transition from the thought of the heart to its expression (Kimchi). Besides, Hupfeld shows that the nouns have a double sense, and designate the wicked at once as nothingness, and as a curse. [Barnes: “The allusion here is to the pains and throes of child-birth, and the idea is that the wicked man labors or struggles, even with great pain to accomplish his purpose of iniquity.” “It is mischief when conceived, it is falsehood when brought forth. The idea is that after all his efforts and pains, after having formed his scheme, and labored hard to bring it forth, it was abortive.”—C. A. B.] Whilst in ΰָ ?εֶ ?ο the moral idea of evil passes over into the physical of mischief, destruction, it is entirely the reverse with ςξμ, which literally means fatigue. Psalms 7:15-16. Some put that which is here said in the historical past, on account of the tenses, and suppose particularly Saul’s destruction (Kaiser, Hitzig). But they are prophetical perfects followed by the imperf. conversive, which often expresses merely the consequences of that which has gone before. Hupfeld contends against taking the relative clause as present, but Hengst., Delitzsch, Hitzig, maintain it; comp. Gesenius, § 123, 3 a. The enemy is still working at the pit of waylaying, when the Divine judgment strikes him, and indeed in the form of retaliation. The reference back to Psalms 7:2 is to be noticed; so likewise the reference of Psa 7:1; Psalms 7:7, to Psalms 7:8 b.Str. VII. Psalms 7:17. Hence David in the conclusion does not praise some future thanksgiving after an actual deliverance, but from a thankful heart he begins to praise God, whose revelation of Himself is the source of his correct knowledge of Him, and whose name therefore is the pledge of His righteous dealings, which are eternally the same, as well as the means of true prayer to Him, and the object of thankful praise. ‘Elyτn is not to be connected with shκm as an adjective (Hitz.) but is to be taken as in apposition to Jehovah on the basis of Gen 14:22—Sζpe orβtio, quem pζne desperantem recipit, exultantem relinquit (Bernard). AND ETHICAL1. If a man commits himself personally to God, he may also with good courage refer all his affairs to God, and even when he is in the worst relations with mighty and embittered enemies he may resign himself to the protection of God, and appeal in the confidence of a good conscience to the Divine judgment.2. From the omnipresence of God, by which He fills heaven and earth, is to be distinguished His manifestation in history by means of acts of revelation, whereby He makes Himself known, and proves Himself to be Saviour, as well as Judge of the individual, as well as of nations. But since omnipresence is essential to God, it is not done away with by the actual operation of His presence and government in the world. But the personal execution of the special acts of the government of the world by the God of Revelation is illustrated by the figure of His coming down upon earth; likewise the conclusion of such special acts is described as the reascension of God to the heights of heaven; both, in connection with the form of expression, that God as infinitely exalted above all beings in this world, Almighty and Holy, has His throne in the Heavens.3. In like manner in connection with the hearing of prayer the special acts of God in judgment and salvation are represented as His awaking, standing up, raising Himself, although the Divine government of the world suffers no interruption, and has no pauses.4. The righteous rule of God demands that He should not deceive the trust of the believing, who seek in Him preservation, protection, and help, and that He should take those who devise evil, and endeavor to prepare destruction for others, in their own snares, and cause them to fall into the pits which they themselves have dug. But we may at the same time ask God “that He also may become warm, when the ungodly are red-hot, and cast out the flames of their rage,” (Calvin). AND God’s assistance is the strongest, quickest, and surest help; yet He would be asked in faith.—He who takes refuge with God should not forget that God is a righteous Judge.—Without God, lost; saved by God; therefore escaped to God, remaining with God; and with God, the world, and all enemies overcome.—He who can oppose the accusations of his enemies with a good conscience, may likewise flee to God with the confidence of faith, against their strong assaults.—It is easy to do no injury to a friend; but it is difficult to do no harm to an enemy, who is given into our hands, especially when he persecutes us without cause.—The Lord in heaven is likewise Judge on earth; in this the pious have consolation, the wicked terror, all a warning—God does not overlook individuals, although He rules and judges the entire world.—God beats the enemies of His servants with their own weapons, but He has likewise His own peculiar weapons.—The righteousness of God defends the innocent.Starke: It is proper for us to assert our innocence; for by continual silence we would make even our good cause suspected.—Trust in God must be maintained and increased by prayer.—If God decrees it, tyrants treat the pious as badly as wild beasts of prey the weak lambs.—It is a great consolation in persecution that we can oppose our enemies with the power and strength of God. If God has commanded the authorities to exercise righteousness, He cannot refuse them a suitable protection.—God and His honor are interested in protecting the pious.—The righteousness of faith before God must be distinguished from righteousness and innocence of life before man; yet a true Christian must be able to console himself with both.—God does not allow the righteous to fall, but the more honesty He finds in their hearts, the more He strengthens them in His grace.—God tries the ungodly as a righteous judge, but the believing as a righteous but reconciled Father.—A Christian throws away the shield and sword of his own revenge, and yet does not remain naked and defenceless before his enemies; for the hand of the Lord strives for him, and covers him with a strong shield.—If the ungodly have reason to think of the righteousness of God with trembling, the believing remember it with joy, and praise, and thankfulness.—The punishment of retaliation is the surest mark of the Lord’s care for the actions of the children of men. Calvin: The door is closed to prayer unless it is opened with the key of trust.—Osiander: No one will deceive the Lord God with his hypocrisy.—It is the most pleasant of offerings to God when we celebrate His benefits, in order that others also may know His goodness and turn to Him.—Bugenhagen: No one can injure another without injuring himself much more severely in his conscience.—Franke: Three chief principles of prayer: 1) A childlike trust in God; 2) a good and cheerful conscience; 3) God’s righteousness and strong government—Renschel: God is not a Judge who punishes daily, but who threatens daily; for if God should punish us always, and as often as we deserve it, the world would no longer endure; therefore thou shouldest know, that God’s long-suffering invites thee to repentance.—Herberger: To suffer with an innocent conscience is nothing but favor with God. It is faith’s crown of glory that we can say: “Lord my God!”—God is a searcher of hearts: mark that, thou who sinnest secretly.—Hast thou prayed with tears, then return thanks with joy.—Thanksgiving is the best tune and song.—In prayer and thanksgiving no one should waver.—Tholuck: David was not one of those visionary pious men who, while mindful of that which God will do in heaven and in the future, forget that which He does daily in the present and upon earth.—Stiller: The ungodly have their time when they rule; but God has likewise His time when He pushes them from their seats.—Taube: How precious to a believing Christian the testimony and blessing of a good conscience in the calamities allotted to him: 1) he can step quietly before his God and pray for help; 2) he can prove his good cause with entire cheerfulness and call upon God to Judges 3) he knows and praises the righteousness of God which is in favor of the pious and against his enemies.—Kurtz: The kingdom of God comes not only with grace to the penitent, but also with judgment to the impenitent. [Matth. Henry: The sinner’s head with its politics conceives mischief, contrives it with a great deal of art, lays his plot deep, and keeps it close; the sinner’s heart with its passions travails with iniquity, and is in pain to be delivered of the malicious projects it is hatching against the people of God. But what doth it come to when it comes to the birth? It is a falsehood, it is a cheat upon himself, it is a lie in his right hand; he cannot compass what he intended, nor if he gain his point, will he gain the satisfaction he promised himself.—Spurgeon: As the shadow follows the substance, so envy pursues goodness. It is only at the tree laden with fruit that men throw stones. If we would live without being slandered we must wait till we get to heaven. Let us be very heedful not to believe the flying rumors which are always harassing gracious men. If there are no believers in lies there will be but a dull market in falsehood, and good men’s characters will be safe. Ill-will never spoke well. Sinners have an ill-will to saints, and therefore be sure they will not speak well of them.—We can not pray too often, and when our heart is true, we shall turn to God in prayer as naturally as the needle to its pole.—God defends the right. Filth will not long stick on the pure white garments of the saints, but shall be brushed off by Divine providence to the vexation of the men by whose base hands it was thrown upon the godly.—Truth like oil is ever above, no power of our enemies can drown it—The best day that ever dawns on a sinner brings a curse with it. Sinners may have many feast days, but no safe days. From the beginning of the year even to its ending, there is not an hour in which God’s oven is not hot and burning in readiness for the wicked, who shall be as stubble.—God’s sword has been sharpening upon the revolving stone of our daily wickedness, and if we will not repent, it will speedily out us in pieces. Turn or burn is the sinner’s only alternative.—Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost. Ashes always fly back in the face of him that throws them.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Hupfeld: “But the reference to that which God does after the judgment is not only a very simple and feeble addition, but is also contrary to that which follows in the context where the Divine judgment is carried still further out; yes, it is in a certain measure contrary to the entire course and spirit of the Psalm, and the Psalms generally, which would represent God as stepping forth from His retirement, as from a cloud which hitherto concealed Him, and as actively at work, and would not lead Him back again.” “The distance between the heavenly seat of the Judge and the earthly assembly is not to be measured mathematically, but must be regarded according to its nature from a poetical point of view, in which the cleft between heaven and earth vanishes, just as we see it overleaped in the constant interchange of the heavenly and earthly seats of God, heaven and Zion. The idea is this, God in contrast with His previous inactivity is again to judge, that is, to interfere and reinstate justice, which has been ignored and disturbed.” “It is true, this is a limited human conception of the Divine government and righteousness which is ever the same and uninterrupted; yet it is a feeling natural to religious feeling and an almost unavoidable anthropomorphism, the same as there is in the formula, Arise, awake, Psalms 7:6, and the like.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 8 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David.1         O Lord our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2         Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength Because of thine enemies, That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3         When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4    What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5         For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, And hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6    Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet: 7         All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field; 8    The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9         O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! AND Title and Character.—Even Olsh. finds no occasion to give up the Davidic authorship of this Psalm, which has since been maintained by Hitzig in a new way. This as well as all Psalms placed in relation to Gittith (vid. Introduction), resounds with the praise of Jehovah. The use made of passages from this Psalm in Matthew 21:16; 1 Corinthians 15:27; Hebrews 2:6 sq., with various references to Messianic circumstances is entirely different from the Messianic nature of the entire Psalm, which has been maintained by many interpreters of all periods. The author rather on a moonlight and starlight night (Psalms 8:3), under the sense of the majesty of the Creator (Psalms 8:1 c) beaming from the firmament, praises the goodness shown towards frail man by the God of the Covenant, Who is identical with the Creator. This goodness is partly shown in the sovereignty of man as the image of God over all creatures, and partly is declared in the revelation and grace of the true God given to the members of the people of the covenant. It is true that the latter reference is not developed here, but it is not only presupposed in the Psalmist’s position in life, but it governs his entire feelings and thoughts, so much so that the reflection called forth in him by looking upon the starry heavens begins and closes by mentioning it with praise. We have no sure support for a nearer indication of the time of composition. The reference to the youth of David as the shepherd boy (Nachtigal., Tholuck) is very unlikely, or indeed to the time immediately after his victory over Goliath (Sachs with reference to Psalms 8:2). Hitzig supposes a reference to the time of the war against the Amalekites, with reference to 1 Samuel 30:1; 1 Samuel 30:24 Str. I. Psalms 8:1. Our Lord.—The speaker is not the congregation (Delitzsch) which has only appropriated the Psalm, but a believer, who not only declares himself to be a member of the congregation whose Lord is Jehovah, but also acknowledges this Lord of the congregation personally, and as His servant and worshipper, now makes conspicuous with emphatic praise the glory of that name, which God has throughout the world among men as the Creator, over against that book of nature revealing the Divine majesty, shining down from heaven. That this is the fundamental idea and all-prevailing sentiment of the Psalm follows necessarily from the position of the relative clause after the principal clause, and from the introductory address to God.—Thou who hast put Thy majesty upon the heavens.—The language of the present text is very much disputed (vid. the thorough discussion of Hupfeld), because the form ϊְ ?πָ ?δ occurs only as imperative, and as such cannot be connected with the relative (comp., however, Bφttcher, Ζhrenl. 42, Neue Ζhrenl. II. 224); and the proposed explanations are so questionable that many interpreters propose other vowel points, as Paulus and Kurtz ϊֻ ?πָּ ?δ=whose glory is praised, or Ewald ϊָּ ?πָ ?δ= raises itself, Sept.ἐπῂρθη, or stretches itself out (Clauss, et al.), whilst Hitzig, in order to gain the last meaning, and to support it by a closer etymology by derivation from ϊπο removes theδ as an article to the following noun, leaving ϊַּ ?ο. Hupfeld, however, with the ancient translations, would read πָ ?ϊַ ?ϊָּ ?δ, because the phrase πָ ?ϊַ ?οδεֹ ?γςַ ?μ= to put authority upon, to invest with authority, is frequent, and a finite verb is indispensable. [But, as Riehm shows, this is a very violent correction, and then the application of this phrase to God in the usual sense of His investing the heavens with His Divine majesty has serious objections. It is better, with Riehm, to fall back upon the explanation of Ewald. “Thou whose glory raises itself above the heavens, or ‘rises above’ the heavens.”—C. A. B.] But whatever we may do with the language of the text, the position of the clause does not leave it doubtful, but that the emphasis of the sentence is upon these witnesses to the glory of God whose province is the entire earth, and which therefore are in relative contrast to the witnesses of the Divine glory, whose sphere is on the one side the people of God and on the other the heavens. Since now the account of the creation, Genesis 1:1, resounds in the contents of the Psalm itself, and the reference is neither prophetical to the worship of the God and King of Israel among all nations, nor can this be historically the reference (even without regard to the re-echo of Psa 8:4, in Job 7:17); moreover, it is not allowable to refer the name of Jehovah here in the narrow sense to the name applied by the Israelites to the God of the Covenant and of Revelation, but we must think of the splendid and majestic name, with which men, throughout the world, even where the true nature of God is still unknown, ignorantly praise the true God as the God whose glory shines down upon them from the firmament; it is therefore easy to see why the explanations of some of the older interpreters, “whose glory above the heavens, etc., is praised by angels,” is untenable. Kurtz speaks besides even of “the song of all the spheres, of all the worlds of the heavens,” which is entirely contrary to Hebrew ideas. Str. II. Psalms 8:2. Out of the mouth.—This specification does not allow us to find merely an expression of the general thought that God accomplishes the greatest things on earth, and reveals His glory by means of the weakest instruments and the least means. The expression is not the periphrase of the subj.= “from the size of a boy,” but has a manifest reference back to the name, Psalms 8:1 b. We might therefore think first of all of the religious expressions of children from the lisping of sucklings, and the stammering prayers of little children under the impression of the wondrous magnificence of the evening heavens, even to the confession of the true God in the mouth of the young, especially as sucklings three years old were common in Israel, and the parallel Hebrew word refers to still more matured boys, 1 Samuel 15:3; 1 Samuel 22:19, who ask bread, Lamentations 4:4, and play in the street, Jeremiah 6:11; Jeremiah 9:20. In this sense also Jesus makes use of this passage, Matthew 21:16, and this use is still more appropriate if with the Sept. and many interpreters ςֹ ?ζ is regarded as praise. This meaning however is possible only in special connections. Originally and properly this word means, firmness, might, κράτος. Since now there is a reason for this given, it would be more in accordance with the text to think, not indeed of the living breath of the lately born, the first cry of the suckling (Umbr., et al.), or of the mouth as the organ of suckling (Kimchi) which would only refer to the wonder of the existence and support of the human race; but rather to find a reference to the wonder of the capacity of speech (Aben Ezra, Tholuck, et al.), to which Umbreit also is partially inclined when he finally mentions the movement of the mouth in order to form the sounding word. It is by speaking that man is specifically distinguished from the other inhabitants of earth, and which is very particularly calculated as a Divine force (Calv., et al.) to hush those who show themselves to be the adversaries of the honor of God; the enemies of the recognition of His glory on earth; the revengeful oppressors of the people of Jehovah. [Ewald: “What a contrast! There the wild, defiant enemies thirsting to destroy, here the weakest of creatures, and yet his joyful, lisping mouth is sufficient to defend the Creator against all the blasphemies of the enemy.” So likewise Hupfeld: “God has founded for Himself out of the mouth of sucklings and children a strong (invincible) stronghold against His enemies, that is: He has out of their mouths a mighty (incontrovertible) apology (of His goodness and greatness) which is sufficient to bring all His opponents to silence.” This is by far the best interpretation.—C. A. B.] The Hebrew text does not allude to their destruction (many interpreters following the ancient translations). Hitzig is too narrow in his reference of the entire passage to the special fact that the Amalekites in the surprise of Ziklag did not avenge themselves on account of the massacre, 1 Samuel 27:8-9, but killed none, 1 Samuel 30:1 sq., which David now refers to the protection of Jehovah, who by the crying of the children excited in the souls of the national enemy a humane pity, which tamed his fury. With the Messianic interpretation, the passage is usually (Calov, Geier, Schmidt, J. H. Mich., Stier) referred to the founding of the Christian Church, and the praise of God in the gospel by νήπιοι, or people of a similar spirit to children. Str. III. Psalms 8:3. When I consider,etc.—λּ ?ι is here a particle of time, and not of cause (for) as Stier erroneously regards it. The concluding clause, Psalms 8:4, is an exclamation of astonishment, yet of humility, prayer, and trust, in view of the loving and careful condescension of the Creator towards man, who is intentionally named enτsh, as the weak. The reference back to the creation begins with Psalms 8:6. Here the expressions, (as well those which describe man, as those which describe the Divine care over him), refer too clearly to the present testimonies of the goodness of God towards man, born of mortals, that we should with Hupf. regard the imperf. here as preterite, and should think of the free and firm resolution of love, from which the creation, and especially the creation of man, originated. Str. IV. Psalms 8:5. And so thou lettest him lack a little of divinity.—[“For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.” A. V.] The following words show that the Psalmist has in view the sovereignty which has been given to man, created on earth, “in the image of God,” Genesis 1:26. We are here therefore to think of the Divine image in man, which endows him with the royal prerogative over the creatures of the world. The connection of the causal piel of ηρψ with the object by ξִ ?ο does not allow us to regard the Psalmist as saying, there was little lacking and man had been like God. He says: There was not much lacking but that man should have been placed in that class of beings which embraces God and the angels, that is to say the Elohim. Elohim may indeed, it is true, express merely the abstract divinity (Hengst., Hupf.) but with this limitation, including the angels (Hitzig) a very suitable sense would be given. Since now, Psalms 82:1; Psalms 82:6; Psalms 97:7; Psalms 97:9, afford a more comprehensive use of the word Elohim, and this with the article means at times only a supernatural creature, 1 Samuel 28:13; Zechariah 12:8, we have here sufficient reason for clearness of explanation even to suppose that it is a designation of a class. If now, God caused that man should lack a little of that which the Elohim possess as such, this can hardly be anything else than immateriality (Kimchi, Delitzsch). It is not allowable, however, with the ancient translations and the Rabbins to think merely of angels, [A. V.] or indeed according to the Sept. to regard the “little” as for a short time, whereby with the Messianic interpretation this passage refers to the state of humiliation as the following member of the verse to the exaltation of Jesus Christ, vid., Comm. on Hebrews 2:6 sq. The verbs are all imperfects, and refer to the fact that these peculiarities man has retained since the creation in spite of the fall, and indeed as the connection of Psa 8:5 with Psalms 8:4 shows, in consequence of the provision of Divine love. The perfect is found only in the closing clause of Psa 8:6 b., which recapitulates and expresses the firm assurance and constant arrangement (Hupfeld). This suggests the application to the kingdom of Christ, 1 Corinthians 15:27. “Out of the very depths of this consciousness, how little man appears when contrasted with God, arises faith in the love of the heavenly Father who is not forgetful of the weak children of men, whom He has called into existence.” (Umbreit). Str. V. Psalms 8:7. Sheep.—In Hebrew the word is a poetical form of a word which means the small cattle of the herd, and especially the sheep and goats. The following expressions likewise appear in poetical forms which lead the eye in increasing breadth of vision over the entire realm of human sovereignty. Bφttcher, on account of Psa 8:8 b, which is certainly very singular and striking, refers to the men who make their way through the agitated paths of the sea. So also previously Aben Ezra and Kimchi. [The proper reference is to the other inhabitants of the sea, from the leviathan down to the smallest creature which moves on the waters, vid.Psalms 104:25-26.—C. A. B.] [Str. VI. Psalms 8:9. Delitzsch: “The Psalmist has now proved what he stated Psalms 8:1, that the name of Jehovah, the glory of which radiates from the heavens, is also glorious on earth. Thus the thought with which he began the Psalm is repeated as a conclusion with fulness of meaning, and thus the Psalm is wound together as a wreath.”] AND ETHICAL1. The congregation confesses that the revealed God is its sovereign, and hopes that the name in which God has manifested Himself according to His true nature, will be proclaimed some time, in all lands, and be praised as glorious in the entire earth. But it recognizes, also, that among all nations religious feelings are especially awakened by looking at the starry heavens, and that therefore the most glorious names are everywhere given to the Divine Being whose majesty shines down from the firmament. 2. Among created beings it is especially man, whom God has made use of upon earth as the instrument of His communications and organ of His revelations. He has given man the capacity of speech, and thereby, even in the mouths of the smallest children, He has prepared for Himself that power which is best adapted to refute the adversaries of the Church of God, and to spread abroad His true and holy name; the power of speech, especially of the word which comes from God and testifies of God. Thus on the one side man is distinguished from all other earthly creatures, and placed in a special relation to God; and on the other side it gives the most suitable means not only of religious communications in general, but of overcoming the deification of nature by faith in Divine revelation.3. Man, when compared with the magnificent phenomena of the heavens, may appear very trifling and insignificant, but when considered as the object of Divine care his preλminence over all creatures becomes manifest, and he should be thankful in remembrance of this, and maintain true humility with all the greatness bestowed upon him, confessing his frailty and his descent from men of Adam’s race. 4. Man is born in the image of Adam, he was yet created as the image of God, and in consequence of this he has that within him, which gives reason to reckon him almost to the class of supernatural creatures. This is his rational and moral nature. By this he has a nature which makes him capable of attaining his destiny, of being as an image of the glory and majesty of God, sovereign over the world which surrounds him. For the true fulfilment of this destiny we are referred from the Old to the New Covenant. AND He who would rule properly must serve God properly.—The conflict between the Divine purpose and the present condition of man; whence it comes, and how it is to be obviated.—The glorification of the name of God in the congregation, and by the congregation over the entire earth.—Man is like the rest of the world, God’s workmanship, but he is designed to be ruler of the world, as the image of the Divine glory and majesty.—Man belongs to two worlds, the visible and the invisible; hence he has a great and difficult task; let us see what hinders and what promotes its fulfilment.—The high position and dignity which God has given man among the creatures, imposes upon him responsibilities which he can fulfil only as a member of the Church of God.—Man is prevented from fulfilling his destiny less by his natural frailty, than by his Adamic nature.—No man is too insignificant, weak, poor, or little for the service of God; God makes even of the smallest children arms of His grace and instruments of His power.—What God does even to sucklings reveals His glory more than the magnificence of the stars.—It is true we may know something of God and His glory from the works of creation, so that even the heathen praise God after their fashion; but only in the Church can we truly learn who God is, and what we have in Him, and how to serve Him aright.—We need not only the crown of eternal life, but we must also be mindful of the crown of thorns, and the crown of righteousness.Starke: The beginning and end of this Psalm are in harmony; can it be impossible for God to make it thus with the beginning and end of the New Testament Church?—The more we recall to mind, with shame and humility, our own unworthiness, the greater and more glorious will be our portion of the gracious benefits of God, in Christ.—The sovereignty over all creatures, lost by Adam, Jesus has regained, and bestows it upon His people; hence they may use all creatures with a good conscience in the Divine order, 1 Corinthians 3:21 sq.; 1 Timothy 4:4.—The Gospel has glorified the name of the gracious God in all parts of the world—whilst under the law scarcely anything was known of this name even in the Holy Land.—Frisch: Despise not the smallest and weakest instrument; God is mighty in weakness.—Baumgarten: We can reverence nothing more than the name of God, that is, what He has revealed and made known of Himself and His perfections.—Herberger: Those are the best musicians who allow themselves to be used for the glory of God.—Taube: All knowledge and worship of God has its first and last roots in the name of God.—The Almighty uses weakness, in order that the power, and therefore the glory, may be of God, and not of man.—Umbreit: Humanity without religion is brutality.—Diedrich: It is the delight of the pious that God has made for Himself by His government a glorious name in all lands.—Nothing in nature should prevent us, if only we are in right relations with God. [Spurgeon: We may style this Psalm the song of the Astronomer: let us go abroad, and sing it beneath the starry heavens at eventide, for it is very probable that in such a position it first occurred to the poet’s mind.—He who delights in the songs of angels is pleased to honor Himself in the eyes of His enemies by the praises of little children. What a contrast between the glory above the heavens and the mouth of babes and sucklings! yet by both the name of God is made excellent. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David:—Chalmers: There is much in the scenery of a nocturnal sky to lift the soul to pious contemplation. That moon and those stars, what are they? They are detached from the world, and they lift us above it. We feel withdrawn from the earth, and rise in lofty abstraction from this little theatre of human passions and human anxieties. The mind abandons itself to reverie, and is transferred in the ecstacy of its thought to distant and unexplored regions. It sees nature in the simplicity of her great elements, and sees the God of nature invested with the high attributes of wisdom and majesty.—Thomas Watson: Meditation fits for humiliation. When David had been contemplating the works of creation, their splendor, harmony, motion, influence, he lets the plumes of pride fall, and begins to have self-abasing thoughts.—C. A. B.] [There is in Psalms 8:5 a wonderful rebound of feeling; cast to the earth by his humiliating reflections upon the wonders of the heavens, and the insignificance of man, he rises, lifted up by the consciousness of the honor and dignity bestowed upon him by God in making him greater than all these wonders of nature.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “We see him in his lonely watchings, now casting a vigilant glance around him lest any beast of prey threaten ‘those few sheep in the wilderness,’ and now lifting a loving and observant eye to heaven, and as the bright stars come out one after another in the Eastern sky, with a brilliancy and splendor almost unimaginable to us, his heart fills with the thought that it is Jehovah, the God of Israel, who has set His glory there, to be seen of all eyes, to be praised even by the tongues of children. But from heaven his thoughts turn again to earth, from the glory of God to man formed to acknowledge that glory. And his first thought is, as it must be in any case, an humbling one. What is man, man in his frailty, his littleness, his sin? What is man in His sight who made yon heavens, and planted in them those glittering orbs? And then comes the correcting thought, the thought of man’s greatness and dignity as made in the image of God, and appointed by Him to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth.” Delitzsch: “This Psalm is a lyrical echo of the Mosaic account of creation.” “As the gospels contain no words of Jesus before the time of His baptism, and the New Testament Canon has no writings of the Apostles before Pentecost, so the Old Testament has no Psalms of David before he was anointed. From the time when he was anointed by the God of Jacob, he is the sweet Psalmist of Israel, on whose tongue is the word of Jehovah, 2 Samuel 23:1 sq.” It is probable that this Psalm dates from the earlier part of David’s life, some time during his wanderings in the wilderness when pursued by Saul.—C. A. B.] [Many commentators regard this and the following clauses as still dependent upon λּ ?ι, that (Ewald, Perowne, et al.), but it is better, with Hupfeld and Hitzig, to regard these clauses as independent, for otherwise the sentence would be too much involved for Hebrew poetry.—C. A. B.] [The sovereignty of our first parents in Eden was complete, the sovereignty of man now is merely partial, but the second Adam regained that sovereignty in its fulness for Himself and His redeemed, and it is realized again according to prophecy in the Messianic kingdom, Isaiah 11:6-9.—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “How fully was the language of the Psalm realized in that night when the stars were shining on those fields of Bethlehem where David had kept his father’s sheep; and the angels chanted in the ears of shepherds the gratulatory hymn, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men,’ for the descent of the Son of God to become Son of Man; and when the nature of man was exalted in Christ to a higher elevation than that of the angels themselves; and when the new star in the heaven shone to lead the Gentiles to His light, and kings to the brightness of His rising (Isaiah 60:3); and again, at that day when the ‘men of Galilee,’ who were despised as mere babes by the wise men of this world, stood on the Mount of Olives, and saw Him exalted in glory above the heavens.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 9 To the chief Musician upon Muth-labben, A Psalm of David.1         I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. 2    I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou Most High. 3    When mine enemies are turned back, They shall fall and perish at thy presence. 4    For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; Thou satest in the throne judging right. 5    Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, Thou hast put out their name forever and ever. 6    O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: And thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them. 7    But the Lord shall endure forever: He hath prepared his throne for judgment. 8    And he shall judge the world in righteousness, He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. 9    The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble. 10    And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. 11    Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion: Declare among the people his doings. 12    When he maketh inquisition for blood, he He forgetteth not the cry of the humble. 13    Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: 14    That I may shew forth all thy praise In the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation. 15    The heathen are sunk down in the pit In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. 16    The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. 17    The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God. 18    For the needy shall not always be forgotten: The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. 19    Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: Let the heathen be judged in thy sight. 20    Put them in fear, O Lord:That the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah. AND Its contents and character. A Psalm of thanksgiving (Psalms 9:1-2) after a victory (Psalms 9:3) over the heathen wrought by Divine judgment (Psalms 9:4-6), expressing confidence in His constant protection of the oppressed (Psalms 9:7-10); therefore the pious have to thank God (Psalms 9:11-12), and pray to Him in every time of need (Psalms 9:13-14). The judicial government of God causes the enemies finally to perish and saves the sufferers (Psalms 9:15-18); therefore the prayer (Psalms 9:19-20) which shows the dangerous position of the Psalmist and his people. The people of Israel were indeed very generally in such circumstances as this (Hupf.), but this does not imply that it is here merely a supposed case (Hengst.). If the thankful remembrance (Psalms 9:1) embraces the entire series of former benefits, yet Psalms 9:6 refers to what has just happened, and indeed to great overthrows of a foreign enemy after severe distress in Israel, which has not even yet entirely ceased. There is no sufficient reason to descend into the times after the exile (Ewald), still less for the Maccabean times with reference to the death of Judas Maccabeus (Venema). This Psalm cannot have originated in the exile itself (Ferrand) on account of the “gates of the daughter of Zion” (Psalms 9:14), and we may not place it too early, because Psalms 9:11 already mentions Zion as the royal seat of Jehovah. In agreement with this is the reference which some overlook to the death of Goliath (Chald. et al.) or to Absalom (Ruding,). or Nabal (Grot.) Maurer thinks that the king Hezekiah was the author of this Psalm after his deliverance from the siege of Sennacherib. De Wette refers to the Assyrian times with reference to Isaiah 33 Most interpreters abide by David, and indeed either without attempting to mark the time more closely (Dathe, Knapp, Rosenm.), or refer it to the Ammonite and Syrian war (Mich., Muntinghe, et al.), or what is best, to the wars with the Philistines after the event, 2 Samuel 5:7, (Hitzig, Delitzsch). Hitzig adduces as marks of its composition in the earliest times of psalmody: the rough and broken language, the terseness of expression, peculiarities in the use of words and forms. He gives prominence to the many resemblances with those Psalms, which are decidedly Davidic, by the apt remark that we must not draw the lines too closely in distinguishing the ideas and language of David (comp. 2 Samuel 1:19-27; 2 Samuel 7:18-29; 2 Samuel 23:1-7); and he remarks that we meet the alphabetical arrangement of verses, nowhere indeed before the time of Jeremiah, but that the arrangement in the order of the consonants is here very freely used, and is not carried out; a later author would not have ventured to proceed so loosely.The Psalm is so complete in itself, and has with many strong resemblances to the following Psalm, such a different tone that the fact that Psalms 10, which is without a title, partially carries out the alphabetical arrangement used in this Psalm only to χ, does not justify us in regarding both Psalms as originally one connected alphabetical Psalm, which afterwards was broken up and revised in two parts (although important reasons may be adduced for this. They are best presented by Hupf. and G. Baur in De Wette’s Comm.). Nor does it justify us in accordance with the Sept. and Vulgate to unite them again into one Psalm (Ewald, Krahm, Sachs). [Hitzig regards them as two co-ordinate halves of a whole of higher unity. To this Delitzsch assents, and this seems to be the best statement of the case, for the agreement is close and remarkable as well in the Psalms themselves, as in their giving parts of the same alphabetical order. Hupfeld shows that the difference in tone is not unusual in the Psalms. Such changes of feeling are frequent (vid.Psalms 27; Psalms 40; and in Psalms 9 itself, in Psalms 9:13-14).—C. A. B.] An attempt has been made by Delitzsch to express the alphabetical arrangement of the Hebrew in German. It would, however, injure our efforts for perspicuity if we should adopt it. It only remains to remark that the introductory strophe, which states the contents, has the same initial letter ΰ in all four lines; that a strophe with γ is entirely lacking; also one with δ, unless this is contained in the holy name of God (Psalms 9:7, Hupf); and that the closing strophe has χ instead of λ. [Str. I. Psalms 9:1. With my whole heart.—Hupfeld: “Partly with the heart, not merely with the mouth, (Isaiah 29:13), sincerely, hence 119:7,‘ with honest heart;’ partly, zealously, with all the powers of the soul, as love and trust in God should be, Deuteronomy 4:29; Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12, etc. In this is contained the idea that all the honor is given to God, all is ascribed to His grace, and it is not divided between himself and God (Calv.)”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 9:3. In the turning of mine enemies back.—All the ancient versions regard αְ as temporal, and indeed the equivalent of when in the antecedent, to which the second member of the verse then forms the consequent in the future [So A. V.] Most interpreters, however, find here stated the subject and reason of the joy=on account of that, but they translate the infinitive, in whose stead imperfects directly come, in the rule by the perfect, and thus loosen somewhat the connection between the fact of the victory and its celebration, which are so closely connected in the Psalm. [Delitzsch regards the preposition αְ as indicating time and reason at the same time, like Latin recedentibus hostibus meis retro=in the turning of my enemies back. So Ewald, Alexander. Perowne renders it as reason, “because mine enemies are turned backward (because) they stumble and perish at thy presence.” Hupfeld regards it as dependent upon the previous joy and praise as the ground or reason of it, and translates, “that mine enemies retreat back, stumble and fall before Thy countenance.” This is the best rendering.—C. A. B.] The perfects in Psalms 9:4-6, however, are in contrast with the imperfects in Psalms 9:7 sq., and show that the Divine judgment is not expected first on account of His righteousness (De Wette and the ancients who also interpreted this Psalm as Messianic), but has already taken place (Hupf. et al.) The reference here, moreover, is not to God’s sitting on His eternal, heavenly, royal throne, as Psalms 9:7 a [A. V.], but to a historical, and indeed judicial act of this eternal, all-embracing Sovereignty of God, for the accomplishment of which He has taken His seat upon His throne of judgment (Psalms 9:4 b), which He has set up (Psalms 9:7 b), and from which also He will in the future (Psalms 9:8) hold judgment, and render decisions respecting the nations. Str. III. Psalms 9:6. The enemy—destroyed to ruins forever; and cities hast Thou rooted out; their memory is lost, even theirs.—[A. V. is entirely astray here. “O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end; and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.”—C. A. B.] Enemy is a collective noun, and is to be connected with the plural of the following verb. With this construction the following words are to be regarded as in apposition (De Wette), or as accusative of effect (Hupf.). The most ancient translations have followed another pointing which is found still in same Codd.; swords instead of ruins. According to some Codd., we must also translate: cities hast thou forsaken. The translation enemies instead of cities is unjustifiable. At the close of the clause the pronoun is placed, notwithstanding the suffix has already preceded. The emphasis which is thereby laid upon cities means that their vanishment from history is sure, in consequence of the Divine judgment. For the various untenable attempts to explain this entire passage, which is burdened with many difficulties, vid. Rosenm. Hitzig explains very differently; O thou enemy! the abuse has an end forever; and the cities which thou forsakest, their remembrance is blotted out forever. [This is an exceedingly difficult passage. The author has the true idea in which he follows Hupfeld. I may mention, however, that the “Thou” refers back to the “Thou” of the preceding verses, and is Jehovah Himself, and not the enemy.—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 9:9. Stronghold [A. V.: “Refuge”], literally height, as a place of refuge to which one has been snatched away from enemies.—Oppressed, literally down-trodden, pounded, but constantly only in a figurative sense.—Trouble, literally to be cut off, partly as excluding, a bar, partly as confining, distress (Hupf.). Str. VI. Psalms 9:12. For the avenger of blood has remembered them [A. V.: “When he maketh inquisition for blood.” The λִּ ?ι is not “when,” as in the English version, but “for,” “because,” assigning the reason of the praise, as Ewald and the author, or the subject of the declaration “that,” as Hupf.: and Delitzsch.—Hupf.: “γֹ ?ψֵ ?ωׁ γָ ?ξִ ?ιν properly means the goel, the nearest relative of the murdered man, who must avenge him according to the Oriental custom; here a title of God as one who punishes, recompenses, and judges; primarily of bloodshed—but it is not confined to this, but extends to the punishment of misdeeds in general.” “Blood is used typically or synedochically, not only for death, destruction in general, but also for injury, harm, hurt of any kind. So ‘blood-guilt’ is also used generally for wickedness, violence, and the guilt or liability for it,” vid. Hupf. in loco. “Thus God is said to be the avenger of blood, as the avenger of evil in general, derived from the most conspicuous kind of wickedness and its punishment.”—C. A. B.] The reading (Psalms 9:12) is doubtful, mostly between ςֲ ?πιִּ ?ιִ ?ν and ςֲ ?πָ ?εִ ?ιν. Hupf. seeks to prove against Hengst. that there is no difference in the meaning, but Delitzsch maintains that the former word means: those who are in a condition of depression owing to afflictions which have befallen them; the latter: those who are in a condition of internal commotion, that is, of humility and meekness. Str. VII. Psalms 9:13. Be gracious unto me [A. V.: “Have mercy upon me”].—In the Hebrew figuratively, in an uncontracted form of a word which is usually contracted. Many interpreters, even Delitzsch and Hitzig, find in Psalms 9:13-14 the prayer of the sufferer mentioned in Psalms 9:12; others, with Calv., regard the second part of the Psalm as beginning here, the prayer for help, for which the former part lays the foundation; others still, with Ruding., regard the prayer as breaking forth in sudden change of tone from a feeling of need that was still present. [Gates of death.—Sheol is here poetically regarded as a prison with strong gates and bars, from which there is no escape, vid.Psalms 107:18; Isaiah 38:10. Hupfeld refers to the Ἀϊδαωπύλαι of Homer.—C. A. B.] In the gates of the daughter of Zion.—These are in contrast with the gates of death (Calv.); but the daughter of Zion is not the heavenly Jerusalem with the praises of the blessed, but the earthly Jerusalem, or, more properly, its inhabitants. Cities and people were, in ancient times, readily personified as females, now as virgins, now as mothers, whose daughters then were the inhabitants as a class. It may, however, refer to the filial relation of the people to God, parallel with the expression “son,” in which case it must be translated Daughter Zion, as Isaiah 37. “In the gates” does not mean: within the city, in the temple (Hengst.), but in public, before a great assemblage, amidst a number of people. Hupf. has excellently shown that the gates, as a place of public gathering and of all kinds of public affairs, are to be regarded not only as a noisy market-place, but also as set apart for still higher purposes. Str. VIII. Psalms 9:15. Sunk down—literally, were plunged. If the perfect is regarded as prophetic (Calv., De Wette, Hengst.), as if it were here said with confidence that the preceding prayers would be heard, the contrast with the imperfects of the following strophe is lost. If this is regarded as important, it may be taken as expressing either merely a clause of experience, as a basis for confidence in the future (Hupfeld), or as referring to the recent historical past (Delitzsch). Str. IX. Psalms 9:17. Return [A. V.: be turned].—This idea, according to Hupf., Delitzsch, Hitzig, is not to be taken away from ωεּ ?α. But when Hupf. finally concludes that it here most naturally refers to the idea of “again,” with J. H. Michaelis, and not to the place whither they go, but to the state which they left, namely, the life, which they lose again; then not only a part of the polemic against Hengst. falls to the ground, but the fundamental idea of the remarks of Hitzig upon the language of the passage, so sharply emphasized by him, that the heathen must return thither whence they came, is lost; since now Sheol is named as this place, the expression cannot be entirely the equivalent of “becoming dust again, sinking down to nothingness.” A glance is given into a dreadful condition after death, which is in close connection with the condemned. It is not their physical descent or their historical origin which is here stated, but their home, or the place to which they have shown in their earthly life that they belong. Str. X. Psalms 9:19. Let not man grow strong [Let not man prevail—A. V.—Hupf. and Perowne, et al., agree with the author. The idea is that God will not allow him to grow strong, so that he may carry out his designs. “Prevail” is too strong a word. Hupf.: “As God rises up, man is to cease from being strong, and appears in his weakness and nothingness.” Delitzsch and Ewald translate “defy,” but without sufficient grounds.—C. A. B.] Psalms 9:20. Terror [A. V.: “fear”].—Most interpreters regard ξεֹ ?ψָ ?δ as an orthographical variation from ξεֹ ?ψָ ?ΰ, so that the reference is to terrors of God (Genesis 35:5). So already Chald. and Aquil. On the other hand, Sept., Syr., Vulg. translate according to the pointing ξεֹ ?ψֶ ?ΰ=lawgiver, teacher. With Rabbi Isaki, however, A. Schultens, J. H. Michaelis, et al., regard the word of the text as Judges 13:5, and frequently, as razor, and think of the cutting off of the beard as the greatest shame. Hitzig finally believes that the original reading was ωְ ?ξεּ ?ψָ ?δ=set a guard for them, as an arrangement which hinders them from striking=hindrances. (In the first edit. of his Comm. he regards the word in question as a secondary form of ϊεֹ ?ψָ ?δ and as=ηֹ ?χ, comp. Job 14:13; Jeremiah 5:22, in order to get the same idea of hindrances. Symm. also has νόμον, but in the sense, give them instruction.) The singular ΰπεֹ ?ω is here not a collective, but emphasizes frailty as the characteristic of man when compared with God. AND ETHICAL1. He who has lived to see and experience the wonders of the Lord, feels compelled to narrate them. It is well if he can do this with thankfulness and joy. For it is the will of God that the honor due Him should be given publicly and that His name should be declared among all nations, in order that even the heathen may become acquainted with Him. For God Judges the world and all who dwell therein; but He saves also all who turn to Him. Therefore the world is afraid, but the Church rejoices; their hope will not be ashamed if only their faith falters not. For God’s temporal acts of judgment and salvation are only preludes to that which will take place at the end of days. 2. God does not postpone judgment and salvation till the end of the world, although times of trouble come for the pious and days of apparent victory for their enemies. He already judges in history individuals and nations, so that all traces of them are blotted out from the earth, and their name is forgotten. He likewise saves, blesses and raises up others who take refuge with Him and put their trust in Him. In order that they may find Him and learn to know Him, He has arranged and offered places where He reveals Himself, and services which bestow blessings, and means of grace and of salvation, as He has also established His judgment-seat in the midst of the world, and made the people to know that though He is enthroned in the heavens, He has not departed from man. However, it is made known what man has to expect at the last judgment, in that the names of those upon whom the Divine punishment falls will be forever blotted out, and that they will not only die, but they are to be sent back into the lower world as to their home; whilst the pious are raised up from the gates of death, and present their life in the Church as saved by grace, and thereby they strengthen and deepen their communion with the living and eternal God of salvation. 3. There is no direct declaration here of the resurrection of eternal life; the foundations and prerequisites of such a faith, merely, are laid and it is hinted at negatively in that the frailty of man is emphasized as a characteristic peculiar to him from birth and nature, and it is brought out prominently that his rebellion against God is vain and destructive, and the entire description of the Divine treatment of the wicked in His judicial dealings with them, leads to a separation made by God, which has begun in spiritual death, and has been continued in temporal death, as brought on by Divine punishment, and whose end is not yet announced, is also not yet to be seen, upon which, however, a dreadful perspective is opened. Hζc est continua fidei in hac vita exercitatio, gratias agere de victoria, et misericordiam implorare, ut vincas (Bugenhagen). AND The judgments of God are as unerring as they are unavoidable; as terrible as they are just; as salutary as they are necessary.—The arm of the Lord in just judgment casts down to hell those who forget Him, and raises up by grace from the gates of death to life in the Church those who take refuge with Him in the fulness of faith.—The rebellion of man against God and His holy ordinances is no less foolish than wicked, yet it is as guilty as it is weak and audacious.—God is essentially the helper of the needy; on this base your trust in every time of need.—God does not forget even those who forget Him; how should He not be mindful of those who daily call upon Him? It is likewise good for the pious to be reminded of death, judgment and hell.—The temporal consequences of sin are often now more severe than man can bear; but when they are regarded and received as the well-deserved punishments of the righteous God, the terrors which have fallen upon him on account of the Divine judgment may be wholesome for him; where they are not, death will bring him no deliverance.—The good that the Lord has done thee in silence, thou mayest confess publicly and thank Him for it in the Church.—Thankfulness of heart and the song of praise agree well together; the one unites man closer to God; the other edifies the Church and draws the attention of those who are without to the wonders of the Lord.—He whose life is saved by God from perils, will be used by God for the benefit of His kingdom and His Church. Starke: All the benefits received from God are real wonders to the humble soul; for it is an inconceivable grace, that God the Lord should show so much mercy bodily and spiritual with wonderful wisdom and faithfulness to those who are in the highest degree unworthy.—The characteristic of a holy joy well pleasing to God, is that the heart and mouth are full of thankfulness and the praise of God.—God fights for His children, and he who fights against them fights against God Himself.—The enemies of the Church cannot be defeated at all by man or human power; but only by the omnipotence of God; for they are confederates of the mighty prince of darkness; therefore all the honor of the victory belongs to the Lord alone.—Where the fear of God retires there desolation follows; the curse presses upon that land and consumes it as with fire.—Because God abides forever, therefore those who trust in God and put their hope in God abide forever.—He who honors the name of the Lord truly and actively can never lack hope and faith.—Great is the kindness of God that He should dwell with believers! Great is His faithfulness that He should inquire for the blood of those who are oppressed and should not forget their cries.—The spiritual Zion is not confined to any place, in the world, but the Lord dwells everywhere where there are believers, and may be prayed to and praised in all respects.—If a man should merely tell the grace which has been bestowed upon himself he would have material enough to praise God daily without intermission.—It is a great blindness in the heart of the wicked that they should suppose God does not inquire after what is done in earth.—A man’s own words spoken in unbelief and his actions are snares and judgment enough for him. Forgetfulness of God is the source of all ungodliness and consequently of everlasting ruin. Luther: That is truly a new kind of men, that live among the dead and are glad among the suffering.—Selnekker: He who has not taken refuge in time of need, easily supposes that faith is a mere delusion on the tongue; but he who enters the school where David has been, has a very different opinion.—Bake: Prayer must not originate with the tongue, but in the heart.—Arndt: We should pray and fight with the strength of the Spirit and of faith against great deeds of violence, if we would have the victory.—Herberger: Thanksgiving is the best sound at the table, in the house, in the Church and in the city; it will also be the everlasting sound of heaven.—God’s gracious gifts are simply undeserved wonders.—Unrighteousness destroys the land and the people.—Wicked advice does more harm to those who contrive it than to any one else.—�tinger: Zion is indeed little and poor, but yet God dwells there.—Tholuck: The true kind of triumph in all our actions is to rejoice in God and praise the name of the Most High.—Taube: Thankfulness and prayer are the two parts between which, as between two levers going up and down, moves the entire militant Church of God, and every Christian heart which fights the good fight.—To true thanksgiving belong: 1) the entire heart, not half of it; 2) humility, to which all the benefits of God appear as inconceivable grace and pure wonders, as indeed they are; 3) modest faithfulness, which does not stop with the gift, but goes straight to the Giver and rests in Him alone; 4) the enlightened eye, which knows the true name of the Giver and declares it in accordance with the nature of the gift. [Matth. Henry: The better God is known, the more He is trusted. Those who know Him to be a God of infinite wisdom will trust Him farther than they can see Him, Job 35:14; to be a God of almighty power, will trust Him when creature confidences fail, and they have nothing else to trust to, 2 Chronicles 20:12; and to be a God of infinite grace and goodness, will trust Him though He slay them, Job 13:15. Those that know Him to be a God of inviolable truth and faithfulness will rejoice in His word of promise and rest upon that, though the performance be deferred and intermediate providences seem to contradict it. Those that know Him to be the Father of spirits, and an everlasting Father, will trust Him with their souls as their main care; and trust Him at all times even to the end.—Spurgeon: Gladness and joy are the appropriate spirit in which to praise the goodness of the Lord. Birds extol the Creator in notes of overflowing joy, the cattle low forth His praise with tumult of happiness, and the fish leap up in His worship with excess of delight. Moloch may be worshipped with shrieks of pain, and Juggernaut may be honored by dying groans and inhuman yells, but He whose name is Love is best pleased with holy mirth, and sanctified gladness of His people. Daily rejoicing is an ornament to the Christian character, and a suitable robe for God’s choristers to wear.—Thousands may come at once to the throne of the Judge of all the earth, but neither plaintiff nor defendant shall have to complain that He is not prepared to give their cause a fair hearing.—How the prospect of appearing before the impartial tribunal of the Great King should act as a check to us when tempted to sin, and as a comfort when we are slandered or oppressed.—Saints are not so selfish as to look only to self; they desire mercy’s diamond, that they may let others see it flash and sparkle, and may admire Him who gives such priceless gems to His beloved.—Prayers are the believer’s weapons of war. When the battle is too hard for us we call in our great ally, who, as it were, lies in ambush until faith gives the signal by crying out, “Arise, O Lord.”—One would think that men would not grow so vain as to deny themselves to be but men, but it appears to be a lesson which only a Divine school-master can teach to some proud spirits. Crowns leave their wearers but men, degrees of eminent learning make their owners not more than men, valor and conquest cannot elevate beyond the dead level of “but men,” and all the wealth of Cr�sus, the wisdom of Solon, the power of Alexander, the eloquence of Demosthenes, if added together, would leave the possessor but a man.—Plumer: An occasional “God, I thank Thee,” is no fit return for a perpetual stream of rich benefits.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Delitzsch: “These two Psalms [9 and 10] show that David composed acrostics. And why not? Among the Romans also Ennius already composed acrostics (Cicero de divin. II., 54, § 111) who did not belong to the leaden, but to the iron age, from which the golden subsequently arose; and our most ancient German heroics are in the form of alliteration. Moreover, the alphabetic form is popular, as we see from Augustine, Retract, I. 20. It is not merely a weak substitute for the departed spirit of poetry, it is not merely an external ornament for the eye, it has itself a meaning. The didactic poet regards the row of letters as stairs up which he leads his pupil to the sanctuary of wisdom, or as the casket of many parts in which he places the pearl of his wisdom. And the lyric poet regards them as the harp upon all the strings of which he plays in order to express his feelings. Even the prophet does not scorn to allow the order of letters to exert an influence upon the order of his thought, as is clear from Nahum 1:3-7. When now among the nine alphabetical Psalms (9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145.), four bear the name of David (9, 25, 34, 145) we will not regard them as not by David because the alphabetical arrangement is more or less thoroughly carried out.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 10 1         Why standest thou afar off, O Lord?Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? 2    The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. 3         For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, And blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. 4    The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God:God is not in all his thoughts. 5         His ways are always grievous; Thy judgments are far above out of his sight: As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. 6              He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: For I shall never be in adversity. 7    His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. 8         He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: In the secret places doth he murder the innocent: His eyes are privily set against the poor. 9    He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: He lieth in wait to catch the poor: He doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. 10    He croucheth, and humbleth himself, That the poor may fall by his strong ones. 11         He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: He hideth his face; he will never see it.12         Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: Forget not the humble. 13    Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.14    Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: The poor committeth himself unto thee; Thou art the helper of the fatherless. 15         Break thou the arm of the wicked And the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none. 17     The Lord is King for ever and ever: The heathen are perished out of his land. 17         Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: 18    To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may no more oppress. AND Its Character.—The last four strophes (Psalms 10:12 sq.) begin with the last four letters of the Hebrew alphabet in their order; Psalms 10:1 with μ; the six intervening strophes correspond in number with the corresponding letters; but they are not represented in acrostics. Many interpreters are therefore inclined to regard this Psalm, which is without title, but has many resemblances in its language to the previous Psalm, as originally a part of it, and indeed so that either the author has not succeeded in carrying out the alphabetical order so strictly as in the preceding part (most interpreters), or that the present Psalms 10:2-11 are a later substitute for the acrostic verses (Olsh.) But this very passage has a very ancient color, and is full of obscurity and is rough. Delitzsch, recognizing the peculiar subject of this Psalm as differing very widely from the preceding Psalm, would regard it rather as a copy of the form of the earlier Psalms 9, made not so much by David himself as by a poet about the same time. But how then can we explain the fact, that the alphabetical order, which begins with μ with so much purpose, should be given up already in the second strophe and reappear so long after? In the present form it is inadmissible to unite it with the ninth Psalm into one Psalm (as the Sept.). But the similarity cannot be denied, and the thoughts of the oppressed condition of the pious, who seem to be forgotten for awhile by God, which are expressed towards the close of the former Psalm passing over into petition and invocation of Jehovah, are here carried out into lamentation. There is a transition in Psalms 10:12. God is called upon to interfere; and he finally expresses the confidence that he will be heard (Psalms 10:17). For this reason we may very well regard them as belonging together as a pair of Psalms (Hengst.). [Vid. the introduction of the preceding Psalm.—C. A. B.] Str. I. Ver I. Why.—For the explanation of the accentuation as oxytone, in order to give the word a firmness and emphasis especially before the name of God, vid. Hupf. The meaning is not, that of searching for the reason, not that of objection and displeasure, but it is a question of lamentation, with the request that God will draw near to judge and to help. [Standest thou afar off.—Perowne: “Like an idle, passive spectator, unconcerned at the misery which he sees, but refuses to relieve.”—C. A. B.]—Hidest.—The covering over is here not expressed as reflexive = to conceal one’s self, but as active, so that we must supply: thine eyes (Is. 50:15), or thine ears (Lamentations 3:56). Psalms 10:2. Through the pride of the wicked the afflicted man burns [A. V., The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor].—It does not mean the heat of persecution (many Rabbins, Calv.), no more the heat of anger (Hengst.), but the heat of anxiety (all ancient translators, and most modern interpreters), the heat of affliction (Clauss., Stier). [Perowne: “Through the proud dealing of the wicked their victims are placed in the fire or furnace of affliction.”—C. A. B.] The collective singular is exchanged for the plural in the second member. Since the subject is not given more particularly, there is an uncertainty whether the wicked are referred to as taken in their own craftiness, or the afflicted as taken in the plots devised by the wicked. With the first interpretation the verb is regarded as optative (Aquil., Jerome, Kimchi, Calv.), and the clause as a parenthesis, a pious ejaculation uttered in advance (Ruding). Most interpreters, however, adopt the second view, regarding it as indicative, with all the other ancient translations. This short statement of the circumstances is completely explained in the following verses, and thereby the propriety is proved of the lamentation which has been made. Str. II. Psalms 10:3. Blesseth the defrauder.—Hupf. maintains this interpretation, which is represented by Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Geier, et al, according to which the subject is contained in the verb, and the word which begins the clause is in the accusative. (This word means not an avaricious, covetous man or indeed a man who makes a gain generally, but a man who makes an unrighteous gain whether by craft or force). Indeed those who regard the substantive as subject. and the verb as passive (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Michael., et al.), or reflexive (Jerome, Venema, Stier), which the language does not allow, gain a similar sense. Others regard the subst. as subject, and take the blessing either in a bad sense = curse, abuse (Gesenius and De Wette with other of the fathers), or they get this meaning, which cannot be shown except in the language of the Talmud, through the meaning: valedicere, depart, forsake, renounce, which can certainly be proved (Rosenm., Ewald, Kφst., Delitzsch, Hitzig), whilst Hengst. and Hofm. explain: he blesses, he reviles, no matter whether the one or the other.—Despiseth Jehovah.—[A. V., “whom the Lord abhorreth.” This is contrasted with the “blesseth the defrauder,” so Perowne, Wordsworth, et al. The authorized version is incorrect.—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:4. The wicked in his haughtiness: “He doth not punish.” “Thinks” or “speaks” is to be supplied after haughtiness. Earlier interpreters were in error in regarding these words as the predicate of the ungodly, and translating: he asks not, namely, after God [A. V] or Divine commands; or he does not investigate; or, indeed, he asks after nothing. [Perowne: “He (God) will not require it.” Wordsworth: “ ‘God will not make inquisition;’ there is no judgment to come. This is the impious and scornful spirit of which the prophets speak (Isaiah 5:19; Malachi 2:17), ‘Where is the God of judgment?’ and which St. Peter describes, ‘There shall come in the last day scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?’ 2 Peter 3:4.” Almost all modern interpreters are agreed in a similar translation.—C. A. B.]—“There is no God;” (thus) all his calculations.—This clause others, in accordance with the translations, regard as an exclamation: “There is no God in all his thoughts” [A. V., “God is not in all his thoughts.”]. Mich., Rosenm., et al., following Kimchi, more properly find the contents of his thoughts stated. Since however the text does not speak of thoughts but of calculations, and even in the previous clause the existence of God is not denied by the ungodly, but the activity of God, and indeed His judicial activity, Hengst., Hupfeld, Delitzsch, following Calv. and Venema, explain it with more accuracy thus: “God is not, are all His calculations,” that is, they are a continual practical denial of God.Str. III. Psalms 10:5. Strong [A. V. grievous].—Since the entire passage is a description of the walk of the ungodly, and not of his lot, the reference of the Chald. “to the success of his undertakings,” which most interpreters follow, is not entirely correct. We might rather, with Luther and Geier, suppose a reference to the duration and perseverance of his bad conduct; only this does not agree very well with the clause: “at all times.” This would very well express the idea of daily, constant, if we could, with Schrφder, (Comm. inPs. 10, Grφning. 1754) explain in accordance with the Arabic: distorted = crooked are his ways. But this meaning cannot be shown in the Hebrew, but rather that of being strong. Is not this meant to indicate the regardless and heedless, and therefore dangerous advance of the wicked to their purposes, treading down many persons and things; as contrasted with every kind of feebleness and sneaking conduct? The ancient translations are all astray on account of false etymologies.—Are far above, out of his sight.—[Barnes: “They are out of the range of his vision. His thoughts grovel on the earth, and he is never elevated in his view so as to see the great principles of truth.” Wordsworth refers to Job 22:12-13 “Is not God in the height of heaven? And thou sayest how doth God know?”—C. A. B.]—He puffeth at them.—This could be said of snorting in wrath, or thirst for blood (Chald.), or of blowing away (Symm., Calv., Hengst.), and blowing down (Isaki, Flam., Vatab.); it is best to refer it to a gesture of contempt (Syr., Jerome, and most others). [Hupf: “A description of the security of the wicked, all is favorable to him, and neither God nor man hinder him.” Riehm: “The third clause describes his relation to his enemies as the preceding his relation to God: he has neither God nor man to fear, Luke 18:14.”—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 10:6. [Delitzsch: In his unbounded carnal security he lets his wicked tongue have free course.”—C. A. B.] The ΰωׁ ?ψ brings into prominence the dear I of the proud fool (Delitz.) Others translate by “for,” [A. V.], or seek by a different pointing, to get the meaning of “success,” or failure, or successful, never unfortunate (Mich., Dathe, Kφhler), or they change the reading. Hupf. and Camph. refer the clause as relative to the preceding word: generation = which is without misfortune. [Hupf.: “I shall not be moved for generations, or from generation to generation, which will be without adversity.” Riehm follows Hitzig thus: “ΰωׁ ?ψ introduces the direct discourse, as 2 Samuel 1:4, and is put back in the clause as in the corresponding passage, Zechariah 8:20; Zechariah 8:23, “from generation to generation, that I shall not be in adversity.” Barnes: “The idea of the wicked is that they and their families would continue to be prosperous, that a permanent foundation was laid for honor and success, and for transmitting accumulated wealth and honors down to far distant times.”—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 10:8. Villages.—[Perowne refers to the haunts of the robbers, nomad encampments of predatory Bedouins, who thence fell upon helpless travellers.” Perowne: “There is some confusion in the metaphors employed. The wicked man is compared first to the lion watching for his prey, and then to the hunter taking wild animals in his net. Whereas again in Psalms 10:10 we seem to have the image of the wild beast crushing his prey.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:10. He stoops [A. V., “croucheth.”]—A continued description of lying in wait (Chald., Isaki, Vatabl., Ewald, Olsh., Delitzsch). Others regard the unfortunate one as the subject, and translate with Aquil. and Jerome: and he sinks down crushed (Rosenmόller, De Wette, Hengstenberg, [Alexander, Perowne]), or they regard the adjective itself as the subject, and the oppressed sinks down (Hupfeld).—His strong ones, according to Mich., are the companions of the wicked, according to Jerome his powers, or according to the Rabbins, his limbs. Most interpreters suppose a particular reference to the claws or teeth of the lion. Others, with Chald. and Calv., regard the plural as indicating the abstract strength. Hupfeld, since the verb is in the singular, although elsewhere it is often connected with the plural of the subject, connects it with the preceding clause = and falls, on account of the singular which precedes. He does not then decide whether the concluding words form an adverbial clause = by his strength, the poor; or an independent clause = the poor are in his power. Str. VI. Psalms 10:11. [Hupfeld: “Refrain with full meaning at the close of the lamentation, ground and motive of the action just described, and at the same time prelude to the following prayer.”—C. A. B.] Str. VII. Psalms 10:12-13. [Delitzsch. “In contrast with those who have no God, or only dead idols, the Psalmist calls upon his God, the living God, that He will do away with the appearance that He was not the Omniscient, self-conscious being. The names of God are heaped up. He is to lift up His hand in order to punish.”—C. A. B.] Str. VIII. Psalms 10:14. [Thou hast seen it.—Perowne: “An energetic protest against the words immediately preceding, and also with a reference to the ‘He will never see,’ Psalms 10:11, throwing back the words in the mouth of the wicked. There is a time coming he feels, when all this disorder will be set right. God is not the passive spectator of human affairs which these men deem Him.”—C. A. B.]—To take in thy hand—Most interpreters suppose a writing upon the hand in order to call to remembrance. Some, following Sept., Syr., Symm., Jerome, of giving over to punishment, others following the Chald., of punishment itself as requiting with the hand [So A. V.] Hupfeld finds here a reference to the energy and practical consequences of Divine knowledge, as a transition to action. Str. IX. Psalms 10:15. [A. V., “Seek out his wickedness till thou find none.” Perowne: “When his wickedness is sought for, let it no more be found.” Wordsworth: “Thou wilt exercise a searching inquiry into all human actions, and wilt make a full end of iniquity by utterly destroying every vestige of it.” Riehm regards Jehovah as the subject, and the verb as imperative, as in the first member, and translates: “And the unrighteousness of the wicked mayest thou seek and not find it, the idea being that the wicked should be made so harmless that his wickedness should disappear without leaving any trace, so that God, when He seeks after it in order to punish it, may find it no more. God ever continues to seek out wickedness; but the Psalmist desires that it may be that He shall find nothing more to punish.”—C. A. B.] Respecting the eternal sovereignty of Jehovah, Psalms 10:16, compare Zechariah 14:9; Daniel 7:14; Revelation 11:15.—Jehovah is king forever.—[Alexander: “He is not dethroned, as His enemies imagine; He is still King, and will so remain in perpetuity and eternity, forever and ever.”—C. A. B.] Str. X. Psalms 10:17. [Wilt prepare.—Hupfeld: “Strengthen their heart; to make a firm, comforted heart, unwavering in its feelings (Psalms 51:12; Psalms 57:8; Psalms 78:37; Psalms 112:7), in contrast to a heart agitated, trembling, shaken in its attitude, inconstant, fluctuating between hope and fear, and other opposite feelings. Here God strengthens by hearing, or rather by faith, the inner confidence that the prayer will be heard.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:18. Terrify [A. V., “oppress.”]—The play upon words may be expressed in Latin: ne terreat—homo e terra. It may also be translated: defy (Sept., Jerome, Luth., Geier, Hengst.), or to be violent (Mich). The verb stands absolutely (Calv.) so that “they” (Kimchi) cannot be supplied. This translation: no longer will he (the wretched one) frighten man from the earth (Aben Ezra), is less appropriate; still less the very different rendering: they or he (the wicked man) will no more frighten the man (the miserable) from the land (Syr., Rosenm., De Wette). The earth is here not mentioned as the material from which the enτsh is made, but as the place of his abode, from which he rises in wickedness. Baur (in De Wette’s Comm.) proposes to refer the first words of the last line as parenthesis to the oppressed = he is it no longer, to regard the last words, however, as parallel with the previous line, as a statement of the kind of Divine help = frightening the rabble from the land. Bφttcher translates: Let not the weak flee terrified from the land. [Riehm: “No longer will man inspire with fear from the earth.” The Psalmist expresses the confidence at the close corresponding with the wish, Psalms 9:19, “that it will result from God’s judgment that no wicked man, or that no man will any more be terrible to others, but Jehovah alone in heaven.” “This completely remedies the lamentation, Psalms 10:2.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The enemies of the pious are not only strong, crafty, unscrupulous, cruel, and eager to devise the ruin of their opponents, but they are likewise without faith, and godless even to the extent of denying that there is a God. But whilst they rage. scorn, and blaspheme, and in their pride wickedly disregard all Divine commands, and offend against all human order and rights; God sees how they act and how His servants suffer; and God reveals to them both the power of his hand, as the God who is always and eternally King. 2. On this very account the pious very properly commit themselves to God, and this secures them from despair. But the time, before Divine help appears, is often very long, and it is hard for him to wait. It is well for him if he then strengthens his hope and revives his trust in God, and arms himself for patience in suffering, by prayer. 3. In the anguish of external trouble and internal affliction the pious may, with propriety, urge God to hasten to their relief; but although the voice of their lamentation may resound, yet it must not contain a complaint against God, as if He improperly delayed, or as if He left the afflicted in continual danger without reason, or as if He had purposely shut His eyes and ears against their need and prayers. In the realization of their weakness, they must give themselves and their cause entirely into the hands of God. AND He who has nothing under him but the earth upon which he walks and stands, may indeed at times in wicked presumption be arrogant and proud as if there was no God; but he will ere long be cast down by the everlasting King, whom he blasphemes and denies.—Many speak about God, but act as if there were no God.—God sees all that takes place on earth, He neglects nothing, He forgets no one, but He will not have the time, the place, or the form of the revelation of His righteousness prescribed to Him.—We should learn patience by the patience of God.—With God there is indeed delay, but no neglect.—He who would see the fulfilment of his hopes, must not only believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him; he must likewise pray to God and wait upon God.—As sure as God is everlasting King, so sure is the final and complete ruin of the ungodly, and the final and eternal salvation of the pious.—If God has taken anything into His hands we need not trouble ourselves with care; but we must at all times humble ourselves under His powerful hand, and lie in His hand of grace. Starke: God often hides His face from us, and postpones His help, only that we may pray more earnestly.—The more success the ungodly have in their heart’s desire, the less they care for God.—Pride and haughtiness make the ungodly so unreasonable that they do not inquire after man or God, and they regard all wholesome reflection as folly.—The security and dissoluteness of man receive their support in not reflecting upon the judgments of God.—If an ungodly man believes in the word of God, he must likewise believe that his fall is near, that it will surely come. Since however he does not believe this, he must likewise regard the word of God as lies.—The ungodly make lies their refuge and hypocrisy their shelter; but the curse reaches them.—To deny Divine providence is to blaspheme against God.—When God begins to search after wickedness, then everything must come out; for God sees even into the most secret corners.—As long as the enemies of Christ are unable to cast Him down from His throne of glory, His Church will remain in spite of all the devils. Osiander: Those who say that God does not take up the affairs of men, do as much as deny that there is a God, and blaspheme Him in the most cruel manner.—Menzel: What makes the ungodly so secure in the world? 1) Their success and progress; 2) their great number and adherents; 3) their wicked heart, which despises God, and does not fear that He will punish their wickedness because He delays a little. Why are such complaints of the saints described to us? 1) That we may see how painful it is for the pious heart when God seems to give way to the wicked; 2) that we may likewise know the weakness of the saints; they have likewise flesh and blood, therefore they struggle wonderfully with their trials; 3) that we may learn that God can bear with such weakness if only faith is maintained.—Franke: The heart must first be brought into the school of the cross, if a word that treats of the cross, is to be relished by him, and give him strength and nourishment.—Baumgarten: As long as a man regards God as his enemy, he wishes that there were no God.—Although some things are forgotten for a time, and no creature is troubled about them, yet God will in His time inquire for them, and break the arm of the ungodly.—Herberger: Hell is behind the pride of the ungodly; heaven and eternal life are behind the sufferings of pious hearts.—To err is human, but to continue constantly in wickedness is devilish.—Taube: Pride and wrath are always brothers.—The severest conflict, but likewise the most brilliant victory in cross-bearing, is the believing appropriation of the power and grace of God to myself as an individual, and to my present circumstances. [Matth. Henry: We stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and then we complain that God stands afar off from us.—Where there is a heart full of malice, there is commonly a mouth full of curses.—Let those that suffer by proud oppressors hope that God will in due time appear for them; for those that are abusive to them are abusive to God Almighty too.—Barnes: Pride is at the root of all the Atheism, theoretical or practical, on the earth; at the root of all the reluctance which there is to seek the favor of God; at the root, therefore, of the misery and wretchedness of the world. Men act as if they were not responsible to their Maker, and as if it were a settled point that He would never call them to account.—Spurgeon: To the tearful eye of the sufferer the Lord seemed to stand still, as if He calmly looked on and did not sympathize with His afflicted one. Nay more, the Lord appeared to be afar off, no longer “a very present help in trouble,” but an inaccessible mountain, into which no man would be able to climb. The presence of God is the joy of His people, but any suspicion of His absence is distracting beyond measure.—The refiner is never far from the mouth of the furnace when his gold is in the fire, and the Son of God is always walking in the midst of the flames when His holy children are cast into them.—It is not the trouble, but the hiding of our Father’s face, which cuts us to the quick.—A smiling face and a rod are not fit companions. God bares the back that the blow may be felt; for it is only felt affliction which can become blest affliction. If we were carried in the arms of God over every stream, where would be the trial, and where the experience, which trouble is meant to teach us?—The only place where God is not in the thoughts of the wicked. This is a damning accusation; for where the God of heaven is not, the Lord of hell is reigning and raging; and if God be not in our thoughts, our thoughts will bring us to perdition.—Ah! there is one enemy who will not be puffed at. Death will puff at the candle of his life, and blow it out, and the wicked boaster will find it grim work to brag in the tomb.—God shall hunt the sinner forever; so long as there is a grain of sin in him it shall be sought out and punished.—God permits tyrants to arise as thorn-hedges to protect His Church from the intrusion of hypocrites, and that He may teach His backsliding children by them, as Gideon did the men of Succoth with the brier of the wilderness; but He soon cuts up these Herods, like the thorns, and casts them into the fire.”—Spurgeon’s Treasury of David: Thos. Watson: A spiritual prayer is an humble prayer.—The lower the heart descends, the higher the prayer ascends.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Hupfeld regards it as unnecessary to supply “speaks” in the former clause, and translates thus: “The unrighteous in his pride: ‘he will not avenge it,’ ‘there is no God,’ are all his calculations.”—C. A. B.] [Thomson, in the Land and the Book, p. 314, alludes to these verses thus: “A thousand rascals, the living originals of this picture, are this day crouching and lying in wait all over the country to catch poor helpless travellers.” And again, p 383: “It was somewhat novel to be riding gaily along this solitary shore with professed robbers, and these bushy ravines swarming with their comrades, prowling about like beasts of prey.”—C. A. B.] [Thomson, Land and Book, p. 445, thinks that David has the panther in view who “lies flat on his belly, and creeps almost insensibly toward the flock. His color is like the surrounding grass and stubble. He will thus man�uvre for hours, until finally within leaping distance, when he springs with one tremendous bound upon his terrified prey.” This is likely in the mixture of metaphorics.—C. A. B.] Psalms 11 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David1         In the Lord put I my trust: How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? 2    For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string, That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. 3    If the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do? 4    The Lord is in his holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men. 5    The Lord trieth the righteous: But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 6    Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, Fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. 7    For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright. AND Contents and Composition.—The firm trust in God whilst the foundations of the State and social order are shaking, the manly rejection of the counsel of discouraged friends who advise to flee from the threatening danger, the cheerful confidence in sure help through the judicial government of God, correspond so well with the character of David, that there is no reason to doubt the correctness of the title, whether we think of the earlier period of the persecution by Saul (Ewald), or of the battles of David with the Philistines, with a reference to 2 Samuel 21:17 (Hitzig), or on account of Psa 10:3, of the rebellion of Absalom (Maurer, Delitzsch). The vigorous brevity, and the fresh, lively movement of the language do not agree at all with the supposition that this is a Psalm of lamentation, composed by Hezekiah at the time of the siege of Sennacherib.Str. I. Psalms 10:1.—With Jehovah have I refuge. [A. V. “In the Lord do I put my trust.” Hupf.: “With Jehovah have I taken or found refuge.” So Perowne: “I need no other refuge: how can ye say to me, etc.; my feet are on the true Rock, why should I look elsewhere for safety? This is the full force of the expression. There is, moreover, a force in the perfect, ‘I have found.’ It is an exclamation of joyful confidence in the thought that he has such a refuge, and is not yet to seek it. The advice here given, and which he repels, is that of timid and desponding friends, who would persuade him that all is lost, and that the highest wisdom is to yield to circumstances, and to seek safety not in resistance but in flight. But in fact the voice which thus speaks is the voice of the natural heart, of the selfish, and therefore short-sighted and cowardly instinct, which always asks first, not, what is right? but, what is safe? The advice may be well meant, but it is unworthy (comp. Psalms 3:3; Psalms 4:8). This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. But it is often a sorer trial for faith to have to withstand the pleadings of well meaning friends than to arm itself against open enemies.”—C. A. B.] Flee.—Hupf. advocates the plural which includes those who are in similar circumstances and danger, in opposition to the interpreters who, with the Jewish critics, adopt the singular reading. The bird is used as a figure of the pursued, 1 Samuel 26:20; Lamentations 3:52; it is here a collective, and either as a vocative in apposition, or as a comparison. [Ewald regards this expression as a proverb in use among the Jews, not found elsewhere it is true, but yet natural as a figure of speech in those times. So Hupfeld:—To your mountain.—De Wette: “A figure taken from birds, which, when hunted upon the plain, flee back speedily to the wooded mountains; but it is likewise a proper idea. The mountains of Palestine being rich in caves afforded safe places of refuge from enemies who held possession of the plains. Thus Mattathias and his sons fled to the mountain, 1Ma 2:28.” So also David in his flight from Saul.—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:2. The see, [A. V., “Lo”], and the statements of Psa 10:3 do not allow us to regard these words as an explanation of the poet (Calv.) It makes no difference in this respect whether we begin Psalms 10:3 with “for” or “if.” The hypothetical interpretation has nothing to do with the contents of the clause, but only with its structure. [There is a change of tense which is lost in the A. V., which is very dramatic, vid., Hupf. and Alexander in loco. Hupf.: “They span the bow, they have adjusted their arrow to the string.” Alexander translates they “have fixed” their arrow. The English “make ready” is too vague.—Privily, more properly “in darkness,” in the dark, in secret, treacherously.—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:3. The foundations here are not persons (Gesenius, Hitzig) as Isaiah 3:1; Isaiah 19:10; Galatians 2:9, but the laws and ordinances of public justice, 1 Samuel 2:8; Psalms 75:3; Psalms 82:5; Ezekiel 30:4. Calv. et al., following the Sept., Vulg. Aquil., Symm. translate: What has he done? namely, wrong; wherewith has he done wrong? The perfect, however, does not force us to this; but it prevents the usual interpretation: What shall he do? namely, otherwise than flee. The perfect in interrogative clauses is often used in the sense of the Latin subjunctive = what could he do? (Seb. Schmidt, Hupf., Delitzsch), or it expresses the result of experience (Ewald, et al,) [The Anglican prayer book translates: “For the foundations will be cast down, and what has the righteous done?” So Alexander. Hupf.: Whilst he grants the possibility of the above, yet translates: “For the pillars are destroyed; the righteous—what has he done (accomplished)” that is “what has he done, accomplished according to his previous experience?” And thus he states his agreement with Ewald and Bφttcher (N. Ζhrenl., who compares with συνήρτακεν, Xen., Cyrop., iv. 2, 26). This seems to be the better view.—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 10:4. Jehovah in his holy palace,etc.—[A. V., “temple.” Delitzsch: “Above the earth are the heavens, and in the heavens is Jehovah’s throne, the King of kings. And this heavenly temple, this palace, is the place from whence all earthly things are finally decided, Habakkuk 2:20; Micah 1:2. For the royal throne there is also the judgment seat above the earth, Psalms 9:7; Psalms 103:19. Jehovah, who is seated there, is the all-seeing and the all-knowing. ηָ ?ζָּ ?δ = cernere, of a penetrating glance. αָ ?ηַ ?ο = trying metals by fire, of a searching glance into the innermost nature of things. The eyelashes are mentioned designedly. When we consider and investigate sharply, the eyelids approach one another in order that the glance may become more single, direct, and like a flash penetrating through the object.”—C. A. B.]Psalms 10:6. Rain.—Hupfeld holds fast strongly to the optative, and makes “fire and brimstone as nets” depend upon “He makes to rain.” According to Delitzsch the future in the jussive form states a fact of the future resulting with necessity from facts of the present. “Rain” denotes the abundance in which the means of punishment descend. If the accents and pointing are not altered in order to find stated something corresponding to fire and brimstone, e.g. coals (Ewald, Olsh., now also Bφttcher), or ashes (Hitzig), then this means of punishment consists either of masses (Bφttcher previously), lumps in general, pieces (Aben Ezra, Geier, Mich.) or slings which most interpreters regard as figurative of lightning; others, following Calvin, as a means of holding them fast in order that they may not escape the punishment. The fiery wind” [A. V., “Horrible tempest”] is the hot east wind, Arab. samϋm = the poisonous. Hupf. does not consider that the meaning fire has been proved, but rather that of rage, and translates: Blast of wrath. So likewise Hengst. [Wordsworth: “The Psalmist refers to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as a prophetic emblem of what awaits the ungodly; and he anticipates the language of St. Jude concerning those cities “as set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Judges 7). And he anticipates the imagery of the Apocalypse Revelation 19:20; Psalms 21:8.”—Portion of their cup.—Alexander: “something measured out for them to drink, according to the frequent Scriptural representation, both of God’s wrath and favor as a draught or as the cup containing it. Comp. Psalms 16:5; Matthew 20:22-23; Matthew 26:39. The meaning of the whole verse is that notwithstanding the present security of the ungodly, they shall sooner or later be abundantly visited with every variety of destructive judgment.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:7. Righteous acts [A. V., “righteousness”], literally, “righteousnesses,” that is, acts of righteousness.—The upright shall behold His face.—The adjective in the singular is collective as subst., hence the plural of the predicate. The suffix is in a poetical, solemn form of the singular (Ewald, Olsh.) and is not necessarily plural of majesty, or an inexactness (Hupf.). Since the face is elsewhere only the object, and not the subject of seeing, the translation which is certainly possible here, “his countenance doth behold the upright,” (Isaki, Kimchi, Geier, Mich., Hengst. [A. V.]) is not to be recommended, although in the other clauses God is the subject, and the plural forms in the suffix and verbs are very well explained whilst the object remains in the singular. Luther, et al., following most of the ancient translations, regard this as abstract = uprightness. [Almost all recent commentators adopt the rendering of the author. Thus Hupfeld: “’To behold God’s face’ is figurative of the highest favor with God and blessedness, as Psalms 17:15, like sitting and standing before the face of God, Psalms 41:12; Psalms 140:13; Job 33:26, etc.; borrowed from the privilege of oriental magnates to appear before the king, and be favored with the constant sight of majesty, and so transferred to the relation of the pious to God, who alone are worthy of this sight, and are capable of it, so far as only the pure can bear the sight of the Holy One; but sin excludes from the privilege; comp. the promise, Matthew 5:8, that ‘the pure in heart shall see God,’ and the corresponding figure of spiritual reception in the house of God, which only the pious have, Psalms 5:5; Psalms 15:1.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. Those are not true friends who, in dangerous times, put the duty of self-preservation before that of duty to the community, and then when the foundations of the State are rooted up, and the pillars of social order begin to shake, advise to flight instead of to the conflict which should be waged in the name of God, and with the assurance of Divine assistance. Indeed every courageous man and brave warrior rejects such imputations as cowardly and shameful; how much more the Sovereign, who is called of God, and who trusts in God? 2. That God is enthroned in heaven does not prevent His government on earth, but rather is presupposed as well for His government of the world in general as for His special dealings with individuals, and therefore it is the foundation of the believer’s confidence that even in the worst times, he will receive seasonable help from the Lord. 3. It is not stated here how a man is justified, but how it fares with the righteous. He may indeed on earth fall into the greatest dangers and needs, and be surrounded by timid, unsafe, and false friends, and be oppressed by mighty, crafty, and merciless enemies; but God does not forsake those who trust in Him with living faith. He tries them, it is true, as a discerner of hearts, but the upright, whom He has found faithful, He causes to experience His love, and helps them out of all their needs. AND He who has faith does not flee.—The King of heaven is not only an almighty but likewise an omniscient God and the just Rewarder.—Where even the strength of the righteous fails, the arm of Him who is enthroned in the heavens helps.—The rulers of the earth have likewise to reflect that they have a Lord in heaven.—The wicked have to reckon upon no lasting success; it only remains for them to wait for the terrible judgments of God whilst the righteous may hope in the assistance of God and at last will behold His countenance.—In times of danger we must not hearken to the advice of weak and cowardly men, but trust in the word and assistance of God. Not to flee from God but to God brings deliverance, salvation and peace. Calvin: Although all alike confess that the world is ruled by God, yet there are but few, when a sad complication of affairs surrounds them with darkness, who have this conviction confirmed in the innermost part of their souls. Starke: Whenever any one turns to fearing God, there are ever wicked decoy birds which think to prevent him.—No hunter can pursue the game more hotly than the ungodly are greedy for the ruin of the pious.—It is well for those who are well-grounded, especially at this last time, when the ground is not destroyed, yet is made to shake in many ways and when so many fundamental truths are contested. There are two ways in which God is present; one in which He fills heaven and earth, the other when He is present in the word and sacrament, yes, in the hearts of believers.—The omnipresence and omniscience of God are a very strong consolation to the believer when oppressed.—There is a difference between the cross of the pious and the punishment of the ungodly, the former are preserved by suffering, the latter are entirely destroyed.—He who loves God and will be loved by God must love righteousness.—Speak what is right, maintain the right and deviate not a finger breadth from righteousness and the Lord will be favorable to you. Osiander: Although we do not in all ways serve the law of God after the flesh, yet we should do it with our souls and have pleasure therein after the inner man (Romans 7:22) in order that God may not be hostile to us.—Selnekker: The favor of God and the favor of wicked men are wider apart than heaven and earth.—Moller: What comforts and encourages the pious, fills the ungodly with fear and terror.—Arndt: The reward of the pious is the love of God, yea God Himself.—Herberger: The more defiant the ungodly are in favorable times, the more dejected and discouraged they are in misfortune.—Rieger: It is well for those, to whom all in God is so dear, that they can gain for themselves a basis of good hope from His holiness, His power, His omniscience, and His zeal against wickedness.—Stiller: Sighs ascend and consolation descends.—Guenther: There are two kinds of enemies, the open and the secret; the former persecute us, the latter give us the so-called good advice.—Diedrich: Make no peace with the world until after a decisive victory, and let your daily confession be this only: I trust in the Lord. [Matth. Henry: The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, is a riddle to a carnal world, and is ridiculed accordingly.—Good people would be undone if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.—In singing this Psalm we must encourage and engage ourselves to trust in God at all times, must depend upon Him to protect our innocency, and make us happy; must dread His frown as worse than death, and desire His favor as better than life.—Barnes: The wicked have everything to fear; the righteous, nothing. The one is never safe; the other, always. The one will be delivered out of all his troubles; the end of the other can only be ruin.—Spurgeon: When prayer engages God on our side, and when faith secures the fulfilment of the promise, what cause can there be for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies?—Is it suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross, and shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the voice of the charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may wrestle with principalities and powers and follow the Lord fully, going without the camp, bearing His reproach. Mammon, the flesh, the devil, will all whisper in our ear, “Flee as a bird to your mountain,” but let us come forth and defy them all. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”—The advice of cowardice and the jeer of insolence, both answered by faith. Lesson—Attempt no other answer.—If all earthly things fail, and the very State fall to pieces, what can we do? We can suffer joyfully, hope cheerfully, wait patiently, pray earnestly, believe confidently, and triumph finally.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [This Psalm may have been composed at that critical period mentioned, 1 Samuel 29-31, and 2 Samuel 1-3. David lost the confidence of the Philistines, was in trouble with his own men, 1 Samuel 30:6; 1 Samuel 30:22-24; 2 Samuel 3:39, and all the religious as well as the political institutions of Israel were disturbed and in danger of dissolution.—C. A. B.] [“Your” is significant; it refers to the well-known mountain stronghold, the familiar hiding places of David and his friends; some such one as the cave of Engedi, 1 Samuel 24, or the hill Hachilah, Psalms 26:1. This Psalm was composed when these remembrances were fresh in the minds of David and his adherents.—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch: “Thus men are manifest to the All-searching eye, the all-trying glance of Jehovah: righteous and unrighteous. He trieth the righteous, that is, He recognizes in the depths of their souls their righteous nature, which stands the test (Psalms 17:3; Job 23:10) so that He protects them with love as the righteous cling to Him in love; but the wicked and he who uses violence against the weak. His soul hates, and He hates them with all the energy of His holy being. The more intense this hate is, the more fearful will the punishment be which He sends down upon them.”—C. A. B.] [There is here probably a reference to the Sirocco of the Holy Land thus described by Thomson. “The air becomes loaded with fine dust, which it whirls in rainless clouds hither and thither at its own wild will; it rushes down every gorge, bowing and breaking the trees, and tugging at each individual leaf; it growls around the houses, romps and runs riot with your clothes.”—“The eyes inflame, the lips blister, and the moisture of the body evaporates, under the ceaseless application of this persecuting wind; you become languid, nervous, irritable, and despairing.” Vid., still further Thomson, Land and the Book, pp. 295 and 537.—C. A. B] [Delitzsch: “To behold God’s face is in itself impossible for mortal man without dying. But when God graciously allows Himself to be seen, He makes it possible for the creature to look upon Him. This enjoyment of the Divine face when it is softened in love, is the highest honor which God’s grace can bestow upon man, it is the blessing of the upright, Psalms 140:13. We cannot say that this means beholding His face in the world to come, or that it is exclusively in this world. The future ςεμν is lost to the Old Testament idea in the night of sheol. But faith breaks through this night, and consoles itself with a future beholding of God, Job 19:26. The New Testament redemption has realized this postulate of faith in that the Redeemer has broken through the night of the realm of the dead, raised up with Himself the pious of the Old Testament, and transported them into the sphere of the Divine love which is revealed in heaven.” Perowne: “Thus Faith kindles into hope. Not only does David make Jehovah his refuge in calamity, but he can rejoice in the thought that he shall behold the face of God,—behold now the light of His countenance even in the midst of gloom and darkness. Did his hope reach beyond this, and are we to suppose that here he looks forward to seeing God in the resurrection? We cannot tell. But see Psalms 16:11; Psalms 17:15. To us, however, his words may be the expression of a ‘hope full of immortality.’ ‘We know that our light affliction worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ ‘We know that when He shall appear … we shall see Him as He is.’ We can take this Psalm likewise to ourselves, and think upon ‘seeing God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 12 To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David1         Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; For the faithful fail from among the children of men. 2    They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. 3    The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that speaketh proud things: 4    Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; Our lips are our own: who is lord over us? 5    For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now will I arise, saith the Lord;I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. 6    The words of the Lord are pure words: As silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. 7    Thou shalt keep them, O Lord,Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. 8    The wicked walk on every side, When the vilest men are exalted. AND Its character.—A prayer of David (Psalms 12:1 a) under the impression of the decrease of piety and faithfulness in the world (Psalms 12:1 b), and the increase of shameless and careless deceitfulness (Psalms 12:2-4). In moral indignation against this, he calls upon God (Psalms 12:3), receives a promise of Divine help for those who request it (Psalms 12:5); he shows plainly the reliability of the promise of Jehovah (Psalms 12:6), and expresses confidence in His protection (Psalms 12:7), once more referring to the present condition of corruption (Psalms 12:8) The Divine promise does not appear in the form of a citation of a prophetical word already given (Ewald), nor as a mere poetical dress (Hupf.), but as a true prophetical revelation. Even Hitzig refers not only to the holy lot which David took with him in war (2 Samuel 5:19; 2 Samuel 5:24); but he brings to mind the prophetical character of David (Acts 2:30), and regards him “as competent to perceive a Divine word on the mirror of his soul which had been purified and unburdened by prayer.” There is no reason for transposing the two last verses in order not to conclude with a crying discord (Hupf.). “The psalm is a ring and that oracle is its jewel” (Delitzsch). Str. I. Psalms 12:1. Help.—[Perowne: “‘save’ is more emphatic, because no object is expressed, vid.Psalms 116:1, where in like manner the verb ‘I love’ stands without its object.”—C. A. B.]—Disappear.—[A. V.: “ceaseth.” Barnes: “Their conduct was such that their influence failed or was lost to the community.”—C. A. B.]—Faithful.—The “Amen people,” according to Luther’s gloss. From the position of the predicate, before, in the plural, we would expect the persons to be mentioned, which also the parallel clause favors, as Psalms 31:23. The double reason of the prayer does not force us to regard the plural as abstract = faithfulness (Sept. ἀλήθειαι), or “faith” (Syr.), which indeed is in itself possible. Psalms 12:2. Lies [A. V.: “vanity”].—This is not to be referred merely to false, unprofitable doctrines (Cocc., Schmidt, et al.).—Double heart.—[Alexander: “By a double heart we are probably to understand, not mere dissimulation or hypocrisy, but inconsistency and instability of temper, which leads men to entertain opposite feelings towards the same object. Comp. the description of the double minded ‘man’ in James 1:8.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 12:3-4. [Perowne: “The burning of righteous indignation uttering itself in a fervent prayer for the uprooting of the whole kingdom of lies.”—“The men here described are evidently men occupying a high position, smooth and supple courtiers, perfect in the art of dissembling, yet glorying in their power of saying what they list, however atrocious the falsehood or the calumny.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 12:4. With regard to our tongues we show strength.—Hupf. translates: We are masters of our tongues; [A. V.: “with our tongues will we prevail”]; on the other hand Ewald and Olsh. with Geier et al.: we are confederates of our own tongues; Hitzig: we strengthen our tongues.—Our lips are our own-[Wordsworth: “the wicked say (or rather are with us, on our side), (comp. 2 Kings 6:16; Psalms 46:7). They rely on their lips, their smooth, flattering speeches fitted to deceive; on their proud and haughty words, able to overcome. This (they say) is our artillery, with it we are invincible.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 12:5. I will set him in safety who panteth after it.—Eum qui inhiat illi sc. saluti (Maurer, similarly Ewald, Olsh., Hengst., Delitzsch [Alexander]. Comp. Habakkuk 2:3, where panting for an end is described with a similar expression. The translation of Geier, Rosenm., et al., “against whom they puff” [A. V., “from him that puffeth at him”], has against it the construction with μִ. The translation adopted by Mich. and Hupf.=in order that he may recover breath=refresh himself, causes us to miss the object of the verb. [The translation of A. V. et al. is to be preferred. Barnes: “By this construction, also, the connection with the main statement will be best preserved—that the inquiry referred to in the Psalm was done by words, by the breath of the mouth—thus indicating that by a word or breath they could destroy them.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 12:6. Work-shop.—Since the etymology allows this translation of the obscure Hebrew word, and the additional words “in the earth” are best suited with this, because pure silver flows down out of the ore heaped up in the furnace, Delitzsch prefers this rendering, following Cocc., Mich., Gesenius, Olsh. It may, however, be translated “melting vessel,” that is, crucible or oven; but the earth must then mean either, in an oven belonging to the earth=enclosed with earth (Chald., Maur., De Wette, Hupf. [A. V.], which is against the usage of melting houses, or if it is only an indication of its place it is superfluous; or it must be connected with the participle = purified on account of the earth, that is from its earthly ingredients (Rosenm., Ewald et al.). Against this is the fact that ΰψυ does not mean the earth as material. The seven times is regarded by most interpreters as a holy number, by Saadia et al. as a round number. Following the Jewish interpreters (who, however, think of the sovereign of the land, among whom Vatab. understands God, vid. Hupf.), Hengst. and Lengerke translate: “silver of a prince of the land,” whilst they regard it as a secondary form of αςμ. Hitzig now translates: melted into the bar in the crucible. He regards ψς=ΰψυ, Psalms 68:30. Bφttcher would read μָ ?ΰָ ?αֶ ?υ = to the lustre of white = to the pure bright mass. Str. IV. Psalms 12:7. This generation.—[Perowne: “Spoken of those who not only live in the same age, but are pervaded by the spirit of that age. So Isaiah 53:8. Here the world as opposed to the Church.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 12:8. If the wicked walk about on every side in accordance with the increase of vileness among the children of men.—Some, as Grot., Rosenm., Umbreit, following Symm. and Jerome, regard λְ as a particle of time [so A. V., “when the vilest men are exalted”], yet so, that they unite the statement of the reason with that of the point of time. But it is better to regard it as a comparison, because it then expresses a corrective and comforting judgment respecting the previous clause (Hupf.). Hitzig unites the letters to other words and gets the meaning, “Unhappy destiny for the world of man!” In the Chald. and Rabbin ξַ ?ζָּ ?μ means fate, yet in the plural properly signa zodiaci; therefore Hitzig is inclined to think partly of some idiom of common life, partly refers to Judges 5:20, where the stars actively interfere with human affairs. Formerly he translated: if they rise, a terror to the children of men. In a similar way Gesenius Thesaurus. On the other hand G. Baur prefers the translation of Hengst.: lowliness is for men as sovereignty; which is thus improved by Lengerke: humiliation is to the children of men as exaltation; which should mean: they will not long carry it on—pride comes before a fall. Umbreit translates: The wicked walk round about, when the shame of the children of men rises. [Wordsworth translates thus: Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, Thou shalt guard him from this generation forever, although the wicked walk on every side because vileness is exalted among the children of men. The Psalmist foretells two things: that ungodliness will overflow, even unto the end; and that the righteous will be preserved from the flood of iniquity. And thus he prepares the way for the declaration of the Lord Himself in the Gospel concerning the latter days (Matthew 24:12-13.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. Those are bad times when the number of the friends of God and of the faithful decreases, and the number of the double-tongued, deceitful and false increases in the land. The pious in this case have much to suffer internally and externally, yet they must not only suffer and endure and not make much complaint, still less fear, but they must testify against the mischief and its causes, and constantly implore the help of God. 2. The ungodly sin not only with their tongues, but also in acts by which the members of the Church of God are oppressed and threatened. But in spite of their vain glory and great boasting they are not in the position to carry out their wicked devices. They accomplish nothing by their hypocrisy and flattery, and do not attain their end any more by their threats than by their deceitful enticements, or indeed by their slander. God watches over His people and protects those who sigh after Him. 3. In times of trouble God comforts the afflicted by His holy word, and awakens in the Church itself voices which testify to the truth of the Divine promises, and to the reliability of the hope of salvation which is based upon them. AND The world attacks the congregation of the Lord but God defends it.—It is not promised to the pious that they shall live without opposition; but that God will preserve them from the wicked generation and save them.—The growth of the congregation is at times interrupted, but it cannot be destroyed; for the Lord is its help and its salvation.—In the days of their affliction the pious have still, 1) the consolation of prayer; 2) the promise of the word of God; 3) the refreshment of the communion of saints.—God answers the supplication of His people; will not the people respond to the promises of the word of God?—The wicked man goes about for a short time, until he is cast down by the hand of God from his imaginary height. The same hand of God raises the pious from the depths of temporal need to the loftiness of eternal salvation.—The demeanor of the wicked corresponds with the vileness of corrupt human nature; the conduct of the pious expresses the nobility of the children of God. Luther: Only he who is true to God, is true to men; but faith and the grace of God are necessary to both.—Calvin: God offers in His word only that which He will fulfill in deed.—Starke: If believers have diminished already in the time of David, how much more now with us, who are near the last days, when little faith and love is to be found.—If believers are few, then see to it that thou art found in the little band (Luke 12:32).—Ye men, watch over your tongue and your heart, that the former may speak the truth, the latter be without guile. To speak unprofitable things is an impure fruit of a bad heart. So long as we are not humbled under God and bowed down in heart, so long we are exposed to the judgment of being rooted out.—The sigh of the miserable awakens the vengeance of God; therefore trouble them not, else their sighs will make you anxious.—The greater our need, the nearer God.—The greater the fire, the nobler the trial.—False doctrine is neither gold nor silver, but only scum.—As long as we are in the world, we are obliged to be among the wicked, only we have to pray, that we may be delivered from their wickedness.—Osiander: The pious are sown scantily, but tares grow of themselves.—Menzel: Tyranny is indeed hard; but false doctrine is much harder; for tyranny kills the body, but false doctrine the soul.—Frisch: Hold to the few believers that are left; but take to heart the universal corruption and lament over it to the Lord.—Herberger: Help, Lord! That is short, but a good prayer.—All saints must believe, and only believers are saints before God.—Umbreit: Nothing hurts believers more than the lack of truthfulness and uprightness in the world.—Stiller: We need not fight with human strength; our only weapon is the word of God.—Diedrich: God’s people increase but slowly, and ever under the cross. [Matth. Henry: There is a time fixed for the rescue of oppressed innocency, that time will come, and we may be sure it is of all others the fittest time.—In singing this Psalm and praying over it, we must bewail the general corruption of manners; thank God that things are not worse than they are, but pray and hope that they will be better in God’s due time.—Barnes: The fall of a professor of religion into sin is a greater loss to the Church than his death would be. There is usually a greater degree of recklessness among men in regard to their speech than in regard to their conduct; and many a man who would shrink from doing another wrong by an act of dishonesty in business, may be utterly reckless as to doing him wrong by an unkind remark.—Spurgeon: “Help, Lord!” A short, but sweet, suggestive, seasonable, and serviceable prayer; a kind of angel’s sword, to be turned every way, and to be used on all occasions.—As small ships can sail into harbors which larger vessels, drawing more water, cannot enter, so our brief cries and short petitions may trade with heaven when our soul is wind-bound, and business-bound, as to longer exercises of devotion, and when the stream of grace seems at too low an ebb to float a more laborious supplication.—Jesus feels with His people, and their smarts are mighty orators with Him. By-and-by, however, they begin to sigh and express their misery, and then relief comes post-haste.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Delitzsch: “The true Church of Jehovah was then as ever a Church of confessors and martyrs, and the sighing after the future of Jehovah was then no less deep than now the ‘come Lord Jesus.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 13 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David1         How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? 2    How long shall I take counsel in my soul? Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? 3    Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; 4    Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; And those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. 5    But I have trusted in thy mercy; My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. 6    I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. AND Its character. The Psalm begins with a strophe of five lines, a lamentation from a sighing breast, in which hope is in severe conflict with despair; then follows a strophe of four lines of urgent prayer; from which breaks forth in a strophe of three lines, faith in the Divine grace, with expressions of joyous personal participation therein. It is all expressed in language so true to life, and with the freshness of experience, that it is entirely inadmissible to regard as its subject the people of Israel oppressed by foreign nations (Rabbin., Rosenm., De Wette) or the suffering Christ. David can only apply as a type, so far as his experience is applied to the God-fearing sufferer and Christian martyr. [Perowne: “The rapid transition of feeling from a depth of misery bordering on despair, to hope, and even joy, is very remarkable.” Hitzig refers this Psalm to the time of Saul’s persecution of David. Delitzsch likewise inclines to this opinion.—C. A. B.] Str. I. Psalms 13:1. How long—forever.—The meeting together of the question, and the lamentation, in apparent conflict, in the words which begin and close the clause, is found likewise, Psalms 74:10; Psalms 79:5; Psalms 89:46. Thus it cannot be merely an accidental want of exactness in the expression, nor can it be set aside by interpreting “forever” by “entirely” (Aquil., Rosenm.), which the language does not permit, but it is to be explained from the conflict in the Psalmist’s own feelings (Calv., Hengst., Hupf., Delitzsch), which Luther (although he incorrectly translates “entirely,” “fully”) very properly describes as “an anguish of spirit which feels that it has to do with a God alienated, hostile, implacable, inexorable, whose wrath is eternal, where hope itself despairs, and yet despair hopes; and all that lives is the ‘groaning that cannot be uttered,’ wherewith the Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us brooding over the waters shrouded in darkness.” [The punctuation of the A. V., “How long wilt thou forget me? forever?” is incorrect. Perowne: “It is natural for a perturbed and doubting heart thus to express itself in a confused and almost contradictory manner.”—“Well must David have understood what this was, when, hunted by Saul, he knew not where to betake himself; at one time seeking refuge among the Moabites, at another in the wilderness of Ziph; now an outlaw hiding himself in the cave of Adullam, and anon a captain in the service of the king of the Philistines; and amid all his projects, haunted by the mournful conviction ‘I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 13:2. Daily.—[Barnes: “Everyday; constantly. That is, there was no intermission to his troubles. The sorrow in his heart seems to have been not merely that which was caused by trouble from without, but also that which sprang from the painful necessity of attempting to form plans for his own relief—plans which seemed to be in vain.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 13:3. Make mine eyes clear.—[A. V., “lighten mine eyes”] does not mean: illuminate mine eyes = my face; namely: with the light of Thy countenance (Geier, and most interpreters), but states the consequences and the work of the Divine glance of grace, namely: the strengthening of the vitality, whose mirror is the clear and cheerful eye, 1 Samuel 14:27; 1 Samuel 14:29. Their dimness shows the exhaustion of vitality, Psalms 6:7; Lamentations 5:17. It is true Psalms 19:8 speaks of enlightening the eyes by the Spirit and the word of God (Chald., Cocc., et al.), but this is not referred to here, where it has to do with enlightening with the light of life, as Job 33:30; Psalms 38:10; Proverbs 29:13. [Delitzsch: “The enlightening light to which äֵ ?àִ ?éø refers, is the love-light of the Divine countenance, Psalms 31:16. Light, love, and life, are related ideas in the Scriptures. He upon whom God looks in love, remains alive, he who is permeated with new vitality, obtains not to sleep the sleep of death.”—C. A. B.] The kind of sleep is indicated by the accusative. [A. V.: the sleep of death.] The ancient translations on the other hand have erroneously taken it as if death is not figuratively represented as sleep, but as a condition, to which, or into which, sleep might lead.[Psalms 13:4. When I am moved.—Barnes: “Moved from my steadfastness or firmness; when I am overcome. Hitherto he had been able to hold out against them, now he began to despair, and to fear that they would accomplish their object by overcoming and subduing him. His ground of apprehension and of appeal was, that by his being vanquished the cause in which he was engaged would suffer, and that the enemies of religion would triumph.”—C. A. B.] [Str. III. Psalms 13:5-6. Tholuck: “Whilst the thunder and lightning are still raging around him, David sings his song of praise, as Luther also says, ‘While Satan rages and roars about him, he meanwhile sings quietly his little Psalm.’ ” The Septuagint has an additional clause, followed by the Vulgate and the English prayer book: “Yea, I will praise the name of the Lord Most High.” It is not found in any Hebrew MSS.—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. It is true that God does not forget anyone, yet it may be that to the human spirit it appears as if he were forgotten by God, and that the Holy One had veiled His countenance from him. Then he feels at once that he is forsaken by God, and that he is weak with reference to his enemies. Whatever resolves he may make, he will not escape from his troubles. He fears the disfavor of God, and at the same time is anxious for his own life, and on account of his enemies shouts of victory. 2. Even a pious man may fall into such a state of anxiety of soul, especially if he is mindful of his sins whilst enduring these earthly troubles; if he experiences the nearness of Divine punishment in the dangers which threaten him; if he feels in his trials the hand of the righteous God chastising him; and if he recognizes his transgressions against Divine commands in the hindrances to his communion with God. 3. Yet; as long as the heart of man still retains faith in the Divine grace, despair does not gain the supremacy over his troubled soul. Fear may struggle for a long time with hope, as to whether this grace may still be referred to his own person, and glorify itself by it; but if such a man still earnestly prays, and can earnestly call upon the Divine grace, he will likewise learn again to firmly trust in that grace which alone affords help in dangers of body and necessities of soul; and fear is changed into assurance of salvation, just as lamentation into the praise of God. Mala enim, quæ nos hic premunt, ad Christum ire compellunt (Gregory). AND Man may be in great need on earth, so that he no longer knows how to advise or help himself; but so long as he can pray, he is not lost.—Trouble of heart transcends bodily need; but the greatest trouble arises from anguish of soul on account of the wrath of God.—It is well for those who, although in the greatest anxiety, are driven by the feeling that they are abandoned by God, to seek the grace of God! Under the experience of the Divine grace the lamentations of a man are changed into thanksgiving.—According as God’s countenance is veiled against us or shines upon us, our life and our experience are darkened or brightened. Starke:—God has provided and appointed to every Christian his cross, so also how long it is to last, and he cannot forget us or our crosses. God only is the light in all our troubles, yes, even in death. We are much blinder and more foolish in our own adversities than in those of others.—Sleep and death follow one another, and are brothers.—He who does not receive the enlightening grace of God, cannot awake from the sleep of sin, but must go to sleep in death itself.—The end of all the Christian’s troubles is joy. It is ungodly and inhuman to rejoice over the misfortunes of our neighbors; what a degree of wickedness, then, is it not, to rejoice over the undeserved disasters of righteous souls. He who rightly knows the grace of the Lord, His readiness to help, and His constant benefits, will hope, rejoice, and praise the Lord even under the cross.—Calvin: Until God actually stretches forth His hand to help us, the flesh cries, His eyes are closed. Selnekker: At first we should complain to God of our need and solicitude; then we should pray to Him for help and deliverance, and all this for His own glory and name sake; and finally we should thank Him for His gracious advice, help, and assistance.—Franke: The chief thing, incumbent upon the children of God, is to possess their souls in patience.—Frisch: See what thy faith can do, and what power it has to chase away the spirit of sorrow, and bring pleasure and joy to the heart.—Roos: How do we come from darkness to bright light, from the depths into the heights, from straits into a wide room? By prayer and by a struggling faith, which God meets at the right time with His grace to help.—Tholuck: There is a much harder trial in the length of sufferings than in their strength.—Taube: As a child of God, man first feels what he is when left to himself.—Diedrich: Not to perceive God is the most bitter death, and still to behold God, is life, even in the midst of death. [Matth. Henry: In singing this Psalm and praying over it, if we have not the same complaints to make that David had, we must thank God that we have not, dread and deprecate His withdrawing, pity and sympathize with those that are troubled in mind, and encourage ourselves in our most holy faith and joy.—Barnes: Afflicted, depressed, and sad, we go to God. Everything seems dark. We have no peace—no clear and cheerful views—no joy. As we wait upon God, new views of His character. His mercy, His love, break upon the mind. The clouds open. Light beams upon us. Our souls take hold of the promises of God, and we, who went to His throne sad and desponding, rise from our devotions filled with praise and joy, submissive to the trials which made us so sad, and rejoicing in the belief that all things will work together for our good.—Spurgeon: If the reader has never yet found occasion to use the language of this brief ode, he will do so ere long, if he be a man after the Lord’s own heart.—We are all prone to play most on the worst string. We set up monumental stones over the graves of our joys, but who thinks of erecting monuments of praise for mercies received? We write four books of Lamentations and only one of Canticles, and are far more at home in wailing out a Miserere than in chanting a Te Deum.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Hupfeld translates: “All day long.” Delitzsch translates, “during the day,” and contrasts with the night employed in making his plans, which during the day prove of no avail, and thus he continues in trouble day after day.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “Such is the fearfulness of the spiritual conflict, that it seems as if death only could be the end. He knew this who said, ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.’ ”—Barnes: “Death is often compared to sleep.—It is only, however, in connection with Christianity, that the idea has been fully carried out by the doctrine of the resurrection; for as we lie down at night with the hope of awaking to the pursuits and enjoyments of a new day, so the Christian lies down in death, with the hope of awaking in the morning of the resurrection to the pursuits and enjoyments of a new and eternal day.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 14 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David1         The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, There is none that doeth good. 2    The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there were any that did understand, And seek God. 3    They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: There is none that doeth good, No, not one. 4    Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And call not upon the Lord.5    There were they in great fear: For God is in the generation of the righteous. 6    Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, Because the Lord is his refuge. 7    Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. AND Its Character and Composition.—The previous Psalm gave expression to a vow of thankful, heartfelt joy on account of the deliverance from the danger to his life which he had entreated. In Psalms 14:7 of this Psalm all the people are summoned, with the assurance of compliance (the future is used as a jussive), to rejoice over future deliverance from threatening ruin, anxiously longed for; and this springs from a description of the religious decline and moral corruption prevailing among men. In this respect this Psalm has a similar subject to Psalms 12. Of course we cannot derive from this fact, that these Psalms were surely composed by the same author, and Psalms 14:7 might seem to imply a later time. Most recent interpreters since Venema actually refer to the captivity at Babylon, Hitzig, at the same time, to the prophet Jeremiah as the author; Olsh. descends to the Maccabean period, whilst Paulus (Clavis) refers Psalms 14:5 to Sennacherib, and with Theodoret regards Isaiah as the author. The interpretation will show that Psalms 14:7 b is not decisive against David, but rather in connection with other statements in the Psalm, confirms its prophetic and didactic character, which in the wider sense may be called Messianic. Psalms 53 is likewise in favor of a more ancient time, as it deviates from this Psalm in a few, yet very significant, turns of thought.It is uncertain whether all of the seven strophes were originally of three members (Delitzsch) and Psalms 14:5-6 have been mutilated; yet this is probable. [Perowne: “In form the ode is dramatic, or quasi-dramatic. A great tragedy is enacting before the eyes of the poet. Sin is lifting itself up in Titanic madness against God, and God looks down upon its doings as once upon the builders of Babel. He sees utter apostasy (Psalms 14:3); He speaks from heaven (Psalms 14:4), and the evil-doers are confounded at the word of His mouth (Psalms 14:5). ‘It would scarcely be possible,’ says Ewald, ‘for a great truth to be sketched in fewer or more striking outlines.’ ”—C. A. B.] Str. I. Psalms 14:1. Fool.—The etymology of nabal leads to the idea of withered and without sap; usage, to spiritual dullness, barrenness and worthlessness (Isaiah 32:5-6) in contrast with the religious freshness and moral ability of the truly wise man. The expression does not refer to intellectual weakness. The perfects in the first five verses do not force us to a purely historical interpretation (Baur, Hitzig, et al.), whether we leave the person undetermined or think of Nebuchadnezzar, Sennacherib and the Assyrians, or find here the proper name Nabal (the husband of Abigail). They are clauses expressing experience, which present the thoughts of the fool, how he manifests himself constantly and everywhere. [The A. V. needs correction here, it should read not; the fool hath said; but the fool saith in his heart. Hupf., “It is the secret thought and delusion of his heart.—It is likewise not exactly a fixed theory or an understood and conscious opinion, but a disposition which put itself in practice and is inferred therefrom, even if it does not say any thing: an Atheism of heart and life.”—C. A. B.]—Corrupt, abominable, they make their doings.—The two verbs placed alongside of one another, without a connecting particle, intensify the idea of badness which is not necessarily contained in the noun. The plural shows that the author, from the beginning, had in mind, not an individual fool, who was to be regarded as an exception; but he first gives the characteristics of the class, then describes the conduct of individuals belonging to it. The first verb awakens a sad remembrance to those acquainted with the Scriptures; for the same word appears first in Genesis 6:5; Genesis 6:12, in the description of the corruption which preceded the flood, and is frequently used in the Scriptures to designate the apostasies of the Israelites from the living God and the sacred ordinances of His covenant which so frequently occur (Exodus 32:7; Deuteronomy 31:29; Deuteronomy 32:5; Judges 2:19). The transition is thus prepared in the soul for that which follows. Str. II. Psalms 14:2. Looked down.—Literally bowed Himself over; indicating zealous and intense looking in order to a closer examination, 2 Kings 9:10; often used of God, for the first time Genesis 11:5; Genesis 18:21, in the history of the tower of Babel. These as well as the references to early history previously mentioned, which Grotius already observed, need not mislead us to limit the expressions used here to these particular events. But they turn our thoughts in this direction: that we need not trouble ourselves with the refutation of fools, for God has practically provided for this long ago. This retrospect of history with its disclosure of human corruption and Divine judgments sets before our eyes the follies of the present, partly in their connection with universal sin, partly with the assurance of Divine condemnation. The former point of view is not properly estimated, if with Delitzsch we merely accept the perfect sense in so far as the result of God’s looking about recognizes this looking about itself as an act which has already transpired; the latter point of view is obscured, if this looking about is regarded as a poetical figure, by which the Psalmist impresses upon his own judgment the seal of Divine approval; both points of view vanish together, if the contents of the judgment passed in consequence of this Divine examination which is mentioned, are essentially weakened as well with reference to their meaning as their credibility by accepting a hyperbolic form of expression (Hupf., following Gataker). Children of men.—Literally, sons of Adam. This expression does not designate the ungodly as such (Knapp et al. with reference to Genesis 6:2), or the heathen (De Wette), or the fools previously mentioned, as a specially profligate class of men (Gataker), or the same in their general character as men and subject to the consideration of God (Hupf.); but men as a body, as the posterity of Adam, yet not as fools (Geier), but in their character as members of a fallen race (Calv., J. H. Mich., Stier). Str. III. Psalms 14:3. All.—The totality as well as the universality of human corruption is stated in the strongest language, and first of all, as having gone aside from the right way, and then it is defined by a word which originally was used for physical corruption, especially of the souring of milk in the Arabic, but likewise of moral corruption, Job 15:16.—If with Maurer we regard the δ which begins the clause as a particle of interrogation, as Psalms 14:2; Psalms 14:4, to which likewise G. Baur is inclined, then it would be advisable, with Ewald, to have the words of Jehovah begin here, which Hitzig, Delitzsch, et al. regard as beginning with Psalms 14:4. But without regard to the fact that it is not at all necessary to regard Jehovah as speaking, this supposition would not give us an expression of the judgment of the Omniscient God, but would merely continue the figure of speech, in accordance with which He has made an investigation. The δ is therefore to be regarded as an article=the all, the totality, as Psalms 49:17; Daniel 11:2; comp. Ewald (Lehrbuch, § 286 a). It is noteworthy that there is not here a statement of a doctrine, but the mention of a fact, that this moreover makes the moral condemnation of the entire world as an actual result of God’s looking about. The Sept. has already regarded this result not as a solitary fact, limited to a certain period, but has taken up into the text passages with similar subjects from Psalms 5:9; Psalms 10:7; Psalms 36:1; Psalms 140:4; Isaiah 59:7-8 (in the margin of the Cod. Vatic.), which reappear in the citation Romans 3:10-12, and have found their way into the Arab. and Vulg. translations of our Psalm. [Likewise in the English Prayer-book version.—C. A. B.]. In the Hebrew this addition is found only in codd. 649, apparently as a translation back into Hebrew by a Christian who would justify the citation of the Apostle (De Rossi and Rosenm. against Kimchi, who maintains its authenticity). The Church has sufficient biblical support for its doctrine of human corruption by connecting several other passages of the Bible with this. However, the interpreters of former times have not sufficiently distinguished from the facts mentioned here, the conclusions drawn therefrom and their dogmatic use. Str. IV. Psalms 14:4. Have all the workers of iniquity no experience? [A. V., “knowledge”].—Hitzig, who previously translated it: “are they out of their wits?” now advocates the translation of the Sept., Vulg., Jerome, as future. This presupposes the pointing of the imperf., which is found in some codd., and gives an admissible sense, if it is regarded as the threatening of the judgment in which the workers of iniquity are to be actually assured of the reality and of the activity of the God whom they have denied and disregarded. But the perfect of the present text is much more suitable to the connection of the discourse (Hupf.), as it refers back to the judgment which God has already constantly and impartially executed in history upon the persons of all evil-doers. But the character of the question as threatening and warning, is weakened into a tone of involuntary astonishment at the blindness and security of evil-doers, if, with Geier, Hengst., et al. [A. V.], we explain: know=do not reflect upon it. Moreover the all does not agree with this. The reference cannot be at all to correct knowledge (Clauss). However, it is admissible to connect the verb with the negative into one idea=are then without understanding? (Ewald), unreasonable? (Delitzsch). But with our interpretation the advance in thought is clearer. For after mentioning that God looks about and examines critically we would expect a reference to the Divine judgment, and indeed not to human opinions or feelings respecting this judgment, but to what it had already accomplished in history. The context, moreover, leads to a statement of Divine acts and not of human actions. Since now the form of the question with δμΰ does not show any uncertainty at all, or lead to something that is yet to be inquired after, but on the contrary expresses in the strongest terms the utmost certainty, the question thus gains together with its threatening and warning character at the same time a triumphant tone, and then forms a suitable transition to that which follows. Eat up my people.—It follows from Micah 3:3; Isaiah 3:12, that the mention of My does not necessarily imply the words of Jehovah. [However, it is more natural and better, with Ewald, Delitzsch, et al., to regard Jehovah as speaking. It is more in keeping with the dramatic character of the entire Psalm.—C. A. B.]. There has been no previous reference to foreign enemies, or to wars in which the Israelites were consumed, or to any external events at all, but to moral and religious relations, yet such as occur in history and in Israel. The ancient translations and most interpreters find stated here by the comparison, the manner of eating up the people, as they eat bread. The ungodly regard it as their natural business to eat up the people. This interpretation is not without grammatical objections, so that Hitzig takes refuge in the supposition of a transposition of letters, which is recommended indeed by analogies, and reads ΰλεֹ ?μ instead of ΰλμεּ. But the figure is favored by the frequency of its use in the prophets, where it is still further carried out, and by the difficulty of finding any other acceptable sense. For the interpretation of Luther which has been revived by Clauss, does not at all suit the construction of the clause, in accordance with which the devouring of the people affords the means of support for the ungodly. Moreover, to eat bread cannot mean to live well (J. H. Mich.); also not to live unpunished (Cocc.); but generally to support themselves. Now if this is in contrast with what follows, the reference might be to a neglect of prayer at the table (Chald., L. de Dieu). This, however, is not suitable here. So, likewise, hardly the idea of living securely therein, as an animal (Hupf.) in which the physical life would be nourished, but the spiritual life remain without nourishment. Though this thought is appropriate it has very little support in the words as such. Str. V. Psalms 14:5. There.—This does not mean the same place where the crime is committed and the condemnation is received (Aben Ezra, Kimchi), or where they should recognize God and call upon Him (Clauss), so also not the place of future judgment (Flamin., Calvin, Hengst., Stier), although ωׁ ?ν is properly a designation of place, for it can likewise be used for a space of time (Psalms 66:6; Proverbs 6:27), and even of the future (Zephaniah 1:14; Job 23:7), with which reference the prophetic perfects would then show the certainty of punishment (Psalms 36:12; Psalms 132:17, Hosea 2:17). Still less are we to think of a place of judgment within man, of the conscience (Geier), although τηγ means as well the anxiety before possible disaster, as terror on account of real disaster, and indeed both, in so far as they are made by God to impend over them as punishment for sin. The context demands the latter interpretation. The juxtaposition of the same word as noun and verb (so also Isaiah 24:7)=frighten a fright, is so much the more picturesque as this word, Prov. 2:26, 3:25; comp. Proverbs 6:15, has the secondary idea of suddenly and unexpectedly. The Psalmist refers to the Divine punishment historically fulfilled (Hupf., only too narrowly to the occurrence at the Exodus from Egypt) in the closest connection with the description Psalms 14:2 sq., especially Psalms 14:4. ωׁ ?ν is used with a similar general reference Job 35:12. Delitzsch translates: “There they shudder shuddering,” and explains: then when God will speak to them in His wrath, as Psalms 14:4 is adduced as from His mouth, then His word, which never fails of effect, thunders down upon that inhuman person who is without knowledge and conscience. For God is in the generation of the righteous.—This gives the reason of the terrors of judgment which break in upon those who oppress and devour the people of God The contrast, that God is not with the ungodly (Clauss), is a matter of course, yet it is not here expressed. Moreover, the clause does not, as is generally supposed, make the historical fact prominent, that Jehovah dwelleth in the midst of His people, protects and governs them and brings about their complete victory over their enemies. In contrast with the thoughts of the fool, ver 1, he expresses the religious truth, that Elohim declares Himself on earth, in the generation of the righteous. The latter is likewise not a historical but an ethical idea, and does not coincide entirely with that of the people of Israel, among whom the righteous were present only as individuals (Genesis 7:1) by their generations (Genesis 6:9), yet who hinder the ruin of the whole and are the means of saving the people. Str. VI. Psalms 14:6. You may shame the counsel of the oppressed; [in vain]—For Jehovah is his refuge.—The counsel, that is all the counsel which he had agreed upon with himself. Most interpreters think particularly of the plan proposed by him to deliver himself from his oppressors. The contents of his counsel might be given in the following members of the verse with “that” [A. V because] (Aben Ezra, Calvin, Stier, Hitzig). However, the translation “but” (Luther et al.) is inadmissible. But the preceding verb does not agree with this, whether we regard the imperfect as present or future, or, as is often the case, imperative. For λεֹ ?ω does not mean in the Hiphil, “to scoff” (the ancient interpreters), but “to cause to blush,” or actively “to disgrace.” If, therefore, we must translate “for,” it is necessary at the same time to suppose that the clause which states the cause has fallen out, and thus the former tristich has been shortened, or we must supply a short clause something like: to no purpose; or, in vain (Hupf., De Wette, Hengst., Delitzsch). Ewald translates: the design against the afflicted you will see to be in vain; previously he translated in your design with reference to the afflicted will you blush because, etc.Str. VII. Psalms 14:7. Who will give out of Zion [A. V., O that—were come out of Zion]—What a contrast this expression makes with Psalms 14:2! And how clearly he shows that he does not refer to help against external violence of foreign enemies, by the Divine power, but to deliverance by demonstrations of grace in connection with the historical institutions of salvation. The question in the anxious prayer of the oppressed, containing the desire for redemption, presupposes that Jehovah dwells in Zion, and that His sanctuary is standing in Jerusalem, but at the same time it explains its approach with reference to a hindrance which is still to be set aside. Such a hindrance is not the external distance of the Psalmist from Jerusalem, say, during the rebellion of Absalom (Grotius), but his sins which were not yet entirely expiated. The shining forth of the Messianic thought in this passage is overlooked, for this reason especially, that, in the usual form of resolving the question in the optative: “O that He were come,” which is certainly possible (Psalms 55:7, Jeremiah 9:1), the person acting retires to the background before the deliverance which is desired and the time when it is longed for This is in direct contradiction to the text. The universality and partial indefiniteness and breadth of the Messianic hope which is active here, leads to that former time, to which the other expression of the verse likewise refers. For Zion was indeed for all periods the consecrated place for the hope of Israel, whither believers, wherever they might be, turned their faces in prayer, according to 2 Kings 8:29, 44 This is likewise mentioned with emphasis Daniel 6:10, as a characteristic of the true faith of this prophet residing at Babylon. But no prophet ever expected or prayed for help from destroyed Zion. The prophets describe rather the gracious turning again of Jehovah to His penitent people in exile, His going with them and before them in leading them back to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the city and temple under His protection. The question before us, however, does not in the least resemble this. And what is there that compels us to think of the return from the captivity at Babylon? At least not the expression ωׁ ?εּ ?αωְׁ ?αεּ ?ϊ in itself or because it became afterwards the standing expression for this deliverance? This would be a pure petitio principii. For the same expression occurs already in Joe 3:1; Amos 9:14; Hosea 6:11 (Psalms 7:1). Then it were much more natural to think of the time of the Assyrian calamity which fell upon the kingdom of Israel, on account of the deliverance out of Zion which is prayed for But this is prevented by the closing clause, in which Jacob=Israel is called upon to rejoice, but not Judah and Israel. But this expression does not at all mean merely: turning back from captivity in war, which then leads to the meaning of: bringing back prisoners of war, but it is used figuratively for the turning of an unhappy condition into a restoration to former prosperity in general, Ezekiel 16:53, even in private affairs, Job 42:10. With the frequent use in the New Testament of the expressions: bonds, imprisonment, etc., in a figurative sense, the assertion that the figurative use of the above formula leads necessarily to a later origin, is so much the more arbitrary and unreasonable, as the abode in Egypt with its experience fell under the same point of view, Deuteronomy 30:3 (Clauss, Stier). Already the more ancient interpreters have therefore, after the Rabbins, partly explained this passage as Messianic, partly understood it directly of the spiritual deliverance of the people of God, which then was applied to the deliverance of the Church from its Babylon or from its servitude in Egypt (Calv.). Even Hitzig refers the expression, which occurs likewise figuratively Jeremiah 30:18, at least to the turning away of misfortune. Hengst. finds expressed by the language, God’s gracious turning to the distress of His people, whilst he maintains the intransitive meaning of ωׁ ?εּ ?α, as being the only allowable meaning (Beitr. II. 104). But the transitive meaning is made certain by Psalms 85:5; Nehemiah 2:2; beyond question by Ezekiel 47:7. Hengst. has very properly taken back his previous view (Beitr. I. 142), that the closing verse is a later liturgical addition (Rosenm.). [Alexander: “The whole may be paraphrased as follows: ‘O that Jehovah, from His throne in Zion, would grant salvation to His people, by revisiting them in their captive, forsaken state, and that occasion of rejoicing might be thus afforded to the Church!’ ”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The doctrine of the corruption of the human race and the help for it. This is the title given by Meyer after Luther, who gives it an appropriate periphrase in the song: Es spricht der Unweisen mund wohl. The denial of God does not always come upon the lips; yet it declares itself as an irreligious disposition in the corruption and worthlessness of a conduct which is worthy of abhorrence. It is not merely an idle or harmless play of thought, or a scientific investigation of the evidences proposed by scholars for the being of God. It is indeed a movement of thought, but that of a heart which has become foolish by turning away from God, Romans 1:21; and it has to do not so much with the theoretical as with the practical reason. Therefore it makes the entire man unfit for good, and it is least of all an evidence of a sound and strong spirit. 2. Men of this kind may indeed regard themselves as wise, praise one another, and feel strong and safe in the world; but God knows, condemns, and rejects them and their doings, and He has long since declared to those who wait upon Him, how it stands with them, Romans 1:22.They are condemned already, before they are cast out as reprobates. 3. Moreover God troubles Himself with those who do not trouble themselves about Him; He inquires after those who make no inquiry for Him; He is the invisible witness (Genesis 31:50) and the Judge, who cannot be bribed, of all their doings as well as the sins and thoughts of their hearts. But He brings forward the evidence of His being and His work, not theoretically, but practically as Judge, Avenger, and Saviour. His speaking is likewise an act; His revelation is history. 4. No man, however, should feel secure or raised above others. For by the history of revelation, that light has come into the world, which condemns the world (John 3:19), and discloses the individual as well as the whole race according to the Divine judgment, as lying in common corruption in consequence of their nature as children of Adam, in accordance with which that which is born of the flesh, bears in itself all the characters of the σάρξ (John 3:6). 5. The same light shows likewise that there is a righteous generation on earth. The recognition of this fact does not contradict the statement of the total corruption of the children of Adam, embracing all without exception. For the righteous generation consists not of a little band of men who have remained exempt from sin and its corruption, whom God somehow has overlooked, when He looked about, because they stood in a corner, or because they are not brought into consideration on account of their small number in comparison with the awful corruption of the masses. To this class belong rather those men in the midst of the generation of the children of Adam, who have been born again as children of God of incorruptible seed, who by this change of their inborn nature form a peculiar class in the midst of the generation of men, and afford the seed of regeneration for the entire people. 6. It is one and the same God, the holy God of revelation, who has made known from heaven, by the mouth of His prophets, the actual result of His investigation of the children of men, as a warning, and has called our attention by them, with so much earnestness to the actual answer which He gives by His life and work, in the generation of the righteous on earth, to the ungodly, who as fools do not trouble themselves with His works and deny His being and life. 7. There is moreover no reason here to diminish by any limitation the weight of the declaration respecting the extent, depth, and punishableness of human corruption. “He says at first all, then together, thirdly, there is likewise ‘not a single’ one.” Luther. The judgment respecting the condition of man is not an exaggeration, which easily escapes from the bitterness of the lamentation and feelings; and as a poetical figure to be reckoned to the account of the poet. The poet, who speaks here, is not fanciful, he is not so much a poet as a prophet. Therefore his description is not the gloomy reflection of a gloomy disposition, the night idea of a darkened contemplation of the world, but it has the value of a declaration of revelation, whether it bases itself on previous testimonies of Scripture, or is to be directly referred to the enlightenment by the Spirit of God. 8. All fools are indeed sinners, but all sinners are not such fools that they deny the being of God. His judgment and revelation, or regard them as of no account. And many who previously did this, have repented when they experienced what this all meant. They have first been terrified when they have not expected it. There is however not only a terror unto death under the storms of Divine wrath, so also not only the impending terror of the last judgment; there is likewise a terror unto repentance, by which the sinner is awakened unto life. This happens particularly, when the ungodly, who previously have not cared for the Divine agency, are surprised by the victorious word, and the overpowering act coming forth from the generation of the righteous. 9. The ungodly as such eat up the people of God. They use them as far as they can to make room for themselves in the world. Whatever does not readily applaud them, is regarded as a booty given over to them. For they do not inquire after God, and the destruction of His people is as natural to them, as much in accordance with their wishes, and as much a matter of course, as the eating of their daily bread. It is true that there is in history a provision for the people of God; but where does such an one exist, which is able to realize its Divine destiny of being a holy people? Therefore evil doers think that they are justified and entitled to carry on their work of destruction. But so long as the members of the “generation of the righteous,” be they few or many, are in one people, the Lord does not suffer it to be destroyed, but brings His terror over the enemies of Himself and His children. 10. But all those who are oppressed must take refuge with the Lord if they would attain salvation. For the resolutions, projects, plans, and devices of the individual, even the best of them, may be brought to shame by the violence of evil doers; not so God’s resolutions and undertakings. He who trusts, hopes, and waits on these will not be ashamed. The world moreover can no more prevent the prayer from pressing up into the heart of God, than it can prevent the flow of Divine consolations and refreshment into the soul of the oppressed, if these truly turn from the world to God. 11. But the relation between God and the soul may be very different from this. And the last to forget it is the prayerful sufferer, whose lips have testified respecting the universal corruption of the children of men, and have confessed the communion of God with the generation of the righteous. He is able to rejoice that his people before all others has received the historical call to be the people of God, and that there are sanctuaries and Divine services in the congregation; but his soul is troubled, because even among his people no generation has ever fulfilled its destiny so as to be a righteous generation; and that the history of His people is rather a constant witness of its apostasy from God, who turned towards them ever with new revelations, and that this repeated itself in every generation. And although he may sigh, that his people have fallen into afflictions and trouble through Divine judgment, yet he experiences the severest affliction in the burden of guilt, and the worst servitude under the dominion of sin. 12. Moreover true deliverance cannot consist in a change of external relations. Therefore a turning to the institutions of salvation established by God, and the desire for the means of grace ordained by God is the sign of the beginning of a turning towards salvation. But salvation itself comes only when the Saviour comes, who brings the acceptable time of the gracious turning of God to redemption. Before His coming there is nothing but inquiry, sighing, longing, and among believers, hope in the gospel and its joys. AND Denial of God is a folly, but of a dangerous character.—Whatever fills the heart expresses itself in the life even without words.—God Himself conducts the actual proof of His own being by acts of judgment and demonstrations of grace which run through the whole of history to warn and to comfort.—Inborn corruption and inherited guilt do not excuse the sinner, but rather set in a dreadful light the consequences of apostasy from God.—He who does not believe in God cares not for men.—In the corrupt world there are many people who are lost, yet there is likewise a righteous generation, in which God lives, works, and condemns the workers of iniquity.—At times those who deny God and the workers of iniquity are greatly frightened when they perceive the revelations of the Divine life in the generation of the righteous, but they seldom change their disposition or improve their conduct, no more than they do after the experience of the mighty deeds and judgments of the Almighty.—There is a salutary and a wicked terror on account of the Divine revelations of judgment; the former leads to desire for deliverance from the servitude of sin; the latter begets stubbornness towards Divine and human justice.—The deliverance of the race of man, fallen in Adam, from universal and entire ruin, is prepared by the institutions of grace which God has established in Israel, but even in the people of Israel it is expected in the future. Starke: Human corruption is so deep and unfathomable that many believe in no God or deny His providence and government.—He who does not inquire after God from the heart, as the only source of all good, still remains in the old nature, and lies under the curse and wrath of God. For to be wise and to inquire after God are here together.—Behold thyself in this mirror, O man, as often as pharisaical pride attacks thee; but what does it matter, the proud peacock’s feathers will soon bend to the earth.—The blessed fruit of redemption is spiritual, heavenly, and eternal joy; here in foretaste, there in perfection. Osiander: This is the difference among men that although we are all sinners by nature, yet some are justified by faith and endowed with the Holy Spirit, and serve God in faith, whilst others remain ungodly.—Franke: We must observe principally two things: firstly, our misery, in which we all lie by nature; secondly, the grace which is bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus our Saviour.—Frisch: The reason of all evil is natural blindness and folly; thence arises doubt of the Divine government and providence; and then man falls into security, so that he lives therein, as if there were no God in heaven.—God must be sought as the highest good which has been lost by sin.—If the heart has departed from God it has departed from blessing, and lies under the curse; it has departed from light and lies in darkness; it has departed from life and lies in death; it has departed from heaven and belongs in hell.—Stiller: Sin not only passes upon all men, but likewise passes through the entire man.—Diedrich: If we live in God, we look upon all things from God’s point of view, and, looking from Him, regard this world as entirely different from what it usually appears. [Matth. Henry: If we apply our hearts as Solomon did, Ecclesiastes 7:26, “to search out the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness,” these verses will assist us in the search, and will show us sin exceeding sinful. Sin is the disease of mankind, and it appears here to be malignant and epidemical.—Those that banter religion and religious people, will find to their cost, it is ill jesting with edged tools, and dangerous persecuting those that make God their refuge.—Barnes: As a matter of fact, the belief that there is no God is commonly founded on the desire to lead a wicked life; or, the opinion that there is no God is embraced by those who in fact lead such a life, with a desire to sustain themselves in their depravity, and to avoid the fear of future retribution,—Spurgeon: The Atheist is the fool pre-eminently, and a fool universally. He would not deny God if he were not a fool by nature, and having denied God it is no marvel that he becomes a fool in practice. Sin is always folly, and as it is the height of sin to attack the very existence of the Most High, so is it also the greatest imaginable folly. To say there is no God is to belie the plainest evidence, which is obstinacy; to oppose the common consent of mankind, which is stupidity; to stifle consciousness, which is wickedness.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “The singer, keenly alive to the evils of his time, sees everything in the blackest colors. The apostasy is so wide-spread that all are involved in it, except the small remnant (implied in Psalms 14:4); and the world seems again ripe for judgment as in the days of Noah (Psalms 14:2). Both in this Psalm and in Psalms 12 the complaint is made that the wicked oppress and devour the righteous. In both, corruption has risen to its most gigantic height, but here the doings of bad men, there their words, form the chief subject of complaint.”—C. A. B.] [That there should be two Psalms in the collection so similar as Psalms 14, 53 is in itself remarkable. The deviations, few though they are, are likewise remarkable. Were it not for Psalms 14:7 of Psalms 14 the Davidic authorship would be unquestionable. And it seems more natural to apply this expression to the longing of the exiles at Babylon (Ewald, De Wette, Hupf., et al.). It might be a later liturgical addition, so far as Psalms 14 is concerned, or rather the original Psalms 14:1-6 was, by a few alterations and additions, adapted to the circumstances of the exile, and given as Psalms 53, and very naturally at a later period, Psalms 14 was assimilated by the addition of Psa 14:7. The Psalm is complete in itself certainly without Psalms 14:7. This would account for the title of both Psalms, ascribed to David, and used in the temple worship; and at the same time for the occurrence of the same Psalm twice in the collection.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “They are those whose understanding is darkened; who, professing themselves to be wise, became fools. Such men, who make a boast of their reason, and would fain walk by the light of their reason, prove how little their reason is worth. The epithet is the more cutting, because persons of this kind generally lay claim to more than ordinary discernment.” Barnes: “It is designed to convey the idea that wickedness or impiety is essentially folly, or to use a term in describing the wicked which will, perhaps more than any other, make the mind averse to the sin—for there is many a man who would see more in the word fool to be hated than in the word wicked; who would rather be called a sinner than a fool.”—C. A. B.] [In each of these passages, however, the reference is to the exile foretold by these prophets, a return from which was conditioned on repentance.—C. A. B.] Psalms 15. A Psalm of David.1         Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 2    He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, And speaketh the truth in his heart. 3    He that backbiteth not with his tongue, Nor doeth evil to his neighbor, Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. 4    In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; But he honoreth them that fear the Lord.He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. 5    He that putteth not out his money to usury, Nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. AND Its Character. We have first a question directed to Jehovah, in a clause of two members, respecting the character of the man who may obtain the privilege of a guest with Him, and become a member of His family; then follows the answer, at first in a clause likewise of two members, whose contents are then carried out is three strophes of three members each, whilst the participles pass over into finite verbs, and the closing words refer back to the thought contained in the question, with an expression which points to a more enlarged horizon. In the answer God speaks, not as a dramatic person, nor to the Psalmist by an oracle, but by the Psalmist to the congregation. God has enlightened the Psalmist who earnestly inquires of Him, that this man may know his will essentially from the revealed laws of Jehovah, and indeed he speaks in forms of expression used in the law; but in the answer as in the question, he passes over beyond the limits of the Old Testament, and describes in evangelical and prophetic spirit the family of God in characteristic and individual traits. [Delitzsch: “The former Psalm distinguishes from the mass of universal corruption a righteous generation, and concludes with the longing for salvation out of Zion. Psalms 15. answers the question who belongs to this righteous generation, and who is to receive this salvation in the future.”—C. A. B.] This does not appear to be a polemic against the priests (Paul.), or those of privileged rank (Mich., Dathe, et al.); nor a rejection of offerings and the like, yet it does not demand the observance of rites and ceremonies. The entire description is in the sphere of morals, and not in that of the law; it is an exercise of duties, in which the uprightness, vivacity, and power of piety asserts itself in life, held forth as it were in a mirror. Corresponding fully with this character of the Psalm is the circumstance that whilst it resounds with the words of the law, it is re-echoed and carried further out in the prophecy, Isaiah 33:13 to Isaiah 16:13 Nothing can reasonably be adduced against David as the author. In favor of him is the fact that since the ark was carried up to Jerusalem the “holy mountain [hill, A. V.] of Jehovah” is there, and at the same time the “tabernacle” appears in this Psalm to be still existing. It is admissible with Hitzig [Wordsworth, Alexander, et al.] to think of the very time of that removal, although the particular references which this scholar finds between this Psalm and the description of the dedication of the new tabernacle given in 2 Samuel 6:12 sq. cannot be proved with any certainty. Still less is there any confirmation of the reference made by Delitzsch to the time of the rebellion of Absalom, when the Sanctuary was in the hands of the rebels, whilst David himself was far distant from it. Str. 1. Psalms 15:1. May be a guest.—The false references and erroneous use of this expression by the ancient interpreters who have found in it only a temporary abode of strangers who were merely suffered for awhile, in contrast with the regular citizens and inhabitants of the kingdom of God (Calv.), should not mislead us to efface the original and proper meaning of the Hebrew word, which essentially leads to the idea of friendship and protection, comp. Psalms 5:5, and the passages there adduced. Thus only does the closing clause gain a full meaning, and what Hupfeld does not sufficiently estimate, it turns back to the opening strophe and its theme, with its meaning fully developed, and with an evangelical and prophetical glance at the secure position of the guest in the house of God, reaching forth out of time into eternity, and is tranquilized by the entire Psalm. The exegetical right of this interpretation, which is important dogmatically, lies in the point of the question to the mind of the Israelite, to whom God’s tabernacle and holy mount might gain the meaning of a human dwelling, comp. Psalms 27:4 sq.; Psalms 61:5; Isaiah 33:14, Modern interpreters have been the first to weaken this technical expression, taken from concrete relations of life, into a merely figurative designation of communion with God in general.Str. II. Psalms 15:2. [This strophe describes the conduct of the friend of God in general terms as walking perfectly (A. V., uprightly), one who does righteousness and speaks the truth. In his heart, or with his heart, not merely with the tongue. Hupfeld αְ is used with the heart not as giving the source of speech (which would be ξִ ?μֵ ?α) but as cooperating with the speech, and thus giving it its truthfulness.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 15:3. [This strophe describes negatively his conduct towards his neighbor: (1) He does not go about with slander upon his tongue. = ψβμ literally, to go about as a spy or tale-bearer, or slanderer. This is a wicked walk, the negative of the perfect walk, Psalms 15:2 a.; (2) he does not do evil; (3) he does not take up a reproach against his neighbor. πωΰ, according to Hupfeld, has here the meaning of “bring forth,” “speak out,” = proferre, efferre. Delitzsch, Hengst., Hitzig, et al., give it the meaning of bringing or loading disgrace upon any one, Calvin, et al., to lift up as from the ground. To this latter interpretation Perowne inclines: “He hath not stooped, so to speak, to pick up dirt out of the dunghill that he may cast it at his neighbor.”—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 15:4. The reprobate. [A. V., vile person]. Hitzig and Delitzsch take up again the explanation of the ancient interpreters (Chald., Aben Ezra., Kimchi, Cleric.) according to which the reference is to the humility and self-debasement of the Psalmist, who here designates himself in the strongest expressions, which however correspond with the declaration 2 Samuel 6:22, as “despised in his own eyes, and worthy of rejection.” This view is suitable likewise to the context; the contrast is not lacking; J. H. Mich, already brings it forth with the words: sibi ipsi displicet nec suζ sed alienζ virtutis est admirator, and the humility which David confesses likewise in Psalms 131, appears frequently as a condition of pleasing God, Isaiah 57:15; 1 Samuel 17:17. However the accents of the text. recept. correspond with our translation, which is advocated by Hupfeld. To his hurt.—The translations: “To his neighbors” (Sept., Syr., Luther), or, “To the wicked,” (Most interps. since Rosenm.) are incorrect. The explanation of the Rabb. “he swears = vows to do himself an injury = to hurt himself, especially by fasting and mortification, is partly contrary to usage, and partly too specifically ascetic. Hupf., Hitzig, Delitzsch, establish the expression in question more accurately than Venema, Hengst., Gesen., by reference to the law respecting sin-offerings on account of guilt owing to inconsiderate oaths and vows, Leviticus 5:4, where it is forbidden to exchange the animal vowed for an offering for another animal, or for its value in gold. Hupfeld adduces the additional reference to Leviticus 27:10; Leviticus 27:33, after Geier and J. H. Mich., where the question is of altering the vow itself. The hypothetical antecedent is in the perfect, the consequent in the imperfect. [The English prayer-book version combines the rendering of the Sept. and that of the A. V “He that sweareth unto his neighbor, and disappointeth him not, though it were to his own hindrance.”—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 15:5. This refers to Leviticus 25:37, where usury is forbidden, and to Deuteronomy 16:19; Deuteronomy 27:25, where punishment for unrighteous judgment is accompanied with the curse. [Perowne: “Such is the figure of stainless honor drawn by the pen of a Jewish poet. Christian chivalry has not dreamed of a brighter. We have need often and seriously to ponder it. For it shows us that faith in God and spotless integrity may not be sundered; that religion does not veil or excuse petty dishonesties; that love to God is only then worthy of the name when it is the life and bond of every social virtue. Each line is, as it were, a touchstone to which we should bring ourselves.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The most important question in life and the daily cure of those who fear God, are, how to attain to the permanent place of a guest in the house of God. For this question refers from time to eternity and from the old covenant to the new. For it is true we may visit the house of God on earth and be a guest in it; but we do not dwell therein, but celebrate Divine service and receive thereby spiritual food and nourishment in order to a further pilgrimage. But if we would not only be servants of God but at the same time of the household of God and fellow-citizens with the saints (Ephesians 2:19 sq.), and never waver in this society, then we must partly be placed upon another soil than that of the law, and partly be led forth above all and every kind of worship on earth into communion with the angels in adoration and with the blessed saints in the heavenly sanctuary, and to the participation in the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9; comp. Matthew 22:25.) 2. In the Divine law itself there is a goad which drives us to the Gospel (Luke 10:28 sq.), and which invokes and keeps alive a longing after it. For the law demands irreproachable conduct and sincerity and purity of thoughts, words and works, which are found in no man by nature and which cannot, even be attained by the help of the law alone, or its means of propitiation and of sanctification. But the law has its abiding value in this, that it not only forms a historical stage of revelation, but is an essential part of the economy of salvation.3. “We must notice, that the Psalm merely presents the portrait of pious people, without showing whence this comes or is to be attained. Hence it is, that an unwise man may ascribe that which is said in this Psalm, to moral virtue and free will, which yet is solely and alone a work of Divine grace, working in us.” Luther. AND He who would dwell with God in His house must adapt himself to the arrangements of God’s house.—We may be invited to God’s house and table and yet not gain the enjoyment of that which God offers us.—To desire communion with God and transgress the commands of God are irreconcilable with one another; for vice separates God and man from one another.—He who truly has and seeks communion with God, has and seeks communion likewise with the pious, but avoids the society of the ungodly. The law remains constantly valuable as a mirror, bar and bridle.—He who wishes to dwell forever with God, must inquire after God in time and seek intercourse with God on earth, and for this purpose use the means of grace offered by God according to the order of salvation.Calvin: If any one is devoted to righteousness and moderation towards his neighbor, he shows by his acts that he fears God.—It is not a common virtue to honor pious and righteous men. For because they are the offscourings of the world their friends usually share their hate with them. Starke: He who has dwelt in the tabernacle of God as a true citizen, will likewise remain forever on the holy mountain of the Lord.—A Christian as a pilgrim should hasten to the mountain of God.—The avoidance of evil belongs to the proper walk of a Christian, as well as the practice of goodness; neither can exist without the other, since repentance departs from evil to good.—The rewards of godliness are not only temporal, but they endure even unto eternity.—Selnekker: Good works please God, not on account of their own worth, but on account of the believing persons who do them. For good works are the fruit of faith and testify to faith.—Franke: Who will be happy? He who has a living faith and shows it to be living in its fruits and its power.—Frisch: We cannot be so eager for instruction in matters of our salvation, but that God is still more desirous to reveal His will to us respecting them.—Tholuck: In the estimation of all human merit there can be no other standard than the law of God.—Taube: It is not: who will come to Thy tabernacle? but: who will dwell? who will remain? That is a great thing when we think, that the Father of this lodging house is the Holy One of Israel, and the guest is a sinner by birth. [Matth. Henry: It is the happiness of glorified saints that they dwell in that holy hill, they are at home there, they shall be forever there.—Those that desire to know their duty, with a resolution to do it, will find the Scriptures a very faithful director, and conscience a faithful monitor.—An oath is a sacred thing, which we must not think to play fast and loose with. In singing this Psalm we must teach and admonish ourselves and one another, to answer the character here given of the citizen of Zion, that we may never be moved from God’s tabernacle on earth, and may arrive at last at that holy hill, where we shall be forever out of the reach of temptation and danger.—Barnes: Kindness and an accommodating spirit in business transactions are as much demanded now by the principles of religion as they were when this Psalm was written, or as they were under the law which forbade the taking of interest from a poor and needy brother.—Wordsworth: David, in singing this Psalm, is teaching us how we may attain the blessedness of the everlasting mansions.—Spurgeon: Though truths, like roses, have thorns about them, good men wear them in their bosoms. Our heart must be the sanctuary and refuge of truth, should it be banished from all the world beside, and hunted from among men; at all risk we must entertain the angel of truth, for truth is God’s daughter. We must be careful that the heart is really fixed and settled in principle, for tenderness of conscience towards truthfulness, like the bloom on a peach, needs gentle handling, and once lost it were hard to regain it. Jesus was the mirror of sincerity and holiness. Oh, to be more and more fashioned after His similitude!—Our Lord spake evil of no man, but breathed a prayer for His foes; we must be like Him, or we shall never be with Him.—To all good men we owe a debt of honor, and we have no right to hand over what is their due to vile persons who happen to be in high places.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “Eleven particulars are enumerated in which this character is summed up. Hence in the Gemara (Makkoth f. 24 a), it is said that David comprised the 613 commands of the Law given on Sinai in eleven; Isaiah (it is added) in six (Isaiah 33:15); Micah in three (Micah 6:8) Amos (Amos 5:4), or rather Habakkuk (Habakkuk 2:4), in one.”—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch: “βεּ ?ψ and ωָׁ ?λֵ ?ο which are usually distinguished as the Hellenistic παροικε͂ιν and κατοικε͂ιν are here of like meaning; not only a transient, but an everlasting βεּ ?ψ (Psalms 61:5) is meant; the difference of the two ideas is merely this: that the one from the idea of a wandering life means the finding of a permanent place, the other from the idea of membership in the family denotes the possession of a permanent place.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 16 Michtam of David.1         Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. 2    O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: My goodness extendeth not to thee; 3    But to the saints that are in the earth, And to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. 4    Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god:Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, Nor take up their names into my lips. 5    The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot. 6    The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places;Yea, I have a goodly heritage. 7    I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. 8    I have set the Lord always before me: Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9    Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall rest in hope. 10    For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11    Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. AND For the title vid. Introduction. The mention of the worship of idols, Psalms 16:4, is not of such a character as to lead us to think of the times of the exile (Bφttcher, Proben p. 42 sq., de inferis § 343 sq.); and the language does not lead to a time subsequent to the eighth century (Ewald), but to David (Hitzig). The special occasion in his life, however, cannot be known. Many think of the time of his abode at Ziklag (Knapp) among the Philistines, where desire after the pious (Jahn) and temptation to the worship of idols (Paul., Hitzig) were very natural. Hitzig thus explains Psalms 16:3; Psalms 16:5; Psalms 16:9 by 1 Samuel 30 vid. below. Delitzsch thinks of a severe sickness in the latter part of David’s life, after the building of the palace of cedar, whilst Hupfeld disputes the idea that Psalms 16:10 likewise shows that he was in great danger (Hengst.), and Bφhl again, with the ancients, holds fast in general to the time of Saul’s persecution. The position of this Psalm in the order of Psalms is perhaps determined by the expression, “not be moved,” Psalms 16:8 b, the same with which the previous Psalm closed. Its Character.—The first clause contains in germ the thought of the entire Psalm, namely, that the pious man has always protection with God against all his enemies. From this assurance arises the cry of prayer Psalms 16:1, whose form shows the experience of pressing danger, but immediately passes over into the confession of the way in which the Psalmist proposes to act in consequence of his relation to God (Psalms 16:2) and to His people (Psalms 16:3). The terse and bold manner, short even to obscurity, in the presentation of the contrast (Psalms 16:4) in which the Psalmist maintains himself against the worshippers of idols, with all its sadness, yet maintains an energetic tone, then passes over into a uniform, undulating flow of a calmed frame of mind in the description (Psalms 16:5-6) of the good chosen in God, and of the happiness allotted on account of this. It then turns, praising Jehovah (Psalms 16:7), to testify of the position of the Psalmist established in Him (Psalms 16:8), and rises from the assurance of this communion with God, not only to a jubilant declaration of present Divine protection (Psalms 16:9), but in prophetic inspiration to a prophetic promise of the everlasting enjoyment of salvation (Psalms 16:10-11). The following interpretation will explain the prophetic and Messianic character of this passage. Str. I. Psalms 16:1. [Alexander: “The prayer keep, save, or preserve me, implies actual suffering or imminent danger, while the last clause, I have trusted in Thee (A. V., In Thee do I put my trust”), states the ground of his assured hope and confident petition. … The preterite form implies that this is no new or sudden act, but one performed already. He not only trusts in God at present, but has trusted Him before. Comp. Psalms 7:1; Psalms 11:1.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 16:2. I say to Jehovah.—The Rabb. and many interpreters, after the Chald. paraphrase, regard amart as an address to the soul which is here to be supplied [A. V., “O my soul, thou hast said”]. For reasons against this vid. Hupf., who yet, in order to get the first person which the other ancient translations give, would read not directly with Mich., Olsh., et al., amarti, after some Codd. in Kennic. and De Rossi, but after Gesenius accepts a defective orthography as Psalms 140:12; Job 42:2; Ezekiel 16:59, and 1 Kings 8:48; but does not decide whether this failure of the yod has its reason merely in a defective writing, or in a pronunciation which had become common in the language of the people after the Aramaic manner, and after the analogy of the 2d fem. sing (Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch), and merely declares that he is opposed to the supposition of Hiller and Bφttcher, who think of the present Aramaic pronunciation of the 1st person perfect, emreth.My Lord.—The suffix, which has lost its significance in ordinary usage in its blending together with adτn, is here emphatic on account of the contrast (Hitzig, Delitzsch, Hupf.); yet it is not therefore to be read adonξ (Mich.), as Psalms 110:1, but as Psalms 35:23 shows, adonai is to be retained (which with kametz is usual as plural majest. in order to designate God, with pattach forms the real plural=my Lords, vid. Gesenius, Thes.). The contrast of the Psalmist to the worshippers of idols is thus prepared, likewise in the second member of the verse, the strongly emphasized personal relation of the Psalmist to Jehovah, whom he has in Psalms 16:1 called upon as El. (Aquil. ἰσχυρε), and now confesses as his Master and himself therefore as His servant. These references disappear in the translation: “the Lord,” preferred by De Wette et al.; which would render prominent, instead of the contrast of the Psalmist with the worshippers of idols, which is in accordance with the text, the contrast of Jehovah with the idols: Bφhl regards it as cas. absol.=O Thou Lord! My good,etc.—Luther’s translation: “I must suffer on Thy account for the saints,” is impossible to the language. Likewise all direct Messianic references are not only arbitrary and without reason, but entirely inadmissible on account of Psa 16:4 b. The first words, Psalms 16:2 b, cannot mean anything else but “my good,” and indeed not in the moral sense=kindness, merit, virtue (Aquil., Calv. [A. V., goodness]), but in the sense of welfare, good, prosperity. If we could only translate, “my happiness is nothing on Thy account,” then we might attain in sense the explanation of Luther. But ςμ does not mean propter, and αμ (shortened form of αְ ?μִ ?ι) does not mean nihil but non, and elsewhere always stands before a finite verb. But there is no verb here. To supply such a verb is not in any case to be guess work or to introduce an independent idea (as Grotius explains: my happiness is not desired with Thee), but must limit itself to that which is most natural, that is to the verb esse. Moreover, then the imperative form is not as natural as the simple copula. It is likewise not to be translated: “my welfare is not incumbent upon Thee; thither to the saints” (Bφhl), although al may denote the duty incumbent upon any one. In this sense Isaki explains: the good which Thou showest me is not incumbent upon Thee as a duty, but the saints. We must translate: bonum meum non est supra te (Geier, Gesen. et al.). The Psalmist, who has already declared himself to be a servant of Jehovah, now explains, that he finds in Jehovah his highest good and all his happiness, yet he expresses this negatively, in order to exclude every thought of communion with idols (Psalms 16:4). This is effaced by the translation of the Peschito; “my happiness from Thee;” it is likewise only unexactly rendered; by Jerome, sine te; by Symm., ἄνωυσοῡ; little better by Cocc, Kφster et al., by prζter te. There is certainly a reference to the prohibition Exodus 20:3 (Hengst., Ewald). But there it says: thou shalt have no other gods ςμλּ ?πι. This means properly, towards My person (Hupf., Hitzig), or, before My face (Bφhl). The meaning of “by the side of” and “out side of,” in the sense of past by the side of, which excludes the object named, has not been proved in the language; but no more that of “on the side of the same,” to which formerly with the translation supra te, the explanations inclined. Likewise the translation of De Wette is ill-founded: all my welfare is not to me above thee. The pregnancy of the expression consists in this, that the Psalmist wishes to know his good and happiness, considered not as first being added to God and as an addition towering above Him, but that God Himself is his summum bonum. [Thus Riehm: “It is more closely to be explained: my happiness is not added to Thee=nothing, that must be added to Thee, makes me happy, but Thou alone, giving exclusive and full satisfaction. Comp. the analogous thought and expression Psalms 73:25. With this agrees Psalms 16:5, where Jehovah likewise is called the Psalmist’s portion.”—C. A. B.]. This interpretation, which is correct in accordance with the language, answers so well to the context that it is superfluous to press out of λַּ ?μ by an artificial interpretation the idea of “only” (Hupf.: my happiness rests only on Thee). Hitzig even wishes to express ΰְַ ?αָ ?μ (=immo, rather), and by distorted use of the words to gain the contrast of Master and benefactor (Thou art my Master, my happiness rests rather upon Thee). The sense would then be: whilst usually the servant cares for his Lord, here the contrary is the case. The Vulgate (quoniam bonorum meorum non eges) follows the Sept.: ὅτιτῶνἀγαθῶνμουὀυχρείανἔχειζ. In the English, Dutch, Hirshberg and Berlenb. Bibles, in part likewise in Calvin and J. H. Mich., this translation then gains the explanation that all good which the speaker either acquires or experiences, does not refer to God, for whom (Berlenb.: “on whose account”) it is unnecessary, but to the saints for whom it is partly necessary, partly salutary. According to Stier these words are an intentional riddle and afford the ordinary reader the superficial sense: “only with Thee is my salvation,” but give to the deeper searcher of prophecy the deeper double meaning: my welfare (I seek, I will have) not with Thee, and my good actions (even in this denial are necessary and profitable) not for Thee, but with the saints on earth and for them. In accepting such a mystical double sense he finds a prelude to Philippians 2:6-9, and even explains thus far Luther’s previous translation: “I am not in good circumstances with Thee.” In conformity with the statement just made, our translation does not say: I prefer nothing to Thee; it is, moreover, not supplied or covered by the turn of expression: There is no happiness for me above and beyond Thee. The sense is, God is to me the essence and fulness of all good, therefore no affliction can diminish it, no prosperity increase it. With the saints [A. V., “To the saints”].—The construction is exceedingly disputed and difficult. If we seek a verb for the dative, we find it only in the following verse. Then there arises a connection of words such as Deuteronomy 8:13; Prov. 4:10; 33:10, and the sense would be: the saints have many sorrows (they multiply themselves; Bφttcher, Proben p. 42 sq.), or indeed according to another possible etymology: their idols (Ewald). But such a contrast is not in the text, as that the former saints and friends of the Psalmist had apostatized whilst he had remained faithful; the expressions which imply this are at once supplied and thus the desired thought is put into the text. In order to escape these difficulties and this violence to the text many interpreters regard this verse as a clause complete in itself. The majority then regard the first words as nominative absolute=as for the saints. But the examples adduced in support of such an interpretation are either misunderstood or false readings (vid. Bφttcher 1. c.). This interpretation appears still more inadmissible in connection with the interpretation of the words which follow. According to Bφttcher’s careful statement it is grammatically entirely inadmissible to take the stat. constr.ΰְַ ?γִ ?ιψֵ ?ι as stat. absol. and to translate: as to the saints … and the noble, I have all my delight in them. The attempt of Schnurrer (dissert, phil. crit. 1777), after the example of the Sept., to find a verb in adξrκ, in order to translate, “As to the saints … whom I honor and in whom I have all my delight,” must at the same time undertake to transpose the ε in Psalms 16:3 b, and thus alter the text twice. The proposal of Storr (comment, 1796), with whom Umbreit, De Wette et al. agree, to regard the ε, which is in conformity with the text, as the introduction of the conclusion (The saints … they are the noble in whom I have all my delight, in contrast with others who have their delight in other magnates), is full of meaning, and were it not for the interpretation of the first word in Psalms 16:3 as stat. absol., in itself admissible, but yet taken closely, demands that δֵ ?ξָּ ?δ should be connected more closely with ΰְַ ?γִ ?ιψֵ ?ι. The interpretation: To the saints! as Isaiah 8:20, a calling upon God (Bφhl), or the poet and his friends (Thol.), is grammatically unassailable; but has little correspondence with the course of thought of this Psalm and is foreign to its prevailing tone of prayer. Under these circumstances we are inclined to think of a connection with the previous verse. The relation of the clauses to one another as contrasted in the interpretation of Kimchi, Calvin, Stier, namely that, that good of the Psalmist cannot benefit God the Lord, but the saints, has already been considered; we have only to remark here that there is likewise no particle of contrast in the text. The proposal of Hensler, renewed after the ancient interpreters (Bemerkungen όber Stellen der Psalmen, 1791), to regard θεֹ ?αָ ?ϊִ ?ι as in apposition to adonai and then to connect the following words closely = “nothing is above Thee (surpasses), the saints,” is shattered already on the fact that it is unusual to give the word αμ the meaning of nihil. We cannot seriously think of a dependence of the dative lik’. doshim upon adonai=Thou art the Lord of the saints (Steudel, Programme of 1821), on account of the intermediate clause. We might rather accept a dependence upon amart=I speak to the saints, especially if the contents of the address, is not sought in the words: all my delight is in them (Kimchi, Flamin.), or in Psalms 16:4 (Hofm., Weissagung und Erfόllung, I. 162), but in Psalms 16:3 b, and indeed so, that the ε is removed to the beginning of Psa 16:3 a and the δֵ ?ξָּ ?δ to the beginning of Psa 16:3 b (Delitzsch)=and to the saints which are in the land: these are the noble in whom is all my delight. But without regard to the alteration of the text which is indeed simple, the address to the saints, placed parallel with the address to God, does not properly correspond with the tone which prevails elsewhere in the Psalm. It only remains, therefore, to regard the μ as the sign of belonging to (Calv., Hengst., Hupf.). But it does not follow from this, that the Psalmist says: his good and his happiness is with God or rests upon God, in so far as he belonged to the saints. He says rather, that he, in belonging to the saints, in whom is all his delight, does not regard and treat his good and happiness as something additional to God, but that he directly has regarded and confesses in this communion of saints that God Himself is his good and happiness. I regard this explanation of mine as corresponding with the context and the language. On the other hand the interpretation of the dative by Winer in his lexicon, “according to the example of,” weakens the sense and is not sufficiently proved in the language.—It is uncertain, whether we are to regard Psalms 16:3 b as parallel with Psalms 16:3 a and supply the lamed of the first clause at the beginning of the second before adξrκ, whose stat. construct, is explained by the fact, that it belongs to the following clause which is in sense a relative clause (most interpreters), or whether we are not rather to regard the connection of clauses, so that the idea, of the saints is more closely defined as those who are in the land (or on the earth) and are the noble in whom, etc. (Bφttcher). In any case the stat. construct, is not an expression of the superlative (Umbreit, Kφster), and is likewise not only to be connected with the following noun=the noble, all my pleasure is in them (De Wette), or the noble, the totality of my delight is in them (Hengst.), but with the entire clause (Hupf.), although it is not to be explained thus; the splendid with all, whom I desire (Sachs). Kφster leaves the ε disregarded by the translation: To the consecrated … they belong, the noble who please me entirely.The Kedoshim are according to the idea the ἄγιοι, the members of the people of God, as those consecrated to the service of Jehovah. The apposition, “who are on earth,” shows that the reference is to their objective relation to the covenant. This clause states, that the Psalmist speaks of the congregation which is upon earth not so much in distinction from the congregation in heaven or the angels (Aben Ezra), as with reference to his personal relation to God just mentioned. The explanation of those buried in the earth (Chald., Isaki) is entirely foreign to the text, and there is no evidence of a limitation to those who were in the Holy Land (Hupf.), in contrast to those members of the people of the covenant which were abroad. The following clause shows, however, that the Psalmist has not in mind the external communion of the so-called visible Church, but the living members of this Church as his associates. The adξrim are not the magnates, the aristocratic nobility in distinction from the saints, which among the lower classes, the ΰm haaretz are regarded as such, but the saints, in whom, as in the excellent and enlightened, the Divine δόξα appears reflected. According to Hitzig David was then in Philistia, 1 Samuel 27. Driven from his land, the temptation to apostatize from Jehovah was natural, 1 Samuel 26:19. To the rejection of the temptation Psalms 16:4 of our Psalm is said to refer, and Psalms 16:7 to the fact that David, at the command of God, had undertaken the pursuit of his enemies, and sent presents from the booty to the elders of the cities of Judah, 1 Samuel 30:26, who are therefore called his friends. These are the noble and the excellent in whom David has all his delight. It is true that David, as in Psalms 16:2 b he is said to say that he had his success in battle from Jehovah, ought to have sent a part of the booty of this victory over the Amalekites, as a thank-offering, to the house of God and its priests; but there was then no central worship, 1 Samuel 22:18; comp. 1 Chronicles 13:3. Therefore David has from abroad sent the present to those who belong to the national God. This then is supposed to be said by Psalms 16:3, that it belongs to the saints in the land. David likewise says, Psalms 16:4 a, how he himself has experienced that it fares badly with the heathen; similarly Psalms 16:9; Psalms 16:11, that fulness of joy rewards the service of Jehovah.—Olshausen regards the text as entirely corrupted. The Vulgate translates, after the Sept: “In the saints, which are in His land, He has made wonderful all His (my) delight,” or after another reading already observed by Augustine, “He has wonderfully fulfilled all my desire.” Str. IV. Psalms 16:4. Many are their sorrows [A. V., Their sorrows shall be multiplied].—This clause is likewise disputed as to its construction and meaning. Some, as already mentioned, combine it with the preceding clause, but must then supply something essential. Others (Mich., Olsh., Maurer, Ewald), with Chald., Symm., Jerome, interpret ςφα of idols. But only the masculine of this stem is used in the sense of: carved-work=images of idols. The feminine, which is here used, signifies: sorrows (Pesch., Aquil., Sept.). Since now it is connected with a suffix which refers to persons, which can be more closely indicated only in the following words, the next words are usually, with the Rabb., regarded as an asynd. relative clause. The masculine of the verb ιִ ?ψְ ?αεּ frequently occurs with the feminine of the noun when it precedes, and the expression “their sorrows,” instead of “the sorrows of those who,” is defended by Hitzig. Hupf. and Delitzsch, on the other hand, find this hard and inadmissible. The former would rather, with Schnurrer, Hensler, Ruperti (in Eichhorn’s All gemeiner Biblioth., vol. 6), read it as hiphil (=multiply [so A. V.]), whereby all would be normal. The latter divides Psalms 16:4 a into two independent clauses, which represent the place of a nom. absol., and are to prepare the statement describing the internal difference between David and such people.—Many interpreters after the ancient translations regard the following words as a paraphrase of apostasy from God, whilst they translate: who hasten backwards. Schnurrer even changes ΰַ ?ηֵ ?ψ into ΰַ ?ηֹ ?ψ. It would be better to translate: who hasten elsewhere (Geier, Storr, Rosenm., De Wette, Stier), or hasten after another (Luther), hasten to others (namely idols, Gesen., Ewald). But ξδψ has the meaning of hasten only in the piel; in the kal only the meaning: purchase, namely for a wife, Exodus 22:15, can be proved. Many interpreters (Salomo ben Melech, Calv., et al.), with reference to the figure of marriage, to represent the relation of the congregation to God, take the expression here in this way. Hitzig, who finds that there is considered here not the contrast between the faithful and the apostate in Israel, but between the worshippers of idols and the worshippers of Jehovah, translates: who strive to obtain another. Hupf. goes back to the meaning of “purchase,” without its reference to marriage, and to its relationship to ξεּ ?ψ to exchange; he thinks of the exchange of the hereditary true God for a false one (Psalms 106:20; Hosea 4:7; Jeremiah 2:11), and reminds us of Isa 42:8; Isaiah 48:11; where ΰַ ?ηֵ ?ψ likewise is in the singular and absolute. Thus most recent interpreters, among whom, however, Bφttcher, Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, hold fast to the allusion to the figure of wooing, and remark that there is here said not exactly “other gods,” as Exodus 20:3 and frequently; but an indefinite expression is chosen, which leads not to the ordinary but to the so-called more elegant, worship of idols. It is questionable whether the following plural suffixes are to be referred to the worshippers of idols, with whom the Psalmist breaks off every kind of communion, with the refusal to commune with them in their offerings, and with whose names he will not defile his lips (Delitzsch), whom he will not mention in his prayers (Bφhl); or whether they refer to the idols themselves, in favor of which are especially Exodus 20:7; Exodus 23:13 (make no mention of the name of other gods); Hosea 2:19, and the contrast with Psalms 16:5 (Calv., Grot., Bφttch., Ewald, Hengst., Hupfeld, Hitzig [Perowne]). The drink-offerings of the Israelites consisted of wine, and drink-offerings of blood are likewise not found among the heathen, but wine was mixed with blood (Zechariah 9:7) and drunken only in connection with terrible undertakings, under fearful oaths. This special reference, however, is far from the meaning of the text, which Isaki, Aben Ezra, J. D. Mich., Winer overlook. Some interpreters, therefore (Kimchi, Stier, Delitzsch), regard the expression as figurative of offerings made with bloody hands and conscience stained with blood, which make every offering unclean. Others better as a comparison, as if they consisted of blood instead of wine, Isaiah 66:3, to which comparison blood of grapes, Genesis 49:11; Deuteronomy 32:14, forms the transition (Schnurrer, Hengst., Hupf.). According to Hitzig the ξο is comparative, and the meaning is: I forbear to offer their drink offerings more than to offer their blood. The supposition that an action is mentioned which is only to be done by priests, and therefore because David could not have done this, this passage must have a Messianic interpretation (Bφhl), overlooks the fact that the reference here is not at all and cannot be to the altar and the legally arranged functions, but to the refusal to participate in the worship of gods in a form which in the mouth of the Messiah would be entirely inappropriate. The Vulgate, after the Sept., differs entirely from the Hebrew: then weaknesses were multiplied; afterwards they hastened. I will not assemble their assemblies of blood, nor bring their name upon my lips. Str. V. Psalms 16:5. Portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.—ξְ ?πָ ?ϊ, besides 2 Chronicles 31:4, only in the Davidic Psalms, is stat. const. and to be connected with both genitives (Hupf. upon Psalms 11:6), but not in the sense of portion of food (Hupf.), together with portion of drink as the two parts of a feast, the usual figure of Divine favor and benefits, Psalms 22:26; Psalms 23:5; Proverbs 9:2; but corresponding with the other expressions of this Psalm a figurative expression of nourishing possession and quickening enjoyment, as the Psalmist has both in Jehovah through Jehovah’s favor. The first figure is brought about thus: in the general division of the land the tribe of Levi received no possession in the land, but was to live of the parts of the offerings which fell to the share of those who were occupied in Divine service about the sanctuary, on account of Jehovah, Deuteronomy 18:1-2. Jehovah Himself is, therefore, called their δֵ ?μֶ ?χ = share, Deuteronomy 10:9, in special application to Aaron, Numbers 18:20; more widely extended to the entire house of Jacob, Jeremiah 10:16, first brought about by the design that the entire people should be a kingdom of priests, Exodus 19:6, and therefore applicable to every individual as well as to the whole body of saints and nobles, Psalms 16:3.—From the division of the holy land by lot between the various tribes and their members originated likewise the expression βּ ?εֹ ?ψμ=ψῆφοζ, the lot taken out of an urn, which, however, since decision by lot was regarded as God’s act, has become in the Old Testament the symbol and type of all grants of the royal righteousness and grace of God, as the possession thereby given is the foundation and essence of all Divine blessing (Hupfeld). Since that which falls to any one by lot has the same name, gτral, e. g.Judges 1:3; Isaiah 57:6, it is very natural to regard ϊּ ?εֹ ?ξִ ?ικְ as hiphil of a word ιξκְ and to explain it after the analogy of the Arabic (A. Schultens): Thou enlarged that which has fallen to me by lot (Hengst., Bφhl, et al.). Since, however, the meaning of the word is disputed, Bφttcher and Kφster go back to a root ξεּ ?κְ = Thou makest my lot to fall (that is, to fall out of the urn). This second meaning, however, given for the sake of explanation, is without example in the use of the word. The proposal of Ewald to regard the difficult form of the word likewise as nomen abstr. cannot be carried out. The present view of Bφttcher is more likely, that it is a diminutive form, little or costly possession; thus: Thou art the jewel of my lot. Hupf. and Delitzsch go to the root ϊָ ?ξַ ?κְ and regard the form as the participle ϊּ ?εֹ ?ξֵ ?κְ in incorrectly written =Thou who administerest my lot, or Thou who maintainest, keepest in its integrity that which has fallen to me by lot. Hitzig for this form refers to the analogy of ΰεֹ ?αιμ, 1 Chronicles 27:30, but regards the root which is ordinarily accepted, as inappropriate to the context and corrects as ϊָּ ?ξִ ?ιγ = perpetuus, whilst he expresses the conjecture that ϊεֹ ?ξִ ?ιγ might be an archaic expression (against which, however, Psalms 16:8), and translates: Thou art constantly my possession. Str. VI. Psalms 16:6. Hitzig understands this verse locally of a beautiful region. Delitzsch regards the expression likewise=Elysian fields, but as a figurative designation of God Himself. The abstract loveliness, Job 36:11, is better, which, however, is not to be resolved into an adverb: in a lovely manner (Bφttcher, Hupf., Bφhl); for the expression is not to be separated from the local coloring and reference, Micah 2:5; Joshua 17:5.—ΰַ ?σ (=likewise) is used here as confirmatory, giving gradation to the thought; the fact just mentioned is recognized in the feelings of the poet (Hupf.). Str. VII. Psalms 16:7. Advised [A. V., “hath given me counsel”], is not=cared for (Knapp), but=provided with good counsel, which some (Isaki, De Wette, Olsh.) refer to the general exhortation to the fear of God and faithfulness, others and indeed, on account of the following clause, more correctly (Kimchi, Calv., Hengst., Hupf.), to the action of God in the heart of the Psalmist in choosing and laying hold of the good above described. ιִ ?ρֵּ ?ψ (properly to set right) is often used of Divine teaching and warning, e. g.Psalms 94:12; Isaiah 28:26; Deuteronomy 4:36; so that the warning of the reins seems to refer not to the thoughts (most interpreters), but rather is parallel to the advice of God (Calv., Hupf.).Str. VIII. Psalms 16:8. Some regard the λּ ?ι (A. V., because) as=when, since they find the antecedent to the following clause introduced; most interpreters, however, regard it as = for, as a statement of the reason of the preceding statement. Standing or being at the right hand (Psalms 109:31; Psalms 110:6; Psalms 121:5) is the figure of protecting nearness. [Perowne: “God in David’s eyes is no abstraction, but a Person, real, living, walking at his side.”—C. A. B.]. The subject δεּ ?ΰ is omitted, as Psalms 22:28; Psalms 55:20; Psalms 112:4. Str. IX. Psalms 16:9. Glory.—[Delitzsch: “Therefore, because Jehovah is so near him to help him, his soul is transported in joy, ωָׂ ?ξָ ?η, and his glory, that is, his soul rejoiceth, whilst, as the fut. consec. expresses, his joy breaks forth in rejoicing. No passage of Scripture is so like this as 1 Thessalonians 5:23. μֵ ?α is πνεῦμα ((νοῦς)) λָּ ?ωαεֹ ?γ=ψυχμ́ ? (vid. Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 98), αָ ?ωָׂ ?ψ, σῶμα; the ἀμέμπτωςτηρηθῆναι, which the Apostle there wishes for his readers in respect to the three parts of their nature, David here expresses as a confident expectation.”—C. A. B.] My flesh also shall dwell in safety.—[A. V., rest in hope]. The form of connection shows that flesh is not here as Romans 7:18 (Hitzig) periphrase of the person, but means the body. But the question is whether it means the body as living, being under the Divine protection in a condition of quiet happiness, undisturbed, and without danger from my hostile affliction (Hengstenberg, et al.), Ps. 4:9; Deut. 33:12, 38; Jeremiah 23:6; Prov. 1:38; or whether not rather the same body with reference to its future rest in safety in the grave? It is true the following verse speaks of preservation (not in death but) from death, and the limitation of the meaning of Psa 16:10 a to preservation from the danger of death in a now threatening case, is possible from the language, Psalms 30:4; comp. Psalms 9:14. But if it is recognized not only by Clauss, Thol., Delitzsch, but also by Ewald and Hupf. with reference to Calvin, that the way of life and the joy with God in the following verses, refer to something more than merely deliverance of life from danger, and the supposition is natural, that it expresses the hope, that the pious shall not at all be the booty of death, but share in everlasting communion with God; then it is still more natural not to remain by the first steps of the recognition of a deeper and more comprehensive meaning. For in Psalms 16:10 a the confidence is expressed, that God will not overlook or give up the soul to Sheol. Herein is expressed the hope of immortality in a wider sense; for Sheol is in any case the gathering place of departed souls in distinction from the grave which receives the body, Genesis 37:35. Already in this connection Psalms 16:9 b may indeed speak of the preservation and secure rest of the entombed body, and prepare the thought which the Sept. already anticipates with its κατασκηνώσειἐπʹ ? ἐλπίθε. This is still more certain from Psalms 16:10 b. For the expression: Thou wilt not give up thy ηριγ to see ωׁ ?ηϊ, as merely parallel with the previous = thou wilt not let him die, would have a form, which would lead to the thought that the speaker has the hope not to die at all, rather than to that recognized by Hupf., Ewald, et al., that he hopes for a blessed continuance of life with God extending beyond death. This leaves undecided whether it is to be regarded as in the manner of Enoch and Elias, or otherwise. But now it has not been proved that ωַׁ ?ηַ ?ϊ must certainly be derived from ωׁ ?εּ ?ηַ = to sink down, and must be translated “grave,” as Psalms 7:15, where the Sept. has likewise βόθρος. The derivation of ωׁ ?ηϊ in the meaning διαφθορά, ruin, corruption, is indeed very possible (Gesen., Winer), Isaiah 49:9, admissible, Psalms 55:23, more appropriate than the other, Job 17:14, scarcely to be denied. Since there the word is in the masc. gender in the signification of pit, in the feminine, however, according to Proverbs 26:27, the difference of meaning with a similarly of sound is still less doubtful, as there are parallels for it in all languages, likewise often in the Hebrew. Bφhl adduces as especially convincing πηϊ, as meaning in the masc. sinking down, Job 36:16; Isaiah 30:30; comp. Psalms 38:3, in fem, rest (derived from πεη). All the ancient translations have this interpretation with the exception of the Chald. The ancient Jews have had be little doubt of it, that from it has originated the rabbinical fable, that the body of David has never decayed. It forms the nerve of the evidence in the Messianic reference of this passage to the resurrection of Jesus, testified to as a fact in the sermons of Peter at Pentecost, (Acts 2:25 sq.) and of Paul in the synagogue of Antioch (Acts 13:35-37). It forms in our text an essential member in the progress of thought, and an important declaration of revelation respecting the resurrection of the body (vid., Doctrinal and Ethical). The ηָ ?ρִ ?ιγ is, according to Hupfeld’s admirable investigation of Psa 4:3, the bearer of the Divine grace in all the relations in which this is shown at work, first of all, and chiefly, according to the passive form, “standing in a state and covenant, of grace with Jehovah,” sometimes applied to the narrower circle of the pious, likewise to an individual servant of God as especially favored in the midst of the elect people of God; then, although seldom, likewise actively exercising grace as well of God, Psalms 145:17; Jeremiah 3:12, as of one man to another, Psalms 12:1; Psalms 18:25; Psalms 43:1; comp. Micah 7:2. The Sept., with its Messianic interpretation, has likewise translated very properly τὸνὅσίονσου. All the ancient translations, and most MSS., have the singular. The Masora likewise says: yod is not pronounced. Thus if this had read in the MSS. ηְַ ?ρִ ?ιγֶ ?ικּ, as now likewise some, and especially ancient Spanish Codd. have it, this is not to be regarded as plural, but as singular, and indeed so that it is not so much to be regarded as the so-called emphatic plural or plural of majesty (Bφhl, after the ancient interpreters) as rather the yod is to be considered as, Genesis 16:5; Psalms 9:14; Jeremiah 46:15, as a sign of the seghol, (Hitzig). Psalms 16:11. Make known (A. V., show) ιγς is frequently used not of theoretical knowledge, but of practical experience. The way of life, (A. V., “path of life”) = way to life (Proverbs 5:6) leads upwards in contrast to Sheol, which is downward, Proverbs 15:24; comp. Proverbs 2:19; Proverbs 6:23; Proverbs 10:17.—At thy right hand.—Comp. Proverbs 3:16, so that God administers. The explanation of Hengst. by thy right hand, as delivering and punishing, Proverbs 17:7, is against the parallel (in thy presence, demanded by the ΰϊ of association).—πֶ ?φַ ?η denotes not only enduring Joy in contrast to fleeting pleasures of the world, but likewise enduring forever. The word is an accusative adverb instead of μπφη, hence Sept. correctly, ἐιςτὸ τέλος. AND ETHICAL1. He who has living faith in the true God, turns to Him in every threatening danger, not only in sickness and danger of death, but with every experience of the insecurity of human life, and under the impressions of its painful perplexities. But the same faith which drives the oppressed to God, opens their lips to prayer, and creates in them the assurance of being heard, as well as the confidence of being sheltered by God. 2. There are prayers and songs which have not only grown up from the soil of confessing the living God of revelation, and are supported by it as by its ground of faith and life, but which give expression to this confession as such, and thereby gain the form of didactic testimonies. These, on account of their lyrical and devotional character, retain their edifying as well as their comforting characteristics; they even advance to real prophetical discourse, when they originate in personal experience from communion with God, which is the essential substance of faith, and by virtue of this origin not only breathe in general the breath of another world, but reveal the mysteries of Divine life. 3. This prophetic testimony of the praying believer is on the one side confession, on the other, prophecy, yet in both respects brought about by the individual condition of the speaker, not less than by his historical position, particularly within the economy of the kingdom of God. This gives the present statement partly its peculiar vivid color, partly its internal as well as external limits 4. The true prophet knows his position, and does not deny it. But still less is he proud of it. In his relations to God he is at the same time His servant and friend. The Almighty God of revelation is his Lord and his only good. Whatever good he knows, loves, has, and seeks, is for him not something additional to God, but it is comprehended in God, and is his portion on account of his communion with God. But this is not a peculiar relation, distinguishing him from other men. On the contrary God has an elect people on earth. He has in the land and abode of the prophet members of the congregation of saints. The true prophet confesses and regards himself as one of them, and as being in communion with them, testifies to their communion with God. 5. Not every kind of Divine service is well pleasing to God, and religious differences are not to be regarded as trifling. The true prophet contends rather against the fatal delusion that it depends only upon its religious character, and not so much upon its concrete nature. He earnestly and decidedly separates himself from those who perform sacrifices and call indeed upon their gods, but yet renounce the true God, who is likewise their Creator, and would help them, and have exchanged Him for that which can and will only bring them trouble instead of salvation. His whole delight, on the other hand, is in the members of the congregation of God, who, notwithstanding their position as servants, are yet the noble and enlightened in whom the Majesty of God is glorified, and the glory of the saints reflected. 6. In this personal relation to God and to the congregation of God in the land, the prophet has and holds his highest good and his greatest happiness; he recognizes and praises his best jewel and his constant joy. He not only receives what he needs from God, but he has in and with God all that he needs and all his pleasure. But this does not make him proud. He remembers that this blessed relation to God has originated not from his own will; therefore he praises God who has proved to be the best for him. He remembers that notwithstanding his communion with God, he is yet not one with God, and that even unity would be very different from identity. If he lives in God and God in him, he is yet not swallowed up in God, and God has not been sunk in him. God is indeed no stranger to him, still less an enemy, yet God is and remains another person. Therefore day and night he longs and strives to preserve, strengthen, and deepen this communion, which is the ground of his confidence, the subject of his joy, and the source of his life. Eligant cupidi divitias, voluptuosi delicias pompatici dignitates, quibus fruantur, pars vero mea est et erit Deus in ζternum (Gloss ordin). 7. Death, the Grave, and Hell, have lost their terrors to the man who is assured of this communion with God. He has God, and in God life; for God is life, eternal life, blessed life, unfathomable in its depth, inexhaustible in its fulness, all-sufficient in its glory and power. But living in this world and in the flesh he cannot escape death or avoid the grave; and as a servant of God knowing the Divine order and subject to it, he cannot forget or despise either of them. But as a friend of God he knows and feels that in all cases he is sheltered in God; for God cannot forsake the man who does not forsake Him, and the man who has no good except God, and will have nothing above God or beside Him, thereby gains with God and in God the fulness of joy and good. 8. He who has made this confidence of the assurance of faith and confession of it, a matter of experience in life, to him the hope of eternal life gains a personal meaning. He regards God as the source, contents, and aim not only of true and eternal life, but at the same time of his personal life. This illuminates for him the night of death. He knows that he, the favored friend of God, walking the way of life unto life in the obedience of faith, will even in death go to God, and will attain that which is in the presence of the angels, at the right hand of the only living God. Since this experience is still in the future, but is already now the object of his faith, the Psalmist prophesies whilst he confesses his hope of faith. There is likewise here in subject and form more than the “flashing up of the hope of immortality in the Old Testament.” It is true there is not yet given a doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, but yet a prophetic declaration of the assurance of participating in the eternal and blessed life of God, in which the germs of a doctrine of the resurrection are disclosed, which are rooted entirely in the ground of revelation, and for their development into clearness of recognition point far beyond themselves, their own time, and the person of the speaker. 9. The speaker is not the Messiah, either as a pre-existing person, or as a figure of speech, still less merely a pious poet who expresses obscure hopes in poetical hyperbole, but he is David as a prophet, 2 Samuel 23:2; Acts 2:30. Whilst David on the basis of previous experience of personal communion with God, and under the impression of present experiences of the same, speaks in the hope of faith, of the sure continuance of the same extending into eternity; this is in expressions which have an entirely personal reference, yet not in the form of an application of a general truth to the Psalmist or others like him, but in such a way that it directly breaks through the reference to David, and must have called forth thoughts of prophetical illumination and Messianic meaning, so soon as the attention was directed to the very peculiar character of their conception. This might have been the case with David himself in subsequent reflection upon his Psalm in the sense of 1 Peter 1:10-12. For this passage distinguishes between the statements of the prophets, and their own searching after, the special sense of their prophecies, and the particular meaning designed by the Spirit of Christ working in them. As a matter of course after the death of David, when this Psalm was used among the sacred songs of the congregation, its Messianic reference could not but increase in certainty and recognition among the congregation of God. But this does not imply that the Messianic interpretation of this as well as other passages of the Psalms, first originated from the reflection of the congregation (Schultz in den Theol. Stud. und Krit., 1866, Heft 1). Moreover with every recognition of historical accommodation, as well in understanding Messianic prophecy as in its origin and form, the sense of this passage is not to be limited to the idea, that David was in no danger of death so long as his kingdom was not destroyed with him, and that when he died his kingdom still remained (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis 2:1, 357). It is true many interpreters have not sufficiently distinguished between inquiry into the original sense of this passage, and the application of the truth drawn from it. Moreover they have not unfrequently introduced into the passage, or into the consciousness of David, ideas of the resurrection of the Messiah, and the participation therein of every member of the congregation, even in the Old Testament, who believes in Him. But this could only be known from the stand-point of its fulfilment in the New Testament. But three things are certainly in the text; (1) that David bases the confidence of his hope of participating in the life which is in God, and is imparted by God, upon his personal relation to God; (2) that this hope is expressed in words, which express more than David at first supposed or knew, and which have found their real fulfilment exclusively in a definite fact, namely, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ; (3) that the manner of expression constitutes the passage in question a Messianic prophecy, yet not in a typical, but in a prophetical sense, such as it is likewise treated in the New Testament. AND It brings great blessings to confess God as our Lord; but the most delightful lot falls to those who lay hold of God Himself as their highest good, and make use of the communion of saints for this purpose.—The communion of saints cannot be united with a participation in the practices of those who have forsaken God.—The pious not only enjoy in this world a pleasure of which the world knows nothing; but they have to expect likewise pleasures which the world cannot receive.—He who has communion with God has to be very careful to cherish it, and therefore earnestly to use the institutions, means of grace, and advice provided for this.—Only those joys have an abiding value, which we find in the presence of God, and which we receive from the hand of God.—The best remedy against troubles and temptations of all kinds is to keep God constantly before our eyes and in our hearts. The assurance of the everlasting duration of our existence is comforting and refreshing only when it is connected with the believer’s hope of eternal life in the presence of God.—Everlasting life is assured to those who have made the living God their true Lord, their blissful good, their abiding portion. Starke: The supports of our trust in God are His fatherly affection and pity for His children, as well as His infinite power as the Lord of all lords.—God has His saints and nobles not only in heaven, but likewise on earth.—He who recognizes the inheritance of the Lord as lovely and beautiful, will be disgusted with the inheritance of the world; he will refuse it, and shun no sufferings to gain the beautiful inheritance.—The evil spirit constantly excites the sinful heart to evil; but the Holy Spirit day and night awakens in believers holy desires, and excites them to good.—Faith is not an idle or lazy thought, but is active, busy, industrious to look to God and at no time to turn away the eyes of the heart from Him.—From the living trust of the heart in God, arises internal joy and sincere love to God and all creatures.—The tongue is given to man to glorify the Divine name, and joyfully recount his benefits.—If Christ the Head went to meet the desired issue of His sufferings with full assurance, then His members can likewise certainly believe that God will give all their troubles a glorious end, 2 Timothy 4:18.—The body of Jesus could not become corrupt because there were no sins in His members. We must become corrupt, because sin still dwells in our mortal bodies, but we thus lay aside the corruptible in order to arise incorruptible.—In this life Christians have in God’s word only a foretaste of heavenly joy; but in that life this joy will be complete; then it will no longer be said: happy to-day, sad tomorrow; but without intermission will they be entirely joyous from God, through God, and in God.—Luther: The chiefest and highest passion, trust in God, makes the difference between the people of God, which are His possession, and those who are not His people. The way of life is a work of the power and justice of God alone. Menzel: He who knows and loves God, believes on Him; he who believes, praises Him and confesses Him; he who confesses Him is persecuted; he who is persecuted is comforted by God; he whom God comforts He instructs, and thence proceed the most beautiful fruits.—Frisch: He is rich enough for time and eternity who can at all times boast of his God alone.—The saints of God are likewise His nobles.—If we have God in view, and direct all that we do and have done according to His most holy point of view, no one on earth can deprive us of our inheritance.—Umbreit: He who has God for his cup really and truly derives from Him by means of faith in the most secret communion, the Holy Ghost and eternal life.—The most cheerful light springs up here from the depths of faith, and is poured over the gloomy grave.—Guenther: There is nothing more lovely or blessed for the children of God than blissful communion with God.—Diedrich: To have the grace of God and know it as always victorious, is the golden mystery, the excellent, heavenly wealth of believers, and all this has been given to them by God in His word.—If we are closely united with all saints in God, we are likewise internally separated from unbelievers; and he who declares himself one of the saints, must likewise feel that he is separated from them, and must confess that their condition is likewise unhappy, their nature is wicked and lost. [Matth. Henry: Covenanting with God must be heart work, all that is within us must be employed therein and engaged thereby.—Christ delights even in the saints on earth, notwithstanding their weakness and manifold infirmities, which is a good reason why we should.—The saints and their bliss are kept by the power of God.—Death destroys the hope of man, Job 14:14, but not the hope of a good Christian, Proverbs 14:32. He has hope in his death, living hopes in dying moments; hopes that the body shall not be left forever in the grave; but, though it see corruption for a time, it shall at the end of time be raised to immortality. Christ’s resurrection is an earnest of ours, if we be His.—Barnes: No one can safely so familiarize himself with vice as to render it a frequent subject of conversation. Pollution will flow into the heart from words which describe pollution, even when there is no intention that the use of such words should produce contamination. No one can be familiar with stories or songs of a polluted nature, and still retain a heart of purity.—Spurgeon: The title of “His Excellency” more properly belongs to the meanest saint than to the greatest governor. The true aristocracy are believers in Jesus. They are the only Right Honorables. Stars and garters are poor distinctions compared with the graces of the Spirit.—The night season which the sinner chooses for his sins is the hallowed hour of quiet, when believers hear the soft still voices of heaven, and of the heavenly life within themselves.—Christ’s resurrection is the cause, the earnest, the guarantee, and the emblem of the rising of all His people. Let them, therefore, go to their graves as to their beds, resting their flesh among the clods as they now do upon their couches.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [This is more consistent with the general tone of the Psalm, the omission of any allusion to warlike enemies or troublous times, the maturity of the Psalmist’s faith and hope, the calmness with which he contemplates death, the consciousness of his entire acceptance with God, and above all the Messianic allusions vers 9–11. It may, however, have been composed under the influence of the prophecy of Nathan, 2 Samuel 7.—It could not consistently with the Messianic allusions have been earlier than this.—C. A. B.] [Perowne translates: “I have no good beyond Thee. Literally my good (my happiness), as in Psalms 106:5; Job 9:25, is not beyond or beside Thee. The ‘good’ here spoken of is in contrast with the ‘sorrows’ in Psalms 16:4, and answers to the words, ‘my lot, my cup, my inheritance,’ in Psalms 16:5-6. For the sentiment may be compared Psalms 73:25, ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee.’... This is the one grand thought which stamps the Psalm, ‘Thou O Lord, art my portion, my help, my joy, my all in all.’ ” So also Alexander: “My happiness is not beside Thee, independent of, or separable from Thee?” The interpretation of Moll and Riehm is, however, far better.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “We may take μ in the sense of ‘belonging to,’ ‘joining myself to, and the passage would mean, ‘I have no good beyond Thee, belonging as I do to the fellowship of the saints, and the noble in whom,’ etc. Indeed some such meaning seems to be required by the context; for it is evident that it is the design of the Psalmist to contrast his own happy lot, and that of others who, like himself, had found their happiness in Jehovah, with the miserable condition of those ‘whose sorrows were increased, because they went after other gods.’ ”—C. A. B.] [This theory of Hitzig is ingenious, but too artificial and strained. It does not agree in tone with other Psalms of that period. This Psalm certainly belongs to a later period in his life after the Messianic prophecy of Nathan.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “God has led me to find my joy in Him, and now in the night seasons, as the time most favorable to quiet thought, I meditate thereon. The heart itself is said to admonish, because it anxiously listens to the voice of God, and seeks to conform itself thereto.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 17 A Prayer of David1         Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry; Give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. 2    Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. 3    Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing: I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. 4    Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. 5    Hold up my goings in thy paths, That my footsteps slip not. 6    I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. 7    Shew thy marvellous loving-kindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in theeFrom those that rise up against them. 8    Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 9    From the wicked that oppress me, From my deadly enemies, who compass me about. 10    They are inclosed in their own fat: With their mouth they speak proudly. 11    They have now compassed us in our steps: They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; 12    Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey. And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. 13    Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: 14    From men which are thy hand. O Lord, from men of the world, Which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure:They are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their oabes. 15    As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. AND Title and Contents.—Respecting tefillah, vid. Introduction. This Psalm has so strongly impressed upon it the characteristics of a prayer, as it wrenches itself from the soul of a man hard pressed by deadly enemies, in a moment of greatest danger, that we need not suppose that the title is a later addition taken from Psalms 17:1 b (Hitzig). The manner of expression discloses so vividly the agitation, change of sentiment, individuality, and the immediateness of the circumstances, that we are still less to think of the abstract person of the righteous (Hengst.), or of a poet, unknown in person and circumstances, as it is pretended is the case in most of the Psalms of lamentation and prayer (Hupf.); for in the life of David, in the time of the persecution by Saul according to 1 Samuel 23, there were circumstances corresponding exactly with those of this Psalm (Hitzig); and the language which is frequently hard and inflexible, with its peculiarly irregular turns and gloomy tones, together with other points of contact with prominent expressions in other Psalms of David, is a very marked echo of his frame of mind (Delitzsch), although we may perhaps in some passages admit a corruption of the text. (Olsh.)The prayer begins with calling upon God as the righteous Judge and infallible searcher of hearts, with an appeal to the honesty of the petitioner (Psalms 17:1-2), who knows that he is searched through and through in his inmost soul by God, and accordingly holding fast to the word and ways of God he has kept himself in his conversation and walk, so that the corrupt movements of men have not borne him along with them (Psalms 17:3-5). With so much the greater assurance of being heard (Psalms 17:6) prayer now rises for deliverance from wicked, strong, and powerful enemies, whose nearness, inexorableness and cruelty (Psalms 17:10-12) are intuitively described, calling upon Jehovah immediately to interfere (Psalms 17:13), against an enemy who is especially dangerous (Psalms 17:12) who is especially prominent among the worldly-minded who seek and find their good and happiness in things of this world (Psalms 17:14). He closes by bringing into strong contrast the disposition, position, and hopes of the man of prayer.Str. I. Psalms 17:1. Righteousness.—This word is not in apposition to Jehovah (Kφhler), or in dependence upon Jehovah according to the translations of Symm. and Theodot., κυρὶεδικαιοσύνης, but as an accusative of the object. The interpretation, me as righteous (Aquil., Jerome, Hengst.), unites the expression, or rather its idea, too closely to the person praying. Luther’s marginal reading: If thou wilt not hear me, then hear thy righteous cause, separates it too far from the person. The general character of the expression and its meaning as introducing the contents of the prayer, are effaced by either of the translations: my righteousness = my righteous cause (Calv.), or, my righteous prayer (Chald.), or indeed, my sincere petition (Kimchi). The parallelism (Hupf.) does not justify any such special reference. Still less is the article to be brought in as a suffix, and the righteousness or innocence regarded as those who were oppressed and injured in the persecution of David, who complain and pray in his mouth (Geier, et al.) It is true the paraphrase: Hear the righteousness which speaketh through me! would be more exact than that already rejected: Hear me in my righteousness or as righteous. For righteousness of the thing and not of the person would be first stated in accordance with the text, and thus at the same time that opposition of righteousness of the thing and of the person would be avoided (Calov., J. H. Mich., et al.), which is foreign to the text, and indeed according to Psalms 17:3 sq., contradictory. But yet the reference of righteousness to the person appears in the text only after many accommodations. To these belong the appeal made to the righteous dealings of God according to His infallible judgment by the praying Psalmist, who in the uprightness of piety cries anxiously to God with the hope of being heard. This interpretation brings into view an advance in the thought which is for the most part overlooked, and likewise is supported by the fact that the last word in Psalms 17:2, in an adverbial interpretation, corresponds better with usage than to regard it as an accusative of the object dependent upon “behold,” and thus parallel to: hear righteousness, in Psalms 17:1, essentially a statement respecting the character of the petitioner, whilst our interpretation presents an appeal to the infallible judgment of God Hitzig, by comparing Proverbs 4:25, finds a similar thought expressed to that of Jer 5:3.—From lips without deceit. [A. V. (“that goeth) not out of feigned lips.” Hupfeld: “Not with deceitful lips, or with lips without deceit (falsehood, hypocrisy),” in opposition to the cry and prayer, which at first protests the subjective uprightness of his prayer and the ideas with which he supports it, but at the same time guarantees the objective truth of the assertion of his righteousness in the first member (with which it is parallel) so far as that he who is defiled with guilt dare not approach God and venture to call upon His righteousness as a righteous man, comp. Psalms 32:2; Psalms 66:18, and “lift up holy hands,” 1 Timothy 2:8.—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 17:3. Thou hast proved, etc.—The three perfects, since they are followed by an imperfect, do not refer to a definite historical event in the history of David, but form the antecedent, stating the Divine activities which constantly precede the result of the Divine examination described in the conclusion. There is no question or doubt but that David is drawn into this court of examination by God, and hence the clause does not properly admit of being taken as hypothetical, but rather as present.—Thou hast visited in the night.—[The visit is for the purpose of investigating, Job 7:18. It is by night as the time when the soul is undisturbed by the external world, and ready for reflection and examination.—Thou hast tried me.—The usual figure of the refiner of metals.—C. A. B.] Thou wilt not find in me wicked thoughts; my mouth doth not transgress. [A. V. (“And) shall find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress”]. Since it has not been proved that αμ has the meaning of “nothing” there is no object to the verb “find,” if we follow the accents, and connect the next word with the next clause. We might certainly most naturally supply “nothing” from the context in accordance with the sense. But the interpretation of ζξּ ?εϊι, as 1 person Perf. = I have thought, that is, purposed (Is. 4:28) which then would be immediately followed by the statement of the contents of the purpose (Luther, Geier, et al., finally Delitzsch), whilst it is possible, yet is opposed by the fact that the context rather causes us to expect a statement respecting the moral condition of the Psalmist than of his purpose. Moreover the other statements on this subject do not allow us to translate with Bφttcher: If I thought wickedness, it must not go over my mouth. The Masora likewise remarks that the tone of this Hebrew word is to be put upon the last syllable. This is then a noun with the suffix, and indeed not the plural of a substantive which cannot be proved, but an infinitive with a feminine ending (Hupf.). If we connect it with the following clause in accordance with the accents, then since the masc. of the verb demands that τι should be the subject of the clause, the translation, my thought does not overstep my mouth (Hitzig), that is, I do not speak in sleep, because I am not excited by passion, appears to do violence to the text; on the other hand, the translation, “my mouth doth not overstep my thoughts,” that is, I say no more than I think (Hengst. [Alexander]) as the simple protestation, “I do not dissemble, I do not lie,” is strained, and with the lack of an object in the preceding clause obscure and unintelligible. The explanation of Aben Ezra, Bucer, Rosenm., et al.: my thought is not different from my words is still less admissible. It is accordingly more natural not to regard the accents as restrictive, but with the ancient translations and Jerome, and since J. D. Mich., many recent interpreters, to make an object for “find,” and gain two parallel clauses beginning with “not,” and understand the meditation in accordance with Hebrew usage as the meditation of evil. So Perowne: “Thou hast tried me and findest no evil thought in me, neither doth my mouth transgress.”—C. A. B.] The suffix would be as Psalms 18:23, (Hupf.) not for an actual sin, but for one regarded as possible yet denied. The transition from the mention of sins of thought to sins of action, considered in the subsequent verse, would then be suitably prepared by sins of word.Psalms 17:4. In man’s doings, by the word of Thy lips, I have carefully avoided the path of the destroyer. [A. V., “concerning the works of men”]. The ancient translators connect the last words of the previous verse closely with this verse, and either translate: my mouth doth not go over to the doings of men, that is, approve them; or, my mouth doth not transgress according to the doings of men. This gives a better parallelism, and therefore many interpreters approve this division of the verses. But the structure of a verse is not always complete. Most interpreters, after Calv. and Geier, regard μ as temporal, as Psalms 32:6; others as denoting either reference = as concerns [A. V.] or condition, as Psalms 69:22. Delitzsch takes the following words directly in the sense of “against the word of Thy lips,” as the object of the doings of men. According to Hitzig μ introduces the accusative of the object, as 1 Samuel 22:7; Psalms 69:6, which widely separated from the finite verb is again taken up after this by the statement wherein these doings of men consisted. [Hupfeld: “In the midst of the surrounding practices of men, which so easily carry others away with them, I have shunned following their wicked examples, being led and supported by the word of God.”—Word of Thy lips.—Hupfeld: “The word of God in the law, that is, the commandments of God in contrast with the doings of men who transgress it, and offer a higher rule.”—C. A. B.] ωׁ ?ξψ is here used in a pregnant sense, without expressing the negative reference by ξִ ?ο as usual.Psalms 17:5. My steps hold fast in Thy paths.—The infinitive ϊָ ?ξκְ is regarded by the ancient translators and most ancient interpreters, and among more recent interpreters, De Wette and Stier, as imperative = support my steps [A.V.] But this does not agree with the perfect of the following clause. The infinitive is then either to be regarded in the sense of a gerund, and then most properly as an antecedent to the following clause (De Dieu, et al.), or instead of the finite verb (Gesenius, § 128, 4 b), and indeed as a perfect, yet not as the 1st person singular = I have maintained my steps in Thy paths (Geier), but as the 3d person plural (Cocc0.) with respect to usage = my steps have held fast to Thy paths (Ewald, Hengst., Hitzig, Hupf., Delitzsch). Str. III. Psalms 17:7. Make Thy grace wonderful.—[A. V., show thy marvellous loving-kindness], literally, separate; namely, by gradation in thought, the implored exhibition of Thy grace from the usual exhibitions of the same, so that it may thus prove to be wonderfully glorious to me (Sept.); not: take away Thy grace from the adversaries (Rabbin.) According to others (De Wette, Hupfeld, Delitzsch), the fundamental meaning of this verb is in the Hiphil made to be an attribute of the object, so that the Psalmist does not request anything extraordinary for himself, but merely implores that the well-known wonderful = glorious grace may be shown. Delitzsch translates like Luther and the ancient translators: against Thy right hand. But the right hand of God is frequently mentioned as the instrument of deliverance, Psalms 44:3; Psalms 98:1; Judges 7:2; Isaiah 59:1. The anxiety of the moment transposes the words with the breath. Str. IV. Psalms 17:8. Apple of the eye.—Literally; the little man, the daughter of the eye, Lamentations 2:18; Zechariah 2:8. The figure is chosen with reference to Deuteronomy 32:10-11; comp. Proverbs 7:2, as is shown by the subsequent words. [Hupfeld: “The first figure as with us is proverbial, as a symbol of that which is dearest to us, of the most careful, attentive protection. The second, ‘hide me under the shadow of Thy wings,’ is taken from birds, especially the hen, who protects her brood with her wings, a figure of the most tender protection, frequently of God’s protection, Psalms 36:7; Psalms 57:1; Psalms 61:4; Psalms 63:7; Psalms 91:4 (used of Christ, Matthew 23:37), and in the same connection with the first figure, Deuteronomy 32:10-11, both in reference to the people of Israel.” Wordsworth: “There is a climax of delicate tenderness in the language here.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 17:9. My enemies who greedily surround me.—The position of the suffix is against the connection of απτωׁ with the preceding word = my deadly enemies (Geier [A. V.]). On the other hand it is admissible to get the same sense by the translation: against the life (Kimchi), or, in matters of life (Hengst.). Most recent interpreters, however, translate after the Chald. and Aben Ezra: with eagerness, as Psalms 27:12; Psalms 35:25; Psalms 41:3; Isaiah 5:14. Psalms 17:10. Fat.—Many interpreters, likewise Clauss, Stier, Tholuck, after the Chald. and Symm., understand by this, the prosperity in which they wrap themselves, and which prompts them to haughty expressions. Others regard it as = the fat heart (Geier) = unfeeling heart, (De Wette, Kφster, Ewald, et al.); Hupfeld as merely the heart. But manifestly it is meant that their heart, μα, is not a pulsating human heart, but ημα, a lump of fat, Psalms 73:7; Psalms 119:70 (Delitzsch, Hitzig). The closing up, 1 John 3:17, denotes the intentional holding off from all influences which would excite human emotions, so that the consequence is, hardening and obduracy, Psalms 95:8. We have not here a pleonasm, but a climax, and the context shows that we are not to think of the closing up of secret, crafty schemes, Psalms 64:6-7; Proverbs 7:10, contrasted with speaking of the mouth (Hupf.). The explanation of Theodoret, who understands the heart in the sense of pity is entirely astray.—Speak proudly.—This comes from their delusion of a near and sure victory. Psalms 17:11. Our steps … now have they surrounded me.—[A. V., They have now compassed us in our steps]. Since the singular suffix does not agree with the plural suffix of the noun, the translation quoad gressum nostrum, which supposes that this accusative of closer definition of the part of the body (Genesis 3:15) is parallel with the accusative of the person (Delitzsch) has very little to recommend it. It does violence to the text, however, to read with the Masora the plural when the codd. do not have it. The double accusative which is usual with verbs of surrounding, to which ancient interpreters appeal, would here produce this nonsense: with our steps they have now encompassed me. Hitzig, who previously thought, of the accusative of the object to μπθεϊ = “our steps … to fell to the ground,” now explains that the distance is too great between the words, and moreover it is obstructed by the parenthesis: he now changes the vowel points in order to get the meaning: I perceive him. This is certainly admissible, and gives a good sense; whilst the meaning obtained by some of the ancient translations by changing a consonant: “They express congratulations over me,” is violent and unnatural. With the present reading we think that the discourse is broken by the liveliness of passion. To throw down upon the ground.—[A. V., “Bowing down to the earth.” Barnes: “The Hebrew word πָ ?θָ ?δ, natah—means properly to stretch out, to extend; then to incline, to bow, to depress; and hence the idea of prostrating; thus, to make the shoulder bend downwards, Genesis 49:15; to bring down the mind to an object, Psalms 119:112; to bow the heavens, Psalms 18:9. Hence the idea of prostrating an enemy; and the sense here clearly is, that they had fixed their eyes intently on the Psalmist, with a purpose to prostrate him to the ground, or completely overwhelm him.”—C. A. B.] The interpretations that they direct their attention “to turn aside in the land” (Hengst.); or “to wander through the land” (Ewald) [Alexander: “go astray,”—C. A. B.] are artificial and unnecessary. Psalms 17:12. [His likeness = he is like, is not dependent upon the preceding clause, as A. V., but a new and independent clause, introducing the figure of the lion and the young lion, vid., notes upon Psalms 10:9 sq.—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 17:13. Go forth to meet him.—[A. V., “disappoint him.” [Perowne: “As David himself went forth to meet first the lion and the bear, and afterwards the champion of Gath.” This is the true interpretation advocated by most recent interpreters.—C. A. B.]—Cast him down.—[Properly to make him fall upon his knees, (Hupf.), the figure of the lion is continued here.—C. A. B.]—The wicked. Jerome understands this to be the devil.—By Thy sword.—[Not as A. V., “which is thy sword.” God is to go forth to meet the enemy, who is like a lion, to cast him down upon his knees, and by His sword slay him, and thus deliver the Psalmist.—C. A. B.] Psalms 17:14. People of the world, literally men of the world [A. V.,] or of temporal life, not men of duration or of enduring success, (Calv., Venema, Ruding., Hengst.,) after the Arabic, but either perishable men (Hitzig) or better after the Syriac: men of the world with reference to their disposition (Kimchi, Geier and most interpreters). The life, in the following relative clause, answers to this, wherein they have their ηֶ ?μֶ ?χ, that is their portion, as their highest good and happiness, Psalms 16:5, not temporal life (Geier), life without duration (Hitzig) as showing the fate of the ungodly, Job 20:5, Isaiah 65:20; so likewise not life blessed with external good and earthly happiness (Calv., Hengst.) of which they have received their proper portion; but the idle vain life, in contrast to the spiritual life in God (Hupf., Hitzig). Here likewise the tone and order of the words show the language of anxiety and haste. Whilst this was overlooked, most interpreters translated the beginning of the verse “from people of Thy hand” [A. V.] and thought for the most part of those men whom God uses as His rods of chastisement and scourges; sometimes likewise of those who must fall into judgment in the wrathful hand of God because the measure of their sins was filled. [The proper rendering is “by Thy hand” as above by Thy sword, the two expressions being parallel.—C. A. B.]—With that which thou hast stored up. [A. V. “with thy hid (treasure)”]. This is a past partic. used as a substantive in a good sense, Psalms 31:19; Proverbs 13:22, and in a bad sense Job 21:19. Almost all interpreters take it here in the former sense, that God gives the worldly minded the portion they have chosen, even children in abundance, Job 22:17, to whom they leave their affluence, yet without knowing or possessing the prospects and enjoyment of the pious. Hitzig on the other hand takes it in the bad sense of the punishment, the reception or experience of which is represented as eating of bitter, deadly food (Job 9:18; Job 21:15, comp. Psalms 6:7; Psalms 59:15), as God fills the bodies of the wicked with the fire of His wrath (Job 20:23). This judgment is likewise said to extend to children and children’s children (Exodus 20:5, comp. Job 21:7-8; Job 21:11); to which the following words according to his translation, may they satisfy the sons, etc., refer. The translation made by most interpreters “their children are filled” would require απιδν. The translation of Kφster who follows the Sept. Vulg. closely “they are full of sons” [A. V.], is literal but obscure. Str. VI. Psalms 17:15. The antithetical reference of this strophe is rendered very prominent not only by the emphasis of the I [As for me, A. V.], but likewise by the intentional use of the same word satisfied with reference to Jehovah’s form, in beholding His countenance. These expressions themselves by their undeniable reference to Numbers 12:8, comp. Exodus 33:20, lead us beyond the usual means of recognizing and communing with God. In the present context a glance is given into eternity. It is true there is no mention of a resurrection of the dead as such (Hofmann), or of a natural awaking upon the next morning (Ewald), or of a breathing again and stepping forth from the confusion of a perplexing trouble, as from a night of suffering (Hitzig), so that a new earthly phase of life broke forth upon the psalmist in the sunlight of the Divine grace (Kurtz), or of a mingling of both references (Hupf.), or indeed of an awaking of Jehovah that is in His coming to help, after having hidden His countenance (Cleric. Hensl., Hengst.); but of an awaking from the night of death (among recent interpreters, even Rosenmόller, De Wette, Gesenius), as a hope shining forth from the consciousness of communion with Jehovah (Delitzsch) as Psalms 16:10; Psalms 49:15. AND ETHICAL1. There are troubles, into which we do not fall as a punishment for our sins, but in which we are unjustly persecuted and compelled to flee from hard-hearted, unprincipled and powerful enemies, and with all the justice of our cause, may be in danger of succumbing to the snares of our bitter opponents, and even of losing our lives. 2. In such a situation neither lamentations nor despondency are becoming to the pious. The proper course is to pray for help, which may in anxiety of heart become a cry, without becoming improper, and may appeal before God the righteous Judge to the personal righteousness of the persecuted, without thereby in the least disputing, murmuring or contending with God, or boasting or confiding in one’s own righteousness. For there is no reference to righteousness gained by one’s self, or to one’s own deserts and the worthiness derived therefrom, but to the fact, that the piety of the petitioner has shown itself as vitally and powerfully in his person, as it expresses itself candidly and sincerely in his prayer. And in such cases the question is not of its origin from grace apprehended in faith, but of the earnestness and reality of its attestation. 3. Now he who flees from the judgment and hands of men, to the judgment and presence of God must not forget that the Almighty is likewise the All-knowing, the Searcher of hearts. He must still further be mindful of this, that under the trying eye of the holy and omnipresent God he endures an infallible judgment by night as well as by day, waking or sleeping, dreaming or acting. It is well for the man who feels this judging and sifting nearness of God, which as the fire in the furnace separates the gold from the dross, as soothing his conscience, and who can comfort himself with that fact that God finds in him a man of true piety. 4. The human heart is naturally inclined to evil, and human doings and practices do not move in the paths which please God; they attempt rather, to break through the restraints imposed upon them by God. But the efficacy of the means of grace in the congregation of God is able to change the disposition of the heart and he who holds fast to the word of God, is able likewise to withstand the temptations of his situation and to walk in the ways of God according to God’s regulation. 5. If there is already a great consolation and a strong encouragement to constantly new prayers in the assurance of the faith, that God not only hears the pious, but answers him and thereby testifies, that on His part He has and will maintain intercourse and relations with him; then with increasing needs and under the pressure of great dangers not only the need of the improvement of this intercourse with God, but likewise the joyousness of prayer and the confidence of being heard, gain nourishment and power by the experience made in this intercourse, that it belongs to the nature of God to be a deliverer of those who seek His protection. The courage of the pious is explained by these fundamental principles and upon them it rises in order to implore likewise in special circumstances special gracious help. 6. From the confidence of the faith, that the person of the pious man who has intercourse with God is an object of His love and care, arises the assurance, that this person will not only find occasional help and an assistance referring merely to special and transient needs and dangers, from the almighty Protector of the oppressed, but that he finds constant protection against all the enemies of his body and soul, and can be sheltered forever in God, if he has his satisfaction in the nearness and communion of God in contrast to the people of this world, who do not inquire after God, because they seek and find their satisfaction in the possession of perishable goods and in the enjoyment of earthly joy. 7. Great external happiness, prosperity and luxury, increase the natural selfishness, worldliness and pride of the unconverted man, make his heart insensible to emotions of pity and the inborn feelings of justice, and do not permit him to exhibit thankfulness to God for His great benefits, but rather stop up the sources of his love to God and his neighbor and prevent the approach of those things which would open them, so that the man is choked in his own fat and has become spiritually dead in the midst of his abundance. On the other hand, troubles and dangers, sufferings and infirmities, the lack and loss of earthly goods, impel the pious man with ever renewed energy to lay hold of God and thereby obtain his only salvation and true life in God. 8. He who has God, has life. This truth enters only into the experience of the soul which has communion with God. Moreover the life is likewise the light of the soul, and enlarges its sphere of vision, so that it not only looks upon the gracious countenance which God causes to shine upon His servants in the night of trouble, but it consoles itself with beholding in the future that form of God, in which those who are completely blessed, will see Him as He is. Accordingly the full satisfaction in the blessed enjoyment of thus beholding the Divine glory comes only in eternity and presupposes the awaking from the sleep of death. AND The pious man may call upon the judgment of God and rely upon it when condemned by the judgment of men. He who appeals to God, should consider that God is not only the Almighty and the merciful, but that he is likewise the All-knowing and the Holy God.—God sees not only our works, He hears not only our words, He likewise proves the heart, and this without cessation, by day and by night.—He who will walk in the ways of God must direct himself by the word of God and keep the regulations of God.—The Divine grace not only delivers from the hands of earthly enemies, but likewise from inborn sinful corruption and from the power of temporal and eternal death.—Every help of God is a miracle of grace; but in the particular exhibitions of Divine help the miraculous appears in various degrees. It is, however, not always perceived by men with the same clearness and not implored with the same fervor in personal distress.—It is a true sign of human corruption, that temporal happiness hardens the heart as easily as it fills it with vain efforts after perishable goods and joys.—The principal dangers of worldly-mindedness are forgetfulness of God, exaltation of self, and contempt of others.—The way to escape from temporal need and anxiety to eternal goods and joys consists in walking in the ways of God. Starke: He who would be heard in his cause against all kinds of oppression and perversion, must have innocence as his plea; if not he must first confess his guilt and ask God for forgiveness. If prayer is not to go forth from a false mouth, the heart must previously be free from all deceitfulness; for what fills the heart, will pass over the mouth (Matthew 12:34).—If we are attacked and persecuted by the world and our cause is good and righteous we cannot get better advice, than to have recourse to God and place our need in the lap of His grace.—Persecuted Christians often have no judge on earth to do them justice; then sentence must come from heaven.—The eyes of men only see what has a fine appearance of human wisdom and power; but the eyes of the Lord see, what is right and good.—The nights when troubles and afflictions try us, are indeed hard for flesh and blood, but very profitable to the soul, because there is thus revealed to others and ourselves what is concealed in us.—It is not enough to leave off evil works; a Christian is likewise not to speak knowingly an idle word; much less a wicked word. O what watchfulness is necessary for this!—The more ungodly men strive to overthrow the truth of God’s word, or to break from its yoke by bold wickedness, the more carefully should believers be, not to deviate a finger-breadth from reverence and obedience to the word of God.—It is not enough to remain in the right way, but it is likewise necessary to make advances therein and not slip.—O how dangerous and slippery is the way through this wicked world!—God fulfils all His promises to us, not as we think according to our reason, but wonderfully, inconceivably, against all thought and above all reason.—What is more tender, sensitive, dearer than the apple of the eye: yet believers are such before God; how then can those who touch them, remain unpunished? (Zechariah 2:8.)—The wings of a hen cover her brood so that they cannot be seen by birds of prey; she covers them against rain and storms; she warms them and strengthens them, when they are cold and weak; so likewise, does the Divine grace with His children (Matthew 23:37).—It is a terrible word, to have one’s portion only in this world and thus be excluded from everlasting possessions! Woe to the man who for a short temporal pleasure sacrifices everlasting joy!—It is true God often blesses the ungodly with more bodily blessings, than the pious, and fills them better with His treasures; but they have their portion in this life and they starve in the world to come.—Children are a gift of the Lord; but they may increase the condemnation of their parents, if they neglect the salvation of their childrens souls and devote their attention merely to the storing up many goods.—Christian, your spiritual hunger and thirst will not endure forever; no, the time is drawing near, when you will be satisfied with the rich possessions of the house of God.—He who would in the future awake in the image of God, must begin even here the transfiguration and production of the image of God, 2 Corinthians 3:18.—A great, yes, an infinite difference between the children of this world and the children of God! The former have their bellies full, the latter the heavens full, the one, the shadows, the other, the true imperishable substance. Luther: The warmer and more ardent our faith is, the more will God accomplish with it.—Bugenhagen: The world may satisfy itself where it will; I will satisfy myself with God.—Schnepf: What is it to be a man of the world? To have his heaven upon earth and his portion here.—Arndt: There are three reasons why prayer will be heard: 1) a righteous cause: 2) righteousness in Christ; 3) righteousness of heart.—Scriver: The chief blessedness consists in beholding God, and this consists in the sweetest communion.—Renschel: Innocence is the best treasure.—To behold God’s countenance is the true paradise.—Frisch: David in his opening words expresses at once his faith, because he lays hold of the righteousness of his Saviour; his earnestness, because he continues to cry; his humility because he seeks gracious audience; his perseverance, because he knocks for the third time at the door of grace; his uprightness, because he says nothing except what his heart says to him.—Thym: What glory has the servant of God to expect after death? 1) He is to behold the Lord in His glory; 2) he is to be satisfied with the blessings of heaven; 3) he is to awake glorified according to the glory of the Lord unto everlasting life. [Matth. Henry: It will be a great comfort to us if trouble, when it comes, finds the wheels of prayer agoing, for then may we come with the more boldness to the throne of grace.—God’s omniscicence is as much the joy of the upright as it is the terror of hypocrites, and it is particularly comfortable to those who are falsely accused and in any wise have wrong done them.—If we keep God’s law as the apple of our eye, Proverbs 7:2, we may expect God will so keep us; for it is said concerning His people, that whoso toucheth them toucheth the apple of His eye. Zechariah 2:8.—There is no satisfaction for a soul but in God, and in His face and likewise His good will towards us, and His good work in us; and even that satisfaction will not be perfect till we come to heaven.—Barnes: We can offer an acceptable prayer only when we are sure that it would be right for God to answer it, or that it would be consistent with perfect and eternal justice to grant our requests.—Spurgeon: David would not have been a man after God’s own heart, if he had not been a man of prayer. He was a master in the sacred art of supplication.—There is more fear that we will not hear the Lord than that the Lord will not hear us.—Who can resist a cry? A real hearty, bitter, piteous cry, might almost melt a rock, there can be no fear of its prevalence with our heavenly Father. A cry is our earliest utterance, and in many ways the most natural of human sounds, if our prayer should like the infant’s cry be more natural than intelligent and more earnest than elegant, it will be none the less eloquent with God. There is a mighty power in a child’s cry to prevail with a parent’s heart.—That heavenly book which lies neglected on many a shelf is the only guide for those who would avoid the enticing and entangling mazes of sin; and it is the best means of preserving the youthful pilgrim from ever treading those dangerous ways. We must follow the one or the other; the Book of Life, or the way of death; the word of the Holy Spirit, or the suggestion of the evil spirit—C. A. B.]Footnotes: [This Psalm resembles the preceding in so many particulars, e. g., the prayer ωָׁ ?ξְ ?ψֵ ?πִ ?ι, Psalms 16:1; Psalms 17:8; the recollection of communion with God by night, Psalms 16:7; Psalms 17:3; the use of ΰֵ ?μ in prayer, Psalms 16:1; Psalms 17:6; the verb ϊָ ?ξַ ?κְ, Psalms 16:5; Psalms 15:5 (Delitzsch); the reference to the protecting and defending right hand of God, Psalms 16:8; Psalms 17:7; Psalms 17:14; the contrasted portions of the Psalmist and the wicked, Psalms 16:2-6; Psalms 17:14-15; and the pleasures of the Divine presence, Psalms 16:11; Psalms 17:15; that they may properly be regarded as a pair composed at or near the same time, and that towards the close of David’s life (vid. note to Psalms 16).—C. A. B.] [It is very usual among interpreters to regard this enemy who is especially prominent as Saul, and the Psalm is referred to the period of the persecution by Saul, but it seems better to regard this enemy as the powerful Joab, who was the plague of David’s life, especially towards its close, and the Psalmist often alludes to this bold, powerful, unscrupulous chieftain, who more than once had the audacity to threaten David himself. That David regarded him as an enemy we see from his command to Solomon, 1 Kings 2:5-6.—C. A. B ] [The author is incorrect in regarding ξֵ ?ιωָׁ ?ψִ ?ιν as an adverb, it is better with Hupf. and most interpreters to regard it as the object of “behold,” Jehovah is to acknowledge His own judgment as such (Hupf.) He is to behold with favor the right, equity. There is thus a gradation in the thought of this strophe. 1) The Psalmist appeals to Jehovah to hear the right; 2) to let the sentence go forth from His presence, the court of the great Judge, let the decision be proclaimed, and then; 3) to behold it as executed, to look with approval and pleasure upon equity, the right being approved by the infallible Judge.—C. A. B.] [Riehm mediates between the author and Hitzig. Thus, he contends that ςαψ never means transgress, sin, when used alone, and “since the ‘my mouth doth not transgress’ can hardly be the result of the examination by night, it is better to regard ζξεϊι the object of ϊξφΰ, at the same time as the subject of ιςαψ, thus: thou will not find wicked thoughts in me, they will not pass over my mouth, that is, I will not betray them by speaking in sleep.”—C. A. B.] [Thus Hitzig translates: “The doings of men, by the word of Thy lips, I have shunned the path of the robber.”—C. A. B.] [Hupfeld: “ωָׁ ?ξַ ?ψ properly to watch, take heed, observe, usually positively, in order to follow the law and the right way (as Psalms 18:21, the ways of God; Prov. 2:29, the righteous), here, on the contrary, in order to avoid. This meaning is usually brought about by the reflexive idea, to be on one’s guard, to beware of something, but this as a negative idea necessarily has ξִ ?ο with it: whilst here the accusative presupposes the original active signification, which here either pregnantly includes the negative consequences which are not expressed, or developes from the idea of watch, guard, keep, according to the nature of that which is watched, a negative side or reference = to keep off, hold off, avoid. Wordsworth translates: “I have marked the paths of the transgressor, I have tried them by the words of Thy lips. The sentiment is explained by the Apostolic precept. “If any man obey not our words, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed (2 Thessalonians 3:14).”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “We have here a view of the world and of life very remarkable for the Old Testament—a kind of anticipation of the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit which St. Paul gives us, or the love of the world and of God of which St. John speaks.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne; “Worldly men have their satisfaction in this life, in treasures, in children; David hopes to be satisfied with the likewise or rather real manifest bodily form (ϊְּ ?ξεּ ?πָ ?η) of God. The personal pronoun stands emphatically at the beginning of the verse, in order to mark the contrast between his own feelings and those of the men of the world. He hopes (as Job also does Job 19:26-27), to see God. (The parallelism of the next clause shows that this must mean more than merely “to enjoy His favors, the light of His countenance,” etc. as in Psalms 11:7). There is an allusion probably to such a manifestation of God as that made to Moses, Numbers 12:8, where God declares that with Moses He will speak ‘mouth to mouth,’ even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude (rather form, the same word as here) of Jehovah shall he behold.” Wordsworth; “The thought is completed by St. John: ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is,’ (comp. 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Corinthians 15:49; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Colossians 3:10.) As Theodoret observes here, the wicked may be satisfied with sons in this life, but I, O God, shall be satisfied with the sight of Thy Son for evermore. So also Didymus here.” Perowne: “In opposition to this interpretation it is commonly asserted that the truth of a resurrection had not yet been revealed, and that, consequently if we find the doctrine here, the Psalm must be of later date, after the exile (so De Wette). But this is mere assertion. First as regards the use of the figure ‘Waking from death’ occurs in 2 Kings 4:31., Death is spoken of as a sleep from which there is no awaking Job 14:12, Jeremiah 51:39. Next Isaiah 26:19. ‘Awake ye that sleep in the dust,’ plainly refers to the resurrection, (Hence critics who think the truth could not be known before the exile, are obliged to suppose that this chapter was written after that time). Again, why should not David have attained in some degree to the knowledge of a truth, which in later times was so clearly revealed as it was to Ezekiel (who makes use of it as the image of the resurrection of Israel Psalms 37:1-14), and Daniel (Psalms 12:2)?”—C. A. B.] Psalms 18 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,1         I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. 2    The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. 3    I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from mine enemies. 4    The sorrows of death compassed me, And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. 5    The sorrows of hell compassed me about: The snares of death prevented me. 6    In my distress I called upon the Lord,And cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of his temple, And my cry came before him, even into his ears. 7    Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations also of the hills moved And were shaken, because he was wroth. 8    There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, And fire out of his mouth devoured: Coals were kindled by it. 9    He bowed the heavens also, and came down: And darkness was under his feet. 10    And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 11    He made darkness his secret place; His pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. 12    At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, Hail stones and coals of fire. 13    The Lord also thundered in the heavens, And the Highest gave his voice; Hail stones and coals of fire. 14    Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; And he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. 15    Then the channels of waters were seen, And the foundations of the world were discovered At thy rebuke, O Lord,At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. 16    He sent from above, he took me, He drew me out of many waters. 17    He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. 18    They prevented me in the day of my calamity: But the Lord was my stay. 19    He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 20    The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. 21    For I have kept the ways of the Lord,And have not wickedly departed from my God. 22    For all his judgments were before me, And I did not put away his statutes from me. 23    I was also upright before him, And I kept myself from mine iniquity. 24    Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. 25    With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; With an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; 26    With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; And with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. 27    For thou wilt save the afflicted people; But wilt bring down high looks. 28    For thou wilt light my candle: The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. 29    For by thee I have run through a troop; And by my God have I leaped over a wall. 30    As for God, his way is perfect: The word of the Lord is tried: He is a buckler to all those that trust in him. 31    For who is God save the Lord? Or who is a rock save our God? 32    It is God that girdeth me with strength, And maketh my way perfect. 33    He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet,And setteth me upon my high places. 34    He teacheth my hands to war, So that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. 35    Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: And thy right hand hath holden me up, And thy gentleness hath made me great. 36    Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, That my feet did not slip. 37    I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: Neither did I turn again till they were consumed. 38    I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: They are fallen under my feet. 39    For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. 40    Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; That I might destroy them that hate me. 41    They cried, but there was none to save them:Even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. 42    Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. 43    Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; And thou hast made me the head of the heathen: A people whom I have not known shall serve me. 44    As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: The strangers shall submit themselves unto me. 45    The strangers shall fade away, And be afraid out of their close places. 46    The Lord liveth; and blessed be my Rock; And let the God of my salvation be exalted. 47    It is God that avengeth me, And subdueth the people under me. 48    He delivereth me from mine enemies: Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. 49    Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, And sing praises unto thy name. 50    Great deliverance giveth he to his king; And sheweth mercy to his anointed, To David, and to his seed for evermore. AND The Title.—The title, as far as the words of David, is like that of Psalms 36, the rest of it reminds us strongly of Deu 31:30, in part of Exo 15:1; Numbers 21:17; and is found likewise in 2 Samuel 22, where this Psalm appears in its historical connection, with some differences, yet essentially the same. In most cases the Psalm of our collection has the original and better readings (vid. below upon its relation to 2 Samuel 22). All this is in favor of the view that it was in one of those historical books from which the author of the book of Samuel made extracts. The use of this Psalm in Psalms 116, 144 is in favor of its great antiquity, as well as the use of Psa 18:30 in Proverbs 30:5, and Psalms 18:33 in Habakkuk 3:19. So many particulars in the contents and expressions of the Psalm agree with David, that only Olsh. and Hupf. think of a later author. There is likewise no valid reason for regarding the closing verse as a later addition (Hitzig against Hupf.). But being authentic, inasmuch as it presupposes the prophecy 2 Samuel 7, it refers to the latter period of David’s life, if not even to the time of his dying song, 2 Samuel 23. The prominent features of the subject agree with this, and do not allow us to mistake the retrospective view of a very important period of life, especially agitated by war and like events, but yet brought by grace to a satisfactory conclusion; and they lead to a period in which David, after having come forth victorious over domestic feuds, and as a king victorious likewise over other nations, and widely feared, on the one side praises the help afforded him by God as a sign of His condescension and favor, and on the other celebrates this as the reward of his devotion to Jehovah. Hitzig, therefore, refers, especially Psalms 18:43-44, to the fact mentioned 2 Samuel 8:9 sq., that the son of a distant king brought gifts to David, when on his return from Aram, he had likewise conquered the Edomite, and stood at the end of his expedition of war; and when the shadows which the rebellion of Absalom, and the transgression committed with Bathsheba and on her account, threw upon his life and his soul, had not yet troubled the sunshine of his happiness. The mention of Saul after all his enemies renders him conspicuous as the most dangerous of all, who is the last to be forgotten, although his time had long since passed away. The form in which these facts are put together, shows that we have here a retrospect which extends over a long period, but which occurred on the day of the composition of the Psalm, and originated the tone of the song together with its sentiments. The name, servant of Jehovah, which David gives to himself in his prayers, Psalms 19:11; Psalms 19:13; Psalms 144:10; 2 Samuel 7:20, and there in a general sense in which every pious Israelite might use it, is here in the title, as in Psalms 36, in the pregnant meaning of an official name and honorable title as Moses bears it, Deuteronomy 34:5; Joshua 24:29; the prophets, Jeremiah 7:25 and elsewhere, on account of their historical position as the specially commissioned instruments of God; and David likewise has received it being recognized as such by the mouth of Jehovah, Psalms 89:3; Psalms 89:20. A parallel to its use in the title of several Psalms is found in its use at the beginning of most of the epistles of the apostles. Its Contents and their Arrangement.—First, there is an expression of tender resignation to Jehovah (Psalms 18:1), the Protector and Lord, consequently sought and never sought in vain (Psalms 18:2); then follows the principal clause (Psalms 18:3), the unfolding of which forms the essential subject of the Psalm, namely: the thankful confession, that this Jehovah has delivered the Psalmist from his enemies in answer to prayer. The greatness of the danger is illustrated (Psalms 18:4-5); the prayer is warmly mentioned and its having been heard (Psalms 18:6). His coming to help in the earthquake and tempest (not merely figurative as Hupf. contends) is magnificently and surprisingly described (Psalms 18:7-15); the deliverance by the hand of God in the moment of the greatest danger is thankfully recognized as a proof of His good pleasure (Psalms 18:16-19), to reward the pious conduct of His servant (vers 20–25), which is founded in the moral nature of God Himself (Psalms 18:24-27), and gives the reason and pledge of this support of the Psalmist’s life (Psalms 18:28-29). Then the Psalmist begins to praise Jehovah as the only true God and faithful Helper (Psalms 18:30-31). This is interrupted in form by the retrospective review (although there is actually a praising God) which the Psalmist makes with reference to his repeated experiences of the assistance of God in domestic feuds, and in foreign wars (Psalms 18:32-45). It is then, however, taken up again directly, and brought to a satisfactory conclusion in two strophes, first, the summing up of thanksgiving for the abundance of help afforded as just described (Psalms 18:46-48), and then in vows of thanksgiving which look far beyond the bounds of Israel (Psalms 18:49-50), in faith in the Messianic promise and destiny given to David and his seed. Its Relation to 2 Samuel 22—The older view maintained by Hengst. was that the origin of the double recension of this Psalm of thanksgiving (ωִׁ ?ιψָ ?δ instead of ωִׁ ?ιψ, which is used elsewhere in titles) was to be referred to David himself, and indeed so that 2 Samuel 22 is a later but independent variation, with expressions which were chosen, emphatic, and at times explanatory. Gramberg supposes an intentional revision of the text of the Psalm, but attempts (in Winer, Exeget. Stud.I. 1 to show, by a close comparison, that 2 Samuel 22 affords throughout easier and worse readings, by a different hand from that of the author. On the other hand, Von Lengerke (Comment. Crit., 1833), sought to show that the better readings are found now in the one, now in the other, that the deviations were not intentional, but accidental, occasioned by oral tradition, and the carelessness of the copyist; and that both texts have about the same value; that the orthography, however, on account of the less frequent use of the vowel signs, bears an ancient character. The latter is explained by Ewald from the use of an ancient MS. Hupfeld shows that even in the orthography no sure principle can be carried out, that most of the variations in 2 Samuel 22 do not at all deserve the preference sometimes given to them, and derives them from careless copying and tradition. Hitzig now again maintains the independence of both recensions, neither of which gives the original pure text entirely, yet he supposes that the form of the text of Psalms 18 is for the most part preferable, and explains it thus: That the Psalms incorporated in a historical book share the fate of all historical texts; the respect for their poetical form, rythm and movement very soon yielded and disappeared before the care for the simple sense, not to speak of the fact that the text was afterwards accented as prose, whilst in the book of Psalms it was accented as poetry. Delitzsch thinks that the annals of David (dibrκ ha yamin) were the source of 2 Samuel 22, in which the Psalm had been incorporated, and from which likewise the historian derived much besides. He agrees with Hupfeld, but remarks that 2 Samuel 22 shows the license of popular language. Olsh. finds in this evidence of a free interpolation with literary productions before the close of the Canon. Str. I. Psalms 18:1. I love Thee affectionately [A. V., I will love thee].—ΰδα is elsewhere the only word used in Hebrew to express the love of men to God and the word used here, ψην, is found only in the Piel and in the sense of pity. But this word in the Aramaic has in the kal the meaning of love, and Aramaic expressions are not infrequent in the more ancient as well as in the later Hebrew writings. The proposal of Hitzig, therefore, to correct the η by ξ and change the vowel points, is unnecessary. The sense, which would be: “I will extol Thee,” would be very appropriate at the beginning of a song of praise and thanksgiving. But to doubt of an expression of love to God in the mouth of David, because among the ancient Hebrews the fear of God was alone proper, love only after Deuteronomy 6:5, is connected with a criticism of sacred history and its historical monuments, which condemns itself by its unavoidable necessity of doing violence to the text. In the parallel passage, 2 Samuel 22, this verse has manifestly fallen off, by shortening, whilst a compensation has been made by an enlargement of the next verse, which the accents then divide into two verses, by the addition, after the word fortress, of the clause: my refuge, my deliverer, who delivered me from violence. Likewise in the first line of this verse “my deliverer” is used as Psalms 144:2, and in the second line: God (Elohe) my rock as Psalms 18:46. Psalms 18:2. [There is in this verse a heaping up of metaphors, vid.Psalms 31; Psalms 71; Psalms 144 Perowne: “The images, which are most of them of a martial character, are borrowed from the experience of David’s life, and the perpetual struggles in which he was engaged. Some of them were suggested by the natural configuration of Palestine. Amid the ‘rocks’ and ‘fastnesses’ of his native land, and the ‘high tower’ perched on some inaccessible crag, he with his little band of outlaws, had often found a safe hiding-place from the wrath of Saul.”—My Rock.—Alexander: “As the rock (ρֶ ?μַ ?ς) of the first clause suggests the idea of concealment and security, so the rock (φεּ ?ψ) of the second clause [A. V., ‘My strength’] suggests that of strength and immobility. The figure is borrowed from Deuteronomy 32:4, and reappears in Psalms 92:15. Compare Isaiah’s phrase, rock of ages (Isaiah 26:4), and Jacob’s phrase, the stone of Israel (Genesis 49:24.”—My stronghold (A.V., fortress).—Hupf.: “ξְ ?φεּ ?ψָ ?δ is in general a strong and not easily accessible place, affording refuge and safety; a mountain, a cave, a wilderness, etc. Comp. 1 Samuel 23:14; 1 Samuel 23:19; 1 Samuel 24:1; Judges 6:2; Isaiah 33:16; Job 39:28.”—My shield (A. V., buckler, a species of shield). Vid.Psalms 3:4 and Genesis 15:1, where God calls Himself Abram’s shield.”—C. A. B.]—Horn of my salvation.—The horn is frequently the figure of strength and victorious power, yet the reference here is not to attack, but to protection. Hence the figure is not borrowed from the horn of the buffalo (most interpreters), or indeed of the summits of mountains [called horns in many languages, e.g. Matterhorn, Faulhorn, etc.—C. A. B.], but of the altar,1 Kings 2:28 (Hitzig).—[My height (A. V., high tower)—Alexander: “The Hebrew word properly denotes a place so high as to be beyond the reach of danger.” It is a high rock or crag affording a safe refuge, vid.Psalms 9:9.—C. A. B.] Many interpreters, with the ancient translations (likewise Maurer, Hengst., Hupf.), regard Jehovah and Eli as subjects, the names which follow each time as His predicates, seven of which would thus be contained in Psalms 18:2, to which Hengst. attaches some importance. Most recent interpreters, however (Hitzig and Delitzsch likewise), find as in all the names, so likewise in Jehovah and Eli, amplifications of the suffix of the verb, which begins the Psalm, yet not as its real object., but as taking up the vocative of the first line. Only Hitzig would change Eli into βΰμι=my Redeemer, according to Ps. 19:15. Str. II. Psalms 18:3. Jehovah is not a vocative in this verse (Storr), but in apposition to the words placed before for emphasis: the one who is praised, that is, who is the subject of the praises of Israel, Psalms 48:1; Psalms 96:4; Psalms 113:3; Psalms 145:3; perhaps the glorious One (Hupf.), that is, He to whom glory and majesty is ascribed. The imperfects are not to be taken as futures (many ancient interpreters), since the following strophe shows that the reference is to praising God on account of Divine help already experienced; but hardly as preterites with reference to a previous special deliverance (Hitzig). It is true, they are thus used frequently from ver 6 onwards, but they depend upon the perfects which occur from Psalms 18:4 on. If now these words which immediately follow are found to be a recapitulation of many particular experiences, the description of which makes use of the tempest, taken from other theophanes only as a figurative illustration (Ewald, Hengst., Hupf., Delitzsch); then the imperfects are taken as indefinite designations of the past. In this not unusual poetical use they occur without doubt in Psalms 18:20; Psalms 18:28 sq. of this Psalm. But there it treats really of a recapitulation of particular and similar features with a retrospect of the moral action of the Psalmist and of the experiences made by him in consequence of this. Yet here the entire description seems to refer to a particular case, only it does not follow that Psalms 18:3 should be put at the same time as Psalms 18:6 a. The motto of the entire Psalm appears first, namely, in the form of a general clause prepared by the predicate used in calling upon Jehovah. But it is not necessary, on this account, to translate with G. Baur: praised be Jehovah, I cry. Str. III. Psalms 18:4. Bands of death.—The Sept. and the Rabbins translate sorrows [A. V.]; and 2 Samuel 22, where the clause begins with “then” [A. V., when], another word is used = waves. The parallel clauses agree very well with this, the verb not so well; and our reading is likewise in Psalms 116:3, and is likewise very ancient (Calvin, Hupfeld).—Brooks of evil [A. V., floods of ungodly men]. —αְּ ?μִ ?ιַּ ?ςַ ?μ– literally=not to go up, is generally but not exclusively used (Hengst.) for moral unthriftiness, as unworthiness; and is then taken by most interpreters as a personification of ungodly enemies and their attacks, by some (Jerome, Luther, J. H. Mich., Stier) is understood directly of the person of the devil, according to 2 Corinthians 6:15, comp. 2 Samuel 23:6; but the physical signification (Ruding.), partly recognized by Calv. and without doubt in Nahum 1:11; Psalms 41:8 (Hupf.), is recognized by most recent interpreters as here parallel with death and the lower world, yet not mythologically, the lower world with its streams (J. H. Mich.), but as abysmal evil and perdition.[Psalms 18:5. Bands of the under-world (A. V., sorrows of hell).—For the explanation of Sheol or under-world vid.Psalms 6:5.—Snares of death.—De Wette: “Snares of death are figurative of the danger of death; for slings and the like are frequent figures of danger and waylaying (Job 18:9-10; Psalms 64:5; Psalms 140:5).”—Prevented me.—Barnes: “The word here used in Hebrew, as our word prevent did originally, means to anticipate, to go before. The idea here is that those snares had, as it were, suddenly rushed upon him, or seized him. They came before him in his goings, and bound him fast.”—C. A. B.][Psalms 18:6. In my distress.—Under the experience of the brooks of evil, the snares of death and the bands of the under-world mentioned, probably referring to the anguish of the most trying periods of his persecution by Saul.—And cried.—The anxiety of soul demanding immediate relief expresses itself in the cry.—Temple.—Perowne: “Not the temple or tabernacle on Mt. Zion, but the temple in heaven wherein God especially manifests His glory, and where He is worshipped by the heavenly hosts—a place which is both temple and palace.”—And my cry came before him.—Barnes: “It was not intercepted on the way, but came up to Him.”—Into his ears.—“Indicating that He certainly heard it.” The cry of the suffering Psalmist, in peril of death, speeds its way with more than the speed of light, to the palace of Jehovah, to His very presence, into His very ears, and the response is given with the same wonderful directness by Jehovah. Perowne: “The deliverance is now pictured as a magnificent theophany. God comes to rescue His servant as He came of old to Sinai, and all nature is moved at His coming. Similar descriptions of the Divine manifestation, and of the effects produced by it, occur Psalms 68:7-8; Psalms 77:14-20; Exodus 19; Judges 5:4; Amos 9:5; Micah 1:3; Habakkuk 3; but the image is nowhere so fully carried out as here. David’s deliverance was, of course, not really accompanied by such convulsions of nature, by earthquake, and fire, and tempest, but his deliverance, or rather his manifold deliverances, gathered into one as he thinks of them, appear to him as a marvellous proof of the Divine Power, as verily effected by the immediate presence and finger of God, as if He had come down in visible form to accomplish them. The image is carefully sustained throughout. First, we have the earthquake, and then, as preluding the storm, and as herald of God’s wrath, the blaze of the lightning (Psalms 18:7-8). Next, the thick gathering of clouds, which seem to touch and envelop the earth; the wind, and the darkness which shrouds Jehovah riding on the cherubim (9–11). Lastly, the full outburst of the storm, the clouds parting before the presence and glory of Jehovah, and pouring upon the earth the burden with which they were heavy—the thunder, and the lightning, and the hail,—the weapons of Jehovah by which, on the one hand, He discomfits His enemies, and, on the other, lays bare the depths of the sea, and the very foundations of the world, that He may save His servant who trusts in Him (11–16).”—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 18:7. Foundations of the mountains [A. V., hills].—2 Samuel 22 has instead of the earth, the heavens, and it is generally understood of the mountains as the pillars of the heavens (Job 26:11). [Jehovah is represented as moved, by the cry of the suffering Psalmist, to anger, His wrath is kindled against His enemies with the brooks of evil and the snares of death. The earth and its foundations shake under the emotions of Divine wrath.—Smoke in his nostrils.—Hupfeld: “Wrath is poetically represented as the nose snorting, taken from the action of an angry man (Calv., Geier), or rather beast, as a horse, lion (Rosenm.), comp. particularly the description of the crocodile, Job 41:11 sq.; as then that is indeed the proper meaning of ΰσ (from ΰπσ snort, that is, breathe through the nose), and hence likewise among the Greeks and Romans the nose was the seat and organ of wrath. Here it is increased to smoke. as it is often said of the wrath of God, ΰַ ?τּ ?εֹ ιֶ ?ςְ ?ωַׁ ?ο, His nose (or His wrath) smokes, Psalms 74:1; Psalms 80:4; Deuteronomy 29:19. This is connected with fire (as Isaiah 65:5), the usual figure of wrath in all languages, and here indeed from His mouth, parallel with the smoke in the nose, as with the crocodile, Job 41:13.”—Burning coals blazed from it, that is, from the mouth, parallel with fire out of His mouth devoured (Hupfeld, Delitzsch, et al.), not as the A. V., coals were kindled by it.—Delitzsch: “When God is angry, according to the Old Testament ideas, the power of wrath present in Him is kindled, and flames up, and breaks forth. The snorting of wrath may therefore be called the smoke of the fire of wrath (Psalms 74:1; Psalms 80:3); smoke is as the breath of fire and the violent hot breath, which is drawn in and out through the nose of the wrathful (comp. Job 41:12), is as smoke, which curls upward from the internal fire of wrath. The fire of wrath “devours out of the mouth.” that is, flames forth from the mouth, devouring all that it lays hold of, with men in angry words, with God in fiery powers of nature which correspond with His wrath and serve it, especially the fire of the lightning. It is first of all the lightning which is here compared to the flaming up of glowing coals. The power of the wrath of God, realizing itself, becomes a flame, and before its fire is entirely discharged, announces itself in lightnings.” The reference in this strophe is to the approaching storm with its distant flashes of lightning.—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 18:9. [He bowed the heavens and came down.—The storm is near at hand, the dark masses of clouds descend and seem almost to touch the earth, vid.Psalms 144:5; Exodus 19:18; Isaiah 64:1. Parallel with this is the second clause.—Dark clouds under his feet.—Comp. Nahum 1:3 sq., where the clouds are called the “dust of His feet.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 18:10. [He rode upon the cherub and did fly.—As in the preceding verse the presence of Jehovah in the dark and overhanging storm-cloud is represented by His agency in bowing the clouds and treading them down to the earth, so in this verse His presence in the strong wind which precedes the outbreaking of the storm is represented by His riding upon the cherub. The cherub is used here as a collective for the plural. The cherubim are composite creatures, embracing in one the forms of the ox, the lion, the eagle and man; they represent in the unity of their conception the entire creation in its most perfect form as the servant of Jehovah, through the faces and forms of the four most prominent and characteristic creatures which reflect the attributes and glory of God. They are represented as the bearers of the throne of Jehovah (Ezekiel 1, 10), the guardians of Eden (Genesis 3:24), and the most holy place and the mercy-seat. They fly in a whirlwind and with flaming fire and lightning (Ezekiel 1:4; Ezekiel 1:13), and “the noise of their wings is like the noise of great waters” (Ezekiel 1:24), the glory of God is above the cherubim which form His living chariot.—C. A. B.] Soar on the wings of the wind [A. V., fly].—2 Samuel 22 has instead of soar a weaker word, He appeared [A. V., was seen], yet not in all MSS.; perhaps it originated merely by a slip of the pen, changing γ into ψ. [This clause is parallel with the preceding; the wind which accompanies the chariot of the cherubim is represented as winged. As Jehovah rides upon the cherubic car, He soars, borne by the wings of the wind, vid.Psalms 104:3; Isaiah 66:15; Nahum 1:3. Hupfeld, with Calvin, thinks that the cherub here represents the storm wind, or the clouds; Riehm, that we have here an indication of the original meaning of the cherub, but it is better to regard the clauses as parallel yet distinct in idea, Jehovah rides upon the cherubic chariot as the God of the Covenant, and soars on the wings of the wind as the God of nature.—C. A. B.] Psalms 18:11. He made darkness His veil [A. V., His secret place.—Barnes: “The word rendered secret place—ρֵ ?ϊֶ ?ψ—means properly a hiding; then something hidden, private, secret. Hence it means a covering, a veil. Comp. Job 22:14; Job 24:15. Here the meaning seems to be that God was encompassed with darkness. He had, as it were, wrapped Himself in night, and made His abode in the gloom of the storm.”—Round about him belongs to covering and not to pavilion, as A. V.—His tent is parallel with veil and dependent upon the same verb, not with the copula, as in A. V. (His pavilion were). C. A. B.].—2 Samuel 22 has, instead of darkness of waters [A. V., dark waters], a word, which has originated perhaps by a slip of the pen, to which according to the Arabic we can only give the meaning of “collection of waters.” 2 Samuel 22 has likewise: He made darkness tabernacles round about Him, which is a weakening of the idea of the Psalm. [This verse is a description of the storm in its momentary lull, before bursting forth. The angry Jehovah stays His cherubic car, veils Himself with the dark clouds, and piles up the darkness of waters and the thick clouds like a tent in which He meant to dwell.—C. A. B.] Psalms 18:12. [Hupfeld: “Finally the storm of Divine wrath breaks forth and discharges itself in thunder, hail and lightnings, etc., on the heads of the wicked.”—C. A. B ] The reading of 2 Samuel 22, from the brightness before Him coals of fire burned [A. V., Through the brightness before Him were coals of fire kindled] is easier. Many interpreters likewise would blot out the strange word “His clouds,” and translate: hail and coals of fire went forth, or rushed forth (Hupf.). If this remain, our translation, after Hupf. and Delitzsch, is the best recommended: From the brightness before him passed through his clouds hail and coals of fire.—For the interpretations: “vanished” (Alex., Jerome, Calv.), or “broke up,” so that hail and coals of fire went forth (Luther, Geier, J. H. Mich., Rosenm.), or that the last words are to be taken as an outcry of astonishment (Hengst., Ewald, Olsh.), are doubtful and find no support in the parallel words in Psalms 18:13 (G. Baur), as if the repeated breaking forth of the lightning would be pictured by the restoration of those words which had been taken away. For in Psalms 18:13, these words not only are lacking in 2 Samuel 22, but likewise in the Sept. of our Psalm; they disturb the structure of the verse, and find no support (as Hengst. contends) in the reference to Exodus 9:23, where the connection of words is different. If, however, their dependence upon the verb, sent forth [A. V., gave], is maintained, then the poetry of that interpretation is lost. [The A. V., “At the brightness (that was) before Him His thick clouds passed, hail (stones) and coals of fire,” does not give a good sense. The idea is that Jehovah discharged through the darkness that veiled His brightness the weapons of His wrath, hail and coals of fire. Comp. the description of the destruction of the Canaanites, Joshua 10:11, fire mingled with hail plaguing the Egyptians, Exodus 9:24, so also in Isaiah 28:17; Isaiah 30:30.—C. A. B.] Psalms 18:13. Instead of in the heavens,2 Samuel 22 has the reading: from heaven, which most interpreters prefer. Psalms 18:14. The suffix κm [them, object of the verb, scattered and discomfited] refers not to the arrows and lightnings (ancient interpreters), but to the enemies, who are not named, it is true, yet are before the mind of the Psalmist. Ewald refers it to the waters which are directly mentioned, on account of the easy grammatical connection. Instead of He shot (or He threw, which meaning ψα has in Genesis 49:23), many interpreters read here, in place of the verb, the well-known adverb rab=many, in abundance. [Str. VI. Psalms 18:15. This storm of Divine wrath not only scattered and discomfited the enemies of the Psalmist as the Canaanites before Joshua, and the Egyptians before Moses, but likewise burst in fury upon the earth, laying bare the beds of the waters, as of the Red Sea and the Jordan, for the passage of the Israelites, disclosing the foundations of the world. This was accomplished by the strong wind, the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.—C. A. B.] [Str. VII. Psalms 18:16. The Psalmist here leaves the figure of the Theophany and returns to the more simple ideas of Strophe III. He realizes once more his own personal danger, in peril of death and exposed to the brooks of evil and the bands of Sheol. Jehovah reached from above—He stretched forth His hand (not as in A. V., He sent from above), He laid hold of me (A. V., took me, not so good), and drew me up out of great waters, that is, the brooks of evil, which have well nigh overwhelmed the Psalmist and snared him in their bands of death. Nothing can be more simple and touchingly beautiful than this description of his deliverance. Alexander supposes a reference here to the “historical fact and the typical meaning of the deliverance of Moses, and a kind of claim upon the part of David to be regarded as another Moses.” Psalms 18:17. The Psalmist now leaves his figures of speech and states in simple terms that Jehovah delivered him from his strong enemy. This strong enemy was probably Saul.Psalms 18:18. They fell upon me in the day of my calamity (A. V., prevented me, incorrect); but Jehovah was his support; they could not overcome Him. Psalms 18:19. Large place.—He brought him forth from his straits of trouble, and gave him ample room to recover himself and extend himself to his heart’s content, vid.Psalms 4:1.—C. A. B.] [Str. VIII. Psalms 18:20-23. This strophe gives the reason why Jehovah delighted in him and delivered him. His profession of personal integrity is like that of the previous Psalm (Psalms 17:3). Perowne: “The words are, in truth, words of child-like, open-hearted simplicity, not of arrogant boastfulness.” They are not inconsistent with the latter period of his life. David in his life was guilty of great sins and suffered Divine chastisements and confessed that he was receiving the penalty of his crimes, yet in this Psalm, where he is praising the deliverances of his God, he likewise shows that these were testimonies of Divine favor to him and of approval of his uprightness and integrity. If in other Psalms David is sincere in his confessions under the experience of Divine chastisement, he is likewise sincere in this Psalm in his professions under the experience of Divine deliverances. The penitential Psalms stand for themselves and the Psalms which assert innocence and uprightness stand for themselves, there is no inconsistency if we recognize the difference of experience in the godly man as expressed in these two classes of Psalms. Delitzsch: “In this strophe Psalms 18 has the same tone as Psalms 17. and for this reason it follows it. Compare the testimony of David himself 1 Samuel 26:23 sq., the testimony of God 1 Kings 14:8, the testimony of history 1 Kings 15:5; 1 Kings 11:4.”—C. A. B.] Str. IX. Psalms 18:25. 2 Samuel 22 has instead of man,hero [A. V. does not distinguish, but has man in both versions—C. A. B.]. The other, differences in this section are still less important and relate only to grammatical forms or differences in orthography. [Barnes: “From the particular statement respecting the Divine dealings with himself the Psalmist now passes to a general statement (suggested by what God had done for him) in regard to the general principles of the Divine administration. That general statement is, that God deals with men according to their character; or that He will adapt His providential dealings to the conduct of men. They will find Him to be such towards them as they have shown themselves to be towards Him.” Delitzsch: “The truth here expressed, is not that the idea which man forms of God is constantly the mirror of his soul, but that the dealing of God with men is the mirror of the relation in which God puts Himself to him.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 18:27. In 2 Samuel 22 is either: Thine eyes Thou didst let fall upon the proud; or, Thine eyes (look) upon the proud, (whom) Thou dost humiliate [A. V., Thine eyes (are) upon the haughty (that) Thou mayest bring (them) down]. Str. X. Psalms 18:28. Thou makest light my lamp [A. V., “Thou wilt light my candle.” The Hebrew imperfects are not here futures but indefinite designations of continued and incomplete action.—C. A. B.]. Lamp not=light=happiness (the majority of interpreters), but burning lamp, the putting out of which shows the desolation of the tabernacle, the abandonment of the house (Harmar, Beob. aus dem Orient, I. 180 sq.), and therefore is frequently used as figurative of destruction and ruin, as well of the individual (Job 18:6; Job 21:17; Jeremiah 25:10; Proverbs 13:9; Proverbs 20:20; Proverbs 24:20), as particularly of his race (2 Samuel 21:17); as the continual burning and care of the lamp serves as a figure of the preservation of life and the condition of prosperity (Job 29:3; Proverbs 31:18), and is especially applied to the continuance of the house of David (1 Kings 11:36; 1 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19; Psalms 132:17; De Wette, Hupf., Delitzsch). This passage is abbreviated in 2 Samuel 22, and so used that Jehovah Himself is called the lamp of David. In 2 Samuel 22 “my God” is lacking in the second member of the verse. [Psalms 18:29. For by thee I run upon troops, and by my God I leap over walls (A. V., I have run through a troop. … have I leaped over a wall).—The imperfects are not preterites, but are indefinite, as generally in this Psalm (vid. notes on Psalms 18:3). Barnes: “The word troop here refers to bands of soldiers, or hosts of enemies. The word rendered run through [A. V.] means properly to run; and then, as here, to run or rush upon in a hostile sense; to rush with violence upon one. The idea here is, that he had been enabled to rush with violence upon his armed opposers; that is, to overcome them and secure a victory. The allusion is to the wars in which he had been engaged.” The second clause carries on the idea of the first, he attacks the troops of his enemies, he breaks their ranks, he rushes upon their fortified towns, he mounts and leaps over their walls and captures them. Comp. Joe 2:7. This had been his experience of the gracious help of his God who had enabled him to do this.—C. A. B.] [Str. XI. Psalms 18:30. Delitzsch: “δָ ?ΰֵ ?μ [(As for) God, A. V.] is nom. abs. as δַ ?φּ ?εּ ?ψ, Deuteronomy 32:4; this ancient Mosaic expression sounds here again as 2 Samuel 7:22, in the mouth of David. The article of δָ ?ΰֵ ?μ points to the God historically revealed. His way is faultless and unblamable. His word is φְ ?ψεּ ?τָ ?δ, not drossy ore, but pure gold, freed from dross, Psalms 12:7. He who withdraws himself in Him, the God of promise, is shielded from all dangers. Proverbs 30:5 is borrowed from this passage.” Psalms 18:31. Hupfeld: “Jehovah alone is true God, that is, Who can and will help. This is parallel with φεּ ?ψ, rock (comp. Psalms 18:2), here used at once, as the name of God, as Deuteronomy 32:4; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18; Deuteronomy 32:30 sq., 37; Isaiah 44:8, etc.; frequently as a clause in contrast with the vain idols, especially Deuteronomy 32:31; 1 Samuel 2:2; but likewise with all the false props and idle hopes on which man gladly builds instead of on God only (Calv.).”—C. A. B.] [Str. XII. Psalms 18:32. The God who girdeth me with strength. (A. V. (It is) God that). The reference is to “our God” of Psalms 18:31. Alexander: The imparting of a quality or bestowing of a gift is in various languages described as clothing. Thus the English words endue and invest have almost lost their original meaning. The figure of girding is peculiarly significant, because in the oriental dress the girdle is essential to all free and active motion.—My way perfect.—Hupfeld: “Manifestly is correlative of the same phrase, Psalms 18:30 applied to God, as the effect of it and thereby mediately the same as, even, easy, free, that is a successful way.” Psalms 18:33. He maketh my feet like hind’s feet. Barnes: “So Habakkuk 3:19. He will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.’ The hind is the female deer, remarkable for fleetness or swiftness. The meaning here is, that God had made him alert or active, enabling him to pursue a flying enemy, or to escape from a swift-running foe.”—And setteth me upon my high places. Alexander: “My heights, those which are to be mine by right of conquest and by Divine gift. The heights may be the natural highlands of the country or the artificial heights of its fortified places.”Psalms 18:34. He teacheth my hands to war.—Barnes: “The skill which David had in the use of the bow, the sword, or the spear, all of which depends on the hands,—he ascribes entirely to God.”—And mine arms bend the bow of brass.—(A. V., incorrectly, “So that a bow of steel is broken by my arms.”) Perowne: “πִ ?ηֲ ?ϊָ ?δ, not (as Kimchi) Niph. of ηϊϊ ‘is broken’ but Piel of πηϊ, ‘to press down and so to bend,’ so Hupf., De Wette, Ewald, Delitzsch, Alexander, et al. Perowne: “Here the bending of a bow of brass (or bronze, rather, χαλκός, which seems to have been tempered, and rendered pliable like steel with us), indicates his great strength (comp. Job 20:24.) In Homer, Ulysses leaves behind him at Ithaca a bow which no one but himself could bend.”—C. A. B.] Str. XIII. Psalms 18:35. Condescension,—[A. V., gentleness]. The word ςֲ ?πָ ?εָ ?δ always means, merely the bowing of one’s self and not the humiliation of another. Therefore the translation of Luther, after the Sept., Vulg., “If Thou humiliatest me, Thou makest me great,” is inadmissible. It is true this word, which expresses the idea of humility (Proverbs 15:32; Proverbs 22:4) is used with reference to God only in this passage; since however in Psalms 45:4 it denotes the corresponding attribute of the condescension of the king, it is unnecessary to explain, with Hitzig, after the Arabic; Thy care, favor; or with Olsh. to correct ςַ ?πְ ?εָ ?ϊְ ?κָ with ςֶ ?ζְ ?ψָ ?ϊְ ?κָ that is thy help. The reading 2 Sam. ςֲ ?πֹ ?ϊְ ?κָ is hardly to be explained as if the ε merely quiesces (Kimchi); still less is the meaning to be forced by altering the vowel points ςַ ?βֹ ?ϊְ ?κָ (J. H. Mich., Hengst.) to that of ‘humility’ (Sept., Pesch., Theod., Symm.); but to translate, there, with the Chald., Thy hearing [A. V. does not distinguish but uses the same word, gentleness.—C. A. B.] [Psalms 18:36. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me.—Barnes: “The idea here is, ‘Thou hast made room for my feet, so that I have been enabled to walk without hindrance or obstruction.’ So in Psalms 31:8, ‘Thou hast set my feet in a large room.’ The idea is, that he was before straitened, compressed, hindered in his goings, but that now all obstacles had been taken out of the way, and he could walk freely.—That my feet did not slip. Margin, ‘mine ankles.’ The Hebrew word means properly a joint; small joint; especially the ankle. The reference here is to the ankle, the joint that is so useful in walking, and that is so liable to be sprained or dislocated. The meaning is that he had been enabled to walk firmly; that he did not limp.”—C. A. B.] [Str. XIV. Psalms 18:37-40. The consequences of Divine assistance were the subjugation and destruction of his enemies. Delitzsch: “Thus fighting in God’s strength, with God’s weapons and under God’s assistance he beat, subjected, annihilated all his enemies in domestic and foreign wars. According to Hebrew syntax, all this is retrospective. Psalms 18:40. And my enemies, Thou gavest to me the back.—(A. V. Thou hast also given me the neck of mine enemies. Hupfeld: “πϊοφψֶֹ ?σ., is elsewhere intransitive (2 Chronicles 29:6.)= τπδςֹ ?ψֶ ?σ ,ητκְ ςֹ ?ψֶ ?σ (Joshua 7:8; Joshua 7:12) to turn the back=terga dare, vertere, flee; is here causative to make the enemies’ backs that is fugitives as Exodus 23:27, and in like sense Psalms 21:12. ωּׁ ?ιϊωְׁ ?λֶ ?ν to make backs: necks, backs,=present their necks or backs to the pursuers, who see them only on this side and thus only as necks and backs. Comp. Jeremiah 18:17. “I will see them as backs and not as face, that is behind and not before.” So Gesen., De Wette, Delitzsch, Perowne, Alexander, et al. Barnes, however, prefers the A. V. and understands it “complete subjection,—as when the conqueror places his foot on the necks of his foes.”—C. A. B. Str. XV. Psalms 18:41. 2 Samuel 22 has, they looked [instead of, they cried]. [Delitzsch: “Their prayer to their idols and even to Jehovah forced by necessity, because it was directed to Him for their own interests and too late, was vain.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 18:42. 2 Samuel 22 has: “dust of the earth” [instead of dust before the wind]; and in the second member again: “I did stamp them.” [Barnes: “As the fine dust is driven by the wind, so they fled before me. There could be no more striking illustration of a discomfited army flying before a conqueror.”—As the dust in the streets.—Barnes: “The idea is, that he poured them out, for so the Hebrew word means, as the dirt or mire in the streets. As that is trodden on, or trampled down so they, instead of being marshalled for battle, were wholly disorganized, scattered and left to be trodden down as the most worthless object is.”—C. A. B.] Str. XVI. Psalms 18:43. Strifes of the people—This is referred by Hengst., Hitzig, Delitzsch, to the internal conflicts with reference to Saul and Absalom, and they then explain in the same way the reading 2 Samuel 22ςַ ?ξִּ ?ι= my people; whilst Olsh. supplies the thought, “with other nations;” and the Rabbins regard this form as plural. Many likewise regard the ςν of the Psalm as plural, which however with this interpretation is best regarded as collective (Hupf.) But the goyim in the following member favors the first mentioned interpretation, as likewise in the third member the ςν acquires by the following relative clause, the closer meaning of people previously unknown to the Psalmist, as foreign and distant. In the first member the construction is like Isaiah 26:2; Isaiah 49:8; 2 Samuel 22 has [in the second clause]: thou hast kept me as, or thou preservedst me to be, the head of the heathen.—[Head of the heathen. Hupfeld. “It is questionable whether this is historical of the subjection of some foreign nations, or whether it is not rather in ideal universality=sovereignty of the world, as Psalms 22.” It is probable that it has rather a historical reference. This is more in keeping with the entire Psalm as retrospective.—C. A. B.] Psalms 18:44. At the hearing of the ear.—This is regarded by most interpreters as in contrast to their own beholding (Job 42:5,)=they heard, without seeing me, or as soon as the sound of command from the distance had come to them, or better, as soon as they heard the report of the name and victories of David, (Deuteronomy 2:25; Joshua 6:27; Joshua 9:9 : Isaiah 23:5). On account of the mention of obedience, which immediately follows, others (Stier, Hupf., Camph), regard the expression as like the German, “at the word of,” with reference to the command they had received and its prompt execution. Sachs supposes a repetition of the previous word and explains: “They only know me by the knowledge of the ear.”—Sons of foreign parts dissembled to me.—[A. V. Strangers shall submit themselves. Alexander: “Sons of outlands will lie.”—C. A. B]. The humble expressions of the conquered, which have been forced, are often mentioned as lies, hypocrisy and flattery. Psalms 18:45. The sons of foreign parts faded away.—The victorious power of David has struck them as a fiery wind (Isaiah 40:7), therefore they wither away.—Trembled [A. V., be afraid]. It follows from Micah 7:17, comp. Hosea 11:11, that ηψβ must have the meaning of tremble. It is likewise found in cognate dialects. The word used in 2 Samuel 22 instead of this ηβψ which many MSS. and ancient translations likewise have in the Psalm, means, gird themselves, which, however, is an unusual expression of equipping oneself for flight. The meaning, limp (Sept. Vulg., Pesch., Kimchi), however, occurs in cognate dialects and is accepted by Hitzig. Str. XVII. Psalms 18:46. Hitzig, likewise, with many recent interpreters, regards Psalms 18:46 sq. as optative, as if the cry of homage and rejoicing addressed to the king, which, however is ιְ ?ηִ ?ι (1 Samuel 10:24; 1 Kings 1:39), is here applied to God. But it is better with Sept., Jerome, Cleric., to regard these words as declarative clauses in the sense of doxologies (Hengst., Hupf., Delitzsch). Psalms 18:47. The rare word used here for subdue, [ιַ ?γְ ?αֵּ ?ψ] is in 2 Samuel 22 supplied by the usual word [ιψγ]. Psalms 18:48. Many interpreters understand the Man of violence to be particularly Saul (even Hitzig and Hengst.). Most interpreters regard the expression as collective (Proverbs 3:31). Str. XVIII. Psalms 18:49-50. [Delitzsch: “The praise of such a God, who does to David as He has promised, is not to remain limited to the narrow space of Israel. If the Anointed of God makes war upon the heathen with the sword, yet it is that finally the blessing of the knowledge of Jehovah, and the salvation of Jehovah which he serves as mediator, may break its way to them in this manner. With entire propriety Paul, Romans 15:9, adduces Psalms 18:49 of this Psalm, together with Deuteronomy 32:43, and Psalms 117:1, as proof that salvation belongs likewise to the Gentiles according to the Divine mercy. What is stated in verse 50 as the reason and the subject of the praise which extends beyond Israel; is if David is its author, as Hitzig recognizes, a very consistent echo of the Messianic promise, 2 Samuel 7:12-16. And Theodoret without impropriety appeals to the closing words ςַ ?γΞςεֹ ?μָ ?ν against the Jews. In whom else, than in Christ, the Son of David, has David’s fallen throne enduring existence, and all that has been promised to David’s seed, everlasting truth and reality? The praise of Jehovah, the God of David His anointed, is, according to its final meaning, praise of the Father of Jesus Christ”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. In a thankful and pious heart the demonstrations of the love of God beget a sincere and hearty return of love, in the expression of which the feelings of affection meet it and pervade it with the recognition of great obligations and the vow of entire consecration, (Deuteronomy 6:5). Those, however, who love the Lord, are as the sun, which ascends in its power (Judges 5:31). It is not in vain that they take refuge with God, who is the strength of those who trust in Him, and on the one side delivers and protects them, on the other fills them with strength to continue in the hope of faith. 2. The thankful retrospect of previous deliverances strengthens the faith in future help from God; and he who bears in mind, that the God invoked by him is the Lord of Glory, whom the congregation praises with adoration, joins in, on his part with one song of praise after another and finds his joy in the declaration of the benefits of God, his pleasure in the glory of the Lord. Ecclesia semper vincit semperque pugnat et superatis prζteritis malis paratus ad futura mala superanda. (Luther). 3. God’s being enthroned on high and dwelling in the heavens, does not separate Him from His servants on earth; it merely exhibits Him in His exaltation above all the powers of the world and the Abyss; it no more prevents Him from hearing the sighs and supplications of the oppressed, than from making known His presence to help in gracious condescension to the needs of men. 4. The revelations of God in the world are not always accompanied by striking phenomena in nature, still less are thunder and lightning His constant attendants or the sure sign of His coming. But partly, the appearance of God in history has really at times been announced and accompanied by such phenomena (Exodus 19; Psalms 68; Psalms 77; Habakkuk 3; Haggai 2:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:8); partly, God as Lord of nature uses them as the instruments employed by Him, and means to deliver His servants and punish their enemies. It is, however, of great importance, to recognize the work of the Lord therein, and amidst the shaking of the world, through the powers of nature’s life, to discern the grasp of the hand of God. 5. To behold the form of the Divine Being is still future and yet to be expected (Psalms 17:15). Hence the Theophanies of the Old Testament are all partly typical, partly symbolical; they are mysteries as well as revelations. It is particularly the clouds, which veil the light, which is not to be endured by mortal eyes (Exodus 23:20, and elsewhere) and is inaccessible to any creature (1 Timothy 6:16), in which God dwells and which forms as the reflection of His light-nature, the resplendence of His glory, δοξα, λαεγ, and so the approach of man to God is partly made possible, partly declared. This figurative language is taken partly from the sphere of the phenomena of nature which are visible in the heavens, in accordance with which light is called His garment (Psalms 104:2), the clouds His tent (Job 36:29; Psalms 97), the thunder His voice (Psalms 18:13; Job 37:2), lightning, however, and the storm as instruments of His righteous punishments (Judges 5:4; Isaiah 30:27 sq., Isaiah 50:3; Isaiah 68:8; Psalms 97), often in connection with earthquakes (Psalms 77:18; Psalms 114:4; Joel 2:10; 4:16; Nahum 1:5; Is. 24:28). At the basis of the symbolism of nature lies the idea, that certain peculiarities in the nature and action of God correspond with it. Thence God Himself is at times described as present and active in these phenomena of nature, not merely accompanied by them, and in bold but contemplative expressions the stirring up and expression of His wrath is represented as the kindling of His light-nature in all the turns of fiery and flaming figures, until that smoke issues from His nostrils snorting with wrath (Deuteronomy 19:9; Psalms 74:1; Psalms 80:4), and devouring fire from His mouth, (comp. the description of the crocodile, Job 41:10 sq.), from the coals which glow within Him. These natural phenomena, not so much in themselves, as under certain circumstances and more particular forms, form partly the symbol, partly the means of a Theophany. In the present description the personal interference of God to deliver His servant and judge His enemies, although accompanied by natural phenomena is yet particularly characterized by the mention of the Cherub. For however questionable the etymology and precise meaning of this word may be, yet this much is certain, that the forms thereby designated as well in their artistic representation upon the ark of the covenant, (Exodus 25) and in the temple in manifold ways; as in the prophet’s vision (Ezekiel 1; Ezekiel 10; Revelation 4), where they are represented as living beings, not less than in the narrative, (Genesis 3) and in the standing representation of Jehovah, that He is enthroned above the Cherubim (Numbers 7:89; 1 Samuel 4:4; 1 Samuel 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; Isaiah 37:16), constantly appeal in the closest relation to the revelation of the royal majesty of Jehovah in the world. On this very account they are in a direct connection with the clouds which indicate the presence of God in the world and are the means of His appearance, as then the Shekinah likewise has its place between the wings of the Cherubim (Leviticus 16:2; Numbers 7:89). From this follows, that these are neither a further symbol of these clouds (Riehm, de natura et notione symbolica Cheruborum 1864), nor in our passage merely a finishing of the figure, that Jehovah rides upon the wind-clouds (Calv. Hupf.: Psalms 104:3; Isaiah 19:1; Isaiah 66:15; Nahum 1:3). Still less, are they to be compared with the mythological thunder horses of the king of heaven. (J. D. Mich.). 6. He who is deprived of all means of resistance to his enemies, seems entirely given over into their power, and yet has God still as his friend, that man is not entirely lost; his day of misfortune becomes a day noteworthy to him for his deliverance by the hand of the Lord, who delivers His elect from all the straits of trouble. Election, however, is not arbitrary, the love of God is not a blind and unrighteous predilection, His good pleasure is not an unreasonable favor. A reciprocity of action, an interchange of a moral character takes place, which has as its contents the thought of recompense, for its foundation the ethical nature of God, by virtue of which God not only appears to every man, as he himself is minded and situated, but likewise on His part acts in a way corresponding to this (1 Samuel 26:23; Isaiah 29:14; Isaiah 31:3; Job 5:13; Proverbs 3:34). But he who pleads the purity of his hands and the honesty of his heart and his walking in the ways of God, must see to it, that self-praise is not heard in it, such as springs from self-righteousness, but that it is only a testimony of the fruitfulness, with which a man has served God and kept himself from trespasses, and which presupposes entire consecration to God, and declares itself as judging oneself with and according to God’s word and law. Such a self-witness is then confirmed by the judgment of God (1 Kings 14:8). In this connection there can be no reference to pride and self-exaltation, inasmuch as the thought of recompense includes likewise the certainty of the humiliation of the proud (Isaiah 2:11), whom Jehovah hates (Proverbs 6:17). 7. Jehovah is the only true and real God. He alone can and will help. It is well for him, who relies upon His providence, trusts in His promises, resorts to His protection. He will experience the Divine assistance, so that he, armed with power from on high, not only escapes the attacks of his enemies, but is in a position, to completely overcome his adversaries, whose cry to God is not heard, because it is not a cry of prayer from a heart turned to God, but is only a cry of anxiety, extorted by necessity. 8. The difference between the Old and New Testament is very clearly to be recognized in the treatment of enemies and the description of them. It is true on the one side that even in the Old Testament private revenge is repudiated and God is declared to be the avenger of blood already. Genesis 9:5. On the other side likewise in the New Testament the magistrates are represented as the servants of God who bear the sword (Romans 13:4). And the reference here in this Psalm is to the duty of the king. But a Christian king who has won victories over the enemies of Divine ordinances and institutions through Divine assistance and had as a duty to make an end not only of the actions but likewise of the life of the adversaries of the kingdom of God, could not immediately use either for his thanksgiving or his vows at the celebration of victory, some of the expressions used here. The authority for transferring and transforming them from the Old Testament into the New Testament stand-point lies in the fact that David mentions the exhibitions of vengeance as given to him by God, whereby they receive their justification and at the same time their limitation.9. Thanksgiving for all the help, protection, and benefits received from God, are not to be limited to the sphere of those who have directly participated therein, but are to be heard as far as possible. And it is not only to resound in all the world, but is intentionally to be carried into all the world. He who understands his position as a servant of God, whether it be high or low, has likewise to lay hold of the task of declaring God as his own, and to unite with it the work of spreading abroad the name of God among those who know Him not. The heathen are not to be combated with the sword, but with the word of God; the blessing of the knowledge of God, however, is the best means of healing the wounds of war.10. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ Psalms 19 To the Chief Musician, A Psalm of David1          The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2    Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3    There is no speech nor language, Where their voice is not heard. 4    Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 5    Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. 6    His going forth is from the end of the heaven, And his circuit unto the ends of it: And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. 7    The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. 8    The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9    The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 10    More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 11    Moreover by them is thy servant warned: And in keeping of them there is great reward. 12    Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.13    Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;Let them not have dominion over me: Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. 14    Let the words of my mouth, And the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. AND Its Contents and Composition It is usually supposed that this Psalm consists of two parts, the former expressing the praise of God as Creator, the latter the praise of God as revealing Himself in the laws of Moses. Since now, not only the subject, but likewise the language and structure of the verses of the two parts is different, and they seem to follow one another without connection, many interpreters regard the two parts as two entirely different poems, composed at different times (Kφster, Hupf., Bφttcher), which were afterwards united together by a later poet (Ewald), or by the compiler (De Wette). But it has been very properly remarked against this opinion, that the difference of tone and rhythm corresponds with the difference of subject, and that moreover the subject of the one part has an essential relation to that of the other part, and not a relation subsequently thought out by reflection; for the identity of the God of Revelation with the Creator is the fundamental principle of the Theocracy, and is expressly testified to by the Old Testament from the earliest times. Furthermore these references are here expressed partly by the intentional use of the Divine name of El in the first part, and of Jehovah, and indeed seven times, in the second part, partly by the juxtaposition of Sun and Law, both of which are called Light, the former Job 21:26, the latter Proverbs 6:3, which thus mediates the transition from the one part to the other. As for the language of the Psalm, Hitzig especially, has brought into notice, and emphasized against Hupfeld, the ancient and particularly Davidic features, especially of the second part. Hengstenberg had already previously carried this out in a peculiar manner by maintaining that there are to be observed not two, but rather three parts; for after the description of actual facts, in two parts the Psalm turns directly to Jehovah, and becomes a prayer for forgiveness and preservation. These opinions are yet so held, that the composition must fall in the period before the sin of David with Bathsheba. [Delitzsch: “In the title of Psalms 18. David is called ύύςαγδΧ and in Psalms 19. he calls himself by this name. In both Psalms he calls upon Jehovah wih the name of φεּ ?ψι, there at the beginning, here at the close. These, with other points of contact, have co-operated in inducing the compiler to attach this Psalm which celebrates God’s revelation in Nature and the Law, to Psalms 18., which celebrates God’s revelation in the history of David.”—C. A. B.] Str. I. Psalms 10:1. Tell … proclaimeth.—[A. V., declare … sheweth]. The heavens are personified as Psalms 50:6; Psalms 97:6; as the morning stars, Job 38:7; the trees, Isaiah 55:12; entire nature, Job 12:7; Psalms 148:2 sq. Telling and proclaiming may consequently be asserted of them with expressions which elsewhere are used of historical narration, which proclaim the great works of God from generation to generation. This expression is the more pregnant, as the history of the creation of the heavens and its stars in Genesis, to which the word rakia (comp. Psalms 150:1) refers, is represented as toledoth, and has had a historical course, which again was called forth and closely determined by the will of God and His activity as a Divine artificer, so that there is impressed and expressed (Calv.) therein, not only His creative power (Geier, et al.) but the action of His hands, that is His mastership and His majesty, the reflected image of His Godhead (Romans 1:20). [Hupfeld: “The heavens as the work of God reveal the Creator (as we say, ‘the work praises the master’) comp Psalms 136:5; Isaiah 40:22 sq.; Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 44:24, etc.”—Handywork=hand-work, work of the hand.—C. A. B.] The participial forms state, that these are constant and characteristic witnesses. Psalms 10:2. Day unto day poureth forth speech.—[A. V., Uttereth]. The interrupted character of this declaring, which reveals the glory of the Creator, is occasioned by a chain of tradition. It is not said that the heavens preach to us by day and by night (Maurer), or that the changes of time praise God (Isaki, Calv.) and that which in these changes is seen in the heavens, and happens under the heavens on earth, (Aben Ezra, Stier), but the difference of the heavens by day and by night is had in view, and therefore day is placed in direct reference to day, and night to night in order that their communications may gush forth or well forth (Psalms 78:2; Micah 2:6; Micah 2:11; Proverbs 1:23). [De Wette: “The poet personifies the day and the night, and has them transmit the praise of God to every following day and every following night, as the father transmits to his son the songs and sayings praising his illustrious ancestry which he has inherited from his father.” Rosenm.: “Declaratur prζdicatio sine intermissione. Et quia c�lum prζdicat per dies et noctes, cum interdiu princeps astrorum, sol, conspicitur, noctu stellarum pulchritudo; et quia dies et noctes sibi invicem succedunt, ideo poλlico artificio finget noster, unum diem peracto cursu et prζdicatione sua, tradere diei sequenti verba prζdicationis, et noctem quoque, peracto cursu, et quasi hymno cantato, tradere nocti sequenti munus canendi, ut ita continue, et sine ulla intermissione dies et noctes quasi choreas dϋcant, et Deum laudibus celebrent.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:3. No speech and no words whose voice unheard (might be) [A. V., (There is) no speech nor language (where) their voice is not heard].—The interpretation of these words as a relative clause, after Vitringa (Observ. Sacr p. 841, 59), approved by De Wette, Delitzsch, Hitzig, accords with the figure previously used, and gives the appropriate sense; that this natural language of the heavens is not a speech whose sound cannot be understood, but is rather a φανερόν (Romans 1:19) [that is manifest to all.—C. A. B.] The αְ ?μִ ?ι, connected with the participle, is a poetical expression altogether like the alpha privativum (Ewald, § 286 g; § 322 a). Against this interpretation may be objected, not so much the parallelism which is thereby lost, as the reference of the suffix to the words which immediately precede, “speech and words,” whilst the suffix in the following line [Psalms 10:4 a] refers back to heavens and the firmament, with which day and night correspond. But if we should apply this reference here likewise, and at the same time restore the parallelism (Kimchi et al.), then by this formal correctness we would only get the plain matter of course explanation, destroying the poetical movement and rhythm, that the expressions just used are not exact but poetical. We must not, however, regard this verse as a later gloss. The poetical use of αμι, which even Olshausen remarks, is already opposed to this. Still less can it be maintained that the antithesis is found in the following verse, that these dumb witnesses, without sound and language, are yet loud speakers, heralds everywhere understood. For then we must either supply the particle of antithesis (Flam., et al.), which is altogether arbitrary, or regard ver 3 as the antecedent to Psalms 10:4 (De Dieu), or regard it really as a preceding circumstantial clause (Ewald), which is as hard to believe as the supposition (Hupf.) of an Oxymoron only half expressed: dumb, and yet loud enough. This contrast cannot be derived organically from the emphasis of the clause; it is simply forced into the clause. This is still more the case with Hengst, who finds indicated the forcibleness of the testimony which needs no language [Alexander]. The language does not admit of the interpretation which Luther, Calv., Geier and most ancient interpreters follow, after the ancient translations, that this testimony of the heavens is understood by people of all languages [Barnes]; nor indeed of the turn which Hofmann (Theol. Stud. und Krit., 1847) has given it: no speech, and no words, are there that its call is not heard, that is, the speaking of the heavens is carried on along with all other languages; the speech of the heavens sounds above all. Bφttcher translates: Where is preaching and where are words? Not a sound of it is to be heard.Str. II. Psalms 10:4. Their line.—Only the meaning “measuring line” can be proved for the word χε (Isaiah 34:17; Zechariah 1:16, etc.), which goes as far, or extends as far, as the territory extends, Jeremiah 31:39; Job 38:5, Isaiah 34:17; Ezekiel 47:3 (Chald., Isaki, Geier, Rosenm., Hengst., Hupf, Delitzsch). The meaning sounding string (De Wette, after some more ancient interpreters), is no more in the word than that of thread of discourse (Hitzig), or the line of writing (Aben Ezra, Calv., Cocc.). The derivation from χִ ?εָּ ?δ=to stretch out, in the sense of τόνος from τείνω (Ewald, Maurer), is possible, and the Sept. (comp. Romans 10:18) really has φθόγγος, Symm., ἧχος, Vulg. and Jerome, sonus, Peschito, “its proclaiming.” But this meaning of sound, tune, is not proper to the word elsewhere, hence Olsh., Maurer, Gesen., propose to read χεֹ ?μָ ?ν instead of χַ ?εָּ ?ν, which, however, is used in the previous verse. The parallelism again (Camph.) is more in favor of a word for sound than of one for territory. Yet without this the extent of this proclaiming is stated as locally unlimited, much more embracing the entire circuit of the world.—[In them.—Hupfeld very properly refers the suffix here to the heavens in which God has set up a tent or abode for the sun, so Perowne and Barnes. Barnes: “The meaning is, that the sun has his abode or dwelling-place, as it were, in the heavens. The sun is particularly mentioned, doubtless, as being the most prominent object among the heavenly bodies, as illustrating in an eminent manner the glory of God. The sense of the whole passage is, that the heavens in general proclaim the glory of God, and that this is shown in a particular and special manner by the light, the splendor and the journeyings of the sun.”—C. A. B.][Tent (A. V., tabernacle).—Hupfeld: “A dwelling is poetically assigned to the sun by God, so far as it, like all the stars, has its firm place in the heavens, from whence it begins its daily course in the following verse and again returns; without doubt with special reference to its abode at night (Geier). Comp. in the following verse, the bed-chamber, from which it steps forth in the morning. Thus Habakkuk 3:11 : ‘The sun and moon stand still in their habitation (ζְ ?αεּ ?μ), and the ξַ ?ζָּ ?μεֹ ?ϊ, ‘lodgings’ or ‘houses,’ of the constellations of the zodiac as stations of the sun. The same figure among the Greeks and Romans (Hom., Ovid’s Metam.), and Ossian (III. 91). Comp. Herder, Geist. d. Heb. Poes., I. 78 sq.”—C. A. B.] The allegorical reference of many ancient interpreters to the heavens as a figure of the Church, and the sun as the figure of the gospel, originates from the supposition, that there is here a prophecy used in Romans 10:18. But the apostle uses these words only on the ground of the parallel here given of the natural and historical revelations as typical of the proclamation of the gospel, which should embrace the entire world. [Perowne: “St. Paul, Romans 10:18, quotes the former part of this verse in illustration of the progress of the Gospel. ‘Faith,’ he says, ‘cometh by hearing,’ and then asks, ‘Have they (i.e. the nations at large) not heard?’ Yea, rather, so widely has the Gospel been preached, that its progress may be described in the words in which the Psalmist tells of God’s revelation of Himself in nature. The one has now become co-extensive with the other. The pr�conium c�lorum is not more universal than the pr�conium evangelii.”—C. A. B.] [Psalms 10:5. And he is like a bridegroom (A. V., Which (is) as a bridegroom).—It is better to regard εְ ?δεּ ?ΰ as beginning an independent clause, as Delitzsch, Moll., Ewald, Perowne, et al. Hupf. uses a colon, but the relative construction is without warrant, and makes the clause too much dependent upon the preceding. Perowne: “Nothing can be more striking than the figures in which the freshness and gladness of the young morning and the strength of the sun’s onward march, are described.” Delitzsch: “The morning light has in it a freshness and cheerfulness, a renewed youth. Therefore the morning sun is compared to a bridegroom, the desire of whose heart is satisfied, who stands as it were at the beginning of a new life, and in whose youthful countenance the joy of the wedding-day still shines.”—As a hero to run a race.—Delitzsch: “As in its rise it is compared to a bridegroom, so in its rapid course (Sir 43:5) it is compared to a hero (vid.Psalms 18:33), for it goes over its course anew, every time it steps forth, bestowing its light, and overcoming all things with βִּ ?αεּ ?ψָ ?δ (Judges 5:31).” Riehm: “The meaning is not he rejoices in running, but: he rejoices running = he runs joyfully (Hitzig).” The same comparison is used in the Zendavesta, II. 106 (De Wette). Barnes “The idea is that the sun seems to have a long journey before him and puts forth all his vigor, exulting in the opportunity of manifesting that vigor, and confident of triumphing in the race.”—C. A. B.][Psalms 10:6. His going forth.—Hupf.: “ξεֹ ?φָ ?ΰ, the usual word for the rising of the sun, appears here in its original figurative meaning: going forth, with reference to the stepping forth (ιφΰ) from his chamber (Psalms 10:5), in contrast with ξָ ?αεֹ ?ΰ, going into the chamber at his setting, “instead of which here ϊְ ?χεּ ?τָ ?δ, revolution, running down (from πχσ, Isaiah 29:1; δִ ?χִּ ?ισ, encompass, revolve), elsewhere of the passing away of the years, Exodus 34:22; 1 Samuel 1:20, here of the daily passing away of the sun” (A. V., circuit). “This is not a description of its ‘extended course” (De Wette), but of the entire extent of its course: from one end of the heavens to the other (corresponding with ‘over the whole earth,’ and ‘to the end of the world,’ Psalms 10:4, which here receive their explanation and fulfilment), and of its all-penetrating heat.”—Nothing is hid from its heat.—Hupfeld: “This refers properly to its all-penetrating warmth, heat (from which the sun poetically has the name δַ ?ξָּ ?η, the hot, in contrast to the moon μְ ?αָ ?πָ ?δ, the pale, Isaiah 30:26); but including likewise the light, comp. in all languages a similar proverb, that the sun ‘sees and brings all things to light.’ ”—Barnes: “The rays of the sun penetrate everywhere. Nothing escapes it. It is not a more march for show and splendor; it is not an idle and useless journey in the heavens; but all things, vegetables, birds, beasts, men,—all that lives,—feel the effect of his vital warmth, and are animated by his quickening influence.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 10:7. [Delitzsch: “The transition from the one part to the other has no external medium, it is only indicated by the fact that the Divine name ιδεδ [Jehovah] takes the place of ΰֵ ?μ (‘El). The word of nature reveals ΰμ (‘El), the word of Scripture ιδεδ (Jehovah); the one God’s power and majesty, the other His counsel and will. Twelve eulogies of the law follow, two by two of which are constantly related as presumption and conclusion, according to the scheme of the Cζsura, rising and sinking as waves. We feel how the heart of the poet, when he begins to speak of God’s word and the revelation of His will, begins to beat with redoubled joy.”—C. A. B.] The law.—The word ϊεֹ ?ψδ means properly: instruction, doctrine, and therefore may mean likewise the word of prophecy (Isaiah 1:10; Isaiah 8:16); yes, it may be used of the νόμος of the last times. But this does not prove that it means here the Gospel (Cocc.), or the revelation and word of God in general (many ancient interpreters, likewise Stier). The following synonyms, then Psalms 10:11, show that the reference here is only to the revelation of the law given by Moses as the rule of life for Israel. So it is not said that the Thorah converts the soul (Stier), or leads the spirit back into itself (Augusti), but this expression in its idiomatic use has no reference to the moral character, but to the experiences of life. The refreshment and reanimation of the soul is called its restoration and bringing back. Comp. 1 Samuel 30:12; Lamentations 1:11. [Alexander: “The effect of converting the soul would not have been attributed to the law in this connection, where the writer is describing the affections cherished towards the law by men already converted, which removes all apparent inconsistency with Paul’s representation of the law as working death, and at the same time the necessity of making the law mean the Gospel, or in any other way departing from the obvious and usual import of the Hebrew word.”—The testimony.—Perowne: “As testifying, bearing witness of God’s character, both in His goodwill towards those who obey Him, and in His displeasure against transgressions, especially in the latter sense. It is as Harless says: ‘The word of God testifying of Himself and affirming what He is, in opposition to the apostasy of man’ (Ethik. § 14, Anm). Vid.Deuteronomy 31:26-27 Hence the force of its connection with the ark and the mercy-seat, Exodus 25:16; Exodus 26:34; Leviticus 16:13; the symbol of God’s righteous severity against sin being hidden beneath the symbol of His grace and mercy.”—C. A. B.] Simplicity—τֶ ?ϊι is not the silly (Luther), nor the natural man in general (most interpreters), nor the open-minded and susceptible (Stier), such as the pious and the wise must certainly remain in order to further progress (Hengst.), but the man who is in the condition of one in his minority, uneducated and open to every impression, especially to slander and temptation (Hupf.), who, however, has not yet lost the disposition of a child (Calv.) (comp. Matthew 11:25; 1 Corinthians 1:27). Psalms 10:8 [Delitzsch: “The law is divided into τִ ?χּ ?εּ ?γַ ?ιν, demands, or declarations respecting the obligations of man [A. V. statutes], these are ιִ ?ωָׁ ?ψִ ?ιν, right as norma normata, because they proceed from the just and holy will of God, and as norma normans, because they lead in the right way into right paths; they are therefore ξְ ?ωׂ ?ξְּ ?ηֵ ?ιμֵ ?α, their training and direction removes all obstructions, satisfies the moral needs and gives the glad consciousness of being in the right way to the right end. ξִ ?φְ ?εַ ?ϊδΧ, Jehovah’s statute (from φִ ?εָּ ?δ, statuere), is the essence of His commands. The statute is called, lamp, Proverbs 6:23, and the law, light. So here, it is αָּ ?ψָ ?δ, pure, as sunlight (Son 6:10), and its light imparts itself by: ξְ ?ΰִ ?ιψַ ?ϊςְ ?ιπַ ?ιִ ?ν, enlightening the eyes, which is meant not only of enlightening the understanding, but likewise of the entire condition, it makes spiritually clear and lovely as well as spiritually sound and fresh, for dimness of eye is trouble, sadness, perplexity.”—C. A. B ]Psalms 10:9. The fear of Jehovah is here evidently metonymic = doctrines or their practice, as Isaiah 29:13.—[Clean—Barnes: “θָ ?ηεֹ ?ψ, tβhor, means properly clear, pure, in a physical sense, as opposed to filthy, soiled; then, in a ceremonial sense, as opposed to that which is profane or common (Leviticus 13:17), and then, in a moral sense, as a clean heart, etc.,Psalms 12:6; Psalms 51:10. It is also applied to pure gold, Exodus 25:11. The sense here is, that there is nothing in it that tends to corrupt the morals or defile the soul. Everything connected with it is of a pure and holy tendency, adapted to cleanse the soul and to make it holy.—Enduring forever.—Standing to all eternity. Not temporary; not decaying; not destined to pass away. It stands firm now, and it will stand firm forever. That is the law of God, considered as adapted to make the heart holy and pure is eternal. What it is now it will ever be. What its teaching is now it will continue to be forever.”—Judgments.—Delitzsch: “ξִ ?ωְׁ ?τְ ?θִ ?ιδΧ are the jura of the law, as corpus juris divini, all that is right and in accordance with right according to the decision of Jehovah; these laws are ΰְ ?ξֶ ?ϊ, truth, guarding and protecting itself, because as distinguished from most laws other than those of Israel they have an unchangeable, moral foundation”—Righteous altogether—Barnes: “That is, they are, without exception, just; or, they are altogether or wholly righteous.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:10 [Hupfeld: “The conclusion: hence the incomparable value of the Divine law, brought into view by comparison with the most important material goods after which men strive: Gold, as the rarest and therefore the most costly good and most sought after, symbol of the dearest possession and object of the most eager strife of men; Honey, as the sweetest symbol of the most delightful enjoyment The former comparison in the same sense (with pearls and precious stones), likewise Psalms 119:72; Psalms 127 and frequently, in Proverbs 2:4; Proverbs 3:14 sq.; Proverbs 8:10 sq., 19; Proverbs 16:16; Psalms 22:1; Job 28:15 sq.; the latter likewise Psalms 119:103 and Proverbs 21:13.”—Honeycomb, more properly as in the margin, dropping of honeycombs. Barnes: “The allusion is to honey that drops from the combs, and therefore the most pure honey. That which is pressed from the comb will have almost inevitably a mixture of bee-bread and of the combs themselves. That which flows from the comb will be pure.”—C. A. B.] Str. IV Psalms 10:11. [Warned—Barnes: “ζַ ?δָ ?ψ, zahar, means, properly, to be bright, to shine; then to cause to shine, to make light; and then to admonish, to instruct, to warn. The essential idea here is to throw light on a subject, so as to show it clearly; that is, make the duty plain, and the consequences plain. Comp. Leviticus 15:31; Ezekiel 3:18; Ezekiel 33:7” Alexander: “The phrase, Thy servant, brings the general doctrines of the foregoing context into personal application to the writer.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:12. Errors.—The word ωְׁ ?βִ ?ιΰָ ?δ, which occurs only here, denotes the entire compass of unintentional sins, the ἀγνοήματα, which had happened αִּ ?ωְׁ ?βָ ?βָ ?δ, and even on this account not only concealed from men (Leviticus 4:13, but likewise not even known by the person himself (Leviticus 5:2 sq.), because they might have been committed unconsciously, but when they became known, were to be atoned for by offerings (Numbers 15:22 sq.). In contrast with them are the trespasses (Numbers 5:30 sq.), which are said to be committed with uplifted hand and as not to be atoned for, from which therefore the Psalmist wishes to be preserved. Psalms 10:13. The word ζִ ?γִ ?ιν describes these as boasting [A. V. presumptuous (sins)], but not on the side of their appearance as disregarding all limits, but on the side of the origin of their sin from the heart boasting of its lusts. The plural form of this word is in other passages of Scripture always to be regarded properly as of haughty oppressors, and is likewise here thus taken by many, finally Kφster and Olsh. But there is no other reference in this Psalm to the oppression of such hostile persecutors (the Sept. and Vulg. have read ζָ ?γִ ?ιν). The context leads to the sphere of moral preservation, not of protection against external power. The expression ruler [A. V., have dominion] in the following member of the verse is entirely appropriate and clear only when we regard the plural form as denoting the abstract (Kimchi, Rosenm., Delitzsch, Hitzig), which especially recommends itself in an ancient piece of composition. The reference to the evil influence and the tempting power of association and intercourse with proud transgressors (De Wette, Hupf., Camph.), forces the abstract into the explanation in order to be endurable, and obscures the contrast that is in the clause Genesis 4:7, Romans 5:14, and similar passages which are cited lead directly to an abstract, and ηωׁ ?κְ ?= hold back, preserve, is usually connected with an abstract (Genesis 20:6; 1 Samuel 25:39). Still less is it to be supposed that the intentional sins are here personified as tyrants (Hengst.) which strive to bring the servant of God under their unworthy dominion. It is the boasting of his emotions which is charged against David (1 Samuel 17:28) comp. James 1:14 (Hitzig), which at the close of the verse after its expression as τωׁ ?ς, (= apostasy, treachery, rebellion) is marked with a word in apposition which expresses not the frequency (Calv.) but the greatness of the iniquity. The word πχּ ?δ (Psalms 10:12 in Piel. Psalms 10:13 in Niphal) is a judicial word, and stands always with reference to guilt and punishment. [Delitzsch: “Declare innocent, speak free, leave unpunished.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 10:14. [Delitzsch: “The Psalmist finally prays for the gracious acceptance of his prayer, in which heart and mouth unite, based upon the faithfulness of God, which is firm as a rock, and His redemptive Love.”—Be acceptable.—Perowne: “The usual formula applied to God’s acceptance of sacrifices offered to Him (Leviticus 1:3-4, etc.). Prayer to God is the sacrifice of the heart, and of the lips. Comp. Hosea 14:2, ‘so will we offer our lips as calves.’ ” Alexander: “This allusion also serves to suggest the idea, not conveyed by translation, of atonement, expiation, as the ground of the acceptance which the Psalmist hopes or prays for.”—Jehovah, my rock and my redeemer.—(A. V., my strength), in the margin correctly rock. Perowne: “The name of Jehovah is repeated for the seventh time. The epithets ‘my Rock,’ ‘my Redeemer,’ have here a peculiar force. For He is my strength in keeping the Law; my Redeemer as delivering me from the guilt and power of sin.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The contemplation of the glory of nature must not lead to the deification of nature; it should lead up beyond the entire world, and beyond all the heavens, to the knowledge of the glory of God mirrored therein, and excite to the adoration of the Almighty Creator declaring Himself therein. The expanse of the heavens which cannot at all be surveyed by man, has yet received its limits from Him who is alone Infinite and Almighty. Even the sun, which is worshipped by so many nations as the King of heaven receives the measure of its motion, and the revolution of its course from the same hand, whose government and work disclose themselves in all things as by the hand of a Master, whom all His works praise. It is true the praise of nature is different by day from what it is by night; yet it preaches incessantly, and its sermon is not only heard everywhere in the world, but likewise is capable of being understood by every one.2. But if the glorious works of God are so instructive and edifying to man, how much greater advantage may he derive from the law of God which is infinitely more glorious? For it is one and the same God, who declares Himself in creation, and reveals Himself in history. In natural things, however, only the glory of His metaphysical nature can be known; but the glory of His moral nature reveals itself in the words of His law, in which His will and counsel find expressions. 3. The twelve eulogiums of the law, whose parts are related to one another as presumption and consequence, and which are compared by Luther with the twelve fruits of the tree of life, refer to that excellence peculiar to the law of God as such, which is likewise expressly brought into view by Paul, Romans 7:12; Romans 7:14, by which it is the jewel of Israel and the comfort of those who act according to it. For the character of the Thorah as a Divine instruction respecting the duties to be fulfilled by the people of God and its individual members in all the relations of life, involves its having essentially the form of a testimony manifesting the will of God, and it divides itself into commandments and statutes which relate to the fear of Jehovah, and have the meaning of legal statutes They consequently have not only gone forth from God and received the essential characteristics of a complete and reliable rule of the rectitude and purity of all ordinances, the sincerity of their end and aim, the truth of statutes and decisions, but likewise treat of the true relation to God according to its subject and aim, and therefore spiritually refresh and admonish, whilst they rejoice the heart and enlighten the eyes. Moreover as essential parts of Divine revelation, they are of eternal duration, and are right, and continue in this connection in the history of redemption (Matthew 5:17 sq.). Thus the law of Jehovah is Israel’s most valuable possession and sweetest food, a gracious gift of God, glad tidings (Psalms 40:10). 4. The true servant of God experiences both the enlightenment and refreshment, the correction and reward of the law. He is preserved from venality and self-righteousness by the fact that the reward presupposes the fulfilment of the law. Moreover the servant of God perceives in the law as the mirror of perfection, his own imperfection, and its reference to human sins in general in their variety, number, and enormity. If he applies it to his own person, his claim of merit falls away. Moreover the law instructs him at the same time respecting the difference between deadly sins and venial sins, respecting the means of atonement, and respecting the conditions of forgiveness of sins, and thus preserves him from despair. 5. Moreover the arrangement of the institutions of atonement and the ordinances respecting their use, belong likewise to the commands and statutes of the Thorah. In these the Creator and Lawgiver reveals Himself as the Redeemer. The law itself thus urges to seek salvation in the grace of God by repentance and faith, whilst it discloses to the sinner his guilt, and makes him experience his inability to help himself, but likewise lets him know the readiness of God to forgive, and brings His saving strength near. 6. The institution of the confessional together with the requirements connected therewith, is in opposition to the confession and prayer made, Psalms 19:13 sq. (comp. Conf. August, art. VI). But no one is to plead as an excuse, or to justify themselves by the secrecy and delicacy of many sins, the unfathomableness of the human heart, the impossibility of a complete knowledge of self and sin. Justification is a speaking clear and a declaring guiltless on the part of God; in this David and Paul agree (comp. likewise Psalms 32). It presupposes on the one side the grace of God, on the other the laying hold of the same, which cannot happen without repentance any more than without faith. But where repentance and faith are, which are mutually necessary to one another, the servant of God is urged ever to make a more complete surrender of himself, and to more entirely consecrate himself to God, partly by the knowledge that with conscientious self-examination, there still remain to him faults to be regretted; partly by the experience, that with the most honest striving after sanctification the danger even of a grave transgression, and likewise of a great fall, never entirely vanishes from him. “If the law is separated from the hope of forgiveness and the Spirit of Christ, it is so far from the sweetness of honey, that it rather kills poor souls by its bitterness.” (Calvin). 7. An evidence of such disposition of soul is the prayer for pardon and preservation, if heart and lip unite in it, and the chief desire of the soul is that God will accept it as an offering well-pleasing to Him, that is, that He will hear it. The soul then turns with it to the God of revelation already known as his rock and his redeemer, in whose protecting power and saving love he trusts with the more security as he has already received and experienced salvation from Him. “Original sin is not destroyed in this world, but pardoned.” (Seb. Schmidt). AND The glory of God is reflected for man even in the works of creation; but its splendor beams forth from the words of the revealed law, clearer than sunlight, yet it shines towards him most gloriously in acts of salvation for his redemption.—Nature and history preach the same God, that Isaiah , 1) the almighty Creator of the world; 2) the holy Lawgiver of the children of men; 3) the gracious Redeemer of penitent sinners.—It is true, our God is invisible, yet not unknown. There has never been a lack of preaching God, but often of people to hear the sermon, heed it, and obey it.—Even pious people have still hidden faults, but they do not hide them.—God helps us not only to know our sins, but likewise to receive pardon for our errors, and to obtain preservation from crimes.—To the people of God the law of God is the most costly good and the sweetest food. Three things are indispensable to the salvation of men, 1) adoration of the majesty of God; 2) repentance for their sins; 3) reconciliation with God by redemption.—He who would be the servant of God, must not only instruct himself by the law of God, but likewise be warned against transgression, and be led to its observance.—As the Lord so the servant; as the service so the reward.Starke: As the heavens with their courses and order are a sure witness of the omnipotence and wisdom of God, just so the gospel is to be a constant and faithful witness of Christ. See here the chief end of all the creatures of God! The Creator’s glory is to be advanced by them, and man is to know God aright from them, and learn to love Him and praise Him.—It is shameful for man, the noblest creature, to be silent with respect to those things about which even dumb creatures speak in their fashion.—No day should pass without my glorifying my God, and no night when I should not seek my rest in His grace.—If David already, with the little proportion of revelation which he had, has uttered such excellent words, what should we now say, after the Scriptures of the New Testament have come to us, which have set every thing in a still greater light?—As the gospel is glad tidings, so it likewise works Divine joy in those who allow themselves to be enlightened by it.—The Holy Spirit accomplishes His office of admonishing the soul by the word of God, now by doctrine, now by the refutation of an imbibed error, now by punishing an observed impurity, now by awakening to faithfulness, likewise by consoling support in trouble.—Although the law is a mirror of sin, yet no man can observe and know either the multitude or the secrecy of his faults, still less tell them to others.—He who has given himself to God as a servant will be preserved by Him from being the servant of sin and the slave of Satan.—As long as the righteous are in the world they will not be entirely pure owing to original sin, yet they are pure before God, partly on account of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, partly because God is pleased with their new obedience, whereby they free themselves from all gross prevailing sins. Ambrose: Aliud est timere, quia peccaveris, aliud timere, ne pecces; ibi est formodo de supplicio, hic sollicitudo de prζmio.—Augustine: When thou prayest thou speakest with God; when thou readest the Scriptures, God speaks with thee.—Osiander: God has done a greater and more glorious work in saving poor sinners, than in creating the world.—Arndt: God’s word, praise and glory, cannot and must not fail.—R. Stier: The first covenant in which God witnesseth His existence and will, joins on to the religion of nature and conscience which is presupposed, just as the other covenant which brings grace and truth, appeals to the law which preceded it.—O. v. Gerlach: The prayer for forgiveness of debts is followed directly by the prayer for preservation in and from temptation, as in the Lord’s prayer.—Tholuck: If all the preachers on earth were silent, and no human mouth told any more of God, there in the heavens His great glory and majesty are told and declared without cessation.—Umbreit: It is a mysterious song, which is sung by the universe, and to which the poet listens; it sounds so that it is heard only in the depths of the human soul, where the spring of faith is.—Diedrich: The work must praise the master everywhere, and blessed is he who understands it. [Matth. Henry: From the brightness of the heavens we may collect that the Creator is light; their vastness of extent speaks His immensity; their height His transcendency and sovereignty; their influence upon this earth His dominion, and providence, and universal beneficence; and all declare His almighty power by which they were at first made, and continue to this day, according to the ordinances that were then settled.—The holy Scripture, as it is a rule both of duty to God and of our expectation from Him, is of much greater use and benefit to us than day or night, than the air we breathe in, or the light of the sun.—The discoveries made of God by His works might have served if man had retained his integrity; but to recover Him out of his fallen state another course must be taken, that must be done by the Word of God.—Barnes: The reason why any man is elated with a conviction of his own goodness is that he has no just sense of the requirements of the law of God; and the more any one studies that law, the more will he be convinced of the extent of his own depravity.—Spurgeon: We may rest assured that the true “vestiges of creation” will never contradict Genesis, nor will a correct “Cosmos” be found at variance with the narrative of Moses. He is wisest who reads both the world-book and the Word-book as two volumes of the same work, and feels concerning them, “my Father wrote them both.”—He who would guess at Divine sublimity should gaze upwards into the starry vault; he who would imagine infinity must peer into the boundless expanse; he who desires to see Divine wisdom should consider the balancing of the orbs; he who would know Divine fidelity must mark the regularity of the planetary motions; and he who would attain some conception of Divine power, greatness, and majesty, must estimate the forces of attraction, the magnitude of the fixed stars, and the brightness of the whole celestial train.—The gospel is perfect in all its parts, and perfect as a whole; it is a crime to add to it, treason to alter it, and felony to take from it.—What a blessing that in a world of uncertainties we have something sure to rest upon! We hasten from the quicksands of human speculations to the terra firma of Divine Revelation.—Free grace brings heart joy, earth-born mirth dwells on the lip, and flushes the bodily powers; but heavenly delights satisfy the inner nature, and fill the mental faculties to the brim. There is no cordial of comfort like that which is poured from the bottle of Scripture.—Look at the sun and it puts out your eyes, look at the more than sunlight of Revelation and it enlightens them; the purity of snow causes snow-blindness to the Alpine traveller, but the purity of God’s truth has the contrary effect, and cures the natural blindness of the soul.—Bible truth is enriching to the soul in the highest degree; the metaphor is one which gathers force as it is brought out; gold, fine gold—much fine gold; it is good, better, best; and therefore it is not only to be desired with a miser’s avidity, but with more than that.—Men speak of solid gold, but what is so solid as solid truth?—On the sea of life there would be many wrecks if it were not for the Divine storm-signals which give to the watchful a timely warning. The Bible should be our Mentor, our Monitor, our Memento Mori, our Remembrancer, and the keeper of our conscience.—He best knows himself who best knows the Word, but even such an one will be in a maze of wonder as to what he does not know, rather than on the mount of congratulation as to what he does know.—We have heard of a comedy of errors, but to a good man this is more like a tragedy.—Many books have a few lines of errata at the end, but our errata might well be as large as the volume if we could but have sense enough to see them. Augustine wrote in his older days a series of Retractations; ours might make a library if we had enough grace to be convinced of our mistakes, and to confess them.—If we had eyes like those of God we should think very differently of ourselves.—The transgressions which we see and confess are but like the farmer’s small samples which he brings to market, when he has left his granary full at home.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Riehm: “The change in the structure of the verses occasioned by difference of tone, can so much the less be urged against the unity of the Psalm, since the structure of verses which prevails in the first part, reappears in Psalms 19:11. Against the supposition that the praise of the law betrays a later period of composition, comp. Psalms 18:22 sq. 31. The words of this Psalm resound in Psalms 119”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “It may have been written perhaps in the first flush of an Eastern sunrise, when the sun was seen, going forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoicing as a mighty man to run his course. The song breathes all the life and freshness, all the gladness and glory of the morning. The devout singer looks out, first, on the works of God’s fingers, and sees all creation bearing its constant though silent testimony to its Maker; and then he turns himself with a feeling of deep satisfaction to that yet clearer and better witness concerning Him to be found in the inspired Scriptures. Thus he begins the day; thus he prepares himself for the duties that await him, for the temptations that may assail and the sorrows that may gather as a cloud about him. He has made trial of the preciousness of that word. He knows its deep, hallowing, soul-sustaining power. He knows that it is full of life and healing. But he knows also that it is a word that searches and tries the heart, that reveals the holiness of God, and the sinfulness of man; and therefore he bows himself in prayer, saying, ‘As for errors,—who can understand them? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.’ ” This Psalm may be compared with Psalms 8 an evening psalm similar in its contemplations to this morning psalm. In both the contemplation of the Divine glory as declared in the heavens, begets a feeling of humility in the soul of the Psalmist which rises in Psalms 8:5, into expression of faith and confidence in God, in Psalms 19, into prayer for forgiveness, preservation and acceptance.—C. A. B.] [Ewald: “Without talk, without words, without its voice being heard, its sound became loud through the whole earth, etc.”—C. A. B.] [Hupfeld compares this with Psalms 8:3, the defence of God out of the mouth of sucklings.—C. A. B.] [Perowne agrees with Hengst. and Hupfeld, thus: “ ‘Their voice is not heard, lit. is inaudible.’ This seems to be a kind of correction or explanation of the bold figure which had ascribed language to the heavens. They have a language, but not one that can be classed with any of the dialects of earth. They have a voice, but one that speaks not to the ear, but to the devout and understanding heart. The sense is very well expressed in the well-known paraphrase of Addison:— ‘What though in solemn silence all Move round this dark terrestrial ball,                    * In reason’s ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice,’ ” etc.So Wordsworth: “The elements are God’s Evangelists; the universe is God’s Church. The sermon which they preach has found its response in the universal assent of mankind. But the eloquence of the elements is a silent eloquence, and thus differs from the articulate utterances of the Church.” The view of our author is preferable.—C. A. B.] [De Wette, Gesen., Maurer, Hitzig, Baur and Delitzsch regard the suffix as indefinite and relative. Thus De Wette: “The end of the world is here designated as the dwelling of the sun, which is regarded as at the end of the heavens, where it passes the night, where in the evening at sunset it turns in, and in the morning goes forth. Thus Helios turned in with Thetis, and Ossian gives the sun a shady cave, where to pass the night.”—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “It cannot, surely, be by chance that we have here figurative expressions which describe the work of Christ, the King of kings, the Mighty Conqueror, who is compared in both Testaments to the sun (Malachi 4:2; Revelation 1:16; Revelation 10:1), and shines forth as a sun in the Tabernacle of His Church, and dispels the darkness of sin and error, and illumines the world with His light: and who is also called the Bridegroom in Scripture, and as a Bridegroom (John 3:29; Revelation 21:9) came forth from His heavenly chamber, to unite our nature to the Divine. He came forth ‘de utero virginali tanquam thalamo’ (says Augustine), in order to espouse to Himself the Bride. His Church, and to join her in mystic wedlock to Himself. And therefore all ancient expositors agree in applying these words to Christ; and this Psalm is appointed, in the Sarum and Latin use, for Christmas Day; and in the Gregorian use, for the Annunciation.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “According to the expressive Hebrew idiom, it is to the soul what food is to the worn and fainting body. It is what the honey which he found in the wood was to Jonathan, when he returned, wearied and exhausted, from the pursuit of his enemies. Comp. Psalms 119:18; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:18—C. A. B.] Psalms 20 To the chief musician, a Psalm of David1         The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; The name of the God of Jacob defend thee; 2    Send thee help from the sanctuary, And strengthen thee out of Zion; 3    Remember all thy offerings, And accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. 4    Grant thee according to thine own heart, And fulfil all thy counsel. 5    We will rejoice in thy salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners: The Lord fulfil all thy petitions. 6    Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; He will hear him from his holy heaven With the saving strength of his right hand. 7    Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. 8    They are brought down and fallen: But we are risen, and stand upright. 9    Save, Lord:Let the king hear us when we call. AND Its Contents and Composition. The assistance of God is implored for a king, with reference to a war with foreign enemies, and indeed, as it seems, not in general at his entering upon his government (Hupf.); or without any reference to a special case as a formula of a prayer for authorities in general (Calv., Luth., Geier); or in a direct Messianic sense pointing to Christ and the Church militant (J. H. Mich., et al.); or embracing the two last references (Hengst.); but on his going forth to war, and with the sacrifices usual upon such occasions (1 Samuel 13:9-12, most interpreters). On account of the mention of Zion in connection with the sanctuary (Psalms 20:2), this king cannot be Saul, to whom and of whom David might speak, but rather David himself, who in the second expedition against the Syrians marched forth himself personally (2 Samuel 10:17), and knew how to vanquish his enemies who were provided with chariots (2 Samuel 8:4). The speaker is then, naturally, not David, but either the congregation assembled at the sacrifice (most interpreters), or some one speaking in their name. The supposition of a responsive song between the choir and a single voice (Psalms 20:6), either a Levite (Ewald, Delitzsch), or the king (Knapp et al.), makes the Psalm more vivid, but is not plainly given by the text. The transparent language and the simple arrangement, the smooth symmetry and the quiet advance in thought, are not in favor of a poetical effusion of the feelings of the moment, but of its being a hymn previously composed for Divine service on a special occasion. It is more natural to suppose that the author was David, than an unknown poet, as there are some things that remind us of his style. Hitzig, with reference to the next psalm as one closely connected with the present, considers the king here addressed as Uzziah who at the beginning of his government had to contend with the Philistines (2 Chronicles 26:6), and the prophet Zechariah (who exerted some influence upon Uzziah, who was then sixteen years old, 2 Chronicles 26:5), as the speaker. But the threads of this hypothesis are finer than a spider’s web (comp. Psalms 21). The first half of the psalm expresses the desire for the success of the king through the assistance of Jehovah, in such a way that its fulfilment is not only formally presupposed, but forms the real foundation for the victorious shouts of the congregation (Psalms 20:5). The imperfects have from the earliest times been constantly regarded as optatives, only by Hitzig and Sachs as futures in the sense of comforting and encouraging exhortation, as an expression of a hope, which is said to form the prelude to the conviction expressed in Psalms 20:6. But the certainty of Divine help which appears in Psalms 20:6, with “now,” which does not at all lead to a later composition of this section (Maurer), but to a confirmation of the faith in Divine help, as it has been declared in sacrifices and prayers, agrees better with the supposition that the preceding verbs are optatives. Only from this foundation of certainty does the language rise (Psalms 20:6 b) to the expression of the hope of the victory (which is described in Psalms 20:7-8, in dramatic antithesis) and close with prayer corresponding with this course of thought (Psalms 20:9). The perfects in Psalms 20:6; Psalms 20:8, express the sure future. Str. I. [Psalms 20:1. The name of the God of Jacob.—Barnes: “The word name is often put in the Scriptures for the person himself; and hence this is equivalent to saying ‘may the God of Jacob defend thee.’ See Psalms 5:11; Psalms 9:10; Psalms 44:5; Psalms 54:1; Exodus 23:21. Jacob was one of the patriarchs from whom, after his other name, the Hebrew people derived their name Israel, and the word seems here to be used with reference to the people rather than to the ancestor. Comp. Isaiah 44:2. The God of Jacob, or the God of Israel, would be synonymous terms, and either would denote that he was the Protector of the nation. As such He is invoked here; and the prayer is, that the Great Protector of the Hebrew people would now defend the king in the dangers which beset him, and in the enterprise which he had undertaken.”—Defend thee, literally as the margin of A. V. “set thee on a high place.” Perowne: “ ‘set thee upon high’ that is, as in a fortress where no enemy can do thee harm, or on a rock at the foot of which the waves fret and dash themselves in impotent fury.” Psalms 20:2. From the sanctuary, parallel with out of Zion, as the earthly abode of God among His people whither they are to go up as to His palace, and from whence as from His throne they are to receive help and strength, vid. Psalms 14:7; Psalms 3:5.—C. A. B.] Psalms 20:3. Remember all thy meat-offerings. [A. V. offerings].—This expression naturally refers to the evidence of his piety previously given by the king, but it is not opposed (Hupf.) to the reference to an offering now being made, but rather leads to this, as it is thus even now presented in the burnt offerings of the king. The bloodless meat offerings of meal with oil and incense (Leviticus 2), with few exceptions, accompanied the burnt offerings which were entirely consumed on the altar, or whole burnt offerings (Leviticus 1); hence both expressions properly complement one another, and their separate mention has only a rhetorical significance. May God remember the previous offerings of the king, let Him be pleased with the present offerings. The latter sense is contained in the expression: may He find fat, [A. V. accept] literally; may He make fat (Psalms 23:5); but the piel includes likewise the meaning of declare. It was not commanded that the animals offered should be fat (Leviticus 22:18 sq.), it was so much the more an evidence of the willingness and gladness of the offerer. The translation of some of the more ancient interpreters after Aben Ezra: turn to ashes [A. V. margin] regards the words as a denominative of γֶּ ?ωֶ ?ο, but leads to the expectation of its being kindled by heavenly fire as a sign of its gracious acceptance, as Leviticus 9:24; 1 Kings 18:37; 1 Chronicles 21:26, which is not at all justified by the text. With this derivation, moreover, the sense would properly be “may He cleanse from ashes.” [Psalms 20:4. Counsel.—Perowne: “All thy plans and measures in the war”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 20:5. [Thy salvation.—Hupfeld. “Help, or appointed victory (Psalms 33:17), corresponds with the contents of Psa 20:1-2.”—C. A. B.]Wave banners, that is, as an expression of joy on account of victory. The translation of more ancient interpreters: set up banners as a memorial of victory [A. V.] does not correspond with the form of the Hebrew word. It is questionable, likewise, whether the translation of the Sept. Vulg. as well as the Pesch. μεγαλυνθησόμεθα, magnificabimus, exultabimus, can be derived from the same word, as after the Arabic, or whether we are to accept another reading πְ ?βַ ?ψֵּ ?μ instead πִ ?γְ ?βֹ ?μ—[Fulfil all thy petitions, repeats the contents of Psa 20:4.—C. A. B.] [Str. III. Psalms 20:6. Perowne: “The hope suddenly changes into certainty. Now know I that Jehovah hath saved, hath given victory. The singer speaks in the full assurance of faith, that the prayer is heard, and as if he already saw the victory gained. The prayer had been (Psalms 20:1-2) that God would hear and send help from the earthly sanctuary or Zion. Now the answer is said to come from His holy heaven. For if God then condescended to dwell in visible glory among men, yet He would teach His people that He is not limited by the bounds of time and space. He is not like the gods of the heathen, the god of one city or country. He sends help out of Zion, but the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him (see the recognition of this truth in Solomon’s prayer, 1 Kings 8:27, etc.). Calvin sees expressed in the earthly sanctuary made by hands the grace and condescension of God to His people; in the heavenly, His infinite power, greatness, and majesty.”—Mighty deeds [A. V. strength].—Delitzsch “βְּ ?αεּ ?ψεֹ ?ϊ means here not the fullness of strength (comp. Psalms 90), but the exhibition of strength (Psalms 106:2; Psalms 145:4; Psalms 150:2; Isaiah 63:15), by which His right hand works salvation, that is, victory, for them who are battling.” Psalms 20:7. Some of chariots and some of horses, but we make mention of the name of Jehovah our God.—Delitzsch: “According to the law Israel should have no standing army; the law for the king, Deuteronomy 17:16, denounces the keeping of many horses. So was it likewise under the judges and still under David; under Solomon already it changed, he procured for himself a great number of horses and chariots. 1 Kings 10:26-29. Psalms 20:7 gives a very decisive confession of the time of David, that Israel’s boast against his enemies, especially the Syrians, is the firm defence and arms of the name of his God. David speaks similarly to Goliath, 1 Samuel 17:45.”—The A. V. does not give the force and beauty of the original. Trust should not be inserted in the first clause, and remember does not give the idea of the second clause. Psalms 20:8. Hupfeld: “The contrast of the previous verse is continued with reference to the consequences which both have derived from their confidences.” Delitzsch: “The prζterites are prζt. confidentiζ—‘a triumphal ode before the victory’ as Luther remarks,—‘a cry of joy before the help.’ ”—They have bowed down and fallen (not as A. V.: They are brought down).—The idea is that they first sink down upon their knees and then fall to the ground.—But we have risen and stood firm (A. V. stood upright).—Delitzsch: “Since χεּ ?ν does not mean stand, but stand up, χַ ?ξְ ?πεּ presupposes that the enemies then had the upper hand. But the condition of affairs changes. Those who are standing fall, those who are lying rise up; the former remain lying, the latter keep the field.”—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 20:9. Help the king.—This is the basis of the hymn: domine salvum fac regem, and the national hymns which have been derived from it in accordance with the Sept., Vulg. According to the Masoretic accentuation, which is advocated by Hengst. and Delitzsch, it would be translated, Jehovah help: May the king hear us. Thus the Pesch. [and A. V.]. The king would then be Jehovah, since the hearing of prayer is a predicate of Jehovah; according to ancient interpreters, Christ. Since, however, the psalm has already spoken of another king, the supposition of such a transition to Jehovah is the more objectionable, since it is true He is called a great king (Psalms 48:2) yet never merely, the king. This objection would be partly set aside, if with the Chald. we might translate, O king! especially as the call of prayer, help is used Psalms 12:1; Psalms 118:25, without an accusative. But the third person of the verb does not suit the vocative, which the Vulg. arbitrarily changes into the second person. The whole manifestly stands in manifest relation to Psalms 20:6, so that Psalms 20:9 is distinguished from Psalms 20:1, by the fact that the closing petition is based upon the intervening promise, Since the words in Psalms 20:9; Psalms 20:6 correspond in other respects entirely with one another, it is certain that the anointed has the same meaning as king. [Delitzsch: The New Testament cry of Hosanna is a particularizing of this Davidic, ‘God save the king mediated by Psalms 118:25. The closing line is a developed Amen.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. It is an evidence of great grace and a source of rich blessing in a land, if prince and people meet in the presence of God, with common desires and bring the same cares in united prayer before the throne of the Eternal. For prince and people belong so closely together, that the need of the one is likewise the calamity of the other, but the common good is essentially advanced by concord, and concord is best confirmed and advanced by union in common devotion to God.2. A king shows that he is an anointed of the Lord, and a king by God’s grace, especially by not only surrounding the actions of his government with prayer and Divine service, but by personally participating therein as a shining example for the whole congregation. A people proves itself to be a people of the Lord and a congregation of God by not only huzzahing such a ruler and wishing him success and victory, salvation and blessings, but likewise by praying with him and for him. Thus this psalm may “serve as a devout and holy watchword.” (Luther.) 3. Joyfulness in prayer and confidence of being heard are nourished and strengthened by the remembrance of the exhibitions of help, with which God has already previously declared and magnified His name, and particularly by those with which He has glorified it in our predecessors and ancestors who are the models of our faith. It arises moreover from the assurance that we are in the same covenant of grace with our fathers and that we prove ourselves to be members of it. It is true, we call upon God with a deeper, richer and mightier name than the Israelites could, but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the same God as the God of Jacob, whose name the Israelites brought to remembrance (Genesis 35:3) when they prayed to Jehovah on Zion. The difference is merely in the stages of His revelation, and accordingly in the depth and fulness of the knowledge of Him. The places, forms and methods of Divine service have been altered in a corresponding way. But the change in them has taken place through the spirit of the new Covenant in order to fulfil the old; the God who is enthroned in the sanctuary of heaven, still ever meets with His people in sanctuaries on earth, and lets His gracious help flow forth from thence upon His congregation, whilst He comes to help them from heaven with the mighty deeds of salvation.4. The congregation of God is distinguished from the world by the fact that in the day of trouble it does not rely upon earthly means of help, even when it makes use of them in a proper manner and according to the commandment of God. But it puts its confidence in the assistance of God, and for this reason before and afterwards gives His name the glory (comp. 1 Samuel 17:45; Isaiah 31:3; Psalms 33:17). For this, however, a strong and living faith is necessary. “But the faith which relies upon God, can sing the triumphant ode before the victory, and make a cry of joy before the help ensues; whereas everything is allowed to faith. For he believes in God and thus truly has, what he believes, because faith does not deceive; as he has faith, so will it happen unto him.” (Luther). AND king does well if, before he leads his people to battle against the enemy, he leads them into the house of God to prayer.—It is well for a land whose king is the model of piety, whose people have this motto: Jehovah help the king!—He chooses the best portion in war who does not rely upon earthly means of power, but puts his confidence in the assistance of God.—Natural courage is not to be despised; but the confidence of trust in God surpasses it, in worth, duration and strength.—The communion of faith unites stronger than the same danger and need, more intimately than the same hope and joy.—Happy the land whose king cares for the good of the people and whose people rejoice in the salvation of the king.—Divine service has the precedence of the service of kings.—The confidence of trust in God and the assurance of the hearing of prayer do not constitute the beginning of communion with God, but are a consequence and fruit of it.—We should not only pray with one another, but likewise for one another.—God has His dwelling-place not only in heaven, but likewise on the earth, and from both places He sends forth blessing, consolation and help to His people.—Man’s drawing near to God has for its reason as well as its consequence God’s drawing near to man. Starke: Although the Christian Church is weak and weaponless, it has a strong tower in the name of God.—The sacrifices of the Christian are a broken and a contrite heart, a holy life and an earnest praise of God.—The Lord does what those who fear God desire; but they desire nothing that is opposed to God.—If the world reckons to its honor what it has accomplished alone with its own power, on the other hand it is a strange thing of which believers boast, of the help which has come from God.—Just as Israel could lift up its banner with joy in the name of God, so every believing Christian can now likewise in his office, station and calling venture upon it. confident in God, and can assure himself of His gracious assistance.—What is heard in heaven must be powerfully executed on earth.—Carnal plans are generally of poor success and turn out badly; on the other hand what is begun with God, lasts.—Our best arsenal is in heaven and in the right hand of God.—The ungodly have never yet been able to sing a true triumphant ode over the downfall of the pious, their boasting is false; but believers can here and in heaven forever sing the glorious victory of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:57; Revelation 12:10). Luther: God must help and advise; our plans and actions are otherwise of no value.—Osiander: Great, exalted titles do not make a king invincible, but God’s help, which is gained by the prayer of faith. The victory is a gift of God, and is not accomplished by great preparation or a great host.—Selnekker: What is begun with God issues favorably; but the greater part of the world transact all things without God’s advice, without fearing Him and calling upon Him.—Taube: Faith and prayer always join hands in the Christian heart and cannot live apart. Prayer supports faith and faith strengthens prayer.—Diedrich: The God of Israel, who is in our midst and in us, is He who is enthroned above all heavens and rules all things from thence.—All depends upon our belonging to God’s followers and our daily stationing ourselves by His banner, that is, His word, and from it deriving chastisement and consolation, warning and confidence. [Matth. Henry: The prayer of others for us must be desired, not to supersede, but to second our own for ourselves.—Those who make it their business to glorify God may expect that God will, one way or other, gratify them; they who walk in His counsel may promise themselves that He will fulfil theirs.—In singing these verses, we should encourage ourselves to trust in God, and stir up ourselves to pray earnestly, as we are in duty bound, for those who are in authority over us, that under them we may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all godliness and honesty.—Barnes: Never should we look for success unless our undertaking has been preceded by prayer; and when our best preparations have been made, our hope of success is not primarily and mainly in them, but only in God.—Spurgeon: Chariots and horses make an imposing show, and with their rattling, and dust, and fine caparisons, make so great a figure that vain man is much taken with them; yet the discerning eye of faith sees more in an invisible God than in all these. The most dreaded war-engine of David’s day was the war-chariot, armed with scythes, which mowed down men like grass: this was the boast and glory of the neighboring nations; but the saints considered the name of Jehovah to be a far better defence.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “This may mean ‘the help and victory vouchsafed by God to the king;’ but Thrupp observes: ‘The almost instinctive dependence of the Israelites upon their king, as the man who should save them (comp. 1 Samuel 10:27), fully justifies us in interpreting the expression, thy salvation Psalms 20:5, in its most natural sense, not as the salvation bestowed by God upon the king, but as that wrought by the king for his people.’ ” Alexander thinks that “both ideas are included.” The explanation of Hupfeld is the most proper.—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch, however, agrees with the author in the translation “save the king.” Vid. closing remarks.—C. A. B.] Psalms 21 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David1         The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord;And in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! 2    Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, And hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. 3    For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. 4    He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, Even length of days for ever and ever. 5    His glory is great in thy salvation: Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. 6    For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. 7    For the king trusteth in the Lord,And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. 8    Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: Thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. 9    Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. 10    Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, And their seed from among the children of men. 11    For they intended evil against thee: They imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.12    Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. 13    Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: So will we sing and praise thy power. AND Its Contents and Character.—In the first half of this Psalm Jehovah is addressed and thanks are expressed to Him for the great benefits shown to the king. The words seem to refer not merely to general blessings (Hupf.), but to special blessings, and particularly to a powerful Divine assistance, with reference to wishes and prayers previously expressed, which greatly rejoices the king, and this as an exhibition of Divine power and grace, connected with the preservation of the king’s life and the strengthening of his government so that it continues as a blessing to the entire people. The supposition of a reference to the event presupposed in the previous Psalm is very natural, especially as David, after the conquest of Rabbah, set upon his head the royal crown of the Ammonites, which was adorned with precious stones (2 Samuel 12:30), and some of the people were thrown into brickkilns, after the fall of the strong city had been decided by the personal presence of David. Psalms 21:9 might refer to this. In the second half of the Psalm Jehovah is not again addressed (Hupf.), but the king. The expressions in Psalms 21:11 are especially against the reference to Jehovah, although in other respects this reference is favored. The address of prayer to God, which expressed thanks for the help and blessings which had been received, passes over into the prediction of still further victories of the king over his enemies, in spite of all crafty devices. Psalms 21:7 makes the transition which speaks of Jehovah as well as the king in the third person (Hengst.). Psalms 21:13 gives the conclusion, with an appeal to Jehovah, which does not put the entire Psalm somewhere before the beginning of an impending war (De Wette), but refers to the realization of the promise last expressed. The mutual relation of the two Psalms is perhaps due to the one who arranged them. Many of the more ancient interpreters, even Rosenm. 2 Ausg., after the example of the Chald. and the more ancient Rabbins, regard the Psalm as Messianic, especially on account of Psa 21:4; Psalms 21:6; Psalms 9:2 Hitzig, on account of ςζιδεδ, Psalms 21:1, thinks of the king Uzziah (ςֻ ?ζִ ?ιָ ?δεּ) whose father and grandfather had fallen victims to conspiracies (2 Kings 12:21 sq. 2 Kings 14:19), which might likewise attempt the life of the heir to the throne. Psalms 21:4 is said to refer to this, in connection with which we are reminded that already in 2 Kings 10:14; 2 Kings 11:1, the design was to exterminate the family of David. Ewald thinks of the king Josiah, would however rather descend to a later time. Hengstenberg finds expressed in the Psalm, the thanks of the people for the promise given to David, 2 Samuel 7, and the joyful hope in its fulfilment. The prophecy of Nathan, at all events, is the revealed foundation for connecting the Messianic hopes with the house of David, and is reλchoed in the Psalms, and has even to a certain extent been further carried out in them. In the present Psalm, however, there is not the slightest trace of such a development; and the Messianic interpretation is shattered already in the fact that the crown cannot be taken as symbolical, as Job 19:9; Lamentations 5:16, because it is called a crown of fine gold. But it must be conceded, that the references to the Syrian and Ammonite war are only possible, but not direct, and that the words would more naturally remind us of the elevation of David to the royal throne by the hand of God, than the laying hold of the crown of a king conquered by David. But a reference to the above mentioned prophecy is nowhere to be recognized. For this has to do with the continuance of the house of David and his kingdom (2 Samuel 7:13; 2 Samuel 7:16) to which Psalms 89:4; Psalms 132:12 refer. Now the expressions in this Psalm, “length of days,” and “forever and ever,” may not be referred to the continuance of the life of his posterity (Calvin, Hengst.), but must be taken as personal and individual. For the mention of prayer for life immediately precedes, and this can only be understood of saving or of preserving life. When now it is said, that God not only has heard this prayer in its primary sense, but his given the king an unending life, extending into eternity, the Messianic interpretation was very natural to the congregation in later times; the author, however, has used the expression only of the person of the king, not of his race which culminates in Christ (Hengst.). If now David is the author, who speaks of himself in the third person, for which reason this Psalm might be a song of the congregation, that expression may not be interpreted as hyperbole, and explained with reference to 1 Kings 1:31; Nehemiah 2:3 (Hupf. Hitzig, Delitzsch). For it is an entirely different thing whether a people or a subject congratulates a king, that his days may have no end, or whether he says of himself that God has given him a life that will not end, and makes this the subject of public thanksgiving. Therefore, I find here the strongest expression of the assurance of faith in the personal continuance of the life of those who hold fast to the covenant of grace in living communion with Jehovah. That which elsewhere shines forth as hope in the soul of David, and declares itself at times in words of prophecy, which do not themselves transcend David’s own understanding, has here attained the form and language of assurance, and presupposes a maturity of spiritual experience, and a reflection upon previous gracious guidances and revelations, which in order to be understood lead to the latter period of David’s life. With this agree the following words likewise, in which David manifests a consciousness of his position and importance in the history of redemption. He is placed for a blessing forever, that is, for an object and mediator of blessing as Abraham, Genesis 12:2; the people, Isaiah 19:24; Ezekiel 34:26; Zechariah 8:13; the righteous, Psalms 37:26, and has in the presence (before the face) of Jehovah (Psalms 16:11) in future as at present the source of his joy, and the triumphant assurance of his victory over all enemies. [Str. I. Psalms 21:1. Rejoiceth … exulteth.—The imperfects are presents (Hupf., Delitzsch, Ewald, Hitzig, Moll.) and not futures (A. V., shall joy … shall rejoice. Perowne: “Shall be glad,” “shall exult.” Alexander: “Shall rejoice,” “shall exult”). Psalms 21:2. Request of his lips.—Hupf.; “This is the spoken wish, the explicit prayer (corresponding with ωׁ ?ΰμ, Psalms 21:4) placed along side of the quiet wish of the heart as its complement—ΰֲ ?ψֶ ?ωֶׁ ?ϊ (only found here) is correctly given in Sept. θέησις. ΰψωׁ is a secondary form of ιψωׁ (as likewise in the Arabic and Talmud nominal forms from ιψω are found with ΰ instead of ι) properly = χατέω, to be empty, to need (comp. Niphal and the related ψεּ ?ωׁ to be poor) hence to desire, and then afterward the usual meaning of take possession, possess, etc.—C. A. B.] [Str. II. Psalms 21:3. Preventest.—Barnes. “Thou goest before him; thou dost anticipate him, vid.Psalms 17:13, margin. Our word prevent is now most commonly used in the sense of hinder, stop, or intercept. This is not the original meaning of the English word; and the word is never used in this sense in the Bible The English word when our translation was made, meant to go before, to anticipate, and this is the uniform meaning of it in our English version, as it is the meaning of the original.” The meaning here is, that God had anticipated him or his desires. He had gone before him. He had designed the blessing even before it was asked Hupfeld, whom Moll and Perowne follow, render it, Thou comest to meet him. This is perhaps better.—Crown of pure gold.—Hupfeld regards this not as the crown of a conquered king but as “his own, as symbol of the royal dignity given him by God.” Barnes refers it to the victory. “He was crowned with triumph, he was shown to be a king; the victory was like making him a king, or setting a crown of pure gold upon his head.” Perowne regards it as a poetical figure. Delitzsch refers it to the captured crown of the king of the Ammonites, which is most likely. Psalms 21:4. He asked life of thee.—Barnes: “The expression itself would be applicable to a time of sickness, or to danger of any kind, and here it is used doubtless in reference to the exposure of life on going into battle, or on going forth to war.”—Length of days.—Hupfeld: “Preservation of life and long life; a standing feature of blessings (Psalms 61:7; Psalms 91:16), derived from the promise of the law, and the proverbs of the fear of God and wisdom, Proverbs 3:16; Proverbs 4:10; Proverbs 9:11; here as the consequence of Divine protection and especial Divine grace.—Forever and ever.—Perowne: “There is no difficulty in this expression even as applied to David. It was usual to pray that the king might live forever (1 Kings 1:31; Nehemiah 2:3, etc.), and a like anticipation of an endless life occurs in other Psalms (Psalms 23:6; Psalms 61:6; Psalms 91:16.”—C. A. B.][Str. III. Psalms 21:5. Great is his glory through Thy deliverance (A. V., His glory is great in thy salvation).—The idea is that the saving help of God in giving him the victory over his enemies had made his glory great. Hupfeld: “λαεֹ ?γ (glory) properly of the Divine majesty, here its reflection, the royal, vid.Psalms 8:1; Psalms 8:5.” Delitzsch: “The help of God redounds to his glory, and paves the way for his glory, it enables him, as Psalms 21:5 b means, famously and gloriously to maintain and strengthen his kingdom. The verbs Psalms 21:5 b and ver 6, are presents—Layest upon him (Moll, Delitzsch, Perowne, et al. A. V. has, “laid upon him”). Psalms 21:6. For Thou settest him as a blessing forever. (A. V., Thou hast made him most blessed forever. Marginal reading, and set him to blessings).—Barnes: “The expression in our translation, as it is now commonly understood, would mean, that God had made him happy or prosperous. This does not seem to be the sense of the original. The idea is, that he had made him a blessing to mankind, or to the world, or that he had made him to be a source of blessing to others.”—Delitzsch: “To set as blessings or fulness of blessings is an emphatic expression of God’s word to Abram, Genesis 12:2; be a blessing, that is, the possessor and mediator of blessings.”—Thou dost gladden him withjoy in Thy presence.—So Perowne, Moll, and Delitzsch, and Hupfeld, more exactly, “before Thy face;” Ewald, “before Thee.” Vid. Ps. 16:12. The presence of God is the joy of the righteous, to be before His face, beholding His face is their greatest privilege and pleasure. The A. V., “with thy countenance” is an incorrect rendering of the Hebrew ΰֶ ?ϊΞτָ ?πֶ ?ικָ.—C. A. B.] [Str. IV. Ver 7 This verse connects the former part of the Psalm with the latter For, gives the reason of the blessings which the king has received. He trusteth in Jehovah, he depends upon Him and not upon himself and therefore he shall not be moved, he shall not be shaken from the firm rock upon which he is established.—C. A. B.] Str. V. [Ver 8. Perowne; “The hope passing into a prophecy that in every battle the king will be victorious over his enemies” Alexander: “By a kind of climax in the form of expression hand is followed by right hand, a still more empatic sign of active strength. To find, in this connection includes the ideas of detecting and reaching. Comp. 1 Samuel 23:17; Isaiah 10:10, in the latter of which places the verb is construed with a preposition (μ), as it is in the first clause of the verse before us, whereas in the other clause it governs the noun directly. If any difference of meaning was intended, it is probably not greater than that between find and find out in English.”—C. A. B ] Psalms 21:9. Set as a fiery oven.—Hupfeld prefers to regard this as a nominative, because he refers the passage to God, whose wrath is frequently described as a consuming fire, whose punishment Isaiah 31:9; Mal. 3:19 is compared with a fiery oven as the instrument of consuming. But even with this interpretation “set” is an expression derived from other connections; and Jehovah is not spoken of as a devouring fire until the following clause. Most interpreters, therefore, explain the expression, as a loose comparison and remind us of Sodom, whose smoke (Genesis 19:28) is compared to the smoke of a furnace, or to the consuming of the Ammonites in the oven (2 Samuel 12:31).—In the time of thy angry look. [A. V. thine anger].—Since the king is in the presence of Jehovah, Psalms 21:6, when he directs his face upon his enemies, it exerts that destructive power which is usually ascribed to the angry look of Jehovah Hitzig understands these words of his personal appearance (2 Samuel 17:11). [So Riehm: “When thou (the king) marchest personally against them at the head of thy army and showest them thy countenance, before which namely, they will not stand but will fall.”—C. A. B.] [Str. VI Psalms 21:10. Perowne. ‘Their fruit,= children, posterity, etc.,Lamentations 2:20, Hosea 9:16; more fully ‘fruit of the womb,’ Psalms 127:3; Psalms 132:11.”—C. A. B.] Str. VII. [Psalms 21:11. “They have stretched out evil (A. V.: They intended evil).—Barnes: “The idea seems to be derived from stretching out or laying snares, nets, or gins, for the purpose of taking wild beasts. That is, they formed a plan or purpose to bring evil upon God and His cause: as the hunter or fowler forms a purpose or plan to take wild beasts.” So Moll and most interpreters. But Hengst., Hitzig, Delitzsch and Riehm render it “They bent evil over thee,” that is in order to cast it down upon thee, vid. the parallel expression, Psalms 55:3; 2 Samuel 15—They shall not prevail.—The rendering of the A. V. as a relative clause “which they are not able to perform,” is inexact and spoils the force of the poetry. Psalms 21:12. For thou wilt make them turn their back (lit., make them shoulder, vid.Psalms 18:40), with thy (bow) strings wilt thou also aim against their face.—Alexander: “The common version of the first word (therefore) is not only contrary to usage, but disturbs the sense by obscuring the connection with the foregoing verse, which is thus: ‘They shall not prevail, because Thou shalt make them turn their back.’ ”—C. A. B.]. Luther remarks upon this verse: “Their troubles excite them to flight, and the bow hastening against them compels them to return, and thus they are taken in a strait, and are in such a condition that they fall out of the frying pan into the fire.”[Psalms 21:13. Perowne: “The singer has done with his good wishes and prophecies for the king. Now he turns to the Giver of victory, and prays Him to manifest Himself in all His power and glory, that His people may ever acknowledge Him as the only source of their strength.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. Thankfulness for received help is becoming. There is great salvation when heart and lip agree in it, and people and prince unite in it, as well as in the prayer for help. And when a king rejoices more in God’s strength than in his own strength, and when the congregation acknowledges the same with praise, it is a sign of correct judgment and true piety, which gives us hope of further blessings and opens the sources of enduring happiness. 2. He who can wear a crown has attained to much honor and greatness If he has received it from God’s hand, he may reckon it among the great blessings of success. If he continues to remember whence his crown came, it will not bring any spiritual injury to him, or do any injury to his soul. He will give God the honor in thankful joy, and in humble faith ask of God what he needs; but more than the golden crown will he value the imperishable crown of eternal life and the crown of righteousness, and indeed as the gracious gift of Him who does exceeding abundant above all that we ask and understand. 3. He who receives blessings from God, has likewise to spread them abroad upon others. But the greatest blessings are received and spread abroad by the bearers of divine revelation, the mediators of the history of redemption. Their communications not unfrequently, it is true, transcend the immediate understanding; but there is no occasion in this to conceal and withhold them from the congregation. In them is developed rather the understanding of revealed truth and participation in the salvation and life bestowed on them by God. 4. The pious experience the greatest joy when they are with God, here on earth in the foretaste of grace, especially in Divine service, there in the full enjoyment of life, when after awaking they are satisfied with the form of God (Psalms 17:15). During this earthly life there are still many enemies to combat, which are inflamed even to hate, exert their strength to destroy the pious, and in their craftiness stretch out their nets of destruction against them. But he who puts his trust in God, will not totter or fall, but rather will not only be delivered and preserved by the grace of the Almighty, but will completely vanquish and triumph over his enemies. 5. In these circumstances and relations there is a reason and summons to daily petition and thanksgiving. For we could not dispense with God’s rising up to our assistance, and the efficacy of His power, in any undertaking or situation of our life. This, moreover, we ought likewise to recognize, and to express with glad thankfulness in praising God, who is as much the true Hero and the true Conqueror, as the Lord over all lords and King over all kings. AND True thankfulness towards God is an expression of pious joy, and indeed not only in the help and gifts that have been received, but chiefly in the strength and love of God which has been made known.—God hears prayer, but He does far more and gives far more than all we ask or understand.—A pious king confesses that he has his crown from God, but he values the crown of eternal life far more than the golden crown, and the joy in the presence of God is worth more to him than the glory of earthly success.—He who has been anointed by God, is placed by God as a blessing for others, but this Divine purpose finds its complete realization in Jesus Christ alone.—He who bases himself in the love of God, and supports himself upon the strength of the Most High, has the best security against tottering and falling—The glory, grandeur, and strength of princes is only a reflection of the majesty of God; therefore those are the greatest among them who serve God the most conscientiously.—The anointed of God has a twofold task to perform; he Isaiah 1) a mediator of Divine blessing, and 2) an executor of Divine judgment.Starke: God’s goodness is still so great towards His children that He often gives them much more than they have the courage to ask or to hope (Ephesians 3:20).—As long as Christ lives, His believers must likewise live; for His life is their life (John 14:19).—The worldly-minded trouble themselves only for temporal blessings, health of body, riches, great honor, and long life; but all this is a dream and shadow in comparison with the heavenly and eternal blessings of the pious.—True joy is beholding the face of God, which takes place here on earth in faith, and in the Word, but in heaven face to face (1 John 3:2).—However coldly God now seems to look upon the enemies of Christ, the more will His anger burn against them in the future.—As the enemies of the Church are unable to carry out their wicked designs against the Head of the church, so they will not against His members. Therefore be comforted ye children of the Most High! He who is for us, is greater and stronger than all that are against us (1 John 4:4).—Osiander: God looks for awhile upon the pride of His enemies; yet if He has stored up against them for a long time. He will punish with still greater severity afterwards.—Geier: God has His limited time as well for His wrath as for His grace.—Frisch: Joy must finally follow pain; help follow trouble; the blessing the curse; the golden crown the crown of thorns; life death; decoration and honor shame.—Rieger: From the thankful recognition of what God has thus far done for the king, and therefore for the whole people, flows good confidence in still further assistance from God.—Guenther: All regents in the world are only instruments of God to bless and chastise the nations.—Diedrich: Trust in God is an inexhaustible strength, which maintains the victory in all necessities, and through all sufferings.—Where God gives joy, nothing will venture to trouble us. [Matth. Henry: When God’s blessings come sooner, and prove richer, than we imagine—when they are given before we prayed for them, before we were ready for them, nay, when we feared the contrary,—then it may be truly said, that He prevented us with them. Nothing, indeed, prevented Christ; but to mankind never was any favor more preventing than our redemption by Christ, and all the blessed fruits of His mediation.—Barnes: Truth meets error boldly; face to face, and is not afraid of a fair fight. In every such conflict error will ultimately yield; and whenever the wicked come openly into conflict with God, they must be compelled to turn and flee.—If all the devices and desires of the wicked were accomplished, righteousness would soon cease in the earth, religion and virtue would come to an end, and even God would cease to occupy the throne.—Spurgeon: Mercy in the case of many of us, ran before our desires and prayers, and it ever outruns our endeavors and expectancies, and even our hopes are left to lag behind.—Prevenient grace deserves a song.—All our mercies are to be viewed as “blessings,” gifts of a blessed God, meant to make us blessed; they are “blessings of goodness,” not of merit, but of free favor; and they come to us in a preventing way, a way of prudent foresight, such as only preventing love could have arranged.—For a time the foes of God may make bold advances, and threaten to overthrow everything, but a few ticks of the clock will alter the face of their affairs.—At first they advance impudently enough, but Jehovah meets them to their teeth, and a taste of the sharp judgments of God speedily makes them flee in dismay.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “The last Psalm was a litany before the king went forth to battle. This is apparently a Te Deum on his return. In that, the people cried, ‘Jehovah give thee according to thy heart’s desire;’ in this, they thank God who has heard their prayer: ‘The wish of his heart hast Thou given him.’ ” Delitzsch: “In both Psalms the people appear before God in the affairs of their king, there wishing and praying, here thanking and hoping, here as there in the midst of war, but here after the recovery of the king, in the assurance of its victorious termination.”—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “Doubtless, in a primary sense both these Psalms concern David himself; but they extend far beyond him. The King, here displayed to us, is King of kings; He is the Ever-living One, Christ Blessed forever. The Chaldee Targum opens here with these remarkable words: ‘O Lord, the King Messiah shall rejoice in Thy strength;’ and Rashi owns that the older Hebrew doctors expounded this Psalm of the Messiah; but he adds, that in order to obviate the arguments of Christians, it is better to confine it to David. They, therefore, who limit it to the literal sense, imitate the Jews. The Church has declared her own Judgment on this question by appointing this Psalm to be used in the festival of Christ’s ascension into heaven.”—C. A. B.] [Vid., however, Hupfeld on Psalms 21:3.—C. A. B.] [Vid. exposition of Psa 21:4.—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “This could not be predicted of David himself; but is true of Christ, who says, in the Apocalypse, ‘I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more,’ (Revelation 1:18; comp. Romans 6:10).”—C. A. B.] [Hupfeld: ‘Thou wilt be for them as a fiery oven.”—C. A. B.] [German: Aus dem Regen in die Traufe, that is, out of the rain and into the water which falls from the roof.—C. A. B.] Psalms 22 To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David1         My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 2    O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou nearest not; And in the night season, and am not silent. 3    But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. 4    Our fathers trusted in thee: They trusted, and thou didst deliver them. 5    They cried unto thee, and were delivered: They trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 6    But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7    All they that see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,8    He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. 9    But thou art he that took me out of the womb: Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. 10    I was cast upon thee from the womb: Thou art my God from my mother’s belly. 11    Be not far from me; for trouble is near; For there is none to help. 12    Many bulls have compassed me: Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13    They gaped upon me with their mouths, As a ravening and a roaring lion. 14    I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint: My heart is like wax; It is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15    My strength is dried up like a potsherd; And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16    For dogs have compassed me: The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17    I may tell all my bones: They look and stare upon me. 18    They part my garments among them, And cast lots upon my vesture. 19    But be not thou far from me, O Lord:O my strength, haste thee to help me. 20    Deliver my soul from the sword; My darling from the power of the dog. 21    Save me from the lion’s mouth: For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. 22    I will declare thy name unto my brethren: In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. 23    Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; And fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. 24    For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Neither hath he hid his face from him; But when he cried unto him, he heard. 25    My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 26    The meek shall eat and be satisfied: They shall praise the Lord that seek him: Your heart shall live forever. 27    All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord:And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. 28    For the kingdom is the Lord’s:And he is the governor among the nations. 29    All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: And none can keep alive his own soul. 30    A seed shall serve him; It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. 31    They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness Unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. AND Its Contents and Composition. With respect to the Title, vid. Introduction.—The Psalm begins with calling upon God, which manifests itself directly as an anxious cry of one severely troubled and presents itself as an anxious inquiry for the reason of his being forsaken by God (Psalms 22:1), in which condition the sufferer finds himself externally, though internally he is closely united to God; for his loud and persevering cry for deliverance has not yet had a hearing (Psalms 22:2). This, however, is contrary to the nature of God (Psalms 22:3), and the experience of the fathers (Psalms 22:4-5). The misery of the sufferer who is now almost crushed, is the more painful and inconceivable, that together with his sad condition, his trust in God, which is well known to the people, is made the object of bitter scorn (Psalms 22:6-8). Though scorned, he recognizes and asserts his communion with God as proved to him from his birth (Psalms 22:9-10). On this very account he again lifts up the cry of prayer for deliverance from nearer and greater peril of death (Psalms 22:11), which he now describes at first according to its external fearfulness (Psalms 22:12-13), and then according to its effects upon his person (Psalms 22:14-15), and finally according to its speedy accomplishment already explained by his enemies (Psalms 22:16-18). The prayer itself is then uttered according to its essential subject (Psalms 22:19-21), and closes in a form which includes the assurance of its being heard. The consequence of this will be the praise of God in the congregation of the brethren by the mouth of the delivered one, (Psalms 22:22-24), who will fulfil the vows now uttered (Psalms 22:25), from which again salvation will arise forever for those who fear God and share therein (Psalms 22:26). The latter will consist likewise of converted heathen (Psalms 22:27), in whom God will vindicate His sovereignty (Psalms 22:28), all of whom however He feeds, because they serve Him (Psalms 22:29), and thereby preserves from generation to generation the seed of the servants of God (Psalms 22:30), and causes it to grow into a people of God, in which is proclaimed what He has done for them (Psalms 22:31). Thus a close and compact train of thought is given, which rises from the straits of personal affliction not only to the heights of assurance of faith in a sure deliverance by God, but advances to the sublime vision of sure salvation in God, for those out of all nations, who are converted to God. In this vision there is so little evidence of a later composition, that rather the Judaistic particularism is later, whilst the prophecies of the blessing of all nations in the seed of Abraham belonged already to the patriarchal period. Just so with the language of the Psalm. Delitzsch has shown not a few correspondences with Davidic Psalms 8 Bφhl reminds us of the fact that in yomβm, Psalms 22:2, we have an ancient Hebrew accusative ending afterwards lost, which is according to Oppert (Journ. Asiat., 1857) frequent in the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions, as well as the accusative ending in ϋth used already in the Pentateuch which is seen in the two hapaxlegom., ΰֱ ?ιָ ?μεּ ?ϊ, Psalms 22:19, and ςπεּ ?ϊ, Psalms 22:24. A historical reference to the conduct of the pious as opposed to the rebels in the Maccabean times (Olsh.) or to that of the Jewish people in exile in their affliction by the heathen (Isaki, Kimchi, De Wette, Ewald), can no more be proved than the composition by the prophet Jeremiah in the days of his ill-treatment and subsequent deliverance (Jeremiah 37:11 sq.) shortly before the destruction of Judah, whence the prospect of a new generation, and the entirely different tone of the Psalm in the former and latter halves is to be explained (Hitzig); or indeed its composition by the king Hezekiah in the time of his distress and deliverance from Sennacherib (Jahn). The structure of the strophes, verses, and lines, likewise, in part very dissimilar in length and rythm, leads not to the time of the transition from the concise into the loose style, or to a writer of less poetic talent and skill, but argues rather against the supposition of mere literary labor, or of a free poetical conception or composition, especially if we estimate the fact, that all is treated individually and in personal terms, and is referred to actual events and experiences. Its Messianic Character.—If now we ask to what person, and to whose circumstances, sentiments, and character, the words here spoken are entirely appropriate, the answer can only be, to king David for the most part, yet almost still more to Jesus which is Christ. This is so generally recognized that it is unnecessary to adduce the particular features which fully justify it. The more difficult question, however, is this, whether these are only analogies, which have naturally occasioned a comparison of the fate and words of Jesus with the present description, and rendered their application to Him possible, without doing violence to the text (Matthew 27:35; Matthew 27:43; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; John 19:23 sq.; Hebrews 2:11 sq.) He who merely grants this, will soon be convinced that he cannot stop here. For the relation between the Biblical David and David’s son consists not in mere particular resemblances, but in a thorough-going relationship, and is founded not in accidental criticisms, or in connections of one’s own choosing, which are then spun out further in scholastic forms; but in the government of God in history. In this connection the Psalm must at least be regarded as typical; and indeed we are not allowed to think either of the personification of the people of Israel by an unknown poet (De Wette, Olsh.), or to insert between Christ and David the ideal person of the righteous (Hengst.), for the references are entirely concrete and individual. But even this definition does not suffice. The question still remains to be answered, whether the Psalm is to be regarded as merely typical, or typical-prophetical, or merely prophetical, that is directly and immediately Messianic. In the first case David speaks not at all of the Messiah, but of himself and his own adventures—of the effects and consequences connected with them; and the typical reference of these words would be only subsequently in the congregation. This supposition is opposed by the circumstance, that in the life of David, whilst the time of the persecution by Saul might afford the historical foundation for such expressions (Calv., Venem., Thol., et al.), yet no circumstances known to us, not even 1 Samuel 23:25 sq. (von Hofmann), in themselves justify such complaints and such hopes as those here expressed. Moreover, the supposition of a poetical summary of his experience by the much tried king in the evening of his life, finds its refutation in the individual characteristics of the Psalm already repeatedly mentioned. The pure historical interpretation (Paulus, Eckermann, De Wette, Hupfeld, Hitzig, and in part Hofmann) which at most makes it a mere type, which according to Kurtz, was discovered only after its fulfilment by the writers of the New Testament, is entirely unsatisfactory. So likewise the merely prophetical or direct Messianic interpretation of the ancient synagogue, which regards the Hind of the morning directly as the name of the Shekinah, and as a symbol of the approaching redemption, so likewise the orthodoxy of the ancient church, which referred each and all literally and properly to Christ alone, excluding David. For that ancient interpretation that it is the Messiah Himself who speaks, is inconsistent with the character of the Psalm, which is throughout of the Old Testament and lyrical, and there is not a syllable to show that any other person is to be regarded as speaking in the place of the Psalmist. And the new phase of this interpretation, that the author has transported himself into the person of Christ, speaking from Him in the first person (J. D. Mich., Knapp, Clauss, et al.) is in part merely the inversion of the formula of this stand-point, partly a half-way attempt to reconcile the historical and Messianic interpretations. For a mere external union of both interpretations whereby some portions are referred to David, others to the Messiah, according as the individual features of the description suit the one or the other (Rudinger, Venema, Dathe) would not satisfy us any more than the acceptance of a double sense, a historical and a Messianic (Stier). The first mentioned attempt, namely, destroys the unity of the text and its references, but the last mentioned supposition destroys the unity of its meaning. It is necessary therefore to define the typical Messianic interpretation (Melancthon, Calvin, Grot., Cleric, Umbreit, Thol., Keil) more accurately as typical prophetical. Then there is not wrought into the text by the Holy Spirit a Messianic sense unknown to the Psalmist himself, in a form of words which has found its real fulfilment in the history of Jesus; but David in the Spirit, that is speaking as a prophet has regarded himself as a type of the Messiah and prophesies even on this account, because he speaks as such. But then the composition cannot fall into as early a period of David’s life as the time of the persecution by Saul, to which with a corresponding fundamental idea, even, Delitzsch and Bφhl still refer. With much greater probability we might think of the time of the flight from Absalom to the wilderness (Rudinger), and the danger of losing throne and life connected therewith. I prefer, however, the circumstances to which Psalms 18 refer, with its conclusion which has a Messianic character. The prophetic character of this Psalm is expressly brought out in John 19:24, together with the prophetical character of the Psalmist. Matthew 27:35. The typical character of the Psalm is moreover confirmed by the fact that Jesus on the cross speaks partly from the circumstances described in this Psalm (John 19:28; John 19:30), partly prays, lamenting in the words which begin this Psalm (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34); yet not in words of exactly the same sound, but in the Aramaic dialect, accordingly not as a quotation, moreover not merely as applied to Himself, but as language entirely appropriated. Only on the ground of this actual appropriation could ver 22 of this Psalm be treated in Hebrews 2:11, as the words of Christ Himself. It is easy to understand, how Luther in interpreting this Psalm, remained three days and nights shut up on bread and salt, entirely inaccessible.Str. I. Psalms 22:1. My God, etc.—The Sept. has read κlξκlaξ = my God upon me, namely look. Then afterwards there came into the text of this Greek translation, which is followed by the Vulgate, the marginal gloss ὁ θεὸς as the first word. However, the citations of the New Testament and the other ancient translations show, that the reading of the Hebrew text is the correct one. The repetition shows the depths of the anxiety (1 Kings 18:37; 2 Kings 4:19; Jeremiah 4:10) and the urgency of the inquiry, which is not to be regarded as an inquiry of impatience and of the flesh near to despair (Hupf.). nor indeed as an exact inquiry for the reasons, demanding information and account (Hengst.). Nor does it show that in the height of suffering the speaker has lost the recollection, why he thus suffers (Bφhl), but it is an anxious inquiry of the soul, lamenting (Calvin) and troubled, which suffers more under the inconsistency, that a man who is internally dependent upon God can appear as externally separate from God and given up by Him, than by earthly and temporal affliction. There is no contradiction of Psa 16:10, here; for the abandonment is not asserted as an abiding fact, but is expressed as an experience of a momentary condition. Only in this sense could Jesus appropriate these words in the pain of His death upon the cross. That He alone has reason and right to them (Berl. Bib., Stier) is an exaggerated assertion. Luther correctly says: “All the sayings of this Psalm are not said to every one since all have not the same gifts and all have not the same sufferings.” Respecting lamαh as Oxytone vid. Hupf. on Psalms 10:1.—Far from my help (are the) words of my cry!—That fact is expressed from which the preceding anxious question arose, and which is in contradiction to the previous history of Israel as the following verses show, namely, that the prayers of the pious man have not found a hearing. The enallage numeri is no more against this explanation, than the circumstance, that in Psalms 22:11; Psalms 22:19, and frequently elsewhere, mention is made of God’s being afar off. If we abandon this construction already followed by the ancient translations [A. V. likewise], then this construction offers itself as the most correct, which regards the words “far from my help,” as in apposition to the preceding “forsaken,” accordingly as part of the lamentation and question, whereupon it would then be stated with the independent clause “words of my cry,” that all that precedes constitutes the contents of the lamentation (Aben Ezra, Olshausen, Hupfeld). But such a statement in the form of narration has little agreement with the tone of the Psalm in other respects. Most recent interpreters after Isaki, Calv., Ruding., Cleric., supply the preposition min (=from) and regard the latter half of this line as in apposition to the former half. It is most natural then to regard both lines of the verse as a connected lamentation. For in interpreting the second line of the verse as an independent clause; far from my help, from the words of my lamentation, namely, art Thou (or more clearly putting that which is supplied at the beginning: Thou art, etc.), ΰַ ?ϊָּ ?δ could hardly be missing. Should we, however, suppose an independent continuation of the inquiry (Kimchi, Rosenm., Bφhl), then we ought to expect the repetition of the interrogative particle. The supposition of a new question: Art Thou perhaps afar off? (Venema), is still less suitable to the context. But against this entire construction, not to mention its modifications are the following principal reasons: 1). That in accepting it the most natural and almost unavoidable connection of words would lead to taking the expression “the words of my cry,” merely as an explanatory apposition to the words which immediately precede: “my help” which would give an entirely incorrect thought. 2). In order to avoid this interpretation, it is not sufficient merely to supply the preposition “from,” but either “far from” or “and from” must be required, especially in Hebrew where it is still more indispensable. Isaki indeed adds this, but it is not in the text. 3). Finally the thought, that God Himself is no longer reached by the words of him who cries out to Him in prayer, so great is His distance from Him, is entirely unbiblical, and cannot be explained over again by the thought of his prayers failing to be heard, which is the very thought that our explanation finds here. Hitzig on this account would change the reading here, because he accepts the continued influence of the preposition min, but very properly denies, that such unlike ideas as help and words could be regarded as being in the same line without a repetition of the min. He puts as the original reading ξִ ?ωַּׁ ?εְ ?ςָ ?ϊִ ?ι = from my cry, which has been changed by a copyist, who had in mind Psalms 20:5; Psalms 21:1; Psalms 21:5, into ξִ ?ιωּׁ ?εּ ?ςָ ?ϊִ ?ι=from my help. Such an error in copying is possible, yet it is unnecessary here. This explanation likewise is in contradiction with the text: “with the words” (Stier) which would demand αְ ?γִ ?αְ ?ψֵ ?ι to which Kimchi adds the explanatory clause “although Thou hearest.” The mention of words, indicates that the cry was not inarticulate and is the more necessary, as the cry is designated with the Hebrew expression for the roaring of a lion (Psalms 22:13; Isaiah 5:29; Job 4:10), which when used of human lamentation expresses the strength and violence of its utterance (Job 3:24; Psalms 32:3; Psalms 38:9). The translation of the Sept. and Vulgate, “transgressions” may be referred to an interchange of two letters (ΰ with β) in the Hebrew word. The translation of the Syr., “folly” is connected with its false interpretation of the entire clause, since it finds in the foolish words of the sufferer the reason of the refusal of Divine help. Psalms 22:2. My God, I cry for whole days and Thou dost not answer, and through the night, and calmness I (have) not.—Hitzig finds in κlohaξ an accusative of the object, “my God I call.” Of those who accept the usual interpretation of it as a vocative, some (Olsh., Hupf., Bφhl,) regard it as the subject of the cry of prayer, but the majority as the direct invocation of God Himself which commences anew the sigh of prayer. To limit it to one day and one night of suffering, (Bade) is the more unnatural, since Hebrews 5:7, shows that not even the crying of Jesus is to be limited to that mentioned in Matthew 27:46. The calmness is, according to the constant use of this Hebrew word, the silence of resignation in contrast with murmuring and complaining. Since the sufferer has thus far received neither help nor answer, this silence is not yet allotted to him. The explanation of it as: hushing up, quieting, stilling (Stier, Hupf., Delitzsch), has no sufficient warrant in language or in fact; still less the interpretation: rest through the cessation of sufferings (De Wette, Kφster). The Chald. has correctly: silence. The Vulgate incorrectly after the Sept.: and not to my folly. The Syr. and Arab. are entirely different: and thou wilt not lay hold of me. Str. II. Psalms 22:3. Enthroned above the praises.—The translation “Inhabitant of the praises” (De Wette) [A. V. Thou that inhabitest,] is likewise possible according to the language. Then God the Holy One would be designated as the subject of the praises. The Sept. and Vulg. interpret it in a similar way, though they regard Him rather as the object of the praises, and their translation differs in other respects, thus: But Thou dwellest in the sanctuary, Thou praise of Israel. Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Flamin, et al. depending on the Hebrew text, translate: Enthroned as the praise (Aquil. ὔμνος), that is, as He who is praised in Israel’s songs of praise. The translation “The enthroned of the songs of praise” (Hengst.) [that is, upon the songs of praise] is related to the preceding, but explained otherwise, that is tehilloth is regarded not as a metonymy, not as in opposition to yτscheb, but as a genitive. The Syriac has the correct translation. This expression is parallel to and founded on the well-known predicate of God: throned above or upon the cherubim especially in Psalms 80:1; Psalms 99:1, in the present form. But we must not conclude either from this or from the circumstance that the songs of praise (Psalms 78, Exodus 15:11; Isaiah 63:7,) usually resounded in the sanctuary (Isaiah 64:11), that we must here retain the reference to the temple, where Israel’s songs of praise ascended as the clouds of incense, and likewise formed a throne for God (Aben Ezra, Calv., Ruding, Gesen., Hupf., et al.). The following verses demand rather an interpretation broader and independent of the temple service. Moreover the cherubim, as is well known, are not confined to the temple. Still less, is the explanation incola laudentium Israelitarum, justified by this enlargement of the idea. Str. III. Psalms 22:6. Worm, as an indication of the most extreme degradation and helplessness with the secondary idea of contempt, so likewise Job 25:5, sq.; Isaiah 41:13, in which respect David compares himself, 1 Samuel 25:15, with a dead dog and a flea. With the following words [and no man] correspond the expression Isaiah 53:3, ceasing from men [A. V. rejected of men]; we must likewise compare Isaiah 49:7; Isaiah 52:14, with reference to the servant of Jehovah. Psalms 22:7. Opening wide the mouth is regarded as a sign of hostile contempt, as a gesture of insulting, sneering scorn (Psalms 35:21; Job 16:10), here expressed as bursting open and gaping by means of the lips. This is weakened by the Sept. and Vulg. into a speaking with the lips, by Jerome inexactly restored, as letting the lips hang. The shaking of the head (Psalms 44:14; Psalms 109:25; 2 Kings 19:21; Job 16:4; Lamentations 2:15), designates the situation of the sufferer as helpless (Matthew 27:39), and is as a gesture of denial an expression of ironical pity, as likewise the shaking of the hand (Zephaniah 2:15), is a gesture of scorn. It is unnecessary to suppose a consent to the sufferings, which is glad to injure, and to find here a nodding of the head as an expression of assent. (Gesen., Baihinger, Thol., De Wette). Psalms 22:8. Roll upon Jehovah, [A. V. He trusted on the Lord.]—Similar words follow the gestures of scorn. But it has nothing to do with religious scorn (De Wette), but with scoffing at the sufferer, who is regarded as irredeemably lost and as forsaken by God. His assurance that God is well pleased with him is regarded by his opponents as idle pretense and despicable boasting, for which they may scoff at him, on this very account that he is abandoned by God. It is not necessary to suppose a saying of the sufferer which is called out to him in irony (Hengst). The Sept. and the Syr. have taken the first word as a finite verb, the former in the signification: he has hoped, the latter: he has trusted [so A. V.]. Jerome likewise translates, confugit ad. The verb is then taken as reflexive=roll one-self, that is yield one-self, give one-self over to or trust on some one. The perfect, which Stier et al. regard as necessary on account of Mat 27:42 sq., is then either so regarded that βֹ ?μ is taken as infin. constr. and this for the infin. absol., which then might be put instead of the finite verb (De Wette after more ancient interps.); or the reading is taken at once as βַ ?μ (Ewald), J. D. Mich. (Orient. Bibl. 11:208) even βָּ ?μ from βִּ ?ιμ=βּ ?εּ ?μlζtatus est. But the parallel passages Psalms 37:5; Proverbs 16:3, decide that the reading of the text must be regarded as the imperative without its object (Psalms 55:22). This is ironical counsel, (Cleric.) from which there is a sudden change to the third person (Hupfeld) with a malicious side glance (Delitzseh), whilst at the same time with these words the back is turned to the sufferer (Bφhl). It is thus not necessary to think of the infin. absol. used for the imperative (Hitzig).—The subject of the last clause of this verse is not the sufferer (The Rabbins, Rosenm., Baihing., Tholuck) but God (Calvin and moat interps.); for the Hebrew expression occurs only of the dealings of God with man and not conversely. In Psalms 91:14, cited by Rosenm. in favor of his view, a different word is used. The scorn is still further sharpened (Geier) by the conjunction “because” [A. V. seeing]. In Matthew 27:43, “if” is used, it is true, but not as a citation. To translate by “if” in this passage likewise with the Syr., is not justified by the remarks of Hitzig at least, that the speakers neither knew that He would save the sufferer, nor indeed that He had pleasure in him. The words are scoffing it is true, yet such that they judge themselves, because they pervert and distort the earnestness of the fact, that there has been between God and this sufferer at all times a relation of love, which showed itself on the one part as protection and help in life, on the other part as resignation and trust. Hence the connection with the following verse by the affirmative λִּ ?ι. This is not in contradiction with the fact that at the close of Psa 22:15 God Himself is addressed as the one who lays the sufferer in the dust of death. God is not thereby placed alongside of the enemies, but this feature serves very particularly to make noticeable the typical character of this Psalm. It belongs to the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah that notwithstanding his innocence, his sufferings are represented as belonging to his calling and not as merely caused by his enemies but likewise as brought about by God. Str. IV. Psalms 22:9. [Perowne: “Faith turns the mockery of his enemies into an argument of deliverance. They mock my trust in Thee—yea I do trust in Thee; for Thou art He,” etc.—C. A. B.].—Made me careless on the breast of my mother.—I have chosen this expression because the hiphil of αθη can mean “make to lie securely” as well as “to make trustful,” and there is no reason to accept exclusively the former (Venema, Rosenm., De Wette, Gesen., Hupf.), which would render prominent the secure and comfortable condition of the suckling under the protection of God on the mother’s breast; or the latter (Chald. and most interpreters), which emphasizes the early time of the trust wrought by God in the suckling. A trust to the mother’s breast (Hitzig), however, is not said nor meant, but on the mother’s breast to God, and it is psychologically the less assailable, as Jewish mothers were accustomed to suckle their children until their third year. Too much, however, is sought in the expressions, if it is found noteworthy, that the sufferer speaks only of his mother and at the same time hints at the beginning of his life as in poverty (Delitzsch) or if an allusion is found to the taking up of the regenerate in the bosom of the Father as a sign of recognition and adoption (Genesis 16:2; Genesis 50:23; Job 3:12), with reference to the thought, that God treats him as a Father (Cleric., J. H. Mich., Hengst.). Str. V. Psalms 22:12. Bashan designates, in ‘the narrower geographical sense, originally the northern part of the land on the other side of the Jordan, the basaltic table land between Hermon and Jarmuk, which contains only pasture land; in the wider original political sense (Deuteronomy 3:13; Joshua 12:4), which then had become geographical (Hupf.), at the same time the northern Gilead even to the Jabbok (the present ‘Aglϋn) with mountains of many peaks (Psalms 68:16), embracing dense oak forests (Isaiah 2:13 Ezekiel 27:6; Zechariah 11:2) and fat pastures (Micah 5:14; Jeremiah 5:19). Comp. Burckhardt, Reisen in Syrien, p. 396 sq., 419.—The rams and bulls of Bashan serve at times as figures of the people of Israel and especially of its distinguished men (Deuteronomy 32:14; Ezekiel 39:18; Amos 4:1; comp. Psalms 6:1), who have become luxurious, proud and godless by their prosperity. Moreover, the bulls, and especially the buffalos (instead of which Luther, after the Sept., Vulg., et al., incorrectly puts unicorns), are likewise partly figures of the full feeling of power (Numbers 23:22; Psalms 29:6; Isaiah 34:7) and victorious strength (Deuteronomy 33:17; Job 39:12), partly figures of rage and ill nature (Robinson, Bib. Researches, II. 412 [Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 146.—C. A. B.]), and hence a designation of mighty enemies, with the prophetical secondary idea of ungodly enemies of Jehovah (Hupfeld). In Psalms 22:21, their horns are particularly mentioned as fearful weapons, whilst their gaping is, in Psalms 22:13, the sign of their voracity. This forms the transition to the comparison with lions, introduced by an apposition merely (comp. the examples by Kimchi), which roar when they behold their prey before falling upon it (Psalms 104:21; Amos 3:4). [Str. VI. Psalms 22:14. I am poured out like water.—Barnes: “The sufferer now turns from his enemies, and describes the effect of all these outward persecutions and trials on himself. The meaning in this expression is, that all his strength was gone. It is remarkable that we have a similar expression, which is not easily accounted for, when we say of ourselves that we are as weak as water.” An expression similar to this occurs in Joshua 7:5 : “The hearts of the people melted, and became as water, Lamentations 2:19; Psalms 58:7.”—My bones are out of joint.—Perowne: “Have separated themselves, as of a man stretched upon the rack.”—Wax.—The heart, which melts away under the consuming power of his distress, is compared to wax. So the mountains at the appearing of God, Psalms 97:5, and the ungodly before the Divine presence, Psalms 68:2. Psalms 22:15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd.—Barnes: “The meaning here is, that his strength was not vigorous like a green tree that was growing and that was full of sap, but it was like a brittle piece of earthenware, so dry and fragile that it could be easily crumbled to pieces.”—And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.—Barnes: “The meaning here is, that his mouth was dry, and he could not speak. His tongue adhered to the roof of his mouth so that he could not use it—another description of the effects of intense thirst. Comp. John 19:28.”—And Thou layest me in the dust of death (A. V., Thou hast brought me).—Hupfeld, Ewald, Perowne and Alexander: Thou wilt bring me or lay me. Moll and Delitzsch and Hitzig: Thou stretchest me, or Thou layest me to bed in. Perowne: “Death must be the end, and it is Thy doing, Thou slayest me. So does the soul turn from seeing only the instruments of God’s punishments to God who employs these instruments. Even in the extremity of its forsakenness it still sees God above all. We are reminded of Peter’s words, ‘Him, being delivered according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and with wicked hands have crucified and slain.’ ”—C. A. B.] Str. VII. Psalms 22:16. [For dogs have compassed me.—Barnes: “Men who resemble dogs; harsh, snarling, fierce, ferocious.”—The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me.—Barnes: “That is, they have surrounded me; they have come around me on all sides so that I might not escape. So they surrounded the Redeemer in the garden of Gethsemane when they arrested Him and bound Him; so they surrounded Him when on His trial before the Sanhedrin and before Pilate; and so they surrounded Him on the cross.”—C. A. B.].—Piercing through my hands and my feet.—This does not refer directly to the experience of Jesus upon the cross (Reinke with many of the more ancient interpreters). Moreover the remark of Gesenius, that the body of enemies is indeed pierced through, but not their hands and feet, does not suit. For the expression refers primarily and directly to the dogs (Bφhl), which have been just mentioned as figurative of the band of the wicked which surround the sufferer, as they in other passages likewise are symbols of fierceness and impudence with the subordinate idea of impurity, which, however, does not lead to external heathen enemies (De Wette). These are here regarded by some (Symmach., Theodoret) as at once the pack of hounds of the hunter. In the Orient the dogs, which are half wild, and usually rove about in troops, are especially wicked and dangerous. They not only devour corpses (2 Kings 9:35; Jeremiah 15:3), but likewise attack travellers. In Persia even the sick and aged were set out to be devoured by dogs (Strabo). It is characteristic that they are accustomed at first to gnaw off the flesh of the hands and feet and head (�dmann vermischte Samml. V. 23, sq.). If now the much disputed word λָּ ?ΰֲ ?ψִ ?ι is regarded after Pococke (notζ miscell. after Maimonidis porta Mosis) as an abbreviated plural of the participle of λּ ?ΰψ, related to λּ ?εּ ?ψ (vid. more in detail Stier, Reinke, Bφhl), which even Winer, De Wette, Gesen. (in Lehrgeb. p. 526) grant as possible, it is not necessary to change the reading itself in order to gain this sense which agrees entirely with the context, whose typical prophetical meaning is the less to be overlooked as the servant of Jehovah is said to be pierced in Isaiah 53:5 likewise, yes Jehovah in him (Zechariah 12:10), and it is easy for the original simple meaning of the word, “dig, bore,” as in the Arabic and Greek, to pass over into the special meaning, or if it is here to be entirely vindicated, it corresponds likewise with the nearest historical connection (to the teeth and claws of the dogs) as the prophetical reference. It is therefore unnecessary to suppose a boring fast (or indeed to make spell-bound, which the Midrash even regards as with magical characters), whereby David would be given in the hands of his enemies weaponless and without power of escape (Delitzsch), which sense others (at last Ewald, at first Aquila in the second edition of his translation, and then Symmach. and Jerome) find in the signification, “bind, fetter,” which is given to the word and which can be proved in the Arabic and Syriac. In the first edition Aquila had: “they soiled,” or likewise, “they marred,” that is, by bloody wounds. But the signification of digging and boring through has been found in the word not only by the Vulgate and Pesch., but likewise by the Septuagint before Christ. The ancient translations, however, all have a finite verb. Possibly they have merely resolved the Hebrew participle, which though accepted by many, by Rosenm., Hengst., Hupf., et al., after the example of Verbrugge (Observ Phil., 1730), is yet hotly contested, for it is at the farthest merely necessary to change the vowel points of the present text, which in the ancient MSS. indeed are altogether missing, and instead of λָּ ?ΰֲ ?ψִ ?ι read λָּ ?ΰψֵ ?ι, in order to set aside the objections to our interpretation which are most worthy of consideration. But they have perhaps really had the reading λָּ ?ΰֲ ?ψεּ before them, which still occurs in two unsuspected Codd. and is no more to be derived from Christian influence (Hupf.), than the received reading from Jewish (Calmet). On the other hand the form λּ ?ψεּ is found only in a late Cod., as a marginal gloss only afterwards added. Of especial importance is the remark of the little Masora, that λָּ ?ΰֲ ?ψִ ?ι in the two passages (Psalms 22:16; Isaiah 38:13) in which this form occurs, is in two different meanings. In the passage in Isaiah, however, the meaning “as the lion” is undoubted. The view, which in recent times has become the most prevailing, that this translation is to be applied to our passage likewise, has accordingly, no ancient authority for it, neither Christian, nor Jewish. For the Chald. originates not only from a relatively later period (Jahn, Einleitung I.), but inserts the word “biting” as explanatory and as a paraphrase. Thereby the verb which is lacking in the translation “as the lion,” is gained, and the entire inappropriateness of the comparison, when the verb “inclose” is taken from the preceding clause or supplied, is to some extent lost sight of. For it is well known that it is the habit of the lion to cast himself upon his prey with a spring, and with one blow to dash it down or pull it to the ground, but not to encompass its “hands and feet,” which does not take place with the tail even, with which it is said to make a circle (Kimchi). And it is very evident that the appeal to the fact that at times hands and feet mean the whole body or the person (Gesen., Hupf.) does not explain anything, but only puts the difficulty in stronger light. But even the interpolation of the Chald. is partly entirely arbitrary and unjustified, partly more adapted to conceal for the moment than to really set aside the objectionableness and inappropriateness of the comparison. Since the definite article is used, the inappropriateness of the comparison in the translation, “the band of the wicked enclosed me, as the lion, at my hands and at my feet,” is just as striking as the fact which is especially emphasized (Luther, Calv. et al., likewise De Wette and Olsh.), that it is just as vain as it is an unjustifiable attempt to wish to do away with the objection by putting the point of comparison merely in the rage (Hengst.), or in the unsparing and fierce haste (Hitzig) of the lion-like enemies, and to find by an explanation which displaces the words, the meaning that the sufferer is so entirely surrounded by the crowd of his enemies, who are fierce as the lion and strong, or is so clasped on his hands and feet (Kφster), that he can neither defend himself with his hands nor flee away with his feet (many since Aben Ezra, likewise Hengst. and Hupf., which last prefer the acceptance of a double accusative to the repetition of the verb). The same objections apply to the other verbs which have been supplied: to crush (Saadia), and: they threaten (Gesen.). But that the enemies are not described as like the lion at the hands and feet (Hengst., previous interpretation, but since taken back), is just as evident as the impossibility of taking the disputed word as an accusative (Paul. in his Clavis), which would suddenly compare the sufferer, who was lying as a worm in the dust, to a lion beset round about with dogs. From the inflexible feeling of the untenableness of all these interpretations arises likewise the proposal to close the clause with “lion,” but to regard hands and feet as objects of “count” (Mendelssohn), an interpretation which can be explained only as a desperate expedient. If now the lion is indeed called ΰֲ ?ψִ ?ι (Numbers 24:9; Isaiah 38:13; Ezekiel 22:25; Amos 5:19), yet the reasons, as has been shown, which have been given by many interpreters for finding it in this disputed word are still less convincing, especially as in this Psalm the lion is mentioned twice (Psalms 22:13; Psalms 22:21) under the only name which is used elsewhere in the Psalms, ΰַ ?ψְ ?ιֵ ?δ. Psalms 22:17. I can tell all my bones.—[Perowne: “Before ‘all my bones are out of joint.’ Hence it would seem that the body was racked by some violent torture; not merely emaciated by starvation and suffering. And thus in his utter misery he is a gazing-stock to them that hate him; ‘they look upon me,’ i.e., with malicious satisfaction at my sufferings,” vid., Isaiah 52:14; Isaiah 53:2-3.—C. A. B.] In ancient psalters the counting of the members is treated as an act of the enemies in accordance with the Sept. and Vulgate. Psalms 22:18. They part my garments.—His death seems so much the more unavoidable, that his garments are treated as belonging to one already dead, as possessions without an owner (v. Hofmann). The outer garments consisting of many pieces were divided, the under garment which was the immediate covering of the body was divided by lot. So John 19:23 sq. This language is not of mere design (Rosenm., Jahn) but of fact, to which the entire description leads (Hengst.). If we cannot point to anything of the kind in the life of David, that does not alter the fact or justify us in explaining the clothing in the sense of property (Hupf.). The prophetical element comes out with the more prominence from the type. Str. VIII. Psalms 22:19. My strength.—God is designated by the nomen. abstr. of ΰιָ ?μ as the essence and source of the strength of life (Psalms 38:4). The Sept. and Vulgate (the Syr. likewise) with a different division of the members of the verse, translate. Thou wilt not remove Thy help from me. Psalms 22:20. From the sword. from the power of the dog.—It does not follow from the remarks upon Psalms 22:16 that we must translate, “paw of the dog.” This would correspond only with the figures which immediately precede and follow (Delitzsch) and is not opposed by the fact that this paw (Leviticus 11:27) is called λּ ?σ. For in 1 Samuel 17:37, ιγ is used of lions and bears. But since this last word is used elsewhere in the general meaning of power (Geier), yes, since the hand of the flame (Isaiah 47:14) and the hands of the sword (Job 5:20) are spoken of, as Isaiah 1:20, the mouth of the sword; this general interpretation is to be preferred, the more as in the first member of the verse the sword is likewise not figurative, as Luke 2:15, of heart-piercing woe (Sachs), but yet likewise not literal, but is to be taken in the general sense as indicating violent death, as Job 27:14; Jeremiah 43:11. My solitary one.—The soul as life is, according to some interpreters, designated as the only one (Exodus 20:2; Exodus 20:12; Judges 11:34; Psalms 35:17), that is, as that which is not present as double, and therefore is irreparable (Gesen., Hitzig, Delitzsch, et al.), yet without the secondary idea of valuable, dear, and beloved, which is improperly brought in, in the strongest way in the English Bible [“my darling,” both here and in Psalms 35:17.—C. A. B.] Others (Jerome, Luther, Calvin, Geier, Stier, Hupfeld [Alexander]) prefer the idea of solitary, forsaken, with reference to Psalms 25:16; Psalms 68:6; comp. Psalms 142:4; John 16:23.Psalms 22:21. Save me from the jaws of the lion.—Some, without sufficient reason, find in the singular, “of the lion,” a reference to the devil, the arch enemy who stands behind all the assaults upon the servants and children of God (Theodoret, Stier).—And from the horns of the buffεlo, (yes) Thou answerest me.—The Sept., Syr., Arab., do not regard the closing word as a verb, but as a noun = my lowliness. But already the Chald. and Jerome refer the word as a verb to his being heard. The form of the preterite and its position at the close make the transition to the following section; and include the assurance that the prayer will be heard (Geier), yet not necessarily in the deliverance which had already taken place, or had often been experienced at previous times (Kimchi), especially as the verb has the fundamental meaning of answering. Since now in Psalms 20:6 a similar construction designates God’s answer from heaven, the prevailing interpretation of the closing clause of this verse: “Hear me against the horns of the buffalo,” or “save me from the horns of the buffalo by hearing me,” with the supposition of a pregnant construction, as Isaiah 38:17; Jeremiah 15:2; Psalms 30:4; Psalms 68:19; Psalms 118:5, appears the more objectionable, the more difficult it would be in this very connection of the words in question, and the less properly the fact that the preterite in connection with the imperative can be taken in an optative sense is to be vindicated here, where the preterite stands at the close of a clause of urgent supplication, whilst the following clause expresses thankfulness and vows on the basis of the hearing of the prayer, and then describes the grand consequences resulting therefrom. But it does not follow from this that the εְ is either to be taken as adversative, or the clause must be regarded as relative, so that the experience of previous help from great dangers, figuratively represented by the horns of the buffalo, served as motive of the prayer (Kimchi, Hupfeld). The supposition of a sudden break in the construction is much easier (Stier, Hengst.), by which would be expressed the contrast to the lamentation, Psalms 22:2, and the turn of thought which is now made, which is to be marked by a dash and an inserted yes, since it is not advisable, contrary to the received text, to wish to take the word as the grammatical antecedent (Venema) of the following verse, although it certainly is presupposed by it (Hupfeld) [“Perowne: “Before it had been, ‘Thou answerest not,’—now at the most critical moment Faith asserts her victory, ‘Thou hast answered.’ See the same sudden transition, the same quick assurance that prayer has been heard, Psalms 6:9; Psalms 20:7; Psalms 26:12; Psalms 28:6; Psalms 31:22. The vows and thanksgiving which follow are a consequence of this assurance.”—C. A. B.] Str. IX. Psalms 22:22-23. [Perowne: “So or therefore will I tell. (Obs. the form with δ paragog. as marking a consequence from what precedes) ‘My brethren = the congregation = ye that fear Jehovah;’ Psalms 22:23, i.e., the whole nation of Israel, as follows. In Psalms 22:23 the singer calls upon the Church (χָ ?δָ ?μ = ἐκκλησία) to praise God. In Psalms 22:24 he gives the reason for this exhortation; the experience, viz., of God’s mercy, and truth, and condescension, chiefly to himself, though not to the exclusion of others. For God is not like the proud ones of the earth. He does not despise the afflicted.”—C. A. B.] Str. X. Psalms 22:24. The affliction of the afflicted.—This nomen. abstr., owing to a false derivation, is rendered by the Sept., Vulg., Peschitς, Chald., as prayer, or cry, and by Jerome as modestia. [Perowne: “The same word is used with Messianic reference, Isaiah 53:4; Isaiah 53:7; Zechariah 9:9.—He hath not hid (comp. Psalms 10:1; Psalms 13:1). … When he cried He heard. What a contrast between Psalms 22:1-2! Very remarkable is this confident acknowledgment of God’s goodness in hearing prayer.”—C. A. B.] Str. XI. Psalms 22:25. From Theo (comes) my praise in the great congregation.—The song of praise has as its subject the deliverance by God, and on this account takes its departure, or its origin from God, who naturally, at the same time, remains as the object of the praise (Psalms 22:22). [So Perowne: “From Thee, not (as A. V.) of Thee, as if God were the object only of his praise. It is God Himself who has put this great subject of praise into his heart; and into his mouth. The will and the power to praise as well as the deliverance comes from Him. Comp. Psalms 118:23, where the construction is precisely the same ‘from Jehovah is this.’ ”—C. A. B.]—My vows will I pay.—It follows from the following verse, “they shall eat,” that the reference is to bringing, after the deliverance, the thank-offering, which was vowed during the trouble (Leviticus 7:16). This was partaken of as a sacrificial meal with the legal assistance of the Levites (Lev. 12:18; 14:26) and in company with invited friends (Proverbs 7:14, Josephus’ Jewish War, Psalms 6:9; Psalms 6:3), after that the sprinkling of the blood and the presentation of the fat pieces had taken place at the altar. Since now in reference to the tithes, Deuteronomy 14:29; Deuteronomy 26:12, and at the harvest feast, Deuteronomy 16:11, an invitation of widows, orphans, and the poor, to participate in the meal, was prescribed, the reference to the wretched can so much the less appear strange in connection with the typical prophetical character of the Psalm; since even in sacrificial meals the participation of others than those legally invited was not excluded (Deuteronomy 33:19; 1 Samuel 9:13; 1 Samuel 9:22). From the earliest times, therefore, most Christian interpreters have referred this passage to the Lord’s Supper, often directly and exclusively, which is indeed improper. Others have gone to the contrary extreme (Cleric., Venema, Rosenm., v. Hofmann, Hupf.), partly by denying and partly by effacing the reference to the Shelamim offering, and have taken the eating, and becoming satisfied as merely a usual formula of prosperity and refreshment, and interpreted the thank-offering in the spiritual sense = songs of thanksgiving. Others suppose a merely spiritual participation under the figure of a meal (Umbreit, Tholuck, Hengst., Bφhl, Bade). This much may be said, however, that the sensuous partaking and the material advantages were not the chief things in the sacrificial meals themselves, and that all offerings in the meaning of the law should be fulfilled with a disposition corresponding to them; that on this account the expression of thanks should excite a pious joy, and nourish and strengthen the spiritual life; and that in consequence of this even the song of thanksgiving itself can be designated as a sacrifice (Hebrews 13:15), and many expressions in the Old Testament, as in this Psalm, so likewise in Psalms 50:14; Psalms 50:23; Psalms 61:5; Psalms 61:8; Psalms 69:30-32, and frequently are in a transition state from the narrower to the wider meaning, and from the proper to the figurative sense, as then the vow likewise not only refers to sacrifice (Psalms 54:7; Psalms 116:14) but likewise to the confession of Jehovah as deliverer (Jonah 2:10). Moreover, independent of the reference to sacrifice, the general preservation and strengthening of the life against hostile attacks are designated as a feeding by Jehovah (Psalms 23:5), and this, again applied to the spiritual life, regarded as eating the word of God (Jeremiah 15:16; comp. Ezekiel 3:1-3), and referred to the refreshment and satisfaction of men in the kingdom of God, is described as a meal prepared by God (Isaiah 25:6 sq.) Psalms 22:26. The afflicted shall eat.—The afflicted are not those who are poor in this world’s goods in a general sense, but the pious who are oppressed in the world. These are now called aniyim, now anavim. In the former word the external affliction is more prominent, in the latter the internal affliction. The servant of Jehovah belongs among these sufferers first of all (Isaiah 53:4; Isaiah 53:7; Zechariah 9:9). Str. XII. Psalms 22:27. Shall remember and turn unto Jehovah.—An important passage to characterize the heathen in their relation to God, whom they have forgotten (Psalms 9:17), but to whom they will turn again, because Jehovah will vindicate His royal right to all nations (Genesis 18:25; Psalms 96:10; Psalms 99:1; Zechariah 14:9), when the proclamation of the Divine deliverance by Him who suffered as no other one suffered, comes to them. “The conversion of the nations by that preaching will be thus the realization of the kingdom of God.” (Delitzsch). The promises to the patriarchs (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 28:14; comp. Psalms 18:18; Psalms 22:18; Psalms 26:4) form the foundation of this view. Here likewise the prophetical moment in the type is very manifest, and even in its expressions the discourse assumes the character of prophecy. The connection with the previous clause is so exceedingly loose that v. Hofmann denies the connection of thought that has been given, and finds merely the reference to this thought, what He is, a God who has heard the prayer, namely, the Ruler of the world to whom the worship of all nations is due. But Hupfeld, besides, leaves room for doubt, whether this conclusion belonged originally to this Psalm, because such an effect of the deliverance of the poet, and its proclamation upon the minds of the heathen, would have been too much to expect, and too fantastic. The ancient interpreters have, on this account, referred all to Christ, only they do not do justice to the intermediate members of the thought. Some interpreters (Hengstenberg, Reinke), have sought to restore the close connection of the clauses, which is missing, by translating “consider” = take to heart, instead of “remember” or “think of.” This is just as unsatisfactory as unnecessary, like the proposal to take the verbs as jussive (Bφhl) as directly connected with the preceding wish. Psalms 22:19 even is sufficient to show the connection. Psalms 22:29. They ate, and all the fat ones of the earth shall prostrate themselves, and before his face all those shall bend the knee who have fallen in the dust, and whosoever cannot keep his soul alive.—The preterite in close connection with the following imperfects (futures) states the participation in the meal as presupposed and as the foundation of their worship and homage of God and the preservation of their own lives, but puts the whole in the time of the reception of the heathen into the communion of the people of God, which is surely to be expected.—In this relation the external position in life and characteristics make no difference. It is for those who in the fat of the earth abound in worldly prosperity and for those who have fallen down in the dust. It is an unfounded assertion, that the last expression must mean the dust of the grave and that therefore either a contrast is expressed of the living and dead, over whom the rule of God extends, in like manner as in Philippians 2:10 (Muscul., Stier, v. Hofmann, Hupf.), or only a designation of the human race in general as mortals (Flamin., Cleric.). For if it is generally granted that the expression, “sitting or dwelling in the dust,” is a symbol of filth and thence of lowliness, sorrow, affliction, it cannot be doubted that those who have descended from the height of prosperity into such lowliness may be contrasted as those who have fallen in the dust, namely of the earth, with those who are above in the fat of the earth, especially as constantly elsewhere it is made perceptible, as in Psalms 22:15, that the reference is to the dust of death or of going down into the pit, death, Sheol (Psalms 28:1; Psalms 30:3; Psalms 88:4; Job 8:9; Job 33:24). Only we must not take the contrast too narrowly, as is usually done, as that of the rich and poor, or of the strong in life and the frail, with which at times the entirely misleading reference is mixed, that the latter by affliction and destitution have been almost bowed down to the grave (Rosenm., De Wette). In the third clause of the verse, moreover, the reference is not to the danger of perishing from hunger, but the definite thought steps forth from the veil of the figure, that it has to do with the preservation of life for every one in the most comprehensive sense. With this interpretation the clause is not a repetition of the previous clause with a change in the turn of expression (most interpreters). No more is it necessary, in order to get an independent thought, to change the divisions of the verse and attach this clause to the following verse as antecedent (Hupf.) in the sense: If one has not remained alive himself, his seed will, etc. But this would give at least a clear idea and could find a support in the text. On the other hand the interpretation which follows is untenable according to its sense and does not correspond with the words. Thus, it is said, there is only one class of persons spoken of in the entire passage, men of distinction as the representatives of the entire people and the thought is expressed, If these have eaten and worshipped and bowed themselves before God, because they were about to die, their seed will, etc., Sept., Syr., Theodotion, Symmach., translate after another punctuation: and my soul lives for him. Psalms 22:30. The seed will serve Him: It will be told of the Lord to the (coming) generation.—Others (finally Delitzsch) translate: A seed, which will serve Him, will be counted to the Lord for a generation [similarly A. V. A seed shall serve Him: it shall be accounted, etc.] But not to mention the destruction of the parallelism the subject of which is further carried out in the next verse, it is likewise doubtful whether this Hebrew word can have the meaning of “count” in the Piel. Besides Psalms 22:22 is in favor of our interpretation. The μ before adonai is then as frequently=in reference to. The Sept., has: “my seed,” and in the second member to which it attaches the first word of the following verse: The coming generation will be announced to the Lord. Psalms 22:31. His righteousness.—The righteousness of God which is to be declared from generation to generation is not His virtue in general, still less His goodness (Rosenm.), but likewise not merely the righteousness shown in the deliverance of the pious (De Wette, Hengst.), but with reference to His entire conduct and government, in His keeping afar off from the pious for awhile, especially in His participation in their peril of death (Psalms 22:15), which was hard to be understood of His righteousness. The reference is not at all to the righteousness purchased by the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ and acceptable before God.—That He has accomplished it.—The closing word is not absolute (=that He has acted, that is, shown Himself glorious, done well), but pregnant looking back upon the entirety of that which has now been carried out and accomplished according to the decree, as at the close of the narrative of the creation, Genesis 2:3. It is scarcely to be doubted, that the last cry of the dying Jesus on the cross, looks back to this passage. The reference back to the righteousness mentioned in the preceding member of the verse is too narrow (Hitzig, “that He has exercised it”), or the explanation: the miracles which He has done (Chald.). It is inadmissible to regard the λּ ?ι as a relative with reference to the people considered as the object which He has made (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Jerome). This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ Psalms 23 A Psalm of David1         The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2    He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. 3    He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness For his name’s sake. 4    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5    Thou preparest a table before me In the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over. 6    Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. AND Its Contents and Origin.—Under the figures of the shepherd, Psalms 23:1, and the host, Psalms 23:5, which were familiar to all Israelites, which are connected with that of the guide, Psalms 23:3, the Psalmist describes, in clear and flowing language corresponding throughout with his calm, confident, hopeful feelings, the comprehensive and more than sufficient care of God for him, who describes his present and future condition under the corresponding figures of member of the flock, Psalms 23:2, wanderer, Psalms 23:4, and guest, Psalms 23:6. These figures are so natural to the national life, that we cannot conclude from them that David sung this Psalm, if not in the times of his shepherd life, at least in a time when the recollection of those days was still fresh (Tholuck), or that the feast contains a reference to the meal in the house of David’s father after he was anointed, 1 Samuel 16. (Muntinghe). But we have no more reason to look away from every historical reference and from every particular reason for the use of these figures, and since there is no evidence of a prophecy of Christ (many ancient interpreters), or that it was directly meant for the congregation, to suppose that it was a free expression of feelings rejoicing in God, whether of an unknown poet (Hupfeld), or David in the latter peaceful and prosperous period of his government (Calvin and most interpreters). For the enemies, Psalms 23:5, seem not to belong to the past but to the present, and are mentioned in a connection, from which we may conclude that there was destitution, yet not a destitution among the enemies whilst the Israelites, under the Maccabean leaders besieged in the fortress at Jerusalem, had plenty (Olshausen), but with the Psalmist, who must certainly be regarded as remote from the house of God (Psalms 23:6). If this is recognized likewise as a historical feature, it is easy to find the occasion for the preceding descriptions in a sojourn of the Psalmist in the wilderness, but not to think of an allegorical reference to the return of the people from exile (Kimchi), or a reference back to the Divine guidance of Israel from Egypt through the wilderness (Chald.), but to abide by David in accordance with tradition, and put this Psalm in the period of the rebellion of Absalom (Ruding., J. D. Mich., Ewald, Maurer, Delitzsch). Only we must not refer to 2 Samuel 18:26, for the tone and sentiment do not agree with it. But we may indeed think of 2 Samuel 17:27 sq., and compare with Psalms 3:6; Psalms 4:7. The resemblances to Pss. 27. and 63., are of an entirely different kind from those to Psalms 25:21; Psalms 37:4, as it is then too bold to refer to Jeremiah, on account of the style and the sentiment. Respecting the house of Jehovah vid. remarks upon Psalms 5:7. Str. I. Psalms 23:1. My shepherd.—God is thus named already by Jacob, Genesis 48:15; Genesis 49:24. This figure is afterwards frequently used (Psalms 80:1; Psalms 78:52; Micah 7:14; Isaiah 63:13 sq.). It is likewise applied to theocratic rulers, Jeremiah 3:15; Jeremiah 23:1, and is used with reference to the Messiah, Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34.; compare Zechariah 11:4 sq., and hence is applied to Jesus in the New Testament, John 10:1-16; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 2:25; 1 Peter 5:4. In accordance with this the people are called His flock or the sheep of His pasture, Psalms 74:1; Psalms 79:13; Psalms 95:7; Psalms 100:3; Jeremiah 23:1. The expressions which follow are taken from the life of the shepherd and correspond with the figure. The oasis of the wilderness is not merely a station of rest for the tired flocks at the time of the noonday heat (Son 1:7), but at the same time a place of refreshment by means of the green meadows and the waters, which are mentioned either as flowing quietly and therefore without danger in contrast to the wild mountain brooks and rushing streams (Calvin, Geier, De Wette, Hitzig [Alexander, Barnes]), or as the indispensable condition of refreshment for the pleasant resting-place where the flocks lie down for recreation (Sept., Stier, Hengst., Hupfeld [Perowne]). The imperfects are not to be regarded as futures (Hengst., et al.), or indeed as referring to the past (Sept., Chald.), but denote actions continuing and repeated in the present. Str. II. Psalms 23:3. He restoreth my soul.—This does not mean conversion (the ancient translations), but the refreshment of the soul under the figure of leading back him who was about to flee away, comp. Psalms 19:7.—[He leadeth me.—The oriental shepherd does not drive the flock before him but goes before the flock and leads them, vid. Thomson’s The Land and the Book, p. 202 sq.; Smith’s Dict, of the Bible, Article, Shepherd.—C. A. B.].—In right paths.—In the figurative language of this Psalm it is evident that the “right paths” are not to be regarded as in similar passages, excluding the figure, as ways of righteousness (Hengst. [A. V.]) in the moral sense, or passing over the intermediate member, as ways of salvation (De Wette, Ewald, Hitzig), but as straight and even paths, excluding error and stumbling, direct and leading certainly to their end (most interpreters after the Rabbins), which are then really paths of righteousness and salvation. Psalms 23:4. Even when [A. V., Yea, though] = even then when.—The contrary of Psa 23:2 is supposed as an objective possibility; but only with reference to the external condition in life and circumstances threatening with peril of death.—Valley of the shadow of death.—In order to explain this figure De Wette cites from Morier’s second journey to Persia, p. Psa 179: “In the vicinity of Ispahan is a remarkable valley, barren, gloomy and destitute of water, which is called the valley of the angel of death.” [It is unnecessary to go beyond the Holy Land itself. The Psalmist refers to those deep wadies or wild and gloomy ravines, which abound in the mountains of Palestine, the rocky sides of which are filled with caves and caverns, the abodes of wild beasts of prey. It is often necessary for the shepherd to lead his flocks through these wadies and across these ravines, and it is always perilous even to the shepherd himself. There is no reference here to death itself, but to the peril of death go often experienced in life.—C. A. B.].—Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.—The soul when thinking of the possible danger, is quieted and comforted by the assurance of the faithfulness of the Divine Shepherd. The shepherd not only leads the flock, but defends it, hence the mention of two staves; so likewise Zechariah 11:7, upon which an especial emphasis is put by the pronoun. It follows from this that this verse is not a general description of the rest of trust (De Wette, Hengst.), nor has a poetical and rhetorical fulness of meaning, nor indeed that one of the staves was given by the guide to the wanderer, the other retained by himself.Str. III. Psalms 23:5. [Perowne: “God is even more than a shepherd who provides for the wants of his sheep. He is a King who lavishes His bounty in rich provision for His guests.” Although the figure of sheep and shepherd pass over into that of guest and host the ideas are the same, though in different forms. There is a beautiful correspondence throughout. As the sheep lie down satisfied with the rich provision of the shepherd, in the green pastures and by the refreshing waters, so the guest sits down satisfied with the rich provisions of the table of the Lord.—In the presence of mine enemies.—As the wild beasts surrounded the sheep in the gloomy wady and they were comforted by the shepherd’s rod, so the enemies surround the guest, and he is comforted by the table of the monarch. In the Orient the host was obligated not only to entertain the guest but to protect him from his enemies, and when once the meal of hospitality had been partaken all the power and strength of the host became assured to the guest. He was now safe and secure, and his enemies were powerless to injure him, for from this time forth he was the guest and friend of the host and would be protected and defended by him. Thus the idea is not of a hasty meal upon a battle-field, after which the fight was to be renewed, but of a calm and secure repose at the table of the host, with the assurance that all danger was past and the enemieswere no longer to be regarded or feared.—C. A. B.] After that Thou hast anointed my head with oil.—Anointed, literally made fat, as a perfect subordinate to the imperfect, refers to the sprinkling of the beard, hair, etc., with sweet-smelling essences, which in ancient times preceded the festival meal, hence the figurative use, Psalms 45:7; Psalms 104:15.—My cup runneth over.—The ancient translators have instead of this, drunkenness, which meaning, however, is admissible only in the Aramaic, but not in the Hebrew. The Sept. has connected the first words of the following verse with this clause and translated, ῶςκράτιστον.Psalms 23:6. Only.—Instead of “only,” as Psalms 39:6; Psalms 39:12; Psalms 139:11, it may be rendered, “yes!” as Psalms 73:13; Psalms 85:9; Genesis 44:28. [The rendering of the A. V., “surely”, is better.—C. A. B.].—Happiness and grace will pursue me.—“Pursue” is used not only in the sense of follow or accompany (Olsh.). as an inversion of the usual figurative phrase used of men: pursue something sectari=aspire after (Hupfeld), but is used in contrast with the pursuit of the enemies. [His enemies had pursued him even to the presence of his host, henceforth grace and joy will pursue him and load him with blessings.—C. A. B.].—And returned shall I dwell in the house of Jehovah to length of days.—The closing word does not mean: lifelong (Hupfeld), but in contrast with the short affliction (Delitzsch), opens a prospect of an indefinitely long time, Psalms 21:4, and indeed of communion with God and the enjoyment of His grace, Psalms 27., which is afforded by the use of the religious institutions of grace. Many ancient translations have, after the Sept., “my dwelling,” etc. They have likewise regarded the infinitive with the suffix as from yashab. So likewise Geier, Rosenm., De Wette, Hengst. But then we must read shibthξ, as Psalms 27:4. But our text has shabthξ, which vocalization the Masoretic Punctators could only have fixed in accordance wish tradition. Now some have regarded this form after De Muis as a perfect of yashab, supposing that the first syllable has fallen away. But the possibility of such an aphζresis is disputed by Olsh. and Hupfeld as ungrammatical. The examples cited in its favor are explained by the former as mutilations of the text, and are regarded by Delitzsch partly as a corruption, as Jeremiah 42:10, partly as only belonging to the vulgar tongue, as 2 Samuel 22:41. Hitzig, however, again appeals particularly to Judges 19:11, together with Jeremiah 42:10. In any case the matter is very doubtful, and therefore the derivation from shϋb (=return) is preferable, yet it cannot be translated: I return to the house (Knapp, et al.), for it is followed by the preposition αְ and not ΰֵ ?μ and duration is expressed. This leads to the acceptance of a pregnant construction (Delitzsch). The idea of dwelling is not expressed in words, but is indicated as a consequence of the return, by the nature of the closing word, as already mentioned. The perfect with the vav consec. after the imperfect has likewise the meaning of a future. Misericordia Dei prζcedit, comitatur et subsequitur nos (Augustine). [Alexander: “Dwelling in the house of Jehovah does not mean frequenting His sanctuary, but being a member of His household and an inmate of His family, enjoying His protection, holding communion with Him, and subsisting on His bounty.”—C. A. B.]. AND ETHICAL1. Every member of the congregation of God may appropriate in faith the promises which God has given to the people of the covenant, but he must likewise make earnest use of the privileges graciously bestowed upon the congregation, and have, hold, and confess the God of the covenant as his own God, in order to have in himself the evidence and experimental sense of the all-embracing and all-sufficient care of God, which is always comforting and refreshing in every circumstance of life. Comp. P. Gerhardt’s hymn which has grown out of this Psalm: Der Herr, der alter Enden.2. He who would truly experience in himself that love, power, and faithfulness of God, whereby believers are called, sustained, preserved and entirely furnished in this world as a flock of the good shepherd, must likewise, in the constant sense of his need and weakness and at the same time in unshaken faith in the willingness and the power of God to help him, lay hold of for himself and use the means of grace and salvation prepared and offered to him; he must likewise truly let himself be led, refreshed, protected, cared for and saved by God, and meet the condescension of God with the resignation of himself to God. “Although this confidence in the care of God does not exclude provision for the body, yet we are to think chiefly of the supply of all our spiritual need, which comes down from above” (Umbreit). 3. Trust in God and resignation to His will is essentially facilitated by the fact that we have to do, not with an unknown and hidden God, but with the God of historical revelation, who has made known His name by His word and His works, and has declared therein what we have to think and expect of Him. On this fact we should base ourselves in the changeable fortunes which meet us in this world, and should hold fast to it amidst the changing feelings and dispositions of the heart: for that is “the golden art, to hold on to God’s word and promise, decide according to it and not according to the feelings of our hearts; thus help and consolation will surely follow and we shall not lack anything at all” (Luther).—“But now when God has revealed Himself as the Shepherd in the person of His only begotten Son, much more clearly and more gloriously than formerly to the fathers under the law, we do not sufficiently honor His keeping, unless we tread under foot all fear and danger by fixing our eyes upon Him” (Calvin).—“For David here prescribes one common rule for all Christians, that there is no other means or expedient on earth of escaping from all kinds of trouble, than for a man to cast all his cares on God, apprehend Him by His word of grace, hold fast to it and let it in no wise be taken from him. He who does this can be satisfied, whether it fares well with him or ill, whether he lives or dies, and can likewise finally endure, and must prosper in spite of all the devils, the world and misfortune” (Luther). 4. The best consolation in trouble is the certainty of the nearness of God, as this is the strongest reminder of our duty when successful. But we have these, not that “we may make of His benefits a ladder by which we may ever ascend nearer to Him” (Calvin), but we have them on the ground of His condescension to us, in virtue of His dwelling among us and in consequence of our reception into His house and to His table, where He has Himself prepared what serves for our sustenance and complete satisfaction, and where He likewise anoints those who partake of these blessings, good things and joys, that is, He festively prepares, distinguishes, and adorns them. This advances by many stages from the typical to the fulfilment, from the Old Testament to the New, from time into eternity. For a time is coming when wandering will cease and the shepherd as the host will not allow His guests again to leave His house. But first of all we must abide by this. “This presence of the Lord is not to be perceived with the five senses; faith alone sees it, which is sure of the fact, that the Lord is nearer to us than our own-selves” (Luther). AND The glad spirit of a Christian in life and in death: 1) how it shows itself; 2) whence it springs; 3) whither it moves and leads.—The happiness of those who can confess: the Lord is my shepherd: 1) in what it consists; 2) how it is attained; 3) how it is preserved.—Who goes most successfully through the world? 1) The wanderer in God’s flock; 2) the guest at God’s table; 3) the child in God’s house.—He who lets himself be led by God will likewise be kept and provided for by God.—Even pious people are not spared the walk in the dark valley; but they have a threefold comfort: 1) that the Lord leads them in; 2) that the Lord remains with them; 3) that the Lord in time helps them out.—The certainty that the Lord is with us: 1) on what it is based; 2) what its effects; 3) what supports it.—We will attain that happiness and grace will step in the place of our persecutors when we resign ourselves entirely to the guidance, care and training of God with willing obedience, humble desire and hearty trust. Starke: The ungodly man may call Jesus a shepherd, but not his shepherd, which is only for those who appropriate Him.—It often seems as if the little flock of Christ lacked many things in this world; yet these words of Christ must remain true for all time with respect, to spiritual things (John 10:11), and with respect to bodily things they may be satisfied with the loving provision of the Great Shepherd.—Believers find in the pastures of the Gospel not only complete satisfaction, but likewise gentle rest.—The many who do not experience refreshment of heart from the Gospel have only themselves to blame.—The ungodly grudge believers a piece of bread; their Good Shepherd, however, gives them not only this, but likewise the heavenly manna.—That which seems to be needful, pleasant and good, is not good unless it is a gift of the mercy of God (James 1:17).—It is well for him who has his portion in the house of his heavenly Father; there are many mansions there; but the most joyous thing is that their possession endures to all eternity.—Renschel: Christ carries the rod woe and the staff mild. [Matth. Henry: If God be as a shepherd to us, we must be as sheep, inoffensive, meek and quiet, silent before the shearers, nay, and before the butcher too, useful and sociable; we must know the shepherd’s voice, and follow Him.—Let those not fear starving that are at God’s finding, and have Him for their feeder.—Those who would be satisfied with the fatness of God’s house must keep close to the duties of it.—F. W. Robertson: Beneath the burning skies and the clear starry nights of Palestine there grew up between the shepherd and his flock a union of attachment and tenderness. It is the country where at any moment sheep are liable to be swept away by some mountain torrent, or carried off by hill-robbers, or torn by wolves. At any moment their protector may have to save them by personal hazard. …And thus there grows up between the man and the dumb creatures he protects a kind of friendship. …You love those for whom you risk and they love you; therefore it is that, not as here where the flock is driven, the shepherd goes before and the sheep follow him. They follow in perfect trust, even though he should be leading them away from a green pasture, by a rocky road, to another pasture which they cannot yet see. He knows them all—their separate histories, their ailments, their characters. … Alone in those vast solitudes, with no human being near, the shepherd and the sheep feel a life in common. Differences disappear; the vast interval between the man and the brute, the single point of union is felt strongly. One is the love of the protector: the other the love of the grateful life; and so between lives so distant there is woven, by night and day, by summer suns and winter frosts, a living network of sympathy. The greater and the less mingle their being together: they feel each other. “The shepherd knows his sheep, and is known of them.”. Try to feel, by imagining what the lonely Syrian shepherd must feel towards the helpless things which are the companions of his daily life, for whose safety he stands in jeopardy every hour, and whose value is measurable to him not by price, but by his own jeopardy, and then we have reached some notion of the love which Jesus meant to represent, that eternal tenderness which bends over us—infinitely lower though we be in nature—and knows the name of each and the trials of each, and thinks for each with a separate solicitude, and gave itself for each with a sacrifice as special and a love as personal, as if in the whole world’s wilderness there were none other but that one.”—Spurgeon: Sweet and full are the doctrines of the Gospel; fit food for souls, as tender grass is natural nutriment for sheep.—These twin guardian angels (goodness and mercy) will always be with me at my back and my beck. Just as when great princes go abroad they must not go unattended, so it is with the believer. Goodness and mercy follow him always—the black days as well as the bright days, the days of fasting as well as the days of feasting, the dreary days of winter as well as the bright days of summer. Goodness supplies our needs and mercy blots out our sins.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [It is better to translate this latter clause with Ewald and Hupfeld: To waters of refreshment He leadeth me. The idea is not of a flock grazing in a rich meadow land on the banks of a quiet stream, but that of a flock led by the shepherd to their resting-place and watering-place. In this place they lie down satisfied, in the midst of the richest abundance of pasture and refreshing water, all their wants being supplied. It is not necessary to think of a stream, since in the Orient flocks are fed from wells or fountains in troughs, Genesis 29:10-11; Exodus 2:16-21. Vid. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 142.—C. A. B.] [The reference is still to the shepherd guide. The rod and staff are synonymes, expressing the twofold use of the crook in ruling and defending. The crook is essential to the shepherd’s business. He uses it as a walking stick in ascending and descending the mountains; he uses it to punish the rebellious and stubborn sheep. It has a curve on one end with which he catches the sheep by their hind legs and urges them on. It is likewise a weapon to beat the dogs and ward off the beasts of the wilderness. Then finally he uses it when he puts the sheep into the fold, causing them to pass under the rod as he tallies them off to see that none are missing. Thus the crook is the symbol of his power and authority, and at the same time of his love, care, and protection. When the flocks are led through the gloomy wadies they crowd close together, and the rod and staff in the shepherd’s hands reassures them and gives them a sense of comfort and security, though the wild beasts roar and growl about them.—C. A. B.] [The entertainment was royal, the guest was received with the highest honors. Oil was used at the feasts of the wealthy to do honor to their guests. It was used to anoint the head as a symbol of the grace of God which the host would have his guest enjoy. It is not unusual at the present day n the Orient to sprinkle the guests with perfumes and to burn incense in the festival rooms, diffusing delightful odors. Vid. Lane’s Modern Egyptians, p. 203. Vid. Amos 6:6; also Luke 7:46, where Jesus contrasts the devotion of the woman with the neglect of the host who did not honor Him with the basin of water, the kiss of friendship and the anointing oil.—C. A. B.] [For the meaning of the cup vid. Psalms 16:5. It is full and satisfying and more than abundant. As the oil was the symbol of grace and favor, so the cup is the symbol of joy and gladness.—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “David, the shepherd of Bethlehem, could speak from personal experience of what the shepherd feels for his sheep. He had led his flock through the dark defiles of the rocky fastnesses of Judah, which presented an image of the gloomy valley of the shadow of death, and he experienced in his exile the loving care of hospitable friends, like Barzillai, who spread for him a table in the wilderness, when he fled from Absalom his son (2 Samuel 17:27-29), and his eyes were raised upward from them and their affectionate care, to a loving contemplation of his home and Father in heaven.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 24 A Psalm of David1         The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein. 2    For he hath founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods. 3    Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?Or who shall stand in his holy place? 4    He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart, Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, Nor sworn deceitfully. 5    He shall receive the blessing from the Lord,And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6    This is the generation of them that seek him, That seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. 7    Lift up your heads, O ye gates; And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; And the King of glory shall come in. 8    Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle, 9    Lift up your heads, O ye gates; Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; And the King of glory shall come in. 10    Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah. AND Its Contents and Composition.—According to the tradition of the Talmud this Psalm was sung in the temple every Sunday morning during the presentation of the wine offering, and indeed with reference to the history of the Creation. The addition to the title made by the Septuagint, τῆςμιᾶςσαββάτου, corresponds with this. The Church likewise finds it appropriate to use this Psalm on Sundays, as well as at Advent and at the consecration of churches. For unless we would divide the Psalm into two entirely different Psalms (Ewald, Olsh.), the celebration of the entrance of Jehovah into the Holy Place of His gracious presence stands out as the prevailing thought of the whole, which has its essential meaning in the statement of the characteristics of this God and His worshippers. Among these, the all-embracing moral and historical nature of these relations, advancing from victory to victory, is rendered most conspicuous as the decisive characteristic. In this consists the richness of the application of this Psalm, without its thereby being typical (Geier, Stier, Hengst.), or indeed Messianic (Seb. Schmidt, J. H. Mich.). Moreover it is not to be regarded as a free clothing of an idea with general reference to the temple (Hupf.), as instruction and exhortation to the citizens of Zion (Venema), or as a song of dedication composed by David for future use after the example of Psalms 15., after that the place for the future temple had been pointed out to him by a revelation, 1 Chronicles 21:22 (the Rabbins, Rudinger, Rosenm., Stier). Moreover, it is entirely unnecessary to regard the doors and gates Psalms 24:7 sq., as those of the stone temple, and then to think of the dedication of the temple of Solomon (De Wette). It may properly be referred to the very ancient citadel of Zion, and the occasion for its composition by David may be found in the removal of the Ark of the Covenant by David from Kirjath Jearim to Mt. Zion (Grotius and most interpreters). Then David had it placed in a tent set up especially for it after his victorious expeditions (2 Samuel 6:17; comp. 2 Samuel 11:11; 1 Kings 1:39), whilst the Mosaic tent remained at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 21:29; 1 Chronicles 16:39), and only afterwards was put with its vessels in the temple of Solomon (1 Kings 8:4). The points of contact with Jeremiah in the language of the expressions (Hitzig) are only of a very general and indefinite kind, and the relation between Psalms 24:3-4 of this Psalm and Psalms 15. is not a mere copy. The tone which passes over from the didactic to the hymnic and almost dramatic character, has often led to the supposition of choruses (Rosenm., Tholuck). whose responses Delitzsch puts at first below at the foot of Mt. Zion (Psalms 24:1-6), and then above at the citadel of Zion, and both interrupted and enriched by solo verses.Str. I. Psalms 24:1. Its fulness, denotes first and properly its inhabitants (Deuteronomy 33:16; Psalms 50:12; Psalms 89:11; comp. Amos 6:8; Psalms 96:11; Psalms 98:7), but allows likewise a wider conception, which is applied by the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 10:26, with reference to the eating of flesh. Psalms 24:2. The earth, especially the orb of the earth (Isaiah 40:22), is partly designated as bounded and surrounded by the ocean (Proverbs 8:27), so that the orb of the heavens rests upon it (Job 22:14; Job 26:10), partly as having gone forth out of the water (Genesis 1:9) and firmly established (Psalms 136:6; comp. Psalms 104:5 sq.) by Divine Omnipotence upon the unstable and fluctuating waters (Jonah 2:4), so that the source of the great flood (Genesis 7:11) and waters under the earth (Exodus 20:4) are mentioned significantly together with the heavens and earth. The waters, however, are not the foundations which essentially support the earth. Such a foundation is the Omnipotence of God (Job 38:6), who has hung the earth on nothing (Job 26:7); as then the Abyss and the deepest world below, are beneath the waters (Job 26:6). It is accordingly inadmissible to deviate from the usual meaning of ΰl with words of founding and establishing and to accept here the meaning of by, at (Luther after the Rabbins), or over (Calvin, Geier, Hengst.). [Str. II. Psalms 24:3. Ascend into the hill of Jehovah.—Hupfeld: “This indicates primarily visiting the sanctuary (Temple), but it is borrowed from visiting a human house or tent, as a guest and having the privilege of a guest therein, like Psalms 15:1, ‘dwell in Thy holy hill,’ and ‘be a guest in Thy tent;’ the futures are to be understood here in the same way as there.”—Stand in His holy place.—This is used of the privilege of the guest of God and refers primarily to the privilege of the priests and Levites, and thence in a spiritual sense to the whole people as a nation of priests to the Lord. Both these expressions are used of access to the sanctuary of the holy place of the ark, which might not only be said of Zion but likewise of Shiloh and wherever else the ark of the covenant rested.—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 24:4. [Clean hands, with special reference to touching sacred things and with a probable reference to the unclean hands of Uzzah.—C. A. B.].—Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity.—This clause is parallel to the following one, and expresses the efforts and strivings of the soul, which correspond with the false oaths and internally precede and accompany them. It is unnecessary, therefore, to regard the general expression in this clause, particularly as falsehood (Syr., Chald.), or false doctrine (Luther), or as idolatry in a rough sense (Seb. Schmidt), or in a nicer sense (Stier), although it designates the vain and frivolous in general, and therefore in a special case might naturally have a more specific reference and meaning.—The Syr. and Chald. at the same time put swear at once in place of lift up; and whilst the latter paraphrases, to the guilt of the soul, the former seems, by its translation “by his soul,” to have thought of the well-known formula of oaths, which, however, was only used by Jehovah (Amos 6:8; Jeremiah 51:14). The Rabbins, with express reference to this and at the same time to the prohibition Exodus 20:7, prefer the reading “my soul,” which is very unusual and has very little support. This would be put instead of “my name,” because God Himself speaks here, or the soul is a paraphrase of the person (Stange). [Psalms 24:5. Blessing refers to the blessing of Obed Edom and his house.—Righteousness.—Delitzsch: “This is the righteousness of God after which even the righteous, but not the self-righteous, hunger and thirst, that moral perfection which is the restored and realized image of God: transfiguration into the image of the Holy One Himself.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 24:6. Such (is) the generation of them that seek after Him, that seek Thy face.—Jacob.—[Those who seek after God, who desire to ascend into the hill of Jehovah, stand in His holy place and see His face, are such persons as those just described—they constitute a generation, a race, and that generation bears the historical name of Jacob.—C. A. B.]. Jacob is either the summary of the preceding predicates in the historical definition. Isaiah 44:1-2 (most interpreters at the same time with an emphatic sense), or the vocative God which preceded it has been left off (Flamin., Vogel, Ewald, Olsh., Hupf. [Perowne]), which is the reading of 2 codd., Kennic, Sept. and Pesch. For the translation “In Jacob” (Vatabl., Cleric.) is grammatically inadmissible; and to supply “are,” before Jacob (Hengst. [Alexander]), with the supposition of an independent clause parallel with the former member of the verse and in an explanatory sense, is connected with premises and distinctions that are untenable. Str. IV. Psalms 24:7.Lift up your heads, ye gates.—Some, not understanding the poetry of the expression (Geier, Cleric, Venema) have referred the “heads” directly to the lintels of the gates; others (Flamin.) have referred to the guards of the gates of heaven and its inhabitants, with a Messianic interpretation of the Psalm of the ascension of Christ, whilst the majority emphasize too much the figurative language (Vatabl., Geier, Schmidt, J. H. Mich.), and think of the entrance of God into the heart of men, or indeed expressly reject the reference to the ark of the covenant.—Lift yourselves, ye primeval doors.—Those who think of the temple rather than the citadel of Zion translate, “everlasting doors” [A. V.]. But then it certainly does not mean the firm seat after long wanderings (Kimchi, Rosenm.), but the dwelling of the Eternal (1 Kings 8:13), abiding forever (Psalms 132:14) (Calvin, Hupf., Hitzig). We cannot think of doors in the world (Luther), because σlam gains the meaning of “world” only after the completion of the canon of the Old Testament, but elsewhere refers now backwards to primeval times (Genesis 49:26; Isaiah 58:12), and now forward into eternity.—King of glory.—The ark of the covenant might not only “bear the name of Jehovah” (2 Samuel 6:2) as the throne of God, but likewise be addressed as Jehovah (Numbers 10:35 sq.), and as Jehovah be named the glory (1 Samuel 4:21 sq.), on which account there is likewise ascribed to it the warlike attributes which God has as the chieftain of His people (Numbers 21:4; Psalms 68., et al.). Str. V. Psalms 24:8. These warlike attributes (Exodus 15:3; Isaiah 43:17) are here strongly emphasized without compelling us to think of the bringing back of the ark of the covenant after the conclusion of a successful war (De Wette), or of the contrast between Israel and heathen nations (Hitzig).—[Mighty in battle.—Alexander: “The word translated mighty, although properly an adjective, is constantly used as a noun substantive, and is the nearest equivalent in Hebrew to the classical term hero. But the simple majesty of David’s language would be marred in translation by the use of this word, and still more by that of the combination, martial or military hero, in the other clauses. The idea both in this and other places is borrowed from the Song of Moses, Exodus 15:3, and recalls all those victories which Jehovah had given to His people—the warlike expeditions with the ark during the wanderings in the wilderness, the crossing of the Jordan, the conquest of Jericho, etc., and then last of all Jehovah’s vindication of His ark after it had been abandoned by His people and left to their enemies.”—C. A. B.] Str. VI. Psalms 24:10. Who is he then, the King of glory?—The question already in Psalms 24:8 was strengthened by ζֶ ?δ, which here, as Psalms 25:12, et al., is to be taken adverbially. Now when repeated here it is strengthened still more by the insertion of the pronoun δεּ ?ΰ, which points back to the reference already mentioned and strongly emphasized the subject.—Jehovah Sabaoth [A. V., Lord of hosts].—The choice of this name of God (an abbreviated form of Jehovah Elohe Sabaoth, Amos 3:13, et al.), which had become usual during the period of the kings, is without doubt connected with the use of warlike attributes in the preceding verses, but likewise, without doubt, not only=God of war (Kφster), or God of the battle array of Israel (1 Samuel 17:45; comp. Numbers 21:4; Joshua 4:9), although the form Sabaoth used alone, Numbers 1:3; Numbers 1:52; Deuteronomy 20:9; 1 Kings 2:5; 1 Chronicles 27:3, always means real hosts; but with respect to the beginning of the Psalm alludes to the comprehensive sense, which the Sept. renders by παντοκράτωρ. The justification of this rendering is found in Genesis 2:1, and in the general meaning of Saba=agmen; comp. Jeremiah 3:19. It is not allowable to limit the expression to the “hosts of heaven,” which comprehend partly that host mustered by Jehovah (Isaiah 40:26), the hosts of stars (Jeremiah 33:22; Psalms 147:4), partly the hosts or angels, which in ranks (Joshua 5:14) surround the throne of God (1 Kings 22:19; Psalms 103:21; Psalms 148:2). For in all these cases either the singular is used or, as Psalms 103:21, the plural masculine. [Delitzsch: “The gates now become silent and open themselves and Jehovah enters Zion, throned above the cherubim of the holy ark.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The God of Israel is not merely a God of the family, tribe and nation, but He is rather the Lord and Creator of the entire world; and He would not have this obscured or suppressed, after He has entered into a special relation with Israel by gracious condescension in behalf of the historical execution of His eternal counsels of salvation and thoughts of peace; but He would have it recognized and praised. A writer of the Talmud derives from Psalms 24:1 the duty of asking the blessing at the table, and Basil answered the Emperor Valens with it when threatened with banishment. 2. The members of His covenant people are to keep constantly before their eyes and take to heart not only His power and exaltation above all creatures, but His holiness as the true majesty and glory of His morally perfect nature. For from the beginning of the world there have been those “who served God without heart, without grace, without spirit, and merely with external works, ordinances, offerings and ceremonies and the like. As Cain offered to God his gifts, yet withheld his heart and his person” (Luther). 3. He who would truly draw near to the holy God, truly have communion with Him, remain constantly near Him and receive and retain the blessings of this covenant must not be as the hypocrite and as “proud saints,” but “he alone is such who has this one thing in himself, that he is pure internally and externally” (Luther). We should be reminded of this by every walk to the house of God, every Divine service, every use of the means of grace, and especially by that feast which announces and celebrates the coming of the Lord. For God would not only be among us, but would dwell in us, and walk in us, and as our God have His law in our hearts (Jeremiah 24:7; Jeremiah 31:33). 4. The institutions and means of salvation of this covenant which are provided with especial power and fulness of blessing serve to give us this loving view of the Almighty and Holy God. But they do not work salvation in every one without exception that engages in them, but are in an internal and essential relation to the moral nature of those who use them, as well as the holy nature of Him who has instituted them; and they work miracles, it is true, in accordance with this, but not as magical means, or by the mere use, but as means of grace according to the order of salvation. 5. We must distinguish the righteousness which as a gift of God accomplishes the transformation of the man, who has been taken into favor, into the likeness of God, and his renewal and transfiguration into the image of God, and which presupposes sanctification, from that righteousness which is imputed by the judgment of God as the justification of the sinner and precedes sanctification. The true posterity of Jacob consist of such men (Isaiah 44:2). 6. The opening, elevation and widening of the gates of entrance correspond with the glory of the Almighty Ruler who enters in, upon whose command an innumerable host attend. The application of this to the spiritual life, demanding that all hindrances, limitations and restraints should be removed, is to render easy the reception of the Lord by referring to the fact that against such a Lord, who has long since shown Himself to be a strong and victorious hero, every resistance is as foolish as it is vain, whilst the worthy reception of Him is at the same time both fitting and salutary. “The honorary titles, by which the Psalmist here extols God’s power, have the design of showing to the covenant people that God does not sit idly in His temple, but is ready to help His people and to stretch out His strong hand to defend their salvation” (Calvin).—“He names the doors everlasting, because the human heart is immortal and will always be a door into which God may enter” (Luther). AND The glory of God: 1) as the Almighty Creator of all things; 2) as the victorious Lord of the world; 3) as the holy and helping King of His covenant people.—The condescension of God to His people is as great as His exaltation above all the world.—When God the Lord would have His entrance, He announces His coming and demands open doors.—God has His people on earth and among them the institutions of salvation and the means of His grace; but He likewise sees to it, how His people is constituted, how His institutions are used, how His means are employed.—God requires of those who desire to commune with Him threefold purity: 1) of hand (of works); 2) of heart (thoughts); 3) of mouth (words).—It is fruitless to visit the house of God, unless we take away with us the blessing of God and obtain the gift of righteousness from the God of salvation.—Because all things belong to God the Lord as His work, we ought to consecrate them to Him as His property and sanctify ourselves particularly as His people.—In the service of God we have protection against all enemies and power of victory over the entire world.—He who inquires after God and seeks His countenance, will experience to His salvation that God is already on the way to visit him.—It is more difficult to remain before the face of God than to come before Him; but it is a characteristic of the truly pious that they seek both.Starke: If God does not let the little lump of earth sink in the abyss of the sea and be swallowed up in the great waters, He surely will be able to preserve His Church amidst all the storms and waves of the kingdom of darkness.—Many men inquire after the way to heaven; but they do not like to tread it or to travel it.—There is always a difference between the world and the Church in the world, between God’s places and the devil’s places, and that difference is diligence in sanctification.—Examine yourself whether you are a subject of the King of glory; the mere outer confession does not suffice; that must be accompanied by indubitable marks of faith.—The surest mark of the true Church is the disposition of Jacob, struggling and striving for the blessing and righteousness from the God of our salvation.—He who takes a great deal with him, cannot enter in through a narrow gate; Christ comes to us with many heavenly blessings, therefore the doors must be made wide and opened for His entrance.—Calvin: Since God’s house is holy, the desecration and abuse of those who unrighteously press into it, are nothing but a violation of it.—Osiander: The earth is the Lord’s; He can provide for us and sustain us wherever we may be.—Frisch: All your burden of care is nothing when compared with the globe, and yet your Almighty God sustains that. All your troubles are nothing when compared with the waves of the stormy sea, and yet the Lord has set bounds even to them.—Herberger: The earth is the Lord’s; therefore it is good everywhere on earth: 1) to dwell, 2) to pray, and 3) to die.—Shut to the devil, open to Christ, so will the King of glory enter into you—Tholuck: We should regard our worship of God not so much as a duty, but rather as a grace bestowed upon us.—It is the warlike God, who has gained the victories which are in the remembrance of all.—Von Gerlach: When the Lord would make an entrance and take up His abode, the entire world is too small; His advent transforms it. [Matth. Henry: When God gave the earth to the children of men, He still reserved to Himself the property, and only let it out to them as tenants.—All the parts and regions of the earth are the Lord’s, all under His eye, all in His hand, so that wherever a child of God goes he may comfort himself with this, that he doth not go off his Father’s ground.—This is a good reason why we should be content with our allotment in this world, and not envy others their’s; “the earth is the Lord’s,” and may He not do what He will with His own, and give to some more of it, to others less, as it pleaseth Him?—Barnes: God will not regard one who is living in wickedness as a righteous man, nor will He admit such a man to His favor here, or to His dwelling-place hereafter.—Spurgeon: Providence and Creation are the two legal seals upon the title deeds of the great Owner of all things. He who built the house and bears up its foundation has surely a first claim upon it.—What monarch would have servants with filthy hands to wait at his table? They who were ceremonially unclean could not enter into the Lord’s house which was made with hands, much less shall the morally defiled be allowed to enjoy spiritual fellowship with a holy God.—True religion is heart work.—There must be a work of grace in the core of the heart as well as in the palm of the hand, or our religion is a delusion.—False speaking will shut any man out of heaven, for a liar shall not enter into God’s house, whatever may be his professions or doings. God will have nothing to do with liars, except to cast them into the lake of fire. Every liar is a child of the devil, and will be sent home to his father.—God first gives us good works and then rewards us for them.—To desire communion with God is a purifying thing.—All true glory is concentrated upon the true God, for all other glory is but a passing pageant, the painted pomp of an hour.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [The two parts of this Psalm are sharply divided, but this does not justify Ewald in regarding them as different Psalms. Delitzsch is more correct in regarding the first part as sung at the foot of the mountain and the other part above at the citadel, but it seems better to regard the first part of the Psalm as composed for and sung when the festival procession halted before the house of Obed Edom, and the second part at their appearance before the gates of Zion. The first part expresses the feelings of David and the people in the presence of that holy ark which had chastised the rebellious Israelite, vindicated its sanctity among the Philistines, smitten the men of Beth Shemesh (1 Samuel 6:19 sq.), and the unwary Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:6). Psalms 24:1-2 is a general chorus of praise of the God of the whole earth. Psalms 24:3 is the inquiry, perhaps of a single voice, who shall approach this holy ark? The place and the hill where it rested was, for the time being, the holy place and the holy hill. Zion could not be this, as Ewald contends, until the ark had been established there. Psalms 24:4-5 give the response, perhaps likewise by a single voice: He that hath clean hands alone dare touch the ark; he that is pure in heart, alone may enter into that sacred place; he alone will receive the blessing of Obed Edem and his house. Comp. the words of the men of Beth Shemesh: “Who is able to stand before the holy Lord God?” (1 Samuel 6:20), of David, “How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Samuel 6:9). Psalms 24:6 is the voice of the general chorus. This is a generation seeking Jehovah’s face, it is Jacob. The second part was sung at the gates of Zion. Psalms 24:7 is a general chorus of the triumphal procession, calling upon the city to open its gates to Jehovah. Psalms 24:8 is the question of a single voice upon the walls: Who is this King of glory? Psalms 24:9 is the response of a single voice, reciting the characteristics of this King of glory. In Psalms 24:10 the general chorus takes up the question with emphasis and replies with a triumphal strain, closing the Psalm.—C. A. B.] [Ewald: “A new king is about to enter the ancient and venerable city, and indeed the highest and mightiest conceivable, Jehovah Himself, enthroned upon the Ark of the Covenant. Such a King has never entered this city, and the grey gates, although venerable with age, are too small and mean for Him (for the height of the gates must correspond with the dignity of the Lord who enters them, so that at times gates of extraordinary size were built, comp. Proverbs 17:19; Journ. as., 1856, II., p. 479; Munzinger’s Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 328, 5 sq.). Those who accompany the new King call to them from a distance to lift up themselves and become young again.’—C. A. B.] [Thomson’s Land and the Book, p. 244, refers to the ancient manner of lifting up the gates instead of opening them, as at present.—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch: “The cry, ‘lift up your heads, ye gates,’ has essentially the same meaning as the voice of the cry in Isaiah 40:3 : ‘prepare the way of Jehovah, level in the wilderness a highway for our God.’ ”—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “When David uttered these words with prophetic inspiration, and when he beheld the Ark of the Lord’s presence going up, and passing through the gates of the hill of Zion to the Sanctuary prepared for it; when he saw that same Ark going up thither, which had led the people of Israel to victory from Mount Sinai through the wilderness, and across the river Jordan, whose waters fled at its presence, and had brought them into Canaan; and at the power of which, when it had compassed the city seven days, the walls of Jericho fell down, and before which the gods of Philistia fell prostrate on the ground—when David meditated on this triumphal progress of the Ark of God, a march continued for more than four centuries, from Sinai to Sion—surely, he may be supposed to have been transported by the Spirit in a heavenly rapture, and to have beheld the glorious consummation which was foreshadowed by all these triumphs; namely, the victory of the Lord Christ, whom he salutes as Lord of Host, over all the power of Satan, and His triumphal ascent into His capital city, the heavenly city, and the exaltation of the Ark of His Church, in which His presence and power dwell.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 25 A Psalm of David1         Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 2    O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, Let not mine enemies triumph over me. 3    Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. 4    Shew me thy ways, O Lord;Teach me thy paths. 5    Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: For thou art the God of my salvation; On thee do I wait all the day. 6    Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses; For they have been ever of old. 7    Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to thy mercy remember thou me, For thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.8    Good and upright is the Lord:Therefore will he teach sinners in the way. 9    The meek will he guide in judgment: And the meek will he teach his way. 10    All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. 11    For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; For it is great. 12    What man is he that feareth the Lord?Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. 13    His soul shall dwell at ease; And his seed shall inherit the earth. 14    The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; And he will shew them his covenant. 15    Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord;For he shall pluck my feet out of the net. 16    Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; For I am desolate and afflicted. 17    The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. 18    Look upon mine affliction and my pain; And forgive all my sins. 19    Consider mine enemies; for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred. 20    O keep my soul, and deliver me: Let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee. 21    Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; For I wait on thee. 22    Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles. AND Its Form and Contents.—This is one of the nine alphabetical Psalms, resembling in most respects Psalms 34.; for in both Psalms the strophe with ε is missing, both have an additional strophe with τ and resemble one another in thought and expression in corresponding strophes. It is uncertain whether some inaccuracies (the absence of the χ and the use of ψ twice) are due to the author or the copyist, since they are easily obviated, as in Psalms 25:2. There is not the least occasion for the supposition of a subsequent addition of a closing strophe (Rosenm.). The alphabetical form is regarded by many, without reason, as a subsequent refinement. There is nothing to favor this but the loose connection of the clauses. Yet there is not perceptible here a mere wreath of prayers, which have been gathered together by an alphabetical arrangement of current proverbs, but there is an advance in the different phases of the fundamental thought that God helps the pious. For the Psalmist turns to Jehovah in prayer (Psalms 25:1), and bases his trust in God’s help against his enemies (Psalms 25:2) on the general experience of the Divine treatment of those who trust in God and those who are faithless (Psalms 25:3). Therefore he prays for instruction and guidance in the ways of Jehovah, the God of his salvation, in whom he trusts (Psalms 25:4-5), and this mercy which has been shown to men from of old, he now implores (Psalms 25:6), with confession of sin (Psalms 25:7), and with an appeal to the nature of God, and His dealings, which have originated from His nature (Psalms 25:8-9), with sinners and the wretched, as well as with those who observe His law (Psalms 25:10). And he refers back to his personal needs (Psalms 25:11), the satisfaction of which is confidently expected, since he has the necessary prerequisites and conditions (Psalms 25:12-15). The importunate prayer for immediate help rises on this foundation in connection with all the motives previously adduced (Psalms 25:16-21) and ends with the closing sigh for the deliverance of all the people from all their needs (Psalms 25:22).—Even this turn of thought does not necessarily lead to a later period of composition. On the other hand the individual features are not concrete enough, to refer them directly to historical events in the life of David.—This Psalm has especial significance to the Church from the fact that the name of the 2d Sunday in Lent has originated from the Latin word which begins Psalms 25:6 [Reminiscere Sunday], the name of the 3d Sunday from Psalms 25:15 [Oculi]; and that Selnekker’s dying hymn, “Allein nach dir, Herr Jesu Christ.” has originated from Psalms 25:1, and the whole Psalm has been given in Gerhardt’s hymn. “Nach dir, o Golt, verlanget mich.” [Str. I. Psalms 25:1. Unto Thee, Jehovah.—Perowne: “This is emphatic, not to any false god, or to any human deliverer. Similarly Psalms 25:2; Psalms 25:5.”—Do I lift up my soul.—Delitzsch: “In need of help and longing for salvation he lifts his soul, withdrawn from all earthly desires, to Jehovah; the God who alone can grant that which truly satisfies. His Ego, which has the soul in itself, gives to it the direction upward to Him, whom he names ‘my God’ [Psalms 25:2], because he cleaves fast to Him and is united to Him in the confidence of faith.” Psalms 25:3. Yea, none that wait on Thee shall be ashamed.—Perowne: “The writer passes from the optative, with ΰַ ?μ (μή), Psalms 25:2, to the future, with μֹ ?ΰ (ὄυ). He here expresses not so much a general truth as his own individual conviction, and includes tacitly himself in the number of those who thus hope. The Sept. is mistaken, in returning, in the second clause of the verse, to the optative [So A. V.]. For the sentiment, comp. Romans 5:5, ἡ δὲ ἐλπὶςὀυκαταισχύναι.”—Delitzsch: “Hope is the eye of faith, which looks clearly and fixedly into the future.”—Ashamed shall be the traitors without cause.—Alexander: “The position of the verbs, at the end and the beginning of the successive clauses, give a peculiar turn to the sentence, which is lost in some translations.—Without cause qualifies the word immediately preceding, and describes the enemy not only as perfidious, but as acting so gratuitously and without provocation.”—C. A. B.] [Str. II. Psalms 25:4. Thy ways, Jehovah, make me to know.—Barnes: “The ‘ways’ of God are His methods of administering the affairs of the world; His dispensations; the rules which He has prescribed for Himself in the execution of His plans; the great laws by which He governs the universe.” Psalms 25:5. Lead me in Thy truth.—Alexander: “The obvious meaning of this verse, interpreted according to New Testament and modern usage, would be that of prayer for Divine instruction in religious truth or doctrine. But the usage of the Psalms, and the preceding context, are in favor of explaining truth to mean the veracity of God, or the faithful performance of His promises. See Psalms 30:9; Psalms 71:22; Psalms 91:4. The teaching asked is then experimental teaching or the actual experience of God’s faithfulness.”—God of my salvation—Barnes: “The word salvation is not to be understood here in the sense in which it is now commonly used, as denoting deliverance from sin and future ruin, but in the more general sense of deliverance—deliverance from danger and death.”—C. A. B.] [Str. III. Psalms 25:6. For from everlasting are they.—Hupfeld: “The grace of God is often thus designated, e.g.Psalms 100:5; Psalms 103:17, especially in the refrain which has become a formula, ‘for His mercy endureth forever,’ Psalms 136, et al. The remembrance of this and appeal to this is especially appropriate in times of trouble, when ‘God hides His face’ and seems to have forgotten His suppliant.” Psalms 25:7. The sins of my youth and my transgressions.—Hupfeld: “Sins of youth, because youth, as the time of hot sensuousness and passion, is especially inclined to such errors as those designated by ηθּ ?ΰεϊ, whilst the τωׁ ?ςιν are more appropriate to the cold and reflective age of manhood.” “The mention of both together, that is, the sins of youth and manhood, shows that in praying for forgiveness he thinks not only of the more recent sins, but is conscious of having heaped sin upon sin from the earliest times, and he bows under this burden (Calvin).”—C. A. B.] [Str. IV. Psalms 25:9. He will guide the humble,etc.—Alexander: “The common version of ςπειν, meek, is too restricted and descriptive of mere temper. The Hebrew word is the nearest equivalent to humble in its strong religious sense. The omission of the article may be explained as a poetic license, and the word translated the humble so as to include the whole class. But the intimate connection between this verse and the one before it makes it more natural to take ςπειν as a description of the sinners mentioned in Psalms 25:8, who are then of course to be regarded as penitent, believing sinners, i.e. as true converts.”—C. A. B.] [Str. V. Psalms 25:10. Grace and truth.—Delitzsch: “These paths are ηֶ ?ρֶ ?γ, for the salvation of men is their end, and ΰֱ ?ξֶ ?ϊ, for they confirm at every step the reliability of His promises. But only those who were true and obedient to His covenant and testimonies, were partakers of such grace and truth. The name of Jehovah, which unfolds in grace and truth, is dear to the Psalmist.”—C. A. B.] Str. VI. [Psalms 25:12. The way that he should choose (A. V., shall choose.).—This is the rendering of Moll, Hupf., Perowne, et al., and is better. Luther, followed by Ewald, translates, “den beaten Weg.” Psalms 25:13. His soul shall dwell in good (A. V., at ease).—Perowne: “Literally, ‘to pass the night,’ but used in the more extended sense as in Psalms 49:12; Psalms 91:1; Proverbs 19:23.”—Alexander: “In good, not goodness, but good fortune or prosperity.”—His seed shall possess the land.—Alexander: “The verb translated shall possess, denotes specifically to inherit or possess as an inheritance, i.e. from generation to generation, in perpetual succession.—The land, to wit, the land of Canaan; and as this was the standing promise of the law, uttered even in the decalogue (Exodus 20:12), it became a formula for all the blessings implicitly embraced in the promise of Canaan to the ancient Israel, and is so used even by our Lord Himself (Matthew 5:5).”—C. A. B.] Psalms 25:14. The friendship of Jehovah.—The Hebrew word ρεֹ ?γ, sτd, which is very obscure in its etymology, has this meaning Proverbs 3:22; Job 29:4. [So Alexander and Barnes. Hupfeld renders friendship, but gives secret in the margin.—C. A. B.]. Others, after Theodot., prefer the meaning, secret [A. V., so also Delitzsch and Perowne.—C. A. B.], because in intimate association, Psalms 55:14 sq., there is a free expression and sharing of secrets (Job 19:19). Symmach. renders it ὁμιλία; Aquil. ἀπόῥῥητον, after the meaning which became usual only afterwards; Sept. κραταίωμα (Vulg. firmamentum), confounding it with ιְ ?ρεֹ ?γ[Psalms 25:15. My eyes ever towards Jehovah.—Hupfeld: “We must supply either πωׁ ?ΰϊι, I lift,Psalms 123:1 (comp. Psalms 121:1), or look, as Psalms 33:18. It indicates looking out for help from God, whether in anxiety (comp. Psalms 121:1), or, as here, confidently=with hope and trust in Him.”—From the net.—Alexander: “The figure of a net is a favorite one for dangers arising from the craft and spite of enemies.” Vid.Psalms 9:15; Psalms 10:9.—C. A. B.] Str. VIII. Psalms 25:17. Distresses have extended themselves over my heart.—Since “to enlarge one’s self,” likewise=to add to one’s extent, it is unnecessary to depart from the interpretation which prevailed among all ancient interpreters, of the extending of distresses, which is likewise indicated by the vowel points. Most recent interpreters, however, change the reading by connecting the εּ with the following word, and thus by changing the vowel points get the imperative form harchibh. Thus they gain a complete parallelism with the following member of the verse.[Str. IX. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me.—Delitzsch: “That piety which fills the whole man and not that which divides his heart or is hypocritical, is called ϊֹּ ?ν, and that honesty which goes after the Divine will, without going astray or in crooked ways, is called ιωֶׁ ?ψ—these two fundamental virtues (comp. Job 1:1) he wishes to be the guardians of his way, which is dangerous, not only on account of external enemies, but likewise on account of his own sinfulness: they are not to let him go out of their sight, that he may not withdraw himself from them (comp. Psalms 40:12; Proverbs 20:28). He can claim this for himself, because the object of his hope is God, from whom ϊν and ιωׁ ?ψֹ go forth as good angels.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. Where the soul is really directed towards God, it is full of seeking for help and longing for salvation. In this is the warrant of deliverance, as the conditions of salvation and the certainty of answer to prayer, consist in trust in God, which does not ask that God should make this special case an exception, but rather relies upon the sureness and faithfulness of God, which are manifested and proved in His government, which is always the same, in the deliverance of the pious, and the punishment of the faithless, who break the covenant without cause. 2. It is necessary, on this account, to walk in the ways of God and pray for enlightenment and guidance, because His ways are grace and truth (Psalms 25:10; comp. Psalms 26:3; Psalms 86:11; John 1:17). Accordingly they cannot be known or found without God, neither can any one walk in them or remain in them without Him. Yet those who hope continually and uninterruptedly in God may expect such gracious help from the God of salvation.3. However, we must not only pray for assisting grace, but likewise for pardoning mercy. For we may say on the one hand: “Because our sins set up a partition between us and God, so that He does not hear our wishes, or stretch forth His hand to help us, David now takes this hindrance away; he confesses that he cannot share in the grace of God except by having his sins blotted out” (Calvin). On the other hand, the forgiveness of sins is that declaration of Divine grace by which the mercy of God has from the earliest times been historically made known to sinners as proper to the being of God, and which as the expression of His favor and love accomplishes the salvation of men. This the Psalmist claims for himself, on this account, partly by appealing to the remembrance of God; partly by referring to his own personal previous transgressions, particularly to the sins of his youth; for “where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life and blessedness” (Luther); and “if our sins are many, His grace is much more.” 4. Now as sure as the safe direction of sinners and guidance in the right not only come from God, but likewise, as based upon the Being of God, give expression to the excellence of His Being; so, moreover, it is just as sure that it is necessary that there should be a corresponding behaviour on the part of those who would attain the salvation to which grace points and leads, and would experience in themselves the truth, that is, the reliability of the Divine declarations and actions, at every step of the way. It is not the greatness and grievousness of the sins that in themselves exclude from salvation, but the lack of forgiveness of sins when it is neither sought nor found. Therefore we must hold fast to the covenant and testimonies of God. For though they disclose the misery of man, yet they likewise unveil the depths of the Divine mercy, reveal the name of God, whose ways are grace and truth, and offer the means of atonement and forgiveness to those who would use them. Therefore, “this is our Theology, which we pray in the Lord’s prayer; forgive us our debts in order that we may know that we live under grace alone. Grace, moreover, not only takes away sins, but likewise endures them and bears them” (Luther). 5. But all this is said not that we may sin wantonly, but that we may not despair with the knowledge of the greatness and grievousness of our sins, in the feeling of our weakness and our misery, under the chastisements and sufferings which arise from our guilt. It is that we may be comforted by the grace of God, invoke the mercies of the Lord, and lay hold of and use the means of salvation offered in the gracious covenant, in order that we may walk in the right ways pointed out to us. Thus we are to attain that fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of all wisdom, and which finally leads to the friendship of Jehovah and to that love which is the fulfilment of the law (Romans 13:10; comp. Eccl. 13:12). This brings blessings to our own persons and to our posterity (Deuteronomy 5:3; Deuteronomy 11:21). 6. Thus the soul of the pious may at times be overwhelmed with anxiety of heart as with a flood and may feel itself solitary and wretched, especially when the snares in which he has become entangled are about to be drawn together as a net; yet he is never really forsaken and hopeless, so long as he can lift up his eyes to the Lord and bring before God in prayer and supplication the condition of his heart and take refuge against the assaults of all his enemies in faith in the Almighty as His Helper. Oculi mei ad te, oculs ergo tui vicissim ad me; respice in me, ut suspicio in te (Gassiodor). There is an interchange between trust and faithfulness, as between uprightness and salvation.7. Within the covenant of grace the individual feels not only in communion and intercourse with God, but likewise united as a member of the people of the covenant. From his personal needs his individual feeling of pain is enlarged so that he sympathizes with the troubles of the congregation, and from this arises comprehensive love, in like trust in the God of the community and often indeed at the same time in supplication that the general as well as the particular distress may be removed. The prayer has accordingly become intercession, and remains, likewise in this respect, directed to the God of the covenant. It may address Him, moreover, with the universal name of God (Elohim), because it has to do with the Divine help as such. AND We can never do better than: 1) trust the faithfulness of God; 2) look to God’s truth; 3) build on God’s grace.—It is good in trouble to take refuge with God; but it is not enough to implore deliverance from earthly need, we must likewise pray for forgiveness of sins, for the cause of all misery is in sin.—To lift up the soul to God is to begin the lifting of the entire man out of all need.—He who would obtain salvation must walk in the ways of God, but he needs for this Divine instruction and guidance; both he will gain by praying for them as a needy suppliant.—However tar back we may look, we find human sin and Divine mercy; and it is necessary and good for us to be reminded of both in our misery, but likewise to think of this, that God’s mercy extends still farther back and springs from the perfect Being of God.—How it will fare with us, depends finally upon the ways in which we walk.—Those who fear God obtain the friendship of God and an abiding blessing for themselves and their posterity.—There are three things which are most oppressive and often prepare great anxiety of heart: 1) many and unrighteous enemies; 2) many and grievous sins; 3) many and well-deserved troubles. Against this anxiety there is, however, a threefold remedy: 1) trust in the assistance of the Almighty God; 2) the comfort of forgiveness of sins by God’s grace; 3) the prayer for redemption by the God of salvation.—Grace and truth on the part of God, bad and right on the part of men, this is the best meeting, the most powerful blessing, and the surest preserving.—He who would fare well let him remain: 1) walking in the ways of God; 2) holding to the law and testimonies of God; 3) trusting in the name of God.—Let us not forget in our particular troubles the general need, but rather hold in close connection our own personal salvation with the welfare of our people and the congregation of God, and by prayer and intercession bear witness to the communion in which God has placed us, strengthen and enlarge it.—God is the best treasure and the best protection.Starke: The true lifting of the heart to God is the true worship of God in the spirit and the chief power of the life of true faith.—True living hope in God is the sure and only ground of true consolation, by which the spirit rests in God and His promises as a ship at anchor.—The ways and stairs of God are known to no creature so well as to Himself; therefore He can give us the best instruction in them.—It is not enough to be taught of men, we must go to school to God, that is, resign ourselves obediently to the guidance and training of the Holy Spirit.—God would justify sinners, but likewise sanctify them.—God will not lead the strong, who regard themselves as able, but the weak and miserable, who recognize their weakness and inability.—All true penitents regard their sins as great; and all believers regard the name of the Lord, that is, His grace, as still greater.—He who will not fear the Lord, cannot enjoy His gracious guidance in the blessed way.—The blessing of a believer does not die with him, but rests certainly on his posterity, provided that they follow his faith.—The cross has this advantage among others, that we are thereby more occupied with God.—The snares which Satan and the world put about the Christian are innumerable, and, without the assistance of God, unavoidable; therefore it is necessary to watch and pray.—The communion of saints demands that we always include in our prayers the affairs of all the children of God. Luther: If we forget our sins, grace will be little thought of by us (1 Peter 1:9). Moreover, we do not thank God if we forget our sins. Moreover, if we do not thank God, then we feel safe, and are bold to commit grievous sins and blasphemies.—Osiander: The impenitent cannot comfort themselves with Divine help, but the penitent are never to despair of His grace.—The cross and trouble are very good to induce us to leave off sin and lead an honorable life.—It is simple paternal faithfulness, what God does with us poor sinners, although at times it has a different appearance to our mind.—Selnekker: The lamentation of the saints is, half a saint and entirely a sinner. There is now no other counsel than to own and confess our sins and pray for their forgiveness; we are and live under grace.—Renschel: Confess your guilt; trust in God’s mercy; wait with patience; hold fast to the Word, the refuge of the soul; pray always.—Frisch: The praying Psalmist, 1) testifies his faith, a) by longing after God, b) by trust in God; 2) he seeks God’s grace, a) to govern him, b) to forgive him; 3) he praises a) God’s goodness, and b) the welfare of the pious; 4) he implores help, a) for himself, b) for the whole Church.—Herberger: The deeper the source of prayer within the heart, the stronger is its impulse upwards through the clouds of heaven.—If God is your God, then all that God is is yours, His grace, His help, His heaven; therefore you may be glad.—Two kinds of ways belong to Christianity: 1) the thankful way of life and virtue, 2) the right stairway of faith and heaven.—Von Gerlach: Grace and truth are the two stars, which David had constantly in view in his walk.—Tholuck: As fire must be kept up by coals, so the flames of our prayers need constant invigoration by keeping before us the universal truths of our religion, in which we believe.—The way of the fear of God is the best of all ways; by it the soul reaches its true home and takes possession of it forever.—Umbreit: God teaches sinners His way by righteousness and goodness. Righteousness must punish them in order to make known the wickedness of their way; goodness leads them back in contrition and penitence to that which they have renounced in their own wicked wills.—Baihinger: Salvation and happiness from Jehovah are the inseparable companions of the fear of God.—Taube: The ways of God are of two kinds: the one in which He goes to us and with us; and the one in which we must go to Him.—The true desire after God is when His glory draws and your need drives you to Him. [Matth. Henry: Prayer is the ascent of the soul to God; God must be eyed, and the soul employed; sursumcorda,—“up with your hearts,” was anciently used as a call to devotion.—Those are the worst transgressors that sin for sinning’s sake.—If we sincerely desire to know our duty, with a resolution to do it, we need not question, but that God will direct us in it.—It is God’s goodness and not ours, His mercy and not our own merit, that must be our plea for the pardon of sin, and all the good we stand in need of.—The devil leads men blindfold to hell; but God enlightens men’s eyes, sets things before them in a true light, and so leads them to heaven.—They that receive the truth in the love of it, and experience the power of it, best understand the mystery of it.—Sincerity will be our best security in the worst of times.—Integrity and uprightness will be a man’s preservation more than the wealth and honor of the world can be.—In heaven, and in heaven only, will God’s Israel be perfectly redeemed from all troubles.—Barnes: It is always true that we are dependent on God for everything; it is not true that we always feel this.—Religion is not selfish. The mind under the influence of true piety, however intensely it may feel its own trouble, and however earnestly it may pray for deliverance, is not forgetful of the troubles of others; and prayers for their comfort and deliverance are freely mingled with those which the afflicted children of God offer for themselves.—Spurgeon: It is the mark of a true saint that his sorrows remind him of his sins, and his sorrow for sin drives him to his God.—Faith is the cable which binds our boat to the shore, and by pulling at it we draw ourselves to the land; faith unites us to God, and then draws us near to Him. As long as the anchor of faith holds there is no fear in the worst tempest; if that should fail us there would be no hope left.—Suffering enlarges the heart by creating the power to sympathize.—We ought to be grateful for occasional griefs, if they preserve us from chronic hard-heartedness; for of all afflictions, an unkind heart is the worst, it is a plague to its possessor, and a torment to those around him.—If the Lord will only do unto us in the future as in the past, we shall be well content. We seek no change in the Divine action, we only crave that the river of grace may never cease to flow.—Proud of their own wisdom, fools will not learn, and therefore miss their road to heaven, but lowly hearts sit at Jesus’ feet, and find the gate of glory. Blessed teacher! Favored scholar! Divine lesson! My soul, be thou familiar with the whole.—Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord’s commands shall find the Lord’s mercy following them.—We all wish to choose our way; but what a mercy is it when the Lord directs that choice, and makes free-will to be good-will! If we make our will God’s will, God will let us have our will.—Saints have the key of heaven’s hieroglyphics; they can unriddle celestial enigmas. They are initiated into the fellowship of the skies; they have heard words which it is not possible for them to repeat to their fellows.—Blessed is the man to whom sin is more unbearable than disease, he shall not be long before the Lord shall both forgive his iniquity and heal his diseases. Men are slow to see the intimate connection between sin and sorrow, a grace-taught heart alone feels it.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “As God said, Genesis 18:17, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?’ Or the word may mean ‘close and intimate communion,’ in which God makes Himself known to the soul. See Psalms 55:14; Proverbs 3:22; Job 29:4. God alone possesses the truth, for He is the truth, and therefore He alone can impart it, and He impart, it only to them that fear Him.” So Wordsworth: “He sits, as it were, as a guest and friend, and converses familiarly with them. Comp. John 14:23, If any man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him;’ and see Revelation 3:20.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “As the text now stands, we can only render ‘Distresses have enlarged my heart,’ i.e. have made room for themselves, as it were, that they might come in and fill it; or have rushed in like a flood of water, swelling the stream till it overflows its banks, and so spreads itself over a wider surface. Unless, indeed, we take the word in the same meaning as in Psalms 119:32, where to enlarge the heart—to open it to instruction. But that sense is scarcely suitable here. Most modern editors read δώψηιαεּ ?ξξφεχϊּ ?ι (imperat.). The rendering then is: ‘My heart is troubled (i.e. is nothing but troubles, is full of troubles), O set it at liberty! And out of my distresses,’ etc.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 26 A Psalm of David1         Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in my integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide. 2    Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my reins and my heart. 3    For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes: And I have walked in thy truth. 4    I have not sat with vain persons, Neither will I go in with dissemblers. 5    I have hated the congregation of evil doers; And will not sit with the wicked. 6    I will wash mine hands in innocency: So will I compass thine altar, O Lord:7    That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, And tell of all thy wondrous works. 8    Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, And the place where thine honor dwelleth. 9    Gather not my soul with sinners, Nor my life with bloody men. 10    In whose hands is mischief, And their right hand is full of bribes. 11    But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: Redeem me, and be merciful unto me. 12    My foot standeth in an even place: In the congregations will I bless the Lord. AND Its Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist declares not so much his honesty before God connected with prayer for the actual recognition of it, and that be may be distinguished from the ungodly (Hupf.); but he bases his prayer for help (Psalms 26:1; Psalms 26:11), and for preservation from the fate of the wicked (Psalms 26:9), on the government of God which surely does justice to the righteous. This he claims, because he not only is convinced that he personally belongs to the number of the righteous, but in this respect, with entire confidence, puts himself under the Divine judgment internally and externally (Psalms 26:1-2). Yet he does this, not in the sense of self-righteousness and righteousness of works, but with the express confession, that his dependence on the grace (Psalms 26:3 a) and truth (Psalms 26:3 b) of God, constitutes the basis of the position of his heart and life, whereby he has hitherto separated himself from hypocrites and wicked persons (Psalms 26:4-5), and likewise in the future would, in love to the sanctuary of God (Psalms 26:6; Psalms 26:8) remain separate from them. He concludes with an expression of pious confidence and joy, as well with reference to his lot as his conduct (Psalms 26:9; Psalms 26:11), and therefore embracing both sides of the relation (Psalms 26:12). The priestly expressions in Psalms 26:6 sq., do not compel us to the conclusion that the author was a man of the priestly order (Hitzig); they merely attest his priestly disposition, and likewise his intimate acquaintance with the worship of God in the life of Israel, as well as his longing after renewed participation in it, in the holy place of the sanctuary. This is sufficient to lead us to think of the time of the rebellion of Absalom, in connection with David as the author, which has nothing against it; comp. 2 Samuel 15:25.Str. I. Psalms 26:1. Do me justice, for,etc.—According to the mere words we might translate, judge (= prove) me, that. Then Psalms 26:1 would be parallel with Psalms 26:2. But usage decides either for the meaning declare righteous, speak the pious and oppressed free by a judicial sentence; or for the meaning, do justice, in the execution of the sentence, and thus helping, and delivering, and treating the innocent in accordance with justice. The latter meaning is the usual one, when God’s judgment is referred to; here it is made especially appropriate by Psalms 26:11 and the tone of the entire Psalm.—For I have walked in my integrity.—ϊֹּ ?ν (in the full form ϊָּ ?ξִ ?ιν), here connected with the suffix of the first person, in order to emphasize the habitual and personal characteristic, indicates not the perfection of the walk, but the purity of the heart (Genesis 20:5 sq.; 1 Kings 22:34), the honesty and ἁπλότης of the soul, which characteristic is accompanied by an unwavering trust in God.—And in Jehovah have I trusted without wavering. [“Without wavering” is an adverbial clause according to Moll, Delitzsch, Perowne, et al., and not a dependent clause in the future (A. V., therefore I shall not slide) or a clause in the future, expressing confident anticipation (Alexander).—C. A. B.] Psalms 26:2. Since the Psalmist is speaking of the inner man, a prayer to God follows for examination, investigation, searching of the heart and reins.—[Try me, Jehovah, and prove me; assay my reins and my heart.—Alexander: “The first verb is supposed by etymologists to signify, originally, trial by touch, the second by smell, and the third by fire. In usage, however, the second is constantly applied to moral trial or temptation, while the other two are frequently applied to the testing of metals by the touchstone of the furnace. This is indeed the predominant usage of the third verb, which may therefore be represented by the technical metallurgic term assay.” Perowne: “The reins, as the seat of the lower animal passions; the heart, as comprising not only the higher affections, but also the will and the conscience. He thus desires to keep nothing back; he will submit himself to the searching flame of the Great Refiner, that all dross of self-deception may be purged away.”—C. A. B.] The reading adopted by Hengst., φְ ?ψεּ ?τָ ?δ, refined that is, verified, found pure and genuine, is not appropriate to the context. The kethibhφְ ?ψεֹ ?τָּ ?δ is to be retained, which is an unusual imperative form, the usual φָ ?ψְ ?τָ ?δ being lengthened by the ε and accordingly receiving the tone. Forms entirely parallel with this are found, Judges 9:8; Judges 9:12; 1 Samuel 28:8; Psalms 38:21; Isaiah 18:4. [Psalms 26:3. For Thy grace is before my eyes, and I walk in Thy truth.—Delitzsch: “God’s grace is his aim, the delight of his eyes, and he walks in God’s truth. ηֶ ?ρֶ ?γ is the Divine love condescending to His creatures, especially to sinners, in undeserved advances, ΰֱ ?ξֶ ?ϊ the truth with which God maintains the will of His love, and the Word of His promise, and executes them. This kindness of God has been constantly the model of his life, this truth of God the rule and limitation of his walk.”—C. A. B.] [Str. II. Psalms 26:4. Men of falsehood.—So Moll., Hupf., Alexander, et al. Alexander: = “Liars and deceivers, which appears to suit the context better than the wider sense of vain men (A. V.), i.e., destitute of moral goodness, good for nothing, worthless. The same class of persons are described in the last clause as masked, disguised, or hypocritical.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 26:6. I wash my hands in innocency.—Originally this was a symbolical action connected with a rite of atonement, to declare innocency of a murder (Deuteronomy 21:6 sq.; Matthew 27:24); then in general a figure of speech to attest innocent conduct and warranted purity (Job 9:30; Psalms 73:13; Ezekiel 36:25); here the more appropriate, as there is directly a reference to an entrance into the sanctuary, which was in ancient times always preceded by lustrations. Comp. the action of the priests who were to wash themselves before performing their service, Exodus 30:20 sq.—And would compass Thine altar.—Olshausen and Delitzsch regard this clause as optative, but it is rather cohortative [Perowne]. This is not to be understood merely of surrounding = being near as an expression of dependence (Luther), in contrast with the assembly of the ungodly (Hengst.), or as a privilege of the pure and pious (Hupf.), but it is in connection with the loud thanksgiving with which the delivered Psalmist would praise the Lord in the house of God, in the congregation of the pious (Psalms 26:12). Thanksgiving is an offering, hence the mention of the altar. The compassing of the altar, like the washing of the hands, is not to be taken literally. Moreover, there is still less reason for a reference to priestly and Levitical functions, since such a solemn procession about the altar is not mentioned in the Old Testament. [Perowne: “I am disposed to think that the whole passage is figurative and amounts to this, ‘I would fain give myself to Thy service even as Thy priests do,’ just as in Psalms 23:6, he utters the wish to dwell in the house of Jehovah forever.”—C. A. B.] [Psalms 26:8. Alexander: “This verse expresses more directly and literally the idea of Psa 26:6 above, and shows that his compassing the altar was intended to denote his love for the earthly residence of God, the altar being there put for the whole sanctuary, which is here distinctly mentioned. The habitation of Thy house might be understood to mean a residence in it; but the usage of the first noun and the parallelism show that it rather means the place where Thy house dwells, perhaps in allusion to the migratory movements of the ark before the time of David. So too in the last clause, Hebrew usage would admit of the translation, Thy glorious dwelling-place, as in Psalms 20:7 (6); but the use of λָּ ?αεֹ ?γ in the Pentateuch to signify the visible presence of Jehovah (Exodus 24:16; Exodus 40:34-35) seems decisive in favor of explaining it, the place where Thy glory dwells, i.e., where the glorious God is pleased to manifest His presence.” Hupfeld: “This is particularly the Holy of Holies, where the ark of the covenant was the throne of His majesty in its earthly manifestation.”—C. A. B.] [Str. IV. Psalms 26:9. Gather not my soul with sinners.—Wordsworth: “Bind me not up in the same bundle with them, like tares for the fire (Matthew 13:30). The contrast to this is seen in the following Psalm (Psalms 26:10), ‘When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up;’ literally, will gather me to His fold.”—Men of blood.—Alexander: “Literally bloods, i.e., murderers either in the strict sense or by metonymy for sinners of the worst class,” probably the latter. Psalms 26:10. In whose hands is crime.—Alexander: “The word ζִ ?ξָּ ?δ is a very strong one, used in the law to denote specifically acts of gross impurity, but signifying really any wicked act or purpose. The common version mischief is too weak. The last word in the verse denotes especially a judicial bribe (Psalms 15:5), and may be intended to suggest that the whole description has reference to unrighteous rulers, or to wicked men in public office.”—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 26:12. My foot standeth upon the plain, [A. V., even place].—The plain is not a figure of righteousness but of safety. [Perowne: “His prayer has been heard. He is safe. He stands in the open, level table-land, where he has room to move, and where his enemies cannot hem him in, and therefore he fulfils the resolve made before (Psalms 26:7), and publicly pours out his thanksgiving to God.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1.When the walk of a man is the expression of the purity of heart which is his own and inseparable from him, and this purity is accompanied with an unshaken trust in God, then he may confidently make the righteousness of God the foundation of his hope of a favorable turn in his fortunes, and may lay direct claim to it, in order that its holy government may do justice to the innocent in this unrighteous world. In this is expressed not the boldness of self-righteousness, but faith in the righteousness of God, and the confidence of a good conscience. “The righteousness of faith of the Scriptures is not the enemy of righteousness of life, but its mother.” (Hengstenberg). 2. Now he who has no reason to fear the external judgment of God, but rather desires to be protected from his enemies by its operation, must with all the more earnestness let the searching judgment of God execute itself in his own inmost soul, the more emphatically sincere his protestations are, that he has kept himself as far away from false and hypocritical men as from bold and wanton sinners, and that he in future no less than in the past designs to keep, in the congregation of the pious, to the institutions and means of salvation 3. But where piety and righteousness go hand in hand, and the use of the means of grace assists to walk in purity and without punishment, there the prayer may be made with comforted spirit, on the one side for preservation according to God’s righteousness from the fate of those with whom the suppliant has no communion of disposition or walk; on the other side for redemption from all evil by God’s mercy. “It might seem at the first view as an absurd prayer, that God should not involve the righteous in the ruin of the ungodly, but God allows according to His paternal indulgence His own children to make such free expressions of their feelings, in order that their apprehensions may be quieted by the prayer itself. For David, whilst he expresses this wish, places before his eyes the righteous judgment of God, in order to free himself from apprehension and fear, because nothing is more foreign to God than to mix good and evil together” (Calvin). AND good conscience is essentially different from the imagination of self-righteousness, and from the pride of righteousness of works as well in its expressions as in the foundations of the confidence.—He who would walk in the truth of God, must not lose sight of the grace of God.—No one can be better advised than to hold on to God’s people, God’s house, God’s altar.—In the irreproachableness of a walk is shown 1) the purity of piety, and 2) its power.—The righteous may appeal to the righteousness of God, but they can never do without God’s mercy.—True morality and sincere piety condition one another, and are thereby distinguished from legal righteousness.—He who would not share the lot of the ungodly, must not only separate himself from them in disposition; he must also not only remain a stranger to their evil doings; he must not even share their company.—He who allows himself to be judged by God internally, need not fear the punishment of God, and yet daily has to implore redemption and God’s mercy.—It is becoming to no one to have a hierarchical disposition and life. Starke: How beautiful it is, when man can appeal with certainty to God’s judgment, and when his heart does not condemn him. Let every one strive to attain such innocence.—He who is earnest in avoiding sin, let him avoid likewise all that could give opportunity and inducement to sin.—The true worship of God has this sure fruit, that a soul knows the wonders of grace, and thereby is awakened to heartfelt thanks.—He who despises the assemblage of the congregation, what else is to be seen than that he has very little care for the glory of God and his own salvation (Proverbs 13:13).—Not to be involved in the plagues of the ungodly is a great grace of God, since the pious, especially the faint-hearted, are not without sensible pain, as well on account of the assaults of Satan as on account of the wicked judgments of the world.—The hands which gladly take rewards cannot certainly wash in innocency but are instruments of unrighteousness.—With the greatest application to an innocent walk we are not to boast of it before God, but rather to pray for His grace, for before Him there is no living being righteous in and for himself. Luther: I should hate what I cannot love with God.—When now they preach anything that is against God, all love and friendship are gone.—God’s house and assembly are where God’s word is and nowhere else; for there God Himself dwells. Therefore David praises the house of God with so much joy on account of the Word of God.—Arndt: The true Church of God looks not at the visible, and depends not upon the temporal, but seeks the future native land, and has its glory, honor, and riches in heavenly possessions.—Frisch: Be not slothful in attending church, appear there with holy reverence; think why you are there; and do what you have come to do.—Von Gerlach: Where the Lord reveals Himself as graciously near, where He exhibits His glory, where He expressly declares that He will be found, where He puts visible pledges in which He may be known, apprehended and possessed, there the heart and inclination of believers love to be.—Tholuck: In circumstances, where among men no justice is to be found, we learn to properly value the consolation that there is a Judge in heaven above all the judges of earth.—Stiller: The Christian houses of God are houses of thanksgiving, in which the praise of God sounds; they are likewise memorial houses to reflect upon the Divine wonders. [Matth. Henry: It is a comfort to those who are falsely accused that there is a righteous God, who sooner or later will clear up their innocency; and a comfort to all that are sincere in religion that God Himself is a witness to their sincerity:—Great care to avoid bad company is both a good evidence of our integrity, and a good means to preserve us in it.—All who truly love God truly love the ordinances of God, and therefore love them, because in them He manifests His honor, and they have an opportunity of honoring Him.—Barnes: The whole Psalm should lead us carefully to examine the evidences of our piety; to bring before God all that we rely on as proof that we are His friends; and to pray that He will enable us to examine it aright; and when the result is, as it was in the case of the Psalmist—when we can feel that we have reached a level place and found a smooth path, then we should go, as he did, and offer hearty thanks to God that we have reason to believe we are His children, and are heirs of salvation.—Spurgeon: Worried and worn out by the injustice of men, the innocent spirit flies from its false accusers to the throne of the Eternal right.—What a comfort it is to have the approbation of one’s own conscience! If there be peace within the soul, the blustering storms of slander which howl around us are of little consideration. When the little bird in my bosom sings a merry song, it is no matter to me if a thousand owls hoot at me from without.—The doubtful ways of policy are sure sooner or later to give a fall to those who run therein, but the ways of honesty, though often rough, are always safe.—A man who does not hate evil terribly, does not love good heartily.—What God hates we must hate.—Let each reader see well to his company, for such as we keep in this world, we are likely to keep in the next.—Each saint is a witness to Divine faithfulness, and should be ready with his testimony.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “This Psalm has some points of resemblance, both in thought and expression, to the last. Both open with the same declaration of trust in God (Psalms 25:2; Psalms 26:1); in both there is the same prayer that God would redeem (Psalms 25:22; and Psalms 26:11) and be gracious (Psalms 25:16; Psalms 26:11) to His servants. Other points of contact may be found in Psalms 25:21; Psalms 26:11; and Psalms 25:5; Psalms 26:3. There is, however, this marked difference between the two, that there are wanting, in this Psalm, those touching confessions of sinfulness and pleadings for forgiveness which in the other are thrice repeated.”—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch: “ϊּ ?ν is according to Genesis 20:5 sq.; 1 Kings 22:34, entire freedom from sinful intention, unity of character, purity, simplicity (ἀκακία, ἁπλὄτης).”—C. A. B.] Psalms 27 A Psalm of David1         The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? 2    When the wicked, Even mine enemies and my foes, Came upon me to eat up my flesh, They stumbled and fell. 3    Though a host should encamp against me, My heart shall not fear: Though war should rise against me, In this will I be confident. 4    One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord,And to inquire in his temple. 5    For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock. 6    And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.7    Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 8    When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. 9    Hide not thy face far from me; Put not thy servant away in anger: Thou hast been my help; Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. 10    When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take me up. 11    Teach me thy way, O Lord,And lead me in a plain path, Because of mine enemies. 12    Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: For false witnesses are risen up against me, And such as breathe out cruelty. 13    I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. 14    Wait on the Lord:Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: Wait, I say, on the Lord. AND Its Contents and Composition.—The Vulgate has in the Title the additional words: before he was anointed. According to Theodoret this addition was not in the Hexapla of Origen, and is only found in the Codd. Vatic, of the Sept., yet it came into consideration in connection with the question as to the time of composition, for three anointings of David are mentioned, at first 1 Samuel 16, then when acknowledged by the tribe of Judah, 2 Samuel 2:4, finally in connection with the homage of all Israel, 2 Samuel 5:3. No one can think of the first anointing with any propriety, and the historical statements of this Psalm being indefinite, there is no sufficient reason for the second (Grotius), or the third, (Rosenm.) Thus even at the present day those interpreters who maintain the Davidic authorship, without regard to this uncertain title, either think of the period of the persecution by Saul, or the rebellion of Absalom. The latter supposition is supported by many resemblances with Psalms 3, (J. H. Mich., Stier, Delitzsch). There is nothing in favor of the peril of death (Rabbins) mentioned 2 Samuel 21:16, from which David happily escaped; yet we cannot regard Psalms 27:10, as being against this supposition. For the text does not demand that it should be interpreted literally, (Geier) and it has given ancient interpreters unnecessary trouble. Since the dwelling of God is successively called house, palace, tent, we cannot infer any particular period of time, with any certainty; and we need not descend to Jeremiah, who was rejected by his family, and found a refuge in the temple (Hitzig); or indeed to the Maccabean times (Olsh., who at the same time finds here two different Psalms united); or regard it as a general Psalm of lamentation of some Hebrew in later times, (De Wette,) on account of the remarkably high estimation of the splendor of the temple and its forms of worship, in connection with the absence, in other respects, of individual references. It is true the tone and rhythm are very much changed in Psalms 27:7, and subsequently, yet only in accordance with the change of subject as in Psalms 19, and elsewhere, (Hupf.). From the certainty of communion with God springs the fresh and joyous expression of confidence in God’s protection, fearlessness in danger, certainty of victory over strong and numerous enemies (Psalms 27:1-3), connected with the hope of faith in the fulfillment of his dearest and constant wish to be able to offer thank-offerings, as one delivered by God and protected in the shelter of the dwelling of God (Psalms 27:4-6). On this foundation rises the prayer that he may be heard (Psalms 27:7). This is based on the call of God (Psalms 27:8) with reference to the position of the Psalmist as a servant of God in need of help (Psalms 27:9), who trusts in the God of his salvation, even in his greatest abandonment (Psalms 27:10), and hopes in accordance with God’s instruction and under God’s guidance (Psalms 27:11) to escape from violent and lying enemies (Psalms 27:12). He would be lost without such trust (Psalms 27:13); hence he exhorts himself to persevere in it (Psalms 27:14). Comp. P. Gerhardt’s hymn “Gott ist mein Licht, der Herr mein Heil,” and “Ist Gott fόr mich, so trete, etc.”Str. I., Psalms 27:1. Jehovah is my Light.—The supposition, that this address to God, my Light! which occurs only here, is a figurative expression, to be explained through the two following expressions: my salvation and defence of my life! which are not to be regarded as figurative, but as literal (Calv. Hengst. Hupf.), is entirely without foundation. They are three appellatives parallel, yet expressing different relations to God and founded in essential attributes of God. God is just as essentially Light (Isaiah 60:7) as He is salvation and strength, and the one word is no more nor no less figurative than the other, when applied to God.—Defence of my life.—This is literally the stronghold, the bulwark. For ξָ ?ςεֹ ?ζ is to be derived from ςζζ= to be strong, firm; not from ςεּ ?ζ= to flee, according to which etymology (J. D. Mich.) some translate, refuge. [Str. II. Psalms 27:2. When the evil doers drew near to me, To eat up my flesh; My adversaries and my enemies, They stumbled and fell.—The A. V. gives the sense but is not literal, and disorders the members of the strophe. Evil doers are compared to wild beasts approaching their prey, comp. Psalms 14:4; Psalms 35, 1. The third clause is much disputed. Some refer μִ ?ι to the verb, and regard it as parallel with ςָ ?μִ ?ι of the first clause. So, Hitzig, Hengst. Delitzsch, Perowne, Alexander. They therefore render: my adversaries and my enemies to me (draw near, being understood or some other verb supplied). But De Wette, Hupfeld, Moll refer it to the enemies as I have rendered it. The they of the final clause is emphatic, they stumbled and fell.—C. A. B.] [Str. III., Ver 3. A host.—Perowne: “Literally ‘though a camp should encamp against me,’ but the English idiom would hardly admit of such a rendering.”—For all this, do I trust.—Perowne: “So the same expression is rightly rendered in the A. V. of Leviticus 26:27. The fuller form occurs Psalms 78:32; Job 1:22. Cocc, rightly, hoc non obstante, ‘in spite of this,’ and Mendelsohn, ‘Auch dann bleib’ ich getrost’. The Rabbinical commentators, as Aben Ezra and Rashi, explain, ‘In this,’ viz.: that the Lord is my light, etc., Psalms 27:1, ‘do I trust.’ Rosenm. refers the pronoun ‘this’ to the war mentioned just before, ‘even in the battle itself,’ in ipsa pugna. But the first rendering is more forcible.’ ”—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 27:4. That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life.—This is not to be taken literally, or to be explained of the daily visiting the house of God, (most interpreters) especially as even the Levitical priests did not dwell in the temple. It is a figurative expression of the relation to God described above (Hengst., Hupf.). But it did not originate from a mingling of the figure of a hospitable tent with the usual idea of the house of God or temple (Hupf.), but from a prophetical view and longing (vid. Psalms 15:1; Psalms 23:6) which is to take its figurative expression from the sphere of the Levitical worship of God, and yet at the same time is justified in breaking through this sphere and lifting itself above it, the more as attendance upon the house of God (Psalms 5:8), and walking in the ordinances of Divine worship are the means ordained of God for communion with Him.——To behold the favor of Jehovah.—Since ηζδ is not construed with the accusative here, as Psalms 53:2, but with αְּ it denotes a beholding which tarries with the thing, is well pleased with it and feeds upon it, which is an enjoyment in which the loveliness (Psalms 90:17) and the sweetness (Proverbs 16:24) of God are perceived in the experience of His gracious presence. There is no reference to the splendor of the Lord, and it is not allowable to understand by this the splendor of the sanctuary (Luther: the beautiful worship of God), or the heavenly temple, and its arrangements, as its archetype (Kimchi, Aben Ezra, Calv., Geier). The reference is to the favor of God which those are enabled to taste and experience, who have become members of His family, and enjoy as His guests the right of protection within His house. To this the Psalmist’s wish is directed, which he has already previously expressed in prayer (the perfect) and the fulfilment of which he continually seeks (the imperfect), and thus he describes it as anxious, pious and constant.——To meditate in His palace.—[A. V. to inquire in his temple].—Since αִּ ?χֵּ ?ψ denotes looking closely in order to discriminate, and is elsewhere never construed with αְּ, it is more natural to regard this preposition here as a designation of place (Venema), than either to lift the temple with its symbolical forms into an object of pleasing contemplation (De Wette), or to regard the whole manner of expression as entirely parallel with the preceding (Hupf.). It is unnecessary to supply an object (Hengst.); the verb may be absolute = to make reflections, to meditate. Some of the Rabbins regard it as a denominative of αχֶ ?ψ in the signification of appearing in the morning (Psalms 5:3), which then is extended to every morning. Delitzsch does not regard this as too bold. The translation, visit (most interpreters) essentially weakens the sense and is without grounds. Str. V. Psalms 27:5. For He conceals me in a tabernacle in the days of evil, He shelters me with the shelter of His tent.—[A. V. In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.]—Our translation of the former verse is favored by this, for the same place which is called the house of Jehovah Psalms 27:4, b, and His palace Psalms 27:4, d, with reference to His royal character is in Psalms 27:5, b, called His tent, with reference to the present or original (comp. Ezekiel 41:1) real character of the ritual dwelling-place of Jehovah in the midst of His people. This sanctuary is now characterized as a place of safety for those who seek refuge, who find there shelter and protection against the pursuit of their enemies, and indeed not because David really once had concealed himself there (Knapp after the Rabbins), but because the places of worship had the general meaning of asylum. From this point of view the same house of Jehovah is in Psalms 27:5, a, named with an expression which designates a covered place for dwelling and lodging, as fitted to give shelter, a tabernacle, a bower. As a matter of course this is figurative, as then in Psalms 27:5, c, the safety which has been gained is described as being set up upon a rock. But it does not follow from this that the reference to the sanctuary is here to be abandoned (Hupf.), and that the figure is derived from a shepherd (Geier), or of a hospitable householder (De Wette), or protector (Ruding.), and would give the sense, God is the protector of the pious everywhere, and even outside of His sanctuary (Calvin). The reference here is rather to this very thing, that the house of Jehovah, which appears without doubt in Psalms 27:6, and which is referred to in various forms in accordance with the various references contained in the idea, is here as an asylum, (Geier) and not as the tabernacle (Hengst.). Moreover, it would not change the sense of the passage, but only the color of the thought, and this but slightly, if we should translate according to the reading and accentuation of the Hebrew word, either: in a tabernacle, as Psalms 31:20, comp. Isaiah 4:6; or, in His tabernacle. For the ρֻ ?λָּ ?δ of Jehovah (Job 36:29) is called in Psalms 75:2; Jeremiah 25:38; Lamentations 2:6, likewise, His ρֹ ?κְ, although this word is used particularly of the couching-place of lions in thickets (Psalms 10:7), and with definite reference to this is likewise used in the above-mentioned passage, Jeremiah 25:38. Str. VI., Psalms 27:6. Sacrifices of rejoicing.—This means particularly the thank-offerings, because they were brought with songs of rejoicing and praise. The mention of singing and playing which immediately follow, shows that the reference is to them. This, most interpreters now admit with Syr., Kimchi, Luther. Moreover, according to Hupf., comm. de primitiva festorum Heb. ratione ii. 20, not. 40, the use of the word ζαη was appropriate for these offerings. A reference to the sacrifices accompanied with the sound of the trumpet, (Gesen., De Wette), is contrary to the text, since only public thanksgivings at the time of festivals (Numbers 10:10) were distinguished with this music of the priests. Str. VII. [Psalms 27:7. Perowne: “The triumphant strain of confidence now gives way to one of sad and earnest entreaty.”—C. A. B.]Psalms 27:8. To Thee my heart says—(at Thy call): seek Thy face!—Thy face Jehovah will I seek.—The heart answers the Divine call, consenting thereto as an echo of it (Calv.). It is better to regard this obscure construction as a bold combination of two clauses (Hupf.), which we can make intelligible in English only by supplying some appropriate words (Delitzsch). [Thus A. V., When thou saidst seek ye my face, etc.] This is much simpler than the supposition of a μauctoris (Dathe, Olsh.): Thine is, speaks my heart, namely the word, etc.; not to say anything of the artificial and strained explanations of many ancient interpreters. Hitzig follows the Vulgate; of Thee speaks my heart, seek Him, my face! The Sept. has: To Thee, etc., but then: diligently have I sought Thy face and Thy face will I seek. The true sense is given by the paraphrase of Luther: my heart holds Thy word before Thee. So Hengstenberg. Similarly Geier, J. H. Mich., Rosenm. Seeking the face of Jehovah is not with reference to Exodus 23:17, another expression for visiting the temple (De Wette), but it denotes the desire to enter into the vicinity and presence of God, in order to gain comfort, assistance, certainty of being heard, testimonies of grace, and the like. Comp. Psalms 24:6; Psalms 105:4; 1 Samuel 21:1; used of earthly rulers, Proverbs 29:26. This is accomplished by acts of Divine service, especially in the house of God, but it is not to be regarded as the same thing as those acts. It is uncertain whether there is a direct reference here to the passage Deuteronomy 4:29, which is re-echoed in Hosea 5:15. Str. VIII. [Psalms 27:9. Hide not Thy face from me.—The inserted “far” of the A. V. does not help the sense of the passage, but mars it. The Psalmist is seeking Jehovah’s face, and the prayer is that the face of Jehovah may not be veiled from him so that he cannot see it. Vid.Psalms 4:6.—Put not away in wrath = Thrust not aside as one unworthy to be in Thy presence, and behold Thy face. The Psalmist does not wish to be removed or banished from the place of Jehovah’s presence, and from the light of His countenance.—Reject me not, and forsake me not.—The reiteration of the positive and negative form of the idea of depriving Him of the presence and the face of God.—C. A. B.] Psalms 27:10. For my father and my mother have forsaken me.—This statement cannot refer to 1 Samuel 22:3 sq., for then David separated himself from his parents in order to leave them under the protection of the king of Moab. But it is not at all necessary to think of some historical fact unknown to us (G. Baur). This statement is certainly neither to be taken as a proverbial manner of expression (De Wette), nor as a hypothetical antecedent (Calvin, Stier, Thol., Hupf.) It is positive, and expresses what has happened, but it states in an individualizing form, (Hengst., Delitzsch) the fact that the nearest relatives of the afflicted man have forsaken him in his time of trouble; and he on this very account turns to Jehovah in prayer, trusting in the love of God which transcends parental love (Isaiah 49:15; Isaiah 63:16).—[But Jehovah will take me up.—Perowne: “The verb is here used in the same sense as in Deuteronomy 22:2; Joshua 20:4, ‘receive me under His care and protection,’ or as Stier suggests, ‘adopts me as His child,’ vid.Psalms 22:10.”—C. A. B.] [Psalms 27:11. Lead me in an even path because of my adversaries.—[A. V., plain—enemies]. This is an even, level path as opposed to rough and rugged paths of adversity. Delitzsch: “Crafty spies pursue all his steps, and would gladly see their devices and evil wishes realized against him. If he should turn into the ways of sin unto destruction, it would bring dishonor upon God, as it is a matter of honor with God not to allow His servant to fall. Therefore he implores guidance in the ways of God, for the union of his own will with God’s will makes him unapproachable.” Psalms 27:12. And they that breathe out violence.—Alexander: “A strong but natural expression for a person, all whose thoughts and feelings are engrossed by a favorite purpose or employment, so that he cannot live or breathe without it. Comp. the description of Saul’s persecuting zeal in Acts 9:1, and the Latin phrases, spirare minas, anhelare scelus.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 27:13. If I did not trust to behold the excellence of Jehovah in the land of the living—!—The consequent is lacking (as Genesis 31:42) after μεּ ?μֵ ?ΰ, which is unnecessarily marked by the Masora with puncta extraordinaria, as suspicious. In accordance with such an aposiopesis “unless,” and “if” not unfrequently are lacking, and this increases the emphasis. The land of the living is contrasted with Sheol, but it refers here not beyond this life to eternal life (Rabbins, Clauss, Stier) but back to life in this world. Psalms 27:14. In the closing verse the Psalmist exhorts himself and not others in a similar condition with himself (most ancient interpreters).—Be firm, and let thy heart show itself strong.—This does not express a comforting promise “He will strengthen” (most interpreters [and A. V.]) nor indeed with a correct interpretation of the clause as optative, the wish that Jehovah would strengthen the heart (Calv., Cleric, Rosenm., Hupf. [Alexander]) but it is a continuation of the Psalmist’s exhortation of himself.—[Wait on Jehovah.—Alexander: The repetition, wait for the Lord, and wait for the Lord, implies that this is all he has to enjoin upon himself or others; and is more impressive in its native simplicity, than the correct but paraphrastic version of the last clause in the English Bible, wait, I say, on the Lord.—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. No night of sorrow can be so dark, no evil so fearful, no enemy so dreadful as to cause those to tremble, despair, and perish, who have God for their Light, for their salvation, for the stronghold of their life. Such a man overcomes in all his troubles, so much so that even in his days of suffering, at times, in the confidence of Divine assistance, a triumphant tone may be heard in his prayers, whence arise his fearlessness, his heroism, his certainty of victory in the midst of all his dangers, struggles, and calamities. 2. But he who puts his confidence truly and alone in God, and firmly trusts in the faithfulness and goodness of the Almighty, not to leave him or neglect him in his troubles, is very far from that proud self-sufficiency, and that half proud, half lazy carelessness, which on the one side impels to foolhardy and presumptuous ventures, on the other side restrains from seeking and using the means provided to increase his strength, and bring about and secure him success. He who truly has his confidence and strength in God, likewise seeks constantly and earnestly to be near to God, and uses conscientiously the means afforded him in the forms of worship to strengthen his communion with God, and to secure as well as gain the blessings of the presence of God. 3. Hence it is, that those who have attained the most and the best on earth, the noblest and most glorious of our race, and the most exalted rulers among them, the boldest heroes, the most celebrated warriors and masters of every department of life, have shown themselves to be at the same time pious and humble men, who lay all their exaltation, glory, and honor, at the feet of God, and publicly recognize that they have to thank the Lord their God not only for their endowments and powers, but likewise for what they have done, and for their success, and that they must seek, like all other men, forgiveness of their sins in the grace of God, and that they would rather be at all times with God. Hence they gladly visit His house and His table, and besides study diligently God’s word, in which they gain good advice, and are reminded at the right time to assent to it and respond to it with heart and mouth. 4. It is at once a duty and a joy to seek the countenance of the Lord, that is, to desire and strive to be personally near to the grace of God and to be sure of it. God Himself calls us to this, and gives those who seek Him the blessed experience that God’s love is not mere human favor, but transcends even parental love, as nothing can be compared with God’s assistance, power, and protection, or take their place. So likewise those who do not withdraw from intercourse with God will not be deprived of them. They will much rather be lifted up to a height which is inaccessible to all their adversaries, and will be placed in safety against all hurtful assaults. 5. Accordingly all depends upon whether we allow ourselves to be directed to the way of the Lord and guided therein. On this depends our walking the path of life in the good pleasure of God (in the light of His countenance), and our attaining the end of that path in the protection of God’s salvation by means of that which God imparts in all dangers, sufferings, and struggles, and in spite of all envy, slander, and opposition. The trust in God, which is indispensable for this, is often severely tried, especially when we are in danger of losing our rights, our honor, and our life by enemies who are as wicked and unjust as they are strong and crafty, and when we are forsaken by our nearest relatives, and given up by all the world. Then not only the flesh trembles, but the heart likewise quakes, and is in danger of losing patience and hope. We would be lost indeed, if our eyes and our hearts should lose sight of God. But this is impossible if we maintain our faith; then we will not despair. And because God continues faithful we will not perish. In order now that faith may be able to impart the necessary consolation and encouragement to wait on God, and the patience, resolution, and strength necessary thereto, it needs that it should have unfailing nourishment, support, discipline, and strengthening.—However little this Psalm may have of a Messianic character, yet some particular features may be readily and devoutly referred, in accordance with Augustine’s example, to the sufferings of Christ and His behaviour in them, which is a model for all. The Roman Catholic Church has assigned this Psalm to the offices of Char-Saturday. AND When danger is near and great we are taught to properly estimate and value, being near to God and the power of faith.—We can lose everything and yet lose nothing if only we retain God.—Our hearts need daily strengthening in confidence in God; whence comes it? and how may it be?—We cannot be lifted up in any better way than with God; therefore it is of the utmost importance that we should come to God and remain with God.—Our worst enemies are not those who envy us and afflict us, but our little faith, our spiritual sluggishness and laziness, our impatience.—Many would gladly dwell in safely if only it were not to remain near to God.—Whoever has God has all things in One; and yet only a few make anything of God.—It is enough that God should let His light shine, His salvation come, His power work; yet we must let ourselves be instructed and ruled, and delivered thereby.—It is well with us if we not only trust in God’s power, wisdom, and goodness, but value above all communion with God, and are diligent to seek His face, and for this conscientiously use the institutions and means of salvation.—There are in a pious heart not only thoughts of God, but likewise echoes of His word.—When men forsake us it may give us pain, but we will be comforted above all when God takes us up.—At first many care more for God’s protection than for His presence, but if they give heed to the word and ways of God, they likewise learn not only to know the strength of being near to God, but likewise to value the blessings of intercourse with Him, and prize the good things of His house.Starke: Care for souls, longing to walk with God, to be sanctified in the communion of saints, these are the chief desires and only necessary things to the Christian.—It is well for those who seek safety with God; that is better than the highest rock.—If we pray as God has commanded, we are heard as He has promised.—God plants in the hearts of believers a sure confidence of gaining eternal life, by which they are uncommonly strengthened in their battle of faith.—No time will seem so long to us as the time of cross-bearing; therefore it is that we are exhorted with so many words to hope and patience.—It is the constancy of hope which makes our walk and life happy.—The Lord is not only the truest, but is likewise the mightiest and most reliable Father and Friend.—You may know the right way and walk in the right path, yet you very much need Divine enlightenment and gracious guidance on account of the craft and wickedness of your enemies.—What can give a believer’s heart more pleasure and joy than to be heard by the God of grace? Frisch: David testifies 1) his joyous faith, 2) his heartfelt pleasure, 3) his longing desire, 4) his comforted hope.—David uses only one armor against the crowd of his enemies and their power, and that is faith; by this he appropriates God’s light, strength, and salvation. Arm yourself in time, you will never lack enemies; the closer you come to friendship with God the more will the enmity of the world increase against you.—Herberger: In whose hands is our life? Not in our power, not in the will of our enemies, but in the power of God.—The strength of armies and of hosts cannot go further than God will allow.—Christians have many observers, therefore it is said: take care.—Stier: O! that I might never yield! This one thing troubles me, not the defiance of enemies; for he who remains with God is safe.—Tholuck: In hours of internal anguish the word of God should resound in the breast as the echo in the mountain, in order to increase our confidence by its repeated exhortations.—Stiller: David at first declares his trust, then says, how he strengthens his trust, and why he relies on God, and finally adds, when true trust shows itself.—God is so gracious that He not only allows His children to find Him, but likewise encourages them by His word to seek Him.—Umbreit: It is significant with respect to the piety which pervaded the entire life of David, that all the favor and grace of God are united to him in this chief thing, that he may abide in His house forever.—Taube: David—a hero in the courage of faith and a master in prayer.—The surest handle of prayer by which we may lay hold of God is His own word, which calls us to seek His gracious countenance. That is a strong command and a comforting promise in one. [Matth. Henry: All God’s children desire to dwell in God’s house; where should they dwell else? not to sojourn there as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry but a night, or to dwell there for a time only, as the servant that abideth not in the house forever, but to dwell there all the days of their life; for there the Son abideth ever.—A gracious heart readily echoes to the call of a gracious God, being made willing in the day of His power.—Even the best saints are subject to faint when their troubles become grievous and tedious. Their spirits are overwhelmed, and their flesh and heart fail; but their faith is a sovereign cordial.—Nothing like the believing hope of eternal life, the foresights of that glory, and foretastes of those pleasures, to keep us from fainting under all the calamities of this present time.—Barnes: The Christian sanctuary—the place of public worship—is the place where, if anywhere on earth, we may hope to have our minds enlightened, our perplexities removed, our hearts comforted and sanctified, by right views of God.—Spurgeon: Salvation finds us in the dark, but it does not leave us there; it gives light to those who sit in the valley of the shadow of death. After conversion our God is our joy, comfort, guide, teacher, and in every sense our light; He is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us.—It is a hopeful sign for us when the wicked hate us; if our foes were godly men, it would be a sore sorrow, but as for the wicked their hatred is better than their love.—Holy desires must lead to resolute action. The old proverb says, “Wishers and woulders are never good housekeepers;” and “wishing never fills a sack.” Desires are seeds which must be sown in the good soil of activity, or they will yield no harvest.—The pendulum of spirituality swings from prayer to praise.—Mercy is the hope of sinners and the refuge of saints. All acceptable petitioners dwell much upon this attribute.—A smile from the Lord is the greatest of comforts, His frown the worst of ills.—Slander is an old-fashioned weapon out of the armory of hell, and it is still in plentiful use; and no matter how holy a man may be, there may be some who will defame him.—Wait at His door with prayer; wait at His foot with humility; wait at His table with service; wait at His window with expectancy. Suitors often win nothing but the cold shoulder from earthly patrons after long and obsequious waiting; he speeds best whose patron is in the skies.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Hupfeld: “Light is here that which issues from God as a beam of His light-giving countenance (Psalms 4:6), that, as the light of the sun is the source of all life and growth in nature, so it is the source of all life and well-being in the human heart, comp. Psalms 36:9. Hence it is the usual figure of life, success, joy, and all good, negatively of deliverance, freedom, help, etc., in contrast to darkness, which is the figure of death, misfortune, danger, captivity, sorrow, etc. Comp. Psalms 43:3; Psalms 84:11; Psalms 97:11; Psalms 112:4; Proverbs 4:18 sq.; Job 11:17; Job 18:18; Job 30:26; Isaiah 5:30; Isaiah 9:1; Isaiah 58:8; Isaiah 58:10; Micah 7:8, etc.”—C. A. B.] [Alexander translates covert, which “means a booth or shelter made of leaves and branches, such as the Jews used at the feast of tabernacles (Leviticus 23:42). It is here used as a figure for secure protection in the day of evil, i.e., of suffering or danger.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “Is it (as Calv.) that the Psalmist sought in the former part of the Psalm to comfort himself with the review of God’s unfailing strength and protection, that he might with the more reason utter his prayer for help? Or is it not rather that even whilst he is thus strengthening himself in his God, a sudden blast of temptation sweeps over his soul, freezing the current of life,—some fear lest he should be forsaken, some thought of the craft and malice of his enemies,—till now the danger which threatens him is as prominent an object as the salvation and defence were before?”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “The words seek ye My face are the words of God, which the servant of God here, as it were, takes from His mouth, that so laying them before God, he may make his appeal the more irresistible. Thou hast said, ‘Seek ye My face;’ my heart makes these words its own, and builds upon them its resolve. It takes them up and repeats them ‘Seek ye My face.’ It first claims thus Thine own gracious words, O Lord, and there its echo to those words is, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’ Such is the soul’s dialogue with itself when it would comfort itself in God. We are reminded of that touching scene in the Gospel history where another, a woman, overcomes the Saviour with His own words: ‘Yea Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs,’ etc.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “ ‘(Though) my father and my mother may have forsaken me,’ i. e., though my condition be helpless and friendless as that of a child deserted of his parents, there is One who watches over me, and will take me to His bosom. Vid. Isaiah 63:16; Isaiah 49:15. The phrase has, as De Wette says, somewhat of a proverbial character.”—C. A. B.] [Hupfeld; “It serves to illustrate the greatness of the grace and love of God by comparing it with the highest form of human love, parental love, which it transcends, just as in the passage already adduced by Calvin, Isaiah 49:15, and in a similar construction with this, Isaiah 63:16 : ‘For Abraham has not known us, and Israel recognized us not: Thou, Jehovah, art our Father, our Redeemer,’ etc.” This is the preferable interpretation.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “The holy singer feels now, at this moment, when the false and violent men are before his mind, how helpless he would be did he not trust and hope in his God: ‘There were an end of me—or what would become of me, did I not believe, etc.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 28 A Psalm of David1         Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; Be not silent to me: Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. 2    Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. 3    Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, Which speak peace to their neighbors, But mischief is in their hearts. 4    Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: Give them after the work of their hands; Render to them their desert. 5    Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, He shall destroy them, and not build them up. 6    Blessed be the Lord,Because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. 7    The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in him, and I am helped: Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; And with my song will I praise him. 8    The Lord is their strength, And he is the saving strength of his anointed. 9    Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: Feed them also, and lift them up for ever. AND Its Contents and Composition. Although there are no individual historical features which are sharply and unmistakably prominent, yet this Psalm is not a mere Psalm of general lamentation (De Wette), composed by David for the Buffering and afflicted (Hengst.), or composed by a later poet for liturgical use for the people (Olsh.), as it is pretended with a superabundance in expression and rhythm, as is often the case in the later Psalms and Prophets, in connection with the heaping up of current phrases (Hupf.). We hear in this Psalm the voice of supplication, as it rises pressingly and earnestly, in peril of death, (Psalms 28:1,) to Jehovah, the Holy One, imploring to be heard (Psalms 28:2). It is from the mouth and heart of a man, who would not be swept away with evil doers and hypocrites (Psalms 28:3); and he implores for them righteous recompense (Psalms 28:4); and he founds this judgment on its necessity and describes it in its reliable workings (Psalms 28:5), whilst he himself in the certainty of being heard and of the constant protection of Jehovah, praises Him (Psalms 28:6), and furthermore will praise Him thankfully in songs (Psalms 28:7); for Jehovah is the Protector and Deliverer of His people and His anointed (Psalms 28:8). Finally he prays for continual blessings for the people—they are the property of Jehovah (Psalms 28:9). These last two verses must then be regarded as the words of the anointed himself unless we should regard them as an appendix of intercession for the king and the people (Hupf.), and there is no apparent occasion for uniting them with the preceding verses. It is then more appropriate to think of David as the author, in the time of the trouble with Absalom, although the “longing turning towards the sanctuary” (Delitzsch) is not very apparent. This is better than to think of Josiah (Ewald), or Jeremiah (Hitzig). There are frequent and evident resemblances to the preceding Psalm. Str. I. [Psalms 28:1. To Thee Jehovah, do I cry; My rock, be not silent from me, lest, if Thou be silent from me, I become like them that go down to the pit.—The A. V. is not properly punctuated. My rock belongs to the second clause. For the meaning of rock vid.Psalms 18:2. The preposition ξִ ?ο, from, is used with a pregnant meaning = Turn not away from me in silence, . The pit is the grave in its narrower and broader sense. Comp. Isaiah 14:15; Psalms 30:4; Psalms 88:6. Psalms 28:2. When I lift up my hands.—To lift up the hands and spread them out towards heaven was the usual posture of prayer with the Hebrews, (1 Kings 8:22, Isaiah 1:15), so likewise among the Greeks and other ancient nations. And so also they were lifted up towards the sanctuary at Jerusalem, especially by the later Jews. So the Mahometans pray towards Mecca, and the Samaritans towards the holy place of Mt. Gerizim.—C. A. B.]—To Thy holy throne-hall.—This is literally the back room as a local designation of the Most Holy place, (1 Kings 6:5; 1 Kings 6:16 sq., 1 Kings 8:6; 1 Kings 8:8), where was the throne of God (1 Kings 8:30; 1 Kings 8:39; 1 Kings 8:43; 1 Kings 8:49) in the temple (1 Kings 8:30; Daniel 6:11, Psalms 5:7,) as in heaven (1 Kings 8:22; 1 Kings 8:54), to which the hands were lifted up (Psalms 63:4; Psalms 134:2; Psalms 141:2; Lamentations 2:19), and spread out (Psalms 143:6; Exodus 9:29; Exodus 9:33; 1 Kings 8:22; 1 Kings 8:38; 1 Kings 8:54; Joshua 1:15) corresponding with the lifting up of the heart (Psalms 24:4; Lamentations 3:41). This meaning of debξr is completely proved by comparing with the Arabic, comp. Delitzsch and Hupfeld in loco. This was first proved by C. B. Michaelis in 1735 in a dissertation (now printed in Potts. sylloge V. 131 sq). then first by Conrad Iken 1748 in his Diss. Phil. Theol. I. 214 sq. In accordance with the derivation from dibber = speak, which Hengstenberg again justifies, the ancient interpreters thought of an audience-room and parlor, and translated it by oraculum,λαλητήριον, χρηματιστὴριον. Luther translates, chor. [A. V holy oracle].[Str. II. Psalms 28:3. Draw me not away, e.g., to destruction, vid.Psalms 26:9; Ezekiel 32:20; Job 24:22.—Who speak peace.—They make peaceful and friendly professions whilst plotting mischief and war, hypocrites, dissemblers, frequently alluded to in the Psalms.—C. A. B.] [Str. III. Psalms 28:4. Render to them their desert.—Delitzsch: “This phrase δֵ ?ωִׁ ?ιαβְ ?ξεּ ?μ, which is frequently used by the prophets, means to recompense, or repay to any one what he has performed or rendered, likewise what he has committed or deserved. The thought and its expression remind us of Isa 3:8-11; Isaiah 1:16.” Psalms 28:5. Because they regard not.—Delitzsch: “The propriety of prayer for recompense is derived from their blindness towards the righteous and gracious government of God in human history (comp. Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 22:11).—The contrast of αָ ?πָ ?δ, build, with ηָ ?ψָ ?ν, tear down is in the style of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 42:10, comp. Jeremiah 1:10, Psalms 18:9, et al.”—C. A. B.] [Str. IV. Psalms 28:6. Because He hath heard,—Hupfeld: “This is not a praising God because He has actually heard, this being presupposed in the perfect, ωָׁ ?ξָ ?ψ as Psalms 6:9 sq.; Psalms 20:7; Psalms 26:12; Psalms 31:22 sq.; nor as if he had, in the mean time, received an answer from the sanctuary (Psalms 28:2) as Hengstenberg supposes; but in the confidence of faith.”—C. A. B.] [Str. V. Psalms 28:7. With my song will I praise Him.—The Vulgate has a different reading here, following the Sept. [It reads my flesh (caro mea,ἡ σἀρξμου) for my heart in the third clause, and my will (ex voluntate mea, ἐκθελήματόςμου) for my song, in the fourth clause.—Delitzsch: “In ξִ ?ωִּׁ ?ιψִ ?ι the song is regarded as the source of the δεֹ ?γεֹ ?ϊ. From his sorrows springs the song, and from the song springs the praise of Him who has taken these sorrows away.”—C. A. B.] Str. VI. Psalms 28:8. Jehovah is protection for them.—This turns the glance upon the true members of the people whose fortune the Psalmist bears upon his heart together with his own, although they have not been mentioned before. Hitzig and Delitzsch very properly reject the correction of μָ ?ξεֹ, which all codd. have, into μְ ?ςַ ?ξּ ?εֹ that is, for his people, however appropriate this might be.—And He is the saving defence of His anointed.—This is literally, the defence of deliverance. [Delitzsch: “Jehovah is then ςֹ ?ζ because He mightily preserves them from the destruction into which they themselves would fall or be plunged by others; and He is the ξָ ?ςεֹ ?ζιְ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?ςεֹ ?ϊ of His anointed because He surrounds him as an inaccessible place of refuge; which secures him salvation in its fulness, instead of the ruin contemplated.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 28:9. Feed them and bear them forever.—This reminds us of Deu 1:31; Deuteronomy 32:11, Isaiah 63:9 and the conclusion itself of Psalms 3, 29. [Perowne: “It is impossible not to see in these tender, loving words, ‘feed them and bear them,’ the heart of the shepherd king. Feed them, O, Thou true Shepherd of Israel, (Psalms 80:1): bear them, carry them in Thine arms (Isaiah 63:9; Isaiah 40:11).—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. If God could be deaf and dumb to the supplications of His servant, there could be neither comfort nor hope for him. And if God should turn away from him, his ruin would be certain. But then the servant of God would share the fate of the wicked. This however is impossible, so long as the servant of God is neither unfaithful nor a hypocrite. If he can really establish himself on God as his rock, when he lifts up his hands and heart in faith (Psalms 28:7), to the God enthroned in the Holiest of All, then he will experience, that even on the brink of an abyss there is a way of escape and he will not be drawn down into its depths with the ungodly. For God is just, and shows Himself in His unchangeable faithfulness and truth as a rock, to those who trust in Him and abide by Him. Moreover when threatened with ruin, all depends on this alone, his showing himself by his conduct as standing on this rock and fortifying himself there by his actions. 2. If we not only set before our eyes the judgments of God, but likewise establish ourselves near to God and on His side, then there arises partly a feeling of security in the protection of God, which discloses itself at once as the assurance of being heard in prayer, partly a strong feeling of the contrast between ourselves and ungodly and hypocritical oppressors. This feeling looks at their conduct as they sin against God and their neighbors, and sees that it will be doubly punished, and it discloses itself in appealing to God to execute His judgments. Under such circumstances and feelings it is possible to pray; recompense them, without sinning. 3. The characteristics of the ungodly, and the indications of their swift ruin, are their not observing the doings and actions of God, which are exactly opposed to their own. God will be constantly less intelligible and conceivable to them whilst they blind themselves in such a manner that they fancy that they can not only deceive men by their hypocrisy, but likewise can escape the judgment of God by not observing the Divine government. But the less attention they give to these things, the deeper they involve themselves in wicked plans, and the more surely they fall when they least expect it, into the recompensing hand of God. 4. God is the Avenger and Deliverer, Defence and Helper, not only for His anointed, but likewise for His people. For He is not only their Lord who will not allow His property and inheritance to be taken from Him; but He is likewise their Shepherd who watches and protects, cares for and leads the people especially belonging to Him; He is their God and Father, who bears them in their weakness, “at all times from of old,” (Isaiah 63:9), as a man his son (Deuteronomy 1:31) and as an eagle her young (Deuteronomy 32:11) lifting them above all hindrances, and bearing them forth out of all dangers, and thus raising them above all present and all future enemies. (2 Samuel 5:12).—“To His work you must look if your work is to endure” (P. Gerhardt). AND When trouble increases, trust in God must not decrease; our prayers must not be silent, though God for a while is silent.—That prayers are not heard for a while, is no sign that God is angry, but that He would try our faith, and train us in patience.—Great sufferings cannot choke the desire for prayer so long as the heart does not become faint-hearted.—The confidence of the pious in God’s assistance against ungodly enemies, has its ground not in the feeling of personal worth, but in the assurance of Divine righteousness.—Not to observe the Divine government, is a characteristic of the ungodly and the sign of their ruin.—Many trouble themselves no more with God’s judgment than they do with His commandments; but he who transgresses the latter cannot escape the former.—God recompenses justly; therefore fear His judgment, but trust in His righteousness.—The innocent may suffer much and long; but they will not call upon God in vain, and even when they die they will not be swept away with the guilty.—A pious king seeks not only his own deliverance, but the salvation of his people at the same time.—He who trusts God, has built well.—God not only protects His own children, in time, but He likewise blesses them for eternity.Starke: O how sweet it is for the soul, when God hears it and it is sure of this in its inmost nature! but how painful it is when God is silent! and yet we must persevere in patience, until it shall please Him to hear our prayer.—He who would not be carried away with the ungodly in the judgment of God, must be on his guard against their sins.—To desire punishment for our enemies out of a spirit of revenge, is not Christian; but we may sigh to the righteous Judge against the enemies of God and His glory.—If God were not the strength and protection of His Church, how could it endure the power of its enemies?—If the Lord is our strength, why do we ever lament our weakness? Is that not perhaps a palliation of our indolence?—Franke: In external trouble hypocrites and the ungodly go to God in order to be freed from them; but they do not think of being delivered from their troubles of sin, and therefore it is no wonder, that they are unable to speak of answers to prayer.—Renschel: Although the pious dwell among the ungodly yet they are distinguished from them, 1) by their prayers; 2) by their life; 3) by their reward.—Frisch: The help which God has postponed He has not refused.—Herberger: God’s silence often brings the greatest sorrow; but God is often silent in order that He may hear thee with all the more love.—Tholuck: He who keeps the Lord before him as the Mighty One, and can hope in His strength, is already helped.—Taube: The prayer of the pious in trouble is an evidence that they have the refuge as well as need it. [Matth. Henry: Nothing can be so cutting, so killing, to a gracious soul as the want of God’s favor, and the sense of His displeasure.—Those who are careful not to partake with sinners in their sins have reason to hope that they shall not partake with them in their plagues, Revelation 18:4.—A stupid regardlessness of the works of God is the cause of the sin of sinners, and so becomes the cause of their ruin.—The saints rejoice in their friends’ comforts as well as their own; for as we have no less benefit by the light of the sun, so neither by the light of God’s countenance, for others sharing therein; for we are sure there is enough for all, and enough for each.—Those, and those only, whom God feeds and rules, that are willing to be taught and guided, and governed by Him, shall be saved, and blessed, and lifted up forever.—Barnes: It is sufficient for us to feel that God hears us; for if this is so, we have the assurance that all is right. In this sense, certainly, it is right to look for an immediate answer to our prayers.—Spurgeon: The thorn at the breast of the nightingale was said by the old naturalists to make it sing; David’s grief made him eloquent in holy psalmody.—God’s voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but His silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant. When God seems to close His ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, He will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become for ever silent to our prayers!—We stretch out empty hands, for we are beggars; we lift them up, for we seek heavenly supplies; we lift them towards the mercy-seat of Jesus, for there our expectation dwells.—The best of the wicked are dangerous company in time, and would make terrible companions for eternity; we must avoid them in their pleasures, if we would not be confounded with them in their miseries.—It is a sure sign of baseness when the tongue and the heart do not ring to the same note. Deceitful men are more to be dreaded than wild beasts; it were better to be shut up in a pit with serpents than to be compelled to live with liars.—God’s curse is positive and negative; His sword has two edges, and cuts right and left.—They who pray well, will soon praise well; prayer and praise are the two lips of the soul.—Heart work is sure work; heart trust is never disappointed. Faith must come before help, but help will never be long behindhand.—When the heart is glowing, the lips should not be silent. When God blesses us, we should bless Him with all our heart.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Alexander follows Hupfeld in rendering; lest Thou hold Thy peace from me, and I be made like those going down (into) the pit. The rendering in the text is better. It is that of De Wette, Ewald, Delitzsch, Moll, Perowne, et al.—C. A. B.] [So A. V., Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Perowne, et al. De Wette translates, because I cry, etc; Hitzig, since I cry, etc.; Moll and Alexander, in my crying, etc.—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch agree with Moll and translates, to Thy holy throne-hall; Hupfeld and Perowne, to the innermost place of Thy sanctuary; Ewald, to Thy holy chamber; Hitzig, to Thy holy unapproachable place—C. A. B.] Psalms 29 A Psalm of David1         Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, Give unto the Lord glory and strength. 2    Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 3    The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: The God of glory thundereth: The Lord is upon many waters. 4    The voice of the Lord is powerful; The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 5    The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. 6    He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. 7    The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. 8    The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. 9    The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, And discovereth the forests: And in his temple doth every one speak of his glory. 10    The Lord sitteth upon the flood; Yea, the Lord sitteth King forever. 11    The Lord will give strength unto his people; The Lord will bless his people with peace. AND Its Contents and Aim.—After calling upon the heavenly beings to praise the power and glory of Jehovah, and to worship Him with solemnity (Psalms 29:1-2), there is a picturesque description of a storm (Psalms 29:3-9) advancing from the Mediterranean to the mountains of Dan towards the South (J. D. Mich.), in the fearful sublimity of its appearance, and its effects upon nature; and that passes over into a reference to the royal majesty of Jehovah at the flood, the greatest of the disturbances of nature in the ancient world, and it exalts Him as ever abiding above, which will likewise be for the historical and saving good of His people (Psalms 29:10-11). The Psalm has therefore not merely a poetic character and aim, interwoven with general religious considerations, but it is of a historical and redemptive character. Its essential character is not that of a lyrical description of a magnificent tempest, which has become a hymn (Hupf.), from which finally an application is made; but on the occasion of a storm and under the impression of its power of commotion and destruction, the host of the heavenly servants of God are called upon to worship (not Elohim, but) Jehovah, and His people to trust in Him. There is no trace of any particular historical circumstance, whether of the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant to Mt. Zion (Ruding) or of trouble from external enemies, as Psalms 28 from internal enemies (Hengst.). But this does not give the right of an allegorical reference of this Psalm to the giving of the Law at Sinai (the Rabbins previous to Kimchi), or of its prophetical reference to the Messiah, and His judgment of the nations (Kimchi), or to Christ and the power of His word, to whom magistrates are called upon to submit themselves in homage and worship (Geier, Seb. Schmidt, et al.). The following suppositions are likewise unfounded; that the Psalm has no personal reference, but is sung from the souls of the people in order to edify the congregation (Hengst.); or that it has for its foundation only the general idea of Jehovah as the God of thunder and the God of the nation (De Wette), or that it has as its object, by describing the fearful power of God in the frightful phenomena of nature, to awaken the sleeping conscience, and particularly to arouse the proud rulers from their security, and warn them to submit to the sovereignty of God (Calvin). The sevenfold repetition of the thunder as the voice of Jehovah has become typical of Rev 10:1 sq., and is to be regarded as a holy number (Geier), whilst the repetition pictures the thunder as sounding clap upon clap. The kindling flash of lightning is only mentioned once (Psalms 29:7). Hengstenberg however presses this symbolism of number too far with reference to the use of the name of Jehovah in this and the preceding Psalms 13—In the Septuagint we find an addition to the title, ἐξοδίουσκηνῆς (Vulg., incorrectly, in consummatione tabernaculi), which then seems to imply, that it was then sung (Delitzsch) on the closing day (Leviticus 23:26) of the feast of tabernacles (Shemini Azereth). In the middle ages it was used as a prayer during storms as a prevention of strokes of lightning.—The pretended resemblances with the prophet Jeremiah are very weak.Str. I. Psalms 29:1. Sons of Gods.—[A. V., O ye mighty]. It is grammatically and etymologically admissible to translate, sons of the mighty = mighty ones, rulers, princes, (the Rabbins and many ancient interpreters); so likewise sons of idols = servants of idols (J. D. Mich., Dφderlein, Muntinghe). But Psalms 29:9 c. is against these translations, for those who are addressed are in heaven above. Now Elξm never occurs in the usage of the language, as plur. majest. with a singular meaning, but constantly, as plural, designates the gods of the heathen, Exodus 15:11; Exodus 18:11; Psalms 95:3; Psalms 96:4; Psalms 97:9, the θεὸιλεγόμενοι, 1 Corinthians 8:5, in contrast with whom the true God Jehovah is called El Elξm (Daniel 11:36) or indeed El Elohξm (Joshua 22:22; Psalms 50:1), El haκlohξm (Deuteronomy 10:17) Elohκ haκlohim (Psalms 136:2), because these gods have likewise the name of Elohim (Psalms 86:8). Therefore we cannot translate at once, sons or children of God (Sept. et al.), justify the plural Elξm by reference to the grammatical form (Gesen. Gramm., § 106, 3; Ewald ausf. Lehrbuch, § 270 c) of an attraction in composition as Exodus 1:11, 1 Chronicles 7:5 (De Wette), or by the supposition that it is a plural of ben al., formed after the analogy of Isa 42:22, compared with Psalms 29:7; Isaiah 51:9, compared with Genesis 9:12; Jeremiah 42:8 compared with 2 Samuel 24:4 (Hitzig). But if neither the heathen gods nor their sons are addressed here, but manifestly the angels, then these constitute the heavenly company surrounding God (Job 1:6; Job 2:1); the heavenly host (1 Kings 22:19; Nehemiah 9:6), whose duty it is to praise God (Psalms 89:6; Psalms 103:20; Job 38:7, comp. Isaiah 6:3). These are called, usually, sons of Elohim (Genesis 6:2, and in the passage cited from Job) when not named maleβchim with special reference to their duty of declaring and executing the will of God. They are likewise designated as the host of the holy ones (kedoshξm) Job 5:1; Job 15:15, which surround Jehovah, Psalms 89:6; Psalms 89:8, and entirely parallel with them, Psalms 89:7, the benκ Elξm, so that there can be no doubt of the sense (Psalms 82, on which Hupfeld lays great stress, is not appropriate here). The Chald. likewise on this passage has the paraphrase, hosts of angels. The form of the expression is explained by the fact that the word Elim as well as Elohim has a general meaning (Psalms 8:6) and was applied to various beings of supernatural power, who might be the objects of religious reverence, and that the expression ben, benκ did not always express the physical derivation through generation, but partly physical and partly moral dependence, and included those who were thus designated in one body. There is another translation in the Sept., Vulg., Syr., Jerome, “sons of rams,” as a figurative designation of the sacrifice. These translations lead to the reading ΰιμιν, which 5 codd. Kennic., and 4 de Rossi have, but it is improperly explained, since this reading is often found, Exodus 15:15; Job 41:17; Ezekiel 31:11 (singular); Psalms 32:11, where this fundamental meaning of strength is very ancient, 2 Kings 24:15, even in the form ΰεμιρ.—Give to Jehovah glory and strength.—This is not to be changed into “honor and praise,” but the giving is a tribuere, an offering of the tribute due to the glory and strength of God; recognizing it in words and deeds, a δοῦναιδόξαν (Acts 12:23; Luke 17:18; Romans 4:20). Psalms 29:2. In holy attire.—This is the priestly attire used at festivals in the service of God (most interpreters since Luther), Psalms 96:9; 1 Chronicles 16:29, in which priests and Levites likewise marched before the Lord with music when they went forth to battle (2 Chronicles 20:21). Hupfeld concludes from the last passage, where ηγψ is construed with μ, and from Proverbs 14:28, that the reference is here likewise to the Divine majesty and glory (so Aquil., Symm., Chald., Jerome, Kimchi), and that the construction with α includes perhaps the idea of the place, where it was revealed, that is, the sanctuary. Calvin, Ruding., Cleric., after the Sept. and Syriac, adopt the latter view at once.—The reading in Psalms 110:3 is not entirely certain.Str. II. Psalms 29:3. The voice of Jehovah.—[Hupfeld: “This is not every audible declaration of God in nature, which speaks to us at the same time (Hengst., Hofm.), but is only a poetical and childlike name of thunder (comp. Psalms 18:14), that is the murmuring and scolding of wrath (compare Psalms 18:14; Psalms 104:7), with which, in contrast with the creative word, the interference of God in nature is connected, which restrains and destroys.”—C. A. B.]—The great waters are naturally not an allegorical designation of the colluvies gentium (J. H. Mich.), nor hardly the waters which were above the vault of heaven according to Genesis 1:7, comp. Psalms 148:4 (Umbreit, Maurer), but either those of the Mediterranean Sea (J. D. Mich., Munt.), or corresponding with the beginning of the description, those of the lowering clouds. Psalms 18:11; Psalms 104:3; Jeremiah 10:13 (most interpreters). [Psalms 29:4. The voice of Jehovah in power! The voice of Jehovah in majesty!—Alexander: “In power, in majesty, i.e. invested with these attributes, a stronger expression than the corresponding adjectives, strong and majestic would be, and certainly more natural and consonant to usage than the construction which makes in a mere sign of that in which something else consists.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 29:5. Breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.—The cedars and mountains are not allegorical designations of the great ones of the earth, particularly of heathen princes (the Rabbins and many ancient interpreters), and the cedars of Lebanon are no more poetical designations of the highest and strongest cedars (Geier, Rosenm., Hengst.), than the mountains of Lebanon and Sirion and the desert of Kadesh are a poetical use of individuals for the whole class (Hupfeld). Psalms 29:6. Maketh them skip like a calf.—[Hupfeld: “This is a poetical hyperbole of the shaking of the earth, as afterwards of the desert, Psalms 29:8, like an earthquake occasioned by the thunder; a standing feature of Theophanies (vid.Psalms 18:7 sq.). So of mountains, Psalms 114:4; Psalms 114:6, with a similar comparison with rams and lambs. The suffix, them (ιֵ ?ν), refers not primarily to the mountains of Lebanon, which are mentioned in the second clause, as many interpreters (even Ewald, Olsh.) suppose, but to the cedars mentioned in the previous verse (Geier, De Wette, Maurer, Hengst., Hitzig, Delitzsch); certainly only in consequence of the skipping of the mountains on which they stand, and therefore they are mentioned themselves in the second member.”—C. A. B.].—Sirion like a young buffalo.—Sirion (either=glimmer, or coat of mail) is the ancient Sidonian name of Mt. Hermon, according to Deuteronomy 3:9, the highest peak of the eastern range of Lebanon. Psalms 29:7. Cleaveth the flames of fire.—This is a poetical expression of forked lightning. So Syriac, Chald., Vatabl., Ruding., J. D. Mich. and most recent interpreters. The meaning of the word is rendered certain by Isaiah 10:15, where the reference is to cleaving timber. The usual meaning: hew out, particularly stones and from stones (Sept.), is possible here, namely in the sense, that the flames are beaten out of the clouds, as sparks out of the flint (Calvin). But the usual ancient translation, hew as flames of fire (Luther), or with flames of fire (Geier, Hengst. [Alexander]) is against the language. And the interpretation: to cut out the flames of fire (von Hofmann), that is, that the storm wind gives direction and form to the blazing flames, affords a monstrous figure. Str. IV. Psalms 29:8. The wilderness of Kadesh.—Kadesh, literally=set apart. This was that part of the Arabic desert west of the granite and porphyry mountains of Edom, which was a part of the great desert (Deuteronomy 1:19; Deuteronomy 11:24; Jeremiah 2:6), and which was covered with hills of chalk and drift sand. Comp. Genesis 20:4; Numbers 13:26. Str. V. Psalms 29:9. Maketh the hinds to calve.—Instead of ΰַ ?ιָּ ?μεֹ ?ϊ the Syriac read ΰֵ ?ιμεֹ ?ϊ, oaks, or terebinths, and some interpreters (Lowth, Venema, Munting.) have adopted it. But Job 39:1 sq. decides for the usual reading, and is not in favor of the view that the reference is to the severe labor of the hinds in calving in the month of May, which is rendered easier by the storm (Bochart, Hieroz. I., lib. 3, cap. 17, after the Rabbins), but of a premature delivery, brought on by fright, as 1 Samuel 4:19 sq., in the case of the wife of Phinehas. This is brought about, according to Pliny (Hist. Nat., VIII, 47), by the thunder even with solitary sheep, and, according to Ewald, is likewise mentioned by Arabic authors with reference to hinds.—And strippeth forests.—This is not of laying bare the roots of the trees, or of the forest by the wind (many of the older interpreters), so not of stripping the trees of their leaves and boughs by the storm (Calv., Delitzsch), or by the shower (Hitzig), but the peeling off of the bark (Joe 1:7) by the lightning (Hupf.), since the word properly means “discover” (Sept., Jerome, Isaki, Luther [A. V.]).—And in His temple speaks every one: glory!—The palace of God is not the earthly temple (Rabbins), or the Church (Calvin and most older interpreters), so likewise not the world (Cleric.) in which sense it is improperly translated “in His entire palace” (Rosenm.), but heaven (Chald., Geier, et al.). The participle τmer expresses the simultaneousness of the praise with the terrors (Ewald, von Hofm., Hupfeld). The suffix in λμε is correctly rendered by the Chald. in the paraphrase: all His servants. It is used in reference to the preceding “in His palace” (Hitzig), but not in direct reference to the palace itself=its totality (Hengstenberg, [Alexander]), or to the sons of Gods, Psalms 29:1 (De Wette), but to an indefinite general subject (Hupfeld)=πᾶςτις (Sept., Syr.), which receives its more specific meaning from the context. [Delitzsch: “It happens as the poet desired in Psalms 29:1-2. Jehovah receives back the glory displayed in the world in a thousandfold echo of worship.”—C. A. B.] Str. VI. Psalms 29:10. Jehovah has sat enthroned above the Flood.—The reference to the Flood is decided partly by the article, partly by the word mabul (Syr. momul), Genesis 6-11, which is used only with this reference. And this is not a mere recollection of the flood (Ewald, Kurtz), comparing it with the overflowings effected by the rain-storm (Ruding., J. D. Mich., Kφster, Olsh., Hitz.), or to the heavenly ocean (Maurer), upon which (μ used as in Psalms 9:4, approved likewise by Baur in De Wette’s commentary) Jehovah sits enthroned. Since ιωׁ ?α indicates not only the royal sitting of Jehovah, but likewise His judicial sitting (Psalms 9:7; Psalms 122:5), it is better to regard the μ either as of the purpose=of producing it (von Hofm., Delitzsch) as Kφster, Olsh., Hitzig take it, with a generalizing of the Flood; or in the sense of ςμ=above, Psalms 7:7 (Hupfeld), since the Divine judgment includes likewise a deliverance (Chald.), and both references are here mentioned. The supposition of a mere reference to time=at (Baihing., Hengst. [Alexander]), weakens the sense. The Vulgate does this still more in its rendering, which as the Sept. in some codd. reads: Jehovah inhabits the flood; in others reads: makes to inhabit.—And so will Jehovah sit as King forever.—The future with vav is in a significant contrast with the preterite of Psa 29:10 a, and is not to be regarded as a preterite, μְ ?ςεֹ ?μָ ?ν being translated, in primitive time (Sachs); but it cannot be explained too specifically either of the coming Messianic judgment (Rabbins), or with reference to a coming flood of fire and brimstone (Ephrζm Syr., J. H. Mich.), or to the saving water of Baptism, with reference to 1 Peter 3:21 (Luther, Seb. Schmidt et al.). “Whilst we still hear the voice of the Lord in the rushing of the storm through the forests stripped of their leaves, the poet snatches us away at once from the tumult of earth and places us amid the choirs of the heavenly temple, which above in holy silence sing glory and praise to the Eternal” (Umbreit). [Psalms 29:11. Jehovah will bless His people with peace.—Delitzsch: “How impressive the closing word of this Psalm! It is arched as a rainbow above it. The beginning of the Psalm shows us the heavens open and the throne of God in the midst of angelic songs of praise, and the close of the Psalm shows us on earth, in the midst of the angry voice of Jehovah shaking all things, His people victorious and blessed with peace. Gloria in excelsis is the beginning and pax in terris the end.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. God has a glory and a power which are peculiar to His nature, and He gives them to be known likewise on earth and in heaven, so that He may be named after them and yet His name not be an arbitrary title, but an expression of His nature. On the ground of this and in consequence of it, He will have in heaven and on earth the recognition to which He is entitled. He insists upon His glory and demands the tribute due to it, whilst He calls attention to His acts as well as to His works. 2. Even in nature God declares Himself in its commotions as its Lord and Master. That which transpires in the phenomena of nature is not a play of hidden powers; and we have to trace in them not the motions of the world-spirit, not the operation of the gods of nature, not the rushing of the spirits of the elements, but the scolding and government of Jehovah, the God of historical revelation; and, therefore, we need not fear them although all creatures tremble and quake. For Jehovah makes nature the servant of His ends in the government and redemption of the world, and He is not only a King in the kingdom of heaven and over His chosen people, but He is the Almighty and Eternal ruler of all things. 3. When the voice of Jehovah is heard in the thunder, the conscience may be awakened and with the remembrance of the judgment of God thoughts, especially of the Flood, may be excited in the heart in connection with storms and showers, earthquakes and floods. But the same God who at the Flood made known His royal dominion in judging the world and delivering a seed of His people, now likewise, when He purifies the air by a storm, bestows refreshment to the land, fruitfulness and the blessings of the harvest, and acts in the same manner in the life of the people and in the history of the world. Hence His people have every reason, when there are such declarations of the power of God in nature and above nature, which are praised in heaven as revelations of His glory, to strengthen their faith in His help and their hope in His blessing in stormy times and amidst the commotions of life, by a remembrance of the analogous government of God in history. Many ancient interpreters, misunderstanding this connection and internal advance of the thought, have fallen upon a mere allegorical explanation and symbolical interpretation of the entire Psalm, and have then partly understood, not only by the sons of God, but likewise by the cedars of Lebanon, the great ones of the earth, and so likewise by the palace the temple at Jerusalem, and indeed by Jehovah’s voice the preaching of the Divine word; and partly have regarded Lebanon, Sirion, the desert as symbolical designations of historical relations or indeed of spiritual conditions. Roman Catholic interpreters have often found a particular reason for this in the circumstance, that Psalms 29:5 b in the Sept. and Vulg. reads: “and the beloved (is) as a young unicorn,” and Psalms 29:5 a in the Vulg., differing there from the Sept., “and will crush them as calves of Lebanon.” Even Schegg brings this verse into direct connection with the words of the title of the Sept., and Vulg. referring to the feast of the dedication of the tabernacle, and interprets it of the election of Judah the beloved (or even of Zion, Psalms 68:16), which resembles the unicorn in freshness of life and strength, in contrast with the rejection of Ephraim, Psalms 78:67, the calf of Lebanon crushed by the Lord (Isaiah 8:9), with reference to the comparison of Joseph with a bullock (Deuteronomy 33:17), and to the places of the worship of the calf in the kingdom of Israel, in the South at Bethel, in the North at Dan in Lebanon. The desert is then said to indicate man’s renouncing all his earthly advantages and merits, and the shaking of it to mean its fructification and transformation (Psalms 107:35; Isaiah 51:3), which is to be expected when the sevenfold flame of the Holy Spirit pours itself, in the Sacraments, over the soul shaken by the preaching of the Gospel. This is sufficient to bring to mind the arbitrariness and danger of the allegorical interpretation of Scripture and to clearly show its essential difference from the interpretation of the language of nature speaking by signs and a practical use of it for the edification of the congregation. “The voice of God sounds at first in the thunder of the song causing all things to shake; but at the end it vanishes softly away in the quickening drops of the words: He blesses His people with peace” (Umbreit). AND Many who are now cold and careless in praising God and celebrating His holy name, would give honor to the Lord, if they were mindful of His glory.—From the Almighty God comes the blessing of peace upon His worshipping people.—The manifestation of the omnipotence of God should lead us, 1) to praise His glory with adoration, 2) to shun His judgment, 3) to resign ourselves to His protection.—God will have the honor due Him at first in heaven, but afterwards on earth; all His manifestations in nature as well as in history should remind us of this.—What a consolation it is, that God Isaiah 1) the Almighty Lord of all things, 2) the righteous Judge of all the world, 3) the King of His people, bestowing blessings.—All the manifestations of the power of God are likewise revelations of His glory and His royal government, which is ever the same.—When a storm reminds us of the Flood and the Flood of the Divine judgment we should not forget that it is one and the same God, who in the storm, the flood and the judgment brings to light not only the terrors, but likewise the blessings of His royal glory.—In the phenomena of nature as well as the events of the world, God speaks to men; it is well for those who hearken to God’s voice, take heed to God’s government and worship God as the Lord of glory in holy attire.—It is revealed amidst the terrors, destructions and dangers in the world, what we know of God, think of Him and expect from Him.—The particular exhibitions of the Divine majesty on earth are transient, the majesty and power itself remain to this King forever. Starke: He who perceives and experiences the power of the voice of the Lord, may likewise experience in his soul the glory of God.—If the voice of the Lord goes with such power and strength in the physical thunder storm, what will be said of the wonderful, penetrating power of the thunder of His word which is yet to be heard on all waters among all nations?—The Lord sits in judgment over all those who refuse to obey His voice, as at the time of the Flood He judged His first world.—Osiander: God has no pleasure in splendid and costly attire and ornaments, which are highly esteemed by the world, but He is pleased with spiritual attire, when the heart is purified within by faith and is adorned with all kinds of Christian virtues.—Fritsch: The greatest honor of a prince, court, city, land is, that God’s honor dwells there.—Renschel: Take heed of the voice of the Lord; this shows thee His power and takes away from thee thy pride.—Rieger: We cannot give the Lord anything; but it is our business to know and confess His name.—Tholuck: If the saints already on earth as soon as the storms of God roar, worship in priestly reverence, how much more those in heaven.—Von Gerlach: Those things which among men are for the most part far apart, are united in God’s works, infinite power and symmetrical beauty. [Matth. Henry: If we would in hearing and praying, and other acts of devotion, receive grace from God, we must make it our business to give glory to God.—Whenever it thunders let us think of this Psalm; and whenever we sing this Psalm let us think of the dreadful thunderclaps we have sometimes heard, and thus bring God’s word and His works together, that by both we may be directed and quickened to give unto Him the glory due unto His name; and let us bless Him that there is another voice of His besides this dreadful one, by which God now speaks to us, even the still small voice of His Gospel, the terror of which shall not make us afraid.—When the thunder of God’s wrath shall make sinners tremble, the saints shall lift up their heads with joy.—Spurgeon: Just as the eighth Psalm is to be read by moonlight when the stars are bright, as the nineteenth needs the rays of the rising sun to bring out its beauty, so this can be best rehearsed beneath the black wing of tempest, by the glare of the lightning, or amid that dubious dusk which heralds the war of elements.—The call to worship chimes in with the loud pealing thunder, which is the church bell of the universe ringing kings and angels, and all the sons of earth to their devotions.—His voice, whether in nature or revelation, shakes both earth and heaven; see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. If His voice be thus mighty, what must His hand be! beware lest ye provoke a blow.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Hengstenberg regards the use of the name of Jehovah ten times in the main part of the Psalm, as important (Psalms 29:3-9), as signifying completeness and finish.—Ewald divides the Psalm into five parts, the introduction and conclusion being alike of four lines, the body of the Psalm consisting of three parts of five lines each, the whole being thus highly artistic. The storm is described in three stages. “At first it is heard in the extreme distance of the highest heavens (Psalms 29:3-4), then in rapidly increasing power it covers the whole visible heavens (Psalms 29:5-7), finally coming from the north and descending constantly lower it passes away in the far south.” Perowne: “The structure of the whole is highly artificial, and elaborated with a symmetry of which no more perfect specimen exists in Hebrew. But this evidently artificial mode of composition is no check to the force and fire of the Poet’s genius, which kindles, and glows, and sweeps along with all the freedom and majesty of the storm; the whole Psalm being one continued strain of triumphant exultation.”—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth on this Psalm indulges in a series of fanciful interpretations. I will give a general specimen here which will do for the whole Psalm. “The voice of the thunder, and the flash of the lightning spoke to the Psalmist of the manifestations of God’s glory on Mount. Sinai, amid thunders and lightnings, at the giving of the Law (Exodus 19:16). Then the ‘voice of the Lord’ was heard, as Moses describes, with exceeding power (see Exodus 19:19; Exodus 20:18), and it sounded forth in the thunders of the Decalogue. Hence the Hebrew Church connected this Psalm with Pentcost, the Feast of the Giving of the Law; and in the Christian Church this Psalm, used in a large portion of Christendom at the Epiphany, and falling, as it does, in the series of the octaves of the Ascension, may raise the thoughts to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer, manifested in love as well as in power upon earth, and showing His glory and power by riding upon the clouds, and by sending down the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, from heaven at Pentecost, with the sound of a rushing mighty wind, and in flames of fire (Acts 2:2), to strengthen and comfort His Church.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “In holy vestments, heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshippers therein as clothed in priestly garments, and doing perpetual service.”—C. A. B.] [A. V. translates young unicorn—vid. notes on Psalms 22:12.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “With every thunder-peal comes the terrible forked lightning, so striking in tropical and eastern lands. Its vivid, zig-zag, serpent-like flash is given in a few words.”—C. A. B.] [Ewald translates at once: “whilst in His palace—all speaks ‘glory.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 30 A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David1         I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, And hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. 2    O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. 3    O Lord,    thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. 4    Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 5    For his anger endureth but a moment; In his favour is life: Weeping may endure for a night, But joy cometh in the morning. 6    And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. 7    Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong; Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. 8    I cried to thee, O Lord;And unto the Lord I made supplication. 9    What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? 10    Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, be thou my helper. 11    Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. 12    O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. AND Its Contents. For the Title vid. Introduction.Thanksgiving for Divine deliverance from great peril of death begins the Psalm (Psalms 30:1-3), which is followed by an appeal to the congregation to praise the goodness of God, which soon changes the deserved trouble into abiding joy (Psalms 30:4-5). This has been shown in the life of the Psalmist, who mentions his false feelings of security and his boasting (Psalms 30:6), and his terror when he perceived the loss of the Divine favor, which constitutes the true basis of his power (Psalms 30:7). He then states the fact (Psalms 30:8), and the manner (Psalms 30:9-10) of his prayer and his experience of help (Psalms 30:11), in order that he may praise God without intermission, as he vows likewise to do (Psalms 30:12). Comp. P. Gerhard’s hymns: “Ich preise dich und singe,” and, “Sollt ich meinem Gott nicht singen,” with the refrain from Psalms 30:5 Str. I. Psalms 30:1-3. For Thou hast drawn me up.—The Hebrew word is used in Exodus 2:16; Exodus 2:19 of drawing water from a well and so is figuratively applied, Proverbs 20:5. But this is not the original idea of the word, according to Hupfeld, but is itself a particular application of the idea of drawn up, which is here rendered by all ancient translators and interpreters (so A. V. lifted me up). This does away at once with the chief point of the hypothesis of Hitzig, that the reference is to the deliverance of the prophet Jeremiah from the slimy cistern (Jeremiah 38). The deep place in question is manifestly stated in Psalms 30:3 [as sheol and grave, vid.Psalms 6:5; Psalms 16:9.—C. A. B.]; and since there is described there, not a great danger in general in a symbolical manner (Calv., Hengst,), or in hyperbolical expressions (De Wette, Hupf.), but the near peril of death, we cannot understand the healing Psalms 30:2, which is parallel with the drawing up, of help and salvation in general, but rather of deliverance from sickness. For the reading and the construction of Psa 30:3 b vid. Hupfeld.—Thou hast quickened me from among those that go down to the grave. [Hupfeld: “Hell and grave are ideas usually interchanged and parallel: and ξִ ?ο, from, is used at first of the place out of which he was drawn, then of the association of those who are there, from which he is taken away.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 30:4. And praise His holy memory.—Memory is parallel with name,Exodus 3:15; Isaiah 26:8; Hosea 12:6; Psalms 97:12; Psalms 135:13, yet is not identical with it. The name makes God known, the memory brings God and our duty to Him to remembrance.Psalms 30:5. For a moment (passeth) in His anger, a life in His favor; at even weeping turneth in (literally, passeth the night), and in the morning—shouts of joy.—The figurative character of these pregnant words is misunderstood by Hengst. and Hitzig and applied in the interest of their hypotheses, which however different in other respects, coincide in this, that they make all depend upon the duration of a single day. And it is the more remarkable when Hengstenberg denies the parallelism of the thought in Psalms 30:5 b, and translates: for His wrath brings on a (sad) moment, His favor life. At any rate, usage demands that ψֶ ?βַ ?ς should only be regarded as a designation of time. It is true that ηַ ?ιִּ ?ιν includes usually the material contrast with death, in accordance with its Biblical meaning; and so Geier likewise translates delectatur vita=God has pleasure in the life, and not in the death of the sinner: but this destroys the parallelism at once. But Psalms 27:4. shows that the idea of time may under certain circumstances, even in this world, appear as the only one. So likewise in Isaiah 54:7-8, an everlasting grace is contrasted with the moment of anger just as here a lifelong favor. The Vulgate has after the Sept. (which reads ψֹ ?βֶ ?ζ) quoniam ira in indignatione ejus. So Roman Catholic interpreters in their expositions assert that the cause is used instead of the effect, wrath instead of punishment; particularly death. Str. III. [Psalms 30:6. And as for me.—Perowne: “The pronoun with the conjunction thus at the beginning of a clause is always emphatic, and generally stands in opposition to something going before, either expressed or understood. Here there is a tacit opposition between the Psalmist’s present and his former experience. Now he had learnt through the lesson of suffering to trust in God. Before that suffering came, he had begun to trust in himself. ‘I seemed so strong, so secure, I began to think within myself, I shall never be moved; Thou hadst made my mountain so strong. And then Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 30:7. Hadst Thou appointed strength to my mountain.—The Vulgate has instead of “to my mountain” decori meo after the Sept. τῷ κάλλειμου, which presupposes the reading ηֲ ?γָ ?ψִ ?ι So likewise the Syriac. The Chald. has: Thou hast placed me on strong mountains, which Hupfeld prefers, and it is certainly better than the interpretation of others: on my strong mountain. The Hebrew verb δςξιγ with the accusative of the thing and dative of the person leads, however, to the idea of appoint=give, comp. 2 Chronicles 33:8, with 2 Kings 21:8. The mountain is not so much a symbol of dignity and greatness, as either of security and of success, or of dominion, especially of the Davidic kingdom (2 Samuel 6:9; 2 Samuel 6:12; Micah 4:8).—[Thou didst hide Thy face, I was frightened.—For an explanation of God’s hiding His face vid.Psalms 13:1. The A. V. “troubled” is too weak.—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 30:9. What profit by my blood, by my going down to the grave? can dust praise Thee? can it declare Thy truth?—The mention of blood does not lead necessarily to the idea of a violent death, for the soul is in the blood. [Compare the argument in Psalms 6:5, also Psalms 88:10; Psalms 88:12 and in Hezekiah’s words Isaiah 38:18-19, which is manifestly based on David’s words. Delitzsch: “His prayer for a prolongation of life was not for the sake of earthly possessions and enjoyment, but for the honor of God. He feared death as the end of the praise of God. For on the other side of the grave no more Psalms would be sung. Psalms 6:5. Hades was not overcome in the Old Testament, the heavens not yet opened. In heaven were the απιΰμιν (Psalms 29. sons of Gods), but not yet the blessed απιΰγν (sons of Adam),”—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 30:11. Thou hast turned my lamenting into dancing for me, didst undo my sackcloth and gird me with joy.—[Hupfeld: “Dancing (dances performed by women accompanied by songs and music at the celebration of a victory as Exodus 15:20; Judges 11:34 : 1 Samuel 18:6, or at religious feasts Exodus 32:19, Judges 21:21) is here poetical of joy or shouts of joy, thanksgiving and songs, as Jeremiah 31:4; Jeremiah 31:13; Lamentations 5:15.”—vid. Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, art. “Dance.”—C. A. B.]. Sackcloth is the hairy, tight garment of sorrow and penitence, which was worn on the naked body, sometimes girded on with a cord and sometimes not. The girdles were mostly colored and served at the same time as ornaments, and were often embroidered and partially adorned with costly ornaments. Hence the expression “gird” does not merely pass over into a figurative meaning as of girding with strength,Psalms 18:32, but is used at once in the sense of adorn, only that the fundamental meaning ever shines through, as Psalms 65:12 : the hills gird themselves with rejoicing. Psalms 30:12. In order that glory may celebrate Thee.—Most interpreters take λαεγ here as referring to soul. The only difficulty is the absence of the suffix, for in this connection the reference can only be to the soul of the Psalmist and there is no example of an ellipsis of the suffix (Geier, Rosenm.). And so Hupfeld supplies it at once in the text, which thus becomes like the words of Psa 108:1. Kimchi thinks of the immortal soul in the eternal life as contrasted with the dust, Psalms 30:9, which he explains of the corpse and not of the grave. But without regard to this false contrast, the article could not fail, if the soul as such was to be designated. Many others depart from the context and take the abstract for concrete=the noble (Chald.) or indeed; every man who has a wise soul (Aben Ezra). The Syriac has not regarded this word at all as the subject, but as the object: therefore will I sing praise to Thee. But this is against the construction, which is restored by the interpretation: glory=praise, renown, hymn, sings to Thee (Maurer, Olsh., De Wette). In the song of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38.) the last two verses of this Psalm are re-echoed together with many passages from the Book of Job. [Perowne: The sackcloth of his humiliation God had taken off from him, and had clothed him with the garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3). How should he do otherwise than praise God for ever for His goodness.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. There is sufficient reason in the exhibitions of grace, helpings and deliverances which God richly bestows upon men, to praise Him continually and thank Him daily. “For as God lifts us by His hand on high from the depths into which we have fallen, so it is again our obligation to lift up our hearts and mouths to His praise” (Calvin). Would that the depth of our feelings might correspond with the depths of misery from which we were drawn up, and the earnestness of our praise and thankfulness with the greatness of our obligation, since we could not even with our highest thankfulness attain to the greatness of God.2. The Divine grace and help are wonderfully exhibited to every individual, yet it is not something singular and special; therefore the favored one has confidence in the entire congregation, that they will gladly follow his appeal to unite in the song of praise and thanksgiving which he lifts up to God. The one bounty reminds us likewise of others, the particular help of the general salvation, the present deliverance of previous exhibitions of grace shown to other men, so that the pious remembrance of God’s holy Being, as it is made known in His Providence in history, is awakened and sustained and the holy memory of Jehovah forms the subject of the songs of praise of the congregation. 3. It is worthy of particular consideration that whilst we richly deserve the wrath of God and must experience its frightful effects likewise in those sufferings in which we receive the taste of the punishments of our sins, yet the delivering favor of God which giveth life turns directly to the sinner when he is awakened from his security, and is terrified on account of his sins, and is brought in humility to the knowledge of his true condition and implores the grace of God. Thus we perceive that not wrath, but love is the essential disposition of God, and that He has both of these dispositions in Himself. “Alles Ding wδhrt seine zeit, Gottes Lieb’ in Ewigkeit.” (P. Gerhardt. 4. Even pious people have to keep before them the dangers of prosperity and be warned by the example of David, in order that they may not be betrayed in times of prosperity to hurtful confidence in self, and false feelings of security and then descend from their imaginary height, strength and abundance, and lose more than they ever thought it possible to lose. But the security of fools ruins them (Proverbs 1:32; comp. Deuteronomy 8:11-18; Deuteronomy 32:15; Hosea 13:6). Yet he who has been brought by sufferings to reflection, by falls to awakening and thereby to terror, self-knowledge, prayer, gains not only true help and a new grace and attains to fresh and joyous thankfulness, but gains likewise beyond self, to tell others his history in humble and thankful joy, that they may be warned, instructed and consoled. “David previously fast asleep, suddenly begins to cry out in terror to the Lord. For as iron, when it has become rusty by long disuse, cannot be again used until it is heated again in the fire and beaten with the hammer, so when once carnal security has prevailed, no one can quickly equip themselves for prayer, unless previously beaten and properly prepared by the cross” (Calvin). 5. God in the deliverance of those who seek Him in penitence, declares not only His goodness and His faithfulness, but likewise His truth, which is to be transmitted from father to son (Isaiah 38:19), from generation to generation (Psalms 22:31). Accordingly it is incumbent upon God and is in the interest of God not to be robbed of those servants who have pleasure in never ceasing to praise Him, and who in imploring for the preservation of their life have directed themselves not to earthly things, but to God’s glory and the efficiency of His service with heart, mind and thoughts, in the assurance that this can be accomplished by them only on earth and in this life, so long as death, the world below and hell have not been vanquished. AND Our songs of praise and thanksgiving cannot be drawn too deep, nor ascend too high, nor be spread too far, nor last too long.—No misery is so deep that we cannot be drawn out of it by God, but no height is so great that we cannot be cast down from it.—It is not God’s fault if His anger last longer than a moment.—When suffering or joy turns in to us, we do well to inquire whether God has sent us these guests.—It is not indifferent how long we may weep or shout for joy, but more depends upon what they are about, for God determines their duration in accordance with it.—We know not how many moments remain to us in this short, life, therefore it is important, that we should always be found as servants of God, in order that we may be ready through God’s favor to give account at any moment, and that we may praise forever His gracious help in bodily and spiritual things.—In the congregation of God are heard not only the songs of sorrow and of praise of its members, but there may be heard there likewise their penitential prayers and confessions of faith.—The experiences of believers should minister to the salvation of others, therefore they are told and written by them.—To the preaching of the truth of God belongs the preaching of His wrath against the sinner as well as the message of His grace towards the penitent and the narration of His love towards those seeking salvation.—We can have no better wish, than to experience God’s grace our lives long, declare God’s truth daily, praise God’s name forever.Starke: It is a great benefit, when God prolongs a man’s life until he turns to God in righteousness.—God’s usual way is to cause a constant saving interchange of sorrow and of joy, in order that we may not sink under the burden.—In good days we should think of the uncertainty of success and of our own weakness, and not put our trust in ourselves and be presumptuous.—Children of the world seek to banish their sorrow by earthly pleasures of every kind, but the children of light know that all comes from the hand of the Lord; hence they wait patiently until the Lord Himself shall turn their sorrow into joy.—Osiander: When we are in trouble, carnal security soon falls to the ground and we tremble and shudder for it.—Selnekker: The guilt is man’s, the punishment comes from God. But God delights in the life of man and has not ordained any man to death, but would that all men should turn and live.—Arndt: We have here an earnest warning from the example of the dear David, that we should fear God in good days, and not be secure and rely upon temporal things.—Tholuck: To confess that God is righteous in His chastisements is very difficult for men, but David was always ready to confess this after his failures.—Stiller: This Psalm gives comfort in the sufferings of life, and says first of all, from whom they come, then how long they will endure, and finally what profit they will have.—Guenther: Every one ascends high and has ascended, who lets himself be guided in the way of the Lord.—He who always fares well quickly forgets God, and forgets likewise his poor soul; he then neglects to struggle, he regards himself as safe, even the gracious countenance of God shining upon him in continued success, he too easily takes for God’s good pleasure in his holiness.—Thym: The pious sufferer on the bed of severe sickness: 1) knows thoroughly the weakness of his nature; 2) feels therein the chastisement of the holy God; 3) turns to the Physician who ever helps. [Matth. Henry: The more imminent our dangers have been, the more eminent our deliverances have been, the more comfortable to ourselves, and the more illustrious proofs of the power and goodness of God A life from the dead ought to be spent in extolling the God of our life.—No one of all God’s perfections carries in it more terror to the wicked nor more comfort to the godly, than His holiness.—Our happiness is bound up in God’s favor; if we have that we have enough, whatever else we want. It is the life of the soul, it is spiritual life, the earnest of life eternal.—Barnes: If we are to offer prayer for the salvation of our children, neighbors, or friends, it is to be done in this world; if we are to admonish and warn the wicked, it is to be done here; if we are to do anything by personal effort for the spread of the Gospel, it is to be done before we die. Whatever we may do in heaven, these things are not to be done there; for when we close our eyes in death, our personal efforts for the salvation of men will cease forever.—Spurgeon: When God’s children prosper one way, they are generally tried another, for few of us can bear unmingled prosperity. Even the joys of hope need to be mixed with the pains of experience, and the more surely so when comfort breeds carnal security and self-confidence.—How high has our Lord lifted us? Lifted us up into the children’s place, to be adopted into the family; lifted us up into union with Christ, “to sit together with Him in heavenly places.” Lift high the name of our God, for He has lifted us above the stars.—Heavenly heart-music is an ascending thing, like the pillars of smoke which rose from the altar of incense.—We die like withered flowers when the Lord frowns, but His sweet smile revives us as the dews refresh the fields. His favor not only sweetens and cheers life, but it is life itself, the very essence of life. Who would know life, let him seek the favor of the Lord.—As in a wheel, the uppermost spokes descend to the bottom in due course, so is it with mortal conditions. There is a constant revolution: many who are in the dust to-day shall be highly elevated to-morrow; while those who are now aloft shall soon grind the earth.—The next best thing to basking in the light of God’s countenance is to be thoroughly unhappy when that bliss is denied us.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [The genitive “of David” does hot belong to “the house” but to “A Psalm.” Riehm is probably correct in regarding the ωׁ ?ιψΞηֲ ?πλַֻּ ?ϊηַ ?λַּ ?ιִ ?ϊ as a later liturgical addition to the Title, showing that it was to be used at the feast of Dedication, which was instituted by Judas Maccabeus in 165 B. C. to commemorate the purification of the Temple from its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes. ωִ ?ιψ is not used in the Title of any other Psalm of the first book. The Psalm would then have a general reference to David’s recovery from sickness corresponding with Psalms 16 and there is no reference to a house of his own or to the temple in the Psalm. But it might very properly be used at the feast of Dedication in subsequent times when once fixed by the circumstances of the Maccabean period. If however the Title is to be regarded as entirely original the house is not the house of David, whether at its reconsecration from the defilement of Absalom (2 Samuel 20:3), Calvin, Cocc. Geier, et al., or the rebuilding of the citadel of Zion which David regarded as the pledge of the greatness of his empire (Delitzsch, Moll, Perowne et al.), which is better; but to the house of God. And then it does not refer to the temple of Solomon (Chald., Rabbins. Hupf., et al.), but to the dedication of the threshing floor of Araunah (2 Samuel 24:20, sq.) after the three days’ plague (Rosenm., Venema, Hengst, Keil, Tholuck, Alexander, et al.).—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch: “The call to praise God which in Psalms 29 goes forth to the angels above, in Psalms 30 is directed to the pious here below.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne; “The truth seems to be, that whilst the Faith of the Old Testament saints in God was strong and childlike, their Hope of Immortality was at best dim and wavering, brightening perhaps for a moment, when the heart was rejoicing in God as its portion, and then again almost dying away.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 31 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David1         In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; Let me never be ashamed: Deliver me in thy righteousness. 2    Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: Be thou my strong rock, for a house of defence To save me. 3    For thou art my rock and my fortress; Therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me. 4    Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: For thou art my strength. 5    Into thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. 6    I have hated them that regard lying vanities: But I trust in the Lord.7    I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: For thou hast considered my trouble; Thou hast known my soul in adversities; 8    And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy Thou hast set my feet in a large room. 9    Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: Mine eye is consumed with grief, Yea, my soul and my belly. 10    For my life is spent with grief, And my years with sighing: My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, And my bones are consumed. 11    I was a reproach among all mine enemies, But especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: They that did see me without fled from me. 12    I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. 13    For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: While they took counsel together against me, They devised to take away my life. 14    But I trusted in thee, O Lord:I said, Thou art my God. 15    My times are in thy hand: Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. 16    Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: Save me for thy mercies’ sake. 17    Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee: Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. 18    Let the lying lips be put to silence; Which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. 19    Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee Before the sons of men! 20    Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. 21    Blessed be the Lord:For he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city. 22    For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. 23    O love the Lord, all ye his saints: For the Lord preserveth the faithful, And plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. 24    Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, All ye that hope in the Lord. AND Its Contents and Composition.—According to Luther, this Psalm “is spoken in the person of Christ and His saints, who are plagued their life long, internally by trembling and alarm, externally by persecution, slander and contempt, for the sake of the word of God, and yet are delivered by God from them all and comforted.” Brentz, Calv., and many of the older interpreters have, with Augustine, interpreted this Psalm as directly Messianic, because the crucified Saviour in the moment of dying (Luke 23:46) used the words which begin Psalms 31:5. Then the “iniquity,” Psalms 31:10 c, is understood of the sins of the world imputed to Christ. But Stier very properly recognizes in the words of Psa 31:5 : into Thy hand I commit my spirit, only “the appropriation of an expression which is full of confidence,” which cannot have a prophetical reference, because David, according to Psalms 31:4; Psalms 31:8; Psalms 31:15, hoped for deliverance from the danger still in this life and for this life. Stier maintains the Davidic composition of the Psalm, although he gives up the historical reference of most earlier interpreters, which is again advocated by Delitzsch, to the situation of David in the wilderness of Maτn during his persecution by Saul (1 Samuel 23. sq.). There is certainly no weight to be put upon the merely apparent correspondence of the word αְ ?ηָ ?τְ ?ζִ ?ι, Psalms 31:22, with 1 Samuel 23:26, to which the title of the Sept. ἐκστάσεως, Vulg. pro ecstasi is referred by many with the explanation, “for the trembling,” because the Sept., Psalms 31:22, translates ἐκἐκστάσει. Yet many resemblances are apparent with the Psalms which are generally put in that period, and if partly the elegiac softness, partly the character of the language remind us of the prophet Jeremiah, and especially Psalms 31:13 a strikingly agrees with Jeremiah 20:10, yet, as even Hupfeld states, there is no evidence in this for the composition of the Psalm by Jeremiah, as Hitzig and Ewald contend, especially as there are frequently found in this prophet expressions and turns of thought from more ancient books, particularly from the Psalms. There is a change in experience, and a transition from expressions of confidence and trust to a lamenting description of need, but this does not show, any more than the final transition from praising God to the exhortation of all the pious, that only after deliverance had taken place (Ruding., Rosenm.), the prayer in time of danger has been connected with thanksgiving for deliverance. When Hengstenberg regards David as speaking from the person of every righteous man in severe trouble, he defaces the historical character of the Psalm, and does away with the limits between explanation and application. The contents are divided into three principal groups, so that at first the prayer for deliverance (Psalms 31:1-2) bases itself on the confidence in the grace of God peculiar to Him (Psalms 31:3-5) and previously exhibited to the Psalmist (Psalms 31:6-8); then from the description of present trouble (Psalms 31:9-13) it rises anew with protestations of trust in God (Psalms 31:14-16) and the assurance of being heard (Psalms 31:17-18); finally it passes over into thankful praise of God for His gracious dealings with all the pious (Psalms 31:19-20), particularly for the hearing of prayer particularly afforded to the Psalmist (Psalms 31:21-22), and in the exhortation of all the favored ones to believing hope in God (Psalms 31:23-24). Compare the hymn: “In dich hab’ ich gehoffet Herr.” [Str. I. Psalms 31:1. In Thee, Jehovah, have I taken refuge.—Vid.Psalms 7:1; Psalms 11:1.—Let me not be shamed forever.—Most interpreters, ancient and modern, regard this as=never be shamed, which could not very well be expressed otherwise in Hebrew. Hengstenberg however, interprets it: “Though I am put to shame now, yet let not that shame last forever.” This verse and the two following reappear with few variations in Psalms 71:1; Psalms 71:3. Psalms 31:2. Be Thou to me for a rock of defence, for a house of fortification, to save me.—Compare these figures with those of Psa 18:2.—C. A. B.] [Str. II. Psalms 31:3. For Thou art my rock and my fortress.—Perowne: “This has been called illogical. But is it so illogical as it seems? The Psalmist prays, ‘Be Thou to me,’ or rather ‘become to me, prove Thyself to be, my rock and house of defence; for I know that Thou, and Thou only, art my refuge.’ This is the logic of the heart, if not of the intellect; the logic, it may be added, of every prayer of faith.”—Wilt lead me and guide me.—Perowne: “The futures here and in the next verse are not to be rendered as imperatives. They express the strong hope and confidence that it will be done according to his faith and his prayer.” Psalms 31:4. Wilt pull me out of the net.—Comp. Psalms 9:15; Psalms 25:15.—For Thou art my defence.—The Thou is emphatic. Moll renders it, for Thou, Thou art, etc.Psalms 31:5. Into Thy hand I commit my spirit.—Perowne: “Upon the expression of confidence in the power and faithfulness of God, follows the expression of the singer’s resolve. My spirit (ruach) is more than my soul or life (nephesh). It is not only from sickness and death, but from sin and all ghostly enemies, that the man of God would be kept, and therefore he commends to God, not his body or his bodily life alone, but the life of his spirit, which is more precious (comp. Isaiah 38:16, ‘life of my spirit’).—I commend (παρατίθεμαι), i.e. place as a deposit, entrust.”—C. A. B.]Str. III. Psalms 31:6. I have hated them that regard vain idols.—The Vulgate, Syriac and Arabic versions translate after the Septuagint, “Thou hast hated,” which is preferred by some interpreters, as Venema, Hitzig, Ewald, Olsh., on account of the contrast in the second member of the verse, comp. in Psalms 5. Psalms 31:5 with Psalms 31:7, whilst they read with Cod. 170 Kenn. the second person shanκtha. The “regarding” does not refer to portents in the sense of the interpretation of signs and magic (Aben Ezra), nor does it express the obedient regarding in the sense of reverence (most interpreters, with reference to Hosea 4:10; Proverbs 27:18), but the trusting and waiting attention which is contained therein (Rosenm., Hengst., Hupf., Delitzsch). The object is not vain things and things of naught in general (Calv., Ruding., Rosenm., Stier), although these are literally designated as “breath of nothingness,” but the idols as the “unsubstantial things of naught” (Hitzig), as the use of this passage in Jonah 2:9 shows. The plural of hebel denotes likewise in Deuteronomy 32:21; Jeremiah 2:5; Jeremiah 8:19; Jeremiah 14:22, the idols on the side of their vanity. Their delusive nature (Hengst.) is here expressed by ωָׁ ?εְ ?ΰ, Psalms 7:14; Jeremiah 18:15. God constitutes the contrast as El κmeth, for which 2 Chronicles 15:3 has Elohe κmeth, with the change from the true being of God which ever proves itself true, to the faithful disposition of God which ever proves itself thus as El κmϋnah,Deuteronomy 32:4 (Delitzsch).—[As for me, I have trusted in Jehovah.—The I is emphatic, as the Thou in Psalms 31:4, and is opposed to those trusting in vain idols.—C. A. B.] Psalms 31:7-8. Let me exult and rejoice in Thy mercy, Thou who hast regarded my distress, taken knowledge of the needs of my soul; and hast not shut me up in the hand of the enemy, hast set my feet on a wide place.—In Psalms 31:7 cιγς with αּ does not denote a theoretical knowledge, but a practical and operative taking knowledge, a looking into (a being concerned about). Hupfeld says that this construction is an unheard of one, and since usage and the accents do not allow of taking the soul as the object of the knowledge (Luther, Stier), he would supply the object and indeed either the suffix, me, or from the immediate context, my distress. But Delitzsch, as the ancient interpreters, refers to Job 12:9; Job 35:15, and Hitzig compares, besides the last passage, Genesis 19:33; Isaiah 9:8, likewise the Arabic, and remarks that ςμ is used for αּ in Job 37:16.—It is possible to regard ΰωׁ ?ψ Psalms 31:7 b as a conjunction=that, because (Geier, Delitzsch, Hitzig), so that the subject of the exultation would be stated in the following clauses, as then likewise the perfects are for the most part regarded as prophetical perfects. But it is much more natural to regard it as a relative clause, as Psalms 31:5 b without the relative, an appeal to previous experience as the motive of the prayer and reason of the hope of being heard (Hupf.), so that Psalms 31:7 a is not an antecedent and a promise (most interpreters [A. V.]), but a prayer (Ruding., J. H. Mich.). [Alexander: “To shut up in the hand of any one is to abandon to his power. The expression is a figurative one, but occurs in prose, and even in the history of David. See 1 Samuel 23:11; 1 Samuel 26:8. The figure of the last clause is a favorite with David. See above, on Psalms 4:1; Psalms 18:19; Psalms 18:36.”—C. A. B.] Str. IV. [Psalms 31:9-10. Mine eye is consumed with vexation—my soul and my belly.—Compare Psalms 6:7. The soul and belly are general terms enlarging and adding emphasis to the more specific term, eye. The belly stands for the body, yet with a more particular reference to the bowels as the seat of the affections, or as Delitzsch, “the interior of the body reflecting the spiritual and physical activities and experiences.” The soul and the belly thus represent the entire man. The expressions of Psa 31:10 are to be compared with Psalms 102:3 sq.; Jeremiah 20:18, as well as Psalms 6. The clauses are parallel, the general terms becoming in each case more specific, thus life has its parallel years; grief, sighing; strength, bones. The bones are the frame-work of the body, vid.Psalms 6:3. His iniquity is regarded by the Psalmist as the real cause of all his trouble.—C. A. B.] Psalms 31:11. Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, and to my neighbors a burden, and a terror to mine acquaintance.—J. D. Mich. already conjectured that ξְ ?ΰֹ ?γ was a substantive, with the meaning of burden, and compared with the Arabic. Fleischer, in Delitzsch’s commentary, has proved this more accurately and thus made an end of all the difficulties, which arise if we retain the usual meaning of “very,” which the Sept. already expressed with σφόδρα. It has likewise the present order of words, so the placing of “and to my neighbors” after “friends” (Olsh.) does great violence to the text. The words “because of all my adversaries” could be attached to the preceding clause with less difficulty (Ewald) than this. But the translation which is then proposed, “I have become a reproach even to my neighbors exceedingly,” is wrecked upon the fact that the intensive signification of the ε (even, likewise), which most interpreters with Calvin and Geier accept, in connection with the usual division of the clauses and connection of words cannot be proved. It is admissible to regard the ε as explanatory (= and indeed). But this meaning, accepted here by Piscator, Stier, et al., makes such a drawling clause that Hupfeld would rather suppose that the ε has come into the text by mistake or that a substantive has been omitted. Hitzig translates: fled from my neighbors, since he regards the ΰ as a corruption of a π, but he now reads no longer ξָ ?πֹ ?γ, but ξֻ ?πָּ ?γ. Instead of “because of all my enemies,” he translates likewise: from all, etc., which is certainly better than the translation, more than all (Vulg., and many of the older interpreters, even Rosenm.), although it is likewise allowed by the language. [Psalms 31:12. Alexander: “The next stage of his calamity was that of contemptuous oblivion, which usually follows the acute one of disgust and shame described in the foregoing verse.—From the heart,i.e. the memory; the expression seems to correspond exactly to the second member of the English proverb: out of sight, out of mind.—The comparison with an earthen vessel, at best of little value, easily broken, and when broken worthless, only fit to be contemptuously thrown aside, is a favorite with Jeremiah, who appears to have derived it, with some other favorite ideas and expressions, from the Psalm before us. See Jeremiah 19:11; Jeremiah 22:28; Jeremiah 25:34; Jeremiah 48:38, and compare Hosea 8:8.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 31:13. For I hear the whispering of many; terrors round about; whilst they take counsel together against me—they devise to take away my life.—[The usual interpretation of γִ ?αָּ ?δ slander does not suit here as Hupfeld shows, and so Hitzig, Delitzsch, Moll, et al. Ewald translates, report. The phrase, “terrors round about,” magor missabib, is a favorite formula in Jeremiah, probably having become a current phrase in the mouths of the people in troublous times. Jeremiah 20:10; also Jeremiah 6:2; Jeremiah 20:3-4; Jeremiah 46:5; Jeremiah 49:29; Lamentations 2:22.—C. A. B.] [Str. V. Psalms 31:15. My times are in Thy hand.—Perowne: “My times, i.e., all my life, with its ‘sundry and manifold changes,’ its joys and sorrows, its hopes and conflicts, are not the sport of chance, or the creatures of a blind fate but are in Thy hand, O Thou living personal Redeemer. On this confidence are grounded the petitions which follow and the hopes expressed, Psalms 31:18. The second of the petitions, Psalms 31:16, is borrowed from the High Priest’s blessing, Numbers 6:25. Comp. Psalms 4:7.” Psalms 31:17. Let the wicked be shamed, be silenced in the world below.—For an explanation of Sheol, vid.Psalms 6:5, and the corresponding fate of the wicked, Psalms 9:15. Alexander: “He distinguishes himself as one who calls upon God, from the wicked who do not, and appeals to the righteousness of God as requiring that defeat, and disappointment, and frustration of the hopes, should fall, not upon the class to which he belongs and of which he is the representative, but upon that represented by his enemies, of whom it has been well said, that they are not reckoned sinners because they are his enemies, but enemies because they are sinners, or in other words, enemies to him because they are the enemies of God.” Psalms 31:18. Let lying lips be put to silence—that is the silence of destruction, as is clear from Psalms 31:17 where the world below is added. The reference is back to the whispering of Psa 31:13.—Which speak arrogantly against a righteous man with pride and scorn.—Hupfeld: “ςָ ?ϊָ ?χ not=hard (as Geier, J. H. Mich.), nor impudent (as Gesen. and most recent interps.) but arrogant, properly with the neck thrown back comp. Psalms 75:5. ‘Speak not with a stiff neck,’ comp. πְ ?θεּ ?ιβָ ?ψεֹ ?οIsaiah 3:16), that is proudly, as in all passages where the word occurs (Psalms 75:5; Psalms 94:4; 1 Samuel 2:3, and here). So Luther already (stiff) and Rosenm.”—C. A. B.] [Str. VI. Psalms 31:19. Thou hast laid up.—Perowne: “Literally ‘hidden,’ comp. Psalms 17:4. and ‘the hidden manna,’ Revelation 2:17. This is the love of God manifested to the soul in secret; the next clause tells of its open manifestation, ‘Thou hast wrought.’ ” Psalms 31:20. Thou screenest them with the screen of Thy countenance from the conspiracies of men.—Hupfeld: “This is here naturally not as Job 24:15, the screen with which his countenance was concealed (mask), but which the countenance of God afforded. The countenance of God (usually in an evil sense as Psalms 21:9) is here the gracious presence of God turned towards the pious in a friendly manner (vid.Psalms 4:6), and the source of all good (vid.Psalms 16:2), particularly His protection, His guarding countenance (comp. the eye of God. Psalms 33:18; Psalms 34:15, comp. Psalms 32:8.) as it marched in the pillar of cloud and of fire with the Israelites through the wilderness, Exodus 33:14-15, which, therefore, in Isaiah 4:5-6 likewise serves as a screen. Here this presence is in connection with the figure of one seeking protection, whom God receives into His dwelling as a guest, where he is ‘before the face of God;’ hence a screen (properly hiding-place, latibulum=ξַ ?ηֲ ?αֵ ?ΰ comp. Isaiah 4:6; Isaiah 32:2) is attributed to him so far as the dwelling-place of God is such, instead of screen of His tent.Psalms 27:6 (whence the passage was probably derived), comp. the parallel αְ ?ρֻ ?λָּ ?δ (as in Psalms 27:5); thus mingling it with the figure of a shelter.”—C. A. B.] Str. VII. Psalms 31:21. In a strong city.—This expression is usually taken as a figure of safety either with the comparison omitted “as in a strong city” (Symm., Stier), or the αּ is regarded as an expression of the comparison, “as a strong city” (Hengst.). If we suppose that there is a historical reference, it is more natural to refer to Ziklag (Delitzsch) than Keila. It is possible from the language to translate; in a besieged city, which then can either be taken as a figure of trouble or be referred to an actual fact. It is taken in the latter reference by Hitzig who refers to Jeremiah 38. Psalms 31:22. [In my confusion.—Hupfeld: “This is not my hasty flight (Hengst.) but in my surprise, confusion, as Jerome in stupore meo, Aquil. ἐνθαμβάσει, Symm. ἐκπληξει, Calv. in prζcepitatione mea = perturbatione animi (which then drives to hasty flight, but is not the flight itself). It is the infin. constr. of ητζ=to be terrified, confused (comp. αδμ) Deuteronomy 20:3 (with ιָ ?ψֵ ?ΰ) 2 Samuel 4:4, (μָ ?πεּ ?ν) 2 Kings 7:15; Job 40:23; and only afterwards flee (as in the Niphal=δִ ?ξָּ ?ζεֹ ?ο)”—C. A. B.]—I am cut off from the presence of Thine eyes.—Instead of “cut off” (=separated), which Delitzsch and Hupfeld advocate, Hengst. and Hitzig translate after the Rabbins, Geier et al. “blotted out.” Str. VIII. Psalms 31:23. Jehovah keepeth faith.—It is possible to translate this likewise: Jehovah preserveth the faithful. (Chald., Jerome, Rabbins, Calvin, et al.) finally Hupfeld. [So A. V.]. Yet the parallelism does not force us to regard this abstract as concrete. But this pretended parallelism is rather produced by this interpretation.[Psalms 31:24. All ye that wait.—Perowne. “(The Psalm ends as Psalms 27.). Hope and waiting are marks peculiarly of the Old Testament dispensation. It is true even in the New, one apostle writes, ‘We are saved by hope.’ And another says, ‘It doth not yet appear what we shall be:’ but he adds what no believer in the days of types and shadows could have said, ‘We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ Wonderful indeed is the hopeful trust of the saints of old in God, when we remember that they did not know Him as God manifest in the flesh.—C. A. B.”] AND ETHICAL1. “This Psalm is again a true song from the depths as well according to the extent and measure of the sufferings as the corresponding experience of faith and grace; therefore it is a song of the struggling Church and for the militant Church.” (Taube). In severe troubles those have a great consolation, who have previously gained not only the true knowledge, but likewise the living knowledge of God and a personal experience of the blessings of trust in God and communion with God. It is to them a true help in prayer and serves to strengthen their faith, as well as to awaken new hopes and encourage to perseverance. David “is in the position to give God a name, which alone has already been a mighty shield in the day of trouble. He names Him the faithful God, has learned to know that all other hopes previous to this, are vain, and knows that God knows about him in the day of need.” (Tholuck). 2. The name of God says not only, who God is, what God desires, what God does, but likewise reminds the souls of the pious of what they have already received from God and what they may always expect from God. They need merely to entreat it in faith and to accept it and appropriate it in humility with thanksgiving. There is connected with such a remembrance, therefore, a refreshment and an encouragement. John Huss strengthened himself on his way to the stake by repeatedly praying from Psalms 31:5 of this Psalm. The same verse was the last word of the dying Stephen, of Polycarp, of Basil the Great. For many examples: vid. Geier and Bake. 3. The soul often feels itself straitened by bodily trouble; and again anxiety of heart causes likewise the body to fail. The only reliable helper against both kinds of need is Jehovah, the faithful God, whose government is as just as it is gracious. He is the redeeming and the delivering God. It is therefore well done to commit our spirits into the hands of this God even with respect to the life of the body. The servant of God thus declares not only his pious disposition and the wish to be preserved by the power and grace of God, but he likewise makes his deliverance sure. For whether he is externally about to die or to live, his communion with God is strengthened and sealed by this resignation, and thus he gains the pledge, that he has not taken refuge with God in vain. 4. The true communion and closer union of the pious with Jehovah constitute not only the pledge of their deliverance, but at the same time the foundation of their hopes and the means of their realization. For on the one side they know that they are internally and externally separated from the worshippers of idols in all things, by the fact that they hold fast to, witness to and strengthen this communion with God by faith and trust in God in the severest sufferings and trials, amid the terrors which surround them and in connection with the scorn and threats of those who regard them as lost; on the other side they continue to be mindful of their sins as well as their weakness and are led to communion with God in the strongest manner even by this, that they have to base their deliverance as well as their salvation not on their own works and merits, but solely on the power and grace of God and that they can safely expect it from the faithfulness of God. Ut infinitum non potest finiri, ita nec termini misericordiζ statui (Savonarola). 5. There may certainly be times in the life of pious men, when the countenance of God seems to be turned away or veiled from them and the feeling of the presence of God threatens almost to vanish. In such gloomy times the more earnestly the light of the Divine countenance is sought and the more fervently the attestation of the Divine presence, which alone comforts and helps, is implored out of the experience of the trouble of abandonment, the more manifestly is disclosed to the soul, the faithfulness of God, or the Being and Providence of God which are eternally the same, the more vitally do the riches of the Divine fulness of power and grace present themselves, the more powerfully does the remembrance of the self-evidencing miracle of the distribution of these treasures work upon them. Thus the confidence of trust in God returns, and in the assurance of the hearing of prayer, the cry for help is transformed into a song of praise and the praise of the Lord is connected with the exhortation of their companions to love God, in thankfulness for His grace which has been previously shown to them; and the encouragement to steadfastness in waiting upon God in the view of His righteous Providence. The conception of the virtus totius psalmi in the Gloss. ord. is to narrow, “ne carnis fragilitas timeat tot mala seculi.” Burk’s divisions are more correct in his Gnomon: “fiducia erga dominum declaratur; exercita eam promoventia narrantur; preces ad dominum adduntur; usus generalis exinde elictur.” AND Our confession says what we know and teach about God; our prayer, what we believe and hope about God; our life how we love and honor God.—Our sins bring us to shame and disgrace, but not so with our trust in God.—Man can do nothing better than trust in God’s faithfulness, build on God’s strength, look upon God’s countenance.—He who has God as his friend, need not fear the crowd of his enemies; God provides him a better refuge than a fortified city.—A hearty trust in God can only exist in connection with a sincere resignation to God, both mutually strengthen one another and lead to waiting for help and salvation.—We can observe how the soul prospers by that upon which it puts its confidence; upon what its love depends; upon what its hope is directed. That man alone is helped, who not only commits his external fortunes, but likewise his spirit into the hand of God.—It is not enough to have hopes in the mind; all depends to what they are directed, upon what they are based, how long they hold out—God sees not only our misery; He is concerned about our needs; He delivers, those who trust Him from ruin; This is reason enough for prayer, praise and thanksgiving,—The effects of sin extend to the soul and the body; but God is the Redeemer and Helper in time of need; this is experienced by those who believe on Him, turn to Him, wait on Him.—We may know that we are innocent towards men and appeal to the righteousness of God to protect us against their unrighteous treatment of us, and yet we must confess ourselves guilty before God and console ourselves with the grace of God.—For those who fear God, there is not only laid up a treasure of good things in the future, but God likewise imparts to them now out of these riches that which is needful of grace.—Communion with God is the tabernacle of safety for believers in all the trials and dangers of life. Starke: Believing hearts speak with their God as a child with his father, secretly lament their troubles to Him, are comforted by His almighty protection and commit themselves to His Divine government.—Although we may not prescribe the time and hour of help to our God, yet He allows us to call upon Him to hasten the help, though with entire resignation to His will.—He who allows himself to be led by human advice and wisdom alone, often errs, but he who is guided by the advice of God can accomplish great things. If Satan and his followers have ventured even to lay snares for our Redeemer, how much more will he strive to do us harm? But he who has the Lord of strength with him will not be injured by him.—The impenitent know of no true sorrow for sin; but the penitent feel anxiety of conscience so, that soul and body are often nigh to death.—A true servant of God is not excluded forever from the light of grace, nor cast out in the darkness.—God’s chamber of grace has many secret corners, in which our enemies will be obliged to leave us alone.—Believers may strengthen themselves and confirm their confidence in God by a faithful use of the promises of grace and a believing use of prayer. Calvin: Nothing is more difficult when we see our faith mocked by the whole world, than to direct our words to God alone and to rest in the testimony of our conscience that He is our God.—Osiander: Although we are sinners, yet we may call upon God for help on account of the unreasonableness of our enemies, when our cause is a just one.—Selnekker: These are glorious consolations to a godly man: 1) that God gives him to know heavenly Wisdom 2) that He protects him against all tyrants and all misfortunes; 3) that He gives him everlasting treasures and everlasting goods, eternal life and eternal blessedness.—Menzel: How shall suffering Christians strengthen their confidence and their faith? David refers us: 1) to God’s righteousness, 2) to His strong power, 3) to the honor of His name, 4) to His faithfulness and goodness, 5) to his own example and experience.—We learn: 1) what distresses and trials befall the believer; 2) that our dear Lord God does not reject His own children on account of such weaknesses, but spares them, and indeed can suffer that they pour out and lament their weaknesses before Him; 3) we should be careful not to meddle with those who are plagued and troubled.—Bake: Let us believe without guile, live without guile, die without guile, and so we will please God.—Arndt: All temporal and eternal consolation arises from this faith and hope, that God is our God.—Where faith and love meet together and both depend on God, God cannot refuse us anything.—Franke: If we had our heart truly given to God, the world would soon show itself displeased.—Frisch: To know one in trouble is the mark of true friendship. The pious David boasts this of our God. Make and retain God as your friend; He knows your soul in trouble. His knowledge is power, consolation and life.—Tholuck: Great evil serves to awaken in man the consciousness of sin.—The faith of David sees not the number and power of his enemies, but the hand of God alone, which distributes to men their lots. Thus the believer transacts his business in his chamber with his God instead of with his enemies; and whilst they fancy that they are entirely safe, the power of his prayers fights against them from heaven.—Schaubach: It is so easy to explain the word “trust:” it is not so difficult to believe that the Almighty God is able to help out of every trouble; but to be sure that the Lord will and wishes to help likewise me and thee in every affliction, in which we have fallen for the sake of His honor, that will only be learned and exercised by true and manifold experience.—Taube: How hope does not let a believer’s heart be ashamed even in the deepest need: 1) it impels to prayer and supports prayer; 2) it hopes even under circumstances where nothing is to be hoped; 3) it is therefore so gloriously crowned with the assurance of a hearing, that it praises loudly and extols the wonderful goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. [Matth. Henry: They that have in sincerity avouched the Lord for theirs may expect the benefit of His being so, for God’s relations to us carry with them both name and thing.—It is the wisdom and duty of every one of us solemnly to commit our spirits into the hands of God to be sanctified by His grace, devoted to His honor, employed in His service, and fitted for His kingdom.—Those know not how to value their hope in God who cannot find joy enough in that hope to balance their grievances, and silence their griefs.—Let those that are airy and gay take heed of running into extremes, and never set sorrow at defiance; God can find out ways to make them melancholy if they will not otherwise learn to be serious.—Such swallow friends the world is full of, that are gone in winter. Let those that fall on the losing side not think it strange if they be thus deserted, but make sure a Friend in heaven that will not fail them, and make use of Him.—There is enough in God’s goodness both for the portion and inheritance of all His children, when they come to their full age, and for their maintenance and education during their minority. There is enough in bank, and enough in hand.—The saints are God’s hidden ones.—Special preservations call for particular thanksgivings.—Barnes: We shall live as long as God has appointed; we shall pass through such changes as He directs; we shall die when and where and how He chooses. In the faithful discharge of our duty, therefore, we may commit all these things to Him and leave all at His disposal.—Spurgeon: Faith’s repetitions are not vain. The avowal of our reliance upon God in times of adversity is a principal method of glorifying Him.—In our most importunate intercessions, we must find breathing time to bless the Lord; praise is never a hindrance to prayer, but rather a lively refreshment therein.—Better spend our years in sighing than in sinning.—If we wantonly give a portion of our strength to sin, it will by and by take the remainder from us.—We must not look for the reward of philanthropy this side of heaven, for men pay their best servants but sorry wages, and turn them out of doors when no more is to be got out of them.—The sovereign arbiter of destiny holds in His own power all the issues of our life; we are not waifs and straws upon the ocean of fate, but are steered by infinite wisdom toward our desired haven. Providence is a soft pillow for anxious heads, an anodyne for care, a grave for despair.—We generally speak amiss when we are in a hurry. Hasty words are but for a moment on the tongue, but they often lie for years on the conscience.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “With these words our Lord breathed out His life, Luke 23:46, as He had before used words from another Psalm in His agony on the cross. The first words were from a Psalm (the 22) which, typically at least, foreshadowed His sufferings; whereas, this is not in the same way predictive. But the Holy One of God, in that last hour of mortal agony, chose these words of one of His servants, to express the solemn surrender of His life. And in so doing, He gave them a new interpretation. The Jewish singer only meant by them that he put himself and all his hopes into the hand of God. Jesus meant by them, that by His own act, of His own free will, He gave up His spirit, and therewith His life, to the Father. And they who have died with their Lord, have died with the same words on their lips. These were the last words of Polycarp, of Bernard, of Huss, of Jerome of Prague, of Luther, Melanchthon, and many others. ‘Blessed are they,’ says Luther, ‘who die not only for the Lord, as martyrs: not only in the Lord, as all believers; but likewise with the Lord, as breathing forth their lives in these words, Into Thy hand I commend my spirit.’ ”—C. A. B.] [Hengst., Hitzig, Riehm and Alexander agree with Moll in his rendering. Riehm: “The clause is parallel not with the first clause of the verse, but with the third as the accusatives indicate, and forms the contrast to it, as in Exodus 34:7.” Perowne follows Hupfeld and the more ancient interpreters.—C. A. B.] Psalms 32 A Psalm of David, Maschil1         Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2    Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no guile. 3    When I kept silence, my bones waxed old Through my roaring all the day long. 4    For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. 5    I acknowledged my sin unto thee, And mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord;And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. 6    For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: Surely in the floods of great waters They shall not come nigh unto him. 7    Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. 8    I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. 9    Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: Whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, Lest they come near unto thee. 10    Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. 11    Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. AND Its Contents and Composition. Respecting maskil vid. Introduction. This is the second of the seven Penitential Psalms [vid.Psalms 6]. It was a favorite of Augustine. It is cited by the Apostle Paul in Romans 4:6-8. According to Luther it is “an extraordinary doctrinal Psalm, which teaches us what sin is, how we may be free from it and be righteous before God. For the reason knows not what sin is and thinks to render satisfaction for it with works; but he says here that all the saints are likewise sinners, and can be holy and blessed in no other way, than by recognizing that they are sinners before God, and that they are regarded as righteous before God by faith alone without merit and without works.” The doctrine however does not appear here as a result of universal religious consideration, but as an immediate result of personal experience. For the blessedness of the justified sinner (Psalms 32:1-2) is based upon the description of a twofold experience, first the pain and distress of the Psalmist so long as he held back his confession of sins (Psalms 32:3-4); then the forgiveness of sins, directly received with the confession of sins. On this foundation likewise arises not only an encouragement of all those in the covenant of grace to similar action in behalf of similar blessings (Psalms 32:5), but it takes directly in Psalms 32:6, a thoroughly personal turn in the description of the saving consequences which are to be expected in the future. Then comes the exhortation and warning (Psalms 32:8-9), that they may not be compelled to, but may of their own accord take this way to Go; and then the general contrast in the consequences of pious and ungodly conduct (Psalms 32:10). These form the transition to the final summons to rejoice (Psalms 32:11), which is in a form which refers back to the beginning of the Psalm and thus rounds off the whole.—The assertion of some after Amyraldus, that this Psalm which like Psalm I. begins with “blessed” is yet in irreconcilable conflict with it, because the blessedness there appears as a reward of righteousness, but here as a consequence of forgiveness of sins, leaves out of view the circumstance, not only that the same thing may be represented from different stand-points without internal conflict, but that already in the Old Testament the intermediate members of these different representations, are in many ways brought into view, e.g. that no flesh is righteous before God and no one could stand before God if He should impute sin; that all human innocence and righteousness is merely relative; that righteousness is not the work of merit of the man himself, but a gracious work of God, etc. However we must not overlook that side of the Old Testament economy of salvation which is here very striking, which is related to the Gospel and in its direction. Hupfeld very properly remarks, that the confession of sins in itself, and indeed publicly expressed, was an ancient legal part of the sin offering (Leviticus 5:5; Leviticus 16:21; Numbers 5:7), and that here this requirement of the law is merely made more internal, as a requirement of the conscience, and is shown in its internal necessity.—Related thoughts are found in Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:8-9.—There are no tenable grounds for giving up its composition by David and with Hitzig hit upon Jeremiah. The prevailing supposition, that this Psalm refers particularly to the great sin of David with Bathsheba and against her husband, is less certain. Venema already regarded its circumstances as more general, and Stier, Clauss, and Hitzig with De Wette find the circumstance doubtful from the fact, that here the emphasis is put upon the anxiety of conscience and the free confession of sins which sprang from it, whilst in 1 Samuel 12:7 sq. this anxiety is not described, and the confession follows the disclosure of Nathan which shook him and chastised him. Yet we may say with Hengst., that the address of Nathan was not the cause, but the occasion of the confession of David. Many particular features of that history correspond entirely with the Psalm, and the Psalm has grown entirely from personal experience. Delitzsch very well remarks that the words of Augustine might be placed as the motto of the Psalm: intelligentia prima est, ut te noris peccatorem. Selnekker narrates of Augustine, that he “often read this Psalm with weeping heart and eyes, and before his death had it written upon the wall which was over against his sick bed, that he might be exercised and comforted by it in his sickness.” There is no historical support for the conjecture of Grotius that this Psalm was the prayer of the Jewish people on the great day of atonement. Str. I. Psalms 32:1-2. Blessed is he whose transgression is taken away,etc.—Sin is here designated by those three names, after Exodus 34:7, whose etymologies lead to the ideas of falling away or breaking faith, deviation or failure and perversion (in usage frequently of guilt). Their forgiveness is likewise mentioned in three forms as lifting up, (to take away their burden), as covering (whereby they are removed from the eyes of the judge and therefore from punishment), as not imputing (with reference to their guilt). According to the grammatical form, however, that which is designated as taken away and covered is not, as usually elsewhere, the sin, but the person of the sinner, “because the forgiveness of sins is not merely a transaction with men, but in men, in their personal life.” (Delitzsch). Psalms 32:2 b. mentions not the sanctification of the heart (some more ancient interpreters) as a fruit of justification, but contains actually already the statement of the condition of forgiveness of sins, particularly carried out in the following verses, and is regarded by some (Isaki, Flamin., Seb. Schmidt, Stier) as a conditional clause, but usually as a relative clause. Str. II. Psalms 32:3-4. For I kept silence,etc. This silence is not the quiet and patience of contrition as the internal beginning of penitence (Venema), but the holding back of confession of sins as an effect and a manifestation of the guile just mentioned. For although the Psalmist howled and groaned (the same word is used as in Psalms 22:1; hence there might be included likewise lamentation and prayer in the cries of anxiety and pain), during the long time in which the chastening hand of God was heavy upon him without interruption (day and night), yet he failed to admit his guilt; and this silence was the cause as well of the continuance of the Divine chastisement as of the increase of his torment of soul. It makes no essential difference whether the λּ ?ι of Psalms 32:3, is translated like the λּ ?ι of Psalms 32:4 as giving the reason and explanation “for” (Stier, Hengst., Hupf.) or as introducing the following clause “because” or “since” (Hitzig, Delitzsch). [The Rabbins, Olsh., Ewald and the A. V. translate “when” which gives a better sense.—C. A. B.]. In any case Psalms 32:3 carries out more clearly the fundamental thought expressed in Psalms 32:1-2, so far as it is based on personal experience. The “for” takes up directly the thought involved in the mention of guile and Psalms 32:4 at all events gives the reason of Psa 32:3. The Divine hand is the efficient cause of the sufferings which affect at the same time the body and the soul, the silence is the conditional cause. In this connection it is not probable, that the decay of the bones was occasioned by the roaring (Delitzsch), or crying, that is the bodily sickness by the violent expressions of sorrow (Hupf.); or that the anxiety of conscience had produced in the Psalmist a violent fever (Hitzig). The heat of summer into which the sap of life becomes changed, might much more easily be taken as a figurative designation of anxiety and heat, which would afterwards be regarded as the heat of Divine anger (Stier; similarly Calvin, Geier, De Wette, Hengst.). Yet it is more natural to supply a λ of comparison (Luther after Symm., Chald.); or to suppose a silent comparison (Hupf.); unless it is preferred with Delitzsch to take the αְּ as that of the condition, in which the change, that is the deterioration, took place (Job 20:14) The meaning “sap of life” which most interpreters after the Chald. and Aben Ezra, give to μְ ?ωַׁ ?γ and derive from the Arabic, is disputed by Hengst. and Olsh. The former explains the word of the heart, comp. Psalms 102:4, properly, a compact mass according to Numbers 11:8; the latter explains it of the tongue. The Vulgate after the Sept. translates entirely different: conversus sum in ζrumnam (corrected reading instead of ζrumna mea) in infigendo spinam.Str. III. Psalms 32:5. [My sin I will make known to Thee, and my guilt I did not conceal,etc. Alexander: “Most interpreters explain the future verb of the first clause as a preterite, because all the other verbs of the first clause are preterites; but this only renders the future form of the first verb more remarkable, and makes it harder to explain why a past tense was not used in this, as in all the other cases, if the writer intended to express past time. The only consistent method of solution is to understand the first clause as a reminiscence of the Psalmist’s resolution in the time of his distress, repeated in the second clause, and in both cases followed by a recital of the execution of his purpose. (I said,) my sin I will make known to Thee and my guilt I (accordingly) did not conceal, I said, I will make confession to Jehovah. And Thou didst take away the guilt of my sin.” Moll translates as past with most interpreters. The clauses of this verse stand in beautiful contrast with those of Psa 32:1-2 in an inverse order. The sin is acknowledged that it may not be imputed, the iniquity is uncovered that it may be covered, the transgression is confessed that it may be taken away, which latter the closing clause of the verse expresses with emphasis: And Thou, Thou takest away, etc., thus turning back to the opening clause of the Psalm.—C. A. B.] At the close of this verse many ancient Psalteries after Cod. Alex. of the Sept. have instead of impietatem peccati mei, impietatem cordis mei. Str. IV. Psalms 32:6. Therefore let every favoured one supplicate Thee at the time of finding,—that is so long as it may be found, namely that which is sought, here grace (Ruding., De Wette, Hupf.),=time of grace (Psalms 69:13; Isaiah 49:8; Isaiah 60:1-2), in which sense the Arabic version translates: time of hearing; or Jehovah, (Isaki, Calv., most interpreters), according to Isaiah 55:6, comp Deuteronomy 4:29; Jeremiah 29:12-14; Psalms 145:18, with essentially the same sense, yet to be preferred on this account, because, what Hupfeld overlooks, this object may easily be supplied from the ΰμικ which is very near, and prayer is a seeking God (Hitzig). Luther after the Sept. explains, at the right time Ewald, at the time of reaching, comp. aptus,ίκανός. Knapp after Schrφder, Schnurrer and Michζlis, leaving the connection of words given by the accents, still seek the object of the finding in the following ψχ, to which after an Arabic etymology they give the meaning of compassion. But this verb is the usual adverb, yet not merely a particle of limitation and exception, but likewise of general contrast and hence of contrary assertion or assurance (Hupfeld).—That the flood and waves in general have become a figure of great trouble and danger, particularly of Divine punishments, has with the geographical position and geological formation of Palestine, its ground and reason in the Flood. There is no occasion however with Hengst. to think particularly of that, here.—The “therefore” at the beginning of the verse is usually after the Chald. and Calvin regarded as a statement of the motive; others however after the Vulg. and Luther find expressed here the object of the supplication and translate: for this. Psalms 32:7. Here there is an assonance scarcely to be mistaken. If ψָ ?πֵּ ?ι is genuine and not to be derived from the last three letters of ϊφψπι as a repetition according to J. D. Mich., Jahn and Hitzig, then we must suppose, that the infinitive ψֹ ?οJob 38 has here been treated as a substantive and that the τַּ ?μֵּ ?θּ, which is likewise made a substantive, is the second member of the stat. const. The expression, “surrounded with shouts of deliverance” is unusual, it is true, yet it is inadmissible to seek in “shouting” a metonymy instead of salvation or grace (Olsh., Hupfeld). We may either think of the congratulations and songs of praise of those who participate in the celebration (or even who share in the deliverance) (Stier), or of the manifold deliverances with the occasions for shouting which flow together at the same time from all sides (Calvin, Geier, Hengst.). The Vulg. and Sept. are entirely different: Thou art my exultation, deliver me from those who surround me. Str. V. Psalms 32:8. I will instruct thee.—Most of the older interpreters, even Luther and Seb. Schmidt, among recent interpreters Clauss, Stier, finally Hitzig, regard Psalms 32:8-9, Ewald at least Psalms 32:8, as the words of God, wherein the most particular protection and the most faithful spiritual preservation and guidance are promised to the sinner who has turned to God and received pardon. Almost all recent interpreters however, with Calvin and Geier, regard these verses as the words of David, which point all sinners to the God, who has pardoned him, comp. Psalms 51:14.—Will give advice (directing) mine eye upon thee.—Ewald translates this with the Sept. “I will fix my eye upon thee,” and rejects the meaning of advice, here. [Hupfeld contends that there is here an instance of a double subject of the person and the instrument, as in Psalms 3:5. The use of ςμ comes from a verb of watching, preserving and protecting which is understood. He translates, mine eye is to advise (watch advising) over thee. Perowne, regards the words “mine eye upon thee” as merely added as “a further explanation of the manner in which the counsel would be given. According to the accents, however ςָ ?μֶ ?ικָ must be connected with ΰִ ?ιςֲ ?φָ ?δ, ‘I will consult upon, or concerning thee, i.e. for thy good;’ and then ςֵ ?ιπִ ?ι, ‘with mine eye,’ will be equivalent to ‘watching thee with mine eye.’ ” The translation of Moll is, however, better.—C. A. B.] Psalms 32:9. In bridle and bit (consists) its harness to tame it, (they will) not approach thee.—Hitzig again upon Ezekiel 16:7 contends for the meaning of cheek for ςγι and translates here with Sept., Vulg., Aben Ezra; whose cheek to constrain with bridle and bit, (then he changes the vowels and translates: rather draw thyself in, rein thyself in). Luther has, “in the mouth” as he renders the same word in Psalms 103:5, likewise as “mouth,” where the Sept. reads ἐπιθυμίαν and others advise otherwise, sometimes even to accept two entirely different words in these two passages. Ewald, who would change the vowels and explain by the Arabic, Delitzsch who translates the ambiguous “bit,” waver, yet incline to the same explanation. Ewald translates: “bit and bridle must shut the cheeks of those who draw near to thee unfriendly,” and finds in the second supplementary clause likewise the easier transition in the address to God, which formerly most interpreters found here, yet it is very improbable, since the expression leads much more to the continuance of the description of that natural shyness and wildness, which prevents animals from approaching men. There is certainly no reference here to an approach for the purpose of injuring, which some after the Rabbins find here, but of a warning and exhortation not to be like the irrational and obstinate animals, which do not approach men unless tamed by compulsory means. The application of the figure is left to the reader, and the address, which in Psalms 32:9 a had gone over into the plural, has returned to the singular, in order that every individual may be referred with the more emphasis to his own person and experience Since αμ is used elsewhere only with the finite verb, but here follows an infinitive or a noun, perhaps the verb has been left off; thus, (they will) not approach thee; or, approach to thee (does) not (occur). The first is preferable, because with the second, an “else” must be inserted in order to be clear, as already Seb. Schmidt. If it were not for the difficulty of the construction of αμ, the asyndet. clause might be resolved simply by: because or, if. Calvin finds very properly in the comparison, actually two things: shaming by the reproachful comparison and at the same time the fruitlessness of the opposition. As concerns the disputed ςγι, it may be derived with Hupfeld from ςγδ (=draw in) and means then not so much “ornament” (in connection with which ancient interpretation Stier and Hengst. find an irony expressed) as rather “harness,” as already the Chald. paraphrases. Jerome shares with the other more ancient translators the view of fastening together the jaws of those who do not approach thee, with bit and bridle. Instead of the imperative, which most ancient interpreters have after the Cod. Vatic. of the Sept., the Psalter Roman. reads after the Cod. Alex. of the Sept., the finite verb, namely constringes=ἄγξεις. Str. VI. Psalms 32:10. Many pains,etc.—Instead of “pains,” that is, plagues, as Exodus 3:7, many older interpreters, after the Sept. and Vulgate, have “scourges.” [Perowne: “The usual contrast between the lot of the ungodly and that of the righteous, as the sum of all that has been said, and as a great religious axiom.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. Those are truly to be considered happy who really have received God’s forgiveness of sins, so that the burden of their transgressions no longer presses them to the ground and their conscience is no longer troubled, because punishment for them is no longer threatened and their guilt is no longer imputed to them. How unhappy then must those be who retain this burden, are in constant expectation of the coming judgment, and must regard the punishment as well-deserved and unavoidable, because the sinner cannot himself blot out his guilt, but God is the impartial Judge and the infallible Rewarder, and even now before the final judgment does not allow men to sin unpunished and deceive themselves, although the sinner may cherish deceit in his spirit and hypocritical excuses. 2. The deceit, with which a sinner would cover over, conceal and excuse either the presence or the greatness, or the ill-desert of his sins from himself and others, does not afford any real relief or any true justification, but brings on the opposite of the blessed experience of forgiveness of sins, namely the painful feeling of the pressure of the strong hand of God, pressing upon him, and the torment of anxiety of conscience, which consumes the sap of life. For sins can not be brought to a dead silence, and the conscience cannot be hushed up by false pretences. Even prayer no longer comforts and refreshes the man who cries to God in his anguish, yet is silent before God respecting his sins. He will only become the weaker, even in body, the more he toils in this inconsistency, that he strives to conceal the true cause of his misery from the Omniscient Searcher of hearts, and yet craves relief from his troubles. His sins will not be brought into forgetfulness by intentionally not thinking of them; and they will not remain unpunished although he is full of self-deception and does not consider or weigh the consequences of deception. Hengstenberg remarks very properly: “Deception found in David; notwithstanding the enormity of his transgressions, sufficient points of contact, as always, where the heart is inclined to rely upon them. He had not sought the first sin, but the first occasion to it had been afforded him. It must have been very natural for a king, especially an Oriental, to measure himself in this respect by a special rule. That which was connected with this transgression might very easily present itself more in the light of a sad event than of a severe guilt.” The following remarks of the same scholar are likewise worthy to be pondered: “The roots of this deception, which we meet immediately after the Fall, are pride, lack of trust in God and love of sin. Many are thereby prevented from any knowledge of their sins; in their misery they are satisfied in a Pelagian self-deception and regard themselves as very excellent. Others exhibit the first beginnings of true knowledge of sin, but do not attain the desired end, because deception does not allow them to attain to the knowledge of the great extent of their evil. Likewise those who really have attained to a state of grace are very much troubled by deception in the salvation of forgiveness of sins, in the possession of which they have come by sincerity of heart. What exposes them particularly to this temptation, is their stern view of sin and its condemnation by God and the consciousness of the grace received from God and their condition. Nature struggles violently against the great humiliation which accompanies to them the knowledge and confession of their sins. Therefore it is necessary to take deeply to heart these words: Well for those whose sins are taken away, etc., which David utters from his own painful experience of the misery, which accompanies the sins which are not forgiven on account of deception of heart.” 3. The only way to gain true forgiveness of sins, and the sure way, is therefore, the thorough knowledge and penitent confession of sin; for this leads first to seek and then to find the grace of God. “Since I would not confess that I was nothing but a sinner, my conscience had no rest, so that I must confess and trust alone in the goodness of God.” (Luther, marginal note).—“This must, however, take place with true sincerity of heart, and indeed in all things, that we are altogether guilty before God, that we must stop our mouths and charge ourselves as great sinners before God, in accordance with all the commandments of God, that we are ruined altogether, through and through and in and out.” (Bogatzki). Such a feeling of true contrition and entire condemnation before God in a penitent sinner is very different from the anxiety of soul in a despairing man, as Cain and Judas, where the confession of sin is entirely separated from faith in the possibility of forgiveness, and which, moreover, has not the character of a penitent confession of sin flowing forth from an awakened heart, but more that of an admission forced by circumstances and anguish. “Let us make it very clear, that faith is a necessary part of true and genuine penitence, that without some remnant of trust and faith in God the penitent sinner could never approach God in prayer; then will we see that there is still another kind of impenitence (namely rudeness and dullness of conscience), where not so much the bites of conscience as faith is lacking, where the terrified conscience feels the guilt very well, and even on this account, because it is so deeply felt, fears to make confession of it before God” (Tholuck). Sometimes there is a long interval before the internal conflict is ended and the interchange ceases of those conditions of soul in which accusations and excuses struggle with one another (Romans 1:15). But God Himself comes to the help of the struggling soul by at once awarding forgiveness, by His grace, to the sincere confession of sin; that is, adjudging it and imparting it. Absolution follows confession. But where there is forgiveness of sins there is likewise life and blessedness. 4. The personal experience of these states of the soul impels first to an impressive description of them, and then has in itself already not only an interesting, touching and edifying, but even a typical character. Moreover, if the subject of these experiences regards himself on the one side as a member of the congregation, on the other side as a servant and instrument of God, this description will be enlarged in part to a representation of the general and similar condition of all who are similarly disposed, partly will pass over into a direct claim upon his companions, as well in admonition and warning as in consolation and encouragement, yes, will change into a punitive and threatening address to stiff-necked and stubborn sinners. Hengst. very properly remarks, that it must have been infinitely more difficult under the Old Covenant to elevate oneself to the confidence of forgiveness than under the New Covenant, where we behold the mercy of God in Christ and the ground of our justification in His merits. He draws this earnest conclusion from the above: “If we delay to take our refuge in the pardoning grace of God, our guilt is far greater than that of David.” 5. Since God’s infallible punishment follows upon unforgiven sins, which like a flood will break irresistibly upon the sinner, they must seek the forgiveness of sins at the right time, that is, whilst grace is to be found. And since the pains which are prepared for the ungodly are great and numerous, and man as such is not an irrational and senseless beast, it is as foolish as it is ruinous, and as unworthy as it is unwise, to seek the gracious hand of God only after the arm of the Lord has laid hold upon us in punishment. Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Manasseh are historical examples, how God compels and subdues those who will not hearken to His word. It is better to follow willingly than by compulsion. 6. He who uses sincerely the time appointed for penitence, seeks and finds the forgiveness of sins in the way pointed out to him by God, and as a man now justified puts his trust immovably and truly upon God, will not only find one deliverance, but will remain preserved in the future likewise, surrounded and protected by grace, and will make his joyful thanks to be heard, sounding forth and reλchoing without cessation in the shouts of a company surrounding him and praising God. “The joyful exclamation of Psa 32:1 is only a feeble beginning of the song which resounds after the preservation from the last anxiety. We can see, finally, how the selah, strikingly placed thrice, Psalms 32:4-5; Psalms 32:7, divides exactly the three stages of anxiety, before the wrath of God, the confession unto forgiveness, the joy in complete deliverance” (Stier). There is opened for those who are justified by grace an unlimited prospect of an abiding salvation and an eternal joy. AND How God awakens the slumbering conscience, comforts it when terrified, blesses it when calmed. —The threefold confession of the pious: 1) that he is punishable for his sins and liable to the Divine judgment; 2) that he has obtained forgiveness of sins through the grace of God; 3) that he is to thank God forever for this.—The forgiveness of sins: 1) who need it? 2) who imparts it? 3) who receive it?—The wretchedness of those who conceal their sins; the blessedness of those who confess them.—Deception and sincerity of heart: 1) their characteristics, 2) their consequences.—As we have appropriated our sins, in confessing them as our own, so we must likewise appropriate grace, that we may thereby be justified and blessed.—How necessary and salutary it is to confess our sins, 1) sincerely, 2) at the right time, 3) in trust in God’s mercy.—The salutary comparison of our spiritual experience in the state of forgiveness with those which we previously experienced under the pressure of sin.—It is well for those who do not deceive themselves, 1) with respect to their guilt, 2) with respect to their forgiveness.Starke: Instruction respecting the justification of a poor sinner: 1) the advantageous condition of justification; 2) the way in which it is attained; 3) the necessary conduct afterwards.—There is no greater treasure than forgiveness of sins; for where there is no sin there is no wrath of God, no curse of the law, the devil cannot injure, death cannot strangle, hell cannot swallow up.—Our righteousness is not that we have no sins, or have sufficient good works, but that God forgives our sins (Isaiah 44:22).—God alone makes the righteous blessed in heaven, and penitence alone makes the sinner blessed on earth.—All the pious know from their own experience that it is not so easy to suppress the wickedness of the heart; hence their daily crying and murmuring against sin.—Sin is like a violent fever; as long as its heat remains within it consumes the bowels; but when it breaks out upon the lips, it is a sure sign of health.—Do not postpone your penitence, but take heed of the right time; for the time of grace is not in the power of any man, the enemy is not idle, death does not tarry.—Peace with God causes a pious man in all his adversities to be comforted and joyous.—The sincere in heart can never lack reason and impulse to glorify and praise God.—Lange: Although man cannot by his own will make himself fit for the kingdom of God, yet he should not misuse prevenient grace by resisting it.—It is a well-deserved punishment to be chastised by anxiety of conscience; it is a good thing when it leads to penitent knowledge, consequently likewise to the forgiveness of sins. Osiander: There is no more certain help and no stronger protection than to have a gracious God.—Selnekker: Silence injures the soul and has no consolation.—An evil conscience, which feels its sins and the wrath of God, is a pain of all pains.—The true joy of the godly is the Lord Himself.—Menzel: To be holy and pray for forgiveness of sins appears to be almost absurd, yet we must learn properly to understand it.—Christians should be instructed by the word of God: 1) to know themselves, 2) to believe in Christ, 3) to lead a godly life.—Frisch: Of the blessedness of a justified sinner: 1) In what it consists; 2) whence it arises; 3) to whom it properly belongs; 4) what particularly are its consequences.—With earthly judges it is: repent and be hanged. But it is very different with God’s judgment.—He who would be saved, must betake himself to the order of salvation.—Francke: He who imagines that he has faith and yet has not tasted of any true penitence of heart, has no real faith, but is deceived. But where there is no faith, there is likewise no forgiveness of sins.—Umbreit: The impenitent heart of the sinner must be broken, the deceit with which he conceals his transgressions from God and seeks to palliate and excuse to himself by lying thoughts, must depart from his spirit ere he can be entirely sure of forgiveness of sins in his own soul.—Diedrich: Not to be willing to trust in the Lord God, since He has promised complete forgiveness, is the worst kind of ungodliness; but to confess all to Him in confidence is well-pleasing to Him.—Taube: Our God is much more inclined to forgive us our sins, than we are inclined to confess them and pray for His grace. [Matth. Henry: The forgiveness of sin is that article of the covenant which is the reason and ground of all the rest.—Some inward trouble is required in repentance, but there is much worse in impenitency.—We must confess sin with shame and holy blushing, with fear and holy trembling.—You may as soon find a living man without breath, as a living Christian without prayer.—It is our honor and happiness that we have understanding, that we are capable of being governed by reason, and of reasoning with ourselves. Let us, therefore, use the faculties we have and act rationally.—Where there is renewing grace, there is no need of the bit and bridle of restraining grace.—Barnes: The pardoned man has nothing to fear, though flood or fire should sweep over the world.—The feeling that we are pardoned fills the universe with melody, and makes the heaven and the earth seem to us to be glad. The Christian is a happy man; and he himself being happy all around him sympathizes with him in his joy.—Wordsworth: God is deaf to the howlings of the impenitent, but the least whisper, and even the unexpressed aspiration of the contrite heart, are a roaring to Him.—God covereth the sin of him who doth not cover his own sin.—The effect of God’s eye on the tender heart, is expressed in the touching words of the Evangelist, “The Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord; and Peter went out and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:61-62). St. Peter’s eyes streamed with tears, responsive to the piercing glance of the Divine eye of Christ.—Spurgeon: What a killing thing is sin! It is a pestilent disease! A fire in the bones! While we smother our sin it rages within, and like a gathering wound swells horribly and torments terribly.—Alas for a poor soul when it has learned its sin but forgets its Saviour, it goes hard with it indeed.—When the soul determines to lay low and plead guilty, absolution is near at hand.—O, dear reader, slight not the accepted time, waste not the day of salvation.—We ought to be as a feather in the wind, wafted readily in the breath of the Holy Spirit; but alas! we lie like motionless logs, and stir not with heaven itself in view. Those cutting bits of affliction show how hard mouthed we are, those bridles of infirmity manifest our headstrong and wilful manners.—Reader, what a delightful Psalm! Have you, in perusing it, been able to claim a lot in the goodly land? If so, publish to others the way of salvation.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Ewald: “We must in any case suppose that the poet does not speak during the change itself, but some time afterwards, after having gained complete internal rest and cheerfulness, looking over all that had transpired and the entire Divine ordinances of grace. With this song he concludes the entire tragedy through which his soul has passed. In this respect the Psalm is particularly distinguished from Psalms 51 which was spoken during the change, before he was entirely calmed.” Delitzsch: “David was for an entire year after his sin of adultery as one damned in hell. In this hell Psalms 51 was composed, Psalms 32 however after his deliverance, the former in the midst of his penitential struggle, the latter after having gained internal peace.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne translates similarly to Alexander: “I cannot see why it may not be designedly employed not to express the past action, but the past resolve, the sentence being somewhat elliptical: ‘(Then I thought, then I resolved) I would acknowledge.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 33 1         Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: For praise is comely for the upright. 2    Praise the Lord with harp: Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. 3    Sing unto him a new song; Play skilfully with a loud noise. 4    For the word of the Lord is right; And all his works are done in truth. 5    He loveth righteousness and judgment: The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.6    By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 7    He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap: He layeth up the depth in storehouses. 8    Let all the earth fear the Lord:Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him: 9    For he spake, and it was done;He commanded, and it stood fast. 10    The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. 11    The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, The thoughts of his heart to all generations. 12    Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord;And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 13    The Lord looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men. 14    From the place of his habitation he looketh Upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15    He fashioneth their hearts alike; He considereth all their works. 16    There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 17    A horse is a vain thing for safety: Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. 18    Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, Upon them that hope in his mercy; 19    To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. 20    Our soul waiteth for the Lord:He is our help and our shield. 21    For our heart shall rejoice in him, Because we have trusted in his holy name. 22    Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, According as we hope in thee. AND Arrangement of the Contents.—The pious members of the congregation are summoned to give to the Lord the praise due unto Him (Psalms 33:1-3). This is based upon a reference to the nature of the word and work of God (Psalms 33:4-5), the Almighty Creator and Preserver (Psalms 33:6-7), as well as the Ruler of all the world, who is to be feared (Psalms 33:8-9) In contrast with the thoughts of men, His eternal and unchangeable decrees are victoriously carried out in history (Psalms 33:10-11), therefore the people chosen by Him for His own, are to be called happy (Psalms 33:12). The Omniscient King of heaven observes all things (Psalms 33:13-15); worldly power is not the cause of victory and of deliverance (Psalms 33:16-17), but the eyes of the Lord are directed upon the pious for their deliverance and preservation (Psalms 33:18-19); hence waiting and trusting in Him are essentially the work of the members of His congregation, and this expresses itself as well in thankful confession as in joyous hope and confident prayer (Psalms 33:20-22). With this closing clause the movement of thought returns to its beginning, which has the closest relation with the closing words of the preceding Psalm. From this may be explained the position of this Psalm in its present order in the book, yet it hardly shows that these two Psalms originally belonged together (Venema), or are a pair of Psalms (Hengst.), although the title which is usually appended in this book is absent here, which is the case only in the first two Psalms and in Psalms 10 [vid. these Psalms for the reasons of this.—C. A. B.]. For Psalms 32 has its source in the personal experience of an Israelite who was previously impenitent, yet was pardoned after having confessed his sins, and it maintains this character of individual testimony even where it passes over from the description of the contrasted conditions and experiences into a summons to all his companions to give personal expression to similar experiences, under similar treatment in similar circumstances, by praising God. The present Psalm, on the other hand, moves throughout in the tone of a hymn determined for the congregation as such, which has its foundation in the happy feeling of security of the people, who know that they are chosen and guided by the Creator and Ruler of the whole world as His own people. With this thorough-going difference of circumstances and character it is unimportant that this Psalm has twice as many verses as the previous Psalm, and that its fundamental thought appears immediately at the end of the first half of the Psalms 5 Str. I. [Psalms 33:1. Praise is comely.—Hupfeld: “This means that it is their duty as well as that it redounds to their honor and is an ornament, just as on the contrary, silence is to their shame: because they alone have a peculiar experience of the glorious government of God, and so they alone are fitted for this.” Psalms 33:2. Upon a ten stringed harp play to Him.—For the musical instruments vid. Introduction. The A. V. improperly makes a separate clause for an instrument of ten strings.—C. A. B.] Psalms 33:3. Play well.—This expression (comp. 1 Samuel 16:17; Isaiah 23:16) is given a too narrow reference by some interpreters, after the Sept., to the skill, by others, after Symm., to the power of the execution. The new song is one not heard before. Such an one may spring from a fresh impulse of the heart (Stier), since God’s glory is new every morning (Hengst.), without necessarily distinguishing itself by its originality, or taking its material ever, as Psalms 40:4 and Revelation 5:9, from a new occurrence. Therefore it is a false conclusion to suppose that this expression has been afterwards reduced to an insignificant formula, because it occurs in such Psalms as 95, 98, 149. And the conjecture, that the Psalm might refer to the disappearance of the Scythians, Zephaniah 3:15 (Hitzig), may be connected externally with Psalms 33:5; Psalms 33:10; Psalms 33:16, but cannot be derived from these verses, nor be supported by a comparison of Psa 33:5 with Jeremiah 9:23, or Psalms 33:13-14 with Psalms 14:2, which comparisons though ingenious are violent. Nor can it be explained by the reference of Psa 33:4 to Psalms 32:8, where it is said that Jehovah’s counsel and protection are promised, nor can it be made probable by the remark that is made, that the flood mentioned in Psalms 32:6, which passed away without harm for the entire people, might be referred to the same inroad, since Psalms 32 takes consideration of a hostile invasion, and Psalms 33:1 is connected without title with Psalms 32:11, and the perfect in Psalms 30:10 indicates a particular event, probably of the recent past, a mighty deed of the national God. No more is the design of this “new” song to be regarded, with the more ancient interpreters, as for use at a sacrificial feast, especially as ϊψεςδdoes not mean “sound of trumpets” (De Wette), but merely shouting. Comp. Psalms 27:6. Str. II. Psalms 33:5. The predicates, “just and upright or honest,” are not to be taken as a later designation of the Israelites in general (Maurer), but as an address to the true members of the congregation (Hengst., Hupf.), yet so, that the national contrast of the people of God with heathen nations is at the same time indicated by this expression which characterizes the destiny of Israel. Comp. Numbers 23:10. Str. III. Psalms 33:6. Breath of His mouth.—The connection of these two expressions and their relation to the former half of the verse do not permit the direct reference of ancient interpreters to the hypostatic Spirit of God. But the unmistakable reference to the history of creation, is as clearly against the modern limitation of this expression to the meaning of utterance which is synonymous with the wordIsa. Psalms 11:4. And so, if the interpretation of ruach as breath is to be retained, we must yet think of the creative Omnipotence and breath of life, Job 27:3; Job 33:4; Psalms 104:30 (Hengst.), and the relative expressions are only synonymous “in so far as there is rendered prominent in dabar not only the creative power, but likewise wisdom (Jeremiah 10:12; Proverbs 3:19), whilst in ruach peh particularly the vitalizing power embraced in the form of the word (the operative breath from God’s own internal nature).” (Stier). Psalms 33:7. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap.—The Hebrew participles in this and the following clause might in themselves be translated by the perfect as well as by the present. The structure of the clause, however, in its relation to the previous verse favors the latter. For since Jehovah is not the subject of the previous verse, a close connection of the participle with it and at the same time a limitation to the fact of the Creation, which happened once for all, are excluded, although even the chosen expressions likewise take their departure in part from this fact. The clause is independent and expresses an abiding and characteristic action of God; similar to Psalms 33:5. This is likewise favored by the following expressions. For the comparison of the waters of the sea with a heap of sheaves (Isaiah 17:11 decides for this meaning) reminds us of the narrative of Exo 15:8, likewise Joshua 3:13; Joshua 3:16; Psalms 78:13, mentioning with the same expression the towering up of the waters by a miracle of Divine Omnipotence in the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. But here this fact as such is not mentioned, but by the choice of words the idea is called forth of the waters of the high sea, swelling up above jet held firmly together by the Omnipotence of God. There is no reference in the first half of the verse to limitations such as those formed by the banks and the beds of the waters. If with Cleric and Hupf. an additional thought is added under the figure of parietes horrei, whilst it is in other respects a true explanation, it displaces the point of comparison given in the text. In the translation of Ewald, Luther and all ancient interpreters, “as in a bottle,” we must read nτd [πֹ ?ΰγ=πγֹ ] instead of nηd [πֵ ?γ], the correct meaning of which was already given by Calvin and Ruding. after the Rabbins. Under the “bottle” was often understood the clouds, and then they thought of the upper or heavenly waters. Hitzig likewise refers this passage to this heavenly ocean (Job 9:8), which according to Job 26:8, by dint of the Omnipotence of God, is borne by the clouds without their being torn, and this although he translates: He restrains as with a dam. For whilst a real dam is placed to the earthly sea, whose character affords reason to wonder at the greatness of God, (Jeremiah 5:22), here a comparison is expressed. At the same time Hitzig lays emphasis upon the close connection which arises from this explanation with Psalms 33:6, and upon the circumstance, that elsewhere likewise (Job 38:22; Jeremiah 10:13; Sir 43:14) only the heavenly reservoirs are called treasury, as here in the second half of the verse. And so he refers this half likewise to the heavenly waters. But ϊְּ ?δεֹ ?ν, which, apart from the history of the Creation and the Flood, is only found in poetical pieces, denotes constantly the roaring and unfathomable depth. However, it is not necessary, therefore, with the Rabbins, to think of the waters under the earth, according to Genesis 7:11. The reference in both halves of the verse is to floods of the sea, which in their apparent irregularity are subjected by God’s power to His will (Jeremiah 5:22), and are held together and stored up for the purposes of the Divine household.Str. IV. 9. For He said and it was.—[The He is emphatic in this and the following clause]. This verse refers back to the omnipotence of God shown in the Creation (most interpreters, with the ancient translations), as a motive for all men to fear such a God as this. To take it as present (Luther, De Wette, Delitzsch) confounds application with interpretation. The supposition that this verse refers to the same fact, which is more clearly given in Psalms 33:10 (Hitzig), and relates to an event which only recently occurred (Venema), arises from the presumption which has not been proved, that a special historical occurrence like this was the occasion of this song. In connection with this interpretation, Hitzig understands by the hunger mentioned in Psalms 33:19, real hunger, which took place after that the people of the country had been pressed together into the strong cities (Jeremiah 8:14; Jeremiah 4:5). This expression, however, may be more easily taken as a designation of great need and peril of death in general, as Psalms 34:10 sq.; Psalms 37:19; Job 5:20, and often in the Prophets. [Str. V. Psalms 33:10-11. Perowne: “After speaking of God’s power in Creation, the Psalmist goes on to speak of His Providence as ordering the world. There is a manifest antithesis between ‘the counsels and the thoughts’ of men which Jehovah brings to naught, and ‘the counsels and thoughts’ of Jehovah which abide forever.” Psalms 33:12. Alexander: “This is the centre of the whole Psalm, the conclusion from what goes before, and the text or theme of all that follows. Under the general proposition is included a particular felicitation of Israel as the actual choice and heritage of God, i.e., chosen to be His, in a peculiar sense, by hereditary succession, through a course of ages.”—C. A. B.] Str. VI. [Psalms 33:13-14. From His Providence the Psalmist passes over to His Omniscience. Comp. Psalms 11:4; Psalms 14:2.—C. A. B.] Psalms 33:15. Former of their hearts all at once.—The reference here is not to governing the heart (Luther) as in Proverbs 21:1; Jeremiah 10:23. By emphasizing the participle (Hengst., Delitz.) there is gained the idea of a continued and essential activity of God; but the word itself and the context lead not to a Divine influence with respect to forming the thoughts of the heart, but only to the creative formation of the heart. The overlooking and judicial activity of God described in Psalms 33:13-14, God exercises in the twofold capacity stated in Psalms 33:15. If ιηγ stood at the beginning of the verse as Psalms 49:3; Psalms 49:11, it would have to be referred with Hupfeld to both clauses in the signification of pariter ac. Its present position, however, is in favor of the usual meaning: all at once, altogether. The Vulgate renders this idea of being without exception, by singillatim after the Sept. κατὰ μόνας, whilst the plural καρδίας is put instead of the singular. Str. VII. Psalms 33:16. The king is not helped.—The article before melech makes the translation “no king” (De Wette [A. V.]) inadmissible. The particle of negation is to be referred to the participle with strong emphasis. Comp. Ewald, § 321, a.[Psalms 33:17. The horse is a delusion for help.—Alexander: “The horse meant is the war-horse, and is singled out as one of the elements of military strength in which the ancients were especially disposed to trust. Vid.Psalms 20:7; Isaiah 31:1-3. A lie, a falsehood, i.e., something which deceives and disappoints the confidence reposed in it.”—C. A. B.] [Str. VIII. Psalms 33:18-19. Alexander: “While the material strength of other men fails to secure them, those who fear the Lord and hope in His mercy are secure beneath His vigilant inspection.”—C. A. B.] Str. IX. Psalms 33:20-22. In the first half of the verse Hengstenberg finds an allusion to Genesis 49:18, in the second half to Deuteronomy 33:26; Deuteronomy 33:29. [For an explanation of help, and shield, vid.Psalms 5:12; Psalms 10:14; Psalms 22:11; Psalms 30:10. Perowne: “This attitude of hope and trust is the attitude of the Church in all ages, for she is not yet made perfect; but the Jewish Church was in a special sense the Church of the future, and therefore also in a special manner a waiting and hoping Church. The whole history of Israel may indeed be summed up in Jacob’s dying words: ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.’ ”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The solemn and thankful praise of God in the congregation corresponds on the one side with the will of God, who by His prophet has demanded it, on the other side is appropriate to the upright, who by virtue of their position in the congregation and to God, in the fulfilment of this duty of the appropriate recognition of God, are able to give suitable expression to it. Their jubilation has not only as its subject the glory of God, but exhibits itself likewise as a joy in the Lord, which does not despise the use of art, yet employs it for the honor of God, encourages those like-minded to praise God by personal, joyous confession, and is impelled and enabled to make known in new songs and new ways the renewed feelings of the heart. “To the unrighteous the glory of God is not the subject of joy and of praise, but of terror and aversion.—It is a sad sign of the decline of the Church when the demand to sing Him a new song is no longer executed. The more careful then must it be to preserve its old songs” (Hengst.) Comp. Psalms 50:16. 2. The inexhaustible reason for breaking forth in new songs of praise, and the fresh sounding forth of the old songs of faith in the congregation, is the recognition of the glory of God, as it is manifest to the congregation in the word and providence of the Lord. Both mutually confirm one another, and declare God as the one who is worthy of praise, and who is alone reliable as well on account of His moral perfection as with respect to His Omnipotence, which are testified to in the creation and government of the world, whilst they realize in both the unchangeable thoughts and counsels of the righteousness and love of God, which are made known to His chosen people in the words of revelation.3. All men have therefore good reason to fear a God like this, but to esteem His chosen people as blessed, that they have such a Lord for their God. They have every reason to trust Him, in the greatest dangers to hope in His assistance, and to expect deliverance from Him out of the greatest troubles. For no creature can successfully resist the Creator, nothing can escape the service of the Almighty, no works, yea no thought of the heart can be concealed from the eye of the Omniscient. And when men attempt it and not only singly, but in great masses follow their own end, turning away from God, they are obliged to experience that God’s decrees and order stand fast forever and not only maintain themselves against all opposition and resistance, but are carried out in the world to the honor of God, and the good of His people, whilst the thoughts, counsels and works of the adversaries are observed, judged and brought to nought by God. 4. Since this is so, it is becoming for the pious, not only to praise God, but no more to fear the power of the adversary than rely upon earthly means of help, but much rather in true fear of God to resort to the Lord, and in living faith hope in His grace. But the hope of those who fear God and trust in Him will not be put to shame, for it is not based on human presumptions, suppositions and wishes, but on the holy name, in which the true God has revealed His holy nature, and in which grace and faith meet one another. Those who hide themselves in God, will rejoice in God, yet in all their rejoicings in God will not forget to pray as penitent sinners for new tokens of grace from the faithful God of the covenant, and thereby as true members of the congregation, show how God ceases not to show Himself to them even to the end, the same as He has declared Himself from the beginning, as ever the same reliable God. “The wickedness of men may have in itself the desire to injure, but it has not the power; there is no power except from God” (Augustine). AND To praise God is for the pious a duty as well as an honor and joy.—A new heart is necessary for new songs.—How art is sanctified, when it is used to praise God and edify the congregation.—The happiness of the people whose God is the Lord: 1) in what it consists; 2) how it is expressed; 3) how it may be preserved.—The great joy of the pious in God’s works and government is magnified by their joy in God’s word and holy name, and is fulfilled in a joy in God Himself by a life in His grace.—What God preserves in His treasury He bestows in blessings or in curses, in accordance with His will and the conduct of men.—Human thoughts and Divine decrees.—On what the confidence is based that God will help His people out of all their troubles and can help them!—The pious can rely upon God’s holy word with the same confidence, as upon God’s holy Providence.—The reliable, comforting and blessed meeting of the Divine grace and human faith.—How we may accomplish that our life as well as our song may begin and close with joy in God.—God is not only the almighty Creator and the kind Preserver of the world, He is likewise the watchful Guardian of the ordinances and laws instituted by Himself, the Omniscient and just Judge of all men, the only reliable Protector and Helper of His people.—.The consideration of the word and works of God should encourage us to fear, love and trust in God respecting all things.—God has made known to us His holy name in order that we may call upon Him in all our troubles, pray to Him, praise and thank Him. Starke: If the work which is done is to please God, the person must first of all please Him and be justified by faith.—If we properly understood our great benefits and heavenly treasures we would rejoice more over them than over all the honor and glory of this world.—The ungodly cannot praise God, for they have no taste of the goodness of God; their praise pleases God as little as their prayers.—All the works of God show, that He is honest, faithful and true.—In all the commands, threatenings and promises of God look alone to the Divine authority of the Ruler, this will strongly impel you to the obedience of childlike respect and trust.—If God has created the wonderful structure of the heavens with all its hosts and has thus far upheld it, how shall He not be able to sustain thee, who art only one creature and a little piece of earth? It is an especial grace of God, that He brings to nought the blood-thirsty devices of the enemy, the church would otherwise long since have perished.—All that thou dost, take counsel at first with God, for if this is neglected it is an easy thing for Him to bring to nought all thy plans.—Wilt thou have the gracious eye of God directed upon thee, then direct thine eye constantly to Him in faith, love and obedience.—If we do not persevere in patience and constancy, we forfeit true Divine help, and do not obtain what we otherwise would. Osiander: We should use temporal good so that it may be our greatest joy that God is graciously disposed toward us.—Menzel: God not only does righteousness, but He loves it and demands it likewise of others.—Renschel: If it is true that God can and does do so much, it is likewise fair 1) that we should wait on Him, 2) that we should make Him our shield, 3) that we should rejoice in Him.—Frisch: If a joyous praise and service of God is lacking to a man, he lacks likewise a true knowledge of what he has in God.—Arndt: The great sea is surrounded by the commandments of God; how should He not then bridle men on earth, and put a bit in their mouths?—Francke: Where a new song like this is sung, there must likewise be a new tongue; but a new heart is presupposed.—Nitzsch: The glorifying of God our Saviour by the new songs, which He has awakened from the earliest times in His congregation. These songs glorify Him, 1) by virtue of their origin, since they come only from a newly created heart which is full of salvation; 2) by means of their meaning and contents as the signs of the highest satisfaction, which it is possible for men to attain here below, 3) by means of their long and deep effect upon the present and future; 4) as the living alliance of the saints with the lovely and beautiful.—Umbreit: The same God, to the ordinance of whose words the physical world must submit, rules forever in the kingdom of spirits.—All true power comes from God, and is crowned with victory by Him.—Tholuck: The throne of God is not an idle seat of care, but the judgment seat of a king, from which with lofty glance the fates of the world are ruled.—All victories on earth are gained only by the power of God.—Taube: An appeal to all true Israelites to praise the glory of the Lord, who is the terror of His enemies, but the consolation of His people.—Make no parade with the creature, but be not afraid of the creature, for it is in the hand of God.—Schaubach. Fear and hope are seldom found together in men; but he who would hope in the goodness of God, must likewise fear His holy name. [Matth. Henry: What pity is it that this earth, which is so full of God’s goodness, should be so empty of His praises; and that, of the multitudes that live upon His bounty, there are so few that live to His glory.—How easy may this thought make us at all times, that God governs the world, that He did it in infinite wisdom before we were born, and will do it when we are silent in the dust!—They that fear God and His wrath must hope in God and His mercy; for there is no flying from God but by flying to Him.—Barnes: God is a great and glorious Sovereign over all, and He will make everything subordinate to the promotion of His own great designs.—True piety leads men to wait on the Lord; to depend on Him; to look to His interposition, in danger, sickness, poverty, want: to rely on. Him for all that is hoped for in this life, and for salvation in the life to come.—Spurgeon: To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.—Heartiness should be conspicuous in Divine worship.—God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, acts with a hand which never fails. Bless His name.—If earth be full of mercy, what must heaven be, where goodness concentrates its beams?—Happy is the man who has learned to lean his all upon the sure word of Him who built the skies.—The cause of God is never in danger; infernal craft is outwitted by infinite wisdom, and Satanic malice is held in check by boundless power.—All Adam’s sons are as well watched as was Adam himself, their lone progenitor in the garden.—The eye of peculiar care is their glory and defence. None can take them unawares, for the celestial Watcher foresees the designs of their enemies and provides against them.—Believer, wait upon thy God in temporals. His eye is upon thee, and His hand will not long delay.—The root of faith in due time bears the flower of rejoicing. Doubts breed sorrow, confidence creates joy.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [However different these two Psalms may be in some respects, yet the close resemblance and the frequently recurring references in expressions and in sentiment to the previous Psalm, favor the idea that the two Psalms were originally one, but were afterwards separated for use in the congregation. The first verse of this Psalm takes up directly the sentiment and words of the closing verse of the previous Psalm. The references in Str. II. to the justice and goodness of God fully accord with these sentiments. The reference to the Divine power in the creation and government of the world is natural in this connection, where the penitent is rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins, especially as the two ideas are brought together in an inverse order in Psalms 19. It is not unimportant that Psalms 33:12 ascribes the same blessedness to the nation and people as was ascribed to the individual at the beginning of Psalms 32. The terms and sentiments of Psa 33:16 sq. are in accordance with Psalms 32:8-9. And the final expressions of hope and trust in Jehovah’s holiness and mercy form a proper conclusion to the sentiments of both Psalms.—C. A. B.] Psalms 34 A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed1         I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2    My soul shall make her boast in the Lord:The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. 3    O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt his name together. 4    I sought the Lord and he heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5    They looked unto him, and were lightened: And their faces were not ashamed. 6    This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,And saved him out of all his troubles. 7    The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, And delivereth them. 8    O taste and see that the Lord is good: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. 9    O fear the Lord, ye his saints: For there is no want to them that fear him. 10    The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.11    Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.12    What man is he that desireth life, And loveth many days, that he may see good? 13    Keep thy tongue from evil, And thy lips from speaking guile. 14    Depart from evil, and do good; Seek peace, and pursue it. 15    The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry. 16    The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 17    The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, And delivereth them out of all their troubles. 18    The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 19    Many are the afflictions of the righteous: But the Lord delivereth him out of them all. 20    He keepeth all his bones: Not one of them is broken. 21    Evil shall slay the wicked: And they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. 22    The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: And none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. AND Its Title.—In the title there is a reference to the madness which David feigned, when he entered the land of the Philistines in his flight from Saul; was recognized there and brought before the king, who dismissed him as a madman, upon which he concealed himself in the cave of Adullam in the wilderness of Judah. Hitzig recognizes the fact that Abimelech, on account of Gen 20:2, compared with Psalms 26:8, was probably not a proper name, but a name of rank of the Philistine kings. Comp. Hengst., Beitrδge, 3:306 sq. With this vanishes the objection that the king of the narrative bore the name of Achish. If now the author of the title had this passage of Scripture before him as his authority, the change of name is not only remarkable, but the question remains unanswered, how he could have gained this authority for the Psalm. For the subject of this song, which is very general, and treats of deliverance by Jehovah from many and great dangers, more in a tone of reflection and instruction, than in that of a prayer of thanksgiving, contains no allusions or references to this particular event in David’s life. And the supposition, that the rare word θַ ?ςֲ ?ξεּ (= taste), Psalms 34:8, reminded the compiler (De Wette, Hupf., Hitzig) of that θַ ?ςֲ ?ξεֹ, 1 Samuel 21:14 (= his understanding, Luther, after the Sept. and Vulg., incorrectly, his gesture), and that he besides this brought the ϊִּ ?ϊְ ?δַ ?μֵ ?μgloriaris, Psalms 34:2, into connection with the ιִ ?ϊְ ?δֹ ?μֵ ?μinsanivit in Samuel (Olsh.), not to say anything of the artificiality and trifling which is ascribed to the author, refutes itself; for the words compared are entirely different from one another in sound as well as in meaning. The idea of comparing them could only be entertained by comparing the consonants alone, entirely apart from the sense and context of the words; accordingly with only the written text in view. The question how our author came upon that text, is not in the least answered by this subtle hypothesis. Or are we to take refuge in chance and speak of blind conjecture (Hupf.)? Since it is yet more advisable to think of tradition and to explain the similarity of expressions by supposing a common source, namely, the annals of David, Psalms 18:1, compare with 2 Samuel 20:1, (Delitzsch). Its Contents and Form.—The last mentioned supposition enables us to set aside the objections made to the Davidic authorship from the didactic, in part reflective tone, the parabolic character of the individual verses, and their alphabetical order, which latter is exactly like Psalms 25 in that a strophe with ε is missing, and an extra verse with αּ is added at the end. All this however is only against a lyrical effusion occurring in the time of that event, yet not against a later use of it in order to general purposes of devotion by him who had experienced it, when he was seized with a very vivid remembrance of his remarkable preservation (Hengst.). The course of thought is in favor of this. The opening strophes (Psalms 34:1-3) express the resolution and vow of continued praise of God in connection with an appeal to pious sufferers to do likewise. The reasons (Psalms 34:4-10) strongly emphasize his personal experience and its application to the religious life of his companions in the congregation. Finally a paternal position is assumed (Psalms 34:11), with the view of teaching to fear God, as the only, but reliable condition of Divine assistance, protection, and salvation (Psalms 34:12-22). In all this there are such genuine Davidic features, that on the basis of tradition we have good reason to refer this Psalm as well as Psalms 56 to the same event, whilst we find its position in the collection determined by thoughts and expressions similar to the preceding Psalms. Comp. Psalms 34:15 with Psalms 33:18; furthermore the blessedness Psalms 34:8 b with Psalms 33:12; Psalms 32:1-2; finally Psalms 34:11 with Psalms 32:8.—For the use of this Psalm at the Communion in the ancient Church, on account of Psa 34:8 a, comp. Const. apost. VIII. 13; Cyrill. cat. myst. V. 17. Psalms 34:2. The sufferer.—The αnavim are the pious (Hitzig) who have learned the disposition of the sufferer in the school of sorrow (Delitzsch), and therefore may likewise be designated as the meek (Hengst.). This reference disappears in the translation: miserable (Luther), or distressed (Hupf.), which can be applied better to γniyyim, and used in Psalms 34:6. Psalms 34:4. Cod. Alex, of the Sept., which is followed by all Latin Psalteries, has θλίψεώνμου, the Cod. Vat. however παροικιῶνμου = those who dwell around me, by which some have understood, enemies, dangers, troubles. Symmach. has similarly συστάσεώνμου. Psalms 34:5. They looked unto Him and became bright, and their faces needed not to blush.—The subject is not to be taken directly from Psalms 34:2, but to be derived from the context as in Psalms 34:17. This parallel example is against (Hupf.) gaining the subject by a relative or a hypothetical construction: those who looked, etc., or, if one look, etc. (Rabbins, Luther, Calvin, De Wette, Delitzsch).—πָ ?δַ ?ψ usually means, flow together, flow, in Aramaic, however; beam, shine; hence πְ ?δָ ?ψָ ?δ (Job 3:4) light, day. The latter meaning, as an expression of cheerfulness and joy (Psalms 4:7), applies here (Sept., Chald., Isaki, Aben Ezra, and recent interpreters), as Isaiah 60:5. Luther’s “anlaufen” originates from the first meaning, which is maintained by Kimchi and Geier. The contrast is the face covered with shame. The subjective negation ΰμ is stronger than μֹ ?ΰ. Psalms 34:6. This distressed one.—Delitzsch translates this, the sorrowful. In this passage Venema, Kφster, Hupf., take the singular as used for the plural. Most interpreters, however, refer it to the person of the Psalmist. Psalms 34:7. The angel of Jehovah.—It is questionable whether this expression is to be taken as collective, and referred to the host of angels, which surrounds the pious, protecting them, Psalms 91:11; 2 Kings 6:17 (Calv., Hupf., Camph.), or whether we are to think of the “angel of the presence,” Isaiah 63:9, the especial mediator of the revelation of Jehovah (most interpreters in all times). In favor of the former view is the predicate “encamped about,” which demands plurality (Aben Ezra), in favor of the latter, the fact that Maleach Jehovah has gained the meaning of a term. techn., and is stamped with a meaning in the Pentateuch itself, which is so often re-echoed in the Psalms. Hence it is, that apparently there is a reference in ηπδ to Mahanaim, the double camp of the angels, which Jacob beheld with the eye of faith as a fortress of chariots protecting his camp (Genesis 32:2 sq.), and at the head of it we have to think of the angel of Jehovah, according to Genesis 28:13; Genesis 32:25 sq., the prince of the host of Jehovah (Joshua 5:14; comp. 1 Kings 22:19). Since now ηπδ is not only used of hosts, but likewise of captains, 2 Samuel 12:28 (Hengst.), so the captain might be mentioned here likewise, the host being supplied in thought. We may likewise suppose that this angel, so significant with reference to the history of redemption, is named, in so far as he can afford a protection on all sides, as a spiritual being above the limits of space. In favor of this is particularly Zechariah 9:8.—The Vulgate has not taken the παρεμβαλε͂ι of the Sept. as intransitive, but has translated it by immittet. Since this was obscure, the variation arose which was already rejected by Augustine: immittit anqelum (angelos) dominus.[Psalms 34:8-9. Taste and see.—Delitzsch: “Tasting, etc. (γεύσασθαι, Hebrews 6:4 sq.; 1 Peter 2:3) stands before seeing; for spiritual experience leads to spiritual knowledge and not conversely. Nisi gustaveris, said Bernard, non videbis. David desires, that others likewise may experience what he has experienced, in order to know what he has known; the goodness of God. Therefore the appeal to the saints to fear Jehovah (ιְ ?ψΰεּ for ιִ ?ψְ ?ΰεּ in order to distinguish veremini and videbunt, as Joshua 24:14; 1 Samuel 12:24), for he who fears Him, has all things in Him.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 34:10. Young lions.—Luther after the Sept. has “rich.” Most ancient interpreters, finally, Hengstenberg and Hitzig, think of such rich (Sir 13:19) and mighty enemies (Psalms 35:17). But the usual usage of this figure, which in Jeremiah 2:15 is likewise applied to the heathen, cannot decide anything here, where the clear and comforting thought appears much more significant, if the proper meaning is retained (Kimchi, Calv., Ruding., Maurer, Hupf., Delitzsch). Comp. Job 4:10 sq. [Psalms 34:11. Come children.—Delitzsch: “These are not children in years or understanding, but it is an affectionate address of the Master who is experienced in the ways of God, to all and every one, as Proverbs 1:8, et al.” Similar is the use of τέκνα in the Epistles of John.—C. A. B.] [Psalms 34:12-14. Hupfeld: “The question, with the following imperatives, is only a lively expression of an antecedent and consequent instead of, He who loves—let him take care, etc. (vid.Psalms 25:12). So 1 Peter 3:10 sq.; James 3:13.—Life is not used in the common external sense, but in the higher sense, of a happy life, prosperity =parallel Good, and ‘way of life,’ ‘tree of life,’ frequent in the Proverbs (vid.Psalms 16:11).—Days = parallel life, or more particularly long life, which in itself was a good in the Old Testament, as a promise of the Law.” Sins of the tongue, in the avoidance of which righteousness of speech consists, which manifests itself in accordance with its nature chiefly negatively. They are here as Psalms 15:2, immediately against their neighbors, yet in general direct themselves likewise against God, comp. Psalms 39:2-4. The Proverbs of all nations are full of this taming and training of the tongue, so likewise the Old Testament. Comp. Psalms 39:2-4; Psalms 141:3; Proverbs 4:24; Proverbs 13:3; Proverbs 21:23; Sir 28:25; James 3:2 sq. Righteousness of act; negatively, in being far from evil, positively in doing good. Both connected likewise, Psalms 37:27 (comp. Isaiah 1:16 sq.; Amos 5:14), and indeed the usual formula; especially the first, as Proverbs 3:7; Job 28:28; Job 1:1; Job 1:8; Job 2:3.—Pursue = aspire after, Psalms 38:21; Proverbs 21:21; Deuteronomy 16:20; Isaiah 51:1.—C. A. B.] [Psalms 34:15-16. Hupfeld: “The eyes of Jehovah are used as the organ of His gracious care, with ΰֶ ?μ and without a verb entirely like Psalms 33:18. Parallel with this His ears as the organ of hearing their cry for help, their prayer, as Psalms 18:6; Psalms 145:19; comp. the parallel Isaiah 1:15.—In contrast with this is the face of Jehovah, in a bad sense with αְ (as all verbs of hostility): (‘directed) against evil doers,’ = the angry look, the judicial eye of God. (vid.Psalms 21:9.”—C. A. B.] [Psalms 34:17. They (namely, the righteous) cry.—Vid. remarks upon Psalms 34:5. Delitzsch supposes, with Hitzig, that this verse with τ originally stood before the previous one with ς in accordance with the order of Lamentations 2-4. Thus the subject would be in the previous verse. Delitzsch: “With the present order of thought, Psalms 34:19 is formed in the same way as Psalms 34:5 : Clamant et Dominus audit=si qui (quicunque) clamant. It is a crying out of the depths of a soul despairing of itself. Such crying finds a hearing with God, and a hearing which proves itself in the granting.”—C. A. B.] [Psalms 34:18. Delitzsch: “Broken in heart are those whose selfish, self-seeking life, which revolved about its own personality, has been broken at the root.—Contrite in spirit are those who have been brought down by severe experiences from the false height of proud self-consciousness, and have been led to repentance and thoroughly humbled. To such Jehovah is near, He preserves them from despair, He is ready to erect a new life in them in the ruins of the old, and to cover their infinite deficiency. He makes them as those who are susceptible of it and crave it, participants in His salvation.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 34:19. Many afflictions.—These are not punishments for their own sins, many of which the righteous man still has, so that he is here reminded of the imperfection of human righteousness and then is referred to the greatness of the Divine mercy (Hengst.). The context demands that we should think of the mortifications, afflictions, snares and persecutions which the righteous have to experience from other men. These are many, but Jehovah delivers out of them all. Psalms 34:20. Keeping all his bones,—expresses the most particular oversight and care by a figure differing from Matthew 10:30, but with similar import and force. A Christian reader is reminded of its literal fulfilment in the care over the crucified. Yet this is not to be regarded as prophetical, because not a syllable of this Psalm hints at the righteous one in the perfect sense (Isaiah 53:11; Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 9:9; Acts 3:14; Acts 22:14), but rather the absence of the Hebrew article in the context, shows that the singular represents the category, as then the Vulg. after the Sept. has used the plural. For the sake of clearness we therefore translate a righteous man and not the righteous man. Since now John 19:36. expressly states that the facts narrated from Psalms 34:33, took place in fulfilment of Scripture, and besides the title of the righteous one is not used of Christ in connection with this event, the conjecture, that John may have had in view not only, Exodus 12:46, but likewise the present passage (Delitzsch, Hitzig), cannot be supported, although the remark is correct in itself, that not only the paschal lamb but likewise to a certain extent the sufferings of the righteous are typical (Delitzsch).Psalms 34:21-22. The emphasis lies upon the word which begins each verse, so that the thought is, evil slayeth the ungodly, whilst Jehovah redeemeth the soul of the righteous=his life, out of all these troubles. In favor of this is likewise the context with Psalms 34:19 sq. and the word ψςδ=misfortune, evil. If the thought was to be expressed here that wickedness slayeth the wicked (Delitzsch), we would have reason to expect ψς which is usual in the Psalms.—ΰωׁ ?ν means not only to become guilty, but likewise to pay the penalty of guilt. Both sides of the idea of guilt flow into one another, and hence arises at times the double sense. AND ETHICAL1. Profound piety cannot be satisfied with once thanking God for His benefits, protection, answers to prayer and tokens of grace; it preserves, awakens, and strengthens, the remembrance of them in the soul, so that the desire arises for uninterrupted praise of God, and the thankful man invites his fellow-believers, particularly his fellow-sufferers, to similar experience, and encourages to similar action, whilst he calls them to share his joy and to commune with him in prayer. Thus the example of David in this Psalm of thanksgiving serves “as a general example for all the righteous, that they may learn how God does not despise the cries of His saints.”—(Luther). 2. The proclamation of the sure hearing of prayer, by the mouth of a believer who has experienced it, is as comforting to the afflicted sufferer, as the experience of the quickening enjoyment of the goodness of God is beneficial to the spiritual life, and the promise of the happiness of those who fear God is attractive to those who desire it. The true knowledge of the goodness of God and the seeing, is preceded by personal appropriation or tasting; but this presupposes readiness to bestow, on the part of God, and is conditioned on believing approach and laying hold of, on the part of the needy. The reference to the angel of Jehovah, the Mediator of the history of redemption, before all else encourages to this. 3. No creature, however strong he may be, is able to provide for himself and protect himself; but he who fears God and trusts in Him has no lack of anything. His righteousness does not protect him against afflictions; but the gracious nearness of God comforts him in affliction, and delivers him from all his afflictions; for God makes him free from guilt and punishment. The ungodly, however, perish; for in their misfortune, the punishment of their guilt overtakes them, and death as the wages of sin (Romans 6:23) is their sure and miserable end. 4. The true, that is the only and safe way of life and happiness, is accordingly the trusting exercise of the fear of God for the righteousness, which we are to have shown to us by those who have known it in their own experience, in order that we may fulfil it ourselves. The entire instruction may be comprehended in the clause, depart from evil and do good. But the extent of this prescription is so great, that the first includes bridling of the tongue and the latter seeking and pursuing, that is, the diligent and careful striving after peace, as the good understanding between God and man which is conditioned on good behaviour. AND The praise of God 1) as an expression of personal thankfulness, 2) as a means of general edification, 3) as a recognition of the honor due to God.—The fear of God and trust in God do not exclude one another, but are the common foundation of human happiness.—God is near to all men according to His Omnipotence, but only to the pious according to His grace—He who would lack no good thing, must not depend upon any other than God, but upon Him earnestly and constantly.—God allows us to seek Him, and likewise to find Him, and then there is great salvation and joy.—The knowledge of the goodness of God grows with experience, but only personal appropriation by faith helps us.—God’s goodness makes the man happy who finds refuge in Him.—All the help that there is on earth comes from the Lord, whether God sends His angels or uses other means.—The afflictions of the righteous have a different cause and issue from those of the ungodly.—It makes an essential difference, how a man expiates his guilt whether by penitence or punishment.—Human wisdom does not help out of real trouble, nor any strength of the creature, but only the grace of the Lord.—The care of God over the righteous, how it encourages us a) to praise God, b) to trust in God, c) to fear God.—We should learn, teach and do the will of God.—God will keep every bone of the pious, they should likewise serve Him with every member.—He who would live free from guilt and from punishment, must take refuge in God as His Redeemer.—Life, happiness and peace are good things, desired by all men, properly valued by few, and only found and retained by those who seek God.—All men have afflictions, but only the pious have a broken heart and thereby the way to true consolation and constant blessing.Starke: How many beautiful plans would have failed, if the saints of God had undergone no danger.—To be miserable and yet rejoice and praise God with joyous mouth is foolish to the reason and hard for a troubled heart; nevertheless such a heart cannot and should not withdraw itself from this.—As one light kindles another so a believing heart seeks to awaken others and excite them to the righteous praise of God.—God will be no greater by our praise, we cannot exalt Him in Himself, but we exalt His name in ourselves when we praise Him in all His works and give Him alone the glory.—We must not only look to God, but must likewise run to Him.—Take care and do not wilfully deprive yourselves of the service of the holy angels.—If the ungodly knew how good the Lord is, understood how He alone is the highest good, in whom all blessedness meets—Why! they would make haste and turn to Him.—He who seeks God and finds Him, gains more, than the entire world besides, what should he lack?—Blessed business when we not only come to Christ ourselves, but likewise seek to persuade others, to give ear to the inviting voice of eternal Wisdom.—Children should early be accustomed to godliness, in order that they may not offer to the devil the best blood of their youth and only the residue of age to God. Ah! how many men destroy their peace by their own mouth.—When no one will hear and see the miserable, God sees and hears them; and when no one can overcome the ungodly persecutors, God can subdue and destroy them with an unfavorable look.—Although the pious have many troubles, yet they do not redound to their ruin as to the ungodly, but to their benefit.—The ungodly and those who hate the pious, are accustomed to be white hot and to throw all the blame on the righteous, but it is very different according to the Divine judgment. Selnekker: The example of the saints when properly considered, works great good in the hearts of the pious and strengthens their faith, hope, prayer and patience.—Schnepf: We have angels to protect us, one of which is mightier than a whole army.—Menzel: It belongs to the doctrine of the cross, that we properly know; 1) upon what persons our Lord lays the cross first and chiefly; 2) why it is, notwithstanding, that He lays the dear cross upon such people in preference to others; 3) how the righteous are accustomed to feel and their experience under their cross; 4) how they act under it, what they should do and what not; 5) what God does to them in return.—Arndt: Our whole life should be nothing but one constant praise and confession of God—to God’s honor and the comfort and improvement of our neighbors.—Roos: Mighty men, who like lions live by prey, must at last suffer hunger and want: but those who seek the Lord will not lack, any good thing.—Guenther: The greatest calamity of our times is, that there are so few broken hearts and contrite spirits.—Taube: We must seek not so much the gift, as the Lord, the Giver.—What a God He is of whom His people can say, With Him we have no fear, no lack, no guilt!—Thym: The cross, the source of inexpressible comfort, 1) where the cross is great there is great comfort from the Lord; 2) where there is great comfort there is great joy in the Lord; 3) where there is great joy there is sure glory with the Lord. [Matt. Henry: God’s praises sound best in concert, for so we praise Him as the angels do in heaven.—Would we pass comfortably through the world and out of the world, our constant care must be to keep a good conscience.—They that truly repent of what they have done amiss, will warn others to take heed of doing otherwise. Sad is the case of that man who by sin has made his Maker his enemy, and his destroyer.—Parents that are very fond of a child, will not let it be out of their sight; none of God’s children are ever from under His eye, but on them He looks with a singular complacency, as well as with a watchful and tender concern.—There is no rhetoric, nothing charming, in a cry, yet God’s ears are open to it, as the tender mother’s to the cry of her sucking child, which another would take no notice of.—No man is desolate but he whom God has forsaken, nor is any man undone till he is in hell.—Barnes: The most lonely, the most humble, the most obscure, and the poorest child of God, may have near him and around him a retinue and a defence which kings never have when their armies pitch their tents around their palaces, and when a thousand swords would at once be drawn to defend them.—Spurgeon: He who praises God for mercies shall never want a mercy for which to praise.—What a blessing one look at the Lord may be! There is life, liberty, love, everything in fact, in a look at the crucified One. Never did a sore heart look in vain to the good Physician; never a dying soul turned its darkening eye to the brazen serpent to find its virtue gone.—We little know how many providential deliverances we owe to those unseen hands which are charged to bear us up lest we dash our foot against a stone.—Positive virtue promotes negative virtue; he who does good is sure to avoid evil. Salvation is linked with contrition.—Believer, thou shalt never be deserted, forsaken, given up to ruin. God, even thy God, is thy guardian and friend, and bliss is thine.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Delitzsch: “Psalms 34 is one of the 8 Psalms, which are referred by their titles to the time of the persecution by Saul, and arose in that long way of suffering from Gibeah of Saul to Ziklag, (in about this chronological order; 7, 59, 56, 34, 52, 57, 142, 54.)”—C. A. B.] [Hupfeld: “The hungry lions indicate the need of the creature when left to itself, even of the strongest beast of prey in contrast with the higher protection of the pious.”—C A. B.] [For the meaning of bones, vid. Psalms 6:2.—C. A. B.] Psalms 35 A Psalm of David1         Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: Fight against them that fight against me. 2    Take hold of shield and buckler, And stand up for mine help. 3    Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me; Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. 4    Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. 5    Let them be as chaff before the the wind: And let the angel of the Lord chase them.6    Let their way be dark and slippery: And let the angel of the Lord persecute them. 7    For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, Which without cause they have digged for my soul. 8    Let destruction come upon him at unawares; And let the net that he hath hid catch himself; Into that very destruction let him fall. 9    And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord.It shall rejoice in his salvation. 10    All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, Which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him? 11    False witnesses did rise up; They laid to my charge things that I knew not. 12    They rewarded me evil for good To the spoiling of my soul. 13    But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting: And my prayer returned into mine own bosom. 14    I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother. 15    But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; They did tear me, and ceased not: 16    With hypocritical mockers in feasts, They gnashed upon me with their teeth. 17    Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Rescue my soul from their destructions, My darling from the lions. 18    I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people. 19    Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. 20    For they speak not peace: But they devise deceitful matters against them, that are quiet in the land. 21    Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, And said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.22    This thou hast seen, O Lord: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me. 23    Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, Even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.24    Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness; And let them not rejoice over me. 25    Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it! Let them not say, We have swallowed him up. 26    Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together That rejoice in mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonor That magnify themselves against me. 27    Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: Yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, Which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. 28    And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness And of thy praise all the day long. AND Its Contents and Composition—This Psalm is not so much a lamentation, which repeats the same phrases prolixly and to excess (De Wette, Hupfeld), as a rythmical and agitated prayer. The same three thoughts recur in the three chief divisions (Psalms 35:1-28), but always with different forms, references and figures. These are 1) the prayer that Jehovah will interfere without delay for the protection of His servant, that his righteous cause may be carried out and his enemies ruined; 2) the description of the wickedness and unthankfulness of these enemies, which have previously received sympathy and tokens of love from him whom they now persecute without cause; and 3) the vow of thankfulness, which the delivered man will offer as an expression of his entire resignation to the Lord, publicly in the congregation and to their edification. The movement of these thoughts around in a circle corresponds throughout with the deeply felt experiences of a heart, which is shaken to its foundation by bitter experiences, which have been so contrary to all his expectations. His heart can become master of its own emotions only gradually, and indeed only by urgently clinging to God. This, as well as the manner of expression, which is picturesque, in part drastic, and corresponds closely with his experiences even to the tone of the language, is opposed to the idea that the author speaks from the person of the righteous as such (Hengst.) The citation of Psa 35:19 in the mouth of Jesus (John 15:25), which may be derived from Psalms 69:4, as well, does not demand either this supposition, or the Messianic interpretation of the ancient church, or the typical interpretation in the narrow sense, but is founded upon the general relation of the sufferings of Jesus to every undeserved suffering at the hands of wicked and unthankful men. This is only strengthened and brought into narrower historical connection by maintaining its composition by David, which has nothing against it. For the correspondences with Jeremiah 18:19; Jeremiah 23:12 : Lamentations 2:16, upon which Hitzig lays so much stress, do not lead to the priority of the prophet Jeremiah, since the opening strophe of the Psalm uses the language of a man of war. In the life of David the most suitable time for the composition of this Psalm is found in the time of his persecution by Saul, and it is most nearly related to Psalms 40, 69. It seems to be a lyrical carrying out of the words used by David 1 Samuel 24:16, and owes its place in the collection of Psalms, probably to the circumstance that the Maleach Jehovah is mentioned here in the singular, as in the preceding Psalm. Str. I. Psalms 35:1. Fight them that fight me, make war upon them that make war upon me.—The expression ψִ ?ια leads at first to the idea of litigation, but this when carried out brings about directly warlike complications. The ΰϊ is not the preposition with, but the sign of the accusative. If the fundamental meaning of μην were vorare (most interpreters), yet it does not follow that war among the Hebrews was once connected with devouring men (Daumer der Feuer und Molochdienst der alten Hebr. § 242). We might think of a figure of the entire annihilation of the enemy as it is used Numbers 24:8. We may likewise, however, according to the derivation from the Arabic, get the meaning of a dense throng, a large crowd, and tumult (Delitzsch). Psalms 35:2. Target and shield.—The figures displace one another, and thus, with the strong anthropomorphic description of the Divine interference, lead away from the form to the subject. This is shown clearly by the mention of the two shields, never used by a warrior at the same time, the smaller one to protect the head (1 Kings 10:16), and the larger to protect the entire body.Psalms 35:3. Stop (the way.)—This may be designated by a military technical term (Hengst.), although we do not think exactly of the circle which was formed by the light armed in retiring from their adversaries after throwing the spear (Schegg). At any rate ρִ ?βֹ ?ψ was taken as an imperative by all ancient translations. Most interpreters supply, at least in thought, viam, with the translation interclude. Hitzig compares the Ζthiopic and Arabic in favor of the meaning; advance rapidly, haste. The explanation of the word of the battle-axe of upper Asia, particularly of the Scythians (Kimchi, Hupf., et al), to which Greek writers give the name of σάγαοις, whilst in other respects acceptable, has particularly against it the fact that the substantive ρְ ?βεּ ?ψ occurs in Hosea 13:8, Job 28:15, in an entirely different meaning (Geier). Str. II. [Psalms 35:4. Confounded,—disgraced,—blush,—Hupfeld: “The usual formula for the frustration and failure of the hopes and undertakings of the wicked: heaped up to strengthen the sense as Psalms 35:26; Psalms 6:10; Psalms 40:14, etc., but connected by the retreat back, that is be beaten back, (vid.Psalms 6:10) with the preceding figure of hostile attack, and thus to be taken here in this particular sense.”—C. A. B] Psalms 35:5. As chaff before the wind. [Comp Psalms 1:4; Psalms 18:42; Psalms 83:13].—Jehovah’s angel—Hitzig remarks correctly, that Jehovah (Psalms 104:4,) makes the winds his angels, but here in reality the angel takes the place of the wind in the comparison, and the angel is designated as the ἐνέργεια of the flight. From this we conclude, that the angel is not figurative, or a collective, but is to be taken individually and properly, which is confirmed by the parallel Psalms 35:6, as well as the similarity with Exodus 14:25; Judges 5:25. “That this angel here takes part, when the question is whether the kingdom of the promise shall be destroyed in its origin or not, agrees with the appearance of the Maleach Jehovah in the fundamental period of the history of redemption” (Delitzsch). If now this angel is a mediator of Divine help for the servants of God, he is an angel of judgment for their enemies. Calvin, it is true, takes the expression here as in the previous Psalm, as collective, but makes the remark which brings forward the correct thought, that the angels could not protect and save, unless they on the other side could at the same time prevent and punish Accordingly if this is true, without doubt, then every prayer for the Divine interference for deliverance from the power of wicked enemies, implicitly contains the prayer for a Divine punishment of these enemies. In most cases this reverse side of the prayer for deliverance either does not come to consciousness, or takes the form of a petition for one’s own deliverance, whilst the treatment of the enemy is left to the estimation of God. It may, however, happen that the servant of God, as he is obligated to proclaim the Divine judgment, may thus feel justified in the prayer for its execution, that is, when he has to do with the affairs of God’s kingdom and the decision of affairs in the history of redemption, and the petitioner regards himself as executingthe Divine will. The highest stage of perfection then renders possible, in looking at the fulfilment of the Divine plan of the world, still further intercession for the forgiveness of guilt, (Luke 23:34 sq.; 2 Peter 3:9; 2 Peter 3:15), and the limitation of the punishment to temporal ruin (Galatians 1:9; Galatians 5:12; 2 Timothy 4:14), and in the sense of evangelical chastisement (1 Peter 4:6; 1 Corinthians 5:5). The Old Testament has not gone as far as this, although the duty of love to the enemy is most distinctly commanded and recognized (Exodus 23:4; Leviticus 19:18; Job 31:29; Proverbs 20:22; Proverbs 24:17; Proverbs 25:21). But we must not say that David acted selfishly and revengefully, and that his thankfulness Psalms 35:9 sq. even has a trace of joy in the misfortunes of his enemies. His thankfulness refers expressly to the help he has received, and it is designated as a rejoicing in the Lord.[Psalms 35:6. Alexander: “Dark and slippery, literally darkness and smoothness, an emphatic substitute of the abstract for the concrete. The fearful image thus suggested of men driven, like chaff before the wind, along a dark and slippery path, is rendered more terrible by the additional idea of their being hotly pursued by the destroying angel. The construction of the last clause, both in this verse and the one before it, is; (let) the angel of Jehovah (be) pursuing them.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 35:7. For without cause they have hid for me their net, without cause digged a pit for my soul.—The reading ωַׁ ?ηϊψִ ?ωְׁ ?ϊָ ?ν is scarcely tenable. For “the pit of their net” or “their net-pit” might actually mean a pit provided with a snare, which was covered with boughs or earth; but the connection of these words, partly with one another, partly with the verb “hide,” is unheard of, and the figurative reference of pit to ruin, as if the reference could be to the net of destruction (Luther, von Meyer), is therefore to be rejected, because pernicies laquei (after the Sept. διαφθορὰ παγίδος) notwithstanding Grotius, can no more stand for laqueus exitialis than the destruction of their net can mean: their destructive net. Since now to “hide nets” and “dig pits” are usual figures of hostile waylaying, the removal of ωׁ ?ηϊ from the first line to the second, proposed by Houbigant and best advocated by Hitzig and Hupfeld, is the more to be approved as the verb “dig” would otherwise lack its usual object. Psalms 35:8. Let destruction come upon him unawares.—It is uncertain whether ωׁ ?εֹ ?ΰָ ?δ means the disordered confusion of things or of tunes, in its origin and in this passage. Most interpreters take it in the former sense=fall, ruin, devastatio, and remind us of the parallels in Psalms 34:21; Psalms 36:12. Venema, Hitzig and Ewald take it in the latter sense as, roar, noise, the latter thinking particularly of a storm. Delitzsch takes Psalms 35:8 a in the former and Psalms 35:8 c in the latter meaning, which Calvin (cum tumultu = horrore) changes without authority from an objective event to a subjective experience. Kurtz combines both meanings in Psalms 35:8 a: crashing fall. The Syriac translates “in the pit” as if it had read ωּׁ ?ηη. But since it adds “which he dug,” we are to suppose rather a paraphrastic explanation than another reading. A like explanation is given by Seb. Schmidt, J. H. Mich., Stier, Hupf with the translation in vastationem (quam mihi paravit) in eandem incidat. Olshausen thinks of a marginal gloss which has come into the text. And the manner of expression of Psa 35:8 c is certainly striking in its relation to Psalms 35:8 a, yet it is not to be designated as a corruption, with any certainty.—The singular suffix=“him” does not necessarily designate a particular person, as, for example, Ahithophel, Shimei, Mephibosheth (Ruding.), nor properly the ideally wicked (Hengst.), but is used as an individual (Hupf.) for the class, and thus for every individual (Hitzig) of the enemies conceived as one body (Delitzsch).—The idea of sudden and unavoidable is expressed in Hebrew by the asyndetical, “he knows not” as Isaiah 47:11; Proverbs 5:6. Psalms 35:10. All my bones.—This does not mean the innermost being (Hengst.), but the body as the complement of the soul mentioned in Psalms 35:9 (Aben Ezra), at the same time it contains a prayer and hope that the Lord will preserve all his bones (Psalms 34:20), will keep him unharmed (Stier).—[Jehovah, who is like Thee.—Delitzsch: “This exclamation is from Exodus 15:11, it demands emphatic expression, it serves not for closer connection, but for rendering more decidedly prominent.”—C. A. B.] [Str IV. Psalms 35:11. Unjust witnesses rise up, they question me of what I am unconscious—This is a figure of persecution and especially slander, derived from the complaints and questionings of a criminal process (De Wette, Hupfeld). They demand of him the admission of things of which he is unconscious, and which are contrary to his course of conduct (Delitzsch). Ewald renders “cruel witnesses,” without sufficient reason, and is followed by Alexander, Perowne, et al. but the translation given above is that of De Wette, Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Moll, et al., and is better. Psalms 35:12. My soul is bereaved.—Perowne: “I am alone in the world. I, who have ever sought to help the friendless and comfort the afflicted, and who prayed so earnestly for others, am forsaken of all.”—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 35:13. And my prayer—into mine own bosom it returned.—The context shows, that this is not of the recompense of the intercession, whether in a sarcastic sense, comp. Psalms 35:12 (Hupf.), or as an optative (Sept., Jerome, Isaki, Flamin., Sachs). No more is it of its failure, since, on account of the ungodliness of those who were prayed for, it returned empty (Riehm, after an explanation proposed by Calvin). Usage does not allow us to think of a repeated or an ardent prayer from the heart, or for something lying upon the heart (Aben Ezra, Luther, Geier, et al.), or a silent prayer of the heart (Calvin); but it allows the expression to be understood with reference to the being bowed down, mentioned in the next verse, of a prayer flowing back into the bosom, because it was spoken with the head bowed down. Yet this does not need for an explanation, that the bowed posture of prayer should be brought into consideration (most recent interpreters), which is customary among the Mohamedans (Reland, de relig. Moham. p. 87), but is not mentioned among the Hebrews, and has no suitable parallel in 1 Kings 18:42. It is “the natural expression in the body, of the being bowed down in oneself in sorrow and pain” (Clauss).[Psalms 35:14. As a mourner for a mother, squalid I bowed down.—Alexander: “He not only mourned in their calamity, but with the deepest grief, as for a friend, a brother, or a parent, which terms are so arranged as to produce a beautiful and striking climax.—The verb in the first clause corresponds very nearly to the familiar English phrase went on, in the sense of lived or habitually acted.—The Hebrew word χֹ ?γֵ ?ψ means squalid, dirty, in allusion to the ancient oriental practice of neglecting the appearance, and even covering the dress and person with dust and ashes, as a token of extreme grief. The bowing down is also to be taken as a part of the same usage.”—C. A. B.] Str VI. Psalms 35:15. Smiting, and I know it not.—According to that which is supplied the latter clause may be taken = unawares, as Psalms 35:8, comp. Job 9:5; Jeremiah 14:18, unexpectedly (Stier, Hupf., Hitzig), or innocently, comp. ver 11b (most interpreters), or whom I do not know (Hengst., Delitzsch). Much more difficult is the preceding word πֵ ?λִ ?ιν, which is suspicious in form and obscure in sense. Yet it is not allowable on this account to change the word into πֵ ?λְ ?ψִ ?ιν=strangers in the sense of foreigners (Olsh.), so long as there is the least possibility of an explanation. The word is hardly a substantive, although it is thus taken by the Sept. and Vulg. and translated: “scourges;” and Hitzig, by means of the Arabic, formerly brought out the meaning of fools. Hitzig now changes the reading into λַ ?ξַּ ?ιִ ?ν=as water. The word inclines to the substantive, only as a participle from a root which means smiting. According to its form it might have a passive meaning (Job 30:8), thus: beaten. But the context shows that there can no more be a reference to the afflicted, in the sense of worn out (Hollδnd. and Berleberg. Bibel), than of smitten in spirit. For the latter would lead not to the idea of blindly raging, but either to that of the mad or disordered spirit, or that of simple fools, or weak in spirit, or to that of deeply troubled (Isaiah 16:7). We must accordingly think of the afflicted in the sense of outcasts (Kimchi, Calv., Grot.), or knaves (Mendelssohn), or men reduced in circumstances (Hengst.), vulgar men, of the dregs of the people (Delitzsch). But this meaning is artificial in its origin rather than proved from the language of the text. Still less can we with Luther translate limping, since the additional “on the feet,” which decides the meaning in 2 Samuel 4:4, is missing here, not to mention the fact that this reference, whether in scorn (Piscator, et al.), or as applied to the two-faced hypocrite (Luther’s gloss), is inapplicable here. On this account the word may perhaps be taken as active, notwithstanding its unusual form (Symmach., Jerome), unless we should change it into ξַ ?λּ ?ιν; yet it cannot be explained of smiting with the tongue, of pettifogging (Chald., Gesen., Stier), for this very specific addition made in Jeremiah 18:18, is not made here. We must stand by the idea of violent acts (Hupf). To this the χψς in the following line of the verse may be referred (Hengst., Hupf.), which has elsewhere the meaning of tearing open the mouth in scorn and laughter (Kimchi, Vatabl., Schmidt, et al.), or that of slander (Aben Ezra, Delitzsch), as a tearing down with words (Stier). Psalms 35:16. In the most wicked stammering of distorted things.—The fundamental meaning of ηָ ?πֵ ?σ is impure, defiled, hence in a religious reference, the profane, so that in the Syriac and Ζthiop. the corresponding word is likewise applied to the heathen and heretics (comp. Gesen. Thesaurus). The translation: hypocrites (ancient interpreters, after the Vulg. and the Rabbins) is therefore incorrect. The preposition αְּ expresses not communion with (Stier), but denotes the characteristic or the condition. The connection with what follows is such that we may either connect the superlative with the following genit partit. (Delitzsch, Stier, Bφttcher), or suppose independent designations, subordinate to one another (Hitzig). The former is to be preferred, because μַ ?ςֲ ?βֵ ?ι, which only occurs besides in Isaiah 28:11, and indeed of stammering of the lips with reference to the unintelligible language of the foreigner, is apparently a plural of a nom. abstr., not of an adjective. The sense leads not to speaking wit and scoffings, but to expressions which sound to the Psalmist as perverse, as foreign and unintelligible. It is not necessary here to think of a real foreigner, or heathen barbarians, with whom his enemies had confederated, or after whose example they acted (Hupfeld, with wicked stammering of gibberish). It designates very appropriately the furious speech of bitter enemies. That this is at the same time unjust, is expressed by the following obscure and disputed word, which according to the context is to be most properly derived from ςεβ in the meaning, gained through the Arabic, of crooked, distorted, but is not to be regarded as foreign, unintelligible language (Hupf.), or as the words of scorn (Hitzig), but as those of slander (Ewald). Thus all ancient translators have thought of a word like the previous one (Sept.), or related to it (Chald.) Symmach. has at once: ἐνὑποκρίσει, ῥήμασιπεπλασμένοις, Jerome: in simulations verborumfictorum. Similarly Kimchi. Isaki was the first to understand ςβָ ?δ=ξςεβ, as 1 Kings 17:13, of the flat bread of the Hebrews, which was baked in the ashes, and to refer the expression to the fawning flatterers, which as favorites of Saul, or in order to obtain food and drink from Saul, and to please him, made sport and witticisms respecting David. Such parasites would then be designated here as outcasts who mocked for bread (Hengst.), or as cake-mockers (De Wette, Delitzsch). At any rate this is better than the interpretation which regards these wicked persons as making mockery as indifferently or as willingly as they would eat a piece of bread or cake (Aben Ezra). But this whole explanation is very uncertain, because bread has this name only on account of its circular form, which has then given rise to the reference to prating around the table (Bφttcher), or to mockery in the circle = in turn (Kφster). [Str. VII. Psalms 35:17-18. For the meaning of how long, vid.Psalms 13:1.—From young lions my only one, or solitary one. Comp. Psalms 22:20-21. For the vows of thanksgiving comp. Psalms 22:22; Psalms 22:25.—C. A. B.] Str. VIII. [Psalms 35:19. Wink with the eye.—Hupfeld: “This is often in the Proverbs a gesture of agreement between confederates, and of cunning, as Proverbs 10:10, with α, Proverbs 6:13, for which likewise the verb ςφδ is used with ςιο, Proverbs 16:30=to close the eyes, and parallel with it, to press the lips together in the same sense.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 35:20. Against the quiet in the land.—The construction is like Isaiah 23:8, and the meaning is derived from Isa. 18:12 and Jeremiah 6:16, where the nom. abstr. can only have the sense of “quiet.” Thus it is very properly taken by Luther. after Syr. and Chald. The Rabbins on the other hand explain it as cleaving the earth=hiding-place, which is followed in part by Calvin in his translation super scissuras terrζ, or they understand the word of fat, rich, and take ςַ ?μ=with. Clauss translates: “for the stirring up of the land.” The attempts of the Roman Catholic interpreters with the words of the Vulgate, in iracundia terrζ loquentes dolos cogitabant, are very artificial. Now it is said to mean a wrath that has worn away (Allioli), then a wrath of a carnal-minded heart (Bellarmin), then wrath=pain and earth=men (Agellius), yes, even terrζ is taken as a dative and is made to mean “to the earth”=with itself (Calmet), then the wrath of the earth = common vulgar wrath (Schegg). Jerome has in rapina terrζ after Symmach. The other Greek translations differ from one another here. Even in the Sept. there is uncertainty. Whilst Cod. Alex. reads: ἐπ’ ὀργὴνγῆςλαλοῦντες, in the Cod. Vatic. there is. ἐπ’ ὀργῇ δόλουςδιελογίζοντο. The ancient Psalteries follow the latter reading: super iram dolose cogitabant.[Psalms 35:21. Comp. Psalms 22:7 for the first clause. Alexander: “The Hebrew interjection in the last clause (ηֶ ?ΰָ ?δ) seems to be a natural express on of joyful surprise. Their success was almost too great to be real, yet attested by their senses. The verse ends with a kind of aposiopesis: ‘our own eyes have seen’—what we could not have believed on the report of another, to wit, the gratification of our warmest wishes Vid. below, Psalms 35:25.”—C. A. B.] [Str. IX. Psalms 35:22-24. Thou hast seen.—Antithesis to Psalms 35:21, and referring back to Psalms 35:17.—Be not silent.—Comp. Psalms 28:1.—Be not far.—Comp. Psalms 22:11; Psalms 22:19; Psalms 38:21; Psalms 71:12.—Arouse Thyself and awake.—Comp. Psalms 7:6; Psalms 44:23.—C. A. B.] [Str. X. Ver 25. Aha, our desire—πτωׁ used by metonymy for desire, and is parallel with swallow up, and refers to the greediness of devouring and the desire to destroy. Comp. Psalms 17:9; Psalms 27:12. Psalms 35:26. Put on shame.—Hupfeld: “Variation of the previous clause. This is a usual figure of attributes as well as events. Comp. Psalms 104:1-2; Psalms 109:29; Psalms 132:18; Job 8:22.”—C. A. B.] Str. XI. Psalms 35:27. Great is Jehovah.—Hitzig connects the always [A. V. continually] with that which is said, whilst he, with Hupfeld, Delitzsch, et al., regard it as optative. Let Jehovah be great, or be magnified. [So A. V., and this is better, though the view of Hitzig is to be rejected.—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The prayer for Divine interposition for the defence and deliverance of the person and right of a servant of God, may be so closely connected with zeal for the cause and glory of God, that it cannot be stated with any certainty, what in the prayer is in the interest of the service, and what belongs to personal excitement. But it may be very easily seen that such a zeal, even in its utmost strength and its more particular form, has nothing in common with personal revenge, but the inflamed heart and importunity of language. For when the heart is not kindled in sinful passion, but in the fiery wrath of a holy love, it will disclose this internal heat likewise in fiery words; but the breath, which moves and directs this flame, is not the whirlwind of human rage, but the Spirit of God, who makes the servant of God an instrument of the righteousness of God, as well in punishing as in blessing. He, therefore, who would earnestly carry out the Divine will in the world, and who experiences pain, indignation and wrath on account of the opposition of the ungodly, with regard to its power and punishableness, as strongly and deeply as he feels the certainty of his own readiness to the will of God, will not forbear, under suitable circumstances, to implore the execution of the Divine judgment in the punishment of the ungodly, as well as in the deliverance of the innocent and the righteous. Comp. Exeget. and Crit. on Psalms 35:52. Prayers of this kind may in the life of a man like David appear as necessary, and be recognized as justifiable. For David was without doubt made, by Divine election and calling, a bearer of the historical revelation of redemption, was designated by the anointing ordered of God as the royal vessel and the historical type of the royal majesty of the Messiah, and was preserved and kept in this position and purpose by Divine guidance. His experience and his actions are thus in the closest and most personal relation with the history of the kingdom of God in Israel, so that his enemies appear as the enemies of God. Therefore David may in his prayers, in all earnestness appeal to his just cause and the good pleasure and interest of God in his person, may claim with confidence the righteousness of God, and reckon upon the shame and ruin of his enemies, with as much confidence as he is sure of his own deliverance and preservation, by faith in the Divine faithfulness and truth. He is from this point of view the type of the innocent, suffering, righteous servant of Jehovah, whilst from the other side, he is likewise a sinful man. Therefore he partly seeks his own salvation in the grace of the merciful God alone, partly he has to take good care, in his description of the unrighteousness, wickedness, and ungodliness of his enemies, and in appealing to the Divine righteousness, that he is not carried too far, in his mixing his own carnal nature therewith, and that he does not transgress the legal stand-point of the Old Testament. So much the more then let every man who is not in a similar historical position, calling, and situation, take care of calling down the Divine retributive justice. “The same zeal for the glory of God, which in the Old Testament regarded judgment and revenge on the despisers of God as necessary to atone for the crimen lζsζ majestatis, must in the New Testament, where the grace of God stands pre-eminent in the foreground of consciousness, think first whether there is not perhaps a door of grace still open for such wicked ones; and therefore the prayer for mercy must prevail over the prayer for just judgment” (Kurtz). 3. If a man can with a good conscience appeal to his own innocent, benevolent, loving behaviour towards his adversaries, as abundantly shown to them in former times, and yet in remembering this in times of suffering and persecution through the wickedness and unthankfulness of those to whom he had done good, is yet not misled to revengefulness of mind, or driven to deeds of retaliation, but gives the retributive judgment into the hands of God, he will be preserved in the strongest way from transgressing his privileges, and misusing his rights, by the firm view of the earnest and difficult duties; which are laid upon the servant of God with respect to the glory of God and the good of the congregation. He who does this, will not only oppose the false love of the world with true love, but will overcome the sinful hate of the world by holy wrath, and in both ways, help to break the power of the adversaries of God in the world. AND He who would have God for his helper against his enemies, must see to it that he himself has God for his friend, and that he serves Him properly in the congregation.—A servant of God has not only to work for the glory of God, but likewise to suffer, but by both he edifies the congregation.—The righteousness of God is a two-edged sword for the protection of the pious and the ruin of the ungodly.—Prayer is likewise a weapon. He who uses it should see to it that he carries it properly.—A man is not ruined by his enemies, but by his unrighteousness and his impenitence.—Good deeds are often rewarded in the world with ingratitude, but the payment does not fail.—Prayer for retributive judgment has its proper place, but does not suit every time, and is not becoming to everybody.—That armed enemies are opposed by an armed God, brings terror among the ungodly, fleeing to their own ruin, but consolation, help, and joy to the afflicted pious.—The end of the wicked is their ruin in their own nets, but they are driven by the angel of the Lord.—As the sorrows of the pious are undeserved, so the Divine judgment comes upon the ungodly unexpectedly.—As God delivers the entire man, so the entire man is to thank Him.—Wicked enemies, false witnesses, and unjust judges, can bring an innocent man into great danger and severe sorrow of heart; but God is not only our Avenger, but likewise the Deliverer of those who trust in Him.—What happens to thee in secret from the goodness of God, should be thankfully proclaimed in the congregation.—As the goodness of God towards us has no end, so the praise of God should never cease in the congregation.—Wilt thou learn to know thy heart, prove thy experiences, when thou perceivest that it fares badly with thine enemies? Starke: Since the enemies of a child of God are at the same time enemies of God, he may be comforted by the sure assistance, protection, and judgment of God.—An entire host of angels must protect the pious, a single one, however, is used to ruin an entire troop of the ungodly.—The honor of God does not permit that He should not avenge the innocent on those who have slandered them.—A pious man lives, as it were, among robbers, who desire to rob his soul, but he relies in comfort on the Divine promise to be his deliverer.—A carnal mind makes men wicked hypocrites and enemies of God.—Cruel men carry in human form the character of wild beasts, and show themselves to be such by their works.—If God looks long upon the enemies, He does it, not that He has pleasure in our persecution, but He has pleasure in our patience.—God’s presence, the testimony of a good conscience and confident trust in God can give sufficient and strong consolation in all persecutions.—The greatest power of faith consists in properly appropriating and applying to one’s self the word: my God.—The best description of believers is that they have all their delight in the righteousness of Jesus.—The final end of our redemption consists not in good days and pleasure, but in spreading abroad the glory and majesty of God in the whole world. Osiander: The praise of the grace and righteousness of God will remain and endure till the day of judgment. For the Gospel will never be entirely quenched in the Church of God, although it shines more dimly at times, and then again more brightly.—Selnekker: The world is ungrateful, but generally rewards good finally with evil. Accept it and fear God. The disciple is not to be better than his master. We do not crave anything better of the world, it remains as it is.—Menzel: God is patient with the sighs of the afflicted Christian.—Renschel: The fruit of sin is shame and disgrace before God and men.—God’s is the vengeance.—Frisch: The armor of God is protection to the pious, defiance to the ungodly.—On earth the cross is regarded as a disgrace, but before God and in heaven it is all honor and glory. Our faith and hope see this, and patience quietly waits the issue.—Arndt: The life of an ungodly man is a constant combat; God has a defence and weapons with which to protect us.—The comfort of the persecuted is the presence of God, the cause of God, the righteousness of God.—Francke: Lord, who is like Thee? This should always be the field-badge of spiritual knighthood.—Tholuck: Whilst thousands who make these prayers care for nothing more than assistance, David in the Spirit is delighted in the moment when all his bones being pervaded with thankfulness, he will give the glory to God, and confess that no other help can be compared with His help.—Stiller: God has no pleasure in the wickedness of men, but He often makes use of such briars in order to train and prove His children.—Diedrich: He who communes with God is likewise true at heart, and makes all the troubles of his neighbors his own, although he cannot himself be comforted by their love in return. [Matth. Henry: It will be a comfort to us, when men do us wrong, if our consciences can witness for us that we have never done them any.—If God be our friend, no matter who is our enemy.—We shall not lose by the good offices we have done to any, how ungrateful soever they are, for our rejoicing will be this, the testimony of our conscience.—Though the people of God are and study to be a quiet people, yet it has been the common practice of their enemies to devise deceitful matters against them.—Barnes: When we are right in our own cause we may ask a just God to interpose and determine between us and our enemies according to His own nature. As between ourselves and our fellow-men we may bring our cause with this plea before a righteous God; as between ourselves and God, we can make no appeal to His justice, but our only hope is in His mercy.—Spurgeon. What a glorious idea is this of Jehovah blocking the way of persecutors, holding them at the pike’s end, and giving time for the hunted saint to elude pursuit.—One word from the Lord quiets all our fears.—Prayer heard should always suggest praise. It were well if we were more demonstrative in our holy rejoicings. We rob God by suppressing grateful emotions.—God is the champion, the true Knight-errant of all oppressed ones.—Prayer is never lost; if it bless not those for whom intercession is made, it shall bless the intercessor. Clouds do not always descend in showers upon the same spot from which the vapors ascended, but they come down somewhere; and even so do supplications in some place or other yield their showers of mercy.—Praise—personal praise, public praise, perpetual praise—should be the daily revenue of the King of heaven.—To cause hatred is the mark of the wicked, to suffer it causelessly is the lot of the righteous.—Malice has but one eye; it is blind to all virtue in its enemy. Eyes can generally see what hearts wish.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [It is better to translate by strive which retains the original meaning and yet may likewise refer to warlike strife.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “An amplification of the figure occurring already in the Pentateuch where God is spoken of as a man of war, Exodus 15:3; Deuteronomy 32:41. The bold anthropomorphic working out of the figure is, however, remarkable. It shows the earnest desire in the Poet’s mind to realize the fact that God not only taught his fingers to fight, but mixed in the battle, fighting as it were by his side and assuring him of victory.”—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch refers to the real bereavement of David in the time of his persecution by Saul. His parents had been obliged to flee to Moab. Michal had been torn from him, Jonathan withdrawn, all those at the court of Saul, who had previously sought his favor and friendship as the favorite of the king, were now his enemies.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “The prayer I offered for them is a prayer I might have offered for myself. So true a prayer was it, so full of love, that I could wish nothing more than that the blessings I asked for them should be vouchsafed to me. This agrees with what follows, ‘As though for my friend or my brother,’ etc.“—C. A. B.] [Riehm refers to Matthew 10:13; Luke 10:6; and refers to the custom of carrying valuables in the bosom (likewise of taking to the bosom what is returned to one).—C. A. B.] [This does not seem to give a very clear sense. The context is in favor of heartfelt prayer. And though usage does not allow a direct reference to repeated prayer or praying from the heart, yet the return of the prayer to the bosom may very well be in order to remain there in the bosom as the abiding possession of the soul. The figure of the bosom as the place for the valuable and beloved thing is in favor of this. (Psalms 89:50; Numbers 11:12; Isaiah 40:11). Thus is prefer the explanation of Aben Ezra, Luther, Calvin, et al.—C. A. B.] Psalms 36 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD1         The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, That there is no fear of God before his eyes. 2    For he flattereth himself in his own eyes. Until his iniquity be found to be hateful. 3    The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: He hath left off to be wise, and to do good. 4    He deviseth mischief upon his bed; He setteth himself in a way that is not good; He abhorreth not evil. 5    Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; And thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. 6    Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. 7    How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8    They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. 9    For with thee is the fountain of life: In thy light shall we see light. 10    O continue thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee, And thy righteousness to the upright in heart. 11    Let not the foot of pride come against me, And let not the hand of the wicked remove me. 12    There are the workers of iniquity fallen: They are cast down, and shall not be able to rise. AND Its Contents and Title. Respecting the designation of David as servant of Jehovah vid.Psalms 18. By this reference to the position of the speaker as well towards God as the congregation, the reader’s attention is directly called to the meaning of this song as one to be well pondered. It is certainly not a Psalm of lamentation (De Wette), but a didactic Psalm (Luther). First there is a striking description of the wicked man, in which all moral relations and regulations have been perverted into their opposites (Psalms 36:1-4): then follows in the tone of a hymn (Psalms 36:5-9) the praise of the immeasurable grace, faithfulness and righteousness of God; and the Psalm concludes with a prayer (Psalms 36:10-11), for further exhibitions of these attributes towards all upright servants of God and towards the Psalmist with a reference to the ruin of the wicked (Psalms 36:12). It is uncertain whether the preterites in this closing clause refer to historical facts which have recently transpired (Hitzig), or are to be taken as prophetical (most interpreters). In favor of the latter view is the absence of any other historical references. The house of God (Psalms 36:8) certainly is not used figuratively in order to designate God as a father of a family (De Wette), but refers to the places of worship, yet without giving any reason to suppose that the author was a priest (Paulus). It is moreover entirely unnecessary to think of the temple of Solomon and descend to the period immediately before the exile (Ewald, Olsh., Hitzig). The conjecture of those who put the origin of this Psalm in the period in which Saul still pretended to be the friend of David (Amyrald, et al.), is likewise groundless. We have before us in this and similar Psalms, “reflections from the circumstances of the time and not from particular events” (Delitzsch). This Psalm has its present position in the order of Psalms from the use of “servant of Jehovah” comp. Psalms 35:27, the rare word dachah Psalms 36:12, comp. Psalms 35:5, and many correspondences with Psalms 37. Str. I. Psalms 36:1. The wicked (hath) a prompting of ungodliness within his heart.—All attempts to retain the tex. recept.μִ ?αִּ ?ι (my heart) have hitherto failed. For the turn which has been given to the clause by Gesen., De Wette, Stier, Von Hofm., after Symmach., and Luther, in taking the first line as a kind of title as an announcement of the contents, although only of the next verse (=A saying concerning the wickedness of the wicked is in my heart), is inadmissible, because on the one side there follows, not a saying respecting wickedness, but a description of it, on the other side usage does not admit of connecting πְ ?ΰֻ ?ν (stat. const. of the part. pass. of πָ ?ΰεּ ?ν = inspiratum, oraculum) with a gen. obj. The following genitive always designates the person which either imparts the prompting, or utters it as a prophet (Numbers 24:3), or as an inspired poet (2 Samuel 23:1; Proverbs 30:1). That it is entirely different with ξַ ?ωָּׂ ?ΰ makes no difference. If this is admitted, then the attempt might be made to regard the wicked man himself as speaking, as he in ironical imitation of the well-known tone of the prophet, sounds forth the “Divine word of wickedness to the wicked man.” If then, in order to get the contents of this word, the words “in the interior of my heart” are connected with the following line (Venema), there arises a clause, whose absurdity can be removed only by inadmissible explanations. If this is not done (Hengst.), the following details do not agree with the expectations awakened by such an announcement; and the thought, very proper in itself, that the wicked listen to the promptings of sin as Divine utterances, would be clothed in such an obscure and misleading form, that it could not be understood at all without explanation, as then even Hengst. can not but insert for this purpose the personal pronoun in his translation, “to me the wicked man.” All these difficulties however are set aside by the simple change of μִ ?αִּ ?ι into μִ ?αּ ?εֹ, which is likewise in the ancient versions, and even in some manuscripts. The personification of sin is not strange either to the Old Testament or the New Testament (Genesis 4:7; Romans 7.); and the unusual idea of an inspiring power is meditated by the wicked spirit which takes the place of the Spirit of God, 1 Kings 22:21 sq. and by the lying spirit which inspired the false prophets, Isaiah 9:14; Jeremiah 23; Micah 2:11 (Hupfeld. Hitzig. Delitzsch, now likewise Bφttcher). There is therefore no occasion for the conjecture πָ ?ςֵ ?ν in order to get the sense: Vice is pleasant (Diestel). And the proposition to transpose the πΰν to the proper title after, “by David” (Maurer, formerly likewise Bφttcher in part, Tholuck, G. Baur, Thenius), does not agree with the grammatical construction and the place of the word in the syntax, which elsewhere prevail. The Vulgate has literally after the Sept. dixit injustus ut delinquat in semet ipso, which is explained by Schegg: The ungodly speaks to himself, persuades himself to sin. Psalms 36:2. For he flattereth himself in his eyes with reference to the finding of his guilt,—literally he has made smooth towards himself. The ΰֵ ?μָ ?ιε is reflexive, as Genesis 8:9; 1 Samuel 14:52. For the subject is not ungodliness (the Rabbins, Olsh., Camph., Delitzsch), but the wicked man, because the entire section speaks of him and the translation “towards him” would lead to a flattery towards God (most ancient versions, Kφster, Maurer, Tholuck), which explanation again would give an entirely different meaning to the clause from that allowed by the following words. For “finding of sin” never denotes the theoretical knowledge of it. Consequently the thought cannot be here, that the wicked man merely lied to God, that he possessed knowledge and hatred of his sins, and that he imagined that he could deceive God. No more does that expression denote the accomplishment of sin, as if the wicked man esteemed himself highly on account of his sins and his hatred of God and Divine things (Kimchi, Geier, J. H. Mich., Kφster, Stier) in his flattering imagination against God and in contrast with his guilty fear of God (Rosenm.). It designates only the finding of sin by the avenger, who pursues and reaches it with the design of punishing it, Genesis 44:16; Hosea 12:9; comp. 1 Samuel 29:3-6; Psalms 17:3. This design of punishing cannot be lost sight of. Accordingly, although the original meaning may be given by assequi, yet the interpretation, that ungodliness directs flattering words to the wicked man in his eyes ( = well pleasing to him) in order to accomplish his guilt, that is in order to obtain, that he may become guilty and hate God and man instead of loving (Delitzsch), is indeed ingenious but not entirely in harmony with usage, according to which the discovery, that is the disclosing of the guilt of another’s sin, has the design of punishment, which in this interpretation disappears entirely behind that of being guilty. For it cannot be said that it is taught here, that personified ungodliness has in view, with its suggestions, the attainment of the purpose, that the wicked man shall constantly become more guilty in order that he may more certainly meet his punishment. Still less can any one be authorized to make Elohim the subject of the entire clause [Perowne]. For first, the interpretation “God has made it smooth, acted softly towards him in his eyes, that is according to his fancy,” gives indeed a good sense and is correct according to the language; but it makes the following clause still more difficult of comprehension. For the translation “to find the corrupt things of the unrighteous so that he must hate them” (find worthy of hatred) (Hofm.), corresponds neither with usage nor the context. And the proposition to put ver 2b in a parenthesis as an explanation of the fancy (Hupf.), is as much a desperate expedient as the ingenious conjecture of Hupfeld, that perhaps the ηγμ (he has left off), which precedes the two infinitives with μ in the following verse, has here fallen away. Under these circumstances it is most advisable to find the thought expressed, that the wicked man flatters himself with the foolish imagination that he will escape punishment. That it is an imagination or fancy is expressed by the words “in his eyes.” A corresponding expression in the previous line makes it necessary to think of the eyes of the wicked, not those of God, in connection with which interpretation many more ancient interpreters thought of a merely external service, works lying before the eyes, which the wicked man performed hypocritically, without internal reverence of God. But such an interpretation, not to speak of other objections, is not at all suitable to the mention of the eyes of God, which designate above all His Omniscience and Infallibility. Psalms 36:2 b refers (Hengst.) to the sphere, in which this self-deception of the audacious villain moves (comp. Deuteronomy 29:18; Isaiah 28:15). Yet it must be conceded, that even this interpretation is not free from the objection that the expression is yet somewhat hard, forced and unusual, especially when it is compared with the other verses, which with all their sublimity and meaning, yet have a clear and flowing style. It is very natural therefore to think of a corruption of the text (Olsh., Hupf.). But although only a slight change in the text would be necessary in order to the ingenious conjecture mentioned above, of a verb which has been omitted (Hupf.), or to gain the sense; it flatters him in his eyes (it tickles his pride), to discover missteps in others and to make them suffer for them (Thenius), these proposals have partly objections in themselves, partly they lead to the unbounded field of mere conjecture. The ancient translators already differed, partly from the Hebrew text, partly from one another, and rendered it in a way which is in part unintelligible. The interpretation of Symmachus has been renewed in part by Clauss, in the interpretation: he acts slippery towards God in his eyes, in order to slip away from the finding out of his misdeed. Here the “making smooth” is changed into a meaning which cannot be proved for the word in question. On the other hand it might be taken in the sense of “coquetting towards God,” and λι be used in the sense of ἐάν, so that Psalms 36:3, forms the conclusion. (Hitzig). But if then this coquetting is taken as the hypocritical confession, he has found=become sensible of his sin and hates it, this meaning cannot be regarded as proved by the remark, that where as here the guilty man himself finds the guilt, ξφΰ means knowing, becoming sensible of what was previously obscure or uncertain. The passages cited in favor of this, Eccl. 7:29; 24:27; Job 32:13, have not this connection of “finding” with “sin” on which all depends. Moreover the entire description is not that of the sanctimonious hypocrite, but the real villain (Sachs) who comforts himself by his experience in sinning (Hengst.).—The impersonal interpretation: “it flatters him” (Ewald, Thenius) is likewise contrary to the usual use of the verb. Bφttcher maintains (Neue exeget. krit. Ζhrenlese Nr. 1092) his previous (Theol. Stud, und Krit. 1850. § 609) interpretation: for he flattereth himself, when he directs his eyes upon himself; to discover his guilt must be odious to him.[Str. II. Psalms 36:3-4. Perowne: “Psalms 36:1-4 describe generally the character of the ungodly: first the sin of his heart (Psalms 36:1-2); then the sin of his lips (Psalms 36:3); lastly the sin of his hands, the evil schemes which he devises and executes (Psalms 36:4). As there is a climax in the whole description of the evil man, so especially is there a progress from bad to worse in Psalms 36:3-4. (1) He hath left off to do good; (2) on his bed he meditates evil (Psalms 4:4; Micah 2:1); (3) he resolutely sets himself to do evil; (4) his very conscience is hardened, so that he does evil without repugnance or misgiving”—C. A. B.] Str. III. [Psalms 36:5.Thy mercy Jehovah (reacheth) to the heavens; Thy faithfulness unto the skies.—Most interpreters regard α in the first clause as equivalent to ςַ ?γ and interpret it by supplying as in the second clause “reacheth.” In favor of this is the parallel passage, Psalms 57:11, comp. Psalms 71:19; Psalms 103:11; Job 11:8; Job 22:12; Job 35:5. Hengstenberg refers to the pillar of cloud and of fire reaching from earth to heaven and yet prefers the rendering in the heavens which includes the reaching to the heavens. The idea of the passage is to measure the mercy and faithfulness of God as in the passages cited above, and therefore it is better to regard the clauses as parallel as in Psalms 57:11. The mercy of God is heaven-high. In the second clause ωְׁ ?ηָ ?χִ ?ιν is the vault of heaven, the expanse beaten out like fine dust, best rendered in English by the sky, or plural skies.—C. A. B.] Psalms 36:6. Mountains of God.—These are not as it were the highest mountains, because all that is best in nature or of its kind is distinguished by the addition of the words, “of God” (the Rabbins, Calvin, Geier, J. H. Mich. et al.). This supposition does not accord with the sharp distinction between the natural and the Divine, which prevails in the Biblical view of the world. This designation is used not only where there is an emphatic reference to that which has been produced by God (Hupf.), but likewise that which testifies to the glory of God (His power, goodness, and holiness) and serves to reveal Him. Thus the prophets are frequently called men of God, and Mount Sinai and Zion, mountains of God; so likewise Paradise is called the garden of God, Genesis 13:10, comp. Psalms 2:8, and the rain in contrast to artificial irrigation is called the brook of God, Psalms 65:9; and the cedars of Lebanon are called cedars of God, Psalms 80:10; and trees of God, Psalms 104:16, not only because He planted them as the aloes (Numbers 24:6), but because they testify to His creative power, and their consideration gives occasion to worship Him. The tert. compar. in the comparison of righteousness with the mountains of God is therefore, their firmness and unmoveableness (Luther and most interpreters], whether with or without the subordinate idea of the safety of those who seek refuge in them (Stier), rather than their greatness and height (Hengst., Hupf.).—Thy judgments a great flood.—The effects of righteousness, the judgments of God are directly compared with the great flood, not with reference to their depth as contrasted with the height of the mountains (Hupf.), or on account of their unfathomableness and unsearchableness (Aben Ezra Geier, Rosenm., Stier, Delitzsch), or with respect to their unmeasurableness (Hengst.) and comprehensive extent (Calvin), but with reference to their power which none can escape and the certainty with which they reach their ends. For the expression ϊηενψαδ occurs only in Genesis 7:11, and therefore points, not to the unfathomable depth or the unmeasurable ocean, but to the flood which overflows all things, which pours over the world judging and delivering according to God’s will. Accordingly the allusion to the deliverance of the animal kingdom with Noah’s family (Venema, Hengst.) in the following clause is not a strange historical reference mixed with the general clause (Hupf.), although it is correct, that the cattle, that is, the animal kingdom, in their needs appear frequently as an object of Divine care and mercy in connection with men. It is likewise to be noticed, that the reference is not directly historical; but is merely an allusion to that historical event, in which the judgments of God actually presented themselves as a great flood (Psalms 29:10). So much the easier is the idea of Divine judgments or indeed of severe afflictions in general, from which God delivers the pious, explained under the figure of great overflowings, (Psalms 32:6), which yet would have otherwise been far from the mind of the Hebrew owing to the physical character of his land.—There is not the least reference in this Psalm to a victorious war in which men and beasts were delivered from the danger incurred by the inroad of heathen nations (Hitzig), which had broken treaties (Habakkuk 2:17; Habakkuk 3:17). Psalms 36:7. Shadow of Thy wings.—It follows from Psalms 61:4, that the shelter under the shadow of the wings of God is connected with dwelling in the tent. It is more natural here to think not of the cherubim but of the hen or the eagle, as Deuteronomy 32:11; Psalms 17:8; Psalms 57:1; Psalms 63:7; Psalms 91:4; Psalms 91:2. Psalms 36:8. Fatness of Thy house.—This is not the gift of the paternal goodness of God abundantly bestowed in the world (De Wette), but first of all the sacrificial meals (Isaiah 43:24; Jeremiah 31:14), and if we may understand by them thank offerings and peace offerings, the reference is to reconciliation with God, and not to victory over earthly enemies (Psalms 65:4). Since however there is no reference to the use of sacrifices as such, but these serve as figurative designations of the enjoyment which those have, who are placed near to God in communion with Him, as Jeremiah 31:14, we may likewise, yet always only on this foundation, think of “rich goods” (Luther) in a wider sense, the spiritual joy and blessings of the entire sphere of the Divine grace.—Stream of Thy pleasures.—In this connection the Hebrew word for pleasures reminds us of Paradise (Eden), but the stream (literally brook) is merely the usual figure of fulness and of blessing. (Hupf.). Further references to the common source of the four arms of that stream or to the stream going forth from Eden to water the garden Genesis 2:10 (Hengst., Delitzsch), are not in the text. The figure of receiving drink from a flowing water originates from the idea, that God is the fountain of life and light (Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13; Proverbs 16:22). Psalms 36:9. For with Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light we see light.—The frequent connection of life and light (Ps. 56:14; Job 3:20; Proverbs 16:15) and the entire context of the present passage show, that here the reference is not to a knowledge of religious truth in the light of revelation (most interpreters), but to an experience which joyously shines through men, when they retain the light of grace (Psalms 4:6; Psalms 44:3), the light of life proceeding from the face of God; and with this the light of success and of salvation, which threatened to be put out, rises again. Comp. Bφttcher de inferis § 96. [Str. IV. Psalms 36:10. Loving-kindness.—Perowne: “For the third time he dwells on this attribute of God, and again associates it as in Psalms 36:5-6, with the “righteousness” of God,—loving-kindness (or mercy) and righteousness.” Psalms 36:11. Neither let the hand of the wicked drive me away.—Hupfeld: “Foot and hand are the instruments and figures of violence: the former of treading under foot, of crushing; the latter of thrusting away, hunting away, driving away, namely from the possession of land, thus of banishment.”—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 36:12. There have the evildoers fallen.—Some interpret the preterites in this verse as future and translate, then will fall: this is to be entirely rejected. ωׁ ?ν does not refer to time, but to place=there; and there is no more reference to a promise than to a prayer (Luther). The thought is most natural, that David here refers to a well known historical example (Venema, Clericus, Olsh., Hitzig, Hupf.) as Psalms 14:5, in order to instruct and to comfort, or indeed to strengthen the confidence in the certainty of the Divine judgment. This would be expressed by translating them as perfects (Sept., Chald., Jerome). Yet it is admissible to use the present (Syr., Symmach.) and to take the preterite as prophetic (Calvin, Hengst., Delitzsch), because in the prophetic view that which is mentioned previously as sure, may be treated as something that has already happened. AND ETHICAL1. If a man hardens himself in his sins by impenitence, so that he becomes a wanton and a villain, it goes so far with him, that the entire interior of his heart is taken possession of by wickedness, and a total perversion of true relations occurs. The place of the voice of God in the conscience is taken by wickedness with its suggestions, as the supernatural power determining the man in his religious and moral relations, and it blinds him to such an extent that God has for him “no objectivity inspiring respect” (Delitzsch); and no thought at all of Divine punishment, especially with reference to himself, comes into his conceited soul, but rather defiance of God’s variance with him is so closely connected with the flattering imaginations of his own security from punishment that he not only speaks wickedly, and devises mischief, but he consciously has departed from rational and good actions, and in bold opposition to the Divine commands, with fearful resoluteness, has taken his position in the way which is not good, because he has killed at once all love to the good with a dead conscience and recognises no longer the blamableness of evil.2. But if the wicked man is no longer to be terrified by Divine judgments and can be prevented by terror from no wicked act, yet the pious man is not utterly lost. God provides still that the trees should not grow into the heavens. Thither the grace of the Eternal extends, as it comes from thence and the acts of His faithfulness correspond with it. Therefore as the heavens cannot be stormed by the ungodly, no more can they make Him inaccessible to the pious, or prevent the coming of the kingdom of heaven. And still less can they cast down the Divine ordinances in the world. The righteousness of God is as inviolable as the mountains established by Him and His judgments are executed as inevitably as the great flood. But the same God who takes away the wicked in His time, shows Himself to be the Saviour in such a comprehensive sense, that even the irrational beasts, how much more men, stand under His care and Providence. 3. But if the goodness of God is such a precious possession, worth more than all the treasures of the world, the members of the congregation particularly have reason to celebrate it; for although they are indeed poor children of Adam, yet they are not only objects of His care, as all creatures, but they have access to the good things, blessings and joys of His house. The God, who takes His children everywhere with paternal love into the truest protection, and spreads wings over them, the shadow of which protects them against the heat of affliction, here takes His people of priests to His table and provides them with all that they need, not only according to their necessities, but richly and beyond all their prayer and understanding. For in communion with God alone is the true and inexhaustible fountain of life and light. God has not only both in Himself alone in inseparable union, but He alone is at the same time life and light in the highest sense and in everlasting perfection; and from free grace He imparts both in holy interchange in the most blissful perfection (John 1:4). 4. He, therefore who desires that the joyful light of everlasting redemption, and a blissful life should rise for him and never be put out, and still further craves that he may be filled more and more with this life and its light, and that it may shine through him to such an extent that he may be glorified by it, must take and keep such a position, that the gracious light of the Divine countenance may shine upon him and the work of grace in imparting life to him from God may be a constant one. The believer may and must pray constantly for the continuance of this work of grace. For it is certain that to be estranged from God is like the darkness of death, and includes loss of salvation and ruin of life. But he who knows God, doubts not of the readiness of God to continue to extend His grace; and he who is of upright heart and just mind, relies upon the work of the Divine righteousness. He may reckon upon it with the confidence of faith, that proud wicked men are yet not supreme and cannot crush him or drive him from the kingdom, house, and inheritance given him by God. But the righteous man with prophetic glance sees them already as lost people, and beholds in spirit their irreparable ruin. They are changed into a “field of corpses without the hope of resurrection” (Delitzsch) Isaiah 26:14. AND The defiance of the ungodly: 1) whence it originates; 2) in what it asserts itself; 3) how it ends.—God’s judgments may be denied but not avoided; it is well for those who have no reason to fear them.—Ungodliness a) in its power, b) in its enormity, c) in its weakness.—What the righteous have to expect from the ungodly and what they have to expect from God.—He who would not fear the defiance of the ungodly must be able a) to conceal himself in the love of God; b) to trust in God’s faithfulness; c) to reckon upon God’s righteousness.—The ungodly may threaten to perplex and overturn the whole world by their doings, but he who knows God, traces in the whole world the testimonies of the Divine government.—The wicked are ruined forever on account of their wickedness, but the pious have in God an inexhaustible fountain of life, whose light never expires.—The refreshments in the house and at the table of God help the pious to overcome all need and anguish in the world.—The wicked doings of the ungodly and the blessed gracious condition of the pious. Starke: Since believers are servants of God on account of their common and their special calling, they should be the more cheerful and willing to faithfully fulfil their duties; the reward of grace will surely follow.—The purer and more tender the love to God and His honor, the more sensitive the pain where they must see and hear that which is opposed to this.—When men are first brought by the devil to such a state that they put away from them the fear of God; there is no blasphemy too great but that they should be drawn into it.—The two employments which worldlings have learned are to do evil, and speak evil and scorn those who do good.—No sin is too horrid for a godless mind, that he should abhor it—it is all sport to him.—Many men are so hardened, that, although others give them good advice, yet they from evil custom reject the best and choose the worst. We should oppose the wrath of Satan and the enmity of the world with the goodness of God, just as we use God’s truth against Satan’s lies.—Wherever we may be, we are yet surrounded by the goodness of God, as the heavens encompass us.—There is nothing more precious and valuable to the Christian in heaven or on earth, than the goodness and grace of God, whence all his salvation in time and eternity springs.—True Christianity is not a disagreeable thing, but has more joy in it, than can be found in the whole world, although this joy is concealed from the eyes of the world.—God can lift up again the poor man who has been cast down to the ground by the proud man; but who can help that man up again, whom God has cast down into the abyss?—If we are in the way of life, the hand of God must keep us there, and for this, constant prayer is necessary. Osiander: As we should pray for our adversaries, as long as there is any hope that they may be brought to repentance, so likewise we may pray against them when they give good evidence that they are entirely and utterly hardened and will never come to repentance and conversion; we should yet take care lest we judge too rashly and too soon and not regard our own revengeful feelings as a holy zeal.—Schnepf: The mercy of God is greater than all his works:—Menzel: When God’s word is let go, there is no fear of God left.—Dauderstadt: Not only the ungodly have falls, but likewise the pious; but the latter arise again, the former not.—Bake: When a man leaves off to fear God; no sin is too great for him.—Dietelmair: If God is the fountain whence all our joy springs, nothing can prevent our joy.—Arndt: In all troubles however high or deep or broad or long they may be, God’s grace and truth are still greater and higher.—Tholuck: How gracious must the wing of Divine care be since it includes not only men but even irrational beasts in its broad shadow.—Since all good things which men enjoy come from God, the children of God may in fact be sure that they will not be the last to receive them when they are distributed.—No one has ever found God except through God.—Guenther: When wickedness seems to prevail everywhere, it is only appearance. God’s love and righteousness will rule forever.—Diedrich: Those are the true servants of God, to whom God gives the experience of the mysteries of His kingdom, that they may be able to impart them to others.—He who has known his treasure in God, has no fear of ever losing it.—Taube: The fourfold condition and advance of sin: 1) servitude to sin, 2) security in sin, 3) lying and hypocrisy, 4) hardness and obduracy of heart. [Matth. Henry: Omissions make way for commissions. When men leave off doing good, leave off praying, leave off their attendance on God’s ordinances, and their duty to Him, the devil easily makes them his agents, his instruments to draw those that will be drawn into sin, and those that will not, to draw them into trouble.—If sinners did not steel their hearts, and brazen their faces with obstinacy and impudence, they could not go on in their evil ways, in such a direct opposition to all that is just and good.—If God’s mercies were not in the heavens, that is, infinitely above the mercies of any creature, He would long ere this have drowned the world again.—Let us not wonder that God gives food to bad men, for He feeds the brute creatures; and let us not fear but that He will provide well for good men.—A gracious soul, though still desiring more of God, never desires more than God.—The pleasures of sense are stinking puddle water; those of faith are pure and pleasant, clear as crystal, Revelation 22:1.—Barnes: All away from God is dark; all near Him is light. If therefore we desire light on the subjects which pertain to our salvation, it must be sought by a direct and near approach to Him; and the more we can lose ourselves in the splendors of His throne, the more we shall understand of truth.—Faith often converts the promises into reality; and in the bright anticipations and the certain hopes of heaven sings and rejoices as if it were already in our possession,—anticipating only by a few short days, weeks, or years, what will certainly be ours.—Spurgeon: He hath the devil for his bed-fellow who lies abed and schemes how to sin.—Faith derives both light and life from God, and hence she neither dies nor darkens.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [It is better to regard personified ungodliness as the subject of this clause, yet not with the explanation of Delitzsch with regard to the finding, but combined rather with the author’s view of the force of ‎ ?μ and ξφΰ. The translation would then be: He (ungodliness suggesting to him and prompting him) flatters him in his eyes with reference to finding his guilt, to hating (it). That is, ungodliness flatters him that his guilt will not be detected, hated and visited upon him.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “The transition from this description of the wicked to the praise of God’s goodness and faithfulness, is certainly very abrupt; and we can feel no surprise that Hupfeld should be inclined to doubt an original connection between the two portions of the Psalm. Yet may we not account for the abruptness by a very natural recoil of feeling? No good man can ever delight to portray the workings of a heart al enated from God. If the evil he sees around him force him for a time to trace it to its hidden source or watch its outward development, with the more joy and thankfulness will he find refuge (see Psalms 36:7), from its hideous shadow in the faithfulness and goodness of God.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 37 A Psalm of David1         Fret not thyself because of evil doers, Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 2    For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb. 3    Trust in the Lord, and do good; So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4    Delight thyself also in the Lord;And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5    Commit thy way unto the Lord;Trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 6    And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, And thy judgment as the noon-day. 7    Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 8    Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. 9    For evil doers shall be cut off: But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. 10    For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.11    But the meek shall inherit the earth; And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. 12    The wicked plotteth against the just, And gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 13    The Lord shall laugh at him: For he seeth that his day is coming. 14    The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, And to slay such as be of upright conversation. 15    Their sword shall enter into their own heart, And their bows shall be broken. 16    A little that a righteous man hath is better Than the riches of many wicked. 17    For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: But the Lord upholdeth the righteous. 18    The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: And their inheritance shall be for ever. 19    They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. 20    But the wicked shall perish, And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: They shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away. 21    The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: But the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth. 22    For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; And they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. 23    The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:And he delighteth in his way. 24    Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. 25    I have been young, and now am old; Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken. Nor his seed begging bread. 26    He is ever merciful, and lendeth; And his seed is blessed. 27    Depart from evil, and do good; And dwell for evermore. 28    For the Lord loveth judgment, And forsaketh not his saints; They are preserved for ever: But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. 29    The righteous shall inherit the land, And dwell therein for ever. 30    The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, And his tongue talketh of judgment. 31    The law of his God is in his heart; None of his steps shall slide. 32    The wicked watcheth the righteous, And seeketh to slay him. 33    The Lord will not leave him in his hand, Nor condemn him when he is judged. 34    Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.35    I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a green bay tree. 36    Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. 37    Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: For the end of that man is peace. 38    But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: The end of the wicked shall be cut off. 39    But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord:He is their strength in the time of trouble. 40    And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, Because they trust in him. AND Its Contents and Composition.—We certainly cannot call this Psalm a Theodicy, and hardly a didactic Psalm. For it does not, as it were, allay doubts of God’s righteous government (De Wette), which are solved in Psalms 49, and still more in Psalms 73 but it exhorts not to yield to feelings of ill humor excited by the apparent prosperity of the ungodly; but rather to trust in the protection of God, the righteous Judge, and to persevere in doing good, with the assurance of the final and often very sudden ruin of the wicked, and the sure deliverance and manifold blessings of the pious. And these exhortations are not developed in a didactic form, or elaborately proved, but they are expressed in a form corresponding with that of Proverbs, in rounded clauses easily remembered, which treat of the same thoughts in very different and often agreeable figures, and turns of expression; and they are so connected by an alphabetical arrangement, that “they hang together not unlike many precious stones or pearls, which are strung on one string in one necklace” (Amyrald). Two verses of two lines are as a rule allotted to each letter, and indeed so that the parts of the tetrastich are connected with one another in sense. Yet this Psalm likewise, as the previous alphabetical Psalms (Psalms 9, 25, 34), has many deviations from the rule, which are hardly to be explained from a preconceived plan, and with reference to the number ten as a sign of what is perfect and complete in itself (Hengst.). The Psalms 37:7; Psalms 37:20; Psalms 37:34, have each only three lines for the corresponding letters, whilst the letters π and ϊ have strophes of five lines in two verses, yet so that the 26th verse of two lines follows the tristich (Psalms 37:25), whilst the 40th verse of three lines follows the 39th verse with two lines. η is used twice, in Psalms 37:14-15. ς seems to be missing, and in its place ν forms a long strophe in Psalms 37:27-29. However, there seems to be here merely a false division of the verses. If the new strophe is begun in the middle of the present Psalms 37:28, it is not necessary to supply the missing strophe by erasing μ of the first word μְ ?ςεֹ ?μָ ?ν (Bellermann, Metrik S. 121); we need only not to count the Lamed (Maurer), as we do not count the Vav of Psa 37:39. This explanation is simpler than the supposition that a clause has fallen off after Psalms 37:28 c, although the Sept., Symm., Vulg. have such an one = injusti punientur, as if they had read ςַ ?εָּ ?μִ ?ινπωְׁ ?ξָ ?γεּ (Capp., Ewald, et al.), or ςψιφιν (Hitzig). De Wette has taken back his supposition that the wicked are heathen and the righteous are Jews, as indeed nothing indicates that the poet comforted his fellow-citizens, suffering under the oppression of a foreign yoke, with the prospect of a speedy change of fortune (Rosenmόller). There are no references at all, that can be traced (Hupfeld), to such relations as occurred in the Syrian oppression (Olsh.), or would suit the government of David (De Wette). The contents even lead rather to a period prior to the composition of the book of Job, than to a period subsequent to this, and not at all to “a revived Jewish dogmatism” (Hitzig). And, as it has already been remarked, neither the quiet didactic tone nor the alphabetic form lead to a later period of composition. With respect to the resemblances with Proverbs 3:31; Proverbs 16:3; Proverbs 16:8; Proverbs 20:24; Proverbs 23:17; Proverbs 24:19, these do not imply that we have here reminiscences and repetitions (Hitzig, G. Baur). They may be explained rather from an internal relationship with the Proverbs of Solomon which are rooted and grounded in the poetry of David, such as is now before us (Hengst.). Moreover, the repetition of the same thoughts and turns of expression, is not necessarily due to the alphabetical limitation. They may have the practical aim of making a strong impression (Berleb. Bibel). This agrees very well with the advanced age of the auther (Psalms 37:25), who, however, can not at all be charged with tedious prolixity, but rather discloses a complete mastery of the material, a ripened experience and a great skill in the art of a flowing, clear style, which, with all its simplicity, has yet peculiarities of expression. All this is rather in favor of David, whose life affords ample occasion for the experience and feelings here expressed: “Such examples David had certainly seen in Saul, Ahithophel, Absalom and the like, who were powerful in their ungodly natures, and before one could look around him they passed away, so that it might be asked and said, Where are they gone?” (Luther). Psalms 37:5 has afforded the theme of the song of Paul Gerhardt: Befiehl du deine Wege.—It is possible that Psalms 37:12; Psalms 37:21; Psalms 37:31, on account of similarity, begin special clauses of the Psalm (Hitzig, Delitzsch).[Str. I. Psalms 37:1. Fret not thyself.—This verb literally denotes to heat oneself with excitement or anger. It is used in this form only in Proverbs 24:19, and in this Psalm in Psalms 37:1; Psalms 37:7-8. Psalms 37:2. Grass is the usual figure of perishableness, and is frequently coupled with flower of the field, comp. Psalms 90:5; Psalms 103:15; Psalms 129:6; Isaiah 40:6-7; Job 14:2. Here it is connected with green herb, which is literally greenness of herbage, and refers to the tender grass and young herbage. Comp. Psalms 1:3.—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 37:3. Dwell in the land.—The possession of the land and dwelling in it are frequently designated as the reward of righteousness. But it does not follow from this any more than from Psalms 37:27 that we are here to think of a promise (Rosenm., Stier, Hengst.). The context is opposed to this and likewise the connection of the clauses. Accordingly, we must suppose an exhortation, which refers not so much to a conflict with desires to emigrate out of displeasure with affairs at home (most interpreters), as to an encouragement to a quiet life, tranquillized by God, in the land of the promise. If the expression is merely regarded as typical and explained of the entire position in which a man is placed by God, of the possession and calling of the individual as well as that maintained by every one (Hupfeld, Hitzig), then the coloring of the expression which was so comforting to the Israelites, is too much weakened, although it is true that this clause is parallel to that immediately preceding, and the consequences of the trust are stated (De Wette).—Practice faithfulness.—These words cannot mean: nourish thyself honestly (Luther); or: feed securely = live in careless trust (Chald., Calvin); perhaps: feed thyself in faithfulness. Moreover, this faithfulness, according to the context, is not the faithfulness of God, in which the proud are to rejoice (Jerome, Cleric., Hengst.). There is no promise expressed here, so likewise it is not said that the pious will rejoice in their own faithfulness, or will be fed, that is, preserved and nourished on account of their constancy in faith and their trust in God (Isaki). It is an exhortation to the loving practice of faithfulness; for ψςδ means: to go or be behind something (Hitzig). [Str. III. Psalms 37:5-6. Roll thy way upon Jehovah.—Comp. Psalms 22:8; Proverbs 16:3; 1 Peter 5:7. The way here refers to the whole course of life, with its troubles and cares. These God will assume together with the care of the way of those who trust in Him.—He will do it, that is, He will accomplish what they cannot do and will bring it to a good end, as Psalms 22:31; Psalms 52:9. This is still further carried out in the next verse. Jehovah will cause thy righteousness, which is now in the darkness of night, to go up as the light, or the daylight, the dawning sun; and then still more emphatically: thy right as the noonday, the clearest, brightest and fullest light. Comp. Isaiah 58:10; Job 11:17; also Job 5:14; Isaiah 59:10; Amos 8:9.—C. A. B.] [Str. IV. Psalms 37:7. Be still before Jehovah.—Perowne: “A word expressive of that calm resignation which leaves itself absolutely in the hands of God. This hushed, bowed temper of spirit best suits us. Here is the best cure for dissatisfaction with the present and for anxiety about the future, that we leave both in the hands of God.”—C. A. B.] [Str. V. Psalms 37:8-9. Only to do evil.—Alexander: “Do not indulge a passion which can only make thee a partaker in the guilt of those who are its objects.”—They shall inherit the land.—The they is emphatic. The land is the land of promise, the common blessing of all the faithful.—C. A. B.] [Str. VI. Psalms 37:10. And thou lookest at his place and he is not there.—Some take the place as the subject of the last clause, as if his very place had disappeared, but it is better with Hupfeld, Moll, et al., to take the ungodly as the subject as in the parallel member, the place which he usually occupied knows him no more. Comp. Psalms 37:36 and Psalms 10:15.—C. A. B.] [Str. VII. Psalms 37:12. Jehovah laughs at him.—Delitzsch: “The Lord, who regards the attack on the righteous as an attack on Himself, laughs at the angry plotters (Psalms 2:4), for He, who orders the fates of men, foresees from afar with omniscient glance, the day of the wicked, that is the day of his death, of his visitation.”—C. A. B.] [Str. VIII. Psalms 37:14-15. The sword and the bow are usual figures for all kinds of means of doing injury. Here being directed against the poor and innocent, in accordance with the lex talionis they pierce their own heart, and are broken under their own feet, vid. Ps. 6:15, 16; 9:15, 16; 57:6; Proverbs 26:27; Esther 7:10.—C. A. B.] [Str. IX. Psalms 37:16. The little of the righteous is better than the riches of many wicked.—Hupfeld: “This is true in many respects: 1) Because with contentment and the blessing of God it reaches farther than the great accumulation of unrighteous goods; which (even according to our proverb) does not prosper (Proverbs 13:25; Job 20:12, under the figure of food which does not agree with the body); 2) because it alone affords rest and satisfaction to the soul, which are frightened away from it by the cares of riches and unrighteous possessions. In this sense the similar proverbs, Proverbs 15:16; Proverbs 16:8; because the riches of the unrighteous do not last, but soon pass away.” Psalms 37:17. Arms of the wicked.—These are the instruments of his wickedness, and the means of his power; as Psalms 10:15; 1 Samuel 2:31; Job 38:15. Comp. Psalms 3:7, where the teeth are broken.—C. A. B.] Str. X. [Psalms 37:18. Knoweth the days—Perowne: “Watcheth over, careth for, lovingly orders all that befalls them. See the same use of the verb, Psalms 1:6; Psalms 31:7, compared with 15. ‘My times are in Thy hand.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 37:20. The splendor of the pastures.—Since λֵּ ?ψ generally = lamb, it may be translated: as the most precious of the lambs (Syr., Chald., Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Cocc., Venema, Rosenm., et al.), by which then is understood the fat pieces of the lambs of the sacrifice, which were burnt upon the altar. This is much better than to refer it to the most fine wool of lambs (Kφster), or the most precious lambs, that is, lambs of the sacrifice (Calvin, Cleric). The interpretation: as the delight of the lambs = grass (Hengst.) is artificial. The meanings of “circuit, meadow, pasture,” are evident from Psalms 65:13; Isaiah 30:23 (and apparently Isaiah 14:30 in its corrected reading).—They have vanished in smoke, vanished.—This hardly refers to Sodom and Gomorrah (Hengst., after John Arndt); scarcely to the burning up of the pieces of the sacrifice, or of dry grass, which had been set on fire, Isaiah 5:24 (most interpreters). Moreover the α is not to be changed into λּ after Hosea 13:3; it is rendered certain by Psalms 102:4; comp. Psalms 78:33; Psalms 39:6, and indicates comparison, “in nature of” (Rosenm., De Wette, Hupf., Hitzig, Delitzsch). Our translation follows the accents. [Str. XI. Psalms 37:21-22. Perowne: “The blessing and the curse of God, as seen in the different lots of the righteous and the wicked. The wicked, through God’s curse resting upon him, is reduced to poverty, so that he is compelled to borrow, and cannot pay; whereas the righteous hath even abundance not only for his own wants, but for the wants of others. It is the promise, Deuteronomy 15:6; Deuteronomy 28:12; Deuteronomy 28:44, turned into a proverb.”—C. A. B]. Str. XII. Psalms 37:23-24. A man’s steps are established by Jehovah.—[Hupfeld: “The Divine blessing and assistance of the righteous under another figure; that of a guide in the way of life, who guides his steps and makes them secure and although he may fall, He lifts him up again.”—C. A. B.]. Since βαψ has not the article, it is not to be explained as such a man, as the one just spoken of (De Wette, et al.) The parallel passages, Proverbs 16:9; Proverbs 20:24, are in favor of a general interpretation. Some have translated “ordered” (after the Sept. Vulg., Jerome), instead of established, yet this is contrary to usage.—For Jehovah sustains his hand—[So Hupf., Delitzsch, Moll, et al., and not with His hand, Bφttcher, A. V. et al—C. A. B.] [Str. XIII. Psalms 37:25-26. Delitzsch: “It is an old Theological rule that: promissiones corporales intelligendζ sunt cum exceptione crucis et castigatione. Abandonment and poverty for a time the Psalmist does not question, but he will meet the temptation, which springs up to those who fear God, from those circumstances which apparently contradict the Divine righteousness; and he does this by contrasting the final abiding condition with the transient one.”—C. A. B.] [Str. XV. Psalms 37:31. His steps shall not waver—comp. Psalms 18:36. The law within the heart keeps him steadily in the right way.—C. A. B.] [Str. XVI. Psalms 37:33. Perowne: “Men may condemn but God acquits.—Here, as in 1 Corinthians 4:3, the righteous judgment of the Great Judge is opposed to the ἀνακρίνειν of human judgment (ἡμέρα). So Tertullian: ‘Si condemnamur a mundo, absolvimur a Deo.’ ”—C. A. B.] Str. XVIII. Psalms 37:34-36. I saw a Wicked man, arrogant, and spreading himself as a leafy indigenous tree. And one passed by and lo he was no more.—Hitzig prefers instead of arrogant, a word which after the Sept.=towering, and translates the following line after a corrected reading with the Sept. and Vulg.; and spreading himself as a cedar of Lebanon, and I went by. Hupfeld on the other hand after Aben Ezra, Calvin, Cleric.: he passed by =passed away. Str. XIX. Psalms 37:37. Mark the just man,etc. The ancient translators have all taken the concretes as abstracts and have likewise given the verbs another meaning=preserve honesty and keep rectitude (righteousness) before your eyes. From this originated Luther’s: remain pious and keep yourself upright. In the latter case there seems to have been a confounding of ψΰδ with ψςδ of Psalms 37:5. But to regard these words as abstracts is contrary to usage. ωׁ ?ξψ is elsewhere used only of practical keeping as Psalms 37:34, from which verse this has been made dependent without any need. The true interpretation was seen already by Aben Ezra, Isaki, Calvin and most all recent interpreters have adopted it.—That the man of peace hath posterity. It follows from Psalms 37:38 that the reference here is to posterity as Psalms 109:13; Jeremiah 31:17; Amos 4; Amos 9:1; Ezekiel 22:25, (Sept., Venema, De Wette, Olsh., Hupfeld, [Perowne]), and not to the “future,” whether for both verses (Calvin, Cleric., Hengst. [Alexander] or only for Psalms 37:37. The context and the construction favors least of all the translation: the end of the man is peace (Kimchi, Geier, et al. [A. V. likewise]. AND ETHICAL1. Take care that the sight of the success of the ungodly does not kindle in your heart envious jealousy and wrath, or burning ill humor and consuming fretfulness. Their success is only apparent and of short duration. It is like the green grass which soon withers and is like smoke which vanishes away. Accordingly the pious have no reason to be excited by it, but rather have every reason to strengthen and exercise themselves in faith in the holy government of God and in obedience to God’s holy will, in order that they may live to see the end and wait patiently for the result. “This is a fine comparison, a terror to hypocrites and a comfort to the afflicted. How nicely it lifts us up above our sight and sets us before God’s sight. Before our sight the hypocrite’s substance is green and flourishing and increases and covers the whole world, so that it alone seems to be something, as the green grass covers and adorns the earth. But before God’s sight, what are they? Hay, soon to be made; and the higher the grass grows the nearer it is to the scythe and fork. … Why then should you be angry, when their wickedness and success have such a short existence?” (Luther). 2. He who puts his trust in God, and has his pleasure in the Lord, will not reward evil with evil, will not meet violence with violence, will not be drawn and driven by injustice to injustice, but will continue in doing good, in devotion to God, in pious conversation, and long before the final decision comes, will live to see all the promises of God gradually but surely fulfilled to the pious, whilst the ungodly will never gain their ends and often will be destroyed suddenly. “Thus He takes all impatient thoughts entirely away and gives rest to the heart. As if He would say: dear child, cease thine impatience and curse not and wish no evil, these are human and wicked thoughts … And what help is there in this anger? It does not make the case any better, it only leads deeper into the mire. Thou hast hindered God from bestowing His grace and favor, and thou hast become like the evil doers and will be destroyed like them.” (Luther).—“Many of them do wicked things in wrath from revenge and impatience, that they regret afterwards forever” (Joh. Arnd). 3. The tribulation of the pious through the violence of the wicked is often so great, that the patient seem to be entirely subdued, yet the meek will not only gain and keep peace, but the inheritance, whose foundation, pledge and type they have in the land of promise, will continue to be assured to them by the power of God, and happiness in life will by God’s hand arise in shining clearness (Job 11:17; Isaiah 58:8; Micah 7:9), to the innocent sufferer out of every trouble. “Since now our dear God has such a great work in mind respecting all those who fear Him, be still in the Lord and hinder Him not in His work; but wait upon Him in patience.” (Joh. Arnd). On the other side the day of the ungodly is already now before God’s eyes, in which the splendor of their success, and their light of life will be put out. He treats the devices and the preparations of the wicked as already now of nought, that is, as weak, and as foolish; but He will some time bring them to nought, he will turn their weapons and arrows upon them in a deadly form and will break their arms, that is, the instruments or the means of their power and violence, so that they will no longer be able to injure others or even to help themselves. 4. God’s blessing upon the pious shows itself in this, that they are not only satisfied and delighted with a little, because they have their delight in God, and content themselves in Him as the highest good, but that they as individuals can accomplish much more with a little, than many ungodly persons with much, that, they constantly experience fresh tokens of Divine care and provision, so that they suffer no lack, but rather are able to minister to others with their goods and gifts, and that they transmit their inheritance to their posterity, which in their turn become blessings. Thus a chain of blessings passes through the life and the generations of the pious with all the need, poverty, trouble and dangers of earth. The ungodly, on the other hand, are not helped by their number or their power, their craft or their strength, their riches or their arrogance. The curse comes upon them for their wickedness, and the judgment of God destroys them and theirs. 5. In the distribution of blessings and curses to the pious and the ungodly the righteous government of God manifests itself already in this world. We can rely upon it with the more firmness, as it has its deepest ground, in the Divine love for justice. Even on this account, however, he who would receive this blessing and enjoy God’s protection and help must take care, that the marks of true piety are found in him. Such a man may very well have to endure many tribulations, needs and dangers, for the ungodly have a hostility to the righteous and seek to put them out of the way. But the hand of God is ready to help those who walk in the way of God, because they have God’s law in their hearts, and this way leads above. Those who walk in it, may stumble and fall, but they will not remain upon the ground and perish. God puts His hand under them to support them. But this hand exterminates the ungodly with their race, so that at last not one remains and not one escapes the judge (Amos 4:2; Amos 9:1; Ezekiel 23:25). 6. Every attentive observer sees sufficient examples of this government of God in history. Would that this might awaken the fear of God in all earnestness, and strengthen the power of trust in God, in order that every sincerely pious man might constantly receive richer experiences of the Divine blessing. “Thus then, let every one see to it, how he stands and lives before God in this respect; whether he has faith enough to trust God for a piece of bread, and whether we allow to Him power, wisdom and faithfulness enough to assist us in every righteous cause, help us through it and provide for us and maintain His own work” (Berl. Bib.).—“Ah, says he, God cannot and will not suffer that faithfulness and confidence should go unrewarded, else He would not be true, just, and truthful.” (Joh. Arnd).—“O the shameful unfaithfulness, distrust and damned unbelief, that we should not believe such rich, powerful and comforting promises of God, and stumble so very easily, at such little things, as when we merely hear the wicked words of the ungodly. Help, God, that we may some day have true faith. Amen!” (Luther). We would here with Tholuck remember that Luther on his death-bed said to his children, Children, riches I do not leave you, but I leave you, a rich God. AND The prosperity of the ungodly blossoms but a short time, it has a corrupt root and a bitter fruit.—The right of the righteous may for a while be obscured, but God brings it surely to light.—He who has his delight in the Lord, may be troubled for awhile in the world, but it will finally be well with him.—Put your confidence in God, then thou wilt not be vexed with the apparent prosperity of the ungodly; have your delight in the Lord and you will not envy the fleeting joy of the unrighteous; continue in the exercise of good and you will not change your end for the vain gains of the wicked.—The ungodly have no true and abiding prosperity, but only those who fear God.—The only, but sure means of salvation are, to fear, love, and trust God above all things.—Do not recompense the wickedness of the wicked with evil, but leave the judgment to the Lord. He is the just Rewarder.—Impatience and wrath are not productive of good, but only make the bad worse, and evil times worse times.—It is especially undeserved suffering arid unjust attacks, that show the great strength of trust in God, the power of patience and the strength of meekness.—The pious are as sure of the blessing of God as the ungodly of His curse; and both extend even to the coming generations.—It is due to the Divine blessing that the pious accomplish more with little than the ungodly with much.—Peace and joy depend for men not upon riches or poverty, but upon communion with God.—The great and abiding gain of godliness.—The mouth, heart and steps of the pious harmonize with one another and with God’s will and word.—Even the pious may stumble and fall, but God will not let them lie upon the ground, and prevents them from falling into ruin by His hand and grace.—The righteous have many enemies, but although their power and wickedness are even as great as their number, yet they are assured of the final victory by God’s faithfulness, power and grace.—It is a part of the experience of the pious, that they should be tried in patience and exercised in waiting, but that their waiting should not be vain, because it is founded in trust in God, and has as its end the coming of the Lord.—It is one and the same hand of God, which delivers the pious and exterminates the ungodly with their seed.—There is a difference between the pious and the ungodly not only according to their dispositions, but likewise in their actions and their destinies.—What God has promised to the pious, He knows how to give to them and to keep for them, yet all at the proper time and according to His wisdom.—The wishes of those who fear God are fulfilled; but the devices of the ungodly perish.—God not only distinguishes between the righteous and the unrighteous; He finally separates them from one another.—We may be visited by severe calamity, and be given up by all the world, and yet we are not forsaken by God.—God sees not only how men act on earth, He rewards them for it, whether early or late.—The pious not only receive a blessing for themselves and their seed; they will likewise become blessings through God’s grace.—God knows His own children and rewards their trust abundantly; He protects them in danger; He comforts them in time of trouble; He nourishes them in days of hunger; He delivers them out of the hand of all their enemies. Starke: There are evil-doers enough in the world, but if we should conquer them with the sword it would only be worse; seek rather to win them by love and good conduct and leave the rest to God.—Whoever reflects upon the miserable end of the prosperity of the ungodly will rather be moved to pity and sympathy and prayer than to angry zeal and ill-will against these poor men.—Many a man is dissatisfied with God the Lord, because He does not do what he desires; but whoever is satisfied with the will of God, receives what he desires, yea more than he wishes. O what happy people we would be, if we should cast all our cares upon the Lord, attend to our calling with diligence and leave the result with God.—Satan seeks to excite believers to sinful anger by the wickedness of the ungodly. Hence the necessity of watching, patience, faith and prayer.—If we are obliged to wait with much patience for the heavenly inheritance, it is yet worth the trouble, for it is eternal and imperishable.—We must not reckon the time of the prosperity of the ungodly by the course of the physical sun, but by the numbers of the Holy Spirit (Psalms 90:5), thus will we find, that in comparison with the everlasting pains of hell, scarcely a moment has been allotted to them.—The ungodly do not lack the will to do mischief; but what can they do more than gnash their teeth (Acts 7:54).—The ungodly have long hands and much assistance in persecuting the pious; but God’s hands reach farther still and are much stronger, than that they should be laid hold of and cast down.—True riches do not consist in great provisions, but in contentment with what God gives.—God has already resolved, how long the godly shall remain in the vale of sorrow; during this time He provides for them as a father; afterwards He will give them the inheritance of eternal life.—Smoke rises on high at first with strength as if it would go even to the heavens, but a little wind can drive it asunder, so that it cannot longer be seen; see, the ungodly are like this smoke.—Pious parents have the consolation that God’s blessing will come upon their children, and pious children are assured, that God will bless them on account of their parents.—Mercy is one of the most beautiful virtues, not only on account of its character, because we thus become like God, but also on account of its reward.—If heaven and earth pass away, yet the inheritance of believers cannot fail.—It is impossible to do good and bad at the same time.—The heart, mouth and entire walk of the believer are sanctified and blessed by the Word of God.—Who would not rather have a bad beginning and a good end, than a good beginning and a bad end?—What we lack, will be supplied by the gracious assistance of the strong God. Luther: The righteous give, the ungodly do not, and yet both receive from God.—God blesses thee temporally and eternally, that thou mayest trust in Him, although thou art cursed and injured by the ungodly.—God does not take poverty from His saints but He will not let them perish.—Selnekker: Torment thyself not with impatience and wrath, but be satisfied with the will of God and His long-suffering, and hold fast to His word and promises, then wilt thou obtain the desire of thine heart.—Experience makes the best interpretation.—Schnepf: The possessions of the ungodly burn as grease in the fire.—Frisch: The whole earth is the Lord’s, and so belongs to His children.—Every one desires to be happy here in time and there in eternity, but very few use the true means of obtaining it.—Arndt: The dear cross and poverty are no signs of disfavor, but a trial of faith and patience, a mirror of the wonderful help and preservation of God, and an evidence, that God is not pleased with great splendor but with faith, fear of God, humility and patience.—Oetinger: Every day of the righteous man has in God’s purpose its special measure of grace and trial, and serves to complete his lot.—Tholuck: The salvation of the pious remains immovable, the longer it seems to tarry, the more imperishable will be its endurance.—Who would despair, when God declares that His own treasury is in the possession of His children.—It must be a rare occurrence, that any one who has been a friend to many in trouble, should not be able to find a friend in need.—Stiller: If it is not as you could wish, examine yourself; perhaps it is the fault of your wishes or your other actions.—Guenther: Life and death are both set before us, we are to choose. The choice seems easy, and yet most make the mistake.—Taube: To be still before the Lord is the true test, whether we trust the Lord, have our delight in the Lord and commit our way to the Lord in deed and in truth.—It is particularly evil days which give especial proofs of the faithfulness of God toward the pious.—The pious may suffer want, but not ruin.—Thym: If the end is good, all is good. 1) Therefore remain pious, although the cross weighs upon you; 2) deviate not from the narrow way although the world may entice; 3) finally, if it is well with the pious, that outweighs all.—The righteous are never forsaken. 1) In life, the Lord leads them graciously; 2) in death, He sends them His angel of peace; 3) in eternity, He crowns them with the crown of victory. [Matt. Henry: Fretfulness and envy are sins that are their own punishment, they are the uneasiness of the spirit, and the rottenness of the bones.—We must follow providence, and not force it; subscribe to Infinite Wisdom, and not prescribe.—If we take care to keep a good conscience, we may leave it to God to take care of our good name.—A fretful, discontented spirit lies open to many temptations and those that indulge it are in danger of doing evil.—They that are sure of an everlasting inheritance in the other world have no reason to envy the wicked their transitory possessions and pleasures in this world.—The law of God must be a commanding, ruling principle in the heart; it must be a light there, a spring there, and then the conversation will be regular and uniform; none of his steps will slide; it will effectually prevent backsliding into sin, and the uneasiness that follows from it.—If we make conscience of keeping God’s way, we may with cheerfulness wait on Him, and commit to Him our way; and we shall find Him a good master, both to His working servants and to His waiting servants.—Barnes: The small property of one truly good man, with his character and hopes, is of more value than would be the aggregate wealth of many rich wicked men with their character and prospects.—Other things being equal, the honest, temperate, pure, pious man will be the most prosperous in the world: for honesty, temperance, purity, and piety produce the industry, economy, and prudence on which prosperity depends.—As a great law, the children of the pious are not vagrants and beggars. As a great law they are sober, industrious, and prosperous. The vagrants and the beggars of the world are from other classes; and whatever may be the bearing of religion on the destinies of men in the future world, in this world the effect is to make them virtuous, industrious, prudent and successful in their worldly affairs, so that, their children are not left to beggary and want, but to respectability and to competence.—It is better to have God for our friend in life, and our support in death, than to have all the external prosperity of wicked men.—Spurgeon: Who envies the fat bullock the ribbons and garlands which decorate him as he is led to the shambles? Yet the case is a parallel one; for ungodly rich men are but as beasts fattened for the slaughter.—There is joy in holy activity which drives away the rust of discontent. Very much of the outward depends upon the inward; where there is heaven in the heart there will be heaven in the house.—A silent tongue in many cases not only shows a wise head, but a holy heart.—The evil man does not see how close his destruction is upon his heels; he boasts of crushing others when the foot of justice is already uplifted to trample him as the mire of the streets. Sinners in the hand of an angry God, and yet plotting against His children! Poor souls, thus to run upon the point of Jehovah’s spear.—Content finds multum in parvo, while for a wicked heart the whole world is too little.—Where the children of the righteous are not godly, there must be some reason for it in parental neglect, or some other guilty cause. The friend of the Father is the friend of the family. The God of Abraham is the God of Isaac and Jacob.—Among the legacies of wicked men the surest entail is a judgment on their family.—Policy slips and trips, it twists and tacks, and after all is worsted in the long run, but sincerity plods on its plain pathway and reaches the goal.—Good men are men of mark, and are worth our study.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Delitzsch: “The bond which connects Psalms 37 with 36 is the similarity of contents which here and there likewise correspond in expressions. The fundamental thought which pervades the whole Psalm is like that of the first verses: Be not scandalized at the success of the ungodly, but hope in the Lord, for the success of the ungodly soon comes to an end, and the result separates the righteous and the unrighteous. Therefore Tertulian calls this Psalm providentiζ speculum; Isodore, portio contra murmur; Luther, vestis piorum, cui adscriptum: Hic Sanctorum patientia est (Revelation 14:12).”—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch: “The land in this Psalm is throughout the promised possession of salvation, the land of the presence of Jehovah, which has not only a glorious past but likewise a future full of promise, and will finally be the inheritance of the true Israel, in a more complete manner that under Joshua.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 38 A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance1         O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 2    For thine arrows stick fast in me, And thy hand presseth me sore. 3    There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. 4    For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 5    My wounds stink and are corrupt Because of my foolishness. 6    I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. 7    For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease:And there is no soundness in my flesh. 8    I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. 9    Lord, all my desire is before thee; And my groaning is not hid from thee. 10    My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: As for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. 11    My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; And my kinsmen stand afar off. 12    They also that seek after my life lay snares for me;And they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, And imagine deceits all the day long. 13    But I, as a deaf man, heard not; And I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. 14    Thus I was as a man that heareth not, And in whose mouth are no reproofs. 15    For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: Thou wilt hear O Lord my God. 16    For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: When my foot slippeth they magnify themselves against me. 17    For I am ready to halt, And my sorrow is continually before me. 18    For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin. 19    But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: And they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. 20    They also that render evil for good Are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.21    Forsake me not, O Lord:O my God, be not far from me. 22    Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation. AND For the Title comp. Introduct., § 6, No. 3. The Psalm begins (Psalms 38:7) with the same petition as Psalms 6, that God will bring the sufferings, endured by the petitioner as a punishment for his sins, to an end, that He will cease from His judgment of wrath. This prayer is based upon the fact, that the sufferings, sent upon him by God (Psalms 38:2) and deserved by great sins (Psalms 38:3-4), have entirely worn him out in body and soul (Psalms 38:5-7), so that he can only sigh to God (Psalms 38:8) in the greatest anguish and abandonment (Psalms 38:9). For his friends have withdrawn from him (Psalms 38:10), and his enemies, who aspire after his life, regard him as lost (Psalms 38:11). But he does not heed them, or contradict them (Psalms 38:13-14), but has put his hope in God (Psalms 38:15-16). For he is now in the most extreme bodily weakness and anguish of heart, on account of his sins, the guilt of which he confesses (Psalms 38:17-18); and his enemies are active, numerous, and they hate him, although he has given them no reason, but rather has sought to do them good (Psalms 38:19-20), hence his sighing prayer for the help of Jehovah, whom his faith is still able to apprehend and confess as his God, and as his salvation (Psalms 38:21-22). Hengst supposes that this Psalm did not originate from the circumstances of an individual, but was uttered by the righteous personified, and that the peculiar sufferings are due to the enmity of the wicked, whose number and superiority is regarded as an evidence of Divine visitation, which thus considered, make him miserable and worn out in body and soul. Others suppose that the sufferings of the entire people, or the pious portion of them, occasioned by heathen oppressors or ungodly enemies, are described by a late prophet (Chald., Isaki, Rosenm. II.), perhaps by Jeremiah (De Wette), under the figure of a sickness. These views, however, are opposed by the contents and statements of the Psalm A real man laments, sighs, and implores, on account of plagues which severely afflict him personally; but the cause of his sufferings does not appear to be wicked enemies, who abuse him and wound him bodily (Hitzig with reference to Jeremiah 20:2, which however the strong self-accusations do not suit), or whose attacks and complaints had caused his sufferings, which are described partly under the figure of sickness, partly are brought under the idea of moral guilt (Hupfeld). The enemies are not mentioned until the second half of the Psalm, and then, it is true, as deadly enemies, yet not as those which have caused the bodily sufferings described fully at the beginning, but rather as those who have used these things as snares and accusations against him. The bodily sufferings are represented as a real sickness, although not exactly as leprosy (Ewald, Kφster, Maurer); yet the sick man himself regards his miserable condition as sufferings sent by God as a punishment for his sins; and from this visitation is developed his consciousness of guilt, his continued moral pain, his confession of sin, and at the same time his correct behaviour towards his adversaries and his God, towards his adversaries, which without reason, yea, against all right, are at enmity with him, instead of thanking him for the benefits they have received, and recognizing his moral efforts; towards his God, on whom he ceases not to wait as his help, abandoning all self-help, and all excuses, and to whom as near to assist him, he exclusively directs his prayer. By this view the bond of unity between the two parts of this Psalm, often missed, may be shown, and its relationship with, as well as its difference fromPs. 6, be placed in a stronger light; so likewise its order among David’s penitential Psalms 5 Str I. [Ver 1. This verse is the same as Psalms 38:1 of Psalms 6, with merely one verbal substitution of the synonym χֶ ?φֶ ?σ for ΰַ ?σ Bakius has the following paraphrase: “Corripe sane per legem, castiga per crucem, millies promerui, negare non possum; sed castiga, quζso, me ex amore ut pater, non ex furore et fervore, ut judex; ne punias justitiζ rigore, sed misericordiζ dulcore.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 38:2. For Thine arrows have sunk into me.—This figurative expression is used not only of leprosy (Job 6:4), but likewise of hunger (Ezekiel 5:16), and generally of calamities of Divine visitation (Deuteronomy 32:23). Hence it follows from this various use of the figure, that it is inadmissible to limit this to a particular kind of visitation, yet not that the following description of sickness is to be regarded merely as figurative. Str II Psalms 38:3. Soundness.—The expressions in Isaiah 1:6, which are entirely similar, do not imply that they are figurative in this Psalm. For Isaiah refers to the body of the people. In such a connection he might very well look upon sins as abscesses, and moral ruin under the figure of phases of sickness, without danger of being misunderstood. But this explanation is inadmissible for this Psalm, although it has been promoted by the Vulgate after the Sept., which has in Psalms 38:3 b: non est pax ossibus meis, and in Psalms 38:7 a, with many ancient Psalters after the Cod. Vat. of the Sept., anima mea impleta est illusionibus, whilst the Cod. Alex., as likewise Symmach. has the reading ψύαι instead of ψυχή.—[No health in my bones.—Perowne: “Such is the proper and original meaning of the word ωָׁ ?μεֹ ?ν (shalom), integritas; “peace,” being the derived meaning, peace only there properly existing, where all is complete and entire, nothing wanting.” The same is true with the German Heil which is used here by most interpreters.—C. A. B.] [Psalms 38:4. Gone over my head.—A usual figure of danger and trouble taken from a flood of water, comp. Psalms 18:16.—Too heavy for me.—They are conceived as a burden weighing upon the conscience, incapable of being borne any longer. Comp. Genesis 4:13, and Psalms 32:4, where the hand of God is felt in them—C. A. B.] [Str. III. Psalms 38:5. My bruises stink and run.—Alexander: “The two verbs both denote suppuration, the first in reference to the offensive smell, the second to the running or discharge of matter.”—Foolishness:—Perowne: “His sin, as seen now in its true light, showing itself to be folly, for all sin is self-destruction. This confession of his sin is in fact, at the same time, a confession of the justice of his punishment.” Psalms 38:6. I am bent, I am bowed down exceedingly, all day long I go about squalid.—Delitzsch: “Being so deeply sick in soul and body, he must be greatly bent and bowed down. πַ ?ςֲ ?εָ ?δ of the writhing contraction of the body, Isaiah 21:3, ωָׁ ?ηַ ?η of the bowed-down attitude, Psalms 35:14, δμֵּ ?κְ of a clumsy, drawling walk.” χγֵ ?ψ literally black with dirt, squalid, in allusion to the Oriental custom of putting ashes on the head, and going about with rent and soiled garments as a sign of mourning, vid.Psalms 35:14.—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 38:7. For my loins are full of dryness.—πִ ?χְ ?μֶ ?δ is understood by Sept. and Symmach. [vid. Psalms 38:3] not of “blasted or kindled” (properly roasted, dried at the fire), but after another derivation (Isaiah 3:5), of disrespect and scorn. The loins are brought into view as the seat of strength, but are here designated not as dried out, dried up (Luther, Hengstenberg), which, so far as they had become weak, would be full of that which contempt heaped upon the sick man, full of scorn, which issues from the loins (Schegg); they are here described as full of dryness. It is doubtful whether we could understand by this “blasted” (Camph.). Burning sores (Ewald) would be better. The reference is certainly not to a burning fever (Chald., Calvin, Geier, et al.) in the bowels (many recent interpreters after Bochart); still less as a figurative expression of the withering, consuming power of sorrow (Hupf.). The construction demands a material object, leads rather to a special condition of sickness. Psalms 38:8. [I am benumbed, cold, chilly, torpid, in contrast with the warmth and energy of life. It is used of the disappearing of the warmth of life, and at the same time of the stopping of the pulse and even life itself. Perowne thinks that it refers to the alternations of a fever fit, and refers to the burning inflammation in the preceding verse. But it is better with our author not to think of a fever, but of a state of feebleness, in connection with the real loathsome disease which was upon him.—C. A. B.]—I roar from the moaning of my heart.—Hitzig proposed the reading μְ ?αι or μָ ?αιΰ instead of μִ ?αִּ ?ι (Begriff der Kritik, S. 120 sq.). and to translate “I cry more than the roaring of the lion.” Afterwards he rejected this conjecture, and contended against it, to the regret of Olsh. The words are not at all tautological, but express that the sighing of the mouth originates from the moaning of the heart. [Str. V. Psalms 38:10. My heart palpitates—Alexander: The palpitation of the heart, denoting violent agitation, is combined with loss of strength and dimness of the eyes, so often mentioned as a sign of extreme weakness. See above on Psalms 13:3 and compare Psalms 6:7; Psalms 31:9; Psalms 40:12”—C. A. B] Str VI. Psalms 38:11-12. Away from the presence of my plague—The translation of Luther originates from the Vulgate, amici mei—adversum me appropinquaverunt. It has likewise in the following line; vim faciebant (ἐξεβιάζοντο), in stead of: have laid snares. The Sept. has read πβω instead of πχω or confounded the two. But the latter is rendered evident here by a play upon the words in the Hebrew. [Str. VII. Psalms 38:13. Deaf—dumb.—Alexander: “The same two words for deaf and dumb are used together in Exodus 4:11. Not only the idea, but the form of expression in this sentence, is copied by Isaiah in his prophetical description of Christ’s sufferings (Isaiah 53:7), and seems to have been present to our Saviour’s own mind when He ‘held his peace’ before the High Priest (Matthew 26:62-63), and ‘gave no answer’ to the Roman Governor (John 19:9).” Psalms 38:14. In whose mouth there are no replies.—Delitzsch: “The consciousness of guilt and resignation stop his mouth, so that he may not and cannot refute the false accusations of his enemies; he has no counter evidence to justify himself.”—C. A. B.]Str. VIII. [Psalms 38:15. Thou wilt hear.—The thou is emphatic, and is thus contrasted strongly with the enemies before whom the Psalmist was dumb, making no replies, but pleading alone before God. Riehm: “This expectation is based upon reasons adduced by three λִּ ?ι following one another, yet co-ordinate; Psalms 38:16, upon the wish which he has expressed, and to which God is to respond by hearing it; Psalms 38:17, upon the greatness of his misery; Psalms 38:18, upon his penitence.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 38:17. The Vulgate after the Sept. differs from the Hebrew text, and has: in flagella paratus sum. [The Hebrew text is, however, correct, and the translation I am ready to halt or fall down sufficiently assured.—C. A. B ] Str. IX. Psalms 38:19. But mine enemies are lively, are numerous.—The reading maintained by the ancient translations ηַ ?ιִּ ?ιν may be interpreted after 1 Samuel 25:6. Most recent interpreters suppose after Houbigant that this reading is a corruption from ηִ ?πָּ ?ν, that is, without cause, Psalms 35:19; Psalms 69:4. Psalms 38:20. After this verse many Greek and Latin, all the Ζthiopic, and some of the Arabic, and one of the Syriac Psalters, have the additional clause: et projecerunt me dilectum tanquam mortuum abominatum (comp. Isaiah 14:19), explained by Theodoret of Absalom’s behaviour towards David. [Str. X. Psalms 38:21-22. These petitions are frequent in the Psalms. Comp. Psalms 10:1; Psalms 13:1; Psalms 22:1; Psalms 22:19; Psalms 35:22. Delitzsch: “He closes with sighs for help. He does not gain that the darkness of wrath should be lighted up. The fides supplex does not become fides triumphans. But the closing words, ‘Lord, my salvation,’ show the difference between Cain’s penitence and David’s. True penitence has faith in itself, it doubts of self, but not of God.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. When a man perceives the chastening hand of God in his severe sufferings, and tastes the righteousness of the Lord therein, his sufferings may be very painful, yet if he values his communion with God, the experience of the Divine wrath and his grief on account of his personal guilt will be still more painful. Therefore he will pray first, not for the cessation of his bodily sufferings, his external plague, his temporal affliction, although he may be laid upon a bed of painful sickness and worried even to the exhaustion of his strength; he prays, first of all, for the removal of the angry judgment of God and the anxiety of heart on account of his sins.2. In severe sickness and other visitations of God, we learn, often for the first time, the crushing weight of the chastening hand of God, the depth of guilt which exceeds all human thought and imagination, the deadly power of sin which destroys soul and body. But this most tormenting experience helps the sinner to permanent health, if he does not complain, in his cries over his misery or the treatment he has received, but charges himself with folly and sin, and if he does not despair, but confesses his guilt with penitence.3. He has to undergo a severe conflict if his friends withdraw from him in the days of his necessity and anguish, when Divine chastisement has come upon him, and his enemies approach him with charges and accusations, especially if he is entitled to a very different treatment on account of his previous relations with them. Thus the genuineness of his repentance is tested. The decision with reference to salvation takes place, when the afflicted man earnestly withstands every temptation to self-justification, renounces all attempts to help himself, and resigns himself with sincere self-abnegation to God with confession and prayer, and waits on God with the hope that his prayer will be heard. 4. The virtue of this patient, devout and trusting waiting upon God, consists in the faith of the penitent, by which, in all his ill desert, he yet apprehends God as his God, and trusts in Him as the God of his help notwithstanding the superiority of his enemies and the strong feeling of his own weakness. He leaves the manner and the means of help to God. But he may pray most pressingly that God will draw near; for this is a token to the penitent of His mercy and a sign of His readiness to grant his supplication; for although he is forsaken by all the world and despairs of himself, yet he does not doubt, but knows and apprehends his salvation in God the Lord. Psalms 22:19; Psalms 35:3. AND Sin prepares wrath, and the wrath of God has sharp weapons; but God may be sought by the penitent.—Sin involves the visitation of Divine wrath, but repentance implores and obtains forbearance.—Sin ruins people; but those who are converted to God will not be lost.—Fire in the conscience is worse than fire in the bones.—The fire of the Divine wrath should excite not only grief on account of the punishment of sin, but likewise sincere repentance in the heart of the sinner.—Stricken by the hand of God, accused by his own conscience, forsaken by his best friends, attacked by his worst enemies, the sinner is yet not ruined, but delivered, if he is converted to God in his misery by his sins.—Whom God visits with chastisement He will take to Himself, but it is necessary that He should rescue him from the way of ruin.—It is not enough to taste the consequences of sin, you must confess their punishableness, their folly, their guilt, if you would obtain deliverance.—He who totters under the hand of God may be saved from falling, if he grasps the hand which smites him.—God chastises sinners earnestly, but not in order to kill them, but to give life, if they will only observe and learn to seek Him.—True repentance does not despair; although abandoned by all the world, it seeks salvation in God.—The sick-bed may become a bed of victory, 1) by humiliation under the strong hand of God; 2) by penitent confession of sin; 3) by believing apprehension of God as the God of help and salvation. Starke: God can seldom bring us to repentance without chastisement, and He chastens us in order that we may not regard ourselves as guiltless.—No one knows what the anguish of conscience is, who has not experienced it, and been obliged to struggle with sin and the wrath of God, there is no grief in the world to be compared with it.—The hearts of many are like a rock from which the arrows rebound. Blessed are those whose souls are wounded unto salvation by God’s arrows.—Sin wounds a man unto death, not only in his soul, but often it seizes upon his body and makes him utterly miserable.—It is lamentable, that whilst every animal helps his fellow, man alone causes all kinds of sufferings and mishaps to his fellows.—It is not necessary for you to hear and speak when God has taken this upon Himself for you. You may be entirely still.—The ungodly and hypocritical seek to deny and conceal their sins as far as possible, but the pious confess that they are guilty before God and man.—The pious have their faults, but this is not the reason why they are persecuted by the world, it is because they will not live as the world would have them.—If it is your desire not to be forsaken by God, take care that you do not depart from Him by a wicked life and conformity to the world. Luther: Truly to feel sin and tremble on account of a wicked conscience, is torture above all other torture. External persecutors boldly help to this; for they hunt a man in his conscience, boast against the righteous, that God is with them.—And because He withholds consolation, such terror of heart must ensue, as if God were angry on account of sin. But yet David teaches us to hold fast and not despair, and defends himself against their boasting with prayers, and rises upon Divine promises, and lays hold of his cause by the true handle. …. Thus we should pray and not despair in any anxiety of soul, although we are sinners and feel deeply the burden of sin and its tempest.——Osiander: We should not pray that our Heavenly Father should not chastise us at all (comp. Hebrews 12:5), but that He should chastise us with the rod of the parent and not punish us with the sword of justice.—Selnekker: I am well satisfied with my cross, for my sinful nature needs it well.—Frisch: If God has shot His arrows from heaven into you, you must send the arrows of prayer to heaven, and implore His grace; if He has laid His heavy chastening hand upon your neck, you must lay your hand of faith on your heart; thus will He bind up your wounds and quicken you after the affliction.—Rieger: At first David depends on the mercy of God; then he invokes the searching omniscience of God; finally he supplicates the speedy help of God.—Tholuck: We acquire a deeper knowledge of the state of our hearts, by our behaviour when afflicted (impatient complaints, faint-heartedness, disinclination to prayer), than we ever could in good days.—If the tempter can convince the soul, when sufferings are long continued, that God does not trouble Himself at all about it, that is the hottest affliction.—Diedrich: God sends afflictions upon us that we may thereby be brought to a more thorough knowledge of ourselves.—Taube: In time of trouble we see how soon our own strength fails, and the humble knowledge of this is one of the blessings of repentance.—Thym: We are comforted under the severest pains. 1) By the word about Christ, 2) by prayer to Christ, 3) by strength from Christ.—The sufferings of earth: 1) their nature; 2) their origin; 3) our behaviour under them. [Matt. Henry: Our wounds, by sin, are oftentimes in a bad condition, no care taken of them, no application made to them, and it is owing to the sinner’s foolishness, in not confessing sin. Psalms 32:3-4. A slight sore neglected may prove of fatal consequences, and so may a slight sin, slighted and left unrepented of.—The less notice we take of the unkindness and injuries that are done us, the more we consult the quiet of our own minds.—When our enemies are most clamorous, ordinarily it is our prudence to be silent, or to say little, lest we make ill worse.—If we are truly penitent for sin, that will make us patient under affliction, and particularly under unjust censures.—Barnes: Trouble never accomplishes its proper effect unless it leads us to God; and anything that will lead us to Him is a gain in the end.—No Christian, when he comes to die, ever feels that he has been too much afflicted, or that any trial has come upon him for which there was not occasion, and which was not designed and adapted to do him good.—Spurgeon: It seems strange that the Lord should shoot at His own beloved ones, but in truth He shoots at their sins rather than them, and those who feel his sin-killing shafts in this life, shall not be slain with His hot thunderbolts in the next world.—It is well when sin is an intolerable load, and when the remembrance of our sins burdens us beyond endurance.—None more lonely than the broken-hearted sinner, yet hath he the Lord for his companion.—Until the Holy Ghost applies the precious blood of Jesus, a truly awakened sinner is covered with raw wounds which cannot be healed nor bound up, nor mollified with ointment.—We shall not be left of the Lord. His grace will succor us most opportunely, and in heaven we shall see that we had not one trial too many or one pang too severe.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Delitzsch: “In this Psalm a peculiarity of the penitential Psalms is repeated, namely, that the petitioner has to lament not only that his soul and body are worn out, but likewise over external enemies, who come forth as his adversaries and make his sins an occasion of preparing ruin for him. This is owing to the fact that the Old Testament believer, whose consciousness of sin was not so spiritual and deep as in the believer of the New Testament, almost always was sensible of the external act of sin. The enemies which then would prepare for him ruin, are the instruments of the Satanic power of evil, who desire his death, whilst God desires his life, as is likewise felt by the New Testament believer even without external enemies.”—C. A. B.] [Calvin sees two reasons for his silence; (1) his enemies would not suffer him to speak; (2) his own patient submission to the will of God. Perowne thinks that only the last is prominent here, but it seems better with Delitzsch to think of his own consciousness of guilt, under the severity of the Divine chastisement stopping his mouth with reference to the slanders of his enemies as he appeals to God to hear him as in Psalms 38:15 sq.—C. A. B.] Psalms 39 To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David1         I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, While the wicked is before me. 2    I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; And my sorrow was stirred. 3    My heart was hot within me; While I was musing the fire burned: Then spake I with my tongue, 4    Lord, make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is;That I may know how frail I am.5    Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth; And mine age is as nothing before thee: Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. 6    Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: Surely they are disquieted in vain: He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. 7    And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. 8    Deliver me from all my transgressions: Make me not the reproach of the foolish. 9    I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; Because thou didst it.10    Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. 11    When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: Surely every man is vanity. Selah. 12    Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; Hold not thy peace at my tears: For I am a stranger with thee, And a sojourner, as all my fathers were.13    O spare me, that I may recover strength, Before I go hence, and be no more. AND For the Title, comp. Introduct. § 12, No. 6. This Psalm is related in many particulars to Psalms 62. and has likewise many features in common with Job, and in some respects with Psalms 38. The Psalmist has undertaken to be silent respecting his sufferings, in the presence of the ungodly lest he should sin in his speech (Psalms 39:1). He has been silent a short time in submission, but the burning and violent pain of his heart, enkindled to ill-humor in brooding over this unfortunate state of affairs, has found vent by the tongue (Psalms 39:2-3). The context does not indicate that he has uttered such words in the presence of his enemies as have endangered his life, as Hitzig contends referring to an older cotemporary of the prophet Jeremiah. Moreover the following words are not in favor of taking them as a statement of what the Psalmist uttered when in ill-humor (Calvin, Hengst.). They do not express the self-accusation, that he then desired death as the end of his sufferings and prayed for an indication of its nearness. They express the present petition and wish, that God will make the afflicted man conscious of the shortness of life (Psalms 39:4), in accordance with the universal perishableness of man (Psalms 39:5). If, namely, all mortal movements are a noise about nothing (Psalms 39:6), the best thing for the Psalmist is waiting on the Lord (Psalms 39:7), whom now he implores, to deliver him from all his transgressions and not make him the scorn of the ungodly. He does not desire nor does he venture to complain that God has involved him in these sufferings (Psalms 39:9); on the contrary he implores the removal of the stroke of His hand, because this would destroy him (Psalms 39:10), considering the guilt and weakness of man (Psalms 39:11). Therefore he can pressingly implore the hearing of his prayer, which is accompanied with tears, before his departure, on account of the shortness of his earthly pilgrimage (Psalms 39:12-13). The same words as those in the second half of Psa 39:12 are found in David’s mouth in 1 Chronicles 29:15. The language is more transparent than usual and sticks closer to the subject. [Ewald: “It is the most beautiful of all the elegies in the Psalter.”—“It has great and not accidental resemblances to the discourses of Job 3:31, and since the poets are different in the color of the language and the arrangement of the verses, either this author has read the book of Job, or the author of the book of Job was stimulated by the lamentation of this Psalm to seek a higher solution, the latter is more probable.”—C. A. B.] Str. I. Psalms 39:1. While the wicked is in my presence.—This expression, in itself, might refer to a sinful speaking against the present enemy (Flam., Ruding., Hitzig), or to expressions of ill-will on account of the prosperity of the wicked which was before his eyes, as Psalms 37 (Geier, J. H. Mich., Kφster, Delitzsch); but since the poet is throughout the Psalm occupied only with his own situation (Hupfeld), it is best to think of murmuring against God on account of his own severe sufferings, as Psalms 38:13 sq., comp. Job 1:22; Job 2:10, (Kimchi, Calvin, De Wette, Hengst.), in which he is in danger of becoming a scorn of fools (Psalms 39:8.). Str. II. Psalms 39:2. Away from prosperity.—In the situation above described the afflicted man is silent for awhile, and indeed ξִ ?θּ ?εֹ ?α. Since words of silence never have their object with ξִ ?ο the explanation “about good,” e.g., the law and praise of God, prosperity and joy, (Chald., Aquil., Rabbins, many of the older interpreters until Rosenm.), or what might serve as a justification against slander (Calvin, Ruding.), are inadmissible. It might possibly be interpreted, “I was silent respecting prosperity,” in so far as it was not asked for or was dispensed with (Ewald, Kφster), or turned away from the prosperity of the wicked, since the poet sought to put the inconsistency to a dead silence (Delitzsch), which would certainly be better than: turned away from the prosperous (Maurer). We might likewise say: far away from good = without joy and comfort (Geier, J. H. Mich.) or: so that it was not well with me, gloomy (Hupf.), or: not for good = without good results (Hengst.). A hard ellipsis, difficult to be understood, would result from the interpretation that it is an abbreviation of the complete clause: from good even to evil = utterly, Genesis 31:24; 2 Samuel 13:22, (Flam., De Wette, Hitzig). We refer the obscure and disputed expression to the circumstance, in which the poet describes himself as an unfortunate man, whose pain has in vain fretted within him. [Psalms 39:3. Fire burned.—Hupfeld: “This is a usual figure of internal excitement and passion, as well as of the anxiety and pain resulting therefrom, when it is denied expression.” Comp. Psalms 22:15; Psalms 32:3; Is. 20:9.—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 39:4. Make me to know,etc. The entire manner of expression shows, that the speaker does not inquire after the point of time of his death, because his sufferings would then be at an end, nor complain of his sufferings on account of the shortness of human life, because he has no longer hope of help; which then is taken as the subject of the previous complaint, derived from the time of his ill-humor, as in Job 6:7 sq.; Job 7:7; Job 14:1 sq.; Job 16:22, in contrasted reference to the present patient endurance of what God has done (Psalms 39:9), where Luther improperly translates: Thou wilt make it right. The speaker, certainly does not implore instruction respecting the perishableness of all earthly and human things, which indeed he has experienced in the most direct way in his own sufferings and which is presupposed as the foundation of his prayer. Its purpose is: that God, by His operation upon the soul of the sufferer, may cause him to spiritually apprehend this for moral and practical purposes, in order that, when he apprehends his own person as a vanishing thing in the midst of the perishable, he may not make so much bustle about himself and his sufferings in the world, but may lay hold of God by faith, as the only true support. Thus there is unity in the entire Psalm and an advance in thought. The Psalmist speaks in a narrative form, Psalms 39:1-3, but subsequently in prayer, arising out of the feelings which the reflection upon his previous action has excited in him, and from which the previous self-accusation as well as the increasing intensity and pressingness of the prayer have originated and are explained. If on the other hand Psalms 39:4 sq., is regarded as the subject of the speech of the tongue mentioned in Psalms 39:3, then we must either give an entirely new and independent beginning to the prayer, in Psalms 39:7 (Calvin, Ruding., Hengst.), which thus divides the Psalm in two halves, with which neither the refrain of Psa 39:5 in Psalms 39:11, nor the double Selah would agree; or we must with Hupfeld regard all spoken after Psalms 39:3, as the contents of that which in Psalms 39:3 welled forth from the glowing heart upon the tongue. Then the unity of the Psalm would be preserved, since the first half would have the meaning of an Introduction; but the contents do not suit the introduction at all, because there is no trace in the prayer of sinning with the tongue.—I would know what a transitory thing I am.—It is not at all necessary to change ηָ ?γֵ ?μ into ηָ ?μֶ ?γ after Psalms 89:48, comp. Isaiah 38:11, (Kimchi, Calvin, Cocc., Cleric., Hupfeld), whose meaning ζvum is doubtful, and is taken by Bφttcher in the sense of: a little heap of earth, dust (de inferis, § 274). Psalms 39:5. Hand-breadths.—Instead of this the Vulgate has mensurabiles, and the ancient Psalters veteres after the Sept. παλαιάς, which however is a corruption of παλαιστάς or παλεστάς which, as a literal translation of the Hebrew, is found in the Cod. Alex., and in Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen and even was known to Ambrose and by him explained not as the palm but as rings. [Hupfeld: “It is used as a little measure of length to indicate the shortness of life, as with us, a span. The construction is that of the double accusative.”—C. A. B.]—Only mere breath is every man though he stand firmly.—It is best to connect πφα with ΰγν in contrast with δαμ. Man is thus described as vigorous, standing firm (Zechariah 11:16), strong in his own feelings, bold and stepping securely, and not merely as one “who lives” (Sept.). It is certainly, in no case, to be connected with the following Selah = standing he bowed. It is possible to connect this word with the entire clause = only to mere nothingness is every man appointed (Hengst. [Alexander]), or better: placed as mere breath (Bφttcher), constitutus est. But this interpretation is not necessary and it cannot be sustained by appealing to the previous lines. For the assertion that “before Thee” ( = in Thine eyes) means “according to God’s regulation” is just as untenable as that ΰַ ?ιִ ?ο never = “nothing,” but always, = nullity. Hupfeld adduces as decisive against it, Isaiah 40:17; Isaiah 41:12; Isaiah 41:24. The confirming “yes” may be put instead of the restricting “only.” Usage allows the one as well as the other. Str. IV. Psalms 39:6. Only as a shadow doth man walk.—The Rabbinical interpretation that man walketh “in darkness” is incorrect. The beth is the so-called beth essentiζ. [It introduces the predicate. He walks about consisting merely of an unsubstantial shadow like that image of himself in the shadow upon the ground.—Only for a breath do they make a noise.—Perowne: “All the fret and stir, all the eager clamor and rivalry of men, as they elbow and jostle one another to obtain wealth and rank, and the enjoyments of life, are but a breath. Comp. James 4:13-14.”—C. A. B.].—He heapeth up.—It makes no difference in the sense whether we think particularly of treasure. (Job 27:16, [A. V. riches]) or grain (Genesis 41:35; Genesis 41:49). The following verb, however, is in favor of the gathering of the harvest, and the suffix refers to a nom. plur. masc, understood.[Psalms 39:7. And now.—Perowne: “Turning away as it were, with a sense of relief from the sad contemplation of man’s fleeting, transitory life, to fix the eye of his heart on Him who abideth forever. We seem almost to hear the deep sigh with which the words are uttered. It is remarkable that even here, it is on God Himself, not on a life to come, that his hope sustains itself.”—C. A. B.]. [Str. V. Psalms 39:8. Transgressions are regarded as the root of his sufferings and hence the prayer that they may be removed. Comp. Psalms 38:5-6; Psalms 31:10.—Scorn of the fool.—Comp. Psalms 22:6. They, beholding his sufferings, would mock him and scorn him for his transgression, charging many things against him of which he was guiltless. Psalms 39:9. Because Thou didst it.—The Thou is emphatic and indicates that his sufferings were the work of God and no one else.—C. A. B.]. [Str. VI. Psalms 39:11. And like the moth makest what he desires to melt away.—As the moth consumes garments and they waste away, so that which is dearest and most desirable and precious to him, melts away under the stroke of Divine chastisement. This is a usual figure of perishableness, comp. Isaiah 50:9; Isaiah 51:8; Job 13:28.—Only a breath is every man—Vid. Psalms 39:5, to which this clause refers back.—C. A. B.] Str. VII. Psalms 39:12. [To my tears.—Delitzsch: “Along-side of the words of prayer appear the tears likewise as a prayer understood by God, for when the doors of prayer appear to be closed, the doors of the tears remain open.”—C. A. B.]—For I am a guest with Thee,etc. The expression which is rendered in the Sept. by πάροικοςκαὶπαρεπίδημος (like 1 Peter 2:11), originates from Genesis 23:4, as a designation of the relation, in which Abraham stood to the natives of the land through which he wandered, and it was referred afterwards not only to the relation of foreign inhabitants of Canaan to the Israelites who were possessed of the full right of citizenship in the promised land, it being in their possession, Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:16; Leviticus 24:22; Leviticus 25:6, et al.; but likewise to the relation of the Israelites to God as the true and only Lord, Leviticus 25:23. The additional clause: as all my fathers, points to a comprehensive relation of this kind. We have therefore to think not of a merely personal and transient helplessness and need of protection, or of a mere dependence upon God, which likewise remains to those within the fellowship of the people of God, but to include in the idea, at the same time, the thought of the merely transient abode of man in this world, as likewise in 1 Chronicles 29:15, and Hebrews 11:13 sq.—Most ancient Psalters have after apud te, which is missing in Cod. Vat. of the Sept., likewise in terra. The Cod. Vat. also has this reading, while the Cod. Alex. has both readings, ἐντῇ γῇ παράσοι. Psalms 39:12. Look away from me, that I may cheer up.—God’s looking away refers to the turning away His angry face, Psalms 21:9; Psalms 34:16; His look of wrath, Job 7:19; Job 14:6, which has as its result the “cheering up” (Job 9:27; Job 10:20) of the human countenance, since the clouds of care and shadows of trouble vanish. AND ETHICAL1. Even experienced believers are deceived at times as to the little reliance they can place upon good resolutions, but only for a short time. Temptation shows how weak we are, how little patience we have in affliction, how easy and how greatly we sin in our impatience and despondency in murmuring and complaining. “It is to be well pondered that David in this Psalm does not declare his virtues in that he had formed his wishes after the rule of piety and sent them up to God, but that he rather complains of the weakness which misled him to foam in excessive pain and remonstrate with God. He sets before us in his person a mirror of human weakness, in order that we, being warned of the danger, may learn carefully to flee under the shadow of the wings of God.” (Calvin). 2. When, however, in the fiery trial of temptation our good resolutions have not stood the test, the way to salvation is in the confession of our weakness and repentance for our foolish confidence in self. A truly pious man after such experiences of himself, will not justify himself by the plea of good intentions or excuse himself by the greatness of the temptation. He has learned, that he has trodden false paths, whilst he thought to conceal his weakness from the ungodly by a strength which he did not possess, and surrounded himself, without internal devotion and tranquility, with the appearance of quiet and patience. Then the pain consumes still deeper the unbroken heart and if he has kindled in it the dull heat of consuming fretfulness, this soon enough finds vent with the violence of long suppressed resentment. 3. The quiet patience of the pious, in the silence of resignation of oneself into the hands and will of God, is an entirely different thing from the defiant suppression of sullen fretfulness, or cold renunciation in mute resignation. The latter is followed too soon by the stormy outbreak of the enchained ill-humor and the lamentable pouring forth of the disquiet of the heart which is destitute of peace and joy. The former is strengthened by stern self-examination, by earnest reflection upon the world, and by ardent prayer, unto perseverance under the sufferings and temptations in this transitory world. 4. The transitoriness of the world and the brevity of human life, afford the man who is at peace in God, no reasons for consuming ill-humor and despondent complaints. Nor does he seek in them any ground of comfort, when his sufferings pain him, or the riddle of life troubles him. He is not so miserable that he hopes that the one will soon come to an end with the other. He hopes and waits on the Lord as the only reliable and only abiding one, who cannot be carried away by the rushing stream of the perishable, and whose voice cannot be drowned in the roaring and yet vain noise which they make. “It is just this which is so heroic in the Old Testament faith, that in the midst of the riddles of the present, and in view of a future, losing itself in a night of gloom, it casts itself absolutely and without hesitation into the arms of God.” (Delitzsch). Yet we must not forget, that herein is the root of the faith in immortality, resurrection and eternal life, for one of the characteristic names of Jehovah is ηַ ?ι =the Living one. 5. But now the communion with God in life, is restricted in man by sin, yet it would be entirely destroyed, if there were no deliverance from the power of sin, if the judging and punishing hand of God should strike the sinner dead. Therefore the afflicted man, who in his sufferings not only receives but recognizes the Divine punishment of his sins, directs his prayer to deliverance from both, from his sins and his sufferings. The former is manifest in the latter in this temporal life and is even clear to his enemies. It is accordingly in the interest of God as well, that He should not allow the man who waits upon Him, having been converted to Him, to be the scorn of the fool; and even the brevity of the human pilgrimage in the land of promise may under these circumstances be used as a motive for the speedy exhibition of the Divine mercy, as in Job. AND The sins of the tongue must be repented of by the entire man.—There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.—The silence of the sufferer who is resigned to the will of God is very different in its causes and effects from the silence of the tempted sinner in the pride of his self-righteousness, in the weakness of his despondency, in the stubbornness of his despair.—In the hour of temptation it is seen that we need another power than our good resolutions.—He who lives and suffers in faith in the righteous government of God, may have sore trials to bear, but he will not open his mouth in complaints, murmurings, and blasphemies, but in confession of sin, in appeals to the mercy of God, in praising the glory of the Lord.—He who can find no more words for prayer, may let his tears speak for him, and God knows what they mean.—The more severely we have to bear the burden of our sins under the pressure of sufferings, the more ardent is the prayer for release by the hand of God.—The sufferings of the penitent are a scorn of the fool, but God’s eye observes them.—Even under long suffering the path which we walk is but short, and even the least burdened have heavy burdens to bear; so much the more necessary is it to find God early, for, without Him, everything is nothing.—Take care that thou dost not exchange a short joy for long pain, and in chasing after perishable goods lose God, the everlasting good.—The explanation of our earthly pilgrimage; a stranger on earth, at home with God. Starke: In the pious the spirit has to wage a severe conflict with the flesh on account of the prosperity of the ungodly, and the misfortunes of the pious.—Secret fire and pain concealed within the heart, rage with all the more violence; hence the best advice is to shake them out in God’s lap, and besides manifest oneself a Christian well trained in the cross.—If your tongue is to be kept from sinning against God and your neighbors, your heart must first be purified from pride, impatience, and envy.—If the days of our life are short and their end uncertain, let us be diligent not only to properly employ a part of them, but our whole time.—Where faith and living hope are, Christian patience and humility under the strong hand of God are assured of a desired issue. Osiander: Man, so far as he is regenerate, desires to quench the ill humor and impatience of his flesh—Selnekker: Faith and Hope must overcome all murmuring.—Dauderstadt: In every trouble our chief care should be not to transgress.—Bake: We build here so firmly and yet are stranger guests.—Bengel: David in this Psalm longs beyond measure for the heavenly native land.—Diedrich: Blessed is the man who has God left to him from the shipwreck of all temporal prosperity, so that he now properly chooses Him for himself, and considers Him.—Taube: Without revelation we understand neither life nor death, with the everlasting lamp we understand both.—Thoughts of death foster the sense of our pilgrimage.—Ahlfeld: Be not deceived respecting your home by a foreign land: 1). Which is the foreign land? 2). Which is the home? 3). How may we hold fast to our home when abroad?—Thym: How does hope comfort in death? It fills us 1) with believing trust in our going home, 2) with glad prospects of home, 3) with comforting confidence of meeting again.—Our life on earth is short and transitory. 1) All men know it; 2) but only the disciples of the Lord think of it; 3) and yet it decides our everlasting welfare.—Deichert: The poor human heart attains rest only by resigning itself entirely to God. 1) Its vain struggles for rest and peace of soul without God; 2) its bitter and searching importunity in prayer to God; 3) its final triumph with God. [Matth. Henry: Those that are of a fretful, discontented spirit, ought not to pore much, for white they suffer their thoughts to dwell upon the cause of their calamity the fire of their discontent is fed with fuel, and burns the more furiously.—When creature confidences fail, it is our comfort that we have a God to go to, a God to trust to, and we should thereby be quickened to take so much the faster hold of Him by faith.—Robert Leighton: It is a piece of strange folly, that we defer the whole, or a great part of our day’s work, to the twilight of the evening, and are so cruel to ourselves, as to keep the great load of our life for a few hours or days, and for a pained, sickly body. He who makes it his daily work to observe his ways, is not astonished when that day comes, which long before was familiar to him every day.—We need not long lines to measure our lives by: each one carries a measure about with him, his own hand.—There is a common imposture among people to read their fortunes by their hands; but this is true palmistry indeed, to read the shortness of our life upon the palms of our hands.—Every man’s fancy is to himself a gallery of pictures, and there he walks up and down, and considers not how vain these are, and how vain a thing he himself is.—Barnes: The most perfect calmness and peace in trouble is produced, not when we rely on our own reasonings, or when we attempt to comprehend and explain a mystery, but when we direct our thoughts simply to the fact that God has done it.—Spurgeon: To avoid sin one had need be very circumspect, and keep one’s actions as with a guard or garrison. Unguarded ways are generally unholy ones. Heedless is another word for graceless.—If I have the fever myself, there is no reason why I should communicate it to my neighbors. If any on board the vessel of my soul are diseased, I will put my heart in quarantine, and allow none to go on shore in the boat of speech till I have a clean bill of health.—Nature may do her best to silence the expression of discontent, but unless grace comes to her rescue, she will be sure to succumb.—Worldly men walk like travellers in a mirage, deluded, duped, deceived, soon to be filled with disappointment and despair.—Men fret, and fume, and worry, and all for mere nothing. They are shadows pursuing shadows, while death pursues them.—All our desires and delights are wretched moth-eaten things when the Lord visits us in His anger.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne agrees with Hupfeld in what is the best view. “The words that he ‘spake with his tongue,’ are those which follow to the end of the Psalm. The introduction is merely the record of that inward struggle out of which the Psalm itself arose. And the words that he does speak are directed to God in prayer for teaching, not to man in complaints.”—C. A. B.] [A. V. has “verily” but this is not so good.—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “He heapeth up wealth like sheaves on the threshing floor and knoweth not who shall gather the corn into the barn; comp. Matthew 25:24, ‘gathering where thou hast not strawed’ or winnowed. David heaped up a great store of riches for the Temple of God, which he was not permitted to build; and he might sometimes feel misgivings and apprehensions lest those preparations should be frustrated, and that provision be dissipated.”—C. A. B.]. Psalms 40 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David1         I waited patiently for the Lord;And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2    He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my goings. 3    And he hath put a new song in my mouth, Even praise unto our God: Many shall see it, and fear, And shall trust in the Lord.4    Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, And respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 5    Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them,They are more than can be numbered. 6    Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; Mine ears hast thou opened: Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7    Then said I, Lo, I come: In the volume of the book it is written of me, 8    I delight to do thy will, O my God: Yea, thy law is within my heart. 9    I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. 10    I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. 11    Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 12    For innumerable evils have compassed me about: Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of mine head: Therefore mine heart faileth me. 13    Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. 14    Let them be ashamed and confounded together That seek after my soul to destroy it; Let them be driven backward and put to shame That wish me evil. 15    Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame That say unto me, Aha, aha. 16    Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: Let such as love thy salvation Say continually, The Lord be magnified. 17    But I am poor and needy; Yet the Lord thinketh upon me: Thou art my help and my deliverer; Make no tarrying, O my God. AND Its Contents and Composition. The Psalmist narrates (Psalms 40:1), how God has graciously accepted his trust and cry for help (Psalms 40:2), delivered him from a great danger and given him a new song (Psalms 40:3), all for the strengthening of the faith of many. He pronounces those blessed who trust in God (Psalms 40:4), and this forms the transition to the mention (Psalms 40:5) of the innumerable and unspeakable exhibitions of grace which have been made to the believing, for which God would be thanked, not by external ritual offerings (Psalms 40:6), but by willing obedience to the Divine will expressed in the written law (Psalms 40:7-8). This the Psalmist, as God knows, has declared as a glad tidings, in the great congregation (Psalms 40:9-10). In accordance with this he now prays (Psalms 40:11) for the continuance of the Divine protection; for innumerable evils, the consequences of his transgressions, have surrounded him (Psalms 40:12); and therefore he prays importunately (Psalms 40:13), that God will hasten to his help, and bring his enemies to shame (Psalms 40:14), as a punishment for their scorn which they have delighted to heap upon him (Psalms 40:15). Those who seek God and love Him, are to rejoice and praise God (Psalms 40:16), for though the Psalmist is at present poor and miserable, yet he trusts in God’s assistance firmly and prays to Him urgently (Psalms 40:17). It follows from this analysis, that the assertion, that the Psalm is divided into two parts differing from one another in contents and tone, and in part inconsistent with one another, the one part thanksgiving the other prayer, does not accord with the circumstances of the case. It is true the so-called second part (Psalms 40:12-17) is found with few alterations in an independent form, as Psalms 70 But this does not prove that two songs originally different have here been subsequently united (Pareau instit, interpr. 330), or that the unity can be maintained only by the supposition that the poet speaks in the name of the people of Israel (Isaki, Rosenm. II.), or the pious members of the people (De Wette). Still less can it be shown, that Psalms 70. was the original, and that it is here imitated and attached as a prayer to a Psalm of thanksgiving (Hupfeld). There are rather in Psalms 70 many signs of its being a fragment. This portion of Psalms 40. moreover, might very easily and properly, owing to its character, have been separated for the special use of the congregation, although hardly by the author himself. The difference of tone in the various groups of this Psalm is sufficiently explained from the difference between narrative, thanksgiving and prayer. Hence arise the unevenness of the strophes and the verses, and dissimilarity in the length of the lines. These characteristics are not disclosed in any particular part, but pervade the whole Psalm. It is difficult to decide respecting the author. It is not necessary that we should be referred to the time of the recovery of the book of the law (Ewald); for it is particularly in the Psalms of David in the time of the persecution by Saul, that many references to the law are found; besides, there are resemblances with Psalms 22:25; Psalms 25:21; Psalms 35:18; Psalms 35:21; Psalms 35:25. But the most striking similarities are with Psalms 69, and in that Psalm there is so much in favor of its composition by Jeremiah (Hitzig), that even Delitzsch wavers in his judgment. Since both Psalms at any rate, have the same author, and Ps. lxix. contains many important evidences, the decision is to be drawn from a consideration of that Psalm. Here however, we may anticipate the result with the statement that there are weighty reasons in favor of David as the author, only not in the time of his flight before Absalom (Rudinger, Venema, Muntinghe). Hence we hold fast to it, since no decisive reasons have thus far been adduced against it.—The words of Psa 40:6-8, are put in the mouth of Christ by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews 10:5-7. Most of the earlier interpreters have, therefore, supposed, that Christ here speaks by the mouth of David prophetically of his bringing the offering of his life in his state of humiliation, and therefore they have treated the Psalm either partly or entirely as directly Messianic, so recently Bφhl. Hengstenberg has very properly given up this view, which he advocated in the first edition of his Christology. Even the typical interpretation can be maintained only in the freer sense (Calvin, Ruding., Grotius, Cler., et al.) and not in the stricter sense (Stier). The epistle to the Hebrews, really makes a free use of the words in question and one deviating in many respects from the original text (Vid. Moll’s Epist. to the Hebrews 10:5-7, in Lange’s Commentary). Yet this is on the basis of the recognized typical relation of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant and particularly of the person and history of David. “The words of David, the anointed, yet only after he was on the way to the throne, are so formed by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of prophecy, that they at the same time sound as the words of another David passing through sufferings to glory, whose offering of himself is the end of the animal offerings and whose person and work are the kernel and star of the roll of the law.” (Delitzsch). Str. I. Psalms 40:1. Waiting I waited.—The Hebrew infin. abs. does not so much strengthen the verbal idea, with which view the firmness, patience, endurance and power of the trust would be expressed (Calvin, Geier, J. H. Mich., Delitzsch, et al.), but rather emphasizes it, whether with a parenetic view (Hengst.), or as an antecedent and in contrast to the consequences mentioned in the second member (Hupfeld).—He inclined unto me.—It is doubtful whether πθδ (incline, bow), without an object, is here to be regarded as intransitive (Aben Ezra, J. H. Mich., De Wette, Hengst., Hitzig), the passages cited in favor of this, Genesis 38:16; Judges 16:30, not being entirely parallel, or whether we are to supply “ears” (Hupfeld, Delitzsch), since this combination frequently occurs, yet only with the Hiphil. Psalms 40:2. Pit of destruction—dirt of the mire—rock—made my footsteps firm.—Hitzig derives from the mention of pit, his explanation of the Psalm from the history of Jeremiah, but since even he does not take the rock, which is the usual figure of security (Psalms 18:2; Psalms 27:5), in a literal sense, his grounds are weak; and the pit with its mire, in which the foot slides and can gain no firm foothold is figurative of danger, as the waters elsewhere (Psalms 18:15 and frequently). But it does not follow from this or the circumstance that ωׂ ?ΰεο is likewise used of the rushing and roaring of water (Psalms 65:7; Jeremiah 17:12 sq.), that we must think here of a rushing depth of water (Hengst.) or a roaring pit (Kimchi, Calvin, Venema, Rosenm.) = pit of roaring water. The meaning: destruction=ruin, is assured from Jeremiah 25:31; Jeremiah 46:17; Psalms 35:8. Psalms 40:3. [A new song.—Perowne: “One celebrating with all the power of a recent gratitude a new and signal act of deliverance.” Vid.Psalms 33:3.—C. A. B.].—The same alliteration which is found here [ιִ ?ψְ ?ΰεּ ?Ξεְ ?ιִ ?ιψָ ?ΰεּ ?], occurs likewise in Psalms 52:6, where it is followed by a clause like Psalms 40:4. Str. II. Psalms 40:4. His trust—Related with this clause are Psalms 34:8; Psalms 52:6; Psalms 65:5; Psalms 71:5; Psalms 91:9; Job 31:24; Isaiah 20:5; Jeremiah 17:7; so much more are the latter passages to be regarded as re-echoes of this the original passage.—Blusterers and lying apostates—Most interpreters since Aben Ezra and Kimchi take ψְ ?δָ ?αιν as a plural of an adjective which is not found elsewhere; others after the Sept., Syriac, Jerome, as the plural instead of the usual singular γδν=raging, daring, violent, particularly as a surname of Egypt, with the idea of an external, noisy, boastful bragging of their own power, whereby they mislead others to put their trust in them, which was then shamefully deceived (Hupf.). The ωָׂ ?θֵ ?ιλָ ?ζָ ?α are not those “who incline themselves=turn to lies,” whether we think of real lies (Stier) or idols and magic (Isaki, Kimchi, Hengst.). The verb ωׂ ?θδ=ωׂ ?εθ expresses a stronger idea than that of inclining oneself and is not an intransitive. We must, therefore, translate: apostates of lies=lying, faithless apostates (Hupfeld, Delitzsch). A similar form of expression is found in Psalms 59 Hitzig, through the Arabic, refers to those who “shriek lies,” which is more natural than to make the reading ωָ ?ξֵ ?γ and think of the tongue as a whip (Job 5:21; Sir 26:6), because, likewise flexible; because it gossips and because it can likewise smite a person. (Jeremiah 18:18). Str. III. Psalms 40:5. There is no comparison with Thee, (else) would I declare and speak.—Comp. Psalms 89:8; Isaiah 40:18; Job 28:17; Job 28:19. Thus most recent interpreters after Sept., Isaki, Luther. The translation: there is no reckoning of them before thee (Symmach., Chald., Jerome, Kimchi, Calvin, Ruding., Piscator, Geier, Cleric., Rosenm., Stier, Hupf., [A. V.])=they are “unspeakable, innumerable,” is especially opposed by the circumstance that such a reckoning is not usual before God, but before men. It is better to take the following words, in accordance with the accents, either as a parenthesis as Psalms 51:16; Psalms 55:12, or as a hypothetical consequent to the immediately preceding statement. If we should neglect the accents, it might be an expression of a hypothetical antecedent to the assurance of the impossibility of numbering expressed in the following line (Symmach., Jerome, Isaki, Kimchi, Calvin, Geier). It is inadmissible to take it as a real future (Stier, Hengst.,); for then the statement would be of a real resolution in opposition to the preceding as well as the following statement. Str. IV. Psalms 40:6. Ears hast Thou dug for me, that is created for me instruments for hearing. It is accordingly the business of man to use them in accordance with the Divine will. This may be partly by observing God’s word, partly by following God’s commands=obedience to the will of God expressed in His word. Both references often lead to one another, and the latter is certainly brought about by the former (Deuteronomy 29:3; Isaiah 6:9 sq.; Jeremiah 7:24). That the position of the clause, if it is taken as a parenthesis, would make a change here and emphasize the ears as the organ of a theoretical knowledge (Hupf.), is so much the less to be conceded, as, according to Hupfeld’s own view, parentheses occur frequently in this Psalm. Still less is the reference to the boring through or boring out the ears, parallel with the usual formula; open the ear (Isaiah 48:8; Isaiah 1:5), and uncover the ear (1 Samuel 9:16; 1 Samuel 20:2; 1 Samuel 20:12 sq.; 1 Samuel 22:8; 1 Samuel 22:17; Job 33:16; Job 36:10; Job 36:15), or; open the eyes (Genesis 3:7; Genesis 21:9), and uncover the eyes (Numbers 22:31; Numbers 24:4; Numbers 16; Psalms 119:18), of the impartation or of the impression of knowledge by Divine revelation (Isaki, Calvin, Geier, Venema, Rosenm., De Wette, Stier). For, although the Hebrew verb with the meaning of “dig, bore” may under some circumstances pass over into that of perfodere (Psalms 22:16), yet we would be obliged to expect, in accordance with the parallels adduced, the singular instead of the plural, “ears.” But now, furthermore, the clause is not really parenthetical, but rather the three verbs are entirely parallel in the three lines, and the passage sounds very much like the re-echo of the words of Samuel, 1 Samuel 15:22. This is partly in favor of its composition by David, partly in favor of a reference to obedience (Geier, Hengst., Von Hofm., Delitzsch). The expression, however, is not a symbolical designation of the obedience of the servant, whose ear was nailed to the door posts of the Lord, by which he obligated himself to remain forever, Exodus 21:6; Deuteronomy 15:17, (after Geier et al. Hengst. previously, Stier, in part, now Bφhl); for there was a special technical expression for this, and moreover only one ear was thus treated (J. D. Mich., Rosenm.). The ancient interpreters explained the plural arbitrarily by reference to the double obedience of Christ, his active and passive obedience, but so, that the congregation, for whom he offered himself, was composed of two parts, Jews and Gentiles. Bφhl grants herein a free use of the symbol in question, and appeals moreover to Hosea 3:2, for this meaning of αָ ?ψָ ?δ = make oneself a bond slave by means of boring (after Hengst. Christology, 2 Edit. i. 219), whilst he at the same time disputes the fixedness of a term, techn. Yet he wavers as much in this, as in the explanation of the symbol itself. For if boring, which occurs as a symbol of obedience likewise among the Mesopotamians, Arabs, Lydians, and Carthagenians, means nothing more than that the man who has been bored has open, hearing ears, and thus is to be attentive and obedient (Knobel upon Exodus 21:6), it cannot be, at the same time, regarded as a symbol of continued, everlasting servitude (Saalchόtz, das mos. Recht, S. 699). At any rate the emphasis in the context of the present passage is not upon the latter but the former point, and therefore the reference to that symbol must be abandoned. The expression originates from the form of the bodily ear. This view renders the use of this passage in Hebrews 10:5 much easier to understand, in accordance with the enlarged and explanatory translation of the Sept., unless perhaps it is an ancient mistake in copying. The Vulgate has aures, the Itala as likewise the Psalter. Roman., however, corpus.—Burnt offering and sin offering.—The so called spiritual interpretation of the offerings is found not first in Jeremiah 7:21; (comp. Jeremiah 6:20); or Isaiah 66:3; but already in Isaiah 1:11; and besides Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21 sq.; Micah 6:6 sq.; Proverbs 15:8; Proverbs 21:3; likewise Psalms 50:8; Psalms 51:17. 1 Samuel 15:22, may however be regarded as the original passage in accordance with the idea, which was already expressed in the difference between the offerings of Cain and Abel, and which pervades the entire Mosaic legislation. So much the less are we to think here of a revelation of a new truth, but of an observation of the revealed will of God, which requires not an offering divorced from the heart, but obedience and consecration of the entire person, of which the offerings are the figurative expression. “The offerings are named in a twofold respect: a, according to their material, ζֵ ?αַ ?η animal offering and ξִ ?πְ ?ηָ ?δ meal offering (including the πֶ ?ρֶ ?κְ wine offering, which is the inseparable accompaniment of the Mincha); b, according to their purpose, either as essentially ςεִ ?μָ ?δ in order to procure Divine favor, or as essentially ηַ ?θָּ ?ΰϊ (here ηֲ ?θָ ?ΰָ ?δ), in order to turn away the Divine displeasure. That ζֵ ?αַ ?η and ςεֹ ?μַ ?δ precede is due to the fact that ζֶ ?αַ ?η denotes partially the shelamim offering, and the thank-offering proper, namely, the tτda-shelamim offering belongs to this class, and that ςεֹ ?μָ ?δ as the offering of worship, προσευχή, which is ever likewise general thanksgiving, ἐυχαριστία, is in natural connection with the shelamim to the thankful.” (Delitzsch). Psalms 40:7. Lo, I am come = here I am, as an expression of the obedient servant ready for the service of his Lord, and standing in this willingness before the Lord, (Numbers 22:38; 1 Samuel 3:4; 1 Samuel 3:8; 2 Samuel 19:21; Isaiah 6:8; Matthew 8:9). It is not necessary to supply: before Thy face (Hupfeld). The translation: I have consented, namely, to the requirement, Psalms 40:6 (Bφttcher), is unsuitable.—With the roll of the book, written concerning me.—These words would have to be taken as a parenthesis, if the purpose of the coming were stated. But since this is not stated expressly, this supposition loses its support, so likewise the pretension to erase this line (Olsh.) It is admissible, however, to take Psalms 40:7 b as an independent clause = in the roll of the book it is prescribed to me (Hengst., Hupfeld, in a different combination from Rosenm. and Gesenius, from Umbreit and Maurer). It is particularly in connection with the recovery of the Pentateuch (2 Kings 22:13) that the construction of λּ ?ϊα with ςμ occurs in this signification. But really this so-called meaning is only a paraphrase, used in order to simplify it to the understanding. Taken literally, even there the persons are adduced with ςμ, respecting whom it is written, namely, the word of God, obligating them, and binding upon them; they are the ones to whom that which is written refers, Job 13:26. The ancient translation περὶ ἐμοῦ, upon which Hebrews 10:7 is based, is accordingly altogether unobjectionable. This clause may now be connected likewise in language with the preceding clause, so that the preposition α expresses the accompaniment, as Psalms 66:15 (Umbreit, Ewald, Maurer, et al.) But the book roll with which the Psalmist comes is not the roll of the written leaf, which Jeremiah carried with him (ςַ ?μָ ?ι = with me) and upon which he had written the prophecy of future redemption, in order to read it to the people, as he himself had “eaten” its contents, Jeremiah 15:16 (Hitzig), but the roll of the law written on skins, Jeremiah 36:2; Jeremiah 36:4; Ezekiel 2:9 (Hupf.), particularly the law respecting the king, Deuteronomy 17:14 sq. (Von Hofm., Delitzsch), which the king of Israel was to keep constantly with him. This view explains the transfer of these words about David, who was already anointed king of Israel, but had not yet come into possession of the throne, to Christ, Hebrews 10, as one, for whom it is not necessary to suppose that the idea of the book-roll should be transferred unhistorically to the entire Old Testament and its prophecies. The following explanations: written upon me (Sachs), which means, that the poet is himself the narrative of the wonders of God which have happened to him; or written in me, that is, in my heart (De Wette), are inadmissible. It is first said in Psalms 40:8 that David carried the law not only with him, but in himself. For this is a characteristic of the righteous (Psalms 37:31, after Deuteronomy 6:6; comp. Proverbs 3:3; Proverbs 7:3). But this Divine purpose is not fulfilled in the entire people (Isaiah 51:7) until the time of the Messiah (Jeremiah 31:33). Hengstenberg (Beitrδge II. 489 sq.) has proved that the mention of the roll of the law as written upon skins does not lead to a later period of composition. Still less is it necessary to think of a man, who, after the discovery of the law by Hezekiah, went with the roll into the temple (Ewald). Str. V. Psalms 40:9-10. I proclaimed,etc.—The perfects, Psalms 40:9-10, do not express continued action (De Wette), but past, yet they refer not to the contents of the new revelation written upon the leaf (Hitzig), but narrate parallel with Psalms 40:7, that the Psalmist not only took his position as an obedient servant of Jehovah, and as a personal thank-offering at the disposal of God, but that he has expressed his thanks by proclaiming the praise of Jehovah in the congregation (comp. Ps. 50:24 sq.) This proclamation is designated by the verb αִ ?ωֵּ ?ψ as glad tidings. [Perowne: “Words are heaped upon words to express the eager forwardness of a heart burning to show forth its gratitude. No elaborate description could so well have given us the likeness of one whose ‘life was a thanksgiving.’ ”—C. A. B.] Str. VI. Psalms 40:11. Thou, Jehovah, wilt not shut up Thy mercies,etc.—This verse refers to Psalms 40:9 in the use of shut up, and to Psalms 40:10 in the use of “grace and truth.” But it does not follow from this, that the so-called first part concludes with Psalms 40:11 (Hupfeld); this is opposed by the connection with Psalms 40:12 by means of “for,” which it is entirely arbitrary to regard as merely an external and loose connection. But rather the importunity of the prayer for deliverance from present and recent trouble, rising on the basis of thanksgiving for previous deliverances, and basing itself on the assurance of Divine recompense, is grounded on the fact that the transgressions of the Psalmist, which followed him in vengeance, as the wrath of God (Psalms 69:25), and the curse (Deuteronomy 28:15), have overtaken him, and that there is accordingly no other help than through Jehovah. In the Messianic interpretation these transgressions are explained of those voluntarily taken upon himself by the suffering Messiah, and for the most part made parallel with innumerable evils as the punishment of sins. Both of these ideas are against the text which says that the transgressions of the Psalmist are his own, who feels that he has been seized upon by the innumerable evils which surround him and he has no prospect. This general explanation of the clause, I cannot see, corresponds closely as well with the context as with the wording of the clause. The explanation: I cannot see over them on account of their innumerableness (Hitzig, Hupfeld), corresponds with the former; the interpretation of it from weakened sight, owing to great woe (Luther, Hengst.), corresponds with the latter. This physical inability (1 Samuel 3:2; 1 Samuel 4:14; 1 Kings 14:4; Job 16:16; Psalms 13:3; Psalms 38:10), may be a sign that a man’s strength (Psalms 38:10), or his heart (Psalms 40:13) = courage, composure, joyfulness, have forsaken him, yet however is not to be placed alongside of the latter, and to be explained of the obscuration of consciousness = inconsiderateness (Chald., Stier, Ewald). Least of all are we to think of invisible approach, whereby they overtake him unexpectedly (Hupf. alternately). Str. VII. Psalms 40:13-15. Be pleased.—Although ψςδ in this meaning and in construction with a following μ and an infinitive, occurs only here (for in the parallel passage in Psalms 70 this word is missing), yet it is indisputable, and refers to Psalms 40:8, where the will of God is designated by the noun of the same root. This again is in favor of the connection of both parts of this Psalm and of its antiquity. The cry for help is like Psalms 22:19; Psalms 38:22; the wish against his deadly enemies, like Psalms 35:4; Psalms 35:26; the description of their behaviour, like Psalms 35:21; Psalms 35:25, only that “speak” is followed by “of me,” (properly: with reference to me), which again is missing in Psalms 70, where likewise the usual ιָ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?αεּ (let them retire) is used instead of ιָ ?ωֹׁ ?ξּ ?εּ (let them become numb, paralyzed with fright). The reason and ground of their numbness is stated in the following verse with ςμ, that shame is their reward (Hitzig, Delitzsch), which is not like the accusative (Hupfeld), which would merely say: on account of their shame (De Wette, Hengstenberg). [For the expression Aha, aha, vid.Psalms 35:21; Psalms 35:25.—C. A. B.] Str. VIII. Psalms 40:17. The Lord will care for me.—It is not necessary to adopt the reading ηεּ ?ωׁ ?δΞμּ ?ι from Pss. 70:6; 141:1, instead of ιַ ?ηֲ ?ωָׁ ?αΞμι, as being the only reading consistent with usage (Venema, Ewald, Hupfeld), and to translate accordingly: Lord, haste to me. The word ηωׁ ?α has indeed very different meanings, and here an unusual construction; yet the reference at once to the thoughts of God, Psalms 40:5, mentioned by a noun of the same root, which favors the unity of the Psalm, does not leave it doubtful that the reference is neither to regard = value (Rabbins), nor to imputation, namely, of sins (Cocc., Gesen.), but to the thoughts of God in His providential care over those who turn to Him in prayer (the ancient translators and most interpreters). AND ETHICAL1. Sometimes a deliverance from great danger, gives us the first knowledge of how many enemies and how great dangers there are surrounding us here below. But this knowledge should not weaken our thankfulness; and although the song of thanksgiving to the praise of God must be followed immediately by a new petition, the ardor of prayer is the more impressive, and the confidence of being heard is more assured and joyous, the more vital and fresh the experience of the gracious turning of God to the necessity and prayer of him who waits in faith for the help of the Lord. 2. A man who has been delivered by the help of God, is stimulated to a new song by the new experience of grace; but when he on his part is personally confirmed anew in the old covenant of grace, he does not thus acquire any exclusive relation to God with peculiar rights and privileges. He is and remains a member of the congregation, in which God from of old has glorified Himself by innumerable tokens of His favor. Therefore all the people are to be benefited by that which happens to the individual, and they are to let their new song resound to the God of all in united praise, and to the general edification. These benefits are better fitted for this, the more they bear and maintain the character of a gift of God. 3. The thanksgiving which is well-pleasing to God is not in the legal fulfilment of the external offerings and similar performances, rites, and ceremonies, but in obedience to the will of God by the whole person and life. This obedience is declared in particular actions and performances, is represented and illustrated by offerings, symbolized by rites and ceremonies; but all these expressions, representations, and symbols, cannot compensate for the absence of obedience. This symbolical and representative character of all the offerings of the Old Covenant is evidently declared in the roll of the law, which contains the directions for the actions of the people of God. There is no inconsistency therefore in the fact that it is said respecting the offerings expressly ordained by Divine command, that God has not required or desired them. There is no value ascribed to them in the Mosaic law independent of obedience. God’s requirement is directed rather immediately and unconditionally to entire obedience to the Divine will. It is not necessary therefore to suppose a new revelation for the explanation of the thoughts expressed in the text. The will of God has been revealed in the words of God, and God has given men ears to understand them. Whatever is missing is concretely expressed by the inclination and ability of unconditional obedience to completely fulfil the law: in the perfect servant of Jehovah, righteous in disposition and ability to justify many (Isaiah 53:11). When, now, David, under definite historical circumstances, and with special reference to his royal calling, expresses his joy in the fulfilment of the Divine will, and his readiness to commit his person to the disposal of God, he not only says that obedience is the true offering, and that it has to do with the entire person, but he thus enters historically into the typically prophetical relation to Christ, in which, by the Spirit, his words acquire a meaning which allows, yes, calls forth, a deeper and more comprehensive interpretation within the Old Covenant. 4. The fulfilment of the Divine law is rendered subjectively possible to man, and accomplished, by his taking it up into his soul, and agreeing with his heart to this law which comes to him at first from without and by the ear. Thus the externality and the strangeness of the law are destroyed. Man, then, desires what God desires. He offers his own will in the obedience of faith. But this offering is fulfilled only on the basis of a deliverance which has taken place. The offering has thus essentially the meaning of a thank-offering, and it is not at all propitiatory or justifying, although well-pleasing to God. This relation is expressed likewise in the typical reference of the Psalm. 5. He who is in this relation and has a vital experience of the power and truth of it in his own person, should testify of it by word and deed and help others to hear of it (Romans 10:17), and should particularly proclaim the glad tidings of the righteousness, grace and truth of God, in the congregation. This may likewise be regarded as an offering, and indeed of thanks, yet not merely in the sense of the presentation of words, but, at the same time, with the more particular meaning of sacrifice and personal consecration, which cannot be fulfilled without self-conquest. For, in addition to the natural slothfulness, forgetfulness, unthankfulness, fearfulness, we are to regard not only quietistic inclinations, the disposition to contemplation, the luxury of feeling, but likewise a kind of timidity, dread and shyness of appearing in public, which occur even in men who are spiritually inclined and are decided servants of God. But he who overcomes in this conflict, and ventures to appeal to the testimony of God respecting his readiness to take part in this work, can rely with comforted spirit upon the fact that God will confess those who make Him known before men (Matthew 10:32). 6. A true and courageous confessor may, accordingly, rely upon being recognized by God; but the ground on which he bases his confidence is not his personal worth or the deserts of his actions, but the mercy and faithfulness of God. He has the more reason to hold fast to this, as he, with all his piety and devotion to God, and in the calling given him by God, is still not the perfectly righteous one, the sinless servant of God, but rather, in the innumerable sufferings which surround him, he recognizes the deserved punishments of his innumerable transgressions, and, in consequence of this, feels that every natural source of comfort, courage and strength in himself is sealed up. All things depend upon the help of the Lord. He recognizes more thoroughly the indispensableness of this, and experiences the more deeply its urgency, the stronger his feeling of his own misery and entire helplessness, under the painful impressions of the arrogance of his enemies, who are intoxicated with victory. But the deeper the faith in the special providence of God for the individual, is impressed upon the heart of the sufferer, and the firmer the soul is established in confidence in the final victory and the everlasting triumph of the congregation over all its enemies, through the power of God and to the praise of God, and the more this confidence is applied to the personal relation of the oppressed servant of God, the more urgent and sure of being heard is the prayer for the speedy coming of the Lord. AND God not only sends sufferings; but He likewise sends help; He works likewise thankfulness.—Hymns and songs belong to the gifts of God: by these we express our thanks, proclaim God’s glory, edify the congregation.—Our life may be a long history of sufferings and yet constitute an edifying sermon respecting God’s righteousness, grace and truth.—That which comes from the Lord should lead to the Lord.—The kindnesses of God are just as numerous as our sufferings and our transgressions.—We should take to heart what God has done to us and to our people, but not shut it up in our hearts, but let our thanks sound forth not only in words, even though they be expressed in new songs and hymns, but likewise in acts well pleasing to God.—What God does to us. is not an exception, but a confirmation of His special as well as general Providence.—The new songs of the pious contain only the old confession of the congregation of God.—The best thank-offering is the consecration of the entire person to the service of God in the obedience of faith.—God desires energetical thanks for actual help.—By one and the same act God accomplishes our deliverance, the shame of the enemy, the edification of the congregation.—God’s words are not only to come to our ears, but to enter our hearts.—God has given us ears to hear His word; a mouth to confess it; a heart to love it; whence comes the strength to keep it, but from Him? and who is the righteous one, whom he sends to fulfil it?—God shows Himself to be the faithful God to those who trust in Him, confesses those who confess Him; will He neglect you, when you do not neglect Him?—If we would gain God’s help, we must seek God Himself.—Consecration and confession should agree with one another, but both be in accordance with God’s word.—He who cannot wait for the help of God, will never gain it; but he must pray for it and may urge his circumstances in prayer. Starke: The cross conveys many advantages in itself; for it urges the sufferer to pray, his prayer is heard, he rejoices, praises God, seeks to excite others to praise Him.—Take care that the new song, the gospel, be not sung and preached for your mere amusement, but that it produce in you true fear of God; else it were better that you should never have heard it.—You must not doubt of your sonship and the love of God on account of the postponement of help. He only tries your patience. Christ was a servant in obedience, yet a child of His Father in hearty readiness to do His will. Learn from Him to properly unite both together.—When the word of God comes unto a man in its true power, it cannot long remain concealed, the change of heart soon expresses itself in words and works.—God never lacks the power to help; we need only pray that He will show this power in accordance with His gracious will. Selnekker: Even the law cannot be understood apart from Christ, for no one knows, what it requires and how to fulfil it.—Dauderstadt: We must draw near to God with humility. David calls himself not a king and prophet, but a poor miserable sinner.—Frisch: See to it, dear soul, that the new song is not sung to thee in vain.—The dear gospel does nothing but good to men and yet it has its enemies.—It is impossible that we should endure the cross and live under it without the consolation of God.—A. Bengel: I come! or I am here! was the symbolum of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 5:17; Matthew 10:34; Matthew 15:24; Matthew 18:11; Mark 1:38; Luke 5:32; Luke 9:50; Luke 12:49; Luke 19:10; John 6:38 sq.; John 9:39; John 10:10; John 12:46; John 18:37). O Soul, let thy Saviour accomplish His design in thee.—Say: Why art thou in the world? Dost thou fulfil the will of God? How long since? How?—Umbreit: The mind of the converted is shown in deep humility and strong confidence.—The will of God is recorded in the roll of the book, but it is the desire of the pious to do it.—Without sincere confession of one’s own misery and internal poverty there is no faith in Divine Providence.—Tholuck: Thanksgiving should be an act, but he who strongly feels it, his words may be a hindrance to him.—Taube: The greatest and truest skill of the Christian is to be able to wait; to learn to wait is the exercise of his entire life.—Poverty and misery, these are our names; yet this dust nature is in God’s gracious thoughts.—There are typical heroes of faith and those who have followed Christ; the Lord Himself is in the midst with His heroic sufferings and sustains both classes with the strength and grace of His all sufficient blessings of redemption.—Deichert: The offerings of a reasonable service well pleasing to God; 1) The incense of prayer before God; 2) the burnt-offering of an entire consecration of the heart to God; 3) the meat-offering of the life and its works in the service of God. [Matth. Henry: There is power enough in God to help the weakest, and grace enough in God to help the unworthiest of all His people that trust in Him.—There is an order in all God’s works, but they are so many that present themselves to our view at once, that we know not where to begin nor which to name next; the order of them, and their natural references and dependences, and how the links of the golden chain are joined is a mystery to us and what we shall not be able to account for till the veil be rent and the mystery of God finished.—The sight of our sins in their own colors would drive us to distraction if we had not at the same time some sight of a Saviour.—Barnes: All sorrow can be borne when we feel that God has not forgotten us; we may be calm when all the world forsakes us, if we can feel assured that the great and blessed God “thinks” on us, and will never cease to remember us.—Spurgeon: Note the way of salvation, a sight, a fear, a trust! Do you know what these mean by possessing and practising them in your own soul?—God’s thoughts of you are many, let not yours be few in return.—No maze to lose oneself in like the labyrinth of love. How sweet to be outdone, overcome and overwhelmed by the astonishing grace of the Lord our God.—Our Lord’s life was a sermon eloquent beyond compare, and it is heard each day by myriads.—Lord Jesus, grant in all our adversities we may possess like precious faith, and be found like thee, more than conquerors.—C. A. B.]. Psalms 41 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David1         Blessed is he that considereth the poor: The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. 2    The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; And he shall be blessed upon the earth: And thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. 3    The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. 4    I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: Heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee, 5    Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish? 6    And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: His heart gathereth iniquity to itself; When he goeth abroad, he telleth it.7    All that hate me whisper together against me: Against me do they devise my hurt. 8    An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: And now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. 9    Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, Which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. 10    But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, That I may requite them. 11    By this I know that thou favourest me, Because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. 12    And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, And settest me before thy face for ever. 13    Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. AND Its Contents and Composition.—The last verse does not belong to this Psalm, but forms the doxology which concludes the entire first book, comp. Introduct. Twelve verses remain, three of which form the introduction, three the conclusion, and between them the substance of the Psalm is contained in twice as many verses. The substance of this Psalm consists of a description how the Psalmist prayed for Divine grace and help in his sufferings, which he regarded as a punishment for his sins (Psalms 41:4), whilst his enemies reckoned upon his death (Psalms 41:5), and false friends, in visiting him, abused the opportunity in gathering and spreading wicked, false and exaggerated accounts of his hopeless and languishing condition (Psalms 41:6-8). One among them is conspicuous, who, as a previous friend and table-companion (Psalms 41:9), deceived the trust bestowed upon him in the grossest manner. From this description a new and double petition arises (Psalms 41:10) for grace and for help, because the Psalmist recognizes in the fact that his enemies do not triumph, the favor (Psalms 41:11) with which God holds fast to his person in the integrity of his heart, so that his person will remain a continual mark for the eyes of His providence (Psalms 41:12). Whence the Psalmist has derived this confidence of faith, which is finally expressed in prophetical perfects, is disclosed in the opening strophe, in which the man is pronounced blessed, who conducts himself properly towards the unfortunate (Psalms 41:1), because God will act in the same way towards him, as a recompense in his time of trouble (Psalms 41:2-3). Since there is expressly named here, protection against the rage of enemies, and assistance upon the bed of sickness; and the form of the prayer (Psalms 41:2 c) is already broken through by the statement of the prosperity of such a man, the particular groups unite closely with one another, and serve mutually to explain one another. Only we must not suppose that it is a didactic Psalm, in which there is first expressed a general clause of experience, and then an application of it to particular relations (Olsh.), or in which David speaks from the ideal person of the righteous and their sufferings under the figure of a sickness (Hengst.); or that it is a Psalm of lamentation, which speaks likewise figuratively of the sufferings of the better part of the people under the wickedness of domestic enemies (De Wette); or that it is properly a Psalm of thanksgiving (Ewald), in which all is to be referred to a deliverance from a dangerous sickness (Maurer, Hitzig) which has already transpired, and in which there is a report respecting what then took place in a narrative and commendatory form; but that it is a song of faith, in which a man lying upon a painful and dangerous bed of sickness, with open enemies lurking about him, and vexed by false and treacherous friends, prays and confesses himself a guilty sinner before God; but, since he stands in an internal relation of sincere piety to God, he feels that he is therein supported by God, and with so much the greater confidence of being heard, implores the grace and help of God, as his own behaviour towards the suffering gives him a claim for recompense on the part of God, since, on the one side, men, his friends as well as enemies, treat him badly, and, on the other side, his relation to God and the good pleasure of God in him could not be made known, should the hopes of his adversaries be fulfilled. These are the pure and genuine features of the heart, faith, and life of David, yet not merely in the time of the rebellion of Absalom and the treachery practiced by Ahithophel (Hofm. Weiss. und Erf. II. 122; Delitzsch). It is more in accordance with the advanced age of David, 1 Kings 1:1-4, the insurrection of Adonijah and the behaviour of Joab (Bφhl). Since now David’s history has a typical meaning, we can thus understand the explanation of Jesus, John 13:18, that the action of Judas Iscariot was in fulfilment of Scripture, under which circumstances Psalms 41:9 of this Psalm is cited (yet not after the Sept., and even with an essential abbreviation of the Hebrew text), as then, John 17:12; Acts 1:16, likewise presuppose in general that the act and fate of the traitor were prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is well, however, to limit the typical meaning to this verse, or, at most, to the description of this relation stated here (according to the scantiness of the citation in John), and not extend it to the whole Psalm (Calvin, Stier), or, indeed, regard it as directly Messianic (most of the older interpreters, particularly Luther, more recently Bφhl). But this is inconsistent with the confession of personal sin (Psalms 41:4) and with the reference to the fulfilment of the recompense (Psalms 41:10). For the reference is not to the desire of revenge (Hupf.), but yet not to the recompense with good and in love, as Christ suffers and prays on account of the sins of others (Cocc.), or in the sense in which Joseph acted towards his brethren (Burk, v. Meyer, Stier), but to that recompense to which David was obligated as the lawful king. This is more in accordance with 1 Kings 2:5 sq. (Bφhl), than with his overcoming the rebellion of Absalom (Delitzsch). We cannot refer to the recompensing of Christ as the Judge of the world, because with the Messianic interpretation all else is referred only to the suffering Messiah in the state of humiliation, which, when extended farther, must explain likewise the sickness, the bed, and the rising of the recovered, with reference to the death, the grave, and the resurrection, as indeed some do with a false application of Typology. Psalms 41:4 is most decisive, as even Reinke admits. For it is exegetically entirely inadmissible to put the last words in the mouth of the Messiah as the representative of sinful humanity, as many do, particularly after Theodoret, who explains the historical reference to king David or Hezekiah as rash and fool-hardy. This Psalm is related in contents with Psalms 28, and as a Jehovah-psalm belongs closely together with the Elohim-Psalms 55. in like manner as Psalms 39. with Psalms 62. The style is lively and expressive. Str. I. Psalms 41:1. Attentive to an afflicted one.—This is either observing the needy with attention, in the sense of loving sympathy (Sept., Aquila, Theod., the Rabbins, Cocc., J. H. Mich., De Wette, et al.), as Nehemiah 8:13 with ΰֵ ?μ as here, with ςμProverbs 16:20, with μְ ?Proverbs 21:11-12, with αְ ?Psalms 101:2; Daniel 9:13; or as a wise man considering that which is appropriate (Symm., Luther, Calvin, Ruding., Venema, Hengst.); perhaps the two may be combined (Geier, Stier). In connection with the Messianic interpretation of γַּ ?μ (tenuis; hence in a physical sense, lean, thin, in a civil sense, insignificant; as a general designation of the poor, Exodus 30:15, of the sick and weak Genesis 41:19; 2 Samuel 3:1, of sick in mind, 2 Samuel 13:4), reference is made to the believing consideration of his suffering, especially of his life in the state of humiliation, sometimes with the view of the summons to follow Him.—Since ιεֹ ?ν is masculine, αְ ?ιּ ?εֹ ?νψָ ?ςָ ?δ can only mean; in the day of adversity, (Symmach.), not in the evil day (Sept.). Psalms 41:2. He shall be blessed.—ιְ ?ΰֻ ?ωַּׁ ?ψ is to be taken as an echo of ΰַ ?ωְׁ ?ψֵ ?ι Psalms 41:1, as Proverbs 3:18; not declarative as Isaiah 9:15; at any rate not after another derivation Proverbs 9:6,=be conducted in the right, straight way, that is, in the way of salvation (J. H. Mich.).—[And do not give him up.—A sudden transition from the future to the optative (Hupfeld) in an appeal to God in prayer. This is to be explained from the personal interest of the poet in the person of the ξωׂ ?λιμ (Riehm).—C. A. B.] Psalms 41:3. Support him on the sick bed.—This is not the supporting of the head,Song Son 2:6, in accordance with which Psalms 41:3 b. is understood of changing the bed of the couch (Mendels.), but designates the contrast to the sinking down in death and the turning of a couch of sickness into one of health by virtue of his recovery. [Str. II. Psalms 41:4. I said—Perowne: “The pronoun is emphatic and marks both the transition from the previous eulogy of the compassionate man to the poet’s personal feelings and desires, and also the opposition to the ‘enemies’ in the next verse.”—For I have sinned,etc.—David constantly refers to sin as the inward cause of his sufferings. Vid.Psalms 31:10; Psalms 32:5; Psalms 38:3-4; Psalms 38:18; Psalms 40:12.—These words prevent an application of the whole Psalm to Christ. Psalms 41:5. Speak evil for me—Hupfeld: μִ ?ι with ΰξψ elsewhere=to me, as Psalms 3:2; Psalms 11:1, might here—since we are not to suppose an address to him and a consequent change to the third person as Psalms 3:2,—simply mean about me, of me (as Genesis 20:13), as all interpreters admit: but it is perhaps to be connected rather with ψַ ?ς: evil for me (dat incommodi), or with ‘speak = devise, wish me,’ as Psalms 41:7. Psalms 41:6. And if he come to see me.—This is not impersonal, but the Psalmist has a certain individual in mind, probably Joab, who visited him in his sickness, comp. 2 Samuel 13:5 sq.; 2 Kings 8:29, gathered all the evil of his condition and prospects, and went forth abroad and published it to the conspirators. Psalms 41:7. Whisper together.—Comp. Ps. 12:19. It refers here to deceitful plotting, conspiracy as Psalms 2:2, and is parallel with devise evil.—C. A. B.] Psalms 41:8. Some frightful thing is poured out upon him.—γְּ ?αַ ?ψΞαְּ ?μִ ?ιַ ?ςַ ?μ is properly a word or thing of worthlessness either in the moral sense as Psalms 101:3, comp. Deuteronomy 15:9, (the ancient versions and most ancient interpreters), or in the physical sense (Aben Ezra, Kimchi and most recent interpreters) as Psalms 18:4, of ruinous fate, frightful evil, at times as the curse of crime. The following expression is difficult. The literal translation “is poured upon him.” Ezekiel 24:3, seems to point to a kind of Divine, irresistible influence. This would force us to give up the reference to worthless disposition and act; for that such a worthless nature is poured upon him from on high, or that the devil has inspired him to evil as the Spirit of God elsewhere to good (comp. Isaiah 44:3), is itself in the mouth of enemies a charge which could be accepted only from convincing reasons. The context is likewise against this explanation, since the enemies can only have to do with the consequences, the curse of transgression and not with the source of it (Hupfeld). It is possible to explain it thus: ruin is poured out over him, namely, by the wrath of God (De Wette, Kφster, Olsh.); but the usage of the language does not accord with it, still less does it accord with the explanation that he is poured full of it=entirely filled and pervaded by it (Rosenm., Gesenius). It is best to think of something which was poured upon him like metals on a mould holding him fast so that he cannot escape (Job 41:15). This is not to be understood of a hateful designation of the resolution of David to prefer the young Solomon for his successor instead of the older Adonijah (Bφhl), nor the villany with which his enemies designed to give the final blow to the languishing man (Luther, Hengst.), but the miserable condition itself, which they regard as an evidence that he has been marked and judged by God. The prayer, Psalms 41:11, is the contrast to this. Psalms 41:9. Even the man of my friendship,etc.—We are here to notice the sacredness of the rights of hospitality, the meaning of companionship at the table and the friendship of the guest among the ancients, especially in the Orient. It was a particular honor to eat at the king’s table (2 Samuel 9:10 sq.; 1 Kings 18:19; 2 Kings 25:29). There is no occasion to give up the very natural historical references and explain the expression typically of intimate intercourse (De Wette) or indeed of maintenance (Hupf.) and benefits in general. The conjecture of Bφttcher (Neue exeget. krit Ζhrenlese Nr. 1102) is more appropriate: that ςχα (=heel) is here a general, already exclusively figurative ςֹ ?χֶ ?α = deceit, as the masculine of ςָ ?χְ ?αָ ?δ2 Kings 10:19. [Str. III. Psalms 41:10. But Thou Jehovah—cause me to arise.—The pronoun is emphatic distinguishing Jehovah from the enemies and false friends previously mentioned. He desires that Jehovah will enable him to rise up from his bed of sickness, and disappoint them of their hopes.—And I will requite them.—Wordsworth: “David as king of Israel, and God’s vicegerent, was bound to execute judgment on the wicked. This is the reason of his directions to Solomon concerning Shimei and Joab.” Psalms 41:11. That mine enemy doth not shout over me.—Barnes: “He felt assured now that all the machinations of his foes would be defeated; that all the hopes which they cherished that he was soon to die would be disappointed; that he himself would be recovered from his sickness, contrary to their malicious anticipations and desires. This he regarded as an evidence that God was his friend.” Psalms 41:12. And hast placed me before Thy face forever.—Alexander: “This seems here to mean making one the object of attention, keeping constantly in view. The reciprocal act of man towards God is spoken of in Psalms 16:8. As man sets God before him as an object of trust, so God sets man before Him as an object of protection.”—C. A. B.]. AND ETHICAL1. Sympathetic, compassionate regard for the situation, feelings and afflictions of a suffering and troubled man, which at the same time observes the leadings of God, does not secure us from personal injury, or protect us from rough and unjust treatment on the part of hostile and violent men, but it is well pleasing to God and will not remain unrewarded on the part of God. In this there is no more reference to external reward than the merit of good works, but to the blessed consequences corresponding with their relationship to the Divine way of thinking and acting. Accordingly the heart which has tender feelings and is observant will be the quickest to obtain the comfort of the nearness of God and the helping strength of communion with God. But those who do not renounce the image of God experience an especial gracious turning of God towards them. We may here recall the two promises Matthew 5:1 Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy, and Matthew 25:40 What you have done unto one among the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me. 2. The experience of the gracious turning of God’s face towards us is accompanied even in the most miserable situation with the assurance of a change of fortune. Thus the severest cross is rendered lighter and the most bitter pain sweetened. The sick man begins to hope for recovery and the vexed man is filled with fresh courage. The arrows of hate and wicked slander lose their deadly bite, envy its poison, persecution its purpose. God changes the cross and heals in body and soul those, who are regarded by the world as lost and feel themselves stricken even unto death. But the necessary condition of such a gracious change of a severe lot in life into blessing and health is the turning of the heart to the living God in penitence and desire for salvation.3. Even a sincerely pious man has to confess himself guilty of many sins before God, and to endure his sufferings, often very severe, as punishments which are well deserved. But this gives his enemies no right to suspect his piety, or doubt his gracious state, or calumniate his name. It only discloses their own wickedness and badness of heart when they treat the man, whom God’s hand has stricken, as a wicked villain, appointed to ruin, when they increase the sufferings of the afflicted by scorn, reproach and mortifications of all kinds, and think to trample entirely in the dust the man whom God has prostrated. And when those who in prosperity acted as friends and sat down with him at a well spread table, basely turn away from him when fallen, and instead of the expected comfort, advice and assistance bring new and shameful weapons of attack, then the sufferings of the afflicted are greatly increased in the experience of such treachery, but the sufferings likewise thereby approach their end, and from their greatest intensity there is afforded a prospect of a prosperous future of victorious recovery, just recompense and abiding health before God’s face and through God’s grace. For although perfection is not reached here below, and therefore the heart of the pious man in times of suffering is pervaded with a feeling of ill desert, yet the upright man feels in the purity of his piety that even in the time of trouble he is taken hold of and supported by God, and is delivered from total ruin by an indestructible bond of communion with God, and is secure from entire destruction by being placed and established before God’s face. 4. There is a desire and hope of requital which has nothing in common with a spirit of revenge, but is an evidence that one knows himself to be so closely united in person, cause and honor with the revelation of the righteous government of God, that every unrepented and unreconciled mortification, violation, oppression of the former would be likewise a clouding and restricting the latter. There are, therefore, not only official relations, but likewise positions in life, with respect to which the personal inclination to pardon must yield to the duty of judicial decision and action, yes, in the desire for personal relief may be changed into the execution of Divine judgments. This likewise belongs to the history of the life of the servant of God, and is not opposed to Psalms 7:4; Proverbs 20:22. But every one, who traces the inclination to such a desire in his heart should take care that he has the good pleasure of God, and not merely desire to assert his position in the world, but to strengthen his position before the face of God. Such a position cannot be shaken by anything that originates from the world, but forms a bridge between time and eternity. AND We should not be vexed with human misery or he provoked with human vileness, but should learn from both, and overcome the one as well as the other by the grace of God.—Many learn only on the bed of sickness who their enemies are and who are their friends, but they likewise learn only then truly to know themselves and God.—There is a severe struggle, when torment of body and necessity of soul are associated with the reproach of enemies and the treachery of friends; but the severer the trial, the more brilliant the victory.—Many have been left in the lurch by their own strength and human faithfulness, but never yet has the Lord forsaken those who trust in him with sincerity of heart.—God does not leave good unrewarded or evil unpunished; but he uses for both purposes human instruments.—To be raised from our prostrations is an evidence of the good pleasure of God.—He who is not separated from God by the cross, but driven to God, needs not to doubt of his recovery, however severe the prostration may be.—We may have a bad situation in the world and yet a good place before God’s face.—There are many changes on earth, in good as well as in evil, but only one sure place, namely before God’s face through the hand of God; and this reaches from time into eternity.—We can fulfil the purpose of our life only when we in good as well as in evil times hold on to God.—It is well for him who not only ends his day’s work and crowns every labor with the praise of God, but likewise glorifies his time of suffering and finishes his course in life in this way.—He who would remain before God’s face eternally, must in time diligently place himself before God’s face, and be strengthened in this place by the hand and grace of God. Starke: Since believers have good will towards all men, God causes them to experience His gracious and good will towards them as a reward, and prevents the will of their enemies.—The sick bed usually makes all refreshments and cordials bitter; well for those whose longing hearts can find comfort and strength in Jesus.—Our hurts are not incurable when we turn to the true physician and pray: Lord, heal me!—The race of Judas has not yet perished, his kiss is daily renewed. Well then! we must become accustomed to do good and receive evil for it.—The wickedness of men should not weaken our trust in Divine grace, but rather awaken it the more.—God gives with the cross sure tokens of His grace and good pleasure, He lets none perish therein. Selnekker: God preserves His children and brings their enemies to shame.—Dauderstadt: God is the best physician in all sicknesses.—Pious men discern in all their sufferings a punishment of sin and seek therefore above all their forgiveness.—Renschel: God does not promise that we shall be entirely without the cross and trouble, but he promises, that he will redeem us from them.—Frisch: If your fellow-man fall into sin and misfortune, do not rejoice on account of this, do not press him closer to the earth; rather help him up again.—The poverty of Christ regard as thy noblest riches, His shame as thy highest honor, His cross and His death as pure glory.—Arndt: Seek and hunt for mercy and thou wilt find it; if thou sowest unmercifulness thou wilt surely reap it.—Tholuck.: Since God’s judgment of us is milder the stronger our judgment of ourselves, the suffering singer introduces his prayer with a confession of his guilt.—Guenther: Lord, Lord, we suffer, teach us Thy patience; we are hated, pour Thy love into our heart; we trust in Thee; let us not be put to shame.—Taube: Communion with the Lord does not exclude but includes the constant confession of sin.—First the prayer for grace then for help.—Thym: The disciple of the Lord on his sick-bed. 1) He knows that God sends the sufferings for his good; 2) therefore he feels refreshed under his woe, 3) and waits patiently for his everlasting deliverance. [Matth. Henry: The good will of a God that loves us is sufficient to secure us from the ill will of all that hate us, men or devils.—The soul shall by His grace be made to dwell at ease, when the body lies in pain.—Sin is the sickness of the soul; pardoning mercy heals it, renewing grace heals it; and this spiritual healing we should be more earnest for than for bodily health. When we can discern the favor of God to us in any mercy personal or public, that doubles it and sweetens it.—Spurgeon: Much blessedness they miss who stint their alms. The joy of doing good, the sweet reaction of another’s happiness, the approving smile of heaven upon the heart, if not upon the estate; all these the niggardly soul knows nothing of.—Oh, it is blessed fainting when one falls upon the Lord’s own bosom, and is upborne thereby!—No physician like the Lord, no tonic like His promise, no wine like His love.—Out of the sweetest flowers chemists can distil poison, and from the purest words and deeds malice can gather groundwork for calumnious report.—To stand before an earthly monarch is considered to be a singular honor, but what must it be to be a perpetual courtier in the palace of the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible?—C. A. B.] THE BOOKPsalms 42-72_______________ Psalms 42 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah1         As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2    My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before God? 3    My tears have been my meat day and night, While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4    When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. 5    Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him For the help of his countenance. 6    O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee From the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. 7    Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 8    Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime. And in the night his song shall be with me, And my prayer unto the God of my life. 9    I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 10    As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me: While they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? 11    Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God. ——— Psalms 43 1         Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. 2    For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 3    O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. 4    Then will I go unto the altar of God, Unto God my exceeding joy: Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. 5    Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God. AND Contents and Composition.—In regard to the Title, see Introduction, § 8, and § 2. The division of the matter into two distinct Psalms is very ancient, since we find it in all the versions. But it does not follow from this that such was their original relation, and that we have here (Hengstenberg) a nearly connected pair of Psalms. Not only are the contents, the tone, the structure of the strophes, and particular turns of expression similar in both, but the progress of thought is such that the two strophes of Psalms 42, taken by themselves might have been worked by P. Gerhardt into a regular Church hymn; and yet they by no means have such a complete rounding off, that Psalms 43. can certainly be regarded as simply a later addition (Cocceius, Rudinger, Venema), nor need we (with Hofmann) insist upon its being wholly independent of the former. On the contrary we find in Psalms 43. the prayer which is necessary to link together the complaint and the hopeful submission of Psalms 42; and hence in a certain relation it might be used independently as a Church prayer on Judica Sunday. But if it be regarded as a third strophe organically connected with the two preceding ones, it explains the very marked contrast of the second strophe. Hence most modern interpreters favor the view of their original unity, which is also supported by many MSS. The subsequent separation of the Psalms is by no means inconceivable (Hengsten.), though the occasion of it is unknown. The third strophe, which has none of the local references of the second, might very easily have been used as an independent Church song (Clauss). For the fundamental thought in it is an eager desire to share in the services of the Temple with the great annual assemblies of worshippers,—a desire which was quickened by the lively remembrance of former festivals, and which was still more intensified by the sense of present deprivation, and by a forced residence in a strange country and amidst heathen enemies. With this sentiment, the elegiac tone of the Psalm and its rythmic structure exactly agree. Thus in the three closing groups we find the most charming and touching thoughts united in a manner corresponding to the threefold aspect in which the fundamental sentiment is presented. There is first the desire, then the complaint, and finally the prayer with its so strongly expressed confidence in God. Very similar to it is Psalms 84. in which the Psalmist prays for the Messiah. This may be accounted for by the fact that here the poet expresses not David’s mind (Rosen., Hengsten., Tholuck), but speaks in his own name. Perhaps he was with David during his exile to the region east of Jordan, by reason of Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 17:24); for it closely resembles the Davidic Psalms of that period, (Del.) and in Psalms 42:7, express mention is made of the Psalmist’s residence in that country. We need not suppose that this expressed longing for the temple came from a priest (Paul, De Wette, Rosen., Maur); nor from the people of Israel while in captivity (the Rabbins, Koster); nor does the supposed connection of Psa 42:8, with Jonah 2:4, and of Psa 42:9, with Sir 18:4, oblige us to refer it to a later age. These remarkable expressions originated with the Psalm and illustrate its thoroughly independent character. Nor is there any historical ground obliging us to suppose that they were uttered either by King Jechoniah (Ewald); or by one of the nobles who accompanied him to Babylon; (Cleric.); or by Priests (Reuss); or by a Levite banished by Athaliah (Vaihinger); or by the High-priest Onias III. who in the second century before Christ, after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Egyptian general Skopas, is said to have been carried by him as a hostage, to the sources of the Jordan (Hitzig); or to Antiochus Epiphanes, (Rud., Olshaus.). It is remarkable that the name Jehovah is used Psalms 42:9, while in other places Elohim is apparently employed for a special purpose, as for example in Psalms 43:4, we have Elohim Elohai instead of Jehovah Elohai. [Wordsworth: “These two Psalms are used together in the Hebrew Synagogues at the Great Festival of Tabernacles, Psalms 43. is appointed in the Gregorian use for Good-Friday, and in the present Latin Church for Easter eve.”—J. F.] Psalms 42:1. Panteth.—The radical idea of ςγβ is to direct oneself, to turn, to incline. (Hupfeld). [To ascend, i.e., the Arabic γΜ    Tregelles.—J. F.] This inclination may be both downwards and upwards; and hence its twofold construction with ςַ ?μ and ΰֶ ?μ, the latter in Joe 1:20. From this latter passage translated by Sept. Vulg, Chald., “look up” Gesenius and most of the moderns, after the Sept., Chald., Jerome, derive the sense of longing and desire. The word, however, does not mean a simply quiet longing and inward desire, but an audible panting produced by the agony of thirst. The rendering of it by the word “to cry” (Syr., Rabbins, Luth., Calvin, and most of the older expositors) is, however, too strong. Its application to the relation of the soul of man to God Psalms 42:2, and to the beasts of the field, Joe 1:20, is explained by the fact that the Living God is often set forth as a spring of living water for the refreshment of the thirsty, Psalms 36:10; Psalms 84:3; Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13.—[Alexander: “The essential idea is that of intense desire and an overwhelming sense of want.”—J. F.] Names of animals are often used for either sex, or for both sexes. Here the word for hart, must be taken in a feminine sense [Germ. Hindin], as it is an image of the soul, the term for which in Hebrew is feminine, and is associated with feminine predicates. The particle of comparison refers, as the accent indicates, not to the whole sentence, but to the principal word in it, (Ewald, Gram., § 360), hence the verb must be taken as relative to it. Ver 2 refers, as is obvious from Exodus 33:20, to the festive appearances of the people “before the Lord,” Exodus 23:17; Exodus 34:23, yet not in the sense of beholding the face of the Lord (Luther following some ancient expositors), though we find here the accusative but without the preposition which should stand before it. In this place the accusative is local and not objective. Hence it is not to be supposed that the reading ΰֶ ?ψְ ?ΰֶ ?δ designed by the Poet (Bφttch., Olshaus.), was afterwards changed, by a sort of religious fear into ΰֵ ?ψִָ ?ΰֶ ?δ, a reading which, by the way, is found in some MSS. and is favored by Dathe, Knapp, and others. The Septuagint has the right reading, but it translates the former line “my soul thirsteth for the living God” or “after God the mighty the living,” because when Elohim and El come together, the latter word is usually rendered ἰσχυρός. [Alexander: “Of the two divine names here used, one (Elohim) describes God as an object of religious worship, the other (El) as a Being of infinite power.”—J. F.] Psalms 42:3. Tears become bread, not in the sense of nourishment, precious as bread (Calvin); nor of being a necessity like bread (De Wette); but of a substitute for bread. Job 3:24. Some take the meaning here to be the same as in 1 Samuel 1:7 i.e., forgetting to take food through sorrow (Hengst., Schegg), but the phrase is simply a picture of one’s daily life (Stier, Hupfeld, Delitz.) as in Psalms 80:6; Psalms 103:10, 1 Kings 22:29; Isaiah 30:20. [Perowne: “My tears have been my daily portion.”—J. F.] Psalms 42:4. When I remember, (or think of). Many refer this to the scorn of enemies, and regard the statement as a hypothetical one, (Luther, Stier, Ges., Ewald,) the pilgrimage or the “going with the multitude” being the object of thought, i.e., of desire and hope. (So most ancient translators, Luth., Flam., Geier, Cleric., Stier, Kφster). The description of the pilgrimage presents it, however, rather as an object of memory than desire. (Hup., Del., Hitzig). The imperfect form of the verb must not be taken in the sense of an optative future (that I might go), but as a preterite. [Barnes: “Though the future tense is used as denoting what the state of his mind would be, the immediate reference is to the past.” Perowne: “Let me remember, fain would I remember.”—J. F] As he recalls those festive processions in which he had taken part, and contrasts them with his present condition, the soul of the Psalmist melts within him, like water, 1 Samuel 7:6; Job 30:16. He now pours out his heart in tears (Lamentations 2:19,) as at other times he has poured it out in lamentation and prayer, 1 Samuel 1:25; Psalms 62:9; Psalms 102:1; Psalms 142:3.—“Multitude,” lit. a mass of boughs, a thicket. [“The word ρָ ?κְ occurs no where else in Scripture.”—J. F.] A similar figure is used in Isaiah 10:17, in reference to the Assyrian army.—“The multitude that kept holy day,” (2 Samuel 6:19; comp. Isaiah 30:29), is in apposition with the personal suffix of the verb, which in the Hithpael signifies to go slowly, Isaiah 38:15. But as the Hithpael can have no transitive meaning, this suffix does not stand for an accusative of the object, but must be taken in the sense of, “in respect to it” (Hitzig). This suits very well the place in the procession, which the Psalmist may have held as a Levite. If, on the other hand, it be taken as in apposition to the whole sentence, (Hupfeld) the suffix is out of place. Either this must be removed from the text as in Isaiah 38:15, (Cleric., Olsh.), or by a change of the vowel points the verb must be put into the Piel form (= that I might lead or guide them, as Aquil., Ewald, Vaihinger, and others). [Barnes: “This does not refer to what had been in the past, but to what he confidently expected would be in the future.”—J. F.] Psalms 42:5. In the soul’s address to itself its unrest is very strongly expressed, as in Psalms 55:18; Psalms 77:4, by a word which elsewhere signifies to rave. [Perowne: “The word is used elsewhere of the raging and roaring of the sea. His soul is tossed and agitated like an angry sea.”—J. F.] The expression, “for I shall yet praise Him,” probably refers to such grateful praise as lives in one’s memory (Stier). God will do again, as He has formerly done (Hupfeld). According to the common text the first strophe ends with the words “the help of His countenance,” and the following one, omits the “and,” beginning with the vocative, “O my God.” Most modern expositors, like the Sept., Vulgate, Syriac, have so arranged the conclusion that it is expressed in the remaining final words. The defence (by Hengst., Hofm.) of the textus receptus is weak. As a matter of course slight variations occur in this refrain as elsewhere, e.g., Ps. 49:13, 21; 56:5, 11, and in this very Psalm they are found in several other single strophes; the phrase τָּ ?πָ ?ιειְ ?ωׂ ?εּ ?ςεֹ ?δ also gives a good sense, and frequently occurs, e.g.,Psalms 44:4; Isaiah 64:9. The only objection is their position. For being dependent upon the verb “praise,” and placed parallel to the preceding “Him,” i.e., God, if the connecting “and” be omitted, there arises a hard construction which requires a mental repetition of the verb, or the opposition is changed into a cold substitution. But to assert that the vocative address in the strophe “O my God” is absolutely indispensable (Hengst.), or that the poet should commence his strophe as he closes it, because at the end of the first one he must appeal to God as his God (Hofm.) is as gratuitous as it is untenable. By changing the text in the way proposed, we get not only a uniformity in the turn of the verse, but a suitable sense in an unobjectionable form, and a proper rhythmical cadence at the close.—The “countenance” is neither a simple nor a poetical designation of a person, but a characteristic manifestation of him in his moral and intellectual relations. It is often used not only in reference to God, Exodus 33:14, but also to man, Isaiah 3:15. The plural “helps” expresses not merely manifold manifestations of help, but also the essential idea, the very substance of help itself. Now while one may point to Elohim as the substance and idea of that help, which he should seek for and acknowledge, yet in a prayer he would hardly stop to explain Elohim in this way, nor would he put on the same level, and as the objects of his praise, the manifestations of Divine help and the person of God Himself. [Alexander: “Salvation, frequent or complete deliverance. His face, his propitious countenance or aspect, with allusion to the benediction in Numbers 6:25-26.”—J. F.] Psalms 42:6. My soul is cast down within me. In this beginning of the second strophe, we have a renewed account of the Psalmist’s state of mind, which shows that in spite of the self-admonition and hope already expressed, his dejection and unrest were not yet overcome; the stream of his comfortable thoughts and feelings, the result of his hope in God, did not always flow onward without obstruction, but had its ebb as well as its flood-tide. But as before Psalms 42:5 the mourner recalled to mind with a mixture of sadness and joy his former festive journeys to the temple, so now again, though an exile in a heathen land, and banished from the sanctuary, he maintains communion with God. Calvin’s explanation of ςַ ?μΞλֵּ ?ο in the sense of “therefore, because,” in which he is followed by many commentators, is ungrammatical, and makes the remembrance of God the cause of the sadness of the poet, while seemingly forsaken of the Lord. The text, on the contrary, makes that mental depression which arises out of his own helplessness and his conscious need of aid the cause of his remembrance of the living God. Comp. Jonah 2:8. The beginning and end of the line “me” and “thee” are antithetic. From the land of Jordan.—The locality is indicated as Transjordanic (unclean, Joshua 22:19; because heathen) by the phrase “and of the Hermonites.” Hermon was as characteristic a feature of the Transjordanic region as Tabor was of the Cisjordanic, Psalms 89:13, i.e., the land of Canaan in the strict sense of the words, or the land of Lebanon, Joshua 22:11. The plural Her monim is not used in allusion to the two summits of Hermon, because there is no reason why we should limit the locality to the northern side of the mountain, and the sources of the Jordan, but it is employed here in a sense analogous to that of ωִׂ ?ςιψν, Leviticus 17:7 (rendered in E. V devils) and Baalim, 1 Kings 18:18, either as having a representative meaning, (Hengst.), or as a plural of amplification (Diedrich), since Hermon with its mighty cone far exceeds in height all the other peaks of the South-Eastern portion of Anti-Lebanon. The precise residence of the Psalmist is indicated by the words ξִ ?δַ ?ψξφְ ?ςָ ?ψ, (lit., hill of littleness) not the Zoar mentioned, Genesis 19:20 (Ven.) but some mountain whose name is now unknown. The phrase cannot be taken as in apposition with Hermon, not only because the words are in the singular, but because they could be applied to the lofty Hermon only in an ironical sense (Rosenm., Hengst., Hofm.), or as contrasting it contemptuously (mountain of contempt, Hupfeld) with Zion, and there is no evidence that the poet had any such idea in his mind. Yet many have thought that Zion, which while physically humble, in its moral relations far surpassed all other mountains, is meant. So Olshausen and Hitzig explain the phrase, but each of them in a very different way. For while the use of the preposition ξִ ?κ, and its connection with ζλψ, very well agree with the assumption that an Israelite exiled from Palestine and the “little mountain” Zion (Olsh.), should have remembered Jehovah, yet the description of Palestine as the land of Jordan and the Hermonites is inadmissible. The translation “while I remember thee, O thou little hill” (Hitzig) requires an arbitrary change in the text, by striking out the preposition before δψ, and giving to the word rendered “therefore” the sense of “because.” The choice of this phrase as a name of Zion, according to this interpretation, must be for the purpose of presenting strongly the contrast between Zion and Hermon, which according to its Arabic etymology means a lofty mountain. All the geographical and historical relations of these two places are utterly perverted, if we suppose that Hermonim (the lofty mountain) is applied in a hyperbolic sense to the hills on which Jerusalem stands, by some one who had been banished or had fled to (Bφttcher) the low, ridgy region beyond Jordan, and who there expresses his longing desire for the house of God and his native hills, in the words “therefore I think of thee, from the land of Jordan, and of the high mountain from the hill of littleness.” Psalms 42:7. Deep calleth unto deep.—ϊּ ?δεν in all other places denotes not a single billow, but the confused noise of deep waters in motion. The force of the phrase here, lies in this, that the fact of one deep being heard by another is dependent on, or is connected with, (according to the sense assigned to μ) the great waterfalls which God makes. The image, therefore, is not that of waves rushing after each other in rapid succession, but that of a man in an abyss of water whose roaring joined with the voice of unseen and unmeasured cataracts impresses him with a sense of great and imminent danger. The rush and roar at once excite and stupify him. There is no proof in 2 Samuel 5:8, that by waterfalls is meant heavy showers of rain, such as might remind one of the deluge (Vatab, Grot., Geier, Hengst.) That verse is very obscure and variously explained, but the Hebrew word (there rendered “gutter”) which is found only in these two passages, probably means a waterfall or cataract (Ewald, Kiel). [Alexander: “The sense of waterfalls or cataracts, although supported by ancient versions has no foundation in etymology or usage.” Barnes: “There are two forms in which waterspouts occur in the East. One of them is described by Dr. Thomson, The Land and Book, I. 498.—The Arabs call it sale, we, a waterspout or bursting of a cloud. In the neighborhood of Hermon I have witnessed it repeatedly, and was caught in one last year, which in five minutes flooded the whole mountain side, and carried off whatever the tumultuous torrents encountered, as they leaped madly down in noisy cascades.”—J. F.] We need not, however, suppose that the waterfalls are those of the main source of the Jordan near Paneas (Bβngas) on the south side of Hermon (Robinson, Bib. Researches, III, 309), nor the cataracts of the Lake Muzerib, which are from 60 to 80 feet high (Wetstein in appendix to Delitzsch on Job, 524) and are said to be the only ones in Syria. For the design of the Psalmist is to give us not a geographic but a symbolical description of his situation, and of his feelings at the time. Psalms 42:8. Yet the Lord will command.—Most expositors since Kimchi, think that in these words, the Psalmist, as in Psalms 42:5, recalls his earlier gracious experiences, and contrasts them with his present destitution, the painful sense of which is expressed in his complaint, Psalms 42:10. But such a contrast of Then and Now, in this connection, as Calvin, Isaaki, and others admit, would have required, at least in Psalms 42:9, the perfect. To take the imperfect of Psa 42:9 as the present in Psalms 42:10, is wholly arbitrary, and there is no need for it here, inasmuch as there is no evidence of any antithesis. Again, neither the connection nor the grammatical expression warrants the exposition of Delitzsch, that, a confidently expected and not distant day of Divine grace would be followed by a night of thanksgiving, a night rendered so joyful with Psalms and hymns of praise, that the exulting Psalmist would be unable to sleep. “Day” and “night” are not to be taken here as symbols of times of prosperity and of adversity, but as a poetical paraphrase for that which is continuous, constant (Hengst., Hupf.) The assignment of the gifts of God’s grace and the prayers and songs which they call forth, to different times, has little ground to stand on. The whole sentence is an expression of the Psalmist’s present state of mind, which, as Hupfeld justly says, was a mixed one. This view is preferable because schiroh denotes a song of which God is the author, (Heng., Hupf., Job 35:19) rather than one of which God is the object (Hitzig, Del.); and tefillah in apposition with schir need not be taken in the limited sense of a petition (Hengst.), nor in the larger sense of a prayer and thanksgiving, since in the verses that follow we have not the prayer itself, (Vaihinger), but a specimen of it (Hengst.)—a specimen proving that in the midst of his troubles, and though God seemed to have forsaken him, the pious singer had received grace as a messenger from God, and prayer as a gift of God, so that he knew how to cleave to God as the God of his life, and to rest upon Him with a firm faith, as upon a rock, while amid the tossing and roaring waves. The Syriac text and that of some other MSS. “to the living God,” is probably only a modification of Psa 42:3. In some copies, Psalms 5:11—perhaps as an explanatory correction—begins with αְ Beth (Beth essential) instead of λְ Caph. It is not said here that reproach should be added to oppression, but that the one should in some way be an effect of the other. “Oppression“ does not necessarily (Hengstenb.) mean “murder” (Symm., Aquil.); it is to be taken in its original sense, as in the Arabic, and in Psalms 62:4; Psalms 69:21; Isaiah 48:13; Ezekiel 21:27. [Alexander: “The strong expression in the first clause, Psalms 42:11, is intended to denote excruciating pain.”—J. F.] Psalms 43:2. Why hast thou forsaken me.—The original here used is much stronger in meaning than that in Psalms 42:10, expressing much more than “forsaking” or “casting off.” Its primary meaning is “to stink,” “to become rancid,” and it here conveys the idea of turning away as from something loathsome. In the German language there is no word exactly corresponding to it, for verstossen and verschmδhen convey a different idea, and do not suit the phrase “God of my strength,” which is parallel to the earlier used phrase “God of my rock.”—The “deceitful man,” or “man of deceit,” must not be taken as an ideal person, but as an individualized foe, probably with reference to some one specially prominent enemy. Viewed in connection with the previous verses, the locality indicates that this opposer was a heathen. This heathenish character, however, would be inferred neither from the word βεֹ ?ιִ, nor from the adjective μΰΞηριγ, “ungodly,” for the first word denotes a mass of people, Isaiah 1:4, and the adjective does not of necessity deny their piety towards God, but only their gracious, kind, and merciful conduct towards men.—The light is that of Divine grace, which illumines and cheers the night of misery, Psalms 36:10; and it is sent with the Truth as a pledge that the promises of the faithful God shall be performed, Psalms 57:4, and that the Lord’s people shall be at last brought to His own dwelling-place, Exodus 15:13. [Perowne: “Light and Truth—instead of the more usual Loving-kindness and Truth—these shall be to him, so he hopes, as angels of God, who shall lead him by the hand till they bring him to the holy mountain. Possibly there may be an allusion to the Urim and Thummim.”—J. F.] AND ETHICAL1. The Living God alone can be the object of desire of the human heart. This yearning after the Living God comprehends the deepest aspirations of the pious soul. During our life on earth, this desire finds its satisfaction by means of the acts of divine worship. If deprived of these means of grace by any external force, this spiritual longing only becomes the more intense, and, in a way not to be mistaken, it will manifest its liveliness, fervor, depth, and power. Communion in the public worship of God is not necessarily communion with God Himself, but it is both an expression and sign of it, and a means and help to it. It is the channel of the brook, through which the water smoothly flows, without the supply of which, the soul becomes like a “land of drought,” Psalms 62:2; and, like the beasts of the field under such circumstances, it perishes of thirst, Joe 1:20. 2. Whenever the pious man finds himself in a condition, in which he is hindered from going to the house of God, which keeps him away from the congregation of the Lord, and from using the appointed means of grace, he feels and recognizes not only the power of the enemies, or of the outward misfortunes that have occasioned this loss, but also the chastening hand of God. His sorrows are intensified partly by the unjustifiable scorn of his enemies, on account of his having been deserted by God, richly as he may have merited such dealing at God’s hands, and partly by the sad yet sweet remembrance of the spiritual enjoyments of other days in the house of the Lord and the fellowship of His people. 3. The bread of tears, Psalms 80:6, though very distasteful, is yet wholesome food, since it awakens and maintains hunger and thirst for the Living God, and the means of communion with Him. But though the pious man, under such circumstances, is, as it were, divided into two parts, is driven now in this direction, now in that by mixed and even antagonistic feelings, yet he finally struggles through and above all the impulses of the flesh, subdues the unrest and impatience of his soul, and learns to lean upon and trust in God alone. The remedy for weakness is hope in God; and the ground of hope is the assured faith of the Psalmist, that God, who is still his God, will in due time redeem him, and give him cause for singing joyful songs of deliverance. (Heng.) 4. Temptations caused by times of trouble, and the growing insolence and number of enemies are specially grievous, when old doubts and anxious questions force themselves afresh upon the soul, when the feeling that God has forsaken us gains in strength, until it even reaches the point of apprehending that we may be cast off. But so long as the tempted man is able both to weep and to pray, so long as he can interweave his questionings and complaints with expressions of faith in God’s grace and truth, there is good ground for confidence in his final deliverance and salvation. Even in the midst of troubles, the believer lays hold of God’s grace, as a Light, sent by Him as a testimony of His mercy, to confirm His faithfulness and truth, and to be a guide to those who seek Him. AND The soul’s longing for its home.—a. How it is awakened. b. Whither it is directed. c. By what it is quieted.—The bread of tears is bitter, but is often wholesome.—Happy the man who feels himself to be a stranger only in the world, but not in the house of God.—God never leaves those who sigh for Him without comfort, nor those who seek Him without guidance.—He alone who has first conversed earnestly with God, can speak comfortably to his own soul.—So great is the blessing connected with the service of God, that the mere memory of it can keep a tempted soul from despair.—The ordinances of divine worship are the open channels, the ordained methods, the appointed ways through which God in his mercy sends to us needy ones the water of life, the light of truth, the power of grace.—Suffering is painful; scorn is still more so; but most of all is guilt.—While each day has its prayer, and each night its song, the sources of divine help and comfort are open to the soul.—In a time of sorrow, he who begins with prayer, and continues to exhort his soul to be patient and trust in God, may confidently hope that he will end with a hymn of praise.—We may enjoy communion with God even when exiled from the house of God; but there is an essential difference between voluntary and compulsory exile.—The good man may fall into trouble, but he is not disheartened; he may come out of one tribulation only to go into another, but he is never destroyed.—The true longing of the soul is for communion with God Himself; but whoever desires to feel it, must not despise the means of grace in the ways of divine worship.—There is such a thing as yearning for the house, the word, the face of God.—Faith has a struggle with temptation in times of trouble, and with the weakness of the flesh. Luther: Where God’s word is, there is God’s house; and His countenance is His presence, where He manifests Himself, and through His word reveals His grace. Calvin: David presents himself to us here as if he had been divided into two parts. So far as he by faith rests on the promises of God, he is armed with a spirit of invincible courage, rises superior to fleshly feelings, and, at the same time, chides himself for his weakness. Without the grace of God, we can never overcome those evil thoughts, which are constantly rising within us. Starke: Earthly things can never satisfy the soul, since they are transient and liable to change. The soul of man is immortal, and therefore needs an immortal source of consolation,—one that has in itself eternal life.—We now see the face of God in His word and sacraments, but as the soul is created for eternity, it is ever longing to behold the Lord face to face. The highest enjoyment is to feel that God is our God; and never is the soul so sorely troubled as when, instead of being certain of this, it imagines the contrary.—Sometimes the more lonesome a man is, the more trustingly he can tell God of his needs, and the Heavenly Father, who sees in secret, will hear and answer his complaint.—Even in our greatest temptations, nothing is better than prayer and confidence in God.—When God sends a cross, it is always in such a way that we should thank Him for it, as a costly and wholesome medicine.—In our greatest tribulations, if we have faith, we shall also have hope and patience.—When God’s waves break upon us, it is not to destroy but to do us good; they are under His control, and by a word He can assuage and still them.—Let us not be tender saints, but let us learn how to bear the cross.—When things go well with thee, gather up a treasure of divine promises, they will be useful to thee in times of trouble.—If thou neglectest to do so, how wilt thou sustain thyself?—A believer is not so much troubled by a personal injury as by dishonor done to the name of God,—he will willingly suffer any thing, even death itself, if only God is thereby praised. How easy is it for God to change complaint into joy, and the song of sadness into the hymn of praise.—We can have no better guide than God and His word; but under whose conduct art thou? O soul!—What greater blessedness can one have than to be able to call God his delight and joy?—The calmness which God imparts is the true Christian’s greatest treasure.—From God’s gracious countenance comes the fulness of the believer’s help and comfort, and for it he is ever and most heartily thankful.—Our hearts are full of darkness;—if we would have them full of light, the bright morning star must shine into them.—Osiander: If justice is denied us here on earth, we must commit our cause to God.—To know God as our gracious God is a real and perpetual joy.—Selnekker: When there is no cross one becomes more easily secure, as well as lazy and negligent in prayer, and then the displeasure of God is near at hand.—He who trusts in God endures; he who does not falls and perishes.—Franke: We must carefully note the necessity of a genuine penitential struggle, and observe how it has fared with other children of God in this respect.—The moment one becomes a follower of Christ, he is liable to have a cross laid upon him.—Arndt: He whose strength is in God will not be utterly cast down, nor will he always go sorrowfully.—Frisch: It is a peculiar trait of God’s children that they rejoice in the exercises of His true worship, and nothing pains them more than the being prevented in joining in them.—The remembrance of God is the best medicine for our sadness.—Listen to the voice of thy God, so that thy heart may by faith share in the joy and consolation which He gives in His word; but do thou also open thy mouth in praise of God, and laud Him with thy tongue, which He has given thee in order that thou mayest proclaim his glory in time and in eternity.—Oetinger: The Christian overtaken by sorrow and oppressed by enemies prays to God to undertake his cause, and to open the way for his return to the assembly of the saints; he will guard against sorrow, but if it comes upon him in a new form, he will turn afresh to God and get strength from Him.—Roos How shall we get out of sorrow and unrest? By waiting, in confidence, for God. What we have not, we must hope for; what is not now, we must expect, relying upon God’s goodness, faithfulness, omnipotence, and the truth of those promises, which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus.—Whenever David approached the altar of God, he went to God his delight and joy.—God Himself did not call the Temple precisely a house of sacrifice, but the house of prayer for all nations, Isaiah 56:7; Luke 19:46—Rieger: As faith grows in power we learn to apply to God the most tender names; as we get nearer and nearer beneath His wings we find a retreat and refuge in His house, at His altar, in Himself.—As the light of His face illumines our darkness, it also diffuses the light of peace and joy over our countenance.—Renschel: We should take comfort from certain passages of Scripture when we find that the holiest people have been led into the same school.—Burk: Exspecta Deum; erit quum confitebor ei; erit Deus meus. (Wait for God; He will be when I confess to Him, my God).—Gόnther: When do men think least of their God? When they are in misery? or in the days of prosperity?—Tholuck: When the heart is sad, even the fairest scenes of nature assume a sombre garment. He whose past life has been eventful stands upon an eminence from whence he can cast joyful looks into the future.—Umbreit: There is a melaneholy joy in the remembrance of a devout and blessed life at home.—Most brilliantly does the light of God’s help shine in the faithfulness with which He always attends the pious.—Schaubach: (15th Sunday after Trinity). No man can serve two masters. But the distinctive feature of our time is not unqualified devotion to the kingdom of God, but rather indecision and lukewarmness.—The sharpest sting of pain in all personal trials, is the scornful question, “Where is now thy God?”—Diedrich: If I can only see God beside me, one look to Him consoles me for a whole world of suffering.—Even to the timid God makes eternal salvation certain when they look to Him with tearful eyes.—Taube: The soul of a child of God, that in the depth of want and temptation thirsts for and cries to God, through victorious faith comes before God and finds its rest in God.—Soul-thirst, soul-need, soul-struggles.—Against men of deceit and injustice, you can do nothing but complain to God and leave the case with Him.—Deichert: If God be for us, who can be against us?—Schaubach: (Judica Sunday) God has judged and conducted the cause of His Son against the unholy people. [Henry: 1. Those that come to the tabernacles, should come to the altar; those who come to ordinances, should qualify themselves to come, and then come to special ordinances, to those that are most affecting and most binding. 2 Those that come to the altar of God, must see to it that therein they come unto God, and draw near to Him with the heart. 3. Those that come unto God, must come to Him as their exceeding joy, not only as their future bliss, but their present joy. When we come to God as our exceeding joy, our comforts in Him must be the matter of our praises in Him as God and our God.—Robertson: The Living God. What we want is not infinitude, but a boundless One; not to feel that love is the law of this universe, but to feel One whose name is Love.—It is a dark moment when the sense of that personality is lost; more terrible than the doubt of immortality.—No thought is more hideous than that of an eternity without Him.—Distinguish between the feelings of faith that God is present, and the hope of faith that He will be.—What God is in Himself, not what we may chance to feel Him in this or that moment to be, that is our hope.—Barnes: He who has an eternity of blessedness before him,—who is to commence a career of glory which is never to terminate and never to change should not be cast down—should not be overwhelmed with sorrow.—J. F.] Footnotes: The Fifth Sunday in Lent.—[J. F.] [“The gigantic Jebelesh Sheikh, or Hermon, lay before us. We had a view of two of its conspicuous summits on account of which it is probably spoken of in Scripture as the hill of the Hermonites.” Lands of the Bible, by Dr. J. Wilson, II 161.—J. F.] Psalms 44 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil1         We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, What work thou didst in their days, In the times of old. 2    How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and, plantedst them, How thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. 3    For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, Neither did their own arm save them: But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, Because thou hadst a favour unto them. 4    Thou art my King, O God: Command deliverances for Jacob. 5    Through thee will we push down our enemies: Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. 6    For I will not trust in my bow, Neither shall my sword save me. 7    But thou hast saved us from our enemies, And hast put them to shame that hated us. 8    In God we boast all the day long, And praise thy name forever. Selah. 9    But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; And goest not forth with our armies. 10    Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: And they which hate us spoil for themselves. 11    Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; And hast scattered us among the heathen. 12    Thou sellest thy people for nought, And dost not increase thy wealth by their price. 13    Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 14    Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, A shaking of the head among the people. 15    My confusion is continually before me, And the shame of my face hath covered me, 16    For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; By reason of the enemy and avenger. 17    All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. 18    Our heart is not turned back, Neither have our steps declined from thy way; 19    Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, And covered us with the shadow of death. 20    If we have forgotten the name of our God, Or stretched out our hands to a strange god; 21    Shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. 22    Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. 23    Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. 24    Wherefore hidest thou thy face, And forgettest our affliction and our oppression? 25    For our soul is bowed down to the dust: Our belly cleaveth unto the earth. 26    Arise for our help, And redeem us for thy mercies’ sake. AND Contents and Composition.—The title is the same as that of Psalms 42. The hosts of Israel have been worsted in battle by hostile neighbors. The whole nation has been thereby not only involved in great misery and oppression, but is in danger of losing its nationality by being carried away and dispersed among other people. Under this great calamity there comes into the consciousness of the nation a very sharp contrast, which also finds expression in the song. God had helped their fathers in the conquest of the land. The story had come down to the present generation, Psalms 44:2-4, and had awakened and maintained in it, the faith that the same God as the King of his people, would and must give the victory over its oppressors, for his own praise in the future as well as in view of former glories, Psalms 44:5-8. These records of the past, and the hopes of faith founded on them, stand in strong contrast with the overwhelming defeat which God’s chosen race had experienced. It seemed as if God had forsaken their armies, and deeming them of no account had given up His people to the assaults and the scorn of their enemies, leading them to fear that they might perish in shame and contempt, Psalms 44:10. This contrast is strengthened by the fact that the people can appeal to the omniscient God, Psalms 44:21-22, as a witness to their earnest and sincere faithfulness to the covenant, Psalms 44:18-20. The way is thus opened for the explanation of this contrast. The present oppression of God’s people grows out of their historico-religious character, Psalms 44:23. During all past ages, they have experienced just such treatment at the hands of a world estranged from God; and hence Paul (Romans 8:36) finds in the sufferings of the church of Jesus Christ an exact historical verification of this Romans 5:23. The destruction of God’s people may at times seem imminent, but that danger will disappear when by earnest prayer they seek the effectual interference of God, relying not upon their own merits, but in the simple consciousness of their need of His help and grace,—that grace which is the source of their covenant relation as their God and His people, Psalms 44:24-26. This exposition renders it unnecessary for us to refute those who find here a superficial sense of sin and consciousness of guilt, at the same time it explains how this Psalm has been thought (Calvin) to have a prophetic reference to the times of the Maccabees. The explanation which supposes an historical reference to those times (Ven., Rosen., Olsh., Hitzig), is opposed by the history of the canon, and is objectionable on other grounds. The Psalm speaks of the whole nation and not merely of the pious part of it. Then, too, it appears from 1Ma 1:11, 2Ma 4:7, that, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, there was a large and organized body of apostates opposed to the party of the Chasedim (the Pious); and, again, while the Maccabees were victorious in all their battles, with the single exception mentioned in 1Ma 5:55, when their defeat was perhaps a punishment upon them for engaging in an imprudent enterprise, no armies were at that period sent out by the Jews. The solemn assertion of the people’s covenant faithfulness is quite inexplicable, if we refer the Psalm to the time of the Babylonian captivity (Cler. Kφster), or to the last days of the Persian dynasty (Ewald), or to the Removal under Jehoiachin (Tholuck), or to the events which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Baur). To the assertion of Hupfeld, that the language and form of the Psalm show that it belongs to a late age, we may reply that conclusions founded on such grounds are very uncertain, and that the remark does not in the least apply to the expressions of prayer here used. (Compare Psalms 3:8; Psalms 7:7; Psalms 35:23; Psalms 59:5); which are very similar to those found in Psalms 42, 43, 80, 85, 89 while the whole Psalm closely resembles Psalms 60. The older view maintained by Heng. Del. is preferable. This refers the Psalm to the same period as that of Psalms 60—the period of the Syro-Ammonite war, in which the Edomites took part (2 Samuel 8:13). The latter carried on a commercial intercourse with the captured Israelites (Amos 1:6), but were afterwards terribly punished for it by Joab, 1 Kings 11:15. Psalms 44:1. We have heard with our ears.—This expression does not exclude the existence of written documents; it only brings out more strongly the contrast between those events of the past, in which they had a personal interest, but of which they had simply heard, and those which they had themselves witnessed. Every Israelite was bound to repeat the story of the Lord’s marvellous works, Exodus 10:2; Exodus 12:26; Exodus 13:8; Exodus 13:14; Deuteronomy 6:20; Judges 6:13; compare Psalms 22:31; Psalms 78:3.—The phrase “done a deed” is not a collective one, but refers specially to God’s work, as appears from verse 3, and in Psalms 90:16. The emphasis of God’s “hand,” as the second subject besides “Thou,” (Isaiah 45:12) refers the work to God not only in a general way, but makes it appear as the immediate product of His activity, and of His personally ordering the events of history, Psalms 74:11; Psalms 89:14; Isaiah 51:9.—The grant of fixed abodes, figuratively set forth as a planting (Exodus 15:17; 2 Samuel 7:10; Psalms 80:9) is carefully contrasted with the uprooting (Amos 9:15; Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 24:6); the enlargement of the people is represented as a sending forth of roots and branches, Psalms 80:12; Jeremiah 17:8; Ezech. Psalms 17:6.—In German we cannot translate λִ ?ι by the same word, in each of the three places in which it occurs in verse 3.—[Barnes: “Afflict the people; i. e., the people of the land of Canaan; the nations that dwelt there. The word means to bring evil or calamity upon any one.”—Perowne: “Give them the victory.“ Such seems here, and generally in this Psalm, to be the force of the word usually rendered “save,” “help;” not very unlike is the use of σωτηρία sometimes in the New Testament.”—J. F.] Psalms 44:4. Thou art He (or even Thou Thyself art), my King. The word δεּ ?ΰ is not here as in Psalms 102:28, the predicate=thou art the same (Luther), but strengthens the subject, as in Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 49:12; Nehemiah 9:6; Ezra 5:11. It is not accurately rendered by the German “selbst,” but contains an explicit reference to what has just been said. The transition to the present, coupled with confession and prayer, and likewise the change of person and tense, Psalms 44:6-9, show that these verses do not refer to the past (Rosen.), but express the present confidence of faith, which lives in the midst and in spite of all oppression. The imperfect tense is used to set forth this confidence, while the displays of divine help on which it is founded are expressed by the perfect tense, Psalms 44:8. This change of the perfect and imperfect distinguishes that which has been hitherto done day by day, from that which has been promised for all future time (J. H. Mich). [Alexander: “The form of expression in the first clause is highly idiomatic, and somewhat obscure; it may mean ‘thou who hast done all this art still my King;’ or, ‘thou art He who is my King.’—The personal name of the patriarch (Jacob) is poetically substituted for his official title, as the father of the chosen people.” Perowne: “My King apparently with a personal application to himself, the Poet individually claiming his own place in the covenant between God and His people. The singular fluctuates with the plural in the Psalms, see verses 6, 15.”—J. F.] Psalms 44:12. For nought (“without riches”). This expression may also mean “gratuitously.” (Hupfeld). But there is nothing to indicate a contrast between the dealings of men in their worldly concerns, for the sake of gain or some external advantage, and the designs of Divine Providence, which have higher pedagogical reasons, and the Redemption which is effected without money and without price. (Isaiah 43:13; Isaiah 52:3; Jeremiah 15:4). Strictly speaking, the figure here used has the sense of “for nought,” and conveys the idea of unworthiness and insignificance. Besides, the whole passage must be taken figuratively, and can have no reference, historically, to the supposed fact that the multitude of captives was so great as to lower the price of slaves. Hupfeld defends the more ancient (Chald., Theod., Kim.) translation of the following line, “thou didst not increase (viz., thy wealth) by their purchase money.” Proverbs 22:16, is not a parallel example, because the definitive words “for thee” are wanting; and the sense of “to gain by usury,” derived from the Aramaic, goes far beyond the meaning of the phrase “thou hast gained nothing.” Most modern expositors, therefore, take the verb “to increase” in an absolute sense, and the preposition α as specifying its extent. [Alexander: “They seemed to be gratuitously given up, i. e., without necessity or profit.”—Perowne: “For nought, i. e., for that which is the very opposite of riches, a mere nothing.”—J. F.] Psalms 44:19. The place of (dragons) jackals denotes a desert region in general (Isaiah 34:13; Jeremiah 9:10; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 49:33; Jeremiah 51:37). It does not refer specially to the district of Jamnia, on the border of Philistia and Dan, where Samson found three hundred foxes (Judges 15:4), and where the unfortunate battle mentioned in 1Ma 5:56, was fought, a locality in which Hasselquist, Seetzen, and other travellers tell us that these animals are found in great numbers (Hitzig). The older translation “dragons” originated in the supposition that ϊּ ?πִּ ?ιν is a contraction for ϊָּ ?πִּ ?ιπִ ?ιν, through a misapprehension of Eze 29:3. The original meaning of the word is “howling.” This cry of the animal of the desert, more minutely described in Lamentations 4:3; Is. 12:22; 35:7; 43:20, is compared to the sounds of wailings uttered by human beings, Job 30:29; Micah 1:8. AND ETHICAL1. The living announcement of the help and deliverance which God has vouchsafed to our fathers in past ages is a means of confirming our faith in His constant providential care under present tribulations. It quickens the hope that He will speedily interfere on our behalf, and stimulates prayer for His instant aid under the pressing necessities of the present, and in the prospect of threatening dangers. Comp. Habakkuk 3:2, and 2 Chronicles 20:7. 2. In the narratives of events of past ages it is necessary both for the proper study of history, and the edification of contemporaries that attention be specially fixed on those events which most plainly exhibit a personal Providence. In tracing these events the thoughts should be turned away from all human activity, wisdom, and might; from all temporal and earthly instrumentalities; they should be fixed on the Divine power as their only and eternal cause. The free grace of God, and the good pleasure of His love, should be viewed as the final and decisive ground of these divine acts. 3. A people which, by faith, renews the confession of God as its King, gains thereby a firm foundation for its historical position in the world; it becomes confident that the same God, to whom, as it gratefully remembers, it owes its origin as a people, will preserve it and deliver it from dangers which may threaten its desolation and destruction. All that is needful to beget this hope is the consideration of the royal sovereignty of Almighty God. 4. The religious means of obtaining such a display of divine sovereignty, in any given case, is Prayer, which appeals not to human worthiness, but to the needs which men so plainly and frequently experience. Hence, Prayer addresses not the justice but the grace of God,—that grace which has been already manifested in establishing the covenant relation, though it may plead this relation, and beg for its preservation. 5. In this appeal there is no affirmation of innocence; no assertion that the moral and religious condition of the people is in accordance with all the demands of the covenant law, for this would be both foolish and untrue. It simply declares the attachment of the people to their covenant God, and that they have preserved the historico-religious position which He has graciously granted to them. While many individuals may have proved faithless, the people, as such, have maintained their allegiance to God as their God. On this ground alone, they ask and expect from their heavenly King deliverance from the worst possible afflictions. 6. In such a case, there is a difference to be made between merited and unmerited sufferings, and while the latter are not to be viewed as judgments, nor as strokes of fate, they should be patiently endured for God’s sake. There is thus a progress in religious knowledge and historico-religious experience, even though it is fully comprehended, that for God’s people, as well as the servant of Jehovah, these sufferings are necessary in carrying out God’s plan of salvation, and that they are as essentially connected with their theocratic destination or mission as they are inseparable from their divine election and call. 7. The endurance of such afflictions implies, on the part of the sufferer, no such feelings as would lead him to complain of God, or to glorify himself. His appeal to God will never take the form of an accusation, but of a prayer, and a vow of thanksgiving for that gracious help of the Almighty which is indispensable. Hence, if in his lamentation the question is asked “why sleepest Thou, O Lord?” and his prayer sounds like a cry to awake, he can use the language of John Hyrcanus (Sota 48, according to Del.) who, in the time of the Maccabees, quieted the anxieties of the Levites, who came daily to him with this same question, by saying, “Does the Godhead sleep?”—Have not the Scriptures declared: “Behold, he who keeps Israel slumbereth not?” It was only in a time when Israel was in trouble, and the people of the world in the enjoyment of rest and prosperity, that the words were used, “Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?” In these, and similar figurative expressions, the prominent idea is, that these sufferings are not to be regarded as evils, positively inflicted by God, but rather as permitted by Him. AND The best histories are those which rehearse the doings of God. The benefits resulting from the study of them are: 1. It helps us to understand God’s providential government on earth. 2. It awakens gratitude for His favors. 3. It stimulates confidence in God’s gracious help. God is our King! (1) Whence do we know this? (2) In what does He help us? (3) How do we testify this?—As long as we are in covenant with God, the most powerful foes cannot destroy us. What follows from this in regard to our conduct and duty?—God is not only the mightiest, but the surest, yea the only reliable ally.—As we are indebted to God for all good things so we must ask Him for all needful things.—Nothing without faith, but every thing through grace.—If we know the name of God, we will properly use it for His honor, for our salvation, and for the good of others.—He who belongs to God’s people, must be prepared to suffer for His sake, and be careful that he brings no dishonor upon His name.—He who really suffers for God’s sake will find that such suffering never separates him from God.—The tribulations of the times always bind the people of God more closely to His name, hand and grace, as the light of His countenance. Starke: It is the business of parents to implant in the hearts of their children the knowledge and honor of God.—Children and young people should lay to heart what they have heard concerning the works of God, from their parents, in order to confirm their faith and to improve their lives.—The change of government in a land should not be regarded as a mere accident, but as an event with which the will and the hand of God are concerned.—Although God employs instruments when He helps us, we should not ascribe to them the aid we get, nor give to them the honor and glory which are due to God alone.—No enemy can gain any honor from a conflict with the children of God; all his malice brings upon himself only shame and injury, but glory and praise to the Lord.—It will soon be manifest on what the heart of any man trusts, for whatever it be he will constantly think and speak of it.—Reason left to itself regards the righteous judgments and the paternal chastisements of God as very strange.—God has often allowed Christians to be brought like lambs to the slaughter, in order that by their death they may praise Him, and become martyrs for Christ.—Let temporal things take whatever turn God pleases, if only the eternal inheritance is sure.—To a suffering believer, the greatest stumbling-block is God’s patience and forbearance towards the very worst of men.—The persecution of the Church for her “good confession” is a sharp trial of her faith, constancy, and patience.—Contempt of the true worship of God will sooner or later end in the adoration of an idol, either in a gross or a refined way.—Sufferings however intense involve no merit: we must look only to the goodness and grace of God.—Bugenhagen: The pious man does what God has commanded, and waits for what God’s will has determined respecting him.—Selnekker: The believer undertakes nothing that is contrary to God’s word. He will never tempt God, but uses such means as God has appointed. His trust is in God alone, who can and will help him.—Osiander: Warlike preparation is not always the cause of victory.—Frisch: He who would exercise true faith, and by such faith would conquer, must possess these three qualities, 1. He must lay aside all trust in earthly power. 2. His heart’s entire trust must be in God. 3. His heart must give all the glory to God.—Franke: Christ’s kingdom must ever manifest itself as a kingdom of the Cross, because it is through suffering that we enter into glory.—Berlin Bible: The events that happened in the primitive Church will be repeated in the Church of the latter day, under the great Anti-Christ.—Rieger: Oh! how mysterious is God! Never imagine that you can lead Him as you wish, even by faith. In ways that to us seem circuitous and contrary, He accomplishes His purposes. What He Himself hath built up, He can break down; what He Himself hath planted, He can root out again. Yet His kingdom loses nothing thereby. What the Church of God may seem to lose by oppression, is more than made up by the victory of the righteous, by the approved piety of those who hold fast their integrity, and their salutary experience gained by suffering. Paul’s song of victory (Romans 8:38) “for I am persuaded” could be uttered only after the composition of such Psalms as the XLIVth, in which the cross and the sufferings of the believer are delineated.—Vaihinger. A look full of faith towards the works of God in ages past!—Tholuck: Israel celebrates in song only the works of God. But the hymns of other nations relate to the great deeds of their ancestors.—Guenther: God’s army has a war-song to strengthen its hope, to describe its wants, and to cry mightily for help.—Diedrich: In every new tribulation God gives us to experience and acknowledge, that if we are grounded upon His word, we can only stand by His power.—Taube: There are instructions how the church of God should act, when she has to bear the cross. Israel’s strength and salvation is also Israel’s Psalm. The flesh timid and faint-hearted, sees in times of affliction, a sleeping God, yet the Keeper of Israel never slumbers,—a repudiating God, and yet God does not repudiate eternally,—a concealed God, and yet He is always mindful of us,—a forgetful God and yet a mother would sooner forget her child than God His people. But He tarries that we may cry! [Henry: The many operations of providence are here spoken of as one work, for there is a wonderful harmony and uniformity in all that God does, and the many wheels make but one wheel, many works make but one work.—He that by His power and goodness planted a church for Himself in the world, will certainly support it by the same power and goodness, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.—When the heart turns back, the steps will soon decline.—We may the better bear our troubles, how pressing soever, if in them we still hold fast our integrity. While our troubles do not drive us from our duty to God, we should not suffer them to drive us from our comfort in God, for He will not leave us, if we do not leave Him.—Bp. Patrick: Certainly we have deserved “all” these calamities, though this comfort is still remaining, that we are not so wicked as to be moved by all this to desert Thee, and violate that covenant by which we are engaged to worship Thee alone. Scott: The formalist commonly escapes persecution by turning with the stream, and purchasing security with sinful compliances, or open apostacy; but the true Church of God cannot be prevailed on by menaces, sufferings, or promises to forget God or deal falsely in His covenant.—The Church of God is one incorporated body, from the beginning to the end of the world; and the benefits conferred on it in every age, will be acknowledged with gratitude by believers through all generations, and even to eternity.—We have reason to be thankful, considering our frailty, for exemption from the more violent species of persecution; but let us be careful that prosperity and ease do not render us careless and lukewarm.—J. F.]. Psalms 45 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, A song of loves1         My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the King: My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. 2    Thou art fairer than the children of men: Grace is poured into thy lips: Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. 3    Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most Mighty, With thy glory and thy majesty. 4    And in thy majesty ride prosperously, Because of truth and meekness and righteousness: And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. 5    Thine arrows are sharp In the heart of the King’s enemies; Whereby the people fall under thee. 6    Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. 7    Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee With the oil of gladness above thy fellows. 8    All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, Out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. 9    Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women: Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. 10    Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; 11    So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty: For he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. 12    And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; Even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour. 13    The King’s daughter is all glorious within: Her clothing is of wrought gold. 14    She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework: The virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. 15    With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: They shall enter into the King’s palace. 16    Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, Whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. 17    I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: Therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever. AND Contents and Composition. In regard to the Title, see Introduction § 12, 13; § 8, 3; § 2. After a preface Psalms 45:2-3 in which are expressed both the elevated feelings of the poet, and the dedication to the king, of his song, so remarkable for its contents and structure, he begins, in a direct address to him, the praises of the king, his beauty, his grace, and the permanent blessing of God resulting therefrom. He then (Psalms 45:4-6) calls upon Him to arise in his royal majesty and might, which in the struggle for truth and righteousness, must ever be victorious. This promise of victory, in which the call to contest is implied, is in (Psalms 45:7-8), connected with the theocratic position of the king, and in consequence of this, there is vouchsafed to him a divine blessing, a greater fulness of joy than falls to the lot of other rulers. The description of his royal possessions and joys, naturally comes in here (Psalms 45:9-10), and prominent among these is the Bride standing on his right hand. This consort of the king (Psalms 45:11-13), is exhorted, in a paternal manner, to forget her home, to devote herself to the king as her Spouse and Lord, and to think of the advantages, she will thereby secure. In the midst of the description that immediately follows, of the queen as attended by her maidens and introduced to the king, there is a direct address to the king himself, and the promise is given that he shall have worthy descendants and everlasting glory (Psalms 45:17, 18). As in the preface, so in the song itself, the king in his glory and happiness is the special object of praise. But his relation to his consort introduced to him as his Bride is not here treated as simply one of the many happy circumstances of his life, as if the Psalm was only an ode to the king (De Wette); or as if it were merely a eulogy of the royal glory of Solomon (Hofmann). The references to a marriage come out, indeed, very prominently, yet it would limit it too much to regard it as merely a bridal song (Most comment, from Calvin to Hupfeld); yet the occasion of the ode must have been the nuptials of a king (Heng., Hitzig). Neither the marriage of the Syrian King Alexander to the daughter of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, in Ptolemais, recorded 1Ma 10:57, nor that of a Persian monarch (Rosen., De Wette) can be the one alluded to on account of the theocratic references in the Psalm. For the same reason we should not—as often happens in historical exposition—treat that Messianic idea of it which prevailed both in the Synagogue and in the Christian church, merely as an allegorical paraphrase made by a later age, whereby a song originally belonging to profane literature, obtained a place in the sacred canon, and was used in congregational worship. Such an allegorical paraphrase is necessary only when this Messianic conception is a direct one, (Chald., Kim., Geier, and most older Commentators, more recently Heng., and Bohl),—a paraphrase which regards this Psalm as having reference to the spiritual nuptials of the Messiah with the Jewish people, and such Gentile nations as were united with them. But this view of it is self-contradictory, and is consistent neither with the text nor with history (Kurtz). It, however, makes little difference whether we regard this poetico-prophetic description of the Messianic condition of things under the figure of nuptial relations, as an independent conception, or seek for its historic ground in the marriage of some Israelitish monarch. In either case, the main point is this, that the Bride is a Gentile princess. But how could she, in the Old Testament, represent God’s people Israel? And, how could her maiden companions who are brought with her before the king, symbolize those Gentile nations that are united with Israel and converted to the heavenly King, even if we understand this introduction to the king as meaning his marriage with all these virgins? Or perhaps these metaphors may be a prediction that the “fulness of the Gentiles shall enter the kingdom of God.” If so, there would be no allusion to the full conversion of Israel, since according to Romans 11:27, this is to follow the conversion of the Gentiles. We must, therefore, regard the covenant people among the queens who are already in the king’s palace, when she who is to be the first consort makes her entrance. Who then is meant by this Bride? And how can we reconcile what is here said of her, with other prophetic and historic accounts of Israel’s relation to Jehovah, and to the Gentile nations? The New Testament images of the marriage of the King’s son, and of the Lamb cast no light upon this point; for this last named marriage is the conclusion of the entire historical development of the union thus symbolized, and which reaches into eternity. But the text refers us to a history which was still in progress. We may add that a free use of the other parables and symbols bearing upon this subject is equally inadmissible. Such a use of them would be allowable if we occupied the standpoint of the completed relation of the New Testament on this head, because it refers not only to Jehovah’s marriage with His covenant people, but to Christ’s relation to His Church which is composed of Gentiles and Jews. In the Old Testament, however, the future union of Jehovah with the Gentiles, and the union of Messiah with them and with Israel, is never set forth under the figure of a marriage contract. And the New Testament when it employs this figure, never uses the expressions of this Psalm. The Psalm is quoted in the New Testament as a Messianic one,—a view of it which the Sept. and Chald. show had long obtained,—but it is quoted Hebrews 1 not in connection with any marriage of Messiah, but to exhibit His theocratic position and purposes. Now all this is overlooked by those who consider this marriage of the King as a type of Christ’s union with His Church (Calvin, Clericus, Ven. Stier, and in part Del.). Most of these expositors pass from the typical to the directly Messianic view, by assuming, that Messiah is spoken of sub figura Salomonis. But we maintain that this Psalm speaks of an actual historical event, because it makes that event the occasion of its praising the king, and because it purposely uses expressions which show that he is not only a member of the royal house of David, but that he is also to carry out a definite Messianic prediction, and to be the instrument of its historic fulfilment. In this view of it we can understand how this person would, in the history of Redemption, hold the place of a type for the later Church,—a type having a prophetico-messianic sense, which is really in the original text, and which a proper translation would bring out (see the Exposition.)—Hence we cannot suppose that the marriage of Ahab and Jezebel of Sidon (Hitzig), nor that of Joram the son of Jehosaphat and Athalijah (Del.) was the historical origin of this Psalm. The best view is that which connects it with the marriage of Solomon, not to an unknown Tyrian princess (Hupfeld), but to the daughter of the king of Egypt, 1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 9:24 (Calvin, Grotius, and most others). Since the historical references in the Psalm itself are by no means decisive, as the exegesis will show, the internal grounds appear to be all the more weighty. These, however, do not oblige us to regard David as the author of the Psalm (Bφhl), who is supposed to have given it to the Korahites for use in public worship. There is no ground for referring it to the early days of Jeroboam II. (Ewald). Psalms 45:1. My heart is inditing.—The Heb. word (ψָ ?δַ ?ωּׁ) occurs only here, and signifies to “boil up or over.” It denotes either the ebullition of the full heart in a way analogous to the motion of boiling water (Symm., Calvin, J. H. Mich., and many others, on account of the noun, Exodus 2:7; Exodus 7:9), or the outflow of speech like that of a stream from a fountain, (Sept., Syr., Jerome). The translation “to” instead of “of” seems to point to the latter sense. In the Hebrew we have the accusative, which in the latter case must be taken as the productive accusative, while in the former, in the way usual with redundant verbs, Psalms 119, 121. The “good word,” (or good matter) is so not simply in form, i. e., a fine speech, nor is it exactly a Messianic word, Isaiah 52:7; Jeremiah 33:14; Zechariah 1:13, but one “most excellent,” both in structure and contents, conveying the idea of one who is congratulating another, Jeremiah 29:10.—All the older translators take the first and second verses as one sentence, but the authors of the Heb. accents divide them into two. The participle is placed first, because the emphasis is on the “speaking;” but the person speaking is also emphasized, because of the sublime consciousness that his poem is intended for a king. If we take ξַ ?ςְ ?ωַׁ ?ιַ as a plural, denoting heart and tongue, “works” (Hengstenberg) are not to be included, as if the Psalmist had vowed to devote all that he did to the service of the king; nor are the later poems of David so designated,—those which the aged king connects with Solomon, and the Messiah as represented by him, (Bφhl); but they are rather to be viewed as poetical productions of the speaker (Del.), with no special reference in the thoughts or the verses (De Wette). Still, as the song in question is the Psalm before us, it seems to be proper to adopt the singular form of the word as in Job 35:10; Numbers 20:19, whether we translate it “my doing,” 1 Samuel 19:4 (Hitzig), or “my poem” (Hupfeld), like the Ποίημα of Symm. We prefer the more general term “work,” thus also preserving the substantive form of the word. The translation to “a king” is in sense and structure more exactly according to the text than the equally possible one of to “the king.” In the latter case the word with the article may be treated like a proper name. The version, “I speak (or sing) my song to the king” (Hupf.), follows the older translations. But there is no reason for connecting these words with the previous line, “my heart boils over, I am speaking a good word” (Bφttcher). As the tongue utters that of which the heart is full, and as the heart is here represented as being in a state of great excitement, as it were, boiling over, the meaning of Psa 45:2 rather is, the unobstructed gliding along of a pen in the hand of a ready writer (Sept., Cal., Geier, Heng., Hup., Del.), than the beautiful display of the skilful writer (Hitzig and others), although the sense of “expert,” “skilful,” is not only sustained by the cognate dialects, but by Ezra 7:6, and perhaps by Isaiah 16:5; Proverbs 22:29. [Alexander: Although particular expressions in this verse may be obscure, its general import is entirely unambiguous, as an animated declaration of the writer’s purpose, and a preface to his praise of the Messiah.”—J. F.] Psalms 45:2. Thou art fairer,etc.—The passive form of the Hebrew word is unusual, and is variously explained. It is certainly intended to present a pictorial climax of the idea of that beauty with which the king is so pre-eminently endowed. Elsewhere prominence is given to the physical beauty of individuals, e. g., Saul, David, Absalom (1 Samuel 9:2; 1 Samuel 10:23; 1 Samuel 16:12; 2 Samuel 14:25), and “grace playing around the lips” is quite as significant as the expression of the eye. But can such traits in themselves (comp. Proverbs 30:31) be the ground of a Divine blessing, or, as in this place, the ground of a blessing of eternal duration? Expositors deny that they can be. But how can they help themselves? Some (Calvin, Stier and others) take “therefore” in the sense of “because,” thus making these features the consequence of the blessing; but the usus loquendi will not admit of this. Others (Heng., Kurz) say that the “fairness” is a symbol and reflection of spiritual perfection, a manifestation of mental and moral beauty. But the text neither speaks of this last, nor of that absolute moral conduct, which is necessary to make this expression of inward beauty the ground of a blessing. For even if we take Psalms 45:3 in the sense of gracious speech (see Isaiah 50:4; Luke 4:22), we must not overlook the fact that the text presents this graciousness as a Divine gift, perhaps as an unction, and that the idea of absoluteness or independence is still wanting, even if we render it “because thy lips overflow with gracious, loving words” (Bφhl), therefore, etc. As little does it satisfy us to be told that one gift draws after it the other—that we must not press the nexus causalis (Hupfeld)—or assume that “therefore” indicates the foundation, not of the blessing itself, but of the consciousness of it (Del.).—I therefore emphasize “beauty,” as meaning not only that it is given by God, but also that it is of a superhuman kind. Such an endowment betokens a grand and peculiar destiny,—it intimates that God not only will bless such a king (De Wette), but that he has already blessed him in this way, viz., that on account of this endowment He has appointed him to be the mediator who is to convey and give effect to that blessing of Abraham and David which is eternal in its duration and strength, and which makes those blessed, who with him and like him are blessing others. Thus the difficulty is removed—the connection of the passage with Psalms 45:7 and its Messianic meaning become the clearer. [Perowne:Therefore, i. e., beholding this beauty and this grace, do I conclude that God hath blessed thee forever.—Alexander: The first word in Hebrew is a reduplicated form, expressing the idea with intensity and emphasis. Grace, in Hebrew as in English, denotes both a cause and an effect; in this case, grace or beauty of expression, produced by Divine grace or favor, and tending reciprocally to increase it. On any hypothesis, except the Messianic one, this verse is unintelligible.—J. F.] Psalms 45:3-4. Gird thy sword.—This verse can be used to show that there is here no reference to Solomon, only by forgetting that both Gideon and David (Judges 6:12; 1 Samuel 16:18) were styled Gibbor (Mighty One), before they had accomplished any warlike deeds; or by supposing that in this passage the king is simply called upon to prepare for a war, in which victory is promised him (De Wette); or by denying that there is here, in a poetic form, a description of the king’s readiness for war, and the certainty of his victorious career (Cal., Rosen., Hup.). This description is not simply a suitable close to that of the beauty of the royal bridegroom, in an ode to him (Hup., Hitzig), and which in no way depends upon the question whether he has already manifested or ever shall manifest these martial qualities, but it strikingly brings before us the circumstances which surround the king, who has received from God a theocratic position and task, which he is to maintain and execute in the world. He must be equipped for conflict, and certain of victory. The terms “majesty and glory” are only weakened by the translation “ornament and adornment” (De Wette), as if they were epithets of the sword. They are rather descriptive of that radiant splendor of majesty, that Doxa, which (calling for praise and revealing His glory) beams around the heavenly (Psalms 96:6; Psalms 104:1; Psalms 111:3; Job 11:10) and the theocratic king (Psalms 21:6; Psalms 8:6). These words, therefore, are not in apposition to the “sword,” as the symbol of majesty (Heng., Hupfeld), but they indicate with what the king should gird himself, beside the sword. A similar image is used in Psalms 30:12; Psalms 132:9; Ephesians 6:14; 1 Peter 1:13.—The word that follows εַ ?δַ ?γָ ?ψִ ?κָ, which is the echo of what precedes, and is linked to it like the notes in a musical scale (Maurer, Bφhl), cannot possibly be taken as simply strengthening it, as if the sense was—“yes, thy ornament is really thy ornament” (De Wette); nor can it be grammatically rendered “in thy ornament,” as most expositors do. Or, if we regard it as a nominative absolute (Hengsten.), or as the accusative to define more plainly the succeeding verb (Del.), the otherwise rapid movement of the Psalm would be checked and crippled (Hitzig). It is therefore, on critical grounds, suspicious. But as the word is found in all the older versions, its absence from Codd. 39, 73, Kennicott, proves nothing, and it is a mere assumption to say that it has been interpolated into the text by the repetition of the previous word (Olsh., Hup., Bφtt., Del.). By a change of the Hebrew points, Hitzig makes the word εַ ?δַ ?γψְ ?κ, which he renders “steps forth.” This is ingenious, but the Septuagint and Vulgate while following this reading, have translated the word “bend,” i. e., the bow. We should find here following the verb an accusative of the object, if the sense was “to take aim” (Ewald). Other later commentators maintain that the fundamental idea is “break through,” which, when applied to plants, has the sense of prosperare, and being by ancient expositors erroneously applied to men, occasioned the inadmissible translation, “be happy.”—“Riding” refers to the use of the war-chariot, or of the battle-horse. The older critics (Kim., Calvin, Ven.) connect the following words closely with “upon the word of truth.” Others (Chald., Geier, Rosen.) understand al-debar as in Psalms 79:9; 2 Samuel 18:5, as indicating the object, of the combat, i. e., for the sake of the truth. Others (Luther, Mendelsohn, Hengstenberg) explain it, needlessly, as a metonomy for the representative of truth, i. e., “the truthful and the meek,” or “the oppressed and the righteous.” The same may be said of the explanation, “in matters, or in favor of truth and oppressed righteousness” (Bφhl), or “oppression” (Del.); also, “for the sake of faithfulness (which maintained peace), and pious innocence” (Hitzig). It is, perhaps, more in accordance with the context and the use of language to interpret the passage as indicating the reason of the victorious riding forth of the theocratic king, which, however, is not his moral qualifications of fidelity, justice and meekness (Hupf., Camp.), on account of which he merits the victory, but God’s truth, meekness, and righteousness, by which this theocratic servant and Messianic representative is sent into the world-historic struggle, and is led to final triumph. The compound noun (an intermediate form between the construct and the absolute state) must not be resolved into two distinct ideas, placed side by side (De Wette), the original position of which may have been the reverse of what it now is (Olsh.),—a reading which is found in some codices. It is that “righteousness” whose germ is gentleness (Heng.), or, more precisely, “condescension,” as in Psalms 18:36, where God’s gentleness is spoken of; compare also Isaiah 11:4; Psalms 72:4; Jeremiah 2:3. The “hand,” the ordinary instrument of action, is here represented as a “teacher,” because by the performance of terrible deeds it reveals a power hitherto concealed, of which its possessor had not been conscious. [Alexander: The two words (honor—majesty) are constantly employed to denote the Divine majesty (Psalms 96:6; Psalms 104:1; Psalms 111:3), as distinguished from that of mortals (Job 40:10), or as bestowed upon them by special Divine favor. The first of the two is separately used to signify specifically royal dignity (1 Chronicles 29:25; Daniel 11:21).—Perowne: “Thy glory and thy majesty,” a second accusative not in apposition with “thy sword,” but dependent on the verb “gird on” in the first clause.—“Ride on prosperously,” lit., “make thy way, ride on,” the first verb being used adverbially, to add force to the other (Ges. § 142, Obadiah 1:1).—Alexander: “Thy right hand” as the seat of martial strength and aggressive action. “Shall girdle” or point the way, the proper meaning of the Hebrew verb, which, like other verbs expressing or implying motion, may be followed directly by a noun, where our idiom would require an intervening preposition.—The insensible transition from the imperative to the future shows that the former was really prophetic, and that the prayer of this and the preceding verse is only a disguised prediction of Messiah’s triumph, as one going forth conquering and to conquer.—J. F.] Psalms 45:6-7. Thy throne.—“Thy God-throne.” This construction, which the slat. construct., through the suffix, separates from its genitive, is supported by Leviticus 6:3; Leviticus 26:42; 2 Samuel 22:23; Habakkuk 3:8; Jeremiah 33:20; Ezekiel 16:27; Psalms 35:19. And that the idea as thus expressed is in accordance with grammatical rule, is proved by 1 Chronicles 29:23, where the throne of the Davidic dynasty is plainly called “the throne of the Lord” (Jehovah). And it is based upon the theory that the king of Israel is designed to be the visible representative of the invisible Ruler to the covenant people (Hupf., Kurz). Jehovah sits upon His throne forever. His throne is from generation to generation, Lamentations 5:19. We cannot simply transfer this predicate to the personal dominion (Heng.) of the theocratic king, and so give the passage an immediate Messianic reference. But it might properly be transferred to his throne, after the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:13 had been promulged; compare Psalms 89:5. (Hupfeld erroneously adds Psalms 21:5; Psalms 72:5). If it be objected on grammatical grounds that τlam-va-ηd is nowhere else used as a predicate, we may still render the clause “thy throne is a throne of God forever and ever” (Aben Ezra, Hitzig, Ewald). This is better than the rendering “thy throne is Elohim” (Doederlein). It is also hazardous to supply a possibly lost verb, and make Elohim the subject of the sentence—“Elohim has founded thy throne” (Olshausen). The old view of Elohim as a vocative (Stier, Heng., Del., Bφhl) rests upon strong grammatical grounds, and warrants the direct Messianic exposition. But in the Korahitic Psalms, as also in the Chald., Targ., Elohim stands for Jehovah. This might induce us to regard the address as made to God Himself. But whether Elohim Elohicha is taken as Elohim in a vocative sense, or as corresponding to the usual Jehovah, the following verse proves that the address is to the king, and other statements show that not the Messianic but the theocratic king is meant. He, however, cannot be addressed as Elohim—Jehovah. Such an address would involve a sense very different from that in which Elohim is applied to kings as the representatives of God on earth (Psalms 82:1; Psalms 82:6); compare John 10:35, especially in their judicial character (Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:7; Psalms 138:1). Hence Hebrews 1:8, where the Greek text has the vocative, may properly be quoted in proof of the divinity of the person addressed. Nor is there in this any difficulty in regard to the Messiah. According to Isaiah 9:5, He shall be called El Gibbor (the Mighty One)—a name often applied in the Old Testament to Jehovah; and in Jeremiah 23:6 he is styled Jehovah Zidkenu (the Lord our righteousness). This designation, the dogmatic importance of which is unjustly denied by Hupfeld, is historically vindicated by the fact that, in connection with it, mention is always made of a descendant of David,—so that finally David’s house shall be as Elohim, as Maleach Jehovah—“the angel of Jehovah, or the angel Jehovah” (Zechariah 12:8). The contents of this Psalm, however, show that Messiah is not directly addressed. Nor has the anointing mentioned in this place any relation to his name. The question here is not about the consecration of the king, as he enters upon the functions of his government, nor of his being replenished with the Holy Spirit, of which the anointing with oil was the symbol; but this last is here used as the symbol of joy, Isaiah 61:3; Psalms 23:5; Psalms 104:15. It does not precede his righteous administration as its source, but follows it, as its final, abundant, and Divine reward. Isaiah 61:8; Psalms 5:5. It is uncertain whether the phrase “thy fellows,” as in 2 Chronicles 1:12, is to be understood of other kings (as most expositors take it), or of the friends and companions of the bridegroom (Stier, Hupfeld).—[Perowne: “Thy throne, O God!” This rendering seems, at first sight, to be at variance with the first and historical application of the Psalm. I conclude, therefore, that in the use of such language the Psalmist was carried beyond himself, and that he was led to employ it by a two old conviction in his mind—the conviction that God was the King of Israel, combined with the conviction that the Messiah, the true King, who was to be in reality what others were but in figure, was the son of David.—Alexander: To avoid the obvious ascription of divinity contained in the first clause, two very forced constructions have been proposed: 1. Thy throne (is the throne of) God forever and ePsalm Psalms 45:2. Thy God throne (or Divine throne) is forever. But even admitting, what is very doubtful, that a few examples of this syntax occur elsewhere, the sense thus obtained is unsatisfactory and obscure,—and this is still more true of that afforded by the only obvious or natural construction besides the one first given, thy throne is God forever and ever.—Barnes:Thou lovest righteousness. The word “God” is rendered in the margin “O God, thy God hath anointed thee.” According to this construction, the thought would be carried on which is suggested in Psalms 45:6, of a direct address to the Messiah as God. This construction is not necessary, but it is the most obvious one.—J. F.] Psalms 45:8-11. All thy garments smell of myrrh.—In the third word the vav is omitted as is often done in the enumeration of things of the same kind. (Deuteronomy 29:22). The nuptial garments are as thoroughly perfumed by these spices, as if they had been made of them. (Heng., Hup., Hitz.). Their costliness is increased by their having been brought from distant lands. Myrrh, a balm:—Cassia, a bark similar to cinnamon, from Southern Arabia; Aloes, for the purpose of fumigation, from India. The mention of ivory palaces might remind us of these countries, if we could refer the doubtful word Minnξ to the Mynaeans in South Arabia, who according to Diod Siculus 3:47, had houses ornamented with ivory, or to the Armenians who were early celebrated for their commerce, Jeremiah 51:27. (Chald.); but we must then translate the following verse—“out of Armenia’s ivory palaces, king’s daughters make thee glad.” (J. D. Mich., Knapp, Muntinghe); or (according to more Ancient critics, Rosenmόller) “art made glad with presents.” In this case we must suppose a Persian king to be alluded to, (De Wette) because, according to Herodotus 3:93, to such kings, the Armenians were tributary. We might naturally think that these costly articles were obtained through the agency of traders, and we need not change the translation “palaces” into that of “chests” (Bφhl) since Hκkal is generally taken in the sense of a capacious vessel (Sept., Kimchi, Vatablus, and others), just as Bottim is in Exodus 25:27; Exodus 36:29; Isaiah 3:20. But all this is far fetched. We are prepared to find here something notable in regard to the marriage of the king, and not a mere enumeration of his costly possessions. The latter idea would be possible only if the version were “in” ivory palaces. We might then consider Minnξ as only a shortened form of Minnim i.e., strings, or stringed instruments Psalms 150:4. For though examples of such a defective plural are wanting, nearly all commentators since Sebastian Schmidt consider such a plural form as possible, and as in fact here used. But as the rendering “out of” cannot be avoided, it is also generally conceded that the allusion is not to the beauties of the royal palace into which the bride is led (Hup.), but to the palace of her father out of which a procession issues to greet the royal bridegroom (Maccab. 9:37; Proverbs 2:17, with the music usual on such occasions. In this view, it is useless to inquire whether Solomon had only a throne adorned with ivory (1 Kings 10:18); or also a tower of this sort (Son 7:5); or even a palace, since it is plain from Amos 3:15, that there were several such houses in the kingdom of Israel, as well as the ivory beds mentioned Amos 6:4 (Hup.). It is equally needless to ask whether, because such a palace is not mentioned as having been the residence of Solomon, while Ahab is said to have had one (1 Kings 22:29), the reference is to this latter king (Hitzig), or to his daughter (Delitzsch). The plural does not indicate the various residences of the many brides here called “queens,” afterwards “companions,” and who are the types of the Gentiles (Heng.). It is simply intended to set forth in poetic form, the splendor of the palace into which the king, (who already has in his harem kings’ daughters, perhaps the daughters of neighbors (Kurtz) who though neither vanquished nor tributary princes (De Wette), were inferior to him,) now brings the principal consort, who takes the place of honor at his right hand (1 Kings 2:19) resplendent with gold of Ophir, the most precious kind of gold known in Jerusalem in David’s time. (1 Chronicles 29:4). Hence we do not favor the interpretation that once prevailed, based on the older versions, which regarded Minnξ as a preposition with the Yod paragogic, in the sense of “out of them,” or to give emphasis to it, “out of it thou art made glad.” (Heng). The rendering “more than ivory palaces, yea more than they, art thou made glad by them” (Hofmann) gives an undue importance to the palaces as well as the garments. The same is true of the translation “a number of them i.e. more than one make thee glad.” (Bott.).—The title of the principal consort Shegal is used in Nehemiah 2:6, of a Persian, and in Daniel 5:2 of a Chaldean queen. But this is no certain proof that the Psalm belongs to a later period, for in Jer. 12:18; 29:24; 2 Chronicles 15:16, we find the usual and more comprehensive word Gebirah, “mistress” (applied also to the king’s mother) still in use, 1 Kings 11:19; 1 Kings 15:13. Nor can we admit the foreign origin of the word, for in its sense of “concubine” it is found in 1 Kings 5:30, and as a verb in Deuteronomy 28:30. The opinion of Bohl that the king’s daughters belonged to her retinue, and were clothed with ornaments presented by the king, founded upon the translation “Kings’ daughters go about in thy ornaments,” (Sept., Luth., many Ancient critics, Hofmann) is not confirmed by the text. The retinue of virgins (Psalms 45:14) holds a different position from that of the king’s daughters (Psalms 5:11). These already form part of the king’s “treasures.” (Bφtt., Hup.). They belong to his “dear ones,” i.e. his appreciated women, (the Rabbins, Calvin, and others, Del.), or his “little favorites and treasures” (Hitzig). We might also call them his “magnificent ones.” only that we must understand it in the sense of those who are “magnificently arrayed.” [Perowne:King’s daughters. As polygamy had only the permission, not the sanction of God, it may seem strange that this should be mentioned as a feature in the splendor of the monarch. But polygamy was practiced by the best of kings; and the Psalmist is describing the magnificence of an Oriental court such as it actually existed before his eyes, not drawing a picture of what ought to be in a perfect state of things.—Alexander:Daughters of kings (are) among thy precious ones; stationed is the queen at thy right hand, in gold of Ophir. Precious, dear, not in the sense of beloved, which the Hebrew word never has, but in that of costly, valuable, which it always has. Stationed, not simply stands but placed there, as the post of honor.—Ophir, one of the places to which Solomon’s ships traded with the Phenicians (1 Kings 9:28; 1 Kings 10:11; 2 Chronicles 8:18; 2 Chronicles 9:10). Its situation is disputed, and is of no exegetical importance.—J. F.]. Psalms 45:12. And the daughter of Tyre.—Most interpreters with the older versions explain this to mean the inhabitants of Tyre. In Isaiah 23:12, Tyre is personified as a daughter (the daughter of Zidon). Here the plural form of the verb which follows, brings out the idea of numbers, who are described as the richest among the people, while some suppose that they are the poor among the people mentioned in Isaiah 29:19. There is no mention of homage or tribute paid by the Tyrians to Israel, as there is no historic ground for supposing that such homage was ever rendered by them. It is simply declared that as a recompense for the Bride’s devotion to the king of Israel, he promised, that to gain her favor, the richest men, the neighboring Tyrians should bring her presents. A few critics (Jerome, Hitzig, Hupfeld) notwithstanding the “and” take the words in a vocative sense—“O daughter of Tyre!” But this would make the bride the daughter of a Tyrian king, to whom the rich men of the Israelitish nation should do homage by bringing presents to her. It is possible but by no means certain that this might become the basis for the historical interpretation. But even the common exposition involves so many grammatical difficulties, and such too is the structure of the verse, that a defect in the text is quite probable. (Camp.). [Barnes:The daughter of Tyre. In the time of the Psalmist it was probably the most wealthy and luxurious commercial town then existing: and it is referred to here as meaning that persons of highest rank, and of the greatest riches, and those surrounded most by affluence and luxury, would come to honor the king. Even the daughter of the magnificent prince of Tyre would deem it an honor to be present with a gift becoming her exalted station. Even the rich, etc. The sense here is, the richest of the nations shall make court to thee with gifts.—J. F.]. Psalms 45:13-15. Within (Psalms 45:14,) i. e. the interior of the palace,—not that of her consort, seated upon the throne (Gesen.), but the palace of her father from whence, after the conclusion of the marriage and the exhortations and promises made to her, the festive procession goes to the residence of her spouse. The explanation of the term as denoting the internal disposition of the bride (Luth., J. H. Mich., Stier), with a reference to 1 Peter 3:3, has led to many typical and edifying applications. Certainly this sense suggests a more striking contrast with the splendor of her garments, than the supposed allusion to her personal beauty (Grot.). Hitzig translates 5:15, “upon cushions of many colors.”—The virgin companions who enter the palace at the same time with the newly married couple, with festive songs and dances are not bride’s maids, but belonged to the household of the young queen, and according to oriental custom, were upon her marriage transferred to the possession of the king. Of royal virgins, who are to be married to the king (J. H. Mich., Rosen, Heng.) there is no mention in the text. The benediction of their descendants, who should not only occupy the palace of their fathers, but resemble them in virtue, (Hupf.) may be rendered “princes in the whole land.” There is perhaps a reference to the fact that Solomon divided his kingdom into twelve governments. 1 Kings 4:7. David, before him had made his sons princely governors (1 Kings 22:26; Zephaniah 1:8), (Sarξm): and at a latter period, probably for a like reason Rehoboam placed his sons in charge of fortified cities (11:23). The larger view and application of these words as a prediction of the future spread of the Theocracy over all the earth is warranted by the promise that the name of this king shall be kept in the living remembrance of the Church through all generations, by her songs, and that through them, all people would come to know and forever praise him. (Psalms 72:17). This is not hyperbolical flattery (De Wette) but a promise due to the Theocratic king. [Perowne:Gladness. Lit., “Joys,” the plural denoting fulness and manifoldness. Psalms 45:16 and those immediately preceding are, to my mind, evidence sufficient that this Psalm cannot as a whole, be regarded as prophetical of the Messiah. It seems far wiser to me to acknowledge at once the mixed character of such Psalms as this. It does speak, no doubt, of One who is higher than the kings of the earth, but it does so under earthly images.—The sacred poet sees the earthly king and the human marriage before his eyes, but whilst he strikes his harp to celebrate these a vision of a higher glory streams in upon him. Thus the earthly and the heavenly mingle. Alexander:I will make thy name to be remembered. The Psalmist speaks as one in a long series of inspired heralds, and in behalf of all. The form of the festival implies fixed determination and involves a pledge.—J. F.]. AND ETHICAL1. He who has a good message to deliver may well feel his heart swell with loving sympathy and grateful joy because God has chosen, called, and prepared him for such an errand. The depth of the sentiment will be proportioned to the dignity of the person to whom he is sent, and the importance of the message he has to deliver. But whoever may be the one addressed, if the message is important, its form of expression is not a matter of indifference;—the good word should have a good place. 2. If a man has superior endowments, he should consider them as a gift of God, and receive them as an ornament from the hand of God, bestowed upon him not that he may boast of them, or glorify himself, but that he may direct his life to the attainment of those ends for which God has chosen him, fitted him specially, and sent him into the world. The richer and more varied these gifts, and the higher the position in which God has placed him, the greater is his responsibility, and his obligation to regard himself as the servant of the Most High, and to use these advantages and blessings as the means of fitting himself to seek, that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that the kingdom of God through His abiding blessing, may overcome all the enemies it encounters in this world. 3. When princes adorn their persons with ornaments suited to their high rank, especially on festive occasions, they should do so not for the sake of vain glory, but, on the one hand, to command respect and admiration for the majesty of their office, and on the other, to lead the thoughts of men up to the eternal throne of God, from whom all blessings come, both to princes and their people. Of this throne, princely dignity and rank are an earthly image. By the effectual power and grace of God, all kingdoms are founded, princely dynasties become durable, and governments are stable. And the kingdom of God has been brought into this world, is kept in it, and extended over it, for the purpose of bringing high and low into its service. 4. Marriage as a divine ordinance is fraught with honor and joy, and even with a cross is blessed. As it introduces new relations, so it involves various new tasks and duties; and to these it is proper that the Christian pastor should call attention, in the way of exhortation and comfort, especially as it has been chosen to be a symbol and type of the mysterious union of God and His people, of Christ and the Church. But in dealing with it in this aspect we should not go beyond the example of the Scriptures. 5. Mutual conjugal devotion, involves, no doubt, many pains and sacrifices, but the love and obedience which are its essence, according to God’s promise, secure great blessings. Among these blessings are, the influence upon contemporaries, the preservation of the race by means of well trained children, and the leaving behind us a good name which may excite others to emulate us. But we must not forget that as the glory of the King in the kingdom of God infinitely surpasses all human glory, so no human name can be put upon a par with His. The Church is called upon to make a proper acknowledgment of His divine nature, dignity, and honor, to preserve the remembrance of His name through all generations, and by proclaiming it to the Gentiles to excite them to join in the same praises. Ps. 102:14; 135:31. AND Out of the heart the mouth speaketh. See to it therefore what thy heart receives, and by what it is moved.—Remember from whom thou hast obtained thy beauty, for what purpose thy rank has been given thee, and for what end thy power is employed.—The highest point that any man can reach, is to become the recipient, the bearer and the producer of the divine blessing.—God’s love in the heart, God’s praises on the lips procure more than one happy hour.—If you would get a permanent blessing, you must follow the directions of God’s word, and seek His kingdom.—Pious and just kings deem it an honor to be called the servants of that God who has clothed them with majesty. Hail to the king who acknowledges that God is the giver of his crown, the strength of his throne, and the type of his government.—The ornament, calling, and aim of pious married people.—The honor, order and blessing of the matrimonial state.—Whoever in love, makes sacrifices, which he is bound in obedience to his calling to make, may hope for an abundant reward, according to the divine promise. More precious than gold is a happy marriage, and a family of well trained children. There are many names, renowned, blessed, and justly honored by the children of men; but there is only One name by which we can be saved. Its praises shall be sung in the church from generation to generation, and the knowledge of it shall extend unto the heathen, in order that it may be praised for ever and ever.—Ascending the throne by a king is, so to speak, solemnizing his marriage with his people.—The certainty of the glorious results accomplished by a king after God’s own heart, in his struggles for truth and righteousness.—He who proclaims the name of the Lord, prepares the way for his being praised by all the people. Luther: Honored by thy bridegroom, thon art really honored before all the world.—This song can be truly comprehended only by faith; for it is God’s word, which unless taken hold of through faith, can be understood by no human being.—Mark this, whatever Christ has, He communicates to those who believe in Him.—The Lord Himself has adorned and endowed all who are betrothed to Him, and has given them that by which they are acceptable to Him.—Everything should be done in the service and for the honor of this King.—There may be a great difference among His people as regards gifts, but they are of one mind respecting the highest article of faith, viz., that they can be saved only through faith in Christ, and by no other way, or means. Starke: Let heart and tongue have nothing to do with evil things, but rather with that word which God has revealed from heaven, and which is able to build up our souls unto salvation.—Personal beauty is a gift of God not to be despised, but the beauty of the soul, which consists of piety and other Christian virtues, is a far higher treasure.—To His own people, Christ is both a gracious Ruler and a mighty Defender against their enemies.—Wealth without fellowship with Christ is more injurious than useful to men.—The best adoration of Jesus consists in this, that we recognize Him as our only Lord and ourselves as His peculiar property,—that we love and serve supremely none but Him.—How can the Church perish, since Christ’s name and praise shall never be forgotten?—Oh! that the gladness of the marriage feast were always sanctified by the remembrance of the joyful home-bringing of the spouse to her Bridegroom in heaven. Osiander: Happy are the princes and rulers who surpass their subjects in wisdom and virtue, as well as in other gifts.—Selnekker: If we speak of this King, of His name and His office, we shall at once experience joy and pleasure in heart, soul, and body.—Franke: Christ will come to the terror of the wicked, to the joy and gladness of the pious who believe in Him.—Renschel: Christ is our Bridegroom, His beauty is our ornament, His gracious lips our comfort, His arrows our protection, His sceptre our guide, His oil of joy our unction—Frisch: Believing soul! be thou stimulated by this heavenly bridal song to deny the love of the world, and to love with a pure affection the bridegroom of thy soul.—Burk: See in how many points the bride may be compared to the bridegroom.—Rieger: A bridal song of the Holy Spirit for the marriage feast which the king makes for His Son.—Oetinger: The King of God’s kingdom deserves that men should proclaim His praise.—Tholuck: Truth and goodness joined to righteousness are the prize for which the Messiah struggles.—Vaihinger: Out of every contest with His enemies this king comes forth a complete conqueror, and in every new war His throne is proved to be immovably firm.—Diedrich: A song of praise to the greatest of kings, whose word has the greatest loveliness, and whose power is omnipotent. The mystery of divine love towards humanity.—Taube: The beautiful Song of Solomon 1. Of the king; a, Of His beauty. b, Of His heroic power and victory. c, Of His anointment.—2. Of the king’s bride, a, Of the wedding garments in which she appears. b, Of the marriage sermon pronounced by the Holy Spirit. c, Of the treasures the bride receives. Earthly matrimony is not the prototype, but the image and copy of that higher relation.—F. W. Krummacher; The advent prayer of the Church of Christ. We consider1. The Address, “Thou hero.” 2. The six petitions. 3. The Amen. [Henry: “I will speak of the things which I have made.” 1. With all possible clearness, as one that did himself understand, and was affected with the things he spake of. Note, what God has wrought in our souls, as well as what He has wrought for them we must declare to others. 2. With all possible cheerfulness, freedom, and fluency. “My tongue is as the pen of a ready writer.” The tongue of the most subtle disputant, and the most eloquent orator is but the pen with which God writes what He pleases.—They that have an admiration and affection for Christ, love to go to Him and tell Him so.—The glorious cause in which He is engaged, “because of the truth,” etc., which were, in a manner sunk and lost among men, and which Christ came to retrieve and rescue. 1. The Gospel itself is truth, meekness and righteousness; it commands by the power of truth and righteousness, for Christianity has these, incontestably, on its side, and yet it is to be promoted by meekness and gentleness, 1 Corinthians 4:12; 1 Corinthians 13:2. Christ appears in it in His truth, meekness and righteousness, and these are His glory and majesty, and because of these He shall prosper. Men are brought to believe on Him because He is true, to learn of Him because He is meek, Matthew 11:29; the gentleness of Christ is of mighty force. 2 Corinthians 10:1. Men are brought to submit to Him because He is righteous and rules with equity. 3. The Gospel so far as it prevails with men, sets up in their hearts, truth, meekness and righteousness, rectifies their mistakes by the light of truth, controls their passions by the power of meekness, and governs their hearts and lives by the laws of righteousness.—All true children are born from above: they are the believers of the King of kings; these attend the throne of the Lord Jesus daily with their prayers and praises, which is really their honor, and He is pleased to reckon it His.—The conversation of Christians in which they appear in the world, must be enriched with good works, not gay and gaudy ones, like paint and flourish, but substantially good, like gold; and it must be accurate and exact, like wrought gold, which is worked with a great deal of care and caution.—They that help to support the honor of Christ on earth, shall in heaven see His glory, and share in it, and be forever praising Him. Scott: In the Redeemer, the enlightened soul perceives unutterable goodness and beauty, which eclipses all the dim excellency that it was wont to admire in the children of men. The gracious words which He speaks to sinners, are replete with Divine harmony, and excite ineffable comfort in the broken heart.—In proportion as we are conformed to His holy image, we may expect the gladdening influence of the Comforter, which is communicated from His fulness, and while His name is to us “as ointment poured forth,” the fragrancy of heavenly affections will recommend our conversation to the spiritually-minded, and make us meet for His palace above.—The true believer’s privileges, as well as the most estimable parts of his character are internal, and undiscerned by an ungodly world; yet the holiness of his conversation proves the inward adorning of his soul, and that he is arrayed with the robe of righteousness and salvation.—J. F.] Psalms 46 To the chief Musician,for the sons of Korah,A song upon Alamoth         GOD is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2    Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3    Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. 4    There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. 5    God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early. 6    The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered his voice, the earth melted. 7    The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 8    Come, behold the works of the Lord,What desolations he hath made in the earth. 9    He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire. 10    Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 11    The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. AND Contents and Composition. In regard to the Title, see Introd. § 12, 9. This Psalm, reechoed in Luther’s choral (Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.—A stronghold is our God), is not simply a general expression of trust in Jehovah, under all possible dangers. (Rosen.). The perfect tenses (Psalms 5:7) following the many imperfects and the references (Psalms 5:9), to a particular deed of Jehovah point to a special motive for this heroic song, which is so full of gratitude and victorious confidence, of joyful faith and hope of peace. But this conviction of permanent protection founded on the experience of Divine aid to God’s people, manifests itself in expressions of a feeling of security in general, based on the strength of this relation to God. Not only does the song begin with such expressions, but they are repeated in the refrain with which each strophe ends. Only the first strophe, in our present text (perhaps by mistake simply) has no such ending. (Ols., Ewald, Hup., Del.). For with the change of the infinitives into imperfects, verse 4 is neither in apposition to “remove” and “carried into,” (J. H. Michaelis, Heng.), nor is it to be taken in a concessive sense (Rosen. and others), but is a proposition, the concluding sentence of which must be supplied not by disturbing the strophical structure in Psalms 46:5, (Calvin) but must be completed in the way indicated above. The occasion of this Psalm, however was not the desolation produced by war among other nations, while Israel enjoyed peace (De Wette), but a mighty deed of Jehovah, by which Jerusalem beleaguered by enemies was delivered from them without a battle. It may refer to the sudden disappearance of the Syrians allied with Israel, on their approach to Jerusalem in the time of Ahaz, see Isaiah 7 (Hitzig); or better still to the defeat of the Assyrians under Sennacherib, Is. 36:29, (Heng., Ewald, Hup.); or to events under Jehoshaphat, recorded in 2 Chronicles 20 (Del.). There are in this Psalm, (and in the two which follow and are closely related to it) many points of resemblance to Isaiah, particularly the term Immanu, but this will not warrant our ascribing its composition to this prophet (Ven., Hitz.). It is worthy of remark that in this Elohim Psalm, God is called Jehovah in respect to His influence in the history of the world, Psalms 5:9, and in the jubilant refrain He bears the name of Jehovah of Hosts, a title characteristic of the period of the kings, and which was first pronounced by the mouth of Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:11. Psalms 46:1-2. A very present help, a help often found, i. e. frequently tried and proved. God is ever present in tribulations. He is ever found ofthose who are in trouble (2 Psa 15:4). Luther’s translation (from Sept. and Vulg.): “in the great troubles which have befallen us,” is grammatically untenable. The “midst” or “heart” of the sea signifies the innermost part. It is used also with reference to the oak (2 Sam. 17:34), and Heaven (Deuteronomy 4:11). The allusion is to the destruction of the world as now organized (Del.). The mountains being removed from their places, fall back into the waters, out of which they were raised on the third day of creation, (Sept., Vulg., Calvin, Geier, Hupf.). Others (De Wette, Hitzig) understand by the words: the tottering of the foundations of the mountains which are beneath the waters, and propose the rendering: “in the heart” (the dative). Grammatically it is admissible. But the allegorical interpretation (Hengst.) which regards the “sea” as the symbol of the world, and the “mountains in its heart” as its mightiest empires, is not warranted by any thing in the text. For if the rising of the sea is here expressed by a word sometimes applied to human pride, this is neither its only nor its original meaning. In the last sense the word occurs in Job 41:7, and refers to the “being lifted up by the shield of Leviathan;” while in Deuteronomy 33:26; Psalms 68:35 it is applied to the sovereignty of God. But it does not follow that in this place, on account of the singular suffix, the reference is to that sovereign power of God by which the mountains are made to quake, (Chald., Sept., Ols., Ewald). The singular suffix can be made here easily to refer to ιַ ?ξִּ ?ιν, (as it necessarily does in the preceding line), because “his waters” in this connection designate not those “of God,” but those “of the sea,” like the “his heavens” in Psalms 8:4. For it is not God Himself, but His “grace” symbolized by a “stream,” which is opposed to this “sea” (Psalms 46:4.). The idea of the sea is, however, expressed by a plural but not in a numerical sense, as in Psalms 107:25. [Perowne:Though the mountains, etc., the strongest figure that could be used, the mountains being regarded as the great pillars of the earth, Psalms 18:7; Psalms 75:3; Psalms 72:5; Job 9:6. Alexander:Let its waters roar, etc., Psalms 46:4. The singular pronoun refers to the sea, which is only poetically plural in the preceding verse. The verbs in this verse may also be explained as proper futures. Its waters shall roar, etc., but the people of God shall still be safe, as promised in the next verse. Barnes: The word rendered present (a very present help), πִ ?ξְ ?φָ ?ΰ nimtza, means rather is found or has been found, i. e., he has proved himself to be a help in trouble. The word present, as if he were near to us, or close by us, does not accurately express the idea.—J. F.] Psalms 46:4-11. There is a stream, etc.—The expression is in contrast with that describing the stormy and destructive sea, and hence the use of the nominative absolute. There is no reference to the softly flowing waters of Siloah, as in Isaiah 7:6 (Aben Ezra, Ewald), but it is simply an image drawn from this brook as described in Isaiah, with a possible allusion to the river of Paradise, Psalms 36:9 (Del.). It is not, however, an image of peace (De Wette), but of the blessings and gracious manifestations of God (Jonah 4:18; Ezekiel 47; Zechariah 14:8; Revelation 14:1); for His “streams” i. e. arms, make glad the city of God, fructifying and refreshing it, as they flow around and through it. In Isaiah 48:18; Isaiah 66:12, the point of comparison is quite different, viz.: its fulness and wide extension. There is no need of supplementing the text by a word = “his grace,” (Ols.). Nor is the combination of the two lines of the verse into one—“a river, the stream of which—is the holy one of the dwellings of the Most High,” (Hitzig), and the reference to verse 5 as the closing sentence, warranted by Isaiah 33:21. For here God is compared to a river which surrounds and defends the city. This figure, so simple and plain as used by the prophet, would here render the sense unclear and confused, especially in the following verse, where God is said to “dwell in the midst” of the city, not only being its security, but producing that security. Both the “blessing” mentioned in verse 4 and the “deliverances” in verse 5, proceed from Him, not morning by morning (Hitz. De Wette), but as the day breaks after an anxious night, (Hengst. Del.). The expression is: of course, figurative, but we must not reduce its meaning to a simple “soon,” (Rosen. Gesen.) nor to the morning of deliverance in contrast with the night of misery, but rather suppose an allusion to a definite historical fact, as Exodus 14:27; Isaiah 17:14; Isaiah 37:36.—The “melting of the earth” verse 6, not “trembling” (De Wette, Hupf.), nor “growing dumb” (Tholuck) denotes the dissolving effect of divine judgments, Psalms 75:5; Amos 9:5, (Heng.), which are elsewhere said to produce terror and consternation, Psalms 76:9; Exodus 15:14.—In 2 Samuel 2:10; 2 Samuel 7:10; 2 Samuel 12:16; Psalms 68:34; Jeremiah 12:8, thunder is used as a symbol of Divine judgment. There is no need of understanding verse 10 as an authoritative command given in a voice of thunder (Hitzig). In verse 7 many codices (32 Kenn. 46 De Ross.) have Elohim instead of Jehovah, a reading followed by the Syriac and Chaldean version, and many Rabbinical expositors. But it is possible that this various reading may have come from Psalms 66:5. Instead of “devastations” or “desolations” in verse 9 (Chald. Jerome, Rab. Calvin, Geier, etc.), the Sept. Syr. J. H. Mich., Ewald, and Hitz., render the word “astonishing and terrific things,” a sense which its etymology allows. [Perowne: Psalms 46:6. The absence of any copula in the verse adds much to the force of the description. The preterites are not hypothetical as Delitzsch explains. Each act of the drama is, so to speak, before the eyes of the Poet.—Alexander:He has uttered His voice, the earth will melt. As in many other instances, the Psalmist takes his stand between the inception and the consummation of the event which he describes. Hence the transition from the past tense to the future. Verse 8. Come see, etc. The first word properly means go, but it is constantly used in summoning and inviting others. Psalms 46:9. Silencing wars, etc.—The participle followed by the future, shows that the process is not finished, but is still going on.—J. F.] AND ETHICAL1. The Church of God can confidently appeal to Him for help, and rest assured that He who is supreme over all things, has not only promised, but will also grant her, His protection. She will enjoy peace in the midst of the storms of war, and the tumults of the world, as she also will when the world itself shall come to ruin. For the world is in a constant state of unrest and excitement, and will be until its final change. This is owing partly to its natural qualities and its external form, and partly to the historic life of its nations. But the Church is God’s habitation in this world. Not only is the sanctuary of God in the midst of her, but the living, almighty, gracious God Himself. Hence her feeling of perfect rest and blessed contentment. If Christ protects His Church, Then hell itself may rage. 2. So long as the Church is in the world, it must be, in its temporal aspect and earthly form, always in contact with the world’s movements. There is for it no external rest and security, but it is in constant danger of attacks and tribulations. But so long as its watchword is Immanuel, i. e., God with us, it will have internal peace, for God is within it, and external invincibility, for God is its defence. Even here, God gives, from time to time, seasons of rest and refreshment, for He breaks the weapons of the enemies, and sends desolation among them. 3. As God quickens the Church in which He dwells, by the outpouring of His gracious and manifold gifts, and as this stream from the sanctuary cannot be cut off, because of the relation already mentioned, it is the special duty and care of the Church to draw from this stream fresh courage and vigor, so that with perpetual joy, she may confess by word and deed, what God has revealed to her in His word, and how He has manifested Himself to her by His works in the present day, as well as in ages past. “That our faith may rest firmly in God, we must consider these two things jointly, viz.: the infinite power by which He prepared to subjugate the whole world, and His paternal love revealed in His word.” (Calvin). AND God with us! the watchword of the pious. 1. Who has given it? 2. What is meant by it? 3. Who may use it?—Among all thrones, there is only one that is firm; among all kingdoms, only one is changeless; among all nations, only one has a King without an equal.—Is the Lord of Hosts your friend? then are you sure of victory over all your foes.—We need fear no struggle, when God is our refuge and strength.—Dwelling in the city of God implies going to the house of God, hearing His word, and observing His works.—He who would not fall when the foundations of the earth are shaken, must cling firmly to God. Thus will he be saved and enabled to praise the Most High.—God shows here on earth that He is above all things; and He also testifies that He dwells not only in heaven, but also in the midst of His people.—While God dwells among us, we can want nothing.—The proper flight is to the divine refuge.—The security of God’s kingdom, surrounded by streams that disturb the world. Starke: As we seek God, so shall we also find Him.—If we steadily trust in Him as our Strength, we shall certainly find in our experience that He is so in fact.—God does not protect His Church by keeping danger at a distance from her, but by averting its destructive results.—Faith becomes especially victorious, when, according to all human appearance, there is no room for hope.—If God is your friend, you can stand firm in every trouble.—Faith apprehends God, both as the Lord of Hosts, and as a gracious Helper, abundant in mercy.—It is just as easy for God to destroy a mighty army, as to defend a little company of believers.—Oh! how blessed the time when God shall make wars to cease to the ends of the earth.—Osiander: The city of God shall never perish, even though all creatures should make war against it.—Arndt: Kingdoms are overturned on account of the sins of their people, but Christ has maintained His word and kingdom.—If God is our protector, what can man, with all his power, do against us?—Tholuck: Let the people rage as fiercely as they please, when the voice of Jacob’s God is heard, they must grow dumb.—Richter Family Bible: The kingdom of darkness has no power of its own over nature. It could not even drown swine without Christ’s permission.—Vaihinger: He who has the God who protected Israel as his shield, need not be afraid of greater dangers even than those which Israel experienced.—Diedrich: God’s kingdom remains, because He is true to His word of promise, and defends those who believe it against all their enemies.—God is our eternal refuge.—Taube: The perfect repose and holy security of the Church of God. 1. Her faith’s comfort. 2. Her faith’s foundation. 3. Her faith’s victory.—Each fresh perception of God, derived from the experience of His ways, imparts new blessings, and establishes the heart more firmly in the faith.—Schaubach: (10th Sunday after Trinity). The Christian Church as typified by the city of God on earth.—Rose: Come and see the mighty works of the Lord, His wonderful counsels, and the unchangeable faithfulness of His covenant. Henry: God is our refuge and strength; we have found Him so, He has engaged to be so, and He ever will be so. Are we pursued? God is our refuge to whom we may flee, and in whom we may be safe, and think ourselves so; secure upon good ground, Proverbs 17:10. Are we oppressed by troubles? Have we work to do, and enemies to grapple with? God is our Strength, to bear us up under our burdens, to fit us for all our services and sufferings; who will by His grace put strength into us, and on whom we may stay ourselves. Are we in distress? He is a Help, to do all that for us which we need; a present Help, a Help found, so the word is, one whom we have found to be so; a Help on which we may write Probatum est, or, a Help at hand, one that we shall never have to seek for, but that is always near. Or, a Help sufficient; a Help accommodated to every case and exigence; whatever it is, He is a very present Help; we cannot desire a better Help, nor shall ever find the like in any creature.—Here is (1) Joy to the Church, even in the most melancholy and sorrowful times. Psalms 46:4. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make it glad, even then when the waters of the sea roar and threaten it. Note.—The spiritual comforts which are conveyed to the saints by soft and silent whispers, and which come not with observation, are sufficient to balance the most loud and noisy threatenings of an angry and malicious world. (2) Establishment to the Church; though heaven and earth are shaken, yet God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved, Psalms 46:5. (1) Not destroyed; nor removed as the earth may be. (2) Not disturbed, not much moved with fears of the issue. (3) Deliverance to the Church, though her dangers be great; God shall help her, and who then can hurt her? He shall help her under her troubles, that she shall not sink; nay, that the more she is afflicted, the more she shall multiply. God shall help her out of her troubles, and that right early Very speedily, and very seasonably.—Scott: If our faith were as strong as our security is good, we need fear no combination of enemies, no revolutions in kingdoms, and no convulsions in nature, but in the most tremendous dangers might triumph in the fullest assurance of security and victory—Happy they who are enrolled citizens of the holy city of our God, in which He dwells as a Father, Defender, and Comforter of His people.—J. F.] Psalms 47 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah         O clap your hands, all ye people; Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. 2    For the Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth. 3    He shall subdue the people under us, And the nations under our feet. 4    He shall choose our inheritance for us, The excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. 5    God is gone up with a shout, The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. 6    Sing praises to God, sing praises: Sing praises unto our King, sing praises. 7    For God is the King of all the earth: Sing ye praises with understanding. 8    God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. 9    The princes of the people are gathered together, Even the people of the God of Abraham: For the shields of the earth belong unto God: He is greatly exalted. AND Contents and Composition. With the glad notes of a solemn triumphal song, this Psalm celebrates a victory over foreign nations, gained by the immediate interposition of God. The possession of the promised land was thus secured, and an occasion was given to call upon all people to do homage to God, who, by this display of His power, has proved Himself to be King over all the earth. They, no less than the Israelites, are urged to praise this God, before whose majesty all the princes of the people, even the people of the God of Abraham bow in submission. The Psalm evidently had its origin in an historical event, and it embodies the Messianic idea of the extension of the Theocracy over all nations. It is not a simple expansion of the closing idea of the preceding Psalm, that God is exalted over all people, i. e. is Governor of the world. (Hupfeld). Nor is it a prediction of the universal reign of the Messiah, (Rabbins); nor of the Ascension of Christ (the Older critics). This latter view may have been derived from the typical entrance of the Ark (Claus, Stier) mentioned in 2 Samuel 6 and, as most expositors suppose, celebrated in Psalms 24. It is rather to be considered as a call to do homage to the God-king, by the people associated with Israel (Rosen). The special reference, however, is not to the subjugation and circumcision of the Idumζans, under John Hyrcanus, (Ols.); nor to the entrance into the Second Temple after the return from Babylon (Ewald); nor to the smiting of the Philistines by Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18:8, (Hitzig); but to the victory of Jehosaphat (2 Chronicles 20), over the combined Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and Arabians. (Ven., Heng., Del). Psalms 47:2-5. O clap your hands, all ye people.—Clapping of hands, though sometimes an expression of malicious pleasure (Nahum 3:19), is usually a sign of approval and joy. (Psalms 98:8 : Is. 4:12), like the loud shouts (teruiah) of festive occasions, especially those on which homage was formally rendered Numbers 23:21; 2 Kings 11:12; 1 Samuel 10:24.—In Psalms 47:2 Eljτn may be understood as an attribute of Jehovah as in Psalms 78:56, but it suits the context better here to take it as a predicate. By the “excellency (or the pride) of Jacob” Psalms 47:4 is meant, not the temple as in Ezekiel 24:21; nor the sin of pride as in Amos 6:8; Amos 8:7 : nor the future excellency of Israel as in Nahum 2:3; but the Holy land, “the glorious land” of Daniel 8:9, which God had chosen as a possession or inheritance (Numbers 3:8; Numbers 15:4; Isaiah 58:14), for the people whom he loved (here called Jacob) Malachi 1:2. This sovereign choice by Almighty God (Exodus 19:15; Deuteronomy 32:8), as an undoubted fact, and proof of His love is often referred to in the Psalms (e. g,Psalms 33:12; Psalms 65:5; Psalms 135:3). Hence most modern expositors, like the older versions, understand the imperfects in Psalms 47:3-4, as stating historic facts, a view which accords with Psalms 47:8, and the triumphant tone of the song. The statement, however, has not a historic form, but is rather a praising generalization. The contents of Psa 47:4 come after those of Psa 47:3, probably, because the possession of the land having been in peril, was secured by God’s interposition. The older commentators (also Claus, Stier) take the imperfects in a future or optative sense, and explain Psalms 47:3 as, a Messianic prophecy of the future glory of God’s people, expressed also in Psalms 47:4, in the form of a wish, or as a promise that God would choose the heathen as an inheritance of this people. But as the form of expression is different in Psalms 2:8, and the “choosing” in this connection is objectionable, Hupfeld proposes to read ιַ ?ψְ ?ηִ ?α instead of ιִ ?αְ ?ηַ ?γi. e. may He enlarge for us our inheritance with the subjugated people of Canaan. [Perowne: Psalms 47:3-4. There is considerable difficulty in satisfactorily explaining these verses. They seem, at first sight, to refer to the past—to the destruction of the Canaanites and the establishment of Israel in the promised inheritance. So the LXX, Jerome, Vulg., Calvin. Luther makes the first verb future. Our Version renders both as future. Hupfeld translates both as optatives, and in the case of the first verb this seems required by the form (but see Isaiah 1:9).—According to this view “the inheritance” cannot refer to the Holy Land immediately, but to the nations who are to be gathered into it.—There is, however, a difficulty still, even with this explanation. The word “choose” is not the word we should expect. It seems awkward to say May he choose,” etc., instead of “May he make the nations our inheritance.” Hence Hupfeld proposes to read (see above), but there is no support for such a conjecture either in Mss., or Versions. I am inclined therefore with Ewald, Heng., Bunsen to take both verbs as presents (which the previous context seems to require) either as referring to a recent act of God, or to a continued act.—J. F.] Psalms 47:5-9. God is gone up with a shout. The display of God’s power on earth in special judgments and deliverances are described as a “descending from His throne:” so when his designs have been accomplished, He is said to “return” to it (Genesis 17:22; Judges 13:20; Psalms 7:8; Psalms 68:19). This throne “high and lifted up,” (Isaiah 6:1), is a symbol of His universal government (Isaiah 66:1; Psalms 103:19), and as it is God’s throne, it properly takes the predicate “holy,” like the temple in Psalms 5:8; Psalms 11:4. This ascension, or “going up” is attended by the joyful voices of the delivered people, and the music of trumpets and cornets (Amos 2:2; Psalms 98:6; 1 Chronicles 15:28.) The celebration of this victory begun (2 Chronicles 20:26), in the valley of Berachah (valley of Praise) shall continue without ceasing. It is designed to awaken in the Church a spiritual frame of mind by means of instructive and devotional songs (Maskil is erroneously taken as an adverb by Sept., Vulg., and some critics), and to produce the same effect on those Gentiles who having been admitted to the blessing of Abraham, have been, with the Israelites, consolidated into the one people of God.—The word “Princes” Psalms 47:9, is to be taken not in a moral but a political sense. These “princes” are also designated as “shields,” i. e. protectors (Hosea 4:18; Psalms 84:10). Here they are assembled to do homage in the name of their people,—not however as conquered princes, not simply to take part in the triumphant festivities (De Wette, Ols.), nor simply to ratify the election of a king as in 2 Samuel 6:1-2, (Rosen.), but to make their joint submission to the government of God, and to confess their fellowship with His people. Neither here nor in Psalms 47:2, is there any reference to the heads of the Jewish tribes as the “shields” of the land (Cler., Gesen). There is no need of inserting ςִ ?ν before ςַ ?νi. e. with the people, (Hitz., Ols.); nor of the reading ςִ ?ν= with the God of Abraham (Older Versions except Chald., Syr., Kimchi, Flamin, Ewald). We may not translate “to the people” (Calv., and others), whether we supply μ or ΰֶ ?μ, (Geier, Rosen.), or take it as an accusative (Heng.). The safest way and most accordant with gramatical rules, is to regard it as in apposition (Symm., Jer., J. H. Mich., Stier, De Wette, Hupf.). AND ETHICAL1. All people are called upon humbly to adore and joyfully to praise God. God is the governor of the whole world, and of all its dominions, His omnipotent acts prove that He rules in all lands, that with a mighty hand and in a righteous way, punishes and protects, casts down and lifts up. As God’s chosen people are the special recipients of the blessings of His government, they are bound first of all to raise the sound of triumph, and to invite and instruct other nations to join in their songs of praise, and to serve the Lord. 2. Each blessing and revelation of God given to His Church is an occasion for a hymn of praise, and a grateful confession of His glory. Never can she, never dare she forget or conceal the fact that His love is the ground of her election, and the cause of her salvation. But she is especially urged to give thanks with heart, hand and voice, when God not only gives her victory over her enemies, but also protects and confirms her in the promised inheritance. For thereby God makes an actual revelation of His majesty, and shows that while graciously condescending to His people, He still governs the world, on His heavenly throne. 3. There is a distinction to be made between God’s general government of the world, and that special one—the theocracy—which He established on earth, in and through the seed of Abraham. Even in the imperfect and typical form which it assumes in Old Testament history this is described as His descending to the earth, and His ascending to heaven. This theocracy, insignificant as was its origin in Israel has a world-embracing destination. It shall gather into itself all nations, who, as one people of God shall serve and adore one and the same heavenly King; and their princes shall accomplish those purposes which God has ordained for them, viz., to be the leaders of their people to salvation, and their protectors in the service of God. AND How should the Church express her gratitude for the triumphant ascension of the Lord?—Not until the Lord has effected the design of His coming down to the earth, will He ascend again to His heavenly throne.—Although God is the Lord of the whole world, yet in condescension to human wants, He allows His kingdom on earth to begin in the form of servitude. Though small and feeble in its beginning, the kingdom of God will victoriously spread itself over the whole world.—The God of Abraham has His throne in heaven; yet He visits His people from thence, and rules the whole world. The praises of God should be not only loud and cheerful, but rendered in such a way also as to instruct and edify,—Oh! that all men would join in the praise of God,—that all princes would bind themselves to the service of God; and that all people would come together as the people of God.—Nations should not forget that God has ordained rulers over them; but rulers should remember that they have a Lord in heaven, and a duty to perform on earth, and that they can discharge the latter properly, only by serving the former.—The people of God may well render grateful praise to their heavenly king, for His love is the ground of their election, and His protection the pledge of their security.—Luther: A prophecy concerning Christ, that He should ascend on high, and become a king of the whole world, not by means of the sword, but only through gladsome songs, and the sound of trumpets, i. e., the joyful preaching of the Gospel. Starke: Though only a small part of mankind adores Jesus as the King of grace, He is nevertheless Lord of the universe, and will be hereafter fully revealed as such.—The kingdom of this world has its pleasures, as well as the kingdom of Christ, but those of the latter are by far the noblest and most precious, since they come from God, and shall endure throughout eternity.—The inheritance which God gives to His faithful ones is the glorious blessing of Jacob, or all the promises of the kingdom of grace and glory.—There is no greater purpose to which man can apply his reason and wisdom, than to constant meditation, how he may live in honor before his Divine Lord.—Wherever we may be we are still under the supreme rule of God.—The Gospel does not abolish the order of nobility that bears shields and helmets, but those belonging to it should be all the more intent to become and remain faithful subjects of the kingdom of Christ.—Great lords claim to be such, “by the grace of God;” for this reason, they should humble themselves under His mighty hand, should love and honor Him and His word, and should be as nursing fathers to His Church. Isaiah 49:23.—Osiander: By meditation upon the glory of the Lord, we should indeed humbly and obediently submit to Him, and under all circumstances seek His aid.—Selnecker: A thanksgiving for Christ’s kingdom, and its eternal spiritual blessings.—Franke: The shadows of the Old Testament point to the realities of the New.—Renschel: O! King of the world, grant that all the nations of the earth may be converted unto Thee, that we may render thanks to Thy name.—Frisch: The designation of princes as “shields of the earth,” should remind rulers as well as subjects of their respective duties.—Richter: (Family Bible). All nations shall finally surround Israel, as an ornament.—Tholuck: The earth belongs unto the Lord, though its inhabitants have hitherto neglected to do Him homage.—Guenther: God’s dominion over the whole world is presented as the ground of joy; the occasion that calls it out is the victory of God’s people over the heathen; and the result of this victory and grateful joy, is the increased certainty of their election.—Diedrich: The object that awakens our deepest and eternal joy is at once the Supreme Majesty, and a consuming fire to all His obstinate foes.—Taube: A call upon all people for a song of joy to Israel’s God, who by His victory and ascension on high has proved Himself to be King over all the earth, and over the heathen. [Henry: Here is a needful rule. Psalms 47:7. Sing ye praises with understanding. 1. Intelligently; as those that do yourselves understand why and for what reasons you praise God, and what is the meaning of the service. This is the Gospel rule (1 Corinthians 14:15). To sing with the spirit and the understanding also. It is only with the heart that we make melody unto the Lord Ephesians 5:19. It is not an acceptable service, if it be not a reasonable service. 2. Instructively; as those that desire to make others understand God’s glorious perfections, and to teach them to praise Him.—Scott: The universal and absolute sovereignty of our holy God would be most terrible to every sinner, were it not administered by His incarnate Son from a mercy-seat; but now, it is terrible to the obstinate workers of iniquity alone.—If we are the chosen people of God, and His love and grace have made us more excellent than our unbelieving neighbors, we may be sure He has chosen for us a more honorable and excellent inheritance than all the kingdoms of the world, and that He will prepare our souls for that inheritance, by every dispensation here on earth.—J. F.] Psalms 48 A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah         Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. 2    Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, Is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, The city of the great King. 3    God is known In her palaces for a refuge. 4    For, lo, the kings were assembled, They passed by together. 5    They saw it, and so they marvelled; They were troubled, and hasted away. 6    Fear took hold upon them there, And pain, as of a woman in travail. 7    Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish With an east wind. 8    As we have heard, so have we seen In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah. 9    We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, In the midst of thy temple. 10    According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise Unto the ends of the earth: Thy right hand is full of righteousness. 11    Let mount Zion rejoice, Let the daughters of Judah be glad, Because of thy judgments. 12    Walk about Zion, and go round about her: Tell the towers thereof! 13    Mark ye well her bulwarks, Consider her palaces; That ye may tell it to the generation following. 14    For this God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death. AND Contents and Composition.—The introduction, in which the great God and His glorious city are praised (Psalms 48:1-2), is followed (Psalms 48:3-8) by a description of the deliverances of the city from threatened danger, effected by Jehovah, who disperses its terrified enemies. Psalms 48:9-10 contain the expressions of gratitude for this interposition, while in Psalms 48:11-14 the people are exhorted to guard all parts of the city, so that its safety may be manifest to all, and thus the glory of God be revealed to coming generations, to confirm their faith in His guidance. There are many points of resemblance between these verses and Is. 22:29–33, but they do not warrant our supposing the Psalm to have been written by that Prophet. Still less can we imagine that the author belonged to the party in opposition (i.e. to the delivered city), and that the occasion of it was the siege of Jerusalem by the allied forces of Israel and Syria, which was frustrated by Tiglath Pileser, (Credner, G. Baur). We are uncertain whether the occasion of it was the siege by Sennacherib, in the time of Hezekiah, (Calvin, De Wette, Hitzig, Ewald, Hupf.), or the victory gained by Jehosaphat over the allied kings named in 2 Chronicles 20, (Rosen., Hengst., Del.). The older Christian expositors apply the Psalm to the eternal glory of the spiritual Zion, while the Rabbins take it to be descriptive of Jerusalem in the Messianic times, after the victory over Gog and Magog. Psalms 48:2-3. Beautiful for situation (in elevation.) The terms “perfection of beauty,” “the joy of the whole earth,” are taken as a single cumulative one in Lamentations 2:15, perhaps with reference to this passage, and Psalms 50:2; Isaiah 60:15; Ezekiel 16:14; Ezekiel 24:25. The word πεֹ ?σ was misunderstood by the ancients, and is wrongly rendered by Luther, (after the Chald. and Jerome), “Zweiglein”=little branch. That it has the sense of “elevation” is established by a comparison with the Arabic. That a geographical elevation is not meant is obvious from Psalms 68:17, where the high hills of Bashan are said to envy the hill of Zion on account of its superior loftiness. (Comp. also Isaiah 2:2; Ezekiel 40:2; Revelation 21:10). So too “the sides of the north,” translated by Hitzig “the corner of the north,” and by Hengstenberg and Hupfeld “the extreme north,” must be understood not in a topographic but a religious sense; as in Isaiah 14:13, where the mountain of God lies on the sides of the north. This mythologic idea in the last named passage comes from the lips of the Chaldean king, and cannot be at once transferred to the Biblical writers. Nor does Ezekiel 5:5 accord with it, for here Jerusalem is placed in the midst of the nations and countries round about her. So in Ezekiel 38:6; Ezekiel 38:15; Ezekiel 39:2 the extreme north is the residence of Gog and Magog. Now Mount Zion is not here compared to the supposed mountain homes of the gods of the Asiatic nations in the far north, nor is it presented as realizing that of which the heathen dreamed, (Hengst., Ewald, Hitzig and others). Both the phrase and the context suggest a definite locality. It cannot, however, be the “north side of the city,” (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Calvin, etc.), since Mount Zion is its most southerly hill; nor can the meaning be “on the north side lies the city,” (Luther, Rosen., etc.), for this does not agree with the order of the words. These are in opposition, not with “joy,” as if Zion were the joy of the remote north, i.e. the most distant nations (Gesen., De Wette), but with “Zion.” The temple hill is thus designated as being the northeastern corner, or northern angle (Delitzsch, Schegg,) of Mount Zion, and so giving a reason for the name of the city itself. This explanation is plainer than that of “in the extreme north the city of the Great King,” (Hupfeld). Since Zion is thus contrasted with another mountain in the south, on which God appeared, viz., Sinai, to strike out the words that are obscure, as Olshausen proposes, is not admissible. [Stanley:Beautiful in elevation. To the traveller approaching Jerusalem from the west or east, it must have always presented the appearance, beyond any other capital of the then known world—we may add, beyond any important city that has ever existed on the earth—of a mountain city; breathing, as compared with the sultry plains of the Jordan or of the coast, a mountain air; enthroned, as compared with Jericho, or Damascus, Gaza or Tyre, on a mountain fastness.—Perowne:The sides of the north. The question is to what particular part of it the words refer. (1) Now Jerusalem itself did not lie on the north, but on the south side of the elevated table land. But the Temple did lie north, i.e., northeast of the city; and as the Temple was, in a peculiar sense, the dwelling-place of God, the Psalmist may have designated this when he spoke of the “sides of the north,” the expression being sufficiently accurate for the purpose of poetry. Hence we have the Holy City regarded from three different points of view, viz.: “the Mount Zion,” (the city of David), “the sides of the north,” (Mount Moriah and the Temple), “the city of the Great King,” (Jerusalem proper). Compare Matthew 5:35. (2) If, however, Zion be the peak now leveled on the north of the Temple mount, as Furguson and Thrupp suppose, “the Mount Zion (on) the sides of the north” may be the true rendering here. And this, too, might peculiarly be called “beautiful for situation,” as it was the highest point of the whole plateau, and that which would most readily strike the eye. (3) Another reason may be suggested why the north should be especially mentioned, because an enemy approaching like the Assyrians, would obtain their first view of the city on that side.—J. F.] Psalms 48:4-8. They passed by together.—The enemies, designated by the article as the well-known kings who had assembled according to agreement at a certain place (comp. Joshua 11:5; Psalms 83:4) passed by all at once, over the boundary, Judges 11:29; 2 Kings 8:21; Isaiah 8:9, (Ancient Versions, Rabbins, Kφster, Ewald, Hitzig, Del.). It is grammatically admissible to take ςαψ in the sense of disappear, (Calvin, Rosen., De Wette, Hengst., Hupf.), but this rendering presents, instead of a fitting picture, immediately the result of an unsuccessful enterprise, the details of which are then given. If the reference be to the attack in the time of Jehosaphat, we must suppose that the allies were encamped about three miles from Jerusalem, in the desert of Tekoah, whence they had a view of the holy city, and where God caused a great terror to fall upon them (1 Samuel 14:15). The annihilation in Psalms 48:8 is not alarm (Rosen.), nor flight (De Wette), but the figure expressing it must have been suggested by the remembrance of the foundering of the commercial fleet sent out by Jehosaphat in union with Ahaz, (1 Kings 22:49; 2 Chronicles 20:36). But it is by no means necessary to adopt this view, for ships are elsewhere used as symbols of worldly powers. The ships of Tarshish, as the largest and strongest of their class, are figures of mighty powers, Isaiah 33:21; Isaiah 33:23. The east wind (Job 27:21) illustrates the power of God in overthrowing His enemies (Jeremiah 18:17), because it so frequently scattered the strongest ships, (Isaiah 27:8; Ezekiel 27:26; Amos 4:9; Jonah 4:5). Hence there seems to be no special reason for supposing that there is an allusion to the destruction of an actual hostile fleet (Kφster, Hitzig), but only that there is here a well-known illustration of the omnipotence of God. As the sentence is not joined to the preceding one by a particle of comparison, we need not take the verb as a third person feminine=“like as by an east wind which destroys,” (Kimchi, Rosen., De Wette). It is better to regard it as a second person masculine, making God the subject of it, (the Ancient Versions, Calvin, Geier, and most others). In this case it would be proper to place here the beginning of a strophe, which, comprising all that has been thus far said, would make, in contents and structure, a good transition to the section in which God is directly addressed. [Perowne:As we have heard, Psalms 48:8.—This marvellous deliverance is but a fresh proof, in our own experience, of that wonder-working Love, which in the days of old had so often manifested itself in Israel. The things which our fathers have told us, we have now witnessed with our own eyes, (compare Psalms 44:1). And therefore, also, the present is regarded as a pledge of the future.—J. F.] Psalms 48:9-14. We have thought.—The idea here is that of contemplation, reflecting, and comparing, rather than that of hopeful expectation, (Sept., Syr., Sym., Jerome). The Rabbins are divided on this point. The Temple is named as being the place in which God had revealed His grace (Calvin, Hupfeld), or rather, as the place in which the Church commemorated that grace, by songs of praise (Hengst. Ewald), or by the solemn services which preceded the marching forth to battle, mentioned in 2 Chronicles 20. The “daughters of Judah” are not virgins who take part in the festive dance (De Wette, Ols.), but other outlying cities and villages, (Psalms 69:36; Joshua 15:45; Isaiah 40:9). The exhortation carefully to consider and look about the city, which has remained inviolate, is not addressed ironically to the enemies (Geier, Sachs., Hitz.), but seriously to the inhabitants. The reading μֻ ?ηִ ?ιμַ ?δּ (on the bulwarks), found in many old editions, ancient versions, and in 18 Codd. of De Rossi, also occurs in Zechariah 9:4. If Mappik be omitted, we must insert a softened suffix, (Ewald, Gram. § 247). There is no proof that τִ ?ρֵ ?β has the sense of “to elevate,” (Luther, following Jewish tradition); nor is it quite certain that its meaning is “to regard a thing part by part, to consider attentively,” (De Wette, Hengst., Ewald, Hitz.). The sense “to walk through,” derived from that of “to intersect,” (viz.: a vineyard in which there is no way), is based on a passage in the Talmud. The demonstrative pronoun is occasionally though rarely placed before the noun, (Ewald, Gram. § 293). It is not necessary, therefore, to translate Psalms 48:14 “that here is God” (Hupf.); nor “for this is God,” (De Wette, Ols., Bφtt., Ewald, Hitz.). In this case “this” must be taken in the sense of “such,” since the allusion was not to God, but to the city (Camp.). The concluding phrase, ςַ ?μΞξֵ ?εּ ?ϊ, might be rendered “the point of death” (Ges., Hengst.); or “until death” (Hupfeld, Kimchi, and most others). But the latter expression would be unusual, and is liable to misconception, whilst the former would be more appropriate. For the reference is not to persons, but a community, and the allusion is not to dying, but the deliverance of the city, and the joy caused by it to the whole earth, as well as the renewed trust in the Divine guidance. We should look for something to indicate the duration of that guidance, which forever secured the stability of the people. The rendering, therefore, should not be “beyond death,” (Syriac, Mendelssohn, Stier), which would give the idea of personal immortality—αθανασία (Aquila), but away past death, i.e. destruction (Campb.). It cannot be denied, however, that the idea which Hengstenberg finds here, viz.: that God delivers from the danger of death (Habakkuk 1:12; Psalms 49:16; Psalms 68:21; Psalms 85:7), and saves His people from destruction, would be unusual and obscure. The same may be said of the rendering “in the eternities,” (Sept., Chald., Symm., Aben Ezra, J. H. Mich., Ewald). This sense would suit, but it supposes the reading to be ςַֹ ?μξεֹ ?ϊ, (found in ε Cod. Kenn.), which occurs only in later and non-biblical Hebrew. It is, however, not impossible that this form of the word may stand in place of ςִ ?εֹ ?μָ ?ξִ ?ιν. But Luther’s version, derived from the Chald., “like the youth,” or “like the virgins,” or “in youthfulness,” is objectionable, partly because it is foreign to the context, and partly because it would require the particle λ or α to be supplied. The reading ςμֻ ?ξζϊ, found in many ancient Codd. and early editions, must be very old, because most of the earliest versions, in the main, express the same idea. Under these circumstances we may suppose that these words, like those in Psalms 9. are a mark (Hitzig) to indicate the kind of music to be used, here as in Habakkuk 3:19 placed exceptionally at the end instead of the beginning of the hymn (Del.); or as indicating the sort of verse (Bφttcher). The rythm implies that nothing (Hitzig), rather than that something (Del.) has been omitted. AND ETHICAL1. God protects not only His people, but the city in which they dwell. He guards the very house in which they call upon Him. But He means that they should recognise this, should trust His watchfulness and power, should be grateful for His help and goodness to them, and by proclaiming what He has done, induce others, especially their descendants, to exercise a like faith. For God is the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. This God is our God. 2. The glory of the hill of Zion where God revealed Himself, and the beauty of Jerusalem, as God’s city, symbolized the glory of the Church. God’s promise of protection to Jerusalem, the display of His power and goodness in regard to her and the whole land, and the solemn commemorative festivals of which she was the theatre, may all be regarded as types. In the physical elevation, the Psalmist sees an image of the spiritual, and so far only has it any significance to him. Only when Jerusalem is contemplated with the spiritual eye, does she appear so lovely that she ought to be a joy to the whole earth, Ezekiel 16:14. What the heathen dreamed about a mountain of gods, is only true of the hill of Zion. Its roots are on the earth, but its summit is in heaven (Hengst.). 3. From the beginning, God’s works have made known His name and His praise over all the earth, but Zion is the place where His glory has been specially manifested. This is the central point of His historical revelations. And from this spot the triumphal proclamation of His name shall go forth throughout the world; so that not only in the Promised Land but to the ends of the earth, the latest generation shall praise that God who hears prayer, who exercises justice to the joy of His people, who is their guide, helper, and protector. AND Where God’s name is known, His help will be experienced and His praise proclaimed.—What does God do for His people, and what gratitude does He receive?—Zion’s beauty is a symbol and a type.—The contemplation of God’s doings should lead us and others to proclaim His glory, and should strengthen our faith.—What we have heard of God we may ourselves experience, for He remains ever the same.—Protected by God, we can resist all attacks; guided by Him, we can never perish.—How, and by what means does God eternally preserve His city?—Is the joy produced by God’s help as great as the fear of His chastisement?—The gradual development of the praises of God from generation to generation.—The protection and eternal maintenance of the city of God though His power, and watchfulness, and grace. Calvin: There is no nook so hidden that the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God are not displayed in it.—But as He means to make His perfections specially visible to His Church, the Psalmist holds up before our eyes the mirror in which His image is seen. Starke: We should magnify and praise the Great God by a proper confession of His grace, and reverence for His holy name.—The greatest ornament to any place, and the source of its purest joy, is to have a church and to maintain divine service.—How many earthly palaces are to-day the holy places of the Most High?—How many lords recognize Him as their Supreme Lord?—When the promises of God’s word are fulfilled in our experience, then our faith in that word is gloriously confirmed.—The Christian’s best thoughts are those arising from the view of God’s goodness, for then his heart becomes a holy temple of the Lord.—Why should not believers rejoice over God’s judgments?—Are they not all designed to glorify God, to comfort His people, to weaken and destroy His enemies?—Osiander: Though faith is founded on God’s word, and not on our experience, yet this faith is strengthened when our experience actually agrees with the promises of that word.—Franke: The predictions of the Old Testament concerning Zion and Jerusalem are fulfilled in you who believe in Him who is established the true King on Mount Zion.—Renschel: God is the shield of His Church.—Frisch: In the Church of God we are safe, not only because He is her protector, but because her members possess the most excellent gifts.—Burk: As Thy name is so is Thy praise.—Vaihinger: The great deliverance should be made known to posterity, as a testimony to the everlasting covenant.—Tholuck: When God’s grace mightily interposes in our temporal affairs, our faith will become all the stronger in a blessed eternity.—Guenther; God leads us not into, but through and beyond death.—Diedrich: We are His people only because we accept Him as our protector; whoever looks for another protector, has already separated himself from His people.—Our true courage consists in allowing ourselves truly to be helped by God, and in genuine trust in Him, who alone can do that by which His kingdom on earth is organized and preserved.—Taube: The city of God under the guardianship of her protector! a joy of the whole earth! a terror for her enemies! an everlasting remembrance to His people! Come and see! this is the way—through experience to knowledge. [Henry: The clearer discoveries are made to us of God and His greatness, the more it is expected we should abound in His praises.—God can dispirit the stoutest of His Church’s enemies, and soon put them in pain who live at ease.—God’s latter appearances for His people, against His and their enemies, are consonant to His former appearances, and should put us in mind of them.—In the great things that God has done, and is doing, for His Church, it is good to take notice of the fulfilling of the Scriptures, and this would help us the better to understand both the providence itself, and the Scripture that is fulfilled in it.—All the streams of mercy that flow down to us must be run up to the fountain of God’s loving-kindness.—1. If God be our God, He is ours forever, not only through all the ages of time, but to eternity; for it is the everlasting blessedness of glorified saints that God Himself will be with them, and will be their God.—2. If He be our God, He will be our Guide, our faithful, constant Guide, to show us our way, and to lead us in it; He will be so even unto death, which will be the period of our way, and will bring us to our rest. He will be our Guide above death, so some. He will so guide us as to be above the reach of death, so that it shall not be able to do us any real hurt. He will be our Guide beyond death, so others. He will conduct us safe to a happiness on the other side of death, to a life in which there shall be no more death. If we take the Lord for our God, He will conduct and convey us safe to death, through death, and beyond death; down to death, and up again to glory.—J. F.] Psalms 49 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah         Hear this, all ye people; Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: 2    Both low and high, Rich and poor, together. 3    My mouth shall speak of wisdom; And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. 4    I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. 5    Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, When the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? 6    They that trust in their wealth, And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches 7    None of them can by any means redeem his brother. Nor give to God a ransom for him; 8    (For the redemption of their soul is precious, And it ceaseth for ever:) 9    That he should still live for ever, And not see corruption. 10    For he seeth that wise men die, Likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, And leave their wealth to others. 11    Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, And their dwelling-places to all generations; They call their lands after their own names. 12    Nevertheless man being in honor abideth not: He is like the beasts that perish. 13    This their way is their folly: Yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah. 14    Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; And their beauty shall consume In the grave from their dwelling 15    But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: For he shall receive me. Selah. 16    Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, When the glory of his house is increased; 17    For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: His glory shall not descend after him. 18    Though while he lived he blessed his soul, (And men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself,) 19    He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They shall never see light. 20    Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, Is like the beasts that perish. AND Contents and Exposition. The Psalmist in a solemn preface (Psalms 49:1-4), addresses all persons without distinction of residence, race, or position in life. He calls upon them to attend to his voice—which is accompanied by his harp—because he means to teach them an important truth, salutary to all,—a truth, which he himself, a disciple of wisdom, has learned by revelation, and has received into his heart. This Maschal discusses the problem of temporal happiness, and the prosperity of the ungodly, and is therefore related to Psalms 27, 73. The fundamental idea is, that the pious have no ground to fear under such circumstances in this transitory world, because the rich man cannot with all his gold purchase exemption from death, but by his vanity and folly becomes more and more like mere brutes that perish, while the just man by God’s grace is delivered from the power of the grave. This thought is expressed in two strophes, each of which terminates with a verse in almost the same words. In these strophes the relations of the thought and the parts of the verses are so artistically interwoven that in the first strophe the Psalmist testifies to his own fearlessness, and in the middle of the second exhorts others to be equally courageous, while in each of the two places there is a sort of conclusion marked by Selah. His language is terse, pithy, and sometimes rough. The phrases are pointed, now and then bold, and in some places obscure, while the structure of the sentences is peculiar, having here and there a kind of artistic intricacy. There are great difficulties in some passages of the present text, which are nearly unintelligible, owing probably, to mistakes of transcribers. If so, however, they must be very ancient, since the oldest translators were evidently perplexed by them, and propose very senseless explanations. Psalms 49:1-4. Hear this.—A like solemn call occurs Deuteronomy 32:1; 1 Kings 22:28; Micah 1:2; Job 34:2. The “world “—Cheled—(see Psalms 17:1-4), is not heaven and earth or the world of space, but an existence—a something—which has its course in time. In Psalms 49:3, the gradation of the ideas of wisdom and understanding is expressed in the plural form, as is often done in the Proverbs of Solomon.—“I will open,” Psalms 49:4, refers not to the solution but the statement of the problem, since heart and mouth are opened. Psalms 109:30; Amos 8:5; Proverbs 26 Such a combination of problem and maxim we also find in Psalms 78:2; Proverbs 1:6.—Playing on the harp harmonizes with the soul’s vibrations, and the latter are both expressed and excited by it. 2 Kings 3:15. [Perowne: The world; the term here used is that which indicates its temporary, fleeting character.—Alexander: The word translated world means primarily duration or continued existence; then more specifically, human life, the present state of things; and by a natural transition, the world as the place where it is spent.—Perowne. Wisdom,—Understanding. In the Heb. these words are plural, but apparently not so used with any intensification of meaning.—In the second clause of the verse, I have supplied the copula “is,” for notwithstanding Hupfeld’s remark to the contrary, I cannot think it a natural construction, to repeat the verb from the first clause: “The meditation of my heart shall speak of understanding.”—J. F.]. Psalms 49:5. The iniquity of my heels (or my sup- planters, or of those who have trodden on me). This explanation of the phrase (Syriac and most others) suggests the meaning of “evil days—days of adversity,” i. e. not adverse times simply, but those in which bad men abuse their power and wealth (Geier and others). This explanation agrees best with the “ fear” mentioned in Psalms 49:5; Psalms 49:16. The rendering (Sept., Chald., Symm., Jer., Rabb., and others), “guilt or sin of my heels,” is not only obscure (for what sin is meant), but ambiguous, for we would naturally think of his own sin, which does not accord with the meaning of the passage. At any rate “heels” cannot be taken for “steps “=missteps. If the “heels” be regarded as the object of the persecution and the waylaying (Calv., Hup., Ortenherg), the image used is unnatural, and many transpositions are necessary to bring out the sense,—when the iniquity upon my heels, i. e. on all sides, compass me about. [Alexander: The iniquity of my oppressors (or supplanters). The word translated oppressors commonly means heels; but as this yields no good sense here, it may be taken as a verbal noun, meaning either traders, tramplers, oppressors or supplanters, traitors, in a sense akin to which the verbal root is used Genesis 27:36; Hosea 12:4. In either case, it is clearly a description of his enemies as practising fraud, or violence against him.—Perowne: When iniquity compasseth etc. Perhaps iniquity is supposed to be lying, like a serpent in his path, ready to fasten on the heel, as the most exposed and vulnerable part.—Barnes: The true idea is, when I am exposed to the crafts, the tricks of those who lie in wait for me; I am liable to be attacked suddenly, or to be taken at unawares; but what have Ito fear?—J. F.]. Psalms 49:7—10. His brother. Instead of ΰָ ?δִ ?ιε (his brother) which is generally used when related to Isch, we have simply ΰָ ?η as an accusative before the emphatic negative, which also precedes the infinitive absolute. The stress laid upon the impossibility of redeeming a brother (i. e. a fellow-man) from death, instead of himself, becomes the more remarkable, because we might expect his own redemption to be mentioned. This, however can hardly be deduced from the suffix at the close of the following line=his redemption (Hengsten.); or redemption for himself (Hitzig), although in the following verse we have the comprehensive plural “their souls.” It is not necessary to adopt the reading in some editions ΰַ ?κְ, (Ewald, Olsh., Bφttcher,) and by changing the points in the verb that follows, to make it reflective, =surely no one can redeem himself. Nor can ΰַ ?η be taken as a nominative, and subject of the sentence. (Luther and others). The true idea here is, not simply the solidarity of all men Godward (Hupfeld), but rather the impossibility of redemption of any one by the mutual assistance, or the united efforts of men; and thus we are prepared for the subsequent declaration that God is the Redeemer.—Most critics take Psalms 49:8 as a parenthesis, but as this construction is harsh, it is better, not to strike it from the text, as a gloss, (Ortenberg), but to make Psalms 49:9 dependent on it (Kimchi, Flamin., Hengsten., Hupfeld), though the connection between them is somewhat loose. (Baur). The translation “because so precious is the ransom price of the soul, that it is wanting forevermore“ (Ewald, Kφster, Maurer), is admissible, (but needless), since the perfect ηγμ has this sense Psalms 36:4, “he has desisted, ceased, removed himself.”—The idea that Psalms 49:9, is a premise “though he still continue to live forever” (Luther, Geier, Hitz.), and Psalms 49:10, a conclusion from it “he shall see,” cannot be reconciled with the strong expression of living forever.—Most interpreters take λִ ?ι (Psalms 49:10), in a causative sense, as explaining why he ceaseth, i.e. because he sees that wise men die, (Isaki, Luther, J. H. Michaelis). Others take this verse as an antecedent (although he sees, etc.) to Psalms 49:11, (it is still their delusion to dream of an eternal home). But in direct discourse this particle renders the contrast more emphatic. (Flamin. De Wette, and most critics). It would be both violent and unnecessary to strike out the words “for he seeth” (Olshausen). There is nothing to indicate that they are the remains of a mutilated verse. They only stand in the way of the transposition of Psa 49:9, before Psalms 49:8, and to the exposition “and he (man) ceases (to be) forever.” [Alexander: Psalms 49:8. And costly is the ransom of their soul, etc. This obscure verse admits of several constructions. Their soul refers most probably to the rich man and his brother. The soul or life of both requires so much to ransom it, that neither can redeem the other. The verb in the last clause may mean ceases to live, perishes, and agrees with either or with each of the subjects previously mentioned. The ransom of their life is so costly, that neither can be saved. Or the verb may agree with ransom, as in the Eng. Bible; it is too costly to be paid, and therefore ceases, or remains unpaid, forever. The same sense substantially may be obtained by making cease mean cease (or fail) to pay, and construing it with one of the preceding nouns. The ransom is so costly that he fails to pay it, or ceases to attempt it forever. Upon any of these various suppositions, the essential idea is that the ransom of their life is too expensive to be paid.—Perowne: Soul, i.e. as is evident from the whole scope of the context here, “life.” It is much to be regretted that superficial readers of the Psalm so often give a totally false meaning to this and the preceding verse. The passage has been alleged to prove that our Lord, as the Redeemer of man, must be God as well as man. The doctrine is most true, but it is not in the Psalm, nor is there the remotest allusion to it. All that is here taught is, that no wealth can save a man from death, because the life of men is not in their own hands, or in that of their fellows, but only in the hand of God, who cannot be bribed. There is a kind of solemn irony in the idea of the richest man offering all his riches to God, to escape death.—J. F.] Psalms 49:11-12. Their inward thought, etc. The expression is obscure if the idea be that their hearts are deluded by the belief that their houses and descendants shall continue forever (Jerome, Isaki, Luth., Calv., and others). Still less can the meaning be that the “houses” themselves totally absorb their thoughts, as if the expression was parallel to that in Psalms 45:9, “all her garments are myrrh” (Hupfeld), for this could not be reconciled with the word “forever.” But as the heart is within us, and as the two phrases “the heart” and “the inward thought”—χψα—are synonymous (Psalms 64:7; 1 Kings 3:28 : Exodus 36:2), and as the word rendered “inward thought,” denotes both the organ and the seat of thought (Psalms 5:10; Psalms 62:5), it may here express not the product of mental activity, i.e. the delusion, but the essential activity of the organ as such by which their inward thought is filled. This activity here may be, not the thought, but the wish, (Hengsten., Del., Hitzig),—Nearly all the older versions give an entirely different sense, for they read χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ instead of χֶ ?ψֵ ?α.—The meaning “their graves are their houses forever,” or ironically, and better still “their graves are their perpetual houses” (Ewald, Ols., Riehm), may be commended, since the grave is proverbially called “the perpetual house” Proverbs 12:5. [This is an error. There is no such expression in the place named. The reference must be to Ecclesiastes 12:5, “the long home (or house).”—J. F.]. But the conjectural reading on which this exposition is based, is not sustained by a single MSS. Nor does the closing sentence read “they who were highly praised everywhere” (Ewald); nor “their names are celebrated in their lands,” (Rosen., De Wette, Hitzig), but “they proclaim their names throughout the lands” i.e. they call them after their names. (The Old Trans., Rabbins, Sachs, Bφttcher, Hupfeld, Kurtz, Del.). For ΰγξδ signifies the cultivated earth, arable land, and the subject must not be needlessly changed, while the formula “to proclaim or call the name” may be employed in various relations.—In Psalms 49:12, ιָ ?μιִ ?ο should not be changed to ιָ ?αִ ?ιο as in Psalms 49:20, (Sept., Syr., Cappel, Ewald), nor should it be substituted for the latter word in Psalms 49:20, (Ols.). Parallel verses are not always perfectly assonant; and here the change in a single consonant causes an ingenious play of words, (ohne Bestand, ohne Verstand),—without continuance, without intelligence. The special meaning “to continue for a night” (Aben Ezra, Stier, Hengsten.), may be proper in Psalms 30:6, but not here, where μιִ ?ο is equivalent to “abide“ as in Proverbs 21:23. [Alexander: Their inward thought, etc. The plural form at the end of the sentence occurs nowhere else, but corresponds to our word grounds, when applied to cultivated lands.—A possible though not a probable construction makes the last two mean upon earth, the form of the Hebrew noun being assimilated to that of this particle before it.—J. F.] Psalms 49:13. This their way, etc. There is no reason for transposing Psalms 49:13; Psalms 49:12 as Hupfeld suggests. We must not translate it “this their sentiment is their hope” (De Wette). “Way” here does not signify moral conduct, but the “way of faring” in the world, and this not in the sense of “faring well,” but of “faring ill.” Hence we must not render the verse “this their doing is their folly” (Aquil. Symm., Luth., Calv., and others; nor “becomes to them a folly,” i.e. a foolish security (Chald., Stier). The sense of “folly” has been derived from that of “assurance” (Ecclesiastes 7:25); but here the original meaning must be adhered to, which is “a stubborn disposition” (Bφttcher), manifesting itself by “boasting” (Hitzig), and turning out to be “folly.”—There is no contrast in the following verse, “and, notwithstanding they follow them” (Hengsten.); it is better to take it as simply a continuation of the attributive sentence (Del.)—In the more precise statement, it is not said what will happen to them after death (Ewald); nor to their descendants (Older Comment.); but what may happen to those who imitate them. [Perowne: This their way. Both the meaning and construction of this clause are doubtful. It may mean (1) This their way (i.e. manner of life, course of conduct) is their folly: or (2) This their prosperous condition is (or becomes) their infatuation (blind confidence); for kesel may mean “a stupid security,” or “presumptuous confidence,” as well as “folly.” As regards the construction, it may be as above, or the clause may consist of two independent sentences. “This is their way; they have confidence;” or finally, the latter part of it may be a relative sentence: “This is the way of those who are foolish.”—J. F.]. Psalms 49:14-17. Like sheep, etc. This comparison indicates, on the one hand their want of will and incapacity to resist, and on the other hand, it suggests the idea that those who during their life-time have fed in rich pastures, are now driven into Sheol, like sheep into their fold at night, and have Death, the king of terrors (Job 18:14), as their Shepherd, i.e. their keeper and master. (Geier, Isaki). The meaning is not that death gnaws them (Vulg., Luther and others), nor that he devours them as food. Job 18:13, (J. H. Michaelis, Geier).—In the promise that “the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning,” it is easy to discover a reference to the morning of the resurrection, and the universal reign of the saints in union with Messiah, (Isaki, Kimchi, Geier, Mendelsohn); but this is not presented as a positive dogma, nor as an express prediction (Older Expos.), but as the result of that indefinite presentiment of the future that marked Old Testament times (Stier);—as a parable (Psalms 49:4), exhibiting not the last great day (Delitzsch), but the certain triumph of the righteous over the ungodly. This is, however, expressed in terms not only which are applicable to the last judgment so clearly revealed in the New Testament, but the whole passage has a typical significance. It is, as Ewald says, a glimpse of the Messianic hope.—By “morning,” (the word in the original occurs in a sentence connected by a vav consec.), we are to understand not the morning of the resurrection, which shall come to all men after the night of death, but the morning that dawns upon the upright after the destruction of the ungodly. It is the morning of the future illuminated by the light of God’s gracious countenance (Kurtz) and not limited in duration, during which they shall live by the power of God, while the wicked are put beneath their feet, and given over to death. The rendering “to tread” (instead of “have dominion”) i.e. upon their proud graves or corpses, needlessly weakens the statement, which, though figurative, conveys more than the simple contrast between the night of adversity and the morning of deliverance, especially if “morning” be taken to mean that which will “very soon” occur, and the expression be connected with the following verse (Ewald, Hitzig), which would give a better sense, though not in eonformity with the accents. According to the present textual structure of the verse, only a tolerable meaning can be got out of it, by a forced and artificial exposition.” Literally it would be, “for their form (beauty) is to be devoured by Sheol, out of the dwelling which is theirs,” i e., they shall have no more a dwelling. If this obscure passage be understood to mean that the form of the deceased is devoured by Sheol, thus making an end of its bodily beauty and earthly glory with their former dwelling, (the Older Trans. and Commen., and more recently Claus, Stier, Del.), not only may it be asked why so simple an idea should be expressed in a way so odd and obscure, but the doubt might arise from this single text of Scripture, whether the decomposition of the human body that takes place in the grave, is not transferred to Sheol. This doubt becomes the stronger, since the explanation that there is here a confusion of ideas about the grave, decomposition, and the shadow life in Sheol (De Wette, Hup.) cannot be admitted on the standpoint of these expositors. Strictly speaking the idea would better accord with the sense of the first half of the sentence, that the form of the dead, elsewhere represented as shadowy, will at last be delivered over in Sheol to complete consumption, i. e. annihilation (Hupfeld). But with this, the seeond part of the sentence does not agree, and the admission would hardly be satisfactory, if a strange and illogical construction (Kurz),—the assurance that in Sheol the well known receptacle of the dead, the form of the deceased is consumed—is followed by another statement that in consequence of this consumption the form had no longer a dwelling, while, on the contrary, Sheol holds no longer any occupants. But if we hold that there is here a contrast between the time when they fancied they were building houses to last forever, and that future period when they shall exist without property, without bodies, and therefore in empty space, the first half of the sentence must be understood to refer not to a consumption by, but of Sheol, i.e. its destruction. (Isaki, Hofmann). This passage however, is too weak a ground for such an idea, which is nowhere else found in the Old Testament. Equally pointless are the attempts to explain the passage, by giving to ςεּ ?ψ (Keri), the sense of “help” (Sept., Vulg.); “defiance” (Luther), or “rock.” By referring the word in its last named sense to Christ as the “rock” of the righteous, who will destroy the reign of Death by depriving him of his place of abode (De Dieu and others), they endeavor to get out of it a comforting eschatologic idea. If we make a slight change in the points and accents (and on the whole this seems to be the best solution) we get a simple and natural meaning, viz. that their form is wasting away, and that Sheol is their abode. (Ewald, Hitzig). For ςִ ?ιψIsaiah 45:16, or ςεּ ?ψη=ςεּ ?ψEzekiel 43:11, means “that which is made,” “the structure,” and αִּ ?μָּ ?δ denotes the gradual but sure wasting of the body, Job 13:23. Instead of ξִ ?εְּ ?αֻ ?μ, some Codices omit the Dagesch, and therefore lean to the explanation by the preposition ξִ ?ο—. There is no allusion in Psalms 49:15, to God’s protection against an early death (De Wette, Kurtz); nor to his delivery from some great danger that imperilled life. (Hengs., Hitzig), although it is proper to regard the statement as contrasting the condition of the godly and the ungodly, and as affirming that redemption by man is impossible (Psalms 49:7). The certainty of redemption by God, from the hand or the power of Sheol means deliverance from that dominion of Sheol to which all men are liable. (Calvin, Geier, J. H. Mich., Clauss, Stier, Hoffman). But it is not presented here as a truth of which they were then conscious, but rather as a glimpse and hope obtained by a bold flight of faith. Nor is there any definite indication of the ransom price, nor of the way and manner of this deliverance. Still there is an allusion to the “taking up” of Enoch, Genesis 5:24, and of Elijah, 2 Kings 2:3, in the use of the word μχη which, generally denotes, not “to take under one’s protection,” but “to take,” i.e. “take away” (Aben Ezra, Kimchi), “take along,” Psalms 49:18, “take to oneself” (Isaki) Ps. 73:24; 79:49; Hosea 13:14. As this word in the imperf. follows a fut. imperf. it cannot be regarded as a Preterite=“for he has taken me.” (Luther). It must be taken in an absolute sense in a line which is all the more comprehensive because of its brevity (Bφttcher). For these reasons we cannot approve the otherwise possible rendering “if” (Hitzig) or better still “when” (Ewald) “it (viz. the hand of Sheol) takes hold on me.” [Perowne: Psalms 49:14-15. We have in this passage the strong hope of eternal life with God, if not the hope of a resurrection. In the very midst of the gloomy picture which he draws of the end of the ungodly, there breaks forth one morning ray of light, the bright anticipation of the final triumph of the good over the evil. This is the inextinguishable hope which animates the Church of the Old Testament, as well as that of the New. Righteousness shall eventually, must in its very nature, reign on earth. The wicked shall find their end in Sheol (Psalms 9:17-18), and the righteous shall trample on their graves. This, and not more than this, seems to have been the meaning originally of the Psalmist, in the words, “And the righteous shall have dominion over them in the morning.” But now that he comes to speak of himself, and his own personal relation to God, he rises into a higher strain. He who knows and loves God has the life of God, and can never perish. That life must survive the shock of death.” “God,” says the Psalmist, “shall redeem my soul from the hand of Hades, for He shall take me,” as He took Enoch, and as He took Elijah to Himself. We are not, of course, to suppose that the Sacred Poet himself expected to be taken up alive to heaven; but those great facts of former ages were God’s witnesses to man of his immortality, and of the reality of a life with Him beyond this world. It is a hope based on facts like these which here shines forth. It is a hope, not a revealed certainty. It rests on no distinct promise; it has not assumed the definite form of a doctrine. But it was enough to raise, to cheer, to encourage those who saw ungodliness prospering in the world. The end of the wicked was, after all, a thick darkness which had never been penetrated; the end of the righteous, life with God.—J. F.]. Psalms 49:18-20. Though (or, it may be that) he blessed his soul,etc. Many interpreters take λִ ?ι in the sense of “because” (Syr., Flamin.,Calv., Heng., Hup.) as indicating the reason why such a termination must take place, still though the sense of “yea when” or “even though” Isaiah 1:15, (Del. and others), as granting something (Ewald, Gram. 362), yet we prefer to understand it in a hypothetic sense (as in Psalms 49:16), as presenting a possible case=“it may be that,” 2 Samuel 16:10. (Hitzig)—To “bless his soul” is hardly=to “bless himself in his heart” Deuteronomy 31:19 “to take his ease,” (Syr., Flamin., and most others), with the positive enjoyments, of eating and drinking, (Hitzig).—In Psalms 49:19, γּ ?εּ ?ψ must be understood, not as in the Arabic, in the rare sense of “habitations,” i.e. Sheol, Isaiah 38:12, (De Wette), but in the usual one of “generations,” because it is more natural to make “the soul” the subject of this sentence (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, J. H. Mich., Sachs, Olshaus., Hoffman, Kurtz, Ewald, Del.,) than to suppose a direct address to the rich, (Geier, Rosen., De Wette, Hengsten., Hitzig); or to change ϊָּ ?αεֹ ?ΰ into ιָ ?αεΰ (Old Trans., Hupfeld).—To “see the light” is a common expression for “to live” Psalms 58:9; Job 3:16; Ecclesiastes 6:5, but the “light” is not necessarily that of the sun, (Hupfeld), unless it be the sun of eternal life.—The common saying that men must perish like the beasts, is changed into the more elevated one, that only those who have not a right understanding of life shall perish like the beasts. (Hofmann). There is no reason for giving the conditional clause “if he understand not,” a positive sense as in Psalms 94:7, “and he regards it not.” (Hitzig). AND ETHICAL1. It is one of the mysteries of the Divine government, that worldly men, often and for a long time, enjoy so great prosperity that they never think of the end, and are intent only to increase their wealth, careless of God and His will. This mystery may disturb even a gracious soul, may fill it with fear and doubt, and lead it astray, especially when it sees the godly suffer in days of adversity, from the malice of the worldly-minded, to such an extent that they hardly know what to do. In such cases we want an explanation that will satisfy all men; and it is a thought full of comfort that God has furnished such a solution of the mystery, by the mouth of those who have formerly inclined to Him their ear. 2. To the godly—and to them alone—the contents of this revelation are more comforting than the form of it. For death puts an end to the worldly man himself, and to all the things of which he boasts,—an end from which all the wealth of earth cannot ransom him;—an end full of shame, because he has made himself like the irrational brutes, and he has no other prospect before him than that of going down to Sheol. The godly man shares, indeed, the universal lot of mortals, but in his personal life, he is intimately united to God, and has a treasure far more precious than perishable and deceitful riches. If redemption from the power of Sheol be possible, God only can effect it. And well may the pious man rejoice that it is not merely death that lays hands upon him, but God Himself, who will guide him in such a way that through the night he shall come to the light, and the morning of triumph. AND If we are led by God’s word and held by His hand, we need fear neither the world, nor sin, nor death.—God conducts His own people into the light, through the night of suffering, doubt, and death.—Riches without God are not only an uncertain but a deceitful good.—The world’s folly, and the wisdom from God.—The false security of the children of this world, and the needless fear of the godly.—The vanity of wealth acquired and enjoyed without God.—Poverty cannot disgrace, and misfortune cannot harm, if we find and hold fast to God.—The vanity of the worldly-minded man in his purposes and life.—He will not listen to God, will learn nothing salutary either in the world or from the world. Starke: Many wise sayings have been uttered; Oh, that the many would diligently hear and act according to them !—A Christian needs heavenly wisdom to guide him in seeking his salvation; he needs an illuminated understanding in order that he may flee from all that can injure his soul.—The proper use of music is to further devotion and the honor of God.—How great must be the Lord, who can gather all nations before Him! in whose presence the meanest beggar is of as much account as the richest man on earth !—The fear of man is the first step towards apostacy from the known truth of God; for this reason, a Christian, especially a teacher, should not allow himself to be seduced by it, but should contend against it with faith and prayer.—Ungodly men are called oppressors, because they act in an oppressive way, but hereafter they shall be so dealt with themselves.—The ungodly rich men are foolish in supposing that they are the sole owners of their possessions: no, they are God’s, and He can take them away at any moment, even if they are many kingdoms.—Great wealth easily begets pride and forgetfulness of God; hence, those to whom God gives riches should keep their hearts with all diligence.—The longest life on earth is nothing, compared with eternity, yet our future state depends upon our conduct in this life. If we would be eternally happy, we must walk in constant readiness for eternity.—A sinner cannot redeem himself from death, much less from hell, by his earthly possessions, nor by his own power.—How different the judgments of God from those of men! How many bow down before the rich and mighty, praise and pronounce them happy, though their doings are in God’s eyes, simply folly and end only in misery!—Those who in the day of grace are accepted by grace, shall never be cast off.—Riches, sensual pleasure, and worldly glory are the devil’s dangerous baits. Ah ! beware of this poisonous sugar !—The treasures which we cannot take with us when we die are not the true ones; blessed, therefore, is he who gathers spiritual treasures, and aims to become rich in God.—Far better is it to be poor and pious, and retain God’s grace forever, than to be rich and ungodly, and bring down upon ourselves God’s eternal wrath.—In the day of grace labor diligently to become a child of light, and to walk as such, then you shall, hereafter, see the light of God’s countenance forever.—Man’s greatest dignity and honor, is to have the Divine image renewed in his soul by the Holy Ghost. But if forgetting his Creator, he gives himself to vain things and his own sensual appetites, he will sink almost below the level of the brute. Saladin ordered a long spear with a white flag attached to it to be carried through his camp, having on it this inscription: “The mighty King Saladin, the conqueror of all Asia and of Egypt, takes with him when he dies none of his possessions but this linen flag for a shroud.” The emperor Severus exclaimed upon his death-bed: “Omnia fui, et nihil mihi prodest.”—Osiander: It is the duty of all men to listen attentively to the word of God, and to follow its precepts; those who despise that word shall perish.—Selnekker: All the riches of the world are nothing compared with that genuine treasure which believers possess in their knowledge of a gracious God.—Menzel: The preacher should ever see one Lord, and two souls. The Lord is in heaven, and has called him to his office. Him he must keep before his eyes, regardless of men who trust in riches which they cannot retain forever. The two souls are described in Ezekiel 33 : one is the sinner’s, the other is the preacher’s. He is responsible for the first, and must suffer for it, if through his fault it be given over to condemnation.—Franke: The proclamation of the word of life should also produce life.—Renschel: The service of mammon yields but a poor reward. Be not deceived.—Frisch: Whatever a child of the world most highly esteems, is nothing but folly.—A man possessed of earthly honors and happiness, if he be not wise in Divine things—as few are in the hour of prosperity—will find his happiness quickly at an end, and his future state very miserable.—Tholuck: Blessed is he who, when he departs, has no treasures which he is forced to leave to others.—A rich man who wishes to deceive himself, will find many to help him.—The kingdom of God, though for a time not victorious, will conquer forever.—Umbreit: We can be delivered from the bondage of fear, only by humble, quiet submission to God’s will.—The pious man who though scorned by the world, never fears nor trembles, is God’s hero.—The more a man’s heart cleaves to the perishing things of this life, the less he enjoys them.—You may bargain for and prize all earthly things, but the soul has a priceless value, for it belongs to God.—Stier: Prosperous as the ungodly may be, there is comfort in the certainty that death makes a sure decision, when the proud children of the world shall perish, while the pious shall be redeemed and accepted by God.—Guenther: The worst kind of folly and self-deception is that of men who will not deem themselves to be higher than the brutes, nor truly learn to know themselves, nor work out their salvation with fear and trembling.—Diedrich: To live rightly is the highest wisdom, art, and courage.—If God be our daily aim, we need fear nothing from the world.—Taube: An appeal to every one concerning the folly of the worldly-minded, who can neither be feared nor called happy by the children of God.—The awful nothing out of which the All in this life is made. [Henry: The children of God, though ever so poor, are truly happy in this, above the most prosperous of the children of this world, that they are well guarded against the terrors of death, and the judgment to come.—The way of worldliness is a very foolish way; they that lay up their treasures on earth, and set their affections on things below, act contrary both to right reason, and their own interest.—The love of the world is a disease that runs in the blood; men have it by kind, till the grace of God cures it.—The believing hopes of the soul’s redemption from the grave and reception to glory, are the great support and joy of the children of God in a dying hour.—They that are rich in the graces and comforts of the Spirit, have something which, when they die, they shall carry away with them, something which death cannot strip them of. Bishop Horne: At the call of Folly, what multitudes are always ready to assemble ! But Wisdom, eternal and essential Wisdom crieth without, she lifteth up her voice in the streets, and who is at leisure to attend her heavenly lectures?—Scott: What good will it do any man to have his name perpetuated on earth, when he has no name in the registers of heaven?—J. F.] Psalms 50 A Psalm of Asaph         The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, And called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof 2    Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. 3    Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: A fire shall devour before him, And it shall be very tempestuous round about him. 4    He shall call to the heavens from above, And to the earth, that he may judge his people. 5    Gather my saints together unto me; Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. 6    And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: For God is judge himself. Selah. 7    Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testily against thee: I am God, even thy God. 8    I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices Or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. 9    I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he goats out of thy folds: 10    For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. 11    I know all the fowls of the mountains: And the wild beasts of the field are mine. 12    If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. 13    Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? 14    Offer unto God thanksgiving; And pay thy vows unto the Most High: 15    And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 16    But unto the wicked God saith, “What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, Or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? 17    Seeing thou hatest instruction, And castest my words behind thee. 18    When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, And hast been partaker with adulterers. 19    Thou givest thy mouth to evil, And thy tongue frameth deceit. 20    Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; Thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. 21    These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself: But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. 22    Now consider this, ye that forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. 23    Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. AND Contents and Composition.—Out of Zion a sublime and terrible manifestation of God is made, like that on Mount Sinai, Psalms 50:1-3. Heaven and earth are summoned as witnesses, while He sits in judgment, and pronounces sentence on His covenant people, Psalms 50:4-6. He explains to them the first table of the Law, Psalms 50:7-15; rebukes them for their misconception and abuse of the ordinances of sacrifice, and at the same time, encourages them to the true service of Himself, with the promise of His help. He next describes and threatens to punish the hypocrites who have His covenant on their lips, but break it in their lives, Psalms 50:16-20, warning them to take good heed to this Divine reproof, Psalms 50:21-22, and concludes with a general and prophetic announcement of the fundamental idea of the whole address, Psalms 50:23. This idea, expressed after the manner of the prophets, corresponds with Psalms 15; Psalms 24:3-6; and still more closely with Psalms 11:7-7; Psalms 51:8-9; Psalms 69:31. All these passages have for their basis the truth uttered by Samuel to Saul (1 Samuel 15:22). Of course the later prophets teach the same thing, but there is nothing in the character of this Psalm to oblige us to refer it, not to the times of David, but to those of Josiah (Ewald), or to those of the so-called Deutero-Isaiah (Hitzig). Nor is there any ground for objection to this, in the fact that Asaph (concerning whom see Introduction, § 2), as a Levite, belonged to the tribe whose duty it was to see that the sacrifices were offered in accordance with the rules of Divine service. For this is equally applicable to the prophet Jeremiah, (comp. Jeremiah 6:22, and Lamentations 2:15), and the opinion is certainly ill-founded, that there is here a general repudiation of the Mosaic sacrifices. In this view of it, many of the ancient expositors referred the whole Psalm to the abolition of the Mosaic law through Christ, while later ones think that there is some indication of hostility to it on the part of the author. Psalms 50:1-6. The mighty God, even the Lord (El Elohim Jehovah).—These three names of God are, by the accents, in apposition. Hupf. thinks, without reason, that this accumulation of titles is chilling. On the contrary, it awakens and intensifies attention, as in Joshua 22:22, where God is described as the Mighty One, the God demanding reverence, who had revealed Himself in His Divine fulness in history. We do not approve the suggestion that the first two words should be combined=ingens Deus (Bφttcher), or “the strong God” (Aquil., Symm.), or “the God of gods” (Sept., Isaki, Calvin, Ewald, Hupfeld); nor do we like the translation “God is Elohim Jehovah” (Chald.), nor “God, a God is Jehovah” (Hitzig). This last construction is connected with the rendering of the following line: “He speaks, the earth resounds.” This is ingenious, but doubtful, on account of the change in the subjects of the two verbs standing in juxtaposition; nor is it at all necessary. For in Psalms 50:4 the same word is not used as a call to the heavens and the earth (Ols., Hitz.), i.e. for the assembling of the Israelites given literally in Psalms 50:5, as if heaven and earth were the judicial messengers (Hupfeld), or the instruments and servants of Divine justice (Stier). This does not agree with the well-known idiom of Scripture, and would convey a monstrous idea. On the contrary, it is quite common to call heaven and earth as witnesses, Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 32:1; Isaiah 1:2; 1Ma 2:37. This also agrees well with the universal historic significance of the judgment seat before which God orders His people to assemble, and on which He shines forth in terrible majesty, as when He appeared as lawgiver on Mount Sinai. We would most naturally take the “messengers”—who are not expressly named—to be the angels who so often appeared in visions, and in Matthew 24:31 are described as God’s heavenly servants. Accordingly Psalms 50:6 declares, not the execution of the order, or that the heavens proclaimed the approaching judgment of God, i.e., announced to the parties that God would sit in judgment on them (Hupfeld); but that among the witnesses those celestial inhabitants publicly proclaimed the justice of the Divine sentence. We must therefore regard Psalms 50:1 as the call of God to the whole earth, its contents being akin to, though not synonymous with, the introductory formula of God’s commands to the prophet: “and the word of the Lord came,” etc. (Aquil., Symm., Theodot., Hupfeld). God does not yet call upon the earth to act as a witness, (most commentators), for this would be to anticipate the subsequent description, but He demands its attention. For this first address precedes the Theophany—a fact generally overlooked. It is not a superscription, or summary statement of what will afterwards be more fully detailed, but it rehearses the first act of the entire drama.—The accents show that by “the perfection of beauty,” we are to understand not God (Aquil., Older Comments., Luther, Bφttcher), but Zion, not, however, the city of Jerusalem, but Mount Zion, as the residence of Jehovah.—The comparison of God’s appearance to the sunrise occurs also Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalms 80:1; Psalms 94:1.—The negative ΰμ in Psalms 50:3 would seem to show that the Imperfect tenses which here take the place of Perfects, are to be understood in an optative sense, the rather as they are again followed by Perfects, (Ols., Hengst., Hupfeld). But as in this connection the wish simply means the consent of the speaker, it would be perhaps better to take the Imperfects as Futures, and the negative Al, as in Psalms 34:6; Psalms 41:3, as indicating a personal interest in the mind of the speaker. If, however, the sentence is part of a narrative, and this narrative is an account, not of a historic event, but of a prophetic vision, the discourse has no reference to the future, and the certainty that God cannot keep silence may as well be expressed by the Present tense. Maurer’s rendering, neque est quod sileat, is good. The phrase “not keep silence,” can hardly be understood to mean “not tarry;” nor can it be taken in the sense of “thunder,” as if in keeping with the “fire and tempest,” (Hupfeld and others); but it refers to reproof, or more exactly, to the sinner’s next judicial sentence.—The object of the “covenant,” mentioned in Psalms 50:5, is not the “sacrifices.” It was not entered into for the sake of them (Aben Ezra); they were simply the ground of it, giving it legal validity and religious sanctity, Exodus 14:5; Numbers 10:10; Psalms 92:4. [Perowne: The God of gods, Jehovah.—This is, there can be no doubt, the proper rendering of the words El Elohim.—These three names of God occur in the same way in Joshua 22:22, where they are twice repeated, and are in like manner separated by the accents. This is the only use of the name Jehovah in the Psalm, Which is in accordance with the general Elohistic character of the Second book, but the adjunct “God of gods,” is certainly remarkable.—Alexander: The Almighty, God, Jehovah. Almighty is not an adjective agreeing with the next word (the Mighty God), but a substantive in apposition with it. The three names are put together in a kind of climax, El, Elohim, Jehovah. The first represents God as almighty, the second, as the only proper object of worship, and (by its plural form) as perfect, the third, as self-existent and eternal, and at the same time, as the peculiar God of Israel.—Perowne: Will not keep silence. The optative seems to be required by the form of the negative (ΰָ ?μ=μη), with the second verb. Still, it must be confessed, that the abrupt introduction of a wish here disturbs the flow of the language, and this is not obviated even if, with Hupfeld, we suppose this to be a common formula, in which God is called upon to manifest Himself.—J. F.] Psalms 50:7-15. I am God, even Thy God,—These words are designed, not simply to excite attention (De Wette), for this has been already aroused, as is indicated by the intensive ΰ: but they declare the rightful title to act as judge (Hupf. Del.) Exodus 6:2; Exodus 20:2 and lawgiver, Psalms 71:11.—The Divine reprimand is given, not because the sacrifices enjoined by the law had been omitted. Israel had not neglected to offer them, and God was unmindful neither of them nor of Israel’s conduct in presenting them day by day. But in these material sacrifices God felt no interest, because, on the one hand, men could offer to Him nothing which He did not already possess, since all creatures are His; and on the other hand, He had no need of them, as food or as a means of enjoyment. It is not said that Israel had fallen into this error, nor is there any reproof in express terms. But the lawgiver sitting as a judge, first presents and explains to His people standing before His tribunal, the law of sacrificial service, and then leaves the application of it with themselves. This can be the more readily done, because by the change of the negative into the positive form, the exhibition of the law becomes a direct exhortation and promise. Now, out of the many sacrifices prescribed by the law, some specially important ones are named, though not confined to those associated with thanksgiving and certain kinds of vows. No ritualistic sacrifice in itself, even if offered in a proper spirit, with confession of sin (Kimchi), is what God requires. But, in terms derived, no doubt, from the sacrificial liturgy, as in Psalms 51:19; Hosea 14:3, (Arnoldi in Justin’s Flowers of Ancient Hebrew Poetry, 183), He insists upon an offering of praise and thanksgiving, instead of the symbol, the sincere payment of vows, and a trustful call upon Himself, as a condition of such a hearing of prayer, as should supply new causes of praise to God, (compare Psalms 69:31). “Pay thy vows,” Psalms 50:14, means fulfill all the commandments of God, according to thy promise on entering into the covenant, Exodus 19:8. This is not to be limited to the moral law, or the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20. (Baur, De Wette), for this supposes a distinction never made in the Old Testament. Nor are the “vows” thank-offerings (Leviticus 7:16;Proverbs 7:14), in a spiritual sense, i.e. songs of thanksgiving (Hupfeld), for this would needlessly limit what is demanded. For Todah means not simply “praise” (Geier, J. H. Mich.), but “praise and thanksgiving.” Nor can this be taken only in an individualizing sense, as a form of inward heart devotion, in contrast with merely outward worship (Hengst.), without the rendering “offer praises to God, and thus pay, i.e. thou shalt pay thy vows, and then calling upon me,” etc. (Hengst.);—a rendering which requires the unwarranted insertion of the words “thus” and “then,” and the violent change of the Imperfect into a Future.—The prophetic character of this Psalm, and the Divine utterance in it, indicate a progress in revelation. This is seen also in such passages as Isaiah 1:11; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6; Proverbs 21:3, anticipating, as they do to some extent, New Testament views, but the same thing is discoverable even in the Pentateuch, in Deuteronomy, partly in promise, partly fulfilled. The legal definitions are treated as normal expressions of the Divine will in regard to the whole moral and religious conduct of mankind; and thus they are divested not only of their merely ceremonial character, but even of their externality. [Barnes: To have been continually before me, E. V. (Psalms 50:8). The words “to have been” are inserted by the translators, and weaken the sense. The simple idea is that their offerings were continually before Him, i.e. they were constantly made. He had no charge in this respect to bring against them. The insertion of the words “to have been,” would seem to imply that though they had neglected the external rite, it was a matter of no consequence; whereas the simple meaning is that they were not chargeable with this neglect. It was on other grounds altogether that a charge was brought against them.—J. F.] Psalms 50:16. But to the wicked, etc. The address turns from the first to the second table of the law, here, as in Exodus 24:7; Exodus 34:28, designated as the “covenant;” and the sins against the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments, i.e. sins against one’s neighbor are specially mentioned. It does not follow from this nor other like descriptions, e.g.Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 66:3, that the erring members of God’s people, those who were content with a merely external Worship of Him, are always in Scripture identical with the “wicked,” and that they are here addressed as those alluded to in Psalms 50:7 and the following verse (Hengst.). This is correct only in so far as Psalms 50:7 addresses the whole people and not a part of them, and as to this people those belong who are specially censured as “forgetting God,” Psalms 50:22. There is no previous threat of punishment, but only an exposition of the law of sacrifice, ending with an exhortation and a promise. To this the contrast refers, and not to different classes or grades of sinners (most commentators), On this account Psalms 50:22 must be connected, not with the concluding sentence, but with Psalms 50:21. Psalms 50:16-20. What hast thou to do to declare, etc.—This is not an inquiry indicating surprise or disapproval, for the reason of an aimless action, “what can it profit thee?” (De Wette). It is an express reprimand of an insolent one, “How darest thou?” The construction μ with the infinitive is changed into that of the infinitive verb.—The translation of Psa 50:18 : “thou goest with him,” (Chald., Sept., Vulgate, Luther), grows out of the derivation from the word ψεּ ?υ. But in this case the vowels must be placed thus: εַ ?ϊָּ ?ψָ ?υ. The word in our present text εַ ?ϊָּ ?γֶ ?υ must come from ψָ ?φּ ?δ as in Job 34:9, with ςִ ?ν, i.e. to have pleasure in the society of some one.—“Thine own mother’s son” describes the nearest blood relationship, and contains an allusion to the polygamous relations then common. Ordinarily ΰη designates a “brother” in a wider sense. The “blow” given to him is not a physical one (Hitzig), nor something given to him, or laid in his way by which he may receive a blow, like σκανδαλον (Sept.), or offendiculum (Vulgate, Gesen., Maurer), but one with the tongue, but not necessarily in the sense of calumny (Rab., Ewald, Hengst.), though πϊο is often equivalent to “give away.”—The “keeping silence,” Psalms 50:21, is a proof of Divine forbearance designed to lead men to repentance (Romans 2:4), though often misinterpreted by them. There is no question asked here—“should I keep silence?” (Hitzig), nor in the following line, where the oratio obliqua is indicated by the infinitive construct.—To translate the concluding verse, “And this (more accurately “these”) is the way” (Sept., Syr., Luther), gives the general meaning, but it is based on the erroneous reading ωָׁ ?ν, instead of the one handed down by the Talmud ωָׂ ?ν, which, according to Isaiah 43:19, compares with Psalms 49:11; Ezekiel 21:25 would lead to the sense of: to make, prepare, or to pave a way (Bφttcher). Taking the sentence as an independent one, it would read: “who prepares a way” (Hengst.), or: “who directs the way” (Hupfeld); qui ordinat viam (Vulgate, Geier); qui disposuit viam (Calvin, Maurer.) But to get this ethical sense, it must be paraphrased: “who regulates his life according to fixed principles,” or “who prepares himself to walk in the right way.” A simpler meaning perhaps would be: “who prepares the way,” i.e. “who equips himself for the journey” (Hitzig). This, how ever, would seem to refer the Psalm to the times of the Exile. The versions: “who has a care of his walk” (De Wette), “who walks carefully” (Ewald), are either elliptical or involve grammatical difficulties. It is perhaps better, therefore, to regard the sentence not as an independent one, but as a continuation of the preceding (Del.). Psalms 50:21. Imagined.—The Hebrew verb originally means to liken or compare, and another of the same form, to be silent, so that it is peculiarly appropriate in this place, where the mention of God’s silence immediately precedes, and the imagining referred to was a false assimilation of the Most High to> the sinner himself. [Alexander: O consider this, etc., Psalms 50:22. The Hebrew particle of entreaty (πַ ?ΰ) is not so well expressed by the now of the English Bible, as by the oh of the Prayer Book version.—Perowne: Sacrificeth thanksgiving, Psalms 50:23. The verb is designedly employed in order to mark the nature of the sacrifice which God will have; slay not victims, bring not animals, but bring thanksgiving as sacrifices. The E. V. with its rendering “offereth praise,” loses slightly the distinct reference to the Mosaic sacrifices, which are not indeed absolutely suspended—the time had not yet come for this—but are put in their true place. The very great prominence again given to thanksgiving, is worthy of our careful notice. There is no duty so commonly forgotten.—J. F.] AND ETHICAL1. We must carefully distinguish those actual judgments of a world-historic significance, to execute which God is often said to come down from heaven, from that sitting in judgment on His covenant people, which is in this Psalm set forth as a prophetical vision, though connected with certain great historic events. For this latter purpose, God appears in supreme majesty; He shines forth from Zion, that He may reveal in His word, neither a new law nor a new exposition of it, but a Divine sanction of the deeper conception of the law. And so by exhibiting the real purport of the law, while reprimanding and exhorting His people, He would have it take a firmer hold on their consciences, and aid them in a new development of life. 2. Before God chastises His people, He makes known to them by His word, how intensely He hates sin, and how carefully He watches over the covenant established by Him under the sanction of sacrificial ordinances. The importance of this word is enhanced by the certainty of God’s personal participation in them, and by the assurance that while graciously dwelling in the midst of His people, He is still sublime and terrible in His majesty. At the same time His love is manifest in this: that He makes known to them the judicial earnestness of His royal administration, by symbols, whose design and meaning could not be misunderstood, (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 9:3; Deuteronomy 32:22; 1 Kings 19:11; Hebrews 12:29); and that before punishing them, He instructs, warns, exhorts them, mingling both threats and promises with the exposition of His law. As in His first proclamation, so now, He claims the authority of the only true God, the Lord of heaven and earth; the God whom the people of Israel had acknowledged and accepted as their God. 3. The real character of God and His holy will was utterly misconceived, when the sacrifices of the law of Moses were viewed as gifts of man that satisfied a want of the Divine nature, or as performances by which a sinner fulfilled his moral obligations, or could redeem himself from the guilt and punishment of his transgressions. If God had such a want, since He is Lord of all things, He had no need of looking to man for its supply. As the Omnipotent and Omniscient One, He could refresh Himself when and where He pleased. But His nature is spiritual, and therefore subject to no such necessities. What He desired was not the correct observance of legal rites, but a far higher thing, Psalms 50:12, the discharge of those moral and religious duties of which these rites were simply the symbolic expression. 4. God’s commands must be expounded in order that they may be learned and understood, but this is only as a means to an end, viz: their actual fulfillment. When the law speaks of sins, it does so, not to influence our evil passions, but to make us see the hatefulness of sin, to warn against the dangers that surround us, and to awaken that holy fear which leads to repentance, and guards against abusing God’s patience, and goodness, and grace. For the wrath of God is as terrible as His grace is lovely. 5. The first and most natural duty of those who are received into the covenant of grace, is gratitude. The expression of it in word and work, is acceptable to God only when it embraces obedience both to the first and second tables of the law. True gratitude is not bounded by a legal command, or the letter of an appointment, but it passes over into the domain of love. Thus it paves a way for an ever-enlarging experience, and an ever deepening conception of the salvation of God—a way leading out of the Old Testament into the New. AND One and the same God delivers the law to His people, explains it to His church, and accomplishes it in those whom He graciously pardons.—Grace not only deserves our gratitude, but it works it in us and blesses it.—God’s commands must not only be learned and spoken about, but must also be obeyed.—The wrath of God is as terrible as His grace is lovely; and yet in each of them the majesty of the Heavenly King is alike revealed.—Think what God is, consider what God does, observe what God wills.—Gratitude is not only the best offering for grace received, but also the foundation most acceptable to God, of new prayers for needed help. Luther: To call upon God in times of trouble, and to thank Him for His aid, is the truest worship, the most acceptable sacrifice, and the proper way to salvation. Starke: God speaks! who would not diligently attend? He who despises His words, despises God Himself, and such an one shall be despised himself.—The fairest ornament of a land or a locality, is the confession of the doctrine of Christ and a godly walk.—As the sweetest wine may become the most acid vinegar, and the most pleasant summer day may end in the severest thunder-storm, so the wanton abuse and contempt of God’s grace is followed by the most fearful punishment.—Remember, O man ! how many witnesses there are of thy conduct.—Heaven and earth must testify before God that His judgment of the despisers of His grace is perfectly just.—Divine service without faith displeases God more than it honors Him.—Think not that God needs thy service, or that He gets any advantage thereby.—But to thyself, the true service of God is the greatest blessing and benefit.—The Christian’s first vow is that made to God in Baptism—to serve and believe in Him; his first and chiefest care should be to see that this vow is not broken.—All those hate discipline who, while they know and perhaps teach others the word of God, are not themselves brought by it to true repentance, faith, and holiness.—Esteem no sin trifling because punishment does not quickly follow it.—What is loaned for a long time must not be regarded as a gift.—God looks upon the wickedness of men, not because He has pleasure in it, but to afford them time for repentance, and to cut off all excuses for it.—When the period of grace is passed, no hope of salvation is left; and he who has not found the true Saviour, will never find another.—To see Jesus here by faith, and hereafter face to face, is a sufficient reward for those who are now diligent in offering sacrifice to God.—Reichel: People are reprehensible, not for going to the Holy Supper, but because while going to it they continue to live in all sorts of sins and abominations.—Arndt: Gratitude includes many virtues, e.g. the knowledge of God, for it recognises Him as the source of all good; the fear of God, or the filial fear, which, as a child, receives all benefits from God as a father; humility, or the consciousness that we have nothing in ourselves, but get everything from God.—Richter: From Sinai Jehovah spake as a Lawgiver; from Zion, as a Saviour; from His throne He speaks in both characters, to the whole human race.—The more heartily you give thanks, the richer and greater cause for thanksgiving shall you receive.—Stier: God, before whose judgment-seat stand only those holy ones who have entered into covenant with Him by sacrifice, explains to His erring and offending people that true way of sacrifice that leads to salvation.—Those offenders who mean to sin and offer sacrifice at the same time shall certainly be punished.—Umbreit: Heaven and earth shall be witnesses, while God judges His people.—The new commandment of the pure and true worship of God.—Unbridled iniquity leads men, step by step, from one abomination to another.—Guenther: Are we really sincere and honest in rendering our service to God? Is there no concealed hypocrisy of any kind within us? Listen attentively: none at all? Taube: The majestic appearance of the Lord when He comes as a judge, and to testify to His people concerning His true worship, and the hypocritical service of the ungodly. Judgment begins at the house of God, but it also makes manifest His faithful ones.—Deichert: Our God shall come, and not keep silence. 1. How He comes. 2. What He finds amongst us. 3. What He has to say to us about it.—Ahlfeld: How does the Christian enter the new year? 1. With thanks. 2. With confession. 3. With prayer (according to Psalms 50:14-16).:—Heubner: The proper way of calling upon God. 1. Wherein it consists. 2. What should induce us to do it. 3. How we are prepared to do it. [Barnes: The general ideas in this Psalm are: (1) That there is to be a solemn judgment of mankind; (2) that the issues of that judgment will not be determined by the observance of the external forms of religion; (3) that God will judge men impartially for their sins, though they observe these forms of religion; and (4) that no worship of God can be acceptable which does not spring from the heart.—Henry: (1) It is not enough for us to offer praise, but we must withal order our conversation aright—thanksgiving is good, but thanksliving is better. (2) Those that would have their conversation aright, must take care and pains to order it; to dispose it according to rule; to understand their way and to direct it. (3) Those that take care of their conversation make sure their salvation; them God will make to see His salvation; for it is a salvation ready to be revealed; He will make them to see it and enjoy it, to see it, and to see themselves happy in it forever. Note: The right ordering of the conversation is the only way, and it is a sure way to obtain the great salvation.—F.] Psalms 51 To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba         Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest. 5    Behold I was shapen in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me. 6    Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7    Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8    Make me to hear joy and gladness; That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9    Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities. 10    Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. 11    Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy Holy Spirit from me. 12    Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with thy free Spirit. 13    Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; And sinners shall be converted unto thee. 14    Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15    O Lord, open thou my lips; And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16    For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17    The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 18    Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19    Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. AND Its Contents and Composition.—A penitential Psalm of an almost evangelical spirit and character, “which has been used by the Church in song and prayer oftener than any other in the Psalter” (Luther). For the prayer for expiation through the mercy of God (Psalms 51:1-2) is founded upon the penitent confession of his own grievous transgression (Psalms 51:3-4) and the assurance that he who has been conceived and born in sin can obtain truth and wisdom only from God (Psalms 51:5-6). On this foundation rises at first a double prayer for forgiveness of sins (Psalms 51:7-9) and renewal through the Holy Spirit (Psalms 51:10-12); then follows the vow of thanksgiving, partly in the instruction of sinners unto conversion, partly in the personal praise of God (Psalms 51:13-15), because the will of God is not that external sacrifices should be brought, but He desires spiritual contrition of heart (Psalms 51:17-18); finally there is an intercession in behalf of the bestowal of grace upon the entire people, in order that they may be in the right condition, with true disposition to offer likewise the external ritual sacrifices at Jerusalem prescribed in the law (Psalms 51:18-19). It is very natural to suppose that the last two verses are a later, perhaps liturgical addition (Venema, Rosen., Maurer, Kφster, Tholuck [Perowne, et al.], yet this is not entirely necessary (vide Psalms 51:18-19). Still less are we compelled, in order to maintain the authenticity of the composition of this Psalm, to descend to the time of the exile at Babylon (De Wette), and explain it as a prayer of the nation (Paulus, Olsh.), or ascribe it to the author of Isaiah 40-66., as a prayer of the prophet, to support him in his calling (Hitzig). The latter reference to the prophet’s calling is forced by the most violent explanations. The undoubted similarities with Isaiah are not limited to the last chapters, so that it is more natural to suppose a manifold use of this Psalm by the prophet Isaiah (Delitzsch), and emphasize the thoroughgoing reference to 2 Samuel 12 (Hengst.), and indeed in these very expressions and turns of thought, which are not as it were usual phrases (Hupfeld), but relate to that very transgression of David and its consequences, which is mentioned in the title. The fact that this title uses the same word to designate the official coming of Nathan to David, and the sexual coming of David to Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:4, comp. Genesis 6:4; Genesis 16:2), shows a carelessness of Hebrew style (Delitzsch) rather than a significant antithesis. (Stier, Hengst.). At any rate λַ ?ΰֲ ?ωֶׁ ?ψ is not to be regarded as=such as, expressing the correspondence of guilt and punishment; but it is to be taken as a particle of time=when, which, connected with the perfect (1 Samuel 12:8; 2 Samuel 12:21), receives the meaning=after that, and indicates the pluperfect. Compared with Ps. 6. and 38. the feelings expressed here are in a more advanced stage, whilst the situation is the same. Psalms 32. carries out what is promised here in Psalms 51:13. Str. I. Psalms 51:1. According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions.—The plurality of his transgressions is not to be explained historically but psychologically. He prays that they may be blotted out or wiped away, either as letters, Exodus 32:32; Numbers 5:23; comp. Psalms 9:5; Psalms 69:23, from the book of guilt (J. H. Mich., Rosen., et al.), or as clouds from the heavens by a wind, Isaiah 42:22 (Delitzsch). In this connection, however, we are not to think of the figure of filth (Stier), but of the idea of entire removal, 2 Kings 21:13 (Hupfeld). Psalms 51:2. Wash me thoroughly, or wash me much. δַ ?ψְ ?αֵּ ?δ is hardly the full form of the imper. hiphil, for which δֶ ?ψֶ ?α is the shortened form (Geier, Rosen., De Wette, Stier after Aben Ezra and Kimchi), although, at times, the imperative of the auxiliary verb and the imperative of the principal verb, follow one another without the conjunction ε, comp. 1 Samuel 2:3 (Gesen. § 139, 3 b.); but it is the infin. absolute (Kimchi, J. H. Mich alternately, Hitzig, Hengst., Hupfeld), used as an adverb (Ewald, § 240 e., 280 c., Gesen. § 128, 2), and here placed before the verb with emphasis, as in Ps. 131:7, before the noun. The washing is expressed by a verb which usually refers to cleansing the clothing by means of kneading, and thus designates the iniquity as filth deeply soiling him.—Make me clean from my sin.—This verb is used at the same time for declarative and actual purification, and represents the sin as a leprosy.—It is unnecessary to inquire whether all these expressions refer more to the objective greatness of the guilt, in reference to which the greatness of Divine compassion is emphasized (Calvin, Geier, et al.), or to the subjective strength of the feelings (Hupfeld). For if the consciousness of his sin is directly mentioned as constantly before the Psalmist, whether as a ground of longing and prayer for forgiveness (Calvin, J. H. Mich., Stier, et al.), or as a motive for the fulfilment of this petition, because his confession indicates the presence of the condition of forgiveness (Geier, Rosen., Hengst.): he yet likewise afterwards not only mentions blood-guiltiness, in Psalms 51:14, but in the immediate course of the thought, Psalms 51:4, designates sin as evil before the eyes of God (Isaiah 65:12; Isaiah 66:4), and Psalms 51:5 brings it in connection with the universal human sinfulness, and indeed not as an excuse (Flamin. and Rosen. after some Rabbins), but as a testimony to the depth of ruin and the enormity of transgression. Str. II. Psalms 51:3. For my transgressions I know.—[Perowne: “There is no need to render with the A. V. ‘I acknowledge,’ though no doubt the confession of sin is implied. That, however, is not here prominent, but rather that discernment of sin and of its true nature which leads to a confession of it.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 51:4. Against Thee alone, etc.—This expression does not say that the sin in question is to be regarded as idolatry, that is, as sin against the one only true God (Paulus), or as a then (in the exile or in the Maccabean time) unparalleled guilt (Olsh.). It certainly is not against the reference to the transgression of David against Bathsheba and Uriah. It does not mention this fact, but emphasizes the sinfulness of it, and shows that the speaker, in the sincerity and strength of his penitence, which corresponds with the depth of his knowledge of his sin, has in mind, not the injuries done to men, but his relation to God, which was thereby disturbed, to whom the sin as such refers, that is to say, according to its idea and nature, solely and alone. The word alone is not superfluous (Flacius), since it is rather indispensable to express the thought indicated above. Yet we must not limit the emphasis and tone to this word, but at the same time extend it to the word “sinned.” For the conception and designation of the nature of sin as opposition to the holy will of God, who not only alone recognizes the springs of sinful action in the interior of man (Kimchi), but is the only supreme lawgiver and judge, discloses a frame of mind (Hupfeld) in which the religious reference to God alone is felt (Flamin., Rosen., Maurer, De Wette), and therefore likewise urges to the seeking of purification and sanctification in God alone (Isaki, et al.). But this conception and designation is neither brought about by an abstraction from the appearances of sin, nor does it spring from a merely subjective frame of mind and feeling, but it originates from a knowledge of the essential relation of sin, and hence the objective truth of the clause is to be maintained. For since μְ ?ξַ ?ςַ ?ο=ἴνα states not the consequences but always the design or the aim, and moreover the context as well as the character of David excludes the interpretation that the Psalmist confesses, that he has sinned with the design or to the end that the righteousness of God might become manifest; these words must not be referred back to the thoughts contained in the prayer, Psalms 51:1, or in the confession, Psalms 51:3, but must be put in the closest connection with the words: “against Thee alone” and “the evil in Thine eyes.” It is not necessary then to insert the words: “this I confess” (Olsh., von Leng.). The Psalmist has by the confession in Psalms 51:4 already renounced excuses and self-justification, and indeed every thought which might include an accusation against God, at the same time, moreover, by putting his act under the head of actions condemned by God, by condemning himself, he thus fulfills the purpose that the righteousness and purity of God should be presented and recognized in fact. The appearance of doing away with human freedom and of a Divine predestination of evil, which, moreover, Calvin did not find here, originates mostly from the fact that the speaking and judging of God is usually referred directly and immediately to the condemning oracle of Nathan, which it is admissible to make use of here only in a general way. Of course the reference is not to a judicial judgment of God absolving an accused person, as if the meaning were that no one’s right is injured when God Himself is the offended person, and He bestows His grace upon the person who is deficient (Hitzig); still less is it of the speaking and internal judgment of God in the conscience of man (De Wette, Hupfeld). The expression is a general one, and is thus taken by the Apostle Paul, Romans 3:4, and secured from misinterpretation and misuse by a fuller explanation of the facts of the case. The sense is not essentially altered, although he cites from the Septuagint, which has the noun “in Thy words,” instead of the infinitive, and has taken the word ζλδ in accordance with the usage of the Syriac, in the meaning of “conquer,” “overcome,” instead of “be pure,” and has taken the active “judge” as passive, which then, with respect to this passage of the Psalm, the interpreters with this conception, refer to the offence which the fall of a man like David had given (Calvin). The unusual pointing of αְּ ?γָ ?αְ ?ψֶ ?κָ, as the infinitive Kal, appears to have been chosen for the sake of similarity of sound with the parallel αְ ?ωָׁ ?τְ ?θֶ ?κָ. Str. III. Psalms 51:5. Behold, in guilt was I born,etc.—The Psalm does not refer to an adulterous action on the part of his mother, of a sinful condition of birth and generation (Isaki), although the word ιִ ?ηַ ?ν is generally used of the lust of animals, Genesis 30:41; Genesis 31:10, it merely refers to descent from sinful parents (Job 14:4), and inborn sinfulness, which with its guilt and its ruin is transmitted from parents to children, by means of natural propagation, so that they are infected with sin from their mother’s womb and from their youth, Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Psalms 58:4. Psalms 51:6. Behold, Thou delightest in truth in the reins,etc.—Since God’s good pleasure and desire is directed to a truth present in the reins as the seat of the tenderest feelings (Chald., Jerome, Rabbins, Gesenius, Delitzsch), or, according to another derivation of the word: in the hiding-place, that is to say, in the most secret depths of the heart (Sept., Syriac, Jerome, Aben Ezra, Luther, Calvin, and most interpreters); he must pray that God will make known wisdom in the hidden parts. It does not mean secret wisdom, an understanding of the typical sense of the Old Testament ceremonies, or a deeper insight into the guidance of God, and into the secret of the atonement (most of the older interpreters, recently Stier), but according to the accents and the context, the correlative of truth, the practical wisdom of life, which God is to make known in the hidden parts, that is to say, internally in the heart, Job 38:36 (Rosen., Hengstenberg, recent interpreters). It is too narrow to regard truth as truthfulness, or sincerity in the knowledge and confession of sin (J. H. Mich., Tholuck, et al.); too wide to ex-plain it as the essence of all good (De Wette). It is the sincere nature corresponding with its ideal, whose character and reliability may be trusted, or the righteousness in accordance with the will and requirements of God, the true righteousness in contrast with lies, appearance, hypocrisy, Joshua 24:14; Judges 9:16; 1 Kings 2:4; 1 Kings 3:6; 2 Kings 20:3; Psalms 145:18 (Calvin, Hengst. et al.). The supposition that α, in αָ ?θֻּ ?ηεֹ ?ϊ, is not the preposition but the initial letter, as Job 12:6, and that it is therefore to be translated: behold, faith Thou lovest, confidence (Hitzig), is opposed by the fact that the word in question is used in Job in the objective sense, but here is applied in the subjective sense, just as ΰֱ ?ξֶ ?ϊ, which might indeed be translated: “faithfulness,” but is here taken by Hitzig as=ΰֱ ?ξεּ ?πָ ?δ, and this again explained as=πίστις, in the subjective sense; and all this in the interest of the hypothesis that a prophet speaks here, before whom there is an uncertain future, which he nominally longs for (Psalms 51:10 b. 12), but really desires to be turned away (Psalms 51:11; Psalms 51:14), and now has become disquieted and faint-spirited, because things have turned out different from his expectations; yet now as a prophet, on account of his official duty, he has to look into the future, and has not yet lost all hope; hence the sense of the passage is said to be: Thou requirest likewise from me believing confidence, and this will I become partaker of, if Thou revealest to me hidden things. Str. IV. Psalms 51:7. Purify me with hyssop,etc.—The Old Testament stand-point is disclosed in the fact that the means of purification are still designated figuratively and without a particle of comparison, by that symbol, with which the sprinkling of the men or things that had become unclean by contact with a corpse, Numbers 19:6 sq.; Numbers 19:18 sq., as well as the sprinkling of the leper, Leviticus 14., was performed, comp. Bδhr, Symbolik des mos. Kultus II. 503. This stand point, however, is broken through by the fact, that there is no mention here of the priestly mediation, which was ordained as well for this act of sprinkling as for the washing of the clothing and bathing of the body, likewise mentioned here, but rather purification is implored directly from God, and the washing desired not for the clothing but for the person. Isaiah 1:18 makes use of Psa 51:7 b., where the redness of sin is brought in contrast with the whiteness of snow, which is occasioned by the mention of hands stained with blood, Isaiah 1:15. Psalms 51:8. Joy and gladness.—These expressions frequently combined are always used of loud and festive manifestations of joy (Hupfeld). They accordingly designate, not the effect of a message of peace within the heart, as by the preaching of grace in the word of God (Luther, Calvin, Stier), or else a message which gives joy (Hitzig), but the expression of joy, which is here published by the speaker himself, and thereby brought to a hearing, and actually accomplished by the fact that the declaration of pardon made to David through Nathan, which had taken place historically long before the composition of this Psalm, and therefore cannot be meant here, has penetrated finally, after long struggle and conflict, into the penitent soul, even to the point where its internal appropriation and sealing by the Holy Spirit can be hoped for and implored.—[Bones.—Perowne: “These are not merely as Hupfeld says, instead of the heart, but as constituting the strength and frame-work of the body, the crushing of the bones being a very strong figure, denoting the most complete prostration, mental and bodily, see Psalms 6:2.”—C. A. B.] [Psalms 51:9. Hide Thy face.—This is the angry face, the judicial look of God, vid. Psalms 21:9.—C. A. B.] Psalms 51:10-11. A pure heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.—The pure heart, the condition of communion with God (Psalms 73:1; Matthew 5:8), is designated not only as a heart cleansed from sin (Acts 15:9), but at the same time as a new heart, by the fact that it is implored from a creative act of God, from which likewise the renewal of the spirit (Ezek. 4:23) to a steadfast one takes place, that is to say to a spirit firmly grounded in God’s grace, and thereby not only fearless and confident (Psalms 57:7; Psalms 112:7), but firm (Psalms 78:37). What is implored here does not go beyond that which is required in Psalms 24:4; moreover it is promised by the prophets as a gift of God (Jeremiah 24:7; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26), and includes a change of disposition (1 Samuel 10:9), which presupposes and is conditioned on penitence, and at the same time a believing turning unto the Divine grace, as it is made known in the prayer, not to be cast away from the presence of God, that is to say, utterly rejected (2 Kings 13:23; 2 Kings 17:20; 2 Kings 24:20; Jeremiah 7:15), not to be deprived of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 63:11), with which David had been anointed (1 Samuel 16:13). The context is opposed to the insertion of “for ever” (Kimchi), not less than the explanation that this is the prayer of one already converted (Calvin).Psalms 51:12. With a willing spirit uphold me.—The reference is not to a princely or guiding spirit (Sept., Vulgate, Isaki, et al.), or indeed to a mighty spirit (Jerome). The use of the Hebrew word in question for a person noble by birth (Job 30:15) or political rank, was rendered possible only after a series of intermediate steps. The fundamental meaning leads to the opposite of being legally necessary or externally forced, that is, to a being driven from within outwards (Exodus 25:2), and accordingly to joyous willingness (Isaiah 32:8; Ps. 54:8). Grammatically this spirit of willingness can only be regarded as the subject nominative, and the following verb as the 3d per. fem. (Rabbins, Luther, Geier, J. H. Mich., et al.). But it is more in accordance with the context of the prayer to adopt the explanation which is likewise admissible, that the verb is the 2d masc. with double accusative, as Genesis 27:37 (Sept., Jerome, Hengst., Hupfeld, Delitzsch). This part of the prayer affords a suitable transition to the following vow of true thank-offering, comp. Psalms 32:8. Str. V. Psalms 51:13. I will teach, etc.—The optative form includes at the same time the petition that he may do it or be able to do it, presupposes accordingly the consequences of his prayer, so that it is unnecessary to supply “then” (De Wette, Hengst., [A. V.]). The ways of God are either those in which God Himself walks, particularly His treatment of penitent sinners, which is favored by Psalms 51:14-15 (Stier), or those ordained of God, upon which man is to walk, the commandments of God (De Wette, Hupfeld), which is favored by Psalms 32:8 (Hengst.).—[And sinners shall return unto Thee.—Alexander: “The Hebrew verb is not a passive (shall be converted) but an active form, shall turn or return to the Lord, perhaps with an allusion to the great apostasy, in which the whole race is involved. See above, in Psalms 22:27. To this verse there seems to be particular allusion in our Saviour’s words to Peter, Luke 22:32.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 51:14. Blood-guiltiness, derived from the bloody deed, presses as a burden upon the conscience of David. Both ideas mingle with one another frequently in the Hebrew word which denotes primarily blood poured forth by violence, e.g. Psalms 9:12; Psalms 106:38. The prayer for deliverance seems to lead to the latter signification. Then we have to think of a hostile act directed against the Psalmist, a murder of the prophet which was to be feared (Hitzig) from men of blood (Psalms 59:2), or of a still further effusion of blood which was expected by the people (Olshausen). But this passive reference of the word is unusual, so that the prayer for deliverance from impending death (Psalms 33:19) affords no parallel. The deliverance is rather such an one which takes away the Psalmist (Psalms 39:2) from the blood that he has shed. Since now the act cannot be undone, and can least of all be forgotten by the penitent himself, the expression manifestly refers to the expiation and forgiveness of guilt, which is referred to generally in this Psalm. The mingling of the idea of punishment (even by Hengst. and Hupfeld) can only work confusion, although fear of it, and remembrance of threatenings, as 2 Samuel 12:9 sq.; Genesis 4:10; Genesis 9:5 sq., might awaken and sharpen the consciousness of guilt.—The righteousness of God is not that tempered by grace and changed into mercy (Calvin, Geier, et al.), or that bestowed upon the sinner by grace (J. H. Mich., Stier), but that attribute of God, by virtue of which He gives every one his dues, comp. 1 John 1:9 (Hengstenberg), the general principle of the Divine government (Hupfeld). Psalms 51:15. The opening of the lips is not merely as a consequence of the forgiveness of sins in contrast with the silence of the anxiety of sin (Calvin, Geier, Hengstenberg, et al.), but at the same time as an act of God, which not only opens the mouth of His prophets and consecrates their lips (Isaiah 50:4 sq.; Ezekiel 3:27; Amos 4:13), but likewise works thankfulness, and invokes the song of praise, Psalms 42:9; Psalms 49:5; Psalms 71:15 (Hupfeld). This is, according to Psalms 51:8; Psalms 51:12, a rejoicing heart, and seems therefore to presuppose a glad heart. Psalms 51:16-17. A broken heart is designated as the essential thing in the offering well-pleasing to God, and indeed the ζִ ?αְ ?ηֵ ?ι, that is to say sacrifices, which word in accordance with usage is neither offering in general, or sin offering in particular, but constantly the peace offering brought by those already expiated and justified, the ωְׁ ?μָ ?ξִ ?ιν and the thank-offering ϊּ ?εֹ ?γַ ?δ. We must entirely reject the explanation that penitence has taken the place of the sin-offering, and indeed in the present case, because such an intentional transgression as that of David against Bathsheba and Uriah, allowed of no legal sin-offering (Rabbins, et al.), which cuts the nerve of the entire passage. The inadmissibleness of this interpretation is confirmed by the parallel mention of burnt offering ςεֹ ?μָ ?δ, by the offering of which the renewed devotion to God and His service was fulfilled. But it is not only said that the glad thankfulness for the deliverance, favor, forgiveness of sins, comes from a broken heart as the condition of salvation (Hitzig, Delitzsch), or remains constantly accompanied by a pain on account of sin (De Wette), which was at the same time a measure of the thankfulness for the forgiveness of sins (Hengstenberg). The heart itself is the essential thing in all the sacrifices of thanksgiving. To bring this is not the only offering which God demands after the abrogation of the propitiatory sacrifice, because in it the man denies himself, and abandoning any merit of his own, implores his entire salvation from God’s grace alone through faith (Calvin); it is the sign that grace has broken the heart, and that the favored one, in true humility, regards himself unworthy of what God has done to him, Genesis 32:10; Luke 5:8. The statement of Joshua ben Levi, imparted by Delitzsch from the Talmud Sanhedrin 43 b., is related with this: at the time when the temple was standing, he who brought a burnt-offering received the reward of such, and he who brought a meat-offering, the reward of such, but the humble is to the Scriptures as one who brought all the offerings at once. However, the explanatory addition to Psalms 51:17 in Iren. IV. 17 and Clemens Alex. pζdag. III. 12, gives the present statement a somewhat different turn: “A savor well-pleasing to God, is a heart which praises Him who has smitten it.” Moreover, it is not to be left out of consideration that Psalms 51:17 b. leads back, not to the means of forgiveness of sins, but rather to the subjective prerequisite and condition of it, which the Psalmist, still imploring forgiveness, experiences in himself as a personal condition of heart, and to this unites a hope, which in Isaiah 57:15 is sealed by the consolation of the prophecy, that God will take up His abode in such hearts as these. Str. VI. Psalms 51:18-19.—Do good, etc.—The remark made in the previous verse enables us to conceive of the use of this verse in the spiritual and New Testament sense. But this does not allow us to explain this passage in the typical or Messianic sense of the spiritual edification of the congregation (Flam.), or of the spiritual offerings of Zion built up again of broken and restored hearts (Stier). Psalms 51:19 speaks of real Old Testament offerings, and indeed again of thank-offerings, especially consisting of sacrifices of bullocks, which are designated directly as burnt-offerings, and by the word λָּ ?μִ ?ιμ, not as perfect (Maurer), but, in accordance with usage, whole burnt-offerings, that is, as offerings which were to be entirely consumed, and here apparently not the whole vegetable offering, Leviticus 6:15, but that identical with the burnt-offering, 1 Samuel 7:9, of which the offerer did not receive a part as they did of the shelamim. These sacrifices, the Psalmist foresees, would be brought upon the altar after that God in His favor had done good to Zion, and built the walls of Jerusalem; and his prayer is that God may do this. There is not a syllable in the text to indicate that God’s grace was turned again to Zion, which would presuppose an apostasy of the people, or of a rebuilding of the walls which had been destroyed, by which either this concluding strophe or the whole Psalm would be pressed into the time of the Exile. The author has spoken only of his own guilt; since, however, he has mentioned its connection with universal human sinfulness, the transition in the prayer to intercession has been sufficiently prepared. If now David is the petitioner, it involves not only an extension of the view in the direction of his royal glance in general, but in view of the threatening, 2 Samuel 12:10, he must fear that evil would come from his sin upon the whole nation (Hengstenberg), and therefore feel himself impelled especially in his prayer for personal pardon, finally for constant exhibitions of the Divine favor to Zion and Jerusalem. The building of the walls is in contrast with the tearing down (Psalms 89:40), and includes the idea of duration and preservation, Psalms 89:3 sq. Thus the statement is explained without difficulty and without its being necessary to regard the building of the walls of Jerusalem round about by Solomon, 1 Kings 3:1, as the fulfilment of this prayer of David.—There is no inconsistency with Psalms 51:16, as those suppose who regard the closing verses as a later attempt to restore the offerings rejected in Psalms 51:16 (Kφster, Maurer, Tholuck), or who suppose that Psalms 51:16 merely says that God has no pleasure in the offerings which might be brought during the exile in the heathen land, since the only admissible place for the bringing of the true and legal offerings was Jerusalem (Isaiah 36:7), where then after the restoration of the city they should be brought in the true and proper manner (Paulus, De Wette, Hitzig). All these suppositions are as untenable as they are unnecessary. For it follows from Psalms 51:17, where the offerings well-pleasing to God are described, that the reference in Psalms 51:16 is not to accidental deficiencies, external hindrances, ritual incompleteness, but that the thought is entirely parallel with that expressed in Psalms 40:6 sq.; Psalms 50:8 sq.; and Psalms 51:19 shows, not that moral actions are described symbolically as offerings, but that the thank-offerings, which were to be brought on the altar at Jerusalem after the experience of the favor of God, are not offerings of merely ritual value, but offerings of righteousness (Psalms 4:5), that is to say, such as are brought with the disposition well-pleasing to God, demanded likewise by the law, Deuteronomy 33:19; comp. Numbers 26:31. Finally it is commonly overlooked that the Psalmist expresses as a prophet of God in Psalms 51:16-17 a doctrinal statement, and in it a truth of universal application, while in Psalms 51:19 he proclaims a fact, the historical occurrence of which may be expected as the consequence of the hearing of his intercession. AND ETHICAL1. It is very gracious in God not to leave the believer, who has fallen into sin, to himself or his sad condition, so likewise not to send the judge, but the preacher to his house, and by the proclamation of His word chastise him earnestly it is true, yet likewise call him to repentance and point out and lead him in the true way of gaining forgiveness of sins and spiritual renewal: and it is a sure sign of the efficacy of this grace, when the chastised sinner does not creep behind his exalted position in the world, excuse himself with the universal inborn sinfulness, comfort himself with his previous state of grace, justify himself with his services and offerings in the worship of God, but unreservedly confesses his trespasses, experiences sorrowfully his guilt and his ill-desert, seeks expiation and improvement by faith in the saving grace of God, and implores for both purposes the efficacy of the ordinary means of grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit. 2. It is true, we must distinguish between personal sin and original sin; yet we must not overlook or undervalue the close connection between them. But we should not derive from this any excuse to weaken, but rather an occasion of increasing our penitence, and the more unconditionally feel ourselves driven to seek our deliverance in God alone, as all our sins and those of our race in their deepest ground and according to their innermost nature, are a manifestation of a moral apostasy from God, occasioned by unbelief and disobedience. Even on this account the particular sin which in its extreme form has terribly and painfully torn asunder human relations, may yet not be experienced by the penitent as a violation of human ordinances, or be designated as a trespass committed against man, but may awaken in him the feeling that he has to do, essentially and properly, with God alone. In God’s eyes sin has always been evil, whilst human eyes have often been blinded to it. But God’s guidances lead to this, not only that His judgment should be actually exhibited, but likewise expressly recognized. Thus even the sin itself must finally serve to glorify God, comp. Exeget. and Crit. II. 4. 3. The human soul is so darkened and ruined in consequence of original sin, that the sinner is unable to know or to love the truth in his soul’s experience, not to speak of gaining it again, without the guidance of Divine wisdom. The sinner is not at all in the position of moderating his misery or changing his condition. He must turn entirely to the mercy of God, and abide there in order to gain expiation as well as a change of heart and improvement in life, and he must use penitently and believingly the prescribed means of grace. Only thus does the true and blessed co-operation of the Divine and human spirits take place, but this is not synergism. 4. It is true, the Old Testament knew of the connection between expiatory offerings and atonement, yet not of the complete and only sufficient offering for the the sins of the whole world. Hence the idea moves partly in insufficient figures and comparisons only approximating the true sense, partly in types and symbols straining to express their meaning and exciting the expectation and attention. But the idea of the offering itself is thus in particular turned by a purer interpretation into the subjective and the moral, which is indeed an advance compared with the merely legal and ritual fulfilment of the offering, but yet is only a transition from the law to the gospel. For the breaking of the heart and spirit is indeed a worthier offering than the slaying of animals; but it cannot take their place, since it is not a means of atonement, but on the one side a characteristic of true penitence, on the other a condition of the efficacy of the Divine grace in the penitent person, in order to the purification of the heart as well as to the renewal and strengthening of the spirit. As long as the objective and absolutely sufficient means of atonement and salvation were missing, it was therefore necessary that there should be animal offerings, with the required disposition as the true offerings of righteousness, and that they should be demanded and performed with like satisfaction. 5. The conversion of the sinner is under all circumstances a miracle and gracious work of God on the ground of a moral and religious process, for which the Lord is entitled to thanks from the individual and the congregation. This thanksgiving will be the more lively the stronger the feeling of delight which the delivered one has in contrast with the pain of his previous condition; the more instructive, the richer the experience of the pardoned one in both of his situations; and the more perfect, the more sincerely we offer ourselves, in it as the offering always and everywhere well-pleasing to God, the bringing of which does not cease even in the new covenant, but is then first made entirely possible, Romans 12. AND Although sin may have become great, grace is still greater; but it is not easy for the sinner to resign himself entirely and fully.—No man is placed so high, that he cannot fall deep into sin; but the deeply fallen may be lifted up again by the mercy of God, if he repent.—God can chastise more severely with His words than with the rod; but the same word of God has likewise balsam for the wounds.—Men can bring no offerings which expiate their sins, but such as express their desire of atonement with God, and which testify their thanks for the redemption that has taken place.—True penitence has a hard beginning, a bitter course, and a glad end.—Sin brings scarcely so much pain, however great it is, as conversion to God creates joy, if it is thorough and sincere.—A converted man has not only joy in his heart, but likewise pleasure in praising God, and in laboring for the conversion of other sinners.—We please God best when we place ourselves at His disposal as a thank-offering for His grace.—Forgiveness of sins is not effected by penitence, but is neither sought nor gained without penitence.—Without forgiveness of sins there is no pure heart, without change of heart and renewal there is no steadfast and willing spirit.—One may fall into sin and yet may not have fallen away from grace.—The earlier the penitence, the super the salvation.—There are many ways into sin, but only one way out of sin.—The contrast of what we are by nature and birth, and what we become by grace.—The misery of sin is very deep and full of pain, but the well of grace is deeper still and full of joy. Luther: Two things are necessary to true penitence: (1) that we recognize sin and then likewise grace; (2) that we know and believe that God desires to be gracious and merciful to all who believe in Christ.—David speaks not only with God, but with his Father God, whose promise he knows, and whose grace and mercy have been bestowed.—If we would speak and teach properly respecting sin, we must consider it and point it out more deeply in its roots, and in the entire ungodly nature that it produces, and not notice only the sins which have been committed.—For from the error that sin is not known nor understood, arises still another error, that grace is neither known nor understood.—If we have received the righteousness and grace of God through faith in Christ, we can do no greater work than speak and preach the truth about Christ Jesus.—If, however, one would confess Christ and His word, a glad spirit is necessary.—Calvin; We certainly cannot know our sins thoroughly in any other way, than by charging our entire nature with corruption. Yet every individual sin should lead us to this general knowledge, that only ruin rules in all parts of our soul. Starke: David has many followers in sin, but sad to say, only few in true penitence, especially among the great.—If a man after God’s own heart can fall into great sins, what watchfulness and perseverance in prayer is necessary for those who fall far short of this advantage!—A penitent man seeks earnestly with God as well the grace of forgiveness as likewise the grace of improvement.—God alone can make the heart contrite, so He alone can comfort it mightily.—The restoration of the lost image of God demands no less Omnipotence than the first creation.—As the goodness of a tree may be known by its fruits, so likewise justification from diligence in sanctification.—Let every converted man see to it, that he likewise deliver the soul of his neighbor from the rage of Satan by word and conversation.—The stronger and more sure we experience the forgiveness of sins in the heart, the more fervently we can praise God for His grace.—If Jerusalem is to be built, Babel must perish. Osiander: Where God’s grace and mercy are involved, our merit has no place.—In spiritual things we can do nothing of ourselves, unless the Holy Ghost helps us and impels us.—Selnekker: No one should be proud of his gifts, which he has received from God, but constantly should stand in fear, and think more of that which he lacks and needs, and how full he is of sins and impurity, than of his own excellence.—Frisch: The fall of the great saints should make the little saints tremble (according to Augustine’s saying: casus majorum sit tremor minorum). They stand not as examples of falling, but of the rising up of those who have fallen.—Arndt: It is a characteristic of true penitence and conversion, that we should properly know the grace of God from the word of God, and that we should not make God’s mercy less than our sin, or our sin greater than God’s mercy.—Sin and trespass are constantly before the eyes of an evil conscience; it cannot be delivered from them or forget them.—Faith does nothing by compulsion, but voluntarily, out of pure love and thankfulness.—Umbreit: Righteousness writes down our transgressions, love wipes them out.—David has transgressed greatly against men, but to his God alone has he sinned.—Tholuck: The beginning and end of all improvement must be in God’s power.—Guenther: When kings sin, the guilt and punishment of their sins come upon their people likewise; and when kings repent before their people, the blessings of the gracious condition now attained stream out likewise over the whole people.—Taube: There are two principal fruits of every thorough conversion, that they now work and live for the salvation of their neighbors and the glory of God.—The way of penitence is at the same time a way of faith and favor.—Gerock: What are the offerings which please God? (1) The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; (2) an anxious and contrite heart; (3) the vow of thankful love and new obedience. [Matt. Henry: Though God may suffer His people to fall into sin, and to lie a great while in it, yet He will by some means or other recover them to repentance, bring them to Himself, and to their right mind again.—Those that truly repent of their sins will not be ashamed to own their repentance; but, having lost the honor of innocents, will rather covet the honor of penitents.—The great thing to be aimed at in teaching transgressors, is their conversion to God; that is a happy point gained, and happy they that are instrumental to contribute towards it. —F. W. Robertson’s Sermons: In our best estate and in our purest moments, there is a something of the devil in us which, if it could be known, would make men shrink from us. The germs of the worst crimes are in us all.—Personal religion is the same in all ages. The deeps of our humanity remain unruffled by the storms of ages which change the surface.—From his first moments up till then, he saw sin—sin—sin; nothing but sin.—It is not the trembling of a craven spirit, in anticipation of torture, but the agonies of a nobler one in the horror of being evil.—Barnes: The only hope of a sinner when crushed with the consciousness of sin is the mercy of God; and the plea for that mercy will be urged in the most earnest and impassioned language that the mind can employ.—The only way to enjoy religion is to do that which is right, the only way to secure the favor of God is to obey His commands; the only way in which we can have comforting evidence that we are His children is by doing that which shall be pleasing to him, 1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:7; 1 John 3:10. The path of sin is a dark path, and in that path neither hope nor comfort can be found.—Spurgeon: None but a child of God cares for the eye of God, but where there is grace in the soul, it reflects a fearful guilt upon every evil act, when we remember that the God whom we offend was present when the trespass was committed.—God’s voice speaking peace is the sweetest music an ear can hear.—Never yet has God spurned a lowly, weeping penitent, and never will He while God is love, and while Jesus is called the man who receiveth sinners.—A saved soul expects to see its prayers answered in a revived Church, and then is assured that God will be greatly glorified.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “All sin as sin, is and must be against God. All wrong done to our neighbor is wrong done to one created in the image of God; all tempting of our neighbor to evil is taking the part of Satan against God, and so far as in us lies, defeating God’s good purpose of grace towards him. All wounding of another, whether in body or soul, is a sin against the goodness of God.” Vide 1 Corinthians 8:12; Matthew 25:40; Matthew 25:45. Hengstenberg: “How must David have trembled, how must he have been seized with shame and grief, when he referred everything to God, when in Uriah he saw only the image of God, the Holy One, who deeply resented that injury,—the gracious and compassionate One, to whom he owed such infinitely rich benefits, who had lifted him up from the dust of humiliation, had so often delivered him, and had also given him the promise of so glorious a future!”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “The Biblical writers drew no sharp, accurate line between events as the consequence of the Divine order, and events as following from the Divine purpose. To them all was ordained and designed of God. Even sin itself, in all its manifestations, though the whole guilt of it rested with man, did not flow uncontrolled but only in channels hewn for it by God, and to subserve His purposes. Hence, God is said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart, to have put a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets, to do evil as well as good in the city, and the like. We must not expect therefore that the Hebrew mind, profoundly impressed as it was with the great phenomena of the universe, and beholding in each the immediate finger of God, but altogether averse from philosophical speculation, should have exactly defined for itself the distinction between an action viewed as the consequence, and the same action viewed as the end of another action. The mind which holds the simple fundamental truth that all is of God, may also hold, almost as a matter of course, that all is designed of God.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “The petition expresses rather the holy fear of the man who has his eyes open to the depth and iniquity of sin, lest at any moment he should be left without the succor of that Divine Spirit, who was the only source in him of every good thought, of every earnest desire, of every constant resolution. It is the cry of one who knows, as he never knew before, the weakness of his own nature, and the strength of temptation, and the need of Divine help; and to whom therefore nothing seems so dreadful as that God should Withdraw His Spirit.”—It is better, however, to fix our mind upon the Holy Spirit which David possessed as the anointed of Jehovah, and whilst not confining our attention to this. yet let it be the central thought. This Holy Spirit had been troubled and wounded by David’s great sin, and he was in danger of having the Holy Spirit taken from him, as it had been from Saul, and he himself rejected from the angry presence of Jehovah, and another anointed in his stead. He realizes his official as well as his private sin, and its guilt and evil consequences, and whilst imploring a pure heart and steadfast spirit, he prays that he may remain in the presence and favor of God, and retain and enjoy the Holy Spirit, and the grace with which he had been anointed by Samuel.—C. A. B.] Psalms 52 To the chief Musician, Maschil, a Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech         Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth continually. 2    Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs: Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 3    Thou lovest evil more than good; And lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. 4    Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. 5    God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place, And root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. 6    The righteous also shall see, and fear, And shall laugh at him: 7    Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; But trusted in the abundance of his riches, And strengthened himself in his wickedness. 8    But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. 9    I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: And I will wait on thy name; for it is good Before thy saints. AND Its Contents and Composition.—Respecting maschil, vid. Introduction. The didactic character of this Psalm, which is brought into prominence by the title, and its devotional aim, are especially noticeable from the fact that with respect to its form, the invocation of God which is peculiar to prayers, lamentations and hymns, is entirely absent, with respect to its contents, the mighty man, who, according to Psalms 52:7, is proud of his riches, is upbraided for his impudence, wickedness, and falseness (Psalms 52:1-4), the punishment of God, which will destroy him, is proclaimed (Psalms 52:5), the action of the righteous, which will be called forth thereby, is contrasted with it (Psalms 52:6-7), and the lot and conduct of the pious Psalmist, corresponding with his trust in God’s grace, is pronounced. These contents are already summarily expressed in the first statement Psalms 52:1. The whole in tone and style reminds us of the prophetical castigatory discourses (Hupfeld, as Isaiah 22:15 sq. (Ewald), Jeremiah 20:3 sq.; Jeremiah 28:5 sq. (Hitzig, Maurer). But this resemblance is only of a general character, and not of special reference. The figure of the olive tree (Psalms 52:8) need not be regarded as having been derived from Jeremiah 11:16, and the correspondences in language of Psa 52:1; Psalms 52:9 with Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 45:19, are not strong enough in connection with Psalms 52:8 to refer the composition of the Psalm to the time subsequent to the return from the exile (Hitzig). The violence of the language leads us to the conclusion of an excitability of temper, which would hardly be explicable, if the actions of the person accosted should be described as merely general injuries, and the relation of the poet thereto merely as one of the righteous generally (Hupfeld). But the personal references of the two are not marked with sufficient definiteness to be able to draw any safe conclusion as to historical relations. The reference to the high priest Alkimos, 1 Maccabees 7 (Olsh.), is entirely arbitrary. But the reference of particular expressions to the relations of David to Saul (Hengst.), are partly far fetched, partly untenable. Accordingly it is more advisable to abide by the statements of the title, and refer to the informing of Doeg, the overseer of the royal asses (1 Samuel 22:9 sq.), in consequence of which eighty-five priests were slaughtered, whilst David retained his courage and expressed it to Abiathar, who escaped to David from that blood-bath, the son of Ahimelech, that priest of Nob who had thoughtlessly given David, as the king’s son-in-law, the shew-bread and the sword of Goliath, which was hung up behind the ephod in the sanctuary, and this had excited the suspicion and vengeance of Saul, who now made Doeg, the informer of that act, likewise the executioner of his bloody sentence. Str. I. Psalms 52:1. Hero [mighty man, A. V.].—Since the fundamental meaning of gibbτr is strength, and the same meaning occurs in the name of God used here, κl, it is natural to suppose that there is a mutual reference of these expressions to one another (Venema, et al.). But it does not follow from this, either that the reference can only be to Saul (Hengst., Schegg) as a real hero, or that this rather is used in the bad sense=violent man (De Wette, Hupfeld), Psalms 120:4. It can only be sarcastic (Delitzsch, et al.), since Doeg had not made the blood-bath by the strength of his fist, but by the craft of his tongue. The translation: Recke [applied to the giants of former days.—C. A. B.—] is therefore appropriate.—All the day long.—This designation of time (=always, continually) usually supplies the predicate, Psalms 44:22; Psalms 56:5. Here it is absent. Yet it is unnecessary to change the noun ηֶ ?ρֶ ?γ into the corresponding verb (Syr.), or to supply a verb with the meaning: “endure” (most interpreters), or to point it as ηַ ?ρֵּ ?γ, Proverbs 25:10, and take this form as an adverbial infin.=abusing (Hitzig). The translation: what boastest thou thyself in wickedness, thou mighty one in evil doing? thou deviseth always, etc. (Sept., Vulg.), leads to another recension of the text. Psalms 52:2. Working deceit.—This is not to be regarded as the 2d person of the finite verb ςָ ?ωָׂ ?δ (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Flamin., et al.)=thou makest deceit, (that he worked as a razor), but the participle, yet not as the adjective of razor, which easily injures the one who uses it, after the analogy of the deceitful bow, Psalms 78:57; Hosea 7:16 (Isaaki, Kimchi, Clericus), or as that of the tongue (Calvin), but as that of the man (Jerome, Hupfeld), and indeed, according to the vowel points of ςֹ ?ωֵׂ ?δ, as a vocative (Geier, and most interpreters). Psalms 52:3. Evil before (instead of) good—falsehood before (instead of) speaking righteousness.—ξִ ?ο excludes its genitive, so that it does not state degree, but the preference including an actual negation (Aben Ezra, Geier, J. H. Mich., most recent interpreters). The accused not only loves evil more than good, but he prefers evil to good, so that he loves it instead of that which he should love. Psalms 52:4. [Devouring words.—Perowne: “Literally, ‘words of swallowing up,’ which accords exactly with the figures employed in Psalms 52:9, ‘their mouth is a yawning gulf,’ etc., and so the Sept. well ῥήματακαταποντισμῶ.—C. A. B.]—Tongue of deceit.—This is not an accusative in apposition to “devouring words” (Olshausen, Hupfeld, and most older interpreters), but a vocative (Rosenm. and most recent interpreters), as parallel to the preceding. Str. II. Psalms 52:5. Likewise introduces the corresponding behaviour of another (Genesis 20:6), especially the proclamation of the Divine retaliation, Isaiah 66:4; Ezekiel 16:43; Malachi 2:9.—Tear down [A. V., destroy,] is used generally of walls, towers, houses, with the subordinate idea that these are made level with the ground, and are not to be rebuilt.—Seize [A. V., take away] is generally used of the seizing of a coal with the tongs or shovel; so much less then are we to think in the subsequent words of tearing away the tent, that is to say, the tent-pins from the earth (Hupfeld), or of the bringing out from the sacred tent, which the traitor had defiled (Kimchi, Geier, et al.), but of the dwelling, yet not as a figure of existence (De Wette), but rather with an allusion to the herdsman’s tent of Doeg.—[Land of the living.—Alexander: This is a poetical description of life itself, or the present state of existence, under the figure of a country.”—C. A. B.] [Psalms 52:6. See—fear—laugh.—The righteous shall live to see the ruin of the ungodly, and in looking upon their ruin they will fear God, that is, reverence Him, and stand in holy awe in the presence of His severe judgments, and at the same time laugh at the absurd state of the ungodly, in view of their previous great pretensions.Psalms 52:7. Behold the man, etc.—Perowne: “The words in which the righteous express their triumph, pointing, as it were, to the fallen oppressor, and the lesson to be learnt from his overthrow. His trust was in riches, (comp. Psalms 49:6; Proverbs 10:15; Proverbs 18:11), and his strength in his evil desire (vid. Psalms 52:2), not in God.—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 52:8. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.—[The pronoun is emphatic, the Psalmist contrasting himself with the fallen Doeg.—C. A. B.] The “olive tree in the house of God,” has hardly a local meaning, comp. 2Ma 14:4 (Hitzig), yet is still less a general figure of glad prosperity under the protection and in the vicinity of God, but the latter reference is brought about at any rate by the thought of the central place of the meeting of God with His people (Psalms 92:13; Isaiah 60:13; Zechariah 1:8), so that something higher is expressed, it is true (Hengstenberg), than the hope of David of returning from his exile to the sanctuary (the older interpreters), yet the latter is not to be excluded (De Wette, Hupfeld), but included in the idea. Psalms 52:9. And will wait on Thy name, because it is good.—The connection of θεֹ ?α with the following words (even Ewald and Olsh.) is opposed by the fact that not “in the eyes” is used, but πֶ ?βֶ ?γ=in the presence of, or before. It is accordingly better to write it with the previous word: εַ ?ΰֲ ?χַ ?εֶּ ?δ. The conjecture of Hitzig to read it as: εַ ?ΰֲ ?ηַ ?εֵּ ?δ= I will proclaim, is very appropriate; for praise, thanksgiving, preaching before the congregation are frequently mentioned. But the “wait” of the text is likewise intelligible (comp. Isaiah 26:8), since the name of God expresses His declaration of Himself and David can represent himself to the congregation (Psalms 22:22 sq.; Psalms 40:9 sq.) as an example and model of one who waits upon Him. It is entirely unsuitable, in opposition to the accents, to refer θεֹ ?α to God=because Thou art kind (De Wette): or to the action of the verb=because He is good. As God Himself, Psalms 100:4, or His grace, Psalms 109:21, so likewise His name is θεα, and this is neither to be explained as kind (Hupfeld) nor as great (Maurer). AND ETHICAL1. Confidence in God’s everlasting grace allows us to have no anxiety respecting the wickedness and craft of even the mightiest enemies; it includes the assurance of the nothingness of their devices and the vanity of their boasting and defiance, not less than their terrible and complete ruin, with the same certainty of knowledge as that of our own continued salvation and increasing prosperity. For the one as well as the other rests upon faith in the retaliation of God’s holy government; and this grace does not deceive us. God pushes the violent from their authority; but He gives the humble His grace. 2. Every man is glad to boast of that in which he finds his strength, and upon which he puts his trust. The wicked therefore boast not merely as it were of their riches, their power, their sagacity, but directly of their wickedness. But this pride comes directly before their fall. The pious, on the contrary, boast of God and His grace. Herein they put their confidence alone, and therefore find in God true strength. And whilst they praise God, they strengthen themselves at the same time in waiting upon God’s revelation of Himself, and by both give the congregation a comforting example and a refreshing model. 3. The tongue is a little member, but it can become a dangerous weapon, not only by its misuse ruining other men, but plunging those likewise who use it in wickedness, into sure destruction. For it hands them over to the Divine judgment, and there even the lightest words weigh heavily, and the winged word is conjured up. But he who has spoken untruly, has not only made a breath and spoken in the air, he has violated the righteousness which he should have pursued (Deuteronomy 16:20), and transgressed God’s commandment; therefore the deserved punishment hastens to the wicked, sometimes late, but is always Sure to come. By this the righteous at the same time fear and rejoice. 4. As the righteous do not avenge themselves, but may and must proclaim the punishments of God, so they rejoice not over the misfortunes of their enemies, 2 Samuel 1:19; Job 31:29; Proverbs 24:17. It fills them with the trembling of fear and amazement; they rejoice in the exhibition of the righteousness of God, in which the glory, truth, and power of the Divine name which is invoked, confessed, and praised by the congregation, are again preserved. And if they then laugh, it is yet not a laughing in the joy of injuring, in scorn and reproaching, but the bringing into view of the absurd inconsistency in which the ungodly have become involved by their abandonment of God. AND The courage of faith and the pride of the ungodly, a, in their origin, b, in their behaviour, c, in their consequences.—The same hand which casts down the wicked, lifts up the pious.—The use and misuse of the tongue.—See well to it, in what thou dost boast, in what thou dost trust, whom thou dost obey.—How the judgments of God excite fear and joy in one and the same heart.—The strength of wickedness finally is shown to be entire weakness.—Trust in Divine grace is rewarded by the exhibition of it, but he who leaves God, is left by His salvation.—Think of the recompense, not only for what thou doest, but for what thou sayest.—God will not have His name proclaimed in vain; he who uses it aright, will experience that it is good.—God requires trust in order to the manifestations of His grace, and He expects thankfulness.—Be not in debt to your God for thanksgiving, but act so that the whole congregation shall have the blessing of it.—Wouldst thou receive and enjoy the blessings of the house of God? then thou must undertake the obligations of a child and of a servant of God. Starke: Many have fallen by the sharpness of the sword, but not near so many as by wicked mouths.—A wicked tongue has always at the bottom a false heart.—The goodness of God is a strong support, upon which we can safely rely, no one is deprived of it, unless they wilfully cast it away from them.—Selnekker: The pious must have patience, although wicked villains do much mischief.—Franke: Most men are so constituted that they of themselves hope and expect the best. But it does not depend upon the hope, which they make in their thoughts, but upon the idea that they have of themselves.—Arndt: There are two kinds of laughter: one when a wicked, revengeful heart laughs over the misfortunes of its enemies; the other laughing is from the consideration of the wonderful judgments and righteousness of God.—Tholuck: He who has not his protection in God, seeks protection and shelter in the things of this world.—He who has his roots grounded in God, will likewise bloom in the house of God; and he who does not see it in time, will experience it in eternity.—The name of the Lord is before the pious, although others know nothing of it, as a horn of plenty full of graces and gifts.—Guenther: In nothing is the wicked world more inventive than in the justification and extenuation of its sins and evil desires.—Taube: The ungodly flourish, it is true, but like the grass.—Faith lives upon the glory of the name of God; therefore the heart’s pleasure is in the recollection of His name, Isaiah 26:8. [Matt. Henry: They that glory in their sin glory in their shame, and then it becomes yet more shameful.—The enemies in vain boast in their mischief, while we have God’s mercy to boast in.—It contributes very much to the beauty of our profession, and to our fruitfulness in every grace, to be much in praising God, and it is certain we never want matter for praise.—Barnes: Among the “saints” there is a common bond of union—a common interest in all that pertains to each other; and when special mercy is shown to any one of the great brotherhood, it is proper that all should join in the thanksgiving, and render praise to God.—Spurgeon: Wealth and wickedness are dreadful companions; when combined they make a monster.—Eternal mercy is my present confidence. David knew God’s mercy to be eternal and perpetual, and in that he trusted. What a rock to build on! What a fortress to fly to!—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [This Psalm begins a series of eight Psalms using the Divine name of Elohim, and all maskils of David (Psalms 52—55). It is one of the eight psalms which by this title are referred to the time of the persecution by Saul (Psalms 7, 59, 56, 34, 52, 57, 142, 54). Augustine calls it Psalmus fugitivus. Vid. Delitzsch.—C.A.B.] [Barnes: “The idea here is not exultation in the sufferings of others, or joy that calamity has come upon them, or the gratification of selfish and revengeful feelings that an enemy is deservedly punished; it is that of approbation that punishment has come upon those who deserve it, and joy that wickedness is not allowed to triumph. It is not wrong for us to feel a sense of approbation and joy that the laws are maintained, and that justice is done, even though this does involve suffering, for we know that the guilty deserve it, end it is better that they should suffer than that the righteous should suffer through them.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 53 To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David         The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: There is none that doeth good. 2    God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there were any that did understand, That did seek God. 3    Every one of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good, No, not one. 4    Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread: They have not called upon God. 5    There were they in great fear, where no fear was: For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. 6    Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. AND Its relation to Psalms 14—The double addition to the title, which designates this Psalm as an instructive Psalm, to be sung in a sorrowful manner, (vid. Introduct.) shows that the compiler recognized this Psalm as having an independent value along side of Psalms 14. At the same time its position among the Elohim-Psalms, and between Psalms 52, 54, which is analogous to that of Psalms 14, shows that the differences of the two texts, which are entirely similar in most strophes, were regarded as designed. It is manifest that the sevenfold use of the name of God corresponding with the number of the strophes was to have been marked by the fact that here Elohim is constantly used, whilst in Psalms 14 Elohim is only used three times, and Jehovah four times, and indeed with an accurate discrimination of the characteristic differences of these two names. This is at once partly against the supposition that Psalms 53 is the more ancient, (Clericus, Ewald, Hitzig), partly against the conjecture that David himself revised Psalms 14 (Hengst. and most of the older interpreters after the Rabbins). The following circumstances favor a remodelling of the Psalm (and not merely another recension of the same text); thus: In Psalms 53:1 b, the advance in thought is obscured by the insertion of “and” between the two verbs, but is then restored by placing instead of that noun, which in Psalms 14:1 designates human actions and doings in the good sense as well as in the bad, a word which characterizes evil as unwillingness. Furthermore instead of the “whole,” Psalms 14:3, we have here Psalms 53:3, “every one of them,” which is followed directly by ρβ, which is preferred to ρώψ; and in Psalms 53:4 a the word “all,” which is so characteristic in Psalms 14:4, is missing. In Psalms 53:6 a, moreover, the expression designating deliverance has been strengthened by the plural. Finally and chiefly, instead of the two distiches, Psalms 14:5-6, there is here a tristich, which renders the thought expressed there in general terms more definite, by connecting it with a historical event. That a historical event is presupposed, particularly the catastrophe of Sennacherib, is accepted by Hitzig, Baur, et al. Hitzig finds the original text here, whilst he regards Psalms 14:6 as only a retouching of faded features in the style, which has succeeded badly, whilst Hupfeld recognizes in both texts merely the ruins of an original identity. Delitzsch, however, reminds us that such a dependence upon the very letters of the original, and such an alteration of the original by means of a change of letters is found elsewhere likewise, especially in Jeremiah. He also refers to the relation of 2 Peter to Jude, and conjectures that a later poet composed it somewhere about the time of Jehoshaphat or Hezekiah. Str. V. Psalms 53:5. Where no terror was.—This does not mean blind alarm or unnecessary fear, but the sudden and unexpected breaking in of judgment at a time, when the enemies of the Israelites saw no reason to be terrified, and felt themselves entirely secure, and were without fear or care (Calvin, Venema, Hengst., Delitzsch). Examples of such ruin are: the confederates under Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:22 sq.), the host of Sennacherib (Isaiah 37:36). Parallel cases are: Job 15:21; 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Some supply after Aben Ezra “as this one,” which would express that it surpassed all others, was unheard of.—Scattered.—This is the consequence of the overthrow. It was the greatest disgrace that the bones which had not been gathered and buried, should be scattered (Psalms 141:7; Ezekiel 6:5), to become the prey of wild beasts, or manure of the field (Jeremiah 8:3; Jeremiah 9:21; Jeremiah 14:4; Jeremiah 25:33). The enemy is here designated by the collective in the singular, and as the besieger of the people of Israel, which leads to an external enemy. It is otherwise with Psalms 14. The participle might in itself, connected with Elohim, mean: who surrounds thee protecting, Psalms 34:7; Zechariah 9:8. But this reference is here prevented partly by the position of the participle, partly by the fact that it is not said then, whose bones, etc. Another reading is followed by the Sept., Vulg., Syr.: the bones “of those who please men,” by which Arab. and Ζthiop understand hypocrites. But Aquil., Symm., Jerome, have our text.—Many interpreters, without any reason, refer these words to a future judgment. AND ETHICAL1. “Those devour the people who derive only their own profit from those over whom they are placed, and do not use their office for the glory of God and their salvation,” (Augustine). 2. The prosperity of the ungodly is partly only apparent, partly without duration. They may sometimes gain external success, and even for a while oppress and afflict the people of God. But although it may seem for a time as if God did not trouble Himself for His people, or those who devour them, yet both parties will soon experience the watchfulness and the activity of God. Even in the days of their prosperity the ungodly cannot escape the curse which God has imposed upon evil doers, Leviticus 26:17; Leviticus 26:36; Proverbs 28:1. God gives them a cowardly heart so that they flee when no one pursues, and are frightened with the noise of falling leaves; whilst the righteous are courageous as a lion.—His hand, moreover, overtakes the secure, so that “terror is in their ears, and the destroyer comes upon them whilst at peace,” Job 15:21; 1 Thessalonians 5:3, and the overthrow is the more complete, the more unexpectedly it comes, and the more definitely it has the character of a Divine Judgment.3. Such experiences should warn and urge to humiliation under the mighty hand of God. God breaks the rod which He uses to chastise; and when He receives His chastened people into favor again, and raises them up from their fall, they should not forget that the victory was given them over their enemies, because God rejected them. AND Ungodly people are proud, presumptuous and defiant, but they are neither so wise as they think, nor so brave as they regard themselves, nor so strong as they make themselves to be.—He who boasts that he fears neither God nor man, will soon enough be found out to be not only a, fool and a transgressor, but likewise a liar.—In misfortune think not that God has forgotten thee, and in prosperity think not that thou hast accomplished it without God.—Your failures attribute to your guilt, your victories to God’s favor.—Forget not what thou owest to God in bad as well as in good times. Starke: It is not enough to say with the mouth that there is a God, but we must show by our conversation that we are really convinced of it in our hearts.—God is not an idle observer of the world, but what He sees, and He sees all, He records in His book.—The ungodly are like the weather-cocks on the towers, very changeable; now they are altogether courageous, soon altogether despondent. [Matt. Henry: 1). The fact of sin; 2) the fault of sin; 3) the fountain of sin; 4) the folly of sin; 5) the filthiness of sin; 6) the fruit of sin; 7) the fear and shame that attend sin; 8) the faith of the saints, and their hope and power touching the cure of this great evil.—C. A. B.] Psalms 54 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when the Ziphim came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us?         Save me, O God, by thy name, And judge me by thy strength. 2    Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth. 3    For strangers are risen up against me, And oppressors seek after my soul: They have not set God before them. Selah. 4    Behold, God is mine helper: The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. 5    He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: Cut them off in thy truth. 6    I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O Lord; for it is good. 7    For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: And mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies. AND Its Contents and Composition.—This Psalm, Which was to be accompanied by stringed instruments, and was designed for devotional consideration (vid. Introduct., § 8 and § 12), is plain and simple in form and contents. It expresses at first a prayer to God for deliverance in a just cause from dreaded ungodly enemies (Psalms 54:1-3). It then expresses, in a lively manner, confidence in the divine help and the punishment of his enemies (Psalms 54:4-5); finally it concludes with the vow of thanksgiving for such acts of God in confirmation of His name (Psalms 54:6-7). That the title agrees in part literally with 1 Samuel 20:19; 1 Samuel 20:26, is no sound reason for rejecting its authenticity (Paulus, De Wette), or of preferring the title of the Syriac referring to the war with Absalom (Rudinger). We may suppose a common source in the Annals (Delitzsch). No more is the reference of enemies (Psalms 54:3) to foreigners against the title (vid. Psalms 54:3), nor is there any occasion for the conjecture that the people themselves are here introduced as speaking. Str. I., Psalms 54:1.—By Thy name does not mean for Thy name’s sake (J. H. Mich.), but designates that which in the divine nature has been made known by His revelation of Himself, and therefore here, Psalms 54:6, as in Psalms 52:9, it is called θεֹ ?α, good. This refers to the qualifications of a person or thing, or that something is entirely as it should be, and thus in accordance with its idea and aim. The name is here still less synonymous with power (Hengst.) or goodness (Delitzsch), as it is in close connection with Elohim in Psalms 54:1 and with Jehovah in Psalms 54:6, and is the subject of the clause of deliverance, Psalms 54:7. Comp. Isaiah 30:27. Psalms 54:3. Strangers.—If this expression is regarded as=foreigners, barbarians, then it is inconsistent with the title, since the inhabitants of Ziph, a town situated in the mountain wilderness of Judah, a few miles south-east of Hebron, were of the same race as David. The fundamental meaning of ζָ ?ψִ ?ιν=alieni is used frequently by Isaiah and Ezekiel for foreign enemies; that is to say, those belonging to another nation; but it has usually the secondary meaning of wicked, violent, cruel in disposition, and men of this class, Isaiah 1:7 (Hupfeld), and it can thus gain the general idea of enemies of this kind, especially when parallel with ςָ ?ψִ ?ιφִ ?ιν, as here and Isaiah 25:5; Isaiah 29:5; Ezekiel 7:21; Ezekiel 31:12 (Calvin, Geier, et al.). It is unnecessary to prefer the more convenient reading ζֵ ?γִ ?ιν, that is to say, the proud (Luther, Muscul., Venema); for it is only found in the Chald. paraphrase and a few MSS. perhaps changed in accordance with Psalms 86:14. The explanation that those who were by origin and divine law friendly are compared on account of their behaviour, not as it were with barbarians, but are called at once strangers, is favored by the comparison with Psalms 120:5 (Hengst.), where the Psalmist, afflicted by his countrymen, complains that he dwells in Mesech and Kedar among heathen nations. The idea of stranger includes, Jeremiah 2:21, that of degeneration, changed into a foreign nature, (Hupfeld); hence the explanation of many (in Calvin) alieni=degeneres filii Abrahami.Str. 2, Psalms 54:4. Among the supporters of my soul.—This does not mean that God is one among many others who support his soul; the so-called beth essentisζ states the class, the only representative of which is God, Psalms 118:7; Judges 11:35. Psalms 54:5. Evil shall return to my oppressors.—Since ιָ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?α is construed with μ instead of with ςַ ?μ, many editions and interpreters [so A. V.] prefer with the ancient translation and numerous MSS. the Keriιָ ?ωִׁ ?ια=he will requite, comp. Psalms 94:23.—In Thy truth.—The prep. αְ does not state that the truth of God (others: His faithfulness) is the instrumental means of their destruction, but the active cause of it (Delitzsch). Psalms 54:6. In willingness will I sacrifice unto Thee.—The reference here is not to freewill offerings, Exodus 35:29; Leviticus 7:16, etc. (Calvin, J. H. Mich., Rosenm., Hengst., [Alexander]), in contrast with those offered in the fulfilment of vows; but it is said, that they are to be brought voluntarily, that is to say, with glad heart and willing mind, Deuteronomy 23:24; Hosea 14:5 (the ancient versions, Kimchi and most interpreters). Decisive for this interpretation is the circumstance that ζαη is construed here not with an accusative, but with αְ, just as Numbers 15:3, where the same expression is used as a motive of thank-offering (Hupfeld). The offerings in question are not spiritual (many of the older interpreters) in contrast to the ritual sacrifices (Psalms 50:14), but the latter as external representatives of the former. Psalms 54:7. It hath delivered me, &c.—[This is the translation of Moll, referring to the name of God as the subject, although he does not explain his reasons here. So also Delitzsch, et al., in accordance with the biblical usage of the name of God for God in accordance with Leviticus 24:11; Isaiah 30:27. This is better than the ordinary translation making God Himself the subject of the clause.—C. A. B.] The preterites indicate that the Psalmist feels himself in his spirit and faith transported to the circumstances from which and for which thanksgiving is to come.—[On my enemies my eye has looked.—Wordsworth: “The words ‘his desire’ are not in the original, and would be better omitted. What David says is, that his eyes look calmly on his enemies: he views them without alarm; for he feels that the shield of God’s power and love is cast over him to protect him. The consummation of this idea is seen in the serene movement of Christ, passing through the midst of His enemies and looking calmly upon them, while they were taking up stones to cast at Him (John 8:59. Comp. Luke 4:30, and see the rendering in Sept., Vulg., Syriac, Ζthiopic). Christ also lit up the gleams in the dying martyr’s face (Acts 6:15; Acts 7:54-59).—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. A man may be forsaken by all earthly means of help, and have unfaithful friends and dreaded enemies; yet he is by no means lost. ‘The example of David may and will teach us, that even in the greatest danger we should not seek any unlawful means, or despair, but call upon God’s name and commit all our affairs to Him as the supreme Judge” (Berlenb. Bibel). But faith, patience, and a good conscience are requisite for this. 2. The name of God is not a mere word, least of all a word in the mouth of men and possessed of human power, but an esssential and efficient revelation of God Himself by which we not only learn to know God, so that we can speak properly to Him and about Him, but by which we still more gain true consolation, real power and actual salvation from God, and wherein we possess a valuable means of communion with God. 3. Faith sees the invisible God, and bases itself upon the truth of God. Therefore it gives assurance of salvation in the wicked world and works joy in suffering and hope where there is no hope; for it fixes the attention upon the name and the word of God, whereby the deliverance of the pious, as well as the ruin of the ungodly, is pledged. By this means also the heart and eye are purified, so that without being glad in the injury of others, or without a revengeful feeling, or any other sinful excitement, we delight ourselves in the tokens of divine righteousness, and can see our pleasure in the fact that God will not be mocked. AND God’s power not only helps our weakness; it likewise breaks the power of all our enemies.—When forsaken, we should not only trust God, but likewise call upon Him.—God does not allow those out of His sight who put Him away from their eyes; but He does not close His ears to those who pray to Him.—To be forsaken is not to be lost.—Among all conceivable helpers, God is the only true support of our soul; therefore we may implore=receive from heaven what the earth refuses to us.—He who has not only expected the help of God, but has implored it, will likewise be willing to render thanks, and will be unwearied in praising the name of God.—God’s actions correspond with His name; how is it with our faith and behaviour?—What thou hast promised, keep; but see to it that thou doest the one as well as the other with willing heart.—Faith sees what no eye can see; therefore it gives us comfort, courage and gladness.—He who calls upon the name of God must likewise trust in the truth of God and rejoice in the acts of God. Starke: The unfaithfulness of men should teach us to give more heed to the faithfulness of God.—To put God’s omnipresence away from our eyes, is the origin of all carnal security, unrighteousness and a perversity of nature.—The great ones of the earth have great power; but if they do not use it to protect the right, there is a greater and mightier one than they, who will not always look upon injustice.—God remains indebted to no one; every one will sooner or later receive the recompense for what he has done.—Either sin must be destroyed in man by the word of truth, or the man himself who neglects this will be destroyed on account of the truth of the divine threatenings.—Frisch: What we cannot accomplish against our enemies by earthly power, God’s word and truth will perform.—J. Arndt: God’s faithfulness and truth are sure, and must finally cause themselves to be seen.—Rieger: As David’s heart believed, his eyes finally saw.—Tholuck: The Lord Himself will be the helper of those who are forsaken by all others.—Guenther: We should not rise up from prayer until God has answered our petitions.—Diedrich: If we abide in God’s word, the worse our enemies are, the greater the preservation from God.—Taube: David’s deliverance and the ruin of his enemies were both the words of God and a comfortable revelation of the name of God. [Matt. Henry: Never let a good man expect to be safe and easy till he comes to heaven.—What bonds of nature or friendship or gratitude or covenant will hold those that have broken through the fear of God?—There is truth in God’s threatenings as well as in His promises, and sinners that repent not will find it so to their cost.—Barnes: We can be thankful for the mercies which we enjoy without having any malignant delight in those woes of others through which our blessings may have come upon us.—Spurgeon: A child may well complain to his father when strangers come in to molest him.—Saul, that persecuting tyrant, had stamped his image on many more.—Kings generally coin their own likeness.—What matter the number or violence of our foes when He uplifts the shield of His omnipotence to guard us, and the sword of His power to aid us?—It is of great use to our souls to be much in praise; we are never so holy or so happy as when our adoration of God abounds.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne suggests that “the word ‘strangers’ may mean only enemies, the idea of a foreigner, one of another country, passing over readily into the idea of an enemy, just as in Latin hostes meant originally nothing more than hospes.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 55 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David         Give ear to my prayer, O God; And hide not thyself from my supplication. 2    Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise; 3    Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: For they cast iniquity upon me, And in wrath they hate me. 4    My heart is sore pained within me: And the terrors of death are fallen upon me. 5    Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, And horror hath overwhelmed me. 6    And I said, O that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest. 7    Lo, then would I wander far off, And remain in the wilderness. Selah. 8    I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest. 9    Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: For I have seen violence and strife in the city. 10    Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. 11    Wickedness is in the midst thereof: Deceit and guile depart hot from her streets. 12    For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; Then I would have hid myself from him: 13    But it was thou, a man mine equal, My guide, and mine acquaintance. 14    We took sweet counsel together, And walked unto the house of God in company. 15    Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: For wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them. 16    As for me, I will call upon God; And the Lord shall save me. 17    Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: And he shall hear my voice. 18    He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: For there were many with me. 19    God shall hear, and afflict them, Even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, Therefore they fear not God. 20    He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: He hath broken his covenant. 21    The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart: His words were softer than oil, Yet were they drawn swords. 22    Cast thy burden upon the Lord, And he shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. 23    But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; But I will trust in thee. AND Its Contents and Composition.—The language of the Psalm is pictorial and powerful, its turns of thought bold, its expressions striking and peculiar, the meanings of the words in part obscure and disputed, the individual clauses abrupt, the transition in topics and thoughts is sudden and rapid; all this is in accordance with the excited feelings and the change in the experiences of a man who takes refuge in prayer to God, but in such great anxiety (Psalms 55:1-5) that he wishes that he had wings to fly into the wilderness for safety (Psalms 55:6-8), away from the city, which is full of violence, strife, and cunning (Psalms 55:9-11), where a previously trusted friend has taken sides with his enemies (Psalms 55:12-14), whose sudden and complete ruin the Psalmist desires, on account of their wickedness (Psalms 55:15). Whilst he continually calls upon God, and in the assurance of being heard, gains confidence in his deliverance from the many enemies which fight against him, they do not turn away from their wickedness to God (Psalms 55:16-19), but associate with flattering, hypocritical, and unfaithful men (Psalms 55:20-21). With reference to all these afflictions I and pains the Psalmist keeps before his own soul the exhortation to persevering devotion to Jehovah, in the assurance of His assistance of the righteous, and His punishment of the evil doers (Psalms 55:23). He concludes with a strong expression of his personal trust in God. All is so pithy, lively and individual that there is no reason to go back from the historical references to a typical reference to Jesus, the Jews and Judas (Stier, after older interpreters), or to let them pass out of view in the devotional interpretation of the Psalm as a model prayer of a pious man in affliction through the ungodly, particularly through unfaithful friends (Luther, Geier, J. H. Mich., Hengstenberg). The historical references, however, lead neither to the Maccabean times, with reference to the high-priest Alkimos (Olsh.), nor to the prophet Jeremiah and the anarchical period of the invasion of the Scythians, in which the prophet was at variance with the authorities (Hitzig), nor to a prince in the period of the internal commotion during the last century before the destruction of Jerusalem (Ewald). None of these references have any such evidence that we should abandon the Davidic composition. In retaining this reference to David, however, we are not to think of Doeg, Psalms 52, or the Ziphites, Psalms 54, or of David’s being shut up in Keilah in the time of Saul (1 Samuel 23), but of Ahithophel’s unfaithfulness and the rebellion of Absalom (Chald., the Rabbins, and most interpreters), and indeed not after the outbreak of the rebellion, but shortly before it. Its composition accordingly was shortly after Psalms 41(Delitzsch). Changes of Reading.—The supposition that in many passages single verses have been taken out of their original connection (Hupfeld), mistakes the character of the impassioned discourse; and the proposals to change many words are sometimes ingenious, but unnecessary, since the present readings may likewise be explained, and the change is immaterial to the sense. Str. I. [Ver 2. I reel to and fro in my complaint and must groan.—The reference here is to the movement of the soul, the restless reeling to and fro of thoughts and cares (Hupf.). Perowne: “ΰָ ?ψִ ?ιγ, from a verb, ψִ ?ιγ (the Kal, not Hiphil, from ψεּ ?γ), which occurs in three other passages, Genesis 27:40; Jeremiah 2:31; Hosea 12:1. The meaning assigned to it by the older versions and the Rabbins is different in different places. Here the LXX. have ἐλυπήθην, Chald. ΰֶ ?ϊְ ?ψַ ?ςֵ ?ν, murmuro. Later commentators follow Schultens and Schrφder in referring it to the Arab root=vagari, discurrere. Properly, it signifies to wander restlessly, especially as homeless, without fixed abode, etc. This is probably the meaning in Genesis 27:40, ‘when thou wanderest,’ i. e., becomest a free nomad people (not as in the A. V., ‘when thou shalt have the dominion’). Here it is used of the restless tossing to and fro of the mind, filled with cares and anxieties. The optative or the cohortative expresses the internal necessity, as in Psalms 88:15. Comp. Bφttcher, Lehrb. 965, 5; Ewald, § 228 a.—C. A. B.] Psalms 55:3. The burden of the wicked.—The parallelism does not compel us to read: φַ ?ςֲ ?χַ ?ϊ cry (Olshausen, Hupfeld), since the reading: ςָ ?χַ ?ϊ, has been proved in Hebrew through the Hiphil in Amos 2:13, and a derivative, Psalms 66:11; and neither of these passages give the meaning of oppression, need (most interpreters), but that of burden, which is suitable here, so that we need not think of the Aramaic word which is used by the Chald. for φψδ, Jeremiah 16:19; Jeremiah 19:9, and which is added, Jeremiah 13:21, so as to get the meaning of pressure (Hitzig) or anxiety (Delitzsch).—[They roll mischief upon me.—The idea is that their mischief was rolled down upon the Psalmist as from a wall or tower, the weight of which, its burden caused him to reel and groan. Psalms 55:4. My heart writhes within me.—The trouble is not merely an external one, it affects his bowels, his vitals, his inmost soul.—Terrors of death.=those which threaten death (Hupfeld). Psalms 55:5. Horror hath overwhelmed me.—Barnes: “That is, it had come upon him so as to cover or envelop him entirely. The shades of horror and despair spread all around and above him, and all things were filled with gloom. The word rendered horror occurs only in three other places: Ezekiel 7:18, rendered (as here) horror; Job 21:6, rendered trembling; and Isaiah 21:4, rendered fearfulness.”—C. A. B.] Str. II [Psalms 55:6. Wings like the dove.—Hupfeld: “This is a figure of rapid flight, as elsewhere the clouds, Isaiah 60:8, and eagle’s wings, Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 28:49; 2 Samuel 1:23; Revelation 12:14. A still stronger figure of far distant flight are the wings of the morning, Psalms 139:9.”—Fly away and abide.—So Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Moll, et al. This is more literal and more in accordance with the parallelism than the translation: “be at rest” of the A. V. and many ancient and modern interpreters. Psalms 55:7. Flee far away, lodge in the wilderness.—This is the usual refuge place of the persecuted and the oppressed, whither David had often fled and wandered and lodged, comp. Jeremiah 9:2.—C. A. B.] Psalms 55:8. A place of refuge from the violent winds, from the tempest.—The proposal to read ρεּ ?τּ ?δ (Hupfeld), instead of ρֹ ?ςָ ?δ would give an easy expression, but an unendurable tautology, since the following word, ρַ ?ςַ ?ψ means precisely the same, namely, storm. In order to avoid this tautology, they then suppose a gloss (Clericus, Hupfeld), which is yet more objectionable than to take the last expression in the sense of an apposition, whereby the unusual word of the text would be more closely defined, whose meaning as “rushing, that is to say, violent” wind (Chald., and most ancient interpreters), may be gained through the Arabic (most recent interpreters after A. Schultens). ψεּ ?ηַ ρֹ ?ςָ ?δ is then a figure of the angry breath of enemies, Judges 8:3; Isaiah 25:4 (Hitzig), of the rude actions of those who surrounded David which were directed to his ruin (Delitzsch), against which the severely-visited king could oppose no weapons, from which he would flee away to a peaceful place of refuge, as the shy dove, unfitted for the battle, with, its wings, which are noiseless and hold out for a long time, 2 Samuel 1:23; Isaiah 60:8; Psalms 139:9. For this sense it makes no difference whether we take the verb as Kal after Psalms 71:12=I would hasten my escape (parallel with Psalms 55:7, I would flee far away), or whether we take it as Hiphil, after Isaiah 5:19; Isaiah 60:12=I would hastily provide a place of refuge for myself. In both interpretations it is again possible to regard the ξִ ?ο as comparative=quicker than the wind (many interpreters after Vatab. and Drusius, likewise Hengstenberg and Hupfeld); but this is not advisable, because the haste of the flight has been already otherwise expressed. [Str. III Psalms 55:9 ּ Destroy, Lord, divide their tongues.—Alexander. “The first word properly means swallow up. See above, Psalms 21:9. The object to be supplied is not their tongue, but themselves. Divide their tongue, i. e., confound their speech, or make it unintelligible, and as a necessary consequence, confound their counsels. There is obvious reference to the confusion of tongues at Babel (Genesis 11:7-9), as a great historical example of the way in which God is accustomed and determined to defeat the purposes of wicked men and execute His own.” Psalms 55:10. They go about it upon the walls thereof.—Perowne: “Most probably ‘the wicked,’ mentioned Psalms 55:3, who are the subject, and hardly ‘violence and strife’ (Psalms 55:9) personified, as the ancient versions render, and as the Rabbinical commentators generally suppose. The figure may perhaps be borrowed from sentinels keeping their watch upon the walls; others think from besiegers watching the walls in order to find some weak point. In the former case we must render ‘upon, in the latter, ‘round about’ the walls. But neither figure need be pressed. The walls in this clause of the verse are parallel to the interior of tie city in the next clause, so that the whole city may be represented in all its parts to be full of wickedness.” Psalms 55:11. Depart not from her (public) places.—These were the large open squares or open spaces at the gates of the oriental cities, where were the markets, the courts of justice, and general places of public concourse. The Hebrew word corresponds with the Greek agora, the Latin forum, and is only imperfectly represented by the market-places and public squares of modern times.—C. A. B.] [Str. IV Psalms 55:12. For not an enemy is it.etc.—Perowne: “For gives a special reason for the prayer in Psalms 55:9, his eye falling upon one in particular among the crowd of enemies and evil doers. This is a sufficient explanation of the use of the particle, which is often employed rather with reference to something in the mind of the speaker, than in direct logical sequence.”—I should bear it.—Hupfeld: “I should know how to bear it as an evil unavoidable among men, to which one finally submits; whilst such an experience from friends is to be endured with the utmost difficulty.”—I could hide myself from him,i.e., as David did from Saul when he used his power against him, but this he could not do from a secret, treacherous foe. Psalms 55:13. But thou,—a man of like estimation with myself.—Literally, according to my estimation, i. e., the estimation or worth which I put upon him, the suffix being regarded as the subject of the action. But this is not suitable here. It is better therefore to regard the suffix as objective=in accordance with the estimation in which I am held=of like estimation with me.—My companion and my intimate friend.—ΰַ ?μּ ?εּ ?σ is here not guide, as Genesis 36:15 (the Rabbins and the older interpreters, likewise A. V.), but companion, associate, one joined in intimate communion, Proverbs 2:17; Proverbs 16:28 et al., θְ ?ιְ ?γָּ ?ςִ ?ι is the Pual part, of ιγς, and means one well-known—one with whom one is familiar as an acquaintance and intimate as a friend. Psalms 55:14. We made sweet together our intimacy.—The Hebrew word ρεֹ ?γ is the same as that used in Psalms 25:14, of intimate communion with God. By the mutual enjoyment of this intimacy they made it sweet for one another. This clause refers to private intimacy, the next to association in public, at the great festivals when in the throngs of the temple they went side by side.—C. A. B.] Psalms 55:15. Desolations upon them, let them go down to the world below alive.—ιְ ?ωִ ?ιξεֹ ?ϊ is confirmed by the local name, Ezekiel 25:9 (Clericus, Gesenius, Hengstenberg, Hupfeld)=desolaliones, and it is unnecessary to read: ιַ ?ωִּ ?ιΰξָ ?εֵ ?ϊ, instead of it, although most MSS. by a division into two words point to this reading, which is followed by the ancient versions and Rabbins, and is approved by most interpreters. For the explanation is very different and uncertain. It is explained after the derivation: death brings upon them forgetfulness (Aben Ezra), or: mors debitum exigat s. exactorem agat (Kimchi, Piscator, J. D. Mich.), or: death comes upon them (Septuagint, Syriac), or surprises them (Luther), falls upon them (Sym., Calvin, Geier, Rosenm., et al.), ensnares them (Delitzsch), bounces upon them (Bφttcher). Still less necessary is it to change the first word into ιַ ?ωִּׁ ?ιν=let death be torpid on their account (Hitzig). For although the going down to Sheol alive is to take place, and this is not used=in full powers of life, Proverbs 1:12 (Hupfeld), of sudden and unexpected death in general (Calvin), but with a living body with reference to the ruin of the band of Korah, Numbers 16:30 sq., there is no inconsistency here with the preceding statement, whatever sense is given to it. The allusion is moreover to be accepted the more since there is likewise a reference to ancient times in Psalms 55:9, in τַּ ?μַּ ?β, Genesis 10:25, which explains the choice of the word αַּ ?μַּ ?ς (comp. Isaiah 19:3), and reminds us of destruction by division and confusion of tongue =language (αַּ ?μַ ?μ, Genesis 11); so likewise in Psalms 55:19, where God is called “the one sitting from primeval times,” with expressions which are used of the judicial sitting of God upon His throne, Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalms 9:4; Psalms 9:7; Psalms 74:12; Habakkuk 1:12. Yet it does not follow from this that the “desolations,” Psalms 55:15, allude to the ruin of Sodom and Gomorrah (Hengstenberg).—For wickedness is in their dwelling, within them.—There is no reason to make αְּ ?χִ ?ψְ ?αָּ ?ν here the same as αְּ ?χִ ?ψְ ?αָּ ?δּ, Psalms 55:10-11, with the view that we are to think here likewise of the interior of the city, to regard it in connection with the preceding words, which do not mean=in their assembly (Aquila, Symm., Jerome), but=in their dwelling (Septuagint, Chald.), as a hendiadys=in the midst of their dwelling (Geier, Rosenm., et al.), or to explain it=in their midst, that is to say, among them (J. H. Mich.), which would render it really superfluous, and therefore it might be omitted (Luther). Moreover it is hardly a gloss (Hupfeld), but rather an explanatory apposition designating the breast of the enemy, as the true dwelling or more accurately the storehouse, the barn (Haggai 2:19) of their wickedness. Yet it is easiest to regard it as a climax, since we cannot see why such a combination of dwelling and heart should be unsuitable, as Olshausen and Hupfeld contend. Str. V [Psalms 55:17. Evening and morning and at noon.—The three principal parts of the day, usually observed as the special times of prayer among the Orientals. Or it may perhaps be a poetical expression for the whole day,=at all times, without ceasing.—Complain and groan.—The same words as in Psalms 55:2. Psalms 55:18. From the war against me.—Some take χψα as an infinitive, and translate: that they may not draw nigh me (the ancient versions, Luther, Hitzig, Delitzsch, et al.) This gives a good sense. But it is better to take it as the substantive=war. Some again translate the μִ ?ι as the dative of reference (Perowne, Alexander, et al.), but it is better to consider it as the prep, against and translate with Hupfeld, Moll, et al.: war against me.—For with many are they against me.—The translation of the A. V. “with me” is literal, but conveys a wrong meaning. The Heb. preposition like the English with, has a double use, mutual action may be co-operative or antagonistic. Thus we say: fight with=against, to be angry with=against. The meaning here as determined by the context is clearly against.—C. A. B.] Psalms 55:19. God will hear and answer them—and indeed He that sitteth on the throne of old, Selah!—those who have no change and who fear not God.—It is unnecessary to suppose that a short clause has fallen off before ιַ ?ςֲ ?πֵ ?ν somewhat as “the cry of the righteous,” to which the answer of God might refer (Olsh.); or to read ιַ ?ςֲ ?πֵ ?πִ ?ι=He will answer me (Hupfeld). For the supposition of a play upon words for the sake of the explanation “He will humble them” (the ancient versions, Kimchi, Geier, et al.) is indeed scarcely tenable so far as the language is concerned, yet the idea of an answer in a real sense by judgments (Venema, Hengst.), or with allusion to the same in irony (Calv., Stier, De Wette) is indeed admissible, especially if the “hearing” is referred not to the complaining prayer of the Psalmist, but to the raging of the enemies (Hengstenberg, Delitzsch). Yet if hearing and answering are taken in the usual sense of prayer and its answer (for they certainly are in mutual relation to one another), then we are not forced to understand the close of the verse of the ungodly who continue in wickedness, but to change ιָ ?ψְ ?ΰεּ into ιָ ?μְ ?ΰεּ (Hitzig) in order to be able to understand the clause as of (the pious “with whom there is no evil and who do not weary God,” Isaiah 7:13; Jeremiah 15:6. It is objectionable and unnecessary to explain away the first half of this clause after the Arabic, as “with whom there is no respect for oaths” (Ewald), although the reference to the ungodly is to be retained. The word ηֲ ?μִ ?ιτεֹ ?ϊ means not exactly change of mind (Chald.), but it may be referred to this (Delitzsch) or rather, since the word does not occur elsewhere in the moral sense, but designates a change of condition (Job 14:14) and is used elsewhere of changing the clothing, of guards and laborers, it may refer to the fact that they have received no dismission from their posts upon the city walls (Hengst.), or better, in general of a change of their conduct and behaviour in every respect, to which likewise the plural refers. To think of ragged people, who have no clothing to change, and are ungodly from barbarousness (Cleric.) is as far from the context as the explanation that those who experience no change of fortune easily become proud, and have no fear of God (Aben Ezra, Calvin, J. D. Mich.) So likewise the following clause does not allow us to think of the unchangeableness of God, for which μξεֹ is changed into μεֹ (Kimchi, Venema). The ρֶ ?μַ ?δ here is neither strange (Hupf.) nor to be changed into ρִ ?μָּ ?δ=auferet eos (Venema), more properly abstulit, rejecit,Lamentations 1:15 (Hupf.), comp. Psalms 68:32. Str. VI [Psalms 55:20. The individual traitor again becomes prominent as the profaner of the solemn covenant of intimate friendship.—C. A. B ] Psalms 55:21. Smooth are the words of butter of his mouth.—ξַ ?ηֲ ?ξָ ?ΰϊ is a denominative of ηֶ ?ξְ ?ΰָ ?δ (for its formation comp. Hupfeld)=made or consisting of butter or cream (Hitzig, Delitz.) The things of butter of the mouth are not the lips (Ewald), but the words, and we have a very usual metaphor (Hupf.) instead of a comparison. In order to gain a comparison here in strong parallelism with the following clause of the verse=smooth as butter (Chald., Symm., Jerome, Luther, Calvin) the first syllable has sometimes been changed into ξֵ after 2 codd. de Rossi (De Wette, Maurer, Olsh.), or the usual reading has been explained in this sense as a comparative (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Gesenius). But this gives rise to difficulties of construction which call for further alterations of the text, or inadmissible and forced explanations.Str. 7 Psalms 55:22. That which is laid upon thee.—The interpretation of ιְ ?ηָ ?αְ ?κָ as a perfect and an elliptical clause=what He has given thee, that is to say, imparted to thee (Hupfeld), hence: thy gift (Calvin), or thy lot (Kimchi, J. H. Mich.); or as an imperfect=and He will endow thee (Hitzig), is not so good as the interpretation of it as an accusative of the object (Delitzsch). But yet its derivation from ιδα =give, impart, must be maintained (Bφttcher), which explains the Chald. translation of ξְ ?πַ ?ϊ, Psalms 11:6; Psalms 16:5, by a word from this root and the use of it in the Talmud for a burden. To accept this latter meaning here, (Jerome, Aben Ezra, Isaki, Ewald) is an unnecessary limitation of the idea. It is the same with the translation: care, trouble (Sept., Syr., Luther, et al.) which besides seem to regard ιָ ?δַ ?α as = ιָ ?ΰַ ?αPsalms 119:131, whose radical meaning is: desire. 1 Peter 5:7 does not enable us to decide; still less the following verb, which not only means sustentare, to support with nourishment (Hengst.), but properly tenere, sustinere, and hence likewise “maintain,” Psalms 112:5 (Hupf., Delitzsch), and it agrees well with the “to be moved” which is directly mentioned. Psalms 55:23. Depth of the pit.—This is not to be translated: well or pit, or depth of destruction (most interpreters after the ancient versions [so A. V.]), but: pit of the grave (Hitzig), or since the reference is to Sheol (Cleric.) and not to the grave, better: hole of sinking (Delitzsch) Ezekiel 36:3; Proverbs 8:31, or depth of the grave. The connection of synonyms serves to strengthen the idea. The meaning “well” is derived from the idea that it is dug out. AND ETHICAL1. There are times of trouble, when terrible and harassing appearances may put even a believer in great uneasiness of heart, anxiety, and excitement, so that he knows not how to advise or help himself, and would rather flee away ; but at last his soul is quieted and comforted by taking refuge with God in prayer, and whilst he sinks back in faith into the assurance of the love and righteousness of God he regains courage for further warfare, patience to persevere in sufferings, hope in the delivering and judging interposition of God, and confidence in the hearing of his prayer. 2. Among the phenomena of evil times, “under the pressure of which even a David” is somewhat dejected, and thinks not as usual of springing over the walls (Berl. Bib.), belong particularly on the one side the rapid increase and the bold advance of ungodliness and unrighteousness in all classes of society, on the other side, the no less relentless than inconsiderate rupture of the bands of previous communion whereby love is changed into hate, friendship into hostility, trust into treachery and hypocrisy. 3. Prayer has so great importance for the sanctification of the life and strengthening in the communion with God on the one hand, and the danger is so great on the other hand of being distracted by the pressure of the world and the pliability of human nature, that we can hardly dispense with a daily exercise of prayer in connection with a fixed order of prayer. And although the three periods of prayer, evening, morning, and noon, did not appear as legally prescribed until later times (Daniel 6:11; Acts 10:9), yet they have been connected with the characteristic changes of the day from the most ancient times. AND So long as a man can pray, though anxious, he does not despair.—The wickedness of men may prepare much injury for us, but God’s righteousness does not endure the victory of evil.—When new enemies join old foes, and former friends are found among them, then we should search carefully for the causes of this hostility.—It is often worse in the world than we imagined in quiet times, but God can do infinitely more than all that we ask and understand.—We cannot escape that which our life brings with it in the world, but we may in the severest conflict gain the victory over the worst enemies through the assistance of God.—He who does not stand on God’s side cannot hope in God.—We should not rely upon the world, our friends, ourselves, but solely upon the faithful God alone.—We must oppose God’s righteousness, faithfulness, and truth, against the wickedness, unfaithfulness, and hypocrisy of men.—Strength of faith does not disclose itself as insensibility to suffering, but as the power to be comforted with God, to hope in God, overcome through God. Starke: God lets us feel our weakness, when we fall into great fear and extreme anxiety, in order that we may see what we are without Him and what He is to us.—As long as the builders of Babel are united, they would take heaven by storm; but as soon as God divides their tongues all their prospects fail. Thus easily can God put His enemies to shame.—How cautious a Christian should be in the selection of friends.—The best friendship and union of spirits is when we are of one mind and heart before God.—Would you overcome by faith, then your heart must not depend upon any creature, but upon God alone, whose power is shown the most in weakness. Osiander: Those who persecute the pious transgress the commandments of God in many ways, and become involved, generally, in horrid sins and blasphemies.—Franke: It is vain to talk of Christ and His sufferings if you remain far away from His mind and cross.—The true saving knowledge of sin is gained only by considering rightly the sufferings and death of Christ.—Arndt: God cannot hide Himself from our prayers, prayer finds Him out and presses through the clouds to Him. God’s fatherly heart does not admit of His hearing us crying and imploring and not turning to us.—Tholuck: When smitten by a friend we not only gain an enemy, but likewise lose a friend.—David cannot grasp the answer with his hands, but can with his faith.—Taube: The persevering prayer of faith finally gains the victorious assurance of a hearing. [Matt. Henry: If we in our prayers sincerely lay open ourselves, our case, our hearts to God, we have reason to hope that He will not hide Himself, His favors, His comforts from us.—Gracious souls wish to retire from the hurry and bustle of this world, where they may sweetly enjoy God and themselves; and if there be any true peace on this side of heaven, it is they that enjoy it in those retirements.—Barnes: How often do we wish that we could get beyond the reach of enemies; of sorrows; of afflictions! How often do we sigh to be in a place where we might be assured that we should be safe from all annoyances; from all trouble! There is such a place, but not on earth. Spurgeon: If our enemies proudly boast over us we nerve our souls for resistance, but when those who pretend to love us leer at us with contempt, whither shall we go?—If any bonds ought to be held inviolable, religious connections should be.—There is justice in the universe, love itself demands it; pity to rebels against God, as such, is no virtue.—We pray for them as creatures, we abhor them as enemies of God.—We need in these days far more to guard against the disguised iniquity which sympathizes with evil, and counts punishment to be cruelty, than against the harshness of a former age.—It is the bell of the heart that rings loudest in heaven.—A father’s heart reads a child’s heart.—The crisis of life is usually the secret place of wrestling.—He who is without trouble is often without God.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “The tone of sadness and melancholy now gives way to one of hot and passionate indignation. He would have escaped if he could from that city of sinners, who vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their ungodly deeds, but as he could not do this, he would gladly see God’s judgments executed upon them.”—C. A. B.] [That is, let them be years in dying, let them go down alive into hell, as those buried alive.—C. A. B.] [The metaphor of the butter that issues from the mouth is to be compared with the honey that drops from the strange woman’s lips, Proverbs 5:3. The comparison of the words with oil is in Proverbs 5:3 of her mouth. Comp. Sol. Son 4:11, where milk is united with honey. The strong contrast of war in the heart and drawn swords here, may be compared with the bitterness of wormwood and the sharp two-edged sword, Proverbs 5:4,—C. A. B.] Psalms 56 To the chief Musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath1              Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; He fighting daily oppresseth me. 2    Mine enemies would daily swallow meFor they be many that fight against me, O thou Most High. 3    What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. 4    In God I will praise his word, In God I have put my trust; I will not fear What flesh can do unto me. 5    Every day they wrest my words: All their thoughts are against me for evil. 6    They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, When they wait for my soul. 7    Shall they escape by iniquity? In thine anger cast down the people, O God. 8    Thou tellest my wanderings: Put thou my tears into thy bottle: Are they not in thy book? 9    When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: This I know; for God is for me. 10    In God will I praise his word: In the Lord will I praise his word. 11    In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid What man can do unto me. 12    Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee. 13    For thou hast delivered my soul from death: Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, That I may walk before God in the light of the living? AND Its Contents and Composition.—The title (comp. Introduct., § 12 and § 8) leads to the time of the persecution by Saul, and indeed not to the time of the second abode of David with the Philistine king Achish, 1 Samuel 29 (Ruding., Rosenm.), but the earlier one, 1 Samuel 21:10 sq., which is referred to definitely in Psalms 34. This Psalm, which is simple and interwoven with recurring if not entirely similar verses, bears many features of resemblance with the Psalms of this period. Among these features the chief one is his turning from the judgment of his own enemies to the judgment of the nations in general. From the mention of the latter there is not the least evidence of its composition in the time of the exile (De Wette). Moreover the nations (Psalms 56:7) are not the many particular ones which make up the heathen nation with which the author is said to remain in the time after the exile (Hitzig). For the analysis of the plural ammim into its units cannot change the idea “people.”—There is prevalent in this Psalm a tone of confidence in God’s help, which breaks forth in the refrain (Psalms 56:4, somewhat enlarged, Psalms 56:10-11), each time after a short description of the oppression of the poet who is in flight, and of the character and behaviour of his enemies (Psalms 56:1-2; Psalms 56:5-6). This in both cases is prepared, first, by a short (Psalms 56:3) then a more extended (Psalms 56:8-9) attestation of faith in God’s assistance, which is again each time preceded by a weaker (Psalms 56:1) then a stronger (Psalms 56:7) expression of the certainty of the ruin of his enemies, who were mortals, by the judgment of the Almighty. The whole concludes with a vow of thanksgiving (Psalms 56:12) for the deliverance of his life, which is considered as not doubtful (Psalms 56:13), as it began with a prayer for the help of grace.Str. I. Psalms 56:1. For mortal man snorts against me.—On account of the following expressions, enτsh is to be taken as a collective, as Psalms 66:12; yet we are not to find in the word the subordinate meaning of evil (De Wette), but that of weak, fallible, in contrast to Elohim,Psalms 9:19; Psalms 10:18. [The Rabbins and older interpreters, so A. V., translated ωׁ ?ΰσ by absorbere, devorare, swallow up; but it is more properly either pant after as animals greedy of their prey, or snort against as animals enraged.—C. A. B.] Psalms 56:2. For many are they that fight against me in pride.— ξָ ?ψεֹ ?ν is not a vocative=Most High (Aquil., Chald., Jerome, Isaki, Calvin, [A. V.] et al.), as Psalms 92:8, instead of the high God, Micah 6:6; but it is an accusative as an adverb, and the height is taken figuratively as pride (Symmach., Luther, Rudinger, Geier, et al.). Psalms 56:3. On the day that I have fear, I—in Thee will I trust.—There is no sufficient reason to read, instead of ΰֶ ?χְ ?ψָ ?ΰ,ΰִ ?ιψָ ?ΰ as Psalms 56:9=when I call (Hupf.); still less are we to insert a negative=On the day will I not fear (Syr., Arab.); but it may very well be conceived that fear and trust should be in the same heart at the same time (Calvin, Geier, et al.). Therefore it is not advisable to accept a subjunctive (Hitzig, Olsh.), because he would say: when I would fear, or should have occasion to fear, yet would not express the fear itself.Psalms 56:4. Through God will I praise His word.—This clause might be translated: “Of God am I proud, His word” (most recent interpreters), the verb being regarded as intransitive and the preposition repeated. Yet the accents lead to the transitive interpretation: in (through, with) God praise I His word (Hupfeld, Delitzsch, and almost all ancient versions and interpreters with the Rabbins). According to the context, this “word” is hardly to be explained of “His works,” His providences and guidances (older interpreters with Flamin.), although γαψ sometimes=res, and it is easiest to take it thus in Psalms 56:5; still less is there occasion to change γְּ ?αָ ?ψεֹ into γְּ ?αָ ?ψַ ?ι, to which the translation τοὺςλογοὺςμου. (Sept.) might lead, and then be interpreted: my affairs, or: “God will I praise” are my words, Psalms 22:1 (Olsh.); or to correct γָּ ?αָ ?ψ (by adding ε as copula to the following clause.)=Of God I boast in matters, that is to say, in the affairs in question (Hitzig). It is true that dabar is used in Psalms 56:10 without a suffix and without an article. This, however, may designate the word directly as the divine, as Psalms 2:12, αּ ?ψ, the son (Delitzsch). There is special reference here to the divine word of promise (Calvin, Geier), yet not directly as addressed personally to David (Hengst.), or indeed to his royal dignity (most interpreters). This word of God will the Psalmist praise when he by God’s grace has experienced its fulfilment, accordingly when he is a man saved in God.—[I trust in God, I do not fear; what can flesh do unto me?—This is the beautiful and touching refrain of the Psalm which loses its force by a false punctuation in the A. V. Psalms 56:11 is precisely the same as these clauses, with the single exception of the substitution of ΰָ ?γָ ?ν for αָ ?ωָׂ ?ψ.—C. A. B.] Str. II., Psalms 56:5. All day long they vex my affairs.—It is better to refer γαψ here to the affairs of the poet, among which his words might be included, because the verb does not mean: make abominable (Sept.), curse (Vulg.), wrest=slander (Flamin., Ruding., Rosenm., [A. V.] et al.), but vex. Psalms 56:6. They who watch my heels just as they have waited for my soul.—The perfect in the last clause does not allow of the supposition that the reason of the pursuit (most interpreters)=because, or when they hope to take my life, is stated and is incorrectly rendered by the participle (Symmach., Jerome). It expresses by a comparison of the former with the present proceedings (Hupfeld, Delitzsch), that they have always acted as the same malignant men. The translation “just as I have hoped for my life” (Sept.) is incorrect. Psalms 56:7. With iniquity—deliverance to them? In anger cast down nations, O God.—It is questionable and unnecessary to read τַּ ?μֶּ ?ν (Hupf., Olsh.), instead of τַ ?μֶּ ?θPsalms 32:7, or to regard them as the same (Ewald). For the former word is usually with the accusative of the object in the meaning: to weigh something, hence the interpretation: for iniquity recompense them (Hupf.), is violent. But the interpretation: weigh to them iniquity still, is unnecessary. For the text may be explained as it is. It is true it does not say: on account of iniquity deliver from them (Symm.), pour them out (Chald.), lay hold of them (Geier); or: in no wise, that is to say, vain, fruitless be their flight (Mend.), but: with=in spite of iniquity is deliverance to them. This interpretation of it as a question (Kimchi, et al., Hitzig, Delitzsch) is to be preferred to that of regarding it as an expression of a delusion of the transgressor (Bucer, Calvin, et al., Hengst.); for the latter thought is included in the former, but is not so easily misunderstood. Str. III., Psalms 56:8. Thou hast counted my wanderings, my tears are put in Thy bottle—[are they) not in Thy calculation?—πֹ ?γִ ?ι is not “my complaint (Hupfeld), or my internal disquiet” (Ewald), but my “fleeing, wandering about,” the days of which (Chald.), or places of which (Isaki, Kimchi), or rather which as often repeated (Ruding. counts 14 exilia of David), not only the fugitive closely observed, but God, who counts all the steps of men, so likewise the tears which are put in His πֹ ?ΰψ=bottle of skin, for careful preservation in the memory, perhaps with an allusion to wine squeezed out (Geier), or parallel with the bag mentioned elsewhere, Job 14:17; 1 Samuel 15:29; comp. Isaiah 8:16 (Olsh., Hupfeld). It seems that the conformity of sound has here occasioned the choice of words (Aben Ezra, Geier, et al.), which the ancient versions either did not understand and therefore changed αְ ?πֹ ?ΰγֶ ?κָ into αְ ?πֶ ?βְ ?γְ ?κָ, or they have had this latter reading before them; for they translate in conspectu tuo, and likewise give this verse an entirely different and, in other respects, unintelligible sense. Schegg, with respect to the Vulgate, brings out the sense: My life I hold before Thee; Thou settest my tears before thy face as in Thy decree. It is questionable whether we are to retain the proper and usual meaning: calculation, or refer to the writing in a book (Syr., Vat. and many recent interpreters [A. V.]), particularly in the book of God, Exodus 32:32; Psalms 139:16, the book of the living, Psalms 69:28, the book of remembrance, Malachi 3:16. According to the present accents “put” is an imperative. But a simple transfer of the accent to the last syllable gives the more appropriate passive, Numbers 24:21; 1 Samuel 9:24; 2 Samuel 13:32 (Ewald, Hupfeld, Deiitzsch, Hitzig). The form of the question here and in Psalms 56:13 b does not express any doubt or uncertainty, but actually gives a strong assurance of certainty and enlivens the discourse.Psalms 56:9. This I know, that God is for me.—This might be rendered likewise: that God is to me=that I have God, or that He is my God (Sept., Jerome, Hengst.); but the translation: for me (Chald., and most interpreters) is recommended by Psalms 124:1-2, here as in Psalms 118:6 sq. [Psalms 56:10-11.—We have here the same refrain as in Psalms 56:9, with the slight change of the repetition of the first clause with emphasis, with the use of Jehovah for Elohim and the substitution of man for flesh in the last clause.—C. A. B.] Str. IV., Psalms 56:12. Thy vows (are) upon me.—This does not refer to an obligation as of a duty yet to be undertaken (De Wette, Hitzig), but to an obligation already incurred in fulfilling the thank-offerings vowed to God. Psalms 56:13. To walk before the face of God in the light of life.—This does not mean the pious walk of life (the older interpreters), but the Divine protection, as Psalms 62:8 (De Wette, Hengst., et al.). The light of life (comp. John 8:12), or the living (Psalms 27:13; Psalms 116:9) means the light and its realm in contrast to the realm of death, and is not to be limited to the sunlight of this world (Hupfeld). AND ETHICAL1. The distresses which befall a servant of God from men may be easily borne and surely overcome if only faith is not shaken. For men, how many so ever they may be that gather together, devise crafty plans, hesitate not at cruel deeds, they can accomplish nothing against the man who has taken refuge with God, puts his confidence in God’s power and grace, and calmly and firmly relies upon God’s word. God will deliver him, but destroy them. For their name is frailty and flesh; they cannot accomplish what they propose, cannot avert what they have drawn upon them. But God keeps His word and carries out what He has promised; therefore His promises are to believers the pledge of their salvation. 2. Many boast of their understanding; some indeed of their wickedness (Psalms 52:1), and rely upon their courage and their power, their riches and their position, the world and their friends. Thus they forget God and His word, and come in conflict with those who confess God and His word. Thus the latter have many fears, cares and trials in the world. Yet since they live not only in the world, but at the same time in God, their faith overcomes fear and the world (1 John 5:4), and they strike up, even in their sorrows, songs of rejoicing, with which they praise God and boast of His word, which, as the pledge of their salvation, is likewise the foundation of their confidence and the source of their comfort. 3.The believer knows that God not only sees him and his distresses, but likewise cares for the minutiζ of his life and welfare, that He thus counts his steps and days, collects his tears, writes down his actions and his omissions. He knows likewise that this divine sympathy is not merely beholding or pitying, but shows itself and attests itself by actual assistance, so that it may be seen that God is with him. And thus knowledge is not merely recognition, but a conviction full of life. It expresses itself as such in the day of trouble as prayer for God’s grace, as confession of God and His word, as vows of thanksgiving for the help pre-supposed as certain, and is strengthened and enlivened by every divine exhibition of grace to the hope of a walk in the light of life. AND If God is for us, who can be against us?—It is better to fall into the hands of God than of men.—He who depends on God will not fall; and He who trusts in the word of God will have wherewith to boast.—Wouldst thou walk in the light of life, then rely upon God and His word.—God with us! This is the watchword of the pious.—Fear not, only believe! You must either experience the grace or the wrath of God; what you wish will be given you.—The higher the ungodly are lifted, the deeper will be their fall; for God is a righteous Rewarder.—How hope and fear may be together in the same heart.—The courage of faith is a very different thing from the defiance of pride. Starke: The ways of God often appear to the reason to be entirely against their purpose; but yet they are holy and good as the issue shows.—God’s grace is a mighty protection and a powerful mitigation of every cross.—Hope is the golden treasure and the noblest art against all fear.—God’s infallible word and a believing trust therein are inseparably united together.—A countenance moistened with tears is much more beautiful and noble before God than a neck covered with pearls and ears with the most precious jewels.—Since the goodness of God is active, our thanksgiving must likewise be active. Rieger: Fear is evil only when it destroys the word of God for us.—Vaihinger: The mercy of God is the well of salvation from which David draws in all his troubles.—Tholuck: David thinks of songs of praise whilst he still sings lamentations, of vows of thanksgiving whilst yet praying.—Guenther: Every advance in sanctification is an additional confirmation that God is with us. [Matt. Henry: As we must not trust to an arm of flesh when it is engaged for us, so we must not be afraid of an arm of flesh when it is stretched out against us.—God has a bottle and a book for His people’s tears, both those for their sins and those for their afflictions.—God will comfort His people according to the time wherein He has afflicted them, and give to them to reap in joy who sowed in tears. What was sown a tear will come up a pearl.—When we give credit to a man’s bill, we honor him that drew it. So when we do and suffer for God in a dependence upon His promise, not staggering at it, we give glory to God, we praise His word, and so give praise to Him.—Barnes: Fear is one of those things designed to make us feel that we need a God and to lead us to Him when we realize that we have no power to save ourselves from impending dangers.—It is a good maxim with which to go into a world of danger; a good maxim to go to sea with; a good maxim in a storm; a good maxim in danger on the land; a good maxim when we are sick; a good maxim when we think of death and the judgment,—“What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”—Spurgeon: It is a blessed fear which drives us to trust.—God inclines us to pray; we cry in anguish of heart; He hears, He acts; the enemy is turned back! What irresistible artillery is this which wins the battle as soon as its report is heard.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Calvin: “It seems, indeed, as if fear and hope were feelings too contrary the one to the other to dwell in the same heart; but experience shows that Hope there in fact really reigns where some portion of the heart is possessed by Fear. For when the mind is calm and tranquil, Hope is not exercised, yea rather is, as it were, hushed to sleep; but then, and not till then does she put forth all her strength, when the mind has been cast down by cares and she lifts it up, when it has been saddened and disturbed and she calms it, when it has been smitten with fear and she sustains and props it.”—C. A. B.] [This is the skin bottle used in the East for keeping wine, milk, water, etc. It takes the place of our barrel or cask, as well as our bottle. They are generally made of goat skins or kid, comp. Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, art. Bottle.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: “He knows that each day of his wandering, each nook in which he found shelter, each step that he had taken, every artifice by which he has baffled his foes,—all have been numbered by his Heavenly Keeper. Yea, no tear that he has shed, when his eye has been raised to heaven in prayer, has fallen to the ground. God he prays to gather them all in His bottle, and trusts that He will note them in His book.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 57 To the chief Musician, Al-taschit, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cavs         Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: For my soul trusteth in thee: Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, Until these calamities be overpast. 2    I will cry unto God most high; Unto God that performeth all things for me. 3    He shall send from heaven, and save me, From the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. 4    My soul is among lions: And I lie even among them that are set on fire, Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue a sharp sword. 5    Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let thy glory be above all the earth. 6    They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down: They have digged a pit before me, Into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah. 7    My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. 8    Awake up, my glory; awake psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. 9    I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. 10    For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, And thy truth unto the clouds. 11    Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: Let thy glory be above all the earth. AND Its Contents and Composition.—For the title comp. Introduction, § 12 and § 8. The repetition of the same verse, Psalms 57:5; Psalms 57:10, divides the Psalm into two halves. In the first half the hope of faith, in the near and sure help of God, out of great peril of life occasioned by violent men, which hope is based on experience, declares itself in the prayer for new exhibitions of Divine grace, whereby the truth and the trustworthiness of God may be actually proved. In the last half of the Psalm, after a short description of the snares which turned out to the ruin of the enemies themselves, the certainty of victory expresses itself in an exhortation of his own soul to praise God in the whole world on account of God’s revelation of Himself in His glory. The resemblances with other Davidic Psalms are numerous; with Psalms 7, not only in the comparison of enemies with lions, which likewise occurs in Psalms 10, 22, 58, but at the same time in the designation of the soul as glory in the figure of the pit; with Psalms 22, in the reference to the proclamation of the acts of God among all nations; with Psalms 36, in the hiding under the wings of God and the comparison of grace and truth with the height of heaven; with Psalms 46, in the opening words and the similar expressions for persecutor; with Psalms 42, in the poetical word for fulness of ruin, and at the same time with Psalms 55, 59, 64, in the figure of the sword of the tongue, which in Psalms 120 is compared with arrows as here the teeth. Respecting its relation to Psalms 107, see the explanations there. The emphatic repetition of the same word in Psalms 57:1; Psalms 57:3; Psalms 57:7-8, is peculiar to this Psalm. We cannot decide whether the cave mentioned in the title is the one mentioned in 1 Samuel 22 as the cave of Adullam, or that situated by the sheepcotes upon the Alpine heights of Engedi. These caves are numerous in the limestone and chalk mountains, and are often of great extent and are still the hiding-places of fugitives (Robinson’s Bib. Researches, vol. I. p.500). Str. I. Psalms 57:1. Has sought refuge with Thee.—The perfect, which is important for the sense, in distinction from the imperfect of the same word in the next line, is overlooked by many interpreters [so A. V.], although expressed by the more ancient ones (Chald., Jerome, Flamin., Calvin), and expressly made prominent by Venema.—[In the shadow of Thy wings.—Perowne: “This exceedingly striking image may have been suggested by Deuteronomy 32:11, see above on Psalms 17:8. Still more tender is the N. T. figure, Matthew 23:37.” Delitzsch: “The shading of God’s wings is the protection of His soft, sweet love and the shadow of His wings is the refreshing, trusting comfort connected with this protection. In this shadow the poet takes his refuge again as before, until ηַ ?εּ ?εϊ, that is to say, the ruinous danger which threatens him passes by, prζteriverit (comp. Isaiah 26:20, and for the enallage numeri Psalms 10:10, Gesenius, § 147 a.) Not as if he would not then need the Divine protection any more, but now he feels himself especially needy, and therefore his first aim is the brave, victorious endurance of the sufferings which hover over him.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 57:2. Who accomplisheth concerning me.—It is better to supply: His purposes, than: His mercy (Kimchi), or: His promises (Calvin), or indeed: my wishes (Flamin.), or: my undertakings (Rosenm., De Wette). For since the object is not mentioned, we must not supply an actual limitation of it, but only a comprehensive general term. There is no reason for the translation: who makes an end of my sorrow (Luther), or to regard βξψ as the same with the related root, βξμ=who is my benefactor (Septuagint, Ewald, Hitzig, Hupfeld, [Perowne]). Psalms 138:8 affords a parallel which explains this clause. Psalms 57:3. He will send from heaven.—This likewise does not need to have any specific object supplied, neither: His arm (Deuteronomy 33:27), nor: His hand (Psalms 18:16; Psalms 144:7), nor: His help (Psalms 20:2); nor from the following clause: His grace and truth. The singer is satisfied at the beginning with the fact that: if this is sure, he has good ways with the what (Hengstenberg). The additional words: “from heaven,” give the idea of a wonderful, extraordinary deliverance (Calvin).—He reproacheth who snorts at me.—To regard this clause as a simple continuation and therefore a statement of an action of God=He gives my persecutor to shame (the ancient versions, Kimchi, Flaminius, Ewald), is as well against the parallel passage, Psalms 42:10; Psalms 44:16; Psalms 55:12; Psalms 55:21; Psalms 56:5; Psalms 59:7, as against the context, which leads, by the change of word and the close description, Psalms 57:4, to a reproach proceeding from the enemies. That the object of the reproach cannot be here as sometimes elsewhere, God (Cocc. De Wette), is shown by the grammatical construction, which does not allow of the acceptance of a relative clause. The accents indeed point to a clause dependent upon the preceding one; but this can only be a hypothesis, so that we have to supply a particle (Aben Ezra, Geier, and most interpreters). Since, however, in this case the imperfect would be expected, we must, in order to explain with grammatical accuracy, regard the clause as a parenthesis, explaining the situation, with a selah, as Psalms 55:20. Kφster would remove it to the close of the verse. To connect it with the following clause, thus making it a hypothetical antecedent: supposing that he reproached (Delitzsch), requires not only that the accents should be altered, but brings about a too close connection with the consequent which would then be, and this is not expressed. The supposition that these words are in the wrong place (Olsh., De Wette), is especially objectionable from the fact that no other suitable place for the clause can be shown. And the alteration of the reading in order to get the sense: “from the first of those who snort against me” (Hitzig), is mere conjecture. The translation: from the reproach of him that would swallow me up (Luther, [A. V.]), is against the form of the word and the meaning of the passage. Str. 3. Psalms 57:4. I will lie down among the lickerish.—The reference here is not to flames (Ewald) but to lions, which then are designated as (greedy) lickerish, yet, not as devouring (Hupfeld, or as breathing out flames (Chald., Rabbins, and most interpreters). But we must not overlook the fact that ωׁ ?λα does not express the idea of prostrate, jacere (most interpreters) but cubare, and that this verb is here in the optative or cohortative. Accordingly it expresses not a complaint of his dangerous situation, but the resolution of trust in God, with which he will lie down to sleep in the midst of dangerous circumstances. But it is not said that he will lie down to sleep among the lions of the wilderness, and that hostile men are worse than these beasts of prey, Sir 25:15 (Delitzsch), but the enemies are called directly lions. Their name of “lickerish,” which expresses their greed of murder, forms the transition to the direct designation of the enemies as sons of men, whose teeth and tongue are then directly mentioned as the instruments of their attack and pursuit. If there was any reference to flames, this certainly might, according to a figure used in most language, be called as well licking as flattering, but without such occasion we must abide by the usual fundamental meaning of the word, and there is no more reason to think of fiery look and revenge (Delitzsch), than to pass over from the figure of lions to a new comparison by the translation: “I lie upon fire-brands” (Hengstenberg), or, omitting the accents, connect the lying with the first member of the verse, “with my soul I lie in the midst of the lions,” and then add in apposition: fire-breathing children of men (Hitz., similarly, Aquila, Symm., Jerome), or begin a new clause=men are flames (Luther).—[Whose teeth are spears and arrows,etc.—The enemies are lions, greedy of their prey, but the teeth of these men-lions are spears and arrows, and the tongues of these men-lions are a sharp sword. As the lion uses his teeth and tongue, these children of men use their spears, arrows, and swords to destroy their prey, having the same greedy, lickerish natures as the wild beasts.—C. A. B.] Psalms 57:5. Exalt Thyself above the heavens,etc.—This prayer cannot be here synonymous with the appeal for interference: lift up Thyself, properly: stand up, as Isaiah 21:14; Isaiah 33:10, but must either mean: be exalted=praised (Psalms 18:46) by the inhabitants of heaven and earth (Hengstenberg), or: show Thyself in Thy sublimity (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and most interpreters), Psalms 46:10.Str.IV. Psalms 57:6. Have bent down my soul.—This expression is striking, at the same time incorrect and against the parallelism; yet the change of the reading in order to get the sense: “his soul,” that is to say, himself “is seized upon ” (Hitzig), is mere conjecture. [The Anglican Prayer Book has: He pressed down my soul. This is approved by Alexander, with the idea that he was caught, held down by a trap or snare. Perowne, whilst admitting that the word occurs everywhere else in a transitive meaning, assumes an indefinite subject: “one hath bowed down my soul ”=“my soul is bowed down ” [so the A. V.]. But it is better with Moll to regard the enemies as the subject in parallelism with the preceding and following clauses.—C. A. B.] Str.V. Psalms 57:7. My heart is confident.—The translation: my heart is ready (Septuagint, Chald., Calvin, Luther), though possible in itself, does not agree with the repetition so well as the literal: steadfast (Hitzig, et al.), in the sense which is likewise usual: confident, fearless (Symm., Hupfeld, Delitzsch). Psalms 57:8. [My glory=my soul, comp. Psalms 7:5; Psalms 16:9; Psalms 30:12—C. A. B.]—I will awake the dawn.—The intransitive interpretation of the verb, Psalms 35:23, which is here parallel with the Kal, is highly objectionable, the interpretation of ωָׁ ?ηַ ?ψ as an accusative of time, unheard of, accordingly the translation: I will awake at the time of the dawn (the ancient versions, most Rabbins and interpreters), must be given up. The true interpretation, followed by all recent exegetes, occurs moreover already by itself. The legend of the Talmud is very interesting (according to Delitzsch): “A either hung over David’s bed, and when midnight came, the north wind blew upon the strings, so that it sounded of itself; he arose at once and occupied himself with the law until the pillars of the dawn arose.” Isaki remarks upon this: the other kings are awakened by the dawn, but I, said David, will awaken the dawn. [Str. VI. Psalms 57:9. Delitzsch: “His song of praise is not to sound in a arrow space where it can scarcely be heard; he will appear as an evangelist of his deliverance and his deliverer, among the nations of the world; his calling extends beyond Israel, the experiences of his person are for the benefit of humanity. We see here the self-consciousness of an all-comprehensive mission, which has accompanied David from the beginning to the end of his royal course (Psalms 18:49). That which is said, Psalms 57:10, is the motive and at the same time the theme of the preaching among the nations: God’s grace and truth towering up to heaven, Psalms 36:5. That they reach even to the heavens, is only an earthly idea of the infinity of them both (comp. Ephesians 3:18). In Psalms 57:11, which differs from Psalms 57:5 only by one letter [article before ωָּׁ ?ξַ ?ιִ ?ν], the Psalm returns to prayer. Heaven and earth have a comparative history, and the blessed, glorious end of this is the sunrise of the Divine glory over both, which is here implored.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. A fugitive is not so safe and hidden in the gloom of the mountain cave as in the shadow of God’s wings. He who flees thither gains a courageous spirit and a steadfast, confident heart, so that he can lie down to sleep with calmness amidst numerous and mighty enemies, greedy for his life, and can commit himself and his cause to the Almighty in heartfelt prayer, resign his soul and rely upon Him for deliverance. If he is able to appeal to previous experiences of Divine help, his trust in God gains a firm foundation, and his prayer for grace a great confidence and a joyous flight. For the pressure of wickedness passes by; whilst grace and truth, which God sends, remain with the pious, and with every new sending from above, there follows, together with the confirmation of a Divine promise, a strengthening of the faith, and the designs of the wicked will be frustrated, and their attacks as well as their reproaches, slanders, and threats, remain fruitless, whilst God accomplishes His purposes.2. Grace and truth come down from heaven and reach again up to heaven. These are as immeasurable, inexhaustible, invincible as the latter, but they unite both worlds together, and manifest in both the glory of God. Therefore the acts of God towards His anointed receive through them a universal historical character and a significance as well as to the praise of God. The servant of God will not only late and early praise God, awake cither and harp and anticipate the dawn, so that he is not called by it, but the dawn by him; he will likewise encourage and lead the nations throughout the earth by his praise of God that they may praise Him likewise. He has a missionary calling, and he knows it. AND Let him who flees from enemies see to it where he remains and whither he turns.—We may hide from men but not from God; and we cannot hide with men, but with God and in God.—Among the good gifts that come down from above, grace and truth are as valuable as they are indispensable for us; they unite heaven and earth.—If we pray to God for what we want, He will give us what we need.—Wickedness must not only pass by the pious without injuring them, it likewise ruins its own servants and instruments.—The arrows of wickedness rebound harmless from the armor of faith.—Much depends upon how we close the evening and greet the morning.—It would be a bad sign if you had only complaints and no prayer and no thanksgiving.—Grace and truth reach as far as their origin is high, and should be praised accordingly.—The glory of the Lord should be praised early and late, near and far, in heaven and on earth, and yet there would be no recompense for what God has done for us by sending His grace and truth. Starke: The higher and stronger our enemies are, the more does faith depend on God, who alone is exalted above all the majesty and power of the creature.—Where all human help fails, there God’s help begins in earnest.—Better that sleep should be broken off than prayer.—What we love we speak of more than once.—Osiander: God cannot and will not forsake those who trust in Him with all their hearts.—Selnekker: God protects His own children in a wonderful manner, and gives their enemies into their hands when they rage the most.—Franks: When it is clearly manifested to the heart of man that God is the Most High, he fears nothing, not even the devil and his hosts of hell, but is confident and unterrified.—Renschel: The cross is a storm; it passes by; in the meanwhile we sit under the shadow of His wings.—Tholuck: O how sleepy man remains when the praise of God for undeserved bounties is in question.—Guenther: The delivered must yet inquire: why and wherefore has God spread His wings over you? What would He with you, of you, for you?—Taube: David’s first cry of need is not a call for help, but for grace.—Make not that narrow which God’s love has made wide, wide as the heavens. [Matt. Henry: To God as the God of grace will I fly, and his promise shall be my refuge, and a sure passport it will be through all these dangers.—We need no more to make us happy, but to have the benefit of the mercy and truth of God.—When God is coming towards us with His favors, we must go forth to meet Him with our praises.—Barnes: The welfare of the universe depends on God; and. that God should be true, and just, and good, and worthy of confidence and love,—that He should reign,—that His law should be obeyed,—that His plans should be accomplished,—is of more importance to this universe than anything that merely pertains to us; than the success of any of our own plans; than our health, our prosperity, or our life.—Spurgeon: Urgent need suggests the repetition of the cry, for thus intense urgency of desire is expressed. If “he gives twice who gives quickly,” so he who would receive quickly must ask twice.—Blessed be God, our calamities are matters of time, but our safety is a matter of eternity.—God’s attributes, like angels on the wing, are ever ready to come to the rescue of His chosen.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [This Psalm begins a series of three Psalms , 57, 58, 59, all of which have Al-taschith in their titles.—C. A.B.] [Perowne: “Perhaps there is nothing more remarkable in the Psalms, than this ever-recurring expression of a tender personal affection on the part of the sacred poets to God. There is no parallel to this in the whole range of heathen literature. Monsters to be feared and propitiated were the deities of Paganism, but what heathen ever loved his god? The apotheosis of man’s lusts could only produce a worship of servility and fear.”—C. A.B.] [The same refrain is found in Psalms 57:11, at the close of the Psalm.—C. A. B.] Psalms 58 To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David         Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? 2    Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. 3    The wicked are estranged from the womb: They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4    Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; 5    Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, Charming never so wisely. 6    Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.7    Let them melt away as waters which run continually: When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. 8    As a snail which melteth, let every one of hem pass away: Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. 9    Before your pots can feel the thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. 10    The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11    So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. AND Its Contents And Composition.—The position of this Psalm is due not only to expressions in the title, but to the figure of the lion and the mention of teeth. There is no reason to put its composition in a late period, and seek the unjust judges among the heathen (Ewald, Hitzig). The prophets afford sufficient analogies to this complaint respecting domestic administrations of justice (Hupfeld), as it here gushes forth from the indignant soul of the Psalmist in a threatening language which is almost obscure owing to bold and mingled figures of speech. It is like a torrent which plunges over every hindrance, foaming and raging. A comparison with other Psalms of David, e. g.,Pss. 64. and 140. shows that such language, especially in the expectation of Divine judgment, is not strange in the mouth of David. We may certainly credit this original poet with a richness of figures and changes in their use, as well as in the turns of language and of thought, in accordance with particular circumstances and feeling. Yet we lack sufficient evidence to show whether the composition occurred in the time of Saul, who was at the same time David’s judge and persecutor, who endeavored to hide the persecution under the appearance of a righteous judgment (Hengst.); or in the time of Absalom, who made the administration of justice a means of stealing from David the hearts of the people, whilst he pretended to be impartial (Knapp, Delitzsch). The reproachful question, which is ironical in form (Psalms 58:1), and its cutting answer (Psalms 58:2), are followed by the description of the entire corruption of the accused (Psalms 58:3-5), and then follows the proclamation of their ruin by Divine judgment which has been implored (Psalms 58:6-9); and finally the statements of its effects (Psalms 58:10-11). Str. I. Psalms 58:1. Do ye truly in silence speak righteousness?—The word ΰֵ ?μֶ ?ν occurs only here and in the title of Psalms 56, and is obscure and doubtful in both places. At any rate it is artificial and without sufficient warrant, to gain the sense of pactum, that is to say, publico jure sancitum by derivation from a word=bind (Maurer), or a vocative with the meaning congregatio to designate the companions of Saul (Kimchi, Calvin [A. V.], et al). The radical meaning is, “to grow dumb or speechless,” and the juxtaposition of two nouns is not without examples, Psalms 45:4. But which is the most appropriate meaning? The question “Do ye in truth or truly” leads to the doubt whether the addressed are earnest in doing that which is alleged of them and presupposed or is to be required of them, or whether they do it only apparently or not at all; and the parallel clause shows that the question is with reference to the righteous administration of justice and equitable judgment. The form of this parallel clause, however, prevents the question from being regarded as one of astonishment. do you really decree dumb justice? but seems to lead to the question of doubt: do you really speak righteousness (previously) dumb, that is to say: recognize and express in the judicial sentence (the older interpreters, with Geier, J H. Mich., De Wette, Stier). But this is against the position of the word, and already an explanation of the too difficult oxymoron; “do you really speak;” that is to say, give utterance to, or express in words, dumbness of justice? The parallel clause Psalms 58:4 b, likewise leads to the thought that those addressed are dumb, when they should speak, as they are deaf when they should hear. We might therefore be tempted to translate: are you really dumbness, that is to say, entirely dumb? The language would permit this; but what then could be made of the subsequent words? The translations; that you would not speak what is just (Luther, Hengst.), or: Do you speak righteousness? (Geier) are not only harsh but at the same time against grammar and the parallel clause. The same is true of the interpretation: Is righteousness really silent? Then speak it! (Rosenm.) Therefore we are to take it as a question of irony rather than one of direct reproach: Do you truly in silence speak righteousness? (Chald., Hupf.) This oxymoron is at least endurable, and the interpretation agrees with the expected thoughts and the irony of weighing out (Psalms 58:2 b), better than the direct question which the language admits: Is the righteousness which you should speak, truly, dumb? (Isaki). If the vowel points are to be altered it is better to make itΰֲ ?μֹ ?ν = ye people (Hitzig) parallel with the vocative “sons of men,” than ΰֻ ?μָּ ?ν, for which rare word ΰξπν was originally placed upon the margin as a gloss, then came into the text, and is now again to be removed from it in order to get the sense: do you truly speak justice? (Gesenius); or ΰֵ ?μִ ?ν in the sense of a defective orthography of ΰֵ ?μִ ?ιν, as Exodus 15:11, or ΰֵ ?ιμִ ?ν, Numbers 7:77; Numbers 23:29, which then is a designation of the judges addressed, but cannot mean: strong (Tholuck with reference to Joab and his brother) but only: gods (since Houbigant many interpreters besides J. D. Mich., likewise Ewald, Olsh., Delitzsch). It is then admissible to take the sons of men of the following clause as an accusative, and as intentionally used here as Elohim is then used in the final clause as plural. The irony would then be still further strengthened by scornful allusion to the folly and vanity of self-exaltation. But there are very serious objections to regard this word as designating the unjust false judges as gods, for it is without any preparation in the Psalm, and still more would be in a very unusual form of the word. [Psalms 58:2. Ye weigh out.—Perowne: This is said sarcastically Ye pretend indeed to hold the balance of justice, and nicely to weigh out to each his just award, but violence is the weight with which ye adjust the scales.”.—C. A. B.] Str. II. [Psalms 58:3. From birth.—Delitzsch: The Scriptures in such passages testify to the fact of experience, that there are men in whom evil has from childhood a truly devilish and selfish character, incapable of loving, for although original sin and guilt are common to all men, yet the former class has them in the most manifold J mixture and forms, as indeed the transmission of sin and the influence of the power of evil and the power of grace, ever working at the same time upon the propagation of the human race, demand; this dualism of human nature is taught especially by the gospel of John.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 58:4. Poison have they like the poison of a serpent.—This is literally the poison which they have; for the stat. const. demands that ΰֲ ?ωֶׁ ?ψ should be supplied. Among the serpents the adder is mentioned as the best known of the dangerous ones (Deuteronomy 32:33) of which it is said in the Orient (vid. the passages in De Wette, Com.) it is dumb, when it will not obey the charmer. The intentional character of this dumbness is mentioned as a stopping up of the ear.Str. III. [Psalms 58:6. Perowne: “There is an abrupt change in the image employed. As these men are incorrigible in their wickedness, as they cannot be tamed, the Psalmist prays God to destroy their power for mischief; but instead of continuing the figure of the serpent-charmer, who robs the serpent of his poison, he suddenly represents them as young lions, whose teeth he would see broken that they may no longer devour,” comp. Psalms 3:7.—C. A. B.] Psalms 58:7. Let him (namely the enemy) fix his arrows,—(let them be) as though cut off.—It is best not to regard God as the subject, because He has been immediately before directly addressed, and the explanations “until the enemies have become weak,” (Sept.), or donec conterantur (Jerome), ut succidantur et pereant (Isaki), and the like, afford grammatical objections, which disappear when it is referred to the enemies regarded in their unity, whose arrows are designated as without effect, as though they had their points cut off (most interpreters since Kimchi). The treading or bending the bow is transferred to the arrows, as Psalms 64:3.Psalms 58:8. As a snail which in melting passeth away.—The meaning “ snail,” which has its Hebrew name from its apparent melting away in slime, is rendered certain (Chald., Isaki, Kimchi) as against the interpretation wax (most of the older interpreters, Ewald), or torrent (Aben Ezra, Kφster).—Miscarriage of a woman—ΰֵ ?ωֶׁ ?ϊ is here confirmed as a stat. absol.=woman by Deuteronomy 21:11; 1 Samuel 28:7 [although this is usually the stat. const.], as against the interpretation: mole (Chald.), or: fire (Sept.), namely: falls down, so that it is not necessary, by a change of reading, to get the sense of “the hopeless one.” Psalms 58:10. Before your pots feel the thorn whether fresh or burning.—He whirls it away.—The idea here is of the sudden and unexpected destruction of all their plans and all their arrangements for their fulfilment. It is represented in a figure, derived from a frequent occurrence in connection with caravans in the desert. The only striking thing is the sudden address to the wicked, who are spoken of from Psalms 58:3 on, only in the third person. Since, however, they have been already directly addressed (Psalms 58:1-2), there is no objection to it here. Still less is there any weight to be laid upon the fact that ηָ ?ψεֹ ?ο is used elsewhere of the fire of God’s wrath (Cleric). For since it properly means “burning,” and the words with εֹ ?ο were originally accusatives with nun, or adverbs which denote circumstance or condition (Hupfeld), we may have some objection to understand it of cooking meat, or meat already cooked (Hengstenb. after Berl. Bibel and Delitzsch) or of dry wood (Symm., Ewald), but not to understand it of the ΰθγ = black, or buck thorn (rhamnus), already on fire, which flames up quickly and high in the fire, and gives indeed suitable coals for cooking, yet is easily put out by the wind (�dmann, Vermischte Samml. 4:99 sq.). On this account, therefore, we understand by the previously mentioned ηַ ?ιּ that is to say, living, not raw flesh (Calvin, et al.), but fresh thorns, still green (Geier and most interpreters). If the interpretation of the double λְּ ?ξεֹ in the sense of sive-sive should be doubted we might translate: when he is still lively, that is to say, fresh (Chald,, Isaki, Kimchi), it will whirl him away as burning wrath. It is however not advisable to give to the word ρִ ?ιψεֹ ?ϊ the meaning “thorns,” instead of “pots” (the ancient versions, Aben Ezra, Isaki, Luther, and many interpreters). For the inaccuracy of the ancient versions: “before your thorns have grown or ripened into the thorn bush” may be avoided it is true, and the words thus interpreted: “before your thorns were observed, a thorn bush was there (Aben Ezra, J. H. Mich,, Knapp, Kφster), or: before your thorns observe it, whether fresh or dry He will whirl away the thorn bush (Ewald). But although the singular ριψ has a double meaning, yet only the masculine plural form has the meaning of thorns (Ecclesiastes 7:6), the feminine however: pots, with the exception of Amo 4:2, where, however, the idea of thorn prickle has passed over into that of fish hooks. It is entirely inadmissible to refer the word “alive,” in the second clause, directly to men, who would then be characterized as thorns, and of whom, with an allusion to the ruin of the band of Korah, it would be said: as living, as in the midst of life, He will devour them in wrath (Schegg, after the Sept. and Vulgate). However, it might mean, on the other hand: as often as he revives, so often the burning (Hitzig).Stir. IV. [Psalms 58:10. He shall bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.—Alexander: “To bathe his feet (or rather his steps) in the blood of others is to walk where their blood is flowing, to tread the battle-field where they have fallen, to gain a sanguinary triumph over them, or rather it is to partake in the triumph of another.” —C. A. B.] Psalms 58:11. Yes, there is a Divinity judging upon earth.—Elohim is construed with the plural as Genesis 20:13; Joshua 24:19; 2 Samuel 7:23 (unchanged in 1 Chronicles 17:21). Yet this is not in accordance with heathen usage (Ewald) or in the mouth of the heathen, who then would be named with ΰγν (Olsh., Baur) or with a still more direct reference to Psalms 58:1 a, if elim is taken as the proper reading there, in order to characterize the just Hebrew judge who makes the name gods which has been dishonored by unjust judges, a true designation (J. D. Mich.), or as rendering prominent the true judging God (Hupf.) or the real God elevated above all earthly magnates, Ecclesiastes 5:7 (Delitzsch), in contrast to the false and unjust gods of the earth. There is not the slightest trace of these references and contrasts in the entire Psalm. But the pure grammatical construction (Hitzig) and the sense and context afford the general meaning of Divinity. AND ETHICAL1. It is very bad when those persons and magistrates who are appointed to administer justice, instead of pronouncing judgment, are silent and are dumb to the prayer of their subordinates, and the earnest entreaties of their friends not less than to the demands of the law and the voice of duty, honor, and conscience. They then not only misuse the scales of justice entrusted to them, in an irresponsible manner to the injury of their fellow-men; but they are likewise hypocrites and liars, since they violate justice at the very time that they pretend to exercise it, and in this manifest their serpent-like nature. 2. In such conduct there is manifest partly the inherited sinful nature (Genesis 8:21; Psalms 51:6; Job 14:4; Isaiah 48:8), partly there is presented in them their own hardening of themselves, with which they stop the way of the grace as well as the word of God, increase their readiness to sin as well as their scorn of the means of grace, and hasten the approach of a terrible, unavoidable, and sudden ruin. “What makes human ruin so fearful is the fact, that it rests upon original sin, and is rooted in the innermost depths of the heart.… The contrast is not between those men who are corrupt from the womb, and those who are not, but of those in whom the ruin which is common to all has developed itself without hindrance, and those in whom the development has been checked and interrupted” (Hengst.). Respecting the Doctrine of Original sin in the Old Testament, comp. Kleinert in the Stud, and Krit., 1860, Heft. 1. 3. The righteous need not despair. They will no more lose the fruit of God-fearing conduct than of their patient endurance of suffering, Isaiah 3:10 sq. But no less sure is the reward of the wicked by just recompense, which even when it is no longer looked upon and enjoyed as vengeance in the meaning of the Old Testament, yet remains just as joyful and comforting to the righteous, because they recognize therein the government of God, who reveals Himself from heaven as a Judge on earth. AND When we follow our inborn nature we ruin ourselves and others.—If some sinners harden themselves in sin even to obduracy, and fear neither God nor men, they yet will not escape their Judge, and will be ruined, together with their plans, before they have made their preparations.—The ungodly are ruined by God’s judgment, it is true, but of their own guilt, and on account of their impenitence.—He who will not hear when God speaks to him, will be obliged to feel when God judges him.—The righteous may lose their rights, but not their fruit.—We can sin not only by speaking, but likewise by silence, and since we injure our fellow-men, bring upon ourselves a severe reckoning.—If the wicked will not hearken to you, you may testify against them, that others may be warned.—Justice, may be violated, perverted, denied, but righteousness cannot perish, for God Himself leads it through to victory.—Men may despise God’s word and deny God’s existence, yet they cannot do away with God’s word or prevent God’s rule upon earth.—God Himself testifies to His existence by delivering and judging. Starke: God has given us a ready tongue, that we may use it for His glory and the good of our neighbors.—The leaving off from good is soon followed by the commission of evil.—The wickedness and obduracy of many men are so great, that no prayers, warnings, or threatenings will help them.—The blood-thirsty persecutors will be rewarded with blood; for a man will be punished with that with which he transgresses.—If we knew how many thousand devices of the ungodly the Lord brings to naught, before they were fully conceived, and how many arrows He breaks, before they are shot off, we would be astonished at His wisdom, faithfulness, and Omnipotence. Renschel: Sins of carelessness and neglect are likewise great sins.—Frisch: Many, who have thirsted for blood have perished in their own blood.—Tholuck: God does such signs that we may see that, although He has given much power to mortals, yet no one can deprive Him of His sceptre.—Taube: Being dumb to the grace of God, they are dumb to the judgment of God.—The first blessing that a man receives when He has committed his cause to God in prayer, is that he gains another view of the cause in the light of God. [Matt. Henry Let none wonder that these wicked men dare do such things, for wickedness is bred in the bone with them; they brought it into the world with them, they have in their natures a strong inclination to it, they learned it from their wicked parents, and have been trained up in it by a bad education.—Barnes: Men everywhere approve of the just administration of law, even though it consigns the transgressor to prison or to death; and it is a matter of gratification to ail who love law and order when a righteous government is maintained; when wickedness is checked; when justice is administered in a community.—Spurgeon: It is not in your music, but in the sinner’s ear that the cause of failure lies, and it is only the power of God that can remove it.—Every unregenerate man is an abortion. He misses the true form of God-made manhood; he corrupts in the darkness of sin; he never sees or shall see the light of God in purity, in heaven.—Two things will come out clearly after all—there is a God, and there is a reward for the righteous.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Lane. Mod. Egyptians, chap. 20. “The charmer professes to discover, without ocular perception, (but perhaps he does so by a peculiar smell), whether there be any serpents in a house; and if there be, to attract them to him; as the fowler, by the fascination of his voice, allures the bird into his neat.… He assumes an air of mystery, strikes the walls with a short palm stick, whistles, makes a clucking noise with his tongue, and spits upon the ground, and generally says, ‘I adjure you by God, if ye be above, or if ye be below, that ye come forth: I adjure you by the Great Name if ye be obedient, come forth; and if ye be disobedient die! die! die!’—The serpent is generally dislodged by his stick, from a fissure in the wall, or drops from the ceiling of the room.” Thomson, in the Land and the Book, p. 155, says, that “there are some serpents which the charmer cannot subdue; and instances are related in which they have fallen victims to their daring attempts to conquer these deaf and obstinate cockatrices.” Tristram, Nat. History of the Bible, p. 272, refers this clause of the Psalm to the fact that “there are some species of serpent not amenable to the charmer’s art, or that there are individuals of the ordinary cobra which defy all his attempts to soothe them.—C. A. B.] [It is better to translate here fix or fit as the Hebrew γּ ?ψκְ means to tread or trample, in the wine press, the threshing-floor, or the bow in spanning it with the foot, and the treading thus passed over naturally into fixing the arrows by treading the bow, which the A. V. paraphrases by “bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows,” whilst Perowne translates directly shoot and Alexander bend his arrows.—C. A. B.] [This metaphor is thus explained by Tristram, Nat. History of the Bible, p. 295 sq. “The snails of all species in the Holy Land are in the habit, not of hybernating in winter, as they do in our colder climate, but of shutting themselves into their shells and remaining dormant during the dry season. Few snails can remain long in an active state without moisture. In order to prevent the evaporation of the moisture of the body, all those molluscs which have a thin or semi-transparent shell, secrete themselves in dry weather under stones like the shellless snails or slugs, or else among moss, and under leaves, and many species also in the earth. … But notwithstanding the care they take to secrete themselves, the heat often dries them up, either by a long continued drought, or by the sun’s ray’s penetrating to their holes. Thus we find in the Holy Land myriads of snailshells in fissures, still adhering by the calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted, ‘melted away,’ according to the expression of the Psalmist.”—C. A. B.] [Perowne: The general sense of this difficult verse seems to be this: As a sudden whirlwind in the desert sweeps away the thorns which have been gathered for cooking, almost as soon as they have been set on fire, and before the caldron has grown hot (comp. Ecclesiastes 7:6), so shall the wicked, and all their yet incomplete designs, be swept away by the wrath of God.”—C. A. B.] [Hupfeld regards it as a figure of speech indicating the quantity of the blood that has been shed. He compares the corresponding expressions in Psalms 68:23, where the feet are washed in blood; Job 29:6, where the feet, are washed in mills and brooks of oil; Job 20:17, where brooks of honey and milk are mentioned. “It here indicates the greatness of the vengeance; usually of that taken by the party himself, but here since it is not his own act but that of God, and is merely beheld, it can only be a symbolical expression of the internal participation therein, or the satisfied feeling of revenge.” He compares Deuteronomy 32:42 sq.; Is. 46:23 sq., etc.—C. A. B.] Psalms 59 To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him1         Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: Defend me from them that rise up against me. 2    Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, And save me from bloody men. 3    For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: The mighty are gathered against me; Not for my transgressions, nor for my sin, O Lord. 4    They run and prepare themselves without my fault: Awake to help me, and behold. 5    Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, Awake to visit all the heathen: Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah. 6    They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, And go round about the city. 7    Behold they belch out with their mouth: Swords are in their lips: For who, say they, doth hear? 8    But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. 9    Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: For God is my defence. 10    The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies. 11    Slay them not, lest my people forget: Scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield. 12    For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, Let them even be taken in their pride: And for cursing and lying which they speak. 13    Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: And let them know that God ruleth in Jacob Unto the ends of the earth. Selah. 14    And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, And go round about the city. 15    Let them wander up and down for meat. And grudge if they be not satisfied. 16    But I will sing of thy power: Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: For thou hast been my defence And refuge in the day of my trouble. 17    Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: For God is my defence, and the God of my mercy. AND Its Contents and Composition.—The Psalm is artistically arranged, in two parts consisting of two strophes each. In each part the same expressions and thoughts are rhythmically entwined with one another, and repeated with but slight differences. The Title in its first half has the same elements as those of the preceding Psalms. The other portion of the Title refers to the period of the pursuit of Saul, an episode of which is described in 1 Samuel 19:11 sq. For the contents and form of this Psalm do not lead as to limit that dangerous situation in Gibeah to the one night before the flight which was rendered possible by Michal. It is particularly the recurring verses, Psalms 59:6; Psalms 59:14, which describe repeated hostile waylaying, which began with the evening. Over against them the singer puts in Psalms 59:5; Psalms 59:8 the activity of Jehovah, and Psalms 59:9; Psalms 59:17 his personal relation and behaviour towards God in the assurance of victory in faith, with words which evidently refer to one another, and yet are not entirely of the same tenor. At the same time the form of expressions excludes the supposition of a change of place. It is more appropriate therefore to think of this Psalm as an evening song, originating from the experience of those dangerous times at Gibeah, (Delitzsch), than to refer it to the wearisome and dangerous flight of David after his deliverance by Michal, and to find the occasion for the Psalm in this circumstance, and put its composition in the time after this danger was overcome (Hengst.). The universal historical conception of the Divine judgment over all the heathen (Psalms 59:5; Psalms 59:8; comp. Psalms 59:13) shows that it is not necessary to think of foreign enemies; rather this view is decidedly against their description as hungry men (Psalms 59:11; Psalms 59:15), roaming about the city in which the threatened man was then situated with them, (Psalms 59:6; Psalms 59:14), using slanders as weapons (Psalms 59:7; Psalms 59:12). Hupfeld concedes this, and likewise that the enemies appear throughout as personal, and that we have therefore no more to think of a lamentation of the people in the time of the exile, when the poet was in the same city with the heathen (De Wette),than of a siege, whether of Jerusalem by the neighboring nations confederate with the Chaldeans, under the last king of Judah (Ewald), or of some fortress in the time of the Maccabees (Hitzig), or of an attempt by the Samaritans to disturb the rebuilding of the holy city begun under Nehemiah (Kφster, Maurer).—The course of thought is in general the following: The prayer of the Psalmist for deliverance from bloodthirsty enemies (Psalms 59:1-2) is founded upon the mention of their waylayings and his innocence (Psalms 59:3-4), and then takes the form of a prayer for the Divine punishment in a universal historical character (Psalms 59:5). This characteristic again appears in the expressions of the assurance of victory, which follow the description of the disgraceful conduct of the enemies (Psalms 59:6-7). This assurance lies in the position and actions of God as well as of His threatened servant, (Psalms 59:8-9). This characteristic becomes still more definite in the prayer which results from this confidence in the gracious operations of God, which prayer is that a moral effect may be produced upon his people through their perception of the Divine judgment upon lying enemies (Psalms 59:10-13), whose disgraceful conduct is again brought forward (Psalms 59:14-15), which is then connected with the very different behaviour of the poet, who is assured of his deliverance by the grace of God, and testifies his thankfulness for it. Str. I. [Psalms 59:4. Run and set themselves.—Perowne: “The words are military terms: for the first, see Psalms 18:29, (according to one interpretation), Job 15:26; Job 16:14; the other denotes the marshaling in order, the array of troops, with a view to the execution of a determined plan. Or as Hengst. explains, a metaphor borrowed from an attacking host, which, getting a firm footing on the walls of a beleaguered city, is ready to rush in over them, or through them, as already broken, into the city.”—Awake, to meet me, and see.—Delitzsch: David is beset by such a band of assassins, as one besieged, sighs for relief, and calls upon Jehovah, who, as if asleep, seems as if He would abandon him. He calls upon Him with that bold appeal, to awake to meet him, that is to say, to push on to him with His help as an army of relief, and convince Himself in person of the extreme danger in which. His protege was involved.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 59:5. And Thou, Jehovah, Elohim, Sabaoth, God of Israel.—Instead of Jehovah, Sabaoth, God of Israel (2 Samuel 7:27), Elohim is inserted here in addition, which cannot be connected with the Jehovah which precedes even here, as Genesis 2:5 sq.; Exodus 9:30; Jonah 4:6, and as we then would have to supply Elohe=God of hosts. But still less as Jehovah=God, that is to say, God Jehovah, are we to translate here: God Sabaoth (Luther), as if Sabaoth had already become a proper name (Gesenius, Olshausen), as after the Sept., the New Testament and the Church; but Elohim is used here as Psalms 80:7; Psalms 80:14; Psalms 84:8, in the same connection as Jehovah Sabaoth, Psalms 24:10; Psalms 84:3, and instead of this because Jehovah had already been mentioned, and Elohim in this Psalm is treated as a proper name. Thus there is no improper use of the term (Hupfeld), but a characteristic heaping up of names of God, the use of which in the Holy Scriptures is no more to be regarded as usual formulas and a drawling use of titles, than we are to suppose a poetical figure in connection with the judgment of the world.—To visit all the heathen.—Since βּ ?ειִ ?ν is not to be changed into βּ ?εִ ?ιν=proud (Paul.), or to be referred to the final judgment (Kimchi, Rosenm.), so no more is the expression which is taken out of all limitations by the “all,” to be referred to those heathen among whom the threatened Psalmist is said to have been (De Wette, Ewald, Olshausen, Hitzig), or to be explained improperly of those Israelites which resembled them in disposition (Isaki, Ruding., Venema, et al.), but as these enemies are described directly as faithless with respect to iniquity, it is to be understood as comprehensive of all enemies of the kingdom of God, domestic and foreign (Chald., Aben Ezra, Geier, J. H. Mich., Delitzsch). Str. II. [Psalms 59:6. They return at evening, howl like the dog and go about the city.—This is the refrain of the Psalm (vide Psalms 59:14). Ho compares his enemies to those half-wild dogs which are the scavengers of the cities of the East. They prowl about the streets at night, hunting for offal, and hesitate not to prey upon the dead and even the feeble and helpless, comp. Psalms 22:16; 1 Kings 14:11; 2 Kings 9:36.Psalms 59:7. They pour out, etc.—Alexander: “The first verb is expressive of a constant flow or gush. See above on Psalms 19:2. What it is that they thus pour out, although not expressed, may be readily gathered from the context, namely, slanders and reproaches. The swords in their lips, are significant of sharp and cutting speeches, see Psalms 55:21, and comp. Psalms 52:3.”—C. A. B.]—Who hears it?—This question may either be regarded as the complaint of the singer (Rosenm., Hengstenberg, [Alexander]), or the fancy of the wicked (Syriac, Chald., Symm., Jerome, Isaki, et al.). [Psalms 59:8. But Thou, Jehovah, dost laugh at them.—Whilst they think to fall upon their victim unexpectedly, there being no one to know of their purposes and to warn the singer of them—yet Jehovah knows—Jehovah sees them prowling in the night, and Jehovah laughs at their folly, and holds all the heathen in derision who revolt and plot against His anointed, comp. Psalms 2:4.—C. A. B.] Psalms 59:9. My strength, Thee will I regard.—Instead of the here unmeaning ςֻ ?ζִּ ?εֹ, we are to read with the ancient versions and some codd.: ςֻ ?ζִּ ?ι, as a vocative. For the manifold attempts to explain the suffix of the third person have all been grammatical and syntactical vexations. Yet it is unnecessary to make any further changes in the reading in order to make this verse entirely like Psalms 59:17 (Venema, Olshausen, Baur, et al.). Str. III. Psalms 59:10. My God will come to meet me with His grace.—This reading is attested by the ancient versions, and Augustine uses it in proof of his doctrine of prevenient grace. It cannot be pushed aside in favor of the reading preferred by most interpreters after the Chald. and the Rabbins (which gives the sense: God of my grace=my God of grace, that is to say: my gracious God), although that reading is undoubted in Psalms 59:17.[Psalms 59:11. Make them wander, that is, lead them astray, so that they will fail of their object. This verb is used of Cain, Genesis 4:12, and of Israel in the wilderness, Numbers 32:13; vide Psalms 59:15, where their disappointment is expressed. Thus they would afford a better evidence that Jehovah was his protector than if they should die a sudden death.—Our shield.—Comp. Psalms 3:3; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 28:6. Psalms 59:12. The word of their lips (is) the sin of their mouth (Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Moll, et al.), that is to say, every word they speak is a sin. Ewald, in order to avoid this tautology, makes the clauses parallel, thus: the sin of their mouth, the word of their lips—O let them be taken, etc. But the above rendering is more appropriate. Psalms 59:13. Consume them.—Perowne: “This does not contradict the previous imprecation. He would have his enemies destroyed at last, but only after they had been, by a protracted, miserable existence, a warning to men of God’s righteous severity.”—Unto the ends of the earth.—Perowne: “This may mean that God, sitting in Jacob, having there His throne, exercises thence a universal dominion. But, according to the accent, these words should rather be connected with the words: ‘that men may know.’ So Calvin: ‘David indicates a singular kind of punishment, one the fame of which would reach even the most distant nations.’ And so Hengstenberg, who refers to David’s words to Goliath, 1 Samuel 17:46 : ‘And all the earth shall know that there is a God in Israel.’ ”—C. A. B.] Str. IV. Psalms 59:15. They wander about in order to devour, if they are not satisfied, they pass the night.—It is possible, by a slight change of the vowel points, to translate: if they are not satisfied they growl (Septuagint, Vulgate, Jerome, Luther, Geier, et al.). The present reading=they pass the night, is manifestly not to be explained of continued wandering about in search of food during the night (Isaki, Rosenm.), but of a night without the fruits of the day’s labor (Hupfeld), full of disquiet and pain from unsatisfied hunger, in contrast to the promise given to the pious, Proverbs 19:23 (Calvin, J. H. Mich., Hengstenberg, et al.), or to a remaining at the place and watching greedily for their food. It is true ΰִ ?νμֹ ?ΰ may be a particle of affirmation=truly (Ewald, Hitzig, Kφster, Maurer); but the further explanation: they will satisfy themselves and remain (dead in the place) (Ewald), or: they will fight long enough and rest (Hitzig), is objectionable. [Psalms 59:16. In the morning.—This is in evident contrast to the evening, in Psalms 59:14. The enemies remain like hungry dogs unsatisfied in the streets, the Psalmist is delivered from their hands and praises God, his shield and defence, in the morning.—C. A. B.] Psalms 59:17. To thee will I harp.—Here there is a play upon words, ΰֲ ?ζַ ?ξֵּ ?ψָ ?δ with ΰֶ ?ωְׁ ?ξֹ ?ψָ ?δ, Psalms 59:9. To God is to be directed both things that the Psalmist has vowed, his playing upon the harp and his waiting (Psalms 130:6), or better: his attention (2 Samuel 11:16) regarding, 1 Sam. 26:75. AND ETHICAL1. God exalts His refugees in the midst of their enemies to such a position and condition of spirit, that they can lie down to sleep quietly by night in the feeling of security under Divine protection, whilst their adversaries, like a pack of hungry dogs, howl about without attaining their ends. But as this security does not arise from a proud satisfaction with themselves, but, whilst they protest their own innocence against the slanders of wicked opponents, originates only from faith in God’s grace, it does not produce any idle expectation and self-indulgence, but a comforted and joyous giving over of themselves to God in constant observance of His providence and renewed thankfulness for His help. 2. Although God, in accordance with His nature and actions, needs not to be summoned or aroused, in order to behold what transpires on earth, and to interfere for the deliverance of the pious and the punishment of the ungodly, to make an end of the no less shameful than dangerous conduct of the faithless, yet this is a strong support to the oppressed and persecuted, as well as a natural expression of their needs, and an involuntary testimony of their faith in the righteous government of the Almighty, and the condescending goodness of the faithful God of the covenant. 3. The closer the history of a man’s life is entwined in the history of the kingdom of God, the stronger is the impression made upon him, that his troubles as well as his deliverance have a universal significance transcending any personal references. In accordance with this on the one side is the pressure for a corresponding declaration of the judicial activity of God, that it may be experienced in the whole earth that the God of Israel is the only true God (1 Samuel 17:46); on the other side, the expression of satisfaction in the execution of the Divine judgments even to the extent of the annihilation of the enemies, which in the Old Testament not unfrequently advances to a personal desire of revenge. AND It is well for those who not only look at their need, but at the same time behold and trust in the true helper in need.—All the mighty ones of earth cannot cast you down, if God the Almighty will remain your strength and exalt you.—If thou canst oppose thine innocence to the wickedness of thine enemies, thou mayst confidently rely upon God’s strength against their superiority over you.—God sees very well how it fares with you, and knows likewise what He will do; but He would likewise be prayed to for His assistance.—When the enemies’ word has wounded your heart like swords, let God’s word be your balsam.—You may trust the power of the Almighty Lord of Hosts, the willingness of the faithful and gracious God of Israel to deliver and to judge.—The punishments of God are not only for the ruin of the faithless, but likewise for the warning of believers. Calvin: It is the peculiar function of God not only to tame the few, but to draw the whole world to punishment for their shameful deeds. Starke: When the ungodly suppose that they have the righteous already in their hands, God knows how to open a way of deliverance.—There is a visitation of grace and a visitation of wrath; he who would escape the latter, must humble himself in order to be capable of the former.—Were it not for the almighty protection of God, Satan and the world would long since have devoured the Church. Frisch: There are two kinds of innocence, one before God, the other before men.—Tholuck: Although heaven is high, yet God’s ear reaches down to the earth.—God will come a thousand miles with His grace to meet him who takes but a single step towards God.—Taube: Power and grace are the two pillars of our help. The power of God without His grace is fearful, as the judgment over the enemies testifies; His grace without power would afford no comfort or help to the miserable. [Matt. Henry: Let not those expect to find mercy who never showed mercy, for such are wicked transgressors.—When we think God’s judgments come slowly upon sinners, we must conclude that God has wise and holy ends in the gradual proceedings of His wrath.—As we must direct our prayers to God, so to Him we must direct our praises and must look up, making melody to the Lord.—Barnes: Whatever may have been the means of our rescue, it is to be traced to the interposition of God.—Spurgeon: To a brave man the danger causes little distress of mind, compared with the injustice to which he is subjected.—It is the mark of thoughtful prayer, that the titles which are in it applied to God are appropriate, and are, as it were, congruous to the matter, and fitted to add force to the argument.—How wrong is that state of mind which hates to hear of the punishment of the wicked!—How frequently have we met with preventing mercy—the supply prepared before the need occurred—the refuge built before the foreseeing grace of heaven has projected itself, and forestalled every difficulty.—Sweet is the music of experience, but it is all for God; there is not even a stray note for man, for self, or for human helpers.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “The nations, to an Israelite, would be the embodiment of all that opposed itself to God; and in appealing to God to punish them, he would, in fact, be appealing to Him to punish all evil wherever manifested. The special judgment would follow from the universal, and be an instance of it. Even for the vindication of his personal innocence, we find our Psalmist (Psalms 7:6-8) calling upon God to assemble all nations to His judgment-seat. Such expressions seem to us exaggerated, partly because of the comparative coldness of the western mind, and partly because it is very difficult for us to conceive of the feelings of the true Israelite; to whom the whole outer heathen world was a world lying under the heavy wrath of God, and to whom the greater part of Israel itself seemed corrupt and apostate.”—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: This description of the malicious vigilance of Saul’s messengers, thirsting for David’s blood (see 1 Samuel 19:11; 1 Samuel 19:15; 1 Samuel 19:20-21), is very applicable to the conduct of the enemies of Christ, who are compared in the Paschal Psalm to dogs thirsting for blood (see Psalms 22:16; Psalms 22:20), especially on the eve of His crucifixion. Then they went about the city of Jerusalem, like the howling and prowling dogs of the evening, in some Eastern cities. The Jews compared the Gentiles to dogs (see Matthew 15:27); but they themselves were dogs, in their blood-thirsty cruelty and foul uncleanness, comp. Philippians 3:2.”—C. A. B.] [The A. V. prevent is used here in the antiquated sense of going before, anticipating.—C. A. B.] Psalms 60 To the chief Musician upon Shushan-eduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aram naharaim and with Aram-zobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand1         O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, Thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again. 2    Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. 3    Thou hast showed thy people hard things: Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. 4    Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. 5    That thy beloved may be delivered; Save with thy right hand, and hear me. 6    God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, And mete out the valley of Succoth. 7    Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; 8    Moab is my washpot; Over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me. 9    Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? 10    Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? And thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies? 11    Give us help from trouble: For vain is the help of man. 12    Through God we shall do valiantly: For he it is that shall tread down our enemies. AND Its Contents and Composition.—For the first part of the Title comp. Intro., § 12, No. 13, § 8, No. 4. The second part refers us to the time of the wars of David with the Ammonites and their Aramaic confederates, repeated and carried on with variable success. Among these was the war with the king of Zoba, who, according to 2 Samuel 10:16, extended his rule across the Euphrates, but seems to have had his capital between the Orontes and the Euphrates northeast of Damascus. When now here the Aram of both streams, that is to say, Mesopotamia, is mentioned together with Aram Zoba and Edom, whilst 2 Samuel 8, besides these last two, mentions Damascus, there is no actual contradiction but differences in relation which may be used with great justice in favor as well as against the authenticity of the title and its derivation from an older and more complete historical source, especially as here the overthrow of Edom in the vale of Salt which is destitute of vegetation, and is about ten miles wide at the southern extremity of the dead sea (Robin. Bib. Researches, II., 109), is referred back to Joab, David’s general, whilst 2 Samuel 8 refers to David himself, and 1 Chronicles 18, 12 to Abishai, the brother of Joab, 2 Samuel 10:10. Instead of the number 12,000 slain mentioned here, these two passages have 18,000. The composition of the Psalm has been placed more correctly in the time before the battle in the valley of salt (Delitzsch), than afterwards (Hengst.), because it is necessary to suppose that the Edomites had fallen upon the land, laying it waste from the south when David had marched against his powerful enemies in the North and victoriously forced them back, but sent off his general Joab against the Edomites. To this laying waste the land, the lamentation which begins the Psalm refers (Psalms 60:1-3). There is then a reference to Divine incitement (Psalms 60:4) which introduces the prayer for Divine help (Psalms 60:5), which passes over into the appropriation of a Divine oracle promising victory (Psalms 60:6-8). Upon this is based the renewed petition, intensified by its inconsistency with the present situation (Psalms 60:9-10) into pressing supplication for Divine assistance (Psalms 60:11-12). Psalms 44 of the sons of Korah, in which Psalms 60:9 corresponds with Psalms 60:10 of this Psalm, would then have been composed subsequently to this Psalm of David. The latter part of our Psalm from Psalms 60:5 is repeated in not so good a form in Psalms 108 This relation is not favorable to the many hypotheses differing exceedingly from one another, which refer this Psalm to events of the Maccabean times (Rudinger, Hesse, Olsh., Hitzig), or to the times after the exile (Ewald, Kφster, Maurer). Even the supposition that the promise in the oracle of God expresses the idea of the restoration of the unity of the empire which is usual in the prophets, which presupposes the division and the experience of its sad consequence (Hupfeld), cannot be established by the contents or the expressions of this oracle. As for the expression “to teach,” there is nothing to decide whether it designates the Psalm as designed for the instruction of posterity (most interpreters), or whether it refers particularly to the design of bringing the unmanageable tribes to recognize the Divine choice of David by teaching them that his government was pleasing to God (Calvin), or whether it states directly its purpose of being committed to memory by the people on account of its national significance as Deuteronomy 31:19 (Hengst.), or whether it is to be explained by 2 Samuel 1:18, and accordingly is to be regarded as a song of military exercise, which was to be sung in connection with shooting with the bow (Delitzsch). Str. I., Ver 1. Hast broken us.—This Hebrew word is used by David, 2 Samuel 5:20, as a suitable term for the overthrow of the Philistines in the sense of breaking through, as frequently elsewhere, e. g. Psalms 80:12; Psalms 89:40, of breaking through a wall and figuratively, e.g. Psalms 106:29; Exodus 19:22, of the crushing blows of God. We are not then obliged to think here of the tearing asunder of the tribes of Israel, as Judges 21:15.—Give us restoration again.—[Thus Moll, who finds the object in the verb ϊְּ ?ωׁ ?εֹ ?αֵ ?α, denoting to give restoration or refreshment. Hupfeld would supply the object from the preceding verb, ‘appease Thine anger towards us.’ He refers to the phrase δωׁ ?ιαΰκָ let go, and appease anger, and to Isaiah 12:1. With μָ ?πεּ, the dat. comm., it is thus equivalent to: be gracious to us again, turn to us Thy grace again. Others find the object understood in favor: restore to us (Thy favor or salvation). Perowne, following Ewald, translates: restore us again, comp. Isaiah 58:12.—C. A. B.] Psalms 60:2. The figures of this verse are derived from the earthquake shaking the whole land and making rents in it as breaches in a tottering building (Isaiah 30:13, &c.). Psalms 60:3. Wine to intoxication.—This is literally wine, which is intoxication. It is the gift of God from the cup of wrath (Isaiah 51:17 sq.), from the hand of God (Psalms 75:9). It is a figure, not of the total passionateness, folly and infatuation of the brotherly hatred raging in their bowels which has plunged the people into ruin as a punishment (Hupf.), but of the condition at once of internal confusion of spirit (Geier, et al.) and of helpless bodily weakness (Hengst.), Isaiah 19:14; Job 12:25, of the senseless condition in which man is unable to advise or help himself, and is in danger of falling (Hitzig), and indeed under the point of view of a Divine punishment. Psalms 60:4. To be lifted up because of truth.—This verse makes the transition from lamentation to prayer, even if the last member of the verse should be translated: flee before the bow (the ancient versions, Ewald, Hitzig, Hupfeld). This likewise allows the reference to a Divine benefit, rendering the deliverance of the people possible. It is more appropriate to derive the reflexive δϊּ ?περρ (not to speak of. the doubtful passage, Zechariah 9:16), here, on account of its connection with βֵ ?ρ from the same root. πָ ?ρρ= to lift up (Numbers 21:8) rather than from πεּ ?ρ=to flee, especially as χωׁ ?θ in the meaning: truth is established by Proverbs 22:21 (Chald.). On the other hand, the supposition that we are here to read χωϊ=bow, or that instead of this word, there is here an incorrect Aramaic spelling, is somewhat arbitrary. The interpretation that ξִ ?τְּ ?πֵ ?ι=with respect to, with regard to (Baur), to designate the occasion and the motive=because of, is established by passages like Deuteronomy 28:20; Nehemiah 5:15 (Delitzsch). In this state of the case, the “truth” is not the true religion or the righteousness of the cause (De Wette), for which God has given the signal to arise in war (Hitzig, Roster, Maurer), but the truth and trustworthiness of the banner which is according to the context, the promise which God has spoken in His holiness. Str. II., Psalms 60:6 sq. Has spoken in His holiness—This is not in His sanctuary, or: swearing by His holiness, Psalms 89:36; Amos 4:2. It is most appropriate to understand this promise, which refers to the duration of the possession of the promised land and the supremacy over neighboring nations, not of a special oracle given through the Urim and Thummim of the high-priest, or the answer just sought (J. D. Mich., Kφster), nor to limit it to the promise given to David, 2 Samuel 7:9 sq., and as a figurative reproduction of the same (Delitzsch), but to regard it as a free summary of the ancient (Hengst.) prophecies, especially those contained in the Pentateuch (Hengst.). For the contents and form of the following words are opposed to the supposition of a direct address of God. The subject of the following predicates can only be either personified Israel (De Wette, et al.) or their king. If we more naturally think of the latter, there is no reason at all for the supposition, that God speaks in His character as ruler and in poetic anthropomorphic forms (Kφster, Olsh., Hupfeld, Hitzig). For if David has appropriated these promises to himself as king and at the same time speaks as the author of this Psalm in the first person, all objections are removed such as arise from the absence of a conjunction which would indicate a consequence of the divine oracle.—At first ancient or renowned places (Olsh.) are mentioned, which appear significantly in the history of Jacob (Hengst.), Shechem on the west of the Jordan (Joshua 13:27), the valley of Succoth on the east of the Jordan (Genesis 33:17; Judges 8:4), not far from the Jabbok in the tribe of Gad, which latter, together with the tribe of Reuben, comprehended the here mentioned Gilead and Manasseh (Psalms 60:7). Then the two chief tribes Ephraim and Judah are mentioned together with closer designation as the helmet and the sceptre (Genesis 49:10; Numbers 21:28). Finally three hostile, renowned and dangerous neighboring nations come into consideration (Psalms 60:8). Moab is said not, as it were, to follow the king as a servant with the wash-basin, but as to be used by him as such, in order to wash his face white, that is, to gain for himself glory and renown by victory over him. Edom is designated as entirely humbled and disgraced by the figure of a shameful contact with the shoe. Philistia is described as conquered by the mention, not as it were of a shout of joy in homage (De Wette, Hengst., Hitzig), but either of the cry of murder, Isaiah 15:4 (Delitzsch), of wailing outcry (Ewald), or of the cry of the warrior upon the battle-field and of vengeance. For the previous, for the most part false, interpretations of the symbol of the wash-basin and shoe, see the Excursus of J. G. Wetzstein in Delitzsch Comm. Str. III., Psalms 60:9. Strong city.—This is distinguished by the parallel member of the verse as the capital of the Idumeans (2 Kings 14:7), namely ρֶ ?μַ ?ς that is to say, rock, thus the renowned Petra, comp. Genesis 36:42; Jeremiah 49:16; Obadiah 1:3; Psalms 108:10. Psalms 60:10. Hast not Thou, O God, cast us off? and marchedst not out, O God, in our armies?—This is not an answer to the preceding question: Art Thou not the one who (most interpreters), but must be regarded as a lamentation on account of the absence of the relative and the parallels in Psalms 60:1 and Psalms 44:10, which then is presupposed and constitutes the foundation of the following prayer (Hupfeld, Delitzsch). [Psalms 60:11. Afford us deliverance from the adversary.—The prayer follows the lamentation seeking help in God. Israel implores deliverance from above, and receives it. Delitzsch: “Israel conquers in God, and God, who is in Israel, will deservedly trample Edom under foot through Israel.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. There are sad times to the congregation of God in the world, in which they are obliged to experience hard, yes terrible things, since they not only are surrounded on all sides by enemies, which are greedy to spy out their nakedness and select for falling upon them the hour in which they feel themselves shattered, tired and weakened by previous struggles, but they likewise must confess that in all this they yet only receive and experience what God gives and does. 2. But if it really happens that the congregation bows under the hand of God when He humiliates and chastises them, it then gains again directly on the one side the comforting remembrance of God’s grace previously shown to them in many times and in many ways, whereby it has been placed in a peculiar relation to Him, and has gained a special position in the world, on the other side the refreshing confidence of new manifestations of grace in order that they may assert this position and carry out the tasks imposed upon them. 3. This remembrance, as well as this confidence, grows up in the heart only from faith in the truth of that which God in His holiness has spoken, and the congregation directs itself to the proclamation of the Divine promises in its. sufferings, and rises again from its defeats. It learns to look to the right hand of God and the banner lifted up and sustained by it, and it fights for the cause in which it suffers, with the glad courage of the certainty of victory through that assistance of God which renders all human help of no avail and all human hostility without danger to those who fear God and are likewise the beloved of God, and have been lifted above the present misfortunes by the fact that they have been driven by them to greater depths of faith and prayer. AND Wars are for nations what earthquakes are for their lands; God sometimes visits men with both, and then likewise strikes the congregation with hard blows and shakes them; but He heals again the breaches and rents which arise thereby.—He who fears God is loved by God; he who trusts God will be helped by God.—It. is not necessary that God should march out with armies in order that He may conquer the whole world.—Earthly success is fleeting, human help vain, trust in God alone is right.—God may strike hard and painfully even by human hands; but He heals again with His hand those among them who humble themselves.—There is but one banner upon which victory is always perched; what follows from this with reference to our actions?—He who relies upon the truth of God’s word and upon the power of God’s hand will not lose hope.—The beaten not only find refuge with God, but likewise the healing of their wounds, power for new conflicts, and assistance for final victory.—In God the fallen rise up, and in God the weak become strong; yet faith in the truth of His word is requisite. Whither are you driven by your every misfortune? to God and His word? to penitence, to faith, to prayer? or whither else? Calvin: When God lifts us on high by His bounties, He must yet always be sought in prayer modestly and humbly that He may carry on His work. Starke: Men do not truly understand the good things which God bestows upon them until they are deprived of them.—The vile drink of security is followed by the intoxicating cup of wrath and the punishments of God with all certainty; therefore flee from the former if you would not taste the latter.—God gives the victory and divides the lands to whom He will.—That is a fine campaign when God gives commands and He is the general.—The best advice in all our affairs is to lay them plainly before God and crave His assistance without, prescribing to Him the kind and manner of help. Renschel: God chastises us on account of our sins, that we may not be condemned with the world.—Guenther: Lord, preserve us from Thy fiery wrath in war! But if it must flame up, give us warriors which can pray and Thy banner to those who fear Thee.—Diedrich: If only we are the true confessors, we must obtain the victory, although it may be through many humiliations. [Matt. Henry: “Whatever our trouble is, and whoever are the instruments of it, we must own the hand of God, His righteous-hand, in it.—Our calamities serve as foils to our joys.—A lively faith in the promise will assure us, not only that the God of peace shall shortly tread Satan under our feet, but that it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.—Words-worth: Christ has given to His soldiers a banner—the banner of the Cross; and at their baptism they are pledged to fight valiantly under it against sin, the world, and the devil.—Perowne: When men will drink presumptuously of the cup of their wickedness, God forces it, as it were, into their hands, till they have drained the very dregs as the cup of His wrath.—Spurgeon: The bravest men are usually entrusted with the banner, and it is certain that those who fear God most have less fear of man than any others.—To publish the gospel is a sacred duty; to be ashamed of it a deadly sin.—Faith divides the spoil; she is sure of what God has promised, and enters at once into possession.—From God all power proceeds, and all we do well is done by Divine operation; but still we, as soldiers of the great King, are to fight, and to fight valiantly too.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Mich. justly remarks: “David as king, Joab as commander-in-chief, Abishai as sent by his brother on this particular expedition, defeated the enemy.” The discrepancy in numbers may have arisen from a mistake of the copyist, or rather is due to the fact, that there is here a reference to a single engagement, whilst the history perhaps states the losses of the campaign.—C. A. B.] Psalms 61 To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David1         Hear my cry, O God; Attend unto my prayer. 2    From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 3    For thou hast been a shelter for me, And a strong tower from the enemy. 4    I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah. 5    For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. 6    Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: And his years as many generations. 7    He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. 8    So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, That I may daily perform my vows. AND Its Contents and Composition—The Psalmist calls from afar for deliverance to God (Psalms 61:1-2), who has previously afforded it to him (Psalms 61:3), and he prays for shelter and protection in God’s tent (Psalms 61:4), on the ground of previous special tokens of grace (Psalms 61:5). Upon this is based the prayer for special blessings for the king (Psalms 61:6-7), for which the Psalmist will offer without cessation the thanksgiving he has vowed (Psalms 61:8). Although the king is referred o in the third person, this does not necessarily show that he and the Psalmist are two different persons. The objection that such a petition in he mouth of the speaker would be immodest, amounts to nothing, when we consider that the contents of the prayer refer to the eternal royal position before God’s face and the worthy fulfilment of this position as well as enduring establishment in it by Divine blessing. The king thus praying gives his petition naturally and involuntarily a more objective form, and if we hold fast to its composition by David, and accordingly refer Psalms 61:5 to the special promise, 2 Samuel 7, it has likewise a prophetic character. It is unnecessary, therefore, to put this verse into the mouth of a chorus (Paulus), which Psalms 61:2 would not allow, or to understand this of the dynasty of David (Hengstenberg), or the rule of the Messiah (many of the older interpreters after the Chald.), which would be against the wording and context. It thus resembles Psalms 21 Since now the expression: to be a guest in the tent of God, is entirely in David’s style (Psalms 15), and the “end of the earth” can be satisfactorily explained, there is no reason to give up the statement of the title, and think of a prophet under King Josiah and his successors at the time of the exile at Babylon (Ewald), or of a priest in a Jewish colony living among the heathen in the time of the Seleucidζ (Hitzig), or a poet living in a distant land, perhaps in banishment (Hupfeld), or indeed of King Cyrus (Bφttcher). Str. I. Psalms 61:2. From the end of the earth.—This is an expression for the greatest distance from the dwelling of God, as the place of protection, help and salvation, not indeed mathematically, but in accordance with the feelings, but yet on a geographical foundation in accordance with the ideas of the Israelites, not in contrast to heaven and its centre=out from the earth (Luther), or out of the uttermost depths of the earth (Clauss), but in contrast to Zion as the middle of the earth (Psalms 74:12; Ezekiel 5:5), and in connection with the usage of the language, in accordance with which the land to the east of the Jordan did not belong to the land of Canaan in the strictest sense (Numbers 32:29 sq.), and a foreign land included generally the idea of banishment from the face of God (Psalms 42). We have therefore properly to think of the abode of David in the district of Gilead at the time of his flight before Absalom, and the translation: from the end of the land , is to be rejected.—In the covering of my heart.—[This word is used of covering with a garment, of clothing the valleys with corn, Ps. 65:14, etc. Thus by a natural metaphor of clothing the mind or soul, covering it over, enveloping it, clouding it with care, anxiety, trouble, Psalms 102:1; Isaiah 57:16.—Upon a rock, too high for me.—A rock which was inaccessible to him by his own power, and hence still more inaccessible to his enemies. The high rock is a usual figure of security, comp. Psalms 27:5. Psalms 61:3. A strong tower before the face of the enemy.—Comp. Judges 9:51; Proverbs 18:10. This is parallel with the high rock, both of which afford a sure refuge before the enemy. They are alike inaccessible to him.—C. A. B.] [Str. II. Psalms 61:4. Let me be a guest.—Compare Psalms 15:1; Psalms 27:4.—In Thy tent.—Perowne: “The expression is figurative, no doubt, but would hardly have been employed after the Temple was built, and hence it is almost certain that the Psalm belongs to the time of David.”—Forever—Hupfeld: “The plural ςεֹ ?μָ ?ξιν is not used with reference to the double eternity of this and the future life, as the Rabbins, but instead of the singular ςεμָ ?ν, usually ςεֹ ?μָ ?νεָ ?ςֶ ?γ.” The reference is entirely personal.—Let me find refuge in the shelter of Thy wings.—Comp. Psalms 17:8; Psalms 57:1. Perowne thinks the reference here is evidently to the outstretched wings of the cherubim, but it is better to think of the more simple figure of the hen, or eagle, as in the other passages. Psalms 61:5. The possession of those that fear Thy name.—Perowne: “Primarily this would be the land of Canaan, and then it would include all blessings, temporal and spiritual, which were in fact implied and comprised in the possession of the land.—C. A. B.] [Str. III. Psalms 61:6-7. Add days to the days of the king! (May) his years (be) as generation and generation. May he sit (enthroned) before God’s face, appoint grace and truth that they may guard him.—The king David here prays that he as the anointed of Jehovah may have a long life, seeing one generation after another, that he may sit on his throne enjoying the sunshine of God’s countenance, and that God’s grace and truth may be the appointed guards, to stand at the side of his throne, to protect him from his enemies and rebellious subjects. David, realizing that he is the anointed of the Lord, does not always distinguish between himself and the Messianic dynasty, so that the latter thought fills up as it were the background of his consciousness. The translation of the A. V., Perowne, Alexander, et al. of the verbs as futures of confident expectation, is not so good, The translation given above is essentially that of Hupfeld and Moll.—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. It is worse to be separated from the house of God than it is to be far from home. When the pious experience both painfully, they long above all in hope of return to the former. But where ever we may be on earth, we can call upon God and implore in prayer, with the assurance of faith, the consolation of the Divine promises and the assistance of Divine help in order to a deliverance unattainable by our own power. 2. The faith of an afflicted man finds great strength in looking at previous exhibitions of Divine help in words and deeds, and arises on this foundation not unfrequently to the boldest hopes of faith, especially to the desire for a communion with God, which reaches from time into eternity, and to the prayer for the blessings necessary thereto. For the possession of the promised land secured to those who fear God and allotted to them, forms the foundation, the sweet pledge, the symbolical type of the inheritance involved in it. AND Fresh hopes spring forth from experiences of grace, and when prayer is heard anew, new vows are entwined with the thanksgivings to which we have been accustomed of old.—A long life is a blessing only when grace and truth are its guardians.—Communion with God is best strengthened by prefering to be a guest in the house of God.—Our welfare is best provided for when we are provided with the good things of the house of God.—God sees us and hears us everywhere, but He prefers to see us in His house and in His ways.—Children of God need to pray likewise for temporal welfare and earthly good things, but their special desire is for communion with their God.—Communion with God is spiritually attained through grace and faith in the heart; it presents itself as intercourse with God in prayer and the service of God; it is accomplished as an eternal sitting on a throne before God’s face with submission to God’s grace and truth—He who would gain abiding blessings, must not only flee to God’s protection, but must keep himself at the house of God and allow himself to be led in his calling by God’s grace and truth.—It is likewise the king’s honor and surest gain to show himself to be a servant of God.Starke: God is to us all things and will be all by faith.—God is more inclined to hear our prayers than we are to send them up to Him.—The reward which the God-fearing are to receive, is not based on their own merits, but God’s gracious promises. Frisch: To lift up holy hands is everywhere good and nowhere fruitless.—Franke: So long as we have an earthly mind, we have a heart unfaithful to God.—Arndt: We are so much indebted to God that we should pay something daily.—Tholuck The inheritance of those who fear God is His rich grace.—Taube: Truly it is equally far from earth to heaven in all places, and God is everywhere near those who call upon Him. [Matt. Henry: That which separates us from our other comforts, should drive us so much nearer to God, the fountain of all comfort.—Weeping must quicken praying, and not deaden it.—We need not desire to be better secured than under the protection of God’s mercy and truth.—Spurgeon: Tribulation brings us to God, and brings God to us. Faith’s greatest triumphs are achieved in her heaviest trials.—How infinitely higher than we are is the salvation of God We are low and grovelling, but it towers like some tall cliff far above us.—Experience is the nurse of faith. From the past we gather arguments for present confidence.—He who communes with God is always at home.—There should be a parallel between our supplications and our thanksgivings. We ought not to leap in prayer, and limp in praise.—C. A. B.] Psalms 62 To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David         Truly my soul waiteth upon God: From him cometh my salvation. 2    He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved. 3    How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. 4    They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. 5    My soul, wait thou only upon God; For my expectation is from him. 6    He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defence; I shall not be moved. 7    In God is my salvation and my glory: The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 8    Trust in him at all times; ye people, Pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. 9    Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. 10    Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.11    God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; That power belongeth unto God. 12    Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: For thou renderest to every man according to his work. AND Its Contents and Composition.—For the Title comp. Introd. § 12, No. 8. There are no historical statements or decisive references to known events in the life of David; yet the relationships with Psalms 39 on the one side, and with Psalms 4 on the other, point to the time of his persecution by Absalom. This relationship with Psalms 39 makes it advisable to translate the characteristic ΰַ ?κְ which is repeated [Psalms 62:1-2; Psalms 62:4-6; Psalms 62:9] not by: yea, surely (Flamin., Geier, et al.) but by: only (Kimchi, et al.) In the former sense the subjective side of the assertion is emphasized, in the latter more the objective side. In both cases it bears the emphasis of reliability, whilst the Hebrew word embraces both sides, and the individual passages demand now more this, then more that reference in the narrower sense; but in order to allow the designed repetition of the same word to be clearly manifest in the translation, it is better to retain the translation given above [only] the more as this is appropriate throughout. For the assertion, that only with God is the soul entirely quieted (Psalms 62:1), because God only is the rock (Psalms 62:2), upon which, when the singer is established, he can designate as vain (Psalms 62:3), the attacks of those, who only desire to cast him down from his high place (Psalms 62:4);—this assertion is at once the foundation for the exhortation of his soul, to turn to God alone in confident submission (Psalms 62:5), because God only is the reliable helper (Psalms 62:6). This repetition forms not only the transition to the renewal of the appropriate personal confession (Psalms 62:7), but likewise to the exhortation of the people to constant trust in God (Psalms 62:8), because men are only breath one and all (Psalms 62:9), the trust in temporal possessions, whether goods or powers, is vain (Psalms 62:10), but God has spoken the word, which has been frequently heard, and is valid once for all, that the power is His, (Psalms 62:11). Therefore the petitioner, moved by the assurance of the government of God, which recompenses justly, turns to the grace of God which is equally essential with His power (Psalms 62:12).[Str. I Psalms 62:1. My soul (is) silence to God.—Some regard γּ ?εּ ?ξִ ?ιָ ?δ as an adjective (Gesenius, Stier, et al.), but most interpreters, as a substantive either as an accus. abs. (Hupfeld) = in silence, in quiet resignation to God, or better as a simple predicate (Delitzsch, Riehm, Perowne, et al.) “It is,” says Calvin, “that settled submission, when the faithful rest in the promises of God, give place to His word, obey His rule, and keep down every murmur of passion in their hearts.” Psalms 62:2. My salvation, etc.—Delitzsch; “His salvation comes from God, yes, God Himself is His salvation, so that, God being his, he possesses already salvation, and by this stands immovably firm.” For the figures which are here heaped up, comp Psalms 9:9; Psalms 18:2.—I shall not be greatly shaken.—Delitzsch: “What the poet means by ψַ ?λַּ ?δ is clear from Psalms 37:24. He shall not totter greatly, much, especially, that is, not so as to fall or to remain upon the ground.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 62:3. Rush again * a man.—This word, which occurs only here, is not to be changed into another similar word (Nahum 2:5; Jeremiah 46.) = to rave, storm (Hupf.) or (Psalms 102:8) = rage. Nor does it mean: to fall upon (Sept.) pursue (Aquil., Jerome) exhaust one’s-self in vain (Symm.), devise ruin (Rabbin [A.V. imagine mischief]) slander (most recent interpreters), but in accordance with an expression still current in Syria (Delitzsch): to rush upon one with outcry and lifted fist, in order to browbeat.—All of you break (him) down, as a wall inclined, a fence overthrown?—The interpretation of this clause in accordance with the Tiberian reading [followed by the Western Jews]: may ye all be ruined (or likewise = murdered) (Chald., Rabbin, Geier, [similarly A. V.]) is less in accordance with the context than the Babylonian reading, which with the ancient versions and most interpreters, is followed by us in our translation above.[Psalms 62:5. Only to God, be silent, my soul.—Perowne: “The first strophe opens with the expression of his resignation; this, with the exhortation to resignation. But this is no contradiction. The life of man’s spirit cannot always preserve the same even tenor. The heart of man is like the sea; however calm and smooth it may seem, a light air will ruffle its surface. The resignation, the trust in God, the peace, the rest which have come after long struggle and much prayer, may too easily be broken. And hence when these have been attained, we need to exhort ourselves to them in renewed measure.”—C. A. B.] Str. III. [Psalms 62:7. Upon God (resteth) my salvation,etc.—Comp. Psalms 7:10. All depends upon Him, and is founded on Him.—C. A. B.] Psalms 62:8. Trust in Him at all times, O people.—Since a̓ ?m = people, is used in the text, and not a̓ ?mmi = my people, we are not to think of the people of Israel (Chald., Aben Ezra, Calvin), or of men in general (Hupfeld) = dear people (Luther), but of that portion of the people that remained with David, of the retinue which was in his service, Judges 3:18; 1 Kings 19:21; 2 Kings 4:42 (Delitzsch). Psalms 62:9. Only a breath are men of low degree,etc.—Respecting the contrast between αְּ ?πֵ ?ιΞΰָ ?γָ ?ν and αְ ?πֵ ?ιΞΰִ ?ιωׁ ?vid.Psalms 4:2; Psalms 49:2. [There seems to be no other way of rendering this distinction than that of the A. V. The German language distinguishes very nicely between Menschensφhne and Mannessφhne—C. A. B.] —Men of high degree a lie, ascending upon balances—they (are) of breath altogether.—Since the infinitive with μ as the ablative of the gerund, does not precede the principal clause, but always follows (Ewald, § 280 d), the first half of the clause is not to be attached to the second half (most interpreters), but to the preceding clause (Delitzsch) so that the sense is, that the supposed weight of the men of high degree is shown by trial to be a lie. In the second half of this clause it is better to regard the ξִ ?ο as partitive, than comparative (comp. Isaiah 40:17; Isaiah 41:24; Isaiah 44:11). Str. IV. Psalms 62:11-12. It is not said here that God’s revelation has taken place once, twice, that is to say, often, and has been heard by the Psalmist just as often (De Wette, Hupf.), or that God has spoken a word, which consists of the two things heard by the Psalmist and expressed in the following clauses, that with God is power, and with Him also is grace (Grotius, Delitzsch, Hitzig). The expressions do not agree with the first supposition; against the latter are the change of construction in Psalms 62:12, and the mention of the retributive justice of God in the closing clause, which would have been a third member of the word of revelation. It is rather stated as the subject of the word of revelation once spoken; that God is almighty. Even on this account the Psalmist addresses Him directly as adonai, and expresses in an independent clause (Hengst.), yet not in the sense of an explanatory supplement (De Wette, Hupfeld), but moved by his circumstances and feelings, his truthful confession of the grace of the Almighty, which is based upon his experience of the Providence of God recompensing the actions, that is to say the conduct and behaviour of men. The expression is in form entirely in general terms, but in contents it applies to the pious in concreto. This passage is used in this sense by the Apostle Paul, Romans 2:6, after the Sept. It does not follow from this that we are to explain Psalms 62:11 a, thus: it is twice that I heard (Ewald), Job 40:5; 2 Kings 6:10. The hearing of the one or once spoken word of revelation has been repeated. AND ETHICAL1. There is a silence which is not that of fright, of pain, of despair, of defiance, but as that of the soul in prayer, and of the heart trusting God, means simply the silence of lamentation, yet in accordance with its nature is the quiet of resignation and the depth of peace in a soul directed towards God, relying upon God and quieted in God. Such a condition of soul, however, arises only from an unconditional, entire, and exclusive submission to God; and this is not only the single act of yielding to God, but the uninterrupted giving of oneself in order to be in entire safety in God. In order to such an experience in life amid manifold temptations, there is necessary on the one side the help of prayer, in order to be more deeply rooted in God, and constantly renewed in submission to Him, on the other side, the comforting, refreshing, warning promises, in order to keep our own souls awake. “For if we put God out of view, and do not turn to prayer, the sea is not so tempestuous in the storm as the human heart and soul,” (Joh. Arndt). He however who truly not only expects and implores his salvation and help from God, but finds and has them with God and in God, feels that he has been delivered as upon a rock, and is lifted up as well above the feeling of his own weakness and frailty, as above fear of the assaults of numerous, powerful, and lying enemies. 2. The man who has resigned himself to God, relies upon God for the deliverance of his life as well as the defence of his honor and the protection of his position. This condition of soul is especially strengthened by emphatically holding before it the portion that it has in God and the constant appropriation of what God says of Himself, and bestows upon them. This strengthens the personal faith, and encourages others to do likewise. The diligent consideration and right use of the word of revelation is of especial importance and influence in this respect; for it testifies that the God whose grace has been so often experienced by the pious in His providence, which recompenses every man justly, is the Almighty, upon whom, as the only true Lord, we should rely alone, and may rely truly, whilst all human devices, powers, undertakings, are as windy, that is to say, powerless and perishable as the riches which have been acquired thereby, and indeed to some extent with deceit and violence. AND God alone gives true peace to the soul that trusts in Him, but He gives it really.—Resignation to God is not without the giving up of oneself, but it makes no real loss, but effects true and abiding gain.—Prayer is not opposed to the quiet of a heart resigned to God.—He who resigns himself trustingly to God, will be accepted by God; and he who accepts what God speaks, does, and sends, is established in his resignation to God.—When we feel ourselves to be weak, and our enemies treat us as if we were shaking, God the Almighty remains our strength, as long as we trust in His grace.—God can screen believers against their enemies with as many shields as He has names.—Only God is reliable in all respects, the world in no respect.—He who would rely upon the grace of the Almighty, must not forget, that the Lord recompenses justly.—When men are weighed by God, many are found too light.—Hear often what God has spoken once, but judge yourselves by it, and not by other men to whom you preach it. Starke: Trust in God never deceives; for even if we are forsaken by the entire world, God remains faithful.—Craft and power are the weapons of the ungodly; if the one is not enough, they seize the other, and not unfrequently make their attacks with both at once.—Riches are to many snares by which they are plunged into ruin. Osiander: The pious have many assaults, but they are not ruined.—Franke: What God speaks once we should frequently repeat, and always carry it about in our hearts.—Frisch: An honest prayer is nothing but a pouring out of the heart before God.—Tholuck: This is the course of the world, the richer God’s gifts, the more do men trust in the gifts instead of the rich Giver.—Diedrich: God is enough; but He alone.—Guenther: To be silent to God—a precious jewel and a fruit of the Spirit.—Deichert: What it means to follow our Saviour with the cross. 1). He was still as a lamb, be ye likewise; 2) His enemies have not overcome Him, take shelter under His wings; 3) He trusted God, who helped him out, therefore put all your confidence in Him. [Matt. Henry: The good we do we should stir up ourselves to continue doing, and to do yet more and more, as those that have through grace experienced the comfort and benefit of it.—The more faith is acted, the more active it is. It is a smiling world that is most likely to draw the heart away from God, on whom only it should be set.—Barnes: All these combined—power, mercy, equity—constitute a reason why men should confide in God.—If these things do exist in God, unlimited confidence may be placed in Him as having all needful power to save; as being so merciful that sinful men may trust in Him; and as being so just and equal in His dealings that all may feel that it is right to repose confidence in a Being by whom all the interests of the universe will be secured.—Perowne: Power without Love is brutality, and Love without Power is weakness. Power is the strong foundation of Love, and Love is the beauty and the crown of Power.—Spurgeon: No eloquence in the world is half so full of meaning as the patient silence of a child of God. It is an eminent work of grace to bring down the will and subdue the affections to such a degree, that the whole mind lies before the Lord like the sea beneath the wind, ready to be moved by every breath of His mouth.—We cannot too often hear the toll of that great bell only; let it ring the death knell of all carnal reliances, and lead us to cast ourselves on the bare arm of God.—Our meditative soul should hear the echo of God’s voice again and again. What He speaks once in revelation, we should be always hearing. Creation and Providence are evermore echoing the voice of God—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [It is better with Hupfeld, et al. to regard this Psalm as composed of three strophes with four verses each. The two first thus have a refrain at the beginning embracing a pair of verses, instead of at the close, as Moll, and besides they conclude with a Selah. The third strophe would then begin with the characteristic ΰֵ ?κְ and with contents in contrasted parallelism with the two other strophes. Hupfeld translates ΰκְ each time by ja, but Moll’s translation, only in preferable—C A. B.] [Hupfeld prefers the usual sense of ψφη, and translates murder. and regards the metaphors as very much mixed, but It seems better with Ewald, Delitzsch, Moll, Perowne, et al., to translate in accordance with the original meaning: to break down.—C. A. B.] Psalms 63 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah         O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 2    To see thy power and thy glory, So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 3    Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise thee. 4    Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. 5    My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: 6    When I remember thee upon my bed, And meditate on thee in the night watches. 7    Because thou hast been my help, Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 8    My soul followeth hard after thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me. 9    But those that seek my soul, to destroy it,Shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 10    They shall fall by the sword: They shall be a portion for foxes. 11    But the king shall rejoice in God; Every one that sweareth by him shall glory: But the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. AND Its Contents and Composition.—The speaker longs vehemently after Elohim=Jehovah as his God (El), and designates this longing as the thirst of one who is parched and languishing, because he was in this bodily condition when he sojourned in the dry, barren land (Psalms 63:1). The mention of jackals (Psalms 63:10) is against a figurative interpretation of this expression (Hitzig), derived from the fact that God is the element of life, as it were the nourishing sap of men (Hupfeld)=as in the barren land (Syriac, et al.). The description of the fate of the enemies of the Psalmist (Psalms 63:10) is much more natural, if a designation of place is found in Psalms 63:1 (Septuagint, Chald., Hengstenberg, Ewald, Delitzsch); and the mention of the king (Psalms 63:11), is not at all in such a way that we are compelled to think of a different person from the speaker (De Wette). On the contrary, the verbs, which it is better to regard as futures than optatives, lead to the assurance of the joy of victory in the overthrow of lying and boasting enemies, who pursue the Psalmist in his flight to the wilderness, but will themselves perish in this undertaking. In this connection it is much easier to think of the royal dignity of the Psalmist, who vindicates this against his enemies and as a sign of his Divine calling, in order to strengthen his faith, than to think that the king not mentioned otherwise is to rejoice in the deliverance of the Psalmist from the hands of his enemies. This being the case, we cannot think of any other royal poet but David, especially as this Psalm not only has points of resemblance with Psalms 41. and other Davidic Psalms, but the characteristic expression of the thirsting of David and his followers is used, 2 Samuel 16:2; 2 Samuel 16:14; 2 Samuel 17:29 (Hengstenberg, Delitzsch), when he halted in the steppes of the wilderness one or two days (2 Samuel 15:23; 2 Samuel 15:28; 2 Samuel 17:16) in his flight from Absalom, before he crossed the Jordan. As well the mention of the sanctuary (Psalms 63:2) as the prominence given to the royal dignity (Psalms 63:11), makes it necessary to think of this period and not of the sojourn of David in the wilderness of Judah in the time of Saul (most of the older interpreters). The Psalmist thirsting in the wilderness wishes to be again near to God (Psalms 63:1), as he was previously near Him in the sanctuary (Psalms 63:2), and this longing is based upon the grace of God, which surpasses the dearest and most precious of all things, life (Psalms 63:3), for which the singer will praise God continually (Psalms 63:4). His soul lives and is nourished by this, his mouth is filled with it (Psalms 63:5), as his hours of rest and the night watches are filled with meditation upon God (Psalms 63:6). For God has become to him a constant help, so that he can shout for joy in the experience of Divine protection (Psalms 63:7), and feels himself, in the attachment of his soul, drawn towards God, whom he thanks for his preservation (Psalms 63:8). His enemies will suffer a terrible ruin (Psalms 63:9-10). He, the king, on the other hand, will rejoice in God, that is to say, as one who has been delivered by God and drawn to Him; and every one who swears by God, that is, honors God as God (Deuteronomy 6:13; Isaiah 19:13; Isaiah 45:23; Isaiah 65:16; Amos 8:14), will glory, because the mouth of those who speak lies is stopped (Psalms 63:11).—In the ancient Church, the morning service was opened with the singing of this Psalm (const, apost. II. 59; VIII. 37), partly on account of Psa 63:6, partly on account of the translation of Psa 63:1 : early I seek Thee:Str. I. Psalms 63:1. I seek Thee (earnestly).—The older interpreters translated this: I seek Thee early, since they referred the verb ωׁ ?ηַ ?ψ to the noun ωַׁ ?ηַ ?ψ (dawn), although it properly means only a “solicitous seeking.”—My flesh languisheth.—The Septuagint and Symm. have read incorrectly λַ ?ξָּ ?δ=as often, instead of λָּ ?ξַ ?δּ which Symm. renders by ίμείρεται. [My flesh, in connection with my soul, indicates the whole man in his two principal parts, body and soul, as Psalms 16:9; Psalms 31:10; Psalms 44:25, etc.—C. A. B.] Psalms 63:2. Thus have I looked at Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory.—The change of the perfect (Psalms 63:2) and the imperfect (Psalms 63:4) shows that the Psalmist will continue to do, what he has previously done; and the repeated “thus,” renders prominent the similarity of his feelings prevailing under both circumstances, namely, the longing after God, which he now has in the barren land, as he once had it in the sanctuary. The supposition of a reference back to the beginning of the Psalm=so as to my God (Ewald), has little in its favor. The following interpretations are to be entirely rejected, especially on account of their not regarding the perfect: then (when my longing is quieted) I will behold (Chald., De Wette), or there, that is to say, in such a land (Luther, Geier), or: thence, that is, in consequence of which (Calvin, Rosenm., Hengstenberg) I behold Thee in the sanctuary, so that I see Thy glory, which then is understood of spiritual beholding, as if the beholder, though far off in the body, had been snatched away by his longing into the sanctuary. There is no necessity to transpose the halves of each Verse from Psalms 63:2 to Psalms 63:8 (Hupfeld). [The A. V. transposes the parts of Psa 63:2 without reason.—C. A. B ] [Psalms 63:3. For Thy grace is better than life.—The A. V. regards the λι as giving the reason of the praise in the second clause, and translates: because. This is possible, yet not so good as the interpretation that it gives the reason of the longing of Psa 63:1 (Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Moll, Perowne, et al.). Hengstenberg refers it to the previous Verse.Psalms 63:4. Comp. Psalms 28:2, for the lifting up of the hands in prayer.—C. A. B] Str. II. [Psalms 63:5. As with marrow and fatness.—Perowne: “An image borrowed from a rich and splendid banquet, comp. Psalms 22:26; Psalms 22:29; Psalms 23:5-6. Hupfeld, following J. H. Mich., thinks that the reference is immediately to the sacrificial meal, which accompanied the thank-offering, here used as an image of thanksgiving (comp. Psalms 50:13; Psalms 54:6, etc.), and that the comparison is between his delight in rendering thanksgiving to God, and the enjoyment of the fat of the sacrifices. But the simpler explanation is the more probable, comp. Deuteronomy 32:14; Isaiah 25:6; Jeremiah 31:14.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 63:6. The mention of night-watches, of which there were three, at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the night (Exodus 14:24; Judges 7:19; Lamentations 2:19), shows that the remembrance of God with the Psalmist was not a transient occurrence, but called forth (repeated earnest meditation during the whole night, Psalms 139:17 sq. [Psalms 63:7. For Thou hast been a help to me, and in the shadow of Thy wings will I shout for joy.—Perowne: “David in the present, distress, finding support in the past, and from that sure ground looking forward with confidence and joy to the future.”—For the figure in the last clause, comp. Psalms 17:8; Psalms 36:7; Psalms 57:1; Psalms 61:4. Psalms 63:8. My soul cleaveth to Thee, Thy right hand upholds me.—God holds fast to the righteous with His right hand and holds him up, whilst the righteous hangs on to God or cleaves to Him. This is a beautiful representation of the mutual affection and reciprocal relation of God and His servant.—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 63:9. But they, to (their own) destruction shall they seek my soul, shall go into the abysses of the earth.—Some, after the Septuagint and Vulgate, take μְ ?ωεֹ ?ΰָ ?δ=in vain (in vanum), as if they had before them μַ ?ωָּ ?εְ ?ΰ. But it does not state the purpose of the enemy (most interpreters), but the consequence of their hostile pursuit, which was for the ruin of others, yet brought ruin upon themselves. The parallel clause is particularly in favor of this. The abysses of the earth, or the depths of the interior of the earth (Psalms 139:15; Isaiah 44:23), mean here as Ephesians 4:9, not the clefts and caves, but the world below (Bφttcher, et al.). Psalms 63:10. They shall be given up to the edge of the sword.—This is literally: they shall pour him (that is, the enemy as a collective noun) into the hands of the sword. This, would not only be unusual and obscure in English, but in the present connection would cause misunderstandings; hence transposition is necessary. The verb is the Hiphil of πָ ?βַ ?ψ, and not from βָּ ?ψַ ?ψ. The same construction is found, Jeremiah 18:21; Ezekiel 35:5.—[A portion for jackals.—The idea is that, slain by the sword and left upon the field, their bodies would be the prey of jackals. Jackals are the scavengers of the East, and even enter the towns and quarrel with the dogs in the streets for carrion, —C. A. B.] Psalms 63:11. Every one that sweareth by Him. It is likewise correct, as far as the language is concerned, to explain: that sweareth by the king, that is, confess themselves as his subjects, and show themselves to be such (Theodoret, Ewald, Hengstenberg); but actually this is objectionable from the fact that heathen nations might very well swear by the life of the king (Genesis 32:15), but an Israelite could not do this. AND ETHICAL1. In the greatest abandonment, in the desolate wilderness, in peril of body and life, the pious hold fast their communion with God in faith, and long constantly for a more complete realization of it. For God is the highest good of the pious, and as their God is not only more precious than life, but is likewise the source of all refreshment and the ground of every deliverance and help. Hence God, as the abiding object of their longing, as well as the essence of salvation, is the constant subject of their meditation and praise, in which they find the strongest nourishment and the sweetest enjoyment for their souls 2. The remembrance of the blessings which the pious have received in the sanctuary of the Lord, and the longing there experienced and gratified, for ever deeper insight into the power and glory of God, not unfrequently, in times when they are far from the sanctuary, without their own fault, and in distress of body and of soul, is violently awakened by the burning longing for consolation, assistance and deliverance from God. Since, however, it is connected with the recollection of previous benefits and assistances from God, it draws the soul into the sphere of comforting thoughts and blessed experiences, and excites it even during the time of suffering to pleasure in prayer and joy in thanksgiving, from which again grows resignation to God, confidence in deliverance from the hands of the enemies who pursue the pious to their own destruction, and the enlargement of the view, so that it embraces all who confess God. AND We can call upon God in the wilderness as well as in God’s house, yet we have no reason to undervalue the latter or give it up.—He who cannot enter the house of God, may yet thankfully remember the blessings which he has there received, as well as the benefits which God has bestowed upon him besides.—Why is the grace of God more precious than life?—To praise God is no burden, but pleasure to the pious.—With the pious sorrow as well as joy should serve to express the dependence of their souls on God, and at the same time to render this more spiritual and deeper. The longing after God in its grounds, its expressions, and consequences.—To reflect upon God’s glory, benefits and guidances is a salutary occupation, and at the same time a sweet enjoyment.—What fills the heart passes over the mouth, yet for some to everlasting confusion.—Together with Psalm cv., the daily morning prayer of the ancient Church. Augustine: Si non traheris, ora, ut traharis. Starke: True thankfulness has its ground in the heart, but expresses itself by words and works.—A believing soul finds its greatest pleasure in the consideration of the word of God, hence it has likewise a constant longing after it.—Where a carnal mind prevails in a man over the fear of God, the carnal will be the last before sleep, and the first after awaking.—He who loves lies is hateful to God and men, and ruins himself thereby. Franke: What is it, that man has to seek more than this, that the Lord may be his God, who begins the ten commandments thus: I am the Lord, thy God.—Frisch: Better lose a thousand lives, than once willingly dispense with the grace of God.—Arndt: To live without God’s grace is death, to be eternally without God’s grace is eternal death.—Tholuck: The power of prayer depends on knowing God as our God.—Guenther: O that we might learn three things from David: The art of doing without a thing without pain the preparation and use of the still hours, the blessed joy in communion with God in spite of flight, hunger, thirst, a wilderness, anxiety, and need. [Matt. Henry: Gracious souls look down upon the world with a holy disdain, and look up to God with a holy desire.—A closet may be turned into a little sanctuary.—Barnes: Nothing can be more proper than that our last thoughts, as we sink into quiet slumber, should be of God;—of His being, His character, His mercy, His loving-kindness; of the dealings of His providence, and the manifestation of His grace towards us during the day; and nothing is better fitted to compose the mind to rest, and to induce quiet and gentle slumber, than the calmness of soul which arises from the idea of an Infinite God, and from confidence in Him.—Wordsworth: Every devout soul which has loved to see God in His house, will be refreshed by visions of God in the wilderness of solitude, sorrow, sickness, and death.—Spurgeon: A weary place and a weary heart make the presence of God the more desirable; if there be nothing below and nothing within to cheer, it is a thousand mercies that we may look up and find all we need.—Life is dear, but God’s love is dearer. To dwell with God is better than life at its best.—When God gives us the marrow of His love, we must present to Him the marrow of our hearts.—We see best in the dark if we there see God best.—Night is congenial, in its silence and darkness, to a soul which would forget the world, and rise into a higher sphere.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “This is unquestionably one of the most beautiful and touching Psalms in the whole Psalter. Donne says of it: As the whole Book of Psalms is oleum effusum (as the spouse speaks of the name of Christ), an ointment poured out upon all sorts of sores, a cerecloth that supplies all bruises, a balm that searches all wounds; so are there some certain Psalms that are imperial Psalms, that command over all affections, and spread themselves over all occasions-catholic, universal Psalms, that apply to all necessities.’—And again he observes: ‘the spirit and soul of the whole Book of Psalms is contracted into this Psalm, Serm. 66.”—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch admits this, yet contends that “since Psalms 63:6 looks back upon the night, this expression was chosen with reference to the break of the morning, as Isaiah 26:9. ωִׁ ?ηַ ?ψ is side by side with ΰεָּ ?δαμַּ ?ιְ ?μָ ?δ,” and thus he prefers the translation: I seek Thee early.—C. A. B.] [Delitzsch: “This longing after God, which is now the more violent in the wilderness afar off from the sanctuary, fills him and impels him, for God’s grace is better than life, better than natural life (see Psalms 17:14), which as likewise a good thing, and the condition of all earthly blessings is a very good thing; yet God’s grace is a higher good, the highest good and the true life. His lips are to praise this God of grace, a morning song is due Him, for that which truly blesses, and that which he now, as previously, solely and alone longs for, is the grace of this God, whose infinite worth is measured only by the greatness of His power and glory .“—C. A. B.] [It is better., with Perowne, Alexander, et al., to translate the power of the sword, the hand being expressive of power. Hupfeld and Delitzsch prefer the rendering: hands of the sword.—C. A.B.] [Tristram Nat. Hist, of the Bible, p. Psalms 110 : “Shu’al, always in the Bible translated ‘fox’ is undoubtedly a comprehensive term, from which our own word jackal is ultimately derived, and which comprehends the jackal as well as the fox. In several instances, as in the expression, Psalms 63:10, the jackal is indicated. It is the jackal rather than the fox which preys on dead bodies, and which assembles in troops on the battle-fields to feast on the slain—The natives of the East discriminate very little between the two animals, or rather look upon the fox as a small and inferior species of jackal. Indeed, their appearance to a cursory observer is very similar, the jackal having its fur of a paler color or yellowish rather than reddish in hue.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 64 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David         Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. 2    Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; From the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: 3    Who whet their tongue like a sword, And bend their bows-to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: 4    That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: Suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not. 5    They encourage themselves in an evil matter: They commune of laying snares privily; They say, Who shall see them? 6    They search out iniquities; They accomplish a diligent search: Both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep. 7    But God shall shoot at them With an arrow: suddenly shall they be wounded. 8    So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: All that see them shall flee away. 9    And all men shall fear, And shall declare the work of God; For they shall wisely consider of his doing. 10    The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; And all the upright in heart shall glory. AND Its Contents.—Owing to the absence of all historical references, we cannot state any particular time in the life of David for its composition. The Psalms which have corresponding figures and features belong to very different periods. The situation of the Psalmist is one which frequently recurs in the life of David. In lamentation to God he implores protection against a throng of wicked men who threaten his life, (Psalms 64:1-2), who seek to destroy him, especially by ill report and other secret devices (Psalms 64:3; Psalms 64:6). On this account the judgment of God will overtake them (Psalms 64:7-8), the knowledge of which will serve as a warning to all men (Psalms 64:9), but will strengthen the faith of the righteous, rejoicing them and encouraging them. [Str. I. Psalms 64:1. In my lamentation.—Delitzsch: “The infin. nom.ωִׂ ?ιηַ means lamentation, complaint, not in sounds of pain, but in words of pain.” See Psalms 51:2. Psalms 64:2. From the secret league of the wicked—from the tumultuous throng of evil doers.—Delitzsch: “ρεֹ ?γ is the club or clique, ψִ ?βְ ?ωָׁ ?δ the noisy crowd.” Perowne translates ρεֹ ?γ as conspiracy; this is the sense, but it is better to employ the more general meaning of the word referring to secret converse in the intimacy of friendship on the one hand, and of devising, planning, plotting on the other. See Psalms 25:14. Psalms 64:3-4. The figures of these Verses are favorite ones with David. For the comparison of the tongue to a sharp sword, see Psalms 52:2; Psalms 57:4; Psalms 59:7; for that of bitter words to fixed arrows, Psalms 58:7. As the robber lurks in his haunts (Psalms 10:8) or the hunter shoots from the thicket at the bird (Psalms 11:2) so they lurk and watch for their opportunity to shoot forth their bitter words. Unseen of men they fear not God and His retributive justice (Psalms 55:19). C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 64:5. They strengthen for themselves an evil thing.—Perowne: “They take every means to secure their object, follow it up resolutely.” It is better to understand this of their plan or purpose than of the bitter words which they have spoken. They calculate how to lay snares privily.—They carefully go over each part of the plan, that they make it successful in all its parts. And all this is in secret. None but the conspirators are aware of these snares.—They say, who shall look at them?—The question is interpreted very differently. Some refer the pronoun “them” to the snares laid with so much care and craft that they can confidently ask who shall discover them; but the analogy of Psa 64:4 cand Psalms 10:11; Psalms 10:13; Psalms 59:8; Psalms 94:7, favors the idea that they think that God does not observe or care for their actions. Some interpreters then regard the question as indirect (Ewald, Delitzsch, Maurer, Olsh., Perowne, et al.), the pronoun “them” referring to the evil doers themselves. But it is better to refer the pronoun to the “snares” as the object of God’s observation. They think that God does not care for them, does not observe them, will not attend to them, or interfere with them.—C. A. B.] Psalms 64:6. They have completed the contrived plan.—With the lect. rec. ϊַּ ?ξְ ?πεּ which can only be 1. plur. perf., we must in direct discourse think either of the pious: we are finished, it is all over with us, that is to say: we are lost without God’s help (J. H. Mich.), or of the ungodly: we have it ready (Geier, Rosenmόller, De Wette), we are ready (Ewald, Kφster, Hitzig), with the contrived plan, or likewise: the plan is contrived! (De Wette), a thought out plan! (Hengst.), thoughts well thought out! (Hitzig). There is nothing, however, to indicate a direct discourse like this, and it would disturb the context. We must therefore either correct by ϊַּ ?ξּ ?εּ the 3. plur. perf. (Aben Ezra, Kimchi), or θָ ?ξְ ?βεּ (Isaki, Luther) with many MSS. editions, and interpreters. The latter suits the sense very well=they have hidden, but has not sufficient critical evidence.—[Deep.—The heart, the inner man is deep as “the source of this plan,” as the “invisible work-shop of the evil” which is now prepared. It is like an “abyss of dark mystery and brooding wickedness,” (Hupfeld)]. Str. III. Psalms 64:7-8. Yet God will shoot them;an arrow—suddenly—these are their wounds. They are overthrown, over themselves—their tongue.—In Psalms 64:8 a the present text suffers from insuperable difficulties, which with forced interpretations hardly afford a tolerable sense, leaving now this and now that form unnoticed. It is the easiest to regard the whole manner of expression as broken in both verses, and to render the plural of the verb for the sake of clearness not by “they,” but by an indefinite subject (man stόrtzt sie) and for the same reason to change the sing. suffix “him,” which designates the enemy collectively, into “they,” in accordance with the sense. Thus the thought is expressed that their fall is occasioned by powers, left undetermined yet subject to God, whilst at the same time their tongue, the instrument for injuring other men, brings on the judgment to their own ruin. Somewhat thus Ewald, Hengst., Delitzsch.—[All that look upon them shake the head.—Perowne: “For this meaning of the verb comp. Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 48:27; for the gesture, as one of malicious triumph in looking upon suffering, etc. See Psalms 22:7.” So Hupfeld and Delitzsch. But Ewald and Hitzig translate flee away, as A. V.—C. A. B.] Psalms 64:9. And all men shall fear.—Many codd. and editions read instead of ειִּ ?ιψְ ?ΰεּ (shall fear) εַ ?ιִּ ?ψְ ?ΰεּ (and shall see it).—[And understand His work.—The εְ is incorrectly rendered “for” in the A. V. The clauses are all parallel, following one upon the other. “They no longer foolishly ascribe it to mere chance or human agency,” (Alexander). Psalms 64:10. Refuge seek in Him.—This is the usual expression for seeking shelter and protection in God. See Psalms 63:7.—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The wicked are not helped by their craft, power, and wickedness. They may for a time do the pious much harm, cause them great pain, extort lamentation and sighing. But when they have entirely completed their plans among themselves, and flatter themselves that they are near their end, the judgment of God overtakes them and destroys them by means of their own plans. For the Searcher of hearts, since He looks into the depths of the heart, knows what is contrived within the man (Jeremiah 17:9 sq.), and the Holy one of Israel brings the plans of the wicked to naught. 2. God causes His righteous government among men to become known, and thus makes His judgments to become blessings, in that He makes them to be perceived to the terror of the wicked, to the warning of all men, to the joy of all the upright, who are comforted in their afflictions, especially by the experience that God’s judgment over the wicked is the deliverance of the pious. This preserves them from despair in their lamentation, and strengthens them amidst dangers in their faith in God’s assistance, and encourages them to implore it, so that they may glory in their gracious condition in God. AND The nearer the wicked seem to be to their ends, the nearer are they to their ruin.—The pious have often occasions to lament, yet never reason for despair, but always cause for prayer, praise, and reflection.—Many a depth of the heart is an abyss of wickedness.—God delivers the pious whilst He judges the wicked.—What God does should be observed and declared.—To bring the slandered to honor, to defeat the plans of the wicked, to destroy the ungodly by their own weapons—this is a matter of Divine righteousness.—The ungodly trust in the secrecy of their plans, the pious in the omniscient and just God.—Judgments are long in coming, but they break forth suddenly and decisively.Starke: To pray for a gracious hearing is always the beginning of an acceptable prayer.—Let us take more heed to our tongues, our own weal or woe depend upon whether we use it aright or misuse it.—Childlike trust in God, and spiritual joy in God are connected closely together; for both are the results of a justifying faith. Franke: The fig leaves must be removed that we may know our shame and nakedness before God’s face.—Frisch: God’s arrows have a different effect from those which men shoot.—Tholuck: If we rejoice when God’s hand beats the unrighteous to the ground, we have to take good care lest we mingle unholy fire with the holy.— Taube: The ruin of the innocent would be altogether unavoidable if the only searcher of hearts did not look upon them and interfere.—God’s hand judges the ungodly sometimes by their own hand.—Diedrich: All the battles of spirits are with words; even the wicked fight mostly with their words. [Matt. Henry: It is bad to do an ill thing, but worse to encourage ourselves and one another in it; that is doing the devil’s work for him.—Half the pains that many take to damn their souls would serve to save them.—Barnes: Judgment, punishment, wrath, are adapted and designed to make a deep impression on mankind. On this principle the final punishment of the wicked will make a deep and salutary impression on the universe forever.—Spurgeon: It is a good thing to conquer malicious foes, but a better thing still to be screened from all conflict with them, by being hidden from the strife.—The righteous need not learn the arts of self-defence or of attack, their avengement is in better hands than their own.—C. A. B.] Psalms 65 To the chief Musician, A Psalm and Song of David         Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion: And unto thee shall the vow be performed. 2    O thou that hearest prayer, Unto thee shall all flesh come. 3    Iniquities prevail against me: As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. 4    Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. 5    By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea: 6    Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; Being girded with power: 7    Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, And the tumult of the people. 8    They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. 9    Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it With the river of God which is full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. 10    Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: Thou makest it soft with showers: Thou blessest the springing thereof. 11    Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; And thy paths drop fatness. 12    They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: And the little hills rejoice on every side. 13    The pastures are clothed with flocks; The valleys also are covered over with corn; They shout for joy, they also sing. AND Its Contents and Composition.—The Psalm begins with the solemn declaration, that thanksgiving is due in Zion to the God who heareth prayer, and that all flesh draweth near Him in prayer (Psalms 65:1-2), that it is true misdeeds had gained power over the congregation, which is now engaged in prayer, but God covered them, (Psalms 65:3), so that they now taste the salvation of those who can draw near to God in His temple, (Psalms 65:4), the God of strength, who rules in nature and in history, exciting fear and confidence (Psalms 65:5-8), and who now again has blessed the land with fructifying rains (Psalms 65:9-10) and has adorned it with the signs of a good year, so that all may shout for joy (Psalms 65:11-13). The reference to the blessings of the harvest is so manifest that the Psalm may be regarded as a prayer of thanksgiving for them, whether with reference to the approaching harvest (Hengst.) or one just finished (Hitzig). But there is no evidence of a previous scarcity such as that famine caused by the blood—guiltness of Saul, 1 Samuel 21 (Venema, J. D. Mich.), or a great drought (Aben Ezra, Ewald, and most interpreters), in which sense a Greek scholiast has read φָ ?ιεֹ ?ο = a dry land, instead of Zion (Psalms 65:1). No more does the mention of the palace of God (Psalms 65:4), refer to a period, subsequent to David; nor does the confession of grievous misdeeds on the part of the entire congregation (Psalms 65:3) refer to the guilt of the nation which brought on the Exile (De Wette). There is likewise no occasion to explain the fearful exhibitions of the righteousness of God (Psalms 65:5), which are directly parallel with His mighty deeds, of the overthrow of the Assyrians (Ewald), or to put these words, which are manifestly introductory, as a thanksgiving for the victory which had been granted them, alongside of the thanksgiving for the blessing of the field, and thus to think of the spring of the third year after the overthrow of the Assyrians, Isaiah 37:30 (Delitzsch). After the return from the exile this Psalm certainly afforded many useful adaptations to the worship of the congregation, as these might be found in it for the spiritual explanation of the blessings of harvest. There is very little to justify the idea that this Psalm is a prophecy during the exile of the conversion of the heathens after the return of the people to Jerusalem (Flamin.) or thanksgiving of the Church of Christ for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the blessings flowing therefrom (most of the older interpreters). The title found in the Arabic translation, de transmigratione populi, and that remark attached to some MSS. of the Sept. and Vulg: “Song of Jeremiah and Ezekiel for the people of the Diaspora as they were about to return home,” have not the value of historical statements. Str. I. Psalms 65:1. To Thee is silence (resignation) praise.—The word γֻ ?ξִ ?ιָּ ?δ does not mean the solemn silence at the holy places (Grotius), or the silence of the mouth=in silence (Luther after the Rabbins), or in the sense that silence is the best praise (Chald., Isaki, Stier), but the silence of unrest in the heart=resignation, as Psalms 62:1, yet not as the consequence of praise (Hengst., who previously translated silence praise), but either as an expression of pious duty parallel with the praise (and the actual fulfilment of the vow) (Geier, Rosenm., De Wette, Hupf., Hengst.), or more in accordance with the accents as the tribute due, which is brought as praise to the God enthroned in Zion (Delitzsch). A similar sense is given by the translation: silent resignation praises Thee (Hitzig), without making it necessary to change the reading of the noun “praise” into the corresponding verb, which would certainly, however, be preferable to the change of dumijjah=silentium into domijjah=similis, par., since the explanation of tibi par est laus by tibi convenit laus (Sept., Vulg.) is contrary to usage. If the word is regarded as an adverb, the sense would not be: constantly, incessantly (Venema, Muntinghe), but: in resignation. Psalms 65:2. The coming of all flesh to God does not refer to the conversion of the heathen, Isaiah 45:24 (Aben Ezra and the older interpreters), but to the coming of all needy creatures partly in prayer and partly in thanksgiving. [Psalms 65:3. Cases of iniquity have overcome me.—There is a reference here to the variety of iniquities rather than their unity. Hupfeld: “They have overpowered me as with a superior hostile power. (Comp. Psalms 40:12 : ‘they have overtaken me,’ parallel, ‘surrounded me’). They are usually compared to a burden (Psalms 38:5 : ‘they are too heavy for me,’ parallel, ‘they have gone over my head,’ Genesis 4:13 : ‘too great to be borne’). This is the usual figure even in legal language (comp. Psalms 7:16). Both figures are with the sense that man cannot answer or make good (atone for), without succumbing and perishing, thus he needs forgiveness (comp. Psalms 130:3; Psalms 143:2).” Psalms 65:4. Delitzsch: “How good it is for those whom God chooses and brings near, that is, removes into His presence that they may dwell in His courts, that is, may have their true home and be at home where He is enthroned and reveals Himself (see Psalms 15:1). This advantage is afforded to the congregation gathered about Zion in the midst of the nations, which, in the happy consciousness of this preference given it out of God’s free grace, encourages itself to enjoy in full draughts (ωָׁ ?αַ ?ς with αְּ as Psalms 103:5) the abundance of the gracious good things (θεּ ?α) of the house of God, the holiness, ἄγιον, of His temple, that is, His holy temple (χְ ?ψωׁ, as Psalms 46:4, comp. Isaiah 57:15), for, for all that God’s grace offers us, we can offer no better thanks than by hungering and thirsting after it and satisfying the poor soul therewith.”—C. A. B.] Str. II. Psalms 65:5. Terrible things, or things exciting fear are frequently mentioned, (Deuteronomy 10:21; 2 Samuel 7:23; Isaiah 64:2; Psalms 106:22 sq.; Psalms 145:4 sq.), together with the mighty deeds and miracles of God in the leading of His people out of Egypt; it thus includes the idea of the sublime and wonderful, Psalms 139:14. This reference is more suitable here than that of fearful, since the answer here manifestly means the actual answer to prayer.—[The confidence of all the ends of the earth and of the sea afar off.—Perowne: “The word is properly an adj., and may, as Hupf. takes it, belong to the noun ‘ends,’ the construction being ‘the distant ends of the earth and sea.’ He refers to Psalms 64:7; Isaiah 66:19, as compared with Isaiah 5:26; Psalms 8:9; Psalms 34:17.—But according to the accent the construction is ‘sea of the distant ones,’ i.e. the dwellers on distant coasts and islands.” Psalms 65:6. Girded with power.—This refers to God, who, girded with power as a master—workman, places the mountains in their firm foundations. Psalms 65:7. Stilleth the roar of seas, &c. Perowne: “The sea and nations are mentioned together, the one being so often used as an image of the other. See Psalms 46.” Psalms 65:8. Signs or miracles, the mighty deeds of God, cause the nations to fear and tremble.—C. A. B.] The outgoings of the morning and evening do not mean the rising of the morning and evening stars which cause men to rejoice (Kimchi, et al.), or the creatures which come forth at such times of the morning and evening (Luther, Geier, J. H. Mich., et al.), but the east and west as poetical parallels of the ends of the earth (Hupf.) Str. III. Psalms 65:9. [Thou hast visited the land and made it overflow.—Barnes: “God seems to come down that He may attend to the wants of the earth; survey the condition of things; arrange for the welfare of the world He has made, and supply the wants of those whom He has created to dwell upon it.”—Hupfeld: “ϊְ ?ωֹׁ ?χְ ?χֶ ?δָ here as Hiphil, Joel 2:24; 4:13, make overflow, that is, moisten, rigare (with rain, com. Psalms 65:10ϊְ ?ξεֹ ?βְ ?βֶ ?πָּ ?δ in a similar form) as already the ancient versions (apparently interchanging it with ωׁ ?χּ ?δ). Aben Ezra, Kimchi, [margin of A. V.] interpret it in accordance with the meaning which is found in ϊωׁ ?εχδ and ωׁ ?χχ, make desire (namely, rain, owing to the previous lack of rain). But this does not suit the context.”—C. A. B.]—God’s brook is full of water.—God’s brook is not a brook or stream in the Holy Land (the Fathers), or a figure of Divine blessings in general (Geier, J. H. Mich., et al.), but the rain (Chald.) or the clouds (J. D. Mich.) in contrast to earthly waters (Calvin, et al.).—Thou preparest their grain, for so dost Thou prepare it (i.e. the land).—We must notice the alliteration of λֵּ ?ο=so, that is, right so (Delitzsch), with δֵ ?λִ ?ιο=adjust, prepare. [Perowne: “The repetition of the verb prepare seems designed to mark that all is God’s doing. He prepares the earth and so prepares the corn. The present tenses are employed here to express that this God does not in one year only, but every year.” Psalms 65:10. Drenching its furrows, pressing down its clods, Thou makest it dissolve by copious showers, Thou blessest its increase.—ψַ ?εֵּ ?η and πַ ?ηֵ ?ϊ are, according to the existing punctuation, imperatives. Few interpreters (Hitzig, Alexander, et al.) render in this way, for it does not suit the context and the general tone of the Psalm. Hupfeld would alter the punctuation and read ψִ ?εָּ ?δ,πָ ?ηֵ ?ϊ, 3 pers. pret. Thus there would be a most unusual transition from the 2d person to the 3d. It is better, with most interpreters, to take them as infinitive absolutes, denoting the manner in which this preparation of the earth took place, and then render them as participles depending on the verb of the previous verse (Ewald, De Wette, Delitzsch, Moll, et al.). Perowne considers that they stand instead of the finite verb.—C. A. B.] Str. 4 Psalms 65:11. [Thou hast crowned the | year of Thy goodness.—This is the rendering of all of the older interpreters and most recent ones. Comp. Isaiah 61:2, “the year of grace,” as the year of Divine goodness and favor which was crowned with fruitful harvests. Others (Hupfeld, Bφttcher, Perowne, A. V.] prefer to render: with Thy goodness. The former interpretation is favored by the construction and gives an excellent sense, and is to be preferred (Delitzsch, Moll, Alexander, et al.)—C. A. B.]—Thy tracks drop fatness.—The tracks or wagon ruts are perhaps mentioned with reference to the clouds on which God rides as on a chariot (the older interps. after the Rabbins), hardly, however, in allusion to the wagons of thunder in storms (J. D. Mich., Olsh.), but they have rather here the meaning of tracks in general, or footsteps=fruitfulness follows in his footsteps (Geier, et al.). [Psalms 65:12. The pastures of the steppes drip, and the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.—Delitzsch: “The tracks of the chariots (Deuteronomy 33:26) drip with luxuriant fruitfulness, even the pastures of the uncultivated, rainless and unfruitful pasture land, Job 38:26 sq. The hills are personified in the favorite manner of Isaiah (Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 49:13) and the Psalms of this character (Psalms 96:11 sq; Psalms 98:7 sq; comp. Psalms 89:12). Their appearance with the freshness of plant—life is compared with a garment of rejoicing, girding the hills which previously appeared naked and sad, and the grain with a shawl in which the valleys wrapped themselves all over.”—C. A. B.] [Psalms 65:13. The meadows are clothed with flocks.—Some translate instead of meadows or pasturage, rams (J. D. Mich.) or lambs (Hengst.) as Psalms 37:20, after the ancient versions, which the language does not require, and it would give a singular expression to a plain thought.—They shout for joy, yea, they sing.—We can hardly regard men and beasts, the inhabitants of the creation (Hengst.), as the subject of the Psalm and singing in this clause, but must either take the above—mentioned meadows and valleys (Calvin, et al.), the inanimate creation in general in accordance with poetical usage (Hupfeld), or resolve the third person plural into the general and comprehensive “they” (“man,” Luther, Ewald, Delitzsch), which is more correct than to put at once “the people” (Hitzig), and thus limit it. AND ETHICAL1. God has revealed Himself in history and nature in such a character that we cannot do better than resign ourselves to Him as well as give thanks, and thus pay our vows in fact. 2. In the historical life of the people God obligates them to give such thanks as this by atoning for their sins, by providing them in His house with the enjoyment of His presence and satisfaction in the good things of His house which correspond with their needs, and by giving them protection, assistance and victory in their relations with other nations. 3. With respect to the relations of nature, this happens by a government of the world created by Him in such a manner that all needy creatures turn to Him in trust, and His own people, who are well cared for, praise Him with the more thankfulness as the praise of the Creator and Preserver sounds in all places and quarters, and every good thing with which God adorns the earth every new year of goodness reminds them of the highest good, the communion of salvation which God has established and preserves with and among His favored ones. AND If all creatures praise God, man must not be backward and least of all those who have received forgiveness of sins.—Submission to God’s advice, God’s will and hand, is true thankfulness for all the spiritual and bodily bounties of the Most High.—God fits not only the earth, but also man, so that they can bring forth the desired fruits.—Follow the tracks of God, and you will meet everywhere abundant blessings. We can find the tracks of God all over the world; but all depends upon our drawing near to God Himself.—The year that God has blessed has its bounties for which we should praise God; but a still richer and more enduring favor is in the sanctuary dedicated to Him. Luther: Run all over the world—yet Thou art the only one, O God, upon whom man’s comfort of heart can stand and remain. Starke: Since all men are in manifold weakness and needs, is it not a great thing that we have a Lord with whom we can all take refuge?—The true worship of God is no burden to the believing, but the greatest benefit and refreshment.—No one can escape from God’s sight; this must terrify the ungodly; but it strengthens the confidence of the pious.—Every place on earth has received its special favors from the Creator, so that no place has nothing, and no place has all.—The kingdom of nature points everywhere to the riches of the Divine blessing and grace; how full then must the kingdom of grace be. Frisch. The world so forgets the benefits it has received; Zion and its children take them to heart much better.—To be a true member of the Church of God, is man’s greatest happiness.—Franke: It becomes those who are called God’s people to show by their words and walk, that they are His people in deed and in truth.—Tholuck: As often as the spring comes, God reveals Himself to us again as the Almighty who yet uses His power to bestow blessings.—Stier: Praise of the prayer—hearing God; a, for forgiveness of sins; b, admission to His sanctuary; c, satisfaction with its blessings.—Umbreit: Faith in the hearing of prayer and the help of God is based on the miracles of Omnipotence spread out before the eyes of men.—Taube: God’s name is majesty; but it is a majesty full of grace and goodness. [Matt. Henry: As there are holy groanings which cannot be uttered, so there are holy adorings which cannot be uttered, and yet shall be accepted by Him that searcheth the heart and knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.—The holy freedom that we are admitted to in God’s courts and the nearness of our approach to Him must not at all abate our reverence and godly fear of Him; for He is terrible in His holy places.—Wherever God goes, He leaves the tokens of His mercy behind Him.—Barnes: God, in the advancing seasons, passes along through the earth, and rich abundance springs up wherever He goes.—Spurgeon: He who is once admitted to God’s courts shall inhabit them forever. Permanence gives preciousness. Terminated blessings are but half blessings.—Terrible things will turn out to be blessed things after all, when they come in answer to prayer.—How truly rich are those who are enriched with grace!—Nature has no discords. Her airs are melodious. Her chorus is full of harmony. All, all is for the Lord; the world is a hymn to the Eternal. Blessed is he who, hearing, joins in it and makes one singer in the mighty chorus.—C. A. B.] Psalms 66 To the chief Musician, A Song or Psalm         Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: 2    Sing forth the honor of his name: Make his praise glorious. 3    Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. 4    All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; They shall sing to thy name. Selah. 5    Come and see the works of God: He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. 6    He turned the sea into dry land:They went through the flood on foot: There did we rejoice in him. 7    He ruleth by his power for ever; His eyes behold the nations; Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. 8    O bless our God, ye people, And make the voice of his praise to be heard: 9    Which holdeth our soul in life, And suffereth not our feet to be moved. 10    For thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. 11    Thou broughtest us into the net; Thou laidst affliction upon our loins. 12    Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.13    I will go into thy house with burnt offerings; I will pay thee my vows, 14    Which my lips have uttered, And my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. 15    I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, With the incense of rams: I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah. 16    Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare What he hath done for my soul. 17    I cried unto him with my mouth, And he was extolled with my tongue. 18    If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear me:19    But verily God hath heard me;He hath attended to the voice of my prayer. 20    Blessed be God, Which hath not turned away my prayer, Nor his mercy from me. AND Its Contents and Composition.—An exhortation to the nations of the earth to praise God, the Almighty (Psalms 66:1—4), introduces the exhortation to consider the mighty deeds of God in the deliverance of His people in ancient times (Psalms 66:5-7). This is then followed by the exhortation to praise God for a deliverance of the people from trials recently endured (Psalms 66:7-12). The Psalm now passes over from the plural to the singular, yet its turns of expression are so individual, e.g. Psalms 66:16; Psalms 66:18, that the supposition that the nation is personified is entirely untenable. The Psalmist speaks from his own soul and experience, yet as a member of the congregation here mentioned (Calvin, Geier, et al.). He expresses his design of bringing the promised offerings into the house of God (Psalms 66:13-15), and concludes with an exhortation to the pious to listen to his narrative, how he called upon God, and God heard him, and this to the praise of God (Psalms 66:16-20). There is no reason whatever to regard this second part as a special song of thanksgiving (Ewald). The similarity of Psa 66:16; Psalms 66:5, and that of the structure of the strophes thus apparent, is in favor of the original unity of the Psalm. The person and age of the author remain undetermined in this, as well as the following Psalm, notwithstanding the dedication to the director. If ςεֹ ?μָ ?ν, Psalms 66:7, meant the world (Chald., et al.), we would have evidence in favor of the Maccabean age (Paulus, Olsh., Hitzig), but the word has this meaning only with the Rabbins (Aben Ezra), whilst in the Old Testament this form is always elsewhere an accusative of time with the meaning, forever and ever. It is mere guess—work to think of the time of the dedication of the temple after the exile (Ruding., Rosenm. II., Ewald), or of the exile itself (Rabb., Flam., Rosenm. I.), or of the fall of the Assyrians (Von Leng.), or of the raising of the siege of Jerusalem in connection with Hezekiah’s sickness (Venema, Muntinghe, Kφster). The title of the Sept. names it a resurrection Psalm, perhaps with reference to Psalms 66:12 (Delitzsch). The Greek Church has retained this name. Str. I. Psalms 66:2. Give glory.—This is not to be taken as Joshua 7:19, Isaiah 42:12; Jeremiah 13:16, but as Ps. 29:12; Deuteronomy 32:3, in the sense of giving λָּ ?αεֹ ?γ. For this word is placed immediately before, in the objective sense. Hence it cannot be rendered: give the honor (namely) to His praise (or: His renown), that is, make His praise glorious (most interpreters, [A. V.]). The sense can only be: recognize glory (or majesty) His renown. For this rendering it makes no difference whether the last words are regarded grammatically as the second object, or as in apposition, or as connected with the preceding words by an inserted “as.” Psalms 66:3. How terrible,etc.—This is related with the song in heaven, Revelation 15:3 sq.—[Thine enemies dissemble to Thee.—Compare Psalms 18:44. They yield unwilling, constrained, feigned homage. Psalms 66:4. Alexander: “This anticipation of universal homage to Jehovah is in strict accordance with the whole spirit and design of the Mosaic dispensation.”—C. A. B.] Sir. II. Psalms 66:6. They passed through the stream.—The stream is not the Euphrates (Stier, Hengstenberg), but the Jordan. For the reference is to miracles of ancient times, and not of the future, in which the miracle of the Jordan is to be repeated on a grander scale. In the latter case it would be as natural to think of the Nile, Zechariah 10:11, as the Euphrates, comp. Isaiah 11:15 sq.—[There we rejoiced in Him.—This is the rendering of Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Moll, et al. As Delitzsch remarks: “the congregation of all times is a solid unit.” The Psalmist brings these miracles of the past before his hearers, with such vividness that both speaker and hearers seem to be present and engaged in them as members of the chosen people. There is no reference to a possible repetition of these wonders in the future, as even Alexander, or in the present (Perowne).Psalms 66:7. For ever.—As God has wrought His mighty works in the past, so does He govern now, and so will He in all future times. His government is an everlasting government.—His eyes keep watch upon the nations.—The affairs of His people are no less closely scrutinized by God now than of yore, when He led them through the Red Sea and the Jordan. He is the ever—watchful spy of Israel, searching the hearts of the nations to frustrate their evil plans.—C. A. B.]—The rebellious cannot raise (their heads).—This clause begins with ΰַ ?μ, and it cannot be changed for μֹ ?ΰ, or regarded as equivalent to it. Accordingly it does not express a prophecy (Kimchi, Luther, Geier, et al.), but a negative conclusion (Septuagint, Isaki, De Wette, Hengstenberg, et al.), either as a warning or as an expression of prevention. [The author supplies “heads,” as Psalms 3:3; Psalms 110:7; comp. Psalms 75:5-6, where “horn” is used.—C. A. B.] Str. 3 [Psalms 66:9-10. Sets our souls in life,etc.—Delitzsch: “God has turned away from His people the danger of death and of falling; He has put their souls in life, that is, in the sphere of life; He has not left their feet to totter until they fall. For God has cast His people as it were into the smelting furnace or pot, in order to remove their dross by sufferings and preserve them—a favorite figure of Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s, but likewise of Zec 13:9; Malachi 3:3.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 66:11. Thou hast brought us unto the enclosure.—ξְ ?φִ ?εּ ?γָ ?δ is not a net (Sept. and most interpreters, [A. V.]), but a strong place or state of being enclosed (Aquila, Symm., Jerome, Isaki, Luther, Geier, et al.), with the article as here, a designation of the condition of David in the wilderness, 1 Samuel 22:4 sq.; 2 Samuel 5:17; 2 Samuel 23:24 (Hupfeld).—[Hast laid an oppressive burden on our loins.—Delitzsch: “The loins are mentioned, because in carrying heavy burdens, which have to be lifted by squatting down, the lower region of the spine is particularly employed.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 66:12. Hast made men to ride over our head.—This expression cannot be explained in accordance with Isaiah 51:23 (make his back a street for travellers), in behalf of the meaning “subdue, subjugate” (Clauss, Stier), as Psalms 129:3, because the head is mentioned here; but in accordance with Deuteronomy 32:13; Isaiah 58:14 : drive or advance over the high places of the land, Deut. 33:39; Micah 1:3; Amos 4:13 (Kimchi, et al.). It is possible, however, to translate: ride on our heads (Calvin, Geier, and most interpreters); then there would be connected with the idea of subjugation that of hard and shameful treatment. This might be preferred for the reason that the riders are here called ΰֱ ?πεωׁ, and thus the contrast is brought into view between their proud and violent conduct, and their mortal, frail nature, Psalms 9:19 sq.; Psalms 10:18; Psalms 56:1; Isaiah 51:12; 2 Chronicles 14:10 (Delitzsch.)—We came into fire and water—and Thou hast brought us out into abundance.—[Delitzsch: “Fire and water, as Isaiah 43:2, are figurative of the changing perils of death in their extreme forms. Israel was near to being consumed and overwhelmed, but God brought him out to the richest abundance, to the exuberance of prosperity.”—C. A. B.] Many interpreters have objected to ψְ ?εָ ?ιָ ?δ (abundance, Psalms 23:5), because the contrast to the condition of danger figuratively expressed in the previous line, would lead us to expect an expression, somewhat as: wide place (Chald., Symm.), or rest (Arabic, Ζthiop.), or refreshment, enlivenment, recovery (Septuagint, Vulg., Syriac, Aquila). Hence the proposal to change the reading into ψְ ?εָ ?ηָ ?δ (Houbig., et al.) Str. 4 [Perowne: “We have now the personal acknowledgment of God’s mercy, first, in the announcement on the part of the Psalmist of the offerings which he is about to bring, and which he had vowed in his trouble; and then, in the record of God’s dealing with his soul, which had called forth his thankfulness.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 66:14. To which my lips quickly opened.—The quick opening, literally tearing open of the lips refers to the involuntariness of the vow pressed out by necessity, not as Job 35:16, and Judges 11:35, to the hasty vow. Psalms 66:15. Alongside of the lambs and bullocks universally used as animals of sacrifice, rams and goats are here mentioned. The former are mentioned only as the whole burnt—offerings of the high—priest, the prince of the tribe and the people, and as the thank—offering in the shelamim of Aaron, the people, the princes of the tribe, and the Nazarite (Numbers 6:14); the latter are never mentioned as whole burnt—offerings, but only in the shelamim of the princes of the tribes, Numbers 7. Thus apparently the ςιν introduces the shelamim brought in connection with the whole burnt—offerings (Delitzsch). Str. 5 Psalms 66:16-17. [Delitzsch: “The address goes forth, as in Psalms 66:5; Psalms 66:2, to the widest circles, to all who fear God, wherever they may be on earth. He would tell them all that God has caused him to experience in order that God might be glorified and they might be benefited.”—“He cried to God with his mouth (thus not only quietly within the soul, but loud and violently), and a hymn was under my tongue, that is, I was so sure of the hearing of my prayer, that I already had in readiness a song of praise (see Psalms 10:7), which I would strike up when the implored help which was assured to me should come.” Psalms 66:18. If I had seen iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me.—Perowne: “Probably, if I had been conscious of iniquity in my heart, the assertion being that of freedom from anything like purposed deceit, as in Psalms 17:1; Psalms 32:2; or the phrase may mean, as the A. V. takes it: ‘If I had regarded iniquity,’ i.e., looked upon it with pleasure and satisfaction. Compare for this use of the verb (with the accusative) Job 31:26; Hebrews 1:13; Proverbs 23:31. For the general sentiment of the passage, comp. Job 27:8-9 : Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 59:2-3; John 9:31; John 3:21.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 66:20. The closing clause is broken up by most interpreters into two clauses, either by a repetition of the verb in another meaning=who has not rejected my prayer and has not taken away His grace from me (Luther, J. H. Mich., De Wette, Stier), or without the repetition (=who has not removed) by the insertion of the words: “from Himself,” as a contrast to the closing words: from me (Isaki, Venema, Kφster, Hengstenberg, Hitzig), comp. Amos 5:23; Job 23:12. But this is against the sense and the accents. Moreover the prayer is not=that which is asked for (Geier, Hupfeld), but the prayer as the contrast of silence (the ancient versions, Augustine, Delitzsch). The Psalmist rejoices that he can pray at all times, and that the grace of being heard is afforded him. AND ETHICAL1. God’s name has a majesty and a grandeur which constitutes His glory, and is worthy of being praised by the whole world. The enemies of God do this from fear, and therefore they are hypocritical, but those who truly reverence Him thereby testify their sincere thankfulness. “The glory of God is unworthily suppressed, if when He stands by us in misfortune, our deliverance is not followed by solemn thanksgiving” (Calvin). 2. That which is not conformed to the gracious will of God, must submit to His irresistible power; and God sees all. O that the rebellious would allow themselves to be warned by this, and that those who fear God would be comforted. For although they have the severest afflictions and are brought into every imaginable misery, this is only to try them, as gold and silver are melted in the furnace for purification (Isaiah 1:25; Isaiah 48:10; Zechariah 13:9; 1 Peter 1:7); and God is not only their Comforter, but likewise their Deliverer. He leads them in; He will likewise be their Keeper. 3. Every fresh experience of deliverance reminds us of the previous mighty works of God. Among these, those rise pre—eminent which refer to the organization and preservation of the congregation in the midst of a hostile world. These are worthy above all of being brought near and recommended to the consideration of the entire world, and are especially suited to strengthen the hope of the believer in God’s further assistance and to enliven faith in the hearing of prayer. Yet we must not forget that prayers must not come from wicked or hypocritical hearts. For God can deprive men of the gift of prayer as well as the grace of granting the petition, Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 59:2-3; Proverbs 15:29. AND Use and misuse of the name of God.—What are we to learn from the history of our forefathers?—What God does to His people has an importance for the entire world.—Patience, faith, and prayer are necessary in order that we may endure the trials of sufferings.—Not to be able to pray is still worse than to have no answer.—Prayers of wicked hearts are not heard.—The pious will have deliverance, but of grace.—God sees and hears all men, but how does He look upon them, and whether He grants their requests, that is the question. Starke: Men and angels were created for the praise and glory of God, they should thus always be ready and willing.—When you tell others of the guidances of God respecting your soul, take care lest some hypocrisy or self—love creep in, and that the glory of God be your only aim. Franke: The mystery of the cross is the true means of putting a joyous Psalm into our heart and mouth.—Renschel: The faith, constancy and patience of the pious are furthered by affliction.—A noble thanksgiving is due to a great benefit.—Frisch: The most precious and useful narratives are those which a converted heart makes of its own experience of God’s bounties. This strengthens us and edifies our fellow—men.—Tholuck: There are few men whose thanksgivings are so numerous and warm as their prayers.—Taube: He who will not recognize himself as dust and ashes before God, God knows how to make him such; the recognition must be expressed that He is the Lord, whether from the heart or in pain. [Matt. Henry: Much of religion lies in a reverence for the Divine providence.—God brings His people into trouble, that their comforts afterwards may be the sweeter, and that their affliction may thus yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, which will make the poorest place in the world a wealthy place.—What we win by prayer, we must wear with praise.—Barnes: Vows made in trouble, in sickness, in bereavement, in times of public calamity, should be faithfully performed when health and prosperity visit us again; but, alas, how often are they forgotten!—Spurgeon: All the saints must go to the proving house; God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without trial.—Since trial is sanctified to so desirable an end, ought we not to submit to it with abounding resignation?—Nothing hinders prayer like iniquity harbored in the breast.—Facts are blessed things when they reveal both God’s heart as loving, and our own heart as sincere.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Petowne translates: “There let us rejoice in Him. There, pointing as it were to the field in which God had made bare His arm, and where the past history had been repeated in the present, there, let us rejoice in Him.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 67 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song1         God be merciful unto us, and bless us; And cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. 2    That thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations. 3    Let the people praise thee, O God; Let all the people praise thee. 4    O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: For thou shalt judge the people righteously, And govern the nations upon earth. Selah. 5    Let the people praise thee, O God; Let all the people praise thee. 6    Then shall the earth yield her increase; And God, even our own God, shall bless us. 7    God shall bless us; And all the ends of the earth shall fear him. AND Analysis of Contents.—Since the Hebrew tenses are capable of many references to time, it would be admissible to regard Psalms 67:3; Psalms 67:5 as statements respecting the praise of God by all nations, which had already occurred (De Wette), which fact would then admit of various explanations in accordance with its value and reality, as well as with respect to its reasons and its significance. The same remarks apply to the final clause in which the fear of God takes the place of His praise. We might likewise find in the harvest mentioned by the perfect as finished (Psalms 67:6 a), a statement of the fact of the blessing (Psalms 67:6 b), and the pledge of its continuance (Psalms 67:7 a). The latter reference is, however, for the Israelites, contained in the fruits of the harvest (Leviticus 26:4), and it would be more in accordance with the tone of the prayer to find in these words the expression of a wish for the continuance of universal blessings, this wish having originated from the recent appropriation of the pledge resting upon Divine promises. This interpretation is still further recommended by the fact that in the two lines, Psalms 67:6 b and 7a, the same tense is used as in Psalms 67:1 a, where the optative is certainly meant, since there is there indeed not an answer of the people (J. D. Mich., Stier), but an appropriationand free repetition of the blessing of the High Priest, Numbers 4:24 sq. When now Psalms 67:2 puts this blessing of Israel in direct relation to the making known God’s ways and the salvation (ιְ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?ςָ ?δ) therein to be obtained by deliverance, it is much more natural to give the words which follow, a Messianic reference in the universal sense, which is contained in the blessing of Abraham (Genesis 12:3), and to recognize the missionary character of this Psalm, which appears likewise in the hymn of Luther: “Es woll’ uns Gott, genδdig sein,” than merely to find here a manifestation of the goodness of God in general, and a lyrical transition from the national to the universal stand—point, embracing mankind (Hupfeld), in which God, in accordance with the nature of Monotheism, is designated as the object of the praise and reverence likewise of the heathen. In this state of the case, likewise, it is most natural to regard Psalms 67:3 sq. as optative, and only to let the final clause conclude with the future. For thus the clauses, which constantly implore, in believing appropriation, the blessings promised and bestowed, are entwined with those which proclaim and wish for, in accordance with the promises and in the joy of faith, the salvation to be obtained through the blessings in Israel, and praise of God among the heathen. Thus there is formed a chain; the end of which not merely bends back towards the beginning, but has partly an internal progress, partly opens an infinite prospect. Hence the spiritual interpretation of the fruitfulness of the earth, (Luther, Stier, after the older interpreters) seems to be arbitrary. We are to think of a blessed harvest, which we have reason to consider not merely as an occasion for the composition of the Psalm (Kτster, Ewald, Hitzig), but at the same time as an occasion for far—reaching thoughts, (Calvin, Hengst.), and as the pledge of more (Venema, J. H. Mich.), if not the type of higher blessings (Stier). The attempts to put the composition in the time of the Maccabees (Olsh., Hitzig), or the restoration of the kingdom after the exile (Ewald), or after the deliverance from the Assyrians under Hezekiah (Venema, and Von Leng.), are entirely without proofs and support. Str. I. Psalms 67:1. Cause His face to shine among us.—The change of the phrase “upon thee,” (Numbers 6:25) into “among us” is connected on the one side with the entire appropriation of the blessing of the High Priest, on the other side with the purpose directly expressed, which latter is already prepared by the change of Jehovah into Elohim, and appears as the principal thought of the Psalm by the transition from the indirect to the direct discourse. The expression: among or with us, accordingly does not indicate the nearness of the help (Geier), but the accompanying (Hengst.), or better, the guiding presence of God. [Psalms 67:2. Thy way—Thy salvation.—Alexander: “Thy way, i.e., Thy mode of dealing with Thy people, referring more particularly here to providential favors, the knowledge of which he hopes to see extended to all nations, as a means to the promotion of still higher ends. The pleonastic phrase, saving health, retained by the A. V. from an older one, has nothing corresponding to it in the Hebrew, but the single word which always means salvation, and is commonly so rendered.”—C. A. B.] [Str. 2 Psa 67:4. For Thou judgest.—This is not the judicial condemning and punishing, but as Psalms 72:12 sq.; Isaiah 11:3 sq., the righteous government of the royal ruler.—[Thou leadest.—Perowne: “The verb is the same as in Psalms 23:3, God being the great Shepherd of all nations.”—C. A. B.] [Str. 3 Psa 67:6. The earth hath yielded her increase.—Moll, with most interpreters, renders the verb in its natural sense. Some, however, as the A. V., regard it as the prophetic past, and translate as future. Ewald translates it as present. The natural reference is to a recent harvest, on the basis of which the Psalmist prays the final prayer that: “God our God may bless us, and all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. The congregation of the Lord can have no wish more acceptable to God, than that He should bestow upon them blessings spiritual and bodily, in order that their welfare and its manifest cause may make known to the heathen the salvation which God gives to those who fear Him, and the ways upon which He brings this to pass. The congregation thus maintains its true historical and redemptive position, and fulfils at the same time its missionary calling. 2. The ground upon which this hope, which has grown up out of faith in the truth of God’s promises is based, that the heathen will attain their destiny, is the government of God in the history of the world, which is manifest to all nations, and is as righteous as it is gracious. The occasion of a prayer of this kind is given in the bestowal of a blessed harvest, partly as a testimony of His power and goodness in general, partly as a seal of His promises, partly as a pledge of additional gracious guidance. AND God’s blessing is to be implored in faith, received with thanksgiving, used in accordance with God’s will.—The gifts of God to His people should benefit the whole world.—The righteous government and the gracious guidance of men are as worthy objects of praise, as valuable foundations of hope.—The congregation is not only called to receive the Divine blessing, but likewise to spread it abroad, and should allow itself to be properly prepared and guided thereto. The aim, hope, and right of missionary work.—The end, basis, and means of hope in missions.—The end, way, and guardian of our pilgrimage.—God would not only reign as monarch of the world, but men should know likewise the ways in which He leads them.—God not only guides His people in the right ways, but He quickens them under the way, Isaiah 58:11.—God has made known His ways (Psalms 25:10) to His people (Psalms 103:7) that they may walk therein, and teach other nations to do this.—The land has given its increase; how is it with the people in general?—How with the congregation? How with thee?Starke: The pious share their bodily blessings with the ungodly, but these are properly no blessings to the latter; but spiritual blessings belong only to the children of God.—All depends upon properly knowing God, and the way of life pointed out by Him.—In the kingdom of God it is demanded of each and every member, to be fruitful in good works.—God’s grace makes no man poor, but may make him rich. Franke: God’s grace, blessing, the light of His countenance, are not for temporal blessedness, but for eternal life.—Tholuck: Longing after the most spiritual of all blessings that the salvation from God should arise in Israel and its light shine over all the heathen on earth.—Guenther: These are the true prophets and teachers, upon whose countenance the glance of the Divine light still remains.—Taube: Prophetic glance at the erection of the kingdom of God among all nations. [Matt. Henry: We need desire no more to make us happy than to have God’s face shine upon us, to have God love us, and let us know that He loves us.—We shall have never the less of God’s mercy, and blessing, and favor, for others coming in to share with us.—It is good to cast in our lot with these that are the blessed of the Lord.—Barnes: The happiness of man depends on a knowledge of the principles on which God bestows His favors; for all men are, in all things, dependent on Him. Individuals and nations, as they follow the counsels of God, are safe and happy; and in no other way.—Spurgeon: Our love must make long marches, and our prayers must have a wide sweep; we must embrace the whole world in our intercessions.—We never know God aright till we know Him to be ours, and the more we love Him the more do we long to be fully assured that He is ours.—C. A. B.] Psalms 68 To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David         Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: Let them also that hate him flee before him. 2    As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: As wax melteth before the fire, So let the wicked perish at the presence of God, 3    But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. 4    Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: Extol him that rideth upon the heavens By his name JAH, and rejoice before him. 5    A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, Is God in his holy habitation. 6    God setteth the solitary in families: He bringeth out those which are bound with chains: But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.7    O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, When thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: 8    The earth shook, The heavens also dropped at the presence of God: Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 9    Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, Whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. 10    Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. 11    The Lord gave the word: Great was the company of those that published it.12    Kings of armies did flee apace: And she that tarried at home divided the spoil. 13    Though ye have lain among the pots, Yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, And her feathers with yellow gold. 14    When the Almighty scattered kings in it, It was white as snow in Salmon. 15    The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; A high hill as the hill of Bashan. 16    Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; Yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever. 17    The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.18    Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive; Thou hast received gifts for men; Yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.19    Blessed be the Lord, who daily Loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. 20    He that is our God is the God of salvation; And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. 21    But God shall wound the head of his enemies, And the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses. 22    The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea: 23    That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, And the tongue of thy dogs in the same. 24    They have seen thy goings, O God; Even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. 25    The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after;Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels. 26    Bless ye God in the congregations, Even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. 27    There is little Benjamin with their ruler, The princes of Judah and their council, The princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali. 28    Thy God hath commanded thy strength: Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. 29    Because of thy temple at Jerusalem Shall kings bring presents unto thee. 30    Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, Till every one submit himself with pieces of silver: Scatter thou the people that delight in war. 31    Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. 32    Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah: 33    To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; Lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice. 34    Ascribe ye strength unto God: His excellency is over Israel, And his strength is in the clouds. 35    O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God. AND Its Contents and Composition.—This Psalm, if not the most difficult (J. D. Mich.), is yet the most disputed (Hupfeld), on account of many obscure allusions, rare expressions, and doubtful readings. It is a Titan (Hitzig), the most glowing, the boldest and the most powerful hymn of the whole collection (Hupfeld), a Psalm in the style of Deborah, advancing to the highest pinnacle of hymnic invention and representation (Delitzsch). It is reckoned by some to the later (Gesenius, Ewald, Hupfeld), by others to the latest (Ruding., Reuss, Olsh.), by others still to the most ancient monuments of Hebrew poetry (De Wette, Bφttcher, Hengst., Hitzig, Delitzsch), because the highest originality in figures and words is mingled frequently in this lyrical work of art, with unmistakable repetitions of the favorite words of previous writings. These, in many particulars, still need a satisfactory explanation. Yet the Psalm is so transparent in its chief features, so sublime and edifying that it deserves and admits of another application than as a “monument of exegetical extremity and skill,” (Ed. Reuss, 1851). The fundamental thought is as clear as the arrangement and rhythmical organization, namely: The celebration of an entrance of God into His sanctuary on Zion after a victory, and His rule over the world extending itself from thence. The opening strophe with the very first words (Psalms 68:1) awakens the most precious remembrances of Israel by the watch-word of Num 10:3-5, and by changing it into the form of a wish refers to circumstances in Israel in which the repetition of those previous events is necessary, and is directly implored (Psalms 68:2) in order to the ruin of the wicked (Psalms 68:3), as well as the joy of the righteous, it transports us into the midst of a victorious march led by God through steppes, in reference to which the righteous are exhorted to praise God with festive joy (Psalms 68:4) as the Father and Helper of the forsaken (Psalms 68:5), who provides a home for the solitary and the prisoner, whilst the rebellious remain in the land which is scorched by the heat of the sun (Psalms 68:6). Then follows a glance at the providential care of God over His people in the Arabian desert after the exodus from Egypt and the revelation on Sinai (Psalms 68:7-10), with a repetition of the words of Deborah, Judges 4:4 sq., which go back to Deuteronomy 33:2; comp. Exodus 19:15 sq., as Habakkuk 3 depends upon this Psalm. This forms the transition to the hope expressed in Psalms 68:11-14, of a new victory over hostile kings. For the Divine names, Adonai and Shaddai, after the use of Elohim eleven times, the words Psalms 68:13, and the absence of preterites are in favor of the supposition that the reference here is no longer to previous events, but expected ones, although in allusion to the fact that previous events are to be repeated, namely, the decision by God’s oracle and the celebration of the viotory by festival choirs of women. By this victory it is established that Zion has been chosen by Jehovah for the abiding habitation of historical revelation (Psalms 68:15-16), notwithstanding its littleness in comparison with other mountains. It is comparable with Sinai in holiness, and likewise protected, as well as honored by the presence of God, surrounded by His angelic hosts (Psalms 68:17-18). Israel now likewise feels that he is supported and delivered by this God and Lord (Psalms 68:19-20), and can safely reckon upon the ruin of his enemies (Psalms 68:21-23.) God’s festal march of victory will be seen (Psalms 68:24-25); all the tribes of the people will praise Him (Psalms 68:26-27); the consequences of this act of judgment and deliverance will be felt throughout the whole earth, whilst the great monarchies will submit themselves and mighty kings with their people will turn to God in homage (Psalms 68:28-31), and they are summoned to do this because He thunders down from the highest heavens of old upon the rebellious (Psalms 68:32-33), but to His people, over whom His glory rules from His sanctuary, He gives power from on high. Hence all the world should acknowledge God’s power, and Israel should praise Him (Psalms 68:34-35). It follows from this survey with sufficient clearness, that this Psalm is not a direct prophecy of Christ, as to His advent, His saving doctrine, His triumphant ascension to heaven, His all-embracing sovereignty and Divine glory (J. H. Mich., after the fathers and most, of the older theologians, especially in connection with the citation of Psa 68:18 in Ephesians 4:8). Moreover it does not admit of a merely spiritual application (Flamin., Calvin) and typical interpretation (Stier), but it has a Messianic meaning, yet not through the prophetic idea of the reunion of the divided kingdoms and the restoration of the monarchy (Hupf), but through the proclamation of the spreading of the Divine kingdom among the heathen by means of the victorious deeds of the God of historical revelation, who is enthroned upon Zion as in heaven. If this fundamental thought is not recognized, the Psalm falls asunder into two parts, and there is left on the one side, merely the sanctuary of God (J. D. Mich.), or His holy majesty (Clauss), or His march of victory (Herder), on the other side the general feelings, remembrances and hopes of the people (Reuss.). These are then the subject and form the contents of a festival hymn, which can be put in almost any time that we may desire, if we either look away altogether from definite historical events as an occasion for its composition, and merely recognize the lyrical shaping of a general idea, or if we likewise entirely reject the composition by David, as stated in the title. Accordingly it has been actually placed in the times of the Maccabees (Olshausen), especially with reference to the consecration of the Temple, 1 Maccabees 5 (Rudinger), in the time of the rule of the Ptolemies or the Seleucidζ (Reuss), in the period of the exile or shortly afterwards (Ewald, Kφster, Hup-feld), in the time of the struggle of Josiah with the Egyptian king Necho (Thenius), of Hezekiah with the Assyrians (Kimchi, Bφttcher), of the confederate kings Jehoshaphat and Joram with Moab and Edom, 2 Kings 3. (Hitzig), in the time of Solomon (De Wette). There are points of contact, but always at the same time serious objections to these references. The reasons adduced against the time of David and his composition of the Psalm however are very weak. The mention of the Temple may be explained as in Psalms 5:7, and the combination of Ζthiopia which was never at war with Israel, with Egypt the beast of the reed, shows clearly that the reference here is not to a victory over Egypt and Cush, but that these are the representatives of the heathen monarchies in general (Hengsten.). Since now Assyria is not mentioned here as one of these powers; since, furthermore, Zebulon and Naphtali are mentioned along side of Judah and Benjamin, and indeed with reference to a joint celebration of victory in Jerusalem, finally, since Jehovah marches with them in the ark of the covenant; we are led back to times previous to and not subsequent to the division of the Davidic empire or indeed the exile, and certainly back of Solomon, for his government was throughout peaceful. In this state of affairs, however, it is unnecessary to remain satisfied with the time of David in general (Calvin). We may think of the removal of the ark to Mount Zion, 2 Samuel 6 (most of the older interpreters, finally, Stier, von Hofmann), or of the triumphal return after the happy issue of a war, and indeed in the last case, not so much of the war with the Syrians and Edomites, 2 Samuel 8 or 10 (Cler., Rosenm.), as with the Ammonites and Syrians, 2 Samuel 11 (Flam., Thol., Hengsten., Reinke, et al.) It is best however not to think of the going forth of the ark at the beginning of the war (Venema, et al.), or of the celebration of victory at its close, but in accordance with the tone and course of thought, of the expression of the certainty of victory which is in part prophetic, in the course of this perilous war, which extended into the second year (Delitzsch), on which occasion the ark of the covenant was carried forth with the army, 2 Samuel 9:11. Str. 1. Psalms 68:1. Let God arise.—Elohim is used here instead of Jehovah (Numbers 10:35). We are to take the verb as the imperfect instead of the imperative, yet not as a future (most interpreters), or as a hypothetical present (Vatabl., De Wette, Hengstenberg, Hitzig). For in the one case we would have a promise, in the other, a clause of general application. But we have nothing to do with either of these, but with an expression of prayer in the repetition of those words with which Moses, in marching through the wilderness, after each halt, called upon the ark of the covenant to arise and go forward, not as if the ark was called God Himself (the Rabbins), but because the pillar of cloud and fire, the sign of the Divine presence, rested upon it. [Psalms 68:2. It may be that the figures of this verse, smoke and war, were suggested by the pillar of cloud and fire, as Hupfeld and Herder contend. At all events, they are frequent in the Scriptures, especially in connection with Theophanies, comp. Psalms 37:20; Psalms 97:5; Hosea 13:3; Micah 1:4.—C. A. B.] Psalms 68:4. Cast up a highway for Him who driveth along through the steppes, Jah is His name.—The name Jah, shortened from Jehovah, is first found in Exodus 15:2, and is probably derived from this passage, as likewise Psalms 118:14; Isaiah 12:2. But that the entire formula, of casting up (namely a highway, Isaiah 57:14; Isaiah 62:10) through the pathless wilderness, has been derived from Isaiah 11:3 (Hupfeld), is a supposition as ungrounded as the assertion (Hitzig) that the previously-mentioned words from Numbers 10 have originated from this Psalm. The reverse is true in both cases. The plural ςψαεϊ is certainly not to be derived from ςψα=evening, and to be referred to the region of the evening (Septuagint, Vulgate, et al.), or that of sunset=gloom of misery and night of misfortune, over which the Lord advances and leads His people to the sunrise (Schegg), or to be regarded in the sense of clouds=heaven (Chald., Rabbins), from whence the Lord is to come. It is the plural from ςψαδ= sandy desert, which is found not only between Babylon and Canaan, or in Arabia, but likewise on the Jordan. Psalms 68:6. God, who maketh the solitary to dwell at home.—These are not the childless (Psalms 113:9) who are promised a numerous posterity, but the forsaken, who are to have a home given to them, Isaiah 58:7—[Leadeth forth prisoners into prosperity.—λεֹ ?ωָׁ ?ψεֹ ?ϊ is found only here. It is interpreted by most of the ancient versions, the Rabbins, A. V., et al., as=chains, as if it were related to χωׁ ?ψ. But Symm. renders: ἐιςἀπόλυσιν, and the Syriac: “into abundance.” Hupfeld regards it as equivalent to the more usual λִּ ?ωְׁ ?ψεֹ ?ο, Ecclesiastes 2:21, from λωֹׁ ?ψ, a later Hebrew and Aramaic form for ιωׁ ?ψ, and thus properly=the true condition, prosperity.—Only the rebellious.—This is stronger and better than the “but” of A. V. The rebellious are those who refuse the guidance of the God of grace. These are obliged to remain in the dry and parched land, in the wilderness, and “do not come into the land which is fructified by the waters of grace, and shine in fresh green and rich fruits” (Delitzsch).—C. A. B.] Str. 2. Psalms 68:8.—Yon Sinai before the face of Elohim, the God of Israel.—Sinai is not mentioned as the primitive throne of God, but as the scene of His majesty, as well as the giving of the law and its terrors, and as the starting-place of His march towards Canaan, in contrast with the second throne on Zion (Hupfeld after Geier, et al.). The ζֶ ?δ is not to be connected with Elohim (Luther, Calvin), but with Sinai, and the expression is derived from Judges 5:5 : From that song of Deborah is likewise derived the expression: “the heavens dropped,” namely, the rain. Str. 3. Psalms 68:9. Richly with rain didst Thou sprinkle Thine inheritance.—The reference here is hardly to storms to fructify the land (J. D. Mich., Bφttcher), or those giving victory (Herder), but either to the manna as the bread of heaven (Joshua 6; Psalms 78:24; Psalms 105:40), expressly called rain from heaven, Exodus 16:4; Psalms 78:23 (Venema, Schnurrer, De Wette, Stier, Reuss, Hupfeld), or figurative, not of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (the older interpreters), but of the bestowal of gifts (Rosenm., Hengstenberg, Delitzsch), which come down from heaven as the rain of willingness, that is, freely, richly (Job 37:6; Psalms 110:3), upon the land of Jehovah (Hosea 9:3), which is likewise called the inheritance of God in 2Ma 2:4 (Hitzig, Delitzsch). That we are to think first not of the people (Hupfeld) but of the land (Calvin), follows from Psalms 68:10, where it is said that in it (not among them) God’s living creatures found their dwelling-place (ιωׁ ?α). This expression shows at the same time that we are not to think of God’s creatures in general (Geier, J. D. Mich., et al.), or of the quails of the wilderness parallel with the manna (Schnurrer, Hupfeld), but of the congregation, whether we find it designated thereby as the complex of a flock of living creatures, 1 Samuel 18:18 (Rabbins, Calvin, et al.), after the Arabic=people (Hitzig), or as the little creature=herd of God, Micah 7:14; Ps. 79:19 (Luther, et al., Delitzsch), or go back to the root ηε and accept the meaning: tent-circle, circular encampment (2 Samuel 23:11; 2 Samuel 23:13). Str. 4. Psalms 68:11. The Lord gives the word (of authority).—The word means here hardly merely news, namely, of the victory, but with this reference rather, song, hymn of triumph (Calvin, Hupfeld). Since however the female chorus of victory is mentioned directly in connection with the division of booty, and it is better to regard ΰֹ ?ξֶ ?ψ as a Divine word, either of promise (Psalms 77:8) or of powerful effect (Habakkuk 3:9), and it is designated in Psalms 68:33, as in Isaiah 30:30, as the sound of thunder, and Zechariah 9:14, as the blast of a trumpet, we have here to think not of the watch-word in war (Herder, et al.), but rather of the word of power (Delitzsch, in part Reuss, G. Baur), which not only commands the war and promises the victory, but brings, effects and gives the victory. There is no reference here to the preaching of the gospel (older interpreters). Psalms 68:12. The kings of hosts are in ironical contrast (Bφttcher) with Jehovah Sabaoth. The correct translation: flee, was originally derived from the Rabbins. Previously the word was derived from ιγγ=love, unite oneself, rather than from πγγ.—She that abideth at home, is not the congregation of Israel (Rabbins), but the mistress of the house, “the woman in the tent,” Judges 5:24. Psalms 68:13. Would you lie between the hurdles? The wings of the dove are overlaid with silver,etc.—The translation: although you now lie between sooty pots, you will become white and shining as the wings of the dove (Rabbins, Calvin, [A. V.], et al.), is certainly false. We are not only to strike out the “although now,” which is inserted in the text, but likewise to put instead of sooty pots either: boundaries (Chald., Jerome), or: hurdles (Kimchi). If the former should be adopted, however, the sense could not be: if you lie between the boundaries, that is to say, on the field in order of battle, you will shine (in the splendor of arms) as the wings of the dove (Luther, Geier). For the dove is a figure of peace or of rapid flight. The two chief explanations are then in this direction, whether we retain the meaning: boundaries (Rosenm., Bφttcher, Stier, Hengstenberg), or put in place of this: hurdles, Genesis 49:14; Judges 5:16 (Hupfeld, Hitzig, Delitzsch). The reference is certainly to the rest of the peaceful land and the shepherd’s life, which is likewise recognized in the untenable interpretation: women drinking (J. D. Mich.). If now the dove is regarded as the figure of peace or of domestic life, and at the same time we recognize the fact that the emphasis is upon its shining play of colors, we may take the clause either as scornful, and as a reproachful question, whether they resign themselves to the idle and easy rest, and gaze at the play of colors of the flying dove (J. D. Mich., Herder, Kφster), or we may take it as a promise that after the victory, in peace the wings of the dove, that is to say, the people of Israel (Schnurrer) as the dove of God (Delitzsch), Psalms 74:19; Hosea 7:11; Hosea 11:11, or their women (Munting., De Wette, Reuss) will be brilliant in the jewels of the booty which is rich in gold and silver. This, then, in the spiritual interpretation, is referred to the fact that the manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit unfold their splendor in the people (Stier). If now it is objected to this, that it is not the dove or its neck, but its wings which afford the point of comparison, and this is the correct view, and we think accordingly of rapid flight, then it is not the members of Israel which are designated by these expressions, nor the gold and silver field-badges of the enemy which are part, of the booty (Maurer), but these wings themselves; and the glance is inclined to their glistening richness, because it is to be the booty of the Israelites. Whether now we are to regard this again as a promise and a mere figure of the brilliant lot appointed to the people of Israel in the lap of future peace (Hengstenberg), or as a description of the real booty in order to inflame them with a zeal in pursuit of it, and as a reproachful reproof of those who would remain lying in peaceful pursuits or between their boundary stakes (Bφttcher, von Hofmann), depends partly on the general view of the context, and partly whether we take the particle ςִ ?ν, which begins the clause, as a conjunction=if, or as an interrogative particle. We decide for the latter, since such questions of astonishment are used in connection with warlike scenes, 2 Samuel 23:10; 1Ma 7:45 sq.; Jdt 15:4 sq. Moreover the reference back to Genesis 49:14; Numbers 32:5 sq.; Judges 5:16, is manifest, and the mingling of ideas and figures is avoided (Delitzsch), and there is evident not only a thought clear in it-self expressed in a natural and easily understood figure, but at the same time a real advance in the discourse. Psalms 68:14. When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it snowed on Zalmon (=dark mountain).—God is designated as Shaddaο, which only occurs once more in the Psalms (Psalms 91:1); and in the prophets only in Joe 1:15; Isaiah 13:6; Ezekiel 1:24; in the Pentateuch only in Numbers 24:4; Numbers 24:16; then in Rth 1:20-21. It is used however, 30 times in Job, whilst the fuller form el shaddaο is found as characteristic (Exodus 6:3) for the time of the Patriarchs, Genesis 17:1; Genesis 28:3; Genesis 35:11; Genesis 43:14; Genesis 48:3 (in the Samaritan text likewise Genesis 49:25), and besides only in Ezekiel 10:5. Now this is connected, not so much with the ancient character of the Psalm (G. Baur.), or with the derivation of this verse (Olsh.), as well as the two preceding (Hupfeld, et al.), from an ancient song, as with the fact that almost all the names of God are found distributed in appropriate places in the Psalm. In accordance with the context, the Hebrew verb, which properly means: “spread out,” is regarded by most interpreters as=“scattered,” and “in it” is referred to the country, whether Moab or some other one and the kings are regarded as hostile princes and captains. For the interpretation of the latter as princes of Israel and as types of the elect of God (Aben Ezra, Stier) or as regents set up here and there by God, through whom light comes in the darkness (Luther, Rosenm.), corresponds neither with the words nor the thought of the text. It is true we might translate: “have a snowy aspect, be as white as snow, to be pure, shine” (Rφdiger in Ges. Thesaur., Hitzig), instead of “snow,” but the reference to snow must not be left out of view. The kings here might be compared with a light illuminating the darkness; but their being scattered can be better represented by the figure of the falling of snow; or even the consequence of this by the figure of a snowy appearance. Neither of these figures agree with the disputed meaning of Zalmon: darkness, shade (Chald., Theod., Rabbins, Reuss.), but both are in accordance with the reference to Judges 9:48, where the mountain Zalmon (Sept., Syr.) south of Shechem, is mentioned, whose name may be connected with Zelem=shadow, on account of its well-known richness in forests, and notwithstanding its comparative unimportance, might be chosen here on account of its name, which to the Hebrew ear was adapted for a play upon words (snow on the dark mountain or black forest). Now we have in the text not λִ ?=as on Zalmon, but αְ ?=either: on or, in the manner of Zalmon. In connection with the little height and southerly position of this mountain, we cannot think of a snowy mountain or a usual and frequent fall of snow. Thus all the explanations are excluded which find a comparison between the brilliancy of the booty which has fallen from the fugitives (Von Hofmann), or the bleeding bones of the slain (Rivet., De Wette, et al.), and the snow of Zalmon, or regard the snow whiteness of the dark mountain as a figure of the encouragement of the previously sorrowing Israel (Calvin, J. H. Mich., Hengst., et al.). These explanations gain a supportable sense at the most only when Zalmon is at the same time brought forward as a place either of battle or of refuge to the fugitives (Delitzsch), or when there is found in the clause: “then snow fell on Zalmon,” a figurative expression of the thought: then the mountain, to celebrate this joyous event, clothed itself in a bright garment of light (Wetzstein in Delitzsch’s Com.). But for such a geographical and historical reference of the clause with respect to the foundation of the figure, as the mountains of Hauran, consisting of black rocks with the doubtful name of Asalmanos in Ptolemδos for one of its mountains (Wetzstein), or a high mountain of somewhat the same name among the mountain peaks of Bashan (Bφttcher) would be more appropriate than the mountain near Shechem, previously the only one of the name known which yet could not be put for the entire land (Von Leng., Hengst.). If we could put the battle there, it would be much more natural likewise to regard the snowing as simply historical than to vex ourselves with doubtful figures which can only be understood by suggestion. With this agrees the interpretation that the fall and ruin of many kings has been designated as a snowing of the slain (De Wette), especially of kings in the black mountains (Bφttcher, Thol.). In this case, again, the interpretation that the fall of snow in question rendered the flight of the fugitives more difficult, or cut off all places of refuge (De Dieu), would be more natural than the supposition of a scornful citation from an ancient hymn of victory in accordance with which the rough weather on Zalmon situated somewhat in the south would be given as a reason for the disinclination to march forth to the mountain situated in the north (Herder, Hupf). Since, however, there is no historical statement here, but rather a prophetical declaration, we are rather led to a figurative mode of expression, whose sense, however, is as obscure as its foundation and occasion is unknown. With this result, the translation: “and snowy bright it shines in the dark” (Reuss) must likewise rest satisfied. Str. V., Psalms 68:15-16. A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan, a mount full of peaks, the mountain of Bashan. Why do ye look with envy, ye many peaked mountains, on the mountain on which God has chosen to dwell?—The sense is the same whether we regard these and the following words as vocatives as an address to the mountains (Munting., De Wette, Reuss) or as a simple sentence (most interps.). The mountains of Bashan consisting of basalt, now rising up like columns into sharp points, and then conical in truncated peaks, even if we do not reckon in lofty Hermon (Olsh., Hupf., Hitzig), as boldly formed masses of rock of gloomy majesty, make the impression of antiquity and invincibility when compared with the Cis-Jordanic mountains, especially with Zion, which consist of porous limestone and milder forms (Delitzsch). They are thus adapted to a figure of worldly power in contrast with the congregation of God. Besides they were for the most part inhabited by heathen nations hostile to the people of Israel. The reference here is to lurking (Sept., Isaki, Kimchi), and so crafty and hostile (Aquil., Jerome), or envious and jealous looking over at them (J. H. Mich., and most interps.), not to the leaping of these many-peaked mountains (Chald., Luther), nor coagulated (Sept.), stiff with ice (J. H. Mich.). Yet it is unnecessary to think of the actual hostility of those nations (Bφttcher, Ewald, Hengst.) The use of this expression in order to contrast Bashan with Zion is explained not only from the dangers threatening the Theocracy from the north, but is occasioned by the fact, that notwithstanding the previous conquest of Bashan by Moses, these mountains were not selected as the seat of the Theocracy (Herder, De Wette), although they as Sinai were ancient mountains of God, properly a mountain of gods (J. H. Mich., Hupf., Hitzig) Psalms 36:6, and not a ridge of godlike greatness (Bφttcher), one favored by God (Hengst.), a high mighty mountain (De Wette, et al.), or one conspicuous as a basaltic mountain above all other creations of God (Delitzsch). From the erroneous opinion that the mountain of God could only mean Zion (finally again Stier), the ancient versions and interpreters have made it the subject of the clause and the mountain of Bashan the predicate and found the sense: the mountain of God is a fruitful mountain; Bashan being taken as the type of fruitfulness. Then they put, the heights in the place of the many peaks, because they did not understand the vowel points, and explained it symbolically of spiritual elevation. Only since J. D. Mich, and Herder has the true interpretation, been known, to which however, Rivetus (comm. in pss. proph. Amst. 1545) pointed in vain. Psalms 68:17. The chariots of God are myriads, thousands and again thousands, the Lord among them—(it is)a Sinai in sanctity.—Over against the warlike powers of the kings of hosts (Psalms 68:12), the infinitely superior power of God is designated with expressions which are derived from the characteristics of warlike power, Psalms 20:7; Habakkuk 3:8; Habakkuk 3:15, and are therefore symbols not only of sovereign power (Hengst.), but at the same time of triumphant victory (Schnurrer). They remind us, on the one side, of the fiery horses and chariots that carried up Elijah and surrounded Elisha to protect him (2 Kings 2:11; 2 Kings 6:17), and on the other of the holy myriads (Deuteronomy 33:2) surrounding God on Sinai, and therefore bringing before the soul the innumerable angels of God (Daniel 7:10; Matthew 26:53). And thus they lead in this passage not to the ascension of Christ (most of the older interps.), but yet symbolize more than Divine providence and help (Calvin), namely, the all-conquering presence of the God of revelation and holiness on Zion in its analogy with His previous presence on Sinai. In favor of this is likewise the final clause of Psa 68:17, which is not: on Sinai in the sanctuary (Sept., Vulg., Chald. [A. V.]), but either: Sinai in the sanctuary (most interps. after L. de Dieu), or: a Sinai in holiness (Delitzsch). The latter gives the most suitable sense: that Zion affords a sight as Sinai afforded it when God in His appearance surrounded it with holiness. The former interpreters, however, would give the distorted thought that Sinai now or, as it were, has entered into the sanctuary, and thus Zion has become a second Sinai, in an unclear form. For it is much less natural to suppose that Zion itself has become Sinai by the presence of the ark with the tables of the law than to be reminded of the presence of God in the midst of innumerable multitudes of His angels (Deuteronomy 33:2), the latter, however, not as Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2 (Hengst.) as the mediator of the law-giving, but as the company surrounding His throne and as heavenly attendants in general. We have to do here, however, not with these servants and their use, but with a beholding the glory of the God who manifests Himself on Zion as on Sinai as the heavenly king, and our attention is drawn not to that which happened, as it, were, in the sanctuary, but to that which Zion is when compared with Sinai, namely, a place of the revelation and manifestation of this God. Thus it is not said that Sinai, with its glory of thunder and lightning (Bφttcher), is now in the sanctuary, but that Zion as Sinai brings into view the majestas tremenda of Jehovah. Hence it is preferable to take αַּ ?χּ ?γֶ ?ωׁ (comp. Psalms 68:24) as Psalms 77:13; Exodus 15:11=in the, namely, well known holiness. Under these circumstances, we are not forced to the conjecture, which is very natural, it is true, on account of Deu 33:2, to read αָּ ?ΰξρּ ?ιπι=He has come from Sinai into the (namely, well-known) sanctuary (Pott, Kφster, Maurer, Olsh., Hupf., [Perowne]), instead of αָ ?νρִ ?ιπַ ?ι. Besides this has against it, the fact that, God has not entered into the sanctuary in Zion in the midst of His heavenly hosts, but ascended from Sinai to the height of heaven again as after every descent to earth, and that this fact is directly brought forward in Psalms 68:18. It would be much simpler to suppose that a ξ has fallen away from before Sinai (Hitzig). But then we would have the untrue thought: the Lord among them, (coming) from Sinai in holiness=in unapproachableness, 1 Samuel 6:20.—The closing word is consequently a closer definition of the noun Sinai which immediately precedes; but it is not the Lord, but Zion as the place of His revelation, which is a Sinai like this. A false derivation of ωִׁ ?πְ ?ΰַ ?ο has occasioned the translation: thousands of happy ones or gladly rejoicing ones (Sept., Vulg.). The literal translation of the clause is thousands of repetition.Psalms 68:18. Thou hast ascended up on high. Thou hast led captives captive, Thou hast taken gifts of (=consisting of) men, and even the rebellious, in order to dwell as Jah Elohim.—The dwelling of Jehovah on Zion being referred to, it is natural to think of the “height of Zion” (Jeremiah 31:12; Ezekiel 17:23; Ezekiel 20:40) as the aim of the procession (Hitzig), yet not of the return of the ark which has just taken place (De Wette), but of the first entrance of God into Zion (Ewald, Reuss, Olsh.) after the storming of the citadel of Zion, 2 Samuel 5:7 (Delitzsch), without its being necessary to regard the captives particularly as the bond-slaves of the sanctuary, the Nethinim,Exodus 8:20; comp. Numbers 17:6 (Bφttcher), as the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:23). But the “height” without any further additions, and with the article always elsewhere, means the height of heaven as the dwelling of God, Psalms 7:7; Psalms 18:16; Psalms 93:4; Psalms 102:19 (Hengst., Hupf.), and Psalms 68:33 likewise here points to this, yet there is no mingling of the heavenly and earthly figure and seat of God (Hupf.) here, but the biblical view of the ascent of God into heaven after that He had made Himself known on earth in deeds of omnipotence and love and had conducted the cause of His people there, Psalms 47:5 (Hengst.). Likewise the preterite here refers to such a historical manifestation, and the following expressions show that it has to do with such deeds of God for His people, by which hostile nations were subjected, their gifts of homage brought and accepted, the testimonies of the victorious dwelling of Jehovah among His people increased and confirmed. The enthronement of God in the heaven, His ascent and descent, His dwelling in His house on Zion and among His people agree very well with one another, and are not only symbols and types, but are actual guidances and real foundations of history, which come to fulfilment and completion in and through Christ. Thus this passage (Ephesians 4:8 sq.) is referred to the victorious march (Colossians 2:15) of the triumphant Redeemer, yet from the stand-point of fulfilment it is applied in such a way that the thought comes out that the conqueror has not taken to himself these gifts, which constitute his spoils, for his own enrichment, but for the benefit of men. For there the reference is to “giving ” the gifts, as likewise in the Syriac and Chald., yet here the reference is to “taking.” But this difference vanishes when we regard the tribute, which sometimes is designated as gift and present (2 Samuel 8:2; 2 Samuel 8:6), as consisting of men (Ewald). These are here not the slaves of the temple (Bφttcher), or proselytes (De Wette), or the apostles and evangelists as the servants of God (J. D. Mich.), but those who voluntarily submit themselves in distinction from those who are directly mentioned as made subjects by compulsion. For it is very natural that the clause: “and the rebellious also,” should depend upon the verb (Geier), as the second object subordinate to the first object, “gifts of men.” It is true we might put instead of this expression: gifts among men (Olshausen), that is to say, on earth (Hengstenberg); but the interpretation: and among the rebellious also (Delitzsch), would demand that we should supply the preposition, which would be difficult, and the interpretation: and the rebellious likewise, namely, give Thee (Hengstenberg), would require together with the supply of the verb, a transposition of form. By our interpretation the clause of design unites naturally with the preceding, its structure demanding not that Jβh Elohim should be taken as subject (Delitzsch)=in order that he may dwell, that is to say Jah Elohim continue to dwell. It would be more natural to regard these as vocative (Hengstenberg, Hitzig). But this would make the clause of design too insignificant, or give it a wrong sense, if we should unite it with “ascend,” which besides is against the accents. Hence we take the two last words as a closer definition not only of the subject addressed in all the preceding verbs, but at the same time of His dwelling, as it is brought about by His actions which characterize the conqueror. Thus the connection of the two names of God in this very passage is explained. This is not so much the case if the whole line is regarded as an independent clause: and the rebellious likewise are to serve for a dwelling of Jehovah Elohim, or: dwell with Jehovah Elohim (De Wette, Maurer, Hupf.), whether it is taken as active or as passive. At the same time this would give the prophetical idea of a future conversion of the heathen an unusual manner of expression and one which is less suitable to the context. It leads rather to the thought of a revelation of power and glory made by the God of Israel as the heavenly king and the conqueror of hostile powers, in order that He may dwell on Zion as He is enthroned in heaven, as Jehovah Elohim. There is no reference here to His dwelling in the hearts of men as the third sanctuary (J. D. Mich.) Str. VI. Psalms 68:19. Blessed be the Lord day by day! Are we burdened—He, God, is our help.—By a change of the disputed accentuation (Bδhr after Heidenheim), the designation of time, “day by day,” is by many attached to the second member of the verse (Chald., Isaki, Kimchi). Then the sense is simply: He burdeneth Himself for us (Delitzsch), helps us bear it (Ewald), bears us or is burdened with us (Jerome, Hupfeld); for ςξν is not used of the heaping up of benefits (Calvin, Rudinger, et al.), and since it is here connected with μ, and not as usual with ςμ, and since δָ ?ΰֵ ?μ offers itself as an appropriate subject of the clause, this interpretation is more preferable than the explanation: the God of our help and our salvation daily loadeth us [A. V.], which would lead to an entirely different course of thought. But we may divide the second member into an antecedent and consequent, whilst we connect the designation of time with the first clause; and then the context is in favor of leaving the subject undetermined (L. de Dieu, Hengstenberg, Hitzig). As a matter of course, δָ ?ΰֵ ?μ is not like δεּ ?ΰΰֵ ?μ . We have only translated it thus for perspicuity. The definite article renders God prominent as the well-known God of Israel, who alone is the real and true God. Psalms 68:20. Jehovah the Lord has for death ways of escape.—The reference here is not to issues in death for the enemies (Symmach., the Rabbins, et al.), but ways of deliverance (Calvin), by which we may go forth free (Hitzig) with respect to death (Stier), or at the expense of death (dat. incomm.); an expression so comprehensive that it can mean the departure from death to eternal life, as that in contrast with death, from anxiety of death in peril of life. There is an expression of the highest triumph in the rhymes at the end of the verses, 20, 21, 25 (Bφttcher). Str. VII. Psalms 68:21. The hairy scalp is best understood of a head with luxuriant growth of hair, the sign of the bloom of youth and power (Hupfeld, Delitzsch), as the unshorn head with bristly hair (Bφttcher) is the figure of desolate, wild nature (Stier), or defiant wildness (Geier). It cannot be decided whether there is meant here a prominent person who was then particularly hated (Olsh) Psalms 68:22. Bring back.—The context shows that this does not promise the bringing back of those who have met with misfortune upon mountains or on the sea (Chald. and the Talmudists), nor the deliverance of those threatened with great dangers (Vat., Stier, et al.), nor the leading back of the Israelites scattered in the whole world (Reuss, Olshausen), but the reaching the beaten enemies, whether they have hidden in inaccessible places in the mountain-forests of Bashan, or in the abysses of the sea, that is, the salt sea (Isaiah 16:8; 2 Chronicles 20:2), in order that the people may take vengeance upon them, Numbers 21:34; Deuteronomy 3:2; Amos 9:2 (Geier, et al.) Psalms 68:23. That thou mayest wash thy foot in blood.—According to the present reading, timchaz, we must translate: in order that thou mayest crush (namely them) with thy foot in blood (Hengstenberg). But this is contrary to the accents. If on the other hand the last words are not regarded as adverbial, but according to the accents as the object of the verb: that thou shakest, that is, violently movest thy foot in blood, then we come in conflict with the meaning of the word, comp. Psalms 68:21 and Psalms 110:6; Numbers 24:8; Numbers 24:17. Hence it is appropriate to change the reading into tirchaz, Psalms 58:10=that thou mayest bathe (almost all recent interpreters), and this is more acceptable than to change the letters into ϊֶ ?ηֱ ?ξַ ?υ (Hitzig), in order to get the sense: that he may become red (Kimchi, Vatab., et al.), or become brilliant (Ewald), or dip one-self=become colored (Septuagint, Vulgate, Syr., Flaminius, Calvin, Rudinger [A. V.]).—The tongue of thy dogs have its part in the enemies.—Almost all the older interpreters take the closing word, ξִ ?πֵּ ?δεּ, as a preposition (=of it), and refer it either to the enemy partly distributively, partly to the one who according to Psalms 68:21 goes about proudly and securely (most interpreters), or to the blood (Calvin, Geier, Gesenius, Hengstenberg.) We must then either supply a verb, e.g., drink, or lick, or obtain. This would be hardly admissible and would be harsh after “of their enemies.” It is natural to think of the verb ξִ ?πָּ ?δ (Isaki, comp. Job 7:3; Jonah 2:1; Daniel 1:10); but the sense: He gave the tongue of thy dogs its part of the enemies (J. D. Mich.), is inconsistent with the construction. Accordingly we must regard it as a substantive, either one not found elsewhere, yet usual in the Chald., ξֵ ?ο (Hupfeld and Delitzsch after the proposition of Simon), in connection with which μωεֹ ?ο, which occurs elsewhere as a fem., is considered as a masc., as perhaps Psalms 22:15; Proverbs 26:28, or the well-known word which we get by correcting the form into ξְ ?πָ ?ϊεֹ, Psalms 63:10 (Olshausen), with the meaning: portion of food (Psalms 11:6; Psalms 16:6), which is more appropriate than ξְ ?ξֻ ?πֵּ ?δεּ (Hitzig), in order to get the idea of assignatum=the allotted portion. Sir. VIII. Psalms 68:24. They have seen Thy processions, O God, the processions of my God, of my King in holiness.—The subject is not specifically designated, but concretely thought, and therefore is not to be weakened into an indefinite subject. The perfect does not favor the march against the enemy, as Psalms 77:13; Habakkuk 3:6, but the triumphal procession after the victory, with which the following clauses agree. The supposition of a procession “into the sanctuary” (Hupf., et al.), is against the form of the word, that of a procession “in the sanctuary” (De Wette, Hengstenberg), against usage, hence it is better to translate as Psalms 68:17 b. [in holiness]. Psalms 68:26. Ye from the fountain of Israel—The fountain of Israel is not Christ as the fountain of salvation (many older interpreters), but the ancestor from whom the people sprang, Isaiah 48:1; Isaiah 51:1. The sense is the same whether we regard this verse as the shout of the poet, as Judges 5:9 (Hengstenberg), or as part of the song of the singers and damsels. Psalms 68:27. All portions of the people with their princes are to be represented in this festival gathering. Two southern and two northern tribes are mentioned as representatives; and first Benjamin, because the first royal conqueror of the heathen sprang from it, and because the sanctuary was in its boundaries (Deuteronomy 33:12; Joshua 15:17; Joshua 18:16); then Judah, as the home of David; then follows Zebulon and Napthali, celebrated for their bravery in the song of Deborah (Judges 5:18, comp. Psalms 6:6), which are found in Is. 8:23, in an entirely different connection. Benjamin is called the little, not as the youngest son of Jacob (De Wette), but on account of the little extent of its territory and the small number of its inhabitants, 1 Samuel 9:21. The word ψֹ ?γֶ ?ν is obscure, it cannot mean: “its prince” (Septuagint, Geier, De Wette), but rather: he who conquers it, that is to say, its ruler [A. V.] What then does this mean? Since ψγδ elsewhere is used only of violent subjugation, the reference to the marshal keeping the procession in order (Clericus, Delitzsch), is just as objectionable as the reference to the rule over the Israelites, whether taken historically (Stier, et al.) or prophetically (Hupfeld). Nothing remains then but to go back further than the immediately preceding verses and consider the enemies conquered by the Benjaminites under Saul, 1 Samuel 14:47 sq. (Hengstenberg) as the object of the ruling. [Moll thus translates: There is little Benjamin, their conqueror (namely, the conqueror of the enemies mentioned previously).—C. A. B.] The word ψִ ?βְ ?ξָ ?ϊָ ?ν is still more obscure. For those are demonstratively false derivations, by which they seek to get the meaning princes (the ancient versions, Jerome, Flaminius, Cocc, et al.), by means of the idea: embroidered clothing, or purple. The word ragam means: stone. But the meaning=their stone=their rock=their support or strength (Rosenm., after L. de Dieu), brings a strange thought into the context in a word strange to this thought; and the translation: their stoning, that is, their (the enemies) subduing by the use of sling-stones, or with an allusion to the sling of David (Rivet., Bφttcher in his Proben, Hengst., Baihinger), is at least an obscure expression for a remote thought. The explanation: their throwing one upon another=overthrow (Bφttcher, in Ζhrenlese), is scarcely better. By means of the Arabic (Gesenius, Hitzig, Delitzsch), however, we may get the idea of a thickly pressed throng, a mass of people (Luther, et al.), in connection with which we may think of Judah as the most numerous tribe affording the great masses (Stier, Kφster), without being obliged to change the reading into ψִ ?βְ ?ωָׁ ?ϊָ ?ν(Hupfeld), which word besides would afford the idea of a noisy crowd. It is true we miss the copula, “and,” or the preposition “with,” since the supposition of an apposition is excluded by the sense of the word. Yet the style and circumstances admit of the asyndet. juxtaposition of princes and their multitudes of people. This seems much more tolerable than the translation: there is Benjamin, little,—following the princes of Judah with their crowds (Hitzig), which is connected with another explanation and position of ψֹ ?γֶ ?ν in the clause. Str. IX. Psalms 68:28-29. Thy God has commanded, etc.—Since the sudden address to Israel is strange, and God is again addressed directly in the following clause, and all the ancient versions have the vocative in the first member, it is natural to change the reading from φִ ?εָּ ?δΰֱ ?μδֶ ?ικָ intoφַ ?εֵּ ?δΰֱ ?μֹ ?δִ ?ιν, that is, O God, command (Dathe, Bφttcher, Ewald, Olshausen, Hupfeld), yet it is unnecessary. So likewise we need not think of an address (of the Ephraimite poet) to a king (Jehosaphat) who had come to the help of his people with an army, and with reference to this translate still further: the powerful help of God, as Thou affordedst it to us (Hitzig). This is opposed, not to speak of other objections, by the immediately following undoubted address to God in the words: “From Thy temple.” For there is no occasion for attaching these words to the preceding clause, and then translate: “to Jerusalem,” and connecting this with the following clause (Hupfeld, [Perowne]). The temple is the place in which the kings will offer their gifts, and this temple is at Jerusalem, that is to say, rises up above Jerusalem. The interpretation of ξִ ?ο as, because of, or on account of Thy temple (Symm., Luther, Geier, Ewald, [A. V.]), gives an incorrect sense, the interpretation: from the temple to Jerusalem (Bφttcher), as a statement of the extent of the procession which brings the presents, gives an unnatural local limitation. It is unnecessary, moreover, to connect Psalms 68:29 a. closely with 28b. (De Wette), or to undertake a transposition of the members into the pretended original order, Psalms 68:28 a.29a.28b.29b. (Olshausen). If we find the transitive interpretation of ςַ ?ζַ ?ζ=roborare, objectionable, notwithstanding Proverbs 8:28; Ecclesiastes 7:19, and in spite of the example of the Septuagint, Symm., Flaminius, Calvin, et al., and the consent of Delitzsch and Hupfeld, we may translate: show or prove Thyself mighty (most interpreters) in that which (J. H. Mich., Rosenmόller), or: Thou who, Isaiah 42:24 (Kφster, De Wette, Olsh.), has wrought or done for us. Str. X., Psalms 68:30. Rebuke the beast of the reed, &c.—This is not the boar (Bochart, Oedmann) or the lion (Isaki), whether as a symbol of Syria (Lowth, Schnurrer) or a figure of strong enemies in general (Bφttcher); still less is it the serpent or the dragon as the symbol of Babylon (Gesenius); but either the crocodile, Psalms 74:13; Ezekiel 29:3 (De Wette), or since this animal lives in the Nile itself, and not in the reeds, better, the hippopotamus, Job 40:21 (Hengst., Hitzig, Delitzsch) as the symbol of Egypt (Isaiah 30:6), whose emblem is the reed, Isaiah 36:6. The bulls (literally, the strong ones) are by their connection with calves of the peoples not used as figures of the gods (Hitzig), but of leaders and princes (most interpreters). The proper expression: “peoples,” is used epexegetically alongside of the figurative and “calves” (Geier), or has mingled with it into a mixed idea.—Stamping along with silver pieces.—This is very obscure. The sing. masc. embraces all the rebuked in one. The participle designates the action as simultaneous with the rebuking. This already affords many strong objections to the usual translation: that they may submit themselves. Besides ψτν only means: to stamp, accordingly since the Hithpael is used here, it should be translated: being in a state of stamping, or: letting himself to stamp. The latter does not suit the words: “with uncoined pieces of silver.” We abide therefore by the former; for the meaning: stamping upon one’s self=casting one’s self violently and fiercely to the earth (Delitzsch), condemns itself. And the translations: all trots itself near (Bφttcher previously), or: all that bestirs itself (Bφttcher finally), lack a sure foundation. The same is true with the explanation: people that bind themselves to servitude for gold (Reuss)=crowd of hirelings. So likewise the explanation: those who there tread under foot (Luther), or who tread one another under foot (Kφster) for pieces of silver, that is, for the sake of booty, is untenable; and the reference of the participle (prosternens sibi) to God as the subject of the following clause dispergit (Maurer) would give rise to a hard construction. This reference to God may be retained and a suitable sense gained in two parallel members of the verse by changing the ξ into δ, the participle into the imperative (Hupf.). and by changing the vowel points, and thus partly making the preterite αַ ?ζַּ ?ψ which is taken by many (Sept., Ewald, Bφttcher, Reuss, Olsh., Hitzig) as an imperative, into the real imperative αַ ?ζֵּ ?ψ partly making the substantive αְּ ?ψַ ?φֵּ ?ι into the participle αְ ?ψֹ ?φֵ ?ι (De Rossi, Olsh., Hupfeld), which is likewise referred to by some who follow the sense (Sept., Symmach., Pott, Clauss). It is then said of God: act towards them stamping (that is, trampling upon them), who desire silver; scatter the people who desire war. These changes are, however, pure conjectures, although, as a whole, since, with the exception of one consonant, they only affect the vowels, they are easier and more in accordance with the context than to change ξִ ?ϊְ ?ψַ ?τֵּ ?ν into ξִ ?ϊְ ?ιַ ?τִּ ?ν that is, adorn themselves (Hitzig). For although women, perhaps even men, mean to adorn themselves with strings of gold and silver coins, likewise with nose-rings, yet such a decoration with pieces or lumps of silver is not known to be characteristic of the nations referred to, even if we should overlook the impropriety of this designation for the peoples and princes just characterized as animals. Psalms 68:31. Magnates shall come out of Egypt.—The ηַ ?ωְׁ ?ξַ ?πִּ ?ιν from which the Maccabees claimed the name of Asmoneans are apparently the perillustres, the illustrious. The usual derivations from the Arabic are untenable (Fleischer in Delitzsch’s commentary). The meaning: couriers (Bφttcher) is unsafe, and has little propriety; that of elders (Sept., Vulg., Arm) is without etymological support; that of the Chasmoneans as the inhabitants of the Egyptian province of Ashummim (J. H. Mich.) is without historical basis or occasion; that of fat, that is, rich, strong, distinguished (Hupf.) is possible. In accordance with the sense and context they are the magnates (Chald., Rabbins).—Cush shall send forth speedily his hands to God.—Cush, that is Ethiopia, with Egypt as in Isaiah 45:14, is here used as the name of the land with the fem. form, and is connected with ϊָּ ?ψִ ?ιυ=make to run; but it is immediately treated as the name of the people by the masc. suffix in ιָ ?γָ ?ιε apparently because the “hands” are mentioned. Accordingly it is the less necessary to change the reading into ιָ ?γֶ ?ιδָ as enallage gen. (Jeremiah 8:5; Job 39:3; Job 39:16) occur as well as enallage num. (Psalms 62:4). And since as well the context as the expression “make the hands run” are better suited to the offering of tribute than to the lifting up of the hands in prayer, there is no occasion for changing the reading into ϊָּ ?ψִ ?ιν (Hitzig), in order to get the latter idea. [Str. 11. Psalms 68:32. To Him who drives along in the primeval heaven of heavens.—Delitzsch: “The Psalmist stands so entirely in the midst of this final glory that floating along in faith above all the kingdoms of the world, he calls upon them to praise the God of Israel. μָ ?ψֹ ?λֵ ?α connects itself with the ruling idea of ωִׁ ?ιψεּ The heaven of heavens, Deuteronomy 10:14, are designated by χֶ ?γֶ ?ν as primeval (perhaps as according to their origin reaching out far above the heavens of the earthly world of the 2d and 4th days of creation); God drives along in the primitive heavens of heavens, Deuteronomy 33:26, since He by means of the cherubim, Psalms 18:10 extends his efficiency to all places of this infinite distance and height.”—See He sounds with His voice, the mighty voice.—Hupf., Delitzsch, et al., regard the mighty voice as in apposition with His voice, and this seems best. Riehm, however, would make the mighty voice the object and translate thus: He makes a mighty voice to sound with His voice. This would be more literal, but somewhat tautological.—C. A. B.] Str. 12. [Psalms 68:34. Ascribe strength to God—Delitzsch: “Give back to Him in acknowledgment and praise the omnipotence which He has and proves. His glory rules over Israel as its defence and confidence. His power, however, embraces all created things, not only the earth, but also the highest regions of the heaven. The kingdom of grace reveals the majesty and glory of His redemptive work (Ephesians 1:6), the kingdom of nature His all-prevalent omnipotence.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 68:35. Fearful art Thou, God, from Thy holy places.—Most ancient versions and many codd. have the singular; but the plural is certain and, is not merely used poetically (Hupf.), but either because the one sanctuary embraced a number of holy places, Jeremiah 51:51; Amos 7:9 (most interps.), or because the reference here is at the same time to earthly and heavenly sanctuaries (Hitzig). AND ETHICAL1. In times which threaten danger to the people of God, nothing better can be done than to call upon the heavenly King imploring His interference in behalf of His people. For the rising up of the Almighty is connected with the destruction of the power of their enemies, who are unable to resist Him, and with the rejoicing of the pious in the assurance of victory. “This is the sum of the matter: although God is quiet for a time whilst the ungodly cruelly and wickedly afflict the church, yet He finally rises up to avenge it, and believers have protection enough in His help, when once He stretches forth His hand against the ungodly” (Calvin). This is the “great theme which is repeated again and again and in constantly new features in the history of the kingdom of God on earth until finally the last judgment takes up into itself all the previous judgments of God and completes them” (Tholuck). 2. God declares by His names not only how he would be named and addressed by man, but He likewise reveals in them His essential nature, and He confirms the truth of this revelation by corresponding acts, by which the rebellious are judged and terrified, whilst the obedient and God-fearing are delivered from their misery and comforted in their necessities. Therefore this name of God is to the pious at the same time the means of thankful adoration and invocation, and the. occasion of strengthening their faith for the joyous remembrance of the comforting and fearful government of God in history, especially in guiding His people through a hostile world. 3. Although God condescends from His heavenly throne to His people in their pilgrimage on earth and their wanderings through the wilderness and becomes their leader and protector in personal nearness, yet He does not lose His Divine power and glory. On the contrary, He partly makes them known and partly renders them effective in behalf of His congregation. And He has not only done this once in passing by on Sinai and in connection with the march of the Israelites through the wilderness, the Almighty God would have an abiding dwelling among His people on earth, Exodus 25:8; Exodus 29:45. For this purpose He maintains the covenant relation entered into with Israel on Mt. Sinai and reveals His Divine glory which is everlastingly the same, when He as King of Israel and His people’s protect or and benefactor establishes His throne on Mt. Zion, which humble hill He, as the God who accepts the poor and exalts the humble in free grace, has selected as His typical and symbolical dwelling-place, exalted it above all the lofty mountains and proud peaks as the only true mountain of God, and made it the centre of His historical revelation to the world as well as His all-conquering Divine sovereignty (comp. Micah 4:1-3; Isaiah 2:11 sq.), since natural advantages must yield to the gifts of grace, as well as worldly power to the omnipotence of God, the only sovereign and Lord. 4. As God has drawn personally nigh to His people on Sinai, without giving up His heavenly glory or Divine omnipotence, so He has again ascended to the heights of heaven without withdrawing His presence of blessing and protection from His people. This latter is, on the one side, only symbolically shown in the Old Testament, and on the other side mediated by forms of worship; hence another descent and ascension is indispensable, which is likewise promised, believed in, hoped for, and implored. However, we can trace what is referred to here; namely, that all the ways of God, His coming and going, His descent and ascension, afford to His people, and through them to the world, acts of deliverance and gifts of blessing. Moreover, with respect to God Himself, they appear as steps of victory and as marches of triumph, whose spoils He uses as well for the salvation of the world as for His own glory.5. The acts of God in Israel thus gain, on the one side, a universal historical, and, on the other, a prophetical character. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ Psalms 69 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David         Save me, O God; For the waters are come in unto my soul. 2    I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3    I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. 4    They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: Then I restored that which I took not away. 5    O God, thou knowest my foolishness; And my sins are not hid from thee. 6    Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. 7    Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; Shame hath covered my face. 8    I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. 9    For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. 10    When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, That was to my reproach. 11    I made sackcloth also my garment; And I became a proverb to them. 12    They that sit in the gate speak against me; And I was the song of the drunkards. 13    But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord,In an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy Hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. 14    Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15    Let not the waterflood overflow me, Neither let the deep swallow me up, And let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. 16    Hear me, O Lord; for thy loving-kindness is good: Turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, 17    And hide not thy face from thy servant; For I am in trouble: hear me speedily. 18    Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: Deliver me because of mine enemies. 19    Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour Mine adversaries are all before thee. 20    Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none. 21    They gave me also gall for my meat; And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. 22    Let their table become a snare before them: And that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap. 23    Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; And make their loins continually to shake. 24    Pour out thine indignation upon them, And let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. 25    Let their habitation be desolate; And let none dwell in their tents. 26    For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; And they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. 27    Add iniquity unto their iniquity: And let them not come into thy righteousness. 28    Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, And not be written with the righteous. 29    But I am poor and sorrowful: Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. 30    I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31    This also shall please the Lord better than an ox Or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. 32    The humble shall see this, and be glad: And your heart shall live that seek God. 33    For the Lord heareth the poor, And despiseth not his prisoners. 34    Let the heaven and earth praise him, The seas, and everything that moveth therein. 35    For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: That they may dwell there, and have it in possession. 36    The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: And they that love his name shall dwell therein. AND Its Contents and Composition.—A cry of prayer for help (Psalms 69:1 a) is based upon the greatness of the danger of his ruin (Psalms 69:1 b, 2), the exhaustive duration of this peril (Psalms 69:3) and the number and power of those who are his enemies without cause (Psalms 69:4). It is true he is not innocent before God (Psalms 69:5), but he may hope that those who trust in God may not be ashamed or brought to shame in him (Psalms 69:6), for he bears the reproach for God’s cause (Psalms 69:7). Even his nearest relatives are estranged from him (Psalms 69:8) for his burning zeal for the house of God has brought him into such a position that the reproaches of the enemies of God fall on him, (Psalms 69:9), even his weeping, fasting and mourning serve to increase the scorn, (Psalms 69:10-12). This, however, intensifies his supplication (Psalms 69:13-15) for deliverance from great dangers, whilst God hears the prayer and graciously turns His countenance (Psalms 69:16-18) to the sufferer, whose miserable condition He knows as well as the cruel scorn of the enemies (Psalms 69:19-21). They are given over to the recompensing judgment of God in a double row of imprecations (Psalms 69:22-28), whilst the singer who has been lifted up by Divine help from the depths of his misery and pain, promises his song of thanksgiving, which is more acceptable to God than offerings (Psalms 69:29-31). He finally refers to the truth, which springs forth from these facts, to the refreshment and comfort of all the oppressed pious (Psalms 69:32-33) and which forms the foundation in part for calling upon the whole world to praise God, in part for the promises to Zion and those who love the word of God (Psalms 69:34-36).—This Psalm is next to Psalms 22. the most frequently cited in the New Testament. The remark, John 19:29 sq., respecting the restorative (comp. Matthew 27:34; Matthew 27:48) refers alike to Psalms 22:15, and Psalms 69:21, their hatred without cause (John 15:25) refers to Psalms 35:19, and Psalms 69:4. Moreover the zeal of Jesus for God’s house in expelling the traders from the temple is according to John 2:17 a fulfilment of Psa 69:9 a. His willing and representative bearing of reproach is according to Romans 15:3 the fulfilment of Psa 69:9 b; the imprecations of Psalms 69. Psalms 69:25 a have, according to Acts 1:20, been fulfilled in the traitor Judas; those of Psa 69:22 sq., according to Romans 11:9 sq. in the rejection of Israel for a season. All these citations, however, are of such a character that they do not force us to a direct Messianic interpretation of the Psalm (most of the older interpreters). This, moreover, is at once excluded by the admission of folly and guilt (Psalms 69:5). The typical interpretation (Clauss., Stier) takes the true position, yet it is too general. It is best to regard the Psalm as typically prophetic ” in so far as it is a statement of a history of life and sufferings which have been made by God into a prophecy in fact of Jesus the Christ, and in so far as the spirit of prophecy has made this statement itself into a word of prophecy of the future sufferer,” (Delitzsch). Accordingly we are justified in putting Psalms 69:26 in the same connection with Isaiah 53. and Zechariah 13:7, and to think in connection with Psalms 69:12 of the derision of Jesus by the soldiers, Matthew 27:27 sq. This interpretation holds fast to the historical foundation of the Psalm, and is more in accordance with its peculiar character than if we should suppose that David wrote this Psalm not so much in his own name as in the person of the entire Church, as a mirror, in which the common lot of all the pious should be set before us (Calvin), or in the ideal person of the suffering righteous (Hengst.), the features which occur separately in individual sufferers being brought together in a great representative martyr. Respecting the historical person of the Psalmist we can derive no safe results from the text alone; yet, on account of the reference mentioned above we must direct our view to a prominent and well-known person. If it is thought necessary to put this Psalm in a later period, it is easier to think of the prophet Jeremiah (Hitzig, Delitzsch is doubtful), than of some prophet at the time of the exile (Ewald) or indeed during the period of the Syrian persecution (Gurlitt in Pott. syll. Comment. 1:330 sq.) to which period Olsh. pushes it down. For the mention of the mire and the well may be taken historically in accordance with Jeremiah 38., and then other features may be applied very well. But these expressions may likewise be regarded as figurative; the time of the exile (Chald., Theod., Flam , Cleric. Rosenm., De Wette, Maurer, Hupf.) is not plainly and undoubtedly shown by the final clause, Psalms 69:35 sq., or the expression ‘ ‘prisoners,” Psalms 69:33 (Vid. exegesis of the verse); moreover, objections may be made to the supposition of its composition by Jeremiah, which cannot be removed (Keil, Kurtz). If now we inquire with which Psalms the present Psalm is most closely related, it is unquestionably with Psalms 40; and then with Psalms 22, 31, 35, 109; thus constantly with Psalms of David of the time of his persecution by Saul. This is very much in favor of the statement of the title. In connection with the translation of the ancients ” of the roses ” with their Messianic interpretation of the Psalm it was natural to suppose that this part of the title originated from this reason, because the Psalm of the white rose treats of the holy innocence of Christ, and that of the red rose of His most precious blood. Moreover there are many red lilies in Palestine, comp. Introduct., § 12, No. 13. Str. I. [Psalms 69:1-2. The waters are come even to my soul.—A flood is represented as coming upon the Psalmist, surrounding him unawares, rising up about him, even to his mouth, almost to take away his breath (life—soul) and fill his throat and nostrils. This figure is frequent in the Psalms. Comp. Psalms 18:4; Psalms 18:16; Psalms 32:6; Psalms 42:7. He has sunk in the mire of the depth, his feet cannot find a firm standing place in this miry bed of the flood, he has come into depths of water, the water becomes deeper and deeper about him, the flood has overwhelmed him (Shibboleth, Isaiah 27:12). From this extreme peril he cries out: Help me, God.Psalms 69:3. The figure changes from the external to the internal peril. He has cried out so long that he is weary of calling, his throat is parched by excessive exertion of voice (comp. Psalms 22:15). His eyes, which have looked so long to God, melting in tears, have failed, become exhausted, worn out (comp. Psalms 6:7; Psalms 31:9; Psalms 38:10; Psalms 119:82; Psalms 119:123). Psalms 69:4. More than the hairs of my head.—This comparison used here with reference to those who hate him is used in Psalms 40:12, with reference to his iniquities.—C. A. B.]—Strong are my destroyers, mine enemies without reason.—Since the idea of this noun is elsewhere of entire extermination, many interpreters have found it objectionable, and have proposed alterations of the reading in order to translate, numerous instead of strong, and to get a stronger parallelism by not regarding the ξ as a letter of the noun, but the preposition ξִ ?ο, and thus getting the comparative, more numerous than. But then more numerous than what? Than my bones (Syr., Olsh.), than my looks (Venema, Munting., Ewald), than my head, properly: my foliage (Hupf.); thus they guess this and that. We prefer to abide by the text. At first the number of the enemies is mentioned, and then their terribleness (Hitzig).—What I did not rob I am then to restore.—This clause shows the groundlessness of their accusations in a different specification from that used in Psalms 35:10, but with a corresponding proverbial form. The ”then,” which is not to be changed into ”yet,” (Rosenm., Ewald), expresses the temporal and legal consequences (Hupf.) of the proposed robbery. Str. II. Psalms 69:5 sq. Thou knowest about my folly and my faults,etc.—We would expect here, in connection with his appeal to God’s omniscience, a protestation of personal innocence. Many interpreters have artificially put this into the words of the text. The words are then either regarded as ironical (Calvin) or hypothetical (Dathe, similarly Aben Ezra), or are limited either with reference to those undertaken in order to the atonement, and not his own sins (the Messianic interpreters), or limited to others than those charged by his enemies (Venema, De Wette). But it is very evident that the reference is without doubt to his own folly and guilt. So likewise it is clear and without doubt from Psalms 69:26 that the speaker regards himself as one stricken by God, and in the class of those who are pierced through by God, that is, painfully smitten by His arrows (Lamentations 3:12 sq.), and internally wounded (Jeremiah 8:18; Psalms 109:22). Accordingly he finds in the necessities that have come upon him, and threaten him with peril of death, not only the abuse of cruel enemies, but at the same time Divine visitation. Since however he resigns himself humbly, penitently, and in faith to God; he may hope in God’s favor and help (Psalms 69:13 sq.) the more confidently, as on the one side many of the pious look upon him and his fate as typical and instructive, on the other side the enemies show by their conduct that they are least of all servants of God. However it does not follow from this, that folly and guilt are here to be taken as ideas which can be interchanged with sufferings (Hupf.) The state of the case is rather this, that his sufferings awaken and strengthen in the Psalmist the feeling of his sinfulness and punishableness, his feelings of penitence and desire for salvation, involve likewise the corresponding expressions of these feelings, and thus characterize the sufferer as a pious martyr, whose very piety makes him the butt of the scoffings, and the assaults of the ungodly. Str. III. [Psalms 69:8. Mothers’ children.—Barnes: ” In families where a man had many wives, as was common among the Hebrews, the nearest relationship would be denoted by being of the same mother rather than of the same father.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 69:9. The house of Jehovah does not mean at once the congregation, but this at the same time with the sanctuary, Numbers 12:7; Hosea 8:1. The zeal which consumes the Psalmist as burning fire, is not the external fire, the persecutions and injuries that have come upon him on this account, but the internal flame, Jeremiah 20:9; Jeremiah 23:9; Psalms 119:139. Str. IV. Psalms 69:10. And I wept, in fasting(was)my soul.—It is easy to give this verse by a simple correction in accordance with Psalms 35:13, the sense: I humbled my soul by fasting (Sept., Olsh., Hupf., Bφttcher). With the present reading it is necessary to accept, in accordance with the accents, two parallel clauses, and to regard the expression “ my soul ” as identical with “ I.” Leaving the accents out of view we could hardly translate: I wept in fasting, in my soul (J. D. Mich.), but rather: as regards my soul, or: my soul, as a second object explains the I, expressing the heartfelt weeping of deep fasting (Ewald), or: I wept in the fasting of my soul, that is, whilst my soul was in fasting (Chald., Isaki, Hitzig). An accusative of the object is inadmissible in connection with this verb, hence we cannot translate: I made weep, or I wept away my soul. [Psalms 69:11-12. Sackcloth.—Delitzsch: “The garment of sorrow as the fasting is an expression of sorrow for the public necessities, not as Psalms 35:13, for private injury. On account of this Sorrow, reproach upon reproach comes over him, and scornful words are coined upon him; above all he is satirized in the gates, the places of judgment and business, as in the drinking bouts (Lamentations 3:14. Comp. Lamentations 5:14; Job 30:9.”—C. A. B.] [Str. V. Psalms 69:13. But as for me.—The pronoun is emphatic contrasting himself with the unrighteous scorner. The next clause is very differently divided. Ewald, followed by Riehm: connects the “ time of good pleasure, ”etc., with the “answer me.” Hupfeld, Moll, Perowne, et al., connect it with the prayer, Delitzsch making the first clause close with “ at the time of good pleasure,” Hupf., Moll, and Perowne, putting these words in the second clause. Psalms 69:14-15. As the same figure recurs here from Psalms 69:1-2, no further explanation is necessary.—Let not the well shut its mouth to me.—He passes over from the figure of the flood to that of a well, the connecting idea being deep water. These wells were dug deep and covered with a large stone (Genesis 29:2-3. Vid. Thomson, the Land and the Book, p. 589). The mouth was sometimes sealed up with a stone and mortar, for use in the dry season.—C. A. B.] [Str. VI. Psalms 69:16. Thy lovingkindness is good.—Perowne: ”Good, i.e., either sweet, comforting, as in Psalms 63:3, or gracious, χρηστός. Comp. Psalms 119:21. This appeal to God’s tender mercy, remarks Calvin, ‘ shows how great was the strait of the holy Prophet . . . and of a truth it is a very difficult matter to be sure that God is gracious while He is angry, and near while He is far off.’ ”—C. A. B.] Str. VII. [Psalms 69:19. Thou knowest.—He appeals to the knowledge of God as in Psalms 69:5. This is followed by an enumeration of his severe distresses, and this is the basis for the imprecation which follows. Psalms 69:20. Reproach hath broken my heart.—Barnes: “The reproaches, the calumnies, the aspersions, the slanders of others have crushed me. I am not able to bear up under them; I fail under the burden. Distress may become so great that life may sink under it, for many die of what is called ‘ a broken heart.’ Undeserved reproaches will be as likely to produce this result in a sensitive heart as any form of suffering, and there are thousands who are crushed to the earth by such reproaches.”—And I waited for sympathy, and there was none.—Perowne: “ This is the only place in the Psalter where the word translated sympathy is found. Properly speaking it is not a noun but a verb in the infin. Hence the periphrasis in the A. V., ‘ I looked for some to take pity,’ or, as in the margin ‘to lament with.’ The word sympathy has nowhere been employed by our translators, but it exactly conveys the force of the Hebrew word, inasmuch as it is used of sympathy in joy as well as in sorrow. See Job 42:11; Jeremiah 15:5; Jeremiah 16:5; Jeremiah 48:17.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 69:21. Gall.—The word ψֹ ?ΰωׁ means a poisonous plant (Hosea 10:4), and is parallel with wormwood (Jeremiah 8:14; Jeremiah 9:14; Jeremiah 23:15) with a figurative meaning of the addition and intensification of bitter and severe sufferings. There are no sufficient reasons for thinking particularly of water hemlock (Celsius) darnel (Michael.) colocynth (�dmann), poppy (Gesenius), we are merely led to a plant with a fruit in the form of a head or umbrella. On this account the word may likewise mean the gall (Sept.) and the more as poison and bitterness appear to be interchanged, Deuteronomy 32:32 sq.; Revelation 8:11.—Vinegar is in this connection not a cooling drink which quenches the thirst, but a synonym of sour wine.Str. VIII. Psalms 69:22. Their table before them.—The table standing before them, spread, is to become a net and snare for them. This figurative designation of ruin is in favor of the view that, the meaning is not, the poisoned dish is to poison those who have prepared it (Chald.), but the dish prepared for their own enjoyment is to prove the ruin of those who made it impossible for the Psalmist to enjoy the food necessary to sustain life, by their making it bitter and sour (Calvin), and indeed at the very time when they were prepared to enjoy it, that is unexpectedly. They thus receive a judicial recompense, it is true, but the translation: and for a recompense (Sept. and other ancient versions, according to Romans 11:9, and therefore Geier, J. H. Mich., et al.) instead of “and to the careless a snare ” may be obtained by changing the vocalization of the Hebrew word, but is against the parallelism. A reference to the Lord’s table (Luther, Melanchthon, Stier), is even with a limitation to devotional use, the less admissible, as there is here not a threatening or warning proclamation of the Divine judgment, but an imprecation bringing it about with increased excitement finally passing over into direct cursing. This may be conceived in the soil of the Old Covenant and explained in accordance with the canon of the retaliation of the Old Testament: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and finds likewise its connection with David, e.g.1 Samuel 26:19; 2 Samuel 3:29; but it cannot be justified as a disposition and finds no place for a typical representation “ in the behaviour of the suffering Saviour on the cross who prayed for his enemies.[Psalms 69:23. Perowne: “The darkening of the eyes denotes weakness and perplexity, as the enlightening of the eyes (see Psalms 19:8) denotes renewed vigor and strength. Similarly, the shaking of the loins is expressive of terror and dismay and feebleness (Nahum 2:10; Daniel 5:6.) Or the first may mean the depriving of reason and understanding; the second, the taking away of all strength for action.”—C. A. B.] Str. IX. [Psalms 69:25. Their encampment.—Perowne: “This is properly ‘the movable village of nomadic tribes,’ who usually pitch their tents in a circle. See Genesis 25:16, where terah is joined with chatsar, the former being the movable and the latter the stationary village, as Tuch (in loco) rightly explains. The expression is of course used here figuratively, in accordance with ‘ tents ’ in the parallelism.”Psalms 69:26. For him whom Thou hast smitten they persecute, and of the pain of Thy pierced ones do they tell.—Perowne: ” The reason of the imprecation is given because of the unpitying cruelty which delighted in adding to the pain and affliction of one whom God had already brought low,—they tell as if they counted one by one every blow that fell upon Him, every cry that He had uttered, only to turn it into mockery (comp. Psalms 59:12; Psalms 44:5).”Psalms 69:27. Add iniquity,etc.—Perowne: “Let it all stand against them in Thy book, one sin after another, as committed, not being blotted out, but only swelling the fearful reckoning. Comp. Jeremiah 18:23. This swelling of the catalogue of guilt is in fact swelling the punishment, but there is no need to render (as French and Skinner do): ‘Give them punishment upon punishment.’ ”—C. A. B.] Psalms 69:28. From the book of the living.—Usage and the context show that the blotting out from the book of the living not only denotes ruin in general or death (De Wette, Hengst.), but exclusion from the kingdom and people of God. For the reference is to the book of God (Exodus 32:32), in which God Himself registers every one (Psalms 87:4-6), who is appointed to life (Isaiah 4:3), and in this book (Daniel 12:2), as the citizens of Israel in the genealogical tables, Jeremiah 22:30; Ezekiel 13:9; comp. Luke 10:20; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 21:27. [Str. X. Psalms 69:29-31. The Psalmist is poor and miserable but he implores God to set him on high, in a place of safety, beyond the reach of his enemies and then he will praise God with songs of thanksgiving, which will be more acceptable to God than formal offerings.—Better than an ox, a bullock with horns and hoofs.—Perowne: “ The epithets are not merely otiose, as Hupfeld asserts. The first is mentioned in order to mark that the animal was not under three years old, and therefore of the proper age according to the Law; the last as intimating that it belonged to the class of clean four-footed animals, parting the hoof, Leviticus 11; and the meaning is, that the most perfect and valuable of the sacrifices ordained by the law was not to be compared to the sacrifice of a grateful heart. See Pss. 50:51 ”—C. A. B.]. Str. XI. [Psalms 69:32. Seekers after God-may your heart live.—Alexander: “May you be revived and cheered by witnessing this exhibition of God’s power and goodness ! The wish that it may be so includes a promise that it shall be, as in Psalms 22:26, where the form of expression is the same.”—C. A. B.] Psalms 69:33. And His prisoners He doth not despise.—These might very well be bound with the cords of misery (Job 36:8), or chained in torture and iron in general, Psalms 107:10; it is here rather to be regarded as parallel with the expression (Psalms 69:26): Thy smitten ones, Thy pierced ones. There is nothing to show a reference to the exiles. It would be easier to find a reference to these in the closing clause since there are real points of contact with Jeremiah 32. Str. XII. Psalms 69:35. Build the cities of Judah,etc.—This does not expressly state a restoration of Zion and a repeopling of the cities of Judah. The words admit of being understood generally on the basis of the promise contained in the Law, of continuance and growth (Calvin et al.) and of our supposing that there is a prophetic glance at the fate of the land and people in individual experience, as Psalms 14:7; Psalms 22:30; Psalms 51:19. This is justified not only by the typical prophetical character of this Psalm in general, but by the position of the Psalmist in the redemptive economy so strongly employed in Psalms 69:6. The supposition that the closing words contain a later addition (Venema, Seiler, Dathe, Munting., Rosenm., I. Kφster, Tholuck), is therefore as unnecessary as it is arbitrary. AND ETHICAL1. The necessity of a pious man may be so great on earth that he is about to sink, and the Divine help may be postponed so long that the afflicted has cried himself hoarse in prayer and his eyes have become dull and fixed from long and uninterrupted looking in the strain of waiting. In this case the power of faith is proved and attested by taking ground in God, when the earthly ground slips from under his feet, and then when the waves of trouble beat together over his head, he struggles forth on high with a cry of prayer.2. Fall and exaltation, ruin and redemption, sufferings and how they are received, endured and overcome—all this has to the congregation of God not only the significance of personal experience, but at the same time of Divine guidance and of typical history and is intensified in proportion to the importance of the person with reference to the history of the kingdom of God. The sufferer may apply this to himself to comfort him and to strengthen his faith. It serves as an exhortation and instruction to others when they perceive it and hear of it. He is heard moreover not because he prays, but because God is merciful and His omnipotence is effective in accordance with His faithfulness to the covenant on behalf of His suffering servants. 3. There is no inconsistency in the fact that one who has been attacked by men without cause and persecuted though innocent, should yet be reminded by his sufferings, of his guilt before God and awakened to confession of sin, and at the same time that this sinful man should be filled with a true and burning zeal for the house of the Lord and should be persecuted on account of his zeal and made sport of for his godly sorrow, so that he suffers for God’s sake and at the same time feels that he is smitten by God as well as by men. With the more fervency he turns to the mercy of God whilst the period of grace lasts and trusts in the truth of salvation.4. It is certainly better to suffer as an innocent man than as guilty; yet it is a very severe cross to which most men cannot accommodate themselves. Even the Psalmist thus gets into such a carnal excitement that whilst he does not contend with God or murmur against Him, but on the contrary relies upon God and calls upon Him, yet in hungry zeal he calls down the power of God to the judgment and ruin of those enemies who ignore it. This belongs to that folly and guilt, of which the Psalmist is conscious, and is neither to be extenuated nor recommended. For there is a very great difference between obligatory proclamation of the Divine judgment, morally justifiable assent to the unavoidable consequences of this judgment and holy joy in the victory of righteousness on the one side, and passionate imprecation, revengeful cursing and an evilly disposed supplication for Divine judgment in order to the temporal ruin and everlasting destruction of certain persons, on the other side. In the latter case man does not give over retribution to the all-wise and holy God, but of his own will and power interferes with the course of the just government of God, yes really anticipates the final judgment. For this reason it is at least a zeal for God without knowledge even when no revengeful motives come in play and no personal interests are involved, but when the reference is to such men as put themselves in hostility to God and His word, sacraments, house, glory and congregation. Even Jesus has not anticipated for individual cases the condemnatory decisions of the final Judgment, but has merely proclaimed it as future, and indeed with the pain of love and in connection with the purpose of His coming not to destroy the souls of men but to save them. Accordingly He censured His disciples for wishing to call down fire from heaven upon those who refused to receive Him. Luke 9:53-55. The zeal which consumed him was very different even from Elias, and it is not well to confound the ideas of the Old and New Testament. Moreover it is not the same thing whether the wish for the ruin and the damnation of all those who rise up against God is expressed as a prayer and as the counterpart of the blessing implored for all those who turn to God, as it was used by Luther and the Reformers, or whether imprecations of particular persons are expressed. 5. Even the ritual offerings brought in the perfect legal manner, have not the same value with God as the offering of thanks and the spreading abroad of God’s praise in the proclamation of His holy name, comp. Pss. 50:51. The latter on the basis of the blessed experience of God, acts of deliverance, which are of grace, of truth and of salvation gain constantly fuller recognition and greater compass (Psalms 22:24 sq.) in accordance with the tendency of the theocracy to become universal, for which cause God will never let land or people fail. AND When prayer is as earnest as the necessity, then God’s help will not fail, though it be delayed.—He who prays without ceasing must not put his trust in his own worthiness, but in his need and God’s grace.—In patient looking to God, the man’s senses may pass away if only his faith does not give way.—How is it consistent that one should be persecuted as innocent and yet punished as a sinner ? All the pious are interested in what concerns one of them.—It is better to suffer for God’s cause; then to be punished for sins but it is not easier.—Man may act strangely to us and our neighbors become our enemies if only God remains our friend.—To be on God’s side and to suffer persecution are for the most part combined.—Piety has nothing to expect from the world but hate and scorn.—The best answer of the pious to the scorn of the ungodly is to resign their persons to the mercy of God and their cause to His judgment.—The hostility of the world can-not injure us, if it increase our zeal for God’s house and urge us to deeper personal humility, patience and trust in God.—We have reason to examine ourselves earnestly, whether in our zeal for God there is more wrath against our enemies, than love to His person and care for the glory of His house.—He who relies in prayer upon the mercy and truth of God, has the surest foundation for His salvation and the best pledges of the hearing of his prayer.—As comforting as it is for the pious to put themselves in the gracious hands of God, it is as terrible for the ungodly to fall into the hands of the living God.—To be deprived of communion with God is the most fearful judgment.—To be accepted or rejected by God, in this consists the decision for time and for eternity: it is important above all to use this time of grace.—To offer thanks is an offering well pleasing to God. Augustine: No punishment is more severe than when sin makes up the punishment of sin.—Calvin: To suffer shame is harder for a noble man than to suffer a hundred deaths.—It is certainly very hard to imagine God as gracious when He is angry and near when He is afar off. Starke: The greater the necessity and anxiety of soul into which a Christian has fallen, the more fervently should he call upon God in accordance with the example of his Saviour.—If Christ who deserved so much of the world has been hated by it to the uttermost, then learn to bear the hate and unthankfulness of the world patiently after His example.—Sin is the greatest folly, because man by it has preferred the friendship of Satan to the friendship of God.—A Christian must never leave out of view the glory of God, but rather be ready to endure all kinds of reproach than that any reproach should come upon God.—The favor and friendship of God make up for all things else.—Who has known better how to avoid necessities than Jesus and see, He prays; follow Him.—Those are not blessings in appearance which are promised to the righteous; but as truly as they fear and love God, they will likewise share in the blessings of salvation purchased by Christ. Arndt: Although distress of water is very lamentable, and distress of fire is pitiable and distress of war deplorable and great; yet these only affect the body......But there are other waters which would drown the soul, these are waters of hell, such as fear, anxiety, terror, despair, which affect the soul; from this we should recognise the majesty and greatness of the sufferings of Christ which transcend all the sufferings of all men.—Tholuck: Men who cannot weep over their own sins, how can they, understand the tears shed for the sins of others!—It is the curse of sin, that it begets new sins.—Taube: Zion, however much she must pass through the assaults of all times, has the promise of endurance because of the constant help of God. [Matt. Henry: Though we may be jeered for well doing, we must never be jeered out of it.—We cannot expect too little from men,—miserable comforters are they all,—nor can we expect too much from God, for He is “ the Father of Mercy, and the God of all comfort and consolation.”—It is a great comfort for us that humble thankful praises are more pleasing to God than the most costly pompous sacrifices are and ever were.—Barnes: We may feel that we have not wronged our fellow-men; yet even the treatment which we receive from them, however unjust so far as they are concerned, may be regarded as deserved by us at the hand of God, and as proper on His part as an expression of His displeasure for our transgressions against Him, and as a proof that we are Sinners.—C. A. B.]Footnotes:[These words fitly express the feelings of tbe Messiah upon the cross who bore the shame of an ignominious death, the reproaches of violating the Liw, and the slanders of wicked enemies, who died broken-hearted, with no one to pity, alone in his shame and woe.—C. A. B.] [Alexander: “Gall and vinegar are here put together to denote the most unpalatable torms of food and drink. The passion of our Lord was providentially so ordered as to furnish a remarkable coincidence with this verse. The Romans were accustomed to give sour wine with an infusion of myrrh to convicts on the cross for the purpose of deadening the pain. This practice was adhered to in our Saviour’s case (Mark 15:23). Though in itself not cruel, but the contrary, it formed part of the great process of murderous persecution. On the part of the Roman soldiery, it may have been an act of kindness; but considered as an act of the unbelieving Jews, it was giving gall and vinegar to one already overwhelmed with anguish. And so Matthew, in accordance with bis general method, represents it as a verification of this passage (Matthew 27:3). He does not contradict Mark’s account before referred to; but merely intimates that the wine and myrrh thus offered were to be regarded as identical with the gall and vinegar of this prediction. And in order to prevent the coincidence from being overlooked, our Lord, before He died, complained of thirst, and vinegar was admin-istered (Matthew 27:48; John 19:28),”—C. A. B.] [Alexander: “’The imprecations in this verse and those following it are revolting only when considered as the expression of malignant selfishness. If uttered by God they shock no reader’s sensibilities, nor should they when considered as the language of an ideal person, representing the whole class of righteous sufferers, and particularly Him, who though He prayed for His murderers while dying (Luke 23:34), had before applied the words of this very passage to the unbelieving Jews (Matthew 23:38), as Paul did afterwards (Romans 11:9-10). The general doctrine of providential retribution, far from being confined to the Old Test., is distinctly taught in many of our Saviour’s parables. See Matthew 21:41; Matthew 22:7; Matthew 24:51.”—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “St. Peter applies this prophecy to the traitor Judas (Acts 1:20), who was instar omnium, an embodiment and incarnation of those sins which brought misery on the Jews and who was like a personal representative of the Jewish nation in wickedness and punishment.’ ’—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “How much light is shed upon these words as applied to Christ, when they are compared with Isaiah 53:4; ‘ Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried out orrows; yet we did . steeru Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted;’ and Isaiah 51:6. ‘I gave thy back to the smiters;’ and Zechariah 13:6 : ‘ I was wounded (smitten) in the house of my friends;’ and Zechariah 13:7 : Smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.’—In all these passages the tame word (nacah) is used.’ ’—C. A. B.] Psalms 70 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance         Make haste, O God, to deliver me; Make haste to help me, O Lord.2    Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: Let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, That desire my hurt. 3    Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame That say, Aha, aha. 4    Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: And let such as love thy salvation Say continually, Let God be magnified. 5    But I am poor and needy; Make haste unto me, O God: Thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying. AND Its Contents and Title.—For its relation to Psalms 40:13 sq., vide the explanations there given. It is evident that we have here a fragment of that Psalm, for the reason that the imperative upon which the μcum infin. depends, is lacking and must be supplied; and there is no example to justify us in attaching it to the imperative which closes the verse. The change in the name of God points to a later and intentional separation. Instead of Jehovah, which is used throughout Psalms 40. we have here not only at the beginning but especially striking is the substitution of Elohim in Psalms 70:4 b., whilst here in the closing line Jehovah is used instead of the nominative Adonai, the latter in connection with an easier reading, which has been considered in connection with Psalms 40. The slight changes in Psalms 70:3 point in the same direction, to which we may add that in Psalms 70:2ιַ ?ηַ ?γ as well as μִ ?ρְ ?τּ ?εϊָ ?δּ are missing, whilst in Psalms 70:4 b. a εְ is added, and at the close of Psa 70:4ιְ ?ωׁ ?εֹ ?ςָ ?ϊֶ ?κָ is used for ϊְ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?ςָ ?ϊֶ ?κָ, and at the beginning of Psa 70:5 c. ςֶ ?ζְ ?ψִ ?ι for ςֶ ?ζְ ?ψָ ?ϊִ ?ι, the forms in Psalms 40 being fuller. The contents, which are entirely complete in themselves, admit the Psalm to be a prayer of a persecuted man, and the title contains a statement of its purpose, which fully accords with that of Psalms 38 which states that it is for a special liturgical use (comp. Introduction, § 6, No. 8), as well as general use, which is indicated by its being referred to the musical director. The place of this Psalm in the Second Book after Psalms 69 was occasioned by the relationship between Psalms 70:5 and Psalms 69:29, as well as by the changing use of the Divine name. The Psalm might be regarded as Davidic on account of its dependence on Psalms 40 But the changes that have been made are of such a character that it is more than doubtful to refer them to David. The same may be said of the supposition of those who regard Jeremiah as the author of Psalms 40. that he made these alterations (Hitzig). Redding observ. phil. crit. de psalmis bis editis, p. 61, gives a collection of ancient opinions. The ingenious attempt to regard this Psalm as an introduction to Psalms 71; and thus get a pair of Psalms of the advanced age of David (Hengstenberg), lacks sufficient confirmation.Footnotes: [Yet there are many good reasos to be adduced in favor of this view. These are well stated by Hegstenberg and Wordsworth, e.g., (1) The fact that Psalms 71 has no title in a book where all the Psalms have titles except 1, 2, 10, 32, 43; 1 and 2 being introductory to the Psalter, and 10 and 43 certainly belonging to the preceding Psalms , , 32 in close relation to its predecessor. (2) Te fact that Psalms 70 is taken from Psalms 40, ad Psalms 71 likewise is made up of a “collection of setences from various other Psalms (22, 25, 31, 35, 38, 40),” ad “being formed out of other Psalms, it serves the purpose of showig that David at the close of his life, ‘gathered up and set his seal to’ the sayings which he had uttered in the former Psalms” (Wordsworth). (3) The fact that corresponding thoughts ad petitions run throughout both Psalms, comp. Psalms 70:1; Psalms 70:5; Psalms 71:12; Psalms 70:2; Psalms 71:13; Psalms 71:24; Psalms 70:4; Psalms 71:6; Psalms 71:8; Psalms 71:14-16; Psalms 71:24, ad especially Isaiah 71:24 the believing confidence in the fulfilment of the petition begun in Psalms 70:1-2.—C. A. B.] Psalms 71          In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: Let me never be put to confusion. 2    Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: Incline thine ear unto me, and save me. 3    Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: Thou hast given commandment to save me; For thou art my rock and my fortress. 4    Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 5    For thou art my hope, O Lord God : thou-art my trust from my youth. 6    By thee have I been holden up from the womb: Thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: My praise shall be continually of thee. 7    I am as a wonder unto many; But thou art my strong refuge. 8    Let my mouth be filled with thy praise And with thy honor all the day. 9    Cast me not off in the time of old age; Forsake me not when my strength faileth. 10    For mine enemies speak against me; And they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, 11    Saying, God hath forsaken him: Persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.12    O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help. 13    Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt. 14    But I will hope continually, And will yet praise thee more and more. 15    My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness And thy salvation all the day; For I know not the numbers thereof.16    I will go in the strength of the Lord God : I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. 17    O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. 18    Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; Until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, And thy power to every one that is to come. 19    Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, Who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee! 20    Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, Shalt quicken me again, And shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. 21    Thou shalt increase my greatness And comfort me on every side. 22    I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: Unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel. 23    My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee: And my soul, which thou hast redeemed. 24    My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long: For they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt. AND Its Contents and Composition.—The Psalm is written in a clear and easily-understood language, yet with a somewhat uneven rythmical movement, and a loose structure of the strophes. It repeats whole passages from older Psalms, with slight alterations (the beginning is from Psalms 31, the conclusion from Psalms 35, the middle from Psalms 70:2 sq., and likewise some words and expressions from Psalms 40.). An Israelite, whose name is not mentioned, implores deliverance (Psalms 71:1-3) from the hand of wicked, unscrupulous and violent men (Psalms 71:4; Psalms 71:10-12). According to Psalms 71:9 he is aged, and according to Psalms 71:21 he seems to occupy an important station in society, and he is able likewise to assert (Psalms 71:5 sq.) that he has been upheld by Jehovah from his youth, and that he now likewise (Psalms 71:7 sq.) in connection with failing strength puts his confidence in Him, and will praise Him still continually; for the enemies who consult respecting his ruin (Psalms 71:10-12) will be put to shame (Psalms 71:13); but he will praise God (Psalms 71:14-16) as hitherto on the ground of Divine instruction (Psalms 71:17), so likewise now and for his posterity (Psalms 71:18), with a song of praise which already now begins (Psalms 71:19), which rises to expressions of the most beautiful hope of faith (Psalms 71:20-21), and concludes with promises of loud and jubilant thanksgiving (Psalms 71:20-24). The lack of definite historical statements does not justify us any more than the change of the singular into the plural, in supposing that the speaker here is the people under the figure of a man growing old and oppressed by enemies (Rosenmόller, Kφster, De Wette, in part Olshausen), or the Church (Luther, Cocc), or the righteous Sufferer (Hengstenberg). A title given by the Sept. ascribes the Psalm to David, the sons of Jonadab and the first captives. This is understood in the sense that the Psalm composed by David was afterwards sung especially by the exiles and by the Rechabites who were praised by the prophet, Jeremiah 35:14 sq., over against the citizens of Jerusalem, because of their obedience to the command of their ancestor Jonadab, to continue in their nomad life. Although this last statement may be referred to tradition, yet it affords only a weak support for the hypothesis of the composition of the Psalm by the prophet Jeremiah (Hitzig, Delitzsch). Yet it cannot be denied that the contents and style afford many reasons in favor of that hypothesis. Many linguistic phenomena point to a later period of composition.Str. I. Psalms 71:1-3. [This strophe is a reminiscence, with slight changes, of the first strophe of Psalms 31.—C. A. B.]—A rock of habitation.—In the parallel passage, rock of defence is used. But it is unnecessary and inadmissible on this account to change ξָ ?ςεֹ ?ο (comp. Psalms 90:1; Psalms 91:9) into ξַ ?ςεֹ ?ζ, although it is very natural and is supported by many Codd. and the Chald. For it involves likewise an alteration of the words which follow. Moreover the supposition that this verse is a confused ruin of Psa 31:3 (Hupfeld), or a revival of the faded and defaced original text of the Septuagint (Hitzig), denies the author his peculiarities without any justification. For there are manifestly some such in other passages, showing his intention, especially since βεֹ ?ζִ ?ι (Psalms 71:6 b.) is very appropriately used instead of βֹ ?ηִ ?ι (Psalms 22:9). [Str. II. Psalms 71:4-6. This strophe was certainly composed with Psalms 22:8-10 in mind, although there is no slavish copying, for there are many touchingly beautiful variations, e.g., “On Thee was I cast from the womb” (Psalms 22:10), is here expressed by the correlative idea: Upon Thee was I sustained from the womb; and the thought: “Thou art He that took me out of the womb,” (Psalms 22:9) passes over into that of: “Thou art my Preserver from my mother’sbowels, all being touching variations of the idea of faith and hope in a faithful God of Providence experienced from youth and from birth till the present advanced age, and reaching out into a sure future.—C. A. B.] Str. III. Psalms 71:7. I have become as a sign unto many.—This may be meant in the bad sense (Kimchi and most interpreters), so that men are to be regarded as looking upon the sufferer on account of his misfortune as one marked by God’s justice and made a sign of. But the many resemblances with Psalms 11 make it more probable that it is to be taken in the good sense, that is, a sign of the grace and protection of God (Aben Ezra, et al.) Then we need not supply in the second member the adversative particle.—[My strong refuge.—The construction of ξַ ?ηֲ ?ρִ ?ιςζ is disputed. It is generally regarded that this is an example where poetic usage allows the principal noun to take the suffix, instead of the subordinate noun as usual (vide Ewald, § 291 b.), but Moll and Perowne regard the nouns as in apposition, and Moll translates at once: my refuge, a strong one.—C. A. B.] [Str. IV. Psalms 71:9-11. Compare with this Psalms 41:3-8.—In the time of old age.—The faithfulness of God to him in youth and maturity gives him courage to supplicate God in the time of old age and in sickness. The circumstances of Psalms 41 seem to be renewed here, or perhaps they are the same.—C. A. B.] [Str. V. Psalms 71:12-13.—These verses contain familiar expressions of David, comp. Psalms 22:11; Psalms 35:4; Psalms 35:26; Psalms 38:21-22; Psalms 40:13-14.—C. A. B.] Str. VI. Psalms 71:15. For I know no numbers (thereof).—It is clear from Psalms 40:5 what is meant here, and that it is in relation to the preceding; all day long. It would be in contrast to “my mouth” if the word could only mean: art of writing (Bφttcher); or if we could translate with the Vulgate: quoniam non cognovi literaturam. The Psalt. Romanum reads instead of the last word negotiationes, as a translation of the πραγματείας of the Septuagint, which word is used by Polybius as the title of his history. It is unnecessary to derive from the Syriac the meaning of “limits” (Ewald). [Psalms 71:16. I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord Jehovah.—Alexander: This phrase might also be translated: I will enter into the mighty deeds, etc., as we speak of entering into the particulars of a subject. But this is rather an English than a Hebrew idiom. The common version: I will go in the strength of the Lord God, is at variance with the usage both of the verb and noun, as the former does not mean to go absolutely, but either to enter or to come to a particular place, expressed or understood. The ellipsis here may be supplied from Psalms 5:7 and Psalms 64:13, in both which places the same verb denotes the act of coming to God’s house for the purpose of solemn praise, and in the second passage cited is followed by the same preposition, I will come into Thy house with burnt-offerings, i.e., I will bring them thither. This sense agrees well with the vow to praise God in the two preceding verses, and with the promise of commemoration in the other clause of the verse. See above on Psalms 20:7. It also enables us to give the noun its usual sense of God’s exploits or mighty deeds, see Psalms 106:2, and Deuteronomy 3:24.”—C. A. B.] [Str. VII. Psalms 71:17-18. Compare Psalms 22:22-31, which has many features of resemblance to this strophe. The motive for his deliverance is in both cases that he may praise God to his brethren and posterity even to the ends of the earth.—Till I declare Thine arm to (the next) generation, to all that shall come Thy might.—The arm of the Lord is the symbol of His executive power and works, comp. Isaiah 52:10; Isaiah 53:1; Ezekiel 4:7. The generation that has come up in the place of his own generation which is passing away, first comes before his mind, and then his vision deepens and widens, taking in all the coming generations to whom he would publish the mighty deeds of God.—C. A. B.] Str. VIII. Psalms 71:19. And Thy righteousness, O God, (reaches) even to the height, that is, the height of heaven, as the highest plane of creation, Psalms 36:5; Psalms 57:10.—Thou who hast done great things, O God, who is like unto Thee?—[The punctuation of the A. V. injures the sense. The middle clause belongs with the last clause, and not with the first, forming only two parallel members of the strophe, as Moll has it. Comp. Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 3:24; 1 Sam. 7:22.—C. A. B.] Psalms 71:20. [Thou wilt revive us again.—Perowne: “The sudden transition to the plural here seems to have given offence to the Masoretes, who consequently change it in the K’ri to the singular. But these fluctuations between singular and plural are not unusual in the Psalms, and there is no reason why, in the recital of God’s dealings, the Psalmist should not speak of them with reference to the nation at large, as well as to himself in particular.”—C. A. B.]—The abysses of the earth are contrasted with the height of heaven. It is unnecessary to think of those which are full of water (Gesenius, Olshausen). It is true ϊְ ?δεֹ ?ν means the abysmal depths of the sea, but as roaring and threatening ruin, Psalms 36:6, hence related in idea to the abyss, Luke 8:31; Revelation 9:1; Revelation 9:11. Psalms 71:21. Thou wilt increase my greatness, and turn Thyself to comfort me.—Septuagint has instead of “my greatness,” Thy righteousness. The Hebrew word in question is elsewhere used of the greatness of God, and the great deeds in which this is shown. In the last sense Psalms 145:6; 2 Samuel 7:21; 2 Samuel 7:23. To accept this sense here and express it in the translation: “Thy greatness “ (Hengstenberg), is as inadmissible as it is unnecessary. For this word is sometimes used of the royal majesty as the reflection of the Divine (Esther 1:4), and from this could be transferred to exalted persons in general (Psalms 6:3; Psalms 10:2). That the poet speaks of the increase of his own greatness=highness, can only be objectionable (Hupfeld) when we regard a subordinate compiler as the author. This passage, however, itself points to a man of prominent historical importance, whose highness of office or position in life was bestowed upon him by God. It is mere arbitrariness to change the reading into a word with the meaning: Thy payment (Hitzig). Str. IX. Psalms 71:22. The designation of God as the Holy One of Israel is found likewise in Psalms 78:41; Psalms 89:18; then in Isaiah 30 times; then in Habakkuk 1:12, and in Jeremiah 50:29; Jeremiah 51:6. The original passage may perhaps be found in Psalms 22:3. [In Psalms 71:23-24 the Psalmist promises to praise God with lips and tongue, with soul and voice and musical instruments. All combine in the expression of his holy gratitude.—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. So long as we live on earth, our sufferings have no end; but God’s righteousness, power and goodness likewise never cease to declare themselves. Only let our faith never cease to rely alone on this strong foundation of salvation, and let it drive us thither with prayer, praise and thanksgiving! For we will then confess in old age what we have learned in youth, and sing in evil days as well as good: I will not leave God, for God does not leave me. 2. The sufferings which God sends upon us are harder to bear when the scorn of wicked enemies is added to the feeling of our vanishing strength and our weakness. Yet the hope of the ungodly is lost. They reckon upon the ruin of the pious; but it is based upon a mere delusion, namely, the foolish opinion that the sufferings of the pious are an evidence that they are forsaken by God, and a sign that they are given up; therefore their reckoning is false. The believing know this and act accordingly. AND Every new exhibition of Divine benefits gives the pious new occasion for thankful praise of God.—Faith helps experience; experience works hope; hope does not allow us to be ashamed.—Blessed are those who are accompanied and guided through life by the experience of Divine help.—God has not changed; hast thou remained the same?—In what sense may we wish that our age should be as our youth?—Confidence in prayer; (1) upon what it may base itself; (2) whither it is to be directed; (3) whence it must flow.—We must not only begin with faith, but likewise continue to the end.—The pious show in the school of suffering what they have previously learned of God. Calvin: We must descend even unto death, that God may appear as our Redeemer. For since we are born without feeling and understanding, the first beginnings of our life do not show clearly enough their author. But when God comes to our help in extremities, the restoration itself is a glorious mirror of His grace. Starke: Trust in God is not to be regarded as meritorious, but as the means or arrangement whereby we may obtain grace.—A good conscience and a righteous cause make our prayer powerful and glad, so that we can appeal to God’s righteousness.—Faith gives the heart wings with which to soar to God in prayer. But if these are to be ready to move, the heart must firmly establish itself on God’s promises in His word.—How few are those who in a strict self-examination can boast of their walk in youth as irreproachable!—Faith and prayer are the two strongest crutches which old people can use.—We are great before God through the cross. That is a strange language for the cross-dreading flesh, but agreeable to the spirit. The more the cross, the more the increase of grace.—The heart and the tongue must constantly be together in worshipping God. Renschel: Christians learn (1) from day to day: (2) their best school-teacher is God Himself; (3) they begin early, namely, from the cradle; (4) they are not perfect very soon, but must study until they are gray; (5) they finally spread abroad likewise what good things they have learned.—Arndt: Patience is a great spiritual strength and finally conquers, the praise of God, however, is the victory and the power of God against our enemies. Thus Jehoshaphat beat his enemies with a song of praise.—Tholuck: If we find little to praise, what other reason is there than that we have no eyes for daily wonders?—Taube: It is in the very nature of the faithfulness of God that He should not let His work stop, and in His great mercy that He should gladly accept the miserable and helpless. Guenther: The earlier the victory is gained, the more beautiful the prospects of a happy old age. [Matt. Henry: If we are shy of dealing with God, it is a sign we do not trust Him.—All are not forsaken of God who think so themselves, or whom others think to be so.—The longer we live, the more expert we should grow in praising God and the more we should abound in it.—Barnes: A man can lay up nothing better for the infirmities of old age than the favor of God sought by earnest prayer in the days of his youth and his maturer years.—Spurgeon: Jehovah deserves our confidence; let Him have it all.—Mercy’s gates stand wide open, and shall do so, till, at the last, the Master of the house has risen up and shut to the door.—God’s bread is always in our mouths; so should His praise be.—Old age robs us of personal beauty, and deprives of strength for active service; but it does not lower us in the love and favor of God.—Nearness to God is our conscious security. A child in the dark is comforted by grasping its father’s hand.—How gloriously conspicuous is righteousness in the Divine plan of redemption ! It should be the theme of constant discourse.—A traveller among the high Alps often feels overwhelmed with awe amid their amazing sub-limities; much more is this the case when we survey the heights and depths of the mercy and holiness of the Lord.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [There are no sufficient reasons agninst the Davidic composition of this Psalm at the close of his life. It is as natural to suppose that the aged David should repeat himself in familiar phrases of the Psalms of his younger days, as that Jeremiah or any other poet of later times should use the words and phrases of David. Vide remarks on the previous Psalm.—C. A. B.] [Perowne: ‘This is an expression wonderfully descriptive of what faith is and of what God is to those who trust in Him. lie is a father who bears them in His arms and carries them in His bosom; they are as children who lean all their weight upon Him, and find their sweetest rest in His supporting hand. This is the very idea of faith, according to its Hebrew signification. When it is said in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham believed God,’ it means literally,’ he leaned upon God’ (though the root there is different, it is the same which in the Kal conjugation means to bear or carry a child. Numbers 11:12, and in Isaiah 49:23 is used of a nursing father. B—C. A. B.] [This word, βεֹ ?ζִ ?ι, is greatly disputed. Some, after the Chald. and the Rabbins, derive it from βεֹ ?ζ=to Pass over and causative, to cause to pass through or over, to bring forth, thus like βֹ ?ηִ ?ι, of Psalms 22:9; Delitzsch gets a similar meaning from the radical meaning of βַ ?ζַ ?δ=to cut, divide, and renders: mein Entbinder (he who separatest me or loosest me from the womb). Most interpreters, however, derive it from βζδ, in the other sense of recompense, distribute, and translate: my Provider, Protector, Benefactor (Schult., Rosenm., Gesen., Ewald, Hupf., Riehm, Moll, Perowne, et al.) The latter interpretation is especially favored by the parallelism; and the prep. has reference rather to time from which than to the place of origin.—C. A. B.] [Wordsworth: “David in his old age was tried by great and sore troubles, by debility of body (1 Kings 1:1-4), and by the rebellion of Adonijah, his son usurping his throne and endeavoring to supplant Solomon (1 Kings 1:5-10), and by the treachery of Abiathar and Joab (1 Kings 1:18-19). But God granted his prayer, and did not cast him off in his old age, but raised him up for a time by supernatural power from the bed of sickness, and enabled him to leave his sick chamber and to go forth in the strength of the Lord God, to the public assembly which he had convened, of the nobles and people of Israel, and to present to them his son and successor, Solomon, and to exhibit to them the pattern of the Temple, for which he had made vast preparations. See 1 Chronicles 28, 29”—C. A. B.] Psalms 72 A Psalm for Solomon1         Give the king thy judgments, O God, And thy righteousness unto the king’s son. 2    He shall judge thy people with righteousness, And thy poor with judgment. 3    The mountains shall bring peace to the people, And the little hills, by righteousness. 4    He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, And shall break in pieces the oppressor. 5    They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, Throughout all generations. 6    He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: As showers that water the earth. 7    In his days shall the righteous flourish; And abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. 8    He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the river unto the ends of the earth. 9    They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; And His enemies shall lick the dust. 10    The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 11    Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: All nations shall serve him. 12    For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; The poor also, and him that hath no helper. 13    He shall spare the poor and needy, And shall save the souls of the needy. 14    He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: And precious shall their blood be in his sight. 15    And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: Prayer also shall be made for him continually; And daily shall he be praised. 16    There shall be a handful of corn upon the top of the mountains; The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. 17    His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: And men shall be blessed in him: All nations shall call him blessed. 18    Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only doeth wondrous things. 19    And blessed be his glorious name for ever: And let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and amen. 20    The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. AND Its Contents and Title.—The Psalm begins with supplication for a king who is at the same time a king’s son, who thus is of a royal race or birth, that his government may be righteous and a blessing to the land (Psalms 72:1-4); then follows the wish that his rule may be of everlasting duration and bloom (Psalms 72:5-7); then it is promised that his kingdom shall embrace the whole world (Psalms 72:8-11); next the reason for this universal homage is disclosed in the character of his government as benevolent, merciful and righteous (Psalms 72:12-14); finally the duration of his gracious activity, of the blessings which descend upon his land and the everlasting praise of his name is implored in prayer and is predicted (Psalms 72:15-17). The doxology of Psa 72:18-19 did not belong originally to the Psalm, but is a liturgical addition (comp. Introd., § 4), with especial reference to the Elohim Psalms of this second book, and it is placed before the historical remark, Psalms 72:20, in order to be read in the church service. The contents of this Psalms 72:20 show that it is older than the entire collection of the Psalms. Yet it does not follow from this that David is likewise the author of this Psalm (comp. Introd., § 2 and 8), and that we have to regard the title as: about Solomon (Sept., Vulg., Aben Ezra, et al.), or composed for Solomon (Kimchi: by David on his deathbed), and designed to be his song (Clauss), as the mirror of his government (Stier). The μְ must be interpreted here as usual. The usage of the titles demands this, which excludes the many references which are in themselves possible (Stier), among which the most suitable would be the respectful reference=to Solomon. Then the contents demand so much the more a decided advance beyond the supposition of a poetic congratulation (De Wette) of some king of Israel. We must at least recognize the fact, that the Psalm is a prayer whose expressions flow forth from the ideal character of the Hebrew monarchy as the kingdom of God (Hupfeld). Then these expressions are not merely poetical, but prophetical, and thus have a Messianic character, so that the wishes and hopes are not, as it were, “extravagant” (Hupfeld), but take the form of definite promises, and that these promises not only have as their contents the universal extent and the everlasting duration of this kingdom, but at the same time the righteous, peaceful and saving government of the theocratic king as well as the perpetual blessing of all nations by the power of his name. By their personal bearing they transcend the reference to the kingdom of Solomon (according to the promise, 2 Samuel 8 developing itself as the kingdom of God throughout history) (Calvin), or the Davidic dynasty (Hofmann), and find in the circumstances of the time of Solomon a historical support and occasion (most recent interpreters), which is overlooked or undervalued by the exclusive Messianic interpretation (Chald. and most of the older interpreters). There is no reason either in the contents or in the language to put the Psalm in the time of king Josiah, or even later (Ewald). The reference to Ptolemy (Olsh.), particularly to Ptolemy Philadelphus, as the benefactor of the Jews (Hitzig) is far fetched and untenable. The ancient church, on account of the reference of the Psalm to David, Solomon and the Messiah, made it the chief Psalm of Epiphany as the *festum trium regum.Str. I, Psalms 72:1. Thy judgments.—These are hardly the rights transferred by God as king of Israel to the theocratic king (Delitzsch), the Messianic authority (Geier, et al.) to rule; for the exercise of which the righteousness directly mentioned as the corresponding official endowment is then implored, but in accordance with the parallelism, the way of judging (De Wette, Hupf.), the decisions (Hitzig), the latter not in the sense of the commandments and directions given to the king, the norm of his judging and sentences (Olsh.), but as the sentences and decisions flowing forth from the Spirit of God (Chald., Hengst.), for which Solomon obtained wisdom for himself, 1 Kings 3:9; 1 Kings 3:28; comp. Isaiah 11:2 (Isaki, kimchi). There is no reference here to righteousness which avails before God (Seb. Schmidt). Psalms 72:2. May he judge Thy people, &c.—It is better to regard the futures in this and the following verses as optatives. [Psalms 72:3. May the mountains bear peace for the people, and the hills, by righteousness.—Mountains and hills are mentioned as the characteristic features of the land of Palestine. They were cultivated in ancient times, being terraced from top to bottom. Remains of these terraces are visible and in use at the present time not only for the vine and fig, but likewise for grain. It is unnecessary to supply a verb in the latter clause. Righteousness is the means by which this fruit of peace is to be produced by the mountains and the hills.—C. A. B.] Str. II, Psalms 72:5. May they fear Thee.—The supposition that here it is not God who is addressed, but the king (Hupfeld, Hitzig), cannot be proved from Psalms 89, and is against the context, which puts the constantly abiding fear of God as the blessed effect of the righteous rule in the closest connection with its other fruits.—As long as (there is) a sun, and before the moon (through) generation of generation.—ςִ ?ν is used of contemporaneous existence as Dan. 3:33. Before the moon, as Job 8:16=as long as it shines=exists (comp. Psalms 72:7). The same may be said of before the sun (Psalms 72:17), to be distinguished from the expression: in presence of the sun (Numbers 25:4)=as long as it is day; and from the phrase: before the eyes of the sun (2 Samuel 12:11)=in clear daylight.Psalms 72:6. Let him come down as rain.—The figure of the rain reminds us of 2 Samuel 23:4. βֵּ ?ζ is not the fleece of the sheep (the ancient versions, Luther, et al.), as Deuteronomy 18:4, here with a reference, perhaps, to Judges 6:37 sq.; so likewise not the mown grass (De Wette, et al.), as Amos 7:1, as needing rain for the after-growth (Kimchi), or in order not to be dried up to the roots by the heat of summer (Calvin), still less the meadows eaten off by locusts (Chald., J. D. Mich.), but the meadows ready for the mowing (Hupf., Delitzsch). Psalms 72:7. Till there be no more moon.—ςַ ?γαְּ ?μִ ?ι might mean: even to the destruction, the ruin (J. H. Mich.), as Job 14:12; Isaiah 38:17. The prevailing use of the word αμ, however, is not as a substantive, but as a particle. Str. III, Psalms 72:8-11. From sea to sea.—Since the reference here is to the extension of the Theocracy over the earth (Zechariah 9:10) and already in the time of Solomon the limits of the kingdom were no longer those of Exo 23:31, the meaning cannot be here of its extension between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. But it is not entirely indefinite: from every sea to every sea (Hengst.); but as the parallel member shows, it begins with a well known limit, namely, the Mediterranean and the stream, that is, the Euphrates, and from thence to the opposite sea which is parallel with the ends of the earth (Chald.). Amos 8:12 mentions as such far-off regions those from the north to the east, here at the same time those in the west and south, and indeed with reference to their riches, namely, the Ph�nician colony in southern Spain called by the Greeks Tartessos, with the islands, namely, of the Mediterranean Sea, and ωְׁ ?αָ ?ΰ in south Arabia at the same time with νְ ?αָ ?ΰ in Ethiopia. Many understand by φִ ?ιִּ ?ιν likewise, the Ethiopians after Sept., Aquil., and Symmach., it can only mean Arabic Beduins (Hitzig) or Nomads in general, unless we should accept a false reading instead of φָ ?ψִ ?ιν, that is to say, adversaries (Olshausen., Hupfeld), because the word of the text elsewhere does not seem to designate men, but beasts of the wilderness (Psalms 74:14; Isaiah 23:13). [Str. IV, Psalms 72:12-14. For he delivereth.—Perowne: “The reason is given why all kings and nations should thus do homage to him who sits on David’s throne. He has merited such submission by the exercise of every royal virtue, by the justice and the mercy of his sway, by his deep sympathy with and compassion for the poor, by the protection which he extends to them against the ministers of fraud and violence. It is not that he merely covers with the shadow of his throne all neighboring nations, and is acknowledged as their political head, but that the bright example which he sets, the majesty of righteousness enthroned in his person, compels all to bow before him.”—Precious is their blood.—Compare Psalms 116:15 “precious is the death of His saints.” Their life is precious to God, and He will avenge their blood upon those who seek to injure them, and He will ward off injury from them.—C. A. B.] Str. V. Psalms 72:15. And may he live and give him of the gold of Sheba, and pray for him continually, bless him all the day.—It is disputed whether the subject is the same in all the clauses of this verse, or whether there is a change of subject, and in the latter case (in favor of which Delitzsch appeals to the Oriental style and his Geschichte der jόdischen Poesie, S. 189), whether the Messianic king is the subject of live, and the following verbs are to be taken as impersonal or passive (the ancient versions, Isaki, Luther, Calvin, Umbreit), or whether the poor man is to be regarded the subject of live and bless, and the king as the subject of give and pray (J. H. Mich.), or yet of give (Maurer, Hofmann, Delitzsch). In the former case, on the other hand, it is again disputed whether the Messianic king is the subject of all the clauses (Cocc., De Dieu, Stier, Bφhl), or the protected subject (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Geier and most interpreters). The last supposition is not in opposition to the immediate context, even when the aim of sparing and delivering is not regarded as directly expressed, (Ewald, Olsh.), but the consequences of the deliverance, the life and the expression of thanks. The mention of the gold of Sheba, however, is difficult. For the delivered give this, not, as it were, as the most precious and best (Geier, J. H. Mich.), which would have been called the gold of Ophir, or because he was a native of Sheba (Hupf.) as the product of his land, which does not suit Psalms 72:10 at all. We might rather suppose that the poor man (Psalms 72:13) had been again restored by the king to his possessions (Hengst.); or since the singular then refers back to Psalms 72:12 sq., that here as there the poor man is parallel to the miserable in the comprehensive and typical sense of Biblical usage (Hupfeld). Then we should have, not a return to Psalms 72:4 (De Wette), but an expansion of the thought there expressed. But this is, to a still greater extent, the case if the king is regarded as the subject of this clause as of all the preceding. Psalms 72:16. Let there be abundance of corn in the land, even to the top of the mountains, let its fruit rustle as Lebanon.—The derivation of τִּ ?ρָּ ?δ is doubtful. The word seems to mean not only a crowd (Syr.), but after the Aramaic τρΰ and the Arabic, a spreading out (Isaki). There is little probability in the derivation from τρν in the meaning of: end, that is to say, the limits of grain on the top of the mountains (Hofmann), or: piece, handful (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Calvin, Geier, most interps.)=there is a handful of corn, yet it will rustle. Besides the latter is against the accents. Abundance of corn as the sign of blessing (Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 31:12; Zech. 10:17) in connection with the bloom of the people (Jeremiah 27:6), whose increase as herbs of the land or grass of the field (Psalms 92:8; Job 5:25) likewise belongs to the blessings of the Messianic time, Isaiah 4:1; Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 49:20; Zechariah 2:8; Psalms 110:3; Sir 44:21. A historical support in the time of Solomon is given in 1 Kings 4:20. The comparison with Lebanon refers to the movement of its trees in the wind. The translation: its fruits culminate or tower above as Lebanon (Sept., Ewald), presupposes a different Hebrew verb. Psalms 72:17. Before the sun let his name sprout.—This hardly refers to his posterity, through whom his name would transplant itself (Hupfeld), but to the occasions which would repeat themselves in the coming generations for the breaking forth of the glory of this name, in which all nations may bless themselves (Genesis 18:18; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4; Genesis 48:20). The subject which is at first general and indefinite is finally very clearly expressed. [The doxology which closes this book is fuller than that of the 1st Book. The use of Jehovah Elohim instead of Jehovah is characteristic, and is in accordance with the use of the Divine names in the two books.—C. A. B.] The predicate of God, Psalms 72:18 b, is like Psalms 88:6; Psalms 136:4; Job 9:8; His name bearing the impression of glory is as Nehemiah 9:5, the construction and contents of Psa 72:19 b are from Numbers 14:21. [The historical remark, Psalms 72:20, was apparently attached to an original collection of the Psalms of David made by Solomon, or under his superintendence, to which Psalms of Solomon of a Messianic character formed the introduction and conclusion. Vid.Psalms 1, 2. This collection was composed mainly of the Psalms of the first two books, although changes in taking from and adding to may have been made in subsequent times, especially when the Psalter was completed in its present form. This historical remark may be compared with Job 31:40.—C. A. B.] AND ETHICAL1. Nothing can be implored for a king more rich in blessing than the capacity and power for a righteous and mild government whose fruit is peace (Isaiah 32:17) and prosperity throughout the land. From the righteous king such a fructifying effect goes forth that the fear of God is spread abroad through the coming generations, and his rule gains an unlimited extent.2. Yet this king will not extend his rule by the sword, but only by his righteousness and his helping love will he rule and conquer. Voluntarily other kings and their peoples will do homage to him, uneasy and hostile neighbors will sink impotent in the dust, those who have been delivered, protected and blessed by him will thankfully offer their gifts, prayers and homage. Thus will his rule endure in the power of the blessing of piety, his kingdom increase, his land prosper, his people bloom, and his name be a means of blessing from generation to generation, Psalms 45:2; Psalms 102:12. 3. Such wishes and hopes as these do not float in the air like human phantasies or empty dreams without prospect of realization; they have their sure ground in the promises of God respecting the son of David, their historical support in the Divine guidance of Israel and his kingdom, their constant type in the Theocracy, their transient type in Solomon’s peaceful rule, their final fulfilment by the Messiah and his kingdom of God, their lasting power in the faith in the blessings, by which God has decreed and promised to overcome in all generations the curse resting upon them. AND Peace as the wholesome fruit of righteousness.—The fear of God as the source of earthly and heavenly blessings.—The welfare of nations: a, in what it consists; b, how it is gained; c, whereby it is assured.—The blessing in the name of the Lord.—When prince and people pray with and for one another, they are blessings to one another.—Righteous judgment, mild government, and a pious mind are the jewels of the king, the happiness of the people, and are well pleasing to God.—Willing obedience, thankful love, devoted trust as testimonies of the sprouting power of the name of the Lord.—The prayers of believers have their yea and amen in the name of the Lord.—The promises respecting the duration, extent, and the happiness of the kingdom, set up by God’s king, ruled and filled with blessings by him. Starke : The office of the magistrate is not only to punish the wicked with righteous judgment, but likewise to protect the poor and miserable.—Since God calls men to His service from all places and quarters, it is very clear that His will is that all men should be blessed.—In the world those are helped who are the least needy, whilst those who are most needy are often allowed to sink into misery; but with Christ it is not so, the poor are the especial objects of His compassion and deliverance.—God’s works have often to the reason a slight beginning, but afterwards a wonderful, blessed, and agreeable progress.—As sure as the true mouth of the Lord has said, that all the world shall be full of His glory, it will be fulfilled in the most complete manner. Selnekker: O thou poor reason, and miserable flesh and blood, what art thou frightened at, and why dost thou fear death and suffering? Is my blood precious with God, what wish I more?—Renschel: The chief subjects of thanksgiving: 1) That God the Lord has done and still does such great wonders in the kingdom of Christ; 2) that He declares His name and gospel therein; 3) that He spreads it abroad in all lands; 4) that He will eternally preserve His word and His Church.—Umbreit: The love of the king is the ground of the universal conversion of nations to Him. Because He helps the poor, all the rich bow before Him.—Tholuck: As the eternal God wields the sceptre of His righteousness for the good of His oppressed congregation on earth, He has appointed His anointed to conquer the earth for His meek ones.—Guenther: Heathendom will have an end, this kingdom of sorrow and misery will blossom into the glorious kingdom of peace.—Taube : The kingdom of God comes in its royal glory only at the advent of the Lord; now are the times of preparation. [Matth. Henry: As by the prayer of faith we return answers to God’s promises of mercy, so by the promises of mercy God returns answers to our prayers of faith.—Christ is the poor man’s King.—Subjects ought to speak well of the government that is a blessing to them; and much more ought all Christians to praise Jesus Christ, daily to praise Him; for they owe all to Him, and to Him they lie under the highest obligations.—Spurgeon: Each crystal drop of rain tells of heavenly mercy which forgets not the parched plains; Jesus is all grace, all that He does is love, and His presence among men is joy. We need to preach Him more, for no shower can so refresh the nations. Philosophic preaching mocks men as with a dust shower, but the gospel meets the case of fallen humanity, and happiness flourishes beneath its genial power.—If we can do no more than cry, it will bring omnipotence to our aid. A cry is the native language of a spiritually needy soul; it has done with fine phrases and long orations, and it takes to sobs and moans, and so, indeed, it grasps the most potent of all weapons, for heaven always yields to such artillery.—Christ’s subjects shall be as plentiful as blades of grass, and shall as suddenly appear as eastern verdure after a heavy shower.—C. A. B.] Footnotes: [Perowne: “The sun and the moon are mentioned here, and again ver. 7, and in Psalms 89:37, as witnesses to an everlasting order, and as it were figures of eternity, things fixed and unchangeable, compared with the fleeting, dying generations of men, as Jeremiah 31:35; Jeremiah 33:20; though as compared with God, themselves subject to decay and destruction, Psalms 102:26; Isaiah 51:6; comp. Job 14:18.”—C. A. B.] THE BOOKPsalms 73-89_______________ Psalms 73 A Psalm of Asaph1         Truly God is good to Israel, Even to such as are of a clean heart. 2    But as for me, my feet were almost gone; My steps had well nigh slipped. 3    For I was envious at the foolish, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4    For there are no bands in their death: But their strength is firm. 5    They are not in trouble as other men; Neither are they plagued like other men. 6    Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; Violence covereth them as a garment. 7    Their eyes stand out with fatness: They have more than heart could wish. 8    They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: They speak loftily. 9    They set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue walketh through the earth. 10    Therefore his people return hither: And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 11    And they say, How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? 12    Behold, these are the ungodly, Who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. 13    Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocency. 14    For all the day long have I been plagued, And chastened every morning. 15    If I say, I will speak thus; Behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. 16    When I thought to know this, It was too painful for me; 17    Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then understood I their end. 18    Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: Thou castedst them down into destruction. 19    How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. 20    As a dream when one awaketh; So, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. 21    Thus my heart was grieved, And I was pricked in my reins. 22    So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. 23    Nevertheless I am continually with thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand. 24    Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. And afterward receive me to glory. 25    Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. 26    My flesh and my heart faileth: But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. 27    For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. 28    But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, That I may declare all thy works. AND Contents and Composition.—The firm acknowledgment that God is nothing but good to those who are truly His people (Psalms 73:1), was to the Psalmist the fruit of a victory gained by his faith over personal temptations (Psalms 73:2). These temptations had arisen from vexation at the temporal prosperity of the ungodly (Psalms 73:3-5), and at their presumptuous conduct (Psalms 73:6-9). Many were hereby influenced to attach themselves to that class of men, because they could not reconcile the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous with the doctrine of God’s providence (Psalms 73:10-14). The Psalmist escaped the danger of becoming recreant himself, and a seducer of others, which might have resulted from such doubts, not by means of his own reflections upon the difficult problem of the course of human affairs, but by the observance of the duties of religion, by which he was led to the contemplation of the final lot of the ungodly (Psalms 73:15-17). This afforded him a view of their sudden and complete destruction by the judgments of God (Psalms 73:18-20), and of the utter absurdity of his former indignation (Psalms 73:21-22). Now he becomes strengthened by communion with God, who leads him in safety and to glory (Psalms 73:23-24), who is his only true and lasting good (Psalms 73:25-26), and shall remain his saving refuge and the object of his endless praise. The same problems are discussed here which are presented in Psalms 37, 49, and in the Book of Job; but the solution given here is the most profound. (Comp. Hupfeld in the Deutsche Zeitschrift fόr christl. Wissen und Leben, 1850, No. 235). [The relative position assigned to the Book of Job by Dr. Moll and most of the commentators upon this Psalm is hardly just. It must be remembered that that record of trial and doubt and victory constitutes the Book of Old Testament revelation which was to deal particularly with this special department of the mysteries of Providence. And it therefore presents the question in its inexhaustible variety of aspects, sounding the depths, not of transient doubts and perplexities, but of a crushing personal realization of the utmost consequences of a conflict waged by a righteous man against the unrestrained power and devices of Satan. Now the view of the Book which finds a relative inferiority in its solution, proceeds from considering the discourses, which occupy much the largest space, as being intended to express all its teachings. The chief place is necessarily given to the record of the struggle, and when the solution is given there results what Psalms 37 pictures, a fulness of outward prosperity. But it was not this for which Job chiefly longed. And when he received the vindication of his righteousness, even though accompanied by the rebuke for his presuming attempt to sit in judgment upon the ways of God, he could feel that in the favor of God was his life, as its withdrawal had seemed to him worse than death. The real distinction would seem to be not that the solution in this Psalm is the more profound, but that while in the Book of Job the expression of the feeling of confidence and triumph is kept out of view, it is here joyously given forth. This is the distinguishing excellence of this Psalm, for which it must ever retain its place in the heart of the doubting and comforted believer.—J. F. M.] From these facts we cannot infer with certainty a composition at a late period, especially as the mode in which the subject is presented is throughout peculiar. It is also just as unsafe to infer from the recurrence in Psalms 74:3 of the rare word, meaning ruins, employed in Psalms 73:18, that these two Psalms were of contemporaneous origin. The same remark applies to the inference of a later origin drawn from the occurrence of Archaic and Aramaic word-forms. It bears much more heavily against such a conclusion that the ancient translators failed to understand many expressions throughout the Psalm, and in some instances gave such absurd interpretations that the correct exposition only begins with Kimchi. This would be inexplicable, if the Psalm were not composed before the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, 175 B. C. (Hitzig). There was, it is true, at that time a relapse of whole bodies of the Jewish nation to heathenism (1Ma 1:11 f.), on one occasion under the cooperation of a high-priest (2Ma 4:9 ff.). But leaving out of consideration all such apostasies as that which the prophet Hosea, among others, denounces and characterizes as whoredom [see Psalms 73:27], it is evident that Psalms 73:1 introduces a contrast, not between Israel and heathen nations, but between two classes in Israel itself. [Alexander: “There is not the slightest ground for doubting the correctness of the title, which ascribes the composition of the Psalm to Asaph, the cotemporary of David and his chief musician, and himself, moreover, an inspired Psalmist. This last fact, which is a matter of recorded history, together with the fact that when only one name is mentioned in the title of a Psalm, it is uniformly that of the writer, may suffice to set aside the supposition that Asaph is only named as the performer.”—J. F. M.]. On Asaph see the Introd. § 2. Paul Gerhard’s hymn: Sei Wohlgemuth, O Christenseel, is an imitation of this Psalm. Psalms 73:1. Only good is God [E. V.: Truly God is good, etc.].—The rendering: kind (De W.) is too restricted for θεֹ ?α, even if modified into a substantive: kindness (Hitzig), although this is more suitable than the notion expressed by the simple adjective (Sept., Calvin). The explanation: the true happiness and good (Stier), is in so far correct as it raises the conception above its usual restriction to the sphere of the purely ethical, which is also admirably accomplished in Luther’s freer translation: nevertheless Israel has God as his consolation. It introduces, however, into the neuter a definiteness which is too concrete. The essential thought is not affected if ΰַ ?κְ is taken adversatively=yet, nevertheless (most of the ancient translators and Tholuck); or affirmatively=yea, surely (Kφster, De Wette, Hupfeld, Delitzsch); or restrictively=only, nothing but (most of the modern expositors). But the application of the “only” to Israel (Aben Ezra) is wrong. [An allegation has been based by many upon such passages as Psalms 73:1 and Habakkuk 1:13 (where see Delitzsch) that the Old Testament writers were in the habit of describing Israel, as a nation, as righteous, and the heathen as sinners. For the disproof of this charge see in the Appendix to Hengstenberg’s Coram, on the Psalms, the treatise on the Doctrine of Sin, as appearing in the Psalms.—J.F.M.] Psalms 73:4. We read, with Ewald and all the recent expositors except Stier, Hengstenberg and Hupfeld, μָ ?ξεּ ϊָּ ?ν, and therefore attach the former word to the first part of the verse, and the latter to the second. For this slight change of μְ ?ξεֹ ?ϊָ ?ν affords a sense which is suitable throughout; while the received reading would mean: they have no torments in dying (Sept., Kimchi), which does not agree with Psalms 73:18 f. Again, difficulties that can scarcely be set aside are involved in any of the following translations: they have no torments with regard to death, that is, no fear of death (Targum, Symmachus, the older Rabbins); or: they have no sufferings causing death, diseases, and the like infirmities (Kimchi, Calvin, Hengstenberg); or: they have no torments until their death (Isaaki, Stier, Hupfeld).—The explanation “paunch” for the word ΰεּ ?μ, has come through the medium of the Arabic. The word is also taken by some (Kimchi, Calvin, Hengst., Hupfeld) in its usual signification, “power, strength.” By the older translators (Symmachus, Isaaki) it is confounded with ΰεּ ?μָ ?ν, to which is to be traced the erroneous translation: strong as a palace (Luther). [The author’s translation would be: For they have no torments: their paunch (body) is vigorous and well-fed (stout).—J. F. M.] Psalms 73:6. It is not abundant fulness (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Hengst.) that is described; still less is it the daily habit of life (Kimchi), but an ostentatious and vain-glorious exhibition. [The opinion of Hengstenberg has been here misstated. He agrees very nearly with Dr. Moll himself. He says: “The reason which led the Psalmist to speak of pride as a neck ornament 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.” He refers to Ps. 3:16; Job 15:26.—J. F. M.] Psalms 73:7. Many since Schnurrer read ςֲ ?επֵ ?ξε instead of ςֵ ?ιπֵ ?ξεֹ, basing this upon the Septuagint, the Syriac Version, and Zechariah 5:6; Hosea 10:10. The meaning then would be: their pride comes forth or proceeds from their fat. Their fat then represents either: their affluence (Schnurrer, Doederlein), or better, as in Psalms 17:10 : their gross, insensible heart, their soul smeared, as it were, with grease (Hitzig, Bφttcher, Olshausen, Hupfeld, Delitzsch). Comp. Matthew 15:18 f. The following half of the verse does not mean that they are transgressors, i.e. impious in their thoughts (Geier and others). Nor does it mean that their success surpasses all their expectations (Isaaki, Kimchi, Calvin), or exceeds all human precedent (Rabbins cited in Calvin). But the meaning is, that the imaginations of their hearts, the illusions of their unbounded self-esteem (Delitzsch), have revealed themselves. Yet it does not imply that this is done through the medium of the eyes (Clericus), or the mouth, in allusion to the succeeding verse (Delitzsch), but without any more precise indication and without any restriction, by passing from inward feeling to outward expression. [The explanation of the clause here given seems the mo9t natural. Alexander prefers this, as also do Perowne and Wordsworth. Fausset prefers the translation: they pass over (exceed) the imaginations of their hearts, thus agreeing with E. V.—J. F. M.] [The first clause of Psa 73:8 is rendered in the English Version: they are corrupt. This rendering of ιָ ?ξִ ?ιχεּ occurs in all the ancient versions except those of Symmachus (καταμωκώμενοι) and Jerome (irriserunt), which are undoubtedly correct, and with which most of the modern translators agree. The old rendering has assumed a verb, cognate with ξָ ?χַ ?χ, and taken intransitively: to melt, run down, be corrupt. Geier, however, gives it the causative sense, to cause to melt, i.e., others by their oppression. Fausset adduces in favor of this the occurrence of “oppression” in the next clause, and thinks that there may be a parallelism. But in the first place, if a parallelism is desired it is afforded in the “speaking,” which in fact is the subject of the whole verse. Then, as to the true meaning of the word, the cognate languages seem to settle the question, as the corresponding words in Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldee (in the two latter, with a causative form like the Hebrew) have the meaning: to deride, to mock. The true rendering then seems to be: they will scoff.—J. F. M.] Psalms 73:9. The subject of this verse is probably not blasphemies against heaven, i.e., against God (Targum, Isaaki, Geier, Delitzsch, who refers to Judges 16) and evil speaking on earth and through the country (Aben Ezra, Geier, J. H. Michaelis). Rather the description of their speaking down from on high (Psalms 73:8), as though they had ascended into heaven (Isaiah 14:13), which is manifested in arrogant self-assumption, is here continued. The tongue thus appears as the unruly evil, meddling with everything, James 3:8, (Luther, Calvin). Psalms 73:10. “therefore” refers to these two causes, the prosperity and the conduct of the wicked, whose example draws over to their party those who may be called in more senses than one, “His people,” and causes them to apostatize from God. The received reading ιָ ?ωִׁ ?ια would give the rendering: he causes to turn, and ιָ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?α (Jerome, the Rabbins, and almost all the expositors) would mean: he turns. So ςַ ?ξּ ?εֹ (all the Codices) would mean: His people, and ςַ ?ξִּ ?ι (Sept., J. D. Michaelis, Dathe): My people. But these variations affect the sense but slightly, and are to be explained partly from the natural confounding of ε and ι, and partly from the attempt to avoid, or to explain as intermediary, the unexpected introduction and immediate disappearance of a singular subject instead of the usual plural. To refer the suffix to God (Calvin, Rosenmueller, Stier, Maurer) is not justified by the context. Still this attempt at an explanation may suggest to us that the rendering: (his, or): their rabble (Luther and others) is too restricted and does not agree with Psalms 73:13, and that it is rather the faithless Israelites who are spoken of; that, therefore, both parties, the seducers and the seduced, the wicked and their hangers-on (Psalms 10:4; Psalms 14:1; Psalms 36:2; Psalms 49:14; Isaiah 46:12) had constituted one and the same people, before they had banded together to form this multitude. The meaning of the second clause of the verse, however, does not mean that they run to them in large numbers, comparing them to the running of water (Luther) or that they are absorbed by them in large numbers (Sachs). Nor must we translate: full water (i.e., an overflow, as a figure of sensual prosperity) is found for them (the ancient translators, Geier, and others). For ιִ ?ξָּ ?φεּ does not come from ξָ ?φָ ?ΰ to find, but from ξָ ?φָ ?δ to drain, Psalms 75:9; Isaiah 51:19 Ezekiel 23:34. But it does not refer to a cup of tears or a cup of sorrow, Psalms 80:6 (Kimchi), which has made the pious unfaithful, but to the eagerness with which they either grasp at success and its enjoyments (Hengst., Hupfeld), or catch at the maxims of the ungodly, (Job 15:16) thoughts and words of discontent (Ewald, Delitzsch, Hltzig). [The translation of the author, therefore, is: Therefore his people turn hither, and water in abundance is drained by them. With this Perowne substantially agrees. Alexander prefers to retain the causative reading, and takes the cup to mean draughts of bitterness. He renders: Therefore he brings back his people hither, and waters of fulness are wrung out to (or drained by) them. This he explains thus: God still suffers or requires His people to survey the painful spectacle, and drain the bitter draught presented by the undisturbed prosperity of the wicked. But in all the explanations based on the causative reading the words must be strained in order to get a natural and appropriate sense.—J. F. M.] Psalms 73:11-14. The question in Psalms 73:11 is ironical, and includes its own denial, Job 22:13. They first deny God’s actual knowledge, and then His attribute of omniscience (Delitzsch). In the bitter: behold! (Stier) they draw attention to the apparently manifest proofs of the truth of the denial. We are not, however, especially since the article is absent, to translate: behold! they are the ungodly (Luther) This would rather suit the supposition that in Psalms 73:12 the poet’s reflections begin. ΰֵ ?μֶּ ?δ is then to be taken as equivalent to tales (Geier) as in Job 18:21. Comp. Job 8:19; Isaiah 56:11; and to be understood as describing either their moral character (Hupfeld) or their condition before presented (Hengstenberg). Many arguments may be adduced in support of this assumption, but none convincing. It is doubtful whether in Psalms 73:12 b the security refers to the pleasant (Hupfeld) and undisturbed (Hitzig) situation of the man who apparently is always prosperous (the versions and the Rabbins), or to his sense of it as being free from care (Ewald, Delitzsch).—With Psalms 73:13 compare Proverbs 20:9; Proverbs 26:6; with Psalms 73:14, Job 7:18. [The correct interpretation and mutual relations of Psa 73:12-14, have been the subject of various conflicting opinions. There appears to be no necessity for assuming that they are utterances of some third party, a suffering righteous man. This view seems to have been suggested by the difficulties presented by the apparently forced connection of the section with the verses preceding and following. Either of the other and more common solutions would meet the difficulties better. The view which regards these verses as the former words of the Psalmist himself, is maintained by Hengstenberg, Hupfeld, and most of the English commentators. This opinion seems to have in its favor Psalms 73:15, “if I said: I should speak thus, etc.” and the exclamation in Psalms 73:12, which would naturally introduce such a discourse. But the best interpretation, in my view, is that to which Dr. Moll gives his sanction, as also do Ewald and Delitzsch, and to which Perowne inclines. It puts these words into the mouth of one who had apostatized, selected as a representative of those who speak in Psalms 73:11. The words employed in Psalms 73:15, where the Psalmist’s reflections accordingly begin, are thus best accounted for. He would naturally contrast his position not with that of the avowed and veteran sinners, but with those who had experienced temptations like his, and had succumbed to them. As he listens to their words in which they point to the growing prosperity of the “wicked,” and recall their own profitless innocence in former days, which gained for them nothing but wounds and stripes, he seas the results of the very temptation that had entered deeply into his own soul. But what if he were to speak thus! The following translation of Psa 73:10-15 will thus form a consistent whole: Therefore His people turn hither. And waters of abundance are drunk deep by them. And they say: How has God known it? And is there knowledge in the Most High? See! these are the “wicked !” And, at their ease forever, they have increased their wealth. (One of them speaks). Only in vain did I purify my heart. And wash my hands in innocence. And I was being smitten every day. And my chastisement (came) every morning (The Psalmist). If I had said: I will utter such words, Behold! I would have trangressed against the family of thy children—J. F. M.] The transition to the first person is to be explained by the fact that individual feelings and personal experiences are now to be presented. To place these words in the mouth of the Psalmist would not agree with our explanation of Psa 73:15. If we were, however, to consider them as his earlier utterances, and translate Psalms 73:15 : If I said, “I will count up, how often, behold! I betrayed the family of thy children,” the Psalmist would then admit the commission of deeds which go far beyond what he had confessed in Psalms 73:2. He rather declares what would happen if he were to make the language of those who had been misled his own. λְּ ?ξεֹ elsewhere usually equivalent to “as,” is here taken most simply as our adverb “so,” (most of the versions and translators, comp. Gesenius, Thesaurus). And we are not obliged to change the reading into λֵ ?ο (Dathe); or in order to obtain the sense: sicut illi (Syriac version, Targum), to assume that δֶ ?ν (Bφttcher) or ΰֵ ?μֶּ ?δ (Olshausen) has possibly fallen out, and supply it (Aben Ezra, Isaaki); or to point λָּ ?ξεֹ (Geier, Rosenmueller); or disregarding the accents to annex the δπδ which follows and read λְּ ?ξεֹ δֵ ?πָּ ?δ, sicut illa, severba (Saadias, de Dieu, Dφderlein, Ewald). The generation of thy children (Psalms 73:15) is here the whole body of those in whom the relation of sonship, which God has constituted between Himself and Israel, had been spiritually realized,—the true family (Psalms 14:5) the Israel of God (Psalms 73:1) the name of a distinct class, as in Deuteronomy 14:1; Hosea 2:1 (Delitzsch). Psalms 73:17. The sacred things of God are not God’s righteous plans and leadings, nor the secrets of His government of the world (Gesenius, De Wette, Olshausen, Maurer, Ewald, Hitzig); nor God’s righteous deeds, Psalms 77:14, but the holy places, where He dwells and makes Himself known, Ps. 68:36. But these are not heaven, as the end and reward of earthly tribulation (Kimchi, Bφttcher) but the Temple. It is not, however, viewed as the place of the oracle (Calvin), or as the place where illumination and instruction are received through the medium of God’s Word, (Luther), by means of the teaching of priests and prophets (Aben Ezra), or by means of its typical regulations and service, (Stier, following the older expositors), or as a place of devotion (Delitzsch) where the heart enters into the presence of God (Hengst.) It. is probably viewed as the seat of the Judge and Ruler of the world (Psalms 3:5; Psalms 11; Psalms 14:7; Psalms 20:3; Psalms 20:7, etc.), consequently as the central point (penetralia) of God’s government (Hupfeld); from which that government can be best surveyed, and where the only authentic information concerning its problems is to be obtained. It has been supposed that by marking their “end,” the Poet expresses his intention to keep looking for the eventual temporal ruin of the ungodly, and that, this will in the meantime be his consolation until he shall penetrate into the Divine mysteries, while he will, for the present, continue his severe mental toil. So Kφster, Olshausen, and Baur (on De Wette). But this does not agree with Psalms 73:4; Psalms 73:12 f. He is speaking of a spiritual attentive contemplation of God’s judgment (Calvin) in connection with his entering into His holy place. Through this, light has already fallen upon the problem, which is insoluble by the unaided labor of human thought. Psalms 73:18. The construction of ωִׁ ?ιϊ with μ means really: Thou gavest them their position on slippery places, without needing to supply an accusative (J. H. Michaelis, Hengstenberg). [Hengstenberg hardly says that an accusative is to be supplied. He says “the object is to be taken from the verb.” As I understand him, he means precisely the same as Moll, that is, that ωׁ ?ιϊ means: to appoint a position, so that the object is included in the verb.—J. F. M.] To understand the slippery places of the blessings (Rabb.) which have ruined them, is certainly too restricted and special. Yet the mere allusion to the perils which God has placed in their path (Hupfeld) allows the reference to the special circumstances of those who have been ruined by prosperity and success in every pursuit, to fall unduly into the back-ground. This would be avoided if we could translate with Hitzig: Thou, by artifice, only settest snares for them. Instead of “to ruins,” we can translate according to another derivation: into illusions (Dφderlein, Rosenmueller, Ewald), or: by surprise, (Hitzig). Psalms 73:20. The parallelism shows that αָּ ?ςιψ does not mean: in the city, that is, openly, on the scene where his deeds were committed (Hengst., with most of the ancient translators and expositors), but that it is equivalent to αְּ ?δָ ?ςִ ?ιψ (Kimchi, Calvin and the modern expositors), that is, in the waking, not that of the dead, whose shade is terrified away (Bφttcher); but that of God when He arises to judgment, Psalms 78:65. Verse 22. αְּ ?δֵ ?ξεֹ ?ϊ is not to be taken as a plural of majesty, but as the name of the Nilehorse (Job 40:15), Egyptian p-ehe-mou equivalent to water-ox. [The Egyptian compound here cited was probably assimilated to an existing Hebrew word on its introduction into the latter language, as was the usual custom. Now, why was not the singular αְּ ?δֵ ?ξַ ?δ used, which bears a closer resemblance to the Egyptian? Probably because there was a descriptive word already in use, “a beast of beasts,” Behemoth, and this just suited the hippopotamus, on account of its great size and strength. But these are not to us, nor were they to the Hebrews, the most prominent characteristic of the “beast” nature (witness αςψ), and a large development of other striking qualities, would entitle to the same distinction. It would surely be much more natural for the Psalmist, in view of his folly and degradation, to say that he was “a very beast” before God, than to say that he was a “Behemoth.” On the ideas which lie at the basis of the pluralis majestatis see Green, Heb. Gr., § 201, 2, and Hengstenberg’s Beitrδge, II. 257 ff.—J. F. M.] Psalms 73:24. Afterwards Into glory.—ΰηψ is not here, as in Zechariah 2:12, a preposition, but an adverb, as in Judges 19:5; Hosea 3:5. λָּ ?αεֹ ?γ denotes here not the soul (Hasse), as in Psalms 16:9, according to poetical usage. And it is scarcely an adjective: glorious (see Hoffman). It would be better to take it in an adverbial and general sense: with honor (Luther, Delitzsch). But it is best to consider it as the accusative of the end striven after (Hupfeld), namely, the glory of God (Psalms 8:6), into which the Psalmist hopes to be taken up, Genesis 5:24; Psalms 49:16. This thought is weakened by the translation: Thou wilt lead me, or, bear me along, to the goal of honor (Ewald, Hitzig). It is quite misrepresented by the rendering: Thou bearest me after honor, that is, in its train (Hengst.). The rendering: at last Thou like glory wilt receive me (Klostermann), is artificial. It is, to be sure, only since Grotius, that we find in some expositors the limitation of these words to the earthly life. Yet the germ (Wurzel) of the belief in unending personal communion with God is here not so fully developed as most suppose it to be. Psalms 73:26 is by Hitzig understood to express the ardent longing (Psalms 84:3; Job 19:27) after God (Psalms 42:2—The Vulgate, after the Septuagint, has at the end the addition: In the gates of the daughter of Zion. AND ETHICAL1. The confession that God stands towards His covenant people, that is, towards its true members, in the relation of the One who is exclusively good, is, the fruit of a true and living faith in Him, ripened in the heat of temptation. For when the temporal prosperity of so many is seen to be disproportioned to their moral conduct, there is not only excited in the mind of the observer disquietude, vexation and anger, but a complete clashing of the feelings is also the result. On the one hand there is suggested a contradiction between such facts observed and the promises of God, Deuteronomy 28.; and on the other hand, the opposition makes itself felt, between the requirements of God and the corresponding sinful inclinations arising from the consideration of such facts. 2. With the growing prosperity of the wicked not only do their carnal security and their presumption increase with it, but their impiety reaches such a height that they act as though they themselves were God. And the pious man, when he sees them as if exempted from the usual lot of mortals (Job 14:1 ff.), easily falls, through his anger at such a condition of things, into a false heat, in which envy as well as impatience is aroused. It becomes difficult for him to remain unshaken in his belief in the Divine government, and hold fast to the truth impressed upon him from his youth. He begins to doubt and thus begins to waver. Yet before he falls he is saved by resorting to God’s holy place. This separates him from the faithless herd who have lent their ear to seduction, and strengthens him while he holds communion with God, which raises his view above the world and all that it exhibits, and sets him at rest as to those problems of the course of its affairs, which his unaided reflection could not avail to solve. 3. Viewed in relation to the end, the prosperity of the ungodly is clearly shown to be only an appearance, and the fabric of a vision, vanishing before, the terrible reality, when God arises to judgment. It is made manifest also that it is absurd and unreasonable in the highest degree, for us to allow ourselves to be irritated and deceived by such a show of prosperity. We thus learn, too, that everything depends upon our recognizing God as our true and everlasting good, upon our seeking, holding fast to, and proclaiming Him as such. For he whose life is bound up in the Person of the Eternal can never perish, but must only rise from one height to another until he becomes a partaker of the glory of God. [Hengstenberg: The recompense on this side the grave should, according to the design of God, remain as 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-disposed, that even they are so much inclined to look upon the righteousness of God as inoperative in this life, is a melancholy proof of the degeneracy of the Church and of the lamentable prevalence of infidelity.—J.F. M.] AND The apparent prosperity of the ungodly and the real good of the pious.—The most difficult enigma which life presents: 1. Wherein it consists; 2. Why it is so difficult; 3. How it is solved.—True piety is not a matter of enjoyment of temporal prosperity, but of the acquisition of the eternal good.—That we may win our way victoriously through the trials of our faith, through the sorrows of life and through the allurements of the world, we have need to resort assiduously and devoutly to God’s holy place.—God’s dealings with us correspond to His promises, but we must know how to wait for them, and for this we have need of patience and faith.—If we would not fall into folly and sin in our contemplation of the course of human affairs, we must attach importance not to temporal prosperity but to eternal good, not to the progress of earthly life but to its end, not to the judgments of men but to the decision of God.—Even the pious man may totter and slide, but he is secure against falling as long as he holds fast to God’s house, to His hand and to His salvation.—Prosperity and adversity have opposite effects upon the pious and the ungodly.—Doubt of God’s Providence, in its folly and in its peril.—The power and the impotence of the ungodly.—The confessions of the pious over their temptations, doubts and trials.—The wicked as a people contrasted with the children of God as a family.—Earthly prosperity is no more an infallible sign of God’s favor than temporal suffering is a proof of the Divine wrath.—God’s nearness the hope, help and safety of the righteous.—The temporal and eternal reward.—We must not only trust in God’s government, we must yield ourselves also to His guidance; then we will ever have occasion to praise Him. Augustine: The reward which God bestows is Himself. O blessedness! O unspeakable bliss! God is my portion. And how long? Forever.—Starke: He who has God, has the highest wisdom, everlasting consolation, the true rest and the most blessed delight and joy of the heart.—Murmuring, which corrupts the heart, must be banished from it, else we can have no consolation in God.—In our contemplation of the wonderful ways of God, He calls out to us: blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.—Affliction often passes by the palaces of the rich, because they are not worthy of so great a blessing; instead of improving it, they would misuse it; whereas it visits the poor and becomes their salvation.—When a man allows himself to become haughty and insolent by his prosperity, then there results from so great a blessing a real misfortune.—The most sinful things are commonly the first to receive applause among men; what wonder is it then, if men seek to excuse them, yea, even to make them pass for virtues?—How rarely can men accommodate themselves to great blessings! How often they become a spring whence issues a whole flood of crimes against God, their neighbors and themselves!—The powerful, who are withal ungodly, often fancy that the world was made for them alone. So long as they themselves are in abundance therein, they care not though others starve and die.—Wealthy transgressors have applause and a great following in the world, and serve often to lead men astray.—He who denies the Omniscience and Providence of God has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.—The conclusion: God takes no care for him who has much affliction in the world! Entirely false; for all who would live godly must suffer persecution.—He who begins to talk like the world, will soon become accustomed to act like the world.—He who wishes to be better off than the upright and pious are, finds fault with the order of things instituted by God and loses the benefits of Christ’s kingdom of suffering.—Worldly prosperity is slippery ice, on which one easily falls.—If men do not learn from God’s word to consider the end of the ungodly, it is not to be wondered at that they themselves bring grievous torments into their own hearts.—A much smaller number of mankind would be brought to lament their folly, and ignorance of it, and their madness, along with their disbelief in it, if God were not able and willing to show compassion.—The child of God does not know the righteous though concealed design of God in all and each of His dispensations; yet he does know in the general His blessed counsel, and is fully assured of His Fatherly purpose to bring everything to a happy issue.—Everything must be injurious and offensive to us, unless we have God also.—To cling to God gives everlasting peace; to cleave to the world brings endless sorrow: therefore choose the former. Osiander: The old Adam murmurs sometimes against God’s work and plan; but we must still it by assiduous meditation upon God’s word.—Menzel: Good fortune imparts confidence, but it also produces presumption.—Renschel: The children of God have also flesh and blood, and the flesh and the spirit contend against each other; but he who clings fast to God has the victory in the Spirit.—Frisch: It fares not with men according to human ideas, but according to the word of God.—Arndt: God allows the ungodly to go free like the wild beast; but the hunter will pursue them some time.—Guenther: The worldly prosperity of the wicked is only dangerous ground with pits and falls.—Tholuck: We all confess it to be the most indubitable article of our faith that God governs the world, but how different would our assurance of this be in time, of trouble if we believed it implicitly—When our faith becomes sight then all the dreams of the ungodly are found to be empty bubbles.—Richter (Hausbibel): By reflecting upon the glorious deeds, ways and purposes of God, the faithful find consolation and enlightenment in all trials and perplexities.—Vaihinger: He who envies the prosperity of the ungodly, has not yet gained a clear view of God.—Umbreit: Distance from God and nearness to Him determine the woe or the weal of men, their ruin or their final triumph.—Schaubach (1 Sunday after Trinity): We know from God’s word, that the world passes away and the first thereof: therefore let not the lust of the world allure us. —Diedrich: We owe it to the teaching of God Himself if we can trust His providence. This faith is the fruit of all learning and conflict in God’s kingdom.—Taube: The victory of faith, which struggles through severe doubts with regard to God’s government of the world, to a blessed and simple trust in God.—Nitzsch: The deepest-laid foundation of Christian contentment: 1. Wherein it consists; 2. How it is laid deeper and deeper in us; 3. By what kind of behaviour we testify our possession of it. [Matth. Henry: Job, when he was entering into temptation, fixed for his principle the omniscience of God, Psalms 24:1.—Jeremiah’s principle is the justice of God, Psalms 12:1.—Habakkuk’s principle is the holiness of God, Habakkuk 1:15.—The Psalmist’s here is the goodness of God; these are truths which cannot be shaken, and which we must resolve to live and die by. Though we may not be able to reconcile all the disposals of Providence with them, we must believe that they are reconcilable. Good thoughts of God will justify us against many of Satan’s temptations.—Many a precious soul that will live forever had once a very narrow turn for its life, almost, and well-nigh ruined, but a step between it and fatal apostasy, and yet snatched as a brand from the burning, that shall forever magnify the riches of Divine grace, in the nations of those that are saved.—If we make God’s glory in us the end we aim at, He will make our glory with Him the end we shall be forever happy in.—Bp. Horne: Lord Jesus, who hast so graciously promised to be our portion in the next world, prevent us from choosing any other in this.—Scott: We do not gain a complete victory over the enemy unless his buffetings prove the occasion of our deeper humiliation before God.—Barnes: I am continually with thee. Well may we marvel when we reflect in our thoughts about God, that He has not risen against us in His anger, and banished us from His presence forever.—J. F. M.] Psalms 74 Maschil of Asaph1         O God, why hast thou cast us off forever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? 2    Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; The rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; This mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. 3    Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. 4    Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs. 5    A man was famous according as he had lifted up Axes upon the thick trees. 6    But now they break down the carved work thereof at once With axes and hammers. 7    They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, They have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground. 8    They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. 9    We see not our signs: There is no more any prophet: Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. 10    O God how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever. 11    Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom. 12    For God is my King of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13    Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. 14    Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, And gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 15    Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: Thou driedst up mighty rivers. 16    The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 17    Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: Thou hast made summer and winter. 18    Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, And that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. 19    O deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked: Forget not the congregation of thy poor forever. 20    Have respect unto the covenant: For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. 21    O let not the oppressed return ashamed: Let the poor and needy praise thy name. 22    Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. 23    Forget not the voice of thine enemies: The tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually. AND Superscription, Contents, and Composition.—On Maskil see Introduction, § 8, No. 3. This Psalm can be brought into connection with Asaph in one of two ways. It has been referred by some to one of the later members of this illustrious family of singers (Dathe, Rosenmueller, Hengstenberg); while Delitzsch, holding that it only bears the old Asaphitic stamp generally, would understand by the superscription: a poem after the manner of Asaph. For the attempt to gain credit for the opinion that it was composed by the famous cotemporary of David, on the ground that it contains a prophecy (Clauss, following the Rabbins and the ancient expositors), contradicts the words of the Text, and mistakes the historical situation manifest therein. The words of Psa 74:3; Psalms 74:7-8, especially, allude to a destruction of the temple on Zion by fire already completed, preceded by a profanation (Psalms 74:4), and accompanied by a plain description of the conduct of the enemy (Psalms 74:5-6). We cannot, therefore assume an event earlier than the destruction by the Chaldeans in the year 588 recounted in 2 Chronicles 36:19; Jeremiah 52:13. To this the Psalm might be with great probability referred (De Wette, Kφster, Maurer, Hengstenberg, Hupfeld). For the Church of the Second Temple did not experience injuries done to their sacred edifice, such as are here depicted, in the interruptions of building immediately after the return from the exile (Ewald). Neither did such a destruction appear in the outrages committed by the Persian general Bagoses (Ewald formerly), by which the temple was profaned (Josephus, Ant. Psalms 11:7). Nor yet was such devastation suffered at the hands of the Syrian oppressors under Antiochus Epiphanes in the year 167 (Targum, Rudinger, Venema, Olshausen, Hitzig, Delitzsch) who also profaned the temple, but only burnt down the gates (1Ma 4:38; 2Ma 1:8; 2Ma 8:33). This result contributes so much the more to an historical solution, when it is taken into consideration that, the closely related 79th Psalm is most readily assigned to the Chaldean period, and also that the assumption of Maccabean Psalms is not only encumbered with grave difficulties of a general kind (compare besides Hassler, Comm. de Psalmis Maccabζis, 1827 and 1832, especially Ehrt, Abfassungszeit und Abschluss des Psalters 1869) but that also in the case before us there are distinct passages such as Psalms 74:3 a, which are unfavorable to it, while others, such as Psalms 74:4; Psalms 74:8-9, admit of an explanation (see below) by which even the supposition of a later insertion of a Maccabζan Psalm in the Canon (Delitzsch) appears to be unnecessary. The points of agreement with Lamentations 2:2; Lamentations 2:7; Lamentations 2:9, may also be adduced in favor of a composition during the exile. On account of the occurrence of many rare words the sense in numerous passages remained obscure to the ancient translators, and the interpretation of some of them doubtful to the modern expositors. The progress of thought, however, is in the main clear. From the lamentation over the anger of God expressed in the form of questions, (Psalms 74:1) there arises (Psalms 74:2) the prayer for the deliverance of the Church which passes over (Psalms 74:3) into a picture (Psalms 74:4-8), of the more particularly described devastations of the sacred places, and after a reiterated lamentation (Psalms 74:9-10) over God’s long-continued noninterference (Psalms 74:11), the Psalmist calls upon Him to punish his enemies. Then after an allusion to God’s continuing sovereignty, as attested by His mighty deeds in nature and history (Psalms 74:12-17), the opposition to that government with its ruinous consequences (Psalms 74:18-23), is used as a plea in urging God’s intervention for deliverance and for punishment. Psalms 74:1-2. Cast us off.—The use of the Prζterite as distinguished from the imperfect of the following stich, is not to be overlooked. The action is first presented and then the permanent relations. The smoking of the nostrils [ΰַ ?τְּ ?κָ translated: thine anger in E. V.—J. F. M.] is a figurative expression for the manifestation of anger, Psalms 18:9, like snorting, in Psalms 80:5, after Deuteronomy 29:19. It is characteristic of the period of the Exile to term the Church of God, the sheep of His pasture (Psalms 79:13; Psalms 95:7; Psalms 100:3; Jeremiah 23:1). This appellation means more than that God is the Shepherd and the people His flock (Psalms 80:2). It contains an allusion to the fact that God had given the faithful Canaan as a pasture land to this His people (Hosea 13:6; Jeremiah 25:36) and that the possession of this land was the question at issue. Allusion is made besides, in various ways, to the establishment and maintaining of the favored relations in which the people had stood to God since they were purchased (Exodus 15:17) and redeemed (Exodus 15:13; Psalms 72:16; Psalms 78:35) long before in the days of Moses (Psalms 44:2). The prayer in Deuteronomy 9:26; Deuteronomy 9:29, that God would not reject His people, is also grounded upon this. The statement that God had redeemed His people from Egyptian bondage that they might be the “rod of His inheritance,” brings out the thought that everything which belongs or will belong to the people of God, His peculiar possession, must proceed from this stem or be ingrafted into it. Consequently the deliverance and preservation of the Church bear a part in the fulfilment of the destiny assigned her, and in the execution of God’s purpose in her establishment, and may be urged as a powerful plea in the prayer before us. This reference of the words which appears so suitable to the text, loses its force in some degree, if it is assumed that they imply merely that the unity of all the stems (Isaiah 63:17; Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19) constitutes the people of God’s inheritance (Kimchi, Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Olshausen, Hupfeld), or represents the whole people in its ethnic distinction from all other nations (Delitzsch) as God’s peculiar race (De Wette). These explanations are, however, more correct than that interpretation which, in the translation virga hereditatis (Vulgate), is not intended to express the idea of a sprouting main-stem but that of a measuring-rod, by which the shares of the possession or of the inheritance were meted out, and understands this metonymically for the inheritance itself (Luther, Calvin and others, Hengst.). For in Deuteronomy 32:9, and Ezekiel 40:3, entirely different words appear. Psalms 74:3; Psalms 74:8. Perpetual desolations are such as seem as if they might well remain forever desolate and therefore point to a destruction, not lasting (De Wette) nor complete (Gesenius in Lexicon, Bφttcher) but so extensive, that it could not have taken place in the Maccabean age. If we follow another etymological explanation, this rare word would describe endless wickedness (Ewald) or incessant invasion by enemies (Hitzig) or boundless presumption (Sept. Vulg.). According to Psalms 73:18, however, this is scarcely probable. As regards the sense it is unessential whether we read ξֹ ?εςֵ ?γ written in the singular or plural form, and understand it to mean a festal season, or festal celebration, or festal gathering, or the place where such a gathering is made. For the shouting of the enemy creating confusion might be heard under all these circumstances, and the Temple also, which the context most readily suggests to us, (similarly Lamentations 2:6.) had several divisions and courts and is sometimes denoted by the plural number (compare Ps. 68:36). The best authorities, moreover, decide for the singular. [Alexander: “The word strictly means a meeting by mutual agreement or appointment, and is specially applied to the meeting between God and His people in the sanctuary, which was therefore designated in the law as the tent of meeting. The full sense, therefore, of the words here used is ‘in the midst of Thy people assembled at the appointed time and place to meet Thee.’ The exclusive local meaning put by some upon the words is quite gratuitous. The plural form which some assume (thine assemblies) varies the meaning only by suggesting the idea of repeated convocations, ‘in the midst of Thy people wherever (or, as often as) they meet Thee thus,’ but without at all conveying the idea of numerous or even of different places.”—J. F. M.] But in Psalms 74:8 b this word stands in a different relation. There it is undoubtedly in the plural form and in the closest connection with ΰֵ ?μ And since burning is spoken of the sacred edifices alone must be intended. What are we to understand by the twofold addition “all” and “in the land?” The old translators have ingeniously assumed that synagogues are meant, and since Vitringa has made it clear (De Synagoga Vetere 1:2, 12) that these did not exist until after the Exile, many expositors have discovered in Psalms 74:8, the surest proof that the Psalm was composed in the Maccabean period. But the synagogues are never denoted by the term here employed, and with this agrees the fact that the primary idea of that term is not that of an assembly of men, but according to Exodus 25:22; Exodus 29:42; Exodus 36:6, that of a meeting of God with His people, and it is applied only to the one sacred place which God established,—at first to the Tabernacle, and afterwards to the Temple. This circumstance excites just doubts of the correctness of that explanation which makes this passage relate the devastation of the synagogues in the land as the houses of God—even if we have grounds for maintaining, against the doubt expressed by Hupfeld, their existence in the age of the Maccabees, as argued especially from Josephus (Wars, Psalms 7:3; Psalms 7:3), and Acts 15:21. But the same fact decides against an allusion to the sacred places where God manifested Himself during the patriarchal age (J. D. Michaelis, Dathe, Clauss), or to the high places of the old Israelitish worship, which had possibly escaped the efforts at extermination undertaken by Josiah (Gesenius, De Wette, Maurer). And even if the plural can be allowed to refer to the several divisions of the Temple (The Rabbins) it is yet linguistically impossible that the other sacred places in the land could be united with it so as to make one collective term, as Hupfeld assumes. Just as inadmissible is the opinion of Bφttcher, who supposes that the worshipping assemblies of the people are described, who perished, as it were, by the same flames which burnt down the Temple. The sentence can be most readily explained from the Israelitish conception, that in the destruction of the Temple the one sanctuary of the worshippers of the true God throughout the nation perished along with it (Hengstenberg). It is not to be denied, however, that this explanation is only an expedient to get rid of the embarrassment caused by the translation “all the places where God makes Himself known,” and effects a round-about interpretation of moλd in order to gain that end. All difficulty would be at an end, if we were permitted to regard the vexed sentence as a continuation of the words of the enemy. The Masoretic text, however, forbids this. The wording of the sentence opposes its interpretation in this sense (Muntinghe, Kφster). But is the present text really the original one? We have reason to doubt it from the fact, that the Alex, version not merely does actually give the sentence as a continuation of the enemy’s words, but that the reading κατακαύσωμεν (let us burn down) appeared first as a correction of Jerome instead of the original καταπαύσωμεν (let us bring to silence or make to cease). In it also first appeared the translation ἑορτἁς. If, now, we assume that the LXX have read ωαϊε we could then make an improvement by annexing ε to the following word and reading ωַׁ ?αָּ ?ϊεְ ?λָ ?μΞ. This would afford the most suitable sense: let us destroy them all at once, the Sabbath and all the sacred feasts in the land. In this way also the form πִ ?ιπָ ?ν with the suffix of the third person plural would be fully explained and the closest connection restored. Compare Ehrt., p. 18 f., where reference is also made to Lamentations 2:6 f. Isaiah 1:13 f. 2 Chronicles 8:13. [Upon this emendation of the text proposed by the author, I would remark. 1. That the words which we obtain by adopting it are scarcely suitable in the mouths of the invaders. The Chaldeans were not urged at all by religious motives in their attacks, nor was there any evidence of religious animosity in their triumph. They would agree much better with the spirit of the Syrian invaders, but Dr. Moll is opposed to the view which would make these the subject of the verse. 2. The word ωαϊε seems an unlikely one for the LXX to have assumed. It varies very greatly from the word which has come down to us. The radicals, besides, cannot give a causative sense. The Kal is never transitive; the Piel does not exist. I would suggest that the LXX had in view the form δγξε. This necessitates the change of only one radical and gives the causative sense. The meaning naturally suggested by the words of the verse, seems after all, to be the best. All the others, that of Hengstenberg not excepted, are forced and unnatural. From other considerations, also, we would be inclined to hold the early existence of places of public meeting for God’s worship “throughout the land.” It would be the experience of God’s people then, as it is now, that religion must utterly decay without such privileges and exercises.—J. F. M.] Psalms 74:4-11. Signs for signs.—E. V.: Ensigns for signs]. If we were to assign the composition of the Psalm to the Maccabean period, we would have to refer these words to the profanations of the Temple, (1Ma 1:45 f.). But the expression itself decides against this. It is not to be generalized so far as into “insolent deeds and practices” (Hengst.); but it is also incorrect to make it describe special religious monuments, as idol-images (Luther) which were put in the place of the Israelitish Cherubim, Psalms 74:9 (Ewald). Still less proper is the supposition of military ensigns (Jerome, Calvin and others), and altogether unsuitable is that of the oracles (Kimchi, J. H. Michaelis) which Nebuchadnezzar employed (Ezekiel 21:26). The signs are, in general, tokens of supremacy, at the same time political and religious (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Venema, Hupfeld), which might even consist of regulations and ceremonies, for the word before us is in Exodus 31:13 employed expressly of the Sabbath and of circumcision. This word also in Psalms 74:9, suits the Chaldean period. We must, however, assume that the author was one of those who remained behind in the desolated, prophetless land, and that he could not hear the prophetic strains of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and could therefore gain no answer from revelation to the anxious question: Until when? or, how long? Only upon this hypothesis can the expression in Psalms 74:9 b, which otherwise must be connected with 1Ma 4:6; 1Ma 9:27; 1Ma 14:41, be connected with the Chaldean period. For the complaint that there is no prophet, is to be distinguished from the complaint that God gives the prophets, no revelation. But the destruction by fire mentioned in Psalms 74:7, alludes decisively to this period, which we can neither restrict to the shattered carvings (Hesse, De Psalmis MaccabζIsaiah 1837) nor interpret as a hyperbolical expression (De Jong, Disquisitio de Pss. Macc. 1857), nor confine to the buildings and porticoes which surrounded the Temple itself (Rudinger, Olshausen and others). The Sanctuary itself was made level with the ground and thereby desecrated. God’s restraining Himself from interference in the course of human affairs (Lamentations 2:8) is represented in Psalms 74:11 as the drawing back of the hand into the bosom (Exodus 4:7). Hence the pregnant expression of the following stich. [I subjoin the correct translation of this verse, as given by Dr. Alexander. It is the same as that of Moll, except that the ellipses are supplied: Why wilt Thou withdraw Thy hand and Thy right hand? From the midst of Thy bosom (draw it) and consume (them). The sense of Psa 74:5 also, and its relation to Psalms 74:6, have been completely misunderstood by our translators. The following rendering seems to be the most correct. It is substantially that given by most of the recent commentators. Our version follows Calvin. “He” (the subject of Psa 74:3) “exhibits himself as one who raises axes on high in the thicket of the woods, and now,” etc. Moll prefers to take the first verb impersonally: “An exhibition is made,” etc. Perowne’s translation is rather free: “He seems as.” etc.—J.F.M.] Psalms 74:12-14. In the midst of the earth.—This is equivalent to saying, on the theatre of the world (Exodus 8:18; Psalms 77:15), not in a corner (Isaiah 45:19) at the ends of the earth (Psalms 65:8). To restrict it to the thought: in the land (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, De Wette, Hengst.), is inadmissible, since allusion is made first to the passage through the Red Sea, next to the displays of God’s power in Egypt, and then to the wonders wrought in the march through the wilderness (Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:8; Joshua 3:13 f.). The sea-monsters, whose carcasses become a prey to the wild beasts of the desert, are emblems of Egypt (Isaiah 51:9; Ezekiel 29:3). Instead of the wild beasts of the desert (Psalms 72:9), which are repeatedly used to represent a nation (Joe 1:6; Zephaniah 2:14; Proverbs 30:25), many expositors assume, against the usage of the word, that human inhabitants of deserts are referred to; either Ethiopians (LXX., Aben Ezra, Ewald) or Ichthyophagites (Bochart, Clericus, Muntinghe), or the Israelites in the wilderness (Kimchi, Calvin, Geier, and others). Psalms 74:15-17. The ever-flowing streams [E. V.: mighty rivers]—that is, those streams which do not dry up in summer, do not denote numerous brooks which empty into the Jordan (Kimchi), but. describe graphically the fulness of that river, and at the same time generalize the idea, since the Jordan is intended, though not mentioned. The light-giving [E. V., light], Psalms 74:16, may either denote the general, employed in connection with the special, which is here the sun, as in Psalms 148:9, trees and cedars (Hupfeld), or mean the moon as the light of the night (Hitzig, Delitzsch). [The former is to be preferred. As analogous examples Hupfeld cites the expressions, Judah and Jerusalem, Ephraim and Samaria, “Eλληνέςτεκαὶ A̓θηναῖοι. Alexander: Light and sun are related as the genus and the species, like hand and right hand in Psalms 74:11, signs and prophet in Psalms 74:9.—J. F. M.]. The establishment of the bounds of the earth [E. V., Thou hast set all the borders of the earth, Psalms 74:17] brings into view the ordinances of nature, if we may understand the limits imposed upon the sea (Genesis 1:9) which it must not pass (Job 38:8 f.; Jeremiah 5:22; Proverbs 8:29) to be meant; or the natural limits which serve for the boundaries of nations (Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 17:26). Psalms 74:19. To the band [Germ.: dem Haufen, E. V.: To the multitude of the wicked].—We employ this rendering on account of its perspicuity, and because it expresses most simply the force of the word, which first, describes the gathering together of the enemy and then the gathering together of the oppressed people of God, and indeed in both connections in allusion to the liveliness of their movements. [Heb. ηַ ?ιָּ ?δ We have no single English word which conveys all these ideas.—Tr.] The expression was possibly suggested by the appellation turtle or dove, applied to the Church (Psalms 68:14), and is employed as in Psalms 68:11. [This is another of the many passages in this Psalm about which there has been much dispute. But much discussion would be saved if the attempts at solution were to be kept within the limits imposed by the following conditions, which seem to be necessary. First, the word ηָ ?ιָּ ?δ is used in both members of the verse in the manner mentioned above. We must credit the author of the Psalm with such good taste as would him to use the same word in different senses in such a relation. This would lead us to discard such translations as that of Perowne, who in the first member renders “beast” and in the second, “life.” Hengstenberg’s attempt in his rendering of δַ ?ιָּ ?ϊπֶ ?τֶ ?ωׁ “greed-life,” only makes the first member obscure. Alexander translates both “herd,” and is certainly correct, as he retains the idea of animal and makes it collective. But the rendering “band” is more directly applicable to human beings (comp. 2 Samuel 23:11; 2 Samuel 23:13), though it is less literal. The English Version fails only in the want of a felicitous term. Secondly, We must translate ηιϊ in the first member as a construct. This has been disregarded or disputed by many, but only by unwarrantable violation of the laws of the language. The most natural way is to connect it with πτωׁ. This Hupfeld opposes, but his objection, that nephesh never occurs as a circumlocution for greedy, is of no force; if we can only gain for it the meaning: greed, the common construction with the construct is quite admissible. This meaning is frequent. His other objection, that it would be against the accents, is of more weight, as l’hayyath has the disjunctive Tiphha Initial. But the necessities of the case force us to conclude that the accents are wrong. Hupfeld himself proposes a much more violent change, namely, to transpose the words and translate: Give not to rage the life, etc. Though the translation of Hengstenberg is grammatically right, his explanation of the first member of the verse is obscure. So far as I know Alexander is the only expositor who has given a rendering both correct and perspicuous. Our translators saw the necessity of rendering hayyath as a construct, and therefore supplied the words in italics. Dr. Moll has disregarded this. He translates: Give not to the band the life of Thy turtle-dove. I would offer the following rendering of the verse: Give not to the blood-thirsty band the life of Thy turtle-dove, The band of Thy meek sufferers forget not.—J. F. M.] Psalms 74:20-23. The Covenant might, as in Daniel 11:28; Daniel 11:30; comp. Psalms 74:22, mean the covenant-people (Hitzig), but it is probably to be taken here in its usual application. That the darknesses, Psalms 74:20 b, mean the hiding-places, 1Ma 1:53, to which the persecuted confessors fled and in which they were discovered and slain (1Ma 2:26 f.; 2Ma 6:11) is not necessarily contained in the expression. This is the more probable, since the following words appear to allude to Genesis 6:11; Genesis 6:13, which may be understood as describing the dark places of suffering which are to be found on earth, Psalms 23:4; comp. Psalms 88:8; Psalms 143:3; Lamentations 3:6 (J. H. Michaelis, Hengst.). A lurking-place of robbers (Calvin, De Wette, et al.) is scarcely to be thought of. Neither is there any occasion to change the punctuation in order to gain the idea of an asylum (Ewald). [Ewald proposes to read ξηωׂ ?λι, thus forming a derivative, which is nowhere found, of ηωׂ ?κ in its rare sense of preserving. He supposes that these asylums correspond to the ξεςγι of Psalms 74:8 b. This alteration is marked by the characteristic ingenuity of Ewald and his characteristic disregard of authority. The explanation given by Moll is the one generally received.—J. F. M.].—The appended words in Psalms 74:22 b: the whole day, describe the uninterrupted continuance of the reproaches. [The Eng. Vers. has: reproaches thee daily, which conveys the same idea of continuance. Comp. Proverbs 21:26.—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. When men are weighed down by long-continued and severe sufferings, the thought is apt to occur to them that these may never come to an end. And when they perceive in them the traces of God’s wrath, the thought of its endless duration is wont to fill them with anguish. An inquiry into the cause of God’s dealings towards them, which seem fraught with such destruction, then naturally begins. But the character of this inquiry is determined by this: does it, as it were, accuse God and include reproaches against His government of the world? Or does it only lament that God restrains Himself from action? If the latter, does it arise more from human short-sightedness, impatience, faint-heartedness, and want of faith, than from a desire for release from God’s wrath, from a longing for manifestations of His compassion, in a word, from a yearning after holiness? Finally, do the questioning and lamenting end in uncertainty, doubt and despair? or does there arise from out of them a prayer full of faith in God’s mercy, and inspired by the hope of being heard? 2. There befall sometimes God’s Church on earth also, afflictions so severe that they seem to imperil its very existence. Then it is of vast moment to recall the relation between God and His people which He has Himself established, and to keep in mind their Divine election, their miraculous founding, and their preservation until the present moment, along with the part which they must ever play in the history of mankind. A prayer which gives all of these their due place, is both an evidence of faith and a means of strengthening it. 3. The enemies of God and of His Church may indeed destroy her outward sanctuaries, abolish her sacred seasons, forbid the assembling of the faithful, prevent and interrupt the service of God; but they cannot annul the covenant which God has ordained, nor prevent the outward restoration of the Church, when the day of her trial is over. So long, however, as danger, distress and persecution last, the tried ones must not give up their faith, but must, while the enemy continually revile their God, continually resort to Him in prayerful confession. Yet to them also may be afforded the consolation which is to be derived from the displays of God’s love and omnipotence, as discovered in His doings both in history and in nature. On the connection between the order of nature and the covenant of grace, compare Jeremiah 23:21-25; Isaiah 54:10. AND The Church’s seasons of distress as times of trial and awakening.—Injuries inflicted upon the Church from without are not so baleful as distractions within.—The persecuted yet victorious Church.—There is great consolation in the reflection that the faithful covenant-keeping God is at the same time the Almighty Lord of the world and the righteous Judge of all.—Nothing is yet lost while the Lord is our Shepherd and we are still the sheep of His pasture.—God’s grace the salvation of believers; sins unrepented of the destruction of men.—God remains still the Lord of the world, even when sacrilegious men are not willing that He should remain Lord in His own house—Many do not learn to value what they possess in God’s house and word until they are deprived of both.—The darker it is on earth, the more let us long that God would make it bright.—God may be angry even against His own people, but He does not cast them off forever.—There is ever before us an evil day of need, when it is not permitted us to hear God’s word; but it makes a vast difference whether we cannot hear or whether we will not hear.—Respect unto the covenant which God established with us [see Psalms 74:20 in the original], to what it entitles us, and what it binds us to do.—The true cause of our misfortunes is the wrath of God against our sins; the ground of our confidence is the acts and tokens of mercy of the Covenant God.—God’s doings in nature and in history as warnings and as a ground of consolation. Calvin: We know how difficult it is to rise above all doubts so as to continue free and joyful in prayer. Therefore the faithful recall to their recollection the memorials of the compassion and power of God, by which He has shown them in all ages that He is the King of His chosen people. Starke: In seasons of persecution we are not to have so much regard to our enemies as to God, for without His permission they cannot injure a hair of our heads. 2 Samuel 16:10. The strongest pillars of consolation to support us in all tribulation, temptation, and despondency, are the blessings of God already bestowed, and the gracious assurance that at all times and in all places He will be present with His own (Isaiah 43:1-2).—Though all human help is often removed from the children of God, there yet remains to them this support, that they can always appeal to God for a just decision, which will assuredly not be a favorable one to their enemies. (Exodus 22:23).—The enemies of the Church are also the enemies of God, who will know how to give His cause a glorious triumph at last (Isaiah 28:29; Acts 9:4-5).—Those who pray in faith, bring their troubles before God, not as though He knew them not, but in reliance upon His truth and with the certain expectation, that He will fulfil His promises, (Psalms 69:20).—If God did not spare His own temple and people when they stirred Him up to anger, we also need expect no better treatment, unless we repent sincerely of our sins, and amend our ways.—God employs both hands at once, when He would help those who trust in Him; the right to uphold the pious, the left to punish the ungodly.—In the sorest trials it is found to be a delightful source of consolation to contemplate God as our King.—We can surely cast ourselves upon the gracious covenant which God has made with us; for on His part it is an eternal one.—The present is not the first time that the pious have been loaded with the despite, abuse, and contempt of this world; thus has it been from the beginning until now. Why does it then seem strange to thee, dear soul, that thou must also endure the same? Matthew 5:12. Osiander: No tyrant is so mighty that God cannot bring him so low as that he will become a spoil and object of contempt even to those that are poor and despised.—Selnecker: He who possesses the true religion and remains firmly by it, enjoys the favor of God and may rejoice even if he has to lay down his life for it.—Renschel: Since God cannot allow His own glory to pass away, neither can He forsake His Church; the whole cause is His.—Frisch: As great and precious as are God’s mercy and the treasure of His word, so great and dreadful will be the punishments He will inflict, if men abuse His mercy and pay so little regard to His word.—Rieger: Here we are taught how, when the Church is in distress of any kind, believers should pour out their hearts before God and maintain their trust in his covenant.—Arndt: That is the season of the most severe chastisement and distress of soul, when there is no word of God or prophet in the land, as the enjoyment of His pure word is its greatest consolation, Jeremiah 15. This is not felt until God and the priceless treasures have departed.—Tholuck: The Psalmist prays that even in the deepest ignominy of his people, the eternal claims of that Omnipotence, which rules in history and prescribes to nature her laws, may be made known.—Richter (Hausbibel): Alas how unbelief is laying in ruins the edifices of our pious ancestors reared in faith! Yes, even the temple of the word of God itself! It is permitted us to remind God, how He has helped His people in former times, and plead before Him the innocence of His little band, their weakness and helplessness; and the honor of His own name and of the covenant of grace.—Guenther: Misfortune comes from God as chastisement, it is becoming then to inquire after the wherefore [See Psalms 74:1..—The children of God are the accusers, the wicked are the accused, God is the Judge.—Diedrich: God must often remove from us all external sources of comfort, in order that our spiritual sense may be quickened, to discern the power of His mercy even in death. When the visible is swept away from before us, His kingdom of grace will not long be out of reach, for only then shall it be really renewed, and that by these very means.—Taube: The sum of the consolation and support of God’s people is His gracious election and His gracious power. How much is comprised in these few words, My King of old! All these at once—the testimony to His almighty majesty, the testimony to His unchangeable faithfulness towards His people, the testimony to the believer’s certain experience of them all.—With God’s glory and in His cause are bound up the prosperity and salvation of His own. [Henry: The concerns of religion should be nearer our hearts and affect us more than any worldly concern whatsoever.—The desolation of God’s house should grieve us more than the desolation of our own houses, for the matter is not great what comes of us and our families in this world, provided God’s name may be sanctified, His kingdom may come and His will be done. Scott: The true Church is as pleasant and amiable to the Lord as a turtle-dove, though poor and despicable in the world’s estimation. Barnes: The thought here is of a people dear to God, now timid and alarmed. It is the prayer of a people beloved by God that He will not deliver them into the hand of their enemies.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [Ewald considers η‍ ?‍ ?ιϊ to be a play on the word, so as to make it correspond to the same form in the second member. See his Gr., § 173 d. Bφttcher (Gr., § 832 a) regards it as though for a form ηָ ?ιָ ?ϊִ ?ι, “a genitive termination,” of which he finds many examples. It is written defectively, and then, on account of the pause, the Hhirik is dropped. But see Green, Gr. § 196 b.—J. F. M.] Psalms 75 To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph2         Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: For that thy name is near Thy wondrous works declare. 3    When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly. 4    The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah: 5    I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: 6    Lift not up your horn on high: Speak not with a stiff neck. 7    For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, Nor from the south. 8    But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another. 9    For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, And the wine is red; it is full of mixture; And he poureth out of the same: But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth Shall wring them out, and drink them.10    But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 11    All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. AND Contents and Composition. In the superscription, compare Introd. § 12, No. 15; § 8, Nos. 1 and 2. The whole Psalm is pervaded by the confident assurance of help against arrogant and impious enemies through God’s judicial intervention. This assurance, however, flows from reliance on a promise of God received just before, and is so strong and lively that the Psalm begins already with the thanks of the Church (Psalms 75:2), and not till then is God’s declaration announced (Psalms 75:3-5), after which (Psalms 75:6) the warning to the enemies is repeated. This is based upon the two truths realized by faith, that Israel’s deliverance does not proceed from those who were situated round about them on earth, but from God as Judge (Psalms 75:7-8), and that God as Jehovah compels all the wicked of the earth to be the instruments of their own righteous punishment (Psalms 75:9). The Psalmist finally declares, with the joyfulness of faith, that his praise shall never cease, and that the triumphant power of the righteous shall ever increase (Psalms 76:10-11). No convincing arguments can be adduced to justify us in connecting this and the following Psalm with the victory of the Maccabean princes over the Syrian Gorgias, 1 Maccabees 4 (Rudinger) or with that of the Maccabean general Judas over the Syrian Apollonius, 1Ma 3:10 f. (Hitzig, who refers Psalms 76 to the defeat of Seron). There is no reason even for going down to the age of the Exile, (Hupfeld) or to the times after the Exile generally (Kφster, Olshausen). On the other hand there is nothing to contradict the supposition announced already in the superscription of the following Psalm in the Septuagint, which connects it with the Assyrians, that is with the overthrow of Sennacherib before Jerusalem (2 Kings 19). Many arguments may even be adduced in support of it, namely, not only the points of resemblance with Psalms 46, 76 but especially Psalms 75:7, and the prophetic declaration of Isaiah 37 along with the exhortation corresponding thereto, addressed to king Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles 32:7-8. “Our Psalm is accordingly to be viewed as the lyrical accompaniment of the prophetic utterances which Isaiah gave forth in view of impending destruction by the Assyrians, as an evidence also of the lively faith with which God’s people then received His promise, and as an exhortation to the Church of all ages, through like faith, to seek a share in a like deliverance.” (Hengstenberg). Psalms 75:2. And Thy name is near.—[E. V.: For that thy name is near.] Since it is not permitted to translate εְ ?by “for” (De Wette), the verse does not formally present the ground of thanksgiving, though it is really contained in the nearness of God’s revealed presence and in the might of His name (Deuteronomy 4:7; Isaiah 30:27), by which His salvation comes nigh (Psalms 85:10). The subject is continued and has a deeper meaning than when it is said that God is near the heart and the mouth, (Jeremiah 12:12, comp. Deuteronomy 30:14). The view of the passage, according to which a colon is put after “and,” and the nearness of God’s name is regarded as that which His wondrous works declare (Hupfeld) personifies the latter in a manner hardly admissible. [The former construction would necessitate the rendering: We praise thee, O Lord, we give praise; and thy name is near; they recount thy wonders. In favor of this view I would urge further that “recounting God’s wonders, etc.” was the most usual kind of praise or thanksgiving, as the aspect in which God was viewed by the Israelites was largely that of a Wonder-Worker. The connection with the first member of the verse, then appears natural. The change of person is usual, and as the verb has the masculine termination, the necessity of assuming a neglect of agreement is avoided.—J. F. M.] Psalms 75:3-6. Occasion.—[Heb.ξεςֵ ?γ. E.V.: Congregation]. In Habakkuk 2:3; Daniel 8:19; Daniel 11:27; Daniel 11:35; Psalms 102:14, the time appointed in God’s counsel for the execution of His judgment, is expressed by this term ξεςֵ ?γ, that is, καιρός. This shall arrive when God shall have finished His work in the Church (Isaiah 10:12). And God gives the assurance that He will not allow this occasion to pass by disregarded, but that He will seize upon it, and then judge according to the law of right. Accordingly it is not the earthly king David who speaks (Geier and others) but the heavenly King, as in Psalms 46:11. The only question is now, how far this declaration continues; whether to Psalms 75:7 inclusive (Hitzig) or to Psalms 75:6 (Tholuck, Delitzsch) or to Psalms 75:5 (Kφster) or only to Psalms 75:4 (Kimchi and most). In any case the different parts of such propheticolyrical utterances flow easily into one another, and in Psalms 75:10, though the Church does not speak (Hengst.) yet it is in her name and as her exponent that the Psalmist does, since the Psalm begins with we, and therefore the use of the first person decides nothing. The musical mark Selah throws no more light upon the question. Announcements from God are given by Isaiah, in which threatenings against His enemies occur, and which bear also the character of warning and exhortation, but such utterances concerning the Assyrians in the mouth of the Psalmist are admitted by none. Besides, the sudden change of the speaker introducing himself with “I,” would not be without harshness. We are therefore at all events justified in including Psalms 75:5 as part of God’s declaration. With regard to Psalms 75:6 we have more ground for hesitation. For if we were to consider it as a continuation of the words uttered by God, it would appear to derogate from the conciseness, pregnancy, and force which are conspicuous in them, and render it difficult to assign the true position of Psa 75:7. If, on the other hand, we regard Psalms 75:6 as a lyrical response to God’s declaration, in the mouth of the Psalmist, prophecy and poetry would run naturally into one another, and Psalms 75:7 be united in conformity to this by the causal λִּ ?ιּ. Even in Psalms 75:3 this particle is capable of the same meaning. It would in that case introduce the transition from the lyrical to the prophetical style. But a translation, which, beginning with “for,” must insert a colon immediately after it for the sake of clearness (Delitzsch), is harsh. It is however unnecessary to change the confirmatory into an affirmative: yea (Baur in De Wette). The construction of λִּ ?ι as a particle of time=ὅτ́αν (Sept.) is quite correct and expressive; the ambiguous wenn (De Wette and others) is, however, to be avoided. The words scarcely mean that God will “choose” the proper occasion (Ewald, Maurer, Olshausen), but that He will “seize upon” an occasion already chosen, Genesis 2:15; Psalms 18:17 (Kimchi, Calvin, and others, Hupfeld, Delitzsch). In Psalms 75:4 it is doubtful whether the dissolving is to be understood of internal melting from fear, while quaking before God as He appears for judgment (Olshausen, Hupfeld) or before the violence of the wicked (Hitzig) or whether it is to be understood of the disturbing influence of the prevailing violence, unrighteousness and sin in the disarrangement of moral forces, symbolized by physical ones, in political confusion and the like events, comp. Psalms 46:7 (Geier, Hengst., Del.) In like manner it is doubtful whether the setting upright of the pillars is to be taken in a preterite sense, and referring to God’s original creative acts, from which an assurance of God’s preserving and delivering may be drawn (1 Samuel 2:8; Job 38:4 ff.) or whether it is to be taken in a present sense with direct reference to the latter. The different allusions merge into one another, and so, to a certain extent, do the expositions of the same.—The horn, employed already in Deuteronomy 33:17; 1 Samuel 2:1, as an instrument of victorious aggression, and in Psalms 18:3, transferred to Jehovah as the Horn of salvation, is applied in the present Psalm in Psalms 76:10 b to the righteous. In Psalms 76:10 a, on the contrary, and in Psalms 75:5-6, it is applied to the impious enemy. It occurs in such a connection that it is plain “horn,” does not mean head (Hupfeld) but denotes an instrument of force. And to lift up the horn is not to raise the head, but, according to the context, to display the instruments of force, to brandish them for attack or defense, to increase, or to strengthen them. It is also to be decided by the context alone, whether the accessory idea of confidence and courage, or that of insolence and presumption is to be understood (comp. Psalms 89:18; Psalms 89:25; Psalms 92:11; Psalms 112:9; Psalms 148:14; 1Ma 2:48). The meaning “bear up” given to ϊλπϊι in Psalms 75:4 in E. V., is probably not exactly correct. So with the explanation “estimate” taken from the same sense of weighing. The idea of setting upright is most readily suggested by the context, and is really as near the primary meaning of making level, even,ְ as the other renderings.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 75:7. From the desert of the mountains.—[Heb. ξִ ?ξִּ ?γְ ?αַּ ?ψδָ ?ψִ ?ιν. Eng. Ver., Promotion … from the south]. This translation is demanded by the present text, and refers to the Arabian desert, bounded by mountains, which lies to the south of Canaan. The sentence which, from the course of thought, is easily completed, means that the foes who oppress God’s people have to expect the Judge neither from the East, nor the West, nor the South, but from heaven. This appears to intimate that the enemy is viewed as approaching from the North, and therefore applies to the Assyrians. A number of good MSS. and editions, and even the Targum, read midhbar, however not with Pattahh, but with Kamets. The question then is, how, according to this word, thus standing in the absolute state, the following δָ ?ψִ ?ιν is to be understood. Most of those who adopt this reading (Hupfeld also) take it with Kimchi as Hiphil Inf., with the substantive meaning: elevation. It then is understood to mean that exaltation comes from no quarter of the world, that there is no earthly source of power. But even if without any addition the desert can be used to designate the south, it would justly be felt necessary for the full expression of the thought thus presented, that the north should be mentioned. It has been attempted to gain this end, by allowing harim to retain its usual meaning, while the mountains are understood to mean the fertile mountain region of Lebanon and Hermon (Ewald). But this fails in this respect that the repetition of the preposition can scarcely be dispensed with if the thought “from the mountains” is to be brought out, and the word not be capable of being considered as in apposition; and this is especially necessary if the need of completing the unfinished sentence is taken into account. The words are more suitable in the mouth of God (Hitzig), or of the enemy (Geier, Rosenmόller), than in that of the Psalmist. Psalms 75:9-10. A cup is the cup of wrath (Isaiah 51:17.) with the intoxicating wine (Psalms 60:5) which God Himself by mixing it prepares for drinking. He reaches it forth Himself while fermenting, that is, foaming, and full to the brim, and forces the guilty to drain it without intermission and with constrained eagerness, even to the dregs (Job 21:20; Obadiah 1:16; Habakkuk 2:16; Ezekiel 23:34; Jeremiah 25:15 f; Jeremiah 48:26; Jeremiah 49:12; Jeremiah 51:7). It is not necessary to change ΰַ ?κְ Psalms 75:9 d into ΰַ ?σ (Olshausen, Baur) for the sake of the thought: even its dregs, instead of: only its dregs (Hengst., Hitzig). The latter rendering is, it is true, the prevailing one, and the sense might be that the heathen who hitherto had not drunk of this cup, receive nothing but the dregs to drain (Hitzig). But this is less suitable in the connection than the thought: there is nothing left, etc. And the particle ΰַ ?κְ leads us directly to this, for it expresses not so much limitation as contrast, and therefore gives sometimes to an expression the sense of certainty and indubitableness (Ewald, § 105 d, § 354 a). Its dregs are not those of the cup, but of the mixture. This reference is favored by the feminine suffix. λּ ?εֹ ?ν, indeed, occurs sometimes as feminine, but usually as masculine, and so here. Since ξֶ ?ρֶ ?κְ is in the accusative, ιַ ?ιִ ?ο is likewise so to be taken, and the rather that the article is absent. Then it is not red, that is, good wine, that is spoken of (Kimchi, Calvin, J. D. Michaelis, Rosenmueller), nor is it wine, conceived as still fermenting, and therefore turbid (Aben Ezra and others), nor that in which roots have been put, and which has begun to ferment again (De Wette), but it is a cup foaming from a full drawing (Gesenius, Thesaurus). The concluding words, in Psalms 76:10, are taken by most as the words of God, and in form and meaning correspond to this view. The change of speakers would, however, be harsh, and there is no sufficient reason for placing the verse immediately after Psalms 75:4 (Olshausen). The word “all,” in Psalms 75:9-10 has at all events a strong emphasis. AND ETHICAL1. It is good for us not only to listen to the voice of men, but also to give ear to God when He speaks. All His words, however, cluster round the Law and the Gospel, and have as their central point His revelation of Himself for man’s salvation, or the bringing near of His name. The Law shows us chiefly God as Judge; the Gospel God as Saviour. The two aspects, however, are presented in both. It is our part to divide rightly the word of God, and sincerely appropriate it. 2. If we can appropriate in faith God’s gracious word of promise, we will gain that joyful assurance of help and salvation, which cheers us in suffering, makes us courageous in dangers and valiant in temptations, and, through the assurance of Divine intervention, begets that certainty of final victory, before which complaining is stilled, and for which prayer, thanksgiving, and praise resound. 3. The promises which God has given to His covenant people, every believer may appropriate to himself. This is not accomplished, however, with equal success at all times. Through various causes it is sometimes easy, and at other times difficult. It becomes difficult especially through the pressure which in circumstances of extreme distress the thought of God’s tarrying exerts upon the soul. If we were to yield to this pressure, the fear of neglect and the anguish of abandonment by God would take possession of the soul. It is therefore well that, to counteract it, we recount betimes the former wonders and mighty acts of God, and then we will be taught to rely with greater confidence upon the trustworthiness of God, that is, upon His truth and faithfulness, and to be more assured of His power, righteousness, and goodness. 4. God not only knows the right occasion, but avails Himself of it, and His intervention preserves from destruction the world shaken to its foundations, while He maintains, as He has established, in force, efficiency, and due influence, the moral as well as the physical order of the world. Therefore judgment and deliverance are to be expected from Him alone, and not from the world. The attention therefore, both of the Church and of the world, must be earnestly given to serious reflection upon the justice as well as upon the love of God. For God is equally in earnest in both, and none can hinder their complete manifestation at the fit time. 5. When one is abased and another exalted, it is not to be regarded as the sport of fortune, nor as an event of blind necessity, whether it be called nature or destiny, but the controlling hand of God is to be discerned therein, which, according to men’s conduct, punishes and blesses, deals out and presents to every one the portion allotted to him. By this men themselves are made to further the execution of the Divine judgments. Yet even so there is an essential difference not to be overlooked. The wicked perform their part by constraint; the righteous willingly. Hence arises the distinction between the instruments and the servants of God. 6. The wicked do not at first perceive that they themselves must bear a part in the execution of judgment upon themselves, and when they do perceive it while exchanging the sweet and intoxicating cup for the bitter dregs, they cannot prevent it. They must drain it without intermission, even to its sediments, and that they all must do without exception. The final ruin of all the ungodly as well as the complete triumph of the righteous and their endless praise to God is a Messianic expectation, theme of announcement, and hope. AND The distresses of the pious do not prove that they are forsaken by God, but that the time chosen by Him beforehand has not yet arrived.—When the righteous praise God they make known, 1, that God’s name has come nigh them; 2, that they have to talk of His wonders; 3, that they are mindful of His word.—God’s word and man’s faith bear constantly an intimate relation to each other, therefore the word must be proclaimed, and faith tried.—There are commotions in which the world might be crushed and the Church might despair, if God did not preserve the one and comfort the other.—God is indeed omnipresent, preserving and governing the world which He has created, but there are times and places in its history in which the presiding hand of the Eternal is clearly displayed, or is veiled from human sight.—When distress is the most severe, then is help nearest, but it lies not in us to determine this extremity of need.—Before God judges He attempts to save. He therefore not merely threatens to punish, but warns also the presumptuous and secure.—The announcement of God’s coming has the power to cheer or to terrify, just according to men’s conduct.—It is better to take the cup of sorrow from God’s hand than to be obliged to drink the intoxicating cup of His wrath which follows the cup of sin and its pleasures.—Not from the powers of the world, but from God in heaven are judgment and deliverance to be expected—God’s judgments come irresistibly, but they may be escaped by a genuine repentance.—God’s judgments upon the unconverted sinner are inevitable; let no one deceive himself: what is delayed is not revoked.—Through God’s delaying nothing is lost; but many may be saved thereby, for space is given them for repentance.—Which do you prefer, endless praise or endless groaning? One of the two is thy allotted portion, and God’s hand cannot err.—The triumph of the righteous is as certain as the ruin of the wicked, and both of them through God’s judgment, but many find it hard to bide the time. Luther: God measures out to every one his draught of suffering; but it is the dregs that are left for the ungodly.—Starke: The heart of a believer so overflows with gratitude in the contemplation of God’s blessings, that it cannot find words sufficient to express it.—The troubles of the righteous last long, as it seems to us, yet they have a certain limit appointed by God, which they cannot pass.—When God touches a land everything trembles and melts like wax at the fire.—O that men would fall betimes in true penitence at the feet of this Judge!—Presumption is the mother of all sins and the road to destruction, and self-security is the strongest chain of hell, Isaiah 28:15; Proverbs 16:18.—The troubles of the Christian are like the foam of a liquid, which lasts but a short time, but the plagues of the ungodly are like the dregs, which will cause them endless torment.—Here the wonderful ways of God are often concealed to us; but there we shall discover that they have been only goodness and truth; what then can they evoke from us but unceasing praise to God?—The fall of one must often be the means of the exaltation of another.—Synesius (Bp. of Cyrene): There is a life-giving pleasure worthy of being the gift of God, and there is a tumultuous rejoicing. When thou art enjoying the bounteous repast, think of God! For then comes the greatest enticement to sin, and most slip and fall.—Osiander: The judgments of God against persecutors we are to await with patience.—Selnecker: The world could not last a moment, if God had not preserve it for the sake of His chosen.—Renschel: God’s word is the Christian’s strength, by which he acts in faith as with the strength of God.—Frisch: Security is the strongest chain of hell, the largest net of Satan, by which he hunts best and catches the most prey.—Arndt: The hope of relief is given to tribulation, and, for all that we know, God may have many means of deliverance.—Rieger: It is a great work to strengthen the hands of ourselves and others for good in evil times as Asaph does in this Psalm, so that we testify (1) to the source of our good hope; (2) to our good aims flowing from this source; (3) how we have realized these and maintained at the same time our good hope.—Tholuck: God alone is to be Judge and Hiding-place.—Richter (Hausbibel): The Revelation of John is the key to and conclusion of all the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning this “last time,” and they have been given as a warning and consolation, not for carnal abuse.—Vaihinger: The judgment of God cannot follow at all times, but man’s freedom must have room for exercise, in some cases as hardening into sin, and in others as growing preparedness for Divine help, in order that the actual final decision of God may be emphatic and convincing.—Guenther: The higher a man holds himself, the further is he from God.—Schaubach (20th Sunday after Trinity): As the Church of the Lord made herself ready to receive Him, so must thou too, O Christian, worthily prepare thyself. For in His own time will He, who now so kindly and lovingly invites thee, become thy Judge, and all the world shall tremble before Him.—Taube: We perhaps call often upon God in the hour of anguish and distress, but there scarcely ever goes forth simple, much less frequent, thanksgiving after deliverance.—God is Judge! That is the great fact which underlies the history of the world, which pervades in a thousand manifestations all the ways and works of God.—Kφgel (Thanksgiving service after the battle of Kφniggratz) 1. We remind each other of the sustaining pillars; 2. We feel all of us together the trembling of the land, 3. We adore the supporting hand of God. [Matth. Henry (Psalms 75:6-10): Two good practical inferences drawn from these great truths: 1. He will praise God and give Him glory for the elevation to which He had advanced him. 2. He will use the power with which he is entrusted for the great ends for which it was put into his hands, (1) He resolves to be a terror unto evil-doers; (2) He resolves to be a protection and praise to them that do well.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [“According to the biblical, and especially the Old Testament mode of conception the connection generally between the name and the object is very close, differing greatly from that held in the modern consciousness, in which the name has been weakened by a mere conventional sign. The name is the thing itself, in so far as the latter is manifested and known—the expression of the nature of the object comprehended in the word.” Kφnig, Theologie der Psalmen, p. 266; quoted in the original in Liddon’s Bampton Lectures, p. 50.—J. F. M.] Psalms 76 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song of Asaph2         In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel, 3    In Salem also is his tabernacle, And his dwelling place in Zion. 4    There brake he the arrows of the bow, The shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah. 5    Thou art more glorious and excellent Than the mountains of prey. 6    The stout hearted are spoiled, They have slept their sleep: And none of the men of might have found their hands. 7    At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. 8    Thou, even thou, art to be feared: And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? 9    Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; The earth feared, and was still, 10    When God arose to judgment, To save all the meek of the earth. Selah. 11    Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. 12    Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God: Let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared. 13    He will cut off all the spirit of princes, He is terrible to the kings of the earth. AND Contents and Composition.—On the superscription compare § 12, No. 4. The close relationship of this Psalm to Psalms 75 is universally acknowledged. What is to be said as to its occasion and composition has been given already under that Psalm. Without assuming this relationship we might, especially with a peculiar interpretation of Psa 76:5 (see below), be led to bring it into connection with the defeat of the allied neighboring nations, in the reign of Jehoshaphat, foretold by the Asaphite Jehaziel. It is now, with greater certainty, held to relate to the execution of that Divine judgment upon the Assyrians in the time of Hezekiah, which in the foregoing Psalm was considered as in prophetic prospect. [So the commentators generally approve of the superscription of the Sept.: πρὸςτὸνΑσσύριον.—J. F. M.]. It is first brought into view how God has again made His name glorious in His chosen dwelling-place in Jerusalem, by the annihilation of the forces of the enemy, which before His rebuke sunk down into the sleep of death (Psalms 76:2-7). From this the inference is, drawn (Psalms 76:8-10) that God, in the terribleness of His wrath, is irresistible when He arises to judgment for the deliverance of His suffering ones. To this, after presenting God’s truthfulness in support of this declaration, the Psalmist adds an exhortation to a course of conduct in agreement therewith (Psalms 76:11-12). [Hengstenberg: “The enthusiastic feeling, the courageous tone, which characterize the prophecies and also the Psalms of the Assyrian period (comp. besides Psalms 75, especially Psalms 46) meet us here also.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 76:2-4. Known.—πεֹ ?γָ ?ς, as parallel to the following stich, is not to be taken as a prζterite but as a participle. Judah is the more restricted, Israel the wider conception. Salem is evidently Jerusalem, and so named in allusion to Genesis 14:18. Comp. Joshua 10:1. By choosing it as His dwelling God had made Zion the place of His self-revelation by which He became known in Israel, and especially in Judah. ωָׁ ?ξָּ ?δ does not mean: thither (Hengst.), but like ωָׁ ?ν simply: there (Hupfeld). The breaking in pieces of the enemy’s weapons is to be compared with Psalms 46:10; Hosea 2:20. In the latter passage also war is put for weapons of war. The lightnings of the bow are the arrows. Psalms 76:5-7. Thou art shining forth, glorious One, from the mountains of spoil. [E. V., Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey].—Comp. Daniel 2:22; 1 Timothy 6:16. It is unnecessary to change πָ ?ΰεֹ ?ψ into πεֹ ?ψָ ?ΰ (Sept., Targ.). The latter is found in the text only in Psalms 76:8, 13. The mountains (plural also in Psalms 87:1; Psalms 133:2) of spoil here denote Mount Zion. From thence God, triumphing as the Glorious One in His majesty (Psalms 8:2; Psalms 18:13 f.), shines forth as a victorious Hero, over His disarmed enemies, sinking into the sleep of death (Jeremiah 51:39; Jeremiah 51:57; Nahum 3:18), and unable even to raise a hand any longer for possible resistance (Joshua 8:20; 2 Samuel 7:27), and thunders down, crushing and stupefying them (Isaiah 29:6; Isaiah 30:30) But the use of this figure is not based so much upon the comparison of God to a lion (Kimchi, Venema, and others), although His dwelling-place (Psalms 76:3 b) is denoted by the usual word for a lion’s lair (Psalms 104:22; Amos 3:4). The illustration is rather employed because spoiling is an accompaniment of victory, Isaiah 49:24 (Hupfeld). The Sept. has “everlasting mountains” (approved by Hitzig), which is based upon another reading. [Hitzig’s opinion is that the original reading was ςַ ?γ, and that this ambiguous word has been misunderstood and explained by θֶ ?ψֶ ?σ.—J. F, M.]. They, however, as also Aquila and Symmachus, have taken the ξִ ?ο=from. If it is taken as the sign of the comparative (as the Targ. and others), then the mountains of prey are to be understood either as the predatory villages of the hostile mountain-tribes or as the high-handed and rapacious, powerful (kings or giants) and wealthy (Isaaki, Delitzsch). Yet there is nothing to recommend the feeble thought that God is more bright and glorious than these, nor the unexpected form of expression employed in the comparison. Psalms 76:11. The wrath of man praiseth Thee.—This does not mean that those who once contended with God and set themselves in opposition to Him will afterwards praise Him, but that all the raging of men against the will of God, His people and kingdom, must serve, in its own despite, to show forth God’s glory, while then will be made manifest, on the one side, the feebleness and worthlessness of man, and on the other, the majesty and glory of God, especially by the punishment of the guilty and the defence of the righteous. In this almost all expositors agree. But the sense of the other member of the verse is doubtful. Many think that the wrath of man is referred to also here, and understand by the remainder of it, the greatest, utmost (Luther), or the last (Flaminius and others), remaining efforts. God arms Himself to overthrow these, or decks Himself with them as trophies of victory (Venema, Muntinghe, Hupfeld). Or it is viewed as though the wrath of the enemy even to its last effort were to serve God only as a weapon for their destruction (Hengst.). [See the various meanings of ηβψ.—J. F. M.]. Linguistically it is a more forced interpretation still to understand, the rest of the enraged men, that is, the rest of the wicked, whom God hems about and restrains (Isaaki, Kimchi, Calvin, and others). But if we take girding in the sense of arming (Isaiah 51:9; Isaiah 59:17; Wis 5:21), which is most appropriate to the context, then it is more natural to understand God’s wrath. And by “the remainder” we would understand the store of wrath not yet exhausted for the completion of the overthrow (Targ., Geier and others), or “that store of inexhaustible fulness of wrath yet remaining with God and now discharging itself, when the rage of men is exhausted and God calmly and derisively (Psalms 2:4) lets the Titans work their will” (Delitzsch). An apt remark in the Midrash (in Delitzsch, 1:579): “Man is controlled by wrath. God controls wrath. He restrains it when He will, and lets it work when He will.” [Dr. Moll therefore renders: With the remainder of wrath Thou girdest Thyself. Perowne follows Hupfeld’s view given above. Alexander prefers that of Hengstenberg.—J. F. M.] Psalms 76:12. All that are round about Him.—This expression is not in the vocative, as designating the Israelites, Numbers 2:2 (Kφster, Hengst.), but, as the accents and the mention of gifts (Psalms 68:30) demand, the subject of the following words, and describes the neighboring heathen nations, which must pay tribute to God the Fear-inspirer (ξεֹ ?ψָ ?ΰ as in Isaiah 8:12), while the Israelites bring to Jehovah, their, God, thank-offerings in fulfilment of their vows (Deuteronomy 23:22). [Hengstenberg: Psalms 76:11 is in accordance with the narrative as given in 2 Chronicles 32:23, that the heathen actually did honor God by presents, in consequence of the destruction of the Assyrian army.—J. F. M.]. In Psalms 76:13ψεּ ?ηַ is certainly not to be understood as boldness, pride (De Wette, Hupfeld); nor scarcely as spirit, breath of life (Hengst.), but as in Judges 8:3; Isaiah 25:4; Isaiah 33:11, as the breathing of wrath (Hitzig), or as snorting (Del.). Nor must we give to the verb the meaning of plundering, robbing (Geier and others), or that of cutting short=reducing (Targ.), but that of cutting off=taking away (Sept., Symm.), as the vine-dresser does to the wild vines, Joel 4:13; Isaiah 18:5; Revelation 14:17 ff. AND ETHICAL1. God has not only set up His dwelling in Zion and made Himself known to His people; He makes Himself appear glorious there by His mighty deeds. By them also He defends His city and people and destroys the plans of their enemies as well as their resources, life and power. Thus He appears at once glorious and dreadful. 2 God needs only to arise to judgment and all the might of the rebellious world recoils upon itself. Therefore have believers every reason to thank God, and the heathen every reason to submit themselves to Him. For none can stand before God’s anger, and the wicked, even in their overthrow, must contribute to His glory. AND God is shown everywhere to be Lord and Master, on fields of battle as well as in spiritual warfare.—All that we know of God results from His making Himself known.—It is better for us to serve the Lord voluntarily than to be compelled to submit ourselves to Him.—Where God dwells, there He lets something of Himself be heard and seen.—God employs His power for deliverance and for judgment.—God is as glorious in the shining of His favor as He is dreadful in the lightning of His wrath.—A single word of God and all the world’s commotion comes to nothing.—How different is God’s wrath and the world’s rage. Starke: The greatest honor which a nation or place can have is to possess the knowledge of the true God, and to be able to glory in His gracious presence (Deuteronomy 4:7-8).—God often employs feeble means when He subdues His foes, that all the world may know that He Himself watches over His own and defends them.—God observes the law of retaliation very strictly. See in the ruin of most tyrants, whether the mode of their death has not been in accordance with their wicked lives. Exodus 14:27; Acts 12:23.—Our best and first gift to God must be our heart (Proverbs 23:26). From this there will result of itself a desire to contribute something of our means to advance His kingdom. Osiander: The more tyrants rage against the Church of Christ, the nobler victory does God bring therefrom, when He casts them to the ground, and preserves His Church, even though some of its members are taken to heaven by death and martyrdom.—Selnecker: These are the three great blessings which God alone affords His Church: 1. That He may be rightly known and invoked in His Church. 2. That He dwells in the midst of His faithful ones as in His temple in presence and power. 3. That He preserves His Church against all the gates of Hell—Frisch: He who has no judge in the world need not think that he will leave it without one. When all human help ceases and passes away, then the heavenly begins.—The tardiness of God’s judgments is compensated for by their severity. The wounds are therefore the more painful, the help more efficient, desirable, and opportune, the comfort the sweeter, and the praise to God the more delightful.—Rieger: The whole Psalm insists upon the glorifying of God, that He alone is to be feared. With this in view, therefore, 1. The mercy is praised with which God has brought Himself so nigh to His people. 2. The judgments are praised which God has undertaken for the deliverance of His own. 3. Good instruction is given, how we are to regard all this, and to adore God with faith, hope, and confidence.—Tholuck: Let there be displayed unmistakably out of heaven the bared arm of God, and the ungodly will be still.—Diedrich: As God has in His mercy defended His own against all opposing hosts, they must, in return therefor, surrender themselves entirely to Him, henceforward to wait patiently for Him alone.—Schaubach (25th Sunday after Trinity): In the midst of the universal destruction will the Lord preserve His little band, and His name shall appear above the desolation, and be for all the faithful a rock and mountain of refuge.—Taube: The dreadful majesty of the God of Zion as the defence of the distressed in sudden judgments upon their enemies.—We see how a mission-call rings out through all the Lord’s judgments at the present time, and that He who judges the nations out of Salem, shall by these judgments, lead them back to Salem. [Scott: Puny mortals dare madly, through their whole lines, to defy the vengeance of that God one of whose angels in one night destroyed 185,000 men! But if temporal judgments excite such consternation, what will be the case when God shall arise to judgment at the last day? Barnes: The princes of the earth are under God’s control.—He can defeat their plans.—He can check them when He pleases.—He can and will make their plans—even their wrath—the means of promoting or carrying out His own purposes.—He will allow them to proceed no further in their plans of evil than He can make them submit to the furtherance of His own.—He can cut down the most mighty of them at His pleasure, and destroy them forever.—J. F. M.] Psalms 77 To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun A Psalm of Asaph2         I cried unto God with my voice, Even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. 3    In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: My sore ran in the night and ceased not: My soul refused to be comforted. 4    I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. 5    Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 6    I have considered the days of old, The years of ancient times. 7    I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. 8    Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more? 9    Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail for evermore? 10    Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. 11    And I said, This is my infirmity: But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. 12    I will remember the works of the Lord: Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. 13    I will meditate also of all thy work, And talk of thy doings. 14    Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: Who is so great a God as our God? 15    Thou art the God that doest wonders: Thou hast declared thy strength among the people. 16    Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. 17    The waters saw thee, O God, The waters saw thee; they were afraid: The depths also were troubled. 18    The clouds poured out water: The skies sent out a sound: Thine arrows also went abroad. 19    The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: The lightnings lightened the world: The earth trembled and shook. 20    Thy way is in the sea, And thy path in the great waters, And thy footsteps are not known. 21    Thou leddest thy people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron. AND Contents and Composition.—On the superscription compare Introd., § 12, No. 6 In three strophes, of which the first and third end with Selah, we hare presented to us a prayer of one in deep distress. It begins with the earnest declaration that he is sighing and crying to God unceasingly (Psalms 77:2-4), and, after recounting his sad reminiscences of happy days that were past (Psalms 77:5-7) it lets us hear his anxious question (Psalms 77:8-10), whether God’s mercy had forever forsaken him. In three strophes, of which the second ends with Selah, a growing calmness is exhibited. The Psalmist first finds consolation in reflecting upon God’s controlling hand in this affliction as well as in His former deeds (Psalms 77:11-13) and then extols (Psalms 77:14-16) God the Holy and Almighty One, as the Deliverer of His people even until now, and finally gives a poetical picture of the deliverance from Egypt, (Psalms 77:17-20). A concluding verse (21) represents this Divine guidance of the people under an image frequent in the Asaph-Psalms, in such a manner that it excites an expectation of its continuance, and yet the thought which is presented is here developed no further. There is no sufficient ground, however, for the conjecture that the Psalm is incomplete (Tholuck), or that we have it in a mutilated form (Rosenmueller, Olshausen) or that it forms a part of Psalms 80. (Pareau, Instit. interpr., Vet. Test., p. 330). Such an abrupt termination can be explained on the ground of a poetical purpose (De Wette), nor is it without other example in the Bible (Hupfeld). The attaching of the verse to the lyrical strophe, Psalms 77:17 ff., which itself varies from the regular rhythmical structure, is unexpected. The contents of the passage resemble Psalms 97:4, but especially Psalms 114., and Habakkuk 3:10 f. It is doubtful which of these passages should be regarded as the earliest. With reference to Psalms 97:4, at all events, the resemblances are quite general, and therefore only casual (Philippson), but in the case of the other two passages the whole manner of expression declares the opposite. According to Hupfeld, a comparison favors the supposition that the one before us is the latest. We need not however assume that a later addition was made to the Psalm (Kφster) perhaps by the Psalmist himself (Hupfeld). Neither have we sufficient reason to refer the whole Psalm to the age of the Syrian oppression (Venema, Olshausen) and to bring it into special connection with 1Ma 3:38 (Hitzig). The period of the Babylonian exile might be thought of (Ewald and most). Since, however, the destruction of the temple is not mentioned, and strong evidence can be adduced to show that the prophecy of Habakkuk presupposes this Psalm (Delitzsch, Hengst., Caspari); it appears also admissible to bring the latter into connection with the destruction of the Ten Tribes. More definite indications fail us. Even the mention of Joseph along with Jacob, Psalms 77:16 b, might be due to the recollection of the deliverance of the people in Egypt (Targ., Calvin, Geier, and others). But it is still more natural to assume that Ephraim, the tribe second in importance (Psalms 78:67) and the kingdom of Israel (Psalms 80:2; Psalms 81:6) are alluded to. Nothing more definite aids us to discover the affliction which is here bewailed, which, though experienced personally, and expressed as that of an individual, clearly represents a national calamity. [Dr. Moll seems undecided as to which of the passages above discussed has the priority in composition. If the Psalm can be shown to have been prior to the prophecy, we have a limit on one side, for it is generally acknowledged that Habakkuk wrote in the days of Josiah. For a full presentation of this side of the question, see Delitzsch’s Comm. on Hab., pp. 118–125, or the extracts made therefrom in his Comm. on Psalms, and in that of Hengstenberg. He uses two arguments which appear to most to be satisfactory. 1. That the acknowledged principle of Hab. in the structure of the 3d chapter was to imitate the Psalms, and that the presumption is therefore in favor of his being here the imitator and not the originator. 2. That it is improbable that the Psalmist “would have described a past deliverance in language borrowed from the prophetic description of a deliverance yet to come.” The arguments of Hupfeld on the other side are mainly based on his own subjective taste, and proceed chiefly upon the assumption that those of the corresponding expressions which are more natural and correct as to conception and diction are the earlier. This, therefore, assumes that the Psalmist in copying changed for the worse. Is it not at least as likely that the prophet, in imitating, altered for the better? Alexander favors the position of Delitzsch. Perowne feels that there is some force in Hupfeld’s arguments, and is therefore undecided. If the Psalm is the earlier it is therefore not later than the reign of Josiah. It is naturally brought into connection with the perplexing and harassing thoughts that filled the minds of the pious at that time in the contemplation both of the present and of the future.—Perowne and Barnes regard the speaker as recording his own personal experience. Alexander regards the Church as speaking through the Psalmist. The view of Dr. Moll, as above, mediates between these, and is most probably the correct one. For the feelings are all personal, while the recollections of the past, which are contrasted with the present, are all of national blessings.—J. F. M.] Psalms 77:3-4. My hand is stretched out in the night. [E. V., My sore ran in the night]. This expression [Heb. πִ ?βְּ ?ψָ ?δ] usually employed of water (2 Samuel 14:14) and of tears (Lamentations 3:49) is here transferred to the hand. [German hingegossen. The two ideas cannot be rendered into English by one word, as is done here by Dr. Moll.—J. F. M.] But this mode of expression is not chosen because the hand is bedewed by tears (old expositors in Geier), or because it lies exhausted and powerless, and as an image of the decay that consumes the whole body (Hengst.); but, as the sequel shows, to describe the constant turning to God as an unchangeable inclination of the soul amid the ebb and flow of the tides of feeling. [The Rabbins understood ιַ ?γ to mean the stroke of the hand, and therefore the wound, but did not connect it immediately with the verb. Our translators obtained the meaning “sore” from this, and construed directly with πβψδ. Hence, “My sore ran in the night.” The next verb primarily means to be cold, next to be numb, stiff, still, to cease. The true rendering is: My hand was stretched forth in the night and was not still. Delitzsch: “The Psalmist toils in the time of his trouble to force his way to God, who has withdrawn Himself as though wishing to know nothing of him; his hand is stretched forth in the night time, without being relaxed, it is unbent, does not fall back while directed heavenward.”—J. F. M.] The prζterites also in Psalms 77:3, which many of the old translators have transferred to the whole strophe, express what is long since begun and still continues. The translation: eye, instead of: hand (Targ.) is not due to another text, but to a false effort at explanation. [Psalms 77:4, should be translated, not as in our version, but: I remember God and groan. I think and my spirit is overwhelmed.—J. F. M.] The eyelids, Psalms 77:5, are here described as guards, or still better as shields. The translation: night-watches (Hengst., Hupfeld) cannot be proved either by the similar word, Psalms 63:7, nor by Lamentations 2:19. [Hengst. and Hupf. assume that ωְׁ ?ξֻ ?ψֹ ?εϊ is for ΰַ ?ωְׁ ?ξֻ ?ψֹ ?εϊ. Alexander differs from both views, and retains the view that it is a participle, giving it the passive sense: “my eyes kept,” that is, kept fast. But to take it in the active sense, as is done in E. V., and thought possible by Perowne, is incorrect.—J. F. M.] Psalms 77:11; Psalms 77:17. This is my infirmity.—Others translate (with the Targ.): my entreaty is this. But the meaning: suffering, or more strictly: disease, wound, is rendered certain by Jeremiah 10:19. In the next sentence expositors differ very greatly. But there should really only be hesitation between the translation: changing, or: years. In favor of the latter it may be urged that already in Psalms 77:6 this explanation is indisputably to be given to the same word-form, and that the following thought is a more natural sequel to it. Then the assurance that God’s hand, and not the wickedness and power of men, had brought this season of humiliation (1 Peter 5:6), inflicts, indeed, a wound in the heart. Yet it suggests also the comforting thought that everything is ordered duly and rightly, and therefore the sufferer, though still unrelieved, can win hope from the recollection of God’s former acts of help and deeds of mercy. And he gains it the more fully, the more willingly he humbles himself under the hand of such a God, and resigns himself to His holy will. If the translation: changing (Sept. and most of the ancient versions) is preferred, then it must be observed that the active sense: the hand of God can change everything (Luther) is linguistically not admissible, but only the passive, that the hand of God has been changed (Maurer, Hupfeld, Hitzig). But even then it is difficult to connect with what follows: and the thought itself is unintelligible and ambiguous. Then, the explanation that the supposition of a change in God’s actions and government is only a delusion, and that the Psalmist acknowledges this fancy to have been his former infirmity, is only gained by importing it into the words of the text. [Perowne translates: This is my sorrow, that the right hand of the Highest hath changed. Hengstenberg, with whom Alexander mainly agrees, explains by saying that the years are years of suffering inflicted by the hand of God, and so agrees with the explanation given above. The words in italics in E. V. are to be omitted. In Psalms 77:17 instead of: “they were afraid,” render: they trembled.—J. F. M.] Psalms 77:19. In the whirlwind.—[E. V., In the heavens]. The rendering: wheel (the ancient versions and Isaaki) is here so much the less applicable, as galgal does not denote the form of the wheel when at rest, but its whirling motion. The rendering: sphζra, arch of heaven (most of the older translators after Kimchi) is therefore unsuitable. We must consequently understand either the whirlwind accompanying the under-storm (most of the moderns since J. D. Michaelis) or the rolling of the thunder (Aben Ezra, Maurer), and not introduce the idea of the wheels of Jehovah’s chariot (Rosenmueller, Hupfeld), but that of the rapid succession of thunder peals (Hengst., Bφttcher). [Perowne translates: in the rolling, and explains it of God’s chariot, or of the whirlwind, though in his critical note he denies that the latter meaning can be supported. Alexander approves of the rendering whirlwind, and, in opposition to Hengstenberg, refers to Isaiah 17:13 as showing that that idea may be deduced from it.—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. There are times when the recollection of God’s former help, does not alleviate the pangs of present suffering, but only increases them. We experience, then, not only deep anguish, sleepless nights, disquieting thoughts, which toss us to and fro, but among the blows and shocks, which make us at one time shriek out, at another lose our breath, so that we cannot speak, scruples will arise, which grow into temptations, and, by the contrast of former and present circumstances, experiences, and feelings, doubt is excited as to our state of grace, and we hesitate as to the attitude of God towards us. Deliverance from such anxieties and dangers is effected by an unceasing wrestling or struggling on our way to God through all barriers, by prayer, and even with sighs and groans. Then we must not merely call to mind the hand of God, which rules in all events, but also resign ourselves truly to it in humble self-surrender, and ground our hope anew also upon the actual deeds of His might and grace, which have established and preserved the Church. 2. And thus lamentation is soon exchanged for a song of praise. The pious soul thinks no longer of itself and of its transient suffering, but of God’s eternal glory. The evidences of that shine out before him with comforting power from the history of revelation and redemption, even if God’s footsteps are not presented visibly to him as He marches through the world. And God is, and remains, even when through the instrumentality of human servants, the safe and trustworthy Leader of His people to the promised goal. Yes! He not only leads them through the sea and the desert, He tends them, too, as the Shepherd of His flock. AND Those who are under suffering like to think about themselves, and brood over their situation. It were better for them to meditate upon God’s doings.—The events of history not only awaken recollections, they excite also hopes.—God’s ruling in the affairs of the world we should not merely recognize and admit, we should also be willing to be subject to it ourselves.—Remain thou with the flock of God, and then He will never fail thee in need.—God is and remains Comforter, Leader, and Provider for His Church and each of her members.—God’s ways conduct surely to the goal, but all do not recognize them, nor all walk in them.—We must toil after God until we find Him, and after we have found Him we must not leave Him.—To surrender ourselves into God’s hands is the surest means of being lifted above even the deepest sorrows.—God has means and ways enough to help His people, but they are usually other than men expect.—By praising and extolling the glory of God, we soonest forget our earthly suffering and personal affliction. Luther: If God were to be present with His help just when we think He should, all would be wrong. Let us learn that. well. And therefore this Psalm will show God to us, and teach us His way of helping, namely, that we are not to despair of God when it goes ill with us, but just then expect help most certainly, and not trust our own thoughts. Starke: It is a glorious attribute of faith that it does not cease in prayer and supplication till God at last causes His gracious countenance to shine, and appears with His comfort and help.—Gather for thyself in good days a treasure of the comforting words of Scripture; times of drought are coming when no comfort holds.—Trust nothing but God’s mercy, and thou wilt certainly never be betrayed by false consolation.—It is better for the heart to pray without the mouth than the mouth without the heart.—In tribulation much is learned, and more in an hour than at other times in many years, for then is experienced in deed and in truth all that God’s word says.—God is Lord of nature; therefore can He create help when the help of nature fails.—Those who fill ecclesiastical and civil positions should cultivate brotherly unity after the example of Moses and Aaron, and then the discharge of their duties will be so much the more blessed.—Frisch: Let God’s word and the glorious and marvellous redemption of His children therein recorded be precious to thee, and then thou wilt be better contented with what He ordains for thee. Thou wilt ever discover more of God, how wonderful He is in His ways, holy in His works, unsearchable in His wisdom, immovable in His righteousness, and inexhaustible in His mercy.—Rieger: It is the crowning excellence of all God’s ways that He so unites the revealed and the concealed together as at once to strengthen and to exercise our faith.—Richter (Hausbibel): Here learn how the thought of faith, that Jehovah is, in all changes, the same unchangeable God to-day as He was in the most remote ages and events, when He proved Himself to be the inscrutable Saviour of His people, can calm and bless a soul which grieves over Israel’s troubles, and is tempted in utter darkness.—Tholuck: Shall God, to whose nature it belongs to be gracious, and faithfully to keep His promises, make an exception in my case? Impossible.—Diedrich: Our God must ever remain our support, even if we had only His deeds in the past to contemplate with delight. He will, however, again manifest His glory when He beholds us seeking consolation in Him.—Taube: Sleepless, helpless, speechless, comfortless, this is a clear and true picture of the condition of our poor hearts, when God closes the veil, and we are left alone abandoned to ourselves.—The obscurity and darkness are not in God’s heart, words, and ways, but upon our eyes and hearts. [Barnes: Even in shallow waters, when one wades through them, the path closes at once, and the way cannot be traced, but God’s ways are like those of one who should move over a great ocean—over a boundless sea—where none could hope to follow Him.—J. F. M.] Psalms 78 Maschil of Asaph1         Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2    I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: 3    Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4    We will not hide them from their children, Shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. 5    For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children: 6    That the generation to come might know them, Even the children which should be born; Who should arise and declare them to their children: 7    That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments: 8    And might not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation; A generation that set not their heart aright, And whose spirit was not steadfast with God. 9    The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle. 10    They kept not the covenant of God, And refused to walk in his law; 11    And forgat his works, And his wonders that he had shewed them. 12    Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. 13    He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; And he made the waters to stand as a heap. 14    In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, And all the night with a light of fire. 15    He clave the rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink as out of the great depths. 16    He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers. 17    And they sinned yet more against him By provoking the Most High in the wilderness. 18    And they tempted God in their heart By asking meat for their lust. 19    Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? 20    Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, And the streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? 21    Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: So a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also came up against Israel: 22    Because they believed not in God, And trusted not in his salvation. 23    Though he had commanded the clouds from above, And opened the doors of heaven, 24    And had rained down manna upon them to eat, And had given them of the corn of heaven. 25    Man did eat angels’ food: He sent them meat to the full. 26    He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: And by his power he brought in the south wind. 27    He rained flesh also upon them as dust, And feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: 28    And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their habitations. 29    So they did eat, and were well filled: For he gave them their own desire; 30    They were not estranged from their lust: But while their meat was yet in their mouths, 31    The wrath of God came upon them, And slew the fattest of them, And smote down the chosen men of Israel. 32    For all this they sinned still, And believed not for his wondrous works. 33    Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, And their years in trouble. 34    When he slew them then they sought him: And they returned and inquired early after God. 35    And they remembered that God was their Rock, And the high God their Redeemer. 36    Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, And they lied unto him with their tongues. 37    For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they steadfast in his covenant. 38    But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: Yea, many a time turned he his anger away, And did not stir up all his wrath. 39    For he remembered that they were but flesh; A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. 40    How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert! 41    Yea, they turned back and tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel. 42    They remembered not his hand, Nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy: 43    How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan: 44    And had turned their rivers into blood; And their floods, that they could not drink. 45    He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them. 46    He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, And their labour unto the locust. 47    He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycamore trees with frost. 48    He gave up their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 49    He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, By sending evil angels among them. 50    He made a way to his anger; He spared not their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence; 51    And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; The chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: 52    But made his own people to go forth like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 53    And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: But the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54    And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, Even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. 55    He cast out the heathen also before them, And divided them an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 56    Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, And kept not his testimonies: 57    But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. 58    For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 59    When God heard this, he was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel: 60    So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men; 61    And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the enemy’s hand. 62    He gave his people over also unto the sword; And was wroth with his inheritance. 63    The fire consumed their young men; And their maidens were not given to marriage. 64    Their priests fell by the sword; And their widows made no lamentation. 65    Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, And like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. 66    And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: He put them to a perpetual reproach. 67    Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, And chose not the tribe of Ephraim: 68    But chose the tribe of Judah, The mount Zion which he loved. 69    And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, Like the earth which he hath established forever. 70    He chose David also his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds: 71    From following the ewes great with young he brought him To feed Jacob his people, And Israel his inheritance. 72    So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. AND Contents and Composition.—The superscription (comp. Introd., § 8, No. 3) and also the introduction (Psalms 78:1-8) give us to understand that the history of God’s dealings with His people are to be narrated in apophthegmatic style for the instruction and edification of succeeding generations, and that, especially, His judgments, inflicted upon Israel for their ingratitude and unfaithfulness, are to serve as a warning to them. The several examples of these, which are presented, sometimes in epic style, with a certain diffuseness, are divided into two groups. The former (Psalms 78:9 ff.) relates events which transpired after the Exodus during the march through the wilderness, and concludes with a general reflection upon them (Psalms 78:34-39). The latter begins with an exclamation over the frequency of Israel’s transgressions, and places them in sharp contrast with God’s acts of deliverance from their residence in Egypt, until the people were led like a flock by His chosen servant David. In both of them the rejection of the tribe of Ephraim is brought strongly out in contrast with the choice of that of Judah, and the removal of the sanctuary from Shiloh to Zion. We cannot, however, infer anything from this in favor of the assumption that the Psalm presupposes the schism of the kingdoms, or indeed, contains hostile allusions to the Samaritans, and that it is therefore to be dated as late as possible. For the discord between Ephraim and Judah is much older than the separation, and there is so little to be determined from hostile side-glances, that Ephraim’s sin is rather to be regarded as representing that of the whole people. To go back to the time of David (Muntinghe) and to ascribe the composition to the celebrated Asaph, is impossible only for those who assign the Pentateuch to a later age, for the latter, with the exception of Leviticus, is made use of in ail parts of the Psalms. We can certainly conclude nothing from the circumstance that the Psalm closes with the leading of the people by David, for the preceding one concludes with a reference to the leading of Moses and Aaron. But the opinion is just as untenable that such events were not recognized as marking great epochs until long after (Calvin). The expressions in Psalms 78:69 need not be referred to the lofty magnificence of Solomon’s temple, much less to a later time. The literal agreement of Psa 78:64 with Job 27:15, alluding to mourning for the dead, Genesis 23:2, decides in general nothing, and makes as little against the priority of Psa 78:41 as the Divine title “Holy One of Israel,” so frequent in Isaiah does (Compare Caspari, Zeitschrift fόr luth. Kirche und Theologie, 1844, No. 3). The application of Psa 78:2 to Christ’s manner of teaching, Matthew 13:35, which does not, at any rate, prove that God or Christ speaks in the person of the Psalmist (Stier after the ancients), agrees well, on the other hand, with the circumstance that Asaph is termed already in the Old Testament the Seer (2 Chronicles 29:30). Neither is this, indeed, decisive; for the name Asaph does not occur in Matthew, the citation being only made as the words of a prophet generally, on which account some MSS. with the Clementine Homilies ascribe this passage to Isaiah. In all points there is here wanting certain historical ground. Even the strongest argument against so early a composition, that all of the historical literature which was written for practical ends, was an offspring of later reflection in the unfortunate times in which the destruction of the kingdom was either threatened or accomplished (Hupfeld), is not altogether incontestable, for the whole biblical conception of history is not merely religious, and therefore practical, but is moulded in the spirit of the Theocracy and its Messianic aspect. [The hypothesis of the composition in the time of David and by Asaph “the seer,” is defended by Hengstenberg. He is followed by Alexander and most commentators. Perowne inclines to the supposition of a later origin on account of the triumphant tone employed in the conclusion, when speaking of Ephraim. All that can be said is that the probabilities are very strongly in favor of the view generally maintained. The subject is of more than ordinary interest as an argument for the genuineness of the Pentateuch is directly deducible from this hypothesis, if well established.—There is properly no strophical division as suits the semi-narrative style adopted.—J. F. M. ] [In Psalms 78:1 the word translated law in our version should have its original meaning, instruction. In Psalms 78:8 instead of: stubborn, should be: faithless or disloyal.—J. F. M.] Psalms 78:9. The sons of Ephraim.—The whole of this verse has something strange in this connection. The expressions would lead one to understand an actual flight, perhaps an act of treachery in battle. Some therefore refer this (comp. Schnurrer in Comment, theol. ed. Velthusen, I. 76 ff.) to the defeat under Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13.) But this is unsuitable because there it is a defeat, while here it is a crime that is described. Others understand some flight of Ephraim to be here adduced as an example of defection. But the supplying of the particle “as” of comparison before the sentence (Luther, Geier, and others) is linguistically impossible. The sentence could, logically, be better completed thus: Ephraim’s sons (were like) archers armed with bows, who turned back (Venema, Kφster, Olsh., De Wette). We would then have a figurative designation of desertion and unreliableness like the deceitful bow in Psalms 78:57. But even so there is felt the need of the particle of comparison and then of the relative. And with what event is the defection to be connected? Is it that of the ten tribes (De Wette and others) when they separated from Judah? This is untenable, because it is the sins of the people against God in times before David that are spoken of. Let this be admitted, and the figurativeness of the expression relating to the turning back of those armed with bows be still maintained. Then the thought is clear, that the Ephraimites, in spite of their supply of arms, and efficiency in their use, proved themselves recreant and cowardly in defending and leading the cause of God (Delitzsch). But how comes the Psalmist to mention Ephraim in this place, where he has been speaking of the unfaithfulness of the fathers? Is Ephraim viewed as representing the whole people, perhaps on account of their predominance in the time of the Judges (Hengst.)? Or on account of the presumption with which Ephraim was upbraided, Judges 8:12 [Psalms 12:3?—J. F. M.] (Geier)? This is possible neither according to the words employed nor according to the facts. For the rejection of Ephraim and the choice of Judah form just “the cardinal point towards which the whole historical retrospect is directed,” Psalms 78:67 f. If we are not, therefore, to regard these words and those that follow as a later insertion (Hupfeld, Hitzig), which is somewhat arbitrary, then we have only to hold the opinion that the verse contains a pragmatic preparation for the rejection of Shiloh and Ephraim as mentioned later (J. D. Michaelis) and at the same time to bear in mind how much the Asaph-Psalms have to do with the tribes of the sons of Joseph. Psalms 78:12. Zoan. Ancient Egyptian Zane, called by the Greeks Tanis, on the eastern shore of the arm of the Nile afterwards named, a very ancient (Numbers 13:23) residence of the Pharaohs. It is often mentioned by the prophets in the later occasions of contact with Egypt, not merely because it was the most easterly portion of that country, and that which lay nearest to the Hebrews, (Isaiah 19:11; Isaiah 19:13; Isaiah 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14), but because it came directly into view as the residence of Pharaoh before which Moses wrought his miracles. Brugsch (Aus dem Orient 2:45), has no doubt that Moses directed his glance at the colossal sitting-statue of Rameses II. now in the pillar-court of the Royal Museum in Berlin, which was consecrated to the Baal-temple at Tanis after the expulsion of the Hyksosdynasty and was set up before its entrance. Ebers [Egypten und die Bόcher Moses I. 274) says: “In ancient times this country, cleared by the Ph�nicians, the best agriculturists of the world, irrigated by the Egyptians, the most skilful of all canal-makers, was the granary of half the world, and even under the Arabs, a golden meadow interspersed with villages and covered with broad fields of corn.” It is yet, for the time, uncertain, whence the Hebrew appellation of Egypt (Mizraim) is derived, whether it comes from an Egyptian root, (Reinisch, Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akad. 1859, p. 379), or has a Shemitic origin (Ebers, p. 71 ff.). The Nile valley itself (though not its inhabitants) is called on Egyptian monuments, cham=black. This refers to the color of the ploughed land. For the same reason Syria, Ph�nicia, and Palestine are called in the hieroglyphics tesr=red (Ebers, p. 55 f.). Psalms 78:24 f. Manna is in Psalms 105:40 after Exodus 16:4 called “bread” here “corn” of heaven: the latter scarcely without allusion to its form, and “bread of the strong,” for which the ancient versions put directly “angels’ bread,” as in Wis 16:20. This does not mean that it is the food of the angels or prepared by angels (Stier after the old expositors) but that it descends from heaven (Chald.), the abode of the angels. The angels are called, as in Psalms 103:20, the strong heroes. This explanation is to be preferred to the other: bread of the great, the nobles (Schnurrer, Rosenmueller, De Wette, Gesenius). The sense of every one is recommended for ΰִ ?εωׁ by Exodus 16:16 ff. But on account of the contrast this word may also mean: Man (Chald., Delitzsch, Hitzig). Psalms 78:38; Psalms 78:41. And he, full of compassion. This verse, and before it, Deuteronomy 28:58-59; Deuteronomy 29:8, were recited when there were being administered to criminals the forty stripes save one which Paul according to 2 Corinthians 11:24 had received five times (Delitzsch). According to the Rabbinical numeration this verse is the middle of the 5896 stichs of the Psalter, and Psalms 78:36 the middle one of its 2527 verses (comp. Buxtorf, Tiberias 1620, p. 133). [Psalms 78:41. Perowne: δִ ?ϊְ ?εεּ; “the Hiphil occurs again in Ezekiel 9:4, in the sense of putting a mark on (the forehead). So it was taken by the Chald. here, and this has been explained in two ways (1) They put limits (marks) to the power of God, or (2) as Hengst., Del. and others, they branded with reproach. But it is better to connect it with the Syriac, meaning: “p�nituit, eum doluit.” Perowne, therefore, translates “troubled.” So Dr. Moll in his translation, “grieved.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 78:47. Vines—It is still remarked altogether erroneously by many expositors (by Hupfeld and Hitzig last) that the vine is named before other natural productions, according to a Canaanitish and not an Egyptian point of view. It is even said that Egypt had but little vine-culture—since none were permitted to drink wine (De Wette). It is just in Egypt that wine stands in the first rank of the liquors presented to the divinity (Ebers, p. 323). And there is a distinction made between the different sorts, choice and common, red and white, domestic and imported. The temple inscriptions at Dendera show also that a festival, the “full-drinking feast,” was celebrated in honor of Hathor, the goddess of lust and love, the “mistress of inebriety” Dόmichen. (Bauurkunde von Dendera und Tempelinschriften, p. 29 f.). That wine was regarded as a necessity, even of the lower classes, appears from a note which an officer of Rameses II. in the fifty-second year of his reign, made on the back of a papyrus, and which gives the amount of rations of bread and wine distributed by him to the workmen. (Ebers., p. 326). Psalms 78:49. Evil angels.—Strictly: angels of the evil, that is, angels bringing misfortune (Delitzsch). Linguistically it is admissible to translate: angels of the wicked=wicked angels (Sept., Targ., Symmachus, Rabbins and most). Hengstenberg cites a sentence of Jac. Ode (de angelis p. 731 f.) deum ad puniendos malos homines mittere bonos angelos et ad castigandos pios usurpare malos. But even Hupfeld, who contends against this, as being too strict a distinction, referring to Judges 9:23; 1 Samuel 16:14 : 1 Kings 22:21 f; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Job 1:7, acknowledges finally that they have their name: bad, not from their dispositions, but from their influence. The death of the first-born was (Exodus 12:13; Exodus 12:23), effected by the destroyer (Hebrews 11:8). The word in question may denote the Angel of Jehovah in His attribute of Avenger (2 Samuel 24:16), but may also be taken as a collective (1 Samuel 13:17). Psalms 78:54-61. To this mountain—This expression, in accordance with its position as being in apposition, and according to Exodus 15:17, is to be understood of the Holy Land as a mountainous country. Deuteronomy 1:7; Deuteronomy 1:20; Deuteronomy 3:25; Isaiah 11:9. (Aben Ezra, Hitzig, Hupfeld, Delitzsch), but is not to be explained as a prophetic allusion to Zion (Hengst). In Psalms 78:59. Israel is to be taken in the narrower sense=Ephraim. This is proved by the parallelism with Shiloh, Psalms 78:60, and the contrast to Judah, Psalms 78:67 (comp. Jeremiah 7:12 f.). Shiloh was in the time of the Judges the chief seat of the Sanctuary (Joshua 18:1 ff; Joshua 21:2; 1 Samuel 1:4.) After the Ark of the Covenant had fallen into the hands of the Philistines, the tabernacle was not brought back to Shiloh, but was taken at first to Nob (1 Samuel 21:2); and after Saul had placed that city under ban was brought to Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4), while the ark after its restoration to Israel was deposited in Kirjath jearim (1 Samuel 7:2). The ark is called in 1 Samuel 4:21, as here, λָּ ?αεֹ ?γ [glory, Psalms 78:61, M.] as the place where God manifested His majesty and glory, Comp. Psalms 132:8. Psalms 78:65 f. That shouteth by reason of wine. This cannot allude to the battle-cry of a warrior (Hupfeld), when he is roused up from intoxication (Chald.), for intoxication is not spoken of in the text and wine is not parallel to sleep. The allusion must therefore be to the enkindling of the fire that animates the breast of the warrior, to his rapid change from a state of rest to action, and to the increased elasticity of his frame from the use of wine (J. H. Michaelis, Hengst., Del.). Following another derivation and comparing with Proverbs 29:6; Proverbs 29:1 we might translate: who allows himself to be overcome by wine (Schnurrer, De Wette, Stier, Hitzig). Yet this meaning existing in the Arabic is not established in Hebrew, and is less suitable in this connection. Bφttcher explains: who recollects himself. In Psalms 78:66 there is no allusion make to striking back (Geier, Hengst., Hupfeld) but to the disgrace inflicted upon the Philistines and recorded in 1 Samuel 5:6 (Targ., Sept., Vulg., Luther, Del., Hitzig). Psalms 78:69 ff. Like high, etc. In the Hebrew we have only an adjective=high, elevated. The following explanations have been given: Like high palaces (Aben Ezra, Kimchi), or mountains (Calvin, Kφster, Hengst.,) or the heights of heaven (Isaaki, Stier, Hupfeld, Del.). The latter seems most natural=excelsa (Job 21:22), and there is no need of uniting the two Hebrew words, and reading λִּ ?ξְ ?ψεֹ ?ξִ ?ιν in order to gain this meaning (Hitzig). But on account of the general nature of the expression and the absence of the article it is still doubtful whether heaven and earth are parallel, and that with reference to their firmness and duration, surviving all changes even to the end of the world. It appears, however, as if that were only expressed in the second member, while in the first there is presented the pre-eminent exaltation, the grandeur of the sanctuary as established by God. At all events the mode of expression favors the hypothesis of the early composition of the Psalm, because the threatening of the destruction of the Temple appears already in the earliest prophets. [In Psalms 78:71ςָ ?μֹ ?εϊ means literally the suckling ones, that is the ewes. It has been misunderstood in Isaiah 40:11, in the same way.—J. F. M.]. AND ETHICAL1. The history of former times, especially of God’s dealings with His people and their conduct, should serve to instruct and warn succeeding generations, and should, therefore, in accordance with God’s will and word (Exodus 10:1-2) be handed down by the parents to their children. “The terms parable and enigma applied to these events have reference to the fact, that everywhere in sacred history there lies a concealed background of instruction; that it is prophecy turned backward, that throughout it the mutato nomine de te fabula narratur prevails; that between all the lines are the words “let whosoever reads understand,” which call upon us to penetrate through the shell to the kernel, from the grapes of history to press out the wine of instruction” (Hengstenberg). “The highest view which can be taken of history is that in which its events are regarded as parables of God addressed to men” (Novalis). 2. Many things occur in the world which are as unexpected, and appear as strange, as once to God’s people appeared the rejection of Israel and the exaltation of Judah. And yet in the one case as in the other there is a visitation of God to be recognized. But there are many who will not be warned. They may hear recounted the judgments of God upon those of old, and concur in the opinion that they were inflicted justly. Yet none the less do they follow their footsteps; and thus there is perpetuated an ungrateful and faithless generation, concerning which God has to complain, that He has displayed His wonders to it in vain. 3. The more exalted the position, and the more signal the privileges which God confers upon a man or a nation, the greater is the responsibility and the more heinous the guilt, if the influence thereby gained leads other men also into false paths and brings them into conflict with God’s commands and promises. And there follows thereupon also a more dreadful punishment. For God will not abandon His design because those called first do not walk worthy of their vocation. He rejects the faithless and chooses for Himself other servants and in this He manifests the same ways of dealing as when He took David from tending his father’s flock, that he might feed the flock of God. 4. He who will ask something of God, must see to it that it be done in faith. For even the unbelieving and disobedient ask many things from Him and the Lord does not deny them. But the fulfilment of their wishes proves their destruction, for God’s judgments are thereby executed upon them. God also will be entreated, but will not be tempted. “To tempt God, means: to doubt whether He is God. It is characteristic of unbelief that it is wilfully ignorant of that by which God had before made proof of His Divinity, and acts towards Him, as though He now for the first time were giving evidence of it.” (Hengstenberg). Tempting God, therefore, is no less a falling away from faith than it is discontentment with and murmuring against Him. “Biblical History is a prophecy which in all ages is fulfilled in every man’s soul.” (Hamann). AND God teaches us even by His actions; but we are to understand, apply, and proclaim them.—The problems of history are solved when we contemplate the dealings of God.—We should always and in all things have regard both to the severity and to the goodness of God.—Forgetfulness of God’s goodness and the ungrateful reception of His favors are the causes of many sins.—God punishes unbelief and disobedience not only among the heathen but also among His own people.—The making known of God’s deeds is (1) A good custom of God’s people of old. (2) The will of God enjoined upon us. (3) The best means of glorifying Him.—God endures the proof well, when He is tempted, but it fares ill with those who undertake to do it.—He who would truly trust in God, must from the heart believe on Him; for he who believes thus, does not doubt.—Murmuring against God is as much opposed to faith as tempting God is. Starke: How pleasing it is to God, that we hear His word, take it to heart and live in accordance with it! for it saves us from all that would harm the soul.—The best inheritance which parents can leave to their children, and the best art which they can teach them, is the knowledge of the glorious deeds of God and how to glorify His majesty.—It is an unadvised demand, that God should perform still more of His wonders, as if men would then have more faith, Luke 16:27 f. The example of Israel testifies to the opposite.—When God manifests His name especially in renowned cities and countries, He does it not because He slights other places, but because the outward splendor of such places is a fitting means of spreading His glory far and wide.—Unbelief is the denial of God, yea, the greatest sin of all, because from it result all other sins.—All creatures are ready at all times to execute God’s commands. Man alone contends against His Creator. Is that not to be deplored? Isaiah 1:5; Jeremiah 8:7.—To seek God in distress is right and necessary, but if we do so that we may be freed from trouble, and are unwilling to forsake sin, we then dishonor God and lead ourselves the more deeply into sin.—If God punishes others, it should stir us up to repentance. He can find us out too, and visit us.—God sends not only exalted spirits or angels when He would punish men. He can do it also by means of feeble worms.—God proceeds gradually in the inflictions of His judgments, so that when men will not amend their ways after more gentle punishments, He keeps sending them more severe ones, which touch them more closely still.—Where God’s word is taught in its simplicity and purity, there let men hold fast to it and live according to its holy precepts, that He may not remove it from them.—What God has erected for His dwelling, shall stand forever according to His purpose.—He who is faithful in lesser matters, is employed by God in greater ones: experience confirms this not only in things temporal but in things spiritual also.—Luke 16:10. Selnecker: Contempt of God’s word, pride and arrogance have never been of any benefit, and have always resulted in evil.—Menzel: God will not have these histories forgotten, but will have parents impress them well upon their children; and they will learn from them, (1) To recognize God’s glory and power, (2) to fear that God and trust in Him.—Frisch: To tempt God is nothing else than to demand from Him an exhibition of His utmost power, or an indication of His purposes with regard to us.—Renschel: God tries us with both hands, the hand of mercy and the hand of anger and punishment, and when men will not follow the one, He urges them with the other.—Oetinger: How obedience or disobedience were always attended by God’s blessings or judgments, and how He did not punish according to its desert, the greater sin that always followed great blessings, but so ordered Ephraim’s punishment that the whole nation came to enjoy new blessings on Zion under David’s reign.—Tholuck: Unbelief is so deeply rooted in men’s hearts that when God performs wonders on earth they doubt whether He does the same in heaven, and when He performs them in heaven, they tauntingly ask whether He can perform them on earth too.—Guenther: God can punish even by riches and affluence.—In faith in the word of prophecy let us diligently search that great Book of God, the history of the world, that we may discover the signs of the times, and that the Lord may enlighten our eyes unto eternal salvation!—Schaubach: The righteous judgments of God repeat themselves in the world’s history. Can it be that we have a reprieve, so that the punitive justice of the Lord shall not be inflicted upon us?—Taube: In the description of the plagues we gain a twofold view of God’s government, first, that everything subserves God’s plans in His ways and judgments; secondly, that God proceeds gradually in the severity of those judgments. [Matt. Henry: Those cannot be said to trust in God’s salvation as their felicity at last, who cannot find in their hearts to trust in His providence for food convenient in the way to it.—Those hearts are hard indeed, which will neither be melted by the mercies of God, nor broken by His judgments. Scott: Severe afflictions have been necessary to recover us from our backslidings, and though we were not mere hypocrites in returning to the Lord, yet we soon forget the salutary lesson, if our hearts have perhaps been sincere, they have not been steadfast with Him.—J. F. M.]. Footnotes: [The reference to Proverbs 29:6, is hardly justifiable as ιָ ?ψεο there also is to be taken from ψπο—J. F. M.] Psalms 79 A Psalm of Asaph1         O GOD, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled; They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. 2    The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. 3    Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; And there was none to bury them.4    We are become a reproach to our neighbours, A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 5    How long, Lord? wilt thou be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? 6    Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. 7    For they have devoured Jacob, And laid waste his dwelling-place. 8    O remember not against us former iniquities: Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us; For we are brought very low. 9    Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: And deliver us and purge away our sins, For thy name’s sake. 10    Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen in our sight By the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. 11    Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; According to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; 12    And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. 13    So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture Will give thee thanks forever: We will show forth thy praise to all generations. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalm begins by a complaint addressed to God, that Jerusalem has been destroyed amidst the profanation of the Temple, and the pouring out of the blood of His servants (Psalms 79:1-4). Upon this there follows, based upon the question as to how long God’s anger was to continue, a prayer that this wrath might be turned against the heathen (5–7). This prayer then takes the form of a supplication for God’s favor and aid (8, 9), that He would avenge upon the heathen the dishonor which they had inflicted upon His name and His servants (10–12), and passes over into a vow that the Church shall offer up to Him thanksgiving to the praise of His glory (13). The points of resemblance to Psalms 74, and to Jeremiah, are so numerous that they have always been the subject of remark. This Psalm is, however, usually (Delitzsch in his last edition also), connected with the devastations in the times of the Seleucidζ, regarded either as a prophecy (many of the old commentators) or as recording actual events (most of the moderns since Rudinger). But against this there is especially the circumstance that in the first book of Maccabees already translated from the Hebrew, the massacre described in chap. 7 Psalms 79:17, is regarded as a fulfilment of a passage of Scripture, and that Psalms 79:2-3 of our Psalm are cited as the passage in question. For the objections to the force of this circumstance, see Ehrt, Abfassungszeit und Abschluss des Psalters, 1869, pp. 13 ff. The desecration mentioned is not indeed to be directly taken as a process of destruction (Hengstenberg, Hupfeld) and yet Ezekiel 25:3 does not exclude the latter. But just as in Psalms 74:7 the emphasis is laid upon the profanation on account of the religious feelings of the Israelites. The circumstance, however, that Psalms 79:6-7 stand in manifest dependence upon Jeremiah 10:25 must be admitted not to be against a composition in the Chaldean period. [English commentators usually favor the earlier composition. Perowne is as undecided in this case as he is with regard to Psalms 74. Yet he says: “It has not, I believe, been noticed, and yet it appears to me almost certain that the prayer of Daniel (Psalms 9:16), contains allusions to the language of this Psalm.”—J. F. M.] The Jews read Psalms 79, 137 on the 9th of Abib, the day on which they call to remembrance the Chaldean and Roman destructions of Jerusalem. Psalms 79:1. Inheritance usually means the holy people,Psalms 74:2; Psalms 78:64; Psalms 78:71, but here as in Exodus 15:17 it means the Holy Land, including the City and Temple. The circumstance that the corpses were not buried, is not merely mentioned on account of their great numbers, but also on account of the disgrace connected with such an indignity, in accordance with Deuteronomy 28:26. This was still further heightened by the circumstance that it was the heathen who were pouring out the blood of God’s servants like water (Deuteronomy 15:23), as though it were worthless and unworthy of regard, and that they were blaspheming the name of God, whom they did not know, by deriding Him as impotent, since they had laid in ruins the city which was known as His dwelling-place (Micah 3:12; Jeremiah 26:18). Psalms 79:7 f. Instead of the scarcely tolerable singular ΰָ ?λַ ?μ between unmistakable plurals, 16 codices of Kennicott, and 9 of De Rossi, have the plural ΰָ ?‍ ?ֽ ?λְ ?μεּ, which is also found in Jeremiah 10:25. Is the singular a mutilation? Or are the enemy thus intentionally made prominent as a collective? However this may be, nothing decisive as to the priority of the passages can be inferred from this difference. This difference consists in these points: (1) in Jeremiah 10:25, the ςַ ?μ which alone agrees with the construction, is here replaced by ΰֶ ?μ. (2). The prayer for vengeance in Jeremiah is more clearly united to the context, and in a connection of thought which is found also in Jeremiah 30:11; Jeremiah 46:28. In Psalms 79:7 b it is not the sanctuary (Targ.) that is referred to, nor the place generally (Sept., Vulg.) nor the pasture specially (J. H. Michaelis and others), but the resting-places of the Shepherd with an allusion to the name “flock” of God applied to Israel in Psalms 79:13. In Psalms 79:8 mention is not made of former sins (the ancient translators, Luther, Geier), nor the sins of former days (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, as an alternative) but of the sins of the forefathers (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, J H. Michaelis, and the recent expositors), Jeremiah 11:10; Exodus 20:5; Leviticus 26:39. It is a genitive of possession. The masculine adjective termination could not agree with the feminine noun. Their own sins are not thereby denied, for in Psalms 79:9 they are, expressly mentioned. But the weakening mentioned in Psalms 79:8 c is not moral deterioration consequent upon guilt (Aben Ezra) but want of physical ability to rise from their defeat. The preventing mercy, Psalms 79:8 b, was implored for the help of those who confessed that their punishment was deserved. Psalms 79:10 ff. The first stich of Psa 79:10 is taken literally from Joe 2:17, after Exodus 32:12; Numbers 14:13 f.; Deuteronomy 9:28. The wish expressed in the following verse is based upon Deuteronomy 32:43; the seven-fold retribution upon Genesis 4:15; Genesis 4:24 as the “exhaustion of judicial punishment, seven being the number of the completed process” (Delitzsch). Instead of the expression, “children of death,” 1 Samuel 20:31; 1 Samuel 26:16, there are used here the words: children of slaughter (Hitzig); not: children of one who dies=the dying (Hengstenberg).—[E. V., Those who are appointed to die]. AND ETHICAL1. It is, as it were, “an inversion of the order of nature” (Calvin) when God’s inheritance falls into the power of the heathen, and when men who know not God, nor honor His name, tread under foot the sanctuary devoted to His worship and profane it, make the city of God a heap of stones (Sept. wrongly: “a lodge of the garden-watcher,” comp. Isaiah 1:8), and give over to dishonor and death its inhabitants, who have been called to life and to a participation in the Divine glory. 2. In such appalling calamities we are to recognize the avenging wrath of God, in which the sins of the fathers are punished together with the sins of the children. For the sins of the forefathers are visited (2 Kings 23:26; Lamentations 5:7) not upon their innocent descendants (Deuteronomy 24:16; 2 Kings 14:6) but upon those who are guilty like themselves (Exodus 20:5). The destruction which ever keeps increasing by united transgressions, breaks forth at last, and makes it manifest that only a heaping up of wrath for the day of judgment is to be expected by those who will not be led to repentance by God’s patience, long-suffering, and goodness. 3. Yet in this there is included also the possibility of a change of destiny. For God does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live. The infliction of His judgment upon His people has for its ultimate aim not their destruction, but their purification, that they may be saved. His punishments are to be a chastisement for them for righteousness. If they were regarded and received as such by the Church, then they would lead to confession of common and personal guilt and sinfulness; and likewise to a search after and apprehension of the mercy which comes forth to meet them. But those whose part is to aid in the execution of God’s judgment, and yet have neither known Him nor honored His name, nor spared His people, will be condemned to taste, in its unrestrained intensity and fulness, that wrath, whose blind instruments they had chosen to become (Jeremiah 10:24; Jeremiah 30:11; Jeremiah 46:28). [Hengstenberg: The people of God have, in every time of need, the joyful privilege of discerning in former deliverances the pledges of those yet to come, and thus possess a sure ground of confidence. The world, when it prays, prays only tentatively, and is dissevered entirely from the lessons of history.—J. F. M.] AND God does not desire the destruction, but the return and deliverance of His people, when He visits them with the punishment of His wrath.—No one need presume to feel secure on account of mercy before received: yet none need doubt its reality on account of his sin.—The punishment which attends sin, and the mercy that comes forth to meet the repenting.—If the judgment upon the house of God is already so awful, how will it be with the unconverted world?—It makes a great difference whether we desire to avenge ourselves and our sufferings, or whether we are concerned for God’s honor and the sanctifying of His name.—When our own sins and those of others conspire together, then there comes a deep and awful fall.—The sins of our forefathers may indeed increase our misfortunes, but they cannot lessen our own guilt.—It is true that God is the Shepherd of His people, but it is for this very reason that He needs not only the staff of comfort, but that of pain.—God will not be contemned, either by friend or foe. Starke: The primary source of all wars is God’s anger.—The heavier the thunder and the greater the storm, the sooner are they over.—The pious deplore the sins of their fathers, as well as of their cotemporaries.—It is no good sign when God allows the number of the pious and upright to decrease. Over such a place His judgments are surely impending.—It would be a foolish thing to expect mercy and help from God and yet not to become converted; but it would be presumptuous to make boast of a conversion by one’s own strength, without the preventing mercy of God. Arndt: The corruption and adulteration of the true service of God is the great calamity of the country, and the beginning of all misfortune.—Frisch: Supplication against the cruel persecutors of God’s Church: (1) Lamentation over the woes inflicted by the cruelty of her enemies: (2) earnest prayer to God for mercy and the turning away of the punishment, that He may hear, and help, and take vengeance upon those enemies; (3) promise of the gratitude that is due.—Renschel: The Church of God, though it has been already sorely troubled, yet remains His people, His servant, His flock, and his inheritance.—Rieger: The distressing circumstances of our Church proclaim to ourselves, that nothing but judgment is before us, and that in no other way can room be made for what is good. Let us therefore continue ever to know God’s name, and to exercise the joyful privilege of keeping it before Him.—Vaihinger: Sins are a dam which obstruct the flow of God’s river of mercy, and only when that is cleared away can His help and blessing be made to appear.—Guenther: The prayers of the righteous can turn away God’s anger from them like a stream of water, and cause it to pour forth upon the ungodly. But understand it well; it is the prayers of the humble and peaceable, not the imprecations of the revengeful and presumptuous.—Diedrich: Let this be our consolation, that after our enemies have done with us they have still to do with God.—Taube: The cry for help is natural for us in distress, but not the shriek for mercy; this is the reason why so many acts of God in behalf of the sinner are received without a blessing.—The Lord, who is the God of our salvation, has given, in the honor of His name, the strongest weapon into the very hands of His people. Footnotes: [Both of these explanations of ϊְּ ?ξεּ ?ϊָ ?δ appear to me to be wrong, and the common rendering “death” to be correct. The former meaning is entirely without a parallel in similar cases in the formation of nouns. That given by Hengst. supposes that the word is formed from the 3d sing. fem. pl. This arbitrary method of assuming a distinct principle of formation for each special case is not to be recommended. It may be taken as a rule that words of this form are abstracts, and this will, I believe, be found to be true of all the cases when their primary significations are considered. Alexander here compares ξεּ ?ϊ and ϊּ ?ξεּ ?ϊָ ?δ to mors and mortalitas, agreeing with E. V. see Green, Heb. Gr., § 192, 2, Ewald, Heb. Gr., § 161 a.—J. F. M.] Psalms 80 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim-Eduth, A Psalm of Asaph2         Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. 3    Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh Stir up thy strength, And come and save us. 4    Turn us again, O God, And cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. 5    O Lord God of hosts, How long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? 6    Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; And givest them tears to drink in great measure. 7    Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: And our enemies laugh among themselves. 8    Turn us again, O God of hosts, And cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. 9    Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. 10    Thou preparedst room before it, And didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. 11    The hills were covered with the shadow of it, And the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. 12    She sent out her boughs unto the sea, And her branches unto the river. 13    Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? 14    The boar out of the wood doth waste it, And the wild beast of the field doth devour it. 15    Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; 16    And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, And the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. 17    It is burned with fire, it is cut down: They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 18    Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand. Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. 19    So will we not go back from thee: Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. 20    Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, Cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. AND Contents and Composition.—On the superscription compare Introd. § 12, No. 13. The fundamental thought of the Psalm, the prayer for the restoration of the former relations to God, and for the help to be obtained thereby, is expressed in a refrain, which Psalms 80:4, 8, 15, 20 repeat, in such a manner that the prayer advances by successive additions to the names applied to God, and in Psalms 80:15 presents a change of expression corresponding to the thought. The first time that this refrain appears, it is introduced in an invocation of God as the Helper; the second time, by a lamentation over the deplorable situation of the people caused by God’s anger; the third time by two strophes, the first of which represents the former prosperity of the people under the image of a vine planted and tended by God, while the second describes the present desolation by relentless foes; when it occurs for the fourth and last time, it is accompanied by a prayer for the destruction of the enemy, and for the protection of God’s chosen. Beyond all dispute the historical occasion of the origin of this Psalm was a season of oppression by foreign nations (Rosen-mόller, De Wette). It remains to be determined whether the text furnishes grounds-for assuming it to be the Syrian (Olshausen, Hitzig) or the Chaldean (Geier and others), or the Assyrian (Calvin, Hengstenberg, and others) oppression, or whether it justifies us in going still further back to the period of the distresses occasioned by the Philistines (J. D. Michaelis). The Alex. version has in its superscription to this Psalm, which is in other parts somewhat absurd, an addition which alludes to the Philistines. With this best agrees the circumstance that here, after God is invoked as the Shepherd of Israel (compare the blessing of Joseph by Jacob, Genesis 48:15; Genesis 49:24) tribes are mentioned which are plainly northern, even if the kingdom of the ten tribes is not directly indicated. Benjamin, it is true, is in 1 Kings 12:21 reckoned with the kingdom of Judah. The capital city Jerusalem, also, was within the limits of this tribe (Joshua 15:18), and the land of Benjamin is (Jeremiah 32:44; Jeremiah 33:13) distinctly mentioned as a part of Judah. But several Benjamite cities (Bethel, Gilgal, Jericho) belonged to the northern kingdom, even if their possession was not undisputed, as was the case with Ramah, 1 Kings 15:21; 2 Chronicles 13:19. Benjamin is probably named here, therefore, for another reason than the fact that he and Joseph were children of the same mother. In that case how should he have been named between Ephraim and Manasseh? The boundaries of the kingdom were, as is well known, unsettled, (comp. Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israels, 3d edition, p. 439 ff. Hitzig, Geschichte, 1869, I, 168 ff.) It must not, however, be overlooked that sometimes Joseph, together with Israel, (Psalms 81:5-6) or Jacob (Psalms 77:16), denotes the whole nation, as in Obadiah 1:18, the house of Joseph, along with the house of Jacob, is contrasted with the house of Esau (Psalms 80:10). More than this, in Amos 7:9; Amos 7:15, Isaac appears in place of the designations Jacob and Israel which are usual elsewhere. We may even perhaps assume that a preference for famous names of old influenced the choice of names (Ewald). It is scarcely a mere geographical mode of designating the northern, southern, and eastern country that is intended (Olshausen); and certainly not a mere random poetical selection of names (De Wette). The expression “restore us,” repeated in the refrain, could, if viewed by itself, certainly allude to the Babylonish exile. But it does not force us to such an hypothesis. It may also mean a restoration to a state of favor with God, and the change in Psalms 80:15 leads to this conclusion. Moreover the expressions employed in Psalms 80:7; Psalms 80:13 f. allude to oppressions during the residence in the Promised Land. [The review given above of the various opinions held as to the time when this Psalm was composed, will afford an idea of the difficulties which surround the subject. I would offer another attempt at approximation. It cannot have been composed so late as the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which is the period defended by Hengstenberg. The burden lying so heavily upon the Psalmist is evidently not the sufferings of any one portion of God’s people, but the desolation of the whole. All Israel (or Joseph,Psalms 77:16; Psalms 78:9) was conducted safely from Egypt, and planted like a goodly vine in Canaan, when it took root and filled the land. The nation then formed one flourishing vine. What was the cause of the sad change? The disunion of the tribes. The Psalmist evidently has the whole number of the tribes in their individual integrity before him. He prays that God may shine upon them all with His favor as He was wont to do of old, and mentions some of them by name. In this he seems to have chosen from the kingdom of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, which contained Zion and the Temple, and which suffered more than did the tribe of Judah from the incursions of Syrian or Assyrian invaders, whom the discord among the tribes brought upon the land. For the last named reason also he mentioned Ephraim and Manasseh, taking also into consideration the favorite name Joseph, and the prophecies relating to them made in Egypt. It is natural to suppose also that greater prominence was given to the northern kingdom on account of its waywardness and rejection of God, and he prays that they too may behold His face shining from the Cherubim, and have His favor in their hearts. The contiguity of these three tribes to one another may also suggest another reason for the selection. The order in which they are named is strange at first sight. Perowne thinks that it was adopted because it was the order of march through the wilderness. This is too remote from the line of thought and imagination followed in the Psalm. I would venture to suggest a reason which seems to me more probable. The Psalmist having before him the tribes to be mentioned and yearning for their union as part of God’s own people, places Benjamin between the others, embraced, as it were, by these northern tribes, thus expressing his desire that such a union should be realized. Then, that most touching refrain, with its emotion intensified by each repetition, would also express a desire for re-union. “Restore us again to what we were once, when Thy face shone upon us; only so can we be saved.” This view of the origin of the Psalm gives to the latter a fulness and beauty of meaning of which it is otherwise shorn. If it is correct, we must assume that the composition took place between the reigns of Rehoboam and Hezekiah, and at some period when foreign foes, taking advantage of the distracted and unsettled state of the whole country, inflicted upon it those blows whose sad effects are presented in the poem. The reign of Ahaz before the captivity of the ten tribes furnishes a period when both Israel and Judah were harassed by both the Syrians and Assyrians whose devastations forcibly suggest to us the figurative language employed in the Psalm.—J. F. M.] Psalms 80:2-6. Appear, strictly: shine forth.—The expression refers to a Theophany (Psalms 1, 2). On the Cherubim see on Ps. 13:11. Psalms 80:5. Until when [E. V., how long], with the prζterite, must be explained either by an aposiopesis (Olsh.) or as being a combination of the question: how long wilt thou, etc.? with the complaint: how long hast thou, etc.? (Geier, Hupfeld). During the praying, that is: without heeding the prayer (Sept. and most) others: against the prayer; the incense of prayer (Psalms 141:2; Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3) being overpowered by the smoke of wrath, instead of overpowering it, Numbers 16:13 (Calvin, Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Stier, Hengstenberg). But it is more correct to conceive the prayers as not being able to pierce through the smoking clouds of wrath with which God had enshrouded Himself. Psalms 80:6. Bread of tears means the bread which consists of tears, (Psalms 42:4); not bread wet with tears. In accordance with this, the second member of the verse does not say that God gives to them the usual measure for drinking (literally: the third; the third part of a larger measure, Isaiah 40:12) filled with tears for them to drink (Lud. de Dieu, De Wette, Von Ortenberg), but that tears constitute their drink as well as their food. We must therefore render either: a measure full of tears (Hitzig), or: with tears by the measure; that, is, not in a threefold measure (Jerome, Rosenmόller) but: in great measure (Sept., Hengst., and others) since this one-third measure, however small it might be thought for other purposes, is a large one for tears. The accusative is therefore that of closer definition, (Gesenius, Olshausen, Hupfeld, Delitzsch). Psalms 80:7. A strife does not mean: object of contention, (most), or the object for which the neighboring nations contend with one another; but: the object against which they direct their upbraidings, taunts, and warlike efforts (Muntinghe, Hupfeld, Delitzsch). [It would better accord with the tone of the whole Psalm to understand this verse in the former sense. The country had been brought so low by fratricidal war and strife that the tribes around it were quarreling for its possession. The picture is thus made much more affecting. Besides, this is more in accordance with the primary meaning of ξָ ?γεֹ ?ο. It also agrees better with the second member of the verse. If the people were an object of rage and enmity of the heathen, the latter would hardly make merry over them, as in the other case they might do.—J. F. M.] These neighbors are the smaller tribes in their immediate vicinity (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Hengstenberg, Hupfeld), rather than the great kingdom of the world (De Wette, Olshausen, Hitzig). The last word of Psa 80:7, μָ ?ξεֹ, is not to be changed into μָ ?πεּ after Psalms 22:8; Nehemiah 2:19 (Baur), or with a like purpose to be explained as=over us. (The ancient translators, Clericus, Venema, and others); but is the so-called dat. commodi=for sport to themselves. [Psalms 80:10. Instead of “didst cause it to take deep root,” should be, “and it struck its roots deep.” In Psalms 80:11 a literal rendering of the last words would be: “cedars of God.” Alexander: ‘Some interpreters suppose the southern range of mountains west of Jordan, sometimes called Mount Judah or the Highlands of Judah, to be here specifically meant and contrasted with the Cedars of Lebanon, the northern frontier of the Land of Promise, just as Lebanon and Kadesh are contrasted in Psalms 29:5-8. That Lebanon, though not expressly mentioned, is referred to, appears probable from the analogy of Psa 29:5; Psalms 92:13; Psalms 104:16. The literal fact conveyed by all these figures is the one prophetically stated in Genesis 28:14; Deuteronomy 11:24; Joshua 1:4.” Delitzsch: “The ‘cedars of God’ are the cedars of Lebanon, as monuments of the creative power of God.”—J. F. M.] The wild boar (Psalms 80:14, comp. Jeremiah 5:6), is regarded by many as an emblem of the Assyrian king, like the fly (Isaiah 7:18), or as the Nile-horse, sea-serpent, and crocodile are those of Egypt (Psalms 68:31; Isaiah 30:6; Ezekiel 29:3), and the eagle that of Nebuchadnezzar (Ezekiel 17) This, however, is not certain. The Rabbins refer the expression to Seir-Edom, and the wild beast (or: stirring thing) of the field, to the Arabs dwelling in tents, according to Genesis 16:12. The suspendedς in the word ξִ ?ιַּ ?ςַ ?ψ (out of the forest), is so explained by some Rabbins as to show another reading, namely ξιΰψ=out of the river, comp. Judges 18:30; but it belongs to the category of large and small letters, and according to tract. Kidduschin 30 a, is intended to mark the middle letter of the Psalter (Geier, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel, 1857, p. 259) as in Leviticus 11:42, a ε marks the middle letter of the Pentateuch. But the Ayin suspensum may be merely the result of a later correction (Delitzsch), since a Ph�nician inscription has ιψ = forest-wood (Levy, Phφniz. Wφrterbuch, p. 22. Schrφder, Die phφniz. Sprache, 1869, pp. 19, 98) and the λּ written large in Psalms 80:16 appears to be the consequence of a necessary erasure. On the different mystical meanings attached to this suspended letter by the Jews, see Buxtorf, Tiberias, c. 16, p. 172. Psalms 80:16 ff. Protect what thy right has planted.—[E. V., The vineyard which thy right hand hath planted]. The Hebrew word λַּ ?πָּ ?δ might be a noun (many old expositors, also Rosenmόller, Stier, Ewald, Hitzig) = its slip, twig, or better: its stem (Bφttcher) depending upon the verb of the preceding verse. But if it be taken as an imperative (Sept., Luther, and others), then it is to be taken from a verb λπο, cognate with βּ ?πζ = to cover, protect (Hupf., Delitzsch). This is better than to take it from αεο = to set upright, to uphold (Hengst.) since verbs of caring can be construed both with the accusative and with ςַ ?μ (here with both).—The son [E. V., branch], Psalms 80:16 b, is probably not the vegetable branch, as in Genesis 49:22 (Kimchi, Ewald, and others), but as in Psalms 80:18 the people of Israel, in the same sense as Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1. The transition from the figurative to the literal mode of designation is however, first prepared in this verse. In Psalms 80:17, they are intermingled as is often the case in strongly emotional passages; for the term, participles refer back to βτο while in the second member of the verse, the Israelites, who in their totality constitute the vine, are mentioned in the plural, and that in an expression which describes their condition more literally than figuratively. Then in Psalms 80:18 the foregoing circle of images is dropped. The people are first termed ΰִ ?ιωׁ ?Ξιְ ?ξִ ?ιπֶ ?κָ in allusion to the name Benjamin, and then αֶּ ?κΞΰָ ?γָ ?ν as members of the helpless human race. The former designation may bear reference to God’s having with His right hand gained them for Himself, (Kimchi, Luther, Rosenmόller,) or planted and reared them (Calvin, Stier, De Wette, Hupfeld and others). But possibly it alludes to Israel’s standing at God’s right hand (Aben Ezra, Geier, J. H. Mich., Hengst., Del., Hitzig) as his favorite (Genesis 44:20; Deuteronomy 33:8; Deuteronomy 33:12). [Alexander: “The man of thy right hand may either be, the man whom thy power has raised up or the man who occupies the post of honor at thy right hand. That the words were intended to suggest both ideas, is a supposition perfectly agreeable to Hebrew usage. A more doubtful question is that in reference to the first words of the sentence, let thy hand be upon him, whether this means in favor or in wrath. The only way in which both senses can be reconciled is by applying the words to the Messiah as the ground of the faith and hope expressed. Let thy hand fall not on us, but on our substitute. Compare the remarkably similar expressions in Acts 5:31.”—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. Even in the midst of the direst calamities we can trust ourselves to God’s guidance, and commit ourselves to him with full confidence as soon and as long as we are persuaded of His watchful love and faithfulness as our Shepherd, and of His supreme power exalted above all earthly and heavenly might. But it is above all important for the suffering and oppressed that God should manifest such a guidance by changing their condition which is so bitter and distressing. And he who belongs to God’s Church knows right well how much such a change is hindered by the sins of men, and how little the sinner is entitled to it. Accordingly the most urgent and important need is that of the shedding forth of God’s favor. Only by this can the true relation to Him be restored. And that may be gained by prayer. 2. The contemplation of the Divine nature helps us greatly in our strivings after greater delight and increased support in prayer. The abundant manifestations of that glory with the many comforting aspects of each can never be sufficiently kept before the soul. In this exercise there can be no tedious verbosity, no useless superfluity of words, no heathenish or childish babbling. “It is all-important in prayer, that God appear before the soul in the full glory of His nature. Only by pouring out into the bosom of such a God as this our complaints and entreaties, can requital be found.” (Hengstenberg). 3. Not less important and consoling is the reflection, that God is not disposed to destroy or abandon the work, begun out of mercy, in and with His Church, but remains ready to complete it, in so far as her welfare depends upon the manifestation of His favor, and according as she places herself penitently and believingly under the protection and care of God, whom she cannot cease to praise as her Founder and Preserver, but to whom she has ever cause to render thanks for what He has planted, reared, and blessed in her. Thus feeling and acting, she can, even in the troubled present, draw lively hope of future aid and fresh deliverances from the recollection of former experiences of blessing and seasons of mercy. AND If thou wouldst have God for thy Shepherd, keep close to His flock.—To crave God’s assistance and to strive against His will, are acts which do not agree.—He upon whom God’s face is to shine must turn himself towards it.—So long as men are without a reconciled God, the whole world cannot give them the least help.—Tears are not the worst food; let them only not be food for ever.—God has not only planted His vine; He protects it too, and makes it grow. Starke: We can indeed thrust ourselves into misfortune, but it is not in our power to bring ourselves out. How good it is for us to have a God, who can and will bring us back to prayers of penitence!—It is ingratitude that we should have God near to us, as He is indeed near at all times and in all places, and that we do not implore His help.—If God appears to be angry with the prayer of His people, because He does not give heed to it at once, must He not be angry indeed with a prayer, which is offered without repentance or faith?—The violence of our enemies harasses us, but God strengthens us; affliction makes it dark for us but God’s mercy makes it bright; men destroy us, but through God’s goodness we are revived and preserved from despair.—From a vine, that we have planted, we expect not only leaves, but grapes; so it is not enough that Christians have the leaves of good works to show; God seeks also good fruits. O that He might find them in all!—So long as God keeps over a place His protecting hand all goes well: but, if for the sins of the inhabitants He draws it away only a little, then everything tends to ruin.—We live that we may worship God, and He who does not call upon His name is not worthy to live—If God did not perform the chief part in nurturing and perpetuating the vine, all the care of the husbandman would be in vain.—Arndt: The Shepherd of Israel—how we are to trust ourselves to His protection and presence, and worship Him in His holiness.—Frisch: Where the spiritual vineyard is preserved in bloom and luxuriance, there the temporal vineyard will flourish too.—Rieger: We are to mark with special care the names which are given to God in His word and by which we are to call upon Him in all our troubles.—Guenther: The Church of God has many more times of distress, than years of glory upon earth.—Diedrich: The ungodly do not ask for the help of God, but the righteous cannot live without it, and keep asking day and night: how long? how long?—Taube: Light, love, life, these are essential attributes of the Divine nature which mutually repose upon one another. When He comes forth clothed with them, and manifests Himself, it becomes bright, we feel His love, we live. But when He retires within Himself, it is night, we feel His wrath, we die.—Appuhn (At the Reformation festival): We observe today (1) a thanksgiving, for we call to mind the establishment, the prosperity and extension of our German Evangelical Lutheran Church, (2) a day of humiliation, for we have to recall forsaken confession, mournful divisions and lamentable insubordination; (3) a day of prayer, for we take our stand upon God’s honor, power, and mercy. [Matt. Henry: (1) No salvation but from God’s favor, (2) no obtaining favor with God unless we are converted to Him, (3) no conversion to God but by His own grace.—We cannot call upon God’s name in a right manner, unless He quicken us; but it is He who puts life into our souls, who puts liveliness into our prayers. Scott: The vine cannot be ruined nor any fruitful branch perish: but the unfruitful will be cut off and cast into the fire. Bishop Horne: The end of our redemption is that we should serve Him who hath redeemed us and “go back” no more to our old sins. That soul which has been quickened and made alive by Christ, should live to His honor and glory; that mouth which hath been opened by Him, can do no less than show forth His praise, and “call upon” His saving “name.”—J. F. M.]. Footnotes: [This method, generally adopted in all the cases where this phrase occurs, is grammatically incorrect. To give to the words the sense of an interjection would require that ςַ ?γ should be treated as an adverb of quantity, which of course it cannot be. It is better to give the prζterite the force of past time continuing through the present, whose termination is not seen.—J. F. M.] Psalms 81 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph2    Sing aloud unto God our strength: Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. 3    Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, The pleasant harp with the psaltery. 4    Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. 5    For this was a statute for Israel, And a law of the God of Jacob. 6    This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, When he went out through the land of Egypt: Where I heard a language that I understood not. 7    I removed his shoulder from the burden: His hands were delivered from the pots. 8    Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. 9    Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; 10    There shall no strange god be in thee; Neither shalt thou worship any strange god. 11    I am the Lord thy God, Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. 12    But my people would not hearken to my voice; And Israel would none of me. 13    So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: And they walked in their own counsels. 14    Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, And Israel had walked in my ways! 15    I should soon have subdued their enemies, And turned my hand against their adversaries. 16    The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: But their time should have endured for ever. 17    He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. AND Contents and Composition. On the superscription see Introd. § 12, No. 7. The Psalm falls into two divisions of such distinct characters, that Olshausen has been led to assume the existence of two poems originally distinct, the second of which, moreover, has been mutilated at the beginning and end. But the first section, Psalms 81:2-6, forms the introduction to the second, Psalms 81:7-16, which in the form of a declaration from God Himself, contains an exhortation addressed to the Church bidding them celebrate a certain festival in a manner pleasing to Him. For after a demand for joyful celebration, with music of all kinds, which in Psalms 81:2 is directed to the whole people (Ezra 3:11,) there follows in Psalms 81:3, one addressed to the Levites (2 Chronicles 5:12); and lastly, in Psalms 81:4, one to the Priests (Numbers 10:10; 2 Chronicles 7:6), while in Psalms 81:5-6 this summons is supported by an allusion to the Divine institution of the festival. Then begins the exhortation placed in the mouth of Jehovah Himself, attention being called to the blessings which the festival was designed to commemorate (Psalms 81:7-8). Upon this is based a demand for His exclusive worship in Israel (Psalms 81:9-11). A complaint of former disobedience is then introduced, (Psalms 81:11; Psalms 81:13), which is followed by a desire for present and future obedience, enforced and impressed upon the minds of the people by the promise of abundant blessing (vers 14–17). The reference to the historical circumstances attending the establishment of the festival is favorable to the supposition that the Passover is intended, as the one which begins with the full moon of the month Nisan (Venema, De Wette, Hengst., Delitzsch, Hitzig). For Psalms 81:6 does not speak of the Exodus from Egypt (The ancient translators, Aben Ezra, Luther, Geier, Kφster) or of the march of Joseph=Israel through the land of Egypt, that is, through the midst of the country before the eyes of the Egyptians while they were unable to prevent them, (Calvin, Rudinger, Hengstenberg), but of the passing of God against or over the land in connection with the slaying of the first-born (Kimchi and most of the recent commentators). Without this historical reference, we would be inclined to think of the feast of Tabernacles (Hupfeld and most of the ancients after the Targum and Talmudical tradition) for this was celebrated during the full moon of the month Tischri, whose new moon began the civil year of the Jews, the day of the sounding of trumpets, (Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1), to which Psalms 81:4 a seems expressly to allude But it is to be remarked, against this supposition, that all the new-moons were distinguished as sacred days not only by sacrifices (Numbers 28:1 f) but also by trumpet blowing (Numbers 10:10). Hence there are no better means of deciding afforded by the latter, than by the expression: “day of our feast.” For, though the feast of Tabernacles is frequently named simply “the feast” (δֶ ?ηָ ?π) yet this expression denotes also the Passover (Exodus 12:14; Numbers 28:17, comp. Isaiah 30:29, and Hitzig on Ezekiel 45:21), and the assertion of Hupfeld (De primitiva et vera festorum apud Hebr. ratione1851), that the solemn character of the Passover-festival excluded the manifestations of joyfulness, and that what is said on the subject in 2 Chronicles 30:20 f. is to be rejected as unhistorical, has not been allowed to pass uncontradicted (comp. Delitzsch on the passover-rites during the period of the Second Temple in the Zeitschrift fόr luhh. Kerche und Theologie 1855). The original significance of the festival spoken of, lying, as it does here, beyond the field of the historical retrospect, does not come into view as bearing upon the observance of the feast, or the reference of the Psalms to the latter generally. There is therefore no importance to be attached to the remark of Delitzsch that the feast of tabernacles appears in the earliest giving of the law (Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22), as the feast of the ingathering of the harvest, and that it did not receive its historical connection with the journeying through the wilderness until the addition was made referring to the celebration of the festival in Canaan (Leviticus 23:39-44). But the fact that the great day of Atonement fell upon the tenth of Tischri is certainly of importance. For if the Psalmist were speaking of the feasts of that month it would surely be surprising that no allusion was made in the Text to this day, which fell directly between the new and the full moon. It is also in favor of Nisan, that the rejoicing, which begins on its new-moon as the first day of the sacred new year, could be united without any interruption to that of the full moon and its festival. This connection between the two would be distinctly expressed, if the words “at the full moon” could be placed at the end of the verse (Hupfeld). But such a transposition would be too violent. The juxtaposition, however, of the new and the full moon does not compel us either to assume, that this Psalm was intended to be sung at both feasts (Muntinghe, Rosenmόller), or to explain the words which denote the new moon, as referring to the month generally, (Venema, Hengstenberg). It is only the blowing at the new and the full moon that is spoken of, and the former could, without prejudice to its special meaning, be mentioned here also as the formal proclamation (Maurer) of the great festal day which fell in the same month. For the usual rendering: “in the day of our feast,” is wrong. Because μְ is used and not αְּ it must mean: against, or, for (Genesis 7:14; Job 21:30). Nor are we instead of, “in the full moon” (after the analogy of the Syriac since De Dieu) to translate indefinitely “at the appointed time” (Sept. Vulg., Aben Ezra and others), or even “in the new moon as in the day of the moon’s being covered” (according to the Talmudical explanation). [The explanation of ηγωׁ in Psalms 81:4 given by Hengstenberg and referred to above, namely, that it means the month, and that consequently “the month is first named, and then the particular part of it” seems to me to be more natural than Dr. Moll’s supposition. The verse seems to have been an imitation of the formula, employed in Leviticus 23:5, and frequently in the designation of any particular feast day. This view is also adopted and defended by Alexander. An additional reason may be given for this sense of the word. The historical allusions plainly require that the Passover be understood as the feast in question. All the various opinions and needless discussions thereon have arisen from the assumption that the word must mean “new moon,” which naturally suggests, as shown above, the feast of Tabernacles.—J. F. M.] On the instruments comp. Introd., § 11. The time of the composition can only be inferred approximately from the fact that essential points of agreement with Psalms 77, 78 lead us to refer them all to one and the same author. The desultory character of the poem, and the circumstance that God addresses the Church in the declaration concerning the feast, are both conditions which suit the prophet-singer Asaph. According to Talmudical tradition this Psalm was also the Jewish new-year Psalm, and in the weekly liturgy of the Temple was to be sung on Thursday as Psalms 82 on Tuesday. [The following is Dr. Alexander’s rendering of Psa 81:4, on which compare the remarks above: “Blow, in the month, the trumpet at the full moon, on the day of our feast.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 81:6. I heard a language that I understood not.—In this Psalm as in many lyrico-prophetical utterances of the Old Testament God and the poet are alternately the speakers. It would be altogether unnatural to introduce between them, without any notice whatever, the people, first designated Joseph, as here speaking also, and to make them say that they had heard a language spoken in Egypt, which they did not understand. (The form ιδְ ?εֹ ?ρֵ ?σ is used poetically after the analogy of compound names beginning with ιְ ?δεֹ). It is true indeed that in other places (Deuteronomy 28:49; Isaiah 33:19; Jeremiah 5:15; Psalms 114:1) great importance is attached to this in order to set forth the blessings of deliverance from the oppression of a strange-speaking people and of the possession of a home freed from foreign occupation. It is also allowable to give a turn to the sentence, by connecting it with the foregoing infinitive (Ewald), which is unassailable on grammatical grounds, instead of supplying, incorrectly, the adverb of place: “where” (Hengstenberg and most of the ancients) which owes its origin to the false reference of the “going forth” to the people of Israel. But even if the people could be considered as the subject, the language heard and unknown, that is, strange to them, when God went forth against the land of Egypt, could not have been the Egyptian language, which they had listened to for 430 years. With this connection of the clauses it would be much more correct to understand the language of God (Lud. de Dieu, Kφster) in the judgment inflicted upon Egypt heard by the Israelites and not understood by them. But if we assume that it is God’s speaking that is mentioned, and consider the Psalmist as the one who hears, it is then most natural to take the sentence as independent, and to understand it of the language of revelation. But the Psalmist does not say that he is now hearing the unknown voice uttering what follows (De Wette). God does, it is true, utter what follows, and His words are the contents of what is heard. But this utterance is neither cited as being His, nor introduced as a revelation made suddenly (Dφderderlein, Muntinghe, Olshausen). It is rather presented in such a manner that the prominence is not given to what is sudden, unexpected, or overpowering in the communication, on account of which the recipient of it is unable to tell how it is made, but to the character of the language of revelation, as not coming within the range of human acquirement as other kinds of speech do. For ωׂ ?τϊ denotes neither a special declaration nor the voice by which it is pronounced, but primarily the lips, then (as also the tongue), dialect, idiom, language in its special signification (Bφttcher, Proben, p. 50); and ιγς expresses knowing by investigation, proof, or study. By this explanation: “language of such a kind, as, etc.,” we avoid the difficulty which results from supplying a genitive of the person, which is certainly admissible linguistically. For, in the present connection, the language or kind of speech of one not known by the Psalmist (or by the Israelitish Church) would only suggest again to us a spiritvoice, or that speaking, or the sound of a lip was heard, while the form could not be distinctly seen, nor the face be recognized (Job 4:12). For there is no ground given in the context for maintaining, by referring to Exodus 6:2, that God Himself is meant, who in His name and nature is both known and unknown (Delitzsch). The context rather refers to the “testimony” given by God, which is authentically explained by Him in the sequel (Hupfeld). [Perowne: “The interpretation which regards the language here spoken of as the voice of God, and as virtually given in the following verses, is now that most commonly adopted.” To express this we must omit the italicized where of the English Version, and make the words form an independent sentence.—J. F. M.] Psalms 81:7-8. Carrying-basket [E.V.: pots]. Similar baskets are not only found represented on Egyptian monuments, but there are also inscriptions which mention the Aperin (ςαψιν) who dragged stones to the great watch-tower (Papyrus Leydensis, I. 346) or to the treasure-house (id. I. 349, following Lauth) of the city of Rameses. But the translation: pot, is also allowable (many following Isaaki and Kimchi) with reference to the work of the Israelites in clay, (Exodus 1:14).—The veil of the thunder [E. V., secret place of thunder] is not the clouds generally, which in several theophanies (Psalms 18:12; Habakkuk 3:4) are mentioned as veiling the majesty of God, and at the same time manifesting it; but the cloudy and fiery pillar (Exodus 13:21), from out of which God wrought His wonders against the Egyptians in the passage of the Red Sea, Exodus 14:19 f. (most, following Kimchi). For along with the first great miracle of the journey the second is mentioned, the water smitten from the rock (Ex. 17:17). By employing the local designation “water of Meribah”=water of strife, as well as by the words. “I proved thee,” the way is prepared for the reproach which follows (Hengst.), and the unbelief and ingratitude of the Israelites at that time pointed out (Luther). Psalms 81:11-12. Open wide thy mouth.—It is against the context to refer this expression to hunger for God’s word, and to the desire to appropriate God’s laws as the bread of life and the food of the soul, Psalms 119:131; Jeremiah 15:16; Ezekiel 2:8 (Targum., Schnurrer). For the words serve as a poetical momentum to raise into prominence the idea of God’s readiness to satisfy all needs (Hupfeld), but have their real ground in this truth, that the feeling of need and desire for its satisfaction must be accomplished by a confession of our own inability to accomplish this end. [Psalms 81:12. Perowne; “So I gave them up. The word is used of the letting go of captors, slaves, etc., of giving over to sin, Job 8:4. This is the greatest and most fearful of all God’s punishments. Comp. Psalms 78:29.—Stubbornness. The word occurs once in the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy 19:18. and several times in Jeremiah. The English Version renders it here lusts, and in all the other passages, imagination, but wrongly.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 81:16 f. Their time is not the evil time of the haters of God (Theodoret, Isaaki, Aben Ezra) but the lifetime of the Israelites (Kimchi) and that as a people (Hitzig), Psalms 89:30; Psalms 89:37. The last verse has an unmistakable allusion to Deuteronomy 32:13. In that passage there follows besides: “oil out of the flinty rock.” Honey out of the rock is probably not wild honey, as an emblem of good things obtained without labor, or as describing the fertility of the country. But the later. which is frequently mentioned as a type of the Divine blessing, is distinguished as something extraordinary and preternatural by this hyperbolical expression. A change of φεּ ?ψ into φεּ ?σ after Proverbs 16:21 (Olshausen) is consequently unnecessary. But the slight change in the pointing by which the vav conversive becomes vav copulative (Olshausen) is quite natural. In this case the promise is continued, and this continuation was not merely to be expected, but the transition to the third person (occasioned by the naming of Jehovah in the preceding verse) and the immediate return to the first person become hereby intelligible and agreeable. The present pointing, on the contrary, which arose, perhaps, from considerations of euphony, (Hupfeld) requires us in strictness to separate the last clause from the preceding, and to regard it as an account of an actual event (Sept., Syriac, Ewald, Hitzig, Delitzsch). But it has an altogether different position and significance from those of the historical pictures, with which Psalms 77, 78. abruptly conclude, and is followed by no further utterances from God. We can hardly assume that the narrative portion has been transferred from the end of Psa 81:8 to the end of the Psalm, and there is the less reason for this assumption, as in that case there would be no occasion for the change of the personal pronouns. [Alexander: “The English Version refers these four verses all to past time, had hearkened, had walked, should have subdued, should have submitted, etc. This is in fact the true construction of Isa 48:18; but there the conditional or optative particle is construed with the preterite, and not with the future tense, as here, which makes an essential difference of syntax. See Nordheimer’s Heb. Gr., § 1078”.—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. The Church has at all times to give to God the Lord the honor and acknowledgment which are His due; but especially must it manifest to the whole world its sense of this obligation by its observance of the sacred seasons appointed specially for this end, and, by maintaining these sacred ordinances, contribute to their preservation in the world, and show themselves to be, and build themselves up as, a Church of God. This is most effectually done, partly by solemn prayers, psalms, and hymns, to the praise of the Lord, partly by proclaiming His mighty deeds, and especially those which have served to found and maintain His Church in the world, and by a practical meditation upon them; partly by appropriating in God’s worship the blessings, means of grace, and salvation, offered and supplied to the members of the Church through God’s special ordinances. 2. The obligation of the Church to honor and serve God is based upon His right to the Church which He has redeemed and purchased from bondage as His own inheritance. Thus all the sacred days of the Church of God have an actual and historical foundation, which on one side stands related to the revelation of God, and on the other to the salvation of its members. The feasts of the Old Testament receive in this way a typical significance, and their celebration, a moral character essentially distinct from heathen worship, and divested of the sensuousness which marks the rites of many forms of religion. 3. Faithfulness to the only true God is manifested, on the one hand, by obedience to His commands and ordinances, and on the other, by trusting to His promises and gifts. In both aspects we have examples of warning and encouragement in the history of our forefathers. But it is of paramount importance that we do not study these examples merely as the subjects of a narrative, but that we make them subservient to practical wisdom in life. For, according to men’s desires, and according to their conduct, will there be measured out and allotted to them, what will cast them to the ground, or preserve them in life; and God deals out with no sparing hand, nor does the covenant relation protect the unfaithful, ungrateful, and disobedient. He who will not hear must feel. But if the sinner is converted from the error of his way, God gives him to taste renewed mercy, and to experience the transcendent power of His salvation. And He attracts and invites him in His compassion to this course by holding out to him His promises. AND The mighty deeds of God, which we celebrate in our solemn assemblies have their significance, not merely in the history of our forefathers, but also for the life of the Church even to the end of the world.—In the sacred seasons of our Church let us not only praise God with joyful song and grateful prayer, let us also seek to be edified by the preaching of His word.—The solemn services of our sacred days are not founded upon human will, but upon the command of God.—True praise to God does not consist in outward actions and ceremonies, but in a personal consecration to God in order to more confirmed fidelity to His covenant.—God may prove us, but let us not dare to tempt Him.—As unfaithfulness to God bears its bitter fruits, so does faithfulness its sweet fruits of promise.—When we hear of the sins of the fathers, it is not enough that we deplore them, we must avoid them too. Starke: Let him who will sing, sing to God’s glory.—Sabbaths and sacred days are nothing but monuments of Divine blessings. If men would but bear this in mind, many acts of desecration would be unperformed.—In the first commandment lies the ground-work of all the others; for to him who does not fear, love, and trust in God, there is no sin so great as that he cannot fall into it.—God is much more willing to bestow upon us His mercy than we are to receive it. Osiander: Let us bear in mind, that it is not human devices, but true godliness, that makes us secure from our foes.—Menzel: It is the nature and custom of the world to let God say what He will, and then to do as it wills.—Frisch: Let the world follow its ways, but keep thou firm to the ways of God’s children, who seek their happiness in Him.—Rieger: What the Lord can arouse in the conscience of every one; with what powerful leadings and gracious offers He can encourage a heart, when He appears before it with these words: Hear, I will testify.—Richter (Hausbibel): God loves specially in us the ever-open mouth of the soul. It is no trouble to Him to feed and revive us. But he who despises His willing goodness and mercy is an abomination to Him.—Tholuck: Such is man! He laments that prosperity has forsaken him, and in departing from the way of his God, he leaves the way of happiness.—Guenther: We are and shall be the people of God. Do we hearken to His voice? Do we long after communion with Him?—Why is it so ill with thee here below? Because thou dost not hearken to God, because thou dost not walk in His ways. How well it might be with us if we would only have it so!—Taube: What God by His Divine right has ordained for a testimony to His people, is now Israel’s sacred duty and rich blessing.—The excellence of God’s love is displayed in three of its attributes. It rebukes, it complains, it allures. [Matth. Henry: God’s grace is His own, and He is debtor to no man; and yet as He never gave His grace to any that could say they deserved it, so He never took it away from any but such as had first forfeited it.—God would have us do our duty to Him that we may be qualified to receive favor from Him. He therefore delights in our serving Him, not because He is the better for it, but because we shall be. Scott: As the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, and the trials of Israel in the wilderness were proofs of the Lord’s peculiar regard to that people, so humiliating convictions of sin, and sharp afflictions, are generally, and the law written in our hearts, always, evidential of the love of God to our souls.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [So the Engl. Vers. In this the root is supposed to be cognate with λρν to divide out. But the Syriac Keso (comp. λρδ), the full moon, as being covered furnishes the key to the right meaning.—J. F. M.] [The meaning hardness (transferred by Hengstenberg to wickedness) is established beyond dispute. The Syriac and the Hebrew derivatives from the same root show this. The rendering “lusts” probably arose in this way. The LXX. being ignorant of the true meaning followed the parallelism and translated ἐπιτήδευμα in both clauses, which our translators adopted in the first.—J. F. M] Psalms 82 A Psalm of Asaph1         God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods. 2    How long will ye judge unjustly, And accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. 3    Defend the poor and fatherless: Do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4    Deliver the poor and needy: Rid them out of the hand of the wicked. 5    They know not, neither will they understand; They walk on in darkness: All the foundations of the earth are out of course. 6    I have said, Ye are gods; And all of you are children of the Most High. 7    But ye shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes. 8    Arise, O God, judge the earth: For thou shalt inherit all nations. AND Contents and Composition.—The last verse, with its Messianic coloring, shows that this Psalm does not present as a warning, in poetical dress, the general truth that unrighteous judges and princes are worthy of punishment, but that the Psalmist implores the actual fulfilment of that Divine judgment, whose certainty as a Divine decree he, as a prophet, beheld in spirit, and which he announces as a revelation from God. The strong emphasis given to the person of the speaker in Psalms 82:6, leads to the supposition that in that place it is not the Psalmist that speaks (Calvin, Hitzig) but that God continues, and that His words beginning with Psalms 82:2 are not interrupted in Psalms 82:5 by a remark inserted by the poet as to the fruitlessness of the Divine warning and admonition (Dathe). In that verse God’s own opinion (that is, His estimate of the real conduct of the judges) is declared with a significant change in the mode of address, and this estimate is distinguished from the declaration given in the words which follow, that their final destiny will not all correspond to the exalted position assigned them by Him. The text contains no threatening of any particular punishment whether of a sudden and violent or early and dishonorable death (Hengstenb. and others), or that the penalty of death would be inflicted on beings who previously were not subject to death (Hupfeld). It only says that the lot of mortal men, and the fate of ruined princes should overtake all those who had borne nothing but the name and title of that dignified and exalted position conferred upon them by a commission from God. Most regard this authorization on the part of God to be the declaration of Scripture, Exodus 22:8 (comp. Exodus 21:6, but less Exodus 22:27) which appears to describe the rulers of Israel in their judicial capacity as God’s representatives by applying to them the name Elohim. We must assume that these are meant here also, and not foreign kings (Gesenius and many of the more recent expositors) nor angels (Bleek in Rosenmόller’s bibl. Repertorium, I. 86 ff., and Hupfeld). For foreign princes are never designated “sons of God” in the Old Testament. The word has a theocratic idea at its basis (Exodus 4:22) and a Messianic reference (Psalms 2:6; Psalms 89:27) when mankind are spoken of Angels are indeed called sons of God (see on Psalms 29.) but never Elohim. Gradations of rank, also, like those of an army, are mentioned with reference to angels (Joshua 5:14 f.; comp. Ephesians 3:10); likewise a judgment of God upon “the host of the high place on high” (Isaiah 24:21 f.), and upon the idols of Egypt as inflicted upon their kings (Jer. 45:25 f.). Also in later times two classes of angels are mentioned; one consisting of protecting angels over the several nations, through whom God carries on the government of the world (Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:20 f.; Daniel 12:1; Sept. in Deuteronomy 32:8), the other of those who, in the name of God, pass judgment upon men (Zechariah 3:1 f.) and execute the Divine sentence (Daniel 4:14; Daniel 4:20), and who yet are themselves not pure before God (Job 4:18; Job 25:5). But all these statements and allusions do not, as Hupfeld himself confesses, explain the description before us in Psalms 82:2 ff., which relates indisputably to an administration of justice on earth, which is unrighteous and contrary to the very idea of justice. Pss. 58. and 94. are closely allied to this Psalm, but especially so is Isaiah 3:13; Isaiah 3:15. John 10:34-36 also favors this view, when Jesus argues e concessis with the Jews for His divinity, and draws a conclusion a minori ad majus. In this case the utterance of God in Psalms 82:7 is not the declaration of creative power as in Genesis 2:7 (Hupfeld) nor an ironical turn given to the discourse = I thought ye were gods (Ewald), but a clear setting forth of the want of correspondence before indicated. On the ground of the authority of God’s word, and not in accordance with heathen conceptions, 2Ma 11:23 (Hitzig) does the Psalmist in Psalms 82:1 designate by the term Elohim with equal severity those whom God, in Psalms 82:7, addresses by the same title. Psalms 82:1 therefore does not refer to God’s sitting as Judge in the midst of His heavenly court, 1 Kings 22:19 (De Wette), which might be regarded as an image and poetical mode of representation, replete with anthropomorphic expressions of the desired judgment upon the administration of justice on earth (Hupfeld). Nor is it a theophany that is here presented as in Psalms 1. (Hengstenberg). There is presented, it is true, a special act of God’s judicial government. But this act is in the first instance only described as in conception, in a poetico-prophetical mode of presentation. Upon this, then, the prayer is based and uttered that God would bring to universal realization what He had granted to His servant to behold in the Spirit, and that in accordance with its universal significance in the world’s history.In these representations there is contained nothing which can compel us to pass over the age of Asaph and seek the composition of the Psalm in the later times of oppression generally (Hupfeld), or in those of the dispersion specially (Ewald) or of the Maccabees (Hitzig). But the history of Israel has here a typical significance (Stier); and God’s judgments are not confined to one special case or single cycle, but only begin at the house of God in actual execution (1 Peter 4:17). This justifies the application of this Psalm to analogous conditions. Psalms 82:1. Assembly of God [E. V., Congregation of the mighty].—This cannot mean: assembly of gods (Sept.). In that case we would have had ΰֵ ?μִ ?ιν. This expression certainly does not denote an assembly convoked and conducted by God, which He appoints, and over which He presides (De Wette) in which He himself appears (Hitzig). Least of all can it be one connected with God, standing in essential relation to Him; more definitely, one invested with a Divine character (comp. Ewald, § 287 f.). It prepares the way for the following statement, that this assembly consists of persons who are designated gods. We are not to assume that the word relates to angels (Syrian V.) Compare the explanations given above. Even if in Psalms 82:7, λְּ ?ΰָ ?γָ ?ν could be rendered: like Adam (Job 31:33; Hosea 6:7), a transition from immortality to mortality would not be indicated. It is certainly not to be translated: like other men (most), or: inasmuch as ye are men, but simply: like men, that is, after the manner of men. It stands parallel to the following λְ ?ΰַ ?ηַ ?γδַ ?ωָּׂ ?ψִ ?ιν that is: just as one of the princes. There is no occasion for a change of pointing in order to obtain the sense: all at once, O ye princes! (Ewald). That would describe the suddenness and completeness of the Messianic judgment; but according to the connection in which the words stand, the usual reading is more suitable as alluding to the warning example of fallen princes recorded in history. The expression sarim suggests directly the idea that it is not kings precisely, nor simply members of the Church, but influential persons, invested with magisterial, especially judicial authority, that are addressed, which, as representing God, could be designated by the name Elohim. Since now these Elohim in Psalms 82:1 b are not distinguished in so many words as objects (Sept.) of the Divine judgments, but yet are identical with those who are censured, and since it is said, further, that God holds judgment in the midst of them, it is more natural to understand the assembly of God Psalms 82:1 a, to be the assembly of those persons clothed with Divine authority (Geier, Hitzig), than that they are the congregation of Israel, (Numbers 27:17; Numbers 31:16; Isaiah 22:16) which God had purchased for Himself from the midst of the nations, Psalms 84:2 (Hengst., Delitzsch). [All the English expositors whom I have consulted agree that the first clause of Psa 82:1 refers to the congregation of Israel. The rendering “mighty,” given to ΰֵ ?μ in E. V., and retained by most of those expositors, is without meaning as applied to the Israelites. The rendering “God” should be adopted. Dr. Moll’s view of the meaning of the clause seems to me to be the most tenable. Most agree that the second clause refers to the judges. On this point Alexander says: “The parallel expression, in the midst of the gods, superadds to the idea an allusion to a singular usage of the Pentateuch, according to which the theocratic magistrates as representatives of God’s judicial sovereignty, are expressly called Elohim, the plural form of which is peculiarly well suited to this double application. Even reverence to old age seems to be required upon this principle (Leviticus 19:32) and obedience to parents in the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12) which really applies to all the offices and powers of the patriarchal system, a system founded upon natural relations, and originating in a simple extension of domestic or parental government, in which the human head represents the original and universal parent or progenitor.” And on Psalms 82:2 : “The combination usually rendered respect persons in the English Bible, and applied to judicial partiality means, literally, to take up faces. Some suppose this to mean the raising of the countenance, or causing to look up from deep dejection. But the highest philological authorities are now agreed that the primary idea is that of accepting one man’s face or person rather than another’s, the precise form of expression, though obscure, being probably derived from the practice of admitting suitors to confer with governors or rulers face to face, a privilege which sometimes can only be obtained by bribes, especially though not exclusively in oriental courts.”—J. F. M.] In Psalms 82:1 a observe the use of the Niphal participle; the use of the Hithpael in Psalms 82:5 b; and in Psalms 82:2 a, the frequent expression “judge unrighteousness” [E. V., judge unjustly] instead of “exercise unrighteousness in judging,” (Leviticus 19:15; Leviticus 19:35; comp. Psalms 48:2).—The foundations of the earth or of the land in Psalms 82:5 b, are not the persons of the judges (Aben Ezra), whose moral vacillation would then be rebuked; nor merely the foundations of the State (Knapp, Stier) on which the prosperity of the land depends. They are, in general, the fundamental conditions of the preservation of the entire order of things in the world (Psalms 11:3; Psalms 60:4; Psalms 75:4; Job 9:6; Ezekiel 30:4; Proverbs 29:4) and their being out of course is the prelude and harbinger of the Messianic judgment.—All nations, Psalms 82:8, are not mentioned as the place where, that is, those amongst whom (Sept., Vulg.), but as the object to which God has the right of inheritance and possession, and this claim He is called upon to make good. AND ETHICAL1. God, while conferring upon rulers the right of sovereignty, and investing them with full power to speak righteousness on earth in His name, has not withdrawn Himself from the government of the world, nor resigned its supreme control. He rather exercises personally, as the Highest Majesty, His Divine power in His government, and that to the fullest extent. And He makes known His efficiency as supreme and impartial Judge, by not merely taking oversight of the administration of justice, but also by calling to account those entrusted with it, and dealing with them according to their conduct. He awakes and maintains in the Church through the mouth of His prophets and servants a due sense of this relation. 2. The magisterial and judicial functions, which possess a legal power over even the life and liberty as well as over the reputation and property of men, should be discharged not only under the authority but also after the example of God, and therefore especially in righteousness and mercy. For they have been invested with the prerogatives of their high positions not for oppression, self-aggrandizement or illegal practices, but that they may execute, further, and defend justice, and all this from the favor of God. 3. The greater the power committed to rulers and judges the more blessed is its righteous employment for the restraint and punishment of the unrighteous, as well as for the defence and encouragement of those, who either have no means of aiding themselves, or scorn to redress their injuries by violent means. But the more dreadful and destructive is its abuse, for it shakes the foundations of the order of human affairs established by God and thereby imperils the existence of the whole world. 4. Yet since God alone is really God, He can deprive unrighteous judges and princes of the power, which is only lent by Him, if they allow to pass unheeded the warnings and exhortations, which He sends before punishment, and neither understand nor lay to heart the tokens of the coming judgment. When this judgment breaks forth upon them, then no earthly power can give them succor. [Perowne: Men cannot see God with the bodily eye, but He is present with the king on his throne (hence Solomon’s throne is called the throne of Jehovah, 1 Chronicles 29:23), with the judge on the judgment-seat, and with all who hold authority delegated to them by Him—J. F. M.] AND Those who misuse the name of God, cannot use it as their protection; He will condemn them all the more surely for it.—God’s judgment may begin when and where it will, it always bears and retains the character of a judgment upon the world.—Prince and people are bound together by a sacred tie, namely, the law of God with the mutual rights and obligations springing there from.—He who lays claim to the title: by the grace of God, must perform the duties of his position according to God’s word and will.—He who would judge rightly must decide (1) according to God’s law, (2) without respect of persons, (3) as God’s servant.—Rulers have their power from God that they may further righteousness, but no privilege to aim at power.—Conscientiousness is as indispensable for the intervention of official power in behalf of the oppressed, as fidelity to duty is, against the temptations to abuse power against justice.—Violence and injustice disturb the order of the world, and thereby the divinely established conditions of prosperity; but God by His judgment sets them right again.—God can cast down him, whom He has raised on high; let the mighty therefore fear God and those in high places humble themselves beneath His powerful hand.—Let princes consider that they also are but men, and therefore let them so fill their high office that they need have no fear of death, but be ever mindful of their responsiblity to God, and be ready to present their account before Him. Luther: When the rulers are rebuked as well as the people, and the people as well as the rulers, as is done by the prophets, neither party can upbraid the other, but must suffer mutually, and take it in good part, and be at peace with one another.—The office of preacher is neither a court-minister, nor a farm servant; it is God’s minister and servant, and its commission reaches to both masters and servants.—Not according to our own likes or dislikes, but according to the law of right, that is, according to God’s word, which makes no difference between or respect of persons.—My command and word (saith the Lord) constitute and ordain you gods, and maintain you as such, not your word, wisdom or power. Ye are gods made according to my word like all creatures, and not essentially divine or gods by nature as I am.—Christ rightly exercises the three god-like virtues (of a true king and ruler): He sends forth the divine word and its preachers; He creates and maintains justice for the poor, and defends and delivers the distressed; He punishes the wicked and tyrants.—So we see that besides earthly justice, wisdom and power, though these are Divine works, another kingdom still is necessary, wherein we may find another kind of justice, wisdom and power. Starke: If God honors magistrates with His own name, they should rightly consider their duties, and perform them in His fear with great circumspectness.—A ruler must have two arms; the one to help those who suffer injustice, the other to restrain those who commit deeds of violence.—The heart of a man becomes vain of his advancement quite too easily; what is then more necessary than that he even when raised to the highest dignity, should remember that he is man?—Since unrighteousness in these last times is gaining mightily the upper hand, let pious hearts pray, that Christ as Judge of the quick and the dead would hasten His coming.—Selnecker: Love and friendship make many a flaw and breach in justice.—Menzel: To be called “the Church of God” is a sure consolation to subjects in two ways; first, they know who acts in their behalf; and secondly, they know that he who sits under God’s rule has the privilege of serving Him.—Rieger: How we are to view the ways of God with rulers, and take heart over the government of the world and be still.—Tholuck: Death, which makes all alike, is the sermon which still produces the strongest effect on the powerful of the world.—Guenther: Every act of injustice in a judge, a ruler, or any person in power, is a nail in the coffin of State.—Let not the sacred profession defend wicked officers.—Diedrich: The unrighteousness which is done by the great and under the name of justice, brings the world to ruin.—Taube: Only with conversion do a judge and all rulers receive discernment and understanding to discharge their duties according to God’s design and will.—The examples of punishment which God makes of those who bear His name and office, are visible proofs that He still holds at all times and in all places the office of Magistrate and Guardian and Protector, and that He still abides in His Church.—L. Harms: Unrighteous rulers dig their own graves.—Pray for the king and magistrates that God would grant a pious king and pious magistrates, and then for the people that they may be converted and become pious. Footnotes: [These passages are not decisive, for it is perhaps more correct to understand there God Himself, as deciding through the court. In Exodus 22:8, indeed, this is necessary from the absence of the article. In Exodus 21:6, although the article is used, it might very well be regarded as indicating the κριτήριον, as the Sept. renders, “the place where judgment is given in the name of God.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 83 A Song or Psalm of Asaph2    Keep not thou silence, O God: Hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. 3    For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: And they that hate thee have lifted up the head. 4    They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, And consulted against thy hidden ones. 5    They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. 6    For they have consulted together with one consent They are confederate against thee: 7    The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; Of Moab, and the Hagarenes; 8    Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; The Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; 9    Assur also is joined with them: They have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. 10    Do unto them as unto the Midianites; As to Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook of Kison: 11    Which perished at En-dor: They became as dung for the earth. 12    Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: Yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna: 13    Who said, Let us take to ourselves The houses of God in possession. 14    O my God, make them like a wheel: As the stubble before the wind. 15    As the fire burneth a wood, And as the flame setteth the mountain on fire; 16    So persecute them with thy tempest, And make them afraid with thy storm. 17    Fill their faces with shame; That they may seek thy name, O Lord.18    Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; Yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: 19    That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, Art the Most High over all the earth. AND Contents and Composition. The first half of the Psalm, marked by Selah, contains a prayer to God that He would not remain inactive against attacks of those tribes, which, armed with strength and cunning, had risen up to destroy Israel until its very name should become extinct. (Psalms 83:2-5). These are then enumerated as leagued together (Psalms 83:6-9). The second half gives a positive turn to this prayer, namely that God would prepare for these enemies of Israel the same overthrow and disgrace which He had inflicted upon similar foes of former times (Psalms 83:10-13); that He would utterly disperse them and bring them to shame, so that they might learn to seek God (Psalms 83:14-17). This thought is expressed again (Psalms 83:18, 19), and presented in a Messianic aspect. With regard to the time of composition, the following difficulty meets us. The ten nations who are here enumerated as being combined against Israel, are never mentioned elsewhere as enemies allied at the same time and for the purpose of annihilating Israel. And yet the expressions are of such a nature, that we cannot be inclined to consider this enumeration as only a poetical individualizing of the general idea: enemies from all sides (De Wette, Hupfeld). The position of Assyria as an auxiliary of the sons of Lot, that is, of the Moabites and Ammonites, is especially unfavorable to this view. The same circumstance, alluding as it does to a special historical instance, opposes also any attempt to refer the composition to the age of the Maccabees (for which many since Van Till decide, referring to 1 Maccabees 5. and Josephus, Ant. 12:8). For even if it be admitted that the name Assyria could be transferred to Syria under the Seleucidζ, we must remember that the latter country had assumed a position of prominence in history just in the age of the Maccabees, and formed the chief power against which the Asmonζan princes contended. We cannot reconcile with this fact the subordinate position assigned in the Psalm to the power designated as Assyria, if respect be had to the predominant character of that age, so well known in history. But if we turn to the special case 1 Maccabees 5. we will find that the Syrians are not mentioned there at all, any more than the Amalekites, who had disappeared from history. We are therefore compelled to go back to a time, when Assyria had not yet become the great world-power that threatened Israel. Accordingly the Persian period Nehemiah 4:1 f.; Nehemiah 4:1 (Kφster, Maurer, Ewald) is to be excluded, as also the Chaldean (Hassler). We would therefore be disposed to assume one of the wars of David with the neighboring nations leagued against him, 2 Samuel 8. or 10. (Grotius, J. H. Michaelis, Clauss). But the enumeration given in the text does not correspond with sufficient exactness to any of them. It agrees best with the alliance formed against Jehoshaphat, at the head of which were the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites (since Kimchi, especially Venema and most of the recent commentators). Yet it must be confessed that even under this assumption there is much to be supplied and left to pure conjecture. For Josephus (Ant. 10:1, 2), gives a multitude of Arabs instead of the Meunim mentioned by the Chronicler. These may possibly be identical with the Ishmaelites and the Hagarenes here mentioned. The latter pitched their tents from the Persian Gulf as far as the country east of Gilead towards the Euphrates (1 Chronicles 10:10), while the former spread themselves (Genesis 25:18), through the Sinaitic peninsula over the Arabian Desert as far as the countries under the sway of the Assyrians in the remote north-east. Now, since in 2 Chronicles 20:2, we must read ξֵ ?ΰֶ ?γְֹ ?ν instead of ξֵ ?ΰֲ ?ψָ ?ν, as indicating the place of departure of these hordes, Edom appears to have been their place of rendezvous, and is given the first place by the Psalmist for this reason, unless we prefer to assume that the hostile nations were enumerated according to their relative geographical positions (Delitzsch). Further we can find a place for Gebal, which is not to be sought to the east of Jordan (Rosenm., De Wette), but south of the Dead Sea, (Gesenius) among the inhabitants of Mt. Seir mentioned by the Chronicler. We can certainly assume also, that Amalek, which was still existing in his time was included by him among the Edomites in the same way as Josephus (Ant. 2:1, 2), reckons ᾼμαληκῖτις as part of Idumζa. In Amos 1:6, too (comp. Joel 4:4,) the tribes along the Mediterranean coast, the Philistines and Ph�nicians, appear as combined against Israel. Nor, if the same event is referred to as the one dwelt upon in the Psalm, does it appear in this instance also why the Chronicler omitted them as well as Assyria in his enumeration of the allies. If we assume, then, the identity of the events, the conjecture is at least worth mentioning, that the Levite and Asaphite Jahaziel named in 2 Chronicles 20:14, was the author of this Psalm. (Dathe, Hengst., Delitzsch). [Alexander: “To the general description (Mizmor) there is here prefixed a more specific one (shξr) which designates the composition as a song of praise or triumph. The same combination occurs above in the title of Psalms 48. a composition which as we have there seen, was probably occasioned by the victory of Jehoshaphat over the Moabites, Ammonites and their confederates as described in 2 Chronicles 20. This agrees well with the hypothesis, conclusively maintained by Hengstenberg, that the Psalm before us has relation to the same event, and that as Psalms 47. was probably sung upon the field of battle, and Psalms 48. after the triumphant return to Jerusalem, so Psalms 83. was composed in confident anticipation of the victory.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 83:10. As Midian. That is, as Thou hast done to Midian by means of Gideon (Judges 7:8, comp. Isaiah 9:3; Isaiah 10:26; Habakkuk 3:7). Sisera was the general of Jabin, king of Hazor, whose army was smitten by Barak and Deborah so that the river Kishon was strown with the dead (Judges 4:5; Judges 4:21). Endor lay in the midst of the battle-ground not far from Taanah and Megiddo mentioned in Judges 5:19, (Robinson, III. 468, 477). Oreb, mentioned in Isaiah 10:26, and Zeeb were ωָׂ ?ψִ ?ιν and therefore probably generals of the Midianites (Judges 7:25); Zebah and Zalmunneh their kings (Judges 8:5 ff). On the signification of these names, comp. Nφldeke, Ueber die Amalekiter, p. 9. [In Isaiah 10:26 it is the rock Oreb that is mentioned, so called from the death of the Midianite lord in that place. See Judges 7:25 also.—J. F. M.] Psalms 83:14 ff. Whirlwind [E.V.: wheel].—Comp. Psalms 77:19; Isaiah 17:3. Wheel (Hupfeld with the ancient versions, Calvin, and others) is unnecessary here also. The fire, because it is the fire of God, devours not the covering of the mountains (most), but the mountains themselves (Hupfeld) which melt away before God like wax (Ps. 97:15; Micah 1:4; comp. Deuteronomy 32:23, where the earth, and Psalms 78:21; Psalms 78:63; Psalms 106:18, where men are devoured by it). The image is more highly colored in Isaiah 10:16-19.—The knowledge spoken of in Psalms 83:19 is, it is true, a practical knowledge gained by actual painful experience of God’s power. But, still, as related to the design of the chastisement expressed in Psalms 83:17 (that they may seek God’s name) it is not compulsory recognizing, submitting, and bestowing homage (Calvin, Rudinger, Clericus, Hengstenberg), but an acknowledgment of the exclusive divinity of Jehovah, to which the nations seeking mercy and help shall be brought. We are not to translate: Thou, whose name is Jehovah (Geier, Rosenmόller) or: Thou, according to Thy name (J. H. Michaelis, Hengst.) The subject is repeated, and, as in Psalms 44:3; Psalms 69:11, the repetition makes the reference more clear. [The last view is undoubtedly correct: “Thou, Thy name is Jehovah,” etc. The sense, however, remains unchanged by the first-mentioned rendering. The second is forced and unnecessary to the elucidation. Calvin has explained the object of the repetition of the subject, laying emphasis, as it does, upon the divinity of Jehovah. He says that a comparison is made between that God and all false gods. “Lord, make them feel that the idols which they have made for themselves are nothing.”—J. F. M.] As an illustration of the meaning of the passage, comp. Isaiah 37:16-20; 2 Kings 19:19. AND ETHICAL1. The Church of God on earth has many enemies, and powerful and cunning ones among them. Sometimes they band themselves together, and then their purpose is to destroy the Church. But God has reversed the relation of affairs more than once. He has preserved His Church, but put her enemies to shame. For her enemies are His enemies. And even if God seems to look on for a while, to observe the conduct of men, He does not remain an idle spectator; but if He lets loose the storm and the fire of His wrath, then are felt the severity and the power of His judgment. 2. The recollection of the Divine judgment in the history of the world is to be no less frequent and lively than the remembrance of His dealings of mercy. For in both of them does God manifest His incomparable majesty, and make it clear to the whole world, that men have equal reason to fear His name and to confide in it. For this name Jehovah has a significance in the history of redemption, and a power in the history of the world. AND The designs of men and the purposes of God.—If our enemies are God’s also, then we need not fear either their number, craftiness, or strength.—God proves Himself to be God alone, by glorifying His name in friend and foe.—God will not merely overthrow His own enemies and those of His Church; He will subdue them also: and so He causes them not only to feel His might, but also to know His name.—God not only rules the world, but He will be acknowledged also throughout its bounds as the Supreme Majesty. Calvin: God’s punishments do not always effect a change in men for the better, but they do in the end compel an acknowledgment of His supremacy to the glorifying of His name among those who are justly condemned. Starke: If God keeps silence, do not thou: but keep crying to Him until He ceases to be silent.—Let tyrants say what they will, they do not gain what they would; the hope of the wicked must perish.—Combinations which are formed without God, yea, against God and His Church, cannot last.—Members of God’s Church have, from the beginning, found enemies even in their blood-relations, Abel in Cain, Isaac in Ishmael, Jacob in Esau.—It is far better for men to be brought by God’s blessings to a knowledge of Him, than to be only compelled by His punishment to confess that God alone is the Lord. Renschel: Strength, counsel, and craft are of no avail; when God begins to smite, then fall chariots, horses, and men.—Arndt : God often conceals from our sight the tokens of His help and counsel, and yet is helping wondrously, though secretly, and preserving His own.—If God alone is called Lord, and the Highest in the universe, it is good to rely upon Him alone, and it is right that we should fear, and stand in awe, and humble ourselves before Him, and that we call upon Him, honor Him, love Him, and praise Him.—Frisch: The less the world knows thee, the better is it for thee, and this alone is sufficient for thee: God knows His own.—Hidden, yet not lost, is the emblem of the Christian.—Roos: It is indeed a great advantage, when the enemies of a nation or of an individual are also enemies of God, provided also that the pretext or primary cause of the injury does not lie with ourselves.—Tholuck: Israel has a God who has spoken to His people, not only in words, but also in deeds.—Guenther: Thy impatience must not proceed from unwillingness to bear the cross any further, but from thy zeal to prove to thy enemies the vanity of their attempts. They would destroy the children of God from the earth.—Diedrich: We, the feeblest creatures, triumph if we have God with us, and the mightiest are dashed to the ground, if they have God against them.—We are so well shielded and cared for in God, that we can wish even for our bitterest foes the highest good at last, the knowledge of God Himself.—Taube: He whose vital breath is God’s word and ways and works, offers his prayers also from out of this atmosphere. And God is ever the same, as He was of old, disposed, just as He had ever been, towards His friends and towards His foes. [Barnes: What it is right for men to attempt it is right for them to pray for; what it would be right for them to do if they had the power, it is right to ask God to accomplish; what is far from malignity in the act and in the design, may be far from malignity in the desire and in the prayer; and if men can carry with them the idea that what they are endeavoring to do is right, they will have very little difficulty in regard to the so-called imprecatory Psalms.—J. F. M.] Psalms 84 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah2         How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! 3    My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. 4    Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, My King, and my God. 5    Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: They will be still praising thee. Selah. 6    Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; In whose heart are the ways of them. 7    Who passing through the valley of Baca Make it a well; The rain also filleth the pools. 8    They go from strength to strength, Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. 9    O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. 10    Behold, O God our shield, And look upon the face of thine anointed. 11    For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 12    For the Lord God is a sun and shield: The Lord will give grace and glory: No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 13    O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. AND Contents and Composition.—On the superscription see Introd. § 2 and § 12, No. 7. The three strophes are connected in such a manner that the first sentence of each takes up the thought, though not the words, of the last sentence of the preceding one, and develops it. A solemn tone of joyful courage, the fruit of faith, and of praise flowing from the assurance of salvation, pervades the whole. The house of God and those who dwell therein are first the object of praise. It is then bestowed upon those believers in God who, under His blessing as the God of the covenant, perform their pilgrimages to Zion where they can find Him. Lastly, God Himself and those who trust in Him are praised. Inferences have been falsely drawn from the feeling of gentle melancholy, and pious longing remarked by most of the recent commentators. For the suppliant knows and loves the house of God, longs after it and its worship, praises the happiness of those who dwell in it, and of those who walk thither, even though through the wilderness, in order to appear before God. Does this indicate that the Psalmist is personally not in a position to satisfy his longing for the sanctuary? The text gives no intimation of it; and least of all is anything hinted at which would be likely to prevent him. Not a syllable gives the indication of sickness, or imprisonment, or flight before enemies, or exile. Nor does Psalms 84:11 say that he was forcibly detained in the tents of wickedness. Not even is any ground afforded for the inference that he was locally absent from Zion. For the second strophe (see the exposition below), does not describe a festival-journey or a pilgrimage to Zion, by which a longing might have been awakened or strengthened, to take part in it also; but it employs expressions borrowed from the features of such journeys, while describing a different relation. And what makes this usage so much the more significant is the fact that a parallel instance is to be remarked in the first strophe where dwelling in God’s house is spoken of, while going to God is now placed beside it in order to complete the picture. The confidence exhibited in the prayer recorded in the third strophe agrees also with this supposition. We need not therefore press into the argument the points of agreement with Psalms 42, 43. in order to discover here again David’s situation of flight before Absalom, which is acknowledged to be represented there. In this view of the relation of the Psalms the author has been identified with David himself (Clauss, Stier, and most of the older commentators), or with one of the Levitical singers of the family of Korah, either speaking as from the soul of David (Rosenmόller, Hengst.) or praying for him as the anointed, and expecting his own return home with the king’s restoration (Delitzsch). We can only say that the “tents” in Psalms 84:11 c, as contrasted with the house of God, do not prove the latter to have been the stone Temple, especially as the expressions used in the first strophe (see the exposition below) do not necessarily lead to any such conclusion. Nor do they permit us to assume the period in David’s life when he fled before Saul, as the mention of “Zion,” Psalms 84:8, cannot possibly be accounted for on the supposition that the Psalm was committed to writing at a later date (Calvin). Hupfeld maintains that terms such as: dwellings, courts, altars, threshold, in the house of God, and the longing expressed in connection with them, presuppose a long-existing Temple-worship, already deeply seated in the feelings, and entering into the common language of the people. But this cannot be conceded unless we deny at the same time the antiquity of the Mosaic writings upon the subject of such worship. For the same reasons the expressions used with reference to the festival journeys to the Temple, throw no light upon the question, leaving out of consideration the fact that there is no clear indication that the Psalm is a pilgrim song (Herder, Muntinghe), or that Psalms 84:2-5 are a hymn sung by pilgrims who had arrived at the sanctuary, and Psalms 84:6-8 the reply of those who dwelt in it (Olshausen). Again, it is not intimated that the Temple was in ruins, in which the birds built their nest, but the house of God is spoken of as being resorted to for religious worship. We are therefore forbidden to assume the period of the exile (Isaaki, Kimchi as an alternative). The period following the consecration, 165 B. C., would be much more suitable than this (Hitzig), if it were necessary for us to seek the composition at so late a date. The “anointed” in Psalms 84:11 would then naturally not be the king but the Jewish people. But it is a mere assertion, destitute of proof, that we are to attach this meaning to the same term in Psalms 89:39, Habakkuk 3:13; and Psalms 28:8. Nor is a late date of composition to be argued from the fact that only here and in Sir 42:16 is God called a Sun, and at the same time designated by the term denoting a round and glittering shield. Psalms 84:1-5. How amiable, etc.—The Heb. word includes the two meanings: beloved, and: worthy of love. The use of the plural: tabernacles, perhaps has allusion to the numerous divisions of God’s house. Yet these divisions themselves are not meant, for God dwelt in the Holy of Holies alone. Nor is it to be explained as a poetical (Hupfeld) plural (Psalms 43:3; Psalms 46:5; Psalms 132:5; Psalms 132:8; comp. 68:36). It is directed against the sensuous conception of God’s local residence, and yet does not entirely abandon it, so that we are not justified in understanding the whole strophe to relate to spiritual residence, hunger, and thirst (Hengstenberg). But the mention of the courts and altars as the place for which the poet longed, in which he would dwell and find a home as the bird in its nest, confirms the absence of the naturalistic and sensuous idea, while it also exhibits the more restricted conception of God’s dwelling-places, in distinction from the places where the people and priests assembled for the performance of their religious rites: and this distinction was suggested by the consciousness of the places of worship having necessarily a local habitation. Both orders of the congregation had their separate courts, as well as their established places and ceremonies in sacrifice and prayer; none of them, however, dwelt in these places. Yet it is not to be inferred from Psalms 84:3 that the poet was a layman (Ewald, Olshausen). Nor do Psalms 84:4-5 refer to Priests and Levites, who with their families lived by the altar. Nor are the residents of God’ house the inhabitants of Jerusalem, or those who lived round about the Temple (Olshausen) and certainly not the constant resorters to the Temple (De Wette, Stier). But the words contain the Old Testament idea (Jeremiah 20:6) corresponding to that in the New Testament: members of God’s house (Ephesians 2:19). The idea rests upon the conception of filial relationship, and is here imaged forth in the emblem of brooding birds. This figure not only serves this purpose, but also leads the way to the literal presentation of the idea in the following verse. The form of the sentence does not show a literal comparison of the nests, which contain even the smallest birds to be found anywhere, to the altars, which are the homes of the pious, and of which the Psalmist was, for the time, deprived, and after which he longed. It only shows that it is to be understood in one of the following ways: Either the poet in an agony of passionate longing breaks off the sentence with the sigh: alas! thine altars! (Calvin, Muntinghe, Stier), or we must supply and prefix the words: So I have found (Mendelssohn, Knapp); or: should I not find (Rudinger, Clericus, J. H. Michaelis, Dathe, Rosenmόller). But the passage is not merely a figurative one, in which the poet by a bold metaphor represents himself as the sparrow and swallow who found their nest, that is, a secure place of refuge, and an unmolested, protected, peaceful home within the precincts of the sanctuary (Geier, Venema, Burk, Clauss., Hengst., Del.). The sentence does not begin with; for (Luther), but with also; and this particle is not united to the verb (Hengst.) but to the name of the bird, in a clause which by the use of the perfect tense alludes to a determinate occurrence. This fact is the one well-known in history, that small birds lived undisturbed within the precincts of the Temple. We could therefore render directly: beside, or: close to thine altars (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Arab., and many of the older and recent expositors) without needing to assume that the Temple was in ruins (Isaaki, Kimchi). But, in the first place, ΰֶ ?ϊ W is more readily construed grammatically, not as a preposition, but as the sign of the accusative, and in apposition (Hengstenberg, Del., Hitzig), only that we need not insert: namely (Luther) [or even, Engl. Vers.]; in the second place the intermediate thought would be wanting, which prepares the way for the idea of man’s home-fellowship with God. This fellowship in a spiritual sense was shared by the Psalmist. As on Old Testament ground, however, he cannot grasp the idea in its ripened fulness of meaning, and feel that he can exercise and exhibit his right of home and filial companionship in any other place than in the Temple on Zion. He therefore felicitates in general terms and in a comprehensive sense those who ever dwell in God’s house (Comp. 15:1; 27:4). The proposal of Hupfeld either to supply the words: “but I” before “thine altars” or to insert the whole passage after Psalms 84:5 a. is accordingly unnecessary. We must not, however slight so superficially as is usually done the objections adduced against the current explanations, especially by Hupfeld. The expression: my King and my God (Psalms 5:3), must especially receive due attention. [Alexander; “The address, Jehovah (God) of Hosts has the same sense as in Psalms 84:2. One suggests the covenant relation between God and the petitioner, the other makes His sovereignty the ground of a prayer for His protection. The same essential notions of supremacy and covenant right are conveyed by the parallel expression: my King and my God.”—J. F. M.] The particular meanings of the names of the birds, which also occur together in Proverbs 26:2, are a matter of dispute; for the swallow has a different name. (Isaiah 38:14; Jeremiah 8:7). The same is true of the wild or turtle-dove (Sept., Targum, Syr., Hitzig), and it is an unsupported conjecture to suppose that these are onomatopoetic words representing a flock of medium-sized birds like crows, choughs or starlings, screeching and high-flying and separately undistinguishable (Bφttcher). We may therefore hold to the Rabbinical explanation of derτr. Should it, however, correspond to the word dϋri now employed in Palestine to designate the sparrow (Wetzstein in an Excursus in Delitzsch), then instead of the sparrow (Sept.) there must be understood here by Tsippτr some small twittering bird like the finch (Tobler, Denkblatter aus Jerusalem 1853, p. 117), which in particular is denoted by this onomatopoetic word. It is not to be inferred from Psalms 84:3 b, that God’s praise is only to be sounded forth in the future, when it will certainly be proclaimed, while the present is still dark. This is the explanation given (Hengst., Ewald, Del.), after Psalms 42:6, according to the hypothesis that a like situation is described in these Psalms. But we have seen how uncertain the grounds of this assumption are. And besides, the primary signification of ςεֹ ?γis iteratio, so that it is much better to adhere to it in this place. The praise that resounds through God’s house is to reach still further, stretching from the past through the present into the future. Most therefore render directly: ever. The Selah also sufts this view better; the music here strikes in, leading the service of praise. Psalms 84:6. Ways in their hearts. [E. V. In whose hearts are the ways of them]. The plural suffix is to be explained by the fact that “the man” was just before used as a collective term. But what is the meaning of the sentence? Is it as it stands, so meaningless that ξְ ?ρִ ?μֹּ ?εϊ [roads) must be given up, and λִּ ?ρְ ?μָ ?δ=λִּ ?ρְ ?μεֹ ?ϊ (confidence, Hupf.) be read in its place as the Chald has already paraphrased it? Or should we rather insert ξַ ?ςֲ ?μεֹ ?ϊ, because the Sept. has here as in 2 Chronicles 9:11, rendered ἀναβάσεις? Neither. The word expresses a meaning that is contrasted with side-paths or by-ways (Jeremiah 18:15; Proverbs 12:28; Psalms 125:5). We might therefore think of the straight paths of Jehovah (Psalms 17:5), which Israel was careful to follow, while the heathen wandered away from them in their erring courses (Isaiah 53:6): the paths that were laid down by the statutes of the law (Hitzig). We have presented according to this view either the thought that the righteous have constantly before their minds these ways of God or His commandments, ponder them in their hearts and earnestly strive to walk in accordance with them (Isaaki, Kimchi, Luther, and others); or that the hearts of the pious are no longer a trackless waste, but a well-beaten path of righteousness, Proverbs 16:17 (Venema, Mendelssohn, Hengst.). The latter explanation is more readily attached to the form of the words and the usage of the terms employed, but it makes too little account of the context and passes over too quickly into a spiritual application, as we find also in the exposition of the following sentences that the actual and historical ground of the expressions has been needlessly abandoned by many. It is quite true that it is a forced interpretation of the disputed clause which makes it mean that the pilgrim-routes to Jerusalem (Aben Ezra, Knapp, Bφttcher, Delitzsch), or the common streets in Jerusalem leading to the sanctuary (Grotius), were constantly in their thoughts. And Psalms 84:7, completes the picture of blessedness, set forth before in general terms, that is, the blessing of trust in God, by a figure which is borrowed from a wandering or journeying as a common emblem of human life (Hupfeld). But it expresses more. For in Psalms 84:8 b the travellers are described as appearing before God in Zion. The Psalmist has in mind a pilgrimage or festival journey; not indeed as apparent to the senses as though the spectacle of a band of pilgrims had given occasion to the words of longing (Muntinghe), nor yet as an emblem of the toil some life-journey of the righteous which has yet very many seasons of refreshing and blessedness. Here as in the preceding strophe there is a mingling of expressions drawn from the spheres of the external and the spiritual, as Psalms 84:7 especially shows. Psalms 84:6 felicitates those who have in God their strength (not their defence or their glory). And Psalms 84:8 says that they go, not: from band to band (Grotius and Rosenmuller following the older expositors), but from strength to strength, until every one of them (transition to the singular) appears before God Himself. This last phrase takes the place of the usual “before God’s face.” and yet with the local distinction, in Zion. It is, however, most natural to take the roads mentioned, without the article, in Psalms 84:6 b, not in a concrete and special application, so as to refer them generally to the ways to God and His house, whether in the sensuous or in the spiritual sense, but to understand them, as indefinitely as they are expressed, of the means and ways by which in the sphere of the heart the supply of strength vouchsafed by God to men is conveyed. It is therefore better not to compare Isaiah 40:3 but in particular Psalms 50:13. This view is confirmed by the words which immediately follow. Psalms 84:7 f. Travelling through the vale of tears. [E. V. Passing through the valley of Baca], The participles here and in Psalms 84:5, are parallel and have a mutual reference. They denote however, either different persons or the same persons in different circumstances, at first as being companions of God in His house, and then as being on the way thither as pilgrims to Zion. Now Zion lay upon a mountain, and the surrounding country is very much cut up by ravines and in some parts poorly supplied with water. The pilgrims would therefore have a toilsome ascent from the valley-ground below. Many of the valleys, also, had significant names, easily convertible into symbolical expressions. Such were Rephaim=shadows, and Hinnom=wailing, which lay close together between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. In the former, there grew, according to 2 Samuel 5:23; 2 Chronicles 14:14 f., trees called αָּ ?λָ ?ΰ. The rabbins have explained these to be mulberries, but later writers, more correctly (see Faber on Harmer’s Beobachtingen uber den Orient, I. 400) have referred it to a plant resembling the balsam called by the Arabs baca, because when it is wounded, a tearlike liquid exudes (Winer, Realwφrterbuch). There were undoubtedly several of these Baca-valleys: and being employed here as a play upon αλδ (=weeping) in allusion to the property just described, they could very readily receive a symbolical application, and the more so as the shrub is very common in the arid valley of Mecca. Burckhardt found such a valley in the neighborhood of Sinai (Travels in Syria, etc., p. 977). And since it is evidently not a special route of any particular band of pilgrims that is described in our text, for the pilgrims in general did not march in companies upon the same road, it would be altogether opposed to the spirit of the passage and would destroy the idea and the expectation which the poet has awakened, to seek an actual Valley of Baca. The valley Rephaim is the less suitable, as, according to Isaiah 17:5, it was very fertile, while a conversion into a valley of fountains is spoken of here. It is therefore preferable to suppose a barren region to be referred to (Gesenius, Ewald, Olshausen), or valley full of thorns (Kφster). But it is unnecessary to identify the valley here mentioned either with the Valley of Achor (Hosea 2:17), between Jericho and Bethel (Joshua 7:24) which contained a place called αֹּ ?λִ ?ιν (Sept. κλαυθμὼν), Judges 2:1, which again might properly have been =αְּ ?λָ ?ιִ ?ναְּ ?λָ ?ΰιν(Hitzig); or with the last station upon the road from the north, where in a narrow and gloomy valley dark water drops from a rock (Renan, Vie de Jιsus, Ch. 4). For apart from the fact, that the dropping from the rock called “weeping” in Job 28:11, is there called αְּ ?λִ ?ι and not αָּ ?λָ ?ΰ, it is not said here that the pilgrims made that valley a ξָ ?ςεֹ ?ο=bivouac, before Jerusalem (Knapp), but ξַ ?ςְ ?ιָ ?ο=place of fountains. Now this does not mean that they dug wells (Luther), or found fountains miraculously prepared, Isaiah 41:18, (Kimchi, Calvin), or through their piety converted the toils of the journey into occasions of spiritual refreshment (Geier and others), or that they made God Himself the fountain of their salvation (Venema, by a false reference of the suffix). The words are a figurative expression of the thought that the Divine blessing accompanies them everywhere and supplies the means by which they are refreshed on their journey, and so strengthened, that they become neither faint nor languid, but ever stronger as they advance. The valley through which they are marching, becomes green meadows and pastures and fruitful fields, by springs and rain. For ξεֹ ?ψֶ ?δ denotes also in Joe 2:23, as ιεֹ ?ψֶ ?δ does elsewhere, the first fertilizing rain after the heat of summer, which in the East clothes the parched ground in an incredibly short time with vegetation of the most varied kind, (Sept., Kimchi, Calvin and all the recent expositors but Hengstenberg). For it is against the context to suppose that allusion is made to the guide of the caravan (Herder) or to the teacher who instructs the travellers in the law of God, (Hengst. following the Chald. and the Rabbins, Luther and most of the older versions) who is covered with blessing (ςθδ as Kal in the passive sense). Although it gives a sense too restricted to translate: Baca-valley (Hitzig, Del.) and to understand by this a desolate and barren region at that time in ill-repute (Olshausen) noted for its resinous trees which derived their names from the resin which exuded from them (Bφttcher), yet the nature of the discourse, which passes over immediately into the figurative, and the allusion contained in the name of the tree, make it also quite correct to render: Valley of weeping or land of tears. (The ancient versions, the Masorah, which has the remark that αָּ ?λָ ?ΰ here stands for αλδ, and the Rabbins except Aben Ezra and Kimchi, and after them many expositors, Hengstenberg and Hupfeld last). Luther altered his translation in many ways, but generally did not improve it. His view of Psa 84:8 c, was founded upon the rendering of the Sept.: ὀφθήσεταιὁ θεὸςτῶνθεῶυ. Exception was made to the unusual combination of ΰֶ ?μ instead of ΰֶ ?ϊΞτְּ ?βֵ ?ι, with, ιֵ ?ψָ ?ΰֶ ?δ; the allusion to ΰֶ ?μηַ ?ιִ ?μ immediately preceding and to ΰֶ ?μΰֵ ?μ in verse 3, was overlooked; and it was suggested that the true reading was ΰֵ ?μΰֱ ?μδִ ?ιν. Psalms 84:10 ff. Our Shield.—This is in the vocative, as being an address to God; not, as in Psalms 89:19, an accusative denoting the king, and depending upon the verb (Aben Ezra). Against the latter are the terms Sun and Shield applied to God in Psalms 84:12, and changed by the Sept. into the sentence: God loves mercy and truth. God is called a shield also in Psalms 59:12. “See” stands absolutely as in 2 Chronicles 24:22; Psalms 80:15, parallel to “hear” in Psalms 84:9 c. “For,” in Psalms 84:11, does not confirm the foregoing supplication (Hengst.) but the whole Psalm (Aben Ezra, Geier and others). The verse says nothing about door-keeping, which was an honorable office. Nor about a long-continued residence (Luther). A comparison is made between dwelling and lying upon the threshold, the former relating both to the house of God and to the tents of wickedness. The latter is not employed in the sense of being despised (Augustin) nor as being the consequence of violent treatment (Sept.) nor as lying before the door as Lazarus did (Hengst.). It expresses a personal experience of the exalted good, happiness and value of belonging to God’s house, and the smallest measure of and most remote connection with this privilege were more esteemed and loved by the Psalmist than the greatest abundance supplied from other sources. The psalmist has in his mind’s eye a worshipper lying upon the threshold, but utters only his own conception and appreciation of this relation, not his actual condition and posture. Any reference to his humility and modesty (Calvin, Hupfeld), is as unsuitable as an allusion to the position and employment of the Korahites in the temple-service (Del.). The plural number courts, in Psalms 84:3; Psalms 84:11, do not necessarily indicate a late date. The original Tabernacle had, to be sure, only one court. But intimations are found of an enlargement and alteration in that of David’s time. (See Knobel on Exodus 25-31 p. 255). AND ETHICAL1. He who loves the house of God must ever experience nothing but the most ardent longing to be there, whether he be far from it or near it; he would never be found absent from it, he would even as God’s child forever live in His house. He therefore felicitates those who abide there; and they praise God continually. They have there what the bird has in her nest. “ God is so kind and condescending that He leaves not unrewarded the fervent love and holy desire which men feel for Him, but so gladdens men as to revive them in body and soul. And thus from an ardent longing after God there results an all-pervading sense of happiness” (John Arndt). 2. The earthly house of God, however, is only a type of the heavenly, and therefore in the pilgrim’s longing for and journeying to the former, is imaged forth the relation of the children of God to the latter. If they have their strength in God, their longing is not in vain and their journeying not without result as it is not without an aim. In their hearts are paths, upon which strength from God is conveyed to them, and in their toilsome course God provides the means of their support and success, so that they, raised up out of faintness and exhaustion, go on from strength to strength until they appear before God. Such men clothed with strength from Him are indeed to be counted happy, as they in their march through the desert, gladdened by His blessing, change it into a garden of God. 3. But it is a necessary accompaniment of such experience of mercy, that we do not rest satisfied with such longing, wishing, and desiring, but that longing becomes prayer, wishing trust, and desire the possession of salvation. Therefore must we not, in a false spiritualistic feeling, lightly regard or despise the means of grace offered and provided in the visible Church, but duly avail ourselves of them. Thrice blessed are they who act thus. AND He who loves from the heart what is God’s, has as much reason for rejoicing as for longing.—Man must seek at God’s altars what he cannot well be without on earth, and what he can find nowhere in the world.—The happiness of those who dwell with God in His house: (1) wherein it consists; (2) how it is obtained.—Communion with God is neither to be gained nor preserved without a due use of the means of grace.—He who loves God’s house, walks in God’s ways, and trusts in His aid, is to be counted happy even on earth.—Our pilgrimage upon earth as a journey to the house of God.—The praise of God the joy of the righteous.—The transformations which true piety effects in this earthly vale of sorrow.—God not only defends His own, He blesses them also with gifts from on high.—He who would enjoy God’s blessings must open his heart to God, and prepare the way for His coming.—Progress in the ways of God is effected only through the strength of God; it is made from step to step, but is made surely towards God; it is not gained without much sorrow, but the end is abiding joy. Starke: If God shows every little bird a place to build its nest and hatch its young in peace, He will also grant to souls longing for salvation, means of instruction and sources of happiness.—If the soul once gains a true appreciation of God’s word, its desire for intimate converse with it will grow day by day.—He who would call God his King must do Him homage, and yield himself up to Him by faith; and, by so doing, he will become not only His subject, but also an inmate of His own house.—O blessed dwelling! In God’s house will everything be granted to the soul, and nothing be asked of it in return but to praise Him.—The path in which we are to walk to heaven, must not only be in books; not lie only in the ear or on the tongue; it must be in the heart; the heart must learn to delight in God’s ways.—A Christian need not languish in this barren vale of sorrow, for he has everywhere beside him the fountain of life.—Is God the Sun of believers? He must enlighten them, warm them, and make them fruitful. Is he their Shield ? He must protect them against all enemies. Well for those who enjoy these blessings! Osiander: The happy results of the preaching of the gospel show that the true, eternal, and only God, is present with His church, and blesses that ordinance, that it may bring forth much fruit.—Selnecker: There is nothing better than to be a member of the true Church, and to have God’s word pure and simple, for with these the Lord of hosts is and abides.—Rieger: A soul seeking God displays: (1), its desire for this blessed communion, (2), its actual arrival before Him whom it seeks and finds: (3), its worship, wherein it testifies to God its love for Him, its joy and trust in Him and dependence upon Him, and whereby it wins its way into His presence.—God’s praise in heaven is sounded forth in perfect strains; on earth we are training ourselves to bear a part in them.—Tholuck: How much is necessary, in order to realize the highest joy of life in God’s praise!—Guenther: First, the longing after God’s house and communion with Him; next, an indication of the way to the object of desire; thirdly, the reward of residence in God’s house, or in communion with him.—Umbreit: It is not the word of praise outwardly sounding which brings blessedness and peace to man; but he alone finds the highest happiness whose heart is fixed in God as his only strength, and glory, and who not merely knows the well trodden paths of God, but in whose heart they are and live.—Schaubach: It is not a bodily stay and residence in the Temple as they were granted to the priests and Levites in Jerusalem, that makes us blessed; but the constant sojourn of the heart with the Lord, which makes the Christian an inmate of His house.—Diedrich: The blessedness of those who enjoy unobstructed communion with the living God, the God of mercy.—Schapper (at the unveiling of the statue of Melanchthon in Wittemberg, Oct. 21st, 1865): With what right and in what sense do we honor the memory of the blessed Reformers? (1) They, as true children of God and living members of His Church, desired to dwell in His house and praise Him forever. (2) As true heroes they took the Lord as their strength, and from the heart walked in His ways. (3) As true teachers in the kingdom of heaven they passed through the vale of sorrow and made it fountains of water, and have been crowned with blessing. (4) As true Reformers of the Church, they have achieved one victory after the other, so that men must see that the true God is in Zion, where they abode and whither they have directed us. Psalms 85 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah2    Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land: Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. 3    Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people; Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. 4    Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. 5    Turn us, O God of our salvation, And cause thine anger toward us to cease. 6    Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? 7    Wilt thou not revive us again: That thy people may rejoice in thee? 8    Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, And grant us thy salvation. 9    I will hear what God the Lord will speak: For he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: But let them not turn again to folly. 10    Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; That glory may dwell in our land. 11    Mercy and truth are met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 12    Truth shall spring out of the earth; And righteousness shall look down from heaven. 13    Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; And our land shall yield her increase. 14    Righteousness shall go before him; And shall set us in the way of his steps. AND Contents and Composition. After a retrospect of the former mercy bestowed upon the people, (Psalms 85:2-4), there is uttered a prayer for a renewed manifestation of the same mercy during present sufferings from the anger of God (Psalms 85:5-8). The intention is then announced of listening with gladness to God’s pledge of peace to His people, because its fulfilment in their deliverance was certain to those who really feared Him (Psalms 85:9-10). This fulfilment with its wealth of blessings is finally described in strains of poetic rapture (Psalms 85:11-13), which bear a great resemblance to Isa. 39:16f.; Isaiah 45:8; Isaiah 59:14. We receive an impression from the Psalm which compels us to assign its composition to the period succeeding the return from the Exile. There is no sufficient ground for connecting it with the peace concluded with Antiochus III (Hitzig). It is more than doubtful whether we are justified in inferring from Psalms 85:13 a season of the year long before harvest. The assumption is altogether arbitrary that the first part contains the prayer of the Church, and the second a hymn of exhortation and promise by the priests in response (Ewald, Olshausen, De Wette). The construction of the perfects in Psalms 85:2-4 as pluperfects (Ewald, Olshausen, Baur) is unnecessary. [These commentators suppose the reference to be to a period long past, and hence their view of the force of these verbs.—J. F. M.] The opinion is unfounded, that Psalms 85:5 f. recall the former prayer of the people (Hitzig), or that they contain that of those who remained still in exile as distinguished from those who had returned (Venema). If the whole psalm be viewed as prophetic (the older commentators) or as having no historical back-ground (Hengst., Clauss.), the exposition is modified accordingly. The expressions indicate a national judgment, not in conception as in Psalms 14:7, but in reality; and Psalms 85:9 b, hints that the present misfortunes of the people were the deserved consequences of their folly (Delitzsch). This idea is lost in the text of the Sept. where we have the rendering: and to those who turn their hearts to Him. [This rendering is due to a wrong conception of the word λִּ ?ρְ ?μָ ?δ and to a false construction of the clause. This word was supposed to be capable of the same meaning as the form λֶּ ?ρֶ ?μ which once means inward parts.—Most of the English commentators agree with the view defended above. Dr. Alexander does not feel justified in referring it to any particular period He says: “The idea that the benefit acknowledged was deliverance from the Babylonish exile has arisen from a false interpretation of the last clause of Psa 85:1, the true sense of which may be illustrated from Psalms 14:7. Captivity is a common figure for distress and God’s revisiting the captives for relief from it.” And again: “It seems to be appropriate to every case in which the fulfilment of the promise in Leviticus 26:3-13 was suspended.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 85:11 ff. Mercy and truth are met together (prζterite), and therefore appear as united and co-operating harmoniously, in consequence of God’s glory or majesty again dwelling in the land when the people should become converted to His fear. It is opposed to the context to change the compassion and truth of God into the human virtues of “kindness” and “faithfulness” (Hupfeld), or “ love and faithfulness,” (Hitzig). So also is the change of glory into “ honor ” (most). A like harmony exists between righteousness and peace, of which it is said literally that they are joined together. [It is more correct to say that it is said literally: they have kissed each other, the word being onomatopoetic, and then to present the idea of union as conveyed by that figure.—J. F. M.] They do not appear here as gifts of God, and consequences of His mercy and truth (most). Still less are they represented as human righteousness and earthly peace (Hitzig), but as heavenly attributes in their Divine union. They are rightly personified in this sense, and represented frequently in works of art as angels or messengers of God kissing each other (comp. Piper’s evangel. Kalender, 1859, p. 24 ff., 1867, p. 63). It is this righteousness thus united with peace which the Psalmist beholds as looking down from heaven well-pleased with the land, in which God’s glory dwells, and from which it causes to spring forth from Divine seeds united truth and mercy. In the next verse the dealings of the Covenant God answer to this looking down, and the grateful conduct of the nation to the merciful dealings of God. The fruit of the land, therefore, according to the context, cannot be the fruit of harvest (Hitzig) but the blessed results of reconciliation, that righteousness which walks before God and follows in His train when He manifests His presence in the land. This sense is found in the words, whether we render the last clause: and set (their steps) upon the way of His steps (Olshausen, Delitzsch in his first edition), or: make His steps a way, that is, walk in His footsteps (Hupfeld), or: conform to the ways of His steps (Ewald), or: mark, regard attentively the way of His steps (Delitzsch now), or: designate, make known the way of His steps (Hitzig). It is, at all events, wrong to translate: make their steps a way (Hengst.), or sets its steps upon the way that is, sets out upon the way, has its course, is really and truly, (most of the older expositors until De Wette). For the suffix in τְ ?ςָ ?ξָ ?ιε must refer to God, on account of the parallelism with μְ ?τָ ?πָ ?ιε. [The rendering of Hupfeld is probably the correct one, representing the most natural construction of the words. The apocopated form mingles an aspiration with the declaration, and does not justify us, as Perowne supposes, in giving to the whole verse the force of a desire.—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. God does not only forgive the special sins of individuals, He blots out also the common transgressions of a whole people, and removes their common guilt in the dispensation of His mercy. This gracious dealing does not, however, make provision for the future transgression of the same people. But the compassion before experienced encourages to prayer for a repeated turning away of His anger, and strengthens the hope of renewed blessing. And therefore must God’s people be mindful of the one when they are reminded of the other, and make both subserve the building up of the Church. 2. But, in order to realize this aim, it is above all necessary, that they be intent upon hearing what God says. For this purpose they do not require any new revelation from Him, but can resort to His words, familiar as they have so long been to His people, and expound and apply them for the instruction and consolation and warning and exhortation of themselves and others. For His word as a testimony to His truth not only agrees in all its parts with itself, it satisfies also the needs of His people, and answers perfectly the purposes of God. For it reveals His thoughts of salvation and peace, and announces their actual fulfilment in the world by the advent of righteousness, which it shows to be caused not merely by His general dispensation of favor and mercy, but specially by His glory dwelling upon earth. And thus the history of revelation becomes a history of redemption, and all of a Messianic character. AND It is good to hear the word of God, but His people must also govern their lives thereby.—We cannot meditate upon the mercy of God, without being reminded of the sins of ourselves and others; may both of them urge us to true penitence and to lively faith!—In spite of all the tokens of God’s mercy, sin has not yet disappeared from the world; but mercy is still stronger than sin.—The well-being of a nation is derived from the dwelling of God’s glory in it.—God has thoughts of peace in relation to His people, and fulfils them in conformity with His truth, but always in harmony with His righteousness.—Many ask to be spared from the anger of God, and most dread the consequences of sin, but salvation is high only to those who fear God.—God must bless the land if it is to yield its fruit; but the best fruits are those of righteousness, which are pleasing to God, and are the results of His working.—Whatever we have on earth that is good comes down from heaven. Starke: The nearer men are to repentance the nearer are they to mercy; but the further away they are from conversion, the less do they receive of this treasure.—God’s mercy makes a joyful heart.—Honor paid to God results from His fear, and is largely increased by surpassing tokens of His help.—Righteousness is a fair ornament in a land, and a strong pillar upholding the government, the country, and the people; but righteousness and peace must stand together.—Frisch: God’s anger and displeasure will be averted in accordance with the conditions laid down by Himself, if men seek first in Him the grace of conversion, and not till then the alleviation and removal of punishment.—Tholuck: The sense of mercy must ever be as abiding as the feeling of guilt is deep. Guenther: Let us learn at last what promotes the peace of a country, and cease seeking in the clouds and in the soil the causes of death and public calamities, and discern above the clouds the chastening hand of God, who visits in His merciful anger for our conversion the sins which are committed upon earth by His human children.—Taube: The cry of faith in distress is prompted by a knowledge of the former mercy of God towards His people; the look of faith and hope is inspired by listening to His word.—Detlefsen: Let us honor our God (1) by humble gratitude for His help, (2) by firm reliance upon His promises, (3) by a pious walk before Him. [Scott: Having spoken unto the Lord in prayer we should compose ourselves to hear Him speak to us by His word; and to expect an answer by His Spirit or in His providence. He will certainly speak peace to His people whom He has separated and sanctified to Himself. Barnes: Those who have been afflicted and restored should feel themselves exhorted not to return to their former course of life, (1) by their obligations to their Benefactor, (2) by the remembrance of their own solemn vows when in affliction, (3) by the assurance that if they do return to their sin and folly, heavier judgments will come upon them.—J. F. M.] Psalms 86 A Prayer of David1         Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: For I am poor and needy. 2    Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. 3    Be merciful unto me, O Lord: For I cry unto thee daily. 4    Rejoice the soul of thy servant: For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 5    For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; And plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. 6    Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; And attend to the voice of my supplications. 7    In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: For thou wilt answer me. 8    Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; Neither are there any works like unto thy works. 9    All nations whom thou hast made Shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; And shall glorify thy name. 10    For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: Thou art God alone. 11    Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: Unite my heart to fear thy name. 12    I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: And I will glorify thy name for evermore. 13    For great is thy mercy toward me: And thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 14    O God, the proud are risen against me, And the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; And have not set thee before them. 15    But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, Long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. 16    O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; Give thy strength unto thy servant, And save the son of thine handmaid. 17    Shew me a token for good; That they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: Because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me. AND Contents and Composition.—We have first presented to us in this Psalm a succession of invocations and entreaties to God, supporting themselves on one hand upon the need of the suppliant and His covenant relation, and on the other upon God’s compassion and accessibility (Psalms 86:1-7). There next follows the joyful acknowledgment of God’s incomparable exaltation, to which as well as to His power the heathen will submit themselves (Psalms 86:8-10). Then comes a prayer for direction in the way of God, which the poet promises to follow out of lasting gratitude for the deliverance vouchsafed to him, (Psalms 86:11-13). Finally we have an entreaty preceded by a complaint against godless enemies, spared by God’s patience (Psalms 86:14-15), which implores help for the offerer, so that his haters may be ashamed and know that it is really God who has helped His pious servant (Psalms 86:16-17). The whole Psalm gives the impression of a pretty late composition. Familiar expressions and phrases from the words of the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, loosely connected, are found throughout, and yet not altogether without evidences of a peculiar treatment. It is remarkable that in Psalms 86:14, in the passage taken literally from Psalms 54:5, ζֵ ?γִ ?ιν is found instead of ζָ ?ψִ ?ιν, and yet the acknowledgment of God in the nations of the world as the Supreme God is spoken of in Psalms 86:9. It is quite uncertain to what event the deliverance mentioned in Psalms 86:13 refers. We have no grounds afforded us for supposing the return from exile (Olshausen), or for connecting the verse with 2Ma 13:21, (Hitzig), not to mention the deliverance of David from the plans contrived by Saul (Kφster and Clauss last), since we have no reason to assume that David was consoled by the Korahites by a Psalm constructed out of his own words (Hengstenberg). It is even questionable whether it was a past event, and whether the prζterite, though not to be taken as prophetic prζterite, and therefore as future (De Wette), may yet not be regarded as conveying an optative sense, and therefore be rendered by the imperfect, (Ewald, Baur). It is to be remarked that the appellation of God, Adonai, is here used seven times, and three times in Psalms 130. It seems, however, too rash an opinion to consider this circumstance as indicating a tendency to a later adonaic style of Psalm-poetry, in imitation of the Elohim Psalms (Delitzsch). [The superscription of this Psalm presents a curious phenomenon. It ascribes the authorship to David, being the only instance in the whole of the Fourth Book. It occurs also in the midst of a group of Psalms of the sons of Korah. The opinion that David himself was the composer is now almost universally abandoned. But is it necessary to assume that it was composed in David’s lifetime? Hengstenberg, who maintains rightly the originality of the superscription, feels bound to maintain that it was. But he is willing to depart from the literal application of the language, as he supposes that it was composed by the sons of Korah for David’s benefit. The character of the Psalm suggests that we may use the same freedom of interpretation in another direction. For the looseness of connection and the liturgical rather than poetical form, as Delitzsch has remarked, seem to bespeak a late origin. It may be called “a prayer of David” because it expresses the spirit of a number of his Psalms which are of a predominantly supplicatory character, and are indicated by the same title ϊְּ ?τִ ?μָּ ?δ, and chiefly, because his sayings constitute a large portion of it. Among English commentators Perowne abandons the idea of a Davidic composition, and maintains a late date. Alexander appears undecided, though he considers the circumstances described suitable to David’s frequent situations of suffering. Wordsworth thinks that a Psalm of David is inserted in the midst of the Korahite ones, to confirm the equal authority of the latter.—J. F. M.] Psalms 86:2-12. I am holy.—The expression has reference to the covenant-relation (Hupf.) and not to piety as a virtue. The accusation that the Psalmist makes a boast of the latter (De Wette) is unfounded. Geier already has had occasion to combat it, and translated: beneficiarius; and the Dutch Bible: gunstgenoot. [In Psalms 86:3, λָּ ?μΞηַ ?ιֹּ ?εν is capable of being translated either: daily, as E. V. has it, or: all the day, as it is given in the margin. The latter as indicating a depth of need which the former fails to do is to be preferred. On Psalms 86:9 Alexander says: “The common relation of Jehovah to all men as their Maker shall be one day universally acknowledged, not in word merely, but in act, the most expressive part of worship, involving a recognition of the previous display of God’s perfections, in the language of Scripture, His name. This prospective view of the conversion of the world to its Maker, shows how far the Old Testament writers were from cherishing or countenancing the contracted nationality of the later and the less enlightened Jews. Comp. Psalms 22:27-28; Psalms 45:12; Psalms 45:16; Psalms 47:9; and Jeremiah 16:19; Zephaniah 2:11; Zechariah 14:9; Zechariah 14:16.”—J. F. M.] The expression: unite my heart, in Psalms 86:11, is peculiar. It is equivalent to: unite all my powers and impel them towards one object (Calvin, Geier, and others). It is the whole, undivided heart which is demanded in connection with love in Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12, and in connection with the fear of God it appears here and in Jeremiah 32:29, as μֵ ?αΰֶ ?ηָ ?γ. The contrast is exhibited in James 4:8. It is a less tenable explanation which understands a heart one with God (J. H. Michaelis following older expositors). The whole heart is also mentioned in connection with thanksgiving in Psalms 86:12. The translation of the Vulgate: lζtetur (after Sept., Syr.) rests upon a false derivation from ηָ ?ψָ ?δ. Psalms 86:13 ff. The underworld [E. V.: lowest hell] is employed as in Deuteronomy 32:22, to denote the world beneath in the bowels of the earth (Ezekiel 31:14 f.), under the earth, Exodus 20:4, comp. Philippians 2:10, not as the lowest (Sept., Vulg.) or deepest (Kφster, Ewald). There is nothing to indicate any allusion to different degrees of descent. Deliverance from a position in which life was endangered is the subject of the verse.—Son of thine handmaid may allude to the servants born in the house, Genesis 14:14; Genesis 17:12; Exodus 23:12 (Geier, Olshausen, Hitzig, Delitzsch) so that the Psalmist does not describe himself as the servant of God in general (Hupfeld), but as being born into this relation.—Token for good in Psalms 86:17 is not a miracle which the Psalmist implores in order to effect his deliverance (De Wette, Olsh.), but an evidence of the Divine favor (Geier, Hengst., Delitzsch, Hupfeld), a token of good intentions, not: for good fortune, or: “that it will be well with me,” (Luther), but one from which it will be clear that God purposes good with regard to him. [Hengstenberg: “What the Psalmist speaks of, according to the preceding context and the conclusion of the Psalm, is simply help and comfort, by which all his enemies may see that it is not without good ground that he calls God his God.”—J. F.M.] AND ETHICAL1. The hope that our prayers will be heard by God is grounded partly on our misery and helplessness (Ps. 35:10; 37:14; 40:18; 74:21); partly upon our covenant relation to Him. With regard to the latter, we have not only been able to receive most competent testimony of the goodness and placability of God (Exodus 34:6), of His incomparable exaltation (Exodus 15:11), and of His power (Deuteronomy 3:24), but have also made actual proof of the truth of these declarations, and of the credibility of these attestations. 2. A true servant of this Almighty Lord not merely bears in his heart the hope that many yet in the world will be converted to Him (Psalms 22:18; Jeremiah 16:19), but, as included in the terms of the covenant of grace (Psalms 4:4; Psalms 16:10), he labors earnestly for his own sanctification. He prays therefore especially for direction in the ways of God (Psalms 25:4; Psalms 25:8; Psalms 25:12; Psalms 27:11), and for strength to enable him to walk in conformity therewith. And in this he includes a prayer for a heart single to God’s fear, so that the whole heart may be yielded up in true gratitude. The help implored and received thus gains a significance beyond his own experience, and becomes a token for others also. AND It is well for men to complain to God of their distress; it is better to confess their own inability to relieve it; it is best for them to rely upon God’s mercy, and to entreat mighty proofs of His goodness.—Believers must not become presumptuous or secure on account of their covenant relation, but find in it reason both for humility and for reliance upon God.—Let him who knows God ever learn of Him, and let him who loves God please Him better day by day. The more deeply true piety is stamped upon our own lives, the more distinctly is it made a token for others.—It is of no consequence to us, that our enemies are put to shame, unless they, at the same time, give glory to God.—How little do we regulate our conduct in view of the incomparable power, goodness, and faithfulness of God! Starke: The righteous have to suffer much, therefore they must pray much.—How useful is affliction! It forces us to pray; it excites us to ardent importunity in our prayers; it supports and strengthens faith.—The anguish of guilt and the sense of God’s anger are a deep hell, from which none but God can rescue us.—There is need of great self-denial in refraining from asking a sign from God for our own sakes, which would be to tempt God; but we must ask for the sake of God’s glory. Osiander: As it is the duty of the servant to obey his master, so is it the part of the master to defend and protect his servant.—Arndt: When God does not lead and conduct men they wander, and God has His own peculiar way.—Frisch: The more thou givest God the honor, and showest thy reliance upon Him, the readier will he be to help thee.—Richter (Hausbibel): The best and most indispensable token of mercy which a believer can have is the witness and seal of the Holy Spirit. But God also vouchsafes to them a special token, namely, deliverance from the snares of the world, so that even unbelievers themselves must acknowledge: God is with them! Psalms 87 A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah1         His foundation is in the holy mountains. 2    The Lord loveth the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3    Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah. 4    I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me. Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; This man was born there. 5    And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: And the Highest himself shall establish her. 6    The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, That this man was born there. Selah. 7    As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: All my springs are in thee. AND Contents and Composition.—In the introduction, the glory of Jerusalem is praised as that of the city founded by God, loved by Him with especial affection, and blessed with a glorious promise (Psalms 87:1-3). The promise is then presented in its Messianic aspect (Psalms 87:4-6); and, finally, in one concluding verse, expression is given to the grateful joy which the promise excites. It is peculiar to this Psalm, that the conversion of nations previously strange and hostile to Israel, and their union with God’s people, are described, not as the homage of subjected foes, Psalms 68:30; Psalms 72:9, &c. in agreement with the prophecies of the second part of Isaiah, but as an entering into the relations of children and citizens, resembling in many points Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 11:10-16; Isaiah 19:24 f.; Isaiah 20:23. But our Psalm cannot be older than these passages, and therefore cannot be assigned to the time of David, as alluding by the idea of founding to the removal of the sanctuary to Jerusalem (Clauss). In Psalms 87:4, Egypt is designated by the symbolical name Rahab, which occurs first in Isaiah 30:7, and that as alluding to vain-glorious presumption, while the word itself denotes a mythical sea-monster, Job 9:13; Job 26:12 (Sept. κῆτος), and is thus employed as an emblem of Egypt (Isaiah 51:9; Psalms 89:11), as the beast of the reeds in Psalms 68:31. The modes of expression, condensed even to obscurity (Flaminius, Olsh.), bear in their pregnant conciseness and imagery a great resemblance to Psalms 21; Psalms 22:14; Psalms 30:6 f. The time of Hezekiah has therefore been fixed upon (Venema, Dathe, Tholuck, Hengstenberg, Vaihinger, Delitzsch). For, after the destruction of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib, Assyria appears no longer along with Egypt as a representative of the world-power; but Babylon has already stepped forth into the theatre of history (Isaiah 39; Micah 4:10; 2 Chronicles 32:33). We have no convincing ground for fixing the date of composition as late as the return from exile (Calvin, Ewald, Hupfeld), or still later in the days of the Maccabees (Hitzig) from a supposed reference to the Jews, who dwelt in large numbers in the countries named, and to their pilgrimages to the great feasts in Jerusalem. We can say no more than that a date must be assigned at which the power of Babylon was not immediately felt, because the language does not reveal the excitement and bitterness which are to be found in Isaiah 14, 47—The Rabbins have quite misunderstood this Psalm, and Luther also has given many false renderings. The denial of the Messianic character (Hitzig) is at the opposite extreme to the opinion that there is no historical back-ground, but that the glory of the Church is all that is referred to. Psalms 87:1. His foundation.—The form of the word, and its union with the suffix, make it probable that it is not a passive part.=His founded (city) as Hengst. and others maintain. But the masc. suffix is undoubtedly to be referred to God; for Zion, as the name of a city, occurs afterwards as feminine. We must neither supply a verb: is (De Wette), or: consists (Baur), or, by repeating the principal idea: is founded (Hengst.); nor can we assume gratuitously that an introductory clause has fallen out (Ewald, Olshausen). It is just as improbable that this verse of a single stich belongs to the superscription and announces the subject of the Psalm (Chald., Kimchi, and others). Nor is it a vocative, as most suppose, but an accusative, preceding its subject, depending in thought (J. D. Mich.) on the verb of the following verse. Nor is it necessary, in order to make the formal arrangement of the whole sentence regular, to complete the sense by uniting it to the first words of the next verse (Schnurrer, Hupfeld, Hofmann [so Perowne.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 87:2-3. The gates of Zion are mentioned with reference not to the invincible security newly assured by God (Hengst.), but to their accessibility to the many new inhabitants promised to the holy city.—That which is spoken of or in Zion, is not God’s word proclaimed in the Church generally, but the promise relating to Zion’s increasing glory. As this promise is cited in the form of a declaration of God, it is not proper to take the part. pass, impersonally=they speak (Ewald, Maurer, Olsh., Hengst.). The use of the part. in the sing. and that in the masculine, though construed with a fem. plural, is due either to the singular meaning of the plural form employed as an abstract, or to the conception of the part., as being a kind of noun-neuter (Hupfeld). [Alexander: “Instead of in thee, some read of thee, but the former is entitled to the preference; first, because it is the strict sense, and therefore not to be rejected without reason; then, because it really includes the other, but is not included in it; lastly, because it suggests the additional idea of the holy city as the scene, no less than the theme of the prophetic visions.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 87:4-6. I will proclaim Rahab and Babylon as those that know me.—[E. V.: I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me.] The first word denotes a public and solemn acknowledgment. This, probably, is not directly an announcement to or among those who know the name of Jehovah already, that a new accession is made to their numbers, but it is the two world-powers to the north and south, hitherto hostile, who are mentioned as knowing Him. Jehovah will name them publicly, and acknowledge them as belonging to those who know Him. And the Church is further directed to look at other nations, near and far, who are made conspicuous in the world as examples of this relation by the pointing finger of God, and upon whom, successively, God fixes His gaze, as He declares them one by one to be children of Zion. As the nations are to have appellations with the forms of personal proper names, it is better not to limit the term “this” to individual men in these nations (Ewald) who became proselytes “there,” that is, in the countries named (Hitzig.) It brings these nations before us as individualities, and their separate existence as nations is indicated by their being pointed out, and also by the representation that these individualities are regarded, “man by man,” as born in Zion, the city preserved for ever by God Himself. The same thing is also indicated by numbering up in a record (Ezekiel 13:9). They are thus made Zion’s citizens. Zion does not lose her peerless preeminence, no matter how great this accession may be, or how dissimilar the natural characteristics of her new citizens. There is here a forecast of the New Testament idea of the second birth. Yet it is not this idea itself, and it is very different from the conception according to which Zion should regain her dispersed inhabitants (Isaiah 60:4), and thus become the mother of a countless people (Isaiah 54:1; Isaiah 54:3; Isaiah 66:7). No contrast is drawn here between Zion and the other places peopled by descendants of Jacob, the settlements of Jews in all parts of the world. According to this view, only individuals, “this man” and “that man” belong to the church of Israel, whether by birth or conversion, while in Jerusalem all the inhabitants, man by man, are designated Jews (Hitzig). The interpretation which assumes that for the other nations the enumeration was made collectively, but in Zion by individuals (Hofmann), is equally false. Psalms 87:7. Singers as well as dancers.—[E. V.: As well the singers as the players on instruments.] The forms of the words do not indicate professions or positions, but actions. There is no occasion for doing away with the dancing as an expression of praise (2 Samuel 6:16; Psalms 149:3; Psalms 150:4). It destroys the connection to translate: pipe-players instead of: dancers (Symmachus, Theodotion, Kimchi, Flaminius, Calvin, and others). The rendering: The singers as in rows (Aquila, Jerome, Luther), is incorrect. It is possible to resolve the participles into finite verbs (Isaaki, Dathe), but it is unsuitable, and only necessary if the pointing of the last stich is changed with the following sense: all thy inhabitants (Schnurrer, Bφttcher) or neighbors (Hupfeld) sing as well as dance. It is undoubtedly a procession of the Gentiles, who offer their thanksgiving to God and the Church, as Israel once did after the passage through the Red Sea (Hengst.). There is no reason why the concluding words should not be placed in the mouths of those who, according to the custom of the orientals, give a lively expression to their joy. Only we must not restrict the sense, and understand by springs specially the fountain of salvation (Isaiah 12:3). The expression all my springs is itself opposed to this restriction, and includes all means of refreshment. Yet we may be specially reminded of the prophetic representation of a fountain rising in the house of God, from which flows the water of life (Psalms 36:9; Joel 4:18; Ezekiel 47:1; Zechariah 14:8). [Hupfeld, following a line of conjecture begun by the Sept. rendering κατοικία, assumes that the word is the Hiph. part. from ςεּ ?ο=dwellers. This is the best of all the emendations proposed; but against it there is not only the traditional reading, but also the fact that the natural sense: all (are) dwellers with thee, would require an unusual construction of the construct. If a suffix of the 1 sing. be attached, the sentence is wanting in simplicity. Yet the conjecture is worthy of consideration, from the altogether unexpected thought afforded by the received reading.—J. F. M.] The explanation: all my eyes, that is, glances or thoughts, are on thee (Calvin and others), is against the form of the words. The interpretation according to a supposed Arabian cognate form: my whole heart is in thee (Isaaki) is unnecessary. An arbitrary conjecture, with still more violent changes in the text, gives the following sense: masters as (numerous as) servants, all my eyes (overseers) are in thee (Hitzig). AND ETHICAL1. God is bound by lasting love to the city in which He has His earthly dwelling, and from which grows the kingdom which He erects among men. He has, for this reason, an essential interest in those foundations, upon which He has established the city, and by means of which He extends His kingdom, and makes this His zeal in their behalf known by word and deed in the world’s history. By His word of promise, He maintains among His people the remembrance of His choosing them, keeps alive the thought of their calling, and gives them a wider view of their destiny. And by deeds of deliverance He strengthens the faith of His Church, excites its love, directs its hopes, pledges and secures, in general, its preservation in the world. Yet its particular condition depends upon the conduct of its members. 2. The praise of Zion is justified because of the God’s beloved city, built upon the rock which He has made the foundation of His dwelling, wherein those fountains are opened by which the powers of the world to come are afforded to believers from the wells of salvation, that they may prove themselves in this world to be the children of God. But these believers shall be gathered out of the whole earth, both far and near. And therefore will God open the gates of His city, that access may be afforded to those fountains, so that children may be born to Him in His city from all nations. And these are acknowledged by Him to be of the number of those who know Him, though before they were ignorant of Him, and they now rejoice with those who praise Him. But if Zion would remain God’s city and enjoy His protection, she must as established by God, ever build herself up on this foundation, and prove herself a mother to His children by her administration and use of those fountains. “It happens often that cities which rise the most rapidly to a conspicuous place in the world, are the most rapid in their fall. In order that the prosperity of the Church may not be thought to be so frail as this, the prophet adds that she is established by the Highest. As if he had said: It is no wonder that other cities nod to their destruction, for they are shaken with the world’s commotions, and have none who can be their everlasting guardian.” (Calvin). AND It is one and the same God, who has established the Church upon earth, who maintains it as a peculiar institution, and rules it after His holy and loving will.—The foundation which God has laid for the Church, the end to which He has appointed her, and the way which He has pointed out to her.—The destiny assigned the Church as the city of God for all the nations of the earth.—What does the present condition of the Church seem to be, when we consider her Divine founding, and the part assigned her in the world?—The house of God among the dwellings of men; (1) its origin; (2) whither it directs us; (3) how it realizes its aim.—The acknowledgment which God demands, and the acknowledgment which God vouchsafes, are mutually related and mutually conditioned.—The missionary work of the Church: (1) according to its Divine institution; (2) in its actual extent; (3) with the means ordained.—The conversion of the heathen: (1) as God’s will; (2) as the work of the Church; (3) as the delight of the pious.—He who is not a child of God need not expect to be reckoned among the citizens of His kingdom.—God opens to men in the city in which He dwells, three fountains: (1) that of the true knowledge of Him; (2) that of eternal salvation; (3) that of blessed joy.—The Church founded by God, and His dwelling, as the mother of His children.—The best security for the prosperity of a city is the piety of its inhabitants.—There is nothing better for men than to have God as their Defender, Guardian, and Father.—God, the Founder and Master-builder of His city, is also the Father and King of His children. Starke: If the Church is the city of God, who would be so neglectful as not to seek to obtain its citizenship?—God is (he Master-builder of His Church. Well for him who helps to build; but ill for him who seeks to injure or destroy that structure.—He who is taught the language of the Holy Spirit, is learned in the things of God.—The mutations and increase of languages have become, under the New Testament, a blessing; though under the Old, at the Tower of Babel, they were a punishment. Selnecker: God’s people are united to God’s word; where, therefore, that word is, the Church of Christ is.—Renschel: A description of the Church of the New Testament, after the type of the earthly Jerusalem.—Rieger: In building the city of God, let us not think so much about the present feeble beginning and the difficulties still to be overcome, but rather upon the sure ground of the Divine promises and the great Master-builder, who has in His own hands the plan of the city.—Gόnther: It is only those who are born there that are in the city of God; and it is the Highest who has founded that city.—Schaubach: Would that the Lord in His mercy would keep us true to His Church, His word, and His sacraments, kindle this lamp for those among whom it has expired, and in His mercy supply the needs of those that have it, until at last there be one flock and one Shepherd.—Diedrich: Zion, out of which proceeds the word of grace, is the fountain of many nations, and the birth-place of a new humanity.—Taube: It is God’s hand, and no partial human hand, that writes down in the book of life those who are born in the city of God; and just for that reason sharp tests are employed to decide the right to a place there.—Mφller: The firm foundation of the Evangelical Church, her sure covenant, and her joyful words. [Scott: It should especially be remembered here, that almost all the sacred writers belonged to Zion, or to that despised nation which met to worship at Zion; and no nation on earth, or part of a nation, has been preserved or delivered from idolatry, except through the revelations which God made through the prophets and apostles of Israel. Bishop Horne: In the book of life, that register of heaven kept by God Himself, our names are entered, not as born of flesh and blood by the will of man, but as born of water and the Spirit by the will of God; of each person it is written that he was born there, in the Church and city of God.—J. F. M.] Psalms 88 A song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite2         O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: 3    Let my prayer come before thee: Incline thine ear unto my cry: 4    For my soul is full of troubles: And my life draweth nigh unto the grave. 5    I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength. 6    Free among the dead, Like the slain that lie in the grave, Whom thou rememberest no more: And they are cut off from thy hand. 7    Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, In darkness, in the deeps. 8    Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah. 9    Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; Thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. 10    Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee. 11    Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. 12    Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or thy faithfulness in destruction? 13    Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 14    But unto thee have I cried, O Lord; And in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. 15    Lord, why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me? 16    I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: While I suffer my terrors I am distracted. 17    Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, Thy terrors have cut me off. 18    They came round about me daily like water; They compassed me about together. 19    Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, And mine acquaintance into darkness. AND Contents and Composition. The superscription is a double one, the two parts of which are mutually contradictory, for Heman the Ezrahite was no Korahite. See Introd. § 2. The first part seems to have been inserted after the other, since the direction, “to the leader” is elsewhere found at the end. The explanation: to be performed mournfully with subdued voice, (Delitzsch) agrees with the mournful contents, whose tone is even more gloomy than that of Psalms 67. It is only the exclamation: Jehovah, God of my help, or of my salvation (Psalms 88:2 a) which shows that the last cord, uniting the suppliant to God, even if worn down to the last thread, is not entirely severed. All that follows is a complaint as though from the depths of hell. (Lamentations 3:55). For it is a lamentation which after long and painful suffering under the oppression of the weight of God’s anger, sees nothing before it but death and hell (Flaminius, Hupfeld). The prayer of anguish arises from the greatness of the distress (Psalms 88:2-4), which has brought the sufferer near to death (Psalms 88:5-6), and is the effect of God’s wrath (Psalms 88:7-8), and has cast him out from his acquaintance as an object of abhorrence (Psalms 88:9-10). There then follows a succession of lamentations as to the condition after death (Psalms 88:11-13), in connection with which is uttered the question which agitates him most deeply, why God should then turn away from him in the midst of his supplications (Psalms 88:14-15). A return is then made to the lamentations over his miseries, which surround him like billows and darkness (Psalms 88:16-18). It is not, however, to be inferred from this that the conclusion of the Psalm has been lost (Muntinghe, Olshausen), or that it is to be united to the following so as to form one composition (Hengstenberg). Expressions of hope are not uttered, because the suppliant had not yet reached the victorious issue of the conflict. There is still less ground for putting these words in the mouth of the Messiah (the ancients). Nor is the particular kind of calamity here deplored definitely indicated, whether sickness (Aben Ezra, Ewald), or a particular form, leprosy (Venema, Kφster, Delitzsch), or imprisonment (Venema as an alternative, Hitzig). And yet the expressions indicate personal experiences, thus opposing the notion that they form a national psalm of complaint of the period of the Babylonish Exile (Syriac, Rosenmόller, De Wette), or on account of its long continuance (Chald., the Rabbins) or of the approach of that catastrophe (Hengst.). Nor should any more weight be attached to the attempt to connect the Psalm with the prophet Jeremiah when in the pit (Venema) or during the captivity, Psalms 86 being assigned to the same author and period. Nor is it more probable that the composition was contemporaneous with that of the Book of Sirach (Hitzig), or with the plague in the time of Hezekiah (J. D. Michaelis), or with the leprosy of King Uzziah (Iken), or of Job, (Kφster, Delitzsch). Yet it must be admitted, that we hear resounding through this psalm tones which are familiar in others, while some expressions are most strikingly similar to phrases and words occurring in the book of Job, and that the Ezrahite Heman was among the wise men of the age of Solomon (1 Kings 5:11). [Hengstenberg has advanced and defended at length the hypothesis alluded to above, that this Psalm and the following one constitute one double psalm. To this he was led by the length of the title, its composite appearance, and the title “song” prefixed. The supposition at first appears to be reasonable, but the conjectures and assumptions which it needs for support give it, when examined, a different appearance. For each of these psalms has a complete title, assigning it to an author different from the other. Hengstenberg, therefore, is led to assume that these so called authors were not the composers, but that the Korahites affixed their names to psalms of their own composition, in order to give weight to them, and also to honor the memory of the ostensible authors themselves. But apart from the above objection, there is this other, that the psalms are not only different in tone and feeling, but are evidently also distinct compositions; for, while the former records individual feelings, the latter records national ones. It would certainly have been much more natural to have combined the two titles. The idea of an actual Korahite authorship might not then be readily suggested, but an intimation of the unity of design would be given, which other circumstances certainly do not indicate. But it is not necessary to maintain that the superscription of this Psalm is not genuine, for there is no difficulty in supposing that after its composition by Heman the Ezrahite of the tribe of Judah (not the Korahite), for (μ) the Korahites, it was committed to their especial charge for its musical performance, or that it was in some other way connected with that body of singers, so as to form a part of their special literature.—The opinion of Delitzsch as to the authorship seems to me to be the most probable. Unless Heman was a Korahite adopted by an Ezrahite, as Hengst. supposes, which seems very unlikely, it is certain that the author was the wise man of that name at Solomon’s court. The date is, thus fixed also. For a full view of the expressions in the psalm resembling passages in the Book of Job, which is now almost proved to belong to the same period, see besides Delitzsch on this Psalm, the introduction to his Comm. on Job and his article Hiob in Herzog’s Real-Encykl.—Among Anglo-American commentators, the view of Hengstenberg as to the form of the Psalm is considered probable by Alexander. For the opinion of the latter as to the date of composition, see the introduction to Psalms 89. Wordsworth believes that this and the next psalm form a pair. He regards both as referring to some great affliction of David, probably the rebellion of his son Absalom. Perowne says that all the conjectures as to the author and the circumstances under which he wrote are worth nothing. And yet he claims in his critical note that Heman the Ezrahite was also the Levitical singer. Why then, on this supposition, might he not have been one of the Korahites, and the genuineness of the whole title, which Perowne denies, be thus established? In view of this coincidence, the anomalous position of μַ ?ξְ ?πַ ?φֵּ ?ηַ would not be sufficient to prove the spuriousness of either part. But the hypothesis given above affords a more satisfactory explanation.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 88:2. In the day of my crying. [E. V. I have cried day]. As ιֹ ?εξָ ?ν is not used, but ιֹ ?εν, closely connected by Makkeph with the following word, there cannot be two parallel clauses: In the day have I cried, in the night am I before thee. Nor is it necessary to alter the division of the verse and render: O God of my salvation, on the day when I cried. Nor can we strike out ιֹּ ?εν as a later gloss (Hupfeld). Instead of a contrast between day and night, it is allowable to consider the former as an indefinite mark of time (Hitzig, Del.) as in Psalms 56:4; Psalms 78:42; cf. Psalms 18:1. [Dr. Moll accordingly renders: In the day of my crying—in the night before thee, let my prayer come, etc. The rendering of the Engl. Vers. is defective from a false arrangement. The following extract from Hengstenberg seems to present the true view: “The two clauses are to be supplemented from each other; in the first, before thee: in the second, I cry. The fundamental passage is Psalms 22:2, ‘My God, I cry in the day time and thou answerest not, and in the night season and am not silenced.’ According to this passage the ιֹ ?εν must here stand for ιֹ ?εξָ ?ν or αְּ ?ιֹ ?εν It certainly does not occur in any other passage, but there are many analogies in its favor, and the short form might the more readily be used here, as αμιμδ follows.” The true rendering is therefore: “In the day-time I cry, in the night before Thee.” The Makkeph does not affect the connection of the words.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 88:6. My couch (is) among the dead. [E. V. Free among the dead.] This rendering is in accordance with Ezekiel 27:20, comp. Job 17:13 (Hitzig, Ewald, Bφttcher, Kφster and Maurer), following a kindred verb in Arabic meaning, to be stretched out (Iken, J. D. Mich.). It is possible also to view it as an adjective: prostrate (De Wette, Hupfeld), or according to another derivation: free, at large (Sept., Symmachus and other versions); not abandoned, neglected, (Luther, Venema and others), or shut out from human society and the enjoyments of this life (Geier, Clericus, Stier), but released from the performance of legal duties as one defunctus (Job 3:19; Job 39:5; Romans 7:2), from the primary idea of release from a master, Exodus 21:3; Deuteronomy 15:12; Jeremiah 34:9. (Chald., Isaaki, Aben Ezra, Calvin, J. H. Michaelis, Hengst., Del., Hupfeld as an alternative). But against these derivations, there is especially the term applied to a hospital for lepers in 2 Kings 15:5. [Delitzsch: “In this passage (2 Kings 15:5) the place to which the leprous king withdrew might mean a house for the convalescent as well as the sick, a sans souci as well as a lazaretto.” The common rendering as given in our version, as followed by most, and as explained above, is probably the most correct.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 88:8-9. The words, “all thy waves” need not be separated from the following so that the verb be understood from the preceding clause (De Dieu), and the remaining words of the verse be construed as a relative clause by asyndeton (Hupfeld), according to which we would have the rendering: by which thou hast afflicted me. As the suffix is absent, it is, of course, not to be translated; with all thy waves thou afflictest me (Symmachus and the most). The accusative precedes the verb. [“All Thy waves Thou dost press down” (upon me). For the thought and fundamental passage see Psalms 42:8.—J. F. M.]. So all the ancient translators but Symmachus, Aben Ezra, Ewald, Delitzsch. There is no ground for a substitution of φִ ?εִּ ?ιϊָ for ςַ ?πִּ ?ιϊָ (Olshausen). Psalms 88:9 c. need not be understood of imprisonment (Symmachus, Luther. Hitzig), or the seclusion of a leper (Del.). Still less, as the expression is passive, is it to be regarded as describing the condition of a man who withdraws of his own accord from mankind, who shuts himself up in his house, and will not show himself in public, whether from shame, or in order not to excite abhorrence (Clericus, Ewald, Hengst., Hitzig). It is quite sufficient to regard it as a figurative and biblical conception of distress, as a prison from which no way of escape is to be found, Lamentations 3:7; Lamentations 3:9; Job 3:23 and frequently (most). Psalms 88:11. The designation of the dead as ψְ ?τָ ?ΰִ ?ιν, is not the name of the Rephaim, a race of Canaanitish giants, transferred to the departed, as appearing to the imagination in gigantic forms, 1 Samuel 28:13 (Hengst.). It comes from a root which expresses what is weak and languid, and at the same time stretched out and long-extended, and which can accordingly be employed to describe the shadowy forms of the under world as well as the giants and heroes of the olden time. There is no reference here as there is in Isaiah 26:14 to a rising from the grave, or simply (Hengst., Hupfeld) to a rising from the recumbent position which results from prostration. For the expression includes the thought of a return to life, and therefore that of a reappearance, at all events, in the under world, which is here characterized (Psalms 88:12) as destruction, (Abaddon) as in Job 26:6; Job 28:22; Proverbs 15:11; Proverbs 27:20, as darkness, Psalms 88:13, (comp. Psalms 88:7), and as the land of forgetfulness. These last words must be taken in a double sense: that God ceases to think of the dead (Psalms 88:6), for they are forgotten (Psalms 31:13), and that in the dead memory is extinct (Psalms 6:6; Psalms 30:10, et al.,Ecclesiastes 9:5-6; Ecclesiastes 9:10), for they forget. Psalms 88:16 ff. In Psalms 88:16 we should perhaps read ΰָ ?τεּ ?βָ ?δ (Olsh., Hupf.) instead of ΰָ ?τεּ ?πָ ?δ. For the former indicates the cessation of physical and mental life, torpor, stupor (Psalms 38:12). The latter does not occur elsewhere, and is not quite satisfactorily explained from the Arabic as mental weakness, helplessness. The optative is used to express inner necessity. [I am distracted (and cannot regain my powers). in the first member of the verse the rendering of the E. V. would be improved by substituting the words “dying away,” instead of “ready to die.” The former expresses better the force of continuance conveyed by the active participle, and describes better the condition of the sufferer.—J. F. M.] In Psalms 88:17 the form φִ ?ξְ ?ϊֻ ?ϊεּ ?πִ ?ι occurs, which is neither to be corrected according to Psalms 119:139 (Hitzig), nor to be regarded as a monstrosity, an impossible form (Olsh., Hupfeld), but is an intensive form, employed intentionally (Del.), similar to those in Hosea 4:18; Psalms 149:6 (Ewald), with a play upon Leviticus 25:23 (Hengst.). The rendering of Heidenheim is probably correct: their terrors have made me inalienably their own. [Delitzsch expresses the design of the form well: vernicht—nichtigt. Our version retains the rendering which it usually gives to this word: hath cut me off. The idea is that of utter destruction.—J.F. M.] The last sentence of the Psalm could mean: my trusted friends are darkness, that is, an object which is not seen, Job 12:25 (Hitzig), therefore: invisible (Chald., the Rabbins, and most expositors). But the explanation according to Job 17:14; Job 19:14; Isaiah 53:3; Proverbs 7:4, is more expressive, namely: that darkness has become his companion, in the place of his former companions, (Geier, J. H. Mich., Schnurrer, Hengst., Hupfeld, Del.). “With this cry the harp drops from the poet’s hand. He is silent and waits until God shall solve the enigma of his suffering:” (Del.). AND ETHICAL1. Members of the Church of God have not only to share here below the troubles and trials of this earthly life; they may also, by repeated sorrows, by an accumulation of afflictions, by an ever-rising deluge of cares, become outwardly and inwardly so distressed that they are utterly without prospect of escape. Avoided by their acquaintances, forsaken by their friends, abandoned by all the world, tortured in body, tempted in spirit, with nothing but darkness about their souls, they are driven to the verge of despair, and have before their eyes nothing but death, heart-rending destruction, and utter ruin. They should remember this, partly as a warning against security, when they are surrounded with peace and joy and prosperity, partly as a support for their souls in the hour of suffering and temptation. 2. For there is this difference between the people of God in their sorrows and other sufferers, that the former are united to the living God as the God of their help and salvation, by a tie which no temporal suffering, no earthly calamity, no outward power in the world can break, which, in a word, cannot be destroyed from without, but only loosed from within. But this cannot happen as long as the tempted one can pray, and raise his petition, not merely as a cry of anguish, by which, day and night, he makes his distress known unto God, but as an expression of his belief that God alone is his Helper and Saviour. “In so naming God, he puts a bridle and bit upon the attacks of insupportable pain, shuts the door in the face of despair, and strengthens himself to endure his cross.” (Calvin.) 3. As long as the assurance of immortality was not held fast by the soul, and the resurrection of the dead was not revealed to the Church, so long were death and the under-world not only the last but also the worst of enemies. And therefore in those times of old the prayers of believers were not poured forth for worldly treasures, earthly good, and carnal delight, but for the preservation and improvement of life, during their earthly pilgrimage, and for the manifestation of God’s glory within the sphere of the temporal, since they knew not how man could praise Him after death. The deliverance of the believer’s life, therefore, and the preservation of Israel, were not matters of individual interest and selfish desire; but the perpetuity of the Church in the world, and the salvation of the believer, were bound up with a righteous concern for God’s honor and His acknowledgment among men. “Although at first sight these complaints seem to evince suffering deprived of any consolation, yet they contain subdued tones of prayer. For the Psalmist addresses no proud recriminations to God, but, while he complains, asks for a remedy to heal his sorrows.” (Calvin). AND pious man may lose everything, and yet be not lost.—How difficult soever it may be not to cease praying when God vouchsafes no answer, it is yet the best safeguard against despair.—Men may be overburdened with sorrow, and yet more still be laid upon them.—Where do we have our lasting residence after death? And what becomes of us then?—There is no greater calamity than the sense of abandonment by God.—Well for him, whose fear of death increases his fear of God.—The conflict of suffering in the case of a pious sufferer a wrestling in prayer with the prospect of the final victory of faith.—The night of trouble may be very dark, but as long as the man, who is pressed down by the chastening hand of God, can rise at once again to prayer, his lamp is not yet gone out.—Though the hand of God lie ever so heavily upon us, yet, as long as we can invoke God as our Saviour, we can never lose our last hope, or fail of help at last.—Death seems to many to be a deliverer, but it brings into still more dreadful straits those who will feel themselves shut out from the hand of God. Starke: To cry and moan night and day racks body and soul; but remember, when thus oppressed, that God who brings down to hell, brings up again.—Grievous temptations are not to be viewed as tokens of God’s anger, but of His mercy.—Now is the time to pray. In hell it will be too late.—There is a difference between the anxious fear of believers in suffering, and the despair of the ungodly: the former cry to God in their fear; the latter cast all hope away, nor seek any help in God.—It is a double suffering, when a child of God is outwardly tormented, and has nothing but children of darkness around him, who aggravate by actions and words his inward suffering. Arndt: How God brings, in this life, His children down to hell, and takes away all comfort from them, before He raises them to heaven, and satisfies them with eternal consolation.—None belong to the ranks of the saints in heaven, who on earth have not fought under the banner of the cross of Christ.—Frisch: The night of anguish is the time to pray. Prayer drives away distress from the heart, and God comes and takes its place.—Scriver: Temptations of the soul are the greatest affliction; for then the mind feels its darkness, the will seeks languidly after God, and is utterly dismayed, and the memory can give neither joy nor comfort. Instead of these the feeling of God’s anger overspreads the soul.—Tholuck: The darker the night of sorrow is, and the more its veil overspreads the sight, the more worthy of honor is that faith, which in the midst of the darkness does not cease to pray.—Guenther: It must be with us sinners as gloomy as this; no less strongly must we feel the depth of our ruin, no less truly recognize that God’s wrath, in the eternal death of our soul, is the due desert of our sin, before we can grasp in firm faith the hand of our Saviour who comes to redeem us.—Diedrich: It is indeed something great that we, in all distresses, have free access to the supreme, eternal, and only blessed God. Let no depth of suffering then keep us away from Him.—Taube: The midnight of distress is the soul’s time of trial.—That may be called faithful continuance in prayer, which, though the anguish of the soul lasts far into the night and returns with the morning, sends forth with every new day, the old complaint to the heart of God. [Calvin: All men complain in their grief, but this is far from pouring out their woes in the presence of God; nay, they must seek some hiding-place, where they may murmur at God, and find fault with His severity; others utter openly their clamorous words. Hence we see what a rare virtue it is to place God before us, and to direct to Him our prayers. Matth. Henry: Nothing grieves a child of God so much as His hiding His face from him; nor is there anything he so much dreads as God’s casting off his soul.—If the sun be clouded, that darkens the earth; but if the sun should abandon the earth and quite cast it off, what a dungeon would it be!—God often prevents our prayers with His mercies; let us prevent His mercies with our prayers. Scott: If we are free from such dreadful trials, let us bless the Lord for it, and sympathize with and pray for our afflicted and tempted brethren. Bishop Horne: In the solitary and awful hour of our departure hence, let us remember to think on the desertion, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of our Redeemer. Barnes: It is well that there is one such description in Scripture of a good man thus suffering, to show us that when we thus feel, it should not be regarded as proof that we have no piety. Beneath all this, there may be true love to God; beyond all this, there may be a bright world to which the sufferer will come, and where he will forever dwell.—J. F. M.] Psalms 89 Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite2         I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. 3    For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. 4    I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, 5    Thy seed will I establish for ever, And build up thy throne to all generations. Selah. 6    And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord: Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. 7    For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? 8    God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. 9    O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? Or to thy faithfulness round about thee? 10    Thou rulest the raging of the sea: When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. 11    Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; Thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. 12    The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: As for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them 13    The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. 14    Thou hast a mighty arm: Strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. 15    Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 16    Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. 17    In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: And in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. 18    For thou art the glory of their strength: And in thy favour our horn shall be exalted. 19    For the Lord is our defence: And the Holy One of Israel is our King. 20    Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One, And saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. 21    I have found David my servant; With my holy oil have I anointed him: 22    With whom my hand shall be established: Mine arm also shall strengthen him. 23    The enemy shall not exact upon him; Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. 24    And I will beat down his foes before his face, And plague them that hate him. 25    But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: And in my name shall his horn be exalted. 26    I will set his hand also in the sea, And his right hand in the rivers. 27    He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, My God, and the Rock of my salvation. 28    Also I will make him my firstborn, Higher than the kings of the earth. 29    My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, And my covenant shall stand fast with him. 30    His seed also will I make to endure for ever, And his throne as the days of heaven. 31    If his children forsake my law, And walk not in my judgments; 32    If they break my statutes, And keep not my commandments; 33    Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. 34    Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 35    My covenant will I not break, Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 36    Once have I sworn by my holiness That I will not lie unto David. 37    His seed shall endure for ever, And his throne as the sun before me. 38    It shall be established for ever as the moon, And as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. 39    But thou hast cast off and abhorred, Thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. 40    Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: Thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. 41    Thou hast broken down all his hedges; Thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. 42    All that pass by the way spoil him: He is a reproach to his neighbours. 43    Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries, Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. 44    Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, And hast not made him to stand in the battle. 45    Thou hast made his glory to cease, And cast his throne down to the ground. 46    The days of his youth hast thou shortened: Thou hast covered him with shame. Selah. 47    How long, Lord? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? Shall thy wrath burn like fire? 48    Remember how short my time is: Wherefore hast thou made all men m vain? 49    What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah. 50    Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, Which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? 51    Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; How I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; 52    Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord; Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed. 53    Blessed be the Lord for evermore. Amen, and Amen. AND Contents and Composition. On the superscription see Introd. § 8, No. 3 and No. 2. The Psalmist begins (Psalms 89:2-3) with the assurance that he will never cease to praise the mercy of Jehovah which had been promised inviolably to David and his house, (Isaiah 55:3),and at the same time (Psalms 89:4-5) gives the essential contents of the promise after 2 Samuel 7:8 ff. He then shows the ground of his assurance and purpose (Psalms 89:6-19) in a description of the exaltation of this God of promise, who is praised in heaven and on earth for the manifestations of His power and goodness, righteousness and faithfulness, by which He has glorified Himself as the God and Protector of the people and of their king. This is followed by a lyrical unfolding of the fulfilment of the promise (Psalms 89:20-38). The situation of the reigning king, standing in such contrast to the promise, is next depicted (Psalms 89:38-46) by the Psalmist. He then asks (Psalms 89:47-49), how long this outpouring of God’s wrath, which none could escape by their own strength, was to continue; and finally (Psalms 89:50-52) he offers the prayer that this contrast between the promise and the actual condition of affairs would cease to exist. In Psalms 89:53 is sung the closing doxology of the Third Book. The speaker is not David (Clauss), but one who lived later and who here treats Messianically the promise given to David (comp. on Psalms 2) He writes at a time when the position of David’s descendants corresponded but little to that promise, but when the reigning monarch was still of that house, and for him he prays that he may be raised up from his prostration. For the “anointed” (Psalms 89:39) is not the people, but the king, and he is dependent upon God as the Holy One of Israel, and belongs to Him (Psalms 89:19). The interpretation which assumes that the king is this holy one of Israel, and that the people bear the name of anointed, is a consequence of the assumption that the Psalm belongs to the Maccabean period. (Hitzig). For this there is no ground. Nor is there any indication given which would lead us to connect it with the closing years of the Persian rule (Ewald). The same is true of the defeat of Josiah, 2 Chronicles 35:20 (Venema): for the death of the king is not mentioned here. We have no occasion to adopt in general (Hupfeld) the times shortly preceding the Babylonian Exile (De Wette, Hengst.) or during it (Syr., Grotius). The occasion of the composition was most probably the defeat of Rehoboam 1 Kings 14:25 ff. 2 Chronicles 12:1 ff. (Calvin, Delitzsch) by Shishak, that is, Sheshonk I, (comp. Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlδnd. Gessellschaft, Vol. Psalms 15 : p. 233 ff.). From this is perhaps to be explained the prominence given here to Egypt under the name Rahab (see on Psalms 87) in allusion to the former overthrow of this presumptuous and defiant enemy by the judgment of God. At that time the Ezrahite Ethan could have been still living. [The view of those who suppose that this Psalm forms with the preceding a double-psalm has been given in the introduction to the latter. Perowne, following a conjecture of Tholuck, thinks it not improbable that the king of whom the Psalm speaks was Jehoiachin, who after a reign of three months was deposed by Nebuchadnezzar, and of whom it was said that no king should “prosper, sitting on the throne of David.” He thinks at all events that there is little doubt that it was written in the latter days of the Jewish monarchy. Of course the superscription is completely ignored, as that commentator does not even think with Hengstenberg that the name was attached for the sake of giving greater authority and weight to the composition. Alexander, while adhering to Hengstenberg’s hypothesis of a double psalm, differs from him entirely as to the time of composition and thinks it most probable that both parts were composed almost contemporaneously with the promise recorded in the latter one—and were “intended to anticipate misgivings and repinings, which, though they existed even then in the germ, were not developed until the period of decline approached its catastrophe.” The opinion favored by Dr. Moll above is also that of Wordsworth. It was, as he remarks, defended by Dr. Water-land (see his Scripture Vindicated, p. 204). It is in every way the most probable view. To it we are led by the superscription, from which there is no reason to depart. Only it is not necessary to assume that the Ethan here (1 Kings 5:11; 1 Chronicles 11:6) is the same as the Ethan or Jeduthun (1 Chronicles 15:17), who was of the tribe of Levi and a Merarite. That his name heads a Korahite psalm need occasion no difficulty. See the addition to the introduction to Psalms 88.—The remark of Wordsworth is hardly just that this psalm is the Allegro to the Penseroso of the preceding, for here also the tone of melancholy, though not unmixed, still predominates.—J. F. M.] This psalm, which may be applied to the history of the afflicted servants of God in different ages of the Church, is often transferred from this use to an interpretation with special reference prophetically to the suffering Messiah (the ancients), or to the miseries of the Jews since the prevalence of Christianity (the Rabbins) or to the afflictia ecclesia (Calvin) the mystical Christ, inasmuch as He lives and suffers in His followers (Stier). [Alexander: “The particular promise insisted on here, is that in 2 Samuel 7, which constitutes the basis of all the Messianic Psalms.” The application to the life of Christ has been carried to extreme lengths, not only by older English commentators, but by Wordsworth and others among the more recent. Connecting with the last verse of Psalms 87 Wordsworth says: “All the springs of life, hope and joy to the Church are in the incarnation of Christ, of the seed of David and in the Divine promise of a perpetual and universal dominion to Him.” The psalm has a Messianic application, only in so far as it was intended to set forth the necessary conflict which was to be waged before the great fundamental promise could be realized. The struggle was most intense when Christ Himself was the King of the promise.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 89:2-4. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. According to the accentuation, ςεֹ ?μָ ?ν is to be construed with the verb. It is therefore not said that the mercies of Jehovah are eternal, but the Psalmist announces his determination never to cease praising them. The meaning of τlam is, at all events, not the modern abstract idea of the negation of time, nor the concrete Christian idea of eternity, but that of a period of time unknown and therefore indefinite, and of the course of human affairs within that period. This idea has been transferred by the Rabbins to the idea of the world itself, but in Biblical Hebrew it occurs only in the original sense. [From this use many false translations have occurred in the Septuagint, some of which have found their way into modern versions. The only passage on which there can be any doubt is Ecclesiastes 3:11, where E.V. renders “world.” But there, also, there is no necessity of departing from the Old Testament meaning. On this word see the note of Dr. Lewis in Zφckler’s Commentary in the Bible-Work.—J. F. M.]. It is to be decided by the connection whether the view is directed backwards into primitive or older times, or forwards into the future, whose end cannot be seen, and which runs out into eternity. The Psalmist, however, does not say that he will sing praises for all coming time or for eternity, but only, always. The assertion, therefore, that this expression is not suitable in the mouth of an individual, except as speaking for the Church in the assurance of her endless duration (Hengstenberg) is utterly groundless. It is only in the following stich that the singer says he will make known with his mouth, loudly and publicly, for coming generations, the faithfulness of God. By comparing Psalms 89:3 with Psalms 89:5 it is plain that ε need not be supplied with τlam in the previous stich. For the former verse does not mean that mercy is established forever (most of the ancients), as an indestructible building, but that it is ever being built up, (J. H. Michaelis and most of the recent expositors), that it does not stand still, nor come to a stop, nor fall in ruins, but rather continues, upon a foundation which is not laid upon anything earthly, temporal, or transitory, but in heaven, that is, upon the foundation of the promises of mercy which have their support in the credibility, the truth and faithfulness of God (Psalms 119:89).—The declaration of God, introduced unexpectedly in Psalms 89:4, is taken not merely in substance, but also literally in many expressions, from the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:5 f. The words covenant and swear, however, which so frequently recur in the psalm in connection with the faithfulness of God, are not found in that passage, but are justified by the theocratic relation of God to His people. (Hupfeld). So Ps. 54:9 views the promise of God (Genesis 8:21) as an oath. (Del.). Psalms 89:6-19. Thy wonder [E. V. wonders] does not here denote a work or a deed, but the nature of God (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Del.) as distinct from that of all created beings, or separated from their sphere of action (Hupfeld) Judges 13:18; Isaiah 9:5; Psalms 4:4; Psalms 22:4. The assembly of the holy ones [Psalms 89:6, E. V. saints] is here not the people (most) but the angels as in Job 5:1; Job 15:15; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 30:3, the sons of God, Psalms 29:1 [In Psalms 89:7 where E. V. has “sons of the mighty,” the literal rendering is: sons of God; that is, the angels. See Delitzsch on Job 15:15. It is parallel to the expression considered in the last verse.—J. F. M.] Psalms 89:13. Since the north (Job 26:7,) denotes the northern heavens and as Tabor and Hermon, being well known mountains on each side of Jordan, are employed to represent the land of Canaan (Venema) or the earth (Geier), especially in joyful passages (Isaiah 55:12; Psalms 98:8) and when national blessings are recounted (Psalms 72:3), the south might seem to denote the southern heaven, and, as in the foregoing verse, the earth to be placed in opposition to heaven (Hupfeld). But the term: right hand, used to designate the south, is in favor of the usual reference to the four quarters of the earth.—In Psalms 89:16, ϊְ ?ψεּ ?ςָ ?δ is not specially the blowing of the trumpets, which were sounded in the worship of God (Isaaki, Rudinger, Rosenmόller, De Wette, Hitzig). Nor is it to be taken as alluding to the giving of the law at Sinai (Flaminius), or to the battle cry of God as the Lord of hosts (Kimchi, Venema, Muntinghe) or to shouts in honor of the king (Aben Ezra), but to the rejoicing generally at sacred seasons. In Psalms 89:19, μְ is not=as for, and therefore is not a sign of the nominative (Syr., Luther, Ewald, Hitzig), but, as the context determines, it denotes possession or source. It is the relation of the king, who is called our shield [E. V. our defence] as in Ps. 47:10, to Jehovah, that is here dwelt upon. Psalms 89:20-30. Help. It is unnecessary, instead of ςֵ ?ζֶ ?ψ to read πֵ ?ζֶ ?ψ: crown (Venema, Olshausen, Hupfeld), or Σςֹ ?ζmajesty (Hupfeld). The subject is not the choice of David as king, but the assistance rendered him by God against the Philistines. It is he himself, however, who is called the hero [E. V. one that is mighty] as in 2 Samuel 17:10, and not Goliath, as in 1 Samuel 17:51, in which case we would have to render: I have raised up help against the mighty (Hitzig). For the best authorities read in the foregoing stich ηֲ ?ρִ ?ιγֶ ?ικָ. This does not refer to the people of God in general but to Samuel and Nathan, for God’s declaration made to them follows. If the singular is preferred the interpretation which understands David to be meant by “the saint” (Hupfeld), is little in accordance with the language employed. [Alexander thinks that if the singular be preferred either Nathan or David may be meant. If the plural is to be taken in the most natural way, as referring to Samuel and Nathan, the singular ought, I think, to relate to the latter, especially as the vision was made directly to Nathan. In Psalms 89:23, ιַ ?ωִּׁ ?ιּ ?ΰ rendered in our version, “shall not exact upon him” is probably to be taken from πָ ?ωָׁ ?ΰ to deceive, here entrap, ensnare. Perowne wrongly attributes the different meanings to different species of the same verb.–J. F. M.]. The first-born is not the only (Hengst.), but the favorite son, raised above the others to the highest place, transferred from the Israelitish people (Deuteronomy 26:19; Deuteronomy 28:1), the first-born Son of God (Exodus 4:22, comp. Jeremiah 31:9), to David, the latest-born son of Jesse, and having reference to his seed for evermore. The expression, days of heaven (Psalms 89:30) which is taken from Deuteronomy 11:21, has a similar significance. It is repeated, as a current saying in Sir 45:18, Bar 1:11. Psalms 89:31-38. The words, once have I sworn (Psalms 89:36) show the unalterable validity of the oath for all time (Sept. and most). To explain it as meaning one as opposed to several (Hengst., Del.), is not opposed to the contents of the oath, but to the context. [According to this view the rendering would be: “One thing have I sworn, etc.,” that is, with regard to the eternity of His throne.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 89:31 ff. prove the priority of 2 Samuel 7:14 as compared with 1 Chronicles 17:13—God has sworn by His holiness (Amos 4:2) as, in other passages by His soul (Amos 6:8; Jeremiah 51:14, [In E. V. rendered “by Himself.”—J. F. M.]), by His right hand (Isaiah 62:8) or by His name (Jeremiah 44:26) or by Himself) Genesis 22:16; Jer. 45:23). By referring to 1 Samuel 7:16, it seems natural to render Psalms 89:38 b: and as the witness in heaven (the rainbow) shall it (David’s throne) endure for ever, (Luther, Geier, and others). But the particle of comparison is absent. We cannot regard the witness in heaven, whose continuance is thus emphasized, as the moon, employed to set forth the perpetuation of David’s race in the same way as the rainbow was a testimony to the continuance of the earth (Aben Ezra, Kimchi and others, Hengst). There is no example of such a conception or usage. We may interpret according to Jeremiah 31:35; Jeremiah 33:20 ff., where God is said to have fixed the laws of the sun, the moon, and the stars, as also the laws of the heavens and earth, as pledges of the fulfilment of His covenant with Israel and His servant David, with direct reference to the duration of his throne (Isaaki, Calvin, Rudinger, Hupfeld). Or we may follow Job 16:19, where God Himself is designated the Witness in heaven and the Surety in its heights (Symmachus, Cocceius, Maurer, Hitzig, Delitzsch). The latter interpretation is favored by the consideration that God, as the only true One, is not only the best surety for the words of His servants, but also for all that He Himself has ordained and promised, and that He Himself testifies to their validity (Deuteronomy 7:9; Isaiah 65:16; Jeremiah 42:5). witnessing here, therefore, has not merely the sense of a solemn promise (Hitzig) as in Micah 1:2; Isaiah 55:4 [The true rendering accordingly is: “And the Witness in heaven is true.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 89:39-44. Thou hast cast off,etc. The assumption that these words are put in the mouth of the enemy (Aben Ezra) proceeds from the unwillingness, felt by many, to believe that God could have been reproached by the psalmist for breach of His oath and covenant. But it is just the thought of the contradiction between the actual condition of things and the glorious destiny promised the king by God, and the consciousness of the reliability of the promise, which makes the tempted poet sensible of the impossibility of the ruin of the kingdom. And it is this which causes the transition from complaint and despondency to hope and prayer, while he looks forward to the sure fulfilment of the Divine counsels and promises, which no worldly power could prevent. The expressions used in Psalms 89:41-42 were evidently written with Psalms 80:13 in view. Yet it does not follow from this, either that the king is compared to a vineyard and fortress (Hengst.). or that the people are to be understood as the anointed and the servant, but only that the king and the nation are considered as one, in suffering from the desolations of war. The term πֵ ?ζֶ ?ψ applied to the crown, signifying consecration, is used in contrast to the dishonor inflicted upon the king.—In Psalms 89:44, we are not to render: the rock of his sword (Hengst.), or: O rock! (Olshausen). For, according to the kindred Arabic, φεּ ?ψ is to be understood as denoting the edge or blade of the sword (Fleischer in Delitzsch), as already the Rabbins had conjectured from the context. Psalms 89:48. Remember,etc. The sentence consists of abrupt but highly significant expressions, so that it is not necessary, by slight alterations in the text, where the manuscripts differ so much, to extract the rendering: I have remembered, or: remember, O Lord! or, following Psalms 31:5, to change ηָ ?μֶ ?γ into ηָ ?γֵ ?μ. The translation: mote (Bφttcher) has etymological support: the usual one=term of life, is disputed [Dr. Moll therefore renders. “Remember—I—what a mote!” Delitzsch: “Remember; I—how quickly passing!” and so most expositors substantially. Our version conveys the right idea, but in an order of the words, which, though the most intelligible, does not follow the original faithfully.—J. F. M.]. According to the present punctuation it is incorrect to render the following stich: wherefore shouldest thou have made all men in vain? (Hengst. and most of the ancients). For ξָ ?δ cannot be construed with μָ ?ξָּ ?δ=ςַ ?μ but is closely connected with the following word by Daghesh, (Kimchi and most of the recent expositors). [The former sense as given in our version should be retained. The Daghesh and the Makkeph do not affect the sense of this passage. ςμξδ in the sense of why is common. Hengstenberg says that we are to understand after these words the following, “As would be the case, if these should perish for ever.” The hypothetical sense (shouldst Thou have made) ought to be preserved.—J. F. M.]. Bear in my bosom (Psalms 89:51), cannot here as in Deuteronomy 11:12; Isaiah 40:11, refer to the tender, cherishing care of love, since the passage does not allude to the sufferings of the Messiah for all peoples (many of the old expositors,) but to hostile nations. Yet it is not these (De Wette) who are said to be borne, for λָ ?μΞψַ ?αּ ?ινςַ ?ξִּ ?ιν cannot mean: the whole of many nations, and it is only the reproach and grief caused by them (Jeremiah 15:15) and poured into the bosom (Psalms 79:12) which can be said to be carried in it. The context also alludes distinctly to this. The only doubtful question is, how the three words just cited, which also create the impression that the text has been mutilated, are to be translated. They can hardly be considered as the genitive (Ewald) after ηֶ ?ψְ ?τָּ ?δ, following as they do at such a distance from the latter. Are we then to insert herpah, as though it had fallen out, between the words λμ and ψαιν, which cannot be tolerated in their present position (Hupfeld)? Comp. the correct arrangement in Ezekiel 31:6. Or are we to strike out λμ as superfluous (Septuag.)? or regard it as a mutilation for λְּ ?μִ ?ξָּ ?δ =contempt, following the very similar passage Ezekiel 36:15 (Bφttcher)? Or is it a mistaken enlargement of μ=by many nations (Hitzig)? The position of ψַ ?αִּ ?ιν before the principal word may be explained in two ways. It is either due to the conception of the adjective as an indefinite numeral (Psalms 32:10. Proverbs 31:29; 1 Chronicles 28:5; Nahum 9:28). Or it is to be regarded as a substantive and explained, according to Jeremiah 16:16, as many, that is, people. AND ETHICAL1. Whatever in the world is to endure, must not only be built upon an immovable foundation, but must have also in itself a living principle of progress; to the one as well as to the other, supernatural strength and Divine control are necessary. This is true in a special sense of all that concerns the establishment, preservation, and extension of the kingdom of God on earth. The person, reign, offspring, and history of David are types of that kingdom. In these everything was placed upon the foundation of God’s promises, whose inviolability is attested by His truth and faithfulness, and whose fulfilment is secured by the uninterrupted workings of His mercy. The Church has here a subject of never-ending praise, and is ever stirred up to utter it by the grateful confession of what His servants experience. 2. But the praise of God resounds not only in His Church upon earth, but also among His saints in heaven. It has as its ground His glory, as that wondrous Being, infinitely exalted above all others in that majesty which is awful even to the “holy ones,” and yet is revealed for the consolation of believers in the displays of His incomparable might, unwearied help-bringing goodness, and unswerving faithfulness to His covenant, which is confirmed by an oath. 3. Blessed are the people who know this God, trust His promises, and walk in His light! They cannot perish, even though trials rise and overwhelm them like the waves of the sea. The conviction that God is able and willing to help His own, and that He will do it, saves them from despair, even though all visible support totters and falls, and, as far as man can judge, ruin is at hand, and utter destruction certain. God’s promises are to believers more certain still. But as faith is needed to grasp these promises in the hour of distress, and faithfulness, to hold fast to them amidst the trials of life, so proof of loyalty to His service among the temptations of the world, and a holy life, are necessary to secure the continual fulfilment of those promises in personal experience. For he who will entrust himself to the protection which God affords to His chosen inheritance, must prove himself to belong to it, and must not forget that the God whom he trusts and serves, is the Holy One of Israel, whose throne has righteousness and justice for its foundation, (Proverbs 16:12; Proverbs 25:5), and mercy and truth for its ministers. 4. The service of God involves sometimes trial of our fidelity to our vows, sometimes temptation in the life of faith, sometimes chastening in the way of righteousness, but it has always for its object the strengthening of those bonds which unite the children of God, and their education in the Christian life. For in the holy love of God, righteousness is so united to mercy that He visits even His children with chastisement for their sins; and yet this is the chastening of a Father. Nor does the unfaithfulness of men interfere with the exercise of the faithfulness of God, as His covenant ever stands, no matter how often they break it. 5. God cannot be charged with the responsibility of the temporary contradiction between the present condition and the assured future of the Church and its several members. God alters not His will. He takes not back His promises. He neglects not the exercise of His care and power. He rather prepares, in the very midst of the generation which He will deliver, His instruments for the accomplishment of His purposes. He Himself chooses the suitable persons; calls the men of His choice; furnishes them with the necessary powers and gifts; consecrates them to His service; blesses them for His work; affords them help for toil and conflict; raises them on high from their prostration, and saves them from destruction at the hands of their enemies, or, if they personally succumb, causes their fall to tend to the preservation of the Church. 6. Accordingly, God’s faithfulness to His covenant not only assures for all time His covenant-people of the inviolability of His promises of mercy; it affords to them also at all times an experience of their truth. For by means of the contradiction just mentioned, it makes them sensible of the stringency of the conditions of deliverance, awakens a consciousness of guilt, and directs the glances of the members and leaders of the Church from the troubled present, with its joyless features, to the divinely appointed means of safety. For God does not punish His people by annulling His covenant with them, but rather gives them repeated confirmations of its truth, and, just at the time of the deepest decline of David’s house, and the greatest destruction of the members of the Church, attests the eternal duration of His throne, upon which that Seed of David shall sit, declared His own son by God Himself, the chief in authority among the sons of the Highest (Psalms 82:6) and supreme over the kings of the earth. It is thus that He fixes the Church upon that firm foundation of His promises, from which has arisen the Messianic hope.7. But there are dark seasons when this expectation is not clearly displayed, and troubled hours when the soul finds it hard to seize the word of promise, so surely attested, and only by a great effort can cling to the word of the oath of the true Witness. Then there is danger, lest the praise of God, whose strength is still the ornament and glory of His people, should be hushed, or changed into vain complaining; lest by so long enduring of evil the hope of amelioration should sink into the fear of greater evil. But the thought that it is still the hand of God which is bestowing a Father’s correction, and that He does not consume the whole of the fleeting period of life with suffering, forms a foundation for hope and a motive for prayer. “There are prayers that are timid, lukewarm or presumptuous; there are also those which are humble, ardent, and confident. The timid prayer does not pass from him who offers it, for it is choked in the thorns of doubt, and cannot rise on the wings of trust. The lukewarm prayer stops when half said, for it has not earnestness and perseverance. The presumptuous prayer may reach even the gates of heaven; but they are barred against it, for humility is absent. If then the way to the throne of God is to be free and open to our prayers, and they are to find willing acceptance and audience there, they must come from a humble, earnest, and trusting heart. Humility teaches us the necessity of prayer; ardor of soul gives it wings and endurance; trust affords it an immovable foundation.” (Bernard of Clairvaux). AND The sure mercies of God: (1) as the subject of our grateful praise; (2) as the foundation of our assured hope; (3) as the object of our anxious prayers.—Our reliance upon God’s help in severe distresses, whence it has (1) its firmness, (2) its joyfulness, (3) its liveliness.—The kingdom of God is built upon earth: (1) upon what foundations? (2) by what strength? (3) by what means?—When men complain to God over their distress, they need not cease to praise Him, and they must not cease to trust Him.—We must acknowledge and praise the majesty of God, not less in its awful exaltation, than in its loving condescension.-When God receives the praises of the holy ones in heaven, He at the same time listens to the prayers, praises, and thanksgiving of believers on earth.—The fatherly guidance of God in the education of His children for the heavenly kingdom.—The unfaithfulness of men brings down the punishments of God; but it does not prevent the exercise of His faithfulness, or cast dishonor upon His promises.—All God’s revelations and all His dealings must incite and assist us to fear, love, and trust Him above all else.—God’s special government of His people; (1) in its holy requirements; (2) in its gracious dealings; (3) in its blessed effects.—Only through the Son of God can we become and remain children of the Highest, citizens of His kingdom, and heirs of His blessings.—While we remain in the kingdom of God, we fear neither the certain prospect of death, the evanescence of life, nor the darkness of the grave; we walk in the light of God’s countenance. Luther: Psalms 89. is a prophecy of Christ and His Church—that it should never cease or stand still on account of any sin, so that our blessedness does not depend upon our perfect observance of God’s law, unlike the kingdom promised to the Jews, and the kingdom of the whole world, which last no longer or further than they are righteous.—This has all been promised of old for our consolation in these last times, so that we need not despond, even if it seems to us that Christianity exists no longer on earth. Calvin: For the afflicted Church; for God did not arrange the terms of the covenant of grace with David alone, but had in mind the body of the whole Church for all time. Starke: The mercy of God makes all His works a source of consolation to His people, and all the objects of nature a source of profit, lightens their afflictions, and makes them joyful in God.—The All-sufficient God could do very well without mankind, or He could bind them to the performance of all duties, so that they would be bound to fulfil His will in the strictest manner, even without the promise of a gracious reward. Is it not then a most wonderful fact that it has pleased God to make covenant with us men?—In the eyes of an unbeliever God is so small that he neither knows nor regards Him at all; in the eyes of a believer He is so great that he will neither see nor know anything but Him, in heaven or in earth.—Joy in God is a sure token that those who manifest it are His children; for when they rejoice in Him they walk in His light, and are enlightened by His favor. None of the ungodly experience this.—Christ’s kingdom is the true universal monarchy.—If all the kings of the earth must bow before Jehovah, why do the most insignificant in the land refuse to know and receive him?—A rod, even though it be painful, is better than a sword; better to be chastened by the Father than to be punished by the Judge. This is the difference between the sufferings of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked.-The Church of Christ is derided by all who are not true believers; and yet it is its greatest glory to endure the dishonor cast upon its Head.—Such an end as this will all believers have; the sorrowful complaint will be changed into a song of joy, and the Kyrie eleison into a joyful hallelujah.—Tertullian: O blessed people, in whose behalf God swears! O unhappy people, who will not believe God even though Ho swears.—Menzel: We learn here upon what the consolation and blessedness of poor sinners depend, not upon the conversion and repentance which God requires, but upon His mere mercy and goodness, which leads them to conversion and repentance.-Rigger: We may learn from this Psalm what others before us have experienced, how they have patiently borne a part in the conflict ordained them by God, and have maintained their grasp upon the mercy and truth of God held out before them.—Tholuck: The hearts of those that fear God are not so rigid and unfeeling that the strokes from the hand of God, when He proves them, leave no trace behind; nor are they so weak and languid that all confidence at once fails them.—Guenther; All affliction arising from sin is only the chastening of a Father’s love for our salvation. His covenant is not broken. He has only veiled His mercy.—Diedrich: He who lives to praise God, will never live in vain; he will have what he desires to have.—In the concluding words the collectors of the Psalms testify that they could still rejoice in God, and praise Him in spite of all temporal distress, and hope from the rich blessings of the future to receive an answer to the anxious cries of this and of all the Psalms.—Taube: Eternity swallows up time, but the temporal cannot absorb the eternal.—The wonderful and incomparable, the dreadful and awe-inspiring, the exalted and majestic Creator and Sovereign of the world—this is Israel’s God; His all-powerful majesty, His mighty arm, His strong hand, His high right hand, serve to fulfil His eternal purposes of mercy and peace, which centre in Christ Jesus—this is Israel’s consolation.—The true members of the covenant walk according to the commands of God, nor seek their safety elsewhere than in free grace. [Matth. Henry: Among men it is too often found that those who are most able to break their word are less careful to keep it; but God is both strong and faithful; He can do everything, and yet will never do an unjust thing.—The stability of the material heavens is an emblem of the truth of God’s word: the heavens may be clouded by the vapors arising out of the earth, but they cannot be touched, they cannot be changed.—(Psalms 89:14). Mercy in promising; truth in performing. Truth, in being as good as thy word; mercy, in being better. Scott: Our filial confidence in God’s love should not abate our veneration of His majesty; for then our worship on earth would bear no resemblance to that of the angels in heaven, (Isaiah 6:1-5). Surely then our external posture and our serious attention should indicate the reverence of our hearts, when we assemble to worship this glorious God. Barnes: It is proper to pray that God would bless us soon; that He would not withhold His grace; that He would remember that our life is very brief, and if that grace is to be bestowed upon us to save us or make us useful, it must be bestowed soon. A young man may properly employ this prayer; how much more so one in the decline of life!—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [For the use of ε in asseverations, corresponding to that in Arabic, and that of our word by, see Ewald, Heb. Gr., § 340 c. The force of the verse is: It shall be established for ever as the moon, and (as surely as) there is a faithful witness in heaven.—J. F. M.]. [The adjective is probably here placed before the noun, which rarely happens, on account of the emphasis laid upon it, as in Psalms 32:10. See Green Heb. Gr. § 249. 1a. The reproach is not merely the strongest which can be inflicted (λָ ?μ) it is also accumulated as coming from so many sources (γַ ?αִּ ?ιν). The rendering: “mighty” given to the latter word in E. V. is incorrect.—J. F. M.]. THE BOOKPsalms 90_______________ Psalms 90 A Prayer of Moses the Man of God         Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. 2    Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 3    Thou turnest man to destruction; And sayest, Return, ye children of men. 4    For a thousand years in thy sight Are but as yesterday when it is past, And as a watch in the night. 5    Thou carriest them away as with a flood: they are as a sleep: In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6    In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; In the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 7    For we are consumed by thine anger, And by thy wrath are we troubled. 8    Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 9    For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: We spend our years as a tale that is told.10    The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 11    Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. 12    So teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 13    Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. 14    O satisfy us early with thy mercy; That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15    Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, And the years wherein we have seen evil. 16    Let thy work appear unto thy servants, And thy glory unto their children. 17    And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. AND Contents and Composition.—The oft-repeated assertion that this Psalm consists of two parts loosely connected, and that the supplicatory portion, strictly considered, is not introduced until the beginning of the so-called second part, is altogether without foundation. The truth is that the Psalm bears a supplicatory character in its very first word, which invokes God as the Lord. It presents also in Psalms 90:12 a real petition prepared by its contrast in Psalms 90:11, namely, a prayer that the contemplation of mankind before described may bring forth its good fruit in the heart; and to this the prayer in Psalms 90:13 ff. for renewed manifestations of Divine favor is attached. Both petitions have the same foundation, the confession to the eternal and only God, who forms the unchanging place of refuge for the ever-changing race of mankind, who, in their perishableness, have to suffer the judgments of God’s wrath for their sins. They are divided into two classes: those who allow these judgments to fall unmarked, and those who, terrified by them, are brought to reflection and urged to a saving search after God, truly fearing Him, and impressed with a sense of the true meaning of life. These serious reflections are presented in their necessary relations to one another with solemn emphasis, and in language which has a striking similarity to expressions occurring in the Pentateuch, and especially in the Book of Deuteronomy. It is certainly true that that period of national distress would naturally evoke reflections upon the evanescence of human life, and the universal sinfulness of man, so closely related thereto. This would especially be in accordance with the religious conception of the world in the Hebrew mind (Olsh., Hupfeld). But if we are justified in seeking a definite historical occasion for the origin of the Psalm, the last years of the long wandering through the desert, and especially an allusion to the Divine sentence of death in Numbers 14:28 ff. are probably indicated here. This supposition has an altogether different ground of support from the assumption of a composition during the exile (Kφster, Maurer), which has absolutely nothing in the Psalm to indicate it, or in the age of the Maccabees (Rudinger, Hitzig). The poem contains something affecting and solemn, penetrating into the depths of the Divine nature, and in thought and language appears throughout marked by originality and innate power (Ewald), is worthy also of the position and character of Moses (Grotius), and corresponds to the situation of the people before alluded to (Hupfeld). We may therefore regard as entitled to no consideration, the doubt felt as to the Mosaic authorship, on the ground that we do not know what foundation the collector had for his belief. We can readily suppose that this ancient Psalm, this poem of eternity (Herder), was preserved in an older collection of writings (Del.), comp. Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18. For the supposition that the superscription came from the hand of the author, does not agree with the title of honor: “man of God.” This designation was applied to Moses only by others, (Deuteronomy 33:1; Joshua 14:6); and it does not describe his official position, as “servant of Jehovah” does, but it puts honor upon his personal relation to God as His prophet. It is self-evidently not a musical title, but a descriptive term, which, by the prominence given to this relation, expresses, on the one hand, a near acquaintance with God, and, on the other, the credibility and authority attested thereby. [Hengstenberg: “The objection that Psalms 90:10, where the length of human life is limited to seventy, or, at most, eighty years, stands opposed to Deuteronomy 34:7, according to which Moses reached the age of one hundred and twenty, is disposed of by the fact that Moses, throughout the Psalm, does not speak in his own name, but in that of the people. It is obvious from Deuteronomy 14:22-23 that among the Israelites at that time the exceptions to the general rule as to the duration of human life, were much fewer than at ordinary times. The assumption that the Psalm could not have been composed by Moses, because it resembles the other Psalms in language and general poetical structure, is an a priori assertion, which may be met by another, that it is antecedently probable that Moses, ‘the fountain from which all the prophets have drawn divine wisdom,’ gave at first the tone no less for Prophecy, Deuteronomy 32:33, than for Psalm poetry.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 90:1-2. Dwelling-place.—Instead of ξָ ?ςֹ ?εο some codices read ξָ ?ςֹ ?εζ which, however, does not alter the idea of the verse. The former word does not directly furnish the idea of a refuge (Sept.), but that of a dwelling, (Deuteronomy 26:15; Psalms 26:8; Psalms 68:6), sometimes including the accessory idea (Amos 3:4; Nahum 2:12) of a place of refuge, (Psalms 71:2; Psalms 91:9), applied to God after Deuteronomy 33:27. The prζterite, δָ ?ιִ ?ιϊָ does not admit of being translated: thou art. It is, therefore, not the future (Hengst.) that is the object of contemplation, but former experiences. The origin of the mountains, which are often adduced as the most expressive symbol of the most enduring of earthly things, (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:15; Psalms 72:3; Habakkuk 3:6; Proverbs 8:26), is set forth as a birth, in that less restricted sense, in which (Genesis 2:4) the ϊּ ?εֹ ?μְ ?γεֹ ?ϊ of the heavens and of the earth are used to designate the unfolding of the process of the creative work. The figure is an exceedingly natural one to describe the emergence of the mountains from the water, as, in another application, to represent the breaking forth of the sea as from the womb of a mother (Job 38:8). If, in the following stich, we point ϊְּ ?ηεֹ ?μַ ?μ (Olsh., Bφttcher, Hitzig), in order to gain the passive sense (Sept., Chald., Luther, and others), we have the same figure to describe the evolution of the terrestrial globe and inhabited land, without placing God in the background as the Parent and Begetter (Hupf.). For this would have been a mode of representation impossible to the Old Testament consciousness, and can be explained neither by Deuteronomy 32:18, where this form of expression is applied to the relation of God to the establishment of the Israelitish nation, (comp. Jeremiah 2:27), nor by the poetical form of the inquiry (Job 38:28) after the father of the rain and begetter of the dew, not to mention the words employed in Psalms 2:7, which have a Messianic interpretation. For the same reason we must assume that the punctuators, when they gave the active form ϊְּ ?ηεֹ ?μֵ ?μ, did not have in view the 2 masc. (Isaaki, Kimchi, Calvin, Geier, Rosenm., De Wette, Del., Hupfeld), but the 3 fem. (Syriac, Stier, and others), with a reference to Genesis 1:11 f. 24. [Alexander follows the active meaning in common with the great majority of critics. Perowne prefers the passive sense, and the corresponding change of reading. The E. V. in the translation: formed, expresses the true idea of the Hebrew, but shrinks unnecessarily from the literal rendering: begotten.—J. F. M.] The ΰֵ ?μ at the end of Psa 90:2 is not an address (Hengst.), but is the predicate. The object is not to show the eternal existence of God, but to testify to the Divinity of the eternal and almighty Lord. The Sept. has wrongly read ΰַ ?μ, and connected it with what follows. Psalms 90:3-4. Dust.—[E. V.: destruction. The Hebrew ψָ ?τΰ means: crushed particles. “Thou makest man return to dust.”—J. F. M.] That there is an allusion here to Genesis 3:19 is rendered probable by the reference made to sin in Psalms 90:7 ff. Yet it does not follow from this that we must render in the next sentence: turn back! or: pass away again! for the sake of obtaining the same idea. It is not forbidden by the parallelism (Hupfeld) to interpret this clause as referring to the constant changes among men as they come and return at the command of the eternal God, (Luther, Geier, Tholuck, Del.). There is no reference to the resurrection (the old Lutheran theologians), or to the passing of the spirit to God (Stier). The arithmetical treatment of Psa 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8, has resulted in the assumption that the world will last 6000 years, and that the millenial kingdom will then be established, corresponding to the work of creation and its Sabbath, (see the Rabbinical interpretations in Breithaupt on Isaaki). This is in direct contradiction to the meaning of the passage, which describes in an affecting and striking manner the evanescence of the changing generations of men, when measured by the standard of eternity and by the eye of God. Our seventy or eighty years shrink into a moment (Psalms 30:6). Time was not yet reckoned by hours, but the night was divided into three watches, (Exodus 14:24; Judges 7:19), and the day began with the evening twilight: therefore, “the day of yesterday as it passes by” is most significantly mentioned. The rendering: when it is past (most of the ancients), which is moreover tautological, is grammatically inadmissible. It is improbable that the thousand years are the subject of the verb (Hupfeld). Psalms 90:5-7. Thou carriest them away as with a flood. It is uncertain whether an allusion to the Divine judgment of the flood is intended (Calvin, Hengst.). At all events it is not a swiftly flowing stream that is meant, but a heavy and devastating tempest of rain (Psalms 77:18). But we must not overlook the use of the prζterite, followed by the imperfect in a future sense. The meaning is: let the action mentioned be performed, and they fall into a state of unconsciousness, into a sleep, that is, the sleep of death (Kφster, Delitzsch). This sequence of thought shows that it is not the years (Aben Ezra) which are said to be carried away. The words ωָׁ ?πִ ?ιν and ωֵׁ ?πָ ?δ stand too far apart to afford a play on the words (Rosenm.). The common interpretation understands first the rapid and afterwards the unobserved passage of human life to be described. But it disregards the change of verbal forms, and, with many of its supporters, superadds the idea of sleeping fancies or a dream to the idea of sleep, which is entirely unwarranted. Nor is there any occasion for transposing the words at the beginning of the second stich to the end of the first (Bφttcher, Hupfeld), since the idea of waking has no place in the passage. In Psalms 90:6 it is not said that mankind in the beginning of history, or man in his youth, as in the morning of life (Kimchi and others), blooms or fades away like grass. What is said is, that when one generation is swept away during the night, another blooms forth in the morning, which, in its turn again, withers away in the evening (Delitzsch). For the primary idea of ημσ is not at all that of passing away or perishing (Sept., Vulgate, Luther, and others), but that of passing over from one place or condition into another, especially when something new presses after and occupies the place of the old. Applied to plants, therefore, it certainly does not mean: to sprout (Chald., Syriac), but: to have new sprouts. Instead of: it fades away (Ewald, Olsh., Hitzig, Hupfeld), we cannot, it is true, accept the passive sense of the similar and proper word: it is cut down (most), but the impersonal construction: some one cuts it down (Delitzsch). The term ξְ ?μִ ?ιμָ ?δ, applied to ears of corn cut down or plucked off, and Job 24:24, are especially favorable to this view, besides the consideration that death is not spoken of as a process of nature, but as the Divine punishment of sin. Hitzig gives an explanation which is quite peculiar. He understands the verse to represent figuratively the discharge of the semen (Ezekiel 23:20), then follows the sleep in the womb of the mother, and then the awakening to the morning of life. [In Psalms 90:7 the E. V. would be improved by rendering in the second clause: “terrified away,” instead of “troubled.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 90:9-12. A whisper. [E. V.: a tale that is told.] The word δֶ ?πֶ ?δ does not denote idle chattering (Luther), or thought, in allusion to its rapidity, (Clericus, Rosenm., De Wette, Hupfeld), or breath, as vanishing quickly (Chald.), or speech, in its rapidity (Jerome, Hitzig), but a low, subdued sound, whether murmuring, Job 37:2, or groaning, Ezekiel 2:10 (Hengst., Del.). The poetical plural ωָׁ ?πεֹ ?ϊ’ in Psalms 90:10, occurs also in Deuteronomy 32:7. It is doubtful whether βְ ?λεּ ?ψֹ ?ϊ applies to a full measure of strength or of years. The first interpretation suits better the meaning of the words elsewhere, the latter its Talmudical application. [In Psalms 90:11 the second member should be rendered: and thy wrath according to thy fear, that is, in the measure which the true fear of God would imply.—J. F. M.] In Psalms 90:12λֵּ ?ο refers to “understand,” not to “number,” (compare 1 Samuel 23:17). It is not a theoretical but a practical knowledge, to obtain which the help of God is implored. “That we may bring in a heart of wisdom”—that is, that we may bear it away as a prize, and bring it in, like the harvest into the granary, 2 Samuel 9:10; Haggai 1:6 (Hupfeld, Del.). Other explanations are the following: bring wisdom into the heart (Kimchi, and others); bring a wise heart as an offering to God (Geier, Knapp, Stier, Ewald, Olshausen, Hitzig). Psalms 90:13-17. Return, that is, from anger, as in Exodus 32:12. The word elsewhere usually means: turn back. The inquiry which follows suits either rendering. Psalms 90:13 b. recalls Deuteronomy 32:36. The Psalmist’s prayer that he may be satisfied with mercy in the morning, denotes not what would be enjoyed soon, but the breaking of a new day of mercy as contrasted with the former night of affliction. The plural form ιְ ?ξεֹ ?ϊ (Psalms 90:15) is found only besides in Deuteronomy 32:7, together with ωְׁ ?πεֹ ?ϊ, which occurs elsewhere also.—The humbling of Israel was the design of the journey through the desert (Deuteronomy 8:2 f.). The term τֹ ?ςַ ?μ (Psalms 90:16), applied to Jehovah’s administration of mercy for the salvation of His people, is found also in Deuteronomy 32:4; and the expression: “work of the hands,” frequently in Deuteronomy, as descriptive of human achievements generally. There is no reference implied to implements of husbandry (Hitzig), much less to the appliances of manufacture. The sup plication is offered that the work of God’s people, who confess themselves to be the servants of the Lord, may be established, with the expectation that what is described in Psalms 90:16 a will be displayed before them. [There is no more beautiful and expressive word than πֹ ?ςַ ?ν, in Psalms 90:17 a, signifying primarily what is sweet, pleasant, or delightful; and all language fails to express the wealth of meaning it bears, when chosen by Moses, “the man of God,” and the friend of God, to picture forth those attributes which in Him were the source of delight. It is not merely “beauty” in its widest sense, or “glory,” or “goodness,” but a union of them all.—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. The Eternal is not merely distinguished from the world of the Becoming by His Divine nature; He also declares and vindicates His Divinity in its glory, independent, as it is, of the whole world. His people, therefore, not only know Him as the Lord reigning over the whole world from eternity to eternity, in unchangeable exaltation; they pray to Him also as the Lord their God. This they do both because He has testified of Himself, and because they have acknowledged His glory. By virtue of this relation to God, they are not contented with the perpetual recollection of all that God has ever been and displayed to them. They find in Him also their lodging place and secure retreat, which never changes with the flight of time or any mutation of events, but is presented as unchangeably the same to all generations of men, as they follow one another in close succession. Believers have therefore in God no temporary, mutable, or transient place of refuge, as the wild beasts have their coverts and places of security, or the wanderer his tent. God offers Himself to His people as their dwelling-place for ever and ever. 2. The experience which the Church has had of this blessing serves as an efficient counterpoise to the depressing evidences of the fact that her own members have to suffer from the shortness and miseries of human life, and that they feel these troubles so much the more keenly, as they recognize their cause to be the wrath of God on account of human sin, whose manifestations in their own lives they have always to bewail, and whose guilt they can as little hide as they can the severity of God’s anger. For the light by which we learn of God, the world, and ourselves is one and the same. “Although Moses, in the discharge of his office, slays by exhibiting sin in connection with its punishment, yet in naming this Psalm a prayer, he tells us that there is an antidote to death. And in this he excels in two particulars all profane writers. He dwells upon the extent and power of death, and yet, along with its terrors, makes the hope of consolation to be felt, so that those who are terrified and humbled are not utterly brought to despair.” (Luther). 3. When the perception of this relation is no mere theoretical knowledge, and is more than a compulsory acknowledgment produced by the pressure of need, when it is a deliberate moral conviction answering to the fear of God (Deuteronomy 29:9; Job 28:8), then it affords not merely the only correct standard for estimating all these things, but teaches us also to pray for the saving use of it in the midst of the dangers, sorrows, and temptations which encompass men here. It raises also the humbled soul from complaining over the vanity of the world, the distresses of life, and the blindness of mankind, to an earnest and trusting search after the favor of God, and thus places it upon the true path of safety, by which it shall escape all the misery of the present life. “As Moses elsewhere keeps within the teachings of the Law, so does he here. For he preaches death, sin, and condemnation, in order to terrify the presumptuous, who are secure in their sins, and set before them their guilt and iniquity, without falsely coloring anything or concealing anything. He endeavors especially to teach men to fear God, so that when they are in dread of God’s anger and of death, they may humble themselves before Him, and become fit recipients of His mercy.” (Luther.) 4. In order to be awakened to true penitence, we must keep ever before our minds the truth that, even in sins that are discovered and lamented, there is, on account of the ruin of our nature, something which is still hidden and concealed, which, however, is not excused or counted undeserving of punishment, because it escapes our own observation and that of other men. There are many who give themselves up to this delusion to their ruin. They fail to understand the relation of sin and death, and therefore, also, fail to understand the teachings of events in the world. And since they begin to have less dread of the wrath of God, the knowledge of God, generally, becomes obscure to them. It becomes difficult for them to bring themselves under the range of His purposes of salvation, and they seek less earnestly for His mercy. “Moses, therefore, well calls sin a concealed thing, whose extent no mind can comprehend. For like God’s wrath, like death, sin also is incomprehensible and infinite.” (Luther). 5. But when, to the acknowledgment that sin extends much further than it can be recognized, there is united this other, that God’s countenance casts light even upon what is hidden from our natural sight, then the fear, anguish, gloom, and care thence arising, can be overcome only by renewed experience of the Divine mercy. In the exhibitions of that mercy the glory as well as the goodness of the Lord are displayed to His people. And prayer for both must go hand in hand. “Although horses, cows and other animals die as well as man, yet their death does not manifest the wrath of God, but only transient pain. But in man’s death there is anguish and wrath, for he was created to be conformed to the image of God.” (Luther.) AND The prayers of the Church must ascend to God, if the help of the Eternal is to descend to it.—The shorter life is, the more pressing is the obligation to spend it as for eternity.—The dominion of death over the world, (1), how it manifests itself, (2), whence it arises, (3), how it is overcome.—The blindness of mankind in their judgments with reference to God, the world, and their own worth.—Seeking refuge in God under the pressure of His just anger, why it is difficult and bow it is facilitated.—The fear of God, a good antidote to the fear of death, the cares of life, and the pangs of conscience.—Moses a guide to Christ, by preaching the punitive justice of God upon all the world, and the appearing of His glory over His people.—Though we cannot scan the world with the eye of God, yet, if we fear Him, we can learn to understand it by His light.—Wouldst thou in thy brief life obtain abiding joy? Turn in time to the eternal God, and yield thyself to the mercy which He ever proves Himself ready to bestow.—The life of all of us upon earth is fleeting, but it need not be unprofitable.—Death is the wages of sin, but the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.—Let him who would not sink with the dissolving world, nor be borne away with fleeting time, nor be destroyed with sinners, hasten to take up his abode with God, as long as the goodness or the Lord continues to prepare the way.—It must be considered a great mercy, that the Eternal reveals Himself in time, as the Lord whom we serve, as the Judge whom we fear, as the God in whom we are to trust.—The attacks of sin are more frequent, the roots of sin more deeply concealed, the consequences of sin more dreadful, than many know or admit, but God’s grace is mightier than sin, and God’s love greater than our hearts: therefore the world is rightly judged, and the righteous saved.—How we in the midst of death, may, in God, lay hold on life. Luther: The higher grass grows, the nearer is it to the scythe and fork.—Starke: Prayer is the true armor against sin and death; for it is directed to God, and He is not a God of the dead, but of the living.—My time and hour may come when God wills. I prescribe not to Him measure or end.—Every evening should be to us a reminder of our end, our bed an emblem of our coffin, and sleep a prelude to the quiet rest until the resurrection.—Men convey to the tomb one dead body after another, and yet will not be persuaded to destroy the sting of death by faith in Christ, and free themselves from the wrath of God.—True joy is drawn from the enjoyment of God’s favor, and is therefore holy and pure. But all that joy is impure which men receive from earthly things outside of the state of grace.-He whom suffering and affliction have brought to repentance, receives a right to seek again from God consolation and joy. Selnecker: Exalt not thyself, and be not proud in thy honors, for all men are in the hand of Him who has made them.—Menzel: Use of the teaching of God’s omnipotence and infinite might, (1), as serving to promote the true knowledge of God, (2), as contributing to the unfailing consolation of His people, (3), as a warning to the wicked.—Arndt: No man dies by chance, but according to God’s counsel, order, and providence.-Frisch: The more sins increase, the more life declines; hence comes our frailty.—God’s mercy is better than life itself.—Roos: Wherein does that wisdom consist, which is to be drawn from the numbering or reckoning up of the days which we have lived, and which, presumably, still remain? Is it not in this lesson, that by repentance and faith we should aspire after eternal life?—Stier: Moses as the man of God recognizes in the wrath of God the cause of the death of man; he looks forth with longing into the morning of mercy after the long night; and implores strengthening for himself and all the servants of the Lord, to persevere and continue the work of their hands.—Richter (Hausbibel): The knowledge of sin is the only key that solves the mystery of death.—Umbreit: Men have ever before their eyes the fear of death, but God, the sins of men.—Guenther: We fly away; whither?—Taube: In the punishment we can discern the extent of the sin, and yet to the sinner sin is immeasurable.—From a true conviction with regard to death, flows the true worldly wisdom.—Deichert: It is only when we are firmly established in God’s favor, that a new year can be a happy one to us. For then (1) the thought of the swift flight of our days may indeed move us, but cannot make us yield; (2) the thought of our great guilt may indeed depress us, but cannot make us despair; (3) the thought of the troubles and trials of life may indeed dispose us to deep solemnity, but it cannot rob us of the comforting reflection, that the Lord with His help will stand by our side.—L. Harms: Nothing preaches so powerfully on sin, as death does.—Thy God is the Almighty, and that Almighty God is Love. [Matt. Henry: Man, in his prime, doth but flourish as the grass, which is weak and low and tender and exposed, and which, when the winter of old age comes, will perish of itself; but he may be worn down by disease or disaster, as the grass is, in the midst of summer. All flesh is grass.—To be religious is to be wise.—We are so unworthy of Divine assistance, and yet so insufficient to bring anything to pass without it, that we have need to be earnest for it, and so repeat the request: Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.—Bp Horne: The time of our pilgrimage upon earth is a time of sorrow; these are the days “wherein God hath afflicted us,” but He will hereafter “make us glad according to them.” In proportion to our sufferings, if we rightly bear those sufferings, will be our reward. Then shall our joy be increased and receive an additional relish from our former sorrow; then shall we bless the days and the years which exercised our faith and perfected our patience; and then shall we bless God, who chastised us for a season, that He might bless us forever.—Barnes: How kind and merciful is the arrangement by which man is ordinarily removed from the world before the time of “trouble and sorrow” comes!—Perowne: God’s work is first to appear, His majesty is to be revealed: then man’s work, which is God’s work carried out by human instruments, may look for His blessing.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 91 1         He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2    I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: My God; in him will I trust. 3    Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler And from the noisome pestilence. 4    He shall cover thee with his feathers, And under his wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. 5    Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; Nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6    Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 7    A thousand shall fall at thy side, And ten thousand at thy right hand: But it shall not come nigh thee. 8    Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold And see the reward of the wicked. 9    Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, Even the Most High, thy habitation; 10    There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 11    For he shall give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. 12    They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 13    Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.— 14    “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. 15    He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. 16    With long life will I satisfy him, And shew him my salvation.” AND Contents and Division. The idea of the Psalm is contained in the thought, that he, who commits himself with full confidence to the protection of the Almighty, shall share that protection; that he will receive this the more fully, the more he makes his dwelling with Him, that thus deliverance will be afforded him from the greatest dangers, and that he will receive, besides, positive blessings. These comforting and elevating reflections are couched in expressions both lively and impressive. The true division, however, has become a matter of dispute, from the fact that a change of person appears on many occasions, which is quite unprovided for. And yet the supposition of different persons or a chorus (Van Till, J. D. Michaelis, Stier, Maurer, Olshausen, Delitzsch), is to be viewed with suspicion, especially as this change occurs on one occasion even in the same verse (Psalms 91:9), and as in the concluding strophe (Psalms 91:14-16) God is undoubtedly to be regarded as the speaker. This Psalm is significantly employed in the Church-service as an Invocavit for Sunday, and, together with Psalms 3, has been designated by the Talmudists as the Poem of Accidents, that is, a song of protection in the midst of impending dangers (Del.). It may perhaps be divided as follows. There is first presented a declaration made (Psalms 91:1-2) by the psalmist with regard to himself. Then he utters words of encouragement of a lyrico-prophetical character, in which he holds up to view the promises of miraculous aid from God, for his own consolation (Psalms 91:3-4), encouragement (Psalms 91:5-6), and the assurance (Psalms 91:7-8), of safety with God (9, 10). And, finally, God’s acceptance of his confession and ratification of His own promises are announced in the form of an oracle (Psalms 91:14-16). Those assumptions which fix the time of composition shortly after the desecration of the Second Temple (Ewald) or before the Passover of the year 162 B. C. (Hitzig), are mere guesses; and yet they are entitled to rather more respect than is the superscription: A song of praise of David, (Sept.), or the supposition that the Psalm was addressed by Moses to Joshua (Venema). [Alexander: “An amplification of the theme that God is the dwelling-place and refuge of His people. This and other points of contact with the prayer of Moses seem to mark it as an imitation of that Psalm, and account for its position in the Psalter.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 91:1-2. Dwelling [E.V.: He that dwelleth]. The supposition that ΰַ ?ωְׁ ?ψֵ ?ι has fallen out from the beginning of the Psalm (Olshausen, Hupfeld) is untenable, especially as it necessitates the change of ΰֹ ?ξַ ?ψ Psalms 91:2 into ΰֹ ?ξֵ ?ψ, and proceeds from the unnatural assumption that the Church both speaks and is addressed (Olshausen). Now if we consider the psalmist as occupying this double place, we have a confession recorded, which in the first verse is described as an individual one, springing from a sense of a personal relation to God, while in the second the substance of that confession is given. That the punctuators so intended is clear from the fact that they have not, in the second sentence, allowed a participle pointed ΰֹ ?ξֵ ?ψ to follow the ιωֵׁ ?α which begins the psalm. This would give the following connection: He who dwells …. is speaking (Jerome, Luther and most). But they have pointed the 1st imperfect ΰֹ ?ξַ ?ψ, which shows that they not only viewed the person dwelling and the person speaking as one and the same, but also regarded the Psalmist as that person. It was also not without an object but with good reason, that they separated, by the accentuation, ΰֹ ?ξַ ?ψ from the following word, although the fact has been either overlooked or misunderstood by most expositors. It was just the usual connection of the words that was to be avoided. For, beside a direct address to Jehovah, an address by the speaker to himself would be much more unexpected and harsh, than the mention of what the Psalmist had confessed to God and experienced in communion with Him. Since the two members of the first verse are connected by “and,” and a finite verb occurs in the second member, the idea might be suggested, that they stand in the relation of protasis and apodosis (Sept., Isaaki, Calvin, Geier, J. H. Michaelis, De Wette). But this would result in an insupportable tautology, which could only be concealed, by foisting, against usage, upon the idea of passing the night, that of resting. In view of the parallelism between the members of the sentence and the thoughts, the resolving of the part. into the corresponding finite verb is seen to form a suitable transition to the conclusion of the sentence. By this mode of viewing the passage the change of persons in Psalms 91:9, appearing suddenly and then entirely vanishing, may also be explained. The psalmist interrupts his confession by addressing to himself words of encouragement. We need not, therefore, supply ΰֲ ?ξַ ?ψְ ?ϊָּ before (Theodoret, Isaaki, Clericus, Hupfeld) or after ΰַ ?ϊָּ ?δ (Hitzig), or expand the latter into the former. [Dr. Moll therefore renders Psalms 91:1-2 : Dwelling in the protection of the Highest, (As he who) passes the night under the shadow of the Almighty, I say: In Jehovah is my refuge and fortress, My God, in whom I trust. Dr. Alexander translates: “Sitting in the secret place of the Most High, in the shadow of the Almighty he is lodged.” This verse he supposes to be “descriptive of an ideal person with whom the speaker is tacitly identified.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 91:3, etc.Terror by night (Psalms 91:5). The best view is that which supposes attacks of enemies to be referred to, (Sol. Son 3:8; Proverbs 3:23-26). The psalmist does not here enter an incorporeal, unearthly realm (Stier); and ιָ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?ψ does not relate to demons (Shedim) or ghosts (the ancient translators). Nor is the devil and his brood; as a contrast to the angels, denoted either directly or indirectly by the lions, adders and dragons (Stier and Schegg, and Delitzsch in part). The dangers, especially those which threaten travellers, are represented here by illustrations readily suggested. But the nature of these dangers and the mode of overcoming them, are set forth in such a way as that they may be applied to all the powers, either of nature or of the spirit-world, which threaten destruction (Luke 10:19; Mark 16:18; Romans 16:20). So the snare of the fowler, in Psalms 91:3, is not identical with the snare of the devil (2 Timothy 2:26), but at most an emblem of death (Ewald, Hitzig), though probably only a representation of dangerous snares generally (Ecclesiastes 9:12). For in Psalms 91:3, pestilence does not yet appear as a disease, but represents the plague-like attack of ruin or evil (Hosea 13:14). The picture is still a general one. It is only in Psalms 91:5, that the dangers of war by night and by day are added to it. In Psalms 91:6 pestilence and sickness [E. V.: destruction] are introduced as diseases. In Psalms 91:11 ff., after a description of God’s protection of the righteous dwelling in his tent, the dangers of the traveller are brought into view. The concluding sentence enlarges the view after Psalms 50:23.—The emperor Alexander I. is said to have been awakened by means of this Psalm. The Countess Tolstoj gave it to him in writing on the evening before his march against Napoleon in the year 1812. AND ETHICAL1. He who knows God, knows also what he has in Him, and what he knows of God he will declare under different circumstances and at different times. But to call upon, pray to, thank, and praise Him in all times of need is not an easy thing for even pious men to do. For the dangers which threaten men, the enemies which lurk around them, their menacing conduct, are innumerable and of many forms; visible and invisible, foreseen and unsuspected, concealed and openly displayed, by day and by night, in the house and by the way, at home and abroad, with violence, cunning, and malice, planned and executed for the ruin of many. 2. But if our path of life is full of obstructions, over which we are walking in constant danger of death, we have not merely to do with attacks from without, but also to contend with temptations which arise within ourselves, from timidity, want of faith, and weakness. For this we need, in equal measure, divine encouragement to our soul, which holds up to view and confirms the promises of God’s help, as well as that help itself in actual experience. 3. We must therefore take refuge in God’s Truth as well as in His Omnipotence and Love. Then will we in all dangers not only trust in the protection of God; we will also be guided by His word, and learn to distinguish between the fearless and confident resort to God in the true paths of our calling, and the presumptuous courting of danger so as to tempt God (Matthew 4:6). Then, since we not merely hide ourselves under the wings of the Almighty (Psalms 17:8; Matthew 23:37), or refresh ourselves under the shadow of His house (Numbers 14:9; Hosea 14:8; Jeremiah 48:45), but take up our abode in God as our Dwelling-place, we can raise our contemplation above the conditions of time, to a life whose duration none can declare, and wait for the coming deliverance. AND No man can do without God’s assistance, but it is only believers who acknowledge it, and derive consolation from that assistance in conformity with the Divine promises. Many experience the protection of God, but it is only those who trust Him, that gain lasting profit therefrom.—He who has taken refuge in God, will not leave Him again, but remain ever with Him.—Men must be guided by God’s word, if they would learn to rely upon His will.—We know most assuredly that God is for us, because we can be with Him and He with us.—Whether life be long or short, the main thing is that we gain during it the gracious presence of God, and experience the saving help of the Highest.—God does not merely send His servants and messengers; He comes also Himself to help and deliver the righteous. Starke: He who has God for his dwelling-place is raised so high, that the devil, the world, and all temptations cannot harm him.—True hope in God is naturally a token of a state of grace, for none can have a true living hope in Him, who have not true faith in and sincere love for Him.—The chief ground of the assurance of the righteous that they will obtain God’s protection, is His truth and faithfulness in graciously fulfilling His promises.—What to others is a poison and rod of anger, must to believers be a wholesome medicine: God even knows how to direct everything by His wisdom and goodness for the highest good of His children.—Beware of rejecting anything, which God graciously sends to thee.—The hut of the believer is a surer defence against all the afflictions and punishments which come from God, than the grandest palaces of the ungodly.—God is indeed very willing to protect us and to do us good, but we must do our part too, and with humility and faith seek with Him these blessings.—It is not our merit and worthiness that make us partakers of the defence and help of God, but true faith, by which we know His name.—Six times in succession does God say: I will. How great is such love! Call thou out to Him in reply: I will. I will accept the order in which Thou dost promise to prove Thy readiness to help.—Arndt: It is a comforting word, that God, the chief captain of the guard, Himself keeps watch and guard over His children.—How men by sincere trust in God are so well assisted, is proved, partly by what God does for them, and partly by the words of comfort they address to themselves.—Tholuck: God’s covering extends everywhere, and thou needest not seek any other.—Vaihinger: Vital union with God is the ground of help.—Umbreit: Enjoyment in a long earthly life does in no way exclude a striving after immortal glory and the hope of eternity, but supposes only a peaceful contentment with the present, and a child-like pleasure in the glad light of the sun.—Diedrich: Let God rule outside with His thunder: but keep thyself completely shielded in Him.—Schaubach: The Christian should exult in the victory of Jesus Christ, not with vain and harmful delight, but as a living witness to the Divine truth and righteousness, to the honor of God and the comfort and strengthening of his own soul.—Taube: It is not merely a safe progress through this world of sorrow that is here kept in view, but satisfaction in and from the God of salvation and life; and only then can we be satisfied. [Barnes: Religion blesses a man in this life and blesses him for ever. In possession of this it is a great thing for him to live long: and then it is a great thing for him to die—to go to be for ever with God.—J. F. M.] Psalms 92 A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day2         It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord,And to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High: 3    To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, And thy faithfulness every night, 4    Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; Upon the harp with a solemn sound. 5    For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. 6    O Lord, how great are thy works! And thy thoughts are very deep. 7    A brutish man knoweth not; Neither doth a fool understand this. 8    When the wicked spring as the grass, And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; It is that they shall be destroyed for ever: 9    But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. 10    For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. 11    But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. 12    Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, And mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. 13    The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 14    Those that be planted in the house of the Lord Shall nourish in the courts of our God. 15    They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; They shall be fat and flourishing; 16    To shew that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. AND Contents and Composition.—The mode of expression in Psalms 92:5; Psalms 92:11-12 pint to definite occasions for the praise of God’s righteous government, which had been misunderstood by stupid and foolish men, by reason of the depth of the Divine counsels, and on account of the temporary flourishing of the wicked. Yet nothing can be concluded from 1Ma 7:17; 1Ma 9:23 to show that the Psalm was sung at the feast of dedication under Judas Maccabζus as a song of thanksgiving for the victory over the Syrians (Venema), or to connect it with the judgment of God upon Antiochus and Lysias, 1 Maccabees 7 (Hitzig). A relation to the Sabbath, on the other hand, is readily suggested by the whole tenor of the Psalm, and by many distinct expressions. Among these there may be specially mentioned the seven-fold repetition of the name Jehovah, the intentional form of the middle strophe consisting of seven stichs, the musical accompaniment of the song of praise, and the manifold references of the Psalm to the works of God, and to the prosperity of His people, who are planted in His house. Its original designation to a sabbatical use, however, can neither be deduced from its contents nor proved from the superscription. But its application to such purposes in the temple-service after the exile, has been made known to us by the Talmudists, who are only divided in opinion, as to whether the celebration of the Sabbath which shall end the world’s history was the one really in view, or that of the Sabbath which has begun it. In the latter connection rabbinical absurdity has been carried so far as to refer the Psalm to Adam (Kimchi).—The division of the Psalm is as follows: The demand for the praise of God (Psalms 92:2-4), is supported by allusions to the government and works of God, whose greatness and depth of wisdom are equally beyond the comprehension of all men (Psalms 92:5-7). This demand is not weakened by the thought of the prosperity of the wicked, which is only transient (Psalms 92:8-10), but is much rather justified by the exaltation of the righteous from a depressed condition to greater glory and power (Psalms 92:11-12), as they grow up vigorously, like blooming trees of God’s planting, from the soil in which they stand as faithful worshippers of God in His house, and bring forth praise to Jehovah, as the ripened fruit of their flourishing growth (Psalms 92:13-15). [As regards the primary object of the composition of the Psalm. Dr. Alexander agrees with Hengstenberg in holding that it was for the Sabbath service—that therefore there is no reason to doubt the originality of the superscription. Perowne is of the same opinion as Dr. Moll, thinking that the superscription is not a safe guide. As to the subject of the Psalm, Perowne says: “It celebrates in joyful strain the greatness of God’s works, especially His righteous government of the world, as manifested in the overthrow of the wicked and the final triumph of the righteous.—The Psalmist, therefore, touches upon the same great principles of the Divine government which are laid down in such Psalms as 1, 37, 49, and 73. But here there is no struggle with doubt and perplexity as in Psalms 73. The poet is beyond all doubt, above all perplexity. He has not fallen down to the level of the brutish man, (comp. Psalms 73:22 with Psalms 92:6); he is rejoicing in the full and perfect conviction of the righteousness of God.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 92:3-4. [In verse 3 there is no occasion for rendering “every night” as E. V. has done. It is the simple plural of the noun that occurs in the Hebrew. “In the nights” is a poetical use of the plural. It is parallel with: “in the morning,” in the first member, and therefore has the same indefiniteness of meaning. So all the recent commentators. Psalms 92:4 is rendered by Dr. Moll: On the decachord and on the harp, in playing upon the cithara.—J. F. M.] Psalms 92:4. In playing, [E. V., with a solemn sound]. Higgaion (see Introduc. § 12, No. 2) is now explained by Delitzsch, in agreement with Hitzig, as an improvised musical performance, or one that expresses the fancies of the moment. Psalms 92:11-12. The horn is an emblem of excessive strength and at. the same time of stately grace (Del.). We are probably not to consider the buffalo (most) to be referred to, but the antelope, which was regarded by the Talmudists as single-horned. Yet the existence of the animal which is designated γְ ?ΰֵ ?ν, (here incorrectly ψְ ?ΰֵ ?ιν), Numbers 23:22; Deuteronomy 33:17; Job 39:9-12; Psalms 29:6, can hardly be maintained upon the evidence of natural history, especially as upon both Persian and Egyptian monuments the figure of the unicorn occurs, which certainly affords no indication of its representing a rhinoceros, for the fabulous, the mythological, and the actual are there blended together. Instead of: I am anointed (1. prζterite Kal from αָּ ?μַ ?μ), some render: my being old (infin. of αָּ ?μָ ?δ with suffix), as though the Psalmist were speaking of increase of strength in limbs rendered stiff by old age (Sept., Symm., Jerome, and others). The adjective ψַ ?ςֲ ?βָ ?ο, employed elsewhere only of the olive-tree, is here transferred to the oil itself (green=fresh, sappy). This is perhaps an evidence of a late composition, like the form ωׁ ?εּ ?ψָ ?ι, in Psalms 92:12, which has either been distorted from ωֹׁ ?ψְ ?ψַ ?ι (Bφttcher, Olsh.), or softened down from it (Ewald, Hitzig). Psalms 92:13. Palm-tree.—The comparison of the endurance of God’s people to trees generally (Isaiah 65:22), bears allusion here to the marrowy freshness and vital force of the righteous, specialized by instancing two trees, which share with the olive (Ps. 52:10; Judges 9:9) an almost indestructible productive power, longevity, and verdure, but surpass it in their majestic growth and the sublimity of their whole appearance. In all these qualities the palms and cedars are here contrasted with the grass in Psalms 92:8. In addition to this we can, in connection with the cedar, think of its pleasant smell (Hosea 14:7), and in connection with the palm, (for the date-palm is particularly specified), of its magnificent blossoms, which yield fruit weighing from three hundred to four hundred pounds. For this reason this palm is called by the Arabs “the blessed tree,” and “the sister of man.” It is used in Jerusalem even to the present day as an ornamental tree (Tit. Tobler, Denkwuer-digkeiten, p. 109). On the symbolical meanings of trees and flowers, see Bδhr, Symbolik des mosaischen Kultus 1. 365, 376, 446 f., and Keil Der Tempel Salomos, p. 143.—The closing sentence rests upon Deuteronomy 32:4. AND ETHICAL1. The praise of God in the Church on the days of her solemn assembly is in itself a good thing, on a good foundation, of excellent results, and of a delightful appearance. The working and ruling of God in nature and history presents an inexhaustible subject of such praise, the ordinance of the weekly sacred day, its regularly recurring occasion, and the house of God, the place adorned for its celebration. But let the Church only attend it numerously at all times, and, to the praise of God’s name, unite the acknowledgment of His mercy and truth. 2. He who has delight in God’s working and ruling, will also joyfully and thoughtfully contemplate the greatness of His works, and the depths of His thoughts, and praise them with adoring gladness, if, at the same time, he confesses that, on account of their infinite fulness (Psalms 40:6; Psalms 139:17), and immeasurable exaltation (Isaiah 55:8), they are unsearchable by him (Romans 11:33). This acknowledgment is becoming to man and wise. It corresponds perfectly to the relation between the creature and the world’s Governor and Creator, who not only dwells on high, but is Himself simply Exaltation.3. But the people of God not only discern in the brief bloom of the wicked the seeds of their speedy destruction; they confide also in God’s care over the righteous, and experience in themselves that God is a rock, which remains immovable, and His temple a fruitful ground, from which, as His planting, His people draw the means of their vigorous growth, of their prosperity and fruitfulness. AND He who takes delight in God’s works, can neither weary in contemplating them, nor in offering the thanksgiving which is due to Him for them.—We cannot fully explore the nature of God, on account of its exaltation, but He has vouchsafed to His people through His name the way to the knowledge of Him, and the means of worshipping Him.—Without the public service of God, the Church can neither endure nor flourish: for it is planted in the courts of God.—The consolation drawn from the reflection that the preserver of the Church is the Creator and Governor of the world.—God’s name, word, and work, the means of His manifestation of Himself and of the building of His Church.—God’s exaltation declares itself in the greatness of His works and the depths of His thoughts, and calls upon us to yield ourselves up to Him in humility and trust, and to worship Him with thanksgiving and praise. Starke: Oh! that we were wise enough, all through our lives, to mark well what is of the greatest value. How many unprofitable things we do, and neglect the best of all life’s gifts!—Nothing is more precious, honorable, or salutary, than the praise of God’s name, for it is an angelic and heavenly employment on earth.—The day with its light and cheerfulness reminds us of the mercy of God, by which we have light and life. The night, with its fearful and deathlike darkness, teaches us to lay to heart the truth of God’s word, because in the darkness we have no other consolation than His unchangeable promises.—Beware, ye mighty, of using your power against one of God’s saints! Do ye now flourish? Ye flourish like the grass, which, before one thinks of it, is cut down.—There is no finer soil for the growth and prosperity of the righteous than the house of the Lord, wherein God plants them; for there nothing grows of itself; and what does grow of itself, is unprofitable in the Church of God.—Happy are those aged saints, who, as outward vigor fails, prove themselves so much the more fruitful in the power of the Spirit. Selnecker: The world has great pomp and lofty titles, but God, who is the Almighty One, is the Lord of Lords, and he who clings to Him and trusts in Him, abides with Him through eternity.—Arndt: Nothing which is not of God can endure, whether it be skill or riches or honor or power. It may indeed spring up, and be clothed with pleasant verdure, but it turns out at last to be a thistle, and is only a weed, fit for nothing but the fire.—Rieger: He who feels no grateful joy in the goodness of God, seeks comfort in vanity, and then falls into wickedness; and in that wickedness ingratitude is the most base of all crimes; for all evil-doers sin against a beneficent God.—Tholuck: There are no more impressive witnesses and preachers for the rising generation, than pious old men. While bodily vigor and knowledge and skill succumb to the weakness of age, their piety yields fruits that are all the sweeter the more nearly they approach the grave.—Diedrich: The ungodly first despise God and then murmur against Him; but those who honor His word by faith, know this above all things, that they must ever praise Him, even in death.—Taube: He who knows God’s name from experience of His deliverance, must love Him, and he who loves Him, must praise Him, and he who has learnt to praise Him, will never be weary of His praise. [Matth. Henry: Their flourishing without is from a fatness within.—Without a living principle of grace in the heart, the profession will not be long flourishing; but where that is, “the leaf also shall not wither.”—The last days of the saints are sometimes their best days, and their last work their best work. This, indeed, shows that they are upright; perseverance is the surest evidence of sincerity.—J. F. M.] Psalms 93 1         The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; The Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: The world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. 2    Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting. 3    The floods have lifted up, O Lord,The floods have lifted up their voice; The floods lift up their waves. 4    The Lord on high is mightier Than the noise of many waters, Yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. 5    Thy testimonies are very sure: Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever. AND Contents and Composition.—The superscription in the Septuagint: “For the day before the Sabbath, when the earth had been peopled; song of praise of David,” arises in the first portion from the tradition, according to which this Psalm was the Psalm for the sixth day of the week in the Temple-liturgy: “because God had finished His work on the sixth day, and had begun to rule over it,” (Rosh-ha-shana 31 a., cited by Delitzsch). But the truth is that it is the beginning of God’s ruling in history, and not in the kingdom of nature, that is referred to in the Psalm. For the lifting up of the waters is only an image of the raging of rebellious bodies of men. And it is Jehovah, the God of revelation, who is the subject, of the Psalm, who has manifested in history His kingly glory, surpassing all the powers of the world, in the defence of His people and the preservation of His temple from desecration. By this He at the same time has proved Himself to be the King of that people, according to His revealed testimony, and has strengthened the hopes founded upon that testimony. The interchange of perfects and imperfects corresponds to this view which the Psalmist held as to the workings of God, a view based upon special manifestations of His power. It is not expressed as a doxology (Hupfeld), still less is it refined away in general expressions and to abstract truths, but presents in the concrete the history of the kingdom of God, and contemplates it from the prophetical stand-point. It is of the highest importance for the understanding of many Psalms, to distinguish between the theocratic Psalms, which begin with the motto: ξָ ?μַ ?κιְ ?δεָֹ ?δ (after Psalms 47:9), and the Messianic Psalm, as two series of prophecies of the time of consummation running parallel to one another (Delitzsch). “The one class has as its central theme the Anointed of Jehovah, who rules out of Zion over all nations; the other, Jehovah sitting above the Cherubim, to whom the whole earth does homage. These two series converge, indeed, in the Old Testament, but do not meet. The history of their fulfilment alone makes clear what had only glimmered forth before from some lofty heights of prophecy and poetry, (see in Psalms 45:7), that the Parusia of the Anointed and that of Jehovah, are one and the same” (Del.). Accordingly this motto could express the feelings of God’s people at quite different periods, and find its application in quite distinct events, which had brought about a victory of the Theocracy, especially as the figure of the raging waters is based upon an allusion to the Red Sea, which, in the poetic recital of the famous events preceding the founding of the Theocracy, is described by the epithet: ΰγιψ (Exodus 15:10), elsewhere applied to Jehovah (Isaiah 10:34; Psalms 93:4) and His people (Psalms 16:3). Since we cannot assign the composition of the Psalm to the period whose features are described in Deuteronomy 33:4, we have presented for our choice the age of David (the ancients), the Assyrian period (Hengst.), the times succeeding the exile (Del.), the Maccabζan period (Venema, Olsh., Hitzig). The position of the Psalm along with the related ones is especially favorable to the age following the Exile. [Hitzig remarks that the substance of the Psalm is contained in Psalms 94:8 of the preceding. Hence its position.—J. F. M.] Psalms 94:1-2. Jehovah shows Himself King, [E.V., the Lord reigneth.] The emphasis does not lie restrictively upon Jehovah (Geier, and others), as the eternal King upon an everlasting throne, as contrasted with earthly rulers over ephemeral kingdoms, but just as strongly upon the manifestations of that relation, by which disturbances that have shaken the earth and threatened the kingdom of God have been quelled. The usual term for ascending the throne (2 Samuel 15:10; 1 Kings 1:11; 1 Kings 1:13; 2 Kings 9:13) is chosen. It is also applied in Isaiah 24:23; Isaiah 52:7, and finally Revelation 11:17; Revelation 19:6, as in Psalms 96:10; Psalms 97:1; Psalms 99:1, to the coming of the Lord in His kingdom, Obadiah 1:21, Zechariah 14:9. Then follow the declarations that Jehovah clothes Himself (Isaiah 51:9; Psalms 104.) with exaltation (Isaiah 12:5; Isaiah 26:10; Psalms 68:35), and girds Himself with strength like a warrior (Isaiah 8:9; Isaiah 59:17; Isaiah 63:1; Daniel 7:9), to assert His sovereign sway, and thereby to establish the earth shaken to its foundations and disturbed in its order (Psalms 75:4). Psalms 94:3-5. The Nile (Jeremiah 46:7), the Euphrates (Isaiah 8:7), and the Tigris (Isaiah 27:1) are particularly employed, among streams, as emblems of the kingdoms of the world. The sea (Psalms 46:4; Psalms 89:10), and especially the Red Sea, subdued by Jehovah’s voice and might (Habakkuk 3:8; Habakkuk 3:10; Psalms 74:15; Psalms 77:17 f.; Psalms 114:3), are used as an emblem of the outbreak of the forces of nature and of hostile kingdoms,—.ξִ ?κ in Psalms 94:4 is not causal (Geier) but comparative.—The testimonies (Psalms 94:5) are those of revelation, especially of the law (Psalms 19:8; Psalms 25:10; Psalms 111:7). [Perowne: “The transition is abrupt, from the majesty of God as seen in His dominion in the world of nature, to His revelation of Himself in His word. At the same time there is a connection between the two, as in Psalms 19.; God, who rules the world, whose are the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever, has given His testimonies to His people, a sure and faithful word, and has Himself come to dwell with them, making His house and His people holy.”—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. Jehovah can as little cease to be God, as His power over all things can come to an end. But two things are to be observed in this connection: First, there are times in which God veils His majesty and restrains the exercise of His power, followed by times in which He displays His kingly glory, eternal and exalted over all; Secondly, there is a radical difference between God’s government of the world which He has created, and of the Church which He has established upon the earth, and yet both kingdoms are not only kept, by their common King, in existence and order, but are fixed by Him in their mutual relations, and carried forward to their several destinies. 2. God, by His might, preserves, first of all, the world in its physical existence, so that the outbreak of the elements cannot destroy it, but proves them to be powerless before the throne of the Almighty, whose voice in the clouds drowns the thunder of their raging, and at whose nod all their proud waves are stilled. But God rules the whole world also by His might, and defends His people who are in it, by controlling the agitations in the life of its nations, and directing the current of history according to His will. These reflections should strengthen our trust, and, in serious crises, enliven our courage and confirm our patience. “All acknowledge with the mouth what the prophet here teaches, but how few there are who oppose this shield, as they ought, to the hostile might of the world, so that they fear nothing, be it ever so terrible!” (Calvin). 3. But, besides, Jehovah is not merely a God of might and of faithfulness, upon whom we can rely. He is the God who has revealed His salvation in the world, and for this reason He will not only preserve His people, in whom is His earthly dwelling, but distinguish them as His own inheritance. For this end He has made known to them His will, and given testimony that it is good and gracious, that it is the will of the Holy God, who has impressed this character of holiness, which is peculiar to His nature and His word, upon His house as becoming to it, and will make it clearly manifest in His people and kingdom. By keeping ever before them this claim of holiness, on which the continuance of the moral order of the world depends, God’s people are encouraged to the obedience of faith, and at the same time, by reflecting upon the credibility of these testimonies, are comforted by the infallible promises of His word. AND The immovableness of God’s kingly throne in the midst of the commotions of the world: (1) as a token of the incomparable exaltation of this throne over all the royal seats of the world; (2) as security for the inviolable faithfulness of such a King, who from this throne preserves and rules the world and the Church; (3) as a reason why the citizens of earthly kingdoms must yield themselves up to the service of this King and His throne.—The firmness of God’s throne answers to the reliability of His word; does the same relation exist between our belief and our faithfulness?—When God’s glory is concealed from us, let us only be the more mindful of His holiness.—No one need or can rely upon the power of God, who is not willing to rely upon His testimonies, or to seek after the holiness of His house.—Three fundamental reasons for the preservation of the Church of God: (1) the immovableness of God’s throne; (2) the truth of His word; (3) the holiness of His house. Starke: Christ is King over the whole world , O let us take delight in lying at His feet and worshipping Him! We are blessed, if we become subjects of His kingdom of power, and kingdom of grace.—Where Christ is, there the world rages; no one can endure His presence.—Our duty is not performed if we merely beautify the house of God with gold and silver and precious stones; we give it its true adorning, if we resort to it attired in the holy robe of faith.—Menzel: We must esteem God’s word as our greatest ornament and noblest treasure.—Frisch: Be not anxious, no matter how great cause of anxiety there be in the world. The world must bear the kingdom of the heavenly King, even if it should break beneath it.—Berlenburger Bible: The testimonies of God are well worthy of human belief, and yet men trust them not.—Tholuck: God has established in its whole extent that world, over whose several countries the kings of the earth rule. Behold in this a proof of His power. He who alone has given it existence has never received it, but holds it as an eternal possession. Behold in this a proof of His exaltation. [Scott: We should carefully inquire whether Christ’s kingdom has indeed been set up in our hearts. This will best be decided by examining whether we so believe His testimonies and depend on Him for salvation, as to be led to love and follow after that holiness which His precepts command and His example displays, and which becomes all who profess the truth. Barnes: Attendance in a place of public worship is calculated to make the heart pure, and to banish unholy thoughts and purposes from the soul. A man who feels that he is in the presence of a Holy God will not be likely to welcome into his soul polluted images and unholy desires. Wordsworth: The walking of Christ on the waves of the sea was a prophetical foreshadowing of the ease and majesty, with which He shall one day tread the swelling waves of all human pride and earthly power, and make their tumultuous billows a pavement for His feet.—J. F. M.] Psalms 94 1         O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. 2    Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the earth: Render a reward to the proud. 3    Lord, how long shall the wicked, How long shall the wicked triumph? 4    How long shall they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? 5    They break in pieces thy people, O Lord,And afflict thine heritage. 6    They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the fatherless. 7    Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.8    Understand, ye brutish among the people: And ye fools, when will ye be wise? 9    He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? 10    He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?11    The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, That they are vanity. 12    Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord,And teachest him out of thy law: 13    That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, Until the pit be digged for the wicked. 14    For the Lord will not cast off his people, Neither will he forsake his inheritance. 15    But judgment shall return unto righteousness: And all the upright in heart shall follow it. 16    Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? 17    Unless the Lord had been my help, My soul had almost dwelt in silence. 18    When I said, My foot slippeth: Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. 19    In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul. 20    Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, Which frameth mischief by a law? 21    They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, And condemn the innocent blood. 22    But the Lord is my defence; And my God is the rock of my refuge. 23    And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, And shall cut them off in their own wickedness; Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off. AND Contents and Composition. The psalmist at first invokes the retribution of God as the Avenger (Deuteronomy 32:35) upon insolent transgressors (Psalms 94:1-3); he then describes their bloody, violent and impious acts, by which they were destroying the people of God, and, at the same time, showing despite to God Himself (Psalms 94:4-7); he next turns with warning and rebuke to the foolish of the people, who had begun to doubt even God Himself, (Psalms 94:8-11); he pronounces the pious man happy, who submits to the chastening of God and thereby trusts to God’s compensating righteousness (Psalms 94:12-15), praises, for his own part the Lord as his only but sure help, (Psalms 94:16-18), and announces his assurance of the certain infliction of the retribution which he implores (Psalms 94:19-23). The intermingling of personal with general experiences is of such a kind that the former appears conditioned by the latter, which, again, are not occasioned by distractions within, but by the influence of enemies from without. From them, the people had learned many things that were reprehensible. David therefore, (Sept. and other versions), is not to be thought of as the author. Within the period of the exile also, (De Wette, Hupfeld) no suitable place can be found for this psalm, since nothing is said of the departure of the captives or of the return, of the desolation of the city or of the destruction of the temple. We hesitate, too, to descend to the Maccabζan period (Venema, Rosenmόller, Hesse, Olsh., Hitzig), though 1Ma 7:1 f., or 1Ma 9:23 f., contain similar descriptions. There remain, therefore, only the Assyrian or the Chaldean oppressions in their commencement (Hengst.), or those after the exile in general (Kφster, Del.), According to Talmudic tradition, the Levites were singing this Psalm during the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, and had just come to the last verse, when the enemy burst into the temple, so that they could not sing the concluding lines. To the objection that that day was the Sabbath, while this was a Psalm for the fourth day of the week in the temple liturgy, it is replied, that it was a song of lamentation, and sung on account of their situation (Erachin 11. a, in Delitzsch). The Sept. has, along with the statement, “Song of praise of David” the remark: “for the fourth day of the week.” [Alexander: “There is nothing to determine the precise date of the composition, much less to restrict it to any particular historical occasion. Though some things in it seem peculiarly appropriate to the state of Judah on the eve of the Babylonian, conquest, it is so constructed as to be a vehicle of pious feeling to the Church in various emergencies.” Psalms 94:1, f. Show thyself or shine forth, does not necessarily refer to a theophany in the strict sense. The construction of the form as a prζt. (Sept. et al., Hengst.) would accord with the regular rule after Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalms 1:2, but does not suit the context. A rarer form of the imperative δεֹ ?τִ ?ιςַ instead of δεֹ ?τֵ ?ςַ (Ges. § 53, remark 2) is therefore to be assumed, without needing to point δεֹ ?τֵ ?ιςַ (Ewald), unless we prefer to hold that the final consonant has fallen away from the original form δεֹ ?τּ ?ιςָ ?δ (Psalms 80:2) on account of its similarity in sound to the first letter of the following word (Olshausen, Hitzig, Hupfeld, Del.). The plural, avengings, may denote not only the plurality of avenging deeds (Ezekiel 25:17), but also the severity of the retribution (Judges 11:36; 2 Samuel 4:8). The designation of God as the “God of retributions” is related to this. Psalms 94:8-10. The expression: foolish among the people [E. V. literally: brutish], is not another way of conveying the idea of the highest degree of stupidity (Geier, De Wette). It is not men in general or the heathen nations (most) who are addressed, but that part of Israel who had become accessible to seduction and suggestions of doubt (Olshausen and the recent expositors). But it is doubtful whether we ought to render in Psalms 94:10 : the Instructor of the nations (Jerome, Clericus, Ewald, Kφster, Maurer, Hengst., Hupfeld, Hitzig) or: He who hath chastised the heathen (Calvin, Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Rosenmόller, Delitzsch). But the contrast is not between the Gentiles without and Israel with the revealed Law; or between Israel’s former punishment at the hands of oppressors, and that which is to be expected now, so that the one can be inferred from the other. An inference is rather made from one course of action on the part of God to another of similar character, and not to the same course of action with reference to distinct objects, or at different times. [Perowne: “In the English Bible this is broken up into two questions, and a clause is supplied in the second member which does not exist in the Hebrew: ‘Shall not He know?’ But this is incorrect. There is a change in the argument. Before it was from the physical constitution of man; now it is from the moral government of the world. He who is the great Educator of the race, who gives them all the knowledge they possess, has He not the right which even human teachers possess, of chastening, correcting, and improving? On this Divine education see Romans 1:20; Romans 2:15-16.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 94:11 b. Since the pronoun is in the masculine, it is natural to refer it to “men,” and translate: for they are breath, that is, nothingness, finitude, transitoriness (Geier, J. H. Mich., Hengst., Hupfeld). The metaphysical ground of God’s perfect knowledge of His creatures, which are formed by Him and absolutely dependent upon Him, would then be presented. But the context favors rather the interpretation that God who gives men knowledge, is the Omniscient One, to whom their thoughts, in their natural nothingness, lie fully disclosed. The Sept. also has so understood the sentence, and is followed by Paul (1 Corinthians 3:20) and Jerome. The position of the pronoun, moreover, justifies this view. If the first idea had been intended, the pronoun would have been placed before the noun (Jeremiah 10:15). In a dependent sentence, however, corresponding to the accusative of the object, it may precede, contrary to the usual rule (Isaiah 61:9; Jeremiah 46:5); also, when emphasis is required Ps. 9:21), like the accusative in a relative clause (Psalms 99:4; Proverbs 2:16; Hosea 7:2). The masculine would then be loosely employed instead of the feminine, as in Psalms 34:20 (Hitzig, Del.). Psalms 94:13, etc.That Thou mayst give him rest.—This is usually referred to the inward repose of the righteous man, who receives instruction from God’s law (Deuteronomy 8. f.) as to the design of the sufferings impending over him (Jeremiah 49:23 compared with Isaiah 30:15), and strength for the trials of evil days, so that such a man, tried and purified as he is by sufferings, is even to be counted happy (Job 5:17; Proverbs 3:11 f.; Psalms 34:9; Psalms 40:5). But Psalms 94:13 b. directs the view of the chastened to the end of the transgressor, and Psalms 94:14 to God’s abiding with His people. This is the reason why the evil days will come to an end. God will afford the sufferer outward rest or deliverance from them (Job 3:13; Job 3:17 f.; Job 34:29; Proverbs 15:18). The μ in Psalms 94:13 a. indicates, not the design of the teaching, but its contents (Calvin, Clericus, Hupfeld). The evil days are not called days of misfortune, nor days of the evil man, that is, of the wicked, but days of harm, in which bad men abuse their power to work mischief (Psalms 49:6). From this cause sufferings arise for the righteous, which the latter regard as Divine chastisements, and make to contribute to their salvation. The throne of destruction, Psalms 94:20 [E. V., throne of iniquity], is either the throne of the enemy, from which destruction threatens Israel, but to which Jehovah grants no duration and no fellowship with Him; or the chair of the judge, who causes distress [Heb., ςָ ?ρָ ?μ, E. V., mischief] by using the written law of God as an occasion for illegalities and the perversion of justice. The latter view agrees better with the mode of expression in Psalms 94:20 b. For that sentence does not simply allude to a course of action disastrous in its results and opposed to the law, but to an ingenious forming of something burdensome and oppressive, the expression being suggested by and applied from the fashioning of statuets. [This idea is expressed in the rendering: who formest misery by law (rule).—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. The presumption of the ungodly is apt to increase, when they are allowed for a long period to employ with impunity their position in the world, their influence, and their resources, for the oppression of the weak and defenceless, and especially of the righteous. Their course of action often reaches to cruelty and reckless violence, and becomes criminality and wickedness, when, to the relentless ill-treatment of those, who, through God’s precepts, are made the special objects of His watchful love and compassionate help, are united the denial of His omniscience, the delusion of complete impunity, and derision of the belief in His government of the world and in His retributive righteousness. 2. Such conduct is indeed that of heathen, but yet it is not only displayed among heathen nations, but appears also among those who have received the law of God, but who either transgress it openly, insolently, and defiantly, or, while holding fast to the letter, practice injustice under the appearance and garb of righteousness, and in both cases oppress those who are weak, or offend them, or cause them to err in their faith, or seduce them from their allegiance to God. 3. A cry of prayer, therefore, sounds forth at times from the midst of the Church, invoking the judicial intervention of God against her destroyers, when they would, by violence or by perversion of justice, oppress the righteous and persecute them even to death. For God’s people hold fast to the belief which is oppugned and derided, that God is the supreme and faithful Judge and Avenger, who will bring to their due results the laws according to which He regulates the course of the world, and will reconcile the occasional contradictions between the actual state or administration of justice, and the principle and norm of righteousness. The premature rejoicings of the wicked and their scorn will then be stilled, when they fall into the abyss prepared for them; while the soul of the righteous will dwell no longer in the land of silence, for God is their help. 4. But God is not merely the Judge of the whole world and the righteous Avenger; He is also the Teacher of men, and has left Himself at no time and in no place without a witness. All understanding and knowledge, even of the heathen, spring from Him who is the Creator of men, and has given them reason and all their senses. Blessed are they who not only are acquainted with His Law, revealed in Israel, but come under its instruction and guidance. To give testimony to this is the duty assigned to the Church, in order that the ignorant be instructed, the erring set right, the tried comforted, the secure and presumptuous warned, sinners convicted in conscience, the doubting and weak strengthened, and all together confirmed in the certain assurance that God is both able and willing to execute judgment for the complete deliverance of the righteous and punishment of the impiety of the wicked, in accordance with the promises and commands of His Law. AND It is not enough to hold a general belief that a God exists; the question is: (1) what kind of God He is; (2) whether we adhere faithfully to Him.—We cannot apply the promises of God’s law to ourselves, unless we value His commandments.—God is not only the Creator and Ruler of the world. He is also the trustworthy Teacher and Educator of men, and their infallible Judge.—How the wickedness of men often makes them fools, and how the folly of men often urges them deeper still into ruin.—In order not to be obliged to forsake their sins, the wicked presume that they will remain unpunished, and in order not to be disturbed in their delusion, they deny the only true and living God.—God is the righteous Avenger, but before He punishes He warns, and those who would be delivered must yield to His rule.—He who would be freed from anxiety must listen to the words of God.—If our souls are to be revived by the consolations of God, we must listen to His warnings and believe His promises. Luther: He who so believes and is taught of God, can be patient, and let the wicked rage, while he looks to the end, and bides the time. Starke: Thou dost arrogate to thyself God’s royal prerogative, whenever thou dost seek to avenge thyself on those who injure thee.—Believers under oppression often cannot be reconciled to God’s great patience and long-suffering towards the wicked, and therefore sigh: Lord, how long? and yet God has not forgotten.—The true Church has ever had her persecutors, but she has at all times employed prayer as the best means of overcoming them, and has found it a sure one.—Whither can men’s sins not beguile them? In order to quiet their consciences they seek to persuade themselves that God is not omniscient. Vain imagination.—The joyful issue of a Christian’s troubles serves to strengthen the faith and patience of all fellow-Christians.—The world forms an altogether wrong judgment as to God’s chastisements. It says: ill for him whom God chastens. But the judgment of the Holy Spirit is a different one. It is precious and consoling: blessed is he whom God chastens. Should not this serve to increase our patience?—Nothing can revive the soul so sweetly, or penetrate therein so deeply, as the honey of the gospel. O gather a good supply when it abounds; it will soothe thee in time of need.—When affliction is greatest, then does faith display itself in its true and fullest strength, and is at the same time purified in that fire.—The righteous hand of God is often so clearly revealed in the destruction of the wicked, that even the least inexperienced in His ways must recognize it and say: The Lord hath done this! Frisch: Thou hast here a mirror of an afflicted and yet believing heart. What dost thou see therein? (1) Many heart-griefs; (2) manifold consolations of God; (3) powerful and true reviving of soul.—Rieger: Even in justifiable zeal, we are easily led to take too much upon ourselves, unless we keep within the bounds prescribed by God’s Spirit and word. A fire is useful in a house, but it must be used carefully.—Richter (Hausbibel): The judgment of chastisement begins with believers; they are thus preserved from the destruction and fearful judgment of damnation, which is inflicted upon those who oppose Christ.—Vaihinger: The education which God gives by daily experiences and sufferings, as well as His instruction by the written law, is, in the futility of human projects, a special privilege of believers, benefiting them in severe sufferings. [Matt. Henry: When the teachings of the word and Spirit go along with the rebukes of Providence, they then both speak men blessed and help to make them so; for then they are the marks of adoption and means of sanctification. When we are chastened we must pray to be taught, and look into the law as the best expositor of Providence. It is not the chastening itself that does good, but the teaching that goes along with, and is the expositor of it.—J. F. M.] Psalms 95 1         O come, let us sing unto the Lord:Let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. 2    Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 3    For the Lord is a great God, And a great King above all gods. 4    In his hand are the deep places of the earth: The strength of the hills is his also. 5    The sea is his, and he made it: And his hands formed the dry land.6    O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. 7    For he is our God; And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To-day if ye will hear his voice, 8    Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, And as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9    When your fathers tempted me, Proved me and saw my work. 10    Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, And they have not known my ways: 11    Unto whom I sware in my wrath That they should not enter into my rest. AND Contents and Composition.—The Church is called upon to praise Jehovah (Psalms 95:1-2); first, because of His exaltation as the supreme God and Creator (Psalms 95:3-5). The call is then repeated, being supported by the relation which the Church bears to Him, and coupled with the exhortation to listen to His voice on that very day (Psalms 95:6-7). Finally, the declaration of God to His people, which draws its warnings from the history of the march through the wilderness, is announced (Psalms 95:8-11). No clue is afforded to the time of composition. Its fruitful application typically is shown in Hebrews 3:7-11; Hebrews 4:3-7. The Sept. has the superscription: Psalm of praise of David. The expression in Hebrews 4:7 : ἐνΔαβὶδλέγων, does not refer to the person of David, but to the Book of Psalms named after him.—The Romish Church begins its daily officium with this Psalm, according to the rendering of Psa 95:2 : prζoccupemus faciem ejus.Psalms 95:3-4. Above all gods.—This expression refers, as do also Psalms 96:4; Psalms 97:9, to the incomparable exaltation of God. It is not angels (Calvin) who are meant, but gods of the heathen (Exodus 15:11; Exodus 18:11). Yet a real existence is not ascribed to them. They are in Psalms 96:5; Psalms 97:7, after Leviticus 19:4; Leviticus 26:1, and frequently in Isaiah, called ΰμιμιν, with cutting irony.—In Psalms 95:4, instead of summit, it is not advisable to translate: mines, of the mountains (Bφttcher), although the etymology is obscure, and the meaning therefore doubtful also in Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8; Job 22:25. [The rendering “strength” in E. V. is derived from the meaning which the word must have in the first two passages above cited, where it is applied to the buffalo. Most recent critics concur in giving the translation of Dr. Moll: heights, or summit, which is that of the Septuagint. The primary idea being that of weariness, the derivation is supposed to be connected with it, by the nature of the fatigue occasioned by the ascent of a great elevation—J. F. M.] Psalms 95:7-9. We must not render: sheep of His care (Bφtt.), though the hand is perhaps not the creating hand, which has made the people the flock of God (Isaiah 19:25; Isaiah 64:7; Psalms 80:6), but the guiding and protecting hand (Genesis 30:35).—To-day. By the position of ιεξ at the beginning of its clause, the day on which God’s voice is not only heard, but is also obeyed, is set forth as a day of decision. The ΰִ ?ν would lead us to expect an apodosis, but, when this is wanting, it gives to the clause which it introduces an optative meaning. There lay stamped already upon the names Meribah and Massah [E. V., provocation—temptation,] the events which occurred there (Exodus 17:1-7, Numbers 20:1 ff.), and they could therefore be so much the more easily applied typically (Psalms 83:10, comp. Numbers 14:22; Deuteronomy 6:16; Deuteronomy 33:8; Psalms 78:18; Psalms 78:41; Psalms 78:56; Psalms 106:14).—In verse 9b. the meaning is not: although they saw my wonderful working (De Wette, Kφster, Hengst., Del.), but: they also observed my retributive dealing (Luther, Geier, Ewald, Hupfeld, Hitzig). Psalms 95:10 f. We should not render: with that generation (Sept.), although the generation living at that time and suffering from that judgment is primarily referred to. The absence of the article rather indicates a general reference, and facilitates the application to men of like character in any circumstances. The oath of God (Psalms 95:11) follows Numbers 14:21 f., comp. Deuteronomy 1:35. The rest is primarily the place of settlement granted by God (Numbers 10:33; Deuteronomy 12:9; 1 Kings 8:56; Isaiah 11:10; Psalms 132:8; Psalms 132:14), but includes the idea of rest after wandering, and, according to Hebrews 4:8 f., may be employed as a type of the eternal rest.—The Sept. read in Psalms 95:6 weep, instead of: bow down: and many ancient psalteries have after the Cod. Vat. of the Sept. the addition to Psalms 95:3 : because the Lord will not reject His people. AND ETHICAL1. God, as the firm and sure ground of all help and of our salvation (Psalms 89:27; Psalms 94:22), is the worthy object of the praise of His adoring Church. But, when His people assemble to praise Him, they must remember that they appear before the face of Him who, exalted as the only true God above all beings that are honored by men as Divine, is the Creator of all things and the Shepherd of His people. They are, therefore, to humble themselves before Him as the One who is alone worthy of adoration, trust in Him as the Controller of all, and, in the obedience of faith, follow Him as their Guide. 2. God’s people worshipping in His sanctuary have, for the reasons and with the aim above-mentioned, both to raise their own voices to God, and to listen to His voice addressed to them. Both of these are essential to true devotion, and not only express the lively nature of the relations which exist between God and His Church, but promote also their intimacy, reality, and strength. God will preserve, protect, and rule the people of His Church as His flock, not merely physically, temporally, and outwardly, but will also spiritually, eternally, and inwardly care for them, revive them, and sanctify them for His own inheritance. For this end He employs especially His holy word, by which He compels none, but invites, instructs, and directs all. 3. In order to praise God truly, and to follow His guidance with docility, the heart must be surrendered to Him; and history, including that of God’s word, teaches us how seldom and with what difficulty men yield to this demand, and how often, on the other hand, and how easily, they, even with God’s judgments before them, and with the evidences of His blessings around them, harden themselves even to obduracy. Then they go astray in the wilderness, and do not arrive at rest with God, since in their hearts they have wandered away from Him. As long as the voice of God over us calls upon us to hear by rebuke and punishment, we are still far from the goal. But we can learn from His voice, still sounding through the Church in the preaching of His word, that we are upon the way. And from the fact that long after the time of Moses, and again after that of David, God caused such a call to be sounded forth in the Church, and appointed days of decision, impressing upon men’s minds the severity of the judgment and the preciousness of the day of grace which still runs on, we may learn that, with the possession of Canaan, neither the blessedness of Israel nor the teaching of God came to an end, but that there still remains a rest for the people of God. [Hengstenberg: The Psalm has its full significance for the Christian Church, inasmuch as we stand in the same relation to the second coming of the Lord, of whose time and hour we know nothing, as the people of the Old Testament did to the first.—J. F. M.] AND There is reason enough for daily thanksgiving, but is there delight in it?—It is a telling accusation of our forgetfulness, indolence, and ingratitude that we need to be called upon to praise God.—All worship is based upon an acknowledgment of the Divine majesty, creative omnipotence, and watchful love of the Eternal.—We are not merely to feel what we have to thank God for and what we owe to Him, but to express it also in word and deed.—Thou hast, perhaps, a desire to speak with God; art thou also inclined to hear and to obey Him? He who would come into the rest of God, must hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and feed in His pastures as a member of His flock.—We are to-day still upon our pilgrimage; to-day we hear still the voice of God; to-day we can still seek the face of the Eternal; why then do so many wander about in the wilderness and perish?—When God’s people tempt Him instead of trusting Him, they will not stand in the day of trial. Starke: If our hearts were not by nature so slow to serve and praise God, He would not need to awaken and encourage us.—The world rejoices and shouts in its service of sin; how it puts to shame the children of God, who are often so indolent in the far more blessed employment of praising Him!—The more thou wilt meditate upon the greatness of our God, the more tiny and insignificant will created things and thine own fancied greatness appear in thine eyes.—A Christian does not know how to humble himself sufficiently before God even in behaviour. It is ever with him as with the Psalmist: I will yet be more vile than this before the Lord (2 Samuel 6:22)—The whole good of the believer is contained in one word: God is his God.—As certain as are the oaths of God, whereby He promises life and blessedness to the penitent, so certain are those by which He announces eternal destruction to the obstinate ungodly. Frisch: God’s anger falls suddenly; and then it is too late to do what is not already done.—Tholuck: God’s words speak loudly, and afford an inexhaustible subject of grateful songs of praise.—Guenther: A rest still remains even for the people of the Dispersion, but the way thither lies over Golgotha.—Diedrich: God Himself is the Rock on which our salvation rests, and that is one great consolation, for if it rested on our own strength, it would be a tottering support.—Taube: God, who is worthy to be praised, who has led the people of His pasture to Himself through the acceptable days of salvation, and who feeds them until the full enjoyment of the eternal Sabbath rest, calls upon us to triumph in His power and mercy; but the warning example of those of old, the shortness of today, the sweeping progress and terrible deceitfulness of sin, the labyrinth of errors in our own hearts, call upon us o exercise a holy fear of the Lord. [Matth. Henry: The more experience we have had of the power and goodness of God, the greater is our sin if we distrust Him. What, to tempt Him in the wilderness when we live upon Him! This is as ungrateful as it is absurd and unreasonable—Hardness of heart is at the bottom of all our distrusts of God and quarrels with Him. That is a hard heart which receives not the impressions of Divine discoveries, and conforms not to the intentions of the Divine will; which will not melt, which will not bend. Hengstenberg: The more clearly God makes Himself known, the more base is our conduct, if we only put Him to the test in time of need; as though He could not till then give proof of His true Divinity.—J. F. M.] Psalms 96 1         O sing unto the Lord a new song: Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. 2    Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; Shew forth his salvation from day to day. 3    Declare his glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. 4    For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above all gods. 5    For all the gods of the nations are idols: But the Lord made the heavens. 6    Honour and majesty are before him: Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7    Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, Give unto the Lord glory and strength, 8    Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: Bring an offering, and come into his courts. 9    O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Fear before him, all the earth. 10    Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: He shall judge the people righteously. 11    Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. 12    Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice. 13    Before the Lord: for he cometh, For he cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the people with his truth. AND Contents and Composition The Psalm begins by calling for a new song, so that the blessed name of Jehovah may be praised, the salvation of God be daily proclaimed in Israel, and the wonders of His majesty made known to the heathen (vers 1–3) This exhortation is justified by the exaltation of Jehovah as the only God and Creator, and who yet has made His sanctuary the glorious place of His self-revelation (Psalms 96:4-6). Grounded upon this, a call is addressed to the nations to worship this God (Psalms 96:7-9), and a charge given to the Israelites, to proclaim among the heathen the joyful message of His coming (Psalms 96:10-13), when He shall appear for judgment, and yet bring with Him blessings for the whole earth. This conception of the Theocracy is acharacteristic of the time of Isaiah 40-46. With this agrees the circumstance, that the text of 1 Chronicles 16:23 ff, where the same song is repeated, gives evidence of a compilation from this Psalm and passages of others (Redding, Observationes de Psalmis bis editis). According to this, the statement of the Chronicler, to the effect that the song there recorded was sung by David when the ark was transferred to Zion, is devoid of support. So also the supposition that the song was repeated at the dedication of the Second Temple, which seeks to reconcile the two statements of the superscription in the Septuagint: “Psalm of David when the Temple was built after the Captivity.” [Perowne remarks that the second part of this superscription is probably correct, as indicating that the Psalm was composed after the exile, and for the service of the Second Temple. On the first part he says: “This seems to contradict the other, but was no doubt occasioned by the circumstance that this Psalm together with portions of Psalms 105, 106 is given with some variations by the author of the Book of Chronicles, as the Psalm which was sung when the ark was brought into the sanctuary in Zion.” Mr. Perowne, therefore, does not reconcile the contradiction, but only makes it more apparent. Hengstenberg holds that the Chronicler merely says that David instituted the service of praise, and then gives specimens taken not from David’s time, but from his own. See Introd. to Psalms 106—J. F. M.]. Psalms 96:4 ff. Gods. The context shows that it is neither angels, nor rulers, but the gods of the heathen who are meant. Of these there is predicated not only impotence but non-existence, nothingness (Leviticus 19:4; Leviticus 26:1; Isa. 41:44), by an expression which, in accordance with the play on the words, may be rendered; idols, but which is stronger than: no gods, (Deuteronomy 32:21), and: useless creatures. The Sept. give δαιμὁνια as exhibiting the nature of the heathen gods, according to the opinions current in their time. Elsewhere they render: ἐίδωλα and μάταια, Zechariah 11:17. These images of delusion could, by way of personification, be addressed and called upon to act (Psalms 97:7). But they are not thereby made to pass from the sphere of mythological existence. Even heaven and earth, mountain and sea, forest and field, are called upon to listen to the announcement, to share in the joy, to clap their hands (Psalms 98:8; Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 55:12), and that upon the ground of the close analogy between nature and history. This is especially frequent in the Prophets, but occurs often also in the Psalms, yet not as a current formula or established phrase (Hupfeld), but as a lyrical echoing of prophetic conceptions, and therefore full of resemblances and quotations, yet without being a spiritless imitation. Even Psalms 96:7-9, which are an echo of Ps. 29:12, have significant peculiarities of their own. In Psalms 96:9, instead of: in holy array [E. V., beauty of holiness], the Sept. has both here and in 1 Chronicles 16 in the courts of the sanctuary. The sanctuary mentioned in Psalms 96:6 b. is probably the earthly one (comp. Isaiah 60). The Chronicler has differently, strength and joy are in His place. This might more naturally refer to the heavenly place, but it is evidently connected with his historical treatment of this poem, with which he has united a passage taken from Psalms 105. Many psalters add to Psalms 96:10 a the addition: a ligno, upon which an author so early as Justin lays great stress. [On Psalms 96:13, Alexander: “The use of the word people in the common version of the last clause, obscures the sense by seeming to apply the verse to Israel, whereas it is expressly applied in the original to the nations generally Even the truth or faithfulness of God, which commonly denotes His veracity in fulfilling His promises to the chosen people, has here a wider sense, as opposed to the dishonesty or partiality of human judges. In the parallel passage (1 Chronicles 16:33) the emphatic repetitions in the first clause and the whole of the last clause, are omitted, perhaps because so striking and sonorous a conclusion would not have been appropriate, when another Psalm was to be added.”—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. Every new manifestation of the truth of God in testimony of His power and mercy, deserves a new song. By the former both the earlier revelation is confirmed, and progress in the history of redemption effected, by the latter the acknowledgment is both expressed and made more widely known. The song is therefore partly a hymn and partly a sermon, and in each relation is adapted both to edify the Church and to awaken the heathen. 2. The worship of Jehovah is destined to be extended over the whole earth. The means ordained for the fulfillment of that end, arc the proclamation of the joyful message of the Lord’s coming among all tribes and to all generations of men. The right to this is based upon the holy majesty of Jehovah, as the only real and true God. To this right corresponds the duty of worshipping in holy attire, which has its crowning manifestation in the public services of the Church. The fulfilment of these obligations is bound up with the progress of God’s kingdom on earth, and on account of the condition of the world, bears in one relation the form of a judgment, and in another, that of a course of education of the nations. The development of the Theocracy stands therefore in closest connection with the salvation of the world, and the history of the Church, but depends throughout on the revelation of God’s glory, which has its appropriate times and historical stages. AND Every advance which is made in the kingdom of God is a blessing to the world. It therefore becomes the Church to rejoice over it, to pray for it, and to work for it.—God does not weary in blessing, but thanksgiving is often unpleasant to us, and the service of God a burden.—The eternal mercy of God may be praised with old or with new songs, provided only that it be done by a heart which has received a new impression of the glory of God.—The work of missions, even though prosecuted by individuals, is the duty of the whole Church, and the cause of the Lord our God.—The heathen world is great, its conversion goes slowly forwards, the work of laboring for it is difficult, but the will of God is plain, the assistance of God powerful, the blessing of God certain.—The coming of the Lord; (1) as the object of our hope; (2) as matter of our preaching; (3) as source of our joy. Starke: The new song demands a new heart and a ready tongue. It has for its ground the real enjoyment of the purchased blessings of redemption.—He who has become truly a subject of Christ’s kingdom of grace, burns with desire to bring others also within it, and proclaims by word and life the glory of God his King, and the blessedness of his fellow-citizens.—The true kind of joy is that which is expressed before the Lord. Frisch: He whose undertakings succeed should give only God the glory.—Tholuck: The proclamation of the undivided dominion of the Lord, is a subject of rejoicing in which even lifeless nature must receive a tongue and praise Him.—Taube The new salvation gives a new heart, and a new heart gives a new song—What human sin, as a destroying power, shakes even to its foundation, receives, when judgment is led forth to victory, its immovable support from the sin-conquering and therefore delivering righteousness of the Lord, and converted souls praise thenceforward the God of order and of peace. [Matth. Henry: In God there is everything that is awful, and yet everything that is amiable. If we attend Him in His sanctuary we shall behold His beauty, for God is Love; and experience His strength, for He is our Rock. Scott: If we are ready for the coming of the Lord, let us bless His name, bear up cheerfully under our difficulties, endeavor to promote the peace and enlargement of His kingdom, and in our proper place and doing our proper work, let us be as faithful servants who are habitually expecting and desiring the coming of their Lord. Barnes: Whatever makes the world attractive; whatever beautifies and adorns creation, has its source in God; it proceeds from Him. Whatever there is of power to reform the world and convert sinners; whatever there is to turn men from their vicious and abandoned course of life; whatever there is to make the world better and happier, proceeds from the “sanctuary”—the Church of God.—J. F. M.] Psalms 97 1         The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; Let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.2    Clouds and darkness are round about him: Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. 3    A fire goeth before him, And burneth up his enemies round about. 4    His lightnings enlightened the world: The earth saw and trembled. 5    The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord,At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 6    The heavens declare his righteousness, And all the people see his glory. 7    Confounded be all they that serve graven images, That boast themselves of idols: Worship him, all ye gods. 8    Zion heard, and was glad; And the daughters of Judah rejoiced Because of thy judgments, O Lord.9    For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: Thou art exalted far above all gods. 10    Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of his saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. 11    Light is sown for the righteous, And gladness for the upright in heart. 12    Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. AND Contents and Division.—The appearing of Jehovah as the heavenly judge is announced, together with His coming forth as the King of glory for the salvation and joy of many upon earth (Psalms 97:1-3). His awful majesty, in its significance, as related to the universal world, has revealed itself (4–6) to the joy of Israel and the shame of idol-worshippers (7–9), which result is to serve as a warning as well as a consolation to the righteous (10–12). The use of the prζterite in the second and third strophes must not be disregarded. [Perowne: “The use of the past tenses in Psalms 97:4-8 and particularly the vivid language of Psa 97:8 are most naturally explained as occasioned by some historical event, some great national deliverance or triumph of recent occurrence, such, for instance, as the overthrow of Babylon and the restoration of the Theocracy.”—J. F. M ] Nor are we to overlook the circumstance that as in Psalms 1 the description is borrowed from the Theophany on Sinai. On account of the character of the Psalm, so fruitful in great truths and so universal in its application, it is eminently suited to represent typically, not all the manifestations of God’s judicial and delivering power generally, as the thunder, for example, in Psalms 18 does, but those which in the history of the Theocracy bear an epoch-making character. On account of the numerous reproductions of passages in older Psalms, and its affinity with announcements in the Second Part of Isaiah, we are not justified in assigning it to the time of David, in accordance with the superscription in the Sept.: “By David, when his land was restored to rest” (Jerome, Hilary and others, Clauss). The time of the Maccabees (Venema, Hitzig, Olshausen) is too late. It could scarcely have been occasioned by any victory of the Israelites (Muntinghe). But such an event as the restoration of the Theocracy after the fall of Babylon (Ewald) is most readily suggested. Only we must not refer it specially to the dedication of the second Temple (Rosenm.), but, as in the whole group of which this Psalm forms a member, we must hold to its connection with the circle of prophecy following the Exile (Del.), which is concerned especially with the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. Hupfeld regards this Psalm as without historical occasion, but as being a free, poetical working up of current images and forms of expression. This is the extreme opposite of the Messianic view, which understands the prζterites, employed prophetically, as describing the end of the world and its final judgment (the Rabbins, and many older expositors). Psalms 97:1 f. The isles are mentioned also in Psalms 72:10, as bringing tribute to the King of the kingdom of God, but after Isaiah 41 they appear frequently as representing the countries outside of the Promised Land, stretching even to the furthest unknown limits of the world, as also the inhabitants of those countries. Hence the predicate: the many, is not superfluous. [This construction is unnecessary. It is better to take, as most do, the adjective as qualifying the noun directly. “The many islands”—the multitude of the islands.—In Psalms 97:2 the E. V. rendering of ξְ ?μεֹ ?ο: “habitation,” is accompanied by the marginal alternative “establishment.” Dr. Alexander prefers to retain the former. If we give to the latter idea its more definite expression: “support,” we find that both meanings may be defended by derivation and usage. But the second gives a clearer as well as more vivid and pleasing sense. Perowne, Noyes, and Barnes favor it, following the great majority of German critics. Dr. Moll translates: Saule; Delitzsch: Pfeiler; Hengstenb.: Boden. The last, expressing the idea of a groundwork or basis, serves to bring the various shades of meaning into closer relation, and probably best expresses the meaning of the original—J. F. M.] Psalms 97:7 ff. The Elohim have here also in accordance with the Sept. been erroneously regarded as angels. It is doubtful whether Psalms 97:7 c. ought to be taken as an imperative (Septuag., Syr., Hengst., Hupfeld), or as a prζterite (Del., Hitzig).—In Psalms 97:11 the light is not viewed as seed, in allusion to a re-emergence from darkness (most of the ancients), but as being scattered upon the way of life which is trodden by the righteous. “Light is said to be sown when the rising sun diffuses his rays plentifully in all directions” (Venema). [Alexander unites the idea of productiveness to this.—J. F. M.] The ancient translators have probably confounded εψς with εψη: to rise (Psalms 112:4, comp. Proverbs 13:9), unless they read the latter, which is indeed found in some codices. AND ETHICAL1. God will not only have it preached that He is the King and Judge of the world, He also makes men actually sensible of this truth by historical proofs of His majesty. These are to one class a source of delight, and to another a source of terror, according to their attitude with regard to this revelation of that God who is infinitely exalted above all the world and its vain gods. The vision of Him is indeed not vouchsafed to mortals, but His presence may be traced, His coming watched for, and, at the same time, His essential character discoverable. For the fire which blazes forth from the cloudy darkness which conceals Him, and yet makes Him known as the Almighty King of Heaven, consumes not the righteous but the unrighteous, and manifests the infallible righteousness of this supreme Judge of the whole world, who has established His throne upon justice and righteousness. 2. The announcement that the Eternal has revealed Himself to the world and in the Church, must be based upon these facts, must expound them also and apply them, in a word, turn them theoretically and practically to account. For the righteousness of God, which, descending from heaven, is announced and operates on earth, embraces the whole world, separates those who love Him from the wicked, and rewards every man according to his works. AND The revelation of God’s glory in the word of truth, in the reign of righteousness, and in the workings of grace.—That which to the righteous is comforting and the source of holy joy, is to the wicked dreadful, and the object of unceasing fear; therefore they would like best not to hear or see anything of it.—There may be darkness in heaven and upon the earth, but a light is never wanting to the righteous, and it never becomes converted into a devouring fire for them, as it does for the ungodly.—The Deliverer and Judge of all the world is descending from heaven: let all the righteous sing His praise. Starke: Christ’s kingdom is one of joy; blessed heart which has its portion there!—The beginning of a sinner’s conversion is fearful, under the terrors of the law, but the progress and the end are joyful, under the consolations of the light of the mercy of the gospel.—He who will not have the justification of faith, must have the condemnation of unbelief.—Love to God is the true source of obedience to His commands.—True love to God is ever united with hatred of all evil.—Believers have here, it is true, only their seed-time, but they have often also the fair first-fruits of the harvest.—The joyfulness of faith under suffering is not the privilege of every one, yet the righteous encourage one another thereto assiduously (2 Corinthians 6:16). Frisch: If thou wouldst be a citizen of God’s kingdom and His true subject, thou must also love Him, and from love to Him, hate what is evil; all will then acknowledge that thou dost belong to thy Jesus.—Rieger: In the word of the kingdom lies all-abiding joy, and by it we learn to praise God’s holiness, in accordance with which He extends the cause of that kingdom far beyond the expectations of all men.—Guenther: Who rules the world? The heathen say: their idols; the wicked: the devil; unbelievers: accident, blind chance, or iron destiny. They all look into the darkness.—How many fancy that they really love God from the heart, and yet they cannot bring themselves to a true, decided hatred of evil.—Diedrich: When God breaks suddenly in upon men with His judgments, then even fools must see what they would not believe, that the God of the poor and distressed is eternal Righteousness and living Omnipotence itself.—Taube: The righteous government of the Lord: a terror to His enemies, a joy to Zion.—The measure of love to the Lord determines the measure of the joy that is felt in Him, and both attest their genuineness and purity in and by a separation from sin. [Matt. Henry: Whatever is matter of our rejoicing ought to be matter of our thanksgiving, and especially the holiness of God.—The joy of the saints should confirm their antipathy to sin, and Divine comforts should put their mouths out of taste to sensual pleasures.—J. F. M.] Psalms 98 A Psalm         O sing unto the Lord a new song; For he hath done marvellous things: His right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. 2    The Lord hath made known his salvation: His righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. 3    He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4    Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: Make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 5    Sing unto the Lord with the harp; With the harp, and the voice of a psalm. 6    With trumpets and the sound of cornet Make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. 7    Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein. 8    Let the floods clap their hands: Let the hills be joyful together 9    Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: With righteousness shall he judge the world, And the people with equity. AND Contents and Composition.—This Psalm is furnished merely with the superscription: mizmor, and is ascribed by the Sept. and Syriac Versions to David. It agrees most closely with Psalms 96. Yet there is not an entire absence of peculiar expressions, to which, especially, Psalms 98:1 c and 8 belong. The wonderful deeds of God in behalf of His people, in the sight of all the nations, for the display to the world of His righteousness, mercy, and truth towards the house of Israel, are cited here also in order to justify the call sent forth for the praise of Jehovah. This points to the modes of expression characteristic of the second part of Isaiah, with reference to the restoration of the people after the judgment decreed upon Babylon. There is nothing to indicate decisively a later period, whether a victory over the Persians (De Wette), or that Purim-festival which was celebrated after the victory (2Ma 15:26), to which the other Psalms are supposed to relate as triumphal songs (Hitzig). For the clapping of the hands by boys at the Purim-feast, whenever Haman was named, is something quite different from the clapping of the hands figuratively applied in Psalms 98:8 to streams, in order to set forth the joy at the appearance of God, as King in Zion, before the whole world—a joy universally felt. The reference to the song of the Israelites after their departure from Egypt (Syriac version) was occasioned merely by the mention of the sea, which is called upon to join in the praise of God for His wonderful deliverance of Israel, accomplished before the eyes of the heathen. The division is simple and natural. In the first strophe the call is justified by pointing to the deeds of Jehovah, and in the second it is addressed specially to the people, the Levites, and the priests, in the third it is presented in its relations to the world in general. Psalms 98:1 ff. His right hand hath helped Him [E. V.: His right hand … hath gotten Him the victory]. This means that God Himself has intervened, and that decisively, by His immediate miraculous interference (Isaiah 59:16; Isaiah 63:5) and by His holy arm (Isaiah 52:10). [Perowne prefers to render: “have gotten Him salvation,” on account of the recurrence of a noun from the same root in Psalms 98:2-3, where this is the most suitable translation.—J. F. M.] The remembering in Psalms 98:3, expresses more than retaining in the memory, as contrasted with forgetting (1 Samuel 1:11). It alludes to the fulfilment of promises given, or to the execution of resolutions taken, as contrasted with their abandonment (Genesis 24:27). [On Psalms 98:7 Hengstenberg: “The roaring suits the fulness of the sea as well as the sea itself; it is used in Job 39:25 of the loud shout of the human voice.”—J. F. M.] The clapping of the hands is employed as a token of applause and an expression of joy at the ascension of kings (2 Kings 11:12; Psalms 47:2). The waves of the sea exalting themselves are represented also in Habakkuk 3:10 as hands stretched forth on high. AND ETHICAL1. The Church can be helped only through the Lord its God. But there is a difference between the ordinary means of grace and extraordinary help. Since God employs both according as circumstances require, so must the Church, while awaiting the latter, not neglect the former. She is, by such a course, strengthened in hope as well as in patient waiting, and is both rendered better fitted to praise God’s wonders, and encouraged to engage in such praise. 2. The wonders of God among His people are primarily designed for them, and earnestly directed to their deliverance. But they are not to be restricted to that nation, nor to be turned to the account of selfishness. And therefore some of them are performed before the eyes of the whole world, and are also to be made known to the heathen, in order that they may redound to the good of the world, and that God may be praised among all nations, when He shall have changed the desolated earth by righteousness and justice into an abode of salvation and joy. AND What God does is not merely done rightly; what He has done in Zion must promote also the good of the whole world.—The renovation of the earth by God’s coming, so as to be changed into the seat of His kingdom.—Why is it that the songs in praise of God are ever becoming less frequent among us? Great and special blessings deserve great, special, and most fitting thanks.—The victory which Christ has gained, and the deliverance which He sought to achieve, will be blessings to us, if we believe in Him, since it was for our sakes that He undertook this war.—Christ has gained the victory with His own arm; therefore all merit on the part of the Church and all her own good works are excluded.—Where Christ’s kingdom breaks forth mightily in praise, it requires a very strong influence to make it cease. [Matt. Henry: Converts sing a new song, very different from what they had sung; they change their wonder and change their joy, and therefore change their note. If the grace of God put a new heart into our breast, it will therewith put a new song into our mouths. Barnes: One cannot read this Psalm without being a happier man; without lofty views of God; without feeling that He is worthy of universal praise; without recognizing that he is in a world where the mind should be joyful; that he is under the dominion of a God whose reign should fill the mind with gladness.—J. F. M.] Psalms 99 1         The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: He sitteth between the cherubim; let the earth be moved. 2    The Lord is great in Zion; And he is high above all the people. 3    Let them praise thy great and terrible name; For it is holy. 4    The king’s strength also loveth judgment; Thou dost establish equity, Thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob. 5    Exalt ye the Lord our God, And worship at his footstool; For he is holy. 6    Moses and Aaron among his priests, And Samuel among them that call upon his name; They called upon the Lord, and he answered them. 7    He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: They kept his testimonies, And the ordinance that he gave them. 8    Thou answeredst them, O Lord our God: Thou wast a God that forgavest them, Though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. 9    Exalt the Lord our God, And worship at his holy hill; For the Lord our God is holy. AND Contents and Division.—The three times holy is sounded here in the confessing Church upon earth, as in Isaiah 6 it is represented as being sung in heaven by angels. It divides the Psalm into three parts, the refrain being somewhat lengthened in each repetition. First, there is an acknowledgment of the manifestations of Jehovah’s kingly might in heaven and upon earth, which makes the world tremble, and is worthy to evoke praise to this exalted Ruler and His mighty name. To this is attached the simple acknowledgment of His holiness. This is then connected with the worship of Jehovah on the steps of His throne, as the King who has established the Theocracy in Israel. Finally, both the place of worship and the object to whom it is due are particularly described, after it had been shown from the history of Israel previous to the establishment of the Monarchy, that God’s kingdom is not dependent upon the existence of earthly kings, but is regulated in accordance with a course of action, in harmony with its true nature, both on the part of the Church and on the part of God. This analysis and view of the Psalm avoids the difficulties and artificial character of the usual division into two parts, to which Hengstenberg also adheres, except that he regards Psalms 99:1 as the Theme prefixed. Hupfeld also finds a reference to the history of the leading through the desert, as in Psalms 95, 81, joined to an appeal to the people of Israel to praise Jehovah as the mighty and dreadful King of the world, who also loves that justice which He has established and administered among His people. The exact point of view of this allusion and its connection, both internal and with the first part, is, according to him, rather obscurely expressed. The threefold division of Bengel and his school, approved by Delitzsch, according to which the Lord is praised as He that is coming, He who is, and He who was, is open to the same objections. Our view agrees more closely with the text, explains the mention of the three most important men in the Theocracy before the time of David, and preserves for the Psalm its peculiar character, which indicates decisively its position in the period after the destruction of the kingdom. That the ark of the covenant was still in existence at that time, according to Psalms 99:1; Psalms 99:5, and that therefore this Psalm, with its whole cycle and the second part of Isaiah, is to be assigned to a period preceding the Exile (Hengstenberg) is not an “indisputable fact,” but an unsupported inference. [Perowne, who does not attempt to settle the time of composition, remarks on the character and position of the Psalm: “This is the last of the series of royal Psalms, of Psalms which celebrate the coming of Jehovah as King. The first of this series is the 93d. The 99th, like the 93d and 97th, opens with the joyful announcement that Jehovah is King, and then bids all men fall down, and confess His greatness, and worship Him who alone is holy. Both the first and the last of the series celebrate the kingly majesty and the holiness of Jehovah, and also the holiness of His worship. In this Psalm, the true character of His worshippers as consecrated priests, holy, set apart for His service, is illustrated by the example of holy men of old, like Moses, Aaron, and Samuel.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 99:1 ff. Throned upon the cherubim. [E. V. he sitteth between the cherubim]. The participle is dependent upon the preceding ξָ ?μָ ?κְ as defining the nature and manner of Jehovah’s reign (Olshausen). The expression itself always denotes a manifestation of the kingly majesty of Jehovah in the world (see on Psalms 18:11) whether it be from heaven or out of Zion, and is connected with the belief, not merely of the identity of the heavenly King and the God who was adored in Zion, but also of His presence in Israel. The Cherubim are represented, therefore, as being both over the ark of the covenant and in the chariot of heaven, and in the temple also in various forms, and if the term is applied also to the place of the throne over the ark of the covenant, and derives its most frequent application therefrom, the usage of this expression, which had become an established designation of God in His definite relation to the world and the history of the Theocracy, Psalms 80:3, can no longer be urged in proof of the actual contemporaneous existence of the ark of the covenant. Psalms 99:5. The footstool in Psalms 99:5 is to be viewed in the same way, although it is not distinguished as an object of adoration, by means of a rhetorical figure (Hupfeld), but as the place where it is offered, in allusion to prostration upon the steps of the throne. The expression might, it is true, be referred to the covering of the ark of the covenant (Psalms 132:7-8; 1 Chronicles 28:2) and it is such a general one, that it may characterize even the whole earth in relation to heaven, the throne of that God who rules the world and fills all space (Isaiah 66:1). But here, as Psalms 99:9 shows, it denotes the sanctuary at Jerusalem (Lamentations 2:1) as the dwelling of God, where He has His throne (Psalms 5:8; Psalms 138:2) and the place of His feet (Isaiah 60:13; Ezekiel 43:7), without implying thereby the existence of the ark of the covenant. Psalms 99:4. And the might of a King who loveth justice [E. V.: The king’s strength also loveth judgment]. The connection by “and” does not contain any convincing ground for the assumption, that the sentence continues to enumerate objects of praise (Isaaki, Rosenmόller and others) and, accordingly, that Psalms 99:3 b, is a parenthesis (De Wette, Hengst.). This would destroy the strophical structure. Nor does it justify us in detaching this member of the verse from the following as an independent sentence, or in considering it as a parallel confession to the words that refer to the holiness of Jehovah (or His person). According to the last view, ςζ is taken inadmissibly as denoting majesty, and the article is supplied, thus affording the rendering: the majesty of the king is loving justice. (The ancient translators and expositors). Nor can we regard the abstract as an adjective: the strong king (Hupfeld). The position of the words favors the view that “loving justice” is a relative clause (Chald., Aben Ezra, Delitzsch, Hitzig), and that “might” is the accusative of the object preceding its verb. The idea, that with this King omnipotence and righteousness are inseparable, is retained; but it is placed in direct connection with the actual verification of that truth, which is the occasion and subject of this Psalm, and by which the might or strength of the King is confirmed, as elsewhere His throne is said to be, (Psalms 9:8; 2 Samuel 7:13; 1 Chronicles 17:12). Jehovah has administered justice and righteousness in Jacob by means of the Theocracy. [The author renders accordingly: And the might of the king, who loveth righteousness, hast thou established in uprightness; justice and righteousness hast thou fulfilled in Jacob.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 99:6 ff. Moses twice performed acts essentially priestly (Exodus 24 and Exodus 40:22 f, comp. Leviticus 8), at the ratification of the covenant, and at the consecration of the priests. For this reason he could the more readily be placed here among the priestly mediators. Among the suppliants Samuel is given the prominence (1 Samuel 7:8 f.; 1 Samuel 12:16 f.; Sir 46:16 f.). But he too offered sacrifices and blessed the offerings (1 Samuel 9:13), as Moses also prayed mightily (Exodus 17:11 f.; Exodus 32:30 f.; Psalms 106:23). [Hengstenberg: “The whole passage proceeds upon the view that the communication of new precepts and rules of life shall be bound up with the future glorious revelation of the Lord. The people are here told how they may gain participation in this. Participation in the new covenant is the reward of faithfulness to the old. If we observe the commandments of God, we shall receive the commandments of God, and with them salvation.”—J. F. M.]. On the cloudy pillar see especially Numbers 12:5, and Exodus 33:7. [Psalms 99:7. Alexander: “The pronoun in the first clause (them), can only refer to Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, in the second it is applicable both to them and to the people; in the third it relates to the latter exclusively.”—J. F. M.]. AND ETHICAL1. God makes known by deeds of kingly might, what He is, a King above all kings, and will be regarded and acknowledged as such on earth as in heaven. Therefore He insists upon the honor of His name, in which He reveals the august majesty of His being, and will have it regarded as holy, as He Himself is holy. 2. But God shows His pre-eminent kingly glory not only in manifestations of His might, which shake the world, make the people quake, and invest His name with dreadful exaltation. He has begun upon earth a kingdom of righteousness, whose king He Himself appoints and qualifies, whose lasting duration He Himself assures and effects; whose inhabitants He calls and leads to piety in the worship of Himself as the true God. He has made the historical beginning of this system in the family of Jacob, and has placed its central point in Zion. 3. God, however, long before the establishment of the actual kingdom among the Israelites, instituted the ordinances of His worship through mediators whom He called, and, in their administration, proved Himself to be the living God of revelation, who hears prayer and forgives sin, and yet keeps watch over the observance of His precepts, in order that He may be feared as the Avenger of human deeds. AND Those who praise the thrice-holy One must adore Him as the true God, serve Him as the heavenly King, and trust Him as the effectual Deliverer.—God will hear our prayers and we must keep His commandments.—God is holy in the exercise of His power, in the manifestation of His wrath, in dispensing His mercy.—The part borne by God’s righteousness in founding, preserving, and ruling His church upon earth.—There is a trembling of fear as there is a trembling of hope and joy, but all these emotions, if they are to tend to salvation, must be combined with subjection to the great king who is a mighty Ruler, as well as a holy God. Starke: God delights to dwell among those who look with their faces towards the throne of grace, for over them will He spread the wings of His mercy.—Mark this ye unrighteous! In Christ’s kingdom men must love justice; your wicked perversions of it will not succeed there.—Before all things we must pray in penitence for forgiveness of sins; otherwise our sins will hinder us in our efforts to obtain blessings.—The hearing of prayer and forgiveness of sins are not irreconcilable with God’s chastisements, they can very well coexist.—If men bend low before an earthly king, how much more are we bound to do so towards the heavenly king!—God is holy! These words should pervade our minds whenever we hold intercourse with God, and many forbidden thoughts would then be expelled. Osiander: God always remains true to His promises, and fulfils them, though we are not worthy that He should hear us.—Selnecker: God has begun His kingdom on Zion and not on Mount Sinai. It is not a kingdom of wrath, but of mercy.—Menzel: The kingdom of Christ is distinguished from all nations of the world, not only by its being spiritual and being concerned with spiritual things, but also by its leading and pointing the way to all justice and righteousness.—Frisch: Yield thyself only to the protection of God’s grace, and pray the more earnestly that His kingdom may come, and the devil cannot prevent it with all his cunning and strength. It must advance within and without thee, and end at last in glory and majesty.—Arndt: Is not that a fair and gracious kingdom which possesses these characteristics: (1) to love justice; (2) to induce piety; (3) to work justice and righteousness!—Rieger: What no human laws can avail to effect, namely, that none who are innocent shall be injured or molested, and that none who are guilty shall sin with impunity, is accomplished in God’s kingdom and by His righteousness.—Tholuck: God in His mercy has granted to His people powerful intercessors. It is true that He has punished their iniquities: yet He has not turned His mercy away from them, but forgiven them for the sake of those intercessors. Can Israel forget this?—Vaihinger: The more highly God is glorified, the lower must men bow to Him.—Richter (Hausbibel): Glorify the kingly majesty of the Lord! Pay homage to His righteousness! Draw near to Him as His servants!—Guenther: Without commotion and trembling and quaking there is no revelation from God.—To the elect God is at the same time the Pardoner and Avenger of sin. Let the heart tremble, and the conscience be aroused; fear the Avenger and love the God of mercy!—Diedrich: God’s highest majesty is not displayed in the creation, nor in the government of the world, but in His gracious dealings among sinful men whom He has chosen to Himself. In this He shows how He is our King, by taking our deepest cares upon Himself.—Taube: It is just that the fulness of mercy should fall into the bosom of faith; it is just that the wrath of the Lamb should be the most severe. [Matt. Henry: The more we abase ourselves, and the more prostrate we are before God, the more we exalt Him.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 100 A Psalm of Praise         Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2    Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing. 3    Know ye that the Lord he is God: It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4    Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5    For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; And his truth endureth to all generations. AND Contents and Superscription.—As Psalms 38, 70 were not only written in order to call to remembrance Jehovah’s gracious deeds in general, but stand in a definite relation to offerings, so here also the superscription seems to indicate a liturgical purpose, and that not merely for confession in the public worship (Sept. Vulg.), with the songs of praise of the people, but for real sacrifices of praise, called in Psalms 107:22; Psalms 116:17, ζֲ ?αηϊּ ?εֹ ?γָ ?δ, but also simply ϊּ ?εֹ ?ψָ ?δPsalms 56:13; 2 Chronicles 29:31. “The same class of Shelamim is meant, which were presented in thankful praise for divine blessings enjoyed, and especially for miraculous protection and deliverance.” (Delitzsch). Along with a great resemblance to Psalms 95 there are still not wanting essential peculiarities. For example, both strophes express and justify the invitation to the thankful acknowledgment and public worship of Jehovah. Psalms 100:1-3. Make a joyful noise, etc. We may suppose this to allude to the shouts of homage of those who acknowledge Jehovah as King, and accordingly regard the serving [Psalms 100:2], as the correlative of ruling in the wider sense (Venema, Hengst.) as in Psalms 72:11. Serving with gladness (Psalms 100:2), stands in contrast to “serve with fear and rejoice with trembling,” in Psalms 2:11, as in that passage it is subjection that is spoken of, while here it is the voluntary union of the whole earth, that is, of men of all nations, with the Church, which appears worshipping before Jehovah in Zion. But the whole psalm has to do directly and specially with acts of public worship, which partly presuppose that more general service, and partly have it for a consequence. The event from which these nations are to gain the knowledge (Psalms 4:4) that Jehovah is God. is not mentioned here. It must, however, according to the context, have a world-wide significance, and be connected with the deliverance of the people who confess to Him (Psalms 100:3) that they are His work (Deuteronomy 32:6; Deuteronomy 32:15; Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 60:21), His inheritance, and a people tended and led like a flock. “His people and flock” are in apposition not to “us” (Hengstenberg), but to “we.” For this passage belongs to the fifteen, which, according to the Masoretic enumeration, occur in the Old Testament, where μֹ ?ΰ is written and μֹ ?ε read. Indeed, both readings may be justified (Kimchi), and the translations given: while we were not (Symmachus, Isaaki), or better: not we (Sept., Vulg., Jerome), made clearer by the addition, ourselves (Luther, Geier, and others), as a contrast to the boasting of Pharaoh (Ezekiel 29:3). But the reading μֹ ?ε (Chald., Jerome, Aben Ezra, Saadia), in nineteen codices of De Rossi and nine of Kennicott is preferred by most of the recent expositors. [This is expressed by the marginal reading in E. V., “And His we are,” which is preferred by Perowne and Noyes. The other is favored by Alexander, Wordsworth, and Barnes. The passage cited above, Ezekiel 29:3, to which this is supposed to be a contrast, is probably to be understood as it is in E. V.: “I have made it (the Nile) myself.”—J. F. M.]. AND ETHICAL1. God is not merely Creator and Ruler of the world. He is also Founder, Guardian, Lord, and Shepherd of His Church. His people should exhibit their sense of this relation, and especially give it expression in public worship, in order that all the world may discover that this God is the only God, to adore whom, men of all lands should unite with the Church. 2. The conviction that such is God’s will, evokes missionary songs in the Church, and sets before her eyes the duty of Missions. But it also awakens a love for the former as well as for the latter service of the Lord, strengthens the belief in the eternal efficacy of the mercy and truth of God, and, to gratitude for the blessings already received from the hand of the Highest, unites the expectation that the world-embracing destiny of the true religion (Isaiah 56:7; Isaiah 60; Isaiah 66:23) will be realized. AND We should be as willing to serve God as we are bound to do so, and encourage one another to that duty as well as invite others to engage in it.—Delight in God’s service as connected with the knowledge of God and gratitude for His benefit.—The manner, ground, and blessing of the proper public worship of God.—The Church is to the world, what the house of God is to the Church, the place of blessing in the knowledge and worship of God. Starke: There is nothing to be found under the sun, which can make the heart more joyful than sincere religion.—If God’s mercy and truth are eternal, they remain still with us now, and we and our descendants until the end of the world will have them for our consolation.—Rieger: In the kingdom of God every one can and is permitted to come before the face of this God of mercy.—Diedrich: We discover all God’s glory in His word, through which He has declared His name to us, that it is Love.—God asks no hard service, but only that we know Him, believe Him, and from His fulness of grace alone draw all our strength for every undertaking.—Taube: A shout of joy through the whole world, over the majestic God of Zion, so rich in mercy, who comes to bless the earth. [Matt. Henry: We must intermix praise and thanksgiving in all our services; this golden thread must run through every duty, Hebrews 13:15. For it is the work of angels.—Knowledge is the mother of devotion and of all obedience. Blind sacrifices will never please a seeing God.—Barnes: The Psalm is based on the unity of the human race: that there is one God and Father of all, and one great family on earth.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 101 A Psalm of David         I will sing of mercy and judgment: Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. 2    I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house With a perfect heart. 3    I will set no wicked thing Before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; It shall not cleave to me. 4    A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.5    Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, Him will I cut off: Him that hath a high look and a proud heart Will not I suffer. 6    Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me; He that walketh in a perfect way, He shall serve me. 7    He that worketh deceit Shall not dwell within my house: He that telleth lies shall not tarry In my sight. 8    I will early destroy All the wicked of the land; That I may cut off all wicked doers From the city of the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—This Psalm may quite probably owe its position to its resemblance to Psalms 99:4. There is nothing which should prevent us from assigning the composition to David. For the vow in Psalms 101:1 suggests not merely a pious but a royal singer, while, more definitely still, the form which it finally assumes in Psalms 101:8 argues a theocratic king. Accordingly, after he details his essential character by recording his resolves to act uprightly, first in personal conduct and domestic life (Psalms 101:2), then with reference to his associates (Psalms 101:3-5), and finally in his obligation to keep watch over his subjects, servants, and the inmates of his house (Psalms 101:6-7), Psalms 101:8 places the exercise of the punitive power vested in rulers in special relation to the city of God. As the city of Elohim (Psalms 46:5), or the city of Jehovah Zebaoth (Psalms 48:9), or the city of our God (Psalms 48:2), that city must not only have impressed upon it the character of holiness in its public worship, but must also exhibit that character in its moral results (Isaiah 35:8; Isaiah 52:1; Nahum 2:1). David vows that he will exercise his royal power in the service of God in order to realize this end. Luther has entitled this psalm, the mirror of rulers. It is related, also, that Duke Ernest the Pious sent it on one occasion to an unfaithful minister, and that, when any official was guilty of misconduct, it was the custom to say: “he will certainly soon have to read the Prince’s Psalm.” The question in Psalms 101:2 b. can hardly aid us in our efforts to arrive at a closer approximation to the time of composition (see below). The numerous points of contact with the Proverbs of Solomon do not necessarily argue a dependence upon them. [Perowne, after indicating the contents of the Psalm, continues: “All this falls in admirably with the first part of David’s reign, and the words are just what we might expect from one who came to the throne with a heart so true to his God.” Further on, he thus presents the situation of the Psalmist, mainly translating from Ewald: “Zion was already David’s royal seat, and the tabernacle of Jehovah was there; but the new state had yet to be organized, and the great officers of state and of the household to be chosen, men upon whose character so much always depends, and especially in despotic monarchies, like those of the ancient world. David himself was standing at the threshold of the most critical period of his life, and, fully aware of the greatness of his responsibilities, did not as yet feel himself equal to the task which devolved upon him, the burden which he was henceforth to bear. Still in the first period of his reign in Jerusalem, in the flush of victory, in the full splendor of his newly-acquired dominion over the whole of Israel, David is only the more earnest in praising Jehovah and calling to mind His attributes, in striving to purify his own heart, and to form wise measures for the conduct of a strong and righteous rule, and in the resolution to keep far from him all that would bring a reproach upon himself and a stain upon his court. Nothing shows us more clearly the true nobleness of David’s soul than this short psalm.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 101:1. Mercy and justice. [E. V. Mercy and judgment], cannot be taken here as a summary of a ruler’s virtues (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Calvin and others), since it is not the custom of the Old Testament writers to praise human excellencies (Geier). Besides, the harp is immediately described as about to be sounded to the praise of Jehovah. God, therefore, (Judges 5:3), and what God is (Psalms 89:2; Psalms 99:5), are to be praised. But what follows does not celebrate divine attributes, deeds, and blessings, for which God is praised, and thanksgiving, by imitation of them, is promised (Geier, J. H. Michaelis and others), or by the contemplation of which the singer is moved to good resolutions (De Wette). Consequently Psalms 101:1 throughout cannot be regarded as the Theme of the psalm, (most). Nor is there ground afforded for the view which regards it as a free adaptation of a current form of introduction (Hupfeld), or for that which would combine the whole psalm with the two following into one trilogy (Hengst.) The verse contains a vow, parallel throughout to the following resolves, which refer collectively to a course of moral conduct, to the honor and well-pleasing of Jehovah. It is a vow relating to the exercise of the poetic gift, and is expressed in such a manner, as to afford a strong testimony to a Davidic authorship. Psalms 101:2. When wilt thou come unto me? This clause sounds strangely, and has a form which differs from any member of the other verses of the Psalm. But it need not therefore be pronounced spurious (Olshausen). We might be inclined to assimilate it to the other members of its verse, by taking ξָ ?ϊַ ?ι not as an interrogative, but as a conjunction=as often, as soon as, and ϊָּ ?αεֹ ?ΰ as 3. fem. referring to γֶּ ?ψֶ ?κְ or ϊָּ ?ξָ ?ιν (Hupf.). But what is then meant by: “as often as uprightness shall come to me?” Does David promise to mark the way of uprightness, as soon as it shall enter his house in the person of an upright man? Or does it mean: to mark how an upright man walk in order to follow in his steps? Or: to place himself in a right relation to it, in order not to overstep or contract its limits? Or, does the way signify not a walk but the course of events, as something which comes to pass (Hitzig), and does David promise to take a concern in that as judge? Whatever turn we may give to the sentence, we have to encounter either an unsound sense or an unsuitable form. And it is no better, if the verb be taken, as is usually done, in the 2 masc. but the interrogative changed into a conjunction. For the sentence: when, as often, or, as soon as thou comest to me, can only be understood of a visit of God with the design of trying,Psalms 17:3, (Rosenmόller), and this is unsuitable from any point of view. Besides, ξָ ?ϊַ ?ιoccurs always as an interrogative, except, perhaps, in the disputed passage, Proverbs 23:35. But the form of the question frequently expresses, as is well known, the longings of desire, the wish for speedy fulfilment, and is like the utterance of a sigh. The position of the sentence then leads us to prefer the 2 masc. to the 3 fem.; and a suitable sense is gained, if we understand by the coming of God, not specially the Holy Spirit.(Kimchi), but. the coming of God with His help, in order to effect the upright walk (most). There is nothing in the text to suggest a special reference to the ark of the covenant which David, terrified by the fate of Uzzah, left at one time at the house of Obed Edom. This is discovered in a supposed allusion to his question at that time: how should the ark of Jehovah come to me? (Venema, Dathe, Muntinghe, De Wette, De litzsch). This would be foreign to the course of thought, and is opposed rather than recommended by the appellation: city of Jehovah, applied in Psalms 101:8 to Jerusalem. For the supposition that the Psalm was composed at a later period of David’s life (Schegg), when Jehovah had already fixed His dwelling at Jerusalem, does not agree with the sigh of longing, in an altered frame of mind, which includes a prayer for the coming of a blessing not yet vouchsafed. An anticipatory use of the name Jehovah (Del.) is improbable, especially as the blessing which the ark diffused around it (2 Samuel 6:11 f.), and which influenced David to remove it to Jerusalem, was of an altogether different character from that which is here implored. [The reference to the ark as being connected with the composition of the Psalm was, among English expositors, first suggested by Hammond; Perowne, among the recent ones, defends it. The others favor the usual reference to David’s early experience as king of the whole of Israel. Perowne, moreover, while giving the usual interpretation to the clause just expounded, considers it as an allusion to the promise in Exodus 20:24.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 101:3 ff. Set before my eyes,etc —Literally: opposite to my eyes, as opposed to pleased contemplation, or to striving after an object, following a pattern or example. [The third member of the verse should be rendered: I hate the committing of transgressions.—J. F. M.]. A froward heart, Psalms 101:4, would better suit the context, if referred to the Psalmist’s own heart, which is expelled as an evil guest, than if understood metonymically as applying to false men. So, in the following line, the refusal to know wickedness, (Psalms 1:6; Psalms 35:11), is opposed to acknowledging, cherishing, caring for it (Psalms 30:5). Lofty eyes [Psalms 101:5], denote haughtiness, a broad heart, self-inflated arrogance (Proverbs 21:4; Proverbs 28:25). I will not suffer is literally: I cannot, am incapable, namely, of suffering. Accordingly μָ ?ωֵׂ ?ΰϊ is added in Jeremiah 44:22; Proverbs 30:21. In Psalms 101:8 the designation of time may allude to the sessions of justice held in the morning, Jeremiah 21:12; 2 Samuel 15:2. It may also, however be regarded as equivalent to daily (Psalms 73:14). AND ETHICAL1. Mercy and justice do not exclude, but mutually condition, one another, for the salvation of the world, as that salvation has been brought to the knowledge of the church in the dealings of God. They are therefore entitled to be the subject of her songs of praise. But the people of God must not only celebrate in their songs this revelation of the divine glory, they must themselves also engage in its service (Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23). Thus not only will a special gift of God be consecrated, but the whole man will be sanctified in Him, and hereby be qualified for his special work as one blessed of the Lord. 2. It is necessary that every man should be conscious, and continue mindful, of this his position, and the part he has to perform, and that, conformably to the whole circle of his duties, he should bring home to himself his responsibility in individual cases, and, according to the special relations of his position in life and his calling, that he should try his own conduct conscientiously, should make the corresponding resolves, and should long and sigh after and implore, for the fulfilment of his vow, the coming of the Lord, in order to obtain the help which he must feel to be indispensable. 3. The importance of this obligation is not at all lessened by the greatness of endowments be-stowed, or with the exaltation of the office held, or with the ripeness of the experience of life; it is rather enhanced by them. Kings, princes, and rulers, therefore, have the greatest responsibilities, especially as most trials are assigned and the greatest temptations presented to them. They have not only to guard their own hearts, but also to watch over the country, not only to walk themselves in innocence (1 Kings 3:14; Psalms 78:72; Proverbs 20:7), but to rule the country and the people in mercy and justice, and, in conformity therewith, to regulate their lives in private and public, to appoint their ministers, to choose their associates, to fashion their whole conduct to friend and foe, and to unite a conscientious administration of justice in the punishment of evil doers with consideration for the faithful in the land. “We learn from this how pleasing to God is that severity, which does not exceed a just moderation, and, on the other hand, how displeasing to Him is that cruel indulgence, which gives the rein to the wicked; for there is no greater inducement to sin than impunity.” (Calvin). AND God’ mercy and justice are worthy of the attention, admiration, and raise of men, but still more so, of their love, study, and imitation.—It is well for us, if not only our song, but also our life is a psalm to the praise of God.—Men must begin with themselves and in their own homes, if they would observe the order established by God.—He who has to command others must not only walk blamelessly himself, but also be surrounded with servants who follow diligently a like course.—He who is not true to God will not be so to men; let us therefore take heed with whom we associate, and set God’s mercy and justice before everything else.—He who has been endowed with talents, or intrusted with power, must exercise them, but do so according to God’s order and with His help; therefore the wisest must learn from His word, and the mightiest seek His aid.—He who would rule, must, before everything else, become himself a servant of God.—Without conversion of the heart there is no improvement of life; and without both of these there is no pleasing God.-—A king by God’s mercy as a ruler according to God’s justice. Starke: It is not well that there should be mercy alone, without regard to the distinction of good and bad, and when there is only indignation and punishment, then follows tyranny. Justice must go hand in hand with mercy.—There are three capital virtues in a ruler: prudence in matters of faith, uprightness in holding judgment, and faithfulness in general towards the whole country.—Those who are in high places should choose pious and upright servants; if they do not, they involve themselves in the greatest guilt before God, and lay upon the nation a heavy burden under which it sighs.—Frisch: Good resolves and good performances are both the consequences of God’s mercy.—To him alone, then, the honor and the praise belong.—Renschel: The ruler’s mirror; it exhibits the promise of David, (1) that he would rightly execute his public duties, (2) that he would set a good example to his subjects, (3) that he would purify his court and dismiss the wicked, (4) that he desired to do the same in the whole land and in the Church.—Richter (Hausbibel): The reign of a king over Israel was to be a representation and type of the reign of Jehovah, as every Christian king should be a representative and copy of Christ. In these relations, also, the cross points to the crown.—Diedrich: God’s mercy and righteousness are reflected in believers. He alone who delights in justice and love, can take pleasure in the mercy and righteousness of God.—Taube: As the heart should be the Lord’s, so also should the house, and as the house, so also the nation. Psalms 102 A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord2         Hear my prayer, O Lord, And let my cry come unto thee. 3    Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; Incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call Answer me speedily. 4    For my days are consumed like smoke, And my bones are burned as a hearth. 5    My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; So that I forget to eat my bread. 6    By reason of the voice of my groaning My bones cleave to my skin. 7    I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. 8    I watch, And am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. 9    Mine enemies reproach me all the day; And they that are mad against me are sworn against me. 10    For I have eaten ashes like bread, And mingled my drink with weeping, 11    Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. 12    My days are like a shadow that declineth; And I am withered like grass. 13    But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; And thy remembrance unto all generations. 14    Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: For the time to favor her, Yea, the set time, is come. 15    For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, And favor the dust thereof. 16    So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord,And all the kings of the earth thy glory. 17    When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in his glory. 18    He will regard the prayer of the destitute, And not despise their prayer. 19    This shall be written for the generation to come: And the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.20    For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; From heaven did the Lord behold the earth; 21    To hear the groaning of the prisoner; To loose those that are appointed to death; 22    To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, And his praise in Jerusalem; 23    When the people are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.24    He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my days. 25    I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations. 26    Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: And the heavens are the work of thy hands. 27    They shall perish, but thou shalt endure Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. 28    But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end. 29    The children of thy servants shall continue, And their seed shall be established before thee. AND Contents and Superscription. In this superscription there are given, contrary to the usual custom, not the historical cirumstances by which the contents might be explained, and which occasioned the utterance of the Psalm, but the circumstances under which it might be employed. Accordingly, the superscription may have been affixed at a later time, when the collection of Psalms had come to be employed, not merely as a book of devotion for liturgical purposes, but also for private use, like other books of hymns (Hupfeld). This, however, is not decisive; for the contents and tone of this prayer, which is throughout of a subjective character, are pervaded by historical and personal allusions. These exclude the supposition that a poet, perhaps David, had composed it for his descendants (Hengst.), or that a prophet, having in view the future misery of the people (Calvin), had written it for the use of the class of sufferers which it describes, when their sufferings should begin, by transferring himself to their mental position, or drew up a model of prayer or formulary for employment in such circumstances. The suppliant speaks from personal experience of distress actually pressing upon him. But this distress has not an individual character, but is of that general kind which is felt under national calamities and misfortunes. He prays for himself, but at the same time affords help in prayer to those who not only are in like circumstances with himself, who also are in a like frame of soul. The time shortly before the end of the Exile may be recognized as indicated in Psalms 102:14-15. With this also agree the many points of coincidence with the prophecies of the second part of Isaiah, with which, also, passages from other Psalms, e.g.,Psalms 22, 69, 79, and from Job, are united. Yet the Psalm is not without individuality, and is marked some times by a lofty poetic strain and by expressions which are as beautiful in language as they are sublime in conception. The strophical structure is rather irregular, so that only smaller and larger groups are distinguishable. After a request to be heard, expressed in general terms (vers.2, 3), there follows, first, a description of the distressed situation of the suppliant in three sections (Psalms 102:4-13). To this there is attached an expression of the confident assurance that Jehovah, the eternal Sovereign and gracious Hearer of prayer, would soon fulfil His deecree of mercy to Zion (vers.13–15), for the manifestation of His glory, in the presence of which the heathen would be affrighted (vers.16–18), while the redeemed would praise the Lord, recount His deeds for succeeding ages, and so proclaim His glory, that even heathen nations, converted to Jehovah, should worship in Zion (Psalms 102:19-23). Then follows the confession, that humiliation has come from the hand of the Lord. This passes over into an entreaty, that the supplicant may not be snatched a way before his time. Finally, God is praised as the Eternal, who remains ever the same, and who will also grant perpetuity to the generation of His servants (vers.24–29). Psalms 102:4-7. Hearth.—This signification is established by the Arabic (Delitzsch, Hitzig), so that we need not translate: brand = fire (most), or = twigs (Sept. and others). The hearth, however, may be regarded as embracing what lies upon it (Isaiah 33:14; Numbers 4:2).—Persons in deep grief ate nothing (1 Samuel 1:7; 1 Samuel 20:34; 2 Samuel 12:16; 2 Kings 21:4). The pelican (Psalms 102:7) is mentioned as an inhabitant of moors and desert places (Numbers 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:17; Isaiah 24:17; Zephaniah 2:14. Comp. Oedmann, Vermischte Sammlungen, Part 3, Chap. 6). Along with this χָ ?ΰַ ?ϊ in Numbers 11:17, λּ ?εֹ ?ν is also mentioned as an unclean bird, which in its etymology is connected with a bottle or cup, and therefore might signify the pelican (Bochart); but it has always been explained as the night-owl or nightraven. Psalms 102:9-12. Swearing by one (Psalms 102:9), means: to make his name a by-word of execration, or an example of cursing (Isaiah 65:15; Jeremiah 29:22; Jeremiah 42:18). The ashes (Psalms 102:10), allude to the custom of those in deep sorrow, of sitting in ashes and dust, and strewing them upon their heads and garments. We are not to suppose that the bread of the Psalmist was actually defiled. It is a figurative expression, like: dust is their bread (Isaiah 65:25; comp. Genesis 3:14; Psalms 72:9). The lifting up and casting down [Psalms 102:11] is a figure borrowed from a tempestuous wind (Job 32:21; Job 30:22; Isaiah 64:5; Ezekiel 3:14), vividly representing how the people first lost their fatherland, and were then cast among strangers. In Psalms 102:12 life is compared to a shadow, not as passing, or quickly vanishing (Psalms 145:4; comp Psalms 39:7), but as growing towards its end (Psalms 109:23), lengthening in the evening (Jeremiah 4:4), after a figure taken from the declining of the day (Judges 19:9). There is nothing to indicate an allusion to a leaning wall which threatens to fall, Psalms 62:4 (Hengstenberg). Psalms 102:13-18. Thy remembrance.—Instead of εִ ?λְ ?ψְ ?κָ several codices, known already to Aben Ezra, read λִ ?ρְ ?ΰְַ ?κָ, thy throne, evidently a correction after Lamentations 5:19 (Kimchi), but made unnecessarily, for the passage before us rests upon Exodus 3:15, and corresponds with the references just made to God’s sitting upon His throne, that is, reigning (Psalms 9:8; Psalms 29:10.)—The timeξεֹ ?ςֵ ?γ (Psalms 102:14) determined in God’s counsels (Psalms 75:3; Isaiah 40:2) is often understood too definitely of the seventy years’ exile (Jeremiah 25:11 f.; Jeremiah 29:10).—The stones [Psalms 102:15] are not those intended for rebuilding (Isaiah 54:11), but, as being parallel to dust = debris. (Nehemiah 4:4), are the stones of Zion in ruins (Jeremiah 4:1; Neh. 3:34). The loving devotion here described is, therefore, not that of longing after the future, but, as the parallelism also demands, that of sympathetic attachment, unaffected by the destruction of the city.—The restoration of Jerusalem and the appearing of Jehovah’s glory [Psalms 102:17] go together (Isaiah 40:1-5), and are to be the means of the conversion of the world. The people of the Exile are called in Psalms 102:18 destitute and homeless, powerless, unhonored, and despised by men (Del.). [Psalms 102:22. Alexander: “This, according to the laws of Hebrew syntax, does not necessarily denote an act of God Himself, as the similar construction in the preceding verse does, but may have a vague sense, equivalent to saying, that his name may be declared in Zion. To recount God’s name is to recount the mighty deeds which constitute it, and the celebration of which constitutes His praise. Zion is still represented as the great scene of Jehovah’s triumphs, not, however, as the capital of Israel or Judah merely, but as the radiating centre of religious light and influence to all the earth.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 102:24-28. My strength.—It is evidently in accordance with the parallel expression: my days, to read the suffix of the first person (Syr., Chald. and many codices) instead of the usual third person = is strength (Sept. and most). But it is doubtful whether we should translate: on the way (Psalms 110:7), or: by reason of the way (Psalms 105:18). The Sept. gives a complete subversion of the sense: it was said to me on the way of his strength: show me the shortness of my days.—-Although the heavens and the mountains are termed everlasting with reference to the lasting duration of the order of things (Genesis 8:20; Genesis 9:9; Psalms 72:6; Psalms 148:6), preserved from decay (Isaiah 48:13), yet, when contrasted with God, they are not merely transitory and mutable (Psalms 72:7; Job 14:12), but will undergo a change by the power of God (Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 51:6; Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22). In view of the contrast to this change to which the world will be subjected, ΰַ ?ϊָּ ?δδεּ ?ΰ (Psalms 102:28) is not to be understood as referring, according to the analogy of ΰְַ ?βִ ?ιδεּ ?ΰ (Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 43:13; comp. 11; Psalms 48:12; Psalms 52:6), to the fact that God is the only Being who can lay claim to the Divine name, but, as in Job 3:19; Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 46:4, to the immutability in which God ever manifests Himself as the same. The Messianic application of this passage in Hebrews 1:10 ff. has its justification in the context, which points to the time of fulfilment. The concluding sentence asserts that the generation of God’s servants will not perish, but will ever have a seed, and thereby be preserved until the period of consummation. [Perowne: “It is by no means easy to understand why the words of this Psalm should have been quoted, as it does not seem at first sight to be a Messianic Psalm. It may be observed, however, (1) that it is in this sense Messianic, that it looks forward to Israel’s redemption from captivity, and the future glory of Zion; (2) that .... there are two great lines of Messianic hope running through the Psalms, the one human, the other Divine; in the one of which the reign of the Son of David, in the other of which the advent of Jehovah is the great end and object. Here the Psalmist is occupied with the latter, the appearing of Jehovah in His glory. (3) This identification of the Jesus of the New Testament with the Jehovah of the Old is what we find elsewhere. Comp. John 12:41 with Isaiah 6. (Isaiah sees the glory of Jehovah, John says it was the glory of Christ), and John 19:37, which in Zechariah 12:10 is language used directly of Jehovah. ... (4) Not only the revelation, the appearing of Jehovah in Zion, but also the creation of the world, Psalms 102:26, would point to the great Mediator, the Eternal Word, as the Person here spoken of, and on this last ground especially, the quotation in the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to rest.”—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. In great sorrow of heart even the body declines. One in deep affliction loses his relish even for food and drink. He who is inwardly tempted feels himself also outwardly weakened, and passing away like a shadow to his end. Then it is necessary above every thing else to be firmly fixed in God, the Eternal, the Abiding, the Immutable, to gain and maintain that immovable ground, into which faith strikes root, and from which the expectation of answer to prayer grows up with life and vigor. Then the earthly sources of happiness may be lost, its outward supports be resigned, the temporal means of its preservation and restoration be dispensed with, yes, everything which otherwise would be precious to men may be stripped away, and the sufferer may wander a homeless stranger over the earth, and yet he will not be lost. He, who in his distress makes God his refuge, remains shielded in Him, though forsaken by the whole world. 2. But to make God our refuge in such circumstances is not so easy as some suppose it to be. For, in the first place, faith is not the gift of every one. We have besides this to take into special account the pressure which distress exerts upon the soul, and which thus overcasts the mind, weakens the love of prayer, paralyzes the powers generally, and obstructs the upward looking and rising of the soul to God. To this feeling of weariness, feebleness, and exhaustion there is then added the experience of loneliness, when we are not only forsaken but shunned, and be come the object not of sympathy but of abhorrence, contempt, and execration. But worst of all is the burden of the Divine wrath, whose awful severity we have to bear in those fearful judgments. The turning point of deliverance is indeed gained, when the chastened one remembers that his sufferings are the merited chastisement of his sins. But he, who is sincere in such confession, is also conscious that he cannot with all his sufferings remove his guilt or atone for his sins, and thus falls into a deep gloom, which would consume him if he were to long for God in vain. 3. But the longing for God already contains in itself germs of faith, both in God’s power, and in His willingness to pardon, comfort, and deliver. Moreover, in order that these seeds may not be blighted, but gain vigor and develop, God permits His people to behold manifestations of His power, goodness, and faithfulness, and provides that the events by which they are made known be proclaimed in the Church from generation to generation, and through the Church come to the knowledge of the heathen, and that thus all the world be called to conversion, and the means of salvation be afforded it. The preservation, therefore, of God’s Church in the world, and the means of grace within the Church, form an object on the one hand, of the cares, prayers, and hopes of believers, and on the other of the providential care, the love, and the effectual working of God, as the unchangeable Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the Church, as well as the world, who will cause His glory to appear, when the time is fulfilled, and will preserve the seed of His servants, while the world is passing away. AND He who would not pine away in distress must seek revival from God’s countenance, and, therefore, not merely pour out his complaint before Him, but also cast his cares upon Him and hope for the consolation of Israel.—The more strongly we feel our frailty and helplessness, and the more clearly we recognize the perishableness and impotence of the world, the more firmly fixed must we be in God, the more implicitly must we hope in Him, and the more cheerfully take what comes from His hand.—We care best for our own welfare, when we are concerned for God’s honor, the salvation of the world, and the prosperity of the Church.—The security for the preservation of the Church does not lie (1) in the impotence of the hostile world, but in the indestructible dominion of the Almighty; nor (2) in the virtues of its members, but in His unchangeable faithfulness; nor (3) in the strength of temporal institutions, but in the invincible power of the means of grace.—The glory of the world sets with the rising of the glory of God: well for him who can resign the one and hope in the other!—Suffering and love are not counterparts, but they are quite compatible with one another. Let us recognize, feel, and testify to this in the afflictions of the Church as well as in personal trials.—God has fixed in the Church the remembrance of His name for His own glory, for the building of the Church, and for the conversion of the heathen.—God has not resigned His power over the world, even if He permits it to last for a time, and restrains His judgments: let us then trust in His power, and, that we may not need to dread His judgments, let us serve Him faithfully as our King. Luther: A Psalm of devotion, wherein the dear saints of old, weary of the law, of sin, and of dying, yearn thus fervently after God, and call for the kingdom of grace promised in Christ.—Calvin: The more lamentable the desolation of the Church, the less should we allow ourselves to become alienated from love to her.—Starke: True penitence does not soon cease; it is not exercised with laughter on the lips.—It does not so much grieve the pious that they are chastened by God, as that they have offended Him, and have thereby brought upon themselves His anger and chastisement.—A penitent heart distrusts its own strength, and knows that it has as little strength as a shadow, and as little sap as the withered grass.—It is the beginning of true repentance, when the stony heart, smitten by the rod of the law, overflows in a flood of tears; from this sowing in tears there grows the stately and fruitful harvest of joy.—In the world, every one turns his eyes away from him who is forsaken and despised; but God does the opposite. He turns to listen to the entreaties of those who are forsaken by the world and its comfort.—There are few among men who have part in God’s mercy, because they do not groan as prisoners, or know that they are children of death.—Beware lest thou shorten thy days by an intemperate and unchaste life, needless anxiety, anger, and other evils; abide rather in God’s fear, for that will lengthen thy days.—We shall have lived long enough, when we shall have gained a true knowledge of Christ, and have been well confirmed therein; if we have this, we cannot after that die at an inconvenient time.—The world must always leave a little room for the citizens of Christ’s kingdom, and if they do not find it on earth, they have an eternal abiding place in heaven.—Selnecker: That is a beautiful and comforting promise, that God will hear all those who believe and fear Him, and that the Church of Christ will ever endure, and extol and praise the great blessings of its Redeemer.—Menzel: For what end are the people created? To praise the Lord.—Arndt: Though God the Lord knows all thy troubles, yet He will have thee lament them to Him; (1) that in thy spirit there should be no guile; (2) and that from the heart thou shouldst know thy sin; (3) that thou shouldst show the Lord thy wound which pains thee, that He may heal it.—Rieger: We indeed have proofs that we are not in heaven, but that we are suspended all alone, by our faith, between the life of theworld and the life eternal. But it will yet be the lot of the world to utter a more bitter cry than the pelicans. Ah, how much better would it be to weep here with and over Zion!—Guenther: Though it may seem sometimes as if death must be near, and the night of hell must conquer and triumph over the few righteous in a city or in a nation, yet it must remain true of them, what the Lord Himself has said, that none should snatch them out of His hand, and that the gates of hell should not prevail against them.—Diedrich: If all thy desire is really after the living God, He will speedily vouchsafe His presence to thee most richly; but worldlings and hypocrites desire not God, but always the world, even when they pray.—Taube: While believers under the Old Covenant sought and gained Christ in God, the God of salvation in the God of creation, the children of the New Covenant proclaim God in Christ, who became flesh, of whom, by whom, and to whom are all things, blessed to eternity. [Matth. Henry: If God by His providence declare His name, we must by our acknowledgment of it declare His praise, which ought to be to us an echo of His name.—Barnes: An indication of a coming revival of religion is often manifested—by tenderness, pity, and compassion in view of abounding desolations, the coldness of the Church, and the prevalence of iniquity—by a conscious returning love in their hearts for all that pertains to religion, however unimportant it may be in the eyes of the world, or however it may be despised.—J. F. M.] Psalms 103 A Psalm of David         Bless the Lord, O my soul: And all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2    Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits: 3    Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; 4    Who redeemeth thy life from destruction: Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5    Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6    The Lord executeth righteousness And judgment for all that are oppressed. 7    He made known his ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. 8    The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 9    He will not always chide: Neither will he keep his anger forever. 10    He hath not dealt with us after our sins; Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11    For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12    As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 13    Like as a father pitieth his children, So the Lord pitieth them that fear him. 14    For he knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. 15    As for man, his days are as grass: As a flower of the field so he flourisheth. 16    For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; And the place thereof shall know it no more. 17    But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, And his righteousness unto children’s children; 18    To such as keep his covenant, And to those that remember his commandments to do them. 19    The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; And his kingdom ruleth over all. 20    Bless the Lord, ye his angels, That excel in strength, that do his commandments, Hearkening unto the voice of his word. 21    Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure 22    Bless the Lord, all his works, In all places of his dominion: Bless the Lord, O my soul. AND Contents and Composition.—A stream of grateful praise, whose gentle and regular waves rise gradually higher and higher, here flows forth from a mind which is moved to its inmost depths by the blessings, especially those of a spiritual nature, which God has abundantly and from the earliest ages bestowed both upon the Psalmist personally, and upon the whole Church. The poet begins by calling upon his own soul to declare its gratitude for the manifestations of God’s favor, which he has himself personally experienced (Psalms 103:1-5), and the words which are uttered at the beginning of the Psalm reappear in the last line, and thus enclose the whole. Between these, the Psalmist celebrates God’s gracious and helpful dealings in their actual manifestations in Israel (Psalms 103:6-10), in their heavenly exaltation and paternal character, and their relation to sinful and mortal men (Psalms 103:11-14), and in their trustworthiness for all who hold fast to His covenant and to His ordinances (Psalms 103:15-18). Then the whole world is called upon to praise this heavenly King who rules over all (Psalms 103:19-22). The supposition that either a final strophe beginning with Psalms 103:20 (Kφster), or the last line (Hupfeld) forms a liturgical epiphony, is without foundation. So also is the assumption that the whole Psalm was designed for the public service (Ewald, Olshausen). Still more unfounded is the notion that the whole people in exile are the speakers. The reference to David’s restoration to the Divine favor after his adultery with Bathsheba (Rosenmόller) is too special. There are, moreover, serious grounds for hesitation with regard to the Davidic origin, afforded especially in Aramaic forms, among which the suffixes echi and aychi are the most striking, occurring, as they do, only besides in Psalms 116:7; Psalms 116:19; Psalms 137:6; Jeremiah 11:15, and 2 Kings 4:1-7. We may regard the passage cited in Psalms 103:8 from Exodus 34:6 as the Text (Hupfeld). [Hengstenberg, holding the originality of the superscriptions, defends the opinion of a composition by David, finding resemblances to the preceding Psalm, which he assigns to the same author. Delitzsch and others, observing the same resemblances, and drawing a like inference, refer it, as they do Psalms 102, to a writer near the close of the captivity. Perowne thinks that nothing certain can be determined as to the date or the author. Alexander favors the hypothesis maintained by Hengstenberg, that this is the Psalm of mercy and judgment promised in Psalms 101—J.F.M.] Psalms 103:1-4. Bless.—The thanksgiving, as a response to the blessing with which God blesses, is denoted by the same word as the blessing itself. On the soul as representing the whole man see Delitzsch’s Biblische Psychologie, pp. 104, 203. On the organs [E. V.: that is within me] of the cavities of the chest and abdomen, as employed in the service of the mind and soul, see p. 266. The benefits (Psalms 103:2) of God are denoted by a word which means, literally, actions for which one has deserved well. Instead of: grave (Psalms 103:4), in allusion to the under-world (Psalms 16:10), the LXX. have rendered: destruction, by deriving the form not from ωׁ ?εּ ?ηַ but from ωַׁ ?ηַ ?ϊ, Job 17:14. [The former rendering is now universally adopted.—J. F. M.] Psalms 103:5. The satisfying of the languishing heart or soul is also mentioned in Psalms 107:9; Isaiah 58:11; and the whole context leaves the impression rather of inward satisfaction than of outward nourishing. But we should not translate directly: desire (Sept.) For ςְַ ?γִ ?ι is known to occur elsewhere only in the signification: array or ornament; and this could very well be employed to denote the soul, as “my honor,” “my darling,” and the like expressions, are (Aben Ezra, Mendelssohn, Hengst.) The context, however, must decide as to the special reference of an expression so general and capable of such manifold applications. In Psalms 32:9 the same word denotes the trappings of the mule, which are at the same time the means of restraining it, and we therefore render there: harness. Here we are scarcely justified in understanding the body (Syr.) or the cheek (Kimchi, Del., Hitzig) or the mouth (Luther), and still less old age (Chald.) or youth (J. D. Mich., Gesenius). Nor is it probable that there is any allusion to the rejuvenating influence mentioned in the next line, as though the poet, by way of anticipation, were referring to the adornment of the body which had renewed its youth (Kφster, Maurer), or had meant by the word “attire” the whole outfit and equipment which surrounds men like a garment, and is in Job 2:4 denoted by the word skin, in contrast to the soul. [Hupfeld: “All the apparatus of external means by which life is sustained, and with which it is invested.”—J. F. M.] The previous mention of the soul itself does not interfere with our explanation, for the whole person was employed just a little before as representing it, [So Hengstenberg also, who renders: ornament, but explains the word as meaning the soul. Alexander renders: soul, directly .—J. F. M.] Psalms 103:7-9. Psalms 103:7 alludes to Exodus 33:13. The ways are therefore not those to be trodden by men, but those followed by God in His march through the history of the world. Isaiah 57:16; Jeremiah 3:5 are parallel to Psalms 103:9. [“He will not always judge” is the more literal and correct rendering. For the next clause comp. Jeremiah 3:5; Jeremiah 3:12.—J. F. M.] Psalms 103:14-22. The frame does not denote here the moral nature of man (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Deuteronomy 31:21) the inherited disposition of his heart (Psalms 51:7), but the frame of dust (Genesis 2:7) like a potter’s vessel (Job 10:8 f.; Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9 f.) The second member of Psa 103:16 is taken literally from Job 7:10. The figure of the flower in general, is based upon Job 14:2; that of the grass on Psalms 90:5; Isaiah 40:6 f.; Isaiah 51:12; the blessing bestowed upon children’s children (Psalms 103:17) is from Exodus 20:6; Exodus 34:7; Deuteronomy 7:9. Angels (Psalms 103:20) are called upon to praise God also in Psalms 29:1; Psalms 148:1. They are here called heroes [of strength, E. V.: that excel in strength.—J. F. M.] as leaders of the armies of God (Joel 4:9, 11; Isaiah 13:3; Isaiah 40:26). The hosts likewise mentioned here appear to be angels of subordinate rank (Del., Hitzig), and not stars (Hengst., Hupfeld). [The latter opinion has originated in the unwillingness to view this verse as containing anything like a repetition of the preceding. The explanation given above would obviate this difficulty. But there is no need of assuming a subordinate rank to be intended. It would be better to understand this verse as being more comprehensive in its application. The preceding one called upon a special class of the most exalted angels to praise their Maker. This one summons all His hosts that minister to Him. We are led to this, besides, by the gradually widening scope of the passage. For the last verse calls upon all God’s works to bless Him. Thus it seems that the word “all” is intended in each verse to include what goes before, while embracing also a wider class. The application of the term “ministers” to the stars would seem to be lacking in the simplicity and directness which characterize the language of the Psalm throughout.—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. If the ingratitude and forgetfulness of the human heart were not great by nature, there would be no need of a special and repeated exhortation to the thankful acknowledgment of God’s benefits. For these benefits are numerous and everywhere apparent, are bestowed upon individuals and the whole country, satisfy physical and spiritual needs, and comprise temporal and eternal good. Yet it is indispensable that we trace all this to the invisible Giver of all good, while we have reason, not merely to call upon others to praise God, but also to remind ourselves, that we have not previously given to God something which is requited to us, but rather, that all our thanks are only an acknowledgment of the blessing which we had previously received from Him, and thus do merely trace back this blessing to its source in God. 2. But the ever-flowing fountain of all these benefits and blessings is the love of God. And this love is manifested not merely as guardian love, beneficent kindness, sympathizing mercy, and helpful compassion, but is chiefly displayed as grace. In such exhibitions of His grace does God forgive the sins of men, deliver them from death, renew their natures, heal their infirmities, beautify their lives; and this without any merit or desert of their own. For it is a paternal mode of dealing which God manifests and exercises towards His people. 3. And since He, who thus acts towards us as a Father, is also the holy God and the Heavenly King, His dealings are righteous. His love is neither a weak indulgence of all, nor a capricious preference of some. Its immeasurableness and infinitude are not the absence of moderation or self restraint, but correspond to its more than earthly nature, and express the all-comprehensiveness and all-sufficiency of its influence, proceeding from the inexhaustible and invincible fulness of power which dwells in the Divine nature, but do not interfere with the conditions under which this eternally efficacious grace is displayed in the history of the world, and is received and experienced by individuals according to their constant need. 4. All this is most clearly recognizable in the dealings of God with His people. But they, on their side, have reason most strictly to fulfil these conditions. For God’s will and ways have been made known to them by Himself, and the covenant established by Him reminds them constantly, on the one hand, of their obligation to fulfil its duties, in order that His will may be performed on earth by those who fear Him, as it is by the angels in heaven, and, on the other, of the unchangeable willingness of the Highest to show compassion to man, who withers like the grass, and to make those who are His people well-pleasing in His sight. 5. The Church, accordingly, as it is the place of God’s worship, is also the soil for the training up of men as His servants and children. But the sphere of God’s dominion is far wider than His kingdom in Israel: it embraces heaven and earth. And therefore should the praise of this incomparable King resound through all departments of creation, and an accompaniment to the hallelujah of the Church follow in all places of His dominion. AND The more bountifully God’s benefits are showered down upon men in their brief lives of constant need, the more easily is one after another forgotten; but all the more base is such forgetfulness.—God in His goodness comes forth to meet our wants, and anticipate our requests; are we as speedy with our thanks and as ready in our praise?—That men should praise God with willing readiness, there are necessary, (1) a soul mindful of His blessings, (2) a heart susceptible of love towards Him, (3) a conscience sensitive to His righteous demand.—God rules in His kingdom with fatherly goodness, and yet with kingly righteousness; therefore it becomes us to fear as well as love Him, to serve as well as trust Him.—If God deals with us as a Father, do we act towards Him as children?—The whole world is full of the goodness of the Lord; but how far is the whole world still from knowing and praising Him? What has our Church done to remedy this deficiency? And what is her duty with regard to it?—If we lay claim to the rights of the covenant, we must fulfil its obligations; and this we cannot do without the help of our God as it is pledged in the covenant.—Man has here below no abiding-place, not even in the memory of the world; but God forgets no one. Ohthat we might remember Him!—The Church of God on earth; (1) as the object of His paternal care, (2) as the place where His heavenly glory is manifested, (3) as the organ of His royal government. Augustine: When thou art forgiven, thy sins begin to set and God’s grace rises.—Seek thy good, oh soul! All creatures have a certain good which supplies and completes their nature. Behold the highest good; it is thine!—Starke: Not a single sin of an impenitent sinner remains unforgiven, and just as little should a single sin remain in its dominion and evil influence (Romans 6:12).—The crown of a believer in this life, as well as in the heavenly, is God’s mercy and compassion, for they are the sure sources of his blessedness.—Justification must go handin hand with sanctification and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.—The goodness of God is mighty, not only to strengthen our spiritual life, but our temporal also, in so far as it tends to His glory and our welfare.—He who would have the unfailing eagle-like vigor of a mind directed heavenwards, let him ever satisfy his hungry soul with grace alone, and strength will never be wanting to him.—The most potent remedy for a troubled soul is the contemplation of the compassion and goodness of God.—God lets the sinner know and feel His anger, in order to prepare him for the view of His mercy.—True parents should not, it is true, tolerate the faults and sins of their children, by being silent with regard to them or overlooking them, as Eli did; but they must recognize, on the other hand, that they are not so much their judges as their parents, and, as it were, their physicians.—The more transitory man is, the more abiding is God’s mercy; the Christian must oppose this ground of consolation to all trials, yea, even to death itself.—The holy angels are not only our guardians, but also our instructors and leaders in the praise of God,—No place is an improper one to praise God, provided only our heart is sincere before Him.—We should be as ready (and still more ready) to execute the will of God, as an obedient servant is ready to execute his master’s, even at a nod from him; nor should we do this by compulsion, but from love (1 John 5:3).—God knows our distress and ruin better than we ourselves, and regards all men with compassionate sympathy, but looks upon His children especially with the most tender pity. Berlenburger Bible: The soul which has been stricken and slain, but made alive again, feeling the joy of its new freedom and the enjoyments of its redemption, flows forth without restraint in praise and thanksgiving, in testimony of its gratitude.—Rieger: To feel sin and death, and thereafter to have received the atonement and the Spirit which makes alive, and so to praise God, and to join in faith and patience with all the saints of God,—this is the subject of the 103 Psalm.—Roos: David, when he encouraged his soul to praise God, was conscious of his sins and infirmities; these only were his own. The Lord forgave the one and healed the other, and heascribes all good to Him.—Tholuck: The psalmist, while praising God’s immeasurable mercy to those who fear Him and keep His covenant, guards against that carnal conception of the Divine love, which forgets that repentance and faith are the conditions, under which God announces Himself as our Father.—Guenther: If God had not been patient with our stammering and halting, we would never have learnt to speak the language of truth, nor walk the way of life; and if He had dealt with the nations according to their disobedience, where would their names have been?—Diedrich: The nearer we come to God, the more are we ravished with enlarged discoveries of His forgiveness.—Schaubach: Without forgiveness of sins, even the highest earthly good is only a whitened sepulchre, behind which destruction lurks.—Taube: Man, in his body, soul, and spirit, is, as it were, a mouth opened wide with cravings; that is his greatest weakness and yet his chief adorning; nothing less than God, the native fountain of youth, can satisfy Him. [Matt. Henry: He considers the frailty of our bodies and the folly of our souls, how little we can do, and expects accordingly from us; how little we can bear, and lays accordingly upon us; in all which appears the tenderness of His compassion.—Hengstenberg: Old age, in other cases always the forerunner of death, is here continually the forerunner of youth: the greater the failure of strength, so much the nearer is the complete renewal of strength.—J. F. M.] Psalms 104 1         Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; Thou art clothed with honor and majesty: 2    Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: 3    Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: Who maketh the clouds his chariot: Who walketh upon the wings of the wind: 4    Who maketh his angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire. 5    Who laid the foundations of the earth, That it should not be removed for ever. 6    Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: The waters stood above the mountains. 7    At thy rebuke they fled; At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. 8    They go by the mountains; They go down by the valleys Unto the place which thou hast founded for them. 9    Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; That they turn not again to cover the earth. 10    He sendeth the springs into the valleys, Which run among the hills. 11    They give drink to every beast of the field: The wild asses quench their thirst. 12    By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, Which sing among the branches. 13    He watereth the hills from his chambers: The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. 14    He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, And herb for the service of man: That he may bring forth food out of the earth; 15    And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, And oil to make his face to shine, And bread which strengtheneth man’s heart. 16    The trees of the Lord are full of sap; The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; 17    Where the birds make their nests: As for the stork, the fir trees are her house. 18    The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; And the rocks for the conies. 19    He appointed the moon for seasons: The sun knoweth his going down. 20    Thou makest darkness, and it is night: Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.21    The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their meat from God. 22    The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, And lay them down in their dens. 23    Man goeth forth unto his work And to his labour until the evening. 24    O Lord, how manifold are thy works; In wisdom hast thou made them all: The earth is full of thy riches. 25    So is this great and wide sea, Wherein are things creeping innumerable, Both small and great beasts. 26    There go the ships: There is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. 27    These wait all upon thee; That thou mayest give them their meat in due season. 28    That thou givest them they gather: Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. 29    Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath; they die, And return to their dust. 30    Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: And thou renewest the face of the earth. 31    The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: The Lord shall rejoice in his works. 32    He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: He toucheth the hills, and they smoke. 33    I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 34    My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. 35    Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, And let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Division. The subject of praise in this psalm is God’s working in the kingdom of nature, as that of the preceding was His working in the kingdom of grace. “The poet celebrates in his song the present continuance of the world ordained by God, having in mind His first creative work recorded in Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3, and concludes with the desire that evil may be banished from this fair creation, which reveals universally, and in profusion, His power, wisdom, and goodness.” (Delitzsch). It is scarcely to be doubted that the Biblical account of the creation forms in general the guiding thread of this poem. The seven groups, it is true, in which the related thoughts areset forth and placed in their connection, do not correspond exactly to the seven days of the week of creation. But the progress, on the whole, is the same, and the several representations bear a striking resemblance in various expressions. It is impossible to limit this resemblance to the modes of conception presented in the first group, or to explain it as though the writer followed two independent authors, holding to the same tradition, or belonging to the same school, (De Wette). The differences are to be ascribed to the fact that the subject was viewed from different standpoints. There an account is given of the course of creation. Here a hymn is sung to the praise of the Creator and Lord of the world, based upon that account, and having in view the course of the world’s history. But we are not therefore to divide this hymn, so as to refer Psalms 104:6 ff. to the Deluge, and the whole psalm to the Providence of God the heavenly King, who will at last confirm His kingdom in its full power under the Messiah (Venema). Nor is the leading thought to be found in the first verse, and the object of the psalm, the strengthening of the assurance of the Church that the righteous shall finally triumph over the wicked (Hengst.). The last verse has certainly “the earthy flavor of a special historical situation” (Hitzig), yet with such generality, that no inference can be deduced from it as to the time of composition. There is no trace of a feeling of joyfulness over the restoration of the Second Temple (Ruding., Ven.). The linguistic peculiarities point in the general to a late age. The poetic beauty has always been acknowledged and very frequently praised. Psalms 104:1-2. Clothed (Psalms 104:1), as in Job 11:10; Isaiah 51:9; Psalms 93:1. This expression, like the participle which follows in the next verse: veiling [E. V.: who coverest thyself], shows that there is here described, not the eternal glory of God’s being (Jude Psalms 104:25), nor the light that is inaccessible as God’s dwelling (1 Timothy 6:16), but the royal splendor and majestic glory that are reflected in the created universe (Psalms 96:6). The heavens as a tent-curtain stretched out (Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 54:2), afford the conception of the ψָ ?χִ ?ιςַ, that is, hat is extended. Psalms 104:3. The contradictory expressions, in which it is said that the upper rooms are framed with beams, and that the latter consist, of water, serve at once to show the error of any sensuous conception, and to represent the exaltation and immaterial nature of the heavenly King. [Alexander comments as follows: “The first word means, laying beams or rafters. The next phrase may either mean in or with water. The first is more obvious, the last more striking, as it represents a solid building made of a liquid or a fluid material. In the other case, the waters meant are those of the firmament, see Genesis 1:6-7; Psalms 18:12, where the clouds and the wings of the wind are also mentioned in the same connection.” The rendering in E. V. has not only the advantage of being the “more obvious,” it is also the only one consistent with the poetic taste of the author. Indeed Dr. Moll in his version of the Psalm, renders: “Who frameth His upper room in the waters,” but does not notice this translation in the exposition.—J. F. M.]. There can be no allusion to the custom of erecting chambers upon the flat roofs of dwelling-houses (Amos 9:6; Jeremiah 22:13), as places of privacy and withdrawing-rooms, for God is not viewed as concealing Himself, but as manifesting His glory. Psalms 104:4. The double accusative makes the true translation doubtful. According to the common construction we must render: He makes His messengers winds (Kφster), and can then put angels in the place of messengers (Sept., Luther, Stier), as in Hebrews 1:7. But as there is no occasion to mention angels as heavenly ministers (Venema), in connection with the forces of nature, we are justified in approving the other construction, which is also admissible. [“Who maketh the winds His messengers,” as Dr Moll has it in his version.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 104:5-8. The Pillars [Psalms 104:5. E. V.: foundation; see remarks on Psalms 97:2.–J. F. M.] of the earth are frequently mentioned as denoting, not literally, but by a poetic mode of expression, the stability of the earth as suspended freely in space (Job 26:7). The description which follows shows that the idea of a Chaos was not then entertained (Comp. Buttmann, Mythologus, I. p. 128). The mountains are as old as the earth, and the waters which originally covered it. According to this declaration in Psalms 104:6, Psalms 104:8 a is to be taken as uttered parenthetically, (Ewald, Hupf., Del.), and not to be connected immediately with Psalms 104:8 b, (Hitzig and others). For though the rendering: the waters rose upon the mountains, sank into the valleys, agrees in sense with Psalms 107:26, (Chald., Hengst.) yet it is incompatible with the statement in Psalms 104:6, that the waters stood above the mountains. So also is the other explanation that the mountains and valleys, through upheavals and sinkings (Umbreit, Maurer, Hitzig), had adjusted themselves to the positions prepared for them by God. [Dr. Moll therefore renders Psalms 104:7-8 : Before Thy rebuke they fled, Before Thy voice of thunder they trembled away— Mountains rose up, valleys sank down— To the place, which thou didst establish for them.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 104:10-13. We are perhaps to understand by the brooks, the valleys, ravines or wadys in which they flow (Sept. and others), but this is not linguistically certain. The fruit of thy works, Psalms 104:13, is probably the rain, as produced by the clouds (Kimchi and most), or it may refer specially to the chambers which God has built for Himself, according to the translation: fruit of thy labor (Hupfeld). If plants are understood (Del.), then the earth must be used metonymically (Aben Ezra) for the dwellers on the earth, which can hardly be supposed, if we regard the preceding context. Psalms 104:15. The connection of Psa 104:15 b with what precedes, by μ with the infinitive, appears to describe a further effect of the wine, that it makes the face shine as with oil. But, apart from the circumstance that it is not the face, but the head which is anointed, we must translate ξִ ?ο in its comparative construction literally: than oil; and thus oil would be mentioned in a way strange to the context. But oil, together with bread-corn and wine, is one of the chief products of the soil in Palestine, and is employed more than anything else to give flavor and richness to food. Most therefore assume rightly a looser connection of the sentence, as the same thing occurs often throughout the strophe. [Alexander: “And wine gladdens the heart of man,—(so as) to make his face shine more than oil—and bread the heart of man sustains. The text of the English Bible makes oil a distinct item in the catalogue, and oil to make his face to shine. But this is an impossible construction of the Hebrew, in which the infinitive (to make shine) bears the same relation to what goes before as the infinitive (to bring forth) in the verse preceding, and is therefore expressive, not of a distinct cause and effect, but of a consequence resulting from the one just mentioned. The true construction is given in the margin in the English Bible, to make his face shine with oil, or, more than oil. To the first of these alternative translations it may be objected, that wine cannot make men’s faces shine with oil, unless there is allusion to the festive unctions of the ancients, which, however, were restricted to the head. The other therefore seems to be the true sense, in which oil is merely mentioned as a shining substance. The description of food as sustaining the heart is very ancient. See Genesis 18:5; Judges 19:8.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 104:16-18. It is uncertain whether the expression: trees of Jehovah, Psalms 104:16, is intended to imply that they overtop all others, or that they grow wild as contrasted with those planted by men. The name ηֲ ?ρִ ?ιγָ ?δ (Psalms 104:17) is applied to a bird with great wide-spreading wings, (Zechariah 5:9), which builds its nest upon the lofty cypresses (according to others: firs), which has regular seasons of arriving and migrating (Jeremiah 8:7), and belongs to the unclean birds (Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18), and is perhaps mentioned in Job 38:13, along with the pelican. According to the etymology which is assumed, it may mean a bird of a curved neck, or of kind disposition, and is therefore supposed to be either the heron (Sept., Aquila, Symm., Theodotius), or the white dove-falcon (Chald., Kimchi), or the stork (Isaaki and most). ιָ ?ςִ ?μ (Psalms 104:18) cannot denote the stag (Sept.) nor the gazelle (Schegg),but (according to the etymology: the climber) the wild or the mountain goat (Job 39:1; 1 Samuel 24:3). ωָּׁ ?τָּ ?ο that is, gnawer, is mentioned in Leviticus 11:5, as an unclean ruminant, and in Proverbs 30:26 as a sagacious animal living in flocks in the clefts of the rooks, and in Deuteronomy 14:7 is distinguished from the hare. The coney(Rabbins) is scarcely meant, even if it be true that the Phoenicians gave the name Spain to the Iberian peninsula from the number of these little animals that were found there, still less the rough and spiny hedge-hog (Sept., Vulg.). The leaping-hare or leaping-mouse, (Chald.) has more in its favor. But the rock-badger is most probably meant, which resembles the marmot, and is common on Lebanon and the districts about the Jordan. [The Hyrax Syriacus, See the article Coney in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. I cannot find any support for the explanation, gnawer, given above. The root is undoubtedly ωּׁ ?τּ ?ο, an obsolete form, but cognate in meaning with φτοto hide.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 104:19-26. For time-measuring [E. V.: seasons), literally: for appointed times, or: for sacred seasons (Genesis 1:14; Leviticus 23:4; Sir 43:7). Psalms 104:21-23 allude to Job 24:5; Job 37:8; Job 38:40. The riches in Psalms 104:24 are the sum of all that has been brought into being by the creative power of God. (Genesis 14:19), The word is parallel to works before mentioned, and is therefore in sense=created things, yet this not simply as such, but as including also the accessory idea of divine ownership, by which they are indicated as all belonging to God and subject to His disposal. Hence the translation: property (Luther), which is not quite accurate, but throws light upon the word. The ancient translators also are divided between κτἰσις and κτῆσις. The singular is recommended by all the ancient versions, very many codices, and many good editions, among which are the latest of Heidenheim and Baer.—The leviathan is not the crocodile, as in Job 40, but, according to the etymology, a sea-monster of immense length. αֹּ ?ε does not mean in Psalms 104:26 : with it (Isaaki, Ewald, Hitzig), as in Job 40:29, but in it, Psalms 104:20 (Job 40:20 f.).—The names applied to ships hani and ana in ancient Egyptian, are worthy of note, as compared with the Hebrew ΰֲ ?πִ ?ιPsalms 104:30. It is not the Holy Spirit that is referred to (Geier, J. H. Mich.), nor the resurrection (the Rabbins), nor the future renovation of the universe (Stier), nor the type and security of a perpetual renewing and finally perfect regeneration of the Church (Hengst.). It is the breath of God that is spoken of, which is the breath of life to all creatures (Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:19; Job 33:4; Job 34:14 : Ecclesiastes 12:7;Psalms 144:4). It is for the same reason that Jehovah is called the God of the spirits of all flesh (Numbers 16:22; Numbers 27:16; Hebrews 12:9). The perpetual renewing of created life in the mutations of time and races is alluded to. Psalms 104:35. Hallelujah. A cry of devotion found only in the Psalter, really consisting of two words (praise Jehovah) which, however, occur only in Psalms 135:3, and are designated unicum by the Masora. The usual mode of writing according to the Masora (comp. Baer, Psalterium, p. 132) is δַ ?μְּ ?μεּ ?ιָ ?δּ, but in the passage before us, where it occurs for the first time, the final letter s written not δּ but η, that is, instead of the sign Mappik there is Raphe. Even in the Talmud the learned dispute whether the two words should be united or separated. If they are to be united, we must suppose the final syllable to have been considered not as a real name of God, but as an addition for the purpose of giving emphasis to the call for praise (Geiger, Urschrift, p. 275). [Comp. a similar instance in Psalms 118:5. Delitzsch cites an observation in the Talmud, that this first hallelujah is coupled significantly with the prospect of the destruction of the wicked.—J. F. M.]. AND ETHICAL1. The wonders which are exhibited to us in the heavens, and upon earth, and among our race, are all the work of God, and are, on the one hand, to serve as a manifestation of His glory, and on the other, to be the occasion of our admiring gratitude, adoring praise, and of the believing and obedient surrender of ourselves to Him. For the whole creation is formed to be a mirror of His glory, and all creatures are the objects of His care and witnesses to His power, wisdom, and goodness. But man is the only one of them all who can gain a knowledge of this, and give to God the glory which such knowledge demands. 2. What God has created He will also preserve. And therefore does He daily and richly provide for all creatures, and give to them according to their nature and needs, as long as they continue to exist by His will, and by the power of His creative breath. They all enjoy their existence, perform their different parts, and act as it was intended they should. But man alone, among all creatures, in distinction from the involuntary instruments of the Almighty, has a real daily work. He has a definite part to play in life, and can recognize it. And in undertaking it, he becomes a servant of God, does what he should do, and finds enjoyment in God, His works, and His service, and thus gives to his life in time an eternal significance. 3. The order of nature, the gradation of created being, the whole contents of the created universe, afford to men much to meditate upon and to be grateful for. And when they recognize in them God’s working and His disposing power, they are taught by the contemplation of His works many things which lead them beyond the sphere of the visible and sensible to another world. But even the light, by which the dividing of the elements began, and through which we are enabled to become acquainted with and understand the creation, is only the royal mantle of the Divine glory, the shining garment by which we come to know the Invisible, but which veils the Eternal from the eyes of mortals. 4. If any one has a sincere and lively joy in God’s works and, still more, in God Himself, he will also keep near his heart the thought that God can always take delight in the world which He has formed, as He took delight in its creation. But this feeling is disturbed by the reflection that everything in the world is not in accordance with God’s will and to His satisfaction. This justifies the wish that the wicked may disappear. For they not only interfere with the joy and work of God and His servants, but also contradict the design of the creation, and imperil the duration of the order of the world. AND The glory of God in the vastness, beauty, and order of His works.—For the light, through which God makes Himself known, there is needed an eye to observe and a mind to interpret it.—All things must be disposed according to God’s will, but man must be a willing servant of the Highest, as he is the crown of creation.—As we live and continue in being only by the breath and will of God, so must we also work for Him and for His cause, and take delight in Him and His works.—God does not merely preserve the world which He has created: He governs it also, and therefore the wicked cannot endure before Him.—We are permitted to delight ourselves in the works of God, and enjoy His gifts, but only so that both should be well-pleasing to Him.—If we are at the head of the orders of created beings, we should also take the lead in God’s service.—The earth is full of the goodness and possessions of the Lord; it is our part to thank Him for this, and to use according to His will what He has bestowed. Starke: It is to be lamented that the book of Nature is so little read and still less understood.—When faith lives and glows in the heart, nothing but praise to God flows from it.—To praise God for His own sake, because He is such a great and glorious God, is surely something greater than to praise Him only because of the benefits which He has conferred upon us.—The real pillar and foundation on which the world stands is the Omnipotence of God.—If God preserves that which is great, can and will He not also preserve thee, O thou of little faith?—If the earth stands by the almighty word of God without visible support (Hebrews 1:3), why should my faith demand visible pillars for its foundation? Why should it not ground itself surely upon the gracious word of truth?—The depth of the waters may well suggest to us the depth of our sins, and the great depth also of God’s compassion.—He who can place bounds to the raging sea, can still also all the waters and waves of affliction, yes, even check the burning sea of hell.—If meat and drink daily renew the vigor of thy life, let them also strengthen thee in the resolution to live to the glory of the Lord.—The wisdom and goodness of God are His comforting attributes, of which all creatures preach to men for the confirmation of their faith.—If the transitory earth is so full of the good things of God, what will we have when we come to the land of the living?—Fish, great and small, sport and play in their element, but as soon as they are brought out of it, they languish and die. Mark, O soul! what thy element is, if thou wouldst live joyful and blessed.—Creatures devoid of reason do not know who feeds them, but God knows their wants and their desires, and gives to them richly.—The chief design of the world’s creation was the glory of God. Let this be our highest aim in all our actions.—If God takes pleasure in His works, beware lest thou misuse any of His creatures for the purposes of sin against Him; and as thou art His noblest creature, aspire to be not displeasing to Him, but well-pleasing in Christ.—The desires and thoughts of all believers should ever be directed to the lessening of the number of the ungodly and to their conversion. Menzel: We can give to God nothing but adoration and praise, that He may have the glory. For all we have is His before He gives it.—Renschel: God has created it by His power, His wisdom has assigned its order, His goodness has in it remembered us. Blessed is he who lays that to heart, who ascribes praise and glory to God.—Arndt: God acts like a wise father who calls his child to himself. He does not rest with calling us to Himself with such kind and gracious words as the prophets and apostles speak to us. He gives, yea, showers down upon us many good gifts in nature.—Tholuck: Food can come to all creatures from no other hand than that from which came their life.—Diedrich: He who has created all these things for us, and upholds them so mightily day by day, must have something good besides in store for us. He will give us yet to praise and adore Him without sin and with an overflowing heart.—Taube: The greatness of the Creator and Preserver of the world, in the manifestation of His omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness, in the greatest as well as in the least of His works, must be joyfully celebrated by human tongues that are formed for His praise, though a sigh must be uttered over the false notes of sin, which disturb the harmony of the order of creation. [Matt. Henry: The roaring of the young lions, like the cry of the ravens is interpreted. Doth God put this construction upon the language of mere nature, and shall He not much more interpret favorably the language of grace in His own people, though it be weak and broken groaning which cannot be uttered?—There is the work of every day, which is to be done in its day, which man must apply to every morning; for the lights are set up for us to work by and not to play by; and which he must stick to till evening; it will be time enough to rest when the night comes, when no man can work. Bishop Horne: Let the unruly and disobedient reflect upon the terrors of His power and the terrors of His vengeance, who with a look can shake the earth, and with a touch can fire the mountains, as when He once descended upon Sinai. Scott: The less we can comprehend the manner in which the Creator retains the earth in its course and the seasons in their order, the more we should admire and adore His power, wisdom, and goodness. Hengstenberg: In consequence of the numerous works of God which are made according to the necessities of His various creatures, the earth is full of the good things by which He supports them. How should Zion alone starve in the midst of these riches of her God?—J. F. M.] Psalms 105 1         O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: Make known his deeds among the people. 2    Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: Talk ye of all his wondrous works. 3    Glory ye in his holy name: Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. 4    Seek the Lord, and his strength: Seek his face evermore. 5    Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; 6    O ye seed of Abraham his servant, Ye children of Jacob his chosen. 7    He is the Lord our God: His judgments are in all the earth. 8    He hath remembered his covenant for ever, The word which he commanded to a thousand generations. 9    Which covenant he made with Abraham, And his oath unto Isaac; 10    And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, And to Israel for an everlasting covenant: 11    Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, The lot of your inheritance. 12    When they were but a few men in number; Yea, very few, and strangers in it. 13    When they went from one nation to another, From one kingdom to another people; 14    He suffered no man to do them wrong: Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; 15    Saying, Touch not mine anointed, And do my prophets no harm. 16    Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land: He brake the whole staff of bread. 17    He sent a man before them, Even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: 18    Whose feet they hurt with fetters: He was laid in iron: 19    Until the time that his word came: The word of the Lord tried him. 20    The king sent and loosed him; Even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 21    He made him lord of his house, And ruler of all his substance: 22    To bind his princes at his pleasure; And teach his senators wisdom. 23    Israel also came into Egypt; And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 24    And he increased his people greatly; And made them stronger than their enemies. 25    He turned their heart to hate his people, To deal subtilely with his servants; 26    He sent Moses his servant; And Aaron whom he had chosen. 27    They shewed his signs among them, And wonders in the land of Ham. 28    He sent darkness, and made it dark; And they rebelled not against his word. 29    He turned their waters into blood, And slew their fish. 30    Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, In the chambers of their kings. 31    He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, And lice in all their coasts. 32    He gave them hail for rain, And flaming fire in their land. 33    He smote their vines also and their fig trees; And brake the trees of their coasts. 34    He spake, and the locusts came, And caterpillars, and that without number, 35    And did eat up all the herbs in their land, And devoured the fruit of their ground. 36    He smote also all the firstborn in their land, The chief of all their strength. 37    He brought them forth also with silver and gold: And there was not one feeble person among their tribes. 38    Egypt was glad when they departed: For the fear of them fell upon them. 39    He spread a cloud for a covering; And fire to give light in the night. 40    The people asked, and he brought quails, And satisfied them with the bread of heaven. 41    He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; They ran in the dry places like a river. 42    For he remembered his holy promise, And Abraham his servant. 43    And he brought forth his people with joy, And his chosen with gladness: 44    And gave them the lands of the heathen: And they inherited the labour of the people; 45    That they might observe his statutes, And keep his laws. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—While in Psalms 78 the former history of Israel was employed as a mirror of warning, and their relations during the march through the desert were in consequence fully described, the Psalm before us contains an exhortation to praise God and to seek the Lord, in faithfulness to the covenant, as a response to the faithfulness which Jehovah had displayed to the family of Abraham from the establishment of the covenant with him until their entrance into the Promised Land. It is a lyrical rather than a doctrinal treatment of the narrative presented in the Pentateuch. It follows the latter so closely that there is no trace of strophical structure. The limits of the groups are scarcely discoverable, for the essential events are disposed in the order of their occurrence, and a rhythmical movement is only discernible in the regular bipartite structure of the verses. The first fifteen verses are found again in the song which in 1 Chronicles 16 is said to have been sung when the ark was removed to Jerusalem. But it is shown to be a later compilation of the Chronicler, by the circumstance that the parts which are taken likewise from Psalms 96, 106 are, by the abruptness of the transitions, proved not to have belonged originally to the same composition. Besides, it contains an allusion to the Babylonish Exile; and even the doxology, which concludes the Fourth Book of the Psalms, is retained, as if it were a portion of the song itself. [See the addition in the Introduction to Psalms 106—J. F. M.]. We cannot determine the age of our Psalm more closely than to assign it a place later than the composition of the Pentateuch, and earlier than that of Chronicles. The opinion which infers the time of the Babylonish Captivity from the prevailing reference to the Egyptian period, is not to be relied on, especially as there is no definite indication of the custom, common both with the prophets and the poets, of comparing those periods. And the attempt (Rosenmόller following the older commentators) to separate a part, at least, of the Psalm, as the composition of David, from later additions, must be regarded as entirely at fault. Psalms 105:1-6. Call with His name [E. V.: Call upon His name].—This expression, Genesis 4:26, includes two things, invocation and proclamation, or prayer and preaching. The whole of Psa 105:1 reminds us of Isa 12:4.—Seeking and inquiring after Jehovah and His face (Psalms 105:4) are not to be restricted to visiting the temple and worshipping (De Wette, et al.). Nor is ςζ to be here, as in Psalms 78:61, taken to refer to the ark of the covenant (the older expositors following the Rabbins). The context demands a general application of the word. In Psalms 105:6, by a change in the pointing we could easily obtain the translation: his servants (Sept.), as in apposition to: seed of Abraham, and parallel to the following member: his chosen. But Psalms 105:42 (comp. Psalms 105:26), shows that by the servant of Jehovah is here meant Abraham. As his seed the Israelites were reminded of the fact that they held the same position as he did, and were encouraged to be mindful thereof by the fulfilling of the duties connected with that relation. And as children of Jacob, they were reminded that they occupied that position, not through hereditary succession, but by virtue of election. Psalms 105:8-9. The Psalmist does not call upon his fellow-countrymen to be mindful of the covenant (Sept.), but he tells them of the faithfulness of God, who had (prζterite) given an everlasting place in His memory to the covenant which was concluded with Abraham and confirmed to Isaac with an oath (Genesis 26:3; Genesis 22:16). Since γָּ ?αָ ?ψ here describes the covenant with reference to its establishment by the Divine word of promise, so φִ ?εָּ ?δ is to be taken in its primary meaning, as in Psalms 111:9, and λָּ ?ψַ ?ϊ is to have the same application as in Haggai 2:5. The form ιִ ?ωְׂ ?ηָ ?χ instead of ιφηָ ?χ:. occurs also in Amos 7:9; Jeremiah 33:26. Psalms 105:11; Psalms 105:15. The transition to the plural in Psalms 105:11 is to be explained by the considerations that Jacob-Israel is the designation of a nation as well as a proper name, and that the promises given to the patriarchs were made to him as being the father of the chosen race, to which, therefore, they really belonged.—The term prophets, applied to the patriarchs in Psalms 105:15, is taken from Genesis 20:7, where God Himself employs this word in connection with those prohibitions (Gen. 12:20, 26), to which allusion is here made. It is doubtful whether or not their appellation: anointed has any special reference, beyond the idea that they were men consecrated to God and endowed with Divine gifts. Psalms 105:16-18. Support of bread [E. V.: staff of bread] as in Leviticus 26:26; Isaiah 3:1. Comp. Psalms 104:15. The selling of Joseph was explained by himself as a sending-beforehand by God (Genesis 45:5; Genesis 1:20). His being fettered is also mentioned in Genesis 40:3; it is therefore not a mere poetical filling out of the picture. It is doubtful whether αְּ ?αֵ ?ψְ ?ζֶ ?μ=αַּ ?ψְ ?ζֶ ?μ=his soul (person) came into iron (most), or whether the iron, which, in the signification iron-fetter, might be regarded as feminine, according to the principle developed by Ewald, § 318, is not rather to be construed as the subject, and the whole clause taken in the sense in which it is said of water in Psalms 69:2, that it presses into the soul (Hitzig, Del.; as previously Vatablus, Sachs). We prefer the latter construction, since the periphrastic use of αֶ ?τֶ ?ωׁ for person is very remote from the context. If temptations (Hengstenb.) had been intended they must have been expressed. Psalms 105:19. His word cannot mean the word of God (most), but that of Joseph in the interpretation of the dreams, for all the preceding suffixes refer to him. The declaration [E. V., word] of Jehovah is, accordingly, not the promise of the possession of Canaan (Hengst.), nor the decree that Joseph should be tried (Clericus), but the revelation of God made to him (Aben Ezra), whose reliability he had to prove and attest in provings and trials of his own person. φψσ never signifies glorifying and distinguishing (Rud., Rosenm.). For Ilam see on Psalms 78:51. The description of the plagues of Egypt, after Exodus 1-12, follows the narrative there given more strictly than do Psalms 78:44 f. Here only the fifth and sixth are omitted, and the ninth, that of darkness, is placed first. A figurative explanation, according to which the whole period is supposed to be represented, during which God showed displeasure towards and inflicted misfortune upon them (Hengstenb.), is untenable. It is in accordance with the facts, and in general with the Old Testament mode of conception, to trace the hardening of the Egyptians to God. Psalms 105:27. In such connections as this the word γִּ ?αְ ?ψֵ ?ι serves to denote various kinds (Hitzig), so that it is not quite superfluous, as though it were a mere periphrasis (De Wette); nor is it to be regarded as relating to the prophetic words, by which the miraculous signs were announced beforehand (Clericus and others, Hupfeld). But if we were to read the singular ωָׂ ?ν instead of the plural ωָׂ ?ξεּ, as in Exodus 10:12; Psalms 78:43, we could translate, since God would then be the subject: He placed among them, or He laid upon them the words of His signs (Sept., Vulg.). Psalms 105:28. The order of the sentences naturally suggests the reference of Psa 105:28 b to the Egyptians, but, as they yielded to God’s command only after long resistance and repeated refusals, and only when finally compelled by His judgments, this mode of expression is not suitable to them. It is not advisable to assume that a question is asked, as there would then result a whole sentence of a very feeble character. The suppression of the negative (Sept., Syr.) is unjustifiable. So also is a change of the verb, which would replace: resisted, by: heeded (Hitzig). Most, therefore, refer this negative statement of obedience to the Israelitish leaders, and suppose a contrast to the conduct recorded in Numbers 20:24; Numbers 27:14. Psalms 105:33 ff. [In Psalms 105:33 b. instead of: trees of their coasts, render: trees of their bounds, that is, within the bounds of their country.—J. F. M.]. The spreading of the cloud for a covering (Psalms 105:39) does not allude to protection against the enemy (Exodus 14:19 f.), but to the cloud which was (Numbers 10:14) a covering and shady bower to the Israelites (Isaiah 4:5).—Labor (Psalms 105:44) is used metonymically for its results, the acquisitions made by it (Isaiah 45:14). AND ETHICAL1. God grants the knowledge of His nature through His name. Therefore must His people call upon His revealed name in prayer, and thus make it known, that they have not to do with unknown powers, but that they know well to whom they address themselves when they offer thanksgiving or prayer. And this known God must not be honored merely by their own acknowledgment; they must also make Him known to those who know Him not, and by means of preaching diffuse the knowledge of God throughout the world. 2. The world has many vain things, of which it boasts, over which it vexes itself, after which it inquires and pursues. The Church must boast in the holy name of God, meditate upon His wondrous works, inquire after Him before all else, seek Him above all else, in order that she may be confirmed in communion with Him, and be preserved and extended as His inheritance in the world. For to this has she been chosen and called by Him. But she has many enemies, who aim to cast her down from this position of high privilege. 3. The preservation of the Church in the world, as well as her establishment, is the cause, work, and glory of God. And God remembers His covenant and the oath by which He confirmed it. But the blessings of that covenant can be shared only by those who submit to its conditions. He, therefore, who would inherit the promises given to the patriarchs, must conform to the conditions of salvation which God has instituted for that end. The seed of Abraham are not to forget that Abraham was God’s servant, and that, although this designation is indeed a title of honor, it is yet no empty title; for God solemnly asks, if His chosen act worthily of it. 4. God’s judgments, as the Judge of the whole world, fall upon those nations who resist Him, and serve at the same time to deliver His church from the power of her oppressors. But these events are not to excite a false feeling of security, but call for gratitude, trust and obedience; and in displaying the severity of the divine wrath are to quicken the conscience and beget a salutary fear. For if God protects His people miraculously, cares for them graciously, and guides them faithfully, and, besides leading them through all dangers to the place whither He promised to bring them, exalts them above all other peoples, they must make it their aim to fulfil their part of the covenant obligations, and to testify, both in word and life, their gratitude for such benefits, blessings, and privileges. AND We should testify our gratitude for God’s benefits: (1) by adoring His majesty; (2) by proclaiming His deeds; (3) by trusting to His guidance; (4) by obeying His commands.—God has delivered our nation so often in former times that we (1) should reproach ourselves for our ingratitude, (2) should be ashamed of our faintheartedness, (3) should grieve over our unfaithfulness.—God’s judgments upon the enemies of His Church: (1) as testimonies to His sway upon earth, (2) as the means of her preservation, (3) as a ground of hope in present distress.—The growth of God’s Church under affliction as being (1) after the typical history of Israel, (2) under the security given for God’s faithfulness to His covenant.—Many would like to share the honor of God’s servants, if they had only not to perform their service, or endure their trials. Starke: When a man exhibits an ardent love to God, it is a living witness that be is His temple.—How can he glorify God rightly, who does not know by a living experience His name, deeds, and wonders? O, my soul! seek the Lord, so that thou mayest extol Him joyfully.—The more men turn away from God, the weaker they become, and the more they inquire after Him and draw near to Him in prayer, faith, and meditation, the more strength do they gain from Him.—If God always remains mindful of His promises to us, what is more reasonable than that we should never forget ours to Him?—The descend ants have as good a claim to, and as great a share in, the covenant of grace as their forefathers, with whom God established that covenant, provided only that they enter into it in faith.—Where there is prosperity, there is also envy and grudging; but he who has no friend but God cannot be harmed by the envy and enmity of the world.—The blood of true believers, poured out like water, has ever been a fountain of blessedness, from which spring forth the members of Christ.—The injury received by a pious man in one place is compensated by God in another with rich blessings: therefore guard against impatience and care for the body.—God has the hearts of His enemies in His power. If He takes their courage from them, He can deliver His own without a single stroke of His sword.—Let none despise the feeble or the poor: thou dost not know but that there are those among them who are in covenant with God, and whom He will yet employ for great things.—The history of the faithful patriarchs is a fit representation of the pilgrimage of believers, who have here no continuing city, but seek one to come.—In seasons of affliction, let us not look to men, but God,—upon Him who smites us, and not at the rod; it is not the rod that sends the pain, but He who employs it.—When calamities befall a whole nation, the pious must suffer with the wicked; yet God often proves to His children that His word abides sure: in the days of famine they shall be satisfied (Psalms 37:19).—The members of the invisible church must often dwell in the tents of Meshech; but they are more secure sometimes in the midst of such enemies, than among those who outwardly are members with them of the common faith.—With regard to God’s deeds of goodness, believers must guard against two errors: they must ascribe nothing to themselves or their deserts, for God performs these deeds for the sake of His word and covenant; and they must not receive such benefits as a matter of course, or misuse them. Assiduous striving after sanctification and renewing ends at last in a hallelujah, which all the perfect righteous ones shall sing in unison, to the glory of the Lord, throughout eternity. Frisch: No more powerful consolation can be breathed into a troubled soul than the thought that God is eternally mindful of His covenant. Since the covenant is eternal, it cannot be annulled by death. Since it is a covenant of grace, thou needest not despond, even if thou hast perchance transgressed it.—Rieger: On the mercy of Christ we enjoy the blessing of Abraham; and God is ever mindful of His covenant, until He brings us into the Fatherland, and the city to which He has called us, and which He has prepared for us.—Richter: Canaan was intended as a school for Israel in view of the coming of Christ.—Guenther: The whole history of the Chosen People, before the time of Christ, is a type of the history of Christianity, and a representation of the experience of each believer; let us learn, then, what this special chapter of the history means for you and for me.—Taube: A call addressed to God’s people for the adoring remembrance of the mercy, displayed in God’s dealings towards the heirs of the promise, in order to strengthen their faith.—Godless and prayerless souls are also forgetful souls, who learn nothing from the deeds, wonders, and judgments of God; but he who seeks the Lord meets Him, for the strengthening of His faith, on all the paths on which he has promised that He will be found.—The rapture of deliverance excites grateful love, which knows that it is bound, by duty and obligation, to the Deliverer and Blesser, and which lives to please Him in all things. [Matt. Henry: We are therefore made, maintained, and redeemed, that we may live in obedience to the will of God; and the hallelujah with which the Psalm concludes, may be taken both as a thankful acknowledgment of God’s favors, and as a cheerful concurrence with this great intention of them.—Has God done so much for us, and yet doth He expect so little from us? Praise ye the Lord. Scott: We greatly mistake, if we do not rank afflictions among our mercies (Psalms 105:17-19), as they tend to prove the reality of our faith and love, to humble our pride, to wean us from the world, to quicken our prayers, to enlarge our experience of the Lord’s faithfulness to His promises, to encourage our dependence, to bow our hearts into submission, and to soften them into compassion for our brethren.—J. F. M.] Psalms 106 1         Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever. 2    Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can shew forth all his praise? 3    Blessed are they that keep judgment, And he that doeth righteousness at all times. 4    Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation; 5    That I may see the good of thy chosen, That I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, That I may glory with thine inheritance. 6    We have sinned with our fathers, We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. 7    Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; But provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea. 8    Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, That he might make his mighty power to be known. 9    He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: So he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. 10    And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11    And the waters covered their enemies: There was not one of them left. 12    Then believed they his words; They sang his praise. 13    They soon forgat his works; They waited not for his counsel: 14    But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tempted God in the desert. 15    And he gave them their request; But sent leanness into their soul. 16    They envied Moses also in the camp, And Aaron the saint of the Lord. 17    The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And covered the company of Abiram. 18    And a fire was kindled in their company; The flame burned up the wicked. 19    They made a calf in Horeb, And worshipped the molten image. 20    Thus they changed their glory Into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. 21    They forgat God their saviour, Which had done great things in Egypt; 22    Wondrous works in the land of Ham, And terrible things by the Red sea. 23    Therefore he said that he would destroy them, Had not Moses his chosen Stood before him in the breach, To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. 24    Yea, they despised the pleasant land, They believed not his word: 25    But murmured in their tents, And hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. 26    Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, To overthrow them in the wilderness: 27    To overthrow their seed also among the nations, And to scatter them in the lands. 28    They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, And ate the sacrifices of the dead. 29    Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: And the plague brake in upon them. 30    Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: And so the plague was stayed. 31    And that was counted unto him for righteousness Unto all generations for evermore. 32    They angered him also at the waters of strife, So that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: 33    Because they provoked his spirit, So that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. 34    They did not destroy the nations, Concerning whom the Lord commanded them: 35    But were mingled among the heathen, And learned their works. 36    And they served their idols: Which were a snare unto them. 37    Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, 38    And shed innocent blood, Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, Whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: And the land was polluted with blood. 39    Thus were they defiled with their own works, And went a whoring with their own inventions. 40    Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. 41    And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; And they that hated them ruled over them. 42    Their enemies also oppressed them, And they were brought into subjection under their hand. 43    Many times did he deliver them; But they provoked him with their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity. 44    Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, When he heard their cry: 45    And he remembered for them his covenant, And repented according to the multitude of his mercies. 46    He made them also to be pitied Of all those that carried them captives. 47    Save us, O Lord our God, And gather us from among the heathen, To give thanks unto thy holy name, And to triumph in thy praise. 48    Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting: And let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—This Psalm, which bears the Hallelujah as an inscription, begins with a doxology. This doxology was not first employed in 1Ma 4:24, but occurs already in Jeremiah 33:11 as being then in common use. Then in Psalms 106:2 a question is uttered of such a kind, as to create an expectation that a song of praise to Jehovah would here strike in. But the verses which follow give to the thought another turn. For Psalms 106:3 passes over to the praise of the righteous, and Psalms 106:4-5, to a prayer for personal favor, in common with favor to the people, and for participation in the happiness and rejoicing which should follow. From this point onwards the Psalm assumes fully the form of a prayer of confession, which unites the universal acknowledgment of sins (Psalms 106:6) with a description of the conduct of the fathers, as it was displayed during the journey through the desert (Psalms 106:7-32), as related in the Books of Exodus and Numbers, and during their residence in the Holy Land itself (Psalms 106:33-46), as related in Judges 2:11 ff. The closing verse forms a prayer for deliverance from the present captivity. The Babylonish Exile is rightly assumed as the period of composition. For the liturgical doxology, which marks the close of the fourth Book of the Psalms (Psalms 106:48), is with Psalms 106:1; Psalms 106:47, and the portions of Psalms 96, 105 already mentioned, put in 1 Chronicles 16:36 into the mouth of king David, at the removal of the ark to Jerusalem; and, though treated in the historical manner, it is there placed in such connection with the portions taken from our Psalm, as to justify us in believing, that it was already attached to it in the manner presented to us here. It can the more readily be regarded as having been specially connected with this Psalm, as its peculiar form has unmistakably been preserved by the influence of the latter. Delitzsch adduces three peculiarities of the liturgical prayer, and especially of the prayer of confession (viddui): (1) A fondness for a rhyme-like final sound in like suffixes, (2) an accumulation of synonyms, (3) the unfolding of the course of thought in a continuous line. He considers the oldest types of such liturgical prayers, to be the two forms, employed at the presentation of the first-fruits (Deuteronomy 26) and the dedication-prayer of Solomon (1 Kings 8). The supposition of Ewald that this Psalm was sung by alternate performers, is based only upon the interchange of singular and plural in Psalms 106:4; Psalms 106:6, which is insufficient for its support. The plural reading, also, in Psalms 106:4 f. (Sept., Syr., Aq., Symm., Theod., Vulg., Luther) is supported by only a few unimportant manuscripts. [Hengstenberg: “According to the common idea, the author of Chronicles is understood to relate that this composition was sung at the erection of the sanctuary on Zion under David. The older expositors hence concluded that those Psalms from which this fragment is made up, were composed by David, or at least in the time of David. In more modern times a proof has been sought of the non-genuineness of Chronicles, or of the arbitrary manner in which the Jews fixed the authors and the dates of the Psalms. But the whole is founded upon a mistake. The description of the service which took place at the bringing-in of the ark of the covenant in 1 Chronicles 16, terminates before the Psalm composition is introduced, so that we do not need to suppose that any use was made of the latter at the celebration. David had already pronounced the blessing, Psalms 106:2, and the people had been dismissed with the gifts which, according to 2 Chronicles 6:18-19, terminated the festival. A narrative is next given of the arrangement of the sacred music in the tabernacle. It is recorded next in Psalms 106:7 that David, on the same day, caused thanks to be given by Asaph and his brethren, and, on the occasion of the great memorable day of the establishment of the sacred music, there is given, Psalms 106:8-16, the essence of those Psalms which at all times were sung, accompanied by their music, as a representation of the whole Psalter. The author of Chronicles naturally formed his composition out of those Psalms, which were sung in his day most frequently and with the greatest relish. In like manner it was natural that he should not bind himself strictly to the text of the borrowed passages, but should introduce slight alterations wherever such seemed suitable. The defence lies in this, that he does not, like the author of the Books of Samuel in 2 Samuel 22, pledge himself to give a faithful transcript of another man’s labor, but has rather published expressly an abstract by himself, and we must expect a priori, that it would be given with that freedom, which is manifested in selecting from Psalms 105 only the beginning, and from our Psalm the beginning and the conclusion.”—J. F. M.] [In Psalms 106:4, E. V. has: with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people. This should probably be replaced by the rendering: “in favor to thy people.” For the connection compare the next verse.—J. F. M.] Psalms 106:5-7. Of thy nation.—βּ ?εֹ ?ιֶ ?κָ is parallel to ςַ ?ξֶּ ?κָ [Psalms 106:4] as in Zephaniah 2:9; the singular being employed to designate the people of Israel, whereas the plural always expresses the nations, as contrasted with the people, ςַ ?ν, united under the dominion of Jehovah. In Psalms 106:7 the Sept. have evidently read ςֹ ?μִ ?ιν instead of ςַ ?μΞιָ ?ν, for they translated ἀναβαίνοντες. The word is not a gloss from Psalms 106:22 (Clericus, Kφster), nor a mutilation of ΰְֶ ?μֹ ?δִ ?ιν (Houbigant) or ΰֶ ?μְ ?ιֹ ?εִ ?ο (Venema). A local designation is quite in place, and it is not at all surprising that in the name of the sea, which follows immediately, the preposition αְּ is used instead of ςַ ?μ, in a like signification (comp. Psalms 106:19; Psalms 106:22; Ezekiel 10:15). The appellation ρεּ ?σ is not a proper name, that of a city at the northern extremity of the Red Sea (Knobel on Exodus 13:18), but is connected with the ancient Egyptian sηbe=reeds, or sippe=sea-weed. The common idea that it signifies: sea of reeds, rests especially upon Exodus 2:3; Isaiah 19:6. The absence of the article is due to the circumstance that this designation had already come into common use, as though it were a proper name. Psalms 106:15. We are not to render: satiety (Sept., Vulg., Syr.) instead of: emaciation, that is, leanness, as consumption (Isaiah 10:16; Isaiah 17:4), which God sent into their soul=their life. The former is an inadmissible explanation of ψָ ?ζεֹ ?ο after the fundamental passage, Numbers 11:20, which states that ζָ ?ψָ ?ΰ, loathing, came upon them. Luther combines the two ideas: He sent them enough, until they were surfeited. The passage before us, however, specifies the disease which resulted from this, as the punishment decreed by God. Psalms 106:20. Their glory is, as in Jeremiah 2:11, is used of God Himself, and in a twofold relation.—His manifestation of Himself to His people, and His being thus glorified before all nations (Deuteronomy 4:6 f.; Deuteronomy 10:21). A somewhat different turn is given to the sentence, if Jehovah is here called the Pride of Israel (1 Samuel 15:29; Hosea 5:5; Hosea 7:10). Psalms 106:24-27. The pleasant land. So Jeremiah 3:19; Zechariah 7:14. The lifting up of the hand is here not a gesture of threatening, raising it to strike, but an attitude employed in taking an oath, (Exodus 6:8; Deuteronomy 32:40, comp. Daniel 12:7; Psalms 144:8). It was because they despised the land, that God would make them perish in the wilderness. (Numbers 14:32). Because they murmured in their tents (Deuteronomy 1:27), they were, in the persons of their descendants, to be dispersed among the heathen. As Psalms 106:26 f. is unmistakably connected with Ezekiel 20:23, the repeated μְ ?δַ ?τִּ ?ιμ would appear to be a chirographical error (Hitzig, Del.) for μְ ?δָ ?τִ ?ιυ. Accordingly, the translation: overthrow (Sept., Syr., Chald.), is preferred by many. But the word may have been repeated intentionally, for in Psalms 106:43, ξָ ?λַ ?κְ (to sink down, decay) occurs, instead of βָ ?ξַ ?χ (to dissolve, become corrupt), which is retained in Ezekiel 24:23; Ezekiel 33:10, from the fundamental passage Leviticus 26:39. Hitzig regards it as an error; Delitzsch as a deliberate alteration. Psalms 106:28 employs, as it seems, after Numbers 25:3; Numbers 25:5, a technical word denoting connection with the Moabitish priapus. [For the mode of expression comp. 1 Corinthians 6:16, and Kling thereon in the Bibelwerk.—J. F. M.]. It expresses, at all events, a closer intercourse and more complete yielding up, than would be conveyed by the translation: they were initiated (Sept., Jerome), or: they served (Gesenius, after the Ethiopic usage of the kindred word), Nothing is known of any special ceremony in which bands or fillets were worn (J. D. Michaelis). The dead are not gods of the under world (Selden), or departed spirits (Deuteronomy 18:11; Isaiah 8:19), for which sacrifices of the dead were brought (Kφster, De Wette); for mention is also made here of eating the offerings, and Numbers 25:2 calls them, “sacrifices of their gods.” Accordingly, Moabitish gods are meant here also (Hupfeld and others), which are called dead as contrasted with the living God (Wis 13:10 ff.). Psalms 106:30. ςξγ is not to be understood merely of stepping forth (Numbers 25:7), but also of coming forward, as mediator, for Phinehas, by intervening with his spear, performed an act of judgment, and that through zeal for God’s justice. By this act of faith (Genesis 15:6), that justice was satisfied, and as a Divine acknowledgment of its religious worth, the priesthood was bestowed upon him and his descendants for ever. (Numbers 25:10 ff.). The signification of judging is established for the Piel τִּ ?μֵּ ?μ (1 Samuel 2:25); the signification of interceding (Chald., Syr., Geier) is that of the Hithpael, that of atoning (Vulg.) or expiating (Sept.) has, in fact, been assigned. Psalms 106:32-33. The unadvised words of Moses allude to His question to the people (Numbers 20:10), which was shown to be one of impatience and doubt by his twice striking the rock, and was therefore designated by God as unbelief and disobedience (Numbers 20:12; Numbers 20:24; Numbers 27:14), and punished as such. But, because the people had given occasion to this fault, it is said in Psalms 106:32 b, in accordance with the complaint of their leader (Deuteronomy 1:37; Deuteronomy 3:26), that “it went ill with Moses for their sakes.” Yet we are not to translate: they embittered his (Moses’) spirit (Sept., and most), but, according to the historical account and the usage of the phrase (Psalms 106:7; Psalms 106:43; Psalms 78:17; Psalms 78:40; Psalms 78:56, Isaiah 63:10), this reference is only to resisting the Spirit of God (Chald., Geier, Hengst., and the recent expositors). Psalms 106:37. The ωֵׁ ?γִ ?ιν are, according to Deuteronomy 32:17; Judges 2:11, not demons (Sept., and others), Bar 4:7, but gods, under the appellation: powers, or: lords. [In Psalms 106:46 render: and has given them favor in the sight of all those that carried them captive. Alexander: “The literal translation of the first clause is, and has given them for mercies or compassions. This remarkable expression is borrowed from 1 Kings 8:50, (compare 2 Chronicles 30:9), not only here, but in the history of Daniel and his fellow-captives (Daniel 1:9), which makes it not at all improbable, that what is there recorded is among the indications of returning Divine favor, here referred to by the Psalmist.”—J. F. M.]. AND ETHICAL1. Human understanding and human speech and never measure the greatness of God’s deeds or the depth of His mercy; but the grateful acknowledgment and extolling proclamation of them are not merely an expression, becoming to the people of God, of the relation in which they stand to Him, but are also the ordained means of spreading the glory due to Him, and of strengthening confidence in the eternal efficiency of His grace. 2. The strengthening of this confidence is indispensable, especially as every legitimate claim, which men could be tempted to found upon the covenant relation, is altogether cancelled by sins which are renewed from generation to generation. Accordingly, a new display of mercy is the only means of deliverance. But the seeking after and imploring this mercy presupposes, not only an experience of the need and a desire of its satisfaction, but also a belief of the possibility of the latter, and of the readiness of God to afford the means that are necessary thereto. And it is only as resting upon this ground, that courage will be imparted to appropriate personally, with all the earnestness of a soul-stricken confession of sin, the Divine promises and means of grace. 3. The contemplation of the history of God’s people is specially adapted to awaken both a penitent frame of mind, and a believing seeking after the Divine favor. For that history exhibits, in impressive sketches, ingratitude displayed anew on every occasion, disobedience, fickleness, and partial defection on the one side, and, on the other, brings before the view judgments and acts of deliverance on the part of God, which are not isolated, but form one connected course of leading, for the unfolding of His purposes of mercy and plan of salvation. 4. It was a part of the design of these dealings to impress and develop the truth, that punishment attends upon guilt, and that without expiation there is no forgiveness of sin; that there is, however, a means of delivering the people by substitution, not performed by legal works and practices, not by priestly ceremonies and forms, not by external actions and sacrifices, but by the personal self-devotion of those, who, whether by acting or suffering, by interceding or judging, step into the breach, and, by yielding up their own persons satisfy the actual demands of justice, rescue and purify the people of God, and set them upon the way of salvation. 5. Such a view of history, together with its instructive use, is immediately applicable to purposes of edification. It has, indeed, to do with universal transgressions, judgments, deeds of deliverance, and experiences of mercy; yet it regards them not as general truths, but with historical particularity and in their concrete definiteness. And, accordingly, it does not excite a more general consciousness of guilt, desire for salvation, or feeling of gratitude; it rather evokes, amid the songs of the Church to the praise of God’s glory, a special prayer of confession. And these are the more worthily united, the more such a prayer issues forth, with the vigor of life, from belief in the perpetual efficiency of the Divine mercy, which has been so often attested and assured in history, and the more decidedly if is expressed and animated with the sense of a community of interests, both in confession of sins and in supplications for supplies of grace, which are sought not merely with a view to personal participation, but also with a view to the needs of the united Church. AND It is well for us, that, while confessing our sins, we can confidently offer a prayer for the Divine favor, and can begin and end with praise to God.—All suffering endures its time, but God’s love to eternity.—The history of the Church as a testimony, that grace is mightier than sin.—God remembers His covenant with us according to His mercy and truth; but we often forget His blessings and judgments, even although we remain mindful of the words of His promises and threatenings.—Only those can draw consolation from the proclamation of God’s mercy, who are truly in earnest in the confession of their sins.—Though we can never praise God adequately, yet the greatness of His deeds must not cause us to be silent, but must animate us to praise.—If we are no better than our fathers, the fact should not serve to excuse us, but urge us more earnestly to penitence.—It were good for us, if the judgments of God were not our first reminders that He has not forgotten us.—We must most rightly count those happy who practise righteousness; but we are not to forget that all men are sinners, that we obtain salvation through grace, and that righteousness is the fruit of faith. Starke: We have always sufficient reason to praise God: but let us, above all, assiduously preserve the memory of His goodness.—A dark cloud, though it may conceal, can never destroy or extinguish the sun; so the clouds of affliction cannot blot out or quench the goodness and mercy of God.—If thou dost but truly humble thyself in prayer before God. He will ever remember thee for good.—There are still many after the fashion of the Israelites of old: they will not recognize God’s wonders as wonders, they do not fittingly regard His goodness. What can be the result but forgetfulness of God, which is the source of many other sins?—A man gives proof of a most depraved heart, when he does not fear to sin in the very place, where he has been delivered from imminent danger.—When God will serve us, nature must give way to Him.—If faith is of the true kind, it will soon make itself seen in good works.—If we would abide faithful in God’s word, and be counselled ever by it, we would not so soon or so lightly forget His gracious benefits.—To demand anything from God in impatience and doubt, and thus, as it were, to force it from Him, is to tempt Him.—If we pray for temporal things without any conditions, and therefore against God’s command, God may indeed hearken to us sometimes, but how often does the fulfilment humble us, and bring us to shame, when we have brought harm upon ourselves by our foolish request:—Almost every man has some moulds in which he casts the molten calves of his worship, until God alone becomes great in his eyes.—Nothing is more unbecoming and disgraceful to a man of understanding, than to set his heart on unworthy objects more worthless than himself.—He is blessed who can regard the great works of God with delight and not be terrified by them.—O believing soul, if thou art filled with dismay that so few stand in the breach, do it thyself; and all the more, the less others do it; if none will pray with thee, thou hast still the best of all fellow-suppliants, and the best Intercessor with the Father in heaven, Jesus Christ Himself.—The devil has still many kinds of enticing food, through which he seduces lusting souls to the service of idols.—A little word can often create a great disquietude in the heart, and yet there are many so thoughtless in the use of their tongues, that they speak not one, nor a few, but indeed numberless idle words. Will they become swords too, that will vex and torment their consciences?—Mistimed leniency is opposed to God, and injures also him who displays it, for it makes him a partaker in the sins of others.—The first step towards sin is the conscious neglect of God’s commands.—Intercourse and association with the wicked are calculated to produce much evil.—How easily intimacies are contracted in these days! But how heavy many a heart becomes thereby! How sorely wounded is many a conscience!—There are many who become only the more wicked, the more gracious and merciful God proves Himself to them. Osiander Sometimes a single mischance will make us forget all God’s benefits.—Arndt: Men cannot, without repentance, become partakers of God’s grace, and all God’s wonders are performed that He may bring them to conversion.—God must work long before He excites and maintains faith in us.—How God may be overcome by prayer.—Renschel: God’s favor outweighs all guilt.—Frisch: There is first shown in the example of Israel the constant inconstancy of the human heart; there is then extolled the unwearied mercy and compassion of God, and lastly, David shows the true means of becoming a partaker in such compassion.—Richter: Each individual believer should appropriate specially to himself God’s gracious promises to His whole people. If we do not lay hold upon them, to whom are they to be made good? To unbelievers?—Diedrich: The best kind of confession is this: to give all the glory to God, to take all the guilt to ourselves, and to hope for the best in God’s glorious grace.—Taube: True sorrow, which is from God, not only does not make us incapable of praising God, but bears within itself the seeds of true joy, joy in the Lord.—Faith in God’s mercy is the only anchor of safety for His people. [Matt. Henry: What is asked in passion is often given in wrath.—Those wretchedly forget themselves who feed their bodies and starve their souls.—Then God gives the good things of this life in love, when, with them, He gives grace to glorify God in the midst of them; for then the soul delights itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2.—This is the worst thing in sin, that it makes us loathsome to God, and the nearer any are to God in profession, the more loathsome they are if they rebel against Him.—Bishop Horne: In general, we learn from this part of sacred history, how acceptable to God is a well-timed zeal for His service, as also, how dangerous it is to converse too freely with those of the other sex, especially when they have been educated in a false religion or in no religion at all.—We stand astonished, doubtless, at this horrid, barbarous, and unnatural impiety of offering children by fire to a Moloch: but how little is it considered that children, brought up in the ways of ignorance, error, vanity, folly and vice, are more effectually sacrificed to the great adversary of mankind. Scott Often have we, forgetful of the terrors of Sinai, and even of the scene exhibited on Mount Calvary, and of our marvellous deliverance from the hand of the enemy, been setting up idols in our hearts, and cleaving to some forbidden object, so that, if a greater than Moses had not stood in the breach, to turn away the anger of the Lord, we should have provoked Him to destroy us.—J. F. M.]. THE BOOKPsalms 107_________________ Psalms 107 1         O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever. 2    Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 3    And gathered them out of the lands, From the east, and from the west, From the north, and from the south. 4    They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; They found no city to dwell in. 5    Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. 6    Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, And he delivered them out of their distresses. 7    And he led them forth by the right way, That they might go to a city of habitation. 8    Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men! 9    For he satisfieth the longing soul, And filleth the hungry soul with goodness. 10    Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, Being bound in affliction and iron; 11    Because they rebelled against the words of God, And contemned the counsel of the Most High: 12    Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; They fell down, and there was none to help. 13    Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, And he saved them out of their distresses. 14    He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And brake their bands in sunder. 15    Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men! 16    For he hath broken the gates of brass, And cut the bars of iron in sunder. 17    Fools, because of their transgression, And because of their iniquities, are afflicted. 18    Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; And they draw near unto the gates of death. 19    Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, And he saveth them out of their distresses. 20    He sent his word, and healed them. And delivered them from their destructions. 21    Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men! 22    And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare his works with rejoicing. 23    They that go down to the sea in ships, That do business in great waters; 24    These see the works of the Lord, And his wonders in the deep. 25    For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, Which lifteth up the waves thereof. 26    They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: Their soul is melted because of trouble. 27    They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wit’s end. 28    Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, And he bringeth them out of their distresses. 29    He maketh the storm a calm, So that the waves thereof are still. 30    Then are they glad because they be quiet; So he bringeth them unto their desired haven. 31    Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men! 32    Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, And praise him in the assembly of the elders. 33    He turneth rivers into a wilderness, And the watersprings into dry ground; 34    A fruitful land into barrenness, For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. 35    He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, And dry ground into watersprings. 36    And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, That they may prepare a city for habitation; 37    And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, Which may yield fruits of increase. 38    He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; And suffereth not their cattle to decrease. 39    Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow. 40    He poureth contempt upon princes, And causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. 41Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, And maketh him families like a flock. 42    The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: And all iniquity shall stop her mouth. 43    Whoso is wise, and will observe these things,Even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. AND Contents and Composition. A liturgical expression of thanksgiving (Jeremiah 33:11; Psalms 106, 118, 136) is (Psalms 107:1-3) declared to be appropriate for the redeemed of Jehovah, whom He has gathered from the four quarters of the earth and from different lands. After this preface there follow four strophes of unequal length, clearly distinguished by two refrains, in which those are summoned to fulfil this duty of thanksgiving whom God has delivered from homeless wanderings (Psalms 107:4-9), from the miseries of imprisonment (Psalms 107:10-16), from the death-pains of sickness (Psalms 107:17-22), and from the perils of a sea-voyage (Psalms 107:23-32). Then two strophes (Psalms 107:33-42) without a refrain, and with many passages taken literally from the Book of Job and from Isaiah 40, 66, sometimes quite loosely connected, describe the controlling power of God in the varying fortunes of men and nations. The closing verse (43) commends to the consideration of men the whole of God’s disposing guidance, which has just been described. There are throughout the Psalm indications of a very late period of composition. We are not justified even in connecting it too closely with the Babylonish exile. The introduction might seem to allude to it; but the further we read in the following strophes, the less do they seem capable of being referred to special historical occurrences, such as the carrying away into captivity and the return, or of being rightly viewed as poetical pictures of the various distresses and deliverances of that period (most of the recent commentators since Schnurrer). For Psalms 107:23 does not speak of a return home in ships, in which case, moreover, we would not be led to think of the Babylonish exile, but of the Maccabζan period (Hitzig); but of the dangers encountered by those who undertake sea-voyages, whether trading merchants, or sailors, or travellers, or fishermen. And this is not a figurative representation, but an example (Hupfeld, Del., and most of the older commentators) of the hearing of prayer, and of the divine deliverance of mankind in distress, for which God should be thanked in His church. So also with the description of the preceding strophes. In each case actual events are cited from distinct classes of distressing situations, which, however, have not merely occurred on one occasion, but may be repeated. These examples, moreover, are so much the better adapted to that parenetic purpose, in whose interest the Psalm is projected, and to which it ever tends more closely, as in some of them prominence is given to human guilt and the divine mercy, and in others to human impotence and the divine power to control. The former design is observable in the second and third examples; the latter in the fourth, which at the same time effects the transition to the description of those deeds of the Highest which effect the change of circumstances,—a description which is still more general in its character, and advances in sentences that are still more loosely connected. The conjecture of Hupfeld that Psalms 107:33 ff. are inserted from another composition, has accordingly little probability, even if no importance be attached to the allusion contained in Psalms 107:36 to Psalms 107:4-5. The first example is given in a narrative style, and stands in the closest connection with the words of the introduction. It is therefore most natural to understand this passage as alluding to the circumstances of the Babyl. Exile. The supposition, however, that this psalm was sung at the first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles after the return, Ezra 3:1 f. (Hengst.), has nothing to indicate it, and is improbable. So with the conjectures that it completes, with the number seven, the supposed trilogies 101–103, 104–106 (Hengst.), or forms a trilogy with Psalms 105, 106 (Del.) It may be quite proper to bring the position of this Psalm, at the opening of the Fifth Book, into connection with its several points of resemblance to the last two Psalms of the Fourth Book, without being thereby justified in inferring an internal relationship and the same authorship. The allegorico-prophetical interpretation of the whole Psalm, as bearing upon the fortunes of the Christian Church, whether directly (Cocc.), or as an application of the immediate reference to the Church of the Old Covenant (Venema), is only a spiritualizing interpretation based upon the untenable view that the fortunes of the Jewish people are here described (Chald., Syr.), For to them, as has been said, only the introduction, with the first strophe, can be rightly referred. Accordingly this strophe begins, Psalms 107:4, with the narrative tense, while, at the beginning of the following strophes, participles occur which cannot depend on that verb, but introduce the subjects of the several strophes. The grammatical connection of the sentences, however, in this Psalm, is in general loose, and hence we are neither to supply from Psalms 107:2, before the strophe, the words “let them say” (Schnurrer), nor to regard the closing refrain “may they praise” [E. V.: Oh, that men would praise!] as the real predicate (De Wette, Hengst., Hupfeld), nor to change the finite verb in Psalms 107:4 into a participle (Luth., Camphausen). And the latter is the less advisable, as the participle which determines the connection of the whole passage is found already in Psalms 107:2, viz. the redeemed of Jehovah (Isaiah 62:2), who were gathered from all quarters of the world to Jerusalem, since after the return from the exile, the restoration of the Temple and the upbuilding of the Jewish Theocracy were carried out in that city. [The application of the whole psalm to the exile, and, consequently, the figurative interpretation of the examples, are approved by Dr. Alexander. Perowne, after giving the view of Philippson and Delitzsch in favor of the trilogy above alluded to, makes the following judicious remarks: “But ingenious as this is, it rests on the assumption that the 107th Psalm, like the other two, is historical, and is designed chiefly to celebrate the return from the Babylonish captivity. The second and third verses of the Psalm are supposed to mark the occasion for which it was written. And the rest, of the Psalm is held to exhibit, by means of certain examples of peril and deliverance, either, in a figure, the miseries of the exile, or, literally, the incidents of the homeward journey. Such an interpretation, however, can hardly be maintained. It is unnatural to regard these examples, taken from every-day experience, as a figurative description of the exile; it is quite impossible in particular, that the picture of the seafarers should represent the sufferings of the Captivity, though it might certainly form one part of the story of the return; for the exiles are described, not merely as coming back from Babylon, but from all the countries of their dispersion (comp. Jeremiah 16:15; Jeremiah 40:12; Daniel 9:7). It is obvious that the Psalm is not historical. It describes various incidents of human life; it tells of the perils which befall men, and the goodness of God in delivering them, and calls upon all who have experienced His care and protection gratefully to acknowledge them; and it is perfectly general in its character. The four or five groups or pictures are so many samples taken from the broad and varied record of human experience.” In this view, which agrees substantially with that of Dr. Moll, I fully concur. It is the impression which every reader, critical or uncritical, derives first and naturally from the Psalm. It is generally held to, also, when there is no hypothesis of relationship with other Psalms to be supported J. F. M.] Psalms 107:3. From the sea [E. V., from the south]. The expression would suggest to the mind of a Hebrew the idea of the west, while the context demands that of the south. It is not upon the number (Hengst.) of the four quarters of the world that the force of the passage depends, but upon the particular designation of each of them. The explanation which refers to the Arabian Gulf (Chald., Rudiuger, Schnurrer, Dathe), is against the usage of the word. That which regards it as the Southern (Indian) Ocean, after Isaiah 49:11 (Hitz.), is possible, though disputed (Knobel). and yet is more probable than the unusual reference to that part of the Mediterranean Sea lying to the southwest of Palestine, and washing the shores of Egypt (Maurer, Del.). A change in the reading from ξִ ?ιָ ?ν to ξִ ?ιָ ?ξִ ?ιο (Clericus, J. D. Mich., Muntinghe, Kφster, Hupfeld), with reference to Psalms 89:13, is readily suggested. Psalms 107:4. We need not depart from the accents and attach γֶּ ?ψֶ ?κְ to the following member, translating: the way to a city (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Schnurrer, Rosenm.), or, after Psalms 107:40, Isaiah 43:19, change the reading into μΰΞγֶ ?ψֶ ?κְ. no way in the desert (Olsh., Baur, Hupfeld). The word in question is probably not an accusative of the closer definition (Geier, Hengstenberg, De Wette). It better accords with the poetical style to assume a construct state: desert of a way (Ewald, Hitzig, Del.), that is, a desolate (Jerome), unfrequented (Luther) way, (ἐρημοςὀὁός, Acts 8:26). [Psalms 107:8. The general reference: “Oh, that men,” in E. V is incorrect. Alexander: “Let (such) give thanks to Jehovah (for) His mercy, and His wonderful works to the sons of men.”—J F. M.] Psalms 107:17. It is unnecessary to change the reading ΰֲ ?εִ ?μιν in order to obtain, instead of the idea of sinfulness (Job 5:3; Proverbs 2:7), that of burdening (Olshausen), or that of an exclamation: woe to them! (Hitzig). [Psalms 107:23. Alexander: “Going down seems to be an idiomatic phrase borrowed from Isaiah 43:10, and equivalent to going out to sea, in English. The expression may have reference to the general elevation of the land above the water, but is directly opposed to our phrase the high seas, and to the classical usage of ascending ships, i.e., embarking, and descending, i.e., landing. The last words may also be translated: great or mighty waters; but the usage of the Psalms is in favor of the version: many waters, which moreover forms a beautiful poetical equivalent to sea or ocean.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 107:39. It is not necessary to suppose an ellipsis before this verse, or to transpose it with those next following (Olsh.). It is certainly inadmissible to take the verbs as pluperfects (De Wette, after the older expositors), or the sentence as a relative one (Hengstenberg), [opposed also by Alexander and others.—J. F. M.] An allusion to enemies, or, in general, to other subjects than the preceding (Knapp), has nothing to indicate it. Most assume with Kimchi and Geier a repeated diminution in the number of the same subjects, as a punishment for a relapse into sin. Psalms 107:40 is taken from Job 12:21; Job 12:24 from Isaiah 41:18 f., Isaiah 42 b. from Job 5:16, and Job 5:43, from Hos. 14:10. AND ETHICAL1. The praise of God is essential matter of every prayer of thanksgiving; to offer it is the first duty of the redeemed, and at the same time the appropriate means for the building up of the redeemed Church, which, in such a sacrifice of praise, offers itself to God, and yields itself up as the people that are His. 2. God has not only chosen His Church, and established it upon earth as being the people of His inheritance; He preserves it also as such in this evil world, delivers it from the perils which threaten it with ruin and dissolution, gathers its dispersed members from every region under heaven, and effects its restoration from prostration and destruction. But, while it must give thanks after the deliverance, so must it, before the same, pray and cry in its distress to the living God of revelation. 3. This applies not only to the Church in its narrower sense, or to its wants as a Church, but to all the seasons of distress, and to all the deliverances of the Church and its members. Everywhere and at all times is displayed the contrast between omnipotence and impotence, righteousness and guilt, compassion and need, together with its adjustment by deeds of Divine help. To observe this is the wisdom of the pious, to act accordingly the piety of the wise. AND He who contemplates God’s doings in history, finds everywhere: (1) an exhortation to thanksgiving for His gracious help; (2) occasion for self-humiliation beneath His powerful hand; (3) a call to surrender himself to His gracious will.—It is no harder for God to deliver than to judge, but He loves the former better.—What opens the heart and lips of the pious, closes the mouth of the ungodly.—It is easier to cry to God in distress, than to give thanks in the Church after deliverance.—There is nothing better to be wished for than to have a heart capable of appreciating God’s benefits, and an eye open to His doings; for then thanksgiving and supplication, fear and trust, anxiety and hope, are in their true relations, and after the right manner.—He who has enjoyed God’s help should mark (1) in what distress he has been; (2) how he has called to God; (3) how God has helped him; (4) what thanks he has returned; and (5) what thanks he is yet bound to render. Starke: Manifold afflictions are the true material out of which the wonder-working God forms praise and glory for His most holy name, and joy and profit for us.—God’s supervision and care extend over all parts of the world; He can therefore help and stand by His own, in whatever place in the world they may be.—The pilgrimage of a Christian involves wandering, insecurity, hunger, thirst, and despite, but all to the end, that the faithful guidance, the mighty help, the satisfying and revival of the Good Shepherd may be displayed.—As there is but one Helper, who is God, so there is but one means of obtaining His help, and that is prayer; but the essence and soul of prayer is faith.—If thou, believer, never findest upon earth where thou canst rest thy foot, God will at last reach forth His hand to thee, and receive thee into the holy city, into the dwellings of peace.—The spiritual bonds of sin (2 Timothy 2:26) often surround the body also with fetters. Bodily imprisonment has been to many the occasion of anxiety for freedom from eternal chains.—Repentance and prayer must be the first remedies employed in illness, and then the use of ordinary restoratives will not remain without a blessing from God.—Recovery from a deadly disease is, as it were, already a foretaste of the resurrection from the dead.—Those who have regained health forget quite easily to render thanks therefor; but God can not suffer such ingratitude. Think what a sacrifice of thanksgiving is due to God, together with the offering up of the whole life, thus presented to thee.—The world has often been traversed by ships, but almost every voyage reveals some new and wonderful works of nature; who would then not exclaim: the earth, yea, also, the sea, are full of the goodness of the Lord?—Let not the inhabitants of the richest and most fertile countries presume upon these advantages; God can make a garden of the Lord a lake of brimstone.—If we in the meanwhile turn ourselves seriously to the Lord, and seek His grace by heartfelt prayer, He will also fulfil His promises to us.—That the honor, exaltation, and power of magistrates are a gift of God, is most clearly shown, when they lose their authority, and scarcely any will obey them. Osiander: Believers must learn to strengthen their faith from the goodness and mercy of God.—Frisch: He who sins against his Creator, comes under the care of the physician. Death itself is the wages of our sins, and so also are its forerunners, that is, our diseases.—If God visits us sometimes with unfruitful seasons, let us consider who we are—men who daily commit many sins, and deserve much worse than this from God.—Rieger: The “man of God” conducts us through the world, as through a theatre, on which are displayed the miseries of mankind, and the wondrous works and kindness of God.—Berlenburger Bible: Let the man who cannot pray become a sailor.—Tholuck (Psalms 107:20): The word of God is His ministering angel.—Guenther: All those nations which have not yet known the true God, are dispersed and wandering; and all who have found their home in God, feel that they are gathered in.—Diedrich: In order to learn to praise God rightly, we must first suffer much.—Schaubach: We stand with awe-struck minds before this rich display of God’s wondrous power, and at the same time rejoice that in the course of long ages it has lost nothing of its fulness, but that it still never fails to revive hungering and thirsting souls.—Taube: Ye people of the Lord, see how good Jehovah is! and how blessed ye can and shall be with Him! [Bishop Horne: A truly “wise” person will treasure up in his heart the contents of this truly instructive and delightful Psalm. By so doing he will fully “understand” and comprehend the weakness and wretchedness of man, and the power and loving-kindness of God, who, not for our merit, but for His mercy’s sake, dispelleth our ignorance, breaketh off our sins, healeth our infirmities, preserveth us in temptation, placeth us in His Church, enricheth us with His grace, sheltereth us from persecution, blesseth us in time, and will crown us in eternity. Scott: Let us remember to praise our God for turning the wilderness, which we Gentiles inhabited, into a fruitful land, and opening for us the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3).—Let us pray that the Jewish nation, which has been so long a barren desert, may again be watered with His grace, and bring forth the fruits of faith and holiness. Barnes: No one can study the works of God, or mark the events of His providence, without perceiving that there are innumerable arrangements which have no other end than to produce happiness.—J. F. M.] Psalms 108 A Song or Psalm of David2         O God my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. 3    Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. 4    I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: And I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. 5    For thy mercy is great above the heavens: And thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. 6    Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: And thy glory above all the earth! 7    That thy beloved may be delivered: Save with thy right hand, and answer me. 8    God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, And mete out the valley of Succoth. 9    Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; 10    Moab is my washpot; Over Edom will I cast out my shoe; Over Philistia will I triumph. 11    Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? 12    Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? And wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts? 13    Give us help from trouble: For vain is the help of man. 14    Through God we shall do valiantly: For he it is that shall tread down our enemies. AND Contents and Composition.—Two fragments of Davidic Psalms, namely, Psalms 57:8-11, and Psalms 60:7-12, are here brought together without any connection whatever; and the changes occurring in only a few words, are so unimportant, that neither occasion nor purpose can be discovered in this combination and conformation. Least of all is a poet like David to be held guilty of combining in such a manner (Hengstenberg) two pieces taken out of their connection. For the two most important changes are these:—The two parts are taken from Elohim Psalms, but here, Psalms 108:4, Jehovah is substituted for Adonai. Again, the original lamentation of conquered Philistia is here in Psalms 108:10 changed into the form of an exulting cry of victory. It is not however to be inferred from this, with any degree of certainty, that the occasion lay in the later (Clauss), perhaps Maccabζan victories (Rudinger, Rosenm., Hitzig); for the complaint and entreaty of the conclusion is entirely unsuitable to these occasions. Still less, assuredly, do the remaining, merely formal, alterations of the Text favor such a conjecture. The following variations are also observable, but they do not affect the sense. The repeated words at the beginning of Psa 108:2 are omitted. Instead of the exclamation: wake my honor! that is, my soul! the words appear as defining more closely the subject, singing and playing. In Psalms 108:4 b and 6b a vav copulative is inserted, while in Psalms 108:9 a it is omitted. In Psalms 108:7 b the plural: us is Changed into the singular: me. In Psalms 108:12 a, the emphatic: thou is wanting; and in Psalms 108:11 the idea of the strong city is conveyed by a more common word instead of a rare expression. These variations are throughout only proofs of a deterioration in style. [The renderings of Psa 60:12 (10) and 108:12 should be identical. There is no ground for the variation of E. V. The true translation is: Hast Thou not, O God, cast us off? and Thou dost not go forth in our armies.—The view of Delitzsch as to the origin of the Psalm agrees with that of Dr. Moll. He says in addition: “The ΰεֹ ?γְ ?κָ of Psalms 108:4 and the whole tenor of the Psalm are like an echo to the δεֹ ?γεּ of the preceding. It is entitled a Psalm-song of David, but only because composed of portions of the old Davidic Psalms. The absence of the μξπφη shows already a later origin.” So also Perowne. Alexander concludes with Hengstenberg that, the best solution is, that David himself combined these passages so as to form the basis of a trilogy (Psalms 108-110) adapted to the use of the Church at a period posterior to the date of Psalms 57, 60 The former view seems to be that most favored at present. For the exposition see that of the original passages.—J. F. M.] Psalms 109 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David         Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; 2    For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. 3    They compassed me about also with words of hatred; And fought against me without a cause. 4    For my love they are my adversaries: But I give myself unto prayer. 5    And they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love. 6    Set thou a wicked man over him: And let Satan stand at his right hand. 7    When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: And let his prayer become sin. 8    Let his days be few; And let another take his office. 9    Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow. 10    Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. 11    Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; And let the strangers spoil his labour. 12    Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. 13    Let his posterity be cut off; And in the generation following let their name be blotted out. 14    Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. 15    Let them be before the Lord continually, That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. 16    Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, But persecuted the poor and needy man, That he might even slay the broken in heart. 17    As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: As he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. 18    As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, So let it come into his bowels like water, And like oil into his bones. 19    Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, And for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. 20    Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, And of them that speak evil against my soul. 21    But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name’s sake: Because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. 22    For I am poor and needy, And my heart is wounded within me. 23    I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust. 24    My knees are weak through fasting; And my flesh faileth of fatness. 25    I became also a reproach unto them: When they looked upon me they shaked their heads. 26    Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy: 27    That they may know that this is thy hand; That thou, Lord, hast done it. 28    Let them curse, but bless thou: When They arise, let them be ashamed; But let thy servant rejoice. 29    Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame; And let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle. 30    I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; Yea, I will praise him among the multitude. 31    For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor To save him from those that condemn his soul. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist calls upon God not to be silent with regard to his complaint (Psalms 109:1-5) against his enemies, who are deceitful and filled with enmity, and who persecute him causelessly and unrelentingly, for he is innocent and pious, and who reward both his good deeds and his love towards them with ingratitude and hatred. The retributive justice of God, with all its terrible consequences, is then invoked upon an enemy, who is thereafter designated in the singular number, and upon his family (Psalms 109:6-20). He then implores from God’s mercy his own deliverance, describing his personal weakness and dishonor (Psalms 109:21-25), and, with faith in Divine help, entreats a victorious issue of this suffering (Psalms 109:26-29), and unites with this a vow of public thanksgiving (Psalms 109:30-31). In these prayers, as well as in the introduction, a plurality of foes is spoken of. We might therefore be inclined to regard the singular designation of the enemy, which appears in the prayer for punishment, as a rhetorical figure. Yet the whole picture is of such a character that it cannot be intended for a number of persons, but only for an individual. But there is no occasion for maintaining that this section interrupts the connection, and regarding it as an interpolation (Hupfeld). From the band of enemies one could very well have been singled out for special punishment, since one actually appears as having been specially hardened in wickedness. In favor of this is the circumstance that Satan, as the accuser, is to stand at his right hand (Psalms 109:6), as God the Defender of his servant stands at his right (Psalms 109:31). Psalms 109:8 also speaks of the loss of his occupation. The Apostle Peter took the same view (Acts 1:20) in referring this verse, along with Psalms 69:26, to Judas Iscariot, of whom the Holy Ghost had prophesied by the mouth of David (Acts 1:16). Accordingly it is best to refer this Psalm to the typico-prophetical (Calvin, Venema, Stier, Del.), and not to the Messianic class. For the speaker is not presented as a type of the Messiah (many of the older commentators), or of the suffering righteous (Hengst., Clauss.) It is the enemy who is treated as the type of Judas, and that in a relation altogether definite, and only manifested as existing, when viewed from the stand-point of the prophetical conception of history, and not until it was brought out by the fulfilment. It is understood, of course, that actual history must furnish corresponding events, which, without seeking too far, can be naturally brought into connection with the situation described. Such events are found in the relations of David to Doeg the Edomite (Kimchi), to Ahithophel (Grotius, Knapp) to Shimei (Dathe) although the individual case in question cannot be established from the text. But, by regarding such a special case as no more than an extreme heightening of the contrast between the theocratic ruler of Israel and his adversary, who has fallen into the power of Satan, and by treating it typico-prophetically, not only may the attempts, inadequate by themselves, of a moral (Ewald) or psychological (Olshausen) or poetical (Dφderlein) explanation of the fearful imprecations be assigned their relative worth, but also the absurd and unsuccessful efforts to justify them in the mouth of David as a type of Christ in His judicial office (J. H. Mich., Hengst.) may be avoided. For the contradiction between these imprecations, and the actions, as well as the commands, of Jesus Christ (Clericus, Grotius), cannot be removed by any effort of skill, or concealed by referring to Matthew 26:24, and similar passages. The announcement and execution of the Divine judgment, and even prayer for its coming, may be in agreement with the Divine will, and may coexist with a righteous desire for its actual realization. But in such a relation there are manifested grief, moral indignation, and holy anger (comp. our remark at Psalms 69) Here, on the contrary, a spirit is displayed which is not free from carnal passion, and which invokes injuries of such a kind upon the person, and even upon the wife and offspring of the enemy, that some expositors have been able to discover no other way out of the difficulty, than by placing these words in the mouths of the ungodly adversaries of the Psalmist (J. D. Mich., Muntinghe). Others, acknowledging that such a view cannot be admitted, seek the origin of the Psalm in the fanatical and revengeful spirit of later Judaism. Those who hold the last view consider the poetical style, which delights in redundancies and exaggerations, to be further evidence of a late period and degenerate taste (De Wette, Hitzig). But we would be inclined to regard these as characteristics of the style employed in imprecations, rather than as a genuine expression of the feelings (Hupfeld). [Alexander: “This Psalm is remarkable on two accounts: first, as containing the most striking instances of what are called the imprecations of the Psalms; and, then, as having been applied in the most explicit manner to the sufferings of our Saviour from the treachery of Judas, and to the miserable fate of the latter. These two peculiarities are perhaps more closely connected than they may at first sight seem. Perhaps the best solution of the first is afforded by the second, or at least by the hypothesis that the Psalmist, under the instruction of the Spirit, viewed the sufferings of Israel which furnished the occasion of the Psalm, as an historical type of the Messiah’s sufferings from the treachery of Judas, and that, with this view, he expresses his abhorrence of the crime, and acquiesces in the justice of its punishment, in stronger terms than would have been, or are elsewhere, employed in reference to ordinary criminals.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 109:1-5. God of my praise, that is, God, who art my praise (Jeremiah 17:14). The translation of the Vulg.: God, be not silent to my praise! is against the Heb. Text, and its translation in Psalms 109:4 : instead of the love due to me, is against the context; for it is clearly not the objective genitive, but the subjective, which occurs in Psalms 109:5, as in Psalms 38:21. The change of tenses indicates a hostile course of action of very long duration, hardening itself against affection in repeated actions. The slight correction of Bφttcher in Psalms 109:4 b, in order to gain the sense: I am a loathing to them, is ingenious but unnecessary. [This is done by pointing ϊִּ ?τְ ?μָ ?δ. The literal rendering of the received text is: I (am) prayer. The expression probably means, I give forth my whole being in prayer. This is proposed as interpreting the form of the sentence (comp. the Heb. of Psalms 110:3) better than the common explanation.—J. F. M.] Psalms 109:6-7. Can Psalms 109:6 mean: pronounce against him: guilty (Hitzig)? [Hupfeld says this is against the usage of the verb, and anticipates verse 7.—J. F. M.] Since it is not a human judgment but a Divine one that is spoken of, and the expressions closely resemble Zechariah 3:1, and ωׂ ?θο occurs without the article, as in 1 Chronicles 21:1, the adversary placed in the usual position at the right hand of the accused, is hardly to be resolved, if we regard 1 Samuel 29:4; 2 Samuel 19:23, into the more general idea of an accuser, and is certainly not to be explained into that of an unrighteous accuser, according to the usual conception of the wicked man as being placed over the accused, as an unrighteous judge. God is rather to be supposed as the Judge, after Psalms 109:7 b, and the punitive power is to be transferred to a wicked man (Leviticus 26:16; Jeremiah 15:3), perhaps the power to drag him to judgment; a Satan to appear as the accuser. The Devil in the strict sense is probably not yet alluded to, but still, in all likelihood, an enemy with superhuman wickedness and power is intended. The objection which many take to the wish that the prayer might become sin, disappears when it is perceived that it is not the prayer of a penitent, but of one unconverted and despairing. Hence we are not to translate: let his prayer be a failure, that is, unavailing (Then.). Psalms 109:8-11. Instead of: office, or position as overseer (Sept. ἐπισκοπὴ) there is no sufficient occasion to translate: property, savings, with reference to Isa. 15:17 (Syr., J. D. Mich., Knapp, De Wette, Hitzig). The usual explanation (Numbers 3:36; Numbers 4:16) is the more to be preferred, as the loss of property is not mentioned till Psalms 109:11. In Psalms 109:10 b the Sept. have probably read βֹ ?ψְ ?εּ instead of the present γָּ ?ψְ ?ωׁ ?εּ, for they translate: may they be cast out. This agrees so well with the context, as also in Exodus 12:39; Job 30:5, that it is natural to conjecture that it was the original reading (Houbigant, Knapp, Hupfeld). It is certainly much more simple and justifiable than the arbitrary correction of Hitzig, in order to gain the rendering: and may they get ready their baskets, that is, for begging. The whole passage is wanting in the Syriac Version. [In Psalms 109:11 instead of: extortioner, translate: creditor.—J. F. M.] Psalms 109:14-15. The iniquity of his fathers.—There is presented here something more than a poetical variation (Hupfeld) of the imprecation that even the name of the family might be blotted out (Hengstenberg). Even this would be more than a “dull play of wit with conceptions which have no inner reality.” The speaker wishes that the guilt of the fathers may be remembered to the disgrace of the son, Lamentations 5:8. Since he himself is loaded with guilt, that of his fathers may be imputed to him also, Exodus 20:5; Psalms 69:28 (Hitzig). [Perowne: “The curse goes backward as well as forward. The whole race of man is involved in it; root and branch he is accursed. Not the guilt of the individual only, but the guilt of all his guilty ancestors is to be remembered and visited upon his posterity. For the great law comp. Matthew 23:32-36. Hupfeld objects that ‘the curse on the fathers’ is pointless, as it could no longer reach them, but if I see rightly, the object is to heighten the effect of the curse as it falls upon the children mentioned in Psalms 109:13.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 109:17-19. Verse 19 desires, that according to the law of retribution, there may be experienced what in Psalms 109:18 is related as already accomplished. The law itself is stated already in Psalms 109:17, and the different images in Psalms 109:18 represent its operation. [The true construction in Psalms 109:17-18 is to take all the verbs as describing past events: “And he loved cursing, and it came upon him,” etc., and then in Psalms 109:19 comes the imprecation explained above. The Vav Conversive at the beginning of Psa 109:17, and repeated, proves the correctness of this construction.—J. F. M.] Psalms 109:21-24. Do thou for me, namely, good, as is expressly added in Psalms 119:165. But perhaps the expression is absolute, as in Jeremiah 14:7, since the idea is furnished from the context (Geier, Hengst,, Hupfeld). The renderings which follow are less to be commended: do with me (Rudinger), or: act with me (Del), namely, helpfully=be with me (Luth), in which we are referred to the construction of this word with the dative, 1 Samuel 14:6 (De Wette and others).—In Psalms 109:24 b it is doubtful whether ωֶ ?ξֶ ?ο is to be taken as meaning: oil, as usual, and especially anointing oil, in contrast to the fasting and mourning (2 Samuel 12:16; 2 Samuel 12:20; 2 Samuel 14:2; Matthew 6:16-17), and then the ξִ ?ο causally=because of (the want of) oil (Sept., Vulg. and others, Hengst.), or whether the preposition is to be taken in a privative sense, and oil as equivalent to fat (the recent expositors). AND ETHICAL1. A religious and righteous life does not protect a man from calumny and persecution at the hands of envious and wicked men; nor can love and friendship be secure against hatred and ingratitude. But piety and love lead him to prayer, in the midst of the trials thence resulting, and to commit revenge, as well as deliverance, to the Holy God as the true Avenger, who will not remain silent, either to the lying words and calumnies of the enemies, or to the sighs and prayers of His servant, but will give renewed occasion for the ever-extending proclamation of His ancient glory. 2. The law of retribution has not merely its Old Testament foundation (Exodus 21:23 f.), but its New Testament application (2 Timothy 4:14). But he who has recourse to it, and demands and entreats that God would put it into practice, should see well to it, that he himself be not seized and crushed by it. For “cursing as well as swearing is both good and bad. For we read in the Scriptures that holy men have often cursed—therefore none can offer the Lord’s Prayer rightly without also cursing. For when he prays, ‘hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,’ etc., he must include in the same outpouring of his desires all that is opposed to these, and say: cursed and execrated and dishonored must all other names be, and all kingdoms which are opposed to Thee must be destroyed and rent in pieces, and all devices, wisdom, and purposes, formed against Thee fall to the ground” (Luther, Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount). This cursing, as correlated to blessing, is just a testimony to the energy of opposition in a heart and of a life wholly devoted to God, and was uttered by Prophets and Apostles with the full consciousness that, as God’s servants, they were justified and obligated in doing so, and that they acted in the name and under the commission and commands of God, and with His authority and power. The scruples of many expositors, arising from over-delicacy and sentimentality, are shorn of their force by these considerations, and the principle must be firmly held, that the servants of God are to make His threatenings as well as His promises an article of their belief, and that when they say “amen” to them, they must in deed and in truth, set themselves for the earnest execution of the Divine will. For “the kingdom of God comes not only through the salvation of the penitent, but also through the condemnation of the impenitent” (Kurtz). But still we have to lay to heart these two qualifications, first, that it is not every one who is called to curse in God’s kingdom, and secondly, that those who are called must allow nothing that proceeds from their own flesh and heart to influence them in their Divine office. There are curses which do not fall upon those at whom they are cast, but recoil upon the heads of those who pronounce them. 3. When children continue in the sins of their parents, judicial hardening may then come upon them, in which the whole family is miserably ruined and destroyed, even to its name. The powers of evil, by whose aid such a race hoped to rule according to its pleasure and to the ruin of others, have gained dominion over it and its several members, and buried it beneath the burden of its iniquities. Persistent scorn of love has heaped up for itself a treasure of wrath; growing despite of goodness has exhausted patience; the increased abuse of the day of grace ripens for that judgment in which the unconverted sinner receives the fulness of that which he sought his whole life long, as though he could never be satiated with it, while that which he despised ever remains far from him; both of these being the consequences of his wickedness and the punishment of his obduracy. In such fearful judgments they will experience the force of the truth, that there is a sin unto death, and that there are sinners for whom there is no place for prayer (1 John 5:16), and whose own prayer becomes sin, because it is not the expression of a religious need or condition. 4. The history of the lives of the righteous may be a history of suffering, and a long narrative of distress and peril, dishonor and persecution, sorrow and trial. But it attains at last a blessed and joyful issue, and becomes a history of victory. And this is accomplished, not according to any pretended law of the reversing of fortune in the changes and fluctuations of earthly things, not by accident or by human power, but by the hand of God. And the servant of God can never cease to confess His name and invoke his mercy, to proclaim His glory and praise His benefits, in the Church, and before the world. AND God hears thee, oh child of man! and does not keep silence: are thy words pleasing to Him?—If thou art in distress, peril, and anxiety, do not cease to praise God’s glory, to call upon His name, to trust His hand.—Never let go of the hand of God, it is thy only help; but submit also to its guidance.—He who persists in scorning love will reach the place where he can no longer receive it.—The suffering, the conflict, the delight of love.—He who acts with cursing as though it were his daily food and his raiment, need not wonder if his prayer becomes sin.—It befits the servant of God to bewail to God his distress, but also, when God is on his side, to venture against all foes, and even to beat Satan off the field. Starke: He who extends God’s glory by celebrating it and praising it, will never be permitted by Him to come to shame beneath the calumnies of the ungodly.—Satan and his followers contend against the right with the weapons of unrighteousness and falsehood; let us oppose to them the weapons of righteousness and truth.—Love and prayer are united like the tree and its fruit.—It is the law of retribution to punish the wicked by means of the wicked.—He who has Satan as an accuser, and has not Jesus as his Intercessor, cannot escape the sentence of condemnation from God.—The wicked bequeath to their descendants nothing but cursing and judgments.—The Lord can curse none who earnestly seek His blessing (Genesis 32:26; Genesis 32:28), nor can He bless any who labor for His curse (Isaiah 24:5-6).—In all our actions, and therefore in our prayers, the glory of the Divine name must be our final and highest aim.—Osiander: Although the Christian is sometimes condemned as guilty by worldly judgment, and though its sentence is inflicted upon him, as happened also to Christ, yet the Lord stands by him, and pronounces him free, and leads him through death to eternal joy.—Selnecker: Why does God keep His own under the rod and the cross? (1) That they may be continually tried and exercised in the fear of God, in faith, in calling upon Him, in patience, in confession, in holding fast to the end; (2) That they may know His anger against the sins of all men, of believers as well as of the ungodly; (3) That they may be conformed to the image of Christ; (4) That they may think upon His gracious presence, help, and deliverance.—Frisch: The poison of the world finds its strongest antidote in prayer.—Tholuck: All the consequences of sin are punishments, and they come from the living God. And is it not allowable for men to wish for the fulfilment of that which God does, provided only that it be wished in the same sense as that in which God does it?—Richter: He who despises Christ’s intercession, experiences His curse.—Judicial hardening is not inflicted upon transgressors, until the Lord’s love to them has spent itself in loving, and has been offered in vain.—All prayer for deliverance, unless preceded by true repentance and penitence, and every despairing prayer, are sins before God.—Diedrich: Mankind lasts only by God’s mercy; he who hates it must vanish from the earth like the family of Saul.—The ungodly cannot be happy in any possession, for they have forfeited God’s blessing in everything.—Their works follow the wicked merely as the demands of justice.—Taube: A prayer of David for the manifestation of God’s retributive justice upon the enemy of the Lord and his companions, and for the assistance of God’s gracious help for himself in his distress.—He who rejects the love of Christ, the only Mediator and Intercessor, has the eternal God over him as an angry Judge, and Satan beside him as a strict accuser; the end of his road is night.—The self-chosen reward of the ungodly.—The matter rests here: he who would be a companion of saints in God’s kingdom must be their companion in affliction here. [Matt. Henry: His prayer becomes sin, as the clamors of a condemned malefactor not only find no acceptance, but are looked upon as an affront to the court.—Men’s curses are impotent; God’s blessings are omnipotent. J. F. M.] Psalms 110 A Psalm of David         The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 2    The Lord shall send The rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. 3    Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, In the beauties of holiness From the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of thy youth. 4    The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever After the order of Melchizedek. 5    The Lord at thy right hand Shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. 6    He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries. 7    He shall drink of the brook in the way: Therefore shall he lift up the head. AND Contents And Composition.—Two utterances of a revelation, Psalms 110:1; Psalms 110:4, the first of which is expressly stated to be a declaration of Jehovah, and the second declared to be unchangeable, because accompanied by His oath, form the two central points of the train of thought pursued in this Psalm. The first utterance of God assigns to the Lord of the Psalmist a place at the right hand of Jehovah, with the promise of the complete overthrow of His enemies. Psalms 110:2 takes this as the ground of an address to this Lord, in which there is promised to Him, by the help of Jehovah, a triumphant extension of His kingdom out of Zion. Psalms 110:3 pledges the willing loyalty of His people, which constantly rejuvenates itself, as a nation of numberless warriors, and consecrates itself to God. This is done in connection with the declaration of Jehovah contained in the second divine utterance. This Ruler is a Priest forever, after an order not Levitical, but reaching back to the unhistorical past. And Psalms 110:5-7, in passing from the allocutive to the narrative style, describe the victorious career of this Hero, who crushes His foes with the might of God, and who, also, while on His march, is refreshed and revived when needing support. Accordingly, the lyrico-prophetical character of the Psalm is as unmistakable as its theocratic stand-point. If their full weight and the biblical sense are attached to these terms, the supposition that the Psalm celebrates poetically the glories of the kingdom in Israel, as the kingdom of God (Hupfeld), falls to the ground. It falls to pieces from internal weakness. For the idea of the union of the sacerdotal dignity and royal authority, though a common one in heathendom, was unheard of in Israelitish history before the Maccabζan period, in connection with actual sovereigns. David, at a time when the temple-worship was suspended, and from the absence of priests, exceptionally fulfilled priestly functions (2 Samuel 6), but immediately restored the legal order of things, and transferred the official authority of the priesthood to the Levites (2 Samuel 8:17; 2 Samuel 20:25). The single attempt of Uzziah to take the control of the religious ceremonies, in order to perform them personally, brought upon him a judgment from God (2 Chronicles 26:16). In the Maccabζan period, it is true, the union of this two-fold dignity did exist. Accordingly, by a purely historical, and not prophetical view, a reference is readily suggested to Jonathan and his assumption of the pontificate (Hitzig formerly) or, better, to Alexander Jannζus (Hitzig now), or to Simon (1Ma 14:41). But apart from the general considerations against so late a composition, the usual objection may be urged, that the Maccabζans had already been priests before they became princes, whereas the opposite order seems indicated here. Yet this objection is not so weighty as the fact, that in the Psalm the union of the kingly and priestly dignities is designated by a declaration, attested and assured by God, (1) as one altogether peculiar or unique, (2) as one never again to be dissolved, or eternal, and (3) as an attribute not of a dynasty, but of a distinct Person. On these grounds the Messianic interpretation is demanded by the historical relations as much as by the language employed. The only other question is, whether the Psalm is to be understood in a typical, or typico-prophetical, or prophetico-messianic sense. In the first case, the reference of the Psalm to the Messiah would only be gained mediately, from the extraordinary character of the expressions, which, moreover, are not literally applicable to the historical relations of a theocratic ruler. It could be rendered clear only through a mode of teaching based upon the ideas and expectations which characterized more especially the time of Christ and His apostles (Knapp.) If the Psalm be viewed historically, we would have only a theocratic congratulatory poem, addressed to a king (De Wette), in which also a longing might perhaps be expressed for the restoration of the primitive union of the sovereignty and the priesthood (Ewald). The genuineness of the superscription would then have to be given up, unless we decide with Hitzig for the translation: upon David (Isaaki, Aben Ezra, Kimchi). In the second case, the king in question would be viewed by the poet himself as the type of Messiah. It would then, historically, be most natural to think of David, after he had brought the ark of the covenant to Zion, and, enthroned at the side of Jehovah under His protection, could count on a secure reign (Herder). And we would connect with this the prophecy which was made to him and his family (1 Samuel 7.). But, in the first place, Psalms 110:4 would remain insufficiently explained. This verse does not allude to distinct priestly functions, as, for example, praying and blessing, but to the priestly office personally received. And David could not be called a priest on account of dwelling near God in the sense alluded to, nor be regarded as symbolizing Melchizedek, king of righteousness in Salem. In the second place, no answer would be given to the question as to which king the prophecy could have applied, as it is certainly something more than a piece of flattery paid by the body of priests to their favorite David (Ilgen, De notione tituli filii Dei, in Paulus’ Memorabilia. VII. 193 ff.). Even the reference to the Maccabζan times, with the sacerdotal princes and the Messianic expectations, held even then by the Jews (by Lengerke), would not suffice; for at that time prophecy was extinct, and in the Psalm an actual prophetical utterance of God, not a feigned one, is given. Nor could the Psalm be the ode of a poet composed for the court-chapel on Solomon’s accession to the throne (Borhek in Eichhorn’s Allg. Bibliothek der bibl. Literatur, II. 222 ff.; VI. 315 ff.). Let it then be maintained that it is a declaration of Jehovah, and that the utterance bears a prophetical character. We must now exclude the supposition that David here gives expression to the thoughts awakened in the breast of true Israelites concerning his relation to Jehovah, as elsewhere he records their feelings concerning him and his undertakings, and consequently that he puts into the mouths of the people, as he elsewhere records their prayers in his behalf, a prophetic view of himself (Hofmann formerly), or of his dynasty (Hofmann now). Both the form and the contents of this psalm are incompatible (Kurtz) with the assumption, that David was at the same time its author and its subject. Nor could he have regarded either himself or that victorious king who should reign at the time contemplated (Hofmann), or, specially, Solomon on the occasion of the attempt of Adonijah to render the succession to the throne doubtful, as the subject, viewed typically, of that prophetic view. For the prophecy includes not merely the sitting at the right hand of Jehovah, but the union also of the kingly and priestly offices. The conception of such a union did not, among the Israelites, arise from possible (Hδvernick) conflicts of history (De Wette, who refers to Uzziah), but from divine revelation, and has not merely a prophetical, but an essentially Messianic character (Zechariah 6:13). Now, if we consider that David represented himself sometimes as a prophet and king of Jehovah, but never as His priest, although he performed some priestly acts, and that he needed and desired a priestly mediation, independent of his person and not representable by him, as greatly as did his people, who were distinguished as a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), then it may be conceived how just it is that not David and his family, not Aaron and the Levites, but a person like Melchizedek, standing outside the circle of historical Israel, appears as a type of the Messiah. David, therefore, was not in a position to view himself or his family typico-messianically with relation to the royal priest of Jehovah. And it is just this view of the Messiah which must be separated from the person and history of David, and which must have arisen purely from actual revelation. Thus does the text itself represent it. Thus did Jesus treat it in His discussion with the Pharisees (Matthew 22:41 ff., comp. Mark 12:35 ff.; Luke 20:41 ff.). Thus Peter expounded it (Acts 2:34 f.). Thus also did Paul (1 Corinthians 15:25). Thus the Scriptures generally (Hebrews 1:13; Hebrews 5:6; Hebrews 7:17; Hebrews 7:21; Hebrews 10:13). Thus did the Synagogue understand it in earlier times. Thus has the Christian Church at all times understood it. And the merely and strictly scientific expositors would return, to a greater extent than they have done, to the prophetico-messianic interpretation, if they could succeed in abandoning altogether the anti-historical method of transferring Old Testament conceptions and expressions to the Person and Life of Jesus Christ, as well as the unhistorical allegorizing and spiritualizing method of interpretation, and would also treat the several declarations of the Psalm as matter of future historical realization.—The Psalm being considered as bearing this character, it was perhaps not without design that the name Jehovah was employed three times, and that there are three strophes, each of seven stichs. The different interpretations are fully treated by Bergmann, Comm. in Ps. CX., Leyden, 1819. [Perowne: “This Psalm claims emphatically to be the fruit and record of a Divine revelation. The words of the poet, though shaped in the poet’s heart, come to him from the very sanctuary of the Most High. It is an oracle and utterance of Jehovah, which he has heard and which he has to declare to others. It is an oracle which concerns a king who reigns in Zion; it is addressed to one to whom the poet does homage, calling Him ‘Lord;’ it assures him of the high favor of Jehovah, who lifts Him to a share of His own royal dignity, giving him the victory over all his enemies. The poet then pictures the king going forth to battle surrounded by his youthful warriors, bright and numberless as the dew-drops on a summer morn, willing to shed their hearts’ blood in his service, each one robed as a priest, each one a soldier of God. As he gazes on the vision which has been called up by the first word from heaven, another divine word sounds in his ear: the word confirmed by the oath of Jehovah, that the king shall also be A PRIEST FOREVER AFTER THE ORDER OF . Then he follows the king in imagination to the war, sees him winning victory after victory with great slaughter, aided by God Himself in the fight, and securing the fruits of his victories by a pursuit of his enemies, which knows no check even in the burning heat of an eastern sun. “If we were at liberty to adopt in this Psalm the same principles of interpretation, which we have adopted with regard to all the other Messianic Psalms, it would present no special difficulty. We might suppose it to have been written by some poet of David’s time, who would naturally speak of David himself as his lord. In the first and lowest sense, his words would apply to David as his theocratic king; in their ultimate and highest sense, they would be fulfilled in David’s Great Descendant, in Him who was both David’s Son and David’s Lord. But we seem to be precluded from this method of interpretation by the argument which, according to all the Evangelists, our Lord, in disputing with the Pharisees, builds upon the first verse of the Psalm. …. Now, in this argument, all turns upon two points: first, that David himself wrote the Psalm, and next, that in writing he was moved by the Holy Ghost. David himself, in a confessedly Messianic Psalm, is speaking not of himself, but of his Great Descendant, and so speaking, calls Him his Lord, … and if so, it is plain that there can be no lower reference of the Psalm to David or to any other Jewish monarch.” Mr. Perowne then cites and deals with two objections brought against this view. First, it is the only instance in the prophetic Psalms of direct reference to Christ. This we have to accept. Secondly, “the language of the latter part of the Psalm is fairly applicable only to an earthly king.” But the solution which he offers seems to be unnecessary. He thinks that the poet “is still suffered to conceive of Him, partially at least, as an earthly monarch, fighting bloody battles with his enemies.” It is better to consider the language alluded to as simply a highly figurative description of the victorious progress of Christ, remembering also that, although the conception is purely that of a New Testament realization, it is clothed in Old Testament ideas and imagery. It was necessarily so. The actions portrayed by an Old Testament poet would look strange if presented in a New Testament garb.—J. F. M.] Psalms 110:1. A declaration of Jehovah [E. V.: The Lord said]. The expression shows that an utterance is announced, invested with the character of inspiration (see on Psalms 36:2), and therefore conveyed prophetically. Its position at the beginning of the sentence does not indicate a mutilation of the text (Olshausen), but shows that God was speaking at that moment. The whole mode of expression testifies against the supposition that the reference might here be only to a prophecy given formerly, or that a declaration of God which was already well-known might have been put in the mouths of the people. The person to whom the utterance is addressed is not directly indicated as Divine, equal to Jehovah, and of the same nature, in the sense of adonai (which J. D. Michaelis proposed to read), but such a person as the Psalmist acknowledges as his lord. This expresses the relation of one in high rank to one in a subordinate position. Its significance and importance are not weakened by the objection, that, according to Oriental usage, adoni can be used as a periphrastic expression of respect, instead of the personal pronoun of the second person. Nor do the contents of the declaration assign a mere place of honor, although the highest, to the person addressed (1 Kings 2:19); they call upon him to take the position in which the king’s vicegerent and representative, or, in other circumstances, the coregent was placed. Taken by itself, this expression could be restricted, in its application, to a theocratic king (Kurtz), 1 Chronicles 28:5; 1 Chronicles 29:23, but, when referring to the Son (Psalms 2), it contains the germ of the idea of an assumption into fellowship with God’s exaltation and dominion, Daniel 7:13-14; 1 Corinthians 15:25 (Delitzsch). The complete subjugation of God’s enemies, who are to be utterly defeated and humbled (Joshua 10:24 :1 Kings 5:17), forms a turning point in the history of His kingdom (Acts 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:28 : Hebrews 10:13), from which time forth all relations are to become different from those in the present epoch of the world. Psalms 110:2. The staff [E. V.: rod] is not spoken of as an instrument of chastisement, Isaiah 11:4 (Jahn, Reinke, Hengst.), which Jehovah will send forth, and with which He will smite His enemies successively. It is the emblem of majesty, and is stretched forth in the exercise of dominion (1 Samuel 2:10; Micah 5:3; Ezekiel 19:11 ff.; Jeremiah 48:17) out of Zion (Psalms 2:6, comp., Psalms 68:17; Psalms 132:13-14; Isaiah 8:18), until the end of the world (Zechariah 9:10, comp. Psalms 72:8; Numbers 24:17; Numbers 24:19). Psalms 110:2 c disproves the interpretation which understands the sitting at the right hand of Jehovah as expressing only the security of the king, protected by Jehovah, against the attacks of his foes, and as excluding his own action. For these words, if they are not to be placed in the mouth of Jehovah Himself (Schnurrer, Jahn, Reinke, Hupfeld, Delitzsch), are certainly to be taken in the sense of a sure promise (De Wette). Psalms 110:3. Thy people show themselves willing, [E. V. Thy people shall be willing]. The interpretation of the fathers, after the Sept and Vulgate, is altogether at fault. They explain: “With thee is the dominion on the day of thy power, in the brightness of thy sanctuary; from the womb I have brought thee forth before the morning star.” The first words they suppose to refer to the complete victory of the Messiah on the great day of judgment, and the last to his eternal generation as the Son of God. The Arab. Version takes the same view, but translates: “in the light of the holy ones,” connecting these words with those which follow. The Syr. Version is also incorrect: “thy people are to be praised in the day of thy power; in the brightness of holiness have I begotten thee, O boy, from the womb, from ancient times.” The Chald. paraphrase even gives the following: “thy people of the house of Israel proves itself willingly obedient, to the law; on the day when the king goes forth, thou wilt unite with him in the array of holiness; the mercy of God will descend upon thee as descends the dew, thy generations shall dwell in hope.” Most of these errors arise not from differences in the Text, but from its false interpretation, which is due to false pronunciations and derivations, and, in some cases, to the omission of words. According to the Masoretic Text, it is the readiness of the people that is spoken of, not a readiness in offering gifts and sacrifices, (Herder, Hengst.), but for the military service of the king. To enter upon it, the youth shall gather as numerous, as fresh (Numbers 23:10; 2 Samuel 17:12), and as wonderfully sudden in their appearance, as the dew from the womb of the morning. Now, since this King is no temporal ruler, and is at the same time a Priest, it cannot be the usual military service and duty that is referred to, nor a religious ceremony in festal garments preceding it (Gesenius). Moreover, the words employed are unsuitable to convey this explanation. It is for this reason, indeed, that it has been proposed to read, with 30 codd. of Kennicott and more than 50 of De Rossi, and with Symm., and Jerome: δַ ?ψְ ?ψֵ ?ιχΧ=upon the mountains, instead of δַ ?γְ ?ψֵֹ ?ιֽ χΧ (Houbigant, Herder, De Wette, Olshausen, Hupfeld). The true view is, that images taken from military life are united with others, which indicate the peculiar characteristics of the present war, and show that the people, as well as the royal Hero, are priests. With the expressions compare Psalms 29:2; Revelation 19:14.—Instead of the usual ωׁ ?ηψ we have here ξωׁ ?ηψ, which may be differently pointed, and therefore differently explained, but which is regarded by the best exegetes as merely a secondary form.—The dew of youth does not refer to the dewy freshness of the youthful period of life (Aquila) after Ecclesiastes 11:9, or youthfulness, youthful vigor (Hofmann). Nor in Psalms 110:3 a does the day of power allude to the day of the Messianic judgment (the ancients) or the day of Pentecost (Friedrich, Symbolζ ad interpret. Ps. 110. 1814), when many from the East became followers of Christ. [Perowne: “The dew which, especially in the East, falls so copiously, is most probably employed here as a figure denoting infinite multitude, comp. the use of the figure in 2 Samuel 17:11-12. Others find the point of comparison in the brightness and freshness of the dew, and this may be suggested by the figure as well as multitude. In Micah 5:7, the point of comparison seems to be different.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 110:4. After the order of Melchizedek. The allusion to Melchizedek carries our view beyond the Aaronic and Levitical priesthood, and even beyond the history of Israel itself. The reference is not to that authority immediately resident, by virtue of their office, in Israelitish kings, by which they, as intercessors, could commend the people to God and bless them, and take the charge of the public worship (De Wette, Ewald, Hofmann). For here a special union of Priesthood and Royalty, unheard of in Israel and transferred to the king in his own person and for ever, is affirmed to exist by an oath of the only true God (Numbers 13:19), as something altogether extraordinary and difficult of belief, but yet made known by prophecy (Amos 6:8). Elsewhere ςַ ?μΞγִּ ?αְ ?ψַ ?ϊ occurs=with reference to, according to. So in Ecclesiastes 3:13; Ecclesiastes 7:14; Ecclesiastes 8:2; Daniel 2:30; Daniel 4:14, instead of the usual ςַ ?μΞψְּ ?αַ ?ψ. But here the ancient union vowel, i in addition, is joined to the construct, state, which is also retained in ξַ ?μְ ?λִּ ?ι. Therefore this is i, not to be taken as a suffix=according to my word, a Melchizedec (Herder after the older expositors). There is no ground for pressing the meaning “according to” (Hupfeld), since we can translate quite correctly: in the proportion, or: after the manner. How earnestly the Rabbins have endeavored to weaken the force of this passage may be inferred from the following, among many other most unnatural explanations. They take the word kohen here as princeps, rex, dux, though, as is well known, it is the technical word for priest, as the one who stands before God. The Chald, has gone so far as to paraphrase: The Lord hath sworn and will not repent; thou art appointed judge in the world to come, as a reward unto thee, because thou hast been a spotless king. Psalms 110:5-7. The Lord at thy right hand is not the king exalted to the right hand of Jehovah (Bφhl after many of the older expositors), for which the designation adonai is quite unknown in the Old Testament, but Jehovah the Lord of all, here as the Helper (Psalms 16:8; Psalms 109:31), in the day of the Judgment of wrath (Psalms 2:12), which is represented here as a battle. [Alexander: “On the right hand has precisely the same meaning which it has in Psalms 109:31, when it denotes the place of protection or assistance, the figure being probably derived from the usages of war, in which one who succors or protects another may be said to strengthen his right hand, as the member which he uses in his own defence. In one sense, therefore, the Lord is at the right hand of Jehovah; in another sense, Jehovah is at His. This assistance, far from excluding, presupposes His own action; or rather, what Jehovah is described as doing for him, He does through him.—J. F. M.]. Nothing is to be inferred from the change of subject in Psalms 110:7, for the change of persons in prophetical discourse is well known; the thought of the passage is always to be looked to. Accordingly, the subject in Psalms 110:7 is not the enemy, who previously, being refreshed by drinking, bore his head on high (Hofmann), but the king; and that not with an allusion to Gideon (Judges 7:5 ff.), as a hero who will allow nothing to interrupt his course, and is satisfied with a draught from the brook on his way (Calvin), or to Samson, Judges 15:18 f. (Herder, Hengst.). The reference is rather to the toilsome nature of his way and course and conflict, in the midst of which, however, he never fails of refreshing and strengthening, and therefore can always keep his head aloft in joyful exultation. The passage may be applied, practically, to the sufferings of Christ and believers, as well as to their subsequent exaltation (Philippians 2:8 f., Hebrews 12:2; Revelation 5:9 f.), but not referred directly to them as the Fathers maintain, (and Stier). Least of all is it to be supposed that there is any allusion to the “water of affliction,” and the like figures. For drinking is here the direct means of reviving, a cordial for the hero in his pursuit of the enemy, and presupposes only thirst and need. The Chald is altogether wrong: He will receive instruction from the mouth of the prophet on the way. [The lifting up of the head is by some referred to those assisted by the Hero. This view is based upon Psalms 3:4. But the immediate connection with the statement of the first member of the verse, and the natural relation between drinking and being revived, are decisive of the true application. Any other relation between the members of the verse would be forced and obscure.—Hengstenberg: “That the words indicate an enduring and final triumph, not a momentary strengthening, appears from the opposition to the smiting of the head of the enemies. It is only when thus understood, that they are suitable as a conclusion, as is evident from the fact, that this feeble interpretation has led many to the notion, that the Psalm is only a fragment.”—J. F. M.]. It is uncertain whether the choice of words in Psalms 110:6 c was determined by an allusion to David’s Ammonitish war (Del.). In any case we are not to translate: “the prince of the land of Rabbah,” that is, of the Ammonites whose capital was Rabbah (Moses Mendelssohn, Hofm.), nor: “a head (prince) over great lands” (Luth., Geier and others). Nor does the expression mean specially, the arch-enemy, the antichrist (Stier after the older expositors), as the Head, whose head is to be smitten (Genesis 3:15). It is not probable that some particular enemy appearing in history as a chief or leader (most) is meant, or that ψֹ ?ΰωׁ in the present connection is to be taken collectively, (Sept., Chald and others, Hupfeld, Camphausen). We think that, in the plastic mode of presenting the subject, a particular point in the course of the conflict is seized upon and described (Hitzig), [i.e. when the Hero is crushing the head of one of his foes.—J. F. M.]. The form of expression, however, admits of being employed in the latter description of the Messianic conflict with the personal antichrist (Revelation 19:11 ff.). [I subjoin Dr. Moll’s version. For a beautiful paraphrase, which agrees mainly with this version, see Mr. Perowne’s Commentary. 1 Of David; a Psalm. An address of Jehovah to my Lord: “Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thy enemies A stool for thy feet.” 2 The sceptre of thy might Will Jehovah stretch forth out of Zion; Rule in the midst of thy enemies. 3 The people are ready on thy muster-day: In holy array. From the womb of the dawn, (Comes) to thee the dew of thy youth (young warriors). 4 Jehovah has sworn and does not repent it: “Thou art Priest to eternity, After the order of Melchizedec.” 5 The Lord at thy right hand Dashes kings to pieces in the day of his wrath, 6 Holds judgment over nations, It (the battle-field) is full of corpses, Crushes a head in a wide field— 7 He drinks of the brook in the way, Therefore he raises his head on high.—J.F.M.]. AND ETHICAL1. All progress in the history of the Church of God on earth is effected by the deeds of the Highest, in which He manifests Himself; all progress in the knowledge of those deeds is gathered through His revealed words. The latter often precede the former, and then bear the character of Divine promises, and come to the knowledge of the Church through the medium of prophetic vision and announcement. In this way she has received this “truly lofty and crowning Psalm of our dear Lord Jesus Christ” (Luther). “I heard in spirit, saith the prophet David, God the heavenly Father speak with His beloved Son, and because it was a glorious kingly address, which I would were known to all the world, I will give it in this Psalm” (John Arndt). 2. The exaltation of the King in the kingdom of God above all other kings, powers, and dominions, is not merely a spiritual one, of moral and religious significance. As an exaltation to the right hand of God, it transcends all earthly relations, being the only one of its kind, and proving itself to be such by glorious deeds of Divine might, which result in an incomparable and universal victory over each and every foe. For the sitting at God’s right hand is only a figurative expression, employed to set forth the infinite exaltation, the supereminence above all worlds, and the personal security of this King, in His actual participation in the Divine sovereignty. This position assures not only personal safety, but certain victory, in that conflict which He wages in behalf of Himself and His kingdom, not merely with Divine assistance, defence, and protection, but also with Divine strength. And this He will do until the end of the world. “He gives no sign where Christ shall reign and where His Church shall be formed, except that they shall be among enemies” (Luther). But “as this King has a majestic throne, so He has also a wonderful foot-stool; and as His royal throne gives us great comfort, we are glad when we think of His footstool. How joyful also do His poor subjects become, when they hear that their Prince and King has smitten down their enemies, and thus delivered them from their power!” (John Arndt). 3. But, as conflict precedes victory, so does a life of suffering, in the abasement of earthly existence, precede exaltation. Each side of the picture merits special regard. For, although the King of the Divine kingdom wages the conflict with Divine strength and in confidence of victory, according to Divine promise, yet He must encounter the toil and dangers and sacrifices of an actual warfare; and as He, with this end in view, assumes even this position according to God’s will, so He, like a mighty leader, summons His subjects to share them too. They are to contend together with Him and for Him, as He contends with them and for them. 4. All this gains a higher significance and a deeper sense when it is considered that it is God’s kingdom that is concerned, a people destined to be a kingdom of priests and the holy inheritance of the Eternal. They must be unceasingly reminded of this their destiny. But, with the exhortation to act accordingly and so carry on the conflict ordained for them, there is, by Divine mercy, united a promise that its issue can and will be successful, through that King who is also a Priest, and in whom royalty and priesthood are united personally and indissolubly, and in a manner contrary to the legal order in Israel. 5. In order to realize this promise, so sacredly secured, our faith must, on the one side, be directed beyond the national restrictions of the Mosaic and Levitical institutions and the Davidic and Theocratic history, and, on the other, the knowledge must be gained, that the royal Hero who crushes with the judgments of His wrath those who oppose Him, and the Intercessor and priestly Deliverer who blesses His people and reconciles them with God, are one and the same Person, whose coming the Church has to expect and for which she has to prepare. “Our consolation, which sustains us, and makes the heart joyful and courageous against all the persecution and raging of the world, is, that in the midst of them we have a Lord, who not only redeems us from sin and eternal death, but also protects and delivers us in sufferings and persecution, so that we shall not perish. And although they rage with all their fierceness against Christians, yet neither the Gospel nor Christianity shall perish, but, on this very account, their own heads shall be crushed” (Luther). AND The King of God’s kingdom is Lord over all lords, but is not yet for a time acknowledged by all.—The Lord who reconciles us with God, will also govern us as a priestly King; therefore let us serve Him as God’s people in the garments of holiness.—In the wars of the Lord our victory is sure, but we must wage them as the host of our divine and priestly King.—The heavenly King calls His forces to conflict and service; but He leads them also to victory, and appears Himself on their behalf with protection and blessing.—The conflict of suffering, waged by the Church militant in obedience to her heavenly Lord, as the path that leads to a participation in His victories and in His glory. Starke: O unspeakable joy! O strong consolation for believers, that they have a Brother, who sits on His throne at the right hand of God! In all times of persecution we can commit ourselves to Him.—Christ’s kingdom is a powerful, invincible kingdom, for the sceptre of its King is a sceptre of strength, and this should urge us to deepest reverence, faith, and obedience towards Him.—Here in the kingdom of grace, Christ rules among His enemies; for while He still concedes and grants much to them, He yet fulfils His counsel in the midst of all their rage; but there, in the kingdom of glory, He will reign over them and destroy all their wickedness forever.—Christ’s people consist of willing members, who serve Him without compulsion, prompted by the child-like spirit dwelling in them. Hereby thou mayest prove whether thou dost belong to the people of God or not.—The dew fertilizes and revives the earth; so believers are not only themselves fruitful in good works, but seek also to bring others to the saving fruit of righteousness, and aim to revive themselves and others.—Since Christ is both Priest and King, He has power, not only to reconcile us completely, but also to overthrow all the enemies of our salvation, and to share with believers all the blessings of His kingdom.—Christ fulfils His priestly office in all power, to eternity, without the help of any other; no saint therefore can help us as an intercessor.—Since God the Father has ordained Christ to be an eternal Priest, He never dies to believers, and thus the consolation which flows forth to them never ceases.—First the cup of sorrow, after that glory; that is God’s order. So had Christ also to suffer, and after that to enter into His glory (Luke 24:26; Romans 8:17).—The Lord knows always how to show a brook on the way to pious pilgrims in their weariness, from which they may be refreshed and strengthened.—As weak and feeble as the Church of God is in this world, in and for itself; so strong, yea, invincible is she, in her Help, Protector, and Defender, who is Christ. Selnecker: While Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father, the Church will be wondrously preserved under tribulation and sufferings, and against the Devil and the world; but enemies will remain until the last day.—Frisch: Both humiliation and exaltation were required of Him, who was to redeem us completely; the former to gain our salvation, the latter to make it sure to us.—He who would stand under this Lord and Head, must be accustomed to drink with Him upon the way.—Arndt: I know one who sits at God’s right hand, who is strong enough for all my enemies and all my misfortune. He sits on my behalf at God’s right hand to defend me.—Rieger: David praises to the Son, what the Father will do in Him for the extension of His kingdom; while he declares with praise to the Father how the Son, in the sovereignty and priesthood, will do everything according to the Father’s will and pleasure—Vaihinger: As often as the Redeemer manifests His glory and power against the oppressors and enemies of His kingdom, so often does there arise in His people renewed willingness to serve Him, and so often are His worshippers increased.—Richter: The kingdom of God is extended from the earthly Zion. Warriors and ambassadors of Christ are ever going forth from the spiritual Zion, the true Church; and He, from the heavenly Zion, directs everything with His rod and sceptre.—Guenther: In spite of all foes, Christ is and remains the eternal King, and he who will not serve Him to his own salvation, must submit to Him to his condemnation.—Schaubach: That our Redeemer took the form of a servant need give us no difficulty; He shall, from this state of humiliation, again enter into His exaltation.—Taube: A people in priestly robes is a people equipped for battle. [Matth. Henry: Sitting is a resting posture; after Christ’s services and sufferings He entered into rest from all His labors. It is a ruling posture; He sits to give law, to give judgment. It is a remaining posture; he sits like a King forever.—The conversion of a soul consists in its being willing to be Christ’s, coming under His yoke and into His interests, with entire compliancy and satisfaction.—There is a particular power, the power of the Spirit, going along with the power of the word, to the people of Christ, which is effectual to make them willing. The former leaves sinners without matter of excuse; this leaves saints without matter of boasting. Whoever are willing to be Christ’s people, it is the free and mighty grace of God which makes them so.—J. F. M.] Psalms 111 1         Praise ye the Lord.I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. 2    The works of the Lord are great, Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. 3    His work is honourable and glorious: And his righteousness endureth for ever. 4    He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. 5    He hath given meat unto them that fear him: He will ever be mindful of his covenant. 6    He hath shewed his people the power of his works, That he may give them the heritage of the heathen 7    The works of his hands are verity and judgment; All his commandments are sure. 8    They stand fast for ever and ever, And are done in truth and uprightness. 9    He sent redemption unto his people: He hath commanded his covenant for ever: Holy and reverend is his name. 10    The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: A good understanding have all they that do his commandments;His praise endureth for ever. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist expresses his purpose to praise the Lord in the narrower circle of the upright and in the Church (Psalms 111:1), for the great and memorable deeds (Psalms 111:2) in which He reveals His never-changing glory and righteousness (Psalms 111:3), and, as the God of mercy, establishes the memory of His wonders (Psalms 111:4), and, mindful of His covenant, cares for His servants (Psalms 111:5), so that His people have experienced the power of His works in being placed in the possessions of the heathen (Psalms 111:6), and, at the same time, the reliableness of His ordinances and regulations (Psalms 111:7-8) for the highest good of the people of His covenant (Psalms 111:9), whose wisdom proceeds from the fear of Jehovah to His eternal praise. These thoughts are, as it were, linked together like proverbs, and in short stichs, containing usually only three words. These are arranged in such a manner that every line begins with a Hebrew letter following the alphabetical order, and the last two verses consist of three stichs, while all the rest contain but two. This latter phenomenon was due to an unwillingness that the verses should exceed ten, the number of completeness. All this corresponds exactly with the following Psalm, and indicates a late composition, though we have no grounds for the determination of the exact date. The superscription is purely liturgical. The application of Psa 111:5 to the eucharist is very ancient. It is found even in Theodoret and Augustine; and thus this Psalm has become the Eucharist-Psalm of the Church, and has been adopted by the Romish Church as one of its daily vesper-psalms. Psalms 111:1. In the circle of the upright [E. V., assembly of the upright].—ρεֹ ?γ is a more select assembly (being equivalent to intimacy), distinguished from the whole Church (Aben Ezra, Geier and others), a distinction which, with other designations, occurs also in Psalms 107:32. It has been denied without ground by some who understand by the upright the Israelites generally. [Alexander: “The word means properly a circle of confidential friends. See Psalms 25:14; Psalms 55:15; Psalms 64:3; Psalms 83:4. It is here applied to the church or chosen people as constituting such a company or circle in opposition to the world without. It is not therefore really distinct from the congregation mentioned in the last clause, but another name for it. The upright (or straightforward) is a title given to the true Israel, from the days of Balaam downwards. See Numbers 24:10.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 111:2. The sense of Psa 111:2 b is doubtful. If we compare 1 Kings 9:11 with Isaiah 24:7; Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 46:10, we discover how untenable is the translation: asked for or sought according to all their desires (Heng.). But it may be possible to translate: remarkable in all their connections, that is, in every respect (Hitzig), or: investigated in all their designs (Del.) Yet the usual explanation appears to be best assured (Hupfeld). The reference to God: sought out for His purposes (Sept., Vulg.), or: according to His will (Schegg) is altogether false. Psalms 111:5-10. In Psalms 111:5. meat is not to be restricted to the feeding in the wilderness (most). Nor is the literal meaning: prey, booty, to be adopted in allusion to the gold and silver vessels taken away from the Egyptians (the Rabbins).—The redemption in Psalms 111:9 is not to be limited to that from the land of Egypt. Psalms 111:10 follows Job 28:28; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10. The expression: excellent understanding is derived from Proverbs 3:4; Proverbs 12:15. The suffix in ςωֵׁ ?ιδֶ ?ν refers back to the commandments of Psa 111:7. The final clause does not speak of the praise of understanding (Aben Ezra) or of the doer, the expression being taken collectively (Kimchi, Geier, and others), or, by anticipation, of the man praised in the next Psalm (Bake, Delitzsch), but of the praise of God, comp. Psalms 111:5 b. AND ETHICAL1. The righteous ever have occasion to give heartfelt praise to God, whether in the familiar circle of a few kindred minds, or in the public assembly of the whole church, when meditating upon His great deeds, in which He displays His own glory, helps His covenant people, and thus prepares for Himself eternal praise. 2. He who has pleasure in the works of the Lord, always turns to them in a renewed search. They remain to him ever new and great, wonderful and worthy, deserving of study and most precious, affording an assurance of Divine help, and being a cause why the pious yield themselves to God, and the lasting objects of their praise. 3. For God has manifested His glory, that is, His might, His goodness, and His righteousness, to His people, not merely once in the days of old: He has made it known to them as essential to Him, and as eternally displayed. He has established a covenant forever with them, and fixed in it the memory of the wonders which He performed, in founding and preserving them. 4. In His works God reveals His power; in His ordinances, whether commands or promises, His will; in His name, His nature; but in them all there are displayed the immutability, truth, and holiness of that God, who is as just as He is merciful, as faithful as He is true, as dreadful as He is holy. Hence it is that all true and saving wisdom arises from the fear of Jehovah, and is exhibited in the fulfilment of His commands. AND The praise of God the joy of the pious.—God does more good to His people than they can thank Him for.—What God has done for the Church is to be proclaimed in it, and praised by it.—God’s deeds in behalf of His people, (1) as the objects of their praise, (2) as monuments of His glory, (3) as the security of the covenant entered into with us.—God, besides unveiling to us what He is, has shown us what He can do, and announced to us what He will do.—The saving wisdom of a life spent in God’s fear.—It is easier to contemplate the glory of God’s works than to rely upon the truth of His word, and build up, in faithfulness to the covenant, His kingdom of righteousness. Starke: The heart is to be the altar, upon which the fire of Divine love, of praise, and of thanksgiving, should never be extinguished, even under affliction.—Against the great God, what is that which the world calls great?—We must regard it as an act of great mercy and compassion, that God has obviated the consequences of our neglect and forgetfulness, by causing His wonders and gracious works to be remembered.—God does not let His works preach for entertainment; His people are to learn to discover Him therein, and to draw comfort therefrom in His appointed way.—God’s commandments and works agree well together, for they are both truth and justice.—The covenant of God is the ground of the expectation of final and perfect redemption.—The world abounds in unwise and foolish persons, because they are without the foundation of true wisdom: they do not seek the fear of God. Osiander: The promises of the Gospel show us what a faithful and paternal heart our heavenly Father bears towards us.—There is nothing hard in them; we are only required to accept with faith the offered grace of God.—�tinger: All the works and ordinances of God are directed towards deliverance, and redemption, and the glory of God and of His name.—Rieger: What a blessing it is, when we can always gather a few friends together to speak with them of God’s works and sing His praise! We would otherwise overlook many things from which we could strengthen our faith.—Tholuck: God comes to meet deluded men in a thousand ways; for each of His works and deeds, if seriously regarded, directs us to Him.—Richter: The heathen themselves are bequeathed to God’s people, and they must take possession of this inheritance to draw them to themselves.—Guenther: All would like to have the credit of sagacity, and it is counted the greatest insult to affirm the contrary of any one; many would be learned, and the opposite is not very agreeable to any; but only a few strive to be wise in the true sense; and folly is most widely spread in the world.—Diedrich: God’s word and His guidance by it are sources of consolation.—Taube: The experience of God’s mercy and compassion in the miracle of redemption, is and ever must be, the result of the most penetrating search into God’s works, and the most profound knowledge of His greatness, both in its glory and in its righteousness.—The fear of God is the fundamental idea of the Old Testament. Godliness answers to it in the New.—L. Harms: There are two things which make the Church the dearest of all objects to true Christians: (1) the works of God; (2) the ordinances of God. [Barnes: One great error of the friends of God is to neglect to study His works.—J. F. M.] Psalms 112 1         Praise ye the Lord.Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord,That delighteth greatly in his commandments. 2    His seed shall be mighty upon earth: The generation of the upright shall be blessed. 3    Wealth and riches shall be in his house: And his righteousness endureth forever. 4    Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. 5    A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: He will guide his affairs with discretion. 6    Surely he shall not be moved forever: The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. 7    He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.8    His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, Until he see his desire upon his enemies. 9    He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; His righteousness endureth forever; His horn shall be exalted with honor. 10    The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away: The desire of the wicked shall perish. AND Contents and Composition.—The servants of God, who are true to His covenant, are praised in this Psalm, as in the preceding, Jehovah was extolled as being true to the covenant. The connection between the two is so close, not merely in the choice and form of the stichs, but also in various expressions (comp. Psalms 112:3 b and 9b with Psalms 111:3 b and 9b) that the design is unmistakable. From the whole character of the Psalm, however, an imitation (De Wette), is rather to be inferred than a composition by the same poet. The Vulgate has an additional superscription, by which the composition is placed in the time of the return from the exile; but this statement is utterly worthless. [The Vulgate says: “Conversio Aggζi et Zachariζ.”—J. F. M.] The praise of the pious man as blessed (Psalms 112:1) is followed by the promise of blessing to his race (Psalms 112:2) and to himself (Psalms 112:3), being compared to the rising of light in darkness (Psalms 112:4). To this follows the praise of the excellence of the pious man with reference to his kindness to his fellow-men, and its reward (Psalms 112:5), which is particularly described from different points of view (Psalms 112:6-8), and then the whole summed up (Psalms 112:9), with a glance at the opposite fortunes of the ungodly (Psalms 112:10). The Psalm immediately suggests to us Psalms 1, 15. Psalms 112:2. A hero upon the earth.—[E. V. mighty upon earth]. The expression is based upon Genesis 10:8. Its restriction to the sense: mighty, powerful (Sept. and others) and the translation: in the land are arbitrary. Its reference to the whole people and the promise of power to overcome the world, Deuteronomy 33:29 (Hengst.), is equally unfounded. For although “his seed ” is parallel to “the generation of the upright,” yet the latter is not identical with the whole of Israel, (comp. Psalms 111:1). [The translation “mighty,” given in E. V. and favored by most, still appears to me to convey the true sense of the word. If the notion is more restricted than in the translation proposed above, the restriction is imposed by the original and more suitable sense. But the word is a substantive in the Hebrew: “a mighty one.” The conception of the power of the descendants of the righteous is made more vivid by the concrete form.—J. F. M.] Psalms 112:3. The righteousness of the man is not his welfare as the reward of his righteousness (Aben Ezra, Rosenmόller), or as consisting in the good condition of his affairs (Kφster). Nor is it merely fidelity to the covenant (Olshausen), and certainly not righteousness by faith in Christ (J. H. Mich.), or that presented by God (Hengst.) According to the Old Testament conception it means right conduct, agreeing inwardly and outwardly with the Divine requirements. The allusion to the preceding Psalm is here undeniable, but it is scarcely conceivable that what is there asserted of God is here unskillfully applied to man (De Wette, Hupfeld). Psalms 112:4. The adjectives can be explained grammatically as epithets of the righteous (Kimchi, Ewald, Hengst.) only under extreme necessity, although this would very well agree in meaning with Isaiah 58:7 ff. It is not probable that a meaningless formula in frequent use was transferred from Psalms 111:4 in order to find a place for the letter η (Clericus, Kφster, Maurer, Hupfeld). There is no reason why these epithets should not be viewed as defining the light (Isaaki, Aben Ezra, Calvin, Hitzig), or, still better, God, as the light, after Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 60:1 ff.; Mal. 3:20 (Sept., Vulg., Calv., J. H. Mich., De Wette, Olshausen, Delitzsch). But we must not, by inserting the prep. ξִ ?ο, translate: from the gracious, etc. (Luth., Geier, and others). [Perowne, on the other hand, says: “The first two epithets, elsewhere applied only to Jehovah, are so applied in Psalms 111:3, and the relation of the two Psalms makes it almost certain, therefore, that they are here applied to His servants. See also Matthew 5:45-48; Isaiah 58:7. The change from the plural to the singular is certainly unusually harsh, as the three epithets are loosely strung together without anything to mark their reference; but this may be accounted for, in some measure, by the requirements of the alphabetical arrangement.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 112:5-7. θεֹ ?α, according to the context, is not to be understood of moral excellence (the ancients) but of a prosperous life (expositors since Lud. de Dieu), as in Isaiah 3:10; Jeremiah 44:17. On account of the alphabetical order, we do not have the usual ΰַ ?ωְׁ ?ψֵ ?ι as in Psalms 112:1. But it does not follow from the parallelism that the second member of the verse continues to describe the situation of the man, as would be expressed in the translations: who conducts his affairs with justice (Geier, J. H. Mich.), or: feeds, that is, maintains them in a good condition (Hengst.) It is not a participle but a finite verb, and the assertions are justified in the following verses. [The rendering of Dr. Moll accordingly is: (“It is) well with the man who is benevolent and lends, he will maintain his cause in judgment.” This interpretation is that of Delitzsch, who translates a little more freely. With this Perowne also agrees. Alexander translates: “Happy the man showing favor and lending; he shall sustain his affairs by justice.” It is universally agreed that the idea “discretion,” as in E. V., is wrong. [Psalms 112:7. Perowne: “The epithets ‘established,’ ‘trusting,’ ‘supported,’ are all strikingly descriptive of the true attitude of faith, as that which leans upon and is upheld by God. The two last are combined also in Isaiah 26:3.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 112:10. In the last stich there is no sufficient reason for reading ϊִּ ?χְ ?εַ ?ϊ instead of ϊַּ ?ςֲ ?εַ ?ϊ(Hupfeld, Olshausen). The former would give the idea of confidence, as in Psalms 9:19; Job 8:13; Proverbs 10:28, comp. Proverbs 10:24 (Hitzig). AND ETHICAL1. The fear and the love of God are inseparably united, and have an internal connection, in the truly pious. The reward of this blessed and holy union is great. Its blessing extends to their descendants, and is powerfully displayed in themselves. Not only earthly prosperity, but a life well-pleasing to God, and the opportunity thereby gained of becoming a power on earth, and of exercising an influence that overcomes the world, form a mind, a position, and a greatness of action that are heroic. They are thus maintained as a blessing from God in pious generations, the light never failing to rise again even in the night of affliction. 2. The love of our neighbor is connected in the closest manner with love to God, and he who has experienced in himself and his family the mercy of the Eternal is both inclined and enabled to show mercy to others, and thereby gains a new support, strengthening his heart in God, widening his active influence among men, securing his happiness for all time; while the wicked are destroyed outwardly and inwardly, and go to ruin with their possessions and fortune, as well as with their efforts and aspirations. [3. Perowne: All human righteousness has its root in the righteousness of God. It is not merely man striving to copy God; it is God’s gift and God’s work. There is a living connection between the righteousness of God and the righteousness of man, and therefore the imperishableness of the one pertains to the other also.—J. F. M.] AND How the fear of God not only expels all other fear, but also fills the truly pious with joy, love, and life.—The delight, the suffering, the light of the pious.—The blessing of God abiding in a pious generation.—Even for those who fear God, it is not uninterrupted day upon earth; but a light never fails them.—The fear of God begets power and courage.—Fear of God and love to our neighbor are closely united when men take delight in God’s commands.—The prosperity of the pious increases continually. Whoever is vexed at it reveals the wickedness of his heart, and injures himself more than any other. Starke: Delight in God’s word is manifested specially in a life regulated in accordance therewith.—The fear of God in many a pious father’s heart is rewarded in his children even after his death.—He who would share in the blessings of pious ancestors must follow after their faith.—All creatures favor those whom God favors: the blessings given to them fall to the lot of the pious.—To pursue righteousness and the fear of God is the true way to gain a name that will be truly immortal.—A joyful, fearless heart, and a good conscience, are the happy fruits of the true fear of God.—Our works of love have two good qualities, if we perform them abundantly and generously, and are not wearied in them. An abundant and eternal reward will follow them both from the divine mercy.—A pious man is a sharp thorn in the eyes of the ungodly, and yet they cannot injure him. They only injure themselves; for they shorten their lives by envy and vexation. Selnecker: Those who trust in God shall receive rich blessings, and shall want nothing, even though in the world it may seem otherwise. Frisch: The true sign of a God-fearing and consequently happy man is the delight, and that a great delight, which he has in God’s commandments.—Rieger: A cheerful heart which is sustained by constant application to God’s word, by ever-renewed meditation upon His ways, and by frequent resort to Him, profits more than all other resources.—Diedrich: The devil lies to his servants; but God rewards those who risk everything upon His word with perfect faithfulness and eternally.—Guenther: The prosperous and blessed life of the righteous is here presented; but its inner nature is exhibited as well as its outward signs.—Taube: The final lot decides; the cry sounds forth: live, perish.[Matt. Henry: Religion has been the raising of many a family; if not so as to advance it high, yet so as to found it firm.—Barnes: Surely there is an advantage in our world in being a friend of God.—J. F. M.] Psalms 113 1         Praise ye the Lord.Praise, O ye servants of the Lord,Praise the name of the Lord.2    Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. 3     From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same The Lord’s name is to be praised. 4     The Lord is high above all nations, And his glory above the heavens. 5     Who is like unto the Lord our God, Who dwelleth on high, 6     Who humbleth himself to behold The things that are in heaven, and in the earth! 7     He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; 8     That he may set him with princes, Even with the princes of his people. 9     He maketh the barren woman to keep house, And to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—An exhortation is sent forth to praise Jehovah at all times and throughout the world (Psalms 113:1-3) as the God who, though infinitely exalted, yet beholds even things that are most abased (Psalms 113:4-6), and exalts, blesses, and gladdens the feeble, the despised, and the mourning (Psalms 113:7-9). No special connection with the people of Israel after the exile (Hengst. and the ancients) is discoverable. Just as uncertain is any allusion to Jonathan’s elevation, 1Ma 10:63 (Hitzig), or the assumption that there is a close connection between this Psalm and the following, and that it was composed in view of the passover (Köster, Ewald). [It is thus supposed to be connected with the deliverance from Egypt pictured in Psalms 114.—J. F. M.] But even the frequent, and, in some cases, unexpected use of the so called chirek compaginis (comp. Ewald, § 211) is no evidence of antiquity, but indicates design. In the liturgy, the so-called Hallel (Psalms 113-118), also termed the Egyptian Hallel, as distinguished from the Great Hallel. Psalms 136. begins with this Psalm. The latter designation is also applied sometimes by the Talmud and Midrash to Psalms 120, 136, and to Psalms 135:4-21. By some Christian writers it is wrongly applied to the Hallel in the more restricted sense. This Psalm continued to be recited while the Temple stood, and is still recited in Palestine, eighteen times a year, apart from its customary, though not legal, use at the new moon. Outside of Palestine, it is now yearly recited twenty-one times on account of the addition of three great feast-days. At the family celebration of the passover Psalms 113, 114 were sung before the meal, and indeed before the emptying of the second cup, and Psalms 115-118 after the meal, and after the filling of the fourth cup (comp. the expositors on Matthew 27:30; Mark 14:26).—This Psalm is the Old Test magnificat. [Perowne: “The Psalm may be said to be a connecting link between the Song of Hannah and the Magnificat of the Virgin.”—J.F.M.] Psalms 113:1. Servants of Jehovah. This phrase is more expressive here than in Pss. 134, 135:20, and pre-supposes a specific conception of the relation in which Israel as a whole stood to God as His servant (Psalms 136:22), and in which their individual living members Psalms 34:23; 69:37) were embraced. Psalms 113:5-6. A connection in the thought might be considered possible between verse 6b and Psalms 113:5 a (Deuteronomy 3:24). But we are prevented by the structure of the sentences from assuming such connection here (Geier, Hengst., Camphausen). The angels in heaven (Calvin) are, at all events, not to be thought of. The simplest course is to supply: upon all things. For this affords the most comprehensive conception of every thing that exists and transpires there (J. H. Mich. and others). But the restriction to seeing generally (Hupfeld), as contrasted with looking down, is unsuitable; for although the throne of God is usually mentioned as existing in heaven, yet the exaltation of God over heaven and earth is distinctly expressed (Psalms 148:3). [The true rendering of Psa 113:5-6 accordingly is: “Who is like Jehovah our God, who sitteth throned on high, who stoopeth down to see (what is done) in heaven and on earth?” (Perowne). The literal construction of the second and third clauses is, who maketh high to sit, who maketh low to see. For the thought comp. Isaiah 57:15.—J. F. M.] Psalms 113:7-9. Psalms 113:7-8 are taken verbatim from the song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:8), and Psalms 113:9 probably follows 1 Samuel 2:5. A barren spouse was not assured of being allowed to remain in the house. Not until she became a mother did she gain a firm position. The application of the figure to the Church (Isaiah 54:1 ff) does not justify a typical interpretation of this passage (The older expositors and Hengst. following the Chald. and the Rabbins).—“One who is shut out from society in Syria and Palestine lies upon the mezbele (dung and ash-heap), calling upon the passers-by for alms during the day, and at night cowering in the ashes warmed by the sun” (Del.). [Psalms 113:9 b. is correctly: a joyful mother of the children. Delitzsch: “The poet presents the scene so vividly to himself, that he points, as though with his finger, at the children with which God has blessed her.” The article is suspected without reason by Olshausen and Hupfeld. These critics, especially the former one, run to an excess in their attempts to amend the text.—J. F. M.] AND ETHICAL1. As God has given Himself a name that is above every name, and has therein revealed His nature for all times and the whole world, so will He be invoked always and everywhere by His servants by this name, and bids His Church in all places of the earth be mindful of this part of its service to Him. 2. God’s infinite exaltation above all created beings does not separate Him from those in need of help, or remove Him to an unapproachable distance, or place Him in solitude and out of relation to them, but is united in an incomparable manner with a careful regard for the least as well as for the greatest. 3. This mindfulness of them is no mere observing or purposeless gazing, but actual condescension to the insignificant, despised, and afflicted, so that they may be raised from their misery, and that the Church may ever have renewed occasion to praise Him. AND The condescension of the Highest as the strongest and ever-renewed ground of His praise in the Church.—God acts as befits His name; do we render Him the thanks which are His due?—Can it be said of us: As the Master so the servant?—God indeed condescends to the most distressed of men who mourn in obscurity; but what He does in a corner of the earth serves to manifest and exalt His glory, and shall make His name an object of praise for all time and through the whole world.—Who is like our God? A question, (1) of confession, (2) of thanksgiving, (3) of trust. Starke: If we are to praise God rightly, we must be His servants and believing children; for those who serve Satan and their own bodies, and are the slaves of Mammon, are not fit for such a service.—God’s praise is as worthy of a place in His true service as any other of its elements; this is why we are so often called upon to engage in it.—It is not unbecoming to God to care for what is debased. What it was no dishonor to create, it is no dishonor to preserve.—The exaltation of the wretched is an unassailable testimony to the merciful providence of God, and to the reward that is bestowed upon the pious and godly.—He that is raised from a low station to great honor, must know that God has done it, and must not become uplifted, else God may set him down again.—He who is to be advanced to positions of peculiar importance has no need to anticipate God’s time. When His time and hour come, He will know how to place him where He would have him. Selnecker: There are many servants and friends of the Lord throughout the world. Their lives and teaching should therefore be such as that God shall not be dishonored, but honored by them.—Franke: The word our is a word of faith. He who has truly given his heart to God, may trust in Him with joy, and need fear nothing.—Rieger: In all God’s words and works are to be found precious traces of His greatness and exaltation and condescending love.—Faith unites the lofty and the condescending in God, and they are equally dear and precious.—Richter: The natural man, even though he be learned, takes no delight in contemplating God’s greatness in lowering Himself. It is faith alone which can harmonize the two, and rejoice that the condescending Lord of the universe does yet favor this little earth so highly, and glorify Himself in things that are insignificant.—Guenther: What are all the exaltation and glory of this world compared to the glory of the kingdom of God?—Diedrich: If the poor Church will be dismayed at times, the servants of the supreme God of mercy must only strike up again the hallelujah, the song of mercy and freedom, and all distress will disappear.—Taube: The small regard the great; and the great God regards the small; the child of the dust seeks self-made heights of greatness; and He who is truly high and exalted will dwell with those who are of a broken and contrite spirit. Wonderful and adorable way for the salvation of the world! [Scott: In His providence the Lord sometimes raises men from the most abject to the most honorable stations of society, and it is well when they acquit themselves properly in their new dignities. But this is His constant method in the kingdom of grace. He takes us debtors, beggars, nay, rebels and traitors, from the dust, the dung-hill, or the dungeon, to be His favorites and His children, to be kings and priests unto Him: and thus He numbers us with the princes of His chosen people.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [Because it was formerly supposed to have been employed to unite its own word euphonically with the following. See Böttcher, Gr. § 584. It is generally, though not exclusively, attached to the construct, state. See Green. Gr. § 61, 6 a, 218. According to Ewald, it is only used artificially by later poets.—J. F. M.] Psalms 114 1         When Israel went out of Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people of strange language, 2    Judah was his sanctuary, And Israel his dominion. 3    The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. 4    The mountains skipped like rams, And the little hills like lambs. 5     What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? 6     Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; And ye little hills, like lambs? 7     Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, At the presence of the God of Jacob; 8     Which turned the rock into a standing water, The flint into a fountain of waters. AND Contents and Composition.—The wonderful power of God over nature is celebrated in a compact lyrical form and with poetic vividness (Psalms 114:3-6), as it was displayed in the leading of the people from Egypt, for the purpose of establishing a Divine government in Israel (Psalms 114:1-2), and forms the ground of a summons to the earth to tremble before this wondrous God of Jacob (Psalms 114:7-8). The time of composition cannot be ascertained. A union with the preceding so as to make one Passover-Psalm, under the supposition that a sacrifice intervenes (Ewald), is altogether arbitrary. The combination with the following into one Psalm (Sept., Syr., and others, Kimchi and some MSS.) was not made till later, and that for liturgical purposes. [Perowne: “This is perhaps the most beautiful of all the Psalms which touch on the early history of Israel. It is certainly the most graphic and the most striking in the boldness of its outlines. The following remarks may perhaps illustrate the conception and plan of the Poem. 1. In structure it is singularly perfect.—We have four strophes, each of two verses, and each of these of two lines, in which the parallelism is carefully preserved. 2. The effect is produced, as in Psalms 29, not by minute tracing of details, but by the boldness with which certain great features of the history are presented. 3. A singular animation and dramatic force are given to the Poem by the beautiful apostrophe in Psalms 114:5-6, and the effect or this is heightened to a remarkable degree by the use of the present tenses. The awe and the trembling of nature are a spectacle on which the Poet is looking. The parted sea through which Israel walks as on dry land; the rushing Jordan arrested in its course; the granite cliffs of Sinai, shaken to their base—he sees it all, and asks in wonder what it means. 4. Then it is that the truth burst upon his mind, and the impression of this upon the reader is very finely managed. The name of God, which has been entirely concealed up to this point in the poem, …is now only introduced after the apostrophe in Psalms 114:5-6.” “The reason seems evident and this conduct necessary, for if God had appeared before, there could be no wonder why the mountains should leap and the sea retire; therefore that this convulsion of nature may be brought in with due surprise, His name is not mentioned till afterwards; and then, with a very agreeable turn of thought, God is introduced at once in all His majesty” (Spectator, No. 461).—J. F. M.] Psalms 114:1-2. The people from which Israel was separated are called stammering [E. V.: of a strange language], not in ridicule, but for the purpose of describing their language as unintelligible, that is, foreign. [Dr. Alexander thinks that such expressions may perhaps involve an allusion to the pre-eminence of Hebrew as the primitive and sacred language. See Alexander on Isaiah 33:19. For the other view comp. Deuteronomy 28:49; Isaiah 28:11; Jeremiah 5:15.—J. F. M.]. It is characteristic of the poetic plan and beauty of this Psalm that God the Lord is only suggested in Psalms 114:2 and not named definitely till Psalms 114:7. [See addition above]. The differences in the designations applied to the people of God are also intentional and admirable. They are first named genealogico-historically the house of Jacob. [Alexander: “The house of Jacob is a phrase peculiarly appropriate to those who entered Egypt as a family and left it as a nation.”—J. F. M.]. Next they are termed Judah, in allusion to the sanctuary in their midst; for after David’s time Jerusalem was regarded as belonging to Judah rather than to Benjamin. Lastly they are called Israel, with reference to the relation in which they stood to God as their King, as citizens of His kingdom.—Judah is here feminine, being regarded as a nation or country. Psalms 114:3 ff. The leaping of the mountains probably refers to the shaking of Sinai at the giving of the law (Exodus 19:18), since the miracle at the Red Sea, which began the journey through the desert, and that at the Jordan, which terminated it, are mentioned. The last verse alludes to Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11; Deuteronomy 8:15. The derivation of Challamish (Psalms 114:8) is doubtful. According to Wetzstein, it is perhaps the ancient name of basalt. The word appears to be a mingling of the verbal roots: to be hard, and: to be dark-brown. AND ETHICAL1. The religious reformation of Israel was bound up with its deliverance as a nation, and its historical separation from a strange people and country. Its formation into a separate people is not to be severed from its character as having been chosen, called, and planted as a people consecrated to God and a kingdom of Jehovah. 2. In this, God has proved Himself to be the unconditioned Ruler of all the forces of nature, and manifested Himself to His people as their Deliverer from bodily and spiritual distress. The Church upon the quaking earth should acknowledge this, proclaim it with praises, and exhibit it in her conduct. AND The Lord of nature and the Founder of the Church is one and the same God: what consolation there is in this assurance! And what a warning too in this truth!—Deliverance from the powers of this world, and subjection to the dominion of God, go hand in hand with God’s people.—The Almighty is thy God; what dost thou fear? But He is a holy King, too; how dost thou serve Him?—Let the earth tremble, but bold thou fast to God, us His redeemed people and consecrated inheritance. Starke: The misery of the oppressed is so much the more aggravated when it is endured in the midst of people whose language they cannot understand.—If we are God’s kingdom, let none become lord and master of our hearts except Him who has purchased us at such a price, to be His peculiar possession.—Sinai and Horeb quaked before the dreadful Lawgiver; Golgotha and Tabor leap with joy for the Redeemer.—If God can make the stones and water, He can also make stones bread and water wine, and thus in every need help His own.—Luther: We now sing this Psalm to the praise of Christ, who leads us out of death and sin, through the raging of the world, the flesh, and the devil, to eternal life.—Osiander: Miracles are related to us that we may know how we, with the help and succor of our God, may overcome all adversity and trouble. For the course of nature must be changed, rather than that God should let us perish.—The best weapon we can use against unbelief is this: with God nothing is impossible. Rieger: Faith must ever keep looking back to the small beginnings of God’s works.—Guenther: All the history of God’s people is prefigurative, both for other nations and for the Church of the Lord, and for each of its members.—Diedrich: Wherever God’s testimony is now beheld, there is Judah, and where there is strife for endless victory through God’s word alone, there is Israel.—Taube: The Lord over all is the Lord of His people, the God of Jacob: the ever-green olive leaf of consolation for His Church at all times. [Matth. Henry: What is God’s sanctuary must be His dominion. Those only have the privileges of His house that submit to the laws of it: and for this end Christ hath redeemed us that He might bring us into God’s service and engage us for ever in it.—What turns the streams in a regenerate soul? What ails the lusts and corruptions that they fly back? that the prejudices are removed and the whole man becomes new? It is at the presence of God’s Spirit, that imaginations are cast down, 2 Corinthians 10:5.—The trembling of the mountains before the Lord may shame the stupidity and obduracy of the children of men who are not moved at the discoveries of His glory.—The same almighty power which turned waters into a rock to be a wall to Israel, Exodus 14:22, turned the rock into waters to be a well to Israel; as they were protected so were they provided for by miracles, standing miracles, for such was the standing water, that fountain of waters into which the rock, the flinty rock, was turned, and that rock was Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:4. For He is a fountain of living water to His Israel, from whom they receive grace for grace.—J. F. M.] Psalms 115 1         Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But unto thy name give glory, For thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. 2     Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? 3     But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. 4     Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands. 5     They have mouths, but they speak not: Eyes have they, but they see not: 6     They have ears, but they hear not: Noses have they, but they smell not: 7     They have hands, but they handle not: Feet have they, but they walk not: Neither speak they through their throat. 8     They that make them are like unto them; So is every one that trusteth in them. 9     O Israel, trust thou in the Lord:He is their help and their shield. 10     O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord:He is their help and their shield. 11     Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord:He is their help and their shield. 12     The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us;He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. 13     He will bless them that fear the Lord,Both small and great. 14     The Lord shall increase you more and more, You and your children. 15     Ye are blessed of the Lord Which made heaven and earth. 16     The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s:But the earth hath he given to the children of men. 17     The dead praise not the Lord,Neither any that go down into silence. 18     But we will bless the Lord From this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—Jehovah is called upon for the sake of His mercy and truth, and not on account of the worthiness of His people, to manifest His glory which had been reviled or brought into question by heathen (Psalms 115:1-2). For He is the heavenly, almighty God, while the idols of the heathen are worthless images of men’s hands, of whose worthlessness those partake, who have made them and yet trust in them (Psalms 115:3-8). But those who belong to God’s house, and who fear Him, may be called upon to trust in Him (Psalms 115:9-12) with the assurance that He who has been mindful of them will bless and increase them (Psalms 115:12-14), in order that they, as the blessed of the Lord, may continue preserved in life upon the earth which has been given to them by God who dwells in heaven, and may give Him the glory forever (Psalms 115:15-18). The matter and style of this Psalm differ so greatly from those of the preceding that the union of the two into one whole (Sept. and others) cannot have been the original form, and must have been made later for liturgical purposes. The liturgical character is strongly marked, especially in Psalms 115:9 ff. But there is no sure ground for a distribution among different choirs (Köster, Ewald). The time of composition is no less uncertain, since the invocation to God for help against the heathen is altogether general in its character. It is possible that the thrice-pronounced refrain, “He is their help and their shield,” instead of “our help,” as in Psalms 33:20, may have had some connection with a host going forth to war, (Hitzig). But nothing follows from this in favor of the military expedition of the Maccabæan prince Jonathan, since the supposition, that the three following Psalms are connected with the same event, and are to be explained from 1 Maccabees 11 has not been established. It is likewise possible that this was an antiphony sung by the same voice (Delitzsch), which had announced the propitious acceptance of the sacrifice supposed to have been offered (Ewald); but there is not the least indication or the offering of a sacrifice in these Psalms. [See the Introduction to the exposition of Psalms 113—J. F. M.] It is possible, finally, to divide the antiphony, Psalms 115:9 ff. so as to make, first, the whole people, then, the priests, and, lastly, the laity speak. (Köster). But on this point nothing more certain can be said, especially as it is not even decided whether “those who fear God” refer to the laity as distinguished from the house of Aaron, or to the whole priesthood (Hitzig), or to the whole nation of Israel, in the sense of God’s servants (De Wette, Hengst., Hupfeld) or to those in the nation who are truly pious (Calvin), or to the proselytes, according to the later Judaistic and New Testament usage (Isaaki and others, Ewald, Delitzsch). Still more arbitrary is the supposition that in Psalms 115:12-13 the laity sing, then in Psalms 115:14-15 the priests, and in Psalms 115:16-18 the whole people end in chorus (Köster). In Psalms 118:2; Psalms 118:4 the same triple classification is given: Israel, the house of Aaron, and those that fear God. In Psalms 135:19 f. the house of Levi is, in addition, distinguished from the house of Aaron. [Perowne and Alexander agree with Hengstenberg in thinking it probable that the Psalm was composed after the return from Exile and before the Temple was built. Delitzsch offers no conjecture as to the date.—J. F. M.] Psalms 115:2 is the same, verbatim, as Psalms 79:10. It must not be too confidently maintained that it was taken from that Psalm (Hengst.), for the same expression occurs also in Joe 2:17. Similar in thought are Psalms 42:4; Micah 7:10. [Psalms 115:3. Perowne: “The answer to the taunt of the heathen, who, seeing no image of Jehovah, mocked at His existence. First, He is in heaven, invisible indeed, yet thence ruling the universe: next, He doeth what He will, in fine contrast to the utter impotence of the idols of the heathen. The last expression denotes both God’s almighty power, and His absolute freedom. This, truthfully accepted, does away with all a priori objections to miracles.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 115:4 ff. Idols. Literally: carved images. The assertion that the polemic of the Psalmist was directed only against the images and not the gods of the heathen (De Wette) is not justified by this expression. For, as images of men’s mistaken faith, these gods have no real existence. They are really only represented in their images, the work of men’s hands. In both respects these gods fall under the common idea of human construction, and of being inanimate. It is just against these points that the attack is directed after Deuteronomy 4:28, in the same manner as in Isaiah 44:9 ff.; Jeremiah 10:3 ff.: Wis 15:15, in order to make it clear that their lifeless gods are nothings, whose fate shall be shared by those who trust in such idols. [Psalms 115:7. Alexander: “The sameness of this long enumeration, the force of which is logical and not poetical, is partially relieved by a change in the form of the original, which cannot well be imitated in translation: Their hands and they feel not, their feet and they walk not. Some make the first words in each clause nominatives absolute, their hands—they feel not; their feet—they walk not. But in the preceding parts of the description the verbs relate not to the particular members, but to the whole person. It is better, therefore, to supply a verb: their hands (are there) and (yet) they feel not; their feet (are there), and (yet) they go not. The English feel is to be taken in its outward and physical sense, answering to the Latin palpo, here used by the Vulgate and Jerome. A less equivocal translation would be touch. … The meaning of the last clause is, that they cannot even make the faintest and most inarticulate guttural noise, like the lower animals, much less speak as men do.”—J. F. M]. Psalms 115:14-17. Psalms 115:14 does not refer to an increase of the blessing (Aben Ezra, Luth., Calv., Geier, and others), but to an increase in the population after Deuteronomy 1:11; 2 Samuel 24:3; comp. Genesis 30:24. [In Psalms 115:16 translate: “The heavens (are) heavens for Jehovah, and the earth He has given to the children of men.” If God, while reserving the heavens to Himself, gives the earth to men, that they may multiply and replenish it, He will increase them.—J. F. M.] Silence in Psalms 115:17 is that of the underworld, as in Psalms 94:17. AND ETHICAL1. The pious are not concerned for their own honor, which they are not worthy to have (Ezekiel 36:22 f.), but for the glory of God. This seems to suffer when it fares ill with those who fear God. Then unbelievers appear to be justified in deriding the faith of the Church. But her members do not rely upon their worthiness or desert, but upon the fact that the cause and the glory are not theirs, but their God’s. This God, who has made Himself an unequalled name in the world, cannot allow it to be dishonored with impunity, and just as little can He leave those in distress who confess and call upon it. His mercy and His truth are the foundations of this belief. 2. Unbelievers have not, in any respect, the slightest cause for derision or self-laudation. For the God of historical revelation is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. He not only lives, but He is a self-conscious, active Person, as unlimited in His power as in His will. The gods of the heathen, on the contrary, are idols fashioned by human hands, without life and being. They have only the outward appearance of personality, only the semblance of life and of power to act, but no reality and no efficiency. 3. To trust in such effigies of humanity, and such works of human hands, is not merely foolish but ruinous. Idolatry, in a refined or in a grosser sense, brings its votaries inevitably to destruction. But that people which is wholly devoted to God, is blessed in all its members, and increases constantly by the blessing of that God, who has reserved for His special dwelling the heavens which He has created, but has portioned out to mankind (Acts 17:26) the earth which He has created, and will receive their praise, presented to Him willingly and unceasingly by the members of His Church, who will encourage each other to the performance of this holy and blessed service. 4. As long as the redemption of the world and its reconciliation with God remain uncompleted, so long must the separation between God’s dwelling-place and that of men remain in actual fact unremoved. Heaven and earth still continue distinct, and the believer in revelation indulges no illusions, as do the heathen, concerning this relation and its future conditions. As with regard to God’s being, power, and will, so with regard to this he does not fondly cherish or indulge any ideas, or speculations, or visions of his own fancy. He adheres simply and entirely to God’s word. As long as he has no clear word of promise he knows nothing of the Church which praises God eternally in heaven. His hopes are directed towards the possession of the promised land, a long life upon earth, God’s blessing in the increase of his generation, and the continued existence of God’s Church in the world. And even though the prophetic vision and announcement of an indestructible personal and vital communion of believers with God, or even of the Idea of the resurrection, have been presented to him, yet their appropriation and the introduction into the life of faith enjoyed by the Church remain a subject of anxious thought, upon which, as the Psalms show, light is but slowly scattered, and which becomes only gradually cleared up by successive revelations. AND We are unworthy of any glory. God is worthy of all; but it is our part to ascribe it to Him.—Faith is in opposition and conflict not merely with unbelief, but also with false belief.—God is never weary of hearing, helping, and blessing; but how often and how soon do men cease to pray, to trust, and to give thanks!—God dwells in heaven, wouldst thou not go to Him? Now, while thou livest, seek and serve Him upon earth, and trust His mercy and truth.—The Almighty, who dwells in heaven, has given the earth to the children of men, not merely as a residence while they live, but also as the place where He has revealed Himself, and where they shall serve Him. The relation of the questions, where is our God? and, who is our God? Starke: There is no idol in the world so great as inordinate self-love. Self-denial thrusts this god from its throne.—God’s mercy and truth are the foundation of our faith and hope, and of all our help and comfort.—There is no child of God so poor and forsaken as not to be able to point with his finger on high, and say: behold my witness is in heaven, and He who knows me, on high (Job 16:19). Those who serve idols are much more liberal in devoting their substance to their false gods, than worshippers of the true God are, in giving theirs to churches and schools.—No man’s curse can injure him whom God blesses.—None can receive God’s blessing but those who fear the Lord.—God is not so much confined to heaven as to be shut out from the government of the world.—As the earth is not the property of men, but they have received it from the great God only as a trust, they are to use it, as not abusing it.—Do good while you live and have opportunity; death shuts the mouth from speaking and the hand from doing good.—Only wait a little, and see how the lofty speeches of God’s enemies end. They are surely followed by great stillness, by eternal silence.—Hallelujah! Who will join in the song? This harmonious praise on earth is as it were the prelude to the heavenly hallelujah (Revelation 19:6). Frisch: Let the living not neglect to do what the dead can no longer do.—(Œtinger: God has given the earth to the children of men, especially for this end, that they may most earnestly devote their short and transitory lives to the praise of the living God, and not to that of dead idols, and thus learn that, in view of the future world, the earth fulfils a special purpose, and that is, that God’s wisdom may be glorified.—Rieger: Urged by the fear of God, men must cast away many natural and unnatural grounds of hope, but for these they receive a rich compensation from God’s mercy and truth. But, unless they trust in His mercy and truth, they treat our beloved God no better than a dumb idol.—Tholuck: It is the curse which follows all false belief with regard to God, that man in a manner, becomes his own God.—Guenther: Different ages have different customs. This is true also with regard to sin. Its essential nature is always the same, departure from the true God, but the forms of its manifestation are determined by the circumstances of education and culture.—Diedrich: God’s Church needs the help of her King against more powerful heathenism, but not for her own merit, or that she should receive the praise, but only for the sake of the glory of God’s name.—Taube: One sad consequence of the fall is the band, by which man, separated from communion with the invisible God, lies fettered beneath the influence of the temporal and visible. [Matt. Henry: Wherever there is an awful fear of God, there may be a cheerful faith in Him. They that reverence His word may rely upon it.—Scott: When conscious unworthiness is ready to extinguish our hopes, we have a never-failing plea, and we may entreat the Lord to serve and bless us, for the glory of His mercy and truth in Jesus Christ, when all our other arguments are silenced.—Barnes: It is always a sufficient answer to the objections which are made to the government of God, as if He had forsaken His people in bringing affliction on them, and leaving them, apparently without interposition, to poverty, to persecution and to tears, that He is “in the heavens;” that He rules there and everywhere; that He has His own eternal purposes; and that all things are ruled in accordance with His will. There must, there fore, be some good reason why events occur as they actually do.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 116 1         I love the Lord, because he hath heard My voice and my supplications. 2     Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. 3     The sorrows of death compassed me, And the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. 4     Then called I upon the name of the Lord;O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 5     Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yea our God is merciful. 6     The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. 7     Return unto thy rest, O my soul; For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. 8     For thou hast delivered my soul from death, Mine eyes from tears, And my feet from falling. 9     I will walk before the Lord In the land of the living. 10     I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: 11     I said in my haste, All men are liars. 12     What shall I render unto the Lord For all his benefits towards me? 13     I will take the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the Lord.14     I will pay my vows unto the Lord Now in the presence of all his people. 15     Precious in the eight of the Lord Is the death of his saints. 16     O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds. 17     I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call upon the name of the Lord.18     I will pay my vows unto the Lord Now in the presence of all his people, 19     In the courts of the Lord’s house, In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—This is not a psalm of complaint (Hupfeld), but the song of thanksgiving of an Israelite rescued from death. It is interspersed with fragments of his yearnings, reflections, complaints, and prayers in that time of peril. It is penetrated also by the refrain-like utterance, gradually and ever more richly unfolding itself, of a vow to proclaim with praises, now after his deliverance, the name of Jehovah, whom he had invoked in his distress; and this he would do as long as he should live, before the whole people, and in the place of God’s worship in Jerusalem. Neither the peculiar nature of this distress, nor the position occupied by the author, nor the time of composition, is discoverable. The Psalm however, by the strong Aramaic coloring of the linguistic forms, set off as they are with all kinds of ornaments (Delitzsch), as well as by its numerous passages borrowed from Psalms composed before the exile, is proved to belong to a late period. A division into two distinct psalms, Psalms 116:1-19, (Sept. and others) is not justified by the character of the poem. [Perowne: “The Psalm is an evidence of the truth and depth of the religious life in individuals after the return from the Exile, for there is little doubt that it must be assigned to that period. Many words and turns of phrases remind us of earlier Psalms, and especially of the Psalms of David. His words must have laid hold in no common degree of the hearts of those who were heirs of his faith, and have sustained them in times of sorrow and suffering, and nothing would be more natural than that later poets would echo his strains, and mingle his words with their own when they poured forth their prayers and praises before God.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 116:1-3. I love. The explanation: It is dear to me, that is: I am glad or like to see, I rejoice, that thou, etc., (Isaaki, Aben Ezra, Luther, Geier, De Wette, Hitzig), is possible only if we assume an imitation of the Greek, and so descend to a very late period. It is more natural to suppose that the object is omitted, for the same anomaly occurs also in Psalms 116:2; Psalms 116:10, and therefore characterizes the style of the Psalmist. This object is naturally Jehovah, not grammatically but logically (Kimchi, Calvin, Grotius, Stier, Hengst., Del.), and therefore it is not necessary to transpose that word (Hupfeld). The change also in Psalms 116:3, by which ξְ ?φָ ?γֵ ?ιnets (Hupfeld) is put for ξְ ?φָ ?ψֵ ?ιoppressions, straits, [E. V.: pains] is not demanded, although on account of the affinity with Psalms 18:2, it is not to be utterly slighted. [Psalms 116:5. Perowne: “Instead of saying directly, ‘Jehovah answered me,’ he magnifies those attributes of God, which, from the days of His wonderful self-revelation to Moses (Exodus 34:6), had been the joy and consolation of every tried and trusting heart. Psalms 116:7 : The deliverance vouchsafed in answer to prayer stills the tumult of the soul. The rest is the rest of confidence in God.”—J.F.M.] Psalms 116:10-11. The words of Psa 116:10 are in 2 Corinthians 4:13, after the Sept., employed to express the sense: ἐπίστευσα, διὸ ἐλάλησα. But this does not compel us to give the same translation here (Luth. and others, Hengst.), and to understand the words as a confession expressive of belief in the mercy and help of God, and to refer the other member of the verse to the circumstances or consequences of that confession. The words and their connection are obscure. The second member is most simply viewed as expressing what is spoken. It is not admissible to take λִּ ?ι as meaning even if or although (Rosenmόller, De Wette). To explain it as equivalent to: than that (Hitzig) would make the poet say, that his trust was greater than that he could declare it. But this thought would then be very obscurely expressed. It is better to explain: I have believed and do believe henceforth, when I speak, that is, have to speak, must speak (Delitzsch). Psalms 116:10 would then contain the result of what was experienced, and Psalms 116:11 would recall the time when he, abandoned by all those from whom he expected assistance and help, experienced the truth and faithfulness of God. [Dr. Moll accordingly renders: I trust, when I must say: “I am greatly bowed down,” I said in my terror: “all men are liars.” The following rendering with its accompanying exposition, taken from Dr. Alexander, seems to me to be the best, because it gives substantially the same idea as that conveyed in the citation made, and because it adopts the most frequent meaning of λִּ ?ι: “I believed, for (this) I speak: I was afflicted greatly. I must have exercised faith, or I could not thus have spoken. The Sept. version, retained in the New Testament (2 Corinthians 5:13), clothes the same idea in a different form, I believed, therefore have I spoken. It was because his faith enabled him to speak, so that his speaking I was a proof of faith.—I said in my terror all mankindkind are false. The form of expression in the first clause is borrowed from Psalms 31:23. But instead of being a confession of error, it is here rather a profession of faith. The proposition; all mankind are false, i.e., not to be trusted or relied upon, implies as its complement or converse that therefore God alone is to be trusted. See the same contrast stated more explicitly in Psalms 118:8, and comp. Psalms 62:9-10; Psalms 108:13; Psalms 146:3-4.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 116:13-14. The figure of the cup of salvation, or the cup of deliverance, is perhaps taken from the cup of thanksgiving for the deliverance from Egypt, drunk at the paschal meal. Psalms 116:18, especially, favors this view. The allusion made by Gesenius and Hupfeld to the fact that among the Arabs the cup was the symbol of fortune, does not explain the lifting up of this cup in connection with the proclamation and praise of God’s name. [Perowne: “Many see in the words an allusion to the cup of blessing, at the Paschal meal (Matthew 26:27), and this would accord with the sacrificial language of Psa 116:14; Psalms 116:17. It is true that there is no evidence of any such custom at the celebration of the Passover in the Old Testament, but, as the custom existed in our Lord’s time, the only question is, as to the time of its introduction. If it was introduced shortly after the Exile this Psalm may very well allude to it.” Dr. Moll renders the whole verse, “I will raise the cup of salvation, and proclaim the name of the Lord.” E. V. renders “call upon the name.” Probably both senses are included, according to the remark of Delitzsch that the expression is the usual one for invoking and proclaiming publicly God’s name. Psalms 116:14 b (as likewise 18b) should be translated: “Let me (do so) in the presence of all his people.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 116:15-16. Psalms 116:15 is said to have been sung by Babylas, bishop of Antioch, when he was being led forth to death under the emperor Decius. The Apostolical Constitutions, 6:30, recommend the chanting of the same verse, along with others from the Psalms, at the funeral solemnities of those who have died in faith (Augusti, Denkwόrdigkeit, 9:563). [In Psalms 116:16 a. the true rendering is: Ah now Jehovah! for I am thy servant. Alexander: “The expression of entreaty at the beginning has reference to something not expressed, though easily supplied, namely, permission thus to express his gratitude. ”–J.F. M.]. AND ETHICAL1. Our love to God is essentially a reciprocal love, as being a grateful return for the love actually bestowed upon us (1 John 4:19; Psalms 18:2), and is expressed in the readiness, exhibited by those whom He has delivered, to devote themselves to His name while they live, to invoke and proclaim Him all their days, whether by praying, thanking, confessing, or instructing, and to fix their whole trust and all their hopes upon God alone, and no longer upon men. 2. It reflects no dishonor upon one who has been blessed and saved, to recall his former temptations, cares, and complaints, as well as the misery and distress which he endured, and his natural helplessness. It rather tends to the salvation of himself and others, if he, before God, and in the Church, calls this weakness to remembrance with humility, and thankfully confesses what God has done for his soul. It helps, at the same time, to fix him more firmly in a state of grace, and serves as a defence against the danger of relapsing into his former weakness. 3. When we earnestly endeavor to pay our vows to the Most High, we must bear in mind, that we have not the power to return His benefits. And when we reflect how far our practice falls below our obligations, we are not to infer that we are released from our responsibility, but are to be urged to employ only the more zealously and conscientiously, the means of salvation and grace which God affords in the Church and in the ordinances of her service. We are strongly encouraged to this by the assurance that God has an earnest care over our lives, and that they have a value in His sight; that, therefore, He keeps watch over His chosen, and protects His saints, in order that they, as His servants, should serve Him, for their own salvation, for His glory, and for the building up of the Church. AND God bestows upon us so many blessings that none of us can return them to Him; and He asks nothing in exchange but our love.—If we love God sincerely, we will trust in Him implicitly in our times of need, will give Him thanks for His help, and serve Him in His Church.—It is not equally well with us at all times; but we are blessed indeed if we, with God’s help, have happily overcome the evil days, not merely of earthly calamity and outward danger, but also of spiritual weakness and inward trial.—Our life has a value in God’s sight. Do we employ it to His praise?—Wouldst thou come to thy rest? Cling always to God with simplicity of heart. Starke: Who would be saved from despair when the tempest rages in the poor conscience, if God would not deliver?—He who can pray in distress and trials has gained half the victory; but this it is hard to do.—Childlike simplicity has powerful protection from God, and therefore also have believing souls.—Far from the world is rest; far from God is unrest.—We can never learn better what men are than in times of great distress, when we most need their help.—If the death of God’s saints is precious in His sight, He will know the right time to avenge it on those who have poured out their blood as water.—The true application of redemption consists in a life spent in obedience to God, in His kingdom, and in His service. Selnecker: God’s love to me and mine to Him are here brought together.—Believing, the confession of our belief, and suffering, are mutually connected.—Frisch: Receive with thanksgiving what you must else receive whether you are thankful for it or not. Remember (1) that this cup comes from the hand of the Lord; (2) that it has been filled for many saints and beloved ones of God before you; (3) that it is not dealt out at random, but that all that you are to drink has been carefully measured; (4) that it is not a cup of wrath or intoxication, but rather a cup of salvation; (5) that, after the cup of affliction, comes the cup of rejoicing.—Stier: A joyful testimony to the confidence of God’s saints in Christ, who die and yet live.—Tholuck: A sincere prayer of gratitude is to the Lord the most pleasing sacrifice.—Guenther: It is a wonderful mystery in the relationship in which men stand to God as His children, that the more they give thanks, the more they have to be thankful for, and thus receive the more good.—Diedrich: We have all been raised from death and hell by God’s mercy helping us; therefore do we love and praise Him, and find described in this Psalm our own experience.—Lean much on God’s help, and thou wilt learn what He is; avail thyself of it much, yea, even to the utmost; have recourse to Him in order that thou mayest be purified and quickened, and thou wilt experience who and what kind of a God He is.—Taube: All true thanksgiving and songs of praise have their final result in an upright walk before the Lord. If the feet stand again upright through Him, they should also run in His ways, and walk according to His precepts and laws. [Bp. Patrick: The very bonds which Thou hast loosed shall tie me faster to Thee. Matt. Henry: As long as we continue living, we must continue praying; this breath we must breathe till we breathe our last; because then we shall take our leave of it, and till then we shall have occasion for it.—God’s people are never brought so low but that the everlasting arms are under them, and they cannot sink who are thus sustained.—Quiet thyself and then enjoy thyself: God has dealt kindly with thee, and thou needest never fear that He will deal hardly with thee.—I know no word more proper to close our eyes with at night, when we go to sleep, nor to close them with at death, that long sleep, than this: Return unto thy rest, O my soul.—The land of the living is a land of mercy, which we ought to be thankful for: it is a land of opportunity, which we should improve. If God has delivered our soul from death, we must walk before Him. Our new life must be a new life indeed. Barnes: What does not the world owe, and the cause of religion owe, to such scenes as occurred on the death-beds of Baxter, and Thomas Scott, and Halyburton, and Payson!—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [ΰָ ?βָ ?δ (here for ΰָ ?πָּ ?ΰ). In regard to its composition and intensity of expression, see Ewald Gr. § 262, Boettcher, § 967, B. It is unnecessary to assume that the μְ in the last word of the verse is the sign of the accusative. It is often assumed as an imitation of the Aramaic without the least necessity, as by Hupfeld in Psalms 73:18, where see the addition. It is better to regard the noun to which it is joined as the indirect object. See Green, Gr. § 272, 2, a. For the other view see Ewald, § 277 e.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 117 1         Oh praise the Lord, all ye nations: Praise Him, all ye people. 2    For His merciful kindness is great toward us: And the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—This Psalm, which occupies exactly the middle place in the Holy Scriptures, is the shortest, as far as words are concerned, but is highly important in its Messianic meaning. It contains the lyrical expression of the consciousness of the Old Testament Church, (1) that it was the object of the special and everlasting care of God; (2) that the former proceeded from His mercy, the latter from His truth; (3) that for this very reason (not Israel, but) Jehovah is the worthy object of praise for all peoples. The truth that all nations should yet worship Jehovah, as the God who has revealed Himself to the world by means of what He did for Israel, is unfolded by the Apostle Paul (Romans 15:11) from the germs herein contained. The special occasion of the composition of the Psalm cannot be ascertained. The supposition (Hitzig) that it was the victory of which the preceding and following Psalms are supposed to treat, has nothing for its support. The style is liturgical, and therefore this is often called a Temple–Psalm, sung either at the beginning or at the end of the service (Rosenmόller), or, by separate choirs or by the whole people, in the interval between longer psalms (Knapp). Many MSS. and editions annex it to the following Psalm. Instead of the Heb. form ΰֻ ?ξּ ?εֹ ?ϊ, Genesis 25:16, Numbers 25:15, the Chald. form ΰֻ ?ξִּ ?ιν occurs here in Psalms 117:1. The closing word of the same verse, μְ ?ςεֹ ?μָ ?ν, does not further define βαψ (Luther) but is the predicate of ΰֶ ?ξֶ ?ϊ (Sept.).—“Mercy and truth are the two divine forces which, once unveiled and unfolded in Israel, shall go forth from Israel and overcome the world” (Del.). The heathen are called upon to praise the Lord on account of His great deeds in behalf of Israel in Psalms 47:2; Psalms 66:8; Psalms 98:4 (Hengstenberg). [Delitzsch: “λְּ ?μΞβּ ?εֹ ?ιν are all nations without distinction. λָּ ?μΞμִ ?ΰֻ ?ξִּ ?ιν are all nations without exception.”—J. F.M.] AND What God does in His Church tends to the good of the world.—The expectation of salvation for all peoples: (1) whither it is directed; (2) on what it is based; (3) by what means it may be realized.—The worship of God on earth: (1) its meaning; (2) the place where it is to be offered; (3) its elements and mode.—The influence of God’s mercy, as a means of preserving and extending His Church among all nations, in accordance with His eternal truth and faithfulness. Starke: Others may praise and boast of the glory of the world; let Christians praise God’s mercy and truth.—Where God’s priceless mercy is rightly understood, there follows a hallelujah to God the Lord.—Rieger: Any Jewish child could learn this little Psalm by rote, but when it comes to be fulfilled, it is just as hard for that nation to learn it inwardly.—Diedrich: Mercy and truth are the deepest need of mankind; let them then praise Him who answers such a need.—Taube: When we read of mercy, that it is powerful, and of truth that it is eternal, we are told to look for a royal march of victory through the world. But there is much to be overcome, not only in the hearts of heathen before they are brought from raging to praising, but also in the hearts of the Jews, before they become willing instruments of the divine counsels and embrace the far-reaching love of God. [Matt. Henry: The tidings of the gospel being sent to all nations should give them cause to praise God; the institution of gospel ordinances would give leave and opportunity to praise God, and the power of gospel-grace would give them hearts to praise Him.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [May this not have been an alternative Heb. form less frequently used? So Green, Gr. § 200 c. Boettcher, Gr. § 642, note I., thinks that λָ ?μΞμְ ?ΰֻ ?ξִּ ?ιν ought to be read. Perowne calls this latter word another and more frequent form of ΰֻ ?ξּ ?εֹ ?ϊ. It is, of course, an entirely different word.—J. F. M.] Psalms 118 1         O give thanks unto the Lord;For he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever 2    Let Israel now say, That His mercy endureth for ever. 3    Let the house of Aaron now say, That his mercy endureth for ever. 4    Let them now that fear the Lord say, That his mercy endureth for ever. 5    I called upon the Lord in distress: The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place. 6    The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? 7    The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. 8    It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man. 9    It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes. 10    All nations compassed me about: But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. 11    They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. 12    They compassed me about like bees; They are quenched as the fire of thorns: For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. 13    Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: But the Lord helped me. 14    The Lord is my strength and song, And is become my salvation. 15    The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. 16    The right hand of the Lord is exalted: The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. 17    I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the Lord.18    The Lord hath chastened me sore: But he hath not given me over unto death. 19    Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:20    This gate of the Lord,Into which the righteous shall enter. 21    I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, And art become my salvation. 22    The stone which the builders refused Is become the head stone of the corner. 23    This is the Lord’s doing; It is marvellous in our eyes. 24    This is the day which the Lord hath made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. 25    Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord:O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity, 26    Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord:We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.27    God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: Bind the sacrifice with cords, Even unto the horns of the altar. 28    Thou art my God, and I will praise thee; Thou art my God, I will exalt, thee. 29    O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalm begins with an exhortation, of an altogether liturgical character, to offer thanksgiving to Jehovah in acknowledgement of His mercy (Psalms 118:1-4). It is addressed to the whole Church, its priests, and its members. In the next strophe the Psalmist, because he had himself experienced the help of the Hearer of prayer, praises joyfully the security of those who do not seek refuge in men, even in princes, but confidently seek it in God. This passage is interspersed with sentences repeated like a refrain (Psalms 118:5-9). Confidence of victory in the name of Jehovah over enemies that have risen up all around him is then boldly expressed (Psalms 118:10-12). And lastly he celebrates the power of Jehovah, who has helped and will help, and vows that he will proclaim His doings, because he has been delivered by Him (Psalms 118:13-18). Then follows a command to open the temple-gates that the just may enter to praise Jehovah; for He had actually heard and answered prayer, and made the stone, rejected as useless by the builders, the corner stone, and that in a wonderful manner (Psalms 118:19-23). This is succeeded by a demand for solemn rejoicing on the feast-day, with the usual prayers and blessings, and for the offering of the sacrifice (Psalms 118:24-26). The Psalm then closes with a profession of faith made to God, and a vow of thanksgiving, returning to the mode of expression employed in the opening sentence (Psalms 118:27-28.) This is unmistakably a Temple-Song. Several expressions seem to allude to a particular feast, with its peculiar prayers and sacrifices.—One feels tempted to assign the several strophes to the several divisions of the congregation, priests or people, who were marching up to the temple, or welcoming the festal train, or preparing the sacrifice, or praising God. But there are no convincing grounds to enable us to pronounce decisively upon the special event, even if there is no reason to deny a definite historical situation and occasion for the composition (Hupfeld). There is no need of going down to the Maccabζan period in order to establish a connection with the inauguration of Simon (Venema, De Wette, Rosenmόller), or with Judas Maccabζus after the victory over Nicanor (Hesse), or with the rescue of King Demetrius II., by the help of the despised Jews, from the uprising in Antioch, 1Ma 11:44 ff (Olshausen), or with the return of Jonathan from his victorious campaign, 1Ma 11:74 (Hitzig). The period succeeding the return from Exile affords a more suitable occasion, and, since Psalms 118:19-20 presuppose the completion of the Temple, this occasion could not have been the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month of the first year after the return, Ezra 3:1-4 (Ewald), or the laying of the foundation-stone of the Temple in the second month of the second year, Ezra 3:8 f. (Hengst.), but either the dedication of the completed Temple in the twelfth month of the sixth year of Darius, Ezra 8:15 ff. (Del.), or the first complete celebration, according to the legal ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles, Nehemiah 8:14 ff. (Stier). [Perowne adopts this last view. He thus sums up the arguments in its favor, mainly following the discussion by Delitzsch, from whom most of the remarks given above are also taken: ‘1. The use of the Psalm in the ritual of the Second Temple leads to the conclusion that it was originally composed for the Feast of Tabernacles. For the words of the 25th verse were sung during the feast, when the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed, that is, once on each of the first six days of the feast, and seven times on the seventh day. This day was called ‘the great Hosanna’ (save now, Psalms 118:25), and not only the prayers for the feast, but even the branches of trees, including the myrtles which were attached to the palm-branches, were called ‘Hosannas.’ Further, although the Psalm itself contains no allusion to any of the national feasts, the word ‘tents,’ in Psalms 118:15, at least accords very well with the Feast of Tabernacles. 2. In the second place, it seems equally clear that the Psalm supposes the completion of the Temple. The language of Psa 118:19-20. … and the figure employed in Psalms 118:22. … cannot be easily explained on any other supposition. The allusions in Psalms 118:8-12 to the deceitfulness of human help and the favor of princes, as well as to the active interference of troublesome enemies, are exactly in accordance with all that we read of the circumstances connected with the rebuilding of the Temple. The most probable conclusion, therefore, is, that the Psalm was composed for the first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, after the completion of the Second Temple.”—J. F. M.] The Messianic interpretation (the Rabbins and most of the ancients) is based especially upon Psalms 118:22; Psalms 118:25-26, and confounds the application of the Psalm with the original sense. To seek, in addition, a three–fold prophetic sense (Stier), is at variance with the principles of a sound interpretation. Luther: “This is my Psalm, which I love. Although the whole of the Psalter, and of Holy Scripture itself, which is my only consolation in life, are also dear to me, yet I have chosen this Psalm particularly to be called and to be mine; for it has often deserved my love, and helped me out of many deep distresses, when neither emperor, nor kings, nor the wise and prudent, nor saints, could have helped me.” [In the second member of each of the Psalms 118:2-4, the translation, “for His mercy, etc.,” is most favored.—J. F. M.] Psalms 118:5. Through the wide expanse [E. V., and set me in a large place], that is, from His lofty heavens (Psalms 20:7). But it is admissible also to translate: with the wide space=freedom (Olshausen), or to suppose a pregnant construction: by setting me in a large place (most). Instead of Jah at the end of Psa 118:5 b, there is a reading recognized also by the Masora (comp. Baer, Psalterium, p. 132), according to which the ιָ ?δ, which expresses the utmost degree of any condition, is to be read as the final syllable of the preceding word (comp. Jeremiah 2:31). If this be correct, boundless space would then be described. But the usual pointing, having the first member of the verse in view, is to be preferred. Psalms 118:6 is related to Psalms 56:10, and Psalms 118:7 to Psalms 54:6. Accordingly, the meaning is not, that Jehovah was one among many helpers, but that He was the One, who surpassed all others. In an historical connection the passage may allude to the hostile efforts of the Samaritans and the Satraps during the building of the Temple, while the contrast which is drawn between the confidence placed in man and that placed in God, may bear some allusion to the fact, that the work, begun under Cyrus and already brought into suspicion under Pseudomerdis, was interdicted under Cambyses, and not resumed until the accession of Darius (Del.). Psalms 118:10. We ought perhaps to translate: “ward off” (Sept. and others), instead of “hew in pieces” [E. V., destroy], since the Hebrew word means literally: to cut off (Hupfeld). But it is scarcely to be supposed that this action was a token of violent subjection (1 Samuel 18:25; 2 Samuel 3:14; Josephus Ant. 13:9, 1; 2:3;) and mentioned with allusion to the sign which distinguished the Jew and the Gentile, Galatians 5:12; Philippians 3:2 (J. H. Mich., Hengst.). Such a translation is held to be possible from a comparison with the Arabic, so that there is no need of changing ΰֲ ?ξִ ?ιμָ ?ν into ΰֲ ?λִ ?ιμֵ ?ν (Hupfeld). [Alexander: The construction of the last clause is unusual and doubtful…. Perhaps the best solution is the one afforded by the Hebrew usage of suppressing the principal verb in oaths or solemn affirmations…. The sense will then be: in the name of Jehovah (1 swear or solemnly affirm) that I will cut them off.” Psalms 118:19-23. Gates of righteousness are identical with the gate of Jehovah, Psalms 118:20, by which the righteous, that is, the Israelites, entered into the outer court of the Temple on the eastern side, it alone being accessible to them. There is not the slightest occasion to abandon this local designation, and to regard it as a figurative expression (Hupfeld) for turning to God, or to import into it religious and theological notions of righteousness (older and recent expositors with all possible references). For in Psalms 118:27 religious rites are expressly spoken of. It is only through the symbolical significance and the typical aspect which all of these had in Israel that they contained the germs of a higher development, and it was in the process of development that they disclosed a deeper import and unfolded a richer meaning. The same principle also justifies the final reference to Jesus Christ of the statement (Psalms 118:22 f.) with regard to the stone that had been rejected, but which became the chief corner-stone through God’s wonderful power (Matthew 21:42 ff.; Mark 12:10 f.; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7). This purpose is equally well served whether the sentence be viewed as a proverb (De Wette, Ewald) or not. It is self-evident that the expression is figurative. So also is the allusion to the builders (Hupfeld), and therefore this designation is not to be pressed, in order to make it apply, so early as in this Psalm, specially and historically to the heathen (Kurtz), or to the Jews (Del.). The declaration of Jehovah, Isaiah 28:16 : “Behold it is I who have laid in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of a sure foundation—he who believes, shall not waver,” is specially important for the biblical conception of this figure. What is said of the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah 42. f. furnishes also essential points of comparison. [Alexander: “As this Psalm was sung by the people at the last Jewish festival attended by our Saviour, He applies this proverb to Himself, as one rejected by the Jews and their rulers, yet before long to be recognized as their Messiah whom they had denied and murdered, but whom God had exalted as a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and the remission of sins (Acts 5:31). This, though really another application of the proverb in its general meaning, has a certain affinity with its original application in the verse before us, because the fortunes of the ancient Israel, especially in reference to great conjunctures, bore a designed resemblance to the history of Christ Himself, by a kind of sympathy between the Body and the Head. Even the temple, which suggested the original expression, did but teach the doctrine of Divine inhabitation, and was therefore superseded by the advent of the Son Himself. The head of the corner means the chief or corner-stone of the foundation even in Zechariah 4:7, where the Engl. Vers. translates head-stone.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 118:24-29. This is the day,etc.—This word also admits of manifold applications to sacred seasons and to God’s gracious deeds in the lives both of individuals and of nations, and has always received them in full measure. In the passage before us it is applied to the celebration alluded to in this Psalm. This we are inclined to regard as that of the Feast of Tabernacles (Ewald), since Psalms 118:25 appears to contain the exclamation with which, in the time of the Second Temple, the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed, once on each of the first six days of the feast, and seven times on the seventh day (comp. Delitzsch, Der Hosannaruf, Zeitschrift fόr luther. Kirche und Theologie, 1855). [See the addition in the introduction to this Psalm.—J. F. M.]. At the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem this exclamation in the mouths of the people, when they hailed the visitor at the festival as the Messiah (Matthew 21:9), was coupled with the words of Psa 118:26 a, with which according to Jewish tradition the inhabitants of Jerusalem were accustomed to greet the pilgrims to the Temple. Here it appears to have been the priests who welcomed the congregation as they ascended the Temple-hill with the animals to be sacrificed. [The view of Delitzsch; see the introduction above.—J. F. M.]. According to Ezra 6:17, the victims were very numerous. This appears to agree with Psalms 118:27. For the translation: adorn the feast with boughs (Luther, Geier and others, after the Sept., Aquila, Jerome), is untenable. Although ςֲ ?αεֹ ?ϊ may perhaps mean: thickly-leaved clusters of twigs, Ezekiel 19:11; Ezekiel 31:3 f. (a meaning disputed, however, by Hengst. and Hδvernick), yet ΰρψαΧΧ cannot mean: to bind round, wrap round, and still less: to decorate, but only: to bind on with cords (Judges 15:13; Judges 16:11; Ezekiel 3:25). ηַ ?β must therefore be taken in the sense of: victim, as in Ezekiel 23:18; comp. 2 Chronicles 30:22; Deuteronomy 16:2; John 18:28. And since the victims were not bound to the horns of the altar, but their blood was sprinkled upon them, the words “even unto” are not intended to mean that they were fastened close against the horns with short cords (Hitzig). The expression is either a pregnant one, conveying, in a general manner, the idea that the animals should be bound even until the sacrifice (Chald., Kimchi, J. H. Mich., Hengst., Hupfeld), or crowded so closely together as to fill up all the space even to the horns of the altar (Del. and others). [Del., referring the Psalm to the dedication of the Second Temple, compares Ezra 6:17, where it is mentioned that great numbers of animals were sacrificed on that occasion. On his explanation Perowne remarks: “But in this interpretation there is nothing appropriate in the mention of the horns of the altar. These have always a reference to the blood of the sacrifice.—The expression is apparently a pregnant one and the sense is: Bind the victim with cords till it is sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the horns of the altar.” Alexander explains: “Hold fast the sacrifice with cords until it comes to the horns of the altar, poetically put for the altar itself, not only as its prominent or salient points, but as the parts to which the blood, the essential vehicle of expiation, was applied.”—J. F. M.] According to the context the words of Psa 118:26 : in the name of Jehovah, are not to be connected with: he that cometh, but with: blessed. [For the force of the particles of entreaty in Psalms 118:25, see on Psalms 116:16 and the additional note.—J. F. M.]. The second clause of Psa 118:27 a [God is Jehovah and hath given us light], which is not to be rendered as a present (Luther, De Wette), but as a prζterite, does not allude, as does Numbers 6:25, to the priestly blessing, but, like Exodus 12:21; Exodus 14:20, to the shining forth in the pillar of cloud and fire in the history of the march through the desert (Hupfeld), comp. Nehemiah 9:12; Nehemiah 9:19. It is only the application of this expression which can afford the idea of the light of mercy, freedom, and joy (Del.) The correction εַ ?ιָּ ?ΰֵ ?μ and he led (Hitzig), is unnecessary. AND ETHICAL1. Not only the priests, but all the members of God’s Church are to praise Him. The ordinary service of God affords opportunity for the expression of this relation in an edifying manner. The believer finds occasion for it in the goodness of the Highest, ever manifested anew in His kindness, which endures forever, of which individuals and the whole Church have rich experiences, while, by particular instances of prayer-hearing, they are urged to mutual encouragement. “Let him who can learn, learn here, and let every one become like a falcon, which in its distress soars far upwards into heaven. It is said: I called upon the Lord. Thou must learn to call, and not sit by thyself or lie upon the bench, hanging and shaking thy head, and letting thy thoughts bite and devour thee; but rouse up thou indolent fellow! fall upon thy knees, raise thy hands and eyes to heaven, repeat a Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer, and present thy distress before God with tears.” (Luther). 2. Under such experiences and the reception of such benefits, trust in God increases, along with the growing insight into the value of His help, and into the blessing of such trust. Thus increases also courage to face a hostile world in the midst of dangers and afflictions. The resulting evidences of our assurance have a vivifying and gladdening influence, but have nothing in common with the boasting of presumption. They are based, along with the confession of the perishableness of all earthly greatness and human power, upon the wonderful help of God’s mercy, and are therefore surrounded and sustained by thankful praise for that help, and by ardent entreaties for its continuance. 3. The sufferings which God’s people have to endure, are regarded by believers as chastenings from the hand of the Most High; and they are so severe, that they are felt to be heavy and painful strokes. But the same (Hand which has chastened them so severely, delivers them again from death and all their enemies, if they humble themselves before Him. By His wonderful working He makes the stone rejected by men, the cornerstone of a building indestructible and pleasing to Him, so that there is joy in the tabernacles of the righteous, and songs of thanksgiving resound in the house of the Lord. 4. God be praised that He has His house amongst us, and has opened its gates that His people might enter before His face, to celebrate those sacred feasts which He has ordained! May we, on the days consecrated by the Lord, always become ourselves consecrated, to perform joyfully the service which He requires of us: not to count up or lament the sacrifices demanded, but only to seek how we may please Him, how we, as “the righteous,” may go in and out, and receive and take with us the blessing which is held in readiness for those who come in the name of the Lord (Numbers 6:24 ff.; Deuteronomy 21:5). AND Those are the right prayers which have thanks-giving for their support. God will not be weary of them; let us not be indolent or wearied in them.—We have certainly not deserved, and we cannot repay, all that God has done for us and for our house; but we can offer our thanks, and proclaim His goodness in His house.—God has attached great blessing to His day, and to coming to His house; but it rests with us to obtain that blessing.—If our church-going is one of blessing, it will be seen also to be one of prayer, of penitence, and of faith.—The courage of trust in God: (1) its sources; (2) its manifestations; (3) its results.—He who comes to God’s house as one of His people, is to pass through the gates of righteousness, and gain His presence, and will be blessed with the name of God.—If God’s judgments are not to tend to our death, but to our life, we are to make them serve as chastenings unto righteousness. Starke: God’s goodness is unspeakably great, as well in the kingdom of nature as in the kingdom of grace.—The ground of thanksgiving and praise to God is the knowledge of His valiant doings and great goodness.—Well for the country, the city, and the Church, when the three great orders of the people are united in the true fear of God and in praising Him.—Religion does not make a life free from distress, but it does not allow us to remain held under distress.—The arm of men cannot take away my courage, as it cannot give me courage. The former is a groundless fear, the latter a vain hope.—Strong faith in God begets unwavering courage in all the events of life. The name of the Lord is a strong tower (Proverbs 18:10).—We have a Lord who helps us and holds us by the hand. Let him thrust at us who will; but who will help him whom God casts aside?—God is our Psalm; of Him we must glory and sing, and His name we must confess, though we should have to suffer for so doing.—He who praises with joy the power of the Divine mercy, will evermore share in His salvation.—The song of joy is born of the cross.—If God has given thee thy life, employ it in proclaiming His deeds of mercy.—Let him who would enter with praise and thanksgiving into the gates of glory, enter in faith the gates of God’s righteousness here, and glorify His name.—Do not wonder at it if the Lord deals with thee in wonderful ways. He who would be something precious in the sight of God must first be rejected and ennobled by affliction.—As the sun in heaven makes the natural day by his light, so does Christ the Sun of Righteousness make ours a spiritual day.—He who abides in the house of the Lord will hear from heaven and earth no word but of blessing.—If our service on our sacred days is to please God, we must come before Him with penitent hearts, so that He may give us light, and thus rejoice us. Osiander: It is a greater work of God, to deliver a lost soul from the power of the devil, and make it blessed, than it is to create a new world.—Frisch: Behold how much faith can do! It gives an invincible courage which fears nothing.—Adam introduced a day of sadness, but another day is made by Christ: Abraham saw His day from afar, and was glad; we walk even now in His light.—Oetinger: The most insignificant event on the most unimportant occasion is to be ascribed to grace, which achieves also the greatest results in the most decisive junctures.—Rieger: Full trust in God may be excited and endure, while all trust in man is counted as nought, and, consequently, he who so trusts will be less controlled by the fear of man; and, at the same time, he will humbly resolve to submit to all chastening, yea, even to the suffering of death, and yet never yield the blissful hope of glory.—Tholuck: The glorious deliverances which God’s people experience give them the assurance of future victory.—Diedrich: God has brought us out of distress into blissful rest, that we may be enabled to have heartfelt delight in Him.—Expect no aid from the world; rather be prepared for all kinds of rebuffs from it: but God’s word will give thee strength enough for victory.—Our God welcomes all with blessing, who come together to enjoy that blessing in Israel; and those who are thus blessed on earth will also be blessed in heaven.—Stier: A song of thanksgiving for the victory of the Anointed and His people.—Taube: Whenever the everlasting goodness of God is sung, let all who have experienced it say Amen.—Schaubach: An evidence of the conflict, the victory, and the peace of the Redeemer.—Deichert: The victory of the risen Saviour, and its far-reaching consequences: (1) Death is vanquished; (2) the gates of righteousness are opened; (3) the corner-stone of the Church is laid.—G. Huyssen (Psalms 118:15-21): The thanksgiving of the Christian in the joy of victory: (1) the joy of victory and its source; (2) the sacrifices of victory, and their significance; (3) the thanksgiving for victory, and the mode of rendering it. [Matth. Henry: Without the Lord I am weak and sad, but on Him I stay myself as my strength, both for doing and suffering; and in Him I solace myself as my song, by which I both express my joy, and ease my grief; and making Him so, I find Him so; He doth strengthen my heart with grace, and rejoice my heart with His comforts. If God be our strength, He must be our song; if He work all our works in us, He must have all praise and glory from us. God is sometimes the strength of His people when He is not their song; they have spiritual supports, when they want spiritual delights; but if He be both to us, we have abundant reason to triumph in Him; for if He is our strength and our song, He is become not only our Saviour, but our salvation; for His being our strength is our protection to the salvation, and His being our song is an earnest and foretaste of the salvation.—We are weak and act but cowardly for our lives, but God is mighty and acts valiantly for us with jealousy and resolution, Isaiah 63:5, and when God’s right hand doeth valiantly for our salvation, it ought to be exalted in our praises.—It is not worth our while to live for any other purpose than to declare the works of the Lord, for His honor and for the encouragement of others to serve Him and trust in Him.—Sabbath days must be rejoicing days, and then they are to us as the days of heaven. See what a good Master we serve, who, having instituted a day for His service, appoints it to be spent in holy joy. Scott: As we need not dread the rage of the ungodly, so we need not envy their carnal, vain, and vanishing mirth.—Our thanksgivings on earth must always be accompanied with prayers for further mercies and the continuance of our prosperity; our Hallelujahs with Hosannas.Barnes (Psalms 118:15). There is nothing that diffuses so much happiness through a family as religion; there is no joy like that when a member of a family is converted; there is no place on earth more happy than that where a family bows before God, with the feeling that all are children of God and heirs of salvation.—J. F. M.] Psalms 119 ALEPH 1         Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the Lord.2    Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, And that seek him with the whole heart. 3    They also do no iniquity: They walk in his ways. 4    Thou hast commanded usTo keep thy precepts diligently. 5    O that my ways were directed To keep thy statutes! 6    Then shall I not be ashamed, When I have respect unto all thy commandments. 7    I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, When I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. 8    I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly. BETH 9    Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. 10    With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. 11    Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee. 12    Blessed art thou, O Lord:Teach me thy statutes. 13    With my lips have I declared All the judgments of thy mouth. 14    I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, As much as in all riches. 15    I will meditate in thy precepts, And have respect unto thy ways. 16    I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. GIMEL 17    Deal bountifully with thy servant, That I may live, and keep thy word. 18    Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold Wondrous things out of thy law. 19    I am a stranger in the earth: Hide not thy commandments from me. 20    My soul breaketh for the longing That it hath unto thy judgments at all times. 21    Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, Which do err from thy commandments. 22    Remove from me reproach and contempt; For I have kept thy testimonies. 23    Princes also did sit and speak against me: But thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. 24    Thy testimonies also are my delight, And my counsellors. DALETH 25    My soul cleaveth unto the dust: Quicken thou me according to thy word. 26    I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: Teach me thy statutes. 27    Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: So shall I talk of thy wondrous works. 28    My soul melteth for heaviness: Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. 29    Remove from me the way of lying: And grant me thy law graciously. 30    I have chosen the way of truth: Thy judgments have I laid before me.31    I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame. 32    I will run the way of thy commandments, When thou shalt enlarge my heart. HE 33    Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; And I shall keep it unto the end. 34    Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 35    Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; For therein do I delight. 36    Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, And not to covetousness. 37    Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; And quicken thou me in thy way. 38    Stablish thy word unto thy servant, Who is devoted to thy fear. 39    Turn away my reproach which I fear: For thy judgments are good. 40    Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: Quicken me in thy righteousness. VAU 41    Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord,Even thy salvation, according to thy word. 42    So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: For I trust in thy word. 43    And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; For I have hoped in thy judgments. 44    So shall I keep thy law continually Forever and ever. 45    And I will walk at liberty: For I seek thy precepts. 46    I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, And will not be ashamed. 47    And I will delight myself in thy commandments, Which I have loved. 48    My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; And I will meditate in thy statutes. ZAIN 49    Remember the word unto thy servant, Upon which thou hast caused me to hope. 50    This is my comfort in my affliction: For thy word hath quickened me. 51    The proud have had me greatly in derision: Yet have I not declined from thy law. 52    I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord:And have comforted myself. 53    Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked That forsake thy law. 54    Thy statutes have been my songs In the house of my pilgrimage. 55    I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, And have kept thy law. 56    This I had, Because I kept thy precepts. CHETH 57    Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep thy words. 58    I entreated thy favor with my whole heart: Be merciful unto me according to thy word. 59    I thought on my ways, And turned my feet unto thy testimonies. 60    I made haste, and delayed not To keep thy commandments. 61    The bands of the wicked have robbed me: But I have not forgotten thy law. 62    At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee Because of thy righteous judgments. 63    I am a companion of all them that fear thee, And of them that keep thy precepts. 64    The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: Teach me thy statutes. TETH 65    Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. 66    Teach me good judgment and knowledge: For I have believed thy commandments. 67    Before I was afflicted I went astray But now have I kept thy word. 68    Thou art good, and doest good: Teach me thy statutes. 69    The proud have forged a lie against me: But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. 70    Their heart is as fat as grease: But I delight in thy law. 71    It is good for me that I have been afflicted; That I might learn thy statutes. 72    The law of thy mouth is better unto me Than thousands of gold and silver. JOD 73    Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. 74    They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; Because I have hoped in thy word. 75    I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, And that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. 76    Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, According to thy word unto thy servant. 77    Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: For thy law is my delight. 78    Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: But I will meditate in thy precepts. 79    Let those that fear thee turn unto me, And those that have known thy testimonies. 80    Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; That I be not ashamed. CAPH 81    My soul fainteth for thy salvation: But I hope in thy word. 82    Mine eyes fail for thy word, Saying, When wilt thou comfort me? 83    For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; Yet do I not forget thy statutes. 84    How many are the days of thy servant? When wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? 85    The proud have digged pits for me, Which are not after thy law. 86    All thy commandments are faithful: They persecute me wrongfully; help thou me. 87    They had almost consumed me upon earth; But I forsook not thy precepts. 88    Quicken me after thy loving-kindness; So shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. LAMED 89    Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. 90    Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. 91    They continue this day according to thine ordinances: For all are thy servants. 92    Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. 93    I will never forget thy precepts: For with them thou hast quickened me. 94    I am thine, save me; For I have sought thy precepts. 95    The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: But I will consider thy testimonies. 96    I have seen an end of all perfection: But thy commandment is exceeding broad. MEM 97    O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. 98    Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: For they are ever with me. 99    I have more understanding than all my teachers: For thy testimonies are my meditation. 100    I understand more than the ancients, Because I keep thy precepts. 101    I have refrained my feet from every evil way, That I might keep thy word. 102    I have not departed from thy judgments: For thou hast taught me. 103    How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. 104    Through thy precepts I get understanding. Therefore I hate every false way NUN 105    Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path. 106    I have sworn, and I will perform it, That I will keep thy righteous judgments. 107    I am afflicted very much: Quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word. 108    Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, And teach me thy judgments. 109    My soul is continually in my hand: Yet do I not forget thy law. 110    The wicked have laid a snare for me: Yet I erred not from thy precepts. 111    Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage forever: For they are the rejoicing of my heart. 112    I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes Always, even unto the end. SAMECH 113    I hate vain thoughts: But thy law do I love. 114    Thou art my hiding-place and my shield: I hope in thy word. 115    Depart from me, ye evil doers: For I will keep the commandments of my God. 116    Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: And let me not be ashamed of my hope. 117    Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: And I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. 118    Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: For their deceit is falsehood. 119    Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: Therefore I love thy testimonies. 120    My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; And I am afraid of thy judgments. AIN 121    I have done judgment and justice: Leave me not to mine oppressors. 122    Be surety for thy servant for good: Let not the proud oppress me. 123    Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, And for the word of thy righteousness. 124    Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, And teach me thy statutes. 125    I am thy servant; give me understanding, That I may know thy testimonies. 126    It is time for thee, Lord, to work: For they have made void thy law. 127    Therefore I love thy commandments Above gold; yea, above fine gold. 128    Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right: And I hate every false way. PE 129    Thy testimonies are wonderful: Therefore doth my soul keep them. 130    The entrance of thy words giveth light; It giveth understanding unto the simple. 131    I opened my mouth, and panted: For I longed for thy commandments. 132    Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, As thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. 133    Order my steps in thy word: And let not any iniquity have dominion over me. 134    Deliver me from the oppression of man: So will I keep thy precepts. 135    Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; And teach me thy statutes. 136    Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, Because they keep not thy law. TZADDI 137    Righteous art thou, O Lord, And upright are thy judgments. 138    Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous And very faithful. 139    My zeal hath consumed me, Because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. 140    Thy word is very pure: Therefore thy servant loveth it. 141    I am small and despised: Yet do not I forget thy precepts. 142    Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And thy law is the truth. 143    Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: Yet thy commandments are my delights. 144    The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding, and I shall live. KOPH 145    I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will keep thy statutes. 146    I cried unto thee; save me, And I shall keep thy testimonies. 147    I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word. 148    Mine eyes prevent the night watches, That I might meditate in thy word. 149    Hear my voice according unto thy loving-kindness: O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment. 150    They draw nigh that follow after mischief: They are far from thy law. 151    Thou art near, O Lord; And all thy commandments are truth. 152    Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old That thou hast founded them forever. RESH 153    Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: For I do not forget thy law. 154    Plead my cause, and deliver me: Quicken me according to thy word. 155    Salvation is far from the wicked: For they seek not thy statutes. 156    Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord: Quicken me according to thy judgments. 157    Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. 158    I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; Because they kept not thy word. 159    Consider how I love thy precepts: Quicken me, O Lord, according to thy loving-kindness. 160    Thy word is true from the beginning: And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. SCHIN 161    Princes have persecuted me without a cause: But my heart standeth in awe of thy word. 162    I rejoice at thy word, As one that findeth great spoil. 163    I hate and abhor lying: But thy law do I love. 164    Seven times a day do I praise thee, Because of thy righteous judgments. 165    Great peace have they which love thy law: And nothing shall offend them. 166    Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, And done thy commandments. 167    My soul hath kept thy testimonies; And I love them exceedingly. 168    I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: For all my ways are before thee. TAU 169    Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord: Give me understanding according to thy word. 170    Let my supplication come before thee: Deliver me according to thy word. 171    My lips shall utter praise, When thou hast taught me thy statutes. 172    My tongue shall speak of thy word: For all thy commandments are righteousness. 173    Let thine hand help me; For I have chosen thy precepts. 174    I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; And thy law is my delight. 175    Let my soul live and it shall praise thee; And let thy judgments help me. 176    I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant; For I do not forget thy commandments. AND Contents and Composition.—The Christian’s golden A B C of the praise and love of the power and profit of the word of God. This title in the German Bible admirably expresses the character of this Psalm. For in all the 176 verses there is no other subject introduced than the excellence of God’s word, in its blessed influences and obligations. The Psalm is so disposed that every one of the eight verses in each division begins with the same letter, and these letters follow in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. And it was scarcely without design that in every verse, with the exception of Psa 119:122, occurs one of the ten expressions usually employed to designate the law, and that the name Jehovah occurs in the whole 22 times, though not once in every verse. The carrying out of this artificial plan through such a long series of verses with great comparative simplicity, has not only occasioned many repetitions, with but slight changes in expression and shades of thought, but has made it questionable whether there can be any internal structural connection or progress of thought. It is certainly saying too much to maintain that there is no connection whatever (De Wette) and to designate the Psalm as the most monotonous and barren in thought of all aphoristic collections and a specimen of the trifling of later times (Hupfeld), or a mnemonic book of devotion (Kφster), at the same time denying any reference to a special situation or mental posture of the author. But even if the notion be abandoned that there is any regularity of plan, or any inner progress of thought (Hengst.), the Psalm is, at all events, not a collection of apophthegms, but is evidently a Psalm of supplication composed not by an old man (Ewald), but, according to Psalms 119:9 f., 99, 100, by a young man (Del.), who prays, particularly after Psalms 119:84, for steadfastness in the midst of great trouble, surrounded by evil men and persecutors. Yet it must be allowed that, along with the praise of God’s word and law, which is repeated almost like a refrain, there are interwoven prayers for enlightenment to understand them, and strength to be faithful to them, intermingled here and there with complaints, promises, and hopes, and also with supplications for Divine assistance against mighty and crafty oppressors and persecutors. All these occur so frequently that it is unadvisable to limit the connection of thought to a narrow range. Whether the author was in imprisonment, and shortened the time by thus weaving together his complaints and comforting thoughts (Hitzig, Del.) cannot be known with any degree of certainty. The same remark applies to the time of composition and the person of the composer. It is only certain that the Poet did not speak for the Jewish people (Rudinger), and that the Psalm is to be reckoned among the latest of the whole collection (Ewald). Some of the older commentators have assigned it to a Jew living in captivity among the Syrians (Sylloge commentt. theoll. ed. Pott. I., p. 314 ff.). There is also something to be said in favor of referring it to the period of Grecian rule, under which the government was unfriendly, and a large party among the Jews themselves, who favored the government, persecuted the pronounced professors of the Thora (Del.). If we go down to the time of the Maccabees, an historical connection is presented with the imprisonment of Jonathan, 1Ma 12:48 (Hitzig). But the closing period of the Persian supremacy affords the contrasts presented here, between a worldly government, hostile to the religion of Jehovah and the Divine dominion revealed in the Law; between that party of presumptuous blasphemers, who appear as national enemies, and the pious worshippers of Jehovah; between disloyal, unfaithful, covenant-breaking Jews, and the friends of the Law, whose companion the Poet is (Ehrt, Abfassungszeit und Abschluss des Psalters, p. 191). Delitzsch gives the inner progress of thought through the several strophes as follows: After the Poet has praised fidelity to God’s word (1), and characterized it as the virtue of all virtues, which is a blessing to the young, and which he himself labors to gain (2), he prays, in the midst of scornful and persecuting companions, for the mercies of enlightenment (3), of strengthening (4), of preservation (5), of suitable and joyful profession of his faith (6); God’s word is the object of his striving and aspirations (7), he loves the friendship of those who fear God (8), and, though recognizing the salutary influences of his humiliation (9), is yet in need of consolation (10), and sighs: how long! (11). Without the immovable and mighty word of God he would despond (12); it is his wisdom in situations of distress (13); he has sworn to be faithful to it, and in persecution remains faithful (14); he abhors and despises the faithless; he is oppressed, but God will not leave him under oppression (16), or permit a godless conduct, which forces rivers of tears from his eyes, to prevail over him (17), over him who is small (youthful) and despised, whom zeal, on account of the prevailing forgetfulness of God, is consuming (18); he entreats that God might hear his crying by day and by night (19), might soon revive him with His helpful compassion (20), as he remains firm in his fidelity to God, though persecuted by princes (21), and seek the lamb, that was separated from the flock and exposed to such dangers (22).—This is, at least, a guiding thread in the efforts which are necessary to connect the several strophes. The sections are then more or less individualized in their single verses. [Hengstenberg, holding the view given above under his name, sums up the contents of the Psalm thus: “The praise of God’s word, the assertion that it is the infinitely sure way of salvation, and the only comfort in suffering, the determination to be faithful to God’s word and law, prayer for the spiritual understanding of the law, and for strength to fulfil it, and supplications for the salvation promised in it, form the contents of this Psalm.” With reference to the stand-point of the author, Hengstenberg considers it entirely national, referring to Psalms 119:23; Psalms 119:46; Psalms 119:87, with which he compares Psalms 115:14, and Psalms 119:161. He therefore considers large portions of it, which appear to represent only individual feelings, as bearing a hortatory character. But the true view appears to me to be that of Alexander: “There is no Psalm in the whole collection which has more the appearance of having been exclusively designed for practical and personal improvement, without any reference to national or even to ecclesiastical relations than the one before us.” After citing some of Hengstenberg’s arguments for the opposite view, he continues: “The opinion that the ideal speaker throughout this Psalm is Israel, considered as the Church or chosen people, will never commend itself as natural or likely to the mass of readers, and is scarcely consistent with such passages as Psalms 119:63; Psalms 119:74; Psalms 119:79, and others, where the speaker expressly distinguishes himself from the body of the people. The same difficulty, in a less degree, attends the national interpretation of the Psalms immediately preceding. Perhaps the best mode of reconciling the two views is by supposing that this Psalm was intended as a manual of pious and instructive thoughts, designed for popular improvement, and especially for that of the younger generation, after the return from exile, and that the person speaking is the individual believer, not as an isolated personality, but as a member of the general body, with which he identifies himself so far, that many expressions of the Psalm are strictly applicable only to the whole as such considered, while others are appropriate only to certain persons or to certain classes in the ancient Israel. To this design of popular instruction, and especially to that of constant repetition and reflection, the Psalm is admirably suited by its form and structure. The alphabetical arrangement, of which it is at once the most extended and the most perfect specimen, and the aphoristic character, common to all alphabetic Psalms, are both adapted to assist the memory as well as to give point to the immediate impression. It follows, of course, that the Psalm was rather meant to be a storehouse of materials for pious meditation, than a discourse for continuous perusal.” On this last question Perowne also agrees with most commentators, against the opinion of Delitzsch that there is a continuity of thought in the Psalm. On the opinion of Delitzsch and Ewald, referred to above, with regard to the period of the author’s life at the time of the composition, Perowne argues: “The language of ver 9 is rather that of one, who looking back on his own past life, draws the inference, which he seeks to impress upon the young, that youthful purity can only be preserved by those, who from early years take God’s word as their guide. When it is said in Psalms 119:99-100 that the Psalmist is wiser than his teachers, wiser than the aged, the only conclusion that can be drawn is, that he is not advanced in life. It is plain that the writer is not an old man, as Ewald would have us believe, or he would not compare his knowledge of the law with the knowledge of the aged. But it does not follow that he is a young man. The teachers whom he had outstript may have been those, whose disciple he once was, not those whose disciple he still is, or he may refer to authorized teachers, to whom he listened because they taught in Moses’ seat, though he felt that they had really nothing to teach him. Indeed the whole strain of the Psalm, its depth and breadth of spiritual life, and the long acquaintance, which is everywhere implied in it, with the word of God, can leave us no doubt that it was written by a man who was no longer young, who had at least reached ‘the middle arch of life.’ ” The spiritual worth and beauty of the Psalm are not impaired by its artificial form. “If we would fathom the depth of meaning in the written law of Israel: if we would measure the elevation of soul, the hope, the confidence, even before princes and kings, which pious Jews derived from it, we must turn to this Psalm. Here is an epitome of all true religion as conceived by the best spirits of that time. To such a loving study and meditation on the law, the alphabetical arrangement is not inappropriate, and if the poem be necessarily somewhat cramped, it is nevertheless pervaded by the glow of love, and abounds in spiritual life.” (The Psalms Chronologically Arranged by Four Friends, p. 385; quoted by Perowne). See also an estimate of its spiritual teaching in Edwards on the Religious Affections, Part III. Sec. 3.—J. F. M.]. Aleph. Psalms 119:1-4. This Psalm in accordance with the more extended treatment of its topics, has a double ascription of blessedness, instead of the single one in Psalms 1:1; Psalms 112:1. The prζterites, mingled as they are with futures in the sense of the present, express the constancy of the relation described.—[The rendering of Psa 119:1 a, in E. V. is not sufficiently perspicuous. The literal translation is: Blessed are those who are blameless in their ways. Its rendering of Psa 119:4 is also incorrect, neglecting the division of the verse according to the accents. It should be: Thou hast enjoined thy precepts; to observe them diligently. The explanation follows.—J. F. M.]. In Psalms 119:4 b, the design in enjoining the precepts is given, with the implication that their observance is as earnestly enjoined, as it is difficult to practise. Psalms 119:5-7. The Psalmist does not say that he would have his ways directed to the object expressed in Psalms 119:5 b. (Sept., De Wette, Del.), or that he would have them established, standing fast, for the sake of the object to be gained (Hupfeld), Proverbs 4:26. [The former view which is expressed in E. V. is also that of Alexander. That of Dr. Moll is probably more correct. It is expressed in his translation: Oh that my ways were firmly set, to keep Thy statutes! The difference between the two views is very slight.—J. F. M.] ΰַ ?ηֲ ?μַ ?ι, for which in 2 Kings 5:3, occurs ΰַ ?ηֲ ?μֵ ?ι, is equivalent to Oh if! a sigh of desire. Psalms 119:7. The judgments of thy righteousness [E. V. righteous judgments] are those decisions with regard to justice and injustice, which express and fulfil God’s righteousness, and which are to be learnt from Scripture in connection with History (Del.) Exodus 21:1; Exodus 24:3; Leviticus 18; Leviticus 19:19 f., and which form the object of praise. Beth. Psalms 119:9. In Psalms 119:9 b, the answer given, in the gerund, to the question in Psalms 119:9 a, has a form which is not quite suitable (Olshausen). After ωׁ ?ξψ may be supplied according to the analogy of the Psalm: it, that is, the way, or the law (Aben Ezra, J. H. Mich., Rosenmόller, Hupfeld, Hitzig). The reflexive construction (Luther, De Wette, Hengst., Del.) is likewise admissible, Joshua 6:18. The cleansing of the way (Psalms 73:13; Proverbs 20:9) alludes to the defilement of sin. [Alexander differs from all these critics. He considers the construction of the infin. as a gerund to be too rare and doubtful to be assumed without necessity, and renders the second member: “(so) as to keep it according to thy word.” He says, “It is much more simple and agreeable to usage, to regard the whole as one interrogative, and the second clause as supplementary to the first. The answer is suppressed, or rather, left to be inferred from the whole tenor of the psalm, which is, that men, and especially young men, whose passions and temptations are strong in proportion to their inexperience, can do nothing of themselves, but are dependent on the grace of God. The omission of an answer, which is thus suggested by the whole psalm, rather strengthens than impairs the impression on the reader.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 119:14. The Law is equalled in value to all possible riches; that is, to all blessings that can be conceived, and that are most highly prized by men. The rendering should not be: as it were more than all riches (Olsh.), but: as above all riches (comp. Psalms 119:162). Gimel. Psalms 119:17-18. In Psalms 119:17, according to the accentuation, ΰֶ ?ηְ ?ιֶ ?δ belongs to the first member, and indicates the end for which the divine bounties are entreated: “that I may live.” Attached to the second member, with the translation: if I live, I will keep (held to be possible by Hupfeld), the vow of obedience, prompted by the divine gift of life, would be uttered. Or, if we adopt the construction: may I live and keep (Hitzig), both of these ends are distinguished in one supplication, as simultaneous objects of entreaty. [According to the accents, the best translation is: Grant to thy servant (that) I may live, and I will keep thy word. So most translators. Alexander remarks that there may be an allusion to the way in which the Law connects life and obedience, and refers to Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 6:24. Hengstenberg, in accordance with his hypothesis given above, holds that it is the preservation of the national existence that is meant.—J. F. M.] The wondrous things in Psalms 119:18 are not events in which the direction given by God is shown unexpectedly to have been right (Hitzig), but truths disclosed to faith, and revelations concerning God, lying in the law beneath the veil of the letter, and perplexing to the common understanding, to the knowledge of which the removal of the veil suspended over the eyes by nature is also necessary. Psalms 119:19 ff. On earth we are only lodging as strangers, and, as it were, in a foreign land (1 Chronicles 29:15; Psalms 39:13). Nor do we know beforehand what is established there as right and law. This we would faint discover; for the anger of God, which does not concern itself about our ignorance, dwells there too (Hitzig). Therefore we do not need speedy compassion on account of the fleetness of life (Hupfeld); we need instruction (De Wette) in our helplessness (Luther, Hengst., Del.) [Luther explains: “I have no inheritance but thy word; therefore forsake me not.”—J. F. M.]—In Psalms 119:22βַ ?μ is not instead of πֹ ?μ, from βμμ to roll off, Joshua 5:9 (Isaaki, Ros., De Wette, Hengst.), but it is from πμη, to uncover, draw away the covering (Geier, J. H. Mich.), here that of contempt, [which is regarded as if it were a garment or cloak.—J. F. M.] Daleth. Psalms 119:25-28. The reviving in Psalms 119:25 refers as usual, not to the strengthening of the spiritual, but to the restoration of the physical life, welfare, and prosperity, by deliverance from distress and danger. [Alexander: “The first clause seems intended to suggest two consistent but distinct ideas: that of deep degradation as in Psalms 44:26, and that of death as in Psalms 22:30. The first would be more obvious in itself and in connection with the parallel referred to; but the other seems to be the prominent idea, from the correlative petition in the last clause.…Thy word, the promise annexed to Thy commandment, see Psalms 119:28.” Psalms 119:28 a, should probably be rendered: My soul weeps from sorrow. The verb means to drop. In Job 16:20 it is applied to the eye.—J. F. M.] Psalms 119:30 ff. In Psalms 119:30ωֵׁ ?εִּ ?ιϊִ ?ι is scarcely to be explained as a setting before the mind; i.e. acknowledging as binding (Kφster), or as a mental agreement; i.e. approving (Hitzig), but is to be understood of the act of the subject, by which something was placed before the eyes as a standard of action (Hengst., Del.). That which should be contemplated is contemplated (Ewald). The enlarging of the heart (Psalms 119:32) does not refer to the enlargement of the understanding, 1 Kings 5:9 (De Wette), but expresses the feeling of well-being and joy (Isaiah 60:5; 2 Corinthians 6:11-13), as contrasted with mental oppression (Geier). [Render: For Thou shalt enlarge my heart.—J. F. M.] He. Psalms 119:37 ff. The outward senses present to the heart the objects of forbidden desire, and excite pleasure in and desire for them (Isaiah 33:15 : Job 31:1-7); men must therefore shut their ears and eyes against them and let them pass unheeded. In Psalms 119:38 the relation can be referred either to the word (Isaaki, J. H. Mich., De Wette, Hengst., Del.), or to the servant (Syr., Geier, Hitzig), without essentially altering the sense. λφςabscindere is used of profiting by defrauding one’s neighbor, 1 Samuel 8:3. ωָׁ ?εְ ?ΰ means that which is without real, intrinsic worth; that is, with relation to God; doctrine and life opposed to God. Psalms 119:39 does not speak of the judgments of God, whether merciful (Kimchi, Geier and others) or righteous ones (Hengst.), but, like the whole Psalm, of the revealed ordinances of justice. Vau. Psalms 119:41-42. As the Vau is really only placed here on account of alphabetical requirements, its occurrence in Psalms 119:42 is not to be pressed so as to make it indicate the object aimed at in the petition of the preceding verse: in order that I may answer (De W.). The manifestations of God’s mercy in Psalms 119:41 are, in the original, not in the singular (Sept.) but in the plural (Chald., Jerome). Psalms 119:46-48. Psalms 119:46 is the motto of the Augsburg Confession according to the historical view of the verbs in the Vulgate, which, however, does not correspond with the Heb. text: Et loquebar de (in) testimoniis tuis in conspectu regum et non confundebar. The lifting up of the hands, Psalms 119:48, does not refer to the observance of the commandments, (most), still less to the worship of the law in the later Jewish manner (Kφster), but to the longing desire expressed by stretching out the hands after the commandments (Hitzig), often parallel to the lifting up of the heart to the highest good, Psalms 28:2; Psalms 63:5; Lamentations 3:41 (Hengst., Hupfeld). Zain. Psalms 119:50 ff. Psalms 119:50 reminds us of Job 6:10. It is doubtful whether λִּ ?ι in the second member of the verse is to be taken as explaining the “this” by mentioning what the comfort consisted in, or as the confirmatory “for” (Hupf.). [In Psalms 119:53 render: Indignation hath taken hold of me.—J. F. M.] In Psalms 119:54 the reference is not to exile or any other misfortune, but human life is, after Genesis 47, described as “the house of my sojournings.” Man has not upon earth his αֵּ ?ιϊςεֹ ?μָ ?ν, Ecclesiastes 12:5. The earth has been indeed given to him (Psalms 115:16), but not as his abiding-place (see on Psalms 119:19). Cheth.—[Psalms 119:57 is translated by Dr. Moll: My portion is Jehovah! I have said to keep thy precepts (I have promised to keep thy precepts). Alexander translates and comments thus: “My portion, oh Jehovah, I have said (is) to keep thy words. This construction is rejected by Hengstenberg and others as forbidden by the accents and the analogy of Psa 16:5; Psalms 73:26. But, as the same words may either express the sense here given, or: My portion is Jehovah, we are at liberty to choose the one best suited to the context, even in opposition to the accents, which cannot be regarded as an ultimate authority. In favor of the sense first given is its perfect agreement with the close of the preceding stanza. In reference to the resolution there recorded and described as being fulfilled, he here adds: thus have I said (declared my purpose), oh Lord, to obey thy words.—J. F. M.] Psalms 119:61 ff. Psalms 119:61 is explained by Psalms 119:110. The pointing does not distinguish as clearly as might be expected (Del.) between ηֶ ?αְ ?μֵ ?ιὠδῖνας and ηַ ?αְ ?μֵ ?ι (snares). [Dr. Moll translates: The snares of the wicked have surrounded me. So Delitzsch, Hupfeld and Hengst. Perowne translates: cords. Alexander: bands, “the cordage of a net,” Psalms 18:5. The meaning: bands, in the sense of companies, troops, given in E. V. is as Del. remarks, never found attached to that word in the plural, though the sing. has that sense in 1 Samuel 10:5-10. Bφttcher, however (§ 800), assigns to it that meaning here. The translation: “robbed” of E. V. in the same verse is entirely unfounded. I cannot discover its source.—J.F. M.] In Psalms 119:62 we have the accusative of time as in Job 34:20. With Psalms 119:63 comp. Proverbs 28:24. Psalms 119:64 a recalls Psalms 33:5. Teth. Psalms 119:69-70. The poet will not be induced to err from fidelity to God’s word by all the falsehoods which presumptuous men smear upon him (Bφttcher) or better (absolutely as in Job 13:4) smear all at once over him, making the true nature of things undiscernible by daubing them over with false colors (Del.), or pasting on deceit (Hitzig). [Del. quotes the Chald., Talmud, and the Syr. in favor of the meaning smear over or on. This is now generally accepted. The idea of forging, devising, in E. V. follows the meaning to sew together, formerly assigned to θτμ as the primary idea.—J. F. M.] Psalms 119:70. The heart which is overspread with fat or grease is a figure employed to denote want of sensitiveness or hard-heartedness, Psalms 17:10; Psalms 73:10; Isaiah 6:10. Yodh. Psalms 119:75-78. In Psalms 119:75 it is not God Himself who is called ΰֱ ?ξεּ ?πָ ?δ after Deuteronomy 32:4 (Hengst.). The word is employed either as an adverbial accusative: in fidelity (most), or as in apposition and parallel to φֶ ?γֶ ?χ, the following word becoming a relative clause, attached at the end of the verse (Hupf.). [The first member of Psa 119:78 should be translated: Let the proud be ashamed; for they have wronged me by falsehood.—J. F. M.] Caph. Psalms 119:83-84. The bottle in the smoke, Psalms 119:83, is probably not a figurative representation of one who had become mellow and ripened by affliction (Hupfeld), taken from the custom of the ancients of hanging bottles filled with wine in the smoke high up above the fire; for wine is not the subject of the verse. Nor is there any comparison to a bottle hung up in order to make it dry and wrinkled, so as to adapt it for preserving wine (De Wette). It seems more suitable to refer to the effects of smoke as destroying and rendering useless (Geier, J. H. Mich., Hengst.). Accordingly, the meaning would be, that he allows nothing to force God’s word from his consciousness, although already he has become like a bottle blackened and shrivelled up in the smoke (Del.). The object of hanging such a bottle high up would then be to set it aside in the meantime as not immediately needed. And its contact with the smoke would be merely the consequence of its hanging in an elevated position, whither the smoke, in the absence of chimneys, would naturally rise. The point of comparison would then be the being set aside (Hitzig, Del.).—The expression in Psalms 119:84, translated: how many, in Genesis 47:8, occurs here in the sense: how few, Psalms 39:5. The entreaty of an immediate interference of God is evoked and supported by the thought of the brevity of human life. Lamedh. Psalms 119:89-91. The heavens are mentioned with reference to their unchangeableness, as in Pss. 89:3; 30:37, not as a locality. So the firm establishment of the earth, as an actual proof and as the theatre of the unchangeable faithfulness of God (Geier, Hupfeld, Del.). The sense of Psa 119:91 is doubtful; its explanation depending upon what is assumed as the subject of ςָ ?ξְ ?γεּ, and upon the meaning of that word itself. If heaven and earth be taken as the subject of the verb and the latter be understood in the sense of standing firm (Hupf.), the meaning would then be that the heavens and earth stand firm for the judgments and laws of God, serving, as it were, to support them, after the analogy of the preceding figure. If the subject is the judgments (Kφster, De Wette, Hitzig), the meaning would be: As for thy judgments, they stand to day. The word would then not be used in the sense which it bears in Isaiah 55:11, but would mean His declared will, which, as the moral order of the world, is the internal complement of the physical order. The preservation of the world, Psalms 119:90, the continuance of the original creation, is an act of His unalterable and gracious purpose, Genesis 8:21 f. (Hitzig). If the subject be taken as generally as possible, as in Job 38:15, and with a reference to the following “all,” then it would not be merely meant, that all beings are subject to law, but either that they all, as his servants, stand ready to execute His will, Psalms 1:6 (Hengst.), or better, on account of the resemblance which the expressions bear to Numbers 30:5; Numbers 30:10; Joshua 20:6; Ezekiel 44:24, that they have humbly to obey God’s judicial decisions (Bφttcher, Del.), and that they must do so still to-day, because these declarations, long since formulated in the Law, are unalterably valid, as being words of God, and sure from eternity. Psalms 119:96 strictly says only in reference to extent in space, that the Psalmist had seen an end of it, that a limit was to be found to everything in the world. It is, however, usually so explained to mean that all perfection on earth was wanting, and that the Psalmist knew that fact from experience.—The breadth of the Law is its immeasurableness, expressed likewise as though in space, as, in Job 11:7-9, the immeasurableness of God. Mem. Psalms 119:99-102. The meaning of Psa 119:99 is not that the Psalmist had profited in understanding from his teachers and from those who were very old (the Rabbins), but that he was superior in that quality to his teachers and the aged. An opposition is indicated to a worldly wisdom whose source is not the word of revelation. It is less clear, whether opposition is felt by a younger man, in his zeal for the law, to older men, who were hellenizing, or whether the aged men are here mentioned as representatives, like the teachers, of human authority.—[Psalms 119:102. Alexander: “The divine judgments in this Psalm are always the external exhibitions of the divine righteousness in word or deed, by precept or by punishment. Here, of course, the former are especially intended. The figure of a way, though not expressed, is still indicated by the verbs depart and guide.”—J. F. M.] Nun.—To have one’s soul in his hand (Psalms 119:110) signifies, according to the context, to remain consciously in danger of death. To take one’s soul in his hand (Judges 12:3; 1 Samuel 19:5; 1 Samuel 28:21; Job 13:14) means: to be prepared to give up one’s life. Delitzsch cites the Talmudical saying: Man’s prayer is not heard unless he takes his life in his hand; i.e. unless he is ready to sacrifice his life. Samech. Psalms 119:113-118. The doubters are called literally: divided persons, divided, that is, between two views, or between two modes of belief with their opposing claims (1 Kings 18:21), [E. V. translates the first clause: I hate vain thoughts. The translation supposed the word in question to be another form of ρְ ?ςִ ?τְּ ?ιν (written usually with ωׂ), thoughts, opinions. Hitzig translates: double-tongued, referring to Sir 5:9. Riehm: “It is certainly more suitable to suppose that the hating is directed against hypocrites, or those wavering in their belief between the true God and false gods, than against doubters; but it may be more correct to explain according to Psalms 12:3; 1 Kings 18” Psalms 119:115 b. should be translated: and I will keep the commandments of God. Most translators render: “that I may keep,” etc. But this is meaningless. The true view is that given by Alexander: “The first clause is borrowed from Psalms 6:9. The meaning in both cases seems to be that he has no fear of their enmity. The reason given in this case is, because he is resolved to do the will of God, and is therefore sure of His protection.” Psalms 119:118 translate: Thou hast despised, i.e., instead of: Thou hast trodden down.—J. F. M.] Psalms 119:119-120. Dross, or the residuum of smelted metal, is an image of the separating and purifying process of God’s judgments (Jeremiah 6:28 f.; Ezekiel 22:18 f.; Malachi 3:2 f.).—In Psalms 119:120, τַּ ?ηַ ?γ is probably the terror of God, i.e., His dreadful appearing for judgment, Isaiah 2:10 f. (Hupfeld), before which the hair and skin of the Psalmist trembled (Exodus 34:7). Ayin. [Psalms 119:122. Be surety, etc. Alexander: “It means not merely: take me under Thy protection, but: become answerable for me, stand between me and those who, under any pretext, even that of legal right, may seek to oppress me.” See the phrase furtner discussed in Delitzsch on Job 17:3, and in his remarks at the end of that chapter, and comp. Alexander on Isaiah 38:14.—J. F. M.] Psalms 119:128. The words: τָ ?μΞτִּ ?χּ ?εּ ?γֵ ?ιλֹ ?μ, in spite of the analogy of Isa 29:11, as to the meaning, and of Num 8:16; Ezekiel 44:30, as to the form, are rather strange if they are intended to mean: all precepts concerning everything. Yet the correction λָ ?μΞτִ ?χּ ?εּ ?γֶ ?ικָ: all Thy precepts (Houbigant, Venema, Ewald, Olsh., Hupfeld), is not absolutely necessary. Pe. Psalms 119:129-132. Psalms 119:129 does not allude to the observance of God’s testimonies for the sake of fulfilling them, but to the contemplation of them in order to understand them; for they are designated wonderful and marvellous (paradoxical) things, elevated above every-day life and the common understanding (Del.). There is therefore a light demanded for men, as they are simple (Proverbs 22:3), which God gives by the τֵּ ?ϊַ ?η, that is, the opening or unfolding of His word. The opening of the mouth (Psalms 119:131) is an expression of the desire (Job 29:23) of the man who pants after the heavenly food of such disclosures. [The second member of Psa 119:132 should be rendered: according to the right of those that love Thy name. In E. V. ξִ ?ωְׁ ?τָּ ?θ was supposed to have here the sense of custom, a meaning which it sometimes has, compare Greek δικὴ), and Arabic dinϋn. This translation is retained by Perowne. But it is better, since the suffix is wanting, to take the word, as most do, in the sense of jus (comp. Psalms 81:5).—J. F. M.] Tzadhe. Psalms 119:138-141. Since ξְ ?ΰֹ ?γ (Psalms 119:138) belongs, as in Psalms 47:9, to the preceding substantive, it is, perhaps, better to take the substantive: ΰֱ ?ξεּ ?πָ ?δ and its parallel φֶ ?γֶ ?χ, not adverbially: in righteousness, in truth, or: in justice, in fidelity (Syr., Hupf., Del.), but as in apposition: as righteousness, as truth, or: as justice, as fidelity (Sept., Geier, Hitzig). [In E. V. the Heb. order is entirely abandoned. Alexander and Perowne follow the former of the views above given: “Thou hast commanded thy testimonies in righteousness and exceeding faithfulness.”—J. F. M.]—In Psalms 119:141 the term small, applied by the Psalmist to himself, is interpreted by most, after the Sept. and Vulg., as referring to his youth. Yet it may also mean: insignificant (Hitzig). Koph. Psalms 119:147 does not mean: I hastened to meet thee (Psalms 88:14) or: I hastened before thy face (Geier by supplying τָּ ?πֶ ?ικָ ?Nor can the meaning be: I anticipated the morning dawn, for χִ ?γֵּ ?ν has not the accusative here, as in Psalms 119:148, but stands absolutely=to go before (Psalms 68:20), or: to hasten one’s self, here followed by the words: in the dawn. But the object with which or to which he hastened is here not connected with what precedes by μ, as in Jonah 4:2, but, in a looser construction, with the sentence: and I cried. His eyes then anticipated the night watches, in having not been closed by sleep in the beginning of each of them severally. Psalms 119:152 means: I have long known from thy testimonies that, &c. (most), or: concerning thy testimonies, that (Hitzig). Hupfeld takes objection, and would rather translate, by doing away with the preposition: I have long known thy testimonies, for. Since, however, the preposition cannot be shown to be spurious, and the explanation of some of the older expositors: I know the times of old, or: antiquity, or: what is past, for, etc., is not tenable, he is not disinclined to take ιγςϊι absolutely: I am instructed, have understanding. Resh.Psalms 119:160. ψֹ ?ΰωׁ, according to the context, does not mean: the beginning (the ancient translators and most expositors), but the sum, the total number of all the items in the reckoning. “The word of God is reckoned over in its parts and as a whole. Truth is the grand denominator and Truth the result” (Delitzsch). Sin (Shin).—“While even in the oldest alphabetical Pijutim, Sin sometimes represents Samech also, and Shin never does, the reverse is the case in the biblical alphabetical pieces; here Sin and Shin occur together, and to Samech is assigned a place of its own” (Delitzsch) Psalms 119:164. Seven times, as in Leviticus 26:18; Proverbs 24:16, comp. Matthew 18:21, is not merely a round number, as it is at all events, in Proverbs 26:16; Proverbs 26:25 (Hitzig), but a sacred number. It is to be understood here, however, not arithmetically, but symbolically, representing a continued course of devotional exercises, complete in itself, and surrounding and pervading, with its sacred influences, all the duties of the day. In the same way such exercises three times engaged in (Psalms 55:18), were shown to be spontaneous, rising above the perfunctory spirit, which might characterize the customary morning and evening devotions. [Alexander: “The use of this form of expression here is not the effect, but the occasion of the use of canonical hours.”—J. F. M.] Tau.—[Psalms 119:171 translate: My lips shall pour forth praise, for Thou wilt teach me Thy statutes.—J. F. M.] Psalms 119:176. A lost sheep is one separated from the flock (Isaiah 27:13), and, therefore, every moment in danger of destruction. The idea is explained by Isaiah 53:6. The accents (J. H. Mich., Hupf., Del.) are usually not regarded. [Perowne: “The figure cannot be employed here in the same sense in which it is employed in our Lord’s parable. He who is the lost sheep here is one who does not forget God’s commandments. The figure, therefore, seems in this place to denote the helpless condition of the Psalmist, without protectors, exposed to enemies, in the midst of whom he wanders, not knowing where to find rest and shelter.” Alexander: “As the preceding verse sums up the petitions of the psalm, so this sums up its complaints in the first clause, and its professions in the last, connected by the short prayer (seek thy servant) as a single link. The predominant use of the past tense, even to the end, shows how deeply the entire psalm is founded upon actual and previous experience.”—J. F. M.] AND Psa_119:1-8. The blessedness of those who love, praise, and strive after God’s word, in spite of all its opposers.—From the relation in which thou dost stand to God’s word, thou canst derive knowledge concerning the inclinations of thy heart, the bias of thy soul, and the conduct of thy life.—Be not satisfied with the possession of God’s word in the Holy Scriptures, but grow in the knowledge of it, and exercise thyself in its use.—Open thy heart to God in prayer for the entrance of His Word in its power. Starke: The blessed use of God’s word consists in a pious life, regulated thereby sincerely and steadfastly.—The world seeks its happiness in riches and honors, and does not find it. God’s word is a mine of gold in which we must dig, if we would be eternally happy.—To walk in God’s ways, and not to do evil consciously, are things inseparably connected.—If thou doest what God bids thee, thou knowest thou canst do no wrong.—We learn faith from the gospel, and love from the law. How can these commands be better kept, than when they are obeyed in the exercise of faith and love?—Where there dwells a heavenly mind there is a longing and sighing after the things of heaven.—It is the highest of all arts, to impress God’s word deeply upon the heart, and to desire to listen to nothing else. We have to keep learning that art as long as we live.—When we have God as our Teacher, and the Holy Spirit as our Guide, we learn Divine things aright.—It is the nature of God’s word, that, the more and the more diligently we read it aud meditate upon it, the richer understanding, instruction, and comfort it imparts. Its teaching can never be exhausted. Frisch: Follow the known will of God, as in belief, so also in life, and depart neither from the love nor the fear of it.—Rieger: The blessed purpose, to seek God in His word, to cleave to Him according to His word, and to become a man thoroughly furnished to every good work through His word.—The word of God drives us to prayer by revealing to us our needs.—Richter: God’s word is the true expression and mirror of His nature.—Guenther: Having respect to God’s commandments is the condition of deliverance from temporal and eternal ruin. But this spiritual beholding is a looking to the commandments, contemplating them, meditating upon them, and observing them all without exception.—Diedrich: A life according to God’s law is not one of compulsion or servitude, but of the highest delight, of blissful enjoyment, and of lofty sublime security.—Taube: The Psalmist has a lofty aim before him, and yet there is a sigh in his bosom; he aspires to learn and perform assiduously God’s commandments, and yet to rest humbly in the mercy of God alone, and all with the whole heart and with an upright soul. [Matt. Henry: It will not serve us to make religion the subject of our talk, but we must make it the rule of our walk.—See how the desires and prayers of a good man exactly agree with the will and command of a good God. Thou wouldst have me keep Thy precepts, and, Lord, I fain would keep them.—God’s judgments are all righteous, and therefore it is desirable, not only to learn them, but to be learned in them, mighty in the Scriptures.—We cannot keep God’s commandments, unless we learn them, but we learn them in vain, unless we keep them.—Scott: It is the will of God that we should wisely seek our own happiness; our self-love, indeed, should be properly directed and subordinated: but it cannot and ought not to be extirpated.—Bridges : To exclude any commandment from a supreme regard in the heart, is the brand of hypocrisy.—We always find that as our mind is dark, our tongue is dumb and we are unable to bear a testimony for our God.—J. F. M]. Psalms 119:9-16. The greater the perils and the stronger the temptations which beset the young in the world (2 Timothy 2:22), the more do they need to hold us to God’s word, whose wisdom will help their inexperience, and whose power will help their weakness.—We must begin early to obey God’s word (Proverbs 8:17; Lamentations 3:27), and never cease.—From love to God’s word, there flow thanks that we have received it, joy that we now possess it, and desire to make use of it.—Those who have, hear, and learn God’s word, should also keep (Luke 11:28), profess and follow it, as the guide of their faith and life. Starke: He who would be godly must begin in time, for that to which one is habituated in his boyhood, he does not abandon in his age (Proverbs 22:6).—God’s word is the best school for the young and the old (2 Timothy 3:15; Lev. 2:31 f.).—True religion has its seat in the heart, and is proved by words, by works, and by a Christian life.—The more a believer exercises himself in God’s word, and tastes its graciousness, the dearer it becomes to him.—The heart as well as the memory must be a casket that contains the treasure of the Divine word.—Growth in godliness results from delight in God’s word. Arndt: God’s word must be fulfilled upon thee, whether for life or death.—Richter: Hold to God’s whole word early, earnestly, and joyfully.—Diedrich: I cannot trust in myself to remain steadfast. And the most advanced in spiritual things must implore it as a favor from God, that they may abide only in the truth.—Taube: A youth of unimpaired purity and strength, is a presage of the blessedness of the whole life. [Scott: As God is both perfectly holy and perfectly happy, and as His blessedness is the result of His infinite excellency, how absurd it must be to expect happiness by being contrary to Him and rebelling against Him!—Bridges: Let it be remembered that daily progress in the heavenly walk is not maintained by yesterday’s supply of grace. A fresh supply must be continually drawn in by humble and dependent prayer.—No better test can be needed of the security of our heart with God, than a willingness to come to the searching light of His holy word.—If our inability to bear a testimony for our Lord is not painful to us (comp. Psalms 39:12; Jeremiah 20:9), we have the greatest reason to suspect, if not the sincerity, at least the strength of our attachment to His precious name.—Barnes: Such an apprehension (that there may be a wandering from God’s commandments) is one of the best means of security, for it will lead a man to pray, and while a man prays he is safe.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 119:17-24. The word of God as the light and the food of His servants, who, as strangers upon earth, journey heavenwards.—Among the benefits and the wonders of God, the gift of His holy word shines forth in power, diffusing help and blessing in its beams.—All men desire life and well-being, and God furnishes the means of obtaining them. But how few are thoroughly acquainted with them, and how few avail themselves of them in the way appointed by God.—In order to discern the truth of revelation, we need not only to have the gift of sight, but also to pray that both our eyes and the Scriptures may be opened for us. Starke: We can only be said rightly to receive the blessings of God with thanksgiving when they are employed to advance our spiritual life, and the exercise of true godliness.—The wicked act as though they had to remain in the world for ever: the pious, on the contrary, know that their abiding place is in heaven, and they long after that (Hebrews 13:14).—The longing of believers for the true service of God is not a transient heat, but is hearty, ardent, and constant.—The mystery of affliction is soon solved if we keep God’s testimonies.—It is much better for us to live, so as to please the Supreme King who lives eternally. Then we will find comfort enough in His word.—The fear of men, and the desire to please them, poison true religion and prevent it from ever becoming pure. Frisch: Thou mayest consult God’s word upon whatever thou wilt, and it will never send thee away without advice. But it rests with thyself to follow it.—Tholuck: God’s law should not be the object of an idle contemplation, but a practical counsellor for all the relations of human life.—Guenther: A strong incitement to a pure life may be found in the nature of man and of his life, His temporal life is only the beginning not the end; the earth is not his enduring dwelling-place, but only a transient lodging-place. Woe to the stranger who has not chosen here the true home.—Diedrich: We must not allow ourselves to be turned from God’s word by the enmity of the world.—Gerok: God’s commands to His strangers on earth as inscribed upon the gates of the new year. They relate (1) to the heavenly Protector, (2) to the earthly companions, (3) to the heavenly goal.—Taube: God’s word is the greatest miracle; it is the key to the knowledge of His whole government. [Matt. Henry: I am a stranger, and therefore stand in need of a guide, a guard, a companion, a comforter; let me have Thy commandments always in view, for they will be all this to me, all that a poor stranger can desire. I am a stranger here, and must be gone shortly, by Thy commandments let me be prepared for my removal hence.—Bp. Horne: Pride, prejudice, and interest will compose a veil, through which the Christian shall see as little of the New Testament, as the Jew doth of the Old. Lord, convince us of our blindness, and restore us to our sight!—Bridges: It is indeed an unspeakable mercy to know a little of the Lord, and yet, at the same time, to feel that it is only a little that we do know. In this spirit we shall be longing to know more, and yet anxious to know nothing, except as we are taught of God.—We want, not a clearer rule, or a surer guide, but a more single eye.—J. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ Psalms 120 A Song of Degrees         In my distress I cried Unto the Lord, and he heard me. 2    Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, And from a deceitful tongue. 3    What shall be given unto thee? Or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? 4    Sharp arrows of the mighty, With coals of juniper. 5    Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, That I dwell in the tents of Kedar! 6    My soul hath long dwelt With him that hateth peace. 7    I am for peace: but when I speak, They are for war. AND Contents and Composition.—On the superscription compare Introd. § 6, No. 5. We have but little to add here. Ewald now decides for the reference to the festival journeys to Jerusalem. So also Liebusch in the Ouedlinburg Osterprogramm. 1866, mentions “The pilgrim songs in the Fifth Book of the Psalms.” Delitzsch, on the contrary, now holds to the expression “songs of ascents,” but refers, it, with Gesenius and others, to the artificial climactic form of the rhythm, in which the poem, by the repetition of one of the significant words immediately preceding advances by a gradual ascent. Hitzig traces this obscure and doubtful term, for which none of the explanations proposed are sufficient, (Hupfeld), to a word-play, by the collector and redactor of the fifteen Psalms which are furnished with this title, referring to the steps of the Temple. For the ascent to the outer court was made through each of the three gates by seven steps, and that to the inner court by eight; and in this small collection of songs, which are closely connected by many similarities both of form and contents, the first contains seven, the second eight verses. It is further to be remarked that, in Psalms 121. is written exceptionally lammaαlτth, which seems to favor the explanation: “for the upward journeys” (Aquila, Symmachus), but may just as well mean: after the manner of steps (Del.); for it is just in that Psalm that the climactic structure, which in others almost disappears, is displayed quite characteristically. This difference is entirely unnoticed by the Sept., Chald., and Jerome, and regarded by Hitzig as a mistake of the copyist. [Hengstenberg, with whom Alexander and Perowne, as well as most commentators, agree, favors the view first mentioned above. Against the view given in the Syrian translation, and also by Chrysostom and Theodoret, and formerly held by Ewald, that the title refers to those songs which were sung by Israel on the way home from Babylon, he urges the consideration that David and Solomon are mentioned as the composers of some of the Psalms which bear that title. He accounts for the position assigned to those Psalms, and the dissimilarity of style and modes of thought between them and the others, on the hypothesis, that “these five ancient Psalms, sung by the people, as they went up to Jerusalem, before the captivity, were made the basis of a whole series or system, designed for the same use, by an inspired writer, after the restoration, who not only added new Psalms of his own, as appears from the resemblances of tone and diction, but joined them to the old ones in a studied or artificial manner, entirely inconsistent with the supposition of fortuitous or random combination.” On the characteristics of the Psalms bearing the general title, he remarks: “These Psalms have much in common. The tone never rises in any of them above a certain height, and descends very speedily from that height when gained. They all bear the character of simplicity. With the exception of Psalms 132. they are all of short compass. In all of them, with the same exception, the parallelism of the clauses is little attended to. No one of them bears an individual character; they all refer to the whole Church of God with the exception, in some measure, of Psalms 127., which, without being individual, places before us, in the first instance, the particular members of the Church, but which the collector has applied also to the circumstances of the whole community.”—J. F. M.] In the Psalm before us is first presented an acknowledgment of prayer heard in former times (Psalms 120:1). There is then offered a prayer for deliverance from the power of a false, warlike, and savage enemy (Psalms 120:2-4). The suppliant longing for peace then complains (Psalms 120:5-7) of that enemy’s implacable hatred, this complaint being the more sorrowful and urgent, as he had already bitterly experienced, dwelling as he did in the midst of such savage foes, the painful contrast, already too much aggravated, to his former condition. Nothing definitely can be said as to the historical situation, not even whether the author had in mind purely personal experiences, or sufferings of his nation shared by him. Nor can we say whether the name of the enemy is to be taken historically or symbolically. Psalms 120:2-4. The expressions here are so concise and obscure, and it is possible to connect them in so many different ways, that the sense is highly doubtful. It is first most readily suggested to consider Psalms 120:3 as a continuation of the addressto Jehovah, and to take the deceitful tongue as the subject (Mendelssohn, Olshausen). But such a question would afford a sense but little suitable, and would be still less aptly connected with Psalms 120:4. It has therefore been proposed to invert this order, and to regard Jehovah as the subject, and the deceitful tongue as addressed in the vocative (many since Isaaki, also Hengst. and Del.) An allusion is then supposed to exist to the formula usually employed in the announcement of the Divine punishments, (1 Samuel 3:17 and frequently), and Psalms 120:4 is taken as a continuation of the question, and as a figurative description of the tongue (J. D. Mich., Ewald), which is a sharp sword (Psalms 57:5), and a pointed arrow (Jeremiah 9:7), and like the fire of hell (James 3:6); or it is regarded as the answer to the question, and as a sarcastic description of the punishments (comp. Psalms 140:11) according to the law of retribution. But the supposition of a sudden change of subject is very harsh in this connection, nor do adequate reasons for it appear. If, then, we return to the construction, according to which the deceitful tongue is the subject, it would certainly be in the highest degree forced and strange to suppose the possessor of the tongue to be meant, as metonymically implied in Psalms 120:2, and Psalms 120:4 to mention the punishments to be inflicted upon him for his deceitful conduct (Chald., de Dieu) or to describe figuratively the injuries which he causes to others, while he himself gains nothing by them (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Calvin, and many of the older expositors; also Rosenmόller and De Wette). But, instead of this, there would be an address to the Poet, whether in the form of a question put by himself, or by a third person, in poetical fashion, or whether it is, which however is least probable, referred to an indefinite person, as being a general expression. Psalms 120:4 would then present the conditions which called forth the prayer in Psalms 120:2, expressing figuratively the dangerous effects of the tongue, but in the form of an answer (Hitzig), and not as an explanatory description (Luther, Geier). [Dr. Moll thus translates Psalms 120:3-4 : “What to thee gives, and what to thee brings the tongue of deceit?” (tongue being the subject). Arrows of a strong one, sharpened, along with coals of the broom-tree.” This ingenious mode of viewing the passage appears to present its most natural connection, and, at the same time, to bring out its poetic beauty. The following rendering of Psa 120:1-4 will exhibit this view, the arrangement of the clauses in the original being in some cases neglected for the sake of perspicuity. 1. (The Poet.) I called to Jehovah in my distress, and He answered me. 2. Jehovah, deliver me from lips of lying, from the tongue of deceit. 3. (A third person is represented as addressing the Poet). What does the tongue of deceit give thee and bring to thee? 4. (The Poet). Arrows of a mighty man, sharpened, with coals of the broom-tree. The opinion mentioned above, as that of Hengstenberg and Delitzsch, is favored by Alexander and Perowne.—J. F. M.] The roots of the rethem, that is, of the broom-tree (Gesen.), not of the juniper (Jerome, the Rabbins, and the older expositors), furnish the best wood-coals in the opinion of the Arabs (Burckhardt, Reisen in Syrien II., 791, 1073. Robinson, Palestine, I., 336). They retain the glow longest, and, therefore, along with sharp arrows, are a suitable figure in the present connection. It is not said that the arrows were sharpened with broom-tree coals, or hardened, pointed in them (older expositors cited in De Wette), or that they were burning (Knapp). The particular term is perhaps chosen in allusion to the mention made in the following verse of an abode in the tents of Kedar, a predatory Arab tribe (Genesis 10:2; Isaiah 42:11; Isaiah 60:7; Sol. Son 1:5). But it does not follow from this, any more than it does from the cry of woe, (Calv., J. H. Mich.), that Psalms 120:4 should be severed from the preceding verse. Psalms 120:5-6. Neither can Psalms 120:4 be combined with the following verse, as though it represented the same historical situation. For we cannot justify the ingenious change of the reading βַ ?ηֲ ?μֵ ?ι into ΰָ ?δֳ ?μֵ ?ι (Hupfeld), in order to gain the meaning: the arrows of a warrior are sharp in the tents of Rethamim, according to the analogy of Psa 120:5, and the similar proper name in Numbers 33:18. Moreover Mesech is named besides, along with Kedar, as a place of residence. This name points to a region between the Caspian and Black Seas in the far North near Magog (Ezekiel 38:2). The attempts which have been made to bring it into connection with Damascus (Hitzig), or to refer it to another Ishmaelitish tribe elsewhere unmentioned (Olshausen), or to explain it appellatively of the long duration of the abode in a strange land (Sept. et al.) and thus to do away with the proper name, have arisen from the difficulty of assigning to the author a residence among two tribes so far apart, especially when such residence is also described as still continuing. Most expositors, therefore, since Saadias and Calvin, regard both names as figurative designations of rude and hostile companions. These are supposed by some to have been the nations among whom the Jews lived in the Exile; by others, the Samaritans, who retarded the re-building of the city; by others still, the tribes among whom the people of God dwelt during the dispersion. [Psalms 120:7. Delitzsch: “He, for his part is peace, (comp. Micah 9:4; Psalms 109:4; Psalms 110:3), inasmuch as love of peace, readiness for peace, and longing for peace fills his soul: yet, if he does but open his mouth, they are for war, their voice and conduct become hostile at once. . . . The Psalm ends with the shrill dissonance of ωׁ ?μεν and ξμηξδ. The cry for help, with which it begins, lingers hovering over that discord, longing for its removal.”—J. F. M.] AND ETHICALTo him who seeks peace, it is not always granted, in this world, to live in peace with those about him. He must often, and sometimes for a long period, have the bitterest experiences of their quarrelsome and hostile dispositions, and suffer much pain from their sore and malicious attacks by word and act. But the living God remains ever his Refuge, and the blessed experience of prayers, heard in times past, strengthens and encourages his faith in the coming of a like blessing in the troubled present, and his hopes of deliverance after renewed supplication. AND The pious have no peace in the world, but they can rest in God.—Wounds, inflicted by a sharp and malicious tongue, burn more severely than fire does, but God has a balm for them.—Blessed is he, who, though experiencing suffering in this evil world, experiences deliverance too, from answers to prayer. Starke: Liars and calumniators are the most injurious people in the world, and yet they injure none as much as they do themselves; for they are accursed, and an abomination unto God.—The kingdom of the devil is a kingdom of lies, and will in all likelihood, continue so, but Christ’s kingdom is one of eternal truth, whose fruit is peace and love.—The true Church has ever to dwell among the most cruel enemies, and under oppression. Frisch: It is much easier to heal a severe wound, than to repair the effects of a calumny circulated by lying tongues.—Guenther: The troubled, filthy spring of evil speaking is selfishness, envy, hatred of brethren, departure from God. If therefore, it is a sure mark of godlessness, and of a carnal disposition, to slander one’s brother, it is not to be wondered at, if the children of light have to suffer most from such poisonous arrows.—Taube: He who has entered into communion with the God of peace, through the blood of reconciliation, is a child of peace (Matthew 5:9), while the wicked are like the troubled sea, which can never rest. (Isaiah 57:20 f.). [Bp. Horne: Marvel not, O disciple of Jesus! if the world hate and oppose thee, but pray only that, when thou shalt be used as He was, thou mayest be enabled to bear that usage as He did. Barnes: I cried unto the Lord, etc,. I had no other resource. I could not meet the slander, I could not refute it. I could not prevent its effects on my reputation, and all that I could do was to commit the case to the Lord.—There is a world of peace, and the peace of heaven will be all the more grateful and blessed, when we go up to it from such a scene of conflict and war.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 121 A Song of degrees         I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help. 2    My help cometh from the Lord,Which made heaven and earth. 3    He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4     Behold, he that keepeth Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5    The Lord is thy keeper: The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6    The sun shall not smite thee by day, Nor the moon by night. 7    The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. 8    The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth, and even for evermore. AND Contents and Composition.—The Poet lifts his eyes to the mountains, upon which is Jehovah’s seat, with the assurance, that from thence protection from all that can imperil body and soul, and help in every situation of life, will be vouchsafed him by the almighty and eternal God, who is not only the Creator of the world, but the Keeper of Israel, and who never grows weary in His activity and care. The change of persons is probably to be regarded as a poetical figure. A responsive song between a single voice (Psalms 121:1; Psalms 121:3), and the believing Church (Psalms 121:2; Psalms 121:4), with the words of the Priest in (Psalms 121:5-8), in support of such trust (Olsh.), is not definitely indicated. The confidence of trust is expressed already in Psalms 121:1 b, without the need of taking the sentence relatively (the German, English and Dutch Bibles) against the prevailing usage of ξֵ ?ΰַ ?ιִ ?ο (yet comp. Joshua 2:4). The question is not one of uncertainty or doubt, but is a figure of speech. The particular situation of the Poet cannot be discovered. It is not even to be assumed with certainty that he was in exile, or on a festival journey. For the mountains to which he lifts his eyes are not any high places whatever in the world (Calvin et al.), from which help was expected, or the mountains within his present range of vision (Amyrald, Geier, J. H. Mich.), or those of Palestine, which the homesick exile beholds in fancy (De Wette), but those of Jerusalem, or of Zion (Psalms 87:1; Psalms 125:2; Psalms 133:3) as the dwelling-place of God and the place whence help proceeds (Psalms 3:5; Psalms 14:7). But there is nothing to show whether the Poet was in Jerusalem itself, or in its vicinity, or at a distance. The conjecture of an allusion to Samaria, in the sixfold repetition of the catchword ωׁ ?ξψ (Hengstenberg, Hitzig), is too bold, since the guardianship of Jehovah is the fundamental thought. Psalms 121:1-4. [The second member of Psa 121:1, Should be an interrogative sentence as explained above.—J. F. M.]. It is by no means admissible to obliterate (Rosenm., De Wette) the distinction between the subjective negative ΰμ ver 3, and the objective μֹ ?ΰ, Psalms 121:4. [Perowne: “The Psalmist turns to address himself. First he utters the wish that God’s watchful care may be extended to him, and then the conviction that the Keeper of Israel, He who has been the God of his fathers, who has led the nation through all its eventful history, doth not, will not, cannot, slumber or sleep, comp. Psalms 132:4, 1 Kings 18:27; Isaiah 5:27; Job 7:20.”—J. F. M.]. By the exclamation: behold! (Psalms 121:4), the assurance, that the Keeper of Israel cannot sleep, is still further supported. As the seed of Abraham, Israel could appropriate to itself the promise of Gen 28:15, so much the more confidently. No climax, however, is to be sought (Calv. Geier, J. H. Mich.), in the two verbs. On the contrary the former is the stronger, meaning literally: to snore. (Hupfeld). The strengthening of the expression is effected by the accumulation of synonyms. Psalms 121:5-6. The shade is an image of protection (Numbers 14:9; Psalms 91:1); and this figure has something peculiarly attractive to the Oriental, even when not a traveller. It occurs here as preparing the way for the mention of the Sun, which immediately follows, but has not a physical and local meaning=over thy right hand (Luther) or: lying towards thy right hand, that is, towards the south, or protecting on the sunny side (J. D. Mich., Muntinghe). This is plain, if we consider that the injurious influences proceeding from the sun and moon are introduced only as representative of dangers by day and night, against which the ever-watchful God grants protection. But a real phenomenon of nature lies at the foundation of the figure. Recent travellers of scientific culture report expressly, that hurtful influences upon the human frame are not only everywhere ascribed to the moon by popular belief, but that effects similar to those manifested in sun-stroke, are produced by the moonbeams. There is no reference, therefore, to coldness by night as contrasted with the heat of the day, Genesis 31:40; Jeremiah 36:30 (Hengst., after Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Calvin, Geier, et al.), nor is the moon introduced for the sake of the poetic parallelism (Hupfeld) δִ ?λִּ ?δto smite, of the destructive beating of the sun (Is. 49:40), upon plants, causing them to wither (Psalms 102:6), and upon the head (Jonah 4:8), resulting (Del.) in the symptoms of sunstroke (2 Kings 4:19, Jdt 8:2 f.). [Delitzsch: “Many years ago I heard a clergyman elucidate this passage from his own experience. While he was ascending a peak of the Riesengebirge, the moonbeams smote upon him so strongly, that he was compelled to shield his eyes with leafy twigs. And not long since I heard from Texas, that sleeping in the open air when the moon shines was in that country frequently followed by dizziness, mental aberration, and even death.” Other accounts from Batavia are given by De Wette and from the East generally by Ewald. Many expositors, however, understand by the smiting of the moon, the cold that is felt during the night, as being contrasted with the heat of the sun, comp. Genesis 31:39; Jeremiah 36:30 (Hengst. et al.) De Sacy remarks: “they say sometimes of intense cold, as of intense heat that it is burning.” “The Arab also says of snow and cold as of fire, jahrik, it burns.” (Delitzsch). The same usage was noticed by Defoe, who, in Robinson Crusoe, makes Friday utter the same exclamation during his first experience of snow.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 121:8. The going out and the coming in do not denote specially going abroad and returning home, in the beginning and completion of any undertaking (Hengst.). but the whole life, and its occupations (Hupfeld, et al.). This is proved by the usage of the expression in many passages [Perowne: “Comp. Deuteronomy 28:6; Deuteronomy 31:2; 1 Samuel 29:6, etc. The threefold expression: ‘shall keep thee... thy soul... thy going out and thy coming in,’ marks the completeness of the protection vouchsafed, extending to all that the man is, and that he does. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.”—J. F. M.]. AND Men have not only to expect confidently help from God, they must also pray for it, and are permitted to resort trustingly to Him.—What consolation is contained in the reflection, that the Creator of the world is not only the God of revelation, but also the eternal Keeper of His Church, and of each of its members!—God neither confines His help to time and place, nor is limited in it by any creature whatever, nor directs it to any exclusive sphere of bodily or spiritual need.—God is our Keeper in everything; but do we at all times place ourselves rightly under His protection? Starke: In time of need, our ruined nature is sorely inclined to seek help in those objects which can render none.—As mountains are a natural stronghold, so are God’s protection and assistance our more than natural mountain and fortress.—Thou troubled child of God, dost thou doubt that thou shalt be preserved? If God preserves the heavens and the earth which He has made, should He not also preserve thee?—God has a watchful but loving and merciful eye upon His children, He sees from afar all misfortune, and can avert it in time.—If the soul is lost, all is lost; Satan is continually laying his snares for it; do thou then pray the more fervently; O Lord! keep my soul!—The most important changes of a man’s life, are his entrance into the world and his departure from it; in both the Divine preservation is indispensable.—Thou hast God’s promise, so do thou, O fellow Christian! appropriate it believingly to thyself in every undertaking.—Frisch: Distress teaches us men to look around for help. But it is to be lamented that the timid heart does not know how to compose itself and seek it in the right place.—Help does not come to men from the place whither the flesh looked for it, but whither the soul of David turned to receive it.—Umbreit: All the acts of the pious are performed under God’s protection, whether abroad or at home.—Guenther: The departure from life, and the entrance into the eternal abodes of safety, are the goal of life, the first of all cares, and the highest of all joys.—O Lord! we are all travellers through life; we would also be true pilgrims.—Taube: The guardianship of God over the whole life, over time and eternity.—Huyssen: The hope of the Christian in the dangers of war.—Diedrich: God’s Church is exhausted here and encompassed by dangers; our comfort is, that God will guard us His inheritance, and lead us home to Himself. [Matt. Henry: It is infinite wisdom that contrives, and infinite wisdom that works the safety of those, that have put themselves under God’s protection.—Those must needs be well kept, that have the Lord for their Keeper. If by affliction they be made His prisoners, yet, still He is their Keeper.—He shall prevent the evil thou fearest, and sanctify, remove, or lighten the evil thou feelest. He shall keep thee from doing evil, 1 Corinthians 13:7, and so far from suffering evil, as that whatever afflictions happen to thee, there shall be no evil in them. Even that which kills shall not hurt.—He will keep thee in life and death, thy going out and thy going on while thou livest, and thy coming in when thou diest, going out to thy labor in the morning of thy days, and coming home to thy rest, when the evening of old age calls thee in. Psalms 104:20.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 122 A Song of degrees of David         I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.2    Our feet shall stand Within thy gates, O Jerusalem. 3    Jerusalem is builded As a city that is compact together: 4    Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel. To give thanks unto the name of the Lord.5    For there are set thrones of judgment, The thrones of the house of David. 6    Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: They shall prosper that love thee. 7    Peace be within thy walls, And prosperity within thy palaces. 8    For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. 9    Because of the house of the Lord our God. We will seek thy good. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist had rejoiced in those, who, at the close of their pilgrim-journey to Jerusalem, had expressed to him their intention of visiting the house of God. (Psalms 122:1-2). This gives occasion to him to celebrate the praise of Jerusalem, as a city unbroken and perfectly regular in its structure, whither the tribes of Jehovah, according to the law established in Israel, made their festival journeys, and which, besides this religious importance, exercised great political influence as the seat of the kingdom of David (Psalms 122:3-5). Peace and prosperity should be invoked for this city and its inhabitants, and the Psalmist sets the example of such supplication, as a companion of the people and a lover of God’s house (Psalms 122:6-9). The text, however, on account of the indefiniteness of the Hebrew tenses, has given occasion also to other explanations. But this view seems most suitable, if the Davidic authorship be held. The statement to that effect in the superscription is, it is true, not found in the Sept. et al.; but it occurs in the Heb. Text, and cannot be directly disproved from the contents of the Psalm, or from its linguistic peculiarities. For the ωׁ prefixed, Psalms 122:3-4, is a poetical form which is found even in the most ancient songs.—[Alexander: “This Psalm, though so much older than the two before it, was probably placed third in the series because it was intended to be sung, and actually was sung, at the entrance of the Holy City, whereas the others were used at the commencement of the march and on coming in sight of Jerusalem.” On the other hand, Perowne prefers to look for a composition subsequent to the exile, and cannot regard the expression: “thrones of the house of David,” as a natural one in the mouth of David himself. But, apart from the evidence of the superscription, an argument against the lateness of the composition may be based upon this very expression, as has been done by Hengstenberg. For it evidently points to a time when the kingdom of David was still flourishing. Besides as Hengst. also remarks, how could the allusion to the beautiful compactness of the city be of force after the exile? Perowne very properly objects, on account of the joyful tone of the poem, to the opinion of Ewald, that it contains “a blessing on a party of pilgrims uttered by an old man returned from the exile, himself unequal to a journey across the desert.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 122:1-2. I joyed in those that said,etc. [E. V.: I joyed when they said, etc.] The mode of expression is not favorable to the supposition that the Psalmist had just received the invitation to join the festal train, that he expresses his joy thereat, and directs his gaze to Jerusalem in hope of speedily arriving thither (Luther and most). It is a retrospect that he makes (Sept., Aquila, and the ancient versions generally). But he says neither that his joy was at an end, nor that the time when it was excited was very remote. This remains quite indefinite. The Psalmist only mentions a certain experience and the feeling thereby excited. His joyful feelings had for their direct object, not the journey, but the persons who had spoken to the Psalmist with regard to it, and whose words contained both an invitation and a positive statement. The invitation relates to a journey to be made to the house of God in company with the Psalmist; the information, to journeys previously and happily performed by the speakers, and therefore passes over into an expression of praise. This could very well have happened in the experience of David in Jerusalem, before whom the pilgrims had appeared. There is not the slightest occasion for connecting it with the absence of David and his longing after the sanctuary during the flight before Absalom (Del.). [Delitzsch merely gives this as the most suitable time, if the composition were to be assigned to David. But his opinion, more decidedly pronounced in his last edition, is that the Psalm was composed by one who was gazing upon Jerusalem restored from its ruin after the exile. He therefore renders, in Psalms 122:3 : rebuilt, instead of built.—J. F. M.] No indication of longing or of sorrow is heard; but everything breathes joy, and the assertion that the absence of the poet from Jerusalem is understood as a matter of course (Hupfeld), is wholly a product of fancy. Nor is there any occasion for taking the words as a prophecy (Calvin, Venema). Nothing points to the future. On the contrary, the participle with διδ expresses duration of time, extending through the past into the present. In any case, Psalms 122:2 can be detached entirely from the one preceding, which would then be taken as the introduction, and may be understood as expressing not the words of the pilgrims, but of the poet harmonizing with them. But this view is not absolutely necessary. If it be the correct one, these words in the mouth of David could be justified only on the supposition that he speaks for the people (Hengst.), and the poet would be made to appear as a fellow-pilgrim, unknown to us from any other indications, journeying from the country outside to the Holy City, in company with the visitors at the festival, who speak in Psalms 122:1. He, arrived at the end of his journey, breaks forth in admiring praise at the sight of the glorious beauty of Jerusalem, after first expressing the delight which he had experienced at the time of the invitation in those who had addressed it to him. But this view is certainly more to be commended than the assumption that Psalms 122:2 also contains a retrospect, and that the whole poem was sung on the return from the journey (Delitzsch), or by an exile (Ewald), who, in joyful sympathy with the resolution of some pious Israelites, to undertake a pilgrimage, relapsed into reminiscences of the time when his feet too were standing in the gates of Jerusalem. [Psalms 122:1-2 are thus translated by Dr. Moll: I took delight in those who said to me: We will go into the house of Jehovah; Our feet have become standing In thy gates, Jerusalem. This view, according to which Psalms 122:2 is a continuation of the words of the pilgrims, is the most suitable, if David be regarded as the author. Perowne, holding the other view, joins it to Psalms 122:3.—The rendering “shall stand” in E. V. is ungrammatical. The true meaning expressed freely is probably: have gained a place. On the meanings of the subst. verb with the part., see Ewald, 168 c.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 122:3. Jerusalem, thou that art built up. [E. V.: is builded.] Taken by itself, this expression would be meaningless. It has therefore often been taken emphatically: built up loftily, stately (most), or, under the supposition of a composition after the exile: thou that art rebuilt (Hupfeld, Del.). But the former is linguistically inadmissible; the latter an unsupported assumption. To gain the surest meaning, it is best to connect it with the following word by which a sentence results, somewhat halting in structure, it is true, but yet not altogether without example. But the object of the building is not that men should assemble there (Luther). The character of Jerusalem is exhibited as a city self-inclosed, adhering closely together as a community (Sept. Symmachus). The city, however, is not contrasted with the scattered dwellings of a village (Aben Ezra and many older expositors), as though the verse expressed the admiration felt by a rustic pilgrim, who, for the first time, beholds a great city (Herder, De Wette). It is mentioned, either as one which had no breaches in its wall (Hitzig, who refers specially to the building operations of Jonathan), or, generally, as one that was secure and strong on account of its compact structure. The older Rabbins, following the Targum, interpreted the expression as referring to the heavenly Jerusalem; and so it has often been applied, in the mystical sense, in the Christian Church. [Translate Psalms 122:3 : Jerusalem, thou that art built up as a city that is compact together.—J. F. M.] Psalms 122:4. This verse is a retrospect of actual events; but it does not intimate that they had happened long, for centuries, or since ancient times, but that the tribes which, as being those of God’s people, are here called the tribes of Jehovah, had already for some time observed this custom. Accordingly the law referring to it, Exodus 23:14-15; Deuteronomy 16:16, is mentioned as a “testimony of Israel.” The term ςֵ ?γεּ ?ϊִ does not imply that it was an old-established custom, but only that the tribes who formed the united Israel had already publicly professed their allegiance to this law, and abided by it. David, in the later years of his life, could express himself thus, and apply the words of Psa 122:5, which are employed more objectively here with relation to his house, with a meaning based upon the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7, if the verse be not itself a prophecy. Psalms 122:5. The thrones are not magisterial benches=courts of justice under David’s authority (Hengst.), or a court of inferior judges formed by the sons of the king (J. H. Mich. et al.), but the thrones of a judge=thrones of the king (Rosenmόller et al.); for the administration of justice was the original and principal duty of the monarch in times of peace (2 Samuel 15:2; 1 Kings 3:16). The word for is explained by the consideration that Jerusalem owed its elevation, as the religious centre of the nation, to its previous position as the civil capital (Hengst.). [Render Psalms 122:4-5 : Whither the tribes went up—the tribes of Jehovah—a law of Israel—to give thanks to the name of Jehovah. For there were set thrones for judgment—thrones for the house of David.—J. F. M.] Psalms 122:6-7. The wishes are arranged alliteratively, and contain unmistakable allusions to the name Jerusalem and its signification=peaceful dwelling. But the word schalτm is more comprehensive than our word peace [Friede]; it includes welfare or prosperity and happiness. Psalms 122:6 does not call for an inquiry=ask after the peace (Sept. et al.), but for intercession=pray for the peace of Jerusalem. In Psalms 122:6 b. we are not to supply: saying (Isaaki, Geier); it is the wish of the speaker himself (J. H. Mich.) in behalf of those who love Jerusalem, as contrasted with those who hate Zion (Psalms 129:5). The walls or the bulwarks and the palaces are not intended to represent the outside and inside (most), but express the idea of the city itself (Psalms 48:14). Psalms 122:8 shows that no reproach of selfishness or private interest could possibly be made. The welfare of all the members of the Church lies close to the heart of the Psalmist (comp. Jeremiah 29:7). It is doubtful whether in the second member the rendering should be: pronounce peace over thee, i.e., wish and pray for thee peace (Sept., Luther and most) or: speak peace, for peace in thee (Calvin, Geier, Venema, Hupfeld) or: say, peace be in thee (Piscator, Kφster, Hengst., Olshausen). AND He who loves the people of God must not only be willing to build and protect for them the house of God, but must also invite them thither, and walk thither with them.—Peace rules only where the God of peace dwells; cleave thou then to the city of peace which is the Church of the living God.—When we go out of our houses, let us see well to it, (1) with whom, (2) whither, (3) for what purpose.—The greatest glory of a city is not that it is large, strong and magnificent, but that it gathers, protects and builds up God’s Church within it.—He who delights to give thanks, will also delight to pray, and that not only for himself, but also with and for others. Blessed is the man for whom attendance upon the house of God is a season of delight and an occasion of thanksgiving, praise and prayer.—Blessed are the people whose national life has for its centre the sanctuary of God. Calvin: When the welfare of our brethren is dear to us, when we have religion in our hearts, then we must, as far as in us lies, care for the prosperity of the Church. Starke: The true worship of God and the exercise of righteousness are strong pillars of a city or state.—The ministers of God’s word have not only to pray themselves for the welfare of the Church, but also to exhort their people diligently to do the same.—Peace, with its delights, is one of the most precious of earthly blessings. But what is more abused?—The true members of the Church possess that inward spiritual peace which includes all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.—How blessed is the communion of saints! Daily and hourly can a citizen of the spiritual Jerusalem enjoy thousands of wishes of peace, uttered for him by believers throughout the whole world.—Those are the true patriots who, without seeking their own advantage, seek and entreat help for the well-being of their fellow-countrymen and the furthering of true religion. Frisch: A place is made illustrious and glorious only by a good government and the true worship of God.—Arndt: God blesses His people with peace and all blessings when they manifest brotherly love; but see who the true brethren of Christ are.—Rieger: Prayer must be made continually, that good regulations in the Church and in schools may not fall into disuse, that good plans may not be marred by discord.—Reichel: All the regulations which David made had a reference to the house of the Lord. He devoted every day of his latest years to building it up and directing its services. He delighted in all that spoke to him of it, and enjoyed its worship.—Tholuck: David prepared a dwelling-place for the Lord upon Zion, because he loved it, and his heart clung more to that place, because he had prepared a dwelling-place there for God.—Diedrich: Wherever men assemble, according to God’s appointment, to enjoy in common what He reveals, there is Jerusalem.—Taube: David’s city is the city of God; for in David’s person is represented a two fold type —the God-ordained king and the servant of the Lord.—David desired to have one thing implored for his beloved city—peace, that it might prevail in the city of peace—without before the walls, within in each dwelling.—Lyncker: Concerning pilgrimage to the heavenly Jerusalem, (1) what joy it excites (Psalms 122:1-3); (2) what prospects it opens (Psalms 122:4-5); (3) what obligations it involves (Psalms 122:6-9). [Matt. Henry: They that rejoice in the Lord, will rejoice in calls and opportunities to wait upon Him.—We should desire our Christian friends, when they have any good work in hand, to call for us and take us along with them.—We must pray for Jerusalem, not out of custom or for fashion’s sake, but out of a principle of love to God’s government of man, and man’s worship of God. And in seeking the public welfare we seek our own; for so well doth God love the gates of Zion, that He will love all those that do love them; and therefore they cannot but prosper; at least their souls shall prosper, by the ordinances they so dearly love.—Whatever lies within the sphere of our activity to do for the public good, we must do it, else we are not sincere in praying for it.—Scott: Satan’s maxim always has been, to divide that he might conquer, and few Christians have been sufficiently aware of his design.—Barnes: The heart of a pious man is in the Church of God; his main delight is there; his arrangements will be made so as best to enjoy the privileges of the sanctuary; and his plans of life will all contemplate the welfare, the extension, and the influence of the Church of God.—J. F. M.] Psalms 123 A Song of degrees         Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. 2    Behold, as the eyes of servants Look unto the hand of their masters, And as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, Until that he have mercy upon us. 3    Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 4    Our soul is exceedingly filled With the scorning of those who are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud. AND Contents and Composition.—The situation in which the poet was placed may be compared with Nehemiah 2:19. From this situation an ardent prayer for a manifestation of the Divine mercy arises, with an upward look of faith to that God, who is exalted above all the world, and is its Sovereign. “This is a heavy sigh from an anguish-stricken heart, which looks all around and seeks friends, protectors, and comforters, but can find none. Therefore it says: where shall I find refuge, poor, despised man that I am? I am not strong enough to defend myself; wisdom and counsel fail me amidst the multitude of the onsets of my enemies; therefore come I to Thee, O my God; unto Thee do I lift up mine eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens!” (Luther). The Psalmist declares, first, in the singular number, what he does personally, but immediately thereafter he employs the plural, as a member and representative of a large community. [The circumstances described in Nehemiah 2:12 ff. are generally accepted as the situation of the writer of the Psalm. The following is the view of Perowne: “The Psalm is either the sigh of an exile, towards the close of the captivity, looking in faith and patience for the deliverance, which he had reason to hope was now nigh at hand, or it is the sigh of those who, having already returned to their native land, were still exposed to the scorn and contempt of the Samaritans and others, who, favored by the Persian Government, took every opportunity of harassing and insulting the Jews, comp. Nehemiah 2:19 with Psalms 123:4.” Delitzsch thinks that it is possibly a Maccabean Psalm, in which case the last word of the poem might allude “to the despotic rule of the ιְ ?εָ ?πִ ?ιν” (Ionians, sons of Javan, the Western nations generally). With reference to the character of the psalm, he quotes the beautiful expression of Alsted (died 1633), who styles it, oculus sperans, the eye of hope—J. F .M].. [Ver.1b, should perhaps be rendered: Oh, Thou that sittest in the heavens!: that is, God is addressed as one who is enthroned as king, and who can therefore be appealed to for sovereign aid. This also supports the exposition of Psa 123:2, defended below.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 123:2. Upon the hand of their masters. The look is probably not directed to the punishing hand, which administers deserved chastisement, Genesis 16:6 f. (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Ewald, Hengst.), or to the hand giving the sign for the punishment to cease (Rosenmόller). It would be better to regard it as the hand that scatters blessings, affords protection and sustenance, Psalms 104:27 f.; Psalms 145:15 f. (Chald., Calv., Geier, J. H. Mich., Kφster, et al.). But perhaps the most correct interpretation is that which is based upon the relation of dependence, so distinctly expressed, and understands the hand which controls the household, the disposing hand, to be referred to, from which the dependants have to expect confidently the supply of all their needs, (De Wette, Hupf., Del.). [Delitzsch: “The Israelites are Jehovah’s servants, the Church of Israel is Jehovah’s handmaid. In His hand lies her future destiny. He will at last have compassion on His Own. Therefore is her longing unwearied gaze cast upwards to Him, until He shall remove her oppression.”—J. F. M.]. Psalms 123:4. The idea of presumption is proper to the word ωַׁ ?ΰֲ ?πָ ?ο. (=secure). [E. V.: who live at ease, which is the first signification of the word. J. F. M.]. It is here parallel to βΰιּ ?επιν, which the Masorites reckon among the fifteen which are written as one word, but to be read as two. According to this the translation would be: of the pride of the oppressors. But it has been already explained by Aben Ezra and Kimchi as an adjective form, occurring only in this passage. AND When we are in trouble upon earth, it is our comfort, that we have in heaven a God, into whose controlling hand we can commit all our cares.—If we are to act as servants of the Almighty, we must not merely raise our eyes to heaven: we must also yield our hearts to Him.—Servants of God must learn to endure contempt and scorn from the children of the world; out for this they have need of the faith and patience of the saints.—God’s hand of mercy and our hand of faith are put forth simultaneously. Starke: All believers are looking up to heaven; and their Father in heaven is looking down. And thus neither faithfulness nor love grows less on either side until they meet.—That faith, which looks untiringly upon God, is something great and powerful, which is not to be found by the way, but must be gained by prayer and supplication.—He who, for the sake of Christ and God, can bear and suffer faithfully ridicule and contempt, has made great progress in one element of true religion.—Frisch; God regards those who are faithful and obedient. But I would that faithful servants and handmaids would regard the Lord who is over all.—Rieger: My faith waits for the Lord, and for what comforting deeds He shall do for me and display before me.–Richter: Unbelief first despises and then ridicules, and after despite and ridicule comes persecution.—Tholuck: As long as we look to human hands, hope and fear must alternate, but when those who dare to trust a merciful God, look only to His hands, assurance abides with them.—Guenther: No man can give, unless God previously fills and opens his hands.—Taube: After men have looked towards God, they run towards Him, and then they cannot be put to shame. [Matt. Henry: The eyes of a servant are, (1) to his master’s directing hand, (2) to his supplying hand, (3) to his assisting hand, (4) to his protecting hand, (5) to his correcting hand, (6) to his rewarding hand.—Scott: Contempt is very hard to bear; but the servants of God should not complain, if they are treated as His beloved Son was.—Bp. Horne: Under the law of Moses, a master was to demand satisfaction, and to have it made him, for any hurt done to his servants. And shall not the best of masters avenge the wrongs done to those that serve Him?—Barnes: The Church has performed its duty better in the furnace of persecution, than it has in the gay scenes of the world.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 124 A Song of degrees of David         If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, Now may Israel say; 2    If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, When men rose up against us: 3    Then they had swallowed us up quick, When their wrath was kindled against us: 4    Then the waters had overwhelmed us, The stream had gone over our soul: 5    Then the proud waters Had gone over our soul. 6    Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us As a prey to their teeth. 7    Our soul is escaped as a bird Out of the snare of the fowlers: The snare is broken, And we are escaped. 8    Our help is in the name of the Lord,Who made heaven and earth. AND Contents and Composition: Great dangers, by which the Israelitish people were threatened and in which they would have perished if it had not been for the help of God, for which He is now gratefully praised, are here described by the figures of overflowing floods of water and the snare of the hunter. The mention of David in the superscription is not found in any of the ancient versions except the Chald., but the images remind one strongly of expressions employed by David, as also does the “lofty theological spirit of faith” (Luther). The contents also are suited to dangers of the war with Syria and Edom (Hengstenberg). The supposition of Aramaic word-forms is disputed even by Hupfeld, who, however, as do most of the recent commentators, finds the condition of the people after the return from exile, referred to. Delitzsch also assigns the poem to the same period, but regards it as one composed after the manner of David, while Hitzig refers it to the sudden deliverance from extreme danger (1Ma 13:20 f.), when Tryphon withdrew his forces and returned to his own country. [The conjecture of Delitzsch that the words “by David” were inserted in the title on account of the resemblances to passages in the Davidic Psalms, is improbable. Such an insertion would at all events have been quite superfluous, for the cotemporaries of the supposed author were certainly sufficiently versed in the psalmodic literature to perceive the allusions, and his object could not have been to mislead them. In spite of the conclusion of recent critics, with whom Perowne also, among the English commentators, agrees, it is best to remain with Hengst., by the statement of the superscription.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 124:1-3. The explanation of ωׁ before διδ (Psalms 124:1), is doubtful, whether it is to be construed as a conjunction that, or as a relative who, or whether it is to be regarded as a pleonasm of later times (Hupfeld, et al.), or as a pregnant construction with a contraction of the two clauses. But the sense remains unaffected by any of these variations.—The form ΰει for ΰε is not a later but an ancient and poetical one. The expression Psalms 124:3 a is based upon Numbers 16:32, comp. Psalms 55:16; Proverbs 1:12.Psalms 124:4-5. The water as a figurative representation of enemies (Ps. 23:17; 144:7). In Psalms 124:4 b occurs the fuller form πַ ?ηֲ ?μָ ?δ and not the accusative: to the stream, as in Numbers 34:5, comp. Bφttcher, Ausfόhrliche Sprachlehre § 615,—the form ζιγεπιν (Psalms 124:5) for ζιγινPsalms 86:14; Psalms 119:51; Psalms 119:78, is found also in Psalms 54:5, and is not an unhebraic form, although only found in the Chaldee as the usual term. [Psalms 124:8. Delitzsch: “The help of Israel is in the name of Jehovah, the Creator of the world, i.e. in His name revealed and perpetually attested as Jehovah. If the power of the world would seek to assimilate to itself, or to annihilate, the Church of Jehovah, it is not the denial of her God that will deliver her, but faithful confession, steadfast even unto death.-J. F. M.]. AND It is often only after deliverance that we realize the extent of the danger we have escaped. But does our gratitude correspond to this knowledge, and does our rejoicing continue?—God is not merely the only but also the efficient Deliverer of His people. To Him alone the honor is due (Psalms 28:6; Psalms 31:22), with the unreserved trust of the Church (Psalms 56:12).—Communion with God our only but certain deliverance from ruin; let us therefore draw nigh unto Him, as he has drawn nigh unto us.—Let the whole world be against us, if God be for us.—The world is less mighty, but more harmful, than many suppose. Starke: When God is present in mercy, there can not only no evil harm us, but we also cannot want any good thing,—It is not to be ascribed to the clemency of the enemies of the Church that she is not destroyed, as though they could be so merciful; but to the defence and protection of God.—It must be a cold winter when wolves devour one another; but men are much more wicked, and are inflamed with such cruel mutual rage, that they fall upon one another like wild beasts.—The faith which clings simply and alone to God, obtains supernatural help from Him, from His omnipotence and compassion.—That which is built upon human strength stands upon the yielding sand, and must fall to the ground; but that which is built upon God’s word and power, stands firmly, and can neither fail nor fall. Rieger: David presents two considerations to the little band of God’s people: first, from how much danger God preserves them, and then, the trust which they should repose in Him for such mercy.—Frisch: Let men be angry; if only God is not angry with thee, their anger cannot harm thee.—Tholuck: A confession and a vow that He, to whom all things must minister, as He has made them all, shall be Israel’s only Help and Consolation.—Schaubach: Blessed be the Lord, to whom alone we owe it, that we remain unharmed in body and soul even unto this hour.—Richter: If the world cannot always rage against believers as it would like to do, give to the Lord who restrains it all the glory.—Many cherish the delusion that the world is not so very hostile, and give it the honor instead of God; follow thou in all things the Holy Scriptures.—Let the redeemed be as swift to praise as God is ready to help; and as the need and help were great, so let the thanks be abundant and hearty.—Diedrich: As it is with the whole of the Church, so also with each individual believing soul; it must ever keep toiling like the swimmer in the water; for the world, the flesh, and the devil keep up their attacks upon it.—Taube: Two marks indicate perpetually the deeply engraved trace of the guidance of Israel: trouble below, help from above.—Israel’s thanksgiving and expectation take refreshing rest in the name of the Lord. [Matt. Henry: It is a comfort to all that lay the cause of God’s Israel next their hearts, that Israel’s God is the same that made the world, and therefore will have a Church in the world, and can secure that Church in the times of the greatest danger and distress. In Him, therefore, let the Church’s friends put their confidence, and they shall not be put to confusion.—Bp. Horne: The redeemed are astonished upon looking back at the greatness of the danger to which they had been exposed.—Happy they who are taken from the evil to come, and have passed from the miseries of earth to the felicities of heaven, where they are neither tempted nor molested more.—Barnes (Psalms 124:8): Often in life, when delivered from danger, we may feel this: we always may feel this, and should feel this, when we think of the redemption of our souls.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [The treatment, by many modern critics, of the title of this Psalm, furnishes an example of the capricious criticism that would reject the superscription generally. The title is shown to be spurious chiefly from the following considerations: The Psalm stands between two others whose authors are not named in their superscriptions, but which, from their contents, are supposed to be connected with the Captivity and the Restoration. It also must belong to the same period. It contains expressions which occur in some of David’s Psalms; this led the collector to think that David was the author, and he recorded this conjecture as a fact. The first plea assumes that those Psalms which belong to the same period must have been placed together in the same group (here in the Degree Psalms). But this principle, though occasionally followed in the Psalter, is manifestly not the one adopted in the Degree Psalms. This collection was probably arranged on the principle that those Psalms which bore a mutual resemblance in general subject, mental posture, or external situation, should be grouped together. So Psalms 123-126 are found as one series. Psalms 127, 128 are strikingly similar, as also a resemblance is clearly discernible between Psalms 130, 131. This sufficiently accounts for the insertion of a Degree-Psalm of David between others of a later date. The second argument would assume that David was very unlikely ever to repeat himself. It is remarkable that these points of coincidence have been adduced by other commentators with equal plausibility, as additional evidence of a Davidic composition, which they fortify by the citation of cases incontestably parallel.—J. F. M.] [The last named construction, adopted in E. V., is the more common as well as the more regular one. Psalms 94:17 is a real parallel, in spite of Hupfeld’s objection to the contrary. For the relative clause here is equivalent to, or rather is, a real predicate, such as is found in that passage. Pleonasms should only be assumed under absolute necessity.—J. F. M.] [In E. V. notice the use of the word quick, in its antiquated sense alive.—J. F. M.] Psalms 125 A Song of Degrees         They that trust in the Lord Shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. 2    As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, So the Lord is round about his people From henceforth even for ever. 3    For the rod of the wicked shall not rest Upon the lot of the righteous; Lest the righteous put forth Their hands unto iniquity. 4    Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, And to them that are upright in their hearts. 5    As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, The Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: But peace shall be upon Israel. AND Contents and Composition.—The confession of the immovableness of the trust of those that believe in Jehovah is grounded upon His everlasting protection of His people (Psalms 125:1-2). The same consideration confirms the believing expectation, that the prolonged continuance of an unrighteous dominion in the Holy Land, which would serve to tempt the righteous themselves, would be impossible (Psalms 125:3). A prayer is then uttered for God’s intervention, according to the law of retribution, along with a wish for the blessings of peace and prosperity upon Israel (Psalms 125:4-5). The nature of the contents favors the supposition that the people were not in Exile but in the Holy Land; whether, at the time, under a heathen government, or under their own rulers who were unrighteous and faithless, is not definitely indicated. Nor can we discover how far the temptation in the situation described leads to actual consequences. Many word-forms point to a late period. [Hengstenberg, Alexander, Perowne, and others, see, especially in Psalms 125:3, allusion to the circumstances of the nation after the return from captivity. The last named refers, more definitely, to Nehemiah 2:16; Nehemiah 6:17, and to other passages where the influences of the neighboring tribes, hostile or otherwise, had wrought evil among the Israelites. On other hand Delitzsch and Hupfeld are undecided as to the proximate occasion of the Psalm. The conclusion of Dr. Moll, above, coinciding with theirs, is probably the only safe one.—J. F. M.] Psalms 125:1-2. Abideth forever; literally: will sit, not: will be inhabited. Even though Mt. Zion should be laid waste (Micah 3:12) it does not lose thereby its continued existence or its destiny (Micah 4:1). The interpretation which understands the heavenly Zion (many older expositors) transfers the stand-point, and mistakes the fundamental conception, which is that of the firmness, immovableness, indestructibleness of mountains generally, and of Mt. Zion in particular. [Hengstenberg: “The figure is destroyed by those ancient and modern expositors who understand by Mt. Zion itself something spiritual, the Church. The Church is rather indicated by ‘those who trust in the Lord,’ and their firmness is likened to that of the eternal Zion.” The beauty of the form of verse 2 in the original is considerably lessened by the rendering in E. V. The translation is: Jerusalem—mountains are round about her, And the Lord is round about His people Henceforth and to eternity.—J. F. M.] From this image, which makes prominent the idea of a firm foundation, the course of thought passes over immediately to a related and yet different one, which describes figuratively the protection which God vouchsafes to His people. As in Isaiah 33:21, this is done by the figure of a broad stream, and in Zechariah 2:9 by that of a fiery wall, so here the figure is that of the protecting mountains which surround Jerusalem. “The sacred city lies upon the broad and high mountain range, which is shut in by the two valleys, Jehoshaphat and Hinnom. All the surrounding hills are higher: in the east, the Mount of Olives; on the south, the so-called Hill of Evil Counsel, which ascends from the Valley of Hinnom; on the west, the ground rises gently to the border of the great Wady, as described above; while in the north the bend of a ridge, which adjoins the Mount of Olives, limits the view to the distance of about a mile and a half” (Robinson). Psalms 125:3 ff. The lot is the Holy Land, allotted as an inheritance to the righteous by God (Psalms 16:5).—Many expositors, by the sceptre of unrighteousness, iniquity, the crooked paths, the evildoers, understand specially heathen disorders and participation in them, as a consequence of departure from the precepts laid down in the Mosaic law, and a deviation from the ways of God therein enjoined. But the words themselves do not require any such special reference.—Delitzsch cites a talmudical riddle on Psalms 125:4 mentioned by the Midrash: There came a good person (Moses, Exodus 2:2), and received something good (the Law, Proverbs 4:2) from the Good (God, Psalms 145:9), for the good (Israel, Psalms 125:4). AND Those who lay their foundations upon God are not moved; those who commit their defence to Him do not fall; those who cleave to His ways do not perish.—Even the righteous are not kept absolutely from falling; but God gives the temptation such an issue that we can bear it.—Former faithfulness does not secure against the punishment of later infidelity; we must wait until the end. Luther: It is much easier to teach than to believe, that we, who have the divine word and believe in it, are surrounded by divine aid. If we were surrounded by walls of steel or fire, we would feel secure and bid defiance to the devil. But it is the character of faith not to boast of what the eye beholds, but of what the word reveals. Our only drawback is, therefore, that we have no spiritual eyes, but follow only those of the flesh.—Whether the conflict be inward in the spirit or outward in the flesh, the victory shall, through Christ, be ours at last. But this promise is hard to be believed, both by us who suffer and by our persecutors. But beware of appointing to God a time for our deliverance.—God allows us to be tempted even to the uttermost. When it has come to the last extremity, and we have nothing before us but despair, then He delivers us, and in death gives us life, and in the curse a blessing. Starke: Because God is eternal, so is he also, after his nature, who is in God and is united to Him by faith.—If God has placed thee in a lofty position, remember that the sceptre which thou dost wield is not a sceptre of wickedness, but that thou art to wield it to His glory, for the good of the Church, and for the protection of the righteous.—Let none avenge themselves, or seek by violence or disturbance to free themselves from godless power. No! The Lord will do it at His own time. We are to commit our cause to Him.—True religion is based upon uprightness of heart. But how rare it is! How easily do we let the single eye become deceitful again through false views!—Sin is the ruin of the people, and yet they cling firmly to it and despise the true way of life.—Let us live as we wish to die, and before our end comes, let us learn to rest only in God.—Those who are companions in wickedness need not think it strange if they are companions in punishment. Frisch: It is a great offence to the understanding to see such misfortune attend the pious and sincere heart in the world.—Oetinger: Those who do not conform to God’s commands do not imagine that they are so wicked as those who transgress them. But they are equally sinful. They only seek more to palliate their offence and to excuse it by dishonest devices.—Guenther: None should do evil that good may come. God alone will turn the evil to good; and, at the right time, He will cause the sceptre of the ungodly to be broken.—Taube: The powerful influence of God’s grace: how within it makes firm the hearts of believers, and without it surrounds them with its protection. [Matt. Henry: All that deal with God must deal upon trust, and He will give comfort to those only who give credit to Him, and make it appear they do so by quitting other confidences and venturing to the utmost for God. The closer our expectations are confined to God, the higher our expectations may be raised from Him.—Scott: The malice and enmity of the wicked shall prove only a correcting rod, and not a destroying sword.—Bp. Horne: Let not our trust in God be a presumptuous, ungrounded assurance; but let it be a confidence springing from faith unfeigned, out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and fervent charity.—Let us never forget that the promises to us, like those to Israel, are conditional. “Because of unbelief, they were broken off, and we stand by faith.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 126 A Song of Degrees         When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, We were like men that dream. 2    Then was our mouth filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing: Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. 3    The Lord hath done great things for us; Whereof we are glad. 4    Turn again our captivity, O Lord, As the streams in the south. 5    They that sow in tears Shall reap in joy. 6    He that goeth forth and weepeth, Bearing precious seed, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him. AND Contents and Composition.—In Psalms 126:1-3 the poet recalls the rejoicing which filled the hearts and mouths of the Israelites on their return home from captivity, in the midst of the acknowledgment by Gentiles and Jews, that this deliverance was a wonderful and mighty deed of Jehovah. In Psalms 126:4-6 he adds a prayer for a like restoration to their homes of their companions who still lingered in captivity, together with the declaration, that a full harvest of joy would grow from such seed sown in tears. It is impossible to discover any closer approximation to the time of composition than the period in general succeeding the exile. [So the commentators generally agree. Hengstenberg: “The special references are as usual only slightly indicated. The sacred Psalmists were deeply impressed with the conviction that they sung for the Church of all ages. The Psalm always finds a new application in those circumstances of the Church in which joyful hopes, awakened by a previous deliverance, are in danger of being frustrated; it was also composed for the purpose of expressing the feelings of the individual believer, in whom sin threatens, after his first love, to become again powerful. It guides us to prepare, out of the lively realization of the hope already received, a sure foundation for prayer and hope in reference to grace yet to be bestowed.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 126:1-3. It follows from the use of the perfect δִָ ?ιιπεּ, Psalms 126:1 b and 3b, that the bringing back is not represented as about to happen (Isaaki, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Luther, Geier, et al.), but as already past (Sept., Jerome, Calvin and most recent commentators). It is doubtful whether ωִׁ ?ιαָ ?δ is a tenable form with the transitive signification: leading back, after the analogy of χִ ?ινָ ?δ, Lamentations 3:63 (Aben Ezra), while there also exists the form ωּׁ ?εּ ?αָ ?δ, Isaiah 30:15 return=conversion, or with the intransitive sense: return =those returning (Delitzsch and most), or whether we are to assume that it is an old mistake of a copyist and read here, as in Psalms 126:4, the familiar phrase ωׁ ?εּ ?αωְׁ ?αεּ ?ϊ with 8 codices of Kennicott (the ancient translators, J. D. Mich., De Wette, Olsh., Hupfeld, Bφttcher, Hitzig). [Taking the common explanation, Psalms 126:1 would be translated: When Jehovah was leading back the returning ones of Zion, we were like dreamers. It will be noticed that the English translators adopted from the ancient versions the view last given above.—J. F. M.] Psalms 126:1 b does not refer to a situation in which, like dreamers, they had no control over their senses, that, therefore, they are represented as being beside themselves with joy and in an ecstasy (Hengst.), but to one in which they could hardly consider the reality anything but a dream (Geier, et al.). [Alexander combines the two: “Incredulity may be included, but must not be suffered to exclude all other feelings.”—Perowne and most adopt the latter. In Psalms 126:2 a, b, Dr. Moll renders: “Then laughter filled our mouth and rejoicing our tongue,” instead of following the construction in the Heb. text as given correctly in E. V. In this he seems to have been misled by the translation of Delitzsch which he follows pretty closely throughout the Psalm. The freer rendering might be admissible in the plan pursued by D., in which he follows the Hebrew rhythm closely in his German translation; but it is hardly so when it is not necessary to forego the literal rendering.—J. F. M.] Psalms 126:4 prays for great accessions to the population of the Holy Land and for consequent renewal of prosperity, as the Negeb (dryness), that is, the Land of Judah (Genesis 20:1) and the country generally lying towards the desert of Sinai represents the same thing in its geographical relations by the rivulets which disappear in summer, and in winter are filled with water from the rains. Psalms 126:5-6 contain a general truth (Matthew 5:4; Galatians 6:7 f.), but, at the same time also, an historical allusion to the tearful return homewards (Jeremiah 30:15), and the rebuilding of the Temple amidst the tears of the people (Ezra 3:12.) It is not a mere exchange of joy for sorrow (Psalms 30:6) but a transformation which depends upon the exercise of patience and a humble working and waiting in hope and faith. The sowing is literally: the drawing, either because the hand draws the seed out of the seed-bag (Clericus, Kφster, Hupfeld), or in allusion to the scattering of the seed in long extended furrows (Gesen., Del., Hitzig) Amos 9:13. [The translation of this word by “precious” in E. V. was a conjecture and has no support.—The infinitive here, with the finite verb, is generally supposed to express continuous action. Hengstenberg translates by simply repeating the finite verb: he goes, he goes. Alexander does the same, but is careful to give the force of the Hebrew future. Delitzsch, whom Dr. Moll follows, renders: he goes back and forward, which is more graphic. But in the conclusion the idea of continuous or even of repeated action is unsuitable, for it expresses the final triumph. And therefore it seems better to give to these expressions the sense which similar constructions often have, of certitude, the fundamental notion being the same, that of emphasis or intensity. See Green, Gr., § 282. Ewald, Gr., § 280 b. The sense will then be: “He surely weeps now as he sows, and he will surely rejoice as he brings in his sheaves.” Or better, “just as surely as he weeps now, so surely shall he rejoice then.” But the text does furnish also in the first member the idea of continuance, so beautifully representing the patience of hope; for the verbs of motion are not the same in both parts. In the former it is δμκ: the sower keeps walking along as he works in patience. In the second it is αεΰ: in the harvest he comes in with his sheaves. Thus viewed, the verse is not only seen to have a greater fulness and beauty of meaning, but the common idea that it is “merely an expansion of the image in Psalms 126:5,” (Perowne) is shown to be a misconception. It is in reality an advance upon it. For it declares success to be the necessary result of patient and hopeful, even though sorrowful toil. And it then becomes the exact Old Testament counterpart of Paul’s words: “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” The following rendering is therefore suggested: He surely toils along weeping, Carrying the burden of seed; He surely comes in with rejoicing, Carrying his sheaves.—J. F. M.] AND The joyful harvest after tearful sowing: Who assures it? Who receives it? Who awaits it?—We often accompany our working and suffering upon earth with tears, but is their desired fruit given to us? If not, with whom lies the cause?—God’s doings in His Church in their effects upon the world and the Church. Starke: The spiritual redemption which was effected by Jesus Christ is the Christian’s highest consolation and joy; and the greatest miracle which God ever wrought among men.—God often so deals with His children, that they receive greater blessings than they themselves had hoped for.—It is our duty as Christians to remember before God, in our prayers, those who are in distress and have been wrongly imprisoned.—The tears of true repentance and of sanctified affliction are a precious seed, from which will spring a joyful harvest.—In the kingdom of nature the seed bears after its own kind, but God has a different order for believers in the kingdom of glory. They sow tears and reap joy.—Where nothing is sown, nothing will be harvested. Luther: The prophet would exhibit a constant truth by the repetition of a little word: they go, they go. For our weeping will not be finished until we are hidden in the tomb, although a short season is given for rest. Frisch: Know, dear soul, that as long as thou hast to live, and to be a pilgrim in the Babel of this world, it will cost thee many tears in sowing: It costs tears of repentance, as those of David, Peter, and the great sinners. It costs tears of thy ministry as those of David, Jeremiah, Paul, and Christ Himself. It costs tears of supplication, as those of David, whose tears had almost become his meat. It costs tears for the sorrows of others, yes, and of thyself, too. But let none of these things make thee sad. The joy of harvest restores everything to thee.—Rieger: This song contains (1) a joyful declaration of the great deeds of God, as they have been enjoyed by the children of Zion, and have been acknowledged even by strangers; (2) a prayer for the deliverance of those left behind; (3) a word of encouragement to their hearts, to strengthen themselves by patient waiting for the Divine help.—Your mourning shall be turned into joy. But this process of change is that of sowing and reaping.—Richter: Men are often comforted in the midst of, but usually after tears. The true and complete harvest of grace follows only in eternity.—Tears of wickedness and of hypocrisy are not the sowing of grace.—Guenther: We are all sowers. Grant, O Lord, that we may sow Thy seed, even if with many tears, so that the rich harvest of joy may yet be ours.—Diedrich: The more love, the more suffering.—Taube: How great soever the change in the conversion of a sinner is, what is it compared to that which God’s children experience in and by death? Does not that greatest of changes feel like a dream to him that experiences it?—Huyssen: God’s help in the distress of His people: (1) The redemption of the oppressed, and the spirit in which it was effected; (2) the remembrance of it, and the encouragement it gives; (3) its consequences, and the thanks which they demand.—Nitzsch: We will rejoice just in proportion as we suffer. [Matt. Henry: The harps are never more melodiously tunable than after such a disuse.—The long want of mercies greatly sweetens their return.—There are tears which are themselves the seed that we must sow; tears of sorrow for sin, our own and others; tears of sympathy with the afflicted church; and tears of tenderness in prayer and under the word. These are precious seed, such as the husbandman sows when corn is dear, and he has but little for his family, and therefore weeps to part with it, yet buries it under ground, with the expectation of receiving it again with advantage. Thus doth a good man sow in tears.—They that sow in the tears of godly sorrow, shall reap in the joy of a sealed pardon and a settled peace.—Scott: Let sinners recollect how dreadful their case will be, if they have all their little joy in this mourning world, (Galatians 6:6-10).—J. F. M.] Psalms 127 A Song of Degrees for Solomon         Except the Lord build the house, They labour in vain that build it: Except the Lord keep the city, The watchman waketh but in vain. 2    It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: For so he giveth his beloved sleep. 3    Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord:And the fruit of the womb is his reward. 4    As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man: So are children of the youth. 5    Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: They shall not be ashamed, But they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. AND Contents and Composition.—All help, all protection, and all blessing come from God; without Him all labor, care, and trouble are vain. This thought, related to Proverbs 10:22, and expressed in the form of a mashal is individualized by the building of a house, the watching of a city, and the earning of bread (Psalms 127:1-2), and the Divine blessing of a numerous offspring (Psalms 127:3-5). There is no definite allusion to the building of the Temple by Solomon (most of the older expositors after the Rabbins), or to that after the Restoration (many since Theodoret). Nor is there any trace of a special connection with the two following Psalms (Hitzig). There is nothing to falsify the reference to Solomon as the author in the superscription. [The title should be rendered: by Solomon] This statement, however, is not found in the Sept. Nor is it decisive of itself that in 2 Samuel 12:25 the name Jedediah, beloved, is given to Solomon, and that he was promised prosperity, 1 Kings 3:5, in a dream (Hengst.) It may have been just from these resemblances that the inference of a Salomonic authorship was made (Olsh., Delitzsch, Hitzig). It is purely arbitrary to infer (Stier), from the aphoristic form that David here speaks of Solomon (Syr.) although the forcible language and vivacious tone, if not, in the absence of all political allusion, necessarily indicating a highly flourishing state of the kingdom (Hengst. after the older commentators), yet do argue a prosperous period in the life of the author and a soul satisfied in God. The assumption that the Psalm is a fragment is devoid of all support. [If it was the Collector who inserted the statement with regard to the authorship, he probably had better reasons for his opinion than those which have led so many critics (in whose wake Perowne again seems inclined to follow) to fancy that Solomon was not the author.—J. F. M.] Psalms 127:1-2. Build the house—It is not the laying of the foundation of a patrimony (Calvin, Geier, Calov., et al.) but of house building in its strict sense. [Translate: They have labored, they have watched. “The writer places himself at the end of the work and sees its result” (Perowne)—J. F. M.] In Psalms 127:2 the sitting down is to be closely connected with what follows. They come late to sit down to eat (Hitzig, Del.); they get their bread by toiling and moiling. Others take the expression as equivalent to lying down, so that by rising up early and retiring late, they lengthen the natural day by artificial means (Sept., Syr., Calvin, Geier, et al., Hupfeld). Sitting at meals was customary (1 Samuel 20:34) before the Greek custom of reclining was introduced among the Jews. The words do not refer to sitting at work until late at night (Aben Ezra, Luther, et al.) ëֵּ ?ï does not mean: for (Luther) but: thus. This means: without more trouble, (Böttcher) or: in like manner, and passes over into the notion: such, or: the same.—Sleep is here not contrasted with labor but with trouble and care, and expresses the freedom from trouble and the peace of the man who reposes in God’s protection. A false translation is: when he giveth His beloved sleep (Sept., Vulg.) [The explanation of the last clause of the verse which is now generally followed is this: God is represented as giving to those whom he loves “in sleep,” that is without any fatiguing toil on their part, all things that are for their own good. Sleep is evidently contrasted with the late working of those who do not give themselves up to God’s protection, and who are alluded to in the first part of the verse. The following is probably the correct translation: “It is vain for you rising early, sitting down late, eating the bread of toil; thus (the things thus sought for) He giveth His beloved in sleep.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 127:4-5. The children of youth are not young children (Luth., Rudinger, Rosenm.), but they are contrasted with the children of old age (Genesis 37:3). As such they are already grown up when their father is growing old, and are therefore able to assist him (Geier). The gate (Psalms 127:5) is used for the places of public resort (Psalms 5:9), especially those where justice is administered (Deuteronomy 21:19 and elsewhere). A taking part in such affairs, in general, therefore, judging (Isaiah 20:4; 2 Samuel 19:30; Jeremiah 12:1) is probably meant here also, and not specially a struggle in defence of the fatherland (Rudinger, Rosenm., Umbreit). The subject of the statement is not merely the sons as defenders (Calvin, Geier, De Wette, Hengst.), or the fathers as accused but not pronounced guilty (Grotius, Köster), but both in common (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Grotius, and most).—In the translation: sons of the outcasts (Sept., Vulg.), an allusion was perceived to those born in the captivity. The translation in Psalms 127:5 : blessed is he whose desire is fulfilled by them, weakens the sense. AND Through God’s blessing our labor prospers without harassing trial and without anxiety.—Parents have not given their children to themselves. God has presented them to them; are they also treated and educated accordingly?—We must gratefully and humbly ascribe to God every successful result, and nothing to our own strength, ability, or endurance, and employ all our strength, time, and gifts in reliance upon God’s assistance, and according to His will, so that we may not be ashamed.—To begin and end with God, takes from every day its burden. Starke: Let God be the beginning and the end in all things, and thou wilt walk securely on thy way so that thy foot shall not stumble.—God’s servants in the ministry of His Church built Him a spiritual house. If it is to be built rightly, God Himself must be the Master-builder—Be first a friend of God, and then do what is commanded thee, leaving the rest to Him. He will prosper thy affairs even while thou sleepest, if thou dost lie down with full trust in Him.—To be able to sleep quietly in the midst of much labor, is a blessing of God.—Gifts are not to be forced from the giver.—Parents act sinfully who murmur against God, if He does not bless their married life with offspring.—It is an affliction of married life to have no children; but to have spoiled children is much worse. Prayer and wisdom are necessary to educate them rightly. Frisch: All the servants of God have to build up the house of the Lord, that is, the Church of God. But God must be the Master-builder, and give success from above to the work of His servants.—Rieger: In all situations, success does not depend upon diligence, skill, or natural sagacity, but upon God’s blessing and providence. Men should therefore not lose their trust in God by immoderate application, or suffer themselves to be annoyed by difficulties which meet them, or become self-exalted with success.—Richter: Sons well brought up are a protection, honor, and blessing to their father.—Guenther: Lord, do Thou thus build our houses, defend our city and country, bless our exertions, educate our children to become citizens of the city of God, and at last show us mercy in the final judgment—Taube: The secret of domestic blessing, how it rests, not upon our labor or care, not in human watching and power, but only in the gifts of mercy from above. [Matt. Henry: Such children are arrows in the hand, which with prudence may be directed aright to the mark, God’s glory and the service of their generation, but afterwards when they are gone out into the world, they are arrows out of the hand; it is too late to bend them then. But these arrows in the hand prove often arrows in the heart, a constant grief to their godly parents, whose grey hairs they bring with sorrow to the grave.—Bishop Horne: If God’s aid be called in, if part of our time be spent in prayer, not the whole of it in prayerless toiling and moiling, our work will become easier and go on better.—Scott: Children should also remember their obligations to their parents, and study to requite them by laboring to supply their wants, to vindicate their characters, and to protect them from oppression in their old age.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [Mr. Perowne, following an opinion alluded to above, asserts (I. p. 95) that “a misunderstanding of the words: ‘except Jehovah build the house,’ which were supposed to allude to the building of the Temple, led the Psalm to be ascribed to Solomon.” In other words, the Collector committed a blunder in interpretation, of which no unlearned reader of our day is guilty. On the other hand, why should he ignore the possibility that Solomon, who was something of a house-builder in his time, apart from his connection with the Temple, and who speaks elsewhere so feelingly of the vanity of unaided human labor, might have generalized his own experience for the benefit of his nation; and that, being something of a moralist and proverbial philosopher, he might have presented this and some kindred thoughts in the form of an apophthegmatic Psalm; and that, being an acknowledged teacher in his kingdom, he might, in accordance with a custom not unusual with him, have accompanied this utterance with his own name? The unqualified assertion just quoted simply assumes the impossibility of this. As to why Solomon should not have been the author we are left by Mr. Perowne entirely in the dark, nothing approaching to an argument being found in his discussion of the subject.—J. F. M.] Psalms 128 A Song of degrees         Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord;That walketh in his ways. 2    For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands: Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. 3    Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine By the side of thine house: Thy children like olive plants Round about thy table. 4    Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed That feareth the Lord.5    The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem All the days of thy life. 6    Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, And peace upon Israel. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist first praises (Psalms 128:1-4) the blessedness of the man who fears God, to whom the promise is given that he shall enjoy the results of his labor and behold the welfare of wife and children in his house. He then utters a prayer that the well-doing of such a man will ever continue, in connection with the weal of Jerusalem and Israel (Psalms 128:5-6). In the foregoing Psalm conjugal felicity was extolled not merely as a gift of Jehovah’s mercy, but as a reward of those who fear God. It is scarcely allowable, therefore, to speak of this Psalm as supplementary to Psalms 127 (Delitzsch). Even externally they do not indicate any closer connection, or, least of all, such a resemblance that one Psalm is to be regarded as a response to the other, sung by the congregation in chorus (Pott). There is a similarity in some of the ideas, in the aphoristic mode of expression, and in the felicitation at the end of the one and at the beginning of the other, but these do not oblige us to hold a contemporaneous composition. [Hengstenberg: “The subject is not as in Psalms 127 the individual fearer of God, but the ideal of God-fearers, the God-fearing Israel, who is also frequently personified elsewhere, e. g., in Lamentations 3:1. This is clear from the expression in Psalms 128:5 : ‘behold the good of Jerusalem,’ from the conclusion in Psalms 128:6 : “peace be upon Israel;” finally from the circumstance that all the fundamental passages alluded to in it refer to Israel.—In a time of trouble and distress the fear of God appeared to be forever deprived of its reward. This appearance threatened to affect its operation. An antidote against the disheartening sadness which would then be apt to insinuate itself against Israel, is provided in our Psalm, on which Zechariah 8 may be regarded as a commentary.”—Luther: “To this Psalm we will give the title of an Epithalamium or marriage song. In it the prophet cheereth them that are married, wishing unto them, and promising them from God, all manner of blessings.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 128:2. The labor of thy hands appears to allude specially to the produce of the garden and field. It probably does not imply that the prosperity consisted in his being maintained by his own labor, as contrasted with living on charity (Kimchi, Calvin, Venema, Del.), but that the laborer himself and not others enjoyed the profits of his toil (Isaiah 3:10), and was to rejoice in this privilege, Isaiah 9:19; Hosea 4:10; Micah 6:14; Haggai 1:6 (Geier, Hupfeld). Against transposing the two members of Psa 128:2, as has been proposed (Hupfeld), it may be argued that the particle ëִֹ ?é does not stand here at the beginning of the sentence, and therefore cannot be taken as meaning for [E. V.] or since (Symm., Jerome, Calvin, Olshausen). Such a position is admissible only with the meaning that, as in Psalms 128:4, or, when the particle confirms a statement, yea,Psalms 118:10, comp. Isaiah 7:9; 1 Samuel 14:39 (Ewald, Maurer, Del.). Hence, in translating, the word may be neglected (Septuagint, Hitzig). Psalms 128:3 ff. The same particle can be taken in a confirmatory sense in Psalms 128:4 also (Calvin, Venema, Delitzsch), but it is then also wrong to translate: mark, for (Rudinger, Clericus, J. H. Mich., Rosenm., Maurer). [It will be observed that in this verse E. V. has the correct translation.—J. F. M.] The inner part of the house [Psalms 128:3, E. V. literally: the sides of the house, comp. Amos 6:10—J. F. M.] is here designated literally: the corner or hinder portion, since the female apartments occupied the most retired portion of the tent or house. “All the blessings of each individual come from the God of salvation, who has made Zion His dwelling-place, and is completed by participation in the prosperity of the Holy City and the whole Church, of which it forms the centre. A New Testament song would here direct the view to the Heavenly Jerusalem. But the character of this-sidedness (Diesseitigkeit) which is impressed upon the Old Testament, does not permit this. The promise only tells of participation in Jerusalem’s well-being on this side heaven (Zechariah 8:15), and a life prolonged through children’s children, and in this sense it invokes and intercedes for peace upon Israel in all its members, in all places, and at all times” (Del .). [Translate the last line of the Psalm: Peace be upon Israel.—J. F. M.] AND The blessing of piety on heart, house, and estate.—The fear of God does not make sorrowful, but joyful and blessed.—Godliness is a power to give prosperity, not only on the other side of death, but also on this.—The happiness of domestic life which is blessed by God: (1) wherein it consists; (2) on what it is founded; (3) how it is maintained.—The close connection between the public prosperity, a domestic life pleasing to God, and personal piety. Starke: He who lives in the fear of God is no idler, but eats of the labor of his hands, that is, of his honorable calling blessed by God, by which He sustains him.—An harmonious married life and children well nurtured, are the dearest of temporal delights.—Parents, train up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord! If ye neglect this, you will train up, instead of useful olive-branches, useless thorn-bushes, unprofitable for any good purpose—God, for the sake of pious parents, often grants peace in their days to a country or city. Arndt: Jerusalem never enjoyed greater blessings than Christ on the cross and the Holy Spirit from heaven; for on these depended God’s mercy, the forgiveness of sin, redemption from death, the devil and hell, righteousness, faith, love, hope, and eternal life; all these will thy beloved God grant thee to see, yea, to experience and enjoy.—Frisch: The channel through which the stream of blessing flows upon thy conjugal relations and thy house, is the spiritual Zion of the Church of God.—Rieger: There is much spoken and written about patriotism in the world; but the foundation of such a spirit must be laid deep in the fear of God; for without this we can neither have true prosperity ourselves, nor share in the blessings of the general good.—Richter: He who has received God’s kingdom in his heart, must give his heart to it, and whatever blessings a believer receives, he wishes for all, and prays, hopes, and works in the communion of the saints for that kingdom.—Guenther: Happy are those parents who regard their children as plants in the garden of God, and entrusted to their care.—Schaubach: The obligations and the blessings of pious parents.—Diedrich: The ever-during blessedness of those who fear God, who do not refuse to labor in His ways, but have found, in this present time, in the knowledge of God’s love, the sweetest and dearest communion.—Taube: The fear of God the source of all prosperity. A God-fearing man has God not merely before his eyes and in his heart, but walks also before Him in His ways. The lines have fallen in pleasant places for him who fears God thus. [Matt. Henry: The wife’s place is in the husband’s house, there her business lies.—It is pleasant to parents that have a table spread, though but with ordinary fare, to see their children round about it, Job 21:5; to have them at table, to keep up the pleasantness of the table-talk; to have them in health, to have them like olive-plants, straight and green, sucking in the sap of their good education, and likely to become serviceable.—A good man can have little comfort in seeing his children’s children, unless without he sees peace upon Israel, and have hopes of transmitting the entail of religion, pure and entire, to those that shall come after him, for that is the best inheritance.—Bishop Horne: The good of Jerusalem with peace upon Israel, is all the good we can expect to see upon earth. Hereafter we shall see greater things than these.—Barnes: No higher blessing could be promised to a good man … than that he should die in a revival of religion.—J. F. M.] Psalms 129 A Song of degrees         Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, May Israel now say: 2    Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; Yet they have not prevailed against me. 3    The ploughers ploughed upon my back: They made long their furrows. 4    The Lord is righteous: He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. 5    Let them all be confounded and turned back That hate Zion. 6    Let them be as the grass upon the house-tops, Which withereth afore it groweth up: 7    Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand: Nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. 8    Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: We bless you in the name of the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist recalls (Psalms 129:1-4) the severe oppression which Israel, the servant of the Lord, had repeatedly suffered from his youth, and which is described by the image of physical ill-treatment, as in Isaiah 49:1 f.; Psalms 50:4 f., from which, however, the righteous God granted deliverance. From this he educes a wish (Psalms 129:5-8) that all the enemies of Zion may be consigned to utter ruin. There is a very close resemblance to Psalms 124—Israel’s youth is the sojourn in Egypt (Hosea 2:17; Hosea 11:1; Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 23:3). Since that time a long period had passed, full of national troubles and divine deliverances. Just at this time Israel begins to breathe freely after such a visitation, but knows that Zion’s enemies have not disappeared wholly and forever. Hence arises the expression used towards them at the close, with reference to the greeting which in former times used to be given by passers by even to heathen mowers (comp. Rth 2:4). The period shortly after the return from exile may be regarded as a suitable occasion for the composition. [Psalms 129:1. The Hebrew word rendered: many a time in E. V., means literally: greatly. It sometimes refers to time, but has no special reference to it. The opinion that most interpreters render it in that sense (Alexander) is incorrect. Gesenius, Ewald, Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Moll, Perowne and many others, give it the more general reference.—J. F. M.] Psalms 129:2. Yet.βַ ?ν is employed here, as in Exodus 16:28; Ecclesiastes 6:7, in the sense of; although or nevertheless (Ewald, § 484 a.). [Hupfeld denies that this sense ever exists, and asserts that it has here as always the sense of: also. He compares Genesis 30:8. He also discusses the question in his Quζstiones in Jobeidos locos vexatos on Genesis 2:19. The meaning of the verse is unaffected by either view.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 129:3. As in Isaiah 51:23; Isaiah 66:12, Israel is compared to a street, and men are represented as walking and riding over his back, so here they are compared to a strip of land, which the ploughman goes over in such a way, that every time he reaches either end he turns his team for the purpose of making a new furrow (Wetzstein in his excursus in Delitzsch, p. 795). Relentless and regardless treatment is better exhibited by this than by the usual explanation by which long furrows are understood to be meant. Psalms 129:6 ff. The grass upon the roofs which are flat and covered with loose stones or earth (Jahn Bibl. Arch I. 1. 200 f.), Isaiah 37:27 grows up rapidly but soon withers. It is doubtful whether ωׁ ?μσ means: to draw out, pluck up (most). [Here impersonally: one plucks it up, instead of the passive—J. F. M.], or: to sprout forth in blossom (Aquila, Chald., Calvin, Ewald, Delitzsch.) [In connection with the passage cited in the introduction with regard to the greeting, Psalms 129:8. Delitzsch remarks: “It is the passers-by here who salute the harvesters thus: the blessing of Jehovah be upon you, and (since the following in the mouths of the same persons would be a purposeless excess of courtesy) receive the greeting in return: we bless you, etc. The contrast to this is, that the righteous, joyfully exchanging greetings, will be able to bring in all the harvest they have sown.”—J. F. M.]. AND As compared with the world the pious are righteous, and may expect, from the righteous Rewarder, deliverance from the power of the enemy.—The ungodly have only the appearance of power and prosperity: after their brief season of bloom comes swift, certain, and awful destruction by God’s judgments.—The Church of God has upon earth to suffer much and severely. But God is and remains her Deliverer from each and every distress. Starke: As the Church has never been without tribulation, so she has never failed of strength and victory.—The names of the persecutors of God’s people are not written in heaven, but their wickedness and enmity are remembered to their shame.—The Church is and remains a rose among thorns, until the thorny ground of this world is destroyed by fire, and its thistles are cast into hell.—The longer the furrows are drawn, and the deeper the plowshares of suffering sink, the more abundant and precious fruits grow therefrom.—It is the part of faith to praise God’s righteousness in affliction, and so to overcome the offence of the cross.—What is begun without God, or rather against God, ends in wailing.—The sighs and tears of afflicted Zion have already become to many an enemy of truth and godliness, a flood of waters which sweeps away them and their followers. Frisch: If Zion is God’s inheritance, whoever harms Zion touches God Himself.—Richter: Let it not be an offence unto thee, that the world is hostile to the Israel of God; but ponder in faith the examples in Hebrews 11 and especially the example of Christ, of whom suffering Israel was a type.—Guenther: The sword with which God shall cut asunder the bands which persecutors have thrown around His people, has been sharpened from eternity.—Diedrich: The despisers of the Word and the true Church have no sure ground of continued existence. They are like the wild grass upon the roof. For all their achievements are nothing in the light of truth; they are found too light in God’s balances.—Taube: For the lovers of Zion the crown is gleaming beyond the cross, and the harvest of joy is waving beyond the tearful sowing. [Matt. Henry: The enemies of God’s Church wither of themselves, and stay not till they are rooted out by the judgments of God.—Woe to those who have the prayers of the saints against them!—J. F. M.]. Psalms 130 A Song of degrees         Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.2    Lord, hear my voice: Let thine ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications. 3    If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? 4    But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared. 5    I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, And in his word do I hope. 6    My soul waiteth for the Lord More than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. 7    Let Israel hope in the Lord:For with the Lord there is mercy, And with him is plenteous redemption. 8    And he shall redeem Israel From all his iniquities. AND Contents and Composition.—The distress out of which the Psalmist cries to Jehovah is very deep, and as he feels himself sinking, he sends forth an urgent cry to God that He would hear him (Psalms 130:1-2). This supplication rests upon the power to forgive, which is possessed by God alone, and is indispensable to the sinner’s deliverance (Psalms 130:3-4). It flows from the hope cherished in his soul, which turns with longing to God and His word (Psalms 130:5-6). It also sympathizingly remembers the need which all Israel has of redemption, and therefore points, on the one hand, with exhortation, to the indispensable waiting upon Jehovah, and, on the other, to the mercy of God which is ready to be imparted (Psalms 130:7-8). It is easily understood how the Church has regarded this as the sixth of the seven Penitential Psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) and how Luther reckoned it as one of the Pauline Psalms, which he specified, when asked which were the best of all the Psalms. When asked further which were the Pauline Psalms, he named Psalms 32, 51, 130, 143, Several expressions which are found besides only in Nehemiah, Daniel, and Chronicles indicate that the Psalm was composed at a late period Yet it preceded the Books of the Chronicles; for the addition to the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple, 2 Chronicles 6:40-42, is composed of Psa 130:2 and Psalms 132:8-10. [As additional evidence of a late origin, it may be remarked that the word meaning: attentive, in Psalms 130:2, is found besides only in 2 Chronicles 6:40; 2 Chronicles 7:15, and that rendered: forgiveness, Psalms 130:4, only in Daniel 9:9; Nehemiah 9:17.—J. F. M.]. The conjecture that this Psalm was first sung on the day of general humiliation, Ezra 9:5 f. (Rosenmüller) has no support more definite than this. There are many points of similarity with Psalms 86. Does it indicate design that God is named Jehovah four times, Adonai three times, and Jah once? Psalms 130:1. Out of the depths.—These are not the depths of the soul, specially those of sorrow on account of the greatness of its sins (Amyrald, J. H. Mich.). Nor are they the depths of sin (Geier); but depths of distress, calamity and peril, represented by the image of deep waters (Psalms 69:3; Psalms 69:15; Isaiah 51:10), whose waves (Psalms 88:8), have passed over him (Psalms 42:8), so that he is pressed down very deep, sunk even unto the gates of death (Psalms 9:4; Psalms 107:18). Psalms 130:3-4. God regards and marks human iniquities (Psalms 90:8; Job 10:14; Job 10:14), but retains them also in remembrance (Genesis 37:11), and, as it were, seals them up, keeping them (Job 14:17,) bearing them in mind (Amos 1:11; Jeremiah 3:5); He remembers them in the sense of imputing them (Psalms 32:2). The destruction of the sinner would thence follow, if the Divine punitive righteousness, which in its exercise nothing can resist (Isaiah 51:16; Nahum 1:6; Malachi 3:2; Ezra 9:15) were not by the mercy of God Himself manifested in such a way that the forgiveness of sins, effected thereby, should serve, on the one hand, to glorify His name as the only Redeemer and Author of salvation (Psalms 79:9), and, on the other, to quicken the true fear of Him. Psalms 130:6 ff. the reference is not to those who wait from one watch to another (Sept., Syr., Luther), or to the watchers who hold the morning watch, that is, the last one (Chald., J. H. Mich., Rosenmüller). It is the watch, more generally, the morning dawn, when they shall be released from their tedious duty (Aben Ezra, Geier, and most.) [Delitzsch: “The repetition of the words gives the impression of painful and long-continued waiting. The anger beneath whose influence the Poet now lies, is the darkness of night, from which he would be transferred to the sunny influence of love (Mal. 3:20); and not he alone, but all Israel also, whose needs are the same, and for whom, as for him, faithful waiting is the way of salvation. With Jehovah, with Him exclusively, and with Him in all its fulness, is the mercy which releases from the guilt of sin and its consequences, and gives freedom, peace, and joy to the heart. And redemption is plenteous with Him, i.e., he possesses in abundant measure the willingness, power, and wisdom, needed in order to effect the redemption, which, like a wall of separation, (Exodus 8:19) is placed between the imperilled and ruin. To Him therefore must each one look, if he would obtain mercy; to Him must His people look; and this hope fixed upon Him will not be put to shame. He in the mighty fulness of His free grace, will redeem Israel from all his iniquities, in forgiving them and removing all baleful consequences within and without. The Poet comforts himself with this promise (comp. Psalms 25:22). He means complete and final spiritual deliverance from all that holds in bondage, just as in the New Testament.”—J. F. M.]. AND From the depths of thy distress send thy cry upward to God; from the depths of His compassion He will send help down.—A change in our situation would avail nothing without the forgiveness of sins; but the mercy of God effects our redemption.—He who waits for the Lord and His deliverance, must know how to wait in faith and patience, with watching and prayer, and learn to strengthen his hope in God’s word.—God possesses in fullest measure all that is necessary to our redemption, and from the fulness of His grace He imparts richly what serves to accomplish it. But the fulness of faith is only too often wanting in us. Starke: The deeper men sink in the waters of temptation, tribulation, and distress, the stronger support do they find in the fathomless mercy of God.—Blessed is he who feels the depths of sin in a season of grace, and by cries of repentance to the Lord, is delivered from them; raised above them, he need not feel the depths of hell. The cry of supplication has no greater hindrance than the cries of sin, until they are removed by sincere repentance.—No man is so willing to pray to God as He is willing to be entreated; He will give us His benefits and forgive our sins.—Right views of God’s mercy do not lead to carnal security, but to a childlike fear and service of Him.—Justification is a source of sanctification; before a soul is justified it can have no childlike fear of God.—All the reasons which bind us to love God, constrain us also to hope in Him.—The Christian’s hope must be founded upon the word of God’s mercy. For to hope and believe without God’s word, is to tempt God.—The best consolation in the night of trial and sorrow is the promise of God that it will be followed by a clear day of rejoicing.—The many promises of the conversion of the Jewish people in the last time, urge the true Christian to pray the more fervently for this poor people. Frisch: There are many depths into which sin plunges us. But, as Luther says, it is well for us, that, though we are all in deep distress, we do not feel it where we are.—The grace, long-suffering, and mercy of God, should incite us not to sin, but from sin, not to fall, but from falling, to repentance and conversion.—Rieger: It is the nature of the new man ever to manifest a constant waiting, hoping, trusting, and believing in God. But to the natural man such an attachment to God’s word is more difficult than the greatest work of any other kind.—Guenther: The distressed believer, in trusting, rises upward from the abyss, and the suppliant draws the Almighty down to him in his compassion. The greater the need the greater the assurance.—Engelhardt: The path of sincere repentance leads (1) into the depth of our hearts and is, a) knowledge of sin, b) prayer for gracious aid, c) distrust of our own righteousness; (2) to the paternal heart of God: there alone are to be found, a) compassion and forgiveness, b) certain help even when long delayed, c) final redemption from all sin.—Taube: The royal road from the depths of the misery of sin to the Heights of the consolation of redemption. [Matt. Henry: There is an all sufficient fulness of merit and grace in the Redeemer, enough for all, enough for each; enough for me, saith the believer.—Bp. Horne: True repentance is founded upon a sense of our own wretchedness and faith in the Divine mercy. Without the former we should never seek for pardon and grace; without the latter we should despair of finding them.—Scott: Faith in His faithful testimony and sure promise, confirmed by experience, form the soul to a holy fear and love of the Lord our God.—J. F. M.]. Psalms 131 A Song of degrees of David         Lord, my heart is not haughty, Nor mine eyes lofty: Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, Or in things too high for me. 2    Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, As a child that is weaned of his mother: My soul is even as a weaned child. 3    Let Israel hope in the Lord From henceforth and for ever. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist asseverates that in humility of heart he has kept himself from occasions of and temptations to the indulgence of pride and over-ambitious schemes, (Psalms 131:1), and has quieted his soul (Psalms 131:2), and then exhorts all Israel to wait unceasingly upon Jehovah (Psalms 131:3). The tone of feeling is so personally ardent, that the supposition that the Psalmist in the first two verses speaks for Israel (De Wette) is altogether unjustifiable. But it can hardly be denied that there is a close reference to Israel. If it must be admitted, that in 1 Samuel 18:18; 1 Samuel 18:23, and still more in 2 Samuel 6:22, are found expressions resembling those of this Psalm, and that, in general, the history, disposition, and religious posture of David agree fully with the professions here made of personal character, and with the anxiety here manifested for Israel’s true religious relations to God, the adherence to the Davidic authorship (Hengstenberg) is not so unjustifiable as to permit us to say, that such an assumption requires no contradiction (Hupfeld). This situation, as furnishing an historical explanation, has much better ground of support than what is related of Simon Maccabζus (1 Maccabees 14), to which Hitzig refers. All the efforts to discover a composition in any intermediate period only man�uvre in the field of boundless conjecture. [When there is absolutely nothing in the Psalm which bears against a composition by David, those critics who refer it to some occasion subsequent to the exile ought surely not shut their eyes to the force of the argument advanced by Hengstenberg, that a protestation addressed to Israel against cherishing high-minded thoughts and undertakings would be utterly meaningless in times of trouble, such as those succeeding that event. The thought naturally suggests itself that modern criticism would surely have assigned a larger number of Psalms to David than it has conceded to him, if the superscriptions had not been affixed.—J. F. M.] Psalms 131:1.—Haughty, &c. “Arrogance has its seat in the heart; it finds expression chiefly in the eyes, and great matters are the objects in which it is studiously displayed” (Delitzsch). The perfects express past time reaching into the present: “Hitherto I have not been haughty, nor am I so now” (Hitzig). Older expositors frequently present the idea of the past too prominently. It is not till the following clause that the great matters (Jeremiah 33:3) are denoted as wonderful to the speaker (Genesis 18:14), i.e., out of his reach. Psalms 131:2 does not begin with a question; for ΰִ ?νμֹ ?ΰ is not δֲ ?μֹ ?ΰ Nor is it correct to suppose, that it is a conditioning protasis: if not (Luther), for there is no apodosis, though it is sometimes arbitrarily assumed. And it does not introduce a contrast to the foregoing negation (Gesenius, Stier), but an asseveration, as frequently employed elsewhere after words of swearing The weaned child is not referred to as being helpless (Flaminius), or humble (Rudinger, Hengst.), or as being quieted slowly (Rosenmόller), or in allusion to its distress and crying while being weaned (Geier, J. H. Michaelis), but as being already weaned and clinging with perfect satis faction and contentment to its mother (Isaiah 28:9). [Translate Psalms 131:2 : Surely I have soothed and stilled my soul, like a weaned child upon its mother: my soul is to me like a weaned child. Perowne: “The figure is beautifully expressive of the humility of a soul chastened by disappointment. As the weaned child no longer cries, frets and longs for the breast, but lies still and is content, because it is with its mother, so my soul is weaned from all discontented thoughts, from all fretful desires for earthly good, waiting in stillness upon God, finding its satisfaction in His presence, resting peacefully in His arms.”—J. F. M.]. AND Our desires disquiet the heart. Resignation to God’s will makes the soul still.—Pride separates men from fellowship with God. Humility strengthens that bond. The one makes the heart restless; the other imparts quietness and peace.—A childlike disposition, humble, patient and satisfied in God, as the fruit of severe conflict. Starke: Pride defiles the best endowments and actions, and makes them, as it were, wormeaten.—He who aims to build higher than God has ordained for him loses thereby the gift which he has received.—All who seek heaven must seek the humility of Christ.—Quiet the tumult of the thoughts and the desires of the heart. But what thou wouldst do, do soon. If thou waitest until lust has taken possession, thou only invitest sin to enter.—Out of fellowship with God there is nothing but disquietude.—True hope serves, so to speak, as a telescope to faith, by which it sees from time into eternity; nor does it put to shame. Frisch: If thou art wise, choose the path of humility. If David’s example cannot influence thee, contemplate the pattern of thy humble Saviour: before that the heart will melt into self-abasement.—Rieger: An humble abiding by a life of faith in mercy found.—Guenther: We all desire to be at rest. We have unrest enough, weeping now from hunger, now from pain, and now from ill temper. The Lord grant that we may cling to the right mother; not to the world, which, though giving rest sometimes, urges to ever-renewed hunger, but to the love of God, which grants the most blessed stillness, and that in fasting.—Taube: The sign, victory, and blessing of true humility. [Matt. Henry: The love of God reigning in the heart will subdue all inordinate self-love.—Barnes: Whatever suggestions one in early life may be disposed to make, they should be connected with a spirit that is humble, gentle and retiring. Religion produces self-control, and is inconsistent with a proud, arrogant, or ambitious spirit.—J. F. M.] Psalms 132 A Song of degrees         Lord, remember David, And all his afflictions: 2    How he sware unto the Lord,And vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; 3    Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, Nor go up into my bed, 4    I will not give sleep to mine eyes. Or slumber to mine eyelids, 5    Until I find out a place for the Lord,A habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. 6    Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: We found it in the fields of the wood. 7    We will go into his tabernacles: We will worship at his footstool. 8    Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; Thou, and the ark of thy strength. 9    Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; And let thy saints shout for joy. 10    For thy servant David’s sake Turn not away the face of thine anointed. 11    The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body Will I set upon thy throne. 12    If thy children will keep my covenant, And my testimony that I shall teach them, Their children shall also sit Upon thy throne for evermore. 13    For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for his habitation. 14    This is my rest for ever: Here will I dwell; for I have desired it. 15    I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. 16    I will also clothe her priests with salvation: And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. 17    There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. 18    His enemies will I clothe with shame; But upon himself shall his crown flourish. AND Contents and Composition.—A prayer is uttered (Psalms 132:1-5), that a recompense might be made for those toilsome efforts with which David sought to fulfil his vow to find a dwelling for Jehovah. An invitation to enter into this dwelling of God for worship is then addressed (Psalms 132:6-7). Next follows a supplication that the sanctuary and its ministers may be blessed for David’s sake (Psalms 132:8-10), to whose throne Jehovah hadsworn to grant perpetuity, provided his descendants would keep his covenant (Psalms 132:11-12), and which He had sworn to bless in Zion as the seat of the Theocracy, together with all her members and servants (Psalms 132:13-18). The mode of expression is not such as to lead to the conclusion, that the Psalm was a prayer uttered by David at the dedication of the sanctuary after the removal of the ark into the holy Tent on Zion (Aben Ezra, et al.), or at the consecration of the threshing-floor of Araunah, 2 Samuel 24. (Kimchi, Geier). Psalms 132:10, especially, contradicts this; for though the suppliant styles himself the anointed of Jehovah, which expression must be understood as applied, not to the High Priest, nor to the people, but to a theocratic king, yet this king, in his petition, prays for an answer “for the sake of David thy servant.” But we should not go very far down into later times; for, according to Psalms 132:8, the ark of the covenant must be regarded as still in existence. This not only forbids a resort to the Maccabζan period (Olshausen, Hitzig, who refers to Simon’s entry into the conquered city, 1 Maccabees 13.), or to the end of the period of Persian rule (Ewald), but also excludes any occasion subsequent to the exile (Kφster, Hengst., et al.). For all support is wanting to the supposition which the contrary view would necessitate, that the poet only employed the language of an earlier time, and sought to cheer and encourage his cotemporaries, either by borrowing directly from older compositions, or by transferring his stand-point with poetical freedom to a period of past glory, and exhibiting that glory to them, together with the prophecies uttered at that time and fulfilled in part when the Psalm was penned. If we consider the former hypothesis, that of a borrowing, it is suggested that the passage, Psalms 132:8-10, with a few changes, embodies the conclusion of Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple, as it is recorded in 2 Chronicles 6:41 f, in a more extended form than in 1 Kings 8. But these differences are of such a nature as to lead to the conclusion that the Chronicler (Del., Hupfeld), and not the Psalmist (Hengst., Olsh., Hitzig), was the borrower (comp. Psalms 130:2). With regard to the hypothesis of a poetical transfer of stand-point, it must be admitted that it would be the gloomiest times that would be most appropriately directed to a brilliant past with its promises (Kφster, Hupfeld), and that, in particular, the expectation of a revival of the kingdom and family of David would most naturally have been excited during the founding of the new colony (Hengst.). But Psalms 132:10 creates the impression, not of a Messianic (Stier and older commentators), but of an historical reference, and, as mentioned above, of having been spoken by a theocratic king. For this reason, we cannot refer directly to Zerubbabel (Ewald, Bauer, et al.) as the offspring of the Davidic stock (1 Chronicles 3:1; 1 Chronicles 3:19), at the head of those who returned from the exile (Ezra 2:2), who fixed in him especially their joyful hopes of a restoration of the Theocracy (Haggai 2:23; Zechariah 4:6-7). It is possible that the Psalm is the application of an older one to him and to his age (De Wette); but there are grave objections to supposing that it was composed at this or a later time, when there was no actual king such as is here described. For the history of Israel does not exhibit theocratic expectations grounded upon poetical conceptions and representations, but contains the development of God’s kingdom on the ground of prophetic revelations. If this view be taken, there is occasion sufficient to justify a reference to the building of Solomon’s Temple and the transfer of the ark from the Tabernacle to the House on Zion (Amyrald, De Wette, Tholuck), not employed as a poetical figure and as the drapery of another meaning (Hupfeld), but as the actual occasion of the origin of this Psalm.—Yet a confident decision cannot be made. Even Delitzsch, who still remarks the resemblance to Psalms 122. in a certain diffuseness, a repetition of words, and a progress of thought advancing with difficulty here and there with uncertain steps, remains finally of the opinion, “that the acts done, according to 2 Samuel 6:7, by David for the honor of Jehovah, and the promise made to him by Jehovah there repeated, are here employed by a poet after his time, who bases upon them a prayer full of hope, a prayer for the kingdom and priesthood of Zion, and for the Church regulated by them.” He, however, presents this view in close connection with the following words: “It, at all events, proceeded from an age when the throne of David still remained and the holy ark was not yet irrecoverably lost.” Nothing points specially to king Josiah (Maurer). The same remark applies to the supposition that the Psalm was to be sung in responses by the congregation and a choir of the priests (Olshausen). [Hengstenberg’s opinion that the Psalm was designed for the “new colony” is largely based upon his assumption that all the anonymous pilgrim-songs were composed after the exile. But each Psalm must be treated independently, nor can a general rule of this nature be employed to support any special case. His other main argument is that the Psalm begins with an allusion to the depressed state of David’s kingdom. But it is impossible to discover anything of the kind, the “trouble” of David (Psalms 132:1) being manifestly, as is evident from the connection in which he stands, supported by the form of the word in the Hebrew, that which he underwent in preparing a dwelling for God. On this point see further in the exposition. On the other hand, the only view which is not encumbered with difficulties is that which assigns the composition to Solomon or some contemporary poet, after the building of the Temple. So Perowne, who says: “It is perfectly natural that Solomon or a poet of his age, writing a song for such an occasion, should recur to the earlier efforts made by his father to prepare a habitation for Jehovah. On the completion of the work, his thoughts would inevitably revert to all the steps which had led to its accomplishment. It is no less natural that, at such a time, the promise given to David should seem doubly precious, that it should be clothed with a new interest, a fresh significance, when David’s son sat on the throne, and when the auspicious opening of his reign might itself be hailed as a fulfilment of the promise.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 132:1-2. All his trouble [E. V.: all his afflictions]. The infinitive Pual used as a substantive here describes the anxieties and vexations by which men are harassed, and by which they feel themselves inwardly as well as outwardly oppressed (Isaiah 53:4; Psalms 119:71), the troubles which attend efforts that are long without result, and of which they yet never weary (1 Kings 5:17).—The mighty one of Jacob is a designation of God taken from Genesis 49:24, and frequent in Isaiah. [Render Psalms 132:1-2 : Remember, Jehovah, to David, all his harassing cares, who sware to Jehovah, vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob.—J. F. M.] Psalms 132:3-7. It is idle to discuss whether the words of the oath, which the Septuagint present still more fully, are given literally. It is not indicated whether the allusion is to the vow made by David, that he would build a temple, which is inferred from 2 Samuel 7:2, or only to the preparation of a secure place generally (Psalms 78:67) for the ark which had previously no fixed residence, by transferring it to Zion (2 Samuel 6.). In the days of Saul there was very little concern felt for the ark (1 Chronicles 13:3). From the hands of the Philistines it was taken to Kirjathjearim, and remained there twenty years, as though forgotten (1 Samuel 6:21; 1 Samuel 7:1 f.). This city is mentioned in the Old Testament under several different names. It is therefore not absolutely impossible that the field of yaἁ ?r, or the field of the wood, Psalms 132:6 b. was intended to designate this city Kirjathjearim, i.e., forest-city, the sense being: we have at last found the ark in that place. Under this view the preceding clause is to be understood: we heard that it was in Ephrathah. But what place is that? Bethlehem, which anciently (Rth 4:11, Genesis 35:16; Genesis 35:19; Genesis 48:7) was so designated (Micah 5:1), cannot be meant; for the ark had never been in that city. The explanation also: we in Ephrathah, i.e., David and other Bethlehemites, heard of it by report (Kimchi, Grotius, Hengst.), is inadmissible, in the light both of grammatical rules and of actual fact. So, too, with the supposition of an allusion to the birth of the Messiah (Jerome, Stier), or to Jerusalem as lying in the vicinity of Bethlehem (Aben Ezra, et al.). Most hold, therefore, that Ephraim is meant, since in Judges 12:5; 1 Samuel 1:1; 1 Kings 11:26, ΰֶ ?τְ ?ψָ ?ϊִ ?ι means: an Ephraimite. But they differ as to the precise locality referred to. Some suppose that it is Shiloh, as a place within the bounds of Ephraim, and where the ark resided in older times (Piscator, Cocceius, Amyrald, et al.). Others maintain that the word is a figurative and appellative designation of Bethshemesh, when the ark was set down by the Philistines, and where it created a great sensation by its effects, 1 Samuel 6:16 (Hupfeld). Others, again, explain Ephrathah as the name of the district in which Kirjathjearim lay, referring to the circumstance that Caleb had, by his third wife, a son Hur (1 Chronicles 2:19), who was the ancestral head of the Bethlehemites (1 Chronicles 4:4), and, through his son Shobal, the head also of the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim (1 Chronicles 2:50). The latter accordingly would belong to Caleb Ephratha (1 Chronicles 2:24), as the northern part of this portion of the country appears to have been designated, in distinction from negeb Caleb (1 Samuel 30:14), the southern portion (Del., Hitzig). But all these explanations have, in addition to the objections which may be urged against them individually, to meet in common the following difficulty: If the suffix in Psalms 132:6 a be referred to the ark, which is not named before Psalms 132:8 b, and there in a quite different connection, and especially when it is considered that the suffix depends upon ωׁ ?ξς, the discourse becomes very abrupt, odd, and obscure. This is so marked that it has even been conjectured that part of the text has fallen out (Olshausen). It would be better, therefore, to refer the suffix to the notion which lies concealed in the word, viz: the report heard. There is then no ground for the division of the verse in such a way that the first member is made to relate to the hearing of the report of David’s intention in Bethlehem, while the second tells of the finding of the ark in Kirjathjearim (Baur). For in both members the speakers are the same, namely, the Israelites generally; for it is inadmissible to assume that David here continues (Hengst.) what had been announced to be only a vow. The Psalmist is included in the Israelites as a member of the same united nation, as in Psalms 66:6. It is impossible that the latter are described here as people of Bethlehem; for special prominence is given in this Psalm to David and his house, and Bethlehem was the seat of his family. It lay, moreover, not far from Jerusalem, so that one would be at once reminded of the Holy City and its environs. Under these circumstances, it is much more natural to suppose that the name is not used here topographically but figuratively (Calvin), and that it is put by periphrasis for the whole land of Judea, whether this be indicated by a contrasting of the arable and wooded, the inhabited and uninhabited land, or by that of the South and the North, Ephratha and the wooded land of Lebanon, Isaiah 22:8; Isaiah 29:17; Psalms 75:7; Haggai 1:8 (Venema, Ewald, Kamphausen). The sense would then be that everywhere throughout the land there was heard, not the report of David’s vow, but as the word “lo!” indicates, and the whole style and purport of what follows require, the voice or discourse, whose words are given in Psalms 132:7, i.e., the voice which utters the invitation to enter the house of God which had since been completed, and to worship there. Psalms 132:8-10. According to this view, Psalms 132:8 is not a continuation of the address, but a prayer of the Psalmist, uniting his supplications with those of the congregation, and worshipping before the ark. He, as we think, is identical with the anointed (Psalms 132:10), and he with Solomon, and his prayer is that Jehovah would arise and, with the ark of His covenant, would enter into the place prepared as His dwelling. And the place where this happens is not the house of Abinadab in Kirjathjearim, where the ark once resided, but the Tabernacle on Zion, whither David had brought it, and whence Solomon now brings it into the Temple (1 Kings 8:3). The expression: raise thyself, or: arise, is taken from Numbers 10:35, where it is employed to summon the congregation to set forward. The place of rest is the place where the ark was securely placed (Numbers 10:33; Numbers 10:36; 1 Chronicles 28:2). In Psalms 132:9 prayer is offered for the worthy attendants at the temple: first for the priests, that they may not only be clothed with white garments, the symbol of innocence and purity (Luke 23:11; Revelation 8:5), to minister in their midst the rejoicings of the people, 2 Samuel 6:14-15, comp. Leviticus 6:3 f (Hitzig), but that they may wear the spiritual robe of righteousness (Job 29:14; Isaiah 61:10); and then for the people, as they shall serve God in the ordinances of His worship (Kimchi, J. H. Mich., Kφster, Hupfeld, Del.). Psalms 132:10 then forms a much more suitable conclusion to this division by its reference to Psalms 132:1, than would be made if it were treated as the beginning of a new section (Calvin, De Wette.) Psalms 132:11-12. Psalms 132:11 refers to the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7, which receives its complete fulfilment in the Messiah (comp. Psalms 89.). The swearing is not to be sought in any single word of the promise (Kimchi), but is to be taken as setting forth its inviolability, for the purpose of strengthening faith so often wavering, and there fore also the reliability of the promise is, in addition, brought out expressly on its positive side as truth (2 Samuel 7:28), and negatively, by the additional statement that God will not depart from it (Isaiah 45:23; Joe 2:14). Most join ΰξϊ as an accusative to the first member; but see, on the other hand, Delitzsch and Hupfeld. [Perowne: “This is not the object of the verb πωׁ ?ας: ‘He hath sworn a faithful oath.’ Delitzsch makes it an adverbial accusative, and claims the support of the accents, the Pazer (distinctive) marking the close of the first member of the verse. But it is better to take it independently, as standing at the beginning of a parenthetical clause: ‘It (i.e., the oath) is truth, He will not depart from it.’ ”—J. F. M.] The condition (Psalms 132:12) of the fulfilment of the prophecy, namely, faithfulness to the covenant, manifested by obedience to God’s testimony of Himself, that is, His revelation, is presented also in 2 Samuel 7:14 f, similarly to Genesis 18:19; Genesis 26:5; 1 Kings 8:25; Psalms 89:31 f. Psalms 132:13-18. The choice of Zion, i.e., of Jerusalem as the seat of the sanctuary and of God’s dwelling, is finally, in Psalms 132:13, mentioned as the ground, not of the invitation expressed in Psalms 132:7 (Amyrald, Rosenm.), or of a supposed prayer for the restoration of the family of David (Hengstenberg), but of the sure fulfilment of the promise just sworn or adduced as a reliable one. In the following verses, also, it is cited in Jehovah’s own words in attestation of its reliability, first as a fact realized by Divine power, and then described in its blessed effects, which shall reach through all time and bear a Messianic character. The anointed, Psalms 132:17, is, it is true, not the same person who prays in Psalms 132:10, but, according to the context, David, to whom the promise was given. But the growing of the horn, the symbol of victorious power and warlike strength (Ezek. 29:31), and the blooming of the princely crown, as of an unfading wreath which shall flourish perpetually and ever renew its blossoms, while his enemies shall be covered with shame as with a garment (Job 8:22), and the lamp ordained for the anointed (Psalms 18:29; 1 Kings 11:36), as the symbol of a brilliant, glorious, and unquenchable life, are directed, in the mouth of God, beyond the mortal and in part faithless descendants of David, to that Seed who, in prophetic visions and announcements, appears as the Sprout of Jehovah, Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12 (Calvin, et al., Kφster, Olshausen, Del.). So the Synagogue have also regarded it, which in its daily prayers, consisting of eighteen passages in which blessings occur, has the words: “may the Sprout of David Thy servant soon shoot forth, and his horn soon be exalted by Thy salvation.” This the father of the Baptist employs in the form of a prayer with thanksgiving, with his eyes directed to the approaching fulfilment (Luke 1:68-70). “Shiloh has been rejected (Psalms 78:60); in Bethel and Mizpah the sacred ark remained but a short time (Judges 20:27); the house of Abinadab in Kirjath sheltered it only a little over twenty years (1 Samuel 7:2); the house of Edom in Perez-Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:11) only three months. But Zion is Jehovah’s abiding dwelling-place, his own place of settled ξְ ?πεּ ?ηָ ?δ (as in Isaiah 11:10; Isaiah 66:1, and besides in 1 Chronicles 28:2). In Zion, His chosen and delightful dwelling-place, Jehovah blesses that which supplies the temporal needs of her poor, so that they will not starve; for Divine love is specially displayed towards the poor. The other blessing which He gives He bestows upon the priests; for it is through them that He takes up His abode among His people. He makes Zion’s priesthood a system actually representative of His salvation; clothes her priest with salvation, so that they shall, not merely as instruments, be the media of its communication, but shall personally possess it; and their whole appearance shall announce its message. And to all the pious He gives reason and matter for exalted and abiding joy, by manifesting Himself also in acts of mercy to the Church which He has made His dwelling. Truly in Zion is the kingdom of promise, whose fulfilment cannot fail!” (Delitzsch). AND What we do and suffer for the sake of God, may indeed be sore to the flesh, but it will be more than fully rewarded by Him.—When we build a house to the Lord of the universe, let us never forget that we should worship Him in it, and prepare ourselves to be His dwelling through the appointed means of grace.—We should rely upon God’s word, and serve Him in accordance with it, and then with His blessing we shall never fail in temporal and spiritual well-being. Starke: The sufferings of believers for the cause of truth are not meritorious, but neither are they in vain; they are not forgotten by God (Matthew 5:11-12).—It is a great blessing of God, that men can come together in freedom of conscience to worship Him; but how little is it regarded!—The more perilous the situation of Christ’s kingdom appears to be, with the more devotion must we utter the next petition of our Lord’s prayer.—The true life in Christ Jesus is required especially in public teachers; this sanctifies all their natural gifts.—Those who would enjoy the benefit of the promises made to the fathers, must walk in their footsteps of faith and godliness.—God loves to dwell where His word is preached in its simplicity and purity, and where He is served in accordance with it. But He has no pleasure in self-selected service.—He who follows after Christ will never fail of spiritual strength or true enlightenment. Frisch: A man must forego his own comfort and rest rather than neglect the Lord; for that would be to seek his own pleasure and forget God—If God has so favored thee as to make thee stand in His Church, thank Him for it your whole life long; perform its duties worthily, and hold fast to the precious promises which thou hast heard.—Rieger: Oh that nothing were so great in our eyes as the kingdom of God! and that we, by prayer and by searching out, continued as firmly in the Divine promises as believers of old!—Tholuck: God’s rich pleasure in the Church, which He founded from His free purpose of mercy, moves Him to give gracious promises with regard to all three relations of life, as needing maintenance, instruction, and defence.—Guenther: The true Temple can only be that which He, who has been declared King of Glory, keeps building up until the fulness of the times. David and Solomon were the types or Christ.—Diedrich: When we become anxious about the safety of the Church, we must only keep up a lively remembrance of the Divine promises; all distrust will then disappear, for God’s word is the most certain of all things.—Taube: When God blesses, He does it with no niggardly hand; He gives far above what we have asked or can understand. This is to be marked at the table, in the heart, and on the throne. [Matt. Henry: What God sanctifies to us we shall and may be satisfied with.—God gives more than we ask, and when He gives salvation He will give an abundant joy.—Whom God clothes with righteousness He will also clothe with salvation; we must pray for righteousness and with it God will give salvation.—Scott: If God answered the prayers grounded upon His covenant with David. He will never turn away His face from us, when we plead the covenant made with His anointed Prophet, Priest, and King.—J. F. M.] Psalms 133 A Song of Degrees of David         Behold how good and how pleasant it isFor brethren to dwell together in unity! 2    It is like the precious ointment upon the head, That ran down upon the beard, Even Aaron’s beard: That went down to the skirts of his garments; 3    As the dew of Hermon, And as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: For there the Lord commanded the blessing, Even life for evermore. AND Contents and Composition.—The praise of fraternal unity (Psalms 133:1), as it diffuses blessings and communicates them by mutual influence. It is compared first to the refined oil with which Aaron was anointed at his consecration (Exodus 30:22 f.) and whose abundant and exuberant fulness is brought further into special prominence, (Psalms 133:2); and then to the abundant and refreshing dew of the mountains, flowing down from the lofty Hermon to the lower heights of Zion, where the blessing ordained by God is to be found, even eternal life (Psalms 133:3). The Psalm applies to brothers and friends sitting together in peace, and may also be applied to the union of tribes and races previously separated. The idea is primarily not that of domestic and political, but of religious unity and communion in God’s worship. But it is not necessary to suppose that the Psalm is a liturgical formulary (Olshausen) for the celebration of the high Festivals which united all Israel at the sanctuary in Jerusalem. In David’s life there may be found abundant points of connection with the Psalm; but the use of the relative ωׁ with the participle, which is unknown to the usage of the language before the Exile, is in especial unfavorable to the opinion that he was its composer. The title “by David” is not found, moreover, either in the Chald. or the Alex, version. [These two arguments are taken from Delitzsch. Their insufficiency is easily perceived. No other commentator that I have consulted has noted this exceptional use of ωׁ; nor was there reason for doing so. It is probable that if any of the writers before the Exile had had occasion to employ the combination here cited, he would have done so. There was nothing in the analogy of pure Hebrew to prevent it. Besides, that form of the relative does not occur frequently enough to justify such an inference, based upon usage, from this unusual construction. As there is not the slightest clue given in the Poem, to lead us to the date of its composition, the only refuge is the superscription. But Hengstenberg, who holds to its correctness, has, strange to say, very few to support him.—J. F. M.] Psalms 133:2.—Aaron’s beard. It is not the priests generally who are designated by this name (De Wette, Hupfeld), but Aaron himself is brought before us in person (Hengst.). For the priests were called anointed (Numbers 3:3) only because their clothes were sprinkled with the anointing oil and with the blood of a ram. Even Aaron’s sons were only sprinkled with the oil. But this oil was poured upon the head of Aaron himself (Exodus 29; Leviticus 8.). Its abundance, as well as its good quality (Isaiah 39:2; Ecclesiastes 7:1) are here presented to the mind by the statement that it flowed down upon the beard, which being, according to Leviticus 21:5, permitted its natural growth, allowed the oil to run down upon the garments, not merely to the upper edge, the opening for the head, but to the lower one. For this simile is intended to illustrate the possibility even of an external union, by appropriate means, of those widely separated. For this reason the relative is not to be referred to the beard (J. H. Mich, et al., Hupfeld, Hitzig), but to the oil (Del. and most). There is, however, no necessity of explaining: along the garments (Venema), or: which descends over his whole length (Bφttcher), as though the beard were as long as his body (Sachs). These explanations are the rather to be avoided, as the person of Aaron is not brought into view simply as representing Aaron himself, but as being the type of the High-priesthood (Ewald) in the fulness of its divine consecration (Leviticus 21:10), so that here any representative of that dignity is called Aaron, as a descendant of his ancestor of that name, just as the king of David’s family (1 Kings 12:16; Hosea 3:5) is himself called David (Hitzig). Delitzsch cites as parallel to this a sentence from the Haggada: “Two drops of the sacred anointing oil remain forever upon Aaron’s beard like two pearls, as an image of reconciliation and peace.” [Perowne: “The point of the comparison does not lie in the preciousness of the oil, in its all-pervading fragrance, but in this: that being poured upon the head, it did not rest there, but flowed to the beard, and descended even to the garments, and thus, as it were, consecrated the whole body in all its parts. All the members participate in the same blessing. Comp. 1 Corinthians 12 … Other thoughts may be suggested by the comparison, as that a spirit of concord, both in a state and a family, will descend from those who govern to those who are governed, or again, that concord is a holy thing like the holy oil, or sweet and fragrant like the fragrant oil; but these are mere accessories of the image, not that which suggested its use.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 133:3.—The dew of Hermon. As Jeremiah (Psalms 18:14) was aware of a connection between the waters of Lebanon and the snow of Lebanon, so the Psalmist here recognizes a similar connection between the dew of Hermon and the moistening of the mountains which surround Zion. “What we read in Psalms 133. of the dew of Hermon falling upon the mountains of Zion is now made quite plain to me. Sitting here at the foot of Hermon, I was able to understand how the particles of water, which ascend from its wood-crowned peaks and from its highest gorges filled with perpetual snow, after they have been rarified by the beams of the sun and the atmosphere has been moistened by them, fall in the evening in the form of a heavy dew upon the lower mountains which lie around it at its projecting ridges. One must behold Hermon, with its light-golden crown glistening in the blue heaven, before he can understand this image. In no part of the whole country is such a heavy dew observed as that which falls in the districts near Hermon” (Van de Velde, Reise, 1:97). If the north wind bears the rain-clouds southwards (Proverbs 25:23), it may also carry the dewy mist (Isaiah 18:4) in the same direction (Hitzig). We may also take into comparison the widely traceable effects of the atmosphere of the Alps (Del.). Under these considerations there is no need of denying the physical relation between the dew of Hermon and the same dew as flowing down upon Mt. Zion, which is acknowledged even by Olshausen. Some of the expositors who do so endeavor to arrive at a solution by repeating in Psalms 133:3 b. against the rules of grammar and parallelism, the words: “as the dew,” in order to show that two altogether independent descents of dew are referred to (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Geier, J. H. Mich., De Wette). Others give a figurative explanation equally inadmissible, and either interpret the mountains of Zion as meaning parched mountains (Dφderlein, Dathe), or the dew of Hermon as pleasant dew in general (Stier, Kφster, Hengst.). Others, finally, import into the expression: “dew of Hermon” the idea of the “blessing of the height,” and at the same in Psalms 133:2-3 regard the first λְּ ?=as, the second λְּ ?=so, by which the descent of the blessing upon Zion, already expressed figuratively, is supposed to be set forth by a comparison with the flowing down of the holy oil, which is likewise symbolical (Isaaki, Hupf.). At most it may be said that the image employed in Psalms 133:3 may have been occasioned by the thought of the northern and southern tribes coming together in Jerusalem, and being there united in fraternal communion, and with an influence upon one another made mutually beneficent through the Divine blessing (Herder, Delitzsch). The for of the last sentence is best explained under this view. For the conclusion of the Psalm declares not every place of fraternal gathering (Flam., Amyrald, Geier, Rosenm., De Wette), but Zion (Kimchi and most) to be the place where God has ordained by His command the blessing which bestows life which it was designed to convey. [Perowne: “Here again it is not the refreshing nature of the dew, nor its gentle, all-pervading influence, which is the prominent feature. That which renders it to the poet’s eye so striking an image of brotherly concord is the fact that it falls alike on both mountains, that the same dew which descends upon the lofty Hermon descends also upon the humble Zion. High and low drink in the same sweet refreshment. Thus the image is exactly parallel to the last: the oil descends from the head to the beard; the dew from the higher mountain to the lower.”—J. F. M.] AND Fraternal unity: (1) how it is most attractively exhibited; (2) what is its firmest foundation; (3) how it is most securely strengthened and maintained until the end.—Concord should not merely be praised with the lips and desired with the heart, it must also be striven after in life, and be exhibited in action.—The Church of the Lord is the place where the blessing from above, Divinely ordained, is won by prayer, and imparted, received, and spread abroad in fraternal communion.—The blessing of fraternal concord grows only upon the soil of God’s kingdom in this divided world. Starke: True brotherly love and all fraternal and sisterly concord receive mercy and blessing from God, and are praised and honored by the world.—As long as a man remains unconverted he does not know what true love is.—Inward peace with God is truly a dew upon us, so that we bloom as the rose.—A place where spiritual and temporal peace are united, is an earthly paradise, and a foretaste of the heavenly.—Our love is not a ground of eternal blessedness, but those who truly love are, for the sake of Christ’s merit, to be heirs of eternal life.—Tholuck: The blessing of this unity rejoices the feelings and strengthens the heart; and as it flows forth and is all-embracing in its influence, even the most insignificant are supported by it.—Richter: All unity comes down from above as a blessing of God, and produces further blessings.—In the world, self-seeking and hatred prevail; but in Zion, among God’s children, true unity reigns.—All party and sectarian discord are carnal.—Guenther: The love which gives the greatest happiness is not that which makes the least sacrifices, but that which, with the greatest cheerfulness, offers the most. But like every good result, this is not accomplished of itself, but by the mercy of God.—Diedrich: The holy communion of believers. The blessing of heaven has united their souls. God’s gracious Spirit is the atmosphere and dew of their lives. Their love returns to Him like clouds of incense, floating upwards; while their hearts are strengthened with renewed energy.—Taube: The delightful blessing of fraternal inter-communion. [Matt. Henry: Behold and wonder that there should be so much goodness and pleasantness among men, so much of heaven upon earth!—Holy love is in the sight of God of great price, and that is precious indeed which is so in God’s sight.—Our love to our brethren should not stay for their’s to us; that is publican’s love; but should prevent it; that is Divine love.—They that dwell in love not only dwell in God, but dwell already in heaven. As the perfection of love is the blessedness of heaven, so the sincerity of love is the earnest of heaven.—J. F. M.] Psalms 134 A Song of Degrees         Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord,Which by night stand in the house of the Lord.2    Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the Lord.3    The Lord that made heaven and earth Bless thee out of Zion. AND Contents and Composition.—It is held by some that this Psalm is occupied with the mutual relation of blessing subsisting between God and His servants who praise Him in the sanctuary (Kimchi, J. H. Mich., Hupfeld). Other views are that it is a responsive song between the president of the Levites who hold the night-watch in the Temple, and the Levites themselves (Amyrald), or between those of the Temple-watchers who are mounting guard, and those who are retiring (Kφster, Tholuck), or between the Levites on guard among themselves, in order to encourage one another to watchfulness, forming one of a class of songs of the night-watchers (De Wette). But that view is probably the preferable one which regards it as (Psalms 134:1-2) an exhortation of the Church to the priests and Levites, who are charged with the night service, and a greeting in response (Psalms 134:3), after the priestly model (Numbers 6:24), to the Church “as one person, and to the individual members in this united Church” (Delitzsch, following older commentators, similarly, Hengstenberg and Hitzig). [Delitzsch: “This Psalm consists of a greeting, Psalms 134:1-2, and a reply, Psalms 134:3. The greeting is addressed to those priests and Levites who held the night-watch in the Temple. This antiphone is intentionally placed at the end of the collection of the Songs of the Ascents, in order to take the place of a final blessing.”—J. F. M.] There is no indication that it was a form employed to introduce the nightly recitation of hymns, whether by priests or other pious Israelites (Olsh.). The time of composition cannot be determined. Psalms 134:1. Behold.—An exclamation to excite attention (Genesis 19:1), instead of pointing with the finger. Every believer is and is called a minister or servant of the Lord, but the designation: “those who stand in the house of the Lord,” is a technical expression, not for the priests and Levites generally, but for those who stand ready before Jehovah to minister in His service. The phrase: at nights, is not to be joined to the following verse (Sept. et al.), or with: “blessed” (Kimchi, Rudinger, Hupfeld). For such cases as that mentioned in Luke 2:37 form exceptions, and the idea: at all times, unceasingly, or: early and late, would require another mode of expression. Psalms 134:2. χֹ ?γֶ ?ωׁ is not an accusative of definition = in holiness, that is, after the hands have been washed (Rabbins), or holiness of the kind alluded to in 1 Timothy 2:8 (Junilius). Nor does it indicate the position of the worshipper = in the sanctuary (Kimchi, Luther). It is an accusative of direction, Psalms 28:2 (Sept., Jerome): towards the Holy of Holies. [So nearly all the expositors. E. V. has, by conjecture, the wrong preposition.—J. F. M.] According to Delitzsch, the Temple-watch was arranged as follows: “After midnight the chief of the door-keepers took the key of the inner Temple, and went, with some of the priests, through the postern in the Fire-gate. In the inner court, this patrol divided itself into two companies, each carrying a burning torch, one company turning west, the other east; and so they compassed the court, to see whether all were in readiness for the following morning. At the bake-house, where the meat-offering of the high-priest was baked, they met, exclaiming: ‘all is well.’ Meanwhile, the rest of the priests arose, bathed themselves, and put on their garments of service. They then went into the square-chamber (one-half of which formed the hall of session of the Sanhedrim), where, under the direction of the Superintendent of the Lot, and of one of the Sanhedrim, surrounded by priests dressed in their robes of office, the duties of the several priests for the ensuing day were assigned them by lot.” Comp. Reland, Antiq. Sacrζ, II. 5, 7; 6, 7. Venema has supposed that αַּ ?μֵ ?ιμֹ ?εϊ (—in nights) is syncopated from αְּ ?δַ ?μֵּ ?ιμֹ ?εϊ (=with shouts of praise). Delitzsch rightly characterizes this as a product of fancy, and says: “The Psalter contains Morning Psalms (3, 63) and Evening Psalms (4, 141); why then may it not have a Watch-Psalm?” [Psalms 134:3. Hengstenberg: “That the people are addressed, is clear from the parallel passage, Psalms 128:5. Only in that case does the Psalm form a suitable conclusion to the whole Pilgrim-book. That the future is to be taken optatively, … is clear from the undeniable reference to the Mosaic blessing, Numbers 6:24. The expression: Creator of heaven and earth, comp. Psalms 121:2; Psalms 124:8, forms the counterpoise to the depth of misery and weakness in which the community of God was sunk.”—J. F. M.] AND To praise God is the surest means of gaining blessing from Him.—Watching and praying are inseparably connected, and should be the concern of all believers; the ordained ministers of the sanctuary must not allow the people to put them to shame in these duties. Augustine: If the wicked enemy is ever on the watch to tempt thee, shouldst thou not watch in order to resist him?—Starke: He who would praise the Lord worthily must be a servant of the Lord, and, consequently, not a servant of the world and sin.—God, it is true, is present everywhere, even in the smallest peasant-huts, yea, in the most sequestered nooks, but pre-eminently in the Church.—Those outward gestures in prayer which conduce to devotion and humility, are justly to be retained, and a suppliant has no need to be ashamed of them.—If the blessing of an earthly father can build houses for his children, and extend even to children’s children, how should not still more than this be imparted by the blessing of Him who is the true Father of all that are called His children in Heaven and upon earth! (Ephesians 3:15). Frisch: If God is so ready and willing to bestow His blessing upon thee, do not by presumption make thyself unfit or not entitled to receive it.—Richter: How seldom is God praised in the night!—Guenther: God will have the praise, and give us new life thereby.—Diedrich: He who has no higher wish than that God may be blessed unceasingly, shall receive from Him blessing without end.—Taube: God alone is so Almighty as to be able to bless us bodily and spiritually, temporally and eternally, and so compassionate as to be willing to do it. [Matt. Henry: It would be an excellent piece of good husbandry to fill up the vacancies of time with pious meditations and ejaculations, and surely it is a modest and reasonable demand to converse with God when we have nothing else to do.—We ought to beg those blessings not only for ourselves, but for others also; not only: the Lord bless me, but: the Lord bless thee; thus testifying our belief of the fulness of the Divine blessings, that there is enough for others as well as for us; and our good-will also to others.—Bp. Horne: Thus it is that prayer and praise, which by grace are caused to ascend from our heart to God, will certainly return in the benedictions of heaven upon our souls and bodies, our persons and our families, our churches and our country.—Scott: If our hearts were filled with the love of God, as His holy law commands, our mouths would be filled with His praises, and though our frail bodies would need rest, yet our souls would never be weary of His pleasant service.—Barnes: There is always in Zion—in the Church—a voice by day and night which pronounces a blessing on those who wish it well, who seek its good, and who desire to partake of the favor of God.—Go not away unblessed; go not without a token of the Divine favor; for God will bless you.—J. F. M.] Psalms 135 1         Praise ye the Lord.Praise ye the name of the Lord;Praise him, O ye servants of the Lord.2    Ye that stand in the house of the Lord,In the courts of the house of our God, 3    Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: Sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant. 4    For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, And Israel for his peculiar treasure. 5    For I know that the Lord is great, And that our Lord is above all gods. 6    Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he In heaven, and in earth, In the seas, and all deep places. 7    He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings for the rain; He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. 8    Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, Both of man and beast. 9    Who sent tokens and wonders Into the midst of thee, O Egypt, Upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants. 10    Who smote great nations, And slew mighty kings; 11    Sihon king of the Amorites, And Og king of Bashan, And all the kingdoms of Canaan: 12    And gave their land for a heritage, A heritage unto Israel his people. 13    Thy name, O Lord, endureth for ever; And thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. 14    For the Lord will judge his people, And he will repent himself concerning his servants. 15    The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands. 16    They have mouths, but they speak not; Eyes have they, but they see not; 17    They have ears, but they hear not; Neither is there any breath in their mouths. 18    They that make them are like unto them: So is every one that trusteth in them. 19    Bless the Lord, O house of Israel: Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron; 20    Bless the Lord, O house of Levi: Ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord 21    Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, Which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—An exhortation to praise the name of Jehovah, addressed to His servants who stand in the sanctuary and its courts prepared for His worship (Psalms 135:1-2). Such praise is a pleasant employment, and one befitting the People of Jehovah’s choice and inheritance (Psalms 135:3-4). For Jehovah hath made Himself known as the great God and Lord by mighty deeds in the realm of nature (Psalms 135:5-7), and in history, specially in leading His people forth from Egypt (Psalms 135:8-9) and into the Promised Land (Psalms 135:10-12), and, in His helpful and saving power, proves Himself to His people, who transmit His memory to all generations upon the ground of His self-revelation (Psalms 135:13-14), to be the Living God as contrasted with worthless idols and their powerless worshippers (Psalms 135:15-18). Finally a repeated exhortation to the whole house of Israel, in all the classes of all its members, to praise Jehovah, passes over into the hymn of praise itself (Psalms 135:19-21). This Psalm is indisputably one of the latest in the Psalter; for it is almost wholly composed of passages taken from other Psalms, and interwoven with allusions to the law and the prophets. The beginning, Psalms 135:1, is from Psalms 134:1, enlarged by an allusion to Psalms 116:19, or Psalms 92:14. Psalms 135:3 points to Psalms 147:1, comp. Proverbs 22:18, from which it becomes manifest that the subject is not Jehovah (Hupfeld), but either His name, as in Ps. 54:8 (Sept., Chald., Jerome, Luther, Hitzig), or His praise (Del.). Psalms 135:6 is like Psalms 115:3. Psalms 135:7 is an echo of Jer 10:13; Jeremiah 51:16, with an allusion to the three departments of creation, as in Exodus 20:4. The effects of lightning as bringing rain, as in Zechariah 10:1, Psalms 135:8 f., follows Psalms 136:10 f. The form: αְּ ?ϊεֹ ?λֵ ?λִ ?ι, Psalms 135:9, is probably an imitation of Psa 116:19. Psalms 135:10 alludes to Deuteronomy 4:38, and the related passages, Numbers 7:1; Numbers 9:1; Numbers 11:23; Joshua 23:9. Psalms 135:13 is from Exodus 13:15, comp. Psalms 102:13, and Psalms 135:14 from Deuteronomy 32:36, comp. Psalms 90:13. Finally, Psalms 135:15 f. are taken with slight modifications from Psalms 115:4-11, comp. Psalms 118:2; Psalms 118:4. In the very midst of expressions taken from Deut., linguistic indications of a late period suddenly appear. [Delitzsch: “This Psalm is composed like a piece of mosaic. The early Italian poet Lucilius makes a comparison between mosaic-work and certain styles of writing: quam lepide lexeis compostζ ut tesserulζ omnes,—Psalms 135 is not the first instance of the employment of such a style. We have already seen specimens of it in Psalms 107; Psalms 98. These Psalms are chiefly composed of passages from the second part of Isaiah, while Psalms 135 selects its tesserulζ from the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”—J. F. M.] [Psalms 135:1-2. Hengstenberg: “The hallelujah at the beginning announces in one word the subject of the Psalm. That by the expression: the servants of the Lord, the whole people are to be understood, and not the priests, as in Psalms 134, is rendered more evident from the mention of the courts in Psalms 135:2, and from the conclusion, Psalms 135:19-20, where the whole of the Lord’s servants are distributed into their several divisions, priests, Levites, and believers. But the difference between this and Psalms 134 is of no great moment. For there the priests must praise the Lord as from the heart of believers; and that here, too, the priests stand at the head, is manifest from Psalms 135:19.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 135:5 being introduced as supporting the exhortation to praise God, refers to the conviction of the Psalmist, Psalms 20:7, confirmed by experience, that the matter of praise is most abundant, and that the appeal drawn therefrom is most just. It contains no reference to the duty of marking God’s revelation in nature as contrasted with the practice of the heathen, Romans 1:19 f. (Kimchi, Calvin). Psalms 135:7-14. The end of the earth does not mean the horizon, the boundary line of vision (Grotius, Rosen., De Wette), or the sea, the limit of the solid land (Kimchi, Amyrald); but it defines the earth as separate from the heavens (Aben Ezra, Flaminius, Hupfeld). Psalms 135:7 b. probably does not allude to any miraculous mixture of the opposite elements, fire and water (Kimchi, Calvin, Geier, and others), but to the usual occurrence of lightning together with rain in a thunder-storm. [The rendering of Psa 135:7 c. in E. V. would be improved by the substitution of: store-houses for: treasuries. Psalms 135:14. Perowne: “Here is the proof and evidence that Jehovah’s name abideth for ever, that He will manifest, as in the past, so in the future, His righteousness and His mercy to Israel.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 135:21. It is worthy of attention in the final verse, that Zion, which elsewhere designates the seat of Jehovah, from out of which He dispenses blessing (Psalms 128:5; Psalms 134:3), is mentioned here as the place from which a blessing is directed to Jehovah, that is, the answer to Jehovah’s blessing proceeding from Zion, and acknowledging with praise that it is a true blessing of God. This corresponds fully, however, to the actual relations of Zion. AND What we know of God, we are also to utter in the Church in His presence, and to confess in the face of the whole world.—Those only can praise the Lord aright, who know His name, love His honor, and, as God-fearing men, trust to the disposing will of the Eternal.—God’s judgments in the world are deeds of deliverance for the people of His choice.—God has chosen us to be the people of His inheritance, but are we ever ready to offer that which is due to Him and becoming to us?—Idols can give no help, and yet the heathen cleave to them tenaciously, even until their certain destruction; but how often do we suffer ourselves to be called in vain to God’s worship, while that worship is given to the only good, mighty and living God.—God has done so much for us that we can never thank Him sufficiently for it; but what do we do for Him?—If we seriously believe that the Almighty Ruler of the universe is our gracious God and faithful Father, what need we fear from the elements and the forces of the world? Starke: Your election to blessedness is an inestimable gift of God’s mercy, but just for this reason be the more diligent to make your calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10).—Great benefits entail great obligations; if we have been purchased by God as His inheritance, we must not live according to our own will, but the will of Him who died for us and rose again.—As soon as a man becomes small in his own heart, God becomes great there. In proportion as he has true humility in his heart, will he have a lofty regard for God in his soul.—God has His power in His will, and His will is all power, so that it can fail of nothing.—Look around everywhere, go whither thou wilt, thou wilt find everywhere proofs of the Divine omnipotence and wisdom.—It is a sign that a man is altogether dead in his heart, when he can look upon the heavens without rejoicing that He who created them is his Father, and that his inheritance there is eternal.—The hearts of many are still like those of the Egyptians, first they would see signs and wonders, and when they see them they do not believe.—Sin drives people from their own land and brings them to misfortune, with regard both to their temporal and spiritual life.—Be not overanxious, dear soul, about the Christian Church, as though it will be quite extirpated. No; as God abides for ever, so is He ever able to preserve and protect His little band, and to judge its enemies.—God does not judge His people otherwise than in mercy.—Satan easily urges from one folly and state of blindness to another, the victims of his delusion.—How many are like idol-images, when they have eyes, ears and mouths as though they had none, that is, when they, do not use them when and how they should—God’s praise is a part of His true fear; it cannot therefore be intermitted without sin.—God who once dwelt in Jerusalem, desires to dwell in thy heart; it shall be His Zion and His Temple. Refuse it not to Him (John 14:23). Frisch: I am chosen to be God’s inheritance, and therefore I cannot conform myself to the great mass of the world. I am God’s and not my own. I am a vessel of His mercy, alas for me if I should become a vessel of His wrath! I am an instrument of His mercies, whose influence I would have shed upon me. I am His heir, a joint-heir with His, Son; with this I am satisfied.—Guenther: Cast your idols away from your heart and house, and you will become a priest of the Highest.—Diedrich: According to a man’s God, is he himself.—Taube: Zion and Jerusalem are the starting-place and goal of all God’s revelations of Himself. They have an eternal significance.—L. Harms: To have a living God, to whom we can pray, is bliss. [Matt. Henry: The reasons why we should praise God: (1) because He whom we are to praise is good; (2) because the work is its own wages; (3) because of the peculiar privileges of God’s people.—God is and ever will be the same to His Church, a gracious, faithful, and wonder-working God; and His Church is and will be the same to Him, a thankful, praising people; and thus His name endures for ever.—Bishop Horne (Psalms 135:8-9): The objects of a man’s sin frequently become in the end the instruments of his punishment.—Barnes: Who, in reading this Psalm, can fail to catch the feeling of the Psalmist, and say amen and amen?—J. F. M.] Psalms 136 1         O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever. 2    O give thanks unto the God of gods: For his mercy endureth for ever. 3    O give thanks to the Lord of lords: For his mercy endureth for ever. 4    To him who alone doeth great wonders: For his mercy endureth for ever. 5    To him that by wisdom made the heavens: For his mercy endureth for ever. 6    To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: For his mercy endureth for ever. 7    To him that made great lights: For his mercy endurethfor ever: 8    The sun to rule by day: For his mercy endureth for ever: 9    The moon and stars to rule by night: For his mercy endureth for ever. 10    To him that smote Egypt in their first-born: For his mercy endureth for ever: 11    And brought out Israel from among them: For his mercy endureth for ever: 12    With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: For his mercy endureth for ever. 13    To him which divided the Red sea into parts: For his mercy endureth for ever: 14    And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: For his mercy endureth for ever: 15    But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: For his mercy endureth for ever. 16    To him which led his people through the wilderness: For his mercy endureth for ever. 17    To him which smote great kings: For his mercy endureth for ever: 18    And slew famous kings: For his mercy endureth for ever: 19    Sihon king of the Amorites: For his mercy endureth for ever: 20    And Og the king of Bashan: For his mercy endureth for ever: 21    And gave their land for a heritage: For his mercy endureth for ever: 22    Even a heritage unto Israel his servant: For his mercy endureth for ever. 23    Who remembered us in our low estate: For his mercy endureth for ever: 24    And hath redeemed us from our enemies: For his mercy endureth for ever. 25    Who giveth food to all flesh: For his mercy endureth for ever. 26    O give thanks unto the God of heaven: For his mercy endureth for ever. AND Contents and Composition.—This Psalm is an exhortation to give thanks to Jehovah, the true God and the real Lord of the universe, and of all its powers and dominions (Psalms 136:1-3) who, by mighty deeds in nature, has displayed His greatness as the Creator of the world (Psalms 136:4-9), and by deeds of deliverance and judgment in history, His pre-eminence as the Redeemer, Guide. and Guardian of His people (Psalms 136:10-25), for which they are to offer their thanksgiving.—It is essentially a repetition of the foregoing, with some insertions, full of allusions to passages in Deuteronomy and the second part of Isaiah, and adapted by antiphonal arrangement for liturgical use, after the analogy of Exodus 15:51; Deuteronomy 27:14 f. For the introduction see Psalms 106, 118; on the name great Hallel applied to it, see Psalms 113. [The conjecture of Delitzsch in his first edition that the Psalm originally consisted of 22 verses, corresponding to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, Psalms 136:19-22 being interpolated from Psalms 135, is considered possible by Perowne, but is wisely withdrawn by Delitzsch himself in his last edition.—Alexander: “The grand peculiarity of form in this Psalm, by which it is distinguished from all others, is the regular occurrence at the end of every verse of a burden or refrain, like the responses in the Litany, but carried through with still more perfect uniformity. … It has been a favorite idea with interpreters that such repetitions necessarily imply alternate or responsive choirs. But the other indications of this usage in the Psalter are extremely doubtful, and every exegetical condition may be satisfied by simply supposing that the singers in some cases answered their own questions, and that in others, as in the case before us, the people united in the burden or chorus, as they were wont to do in the Amen.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 136:2-4. God of gods is an expression after Deuteronomy 10:17. It sets forth His creative and providential power by His strong hand and His outstretched arm (Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 5:15, compare Jeremiah 32:21). The term great (Psalms 136:4), applied to the wonders which God alone does, recalls Psalms 72:18 (comp. Psalms 86:10. Psalms 136:5-7. The term ϊְּ ?αεּ ?πָ ?δ (Psalms 136:5), applied to the wisdom which made the world, is taken from Proverbs 3:19 or Jeremiah 10:12. ψֹ ?χַ ?ς (Psalms 136:6) is an epithet of God, Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 44:24, as of Him who spreads out the earth like a plain upon the waters or over the waters (Exodus 20:4; Psalms 24:2). [Delitzsch: “Because the water is partly visible and partly invisible.”—J. F. M.] It does not mean: He who makes firm (De Wette). Elsewhere God is called: ιֹ ?ρֵ ?γ = sterneus. The plural: ΰεֹ ?ψִ ?ιν=luces, for ξְ ?ΰֹ ?ψεֹ ?ϊ=lumina, occurs only here. Psalms 136:9-15.—The dominions (Psalms 136:9) [the dominions of the night; E. V.: to rule the night] do not mean ruling powers, but the two-fold exercise of ruling (Psalms 114:2); here those of the moon and of the stars. In Psalms 136:13βζψ is used of the dividing of the Red Sea, as of something cut into two parts, Genesis 15:17, instead of αχς, Psalms 78:13; Nehemiah 9:11, which follow Exodus 14:21. But πִ ?ςֵ ?ψ (Psalms 136:15) is the established term taken from Exodus 14:27. Psalms 136:26.—The name God of heaven is, as in Nehemiah 1:4; Nehemiah 2:4, an appellation of God which originated in a late period. The language, also, employed after Psalms 136:17 conveys a strong impression of the same age. [Alexander: “The God of heaven is a new description as to form, but substantially equivalent to that in Psalms 7:8; Psalms 11:4; Psalms 14:2; Psalms 33:13-14.”—J. F. M.] AND God will have a people in the world which belongs to Him alone and serves Him; for this He has created the world and preserves it with its inhabitants.—It is well, in considering all the wonderful works and great deeds of God in nature and history, to regard mercy as their divine source: by this we learn to thank God most fervently and to trust Him most firmly.—We have ever reason enough to praise God with gratitude, and occasion enough, also, as we are so often urged to do; but, alas! we have not always delight in that service, and too often but little zeal.—God’s power is incomparable, His wisdom boundless, His love infinite. Alas! that men begin so late to know God and cease so soon to thank Him, that they falter so much in their faith, and exercise themselves so little in the obedience of love. Starke: God is goodness itself: therefore as long as God remains, goodness remains. He is a stronghold in distress.—He who would praise God’s goodness worthily must have had some experience, some tokens of it, and have retained them still further in blissful enjoyment.—The world ascribes nothing to God’s goodness. With it everything depends upon fortune; but be thou of a different mind. Let it not so often be said in vain to thee: His goodness endureth forever.—The work of creation is so full of depths of God’s omnipotence and wisdom that a mortal becomes lost in reflecting upon it and must take His stand upon the everlasting goodness of God.—God will perform in His Church works which supersede the laws of nature, rather than allow her to succumb and perish in her afflictions.—He who will oppose God’s will, as Pharaoh did, need expect nothing else than that the mighty hand of God will urge him on to destruction.—Whenever we eat a morsel of bread or take a reviving draught, we can taste and see how kind God is.—If God were to portion out His goodness to us according to the measure of our recognition and acknowledgment of it, it might well not linger with us another hour, for no manifestation of it comes to us which we do not sin away. Richter: God, while showing special favor towards Israel, His chosen people, His first-born, is also gracious and merciful to all. He it is who has adapted and arranged the whole heavens for the good of the earth and of all created things.—Guenther: O that every deliverance here below were an earnest of the last great deliverance from the enemy of all enemies, and that the assurance of the children of God were unchangeably firm!—Taube: It must and will be Israel that leads the song of thanksgiving, inspired by that nearer revelation given to them in the history of redemption, which gave them the key to the knowledge of the works of God. [Matt. Henry: We are never so earnestly called upon to pray and repent as to give thanks. For it is the will of God that we should abound most in the most pleasant exercises of religion, in that which is the work of heaven.—It is good to enter into the detail of God’s favors, and not to view them in the gross, and in each instance to observe and own that God’s mercy endureth forever.—We should trace each stream to the fountain. This and that particular mercy may perhaps endure for a while; but the mercy that is in God endures forever: it is an inexhaustible fountain.—Bp. Horne: How many of those for whom the works of creation, providence, and redemption have been wrought think none of them worthy their attention! Angels admire and adore when man will not deign to cast an eye or employ a thought.—Be God’s praise as universal and lasting as His mercy!—Scott: Repetitions, disgustful to the fastidious, are often salutary and necessary, because we are so prone to overlook or forget the Lord’s goodness and mercy; yet they convey a severe reproof and should cause us to unite humiliation with our gratitude to our condescending Instructor.—Barnes: Mere power might fill us with dread; power, mingled with mercy and able to carry out the purposes of mercy, must lay the foundation for praise.—J. F. M.] Psalms 137 1         By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion. 2    We hanged our harps Upon the willows in the midst thereof. 3    For there they that carried us away captive required of us A song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 4    How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a strange land? 5    If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning.6    If I do not remember thee, Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; If I prefer not Jerusalem Above my chief joy. 7    Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; Who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. 8    O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. 9    Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones Against the stones. AND Contents and Composition.—The poetically-gifted author, at one time speaking in an elegiac, at another in an epic strain, begins with a mournful reminiscence of the occasion when the exiles were derisively invited by the inhabitants of Babylon to sing their devotional songs, and could only answer by silence (Psalms 137:1-3). He then makes the strongest assurances of his personal attachment to Jerusalem, which he ever loves in faithful remembrance and prefers to all joys (Psalms 137:4-6). Finally, he entreats the divine retributive judgment upon Babylon and Edom in a tone of threatening and imprecation (Psalms 137:7-9). The time when this despite was endured seems still to remain in lively remembrance and to reach into the personal experience of the Psalmist (Venema and most); and there is no support for the assumption which connects the Psalm specially with the dedication of the Second Temple and the restoration of the sacred music (Rudinger), or for that which discovers (Hengstenberg) a more definite indication of the time in Psalms 137:8 (see the exposition). It would make the poem artificial to suppose that the longing of the exiles was introduced merely as the counterpart of that of the poet himself who lived in the Maccabζan age (Hitzig). The superscription: by David (Sept.), with the addition in some Greek versions: by Jeremiah, can be defended neither by the assumption of a prophetical poem of David representing the feelings of Jeremiah (Geier, J. H. Michaelis), nor by that of a composition by Jeremiah after the manner and model of David (Du Pin, et al.). [Perowne says, that there can be no doubt whatever as to the time when the Psalm was composed. He then says; “It expresses the feeling of an exile who had but just returned from the land of his captivity. In all probability the writer was a Levite who had been carried away captive by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, . … and was one of the first, after the edict of Cyrus was published, to return to Jerusalem.” But for this specializing view he does not adduce the least evidence. Alexander rejects the opinion of Hengstenberg that the composition took place after the final destruction of Babylon by Darius Hystaspis. It is best to adhere to the general view mentioned above.—J. F. M.] Psalms 137:1-2.—By the rivers of Babylon. Not only the capital city with the Euphrates and its canals are here brought into view, but the whole Babylonian territory, intersected everywhere by rivers and canals. Ezekiel also (Psalms 1:3) and Daniel (Psalms 8:2) experienced their prophetic visions on the banks of the Chaboras and Eulζus. These surroundings, moreover, suggested the image of the willows upon which the captives sorrowfully hung their harps. This expression, if not exactly a proverbial one (Geier, J. H. Michaelis) is, at all events, a poetical method of referring to the hushing of their joyful and festal songs, especially those in which the harp was employed (Genesis 31:27; 2 Samuel 6:5, and frequently in the Psalms), and whose silence indicated public misfortune and national grief (Isaiah 24:8; Ezekiel 26:13; Amos 5:23; Job 30:31; Lamentations 5:14 f). The silent and pensive sitting among the willows by the side of the gently-flowing stream is in admirable agreement with the feeling of home-sickness. There is no allusion to the situation of the Jewish houses of devotion placed near water for the sake of the ceremonial lustrations (Venema, et al.). [Alexander: “It has been objected that the willow is unknown in the region once called Babylonia, which is said to produce nothing but the palm-tree. Some avoid this difficulty by explaining the whole verse as metaphorical, hanging up the harps being a figure for renouncing music, and willows being suggested by the mention of streams, perhaps with some allusion to associations connected with this particular tree. It may also be observed, that extraordinary changes have taken place in the vegetable products, and especially the trees of certain countries. Thus the palm-tree, so frequently referred to in the Scriptures and so common once that cities were called after it, is now almost unknown in Palestine.”—Delitzsch: “The ςֲ ?ψָ ?αָ ?δ, whose boughs formed a part of the Lulab at the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:40), is understood to mean the brook-willow, and in our passage there is scarcely such a close botanical distinction made, that the weeping-willow (salix babylonica) could not be included under this term.” Del. also states that in the lower, well-watered portions of Babylonia, the willow and viburnum are indigenous.—J. F. M.] Psalms 137:3.—The grief occasioned by their lengthened sojourn as captives in a foreign land was heightened, on the one hand, by their oppressors insisting that they should strike up some one of their sacred songs, and, on the other, by the recollection of the blessings received in Jerusalem through these songs and the celebration of God’s worship generally. Nothing could supply their place as long as this celebration was inseparable from the Temple, and God was found there as His only dwelling-place on earth. The singing of sacred songs which were connected with the public worship of Jehovah (2 Chronicles 29:27, comp. 1 Chronicles 25:7), and therefore of a liturgical character, in a foreign country, was, however, not contrary to the Law, but, under the present circumstances, was opposed to religious and moral feelings. In Psalms 137:3 c joy [E. V. mirth] may, according to the parallelism, mean here the expression of joy (Geier), especially in hymns of praise (Sept.) and joyful songs (Rosenmόller, De Wette, Hengst.). But it may also denote merely the frame of mind inspiring such songs (Hupfeld). [The translation in E. V.: They that wasted us, follows the Sept, Chald. and Syr. The word is thus regarded as an Aramaic form. But no such form exists; the one most resembling it being shτlal, which has a passive meaning and ωׁ instead of ϊ. It is therefore now usually taken from ιμμ, to howl, and translated: those who made us to cry out—our torturers. The second clause of the verse is in E. V. rendered simply: a song. The Hebr. is: the words of a song. Del.: “Words of the songs, as portions or fragments of the national treasure of song, like ξִ ?ωִּׁ ?ιψ farther on, which Rosenmόller correctly explains: sacrum aliquod carmen ex veteribus illis suis Sionicis.” Psalms 137:5. Perowne:Forget. Probably there is an aposiopesis, or we may supply either, as E. V.: “her cunning,” i.e. her skill with the harp, or more generally “the power of motion.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 137:6-7.—The head of my joy is the highest joy (Exodus 30:23; Song Son 4:14). [Wordsworth literally: “If I advance not Jerusalem above the head of my joy. If I set not Jerusalem as a diadem upon the head of my rejoicing and crown all my happiness with it.” J. F. M.]—The Edomites were particularly active in the destruction of Jerusalem (Amos 1:11; Joel 4:19; Obadiah 1:10 f), for which they are threatened with the divine vengeance (Jeremiah 49:7 f; Lamentations 4:21 f; Ezekiel 25:12 f; Isaiah 34; Isaiah 63:1 f). As the kindred of Israel, they were still more odious to them than the Chaldζans were, and possibly for this reason are here mentioned before the latter (Hupfeld). [See Stanley, Jewish Church, ii., p. 556, quoted by Perowne. Psalms 137:7 a b should be rendered: Remember, Jehovah, for the children of Edom, the day of Jerusalem. The day, according to the common Oriental usage of the word, is the day of calamity.—J. F. M.] Psalms 137:8.—Thou that art destroyed. It is not admissible to substitute for this rendering: thou who art to be destroyed (Theodotion, Amyrald, J. H. Michaelis, et al.), or: thou destroyer (Rosenm., De Wette), or: thou murderess (Hitzig). or: robber (Syr., Chald., Symmachus). The form, according to the existing pointing, is the pass. part., and therefore means: vastata (Jerome). From this it does not follow, that there is an allusion here to the second capture of Babylon by Darius (Hengst.), which was the only one that could be connected with a real destruction. For the object addressed is the daughter of Babel, i.e., her population, and the process of destruction, already begun, is represented in the following wish as still to be completed before the final destruction can take place. It is therefore also unsuitable to assume, with some expositors, that in this expression that event is prophetically represented as having actually taken place. It is threatened against the Babylonians in Isaiah 13:16 f, also, that their children shall be dashed to pieces. The custom was not unknown to antiquity generally, comp. Homer, Iliad 22:63; 24:732, nor to the Israelites (2 Kings 6:12; Hosea 10:14; Hosea 14:1; Nahum 3:10). No new generation is to be permitted to raise from her ruins the shattered world-power (Isaiah 14:21 f). AND There is a sorrow which becomes the pious and is pleasing to God, even though the world does not understand it.—No earthly calamity, no worldly pleasure, no allurement of men, should make us forget that which we have received from God as members of His people, or what we have still to expect from Him, or what, for these reasons it is due to Him, to ourselves, and to the Church, that we should leave undone as well as perform.—It is well for us if we do not begin to prize and love the highest blessings of life only when we are in danger of losing them! Starke: Remember your blessings with hearty thanksgiving to God while you have them, lest they be taken from you for your ingratitude.—Many a one hungers and thirsts in captivity for the nourishment of the Divine word, to whom it was once distasteful when he had more abundant opportunities of listening to it.—A true Christian cannot rightly ridicule the word of God, or quote sacred songs or Scripture phrases in jest.—A Christian cannot be truly joyful in this world, for here he is not at home, but in a strange land; his Fatherland is above, in heaven.—No place, no country, no tyrant, no imprisonment, no created object whatever can sever from Christ the citizen of the spiritual Zion.—Citizenship in the heavenly Jerusalem, compared to which everything which this world can give is only a shadow, must be the chief joy of a believer.—God’s punishment awaits not only those who make actual assaults upon His Church, but also those who by counselling, conniving, and inciting, become partakers of other men’s sins. Arndt: It is the highest joy and delight of a true Christian to know, to extol, and to praise God, and to be in the society and citizenship of the heavenly Jerusalem.—Frisch: We should ever have before our eyes the Lord of all Lords, and never let dishonor be done to His name.—Diedrich: He who loves only the new nature, hates the old, and wishes his destruction.—Taube: The deep sorrow of God’s people in Babylon; their ardent zeal of love for Zion; their holy zeal of vengeance against Edom and Babylon. [Matt. Henry: It argues a base and sordid spirit to upbraid those who are in distress, either with their former joys or present griefs, or to challenge those to be merry whom we know are out of time for it; this is adding affliction to the afflicted.—We must not serve common mirth, much less profane mirth, with anything that is appropriated to God, who is sometimes to be honored by a religious silence as well as by religious speaking.—The destruction of Babylon: (1) a just destruction; (2) an utter destruction; (3) a destruction which should reflect honor upon the instruments of it.—The fall of the New Testament Babylon will be the triumph of all the saints.—Bp. Horne: The hope of a return to Thee is my only comfort in this vale of tears, where I am and will be a mourner until my captivity be brought back, and my sorrow be turned into joy.—Barnes: When the joy of religion is sacrificed for the joy of the world, it proves that there is no true piety in the soul. Religion, if it exists at all, will always be supreme.—J. F. M.] Psalms 138 A Psalm of David         I will praise thee with my whole heart: Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee, 2    I will worship toward thy holy temple, And praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth: For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. 3    In the day when I cried thou answeredst me And strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. 4    All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord,When they hear the words of thy mouth. 5    Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord:For great is the glory of the Lord.6    Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly; But the proud he knoweth afar off. 7    Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, And thy right hand shall save me. 8    The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: Forsake not the works of thine own hands. AND Contents and Composition.—This Psalm consists of three strophes, moved by three closely connected thoughts: First, a vow is made by the Psalmist that he will praise God thankfully in His Church, for a great deed done for him in answer to prayer, by which a distinct promise previously given had been still more glorified (Psalms 138:1-3). Next he predicts that all the kings of the earth, upon hearing of this, would thank the living God of Revelation for it, and would extol the ways of this exalted God and His glory, as made known in the manner in which He regards both the abased and the proud (Psalms 138:4-6). Finally: he utters his assurance of the Divine help in time of need and against the anger of His foes, as the completion of the gracious work begun for him by God (Psalms 138:7-8) This creates the impression that both the person and the experiences of the Psalmist were deserving of public attention, and had enlisted it. It is further to be inferred that these conditions stand in connection with Divine promise and its fulfilment, exceeding all expectation, by Divine action, and consequently in connection with the history of redemption. It appears, still further, that these relations had a significance extending beyond the person of the Psalmist to the history of his kingdom, and beyond particular interests to those of the world. And it is manifest, lastly, that all that had already taken place was, on God’s part, but the beginning of a plan and course of working carried forwards with the certainty of fulfilment by the performance of deeds of mercy. Consequently the Psalm bears a prophetico-messianic character. How much its several features are appropriate to David, his experiences, and his position in the history of religion, does not, after our previous attempts to unfold them, require any special proof here. We therefore refer this Psalm not to Johannes Hyrcanus, (Hitzig), but to David, who is named in the superscription, and with whose Psalms many expressions are found to have points of coincidence. We are also of the opinion that it was not written by an unknown person who had David’s Psalms in mind, and uttered it as if from David’s personality, being a picture taken from 2 Samuel 7 (Delitzsch); but that it had David himself for its author, and that it was composed when he, after a victorious warfare, and elevated with the sense of his great destiny, did yet with humility give God the glory, and formed the purpose of building for Him a Temple instead of the Tabernacle upon Zion (Hengstenberg). It is uncertain whether the addition to the superscription in the Sept. and Vulg.: of Haggai and Zechariah, would refer the present recension of the Text to the prophets named (Kφhler, Haggai, p. 33). These and the similar additions in other Psalms show, at all events, that in the opinion of the Seventy, the Psalm collection was not completed later than the time of Nehemiah (Delitzsch). [Hengstenberg: “The Psalm belongs to that chain of Davidic Psalms which was called forth by the promise in 2 Samuel 7, and which rest upon it: Psalms 18, 21, 61, 101-103, 110. Comp. Psalms 72, 89, 132. That the promise here celebrated is no other than that, is as clear as day. Here as well as there the subject handled has respect to a blessing of surpassing greatness. Further, here as well as there, we have to do, not with a particular blessing, but with a chain of blessings reaching even to eternity, Psalms 138:8. Finally, the promise has here the same subject as there. If the Psalm refers to the promise in 2 Samuel 7, there can be no doubt of the correctness of the superscription which assigns it to David. For he on whom the promise has been conferred, himself stands forth as the speaker. There is a proof also that the author was David, in the union, so characteristic of him, of bold courage (see especially Psalms 138:3) and deep humility (see Psalms 138:6). And in proof of the same comes, finally, the near relationship in which it stands to the other Psalms of David.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 138:1. In presence of Elohim.—[E. V.: before the gods]. These words are certainly intended to set forth the publicity and solemnity of the praise rendered to Jehovah, and probably also the exultation proceeding from the joy of victory. For in the first place the expression is not: before the face of, but πֶ ?βֶ ?γ, which, with the idea of presence, combines that of the person opposite. In the second place Elohim does not refer to the angels (Sept., Luth., Calv., J. H. Michaelis, Rosenmόller) which is a very rare sense (see on Psalms 29:1). Nor does it designate God throned upon the ark as parallel to the sacred places of worship mentioned immediately thereafter (Drusius, De Wette, Ewald, Olshausen); but either the rulers as earth-gods [powerful ones of earth], Psalms 82:1, comp. Psalms 45:7; Psalms 89:28; Psalms 119:46; 2 Samuel 7:9 (Rabbins, Flaminius, Geier, Bucer, Clericus, Delitzsch), or the gods of the nations (Aquila, Symmachus, Jerome, Kφster, Hengst., Hupf., Hitzig), which are then regarded as being able to do nothing like those things which God does for His own, and as only evincing their impotence to the shame of their worshippers. [The last named view is supported by Perowne and Alexander, and most Engl. expositors, and has, it may be presumed, the common consent of uncritical readers. Wordsworth and Noyes are undecided as to the application.—J. F. M.] Psalms 138:2. Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.—This mode of expression, which does not occur elsewhere, has in some cases called forth very forced explanations. It gave such offence to Clericus that this learned critic preferred, in place of ωְׁ ?ξֶ ?κָ, to read ωָׁ ?ξֶ ?ικָ, as in Psalms 8:4 : thy heavens (comp. Psalms 108:5; Psalms 113:4; Psalms 119:89). But the sentence is not so distorted (Hupfeld) that a transposition of ςַ ?μΞλָּ ?μ must be resorted to (Kimchi), giving the sense: Thy name above all Thy word, i.e., Thou hast glorified it above all promises. It is certainly inadmissible to translate: Thou hast glorified thy name above all through Thy word (Luth., Calvin), or: according to Thy word (Venema) or: and Thy word (Flaminius, Dφderlein), even if the pointing ςַ ?μλֹּ ?μ be chosen. But if we do not disallow so sweepingly as Hupfeld has done the historical allusions, it becomes no arbitrary limitation, but an interpretation consistent with those events, to understand this passage not to relate to the totality of all the possible names of God, or to His revelation of His nature, but to everything by which He had hitherto made for Himself a name and established a memorial, and that not to the word of God generally, but to a special promise. There remain then only two points undecided: first, whether this promise is to be regarded as the one celebrated in 2 Samuel 7, or as another also historically and religiously significant; secondly, whether the exalting, glorifying, and magnifying relates to this promise as such (Hengstenberg, Delitzsch) or to its fulfilment (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Kφster, Olshausen, Ewald, Hitzig). Since the giving of such a promise is also a great deed on the part of God, no decision can be arrived at from the word itself, which, besides, occurs in different applications in the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7. Nor is there more light thrown on the question by the following sentences viewed separately. But if we view the whole Psalm as a unit, and in the light of 2 Samuel 7, then the reference to the promise sought for is readily perceived. This promise of the eternal dominion of David’s family is then in Psalms 138:3 declared by him to be the Divine answer to his prayer (Hengstenberg) Psalms 21:3; Psalms 21:5; Psalms 61:6; and has filled his soul with lofty courage and strength in reliance upon God’s word (Psalms 18:30), of whose efficiency he had already during his life experienced so very many proofs. [Translate Psalms 138:3 b: Thou hast made me courageous in my soul with strength.—J. F. M.] Psalms 138:4-6. The words of the mouth of Jehovah (Psalms 138:4) are thus not God’s word in general (Hupfeld) nor, specially, the Gospel after the intervening fulfilment (many of the older expositors) but this promise itself, both before and after its fulfilment, which is here viewed as one that is in course of actual realization through God’s guiding and disposing power. For the ways of God (Psalms 138:5) are not the commands according to which, or the ways in which, the converted kings of the Gentile world walk, (Hengstenberg after the older expositors), but the dealings of God which will form the subject of even their praise (Chald., Syr., and most). [Translate Psalms 138:5 : They shall sing of the ways, etc. Psalms 138:6. Perowne:He knoweth afar off. This is the only proper rendering of the clause; but the expression is somewhat remarkable. (1). It has been explained by reference to Psalms 139:2, which would mean, God knows (observes) the proud, distant as they may think themselves to be from His control. (2). But it seems rather to mean, God knows (regards) them only at a distance, does not admit them into His fellowship; He does not ‘see’ them as He seeth the humble. (3). Or it would be possible to explain: He knows them so as to keep them at a distance.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 138:8. The works of God’s hands, from which God will not cease, and in whose performance He will not remit His working, are the historical acts and provisions of His gracious working and disposing. To those belong also even the elevation of David to the kingdom from a low position, his deliverance from the persecutions of Saul and the like proud enemies, and the gift of a blessed posterity. The word ΰַ ?μ in the last line, expressing denial, indicates the inward emotion, the subjective interest felt by the speaker. AND With us men everything is piece-work, but God lets nothing be half done. He fulfils His purposes completely.—Alas how hard it is to find pleasure in God’s ways, in those which His law enjoins upon us, and in those in which His hand leads us!—The conversion of the world as the gracious work of God and the believing hope of His servants. Luther: Christ’s ruling is to sit on high and to help the abased. Starke: The less we pray, the more unskilful we become in prayer, the more are our hearts filled with vain, worldly thoughts, and the less inclination do we discover in ourselves to pray and praise.—Up, dear soul, what though thou hast once complained like Israel? Psalms 137:1, sing now once more a song of joy to the Lord; thou hast been pressed also like a grape, give forth thy sweet juice.—He who undismayed confesses Jesus before the mighty of the earth, and has thus fixed his hope in God, has then sung a hymn of praise before the gods.—Goodness and faithfulness are the foundations of our faith; goodness has won salvation and blessedness for us poor sinners, and faithfulness preserves us in the enjoyment of them.—None know how much the prayer for spiritual strength can give, but those who have experienced it.—Lowliness and humility are the court-dress of God; He who wears them will please Him well.—The more highly man exalts himself the further he departs from God. How many of the proud have found that out to their cost!—God changes not in goodness and faithfulness, how great soever distress and afflictions may be.—The life of believers is like an unsafe road, which is infested everywhere with robbers and murderers.—But let not your courage fail, God needs only to stretch out His hand and they are beaten back, while we are saved.—He who knows no sorrow will not receive God’s strength. It is not until we suffer that we know how God revives and saves.—As a good artificer does not leave his work until he has finished and completed it, so will God carry on His work begun in thee, until the day of Jesus Christ. Entrust that to Him. Frisch: God gives Himself fully to us men; it is therefore just that we, in return, should yield up our whole heart to His service and glory. God bestows upon us not only domestic but public good; then again, it is right and just that we should praise Him not only in the silence of our hearts, but in public, and before all the world.—Guenther: From faith, love; in love the true thanksgiving.—He who does not experience in himself what a daily answer to prayer brings with it, does not believe it; and he who will not make trial of it with Christ, does not experience it.—Taube: The Lord will complete for me! That is the most beautiful and profound expression of faith, the joyous exhibition of the title-deed of the great inheritance. [Matt. Henry: Christ is our Temple, and towards Him we must look with an eye of faith, as the Mediator between God and man, in all our praises of Him.—The Psalmist had been in affliction and remembers with thankfulness: (1) the sweet communion he then had with God; (2) sweet communication he then had from God.—If God give us strength in our souls to bear the burdens, resist the temptations, and do the duties of an afflicted state; if He strengthen us to keep hold of Himself by faith, to maintain the peace of our own minds, and to wait patiently for the issue, we must own that He hath answered us, and are bound to be thankful.—Those that walk in the ways of God, have reason to sing in those ways.—Scott: In performing His promises God more magnifies His perfections than in all His other works; of which He has given us an illustrious specimen and earnest in sending the promised Saviour.—Barnes: Prayer is one of the means—and an essential means—by which the saints are to be kept unto salvation. The doctrine of the “perseverance of the saints” is not inconsistent with prayer, but rather prompts to it.—J. F. M.] Psalms 139 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David         O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.2    Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off. 3    Thou compassest my path and my lying down And art acquainted with all my ways. 4    For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. 5    Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thine hand upon me. 6    Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: It is high, I cannot attain unto it. 7    Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8    If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.9    If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10    Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me. 11    If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; Even the night shall be light about me. 12    Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; But the night shineth as the day: The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.13    For thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14    I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Marvellous are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. 15    My substance was not hid from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16    Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; And in thy book all my members were written, Which in continuance were fashioned, When as yet there was none of them. 17    How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18    If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: When I awake, I am still with thee. 19    Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men 20    For they speak against thee wickedly, And thine enemies take thy name in vain. 21    Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? 22    I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. 23    Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts: 24    And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. AND Contents and Composition.—The depth of religious feeling, the weightiness of thought, and the force and beauty of expression, which characterize this Psalm, may be readily acknowledged without praising it, in an excess of admiration, as the crown of Psalm-poetry (Aben Ezra). On account of some words and word-forms incontestably Aramaic, the correctness of the superscription is brought into question, and the composition of this poem, which otherwise might well be justly held as David’s, must, on linguistic grounds, be assigned to a period subsequent to the exile. The Cod. Alex. of the Sept. has also the addition: of Zechariah, and besides, by a second hand: in the Diaspora. [Few of the German commentators hold to a Davidic authorship. Ewald, Hupfeld and Del. pronounce against it for the reasons cited above. Hengstenberg clings to it firmly, and accounts for the Aramaisms as he does in Psalms 6, 17, 18, by supposing that the Psalmist “penetrated by the loftiness of his subject, shuns also in the form what is of common and daily use.” He also remarks that a late writer could have no motive for prefixing the formula: “to the chief musician.” Perowne seems inclined to the opinion of a late origin, but in this he may have been influenced by his erroneous supposition that in the Hebrew the Psalm is anonymous, which error he repeats in his last edition. He however feels the force of the view that linguistic anomalies may be due to the use of another dialect within Palestine. The English commentators generally are unwilling to give up the Davidic authorship.—J. F. M.] There are four clearly distinguishable strophes, each consisting of six verses, although the latter are not all of equal length. The Psalmist declares his persuasion that he is intimately and completely scanned and proved by Jehovah, the omniscient God (Psalms 139:1-6), that he is surrounded by His illuminating presence, as the omnipresent God (Psalms 139:7-12), that he is perfectly known and understood by Him as his almighty and eternal Creator (Psalms 139:13-18), and feeling this profoundly and truly, is thereby admonished and comforted. Then, after strong asseverations of his abhorrence of men who act wickedly against God and are thus deserving of punishment, he prays that he may be preserved from self-deception by the revelation of the true condition of his soul, and that he may be led in the way which excludes the danger of destruction (Psalms 139:19-24). [Perowne: “Nowhere are the great attributes of God—His omniscience, His omnipresence, His omnipotence—set forth so strikingly as they are in this magnificent Psalm. Nowhere is there a more overwhelming sense of the fact that man is beset and compassed about by God, pervaded by His Spirit, and unable to take a step without His control; and yet nowhere is there a more emphatic assertion of the personality of man as distinct from, not absorbed in, the Deity. This is no pantheistic speculation. Man is here the workmanship of God, and standsin the presence and under the eye of Him who is his Judge. The power of conscience, the sense of sin and responsibility, are felt and acknowledged, and prayer is offered to One who is not only the Judge but the Friend; One who is feared as none else are feared; One who is loved as none else are loved.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 139:1-2. And known. It is scarcely conceivable that no special object is to be understood here (Stier, Kφster, Hengstenberg). For the connection by vav conversive shows that knowing is regarded as a consequence of searching, and it is as natural to supply “me” from the preceding here, as it is in Exodus 2:25. The word ψֵ ?ςַ (Psalms 139:2), here is not the familiar term denoting: a friend, but an Aramaic one, with the signification: willing, wishing, striving, and also, as in Syriac and Arabic: thinking. The expression: afar off is, as in Psalms 138:6, to be understood as contradicting the delusion (Job 22:12-14) that God’s dwelling in heaven prevents Him from observing mundane things (Calvin, Hengst., Hupfeld), comp. Jeremiah 22:23. It is hardly intended to be expressed that God knows the thought when it is only in process of conception (Del.). Psalms 139:3-6. The translation in Psalms 139:3 : Thou art around me (Luther), results from a false derivation of ζψδ from ζֵ ?ψ: a garland, which was held by some of the Rabbins. But the word in question signifies: to winnow, to sift; poetically: to prove, try. [Translate accordingly Psalms 139:3 a: Thou triest my walking and lying down. The translation of 6b in E. V. is rather ambiguous. Literally it would be: I am not able for it, not capable of it, that is, of comprehending it.—J. F. M.] Psalms 139:7-10. From thy Spirit, namely, in His power over the universe (Psalms 104:30) and not in His all-comprehending vision of it. [Psalms 139:8. If I make my bed in Sheol—the unseen world.—J. F. M.]—The wings of the morning (Psalms 139:9) denote, like the wings of the sun (Mal. 3:20), and of the wind (Psalms 18:11), extreme swiftness in a long flight (Psalms 139:8), as also do the wings of a dove (Psalms 55:7). The morning is here the starting in the East, in a flight to the uttermost part of the sea, the extreme West. None can escape from the hand (Psalms 139:10) of the Omnipotent and Omnipresent God (Amos 9:2; comp. Jeremiah 23:24; Job 34:21) and before the light of His eyes no darkness can exclude His power of vision. Hence the righteous may trust in God even in darkness (Isaiah 50:10). Psalms 139:11-12. The translation in Psalms 139:11 : yea darkness will crush me (Hengst.) accords with the reading in the Text, for ωׁ ?εּ ?σ means only conterere, contundere (Genesis 3:15; Job 9:17). But the meaning obvelare corresponds perfectly with the context (Chaldee, Symmachus, Jerome, Saadias, et al.); and if it is preferred here it is better to make a slight change in the Text in order to gain a suitable word (Ewald). The best word to insert is ςεּ ?σ, after Job 11:17 (Bφttcher, Hupfeld, Del.). This is preferable to giving to the word as it stands the meaning: to fall upon (Hitzig) or, by comparing with ωׁ ?ΰσ, the sense of inhiare, insidiari, invaders (Umbreit, Gesenius) or, by comparing with πֶ ?ωֶׁ ?σ: to becloud, darken (the Rabbins, Geier, and most). The apodosis begins not in Psalms 139:11 b, (Luther), but in 12a (Calvin). And in that verse it is not a state of darkness (Luther) that is mentioned, but a making dark (Psalms 105:28). [Dr. Moll accordingly translates Psalms 139:11-12, And if I say: only let darkness cover me, and let night be the light about me; even the darkness, etc.—J. F. M.] Psalms 139:13-16. Formed my reins.—According to the context χπδ here does not mean: to possess, hold in one’s power (Hengst., with Sept., Vulg., Luth., and most of the ancients) but: to fashion, as Deuteronomy 22:6, comp. Genesis 14:19; Proverbs 8:22 (most of the recent expositors since Clericus with the Syr., Arab., and Ethiop. Versions). And ρλκ does not mean: to cover, (Hengst., with the ancients), but, as Job 10:11 shows: to plait, to weave, in allusion to the body framed and interwoven with bones, sinews, and veins (Chald., and the recent expositors). In Psalms 139:15 it is said to be wrought or embroidered with various colors [E. V.: curiously wrought], on account of its seemingly elaborate formation from parts of different forms and colors. [Translate Psalms 139:15 : My frame-work (lit., bones) was not hidden from Thee when I was formed in secret, curiously wrought (as) in the depths of the earth. On the last clause Perowne: “Elsewhere the phrase denotes the ‘unseen world,’ comp. Psalms 63:9; Psalms 86:13. Here, as the parallelism shows, it is used in a figurative sense to describe a region of darkness and mystery.”—J. F. M.] The choice of the word βֹּ ?μֶ ?ν (Psalms 139:16), was probably connected with the phrase just discussed. It signifies something rolled up (2 Kings 2:8) a mantle (Ezekiel 27:24), a crude and unformed mass, as designating the human embryo (Sept., Aquila, Symmachus, Rabbins). But if we study the word in connection with the remaining clauses of the verse, it will appear probable that the conception of an undeveloped complex mass of members (so most), passes over into that of a skein of life, in which the threads which are to form the web of human existence and destiny (Isaiah 38:12), are not yet unrolled (Hupfeld). For the simplest way of construing λֻּ ?μָּ ?ξ is to refer it to “days” [E. V.: in continuance] which, with the future they enfold, are formed [E. V.: fashioned], i.e., planned, predetermined in the Divine counsel, when not a single one of them had come into the sphere of actual existence. Yet they were beheld by God even then, and so were entered (imperfect) in His book (Psalms 56:9; Psalms 69:29). This view, at all events, gives a sound sense, agreeing with the accents and with grammatical rules. Others refer the λֻּ ?μָּ ?ξ to the members of the body forming in the embryo (Kimchi, Geier, et. al.), which were being fashioned through the course of days, i.e., gradually, and not at once. But it would not then be said of them that they were recorded in the book of life. [Hupfeld says that this would be an absurdity.—J. F. M.] Another interpretation refers “all of them” to all men as embryos (Clericus, Hitzig); but this is very forced. The reading of the Masorites, also, εְ ?μֹ ?ε instead of the written εִ ?μֹ ?ΰ, leads to the explanation either that all the days formed by God are to Him only a single day (Rabbins) which is over-subtle, or that, among those days, there was one at hand for him, that is, for the undeveloped mass of the embryo, namely, the day of his birth, (Hitzig, Del.), which appears strange in the connection. Such a simple thought would not be expressed in such a curious manner. Vav in the adverbial clause might have the sense: while or as, and μֹ ?ΰ be used for ΰֵ ?ιο, incorrectly indeed, but not without example (comp. Leviticus 15:25; Job 15:32). It is against the accents to construe, according to a view opposed already by Geier, the suffix in λֻּ ?μָּ ?ξ pleonastically as referring to the following ιָ ?ξִ ?ιν (De Wette and most of the recent expositors). In Psalms 139:15, according to the pointing, the word is not ςֶ ?φֶ ?ν which denotes directly the bones and also the body, but ςֹ ?φֶ ?ξ: strength, power, from which notion the bones receive their Hebrew name. The place where the human body is formed before birth is called secret (Ecclesiastes 11:5). It appears as if the parallel expression: in the depths of the earth. were only intended to serve as a poetical comparison (Hupfeld, comp. Isaiah 45:19). At all events there is no reference to a pre-existence in the realm of shadows (as in Virg. Ζneid V. 713 f.) or to a laboratory in the under-world (J. D. Michaelis, Knapp, Muntinghe). It may possibly be, however, that there is some more special reference to man’s origin from the dust (Delitzsch, Hitzig), in this comparison of the depths of the earth with the maternal womb (Job 1:21; Job 33:6; Jonah 2:3; Sir 40:1; Sir 51:5) even if not in the form disputed by Hupfeld (Quζsliones in Jobeidos locos vexatos). [Alexander agrees exactly with Hupfeld and Moll. Hengst. agrees also in the main. So also do Perowne and Wordsworth. Noyes translates generally: and in Thy book was everything written.—J. F. M.] Psalms 139:17-18. How weighty are thy thoughts.—[E. V.: How precious, etc.] The primary notion: heavy, may be transferred to that of value, costly, precious (Del. and most), or with reference to mental judgment or comprehension it may have the sense of: difficult of conception (Kimchi, De Wette, Maurer, Olshausen, Hupfeld), or weighty, important (Hitzig), Job 6:2; Daniel 2:11. The context appears to favor the latter. The sum, the total amount of these arriving through different channels, is so overpowering (Psalms 40:6) that if they were to be reckoned up (fut. hypoth.) they would be shown to be as the sand of the sea. He does not reach the end of them, although his wakeful heart (Sol. Son 5:2) busies itself even in sleep with these thoughts, which he ponders over by night upon his couch (Job 4:13) and, wearied with the effort, falls asleep. When he wakes he finds himself still attended and occupied with the same thoughts concerning God, His counsels, and dealings. The Text says nothing of any hope or belief that after death, in his communion with God, he shall still be reckoning up that sum of thoughts more numerous than the sand (see Hofmann). Psalms 139:19-20. Depart from me.—The transition from the optative [if thou wouldst slay the wicked!—J. F. M.], to the imperative is harsh, especially on account of the Vav copulative. Yet there is no ground for a change of ρεּ ?ψεּ into ιָ ?ρεּ ?ψεּ (Olshausen). A change in the text of Psa 139:20 would be more justifiable. For ιֹ ?ξְ ?ψεּ is, it is true, not meaningless (Hupfeld), but the expression: they say, with thee as an object, is harsh, and can only by extreme necessity (2 Samuel 19:24; Isaiah 26:13) be explained as equivalent to: they mention Thee (Del.) they pronounce Thy name (Chald.) or: they speak against Thee as plotters. The correction into ιַ ?ξְ ?ψεּ: they embitter (the Fifth Greek version), they provoke Thee (Olsh.), they excite rebellion against Thee (Hupf. after Jerome, Ven, De W.), is very readily suggested, and, since it changes only the vowel, is preferable to the conjecture ζַ ?ξְּ ?ψεּ which affords the sense: they sing praises to Thee with deceit (Hitzig). In the following member of the verse, also, ςָ ?ψֶ ?ικָ occasions some difficulty. The meaning properly is: Thy cities (Sept., Vulg., Arabic Vers., Cocceius). But there is no suitableness in the thought: Thy cities have risen in vain, or for wickedness, or faithlessly. But if we translate: Thy enemies (Aquila, Symmachus, Chald., Rosen., De Wette) the doubt of the correctness of this sense is scarcely removed by Daniel 4:16; for in 1 Samuel 28:16 the reading is suspected. [The word occurs in the Chald. of Dan. in the place referred to. Hupfeld remarks that it is unknown elsewhere, even in the Aramaic, in that sense.—J. F. M.] The conjecture ςָ ?μֶ ?ικָ (Hupfeld, Kamphausen): against Thee, is then naturally suggested. But πωׂ ?ΰ means not only to raise (Psalms 24:4) and to arise (Habakkuk 1:3) but also to utter (Exodus 20:7). Now if we follow that passage where the connection with μַ ?ωָּׁ ?εְ ?ΰ also occurs we would be tempted to change the doubtful word into ωְׁ ?ξֶ ?κָ, thus giving the sense: utter thy name to falsehood, swear falsely (Olsh., Bφttcher), or into ζִ ?λְ ?ψֶ ?κָ thy remembrance (Hitzig formerly) or ςֵ ?γֶ ?ικָ, thy testimonies (Ewald). The last conjecture agrees very nearly at least in the consonants with a reading ςָ ?γֶ ?ικָ: to Thee, in seven Codices of Kennicott and twenty of De Rossi. So also does the reading ςֶ ?γְ ?ιְ ?κָ which would lead to the rendering: they wore Thy robe with deceit (Hitzig now). We may, however, hold to the Text and retain the signification: enemies. This, as Delitzsch shows, is gained by means of the intermediate notion: ardent persons, zealots. [Delitzsch illustrates this sense of the root ςεψ from the Arabic, as well as from the passages referred to above, and considers the use of the word in the Text as in keeping with the Aramaisms in which it abounds.—J. F. M.] But assuming this, we are still not to regard the enemies as the subject of the wicked rising (most), for a subject has already occurred in the relative, and a thought parallel to that of the preceding clause would be expected, or of false swearing (Hengst. after Chald. and Rabbins). Nor are they the object of an exaltation, by which God’s enemies are said to be brought to honor through deceit and wickedness (Rudinger, Geier). They are in apposition to the last. [That is, in apposition to the subject of the preceding member of the verse. This view is expressed in the following translation: Who mention Thee in craftiness (and) speak with deceit, Thine enemies. For the peculiar form of the verb in the second member see Green, Heb. Gr., § 164, 3.—J. F. M.] Psalms 139:21-22. Should I not hate,etc.?—[E. V.: Do I not, etc.] This question does not express uncertainty or doubt in the mind of the Psalmist, but the most unshaken assurance that he is right in feeling thus. [Dr. Moll thus translates the verse: Should I not hate thy haters, Jehovah, and abhor thy adversaries?—J. F. M.] The extent of this feeling of hatred is expressed by a word which denotes the extreme end of an object [With perfection of hatred.—J. F. M.] Psalms 139:23-24. In Psalms 139:24 the phrase which we translate: way of suffering, Psalms 16:6; Isaiah 14:3 [E. V.: wicked way], is, according to our view, the way of provoking and arousing God to anger (Kimchi, Amyrald, Bφtt.), Isaiah 63:10. According to another, it is the way of the idol-image, i.e., to the idol (Isaiah 48:5) as contrasted with the way of Jehovah, Psalms 25:4 (Rosenm., Gesen., Maurer), identical with the way of opposition to the law (Sept.), of falsehood (Syr.), of the erring (Chald.). It is best to regard it as the way which causes both inward and outward pain. [See the different significations of the Heb. word.—J. F. M.]. Whether this is endured only in time or in eternity also, is not stated here. And the way which is contrasted with this by the Psalmist is not that which leads to bliss in eternity (Flaminius, Geier, Hengst., et al.), or that of former or ancient times, Jeremiah 6:16; Jeremiah 18:15 (Rosenm., De Wette, Maurer, Olsh.), but the one which endures forever. The idea is therefore not to be limited to that of an unchangeable purpose, followed out during the whole life, even to the end (Calvin, Clericus), comp. Psalms 1:6; Psalms 27:11. In Psalms 139:23. thoughts are represented by the term branches (Ezekiel 31:5) as ramifying thoughts and cares (Psalms 94:19). The demand is not the challenge of a confident and vain man, conscious of his own purity, but it is a prayer for divine help and illumination, for the proving of the conscience and the searching out of the soul. AND ETHICAL1. Men are not to suppose that God’s omniscience is an attribute in repose, and standing in exclusive relation to Himself. They must ever keep in remembrance that He gives proof of it by constant exercise, and that in relation to the person of man; not as being cognizant of certain individual facts, but of the whole sum of inner and outer circumstances, actions and needs, and likewise of their whole range and significance. Its transcendent superiority to human possibilities of knowing, imagining, and comprehending is a fact of the divine nature, whose salutary truth becomes fruitful certainty when viewed in its proper connection with the fact of the divine omnipresence. 2. For it is in the omnipresence of God that we are able and bound to trace the proofs that He does not, like a limited human creature or an isolated being, move through the perpetual change of place, circumstances, and employment, by which alone nearness and distance, repose and action, suffering and influencing, receive their significance. And if we hold fast to the truth that God is completely and indivisibly Spirit, Life, and active Energy, we can understand the close relation of His omnipresence, with His omniscience, on the one hand, and with His omnipotence, on the other, and also their practical bearing upon human life, especially in its moral and religious aspects. 3. From this point of view, even the natural life of man, from its miraculous origin in the mysterious depths of the laboratory of creation, and onwards through its whole course in the world’s history, receives a highly increased significance. It is not merely unfolded under the eye of God; it even assumes its outward form in conformity to divine pre-determination. Of so much the greater moment does it become, that such a life should be regulated religiously and morally in accordance with the divine will, that its relation to eternity and to its divinely-appointed destiny should ever be kept in mind, and be deeply impressed upon the spiritual nature. 4. To realize this end, it is necessary that men should continually yield themselves up to God; especially that they should give themselves up to meditation upon His “thoughts,” though they cannot sum them up, even if they should be busied with their contemplation in their wakeful hours and in their dreams, by day and by night, as in the noblest and sweetest employment (Jeremiah 31:25-26); that they should give themselves up to obedience to His holy will in opposition to transgressors and hypocrites, in order to overcome evil; that they should give themselves up to love, believing in God’s gracious guidance, in order to obtain real and abiding salvation. [5. Hengstenberg: The more glorious the formation of man is, so much the stronger is the proof of God’s absolute omniscience and omnipresence, so much the more striking the testimony it furnishes against those who abandon themselves to sin, under the idea that God does not see or judge, or those who surrender themselves to despair, saying: My way is hidden from God, Job 10:9-11.—J. F. M.] AND What avails all knowledge of God’s nature, words, works and ways, if it is not improved according to His will?—We should impress upon our conscience what we hear, experience, and learn to know of God, so that we shall not only meditate upon His counsels, but consider what shall promote our peace.—We cannot comprehend God; all is wonder and mystery; but we can apprehend what He has ordained and revealed and communicated to us for our salvation.—When shall the time arrive when we shall not only cease to have outward fellowship with the wicked, but shall also have no inward and private connection with them?—God is ever round about us; oh that we were ever with Him! Starke: Blessed is that soul which can appear before God, the omniscient God, with joy and confidence. But to do this it must have been continually controlled by conscience.—God’s omniscience is terrible to the wicked, but comforting to the pious.—Continue in what is good, and God will behold it, and so behold it as to further it.—God can press upon a man so closely that he will acknowledge at last that the hand of God is there.—It is foolish and unavailing for a man to try to measure the divine mysteries by the short standard of the understanding. Mirari licet, non rimari. Anything that is done in darkness lies as clear before God as if it were done in mid-day and in the bright sunshine.—Men can inflict no greater injury upon themselves than to imagine that the Spirit of God is far away from them. This persuasion of Satan makes them daily more presumptuous.—If great earthly rulers can reach so far that it is often very difficult to escape from them, how is it possible to flee from the Lord of all lords who fills heaven and earth?—If there is so much that is wonderful and incomprehensible in the natural birth, what shall we say of regeneration? Oh that all might know and experience it truly!—Be not so insensible and indifferent towards God’s wonderful works and the dealings in which thou also dost share. Be thou able to say: And that my soul knoweth well!—If a soul has not communion with God, it cannot be said to be surrendered to Him. In heavenly contemplation the soul is with God. The anchor of its hope and desire is cast in heaven.—A true Christian can and must pray against those enemies of God and His Church who oppose themselves, not through ignorance or weakness, but from wickedness; yet he must do it in such a way as not to prescribe to God the time, mode, or place of punishment.—We must hate the wicked, yet not their persons, for we should seek their conversion, but on account of their wickedness.—The noblest hatred is that which is directed against wickedness.—The first effect of divine illumination is to make men learn the folly of their hearts.—The reason why so many awakened souls relapse again into slumber and even fall away from every good thing, is chiefly because they neglect to prove themselves.—Man carries the Judge and the judgment in his own breast, even in the smallest actions. This is conscience, implanted within him by God.—There are only two ways leading to eternity, the narrow and the broad. Let no one think that he will reach heaven by an intermediate road. All such by-ways lead into the broad road. Frisch: Do not fancy that your demeanor, posture, dress, or deportment are not under God’s providence. You deceive yourself. Do not think that your thoughts pass free from inspection. The Lord understands them afar off. Think not that your words are dissipated in the air before God can hear. Oh, no! He knows them even when still upon your tongue. Do not think that your ways are so private and concealed that there is none to know or censure them. You mistake. God knows all your ways.—Give thyself up to God as guilty, and seek His mercy. Flee not from Him, but to Him. It is always better to fall into the hand of God than into the hands of men.—If the heart is not well kept, it goes astray and becomes lost from God.—Rieger: We learn how well it is with that soul which has been withdrawn away from sin by the word of truth, and brought to a just hatred of all wickedness; when it has, and desires to have, no secrets from God, who is so near, and no secret connection with evil, but can behold reflected in conscience all that God knows of us, and rejoice in the comfort it gives.—Stier: Why would David flee from Him who is so near on every side of him? Or why does he say first that he cannot do so, even if he were to fly over the whole creation in its height and depth, from east to west? Because as soon as he reflects with wonder upon God’s omnipresence, the terrors of conscience are awakened with the consciousness of unrighteous courses and sinful words and thoughts, which are manifest to the sight of the Eternal and Holy One.—Tholuck: Who can embrace or touch that Spirit by whom he is every where embraced and touched?—Richter: The unconverted fear to search their hearts earnestly, to try them and judge themselves, and much more to pray God that He would enlighten them.—Guenther: God is everywhere, even in the realms of death, and therefore men can never rid themselves of His presence; if they do not follow Him willingly, they must submit themselves to His omnipotence unwillingly.—I must love my enemy and hate God’s; but it is hard to make the distinction. How easily does self-love deceive us, desire of revenge lead us into error, and anger make us sin! Yet I must decide between them. Who helps me to judge aright?—Diedrich: To know the truth when it is presented, and yet to slight it, and come to terms with falsehood, is an act worthy of double stripes.—The seeing and knowing which are attributed to God were nothing but loving and caring, helping and delivering, leading and blessing, so as to crown with blessedness. [Matt. Henry: Divine truths look as well when they are prayed over as when they are preached over, and much better than when they are disputed over.—Those that are upright can take comfort in God’s omniscience as a witness to their uprightness, and can with humble confidence beg Him to search and try them, and discover them to themselves; for a good man desires to know the worst about himself, and to discover them to others; he that means honestly could wish he had a window in his breast, that any man may look into his heart.—All the saints desire to be led in the way everlasting, that they may not miss it, turn out of it, or tire in it.—Bp. Horne: The same consideration which should restrain us from sin should also encourage us to work righteousness, and comfort us under all our sorrows; namely the thought that we are never out of the sight and protection of our Maker.—The reformation of our corrupted and dissolved bodies, which is to be wrought at the last day in the womb of the earth, in order to their new birth, will crown the works of the Almighty.—We are neither to hate men on account of the vices they practise, nor love the vices for the sake of the men who practise them. He who observeth invariably this distinction fulfilleth the perfect law of charity and hath the love of God and of his neighbor abiding in him.—Scott: We should inquire what the Lord would have us to do, and whither we ought to remove, and pray that His gracious presence may always attend us; and then we shall have everything to hope, and nothing to fear, in life, in death, and in the eternal world.—Barnes: Search me thoroughly; examine not merely my outward conduct, but what I think about; what are my purposes; what passes through my mind; what occupies my imagination and my memory; what secures my affection and controls my will.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [The fifth of the versions collected by Origen in the Hexapla, author unknown, like those of the Sixth and Seventh. They are called respectively the Quinta, Sexta, and Septima versions.—J. F. M.] Psalms 140 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David2         Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: Preserve me from the violent man; 3    Which imagine mischiefs in theirheart; Continually are they gathered together for war. 4    They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; Adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah. 5    Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; Preserve me from the violent man; Who have purposed to overthrow my goings. 6    The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; They have spread a net by the way side; They have set gins for me. Selah. 7    I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God:Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.8    O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. 9    Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked: Further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves. Selah. 10    As for the head of those that compass me about, Let the mischief of their own lips cover them. 11    Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; Into deep pits, that they rise not up again. 12    Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.13    I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, And the right of the poor. 14    Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: The upright shall dwell in thy presence. AND Contents and Composition.—A prayer for divine help against violent and slanderous enemies, who were daily exciting warlike attempts and disturbances (Psalms 140:2-4), and had closely surrounded the Psalmist with the plans which they had contrived, as with snares and nets (Psalms 140:5-6). He entreats, upon the ground of former experiences of mercy, with confidence and full expectation of being heard, that these plots may prove futile (Psalms 140:7-9), that his foes, especially their leaders, may be punished (Psalms 140:10-12). For this he looks to the judicial control of Jehovah, which has been known by experience to deliver the afflicted righteous, and for which he will give the thanks that are due (Psalms 140:13, 14). The expressions are, in some parts, of an unusual character. Yet the mode in which the thoughts are presented, marked sometimes by an abrupt manner of expression and a bold structure of the sentences, is quite characteristic of David. In the thoughts, also, and in the circumstances in which the Psalmist stood, so far as indicated, there is nothing which ought to compel us to assume a mere imitation of Davidic Psalms, or which can be better explained from the period and history of John Hyrcanus (Hitzig), or of Manasseh (Ewald), or of the people of Israel after the return from exile (Rosenm.), than from those of David, whether we prefer a reference to his relation to Saul (Hengstenberg with the ancients), or to Absalom (Delitzsch). The Syriac Version has an addition to the superscription: when Saul threw the spear after him. [Delitzsch thinks the title is justified because the Psalm abounds with Davidic ideas and images, and may be explained from the rebellion of Absalom and the succeeding revolt of Sheba. He also calls attention to the striking resemblances between it and Psalms 58; Psalms 64, in the ending of each, the occurrence of rare words, and the “dreadful obscurity” of those expressions that are directed against the enemies. The English expositors accept the correctness of the title, with the exception of Perowne, who says that we have no means of testing its accuracy, but acknowledges that it is our only guide in this investigation.—J. F. M.] Psalms 140:3. Stir up [E. V.: are gathered together]. βεּ ?ψ means usually: gather themselves together. Most assume the same sense here also. But it is then necessary to supply a preposition, which is not allowable. Still less admissible is the explanation: they dwell (Kφster, Maurer), i.e., are occupied altogether with war. If the verb be viewed as transitive: to assemble (Kimchi), it does not suit the object. It is best therefore to regard it as βψδ = to excite (Syr., Chald., Clericus, Rosenm., Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Hitzig). [Translate: who devise evil in their heart: they stir up war every day.—J. F. M.] Psalms 140:8. The day of armour is not the day of preparation for battle, but the day on which the armor is carried for the battle, consequently: the day of battle (Septuagint, Chald., Jerome). [All the recent German expositors take the first member of this verse as declarative: Jehovah, my Lord is, etc. But the whole strophe is the rehearsal of an address to God, and it seems more suitable to preserve the corresponding form here, as is done in E. V.] Psalms 140:9. The last word of this verse, ιָ ?ψεּ ?ξεּ, cannot mean: lest they exalt themselves (Sept., Symm.), for the negative cannot be arbitrarily supplied. If the sense were: they would or might exalt themselves in consequence of success (Isaaki, Kimchi, and most), the conjunction τֶּ ?ο could scarcely have been absent. But from this we are not to conclude that the word is a meaningless appendage (Hupfeld), which must necessarily be attached to the following sentence, which is then supposed to be mutilated, giving the sense: those who encompass me lift up the head. This connection with the following is only a possible one (Venema, Olshausen); and if it be assumed, the new member of the verse thus formed can be taken as a protasis. But in the Psalms of David’s composition, an elevation of feeling appears quite frequently expressed in abrupt sentences, and in brief, striking expressions, representing in a disjointed, ejaculatory manner the progress of the feelings, conceptions and thoughts. [Dr. Moll therefore translates simply: they exalt themselves.—J. F. M.] Psalms 140:10-11. ψֹ ?ΰωׁ (Psalms 140:10) may be very well referred collectively to the leaders [E. V.: head] of the enemies (Kimchi, Calvin, et al.) The interpretations: poison (Grotius, Geier, Ewald), and: misfortune (Luther) are less to be recommended. The translation: the head of my revilers (Hitzig) is possible according to the Arabic usage, but unknown to the Hebrew, for the Hiphil of ραα, followed by an accusative, means: to go round about an object, like enemies in spying out a city (Delitzsch). The trouble (Del.) [E. V.: mischief] or the misfortune (Hupfeld), or suffering (Hengstenberg), which they cause by means of their lips, shall recoil as a retribution upon themselves. The coals (Psalms 140:11) do not mean flashes (Luther) pf lightning, for it is not until the words immediately following that God appears as the agent. Here those who throw, cast them, are represented as an indefinite number by the 3d per. plur.=men [German man. Transl.: Let burning coals be cast upon them, etc.—J. F. M.] There is not the least necessity of changing the reading in order to gain the idea: He will cause to rain upon them (Hupfeld). [Hupfeld proposes: ιַ ?ξְ ?θִ ?ιψ.—J. F. M.] There is no allusion to fire from on high, lightning with torrents of rain (Aben Ezra, et al.). But the reference is to perils and situations of an appalling character, into which the wicked are to be thrust for their destruction. The abysses or pits (Chald., Symm., Jerome, Kimchi), are pits of water, named along with the fire as an image of inevitable dangers, Psalms 66:12 (Delitzsch). Psalms 140:12. The punishment is denoted by the word: ψָ ?ς, as that which is harmful to the person in question, and resulting from his wickedness, or as an evil, showing how that punishment bears the character of destruction inflicted by Divine retribution. The man of tongue [E. V.: evil speaker] is not a boaster or chatterer, but a man with an evil tongue of slander (Sir 8:4). This is manifest from the context. There is then the less necessity for regarding ψָ ?ς as an adjective describing the violence of the man more particularly, and abiding by the accents, which indicate such a connection (Hengstenberg, Sachs, Hitzig). It agrees best with the idea of the passage, to follow the ancient versions, the Rabbins, and almost all expositors, in rejecting the accents and regarding ψָ ?ς as the subject, which would otherwise be wanting. A subject may, it is true, be supplied (Hitzig), but this would break up the sentence. For the whole Psalm shows that the evil speaker and the violent man are not two distinct persons, and that for this reason the view (J. H. Mich., Hengstenberg) is false which assumes that “the man of wicked violence” is opposed to the evil speaker and will pursue him. [This view is wrongly assigned to Hengstenberg. His opinion is that the former is the counterpart of the latter, and that it is God who is the pursuer.—J. F. M.] It is doubtful whether we should translate: to a head-long fall (Ewald), or: to destruction (Sept., Syr., Kimchi, Rosenm.), namely, by repeated shocks, or: by pushes (Kφster), or: in haste, i.e., precipitately (Del., Hitzig). Psalms 140:14. Dwelling in God’s presence (Psalms 16:11) is the portion of the righteous, to whom the wicked give no place on earth, and whose life they embittered if they could not rob them of it. [ΰַ ?κְ in this last verse is by Dr. Moll translated: only. But it is generally taken, as in E. V., to mean: surely. Delitzsch compares the expression of assurance: “I know,” in the preceding verse.—J. F. M.] AND Daily conflict, severe struggles, enemies round about, and yet not dismayed or forsaken or lost; that is the situation, the character, the lot of God’s servants upon earth.—Distress and danger may cause us perplexity, if only faith drives us to God, and He remains as our strong Help; He will pursue the enemy and deliver us from his nets and snares; and we must thank Him in time and eternity. Starke: If thou art not strong enough to escape from the hand of the ungodly, make, by faith, God thy refuge; He knows how to provide means and ways to help His own against all craft and devices.—The undying enmity which subsists between the seed of the serpent and the true children of God, results from a radical difference in heart and disposition.—Slanderers do more harm than serpents, for there is no antidote that can prevail against the poisonous wounds of wicked and calumniating tongues.—The supposed wisdom of the ungodly is really nothing but wickedness and folly, by which they are not only put to shame, but perish in the end.—The simplicity of doves and the sagacity of serpents, but above all, God’s preserving care are necessary to the children of God, that they may escape from the countless snares of their enemies.—Firm trust in God is the reason why a believer does not cease to look to Him even in the greatest troubles.—Behold how faith acts! it takes all that God is and has as best for it, and is thus sustained.—Our enemies can as little prevent our salvation or capture us, as they can storm the bulwarks of heaven.—As nothing evil can come from God, so He strengthens none in evil. Yet for holy and righteous purposes He suffers many things.—He who sows a malediction with an evil mouth, will also reap it again.—In a good cause God is the best Patron; he who trusts Him cannot lose it, for God is also the Supreme Judge.—We attain to the assurance of faith by laying hold firmly upon the Divine promise, and remembering the help which others before us have received from God.—All that befalls the children of God in the world, ends finally with their praise to the Lord for His goodness and for the wondrous things which He does to the children of men. Arndt: It is indeed a wonderful judgment, in the way of like-for-like retribution, that God usually rewards men as they act towards others, and that they bring upon themselves the very misfortune which they intended to bring upon others.—Frisch: Be not dismayed if others act towards thee as by foes. If it does not lie in thy power to fathom their evil thoughts, it does lie in the power of God.—Rieger: The wicked man is like a storm which passes by. Although it may leave many traces of devastation behind it, it is yet insignificant when compared with God’s goodness, of which the earth is full, and over which the righteous should ever rejoice.—Guenther: Stupid and unskilful transgressors are rare, almost as rare as wise children of God.—Diedrich: If we have committed to God our revenge and our protection, we may go calmly in our way, and not heed the arrows of the enemy.—My hope is in the privilege which is granted to the poor, whose defence God has reserved to Himself as His highest concern.—In the morning pray God that thou mayst be able to thank Him at evening, and pray daily that at the close of thy earthly life, thou mayst give Him thy highest thanksgiving. Then thou wilt have labor before thee; but thou wilt soon have finished it with joy and laid it aside for ever. Taube: The nearer danger comes, the more vigorously does David’s life of prayer and faith unfold itself. [Matt. Henry: A malignant tongue makes men like the old serpent; and poison in the lips is a certain sign of poison in the heart.—They that agree in nothing else can agree to persecute a good man. Herod and Pilate will unite in this, and in this they resemble Satan, who is not divided against himself, all the devils agreeing in Beelzebub.—Proud men when they prosper are much prouder, grow more impudent against God, and insolent against His people, and therefore, Lord, do not prosper them!—Bishop Horne: We cannot put off our Christian armor for a moment in this world; nor enter into peace and rest, but by a happy death and joyful resurrection. Barnes: It is not poverty or riches that commend us to God; it is faith and holiness and love and obedience, in the condition of life in which we are placed, be it in a cottage or in a palace.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [The formation of the anomalous word: ξַ ?ΰֲ ?εַ ?ιֵּ ?ι, which occurs in this verse, is discussed in Green’s Heb. Gr. § 207, 2 a, Ewald, § 189. There seems to be no good reason for departing with Hupfeld from the ending: Ξָ ?ι, as the probable termination of the sing. which is assumed by these authors as well as by Gesenius. Hupfeld would make it terminate in Ξֶ ?δ, the correctness of which he attempts to prove in his note on this passage. On the significance of the plural form in this word, see Bφttcher, § 705.—J. F. M.] Psalms 141 A Psalm of David         Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; Give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. 2    Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. 3    Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; Keep the door of my lips. 4    Incline not my heart to any evil thing, To practise wicked works With men that work iniquity: And let me not eat of their dainties. 5    Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: And let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, Which shall not break my head: For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. 6    When their judges are overthrown in stony places, They shall hear my words; for they are sweet. 7    Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, As when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. 8    But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord:In thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute. 9    Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, And the gins of the workers of iniquity. 10    Let the wicked fall into their own nets, Whilst that I withal escape. AND Contents and Composition.—This Psalm was used by the ancient Church (Constit. Apost. II. 59) as the Evening-psalm, as Psalms 63. was the Morning-psalm. It is in the middle part so obscure, and its disjointed words and sentences, which are either mutilated or very slightly connected, are capable of explanations so different, that no certain conclusion can be made as to the circumstances or date of the author. The beginning and end are perspicuous in themselves, but their allusions are quite dissimilar. They are indeed capable of being accommodated to one another, but the obscurity and doubtfulness of the intermediate passages render uncertain all attempts to secure this end. In the first portion the Psalmist prays in general terms for Divine help and an answer to his petitions (Psalms 141:1-2), then specially, that his mouth and heart may be kept so that he may not incline to fellowship with the wicked, who are in possession of means to do violence, and of the good things of this life (Psalms 141:3-4). At the end (Psalms 141:8-10) he prays that his life may be delivered, by being defended against the snares of the wicked, and wishes that they may be destroyed in their own nets. These are perhaps the same transgressors who in the beginning are described as seeking to tempt the Psalmist into fellowship with themselves, but who, when he by God’s help, overcame the temptation, did not rebuke him in a friendly manner, as the righteous would have done, with his cheerful acquiescence (Psalms 141:5), but sought to destroy him with the same malice against which he had already directed his prayer. They, however, shall be destroyed, while the words of the Psalmist shall be received by many as delightful; for, from the very mouth of the grave, a blooming life shall spring forth for him and for those who are with him (Psalms 141:6-7). This connection may, at all events, be made out from the fragments of sentences which are like stones in a brook leading from one bank to the other. There is also much that may be brought into connection with circumstances in David’s life, his peculiar feelings and spiritual characteristics, and his manner of expression. And yet these cannot be identified with such certainty as that with which Hengstenberg, following the ancients, regards the Psalm as arising out of David’s relations to Saul, and as connected specially with 1 Samuel 24. Many expressions, moreover, are less Davidic than after the Davidic manner. It is, however, pure hypothesis to assume (Del.) that imitative poems of this class have been taken out of books of history, in which they had been connected with events in the life of David. The same remark applies to the attempts to connect the Psalm with the period of the reign of Manasseh, as also with that of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes (Ewald), and with John Hyrcanus (Hitzig). [With reference to the first opinion cited above, that of Hengstenberg, Perowne remarks: “Psalms 141:5 has generally been supposed to allude to David’s generous conduct in sparing the life of his foe when he was in his power,. … but it is quite impossible on this supposition to give any plausible interpretation to Psalms 141:7.” But to those who adopt the figurative explanation of Psa 141:7 (see below), and this view is at least as well supported as the other, no difficulty will arise from this source. Still, though this opinion has more in its favor than any other, the question cannot be regarded as settled, and it is best to remain content with the general statement of the title, and the other evidence of the Davidic authorship. Perowne also calls attention to the curious fact that De Wette considered this Psalm to be one of the latest, on account of its being “a very original, and therefore a difficult Psalm,” and that Maurer, on almost the same grounds, assigns it to a comparatively late period.—J. F. M.] Psalms 141:1-2. Make haste unto me.—The additional words: to help, are here wanting, though occurring in other Davidic Psalms (Psalms 22:30; Psalms 38:23; Psalms 40:14). In distress the anguish-stricken soul frets as though God were far from him, and therefore calls him near (Psalms 57:3).—Instead of: be placed [Psalms 141:2, E. V.: come] in the sense of being prepared, Amos 4:12 (Hupfeld), we may also translate: be established, Psalms 101:7, i.e., find acceptance and acknowledgment, (Del.) There is no indication that the speaker was a priest. It is rather highly improbable that such was the case; and the allusion is not necessarily to the offering of incense while presented on the morning and evening of each day by the Priest upon the golden altar of the Holy Place (Exodus 30:7 f.), but probably to the consecrated incense which accompanied the Azkara [the part of the meat-offering burnt with frankincense “for a memorial,” J. F. M.] of the meat offering (Isaiah 1:13) which the priest consumed entirely upon the altar (Isaiah 66:3). The morning meat-offering is mentioned but seldom, but that of the evening more frequently, as concluding the daily service in connection with the burnt-offering or whole sacrifice at that time, according to Exodus 29:38 f.; Numbers 28:3. Therefore later, after the example of Ezr 9:4 f.; Daniel 9:21, ξπηδ means directly: the afternoon or evening (Del.) The prayers of the individual members of the Church became gradually more and more regulated according to the time of the Temple offerings (comp. Ewald, Alterthόmer, 2 ed., p. 132). But here the emphasis is laid upon the prayers. For the lifting up of the hands is not an expression for offering a sacrificial gift, the heaving of the hands (Syr.), here intended to take the place of the meat-offering, the supposed symbol of the good works of the believer (Hengstenb.). It is the accompanying sign of prayer, (Psalms 28:2), standing parallel to the breath of the sacred incense ascending to heaven, which sets forth the fact that the offering was directed to God (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3 f.) Perowne: “The same would hold also of the meat-offering of which it is said that the priest was to burn a part, as a memorial, ‘a sweet savor unto Jehovah.’ ” Alexander: “He prays not only for acceptance, but for constant or perpetual acceptance, as the offerings referred to were the stated daily services of the Mosaic ritual.” Translate Psalms 141:2, more literally: Let my prayer be set as an incense-offering before Thee, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening meat-offering.—J. F. M.] Psalms 141:3-4. The dainties do not allude to idolatrous sacrifices (Rosenm., De Wette), but denote sensual enjoyments and ease, especially of those who had gained their possessions unjustly, Proverbs 4:17; Proverbs 9:5, (Kimchi, Calvin, Geier). Such pleasures have something alluring, Psalms 73:10, (Hengst.), notwithstanding the evil consequences, which should act as a warning, Job 20:12 f.; Proverbs 23:1 f., 6 f. (Hupfeld). [Psalms 141:4 b is, literally: to work works in wickedness. Hengstenberg: “In Psalms 141:3 the Psalmist prays for preservation from the danger of sinning in word, which the temptation brought with it, and in Psalms 141:4 from that of sinning in deed.Psalms 39:1 forms a commentary on Psalms 141:3. The reference is not, as Calvin and others suppose, to hard speeches against his enemies, but to impatient, irreverent expressions against God.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 141:5. Let a righteous person smite me.—The righteous one here mentioned is certainly not God (Amyrald, Maurer, Tholuck, Hengst.), but any man, contrasted with the wicked, whose reproofs contrasted with the allurements of the wicked, are not destructive but salutary; not, indeed, pleasant outwardly, like their dainties, but yet reviving, rejoicing, and strengthening, like oil upon the head. And if at first they wound and smart like blows, yet they neither proceed from an evil heart, nor inflict harm, but are most closely connected with kindness and deliverance, and are therefore cheerfully received by all who would escape ruin in this world and gain, instead, the salvation which the reprover himself possesses. This connection is rightly found in this passage by most since Kimchi, Calvin, and Geier, and gives expression to a thought similar to that in Ecclesiastes 7:5; Proverbs 3:11, and frequent elsewhere. According to the accents we must translate: Let a righteous man smite me in kindness and reprove me, my head shall not refuse head-oil, i.e., not: precious oil, or balm, but: oil for the head (Delitzsch). But most expositors prefer the translation given by us in the text [Let a righteous man smite me—a kindness (is it); and let him reprove me—oil (is it) to the head, let not my head refuse it,—J. F. M.]; for the accents are not absolutely binding, and by thus departing from them we gain a clearer expression of a like thought, and only thus a real parallelism in the structure of the sentence. The translation: let the head-oil not soften my head (Ewald) proceeds from an uncertain derivation, and gives an obscure sense. If it is intended to mean that even when the righteous rebuke him for lukewarmness and the like offences, the joys offered to him by the wicked shall not change his feelings, the Sept. and Vulg. have expressed this much more clearly: The oil of the wicked shall not anoint my head. But they, evidently, have read ψֶ ?ωָׁ ?ς for ψֹ ?ΰωׁ. They, as also the Syr. and Jerome, have interpreted the verb according to a word in Arabic, which, however, is entirely unknown to the Aramaic, meaning: to he fat. But ιָ ?πִ ?ι is a defective form for ιָ ?πִ ?ιΰ, meaning: to deny, frustrate, prevent, Psalms 33:10. For yet,etc.—Here begins a mutilation of the Text which is continued through verses 6, 7, and which has occasioned interpretations quite opposite, and in some parts quite strange. Their enumeration may be here properly passed over. There is no doubt that something must be supplied after “yet,” for it is not admissible to drop the εּ as most prefer to do. There is very little gained, moreover, by the attempt made by some expositors to connect λִ ?ιΞςεֹ ?γ with the preceding line against the accents. To complete the thought there might then be supplied: let me contend. But many other insertions are equally tenable. [Dr. Moll gives merely the literal rendering of the words as they stand in the original: For still—and my prayer—against their malice. Delitzsch translates: For still I meet their malice only with prayer. With this, compare the rendering of Mendelssohn: I still keep praying while they practice their shameful deeds, as furnishing perhaps the best explanation of this disputed member of the verse. The εּ must introduce the apodosis; for (so it is) still, that my prayer, etc. (Perowne). Comp. Zechariah 8:20; Proverbs 24:27, for similar instances (Del.)—J. F. M.] Psalms 141:6. The obscure words of the Text furnish a good sense most readily, if the judges be understood to mean the rulers, chief men, leaders of these people, against whose malice the Psalmist employs the weapons of prayer and nothing else, whose destruction he yet foresees, and in this Psalm, which is in fact a prayer, foretells. For the “hands” of the rock [E. V., stony places] are probably its sides or walls. To be cast down from one of them was a punishment not unexampled (2 Chronicles 25:12). No subject is named in the following member. It cannot be the judges, for the words of the Psalmist would not be heard with pleasure by them, and it is not their conversion that is dwelt upon, but their destruction. The plural of the verb is therefore to be taken impersonally. [Render therefore: Their judges are cast down by the sides of the rock; and my words are heard that they are sweet.—J. F. M.] Psalms 141:7-8. It remains here unexplained directly, whence the sudden deadly peril to the Psalmist, and his companions arises. For this reason the change of reading which gives: their, instead of: our (Sept. Cod. Al., Syr., Arab., Ethiop., Theodoret), and which Jerome also notices, is favored by Bφttcher. Referring to the bones of those who have been hurled down, he translates: broken into fragments. A suitable parallel to the image in Psalms 141:7 would then be afforded. But this explanation is no more certain than that of Ewald, who thinks that the extreme emaciation of the afflicted righteous is here figuratively, or rather, plainly described by the words: our bones protrude themselves. This he connects with Psalms 141:5 d, in which he supposes that the Psalmist keeps directing his prayer to God on account of the misery of the righteous. If now we remain by the usual and most natural translation, it becomes again doubtful whether the bones are thrown to the abyss of the underworld (Isaiah 5:14; Proverbs 1:12) to be swallowed up, and a complaint is uttered on account of slaughter and overthrow (Hupfeld and most); or whether we are to suppose that victory in spite of prostration (Isaiah 26:19; Ezekiel 37.), is represented by the figure of the ploughing of the soil and the confirmatory declarations of Psa 141:8, and that the passage is an expression of hope for the future (Hengstenberg, Delitzsch).—The expression in Psalms 141:8 : pour not out, that is, unto death, since the life is in the blood, occurs also in Isaiah 53:12. [The members of Psa 141:7 are inverted in E. V. The literal translation of the first clause is: as one furroweth and cleaveth in the earth. There is no need of supplying a subject as E. V. does. According to the last explanation given above, the bones are compared to the seed which is scattered in the upturned earth, and which should yet spring up into a rich harvest. This is the point of the reference to the passages in Is. and Ezek. where the resurrection is hinted at. Translate in Psalms 141:8 b: Pour not out my soul, and see the explanation above.—J. F. M.] AND It is a necessary and a saving act to place ourselves under God’s protection, not merely against outward enemies, but also against our own nature.—Men sin with the tongue more frequently than they think. This may be done by complaining and self-praise, no less than by false accusations, unjust reproaches, and baseless excuses.—Even confirmed Christians need continually to watch and pray, lest they yield to temptation.—Good resolves are not sufficient; paternal reproof and loving rebuke can do much; but God’s grace must crown the work. Starke: A believing prayer is a pleasing and acceptable incense-offering to God. By it His punishment and anger may be averted.—The mouth and the heart are man’s two fairest jewels; but if they are to be well guarded they must be committed to God.—Much frivolous speaking hinders prayer perceptibly, and often stings our hearts so that we are ashamed before God of our words.—Men in positions of influence may, by their evil example, obstruct in others the course of godliness. How necessary is then the prayer for Divine leading to God for the sake of others.—If men would become sincerely and actively religious they must begin by reforming the heart.—In hereditary sin man has an alluring dainty; if he follows it and becomes like the world, he loses his taste for the heavenly manna, the true food of the soul.—Let none consider themselves so blameless that they do not need any admonition.—The disciplinary power of the Holy Spirit must not be restrained, nor the law be abolished in the Church. For the teaching inspired by God is profitable also for correction, (2 Timothy 3:13). Fraternal reproof has, alas! become almost obsolete in the Christianity of today. Flattery and false politeness have gained the upper hand.—It is always better to do a thing in meekness than in anger.—Wicked leaders in all departments of life cause much sorrow and ruin, but their judgment and condemnation do not slumber.—Unity and steadfastness in faith, in prayer, and in patience, are most necessary to pious Christians in their afflictions. They will at last be redeemed from all evil. Frisch: There are none in the world more odious than those who are most forward in resisting evil and implanting good.—Rieger: The tongue is never harder to be tamed than under suffering at the hands of others. It is therefore the more necessary that God should guard it then.—Many things are wounds to the old nature, which are balm to the new.—Guenther: How will I learn to say “my God,” if I do not earn the right of possession by daily experiences of His gracious assistance?—Diedrich: He who will have faithfully confessed the Truth in his daily duties, will find in this Psalm the groans of his heart repeated.—Taube: The prayer of faith is the victory which overcomes the world within and without, for it forces its way into God’s light, and brings us to His strength. [Matt. Henry: They that cry in prayer may hope to be heard in prayer, not for their loudness, but for their lowliness.—Prayer is of a sweet-smelling savor to God, as incense, which yet had no savor without fire; nor has prayer without the fire of holy love and fervor.—We must be as earnest for God’s grace in us, as for His favor towards us.—Nature having made my lips to be a door to my mouth, let grace keep that door, that nothing may be suffered to go out which may any way tend to the dishonor of God or the hurt of others.—Good men will pray against even the sweets of sin.—When the world is bitter the word is sweet.—All that are bound over to God’s justice are held in the cords of their own iniquity. But let me at the same time obtain a discharge.—J. F. M.] Psalms 142 Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave2         I cried unto the Lord with my voice; With my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. 3    I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. 4    When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked Have they privily laid a snare for me. 5    I looked on my right hand, and beheld, But there was no man that would know me: Refuge failed me; No man cared for my soul. 6    I cried unto thee, O Lord:I said, Thou art my refuge And my portion in the land of the living. 7    Attend unto my cry; For I am brought very low: Deliver me from my persecutors; For they are stronger than I. 8    Bring my soul out of prison, That I may praise thy name: The righteous shall compass me about; For thou shalt deal bountifully with me. AND Contents and Composition.—On maskil see Introd. § 8, No. 3. The Psalm is closely related to Psalms 141, 143. The superscription assigns it to the time of 1 Samuel 22, if the cave of Adullam be meant, here designated by the article as a well-known one, or to that of 1 Samuel 24, if the cave of Engedi be meant. The contents agree with this statement, which cannot be successfully impugned on linguistic grounds, although there appears to be a certain dependence upon Psalms 77. which has given rise to some hesitation. The Author calls upon God, with a loud voice, for deliverance on account of the greatness of his distress and anguish; for even the eye of God, to whom his every way is known, will see only snares in his path, but no helping friend, (Psalms 142:2-5). And he cries to God, for He remains his refuge and his portion, and will deliver him from oppression and weakness in spite of his powerful persecutors, so that he may praise Him amid the acclamations of His people (Psalms 142:6-7). [Psalms 142:4. When my spirit was over whelmed.—The same mode of expression occurs in Psalms 77:4. Hupfeld would connect this line with the preceding verse, as is done in Psalms 102:1. This would certainly give a more natural and easy connection.—J. F. M.] Psalms 142:5. Look to the right hand [E. V.: I looked, etc.]—The ancient versions and Rabbins whom Calvin follows, and by whose influence Ewald is moved to change the pointing, translate as if the verb, instead of being in the imperat. Hiphil, were in the absolute infinitive, which they then render in the first person. They mistake the character of the language of prayer. The right side is mentioned since being the side defended, it was the point of attack (Psalms 109:6) where, therefore, the defenders post themselves (Psalms 109:31; Psalms 110:5) as a shelter (Psalms 121:5). There is no need of changing the reading with a view to gain the sense: looking all the day long and seeing (Hitzig). [Translate: look at the right hand and see. No friend (appears) for me; refuge for me is lost. There is none that inquireth after my soul. Perowne: “There is no contradiction in this prayer to the previous statement of belief in God’s omniscience: Thou knowest my path, as has been alleged. Such appeals to God to see, to regard, etc., are common enough, and ‘are bound up with the very nature of prayer, which is one great anthropomorphism.’ ”—J. F. M.] Psalms 142:8. It is not indicated in the text whether the term prison, employed for affliction, is figurative or not. The translation of the last line: the righteous wait for me (Septuagint, Syriac, Aquila, Ewald), would require the construction with ìְ (Job 36:2). The renderings: crown (Symm., Jerome), or figuratively: triumph in me as in a crown (Aben Ezra, Kimchi), or: deck themselves as with a crown, i.e., triumph like a king (Cocceius, Venema, Del.), are far-fetched. The explanation: surround, here naturally not in a hostile but in a friendly manner (Luther, after Felix Pratensis and most of the recent expositors), has to meet only the difficulty of the construction with áְּ. [The sense of the E. V. is therefore probably the correct one. On the feelings of the Psalmist, Delitzsch: “The poet thus finds himself not so completely alone as might appear from Psalms 142:5. He does not fancy that he is the only righteous one. He is only a member of a common Church, whose lot is interwoven with his, and who will triumph in his deliverance as in their own (1 Corinthians 12:26).”—J. F. M.] AND The great distress of God’s children, the conduct of the believer, and his certain help.—We can lose everything on earth without harm to us, if only God remains as our Portion.—The friendship of God and the enmity of the world, in the community of the righteous. Starke: The inner suffering of the heart, when the spirit is under deepest oppression, is the true school of prayer.—God often purposely permits His children to come into great affliction, so that His works may become manifest. He will yet be acknowledged by us as our only and best Helper.—When other men find reasons for despairing, believers make God their refuge, and He then manifests His might and help in a way that gladdens their hearts.—There is no better friend than God; He does not forsake His own even in the greatest need.—Oppression and affliction, faith and prayer, often meet; affliction tries faith and strengthens prayer.—This whole world is to God’s children often nothing but a prison, in which with tears and groans they await the redemption of the body.—God does not yield His honor. When He knows how to glorify it through them or others, He will not spare Himself. Recall it to Him in an earnest, upright spirit, and thou shalt see thy desire in His mercy and help. Frisch: Those who pray best do not know how to sink deep enough before God’s supreme majesty.—Diedrich: If the soul has only its refuge and its light in God, it can praise Him even in the midst of enemies, and then also be assured of the greatest triumph.—Taube: Persecution from the side of enemies presses sorely, but abandonment by friends, who should have stood by one’s side as helpers and defenders, presses more sorely still. [Matt. Henry: We are apt to show our trouble too much to ourselves, aggravating it and poring upon it, which doth us unkindness, whereas by showing it to God, we might cast the care on Him who careth for us, and thereby ease ourselves. Nor should we allow of any complaint to ourselves and others, which we cannot with the due decency and sincerity make to God, and stand to before Him.—This is the greatest comfort of our temporal mercies, that they furnish us with matter and give us opportunity for the excellent duty of praise.—Others’ mercies ought to be the matter of our praises to God; and others’ praises on our behalf ought to be both desired and rejoiced in by us.—Bp. Horne: When danger besetteth us around, and fear is on every side, let us follow the example of David, and that of a greater than David, who, when Jews and Gentiles conspired against Him, and He was left all alone in the garden and on the cross, gave Himself unto prayer.—Barnes: That God may be honored, is an object at all times much more important than our own welfare, even than our salvation.—It is an honor to be desired, to be associated with good men, to possess their esteem, to have their sympathy, their prayers, and their affections, to share their joys here and their triumphs in the world to come.—J. F. M.] Psalms 143 A Psalm of David         Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications: In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. 2    And enter not into judgment with thy servant; For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. 3    For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; He hath smitten my life down to the ground; He hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead. 4    Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; My heart within me is desolate. 5    I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. 6    I stretch forth my hands unto thee: My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah. 7    Hear me speedily, O Lord; my spirit faileth: Hide not thy face from me, Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. 8    Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; For in thee do I trust: Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; For I lift up my soul unto thee. 9    Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me. 10    Teach me to do thy will; For thou art my God Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. 11    Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: For thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. 12    And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, And destroy all them that afflict my soul: For I am thy servant. AND Contents and Composition.—This, the last of the seven penitential Psalms, is in some manuscripts without a superscription. In others there is besides the one above given, the addition: When Absalom his son pursued him. The circumstances of the suppliant as here depicted, agree with this statement. For, surrounded by implacable enemies, who have brought him nigh to death, the servant of God has only Him remaining as his refuge. This Refuge is a sure one, and is ardently desired, and therefore besought in prayer with the fervor of a soul that longs for deliverance. For with all his trust in God’s faithfulness and helpful righteousness, so far as his relation to his enemies is concerned, he has yet a strong feeling of his human sinfulness before God, and therefore a strong need of His pardoning mercy and of guidance through His good Spirit. These thoughts are characteristic of David, but here and there they appear in a form which might be regarded as “a later effort to copy after the Davidic Psalm-poetry” (Delitzsch). “He who knows David, finds here also that penitent confession to God, that humility, that longing after God, that sure confiding in Him as his refuge, and invocation of His help and deliverance from enemies for the sake of His goodness, that submission to Him, that desire for His holy guidance, that experience of the Lord, and praise inspired by such experience, that confidence in His holy righteousness, and that humble and elevating consciousness of being the servant of the Lord, which are so entirely characteristic of David” (Clauss.) This may be granted and yet it be doubted, whether such a poet as David would have so copied himself, as would be the case if the Davidic authorship were proved. One might pray in the same language, but would not repeat himself in different poems. The numerous, reminiscences of other passages of Scripture which are found confirm this supposition. [The application of this canon to Hebrew poets, and especially to such a one as David, who wrote so much in this style, and who seemed to make his repeated experiences of similar distresses so many occasions of compositions of this nature, is hardly just. Besides, there are many instances of repetitions in Psalms in the earlier portion of the Psalter, which are acknowledged to be those of David, and they do not occasion any difficulty. Of course there is no instance there so striking as this, but they give an indication of what David might accomplish in the way of combining familiar thoughts and images, and setting them in the light of renewed revelations of God’s power and goodness in the midst of his own renewed distress and feeling of weakness. At all events, the poem, even with the familiarity of its ideas, forms a complete whole which is worthy of David, and which no critic need on that score hesitate to assign to him. Hengstenberg again stands alone among recent continental commentators in maintaining the Davidic authorship. Perowne again follows the majority on the other side, and inclines to the view of a late composition. Delitzsch finds in the addition to the title given in some copies of the Septuagint quoted above, confirmation of his favorite idea that most of the Psalms in this group were intended to describe the feelings of David during his flight before Absalom. This is probable enough; but is it probable that any writer at a late period would seek to illustrate by a series of Psalms, this or any other period of David’s life, when it had already been so abundantly illustrated by David himself? Alexander, Wordsworth, and most English commentators hold to the Davidic composition.—J. F. M] Psalms 143:1-2. In Thy faithfulness answer me, in Thy righteousness.—It does not remain undefined what God is to answer. For in the first place, “answering” is only another expression for hearing, and, in the next place, the two additions to the request furnish a more definite indication of its meaning. The faithfulness of God is His faithfulness to His promises, or the truthfulness of His nature, in conformity with which everything that He has spoken or ordained is reliable and unchangeable. His righteousness is the corresponding course of action by which His ordinances are firmly established and fulfilled in the world, so that there is rendered to every man according to his works. There is no occasion of thinking here of particular promises, or of 2 Samuel 7. (Hengstenberg); or for changing the notion of righteousness into that of goodness (Kφster). God’s faithfulness and righteousness are thus assured, as in 1 John 1:9, and the repenting receive the forgiveness of their sins, but the impenitent, judgment. From one point of view, therefore, the pious man is righteous, a servant of God; from another, he, as a man, is not perfect like God, but rather needing to be spared in judgment, to receive pardon and mercy. Psalms 143:12 shows that in Psalms 143:2 also the phrase: “Thy servant” is not a mere oriental circumlocution for the person speaking , and not merely a term of polite address. The prayer that God might not enter into judgment with him as his Accuser and Judge, (Job 9:32; Job 14:3; Job 22:4 f.; Isaiah 3:14), has a twofold ground: first, the absence, common to all the living, of perfect righteousness, acceptable before God, (Psalms 130:3; Job 4:17; Job 9:2; Job 14:4; Job 15:14; Job 25:4; Romans 3:20); then his own personal and deadly peril, which the suppliant suffers through the persecutions of his enemies, and which he knows to be a Divine judgment upon him for his sins which are not expiated. Psalms 143:3 c. is in the exact words of Lam 3:6. But the expression does not mean: the dead of the world (Septuagint, Luther). [This translation arises from the false adoption of the later Hebrew and Rabbinical usage of τlam. See on Psalms 89:2.—J. F. M.] It refers either to those who died long before, and are placed among those of the olden time, Ezekiel 26:20 (Jerome, Hitzig), or to those who are eternally, for ever dead (Syriac, Hupfeld, Delitzsch), who have an existence without hope, sleep an eternal sleep (Jeremiah 51:39; Jeremiah 51:57) in the gloomy abode of the dead, which remains ever as it is (Ecclesiastes 12:5), in contrast to the life which has no end (Daniel 12:7). The latter explanation suits the present passage best, for the Psalmist evidently means to say that his enemies are intent upon his utter destruction, and that he would remain without deliverance, unless God in mercy were to take up his defence. Psalms 143:4-8. On this account his distress is so great that he is inwardly overwhelmed with darkness (Psalms 77:4; Psalms 142:4), and is like a languishing land (Psalms 63:2). [Psalms 143:6, E. V.: thirsty land, comp. Isaiah 32:2. The contrast to former times, with the recollection of God’s dealings then, joined to thoughtful contemplation of the reality of His power as displayed in His works, makes his anguish the more intense, his longing the more consuming, his supplicating cry the more urgent (Psalms 27:9; Psalms 69:18; Psalms 84:3; Psalms 102:3). If the help of God should tarry (Psalms 143:7) he would become like those that descend to the abyss (Psalms 28:1; Psalms 88:5). He prays that even the next morning should end the night of his sorrow, and expects an answer to his prayer upon the ground of his trust (Psalms 25:1 f.; Psalms 86:4). [The mode of expression in Psalms 143:6 b. is peculiar. It is literally: my soul (is), like a languishing land for Thee, i.e., my soul languishes for Thee, as a thirsty land for rain. Calvin: “In great heat, we see the earth cracking and gaping, as though with open mouth she asked for the rain from heaven.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 143:9-12. [In Psalms 143:9 b., E. V. combines the Septuagint rendering: I fled to Thee, with the notion of the Hebrew word which means here: to cover, hide one’s self. The latter was thus assumed to be a pregnant expression, and so translated. But the Septuagint had a false reading: πρϊι, I fled, which gave rise to misconceptions among the older expositors. Calvin, however, perceived the true construction, for which Hengst., Delitzsch, Ewald, Maurer, Alexander, Perowne, Wordsworth and most recent expositors decide. Delitzsch expresses it thus: ad (apud) te abscondidi (me): To (with) Thee have I hidden (myself). Genesis 38:14 affords the most perfect parallel in construction. See further by Dr. Moll.—J. F. M.] In Psalms 143:9 b. we might be tempted to change λִּ ?ρִּ ?ιϊִ ?ι, which has been variously explained, into ηριϊι, the idea conveyed by which the ancient translations and expositions directly express. But it is not absolutely necessary, for the notions of covering and refuge are united in the intermediate one of hiding. The way of deliverance is to the servant of God no external one, but a way of salvation, which the commandments of God point out, in which the Spirit of God, who is good (so must we translate literally in ver 10c.), is the Guide. And those who submit to this guidance to fulfil the commandments of God, walk not merely upon a direct or right way (Psalms 27:11), but in an even land, i.e., without stumbling or being obstructed in their successful and happy progress. It is therefore quite unnecessary to change ΰֶ ?ψֶ ?υ into ΰֹ ?ψηַ (Hupfeld). [Delitzsch refers to Isaiah 26:7 as a parallel passage, and remarks that these words, which in Deuteronomy 4:43; Jer. 28:41, are a geographical designation, are here applied spiritually. The verbs in Psalms 143:11-12 should be rendered by the future: Thou wilt quicken me, etc., not in the imper., as in E. V. With Psalms 143:11 comp. Psalms 138:7; Psalms 25:15; Psalms 34:18; with Psalms 143:12, Psalms 31:17; Psalms 18:41; Deuteronomy 7:24.—J. F. M.] AND It is not only the man who is persecuted in the world that is permitted to make God his refuge; the mourning sinner may come to Him also; but he must do so according to the appointed way of salvation—God not only teaches His servants by His word; He guides them also by His Spirit, and helps them to live by His strength.—If God goes with us into judgment, we are lost; but if we repent, He delivers us.—God’s faithfulness and righteousness are a terror to sinners, but a consolation to the penitent and an assurance of salvation to His pious servants. Starke: It is no easy matter to pray rightly and so as to obtain an answer. Great and earnest striving are necessary to it.—The only ground upon which repenting sinners can with assurance approach God’s throne is His mercy and truth in Christ Jesus.—Learn to know the multitude of thy sins and the strict judgment of God, so that thou mayest know His great mercy and pray the more earnestly for forgiveness.—Because even pious men sometimes love the darkness rather than the light, God sends them affliction, that the world may become distasteful to them.—The examples of the saints of old are at this hour a comfort to afflicted souls and terrifying to their enemies.—Thirsting, longing, hoping, and yearning after God are sure indications of a believing soul and of true prayer.—When a soul thirsts after God’s favor, it is a sure proof that it is not utterly forsaken by Him.—Many pray for a speedy answer, and do not reflect that God must have waited long for their crying.—As distress is felt, so also is prayer; it breaks forth all the more strongly, the more distressed the suppliant is in his own eyes.—The divine consolation is the sweeter to the soul, the longer it had to wait for it, and the greater its sufferings had been.—The favor of God is the most necessary thing for man in this life, and should be the object of his highest concern.—There are many false guides who pretend to bear us happily over the journey of life; but he who does not keep close to God as his leader and guide and follow Him in everything, is led astray.—The divine deliverance of believers is commonly connected with the destruction of their ungodly enemies. Franke: When a man resolves with heart and soul to be and remain a servant of God, God will not forsake him; but where He is, there will also His servant be.—Diedrich: In all earthly trials we must learn, after all our distress, to know our own hearts better, for only so will suffering draw us to the living God.—Taube: In the lasting heat of suffering, true faith will only burn more strongly and be lit up with a brighter glow.—The connection of justification and sanctification. [Matt. Henry: As a thirsty land, which, being parched with excessive heat, gapes for rain, so do I need, so do I crave the support and refreshment of divine consolation under mine afflictions, and nothing else will relieve me.—This is the best course we can take when our spirits are overwhelmed; and justly do they sink under their load who do not take such a ready way as this to relieve themselves.—Those that have the truth of grace cannot but desire to have the evidence of it.—Preservations are pledges of salvation, and those shall find God their hiding-place that by faith make Him so.—Bp. Horne (Psalms 143:5): While we muse on such instances of His goodness, the reflection is obvious: Is He not still the same gracious God? Will He not do as much for us upon our repentance as He formerly did for others upon theirs? Let us arise and go to our Father.—Scott: The believer has not only the faithfulness, but the righteousness of God engaged in his behalf: much more then may he be confident that he has justice on his side in those causes that are pending between him and his persecutors before the supreme Judge.—The trembling sinner, who has lately discovered that he cannot stand in judgment before God, need not be discouraged on that account; for the greatest of saints have confessed the same.—Barnes: Our hope is in the mercy, not in the justice of God.—J. F. M.] Psalms 144 A Psalm of David         Blessed be the Lord my strength, Which teacheth my hands to war, And my fingers to fight: 2    My goodness, and my fortress; My high tower, and my deliverer; My shield, and he in whom I trust; Who subdueth my people under me. 3    Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! 4    Man is like to vanity: His days are as a shadow that passeth away. 5    Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. 6    Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: Shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. 7    Send thine hand from above; Rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, From the hand of strange children; 8    Whose mouth speaketh vanity, And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. 9    I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. 10    It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: Who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. 11    Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, Whose mouth speaketh vanity, And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: 12    That our sons may be as plants Grown up in their youth; That our daughters may be as corner stones, Polished after the similitude of a palace: 13    That our garners may be full, Affording all manner of store; That our sheep may bring forth thousands And ten thousands in our streets: 14    That our oxen may be strong to labor; That there be no breaking in, nor going out; That there be no complaining in our streets. 15    Happy is that people, that is in such a case: Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist, who evidently speaks as a king (see Psalms 144:2), begins by praising God for help experienced personally in various ways in battle and in distress (Psalms 144:1-2). The recollection of the comforting truth that God does indeed in love take notice of perishing man (Psalms 144:3-4) leads him to utter the prayer that God would personally display from heaven His irresistible power to deliver him from great peril prepared for him by powerful and faithless strangers (Psalms 144:5-8). With this he connects a promise of a new song referring to God’s manner of dealing with David His servant both generally and specially, and then turns back to the prayer by repeating, like a refrain, the description of his enemies (Psalms 144:9-11). The Chald. Paraphrase explains the evil sword (Psalms 144:10) as being that of Goliath, and some manuscripts of the Sept. have as an addition to the superscription: in reference to Goliath. This event of David’s life may perhaps have given occasion to the poem; but it is doubtful whether it should be assigned to David himself (Hengst.), especially as the portion just discussed consists entirely of fragments of other psalms, and is particularly rich in expressions found in Psalms 18. It is mere hypothesis to suppose that these verses were recorded in an ancient historical book and expressed the feelings with which David went into battle, being drawn from his declaration in 1 Samuel 17:27 (Del.). Theodoret already has referred it to the Maccabζan period, and Hitzig assigns it specially to Alexander Jannζus.—Attached to this first portion is a section (Psalms 144:12-15) which is entirely dissimilar in thought, mode of expression, and linguistic character, and is connected with it loosely and perhaps violently by ΰωׁ ?ψ, which is capable of so many meanings. This passage praises the prosperity of the people as a blessed result of their having Jehovah as their God. It appears to be a fragment of another Psalm whose origin is entirely unknown. [Hengstenberg: “It is only the Psalms of David which form the ground-work of this. But that it is one of David’s peculiarities to derive from his earlier productions a foundation for new ones, is evident from a variety of facts, which, if any doubt might still be entertained on the subject, would obtain a firm ground to rest upon in this Psalm; for it can only be the work of David. Then the way and manner of the use made of such materials must be kept in view. This is always of a spirited and feeling nature; and no trace anywhere exists of a lifeless borrowing. That we cannot assume such borrowing here, that the appropriation of earlier materials did not proceed from spiritual impotence, but rests upon deeper grounds, is manifest if we consider the second part, where the dependence entirely ceases, and where the opponents of the Davidic authorship have not been able to overlook the strong poetical spirit of the time of David. They resort to the wretched expedient of affirming that the Psalmist had borrowed this portion from a much older poem now lost.”—Alexander: “The Davidic origin of the Psalm is as marked as that of any in the Psalter.” Noyes and Perowne are disinclined to follow the superscription. The rest of the English expositors, so far as I know, accept its authenticity.—J. F. M.] Psalms 144:1-6.—[Translate Psalms 144:1 : Blessed be Jehovah, my Rock, &c. Comp. Psalms 18:35; Psalms 18:47.—J. F. M.]. My mercy [Psalms 144:2, E. V.: my goodness], i.e. my merciful God (Ps. 59:11, 18, comp. Jonah 2:9). Since it is not extension of power (Chald., Isaaki, Kimchi, Calvin) that is mentioned, but compulsion or really subjugation, there would be expected here, instead of ςַ ?ξִּ ?ι, my people, the plural ςַ ?ξִּ ?ιξnations. This reading does occur in some manuscripts, but is only inserted as serving to facilitate the rendering. The Syr., Chald., and Jerome express it in their translations, and others in their interpretations. The difficulty disappears if it be remembered that it is not the despotic authority of the king that is meant, but the controlling power of God, to which those must submit who oppose the king chosen by God. Psalms 18:48 does not decide for us, for the verbs in the two passages are different. If the writer had that passage in mind, he altered it intentionally, as we find that in other cases the imitation is not a mere copying or simple repetition. So Psalms 144:3, in imitation of Psa 8:5, and Psalms 144:4, partly from Psalms 39:6; Psalms 39:11, partly from Psalms 102:12. [The connection between Psalms 144:1-4 is shown by Calvin. “David remembers all that God has done for him, and then, like Jacob, thinks: Lord, I am too little for all thy loving-kindness, and so contrasts his own nothingness and that of mankind generally with the greatness of such a gracious God.” With Psalms 144:5 comp. Psalms 18:10; Psalms 104:32. With Psalms 144:6, Psalms 18:15; 2 Samuel 22:15.—J. F. M.] Psalms 144:7-11—It is worthy of remark that τָּ ?φָ ?δ, which in Psalms 22:14; Psalms 66:16, is used of the gaping of the mouth, has here in Psalms 144:7 the meaning of snatching out [E. V.: rid], as in the Arabic and Aramaic. The right hand of falsehood [Psalms 144:8] parallel to the tongue of falsehood (Psalms 109:2) is the hand raised in taking a false oath. It alludes here to covenant-breaking. The designation Elohim, suddenly addressed to Jehovah in Psalms 144:9, is unusual in the last two books of the Psalter. [It occurs besides in Psalms 108. The second member of the verse should be translated: Upon a lyre of ten (strings) will I make music to Thee.—J. F. M.] The expression also in Psalms 144:10 : evil sword, is peculiar. It hardly means that the sword is employed in the service of an evil man (Delitzsch), but rather that it causes evil and misfortune. The mention of David in a Psalm ascribed to him follows the example of Ps. 18:51. Psalms 144:12.—Both the peculiar contents and the expression of the following sentences, and the connection with the preceding by ΰωׁ ?ψ, create difficulty. Following the contents of the passage, it is first mentioned that the children are thriving at home, that the fruits of the field and the herds of large and small cattle are flourishing, and that the inhabitants of the city are prosperous, and finally the people so situated are felicitated. It is in the highest degree improbable that Israel, whose God is Jehovah, in contrast to a nation rich in earthly blessings, is, in the last line, pronounced happy, and that therefore there is presented a contrast between individual prosperity and spiritual blessings. If we look at the passages which promise a blessing to the people of God, Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 28:4; Deuteronomy 28:8; Deuteronomy 28:51, and compare also the description of the blessing in Psalms 92:13 f.; Psalms 128:2 f., we cannot doubt that the prosperity of Israel under the blessing of God is described here also. The several peculiar words and phrases cannot alter this actual relation. Consequently the relative is not to be referred to enemies=whose sons (Sept., et al.). Nor can we supply μֵ ?ΰξֹ ?ψ, and referring to the words of falsehood, Psalms 144:8; Psalms 144:11, regard the passage as quoting the terms in which the children of the world boast of their possessions (Geier, Clericus). On account of the structure of the sentence, it would be a very forced construction to refer the relative to God, who causes our sons to be, &c. So also with the assumption that the new song promised in Psalms 144:9 is given here (Venema, Kφster). In this case we would have to strike out Psalms 144:11 (Olsh.), which, however, would be better than to change ΰֹ ?ωψ into ΰֲֹ ?ΰַ ?ωֵּׁ ?ψ, I will pronounce happy (Doederlein, Dathe). Some expositors pass over this connecting word. It must be taken, however, as a relative conjunction, but not as meaning: that, in order that they may be so (Hengst. and most), as a consequence of the deliverance mentioned in Psalms 144:11, or as introducing a prayer, whether the word: grant, be supplied or not, but as meaning: because, since (Delitzsch, Hitzig), as supporting the prayer for deliverance. There is still, however, something harsh and forced in the transition to a passage so peculiar in contents and expression. It has therefore been conjectured that a later insertion has been made here (most of the moderns since Knapp), whether a gloss of a copyist (Hitzig), or an addition by the Psalmist himself (Maurer), or borrowed from some other composition, and here awkwardly attached by ΰֹ ?ωψ (Hupfeld), or interpolated in some corruption of the text (Olsh., Kamphausen). [Hengstenberg gives the connection between this strophe and the preceding briefly, and in a manner satisfying to those who hold the Davidic authorship: “I thank Thee for the help which is assured to me through faith, Psalms 144:9-10. Nay more, deliver Thou me from the hands of the sons of strangers, and let Thy blessing return to rest upon Thy people, Psalms 144:11-14.”—J. F. M.] The phrase grown up, of trees (Isaiah 44:14) transferred to sons (Isaiah 1:2; Isaiah 23:4; Hosea 9:12) represents the vigorous and well-proportioned growth to which the young men had attained. For youth is designated here by a word which excludes the idea of childhood. The rendering: projectures (Luther, Hengstenberg) instead of: corners (Zechariah 9:15) cannot be justified. So with: corner-pillars (Geier and most), which sense has been assumed through a supposed reference to Caryatides, especially because it was supposed that the following word must have the meaning: hewn out. But ηθα is employed everywhere (according to Wetzstein in Delitzsch) only of the preparation of fuel. Yet through the Arabic it may have the sense: streaked, variegated (Proverbs 7:16). And, while the Syrian and Palestinian architecture, so far as known, exhibits no corner-pillars, corners with carved work of gay colors, are found at the present day in the reception-hall of every house of pretension in Damascus (Lane, Manners and Customs of the modern Egyptians, Psalms 50:11). Wetzstein inclines to the opinion that an architectural ornament of this kind, formed with much taste and elaborate workmanship out of carved wood, glistening with gold and brilliant colors, and covering the upper portion of the corner, is employed here to illustrate the beauty, brilliant attire, and rich ornaments of the women; perhaps, also, because they are not only modest and chaste, but are also, like the children of the upper class, concealed from sight. Psalms 144:13-15. As many rare expressions occur here, it cannot appear surprising that in Psalms 144:14 the oxen are not named ΰֲ ?μָ ?τִ ?ιν as in Psalms 8:8, but ΰַ ?μּ ?εּ ?τִ ?ιν, which in an older stage of the language, meant: princes. But it would be strange here to translate: our princes are set up (Maurer, Kφster, Von Lengerke, Fόrst) after Ezra 6:3, that is: are standing upright, as a sign of confidence and strength. The latter word means also strictly: burdened, not: strong for bearing burdens (Chald., Kimchi), or: laden with the abundance of produce (Hengstenberg), or: with fat and flesh, and therefore = fat and strong (Sept., Syr., Jerome, Geier, et al.) but laden with young, gravida (Bochart, J. H. Mich., and most of the recent expositors) The word therefore does not express capacity for work (Luther). In Psalms 144:13 bζַ ?ο does not mean: store, or provision (Geier, Venema, et al.), but is an Aramaic term denoting: class, kind. From class to class, i.e., of all kinds. The expressions for breach and falling out are so general, that they are not to be referred specially to miscarrying, (Syr., Kimchi), or to breaches in the folds where the flocks might break out (Sept., Geier), or to breaches in the city wall (Aben Ezra, Calvin, Hupf.), and losses in war (De Wette), but to injury and deficiency, misfortune and loss generally.—[The author’s translation of Psa 144:13-14, accordingly is: Our garners full, supplying of all kinds, our sheep multiplying by thousands, by tens of thousands in our pastures; our cattle laden (with young); no breach and no falling off, and no cry of complaint in our streets.—J. F. M.] On the last line the combination of the shortened form ωׁ of the relative with the qua-driliteral into one word is remarkable. There is no ground for taking the copula adversatively: but (Luther). The expression ωֶׁ ?λָּ ?λָ ?δ is found also in Sol. Son 5:9. AND It is not an unessential matter to a people how its king stands with relation to God the Lord, nor to a king, whether he has religious and obedient subjects.—Even temporal blessings come from the living God of revelation; but for a man to have God Himself as his God, is the highest privilege and an eternal good.—To consider seriously what God is and what we are, begets humility, but also trust in God. Starke: Pious soldiers learn best how to fight in the school of the Holy Spirit.—By protection and victory over our enemies, God’s glory is well-extended.—Christ wars and triumphs in His believers.—It is a great favor of God to have respect, fear, and obedience in subjects. When He is angry He poureth contempt upon princes.—To know our human nothingness rightly, gives us humility. Assiduous meditation upon God’s infinite pre-eminence is the best means of gaining this object. Where God takes from man as His own possession what a man possesses, nothing but a shadow remains; therefore the glory belongs to God in whatever a man is or has.—The help of the Christian must come from heaven, either through means or without them.—Every doctrine which has not in view God’s honor and man’s blessedness is false.—Thoughts, words, demeanor, works, all must accord in the praise of God, must sound forth nothing but Christ, and extol His victory and blessing.—The external prosperity of the true Church and of a country depends upon the continuance of pious kings and religious rulers.—A pious and grateful heart does not take into account the Divine benefits which have been experienced by itself alone, but also those which He has bestowed upon others, and thanks Him for both.—According as faith is in the heart, so is also the life directed.—The blessing of many children is a great gift of God, and an ornament to a house, especially if they follow after the fear of God and virtue.—Daughters that are trifling, vain, and decked out after the fashion of the world, are like fair palaces in which the world dwells, and not God.—He who seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, will receive from Him just as much as He knows will be profitable for him.—The prosperity of the ungodly is like glass; when it seems clearest it breaks; but the prosperity of the righteous will endure; for it rests on a good foundation.—The true happiness of men consists in their union and communion with God in Christ. Frisch: God, thy friend, is great in counsel, and mighty in working.—Rieger: It is easy to say in dejection: Man is as nothing! But it is better to do so in humility; in humility which then does not hide itself away, but clings to the gracious hand of God in Christ, held out to the upright.—Diedrich: If God’s people are still in conflict with malignant enemies, they have still the victory and all blessings.—Taube: It is the depth of Divine condescension towards the son of the dust, which gives him to discover the glory of grace in its clearest light. [Matt. Henry: Wherever a believer goes he carries his protection along with him.—Man’s days have little substance in them, considering how many of the thoughts and cares of an immortal soul are employed about a poor, dying body; they are as a shadow, dark and flitting, and finishing with the sun, and when that sets, resolving itself into all shadow.—Living plentifully, we should not live luxuriously, for then we abuse our plenty, but cheerfully and usefully, that, having abundance, we may be thankful to God, generous to our friends, and charitable to the poor. Otherwise what profit is it to have our garners full? James 5:3.—National piety commonly brings national prosperity, for nations, as such, are capable of rewards and punishments only in this life.—Happy is the people that have God’s favor, and love, and grace, according to the tenor of the covenant, though they have not abundance of this world’s goods. As all this and much more, cannot make us happy, unless the Lord be our God; so the want of this, the loss of this, nay, the reverse of this, cannot make us miserable if He be.—Bp. Horne: The righteous are distinguished from the wicked by the use which they make of the good things of this life when given, and by their meek resignation of them when taken away.—Whatever be the will of God concerning our having or wanting these outward comforts, we know that we have, as the faithful servants of God have had in every age before us, greater and more precious promises, a better and more enduring substance, pleasures that fade not, and riches that fly not away, reserved for us in a heavenly country, and a city which hath foundations.—Scott: Happy are they whom the Lord teaches to fight the good fight of faith, and to whom He gives that noblest victory and rule, the conquest and dominion over their own spirits!—The daughters of this land are indeed sufficiently polished, with exterior beauty and embellishment and every superficial accomplishment; but few of them have the polishing of a corner-stone, as qualifying them to be the ornament of families, the cement of society, and a blessing to the land and the next generation, by an attentive, judicious, and virtuous performance of the duties of domestic life, and still fewer are possessed of that adorning which the word of God almost exclusively recommends.—Hengstenberg: Humility is the mother of confidence (Psalms 144:1-4).—J. F. M.] Psalms 145 David’s Psalm of Praise         I will extol thee, my God, O King; And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 2    Every day will I bless thee; And I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 3    Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And his greatness is unsearchable. 4    One generation shall praise thy works to another, And shall declare thy mighty acts. 5    I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, And of thy wondrous works. 6    And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: And I will declare thy greatness. 7    They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, And shall sing of thy righteousness. 8    The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; Slow to anger, and of great mercy. 9    The Lord is good to all: And his tender mercies are over all his works 10    All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord;And thy saints shall bless thee. 11    They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, And talk of thy power; 12    To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of his kingdom. 13    Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. 14    The Lord upholdeth all that fall, And raiseth up all those that be bowed down. 15    The eyes of all wait upon thee; And thou givest them their meat in due season. 16    Thou openest thine hand, And satisfiest the desire of every living thing. 17    The Lord is righteous in all his ways, And holy in all his works. 18    The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, To all that call upon him in truth. 19    He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: He also will hear their cry, and will save them. 20    The Lord preserveth all them that love him: But all the wicked will he destroy. 21    My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord:And let all flesh bless his holy name For ever and ever. AND Contents and Composition.—It is only in this Psalm that the word tehilla occurs in the superscription as indicating the character of the poem itself. It is probably taken from Psalms 145:21. The plural of the same word is used to denote the whole Psalm-collection. The contents of this Psalm are admirably described by this word, for it is taken up exclusively with God’s praise The Psalmist (Psalms 145:1-2) engages to praise Him for all time to come and unceasingly, even into eternity, on account (Psalms 145:3-7) of His greatness which is unsearchable, but is displayed in glorious deeds of power and wondrous working, and is worthy of the eternal remembrance and unbounded praise of all generations of men. His goodness, (Psalms 145:8-13), is as glorious and all-embracing as His kingdom; therefore all that need turn with trustfulness to Him and He will never disappoint them (Psalms 145:14-16). In order to experience that goodness, man need only forsake the wicked, and unite with those who fear God (Psalms 145:17-20). The conclusion (Psalms 145:21) turns back to the opening, but with an enlarged view. The strophical structure, like the progress of thought, is rather irregular. This is possibly due to the acrostic character of the poem, the first letters of the verses following the order of the Hebrew alphabet. Nun only is absent; for what reason does not appear. The Sept., it is true, followed by the derived translations, inserts between Psalms 145:13-14, a verse: Jehovah is faithful in all His words, and gracious in all His works, the latter half being the same as that of Psa 145:17. But neither Aquila nor Symmachus gives it, and neither Origen nor Jerome has it in his Heb. Text. Only a single Heb. manuscript has it (Cod. Kennicott 142), and that on the lower margin, at the bottom of the page. The Chald. and the Jewish interpreters reject it, and a scholium of the Cod. Vat. of the Sept. characterizes it as spurious. It ought scarcely therefore to be regarded as having fallen out (Grotius, Ewald); and it is still less probable that Psalms 141:6 belonged originally to this passage (Hitzig). The Ancient Church employed this Psalm at the mid-day-meal, and Psalms 145:15 at the Passover. The Talmud assures us (Berachoth 4 b), that every one who repeats this Psalm three times daily, may be satisfied that he is a child of the future world. The Gemara adduces in support of this the curious reason, that it is not only written in alphabetical order, like Psalms 119. and others, and not only praises the Divine care over all creatures, like Psalms 136:25, but combines both these important characteristics in itself (Del.).—In this Psalm the mode of presenting the thoughts is pleasing, the language easy and transparent, recalling in many expressions and phrases familiar passages in the Psalms. It cannot be definitely determined which are the earlier, or whether any were borrowed from any others. Psalms 145:13 agrees just as closely with Dan. 3:33; 4:31. But this does not justify the conclusion that the latter are the original passages, and that our Psalm belongs to the age of the Maccabees (Hitzig). [Alexander: “This has been happily characterized as the ‘new song,’ promised in Psalms 144:9. In other words, it is the song of praise, corresponding to the didactic, penitential, and supplicatory Psalms of this series. In form it is an alphabetical Psalm, and, like others of this class, admits of no analysis, being made up of variations on a single theme, the righteousness and goodness of God to men in general, to His own people in particular, and more especially to those that suffer.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 145:1-7. My God, oh King!—This combination of the words elohai hammelech (the latter as in Pss. 20:10; Psalms 98:6; the former as in Psalms 143:10, with ε written fully), is rather harsh, in place of the usual expression: my King and my God (Psalms 5:3; Psalms 84:4). God’s right of pre-eminence is, at all events, set forth in forcible terms, first in connection with the exaltation and majesty of the Highest, as afterwards in relation to their extent and duration God’s greatness is exhibited also in 1 Chronicles 29:11, and its unsearchableness in Isaiah 40:28; Job 11:7. [Delitzsch: “The thought of the mute shades of the departed, which elsewhere intrudes itself, as in Psalms 6:6, when the consciousness of the poet was disturbed by sin, is here entirely banished; for now the poet’s consciousness is the undisturbed mirror of the Divine glory.”—J. F. M.] It may be a matter of dispute whether the γαψι, in Psalms 145:5 b., denote the wondrous deeds of God (Psalms 105:27), or the words which tell of them, for both may be made the object of thoughtful contemplation and celebration. In Psalms 145:7 the combination ψַ ?α-θεα shows that great goodness is not referred to, in the sense of abundant mercy (most), but in the sense of the universal excellence of His attributes, His goodness in every relation. Psalms 145:8-21. Psalms 145:8 is like Psalms 103:8. Psalms 145:15 f. like Psalms 104:27 f. The concluding part of Psa 145:16, as Psalms 145:19 and the fundamental passage, Deuteronomy 33:23, show, comp. Acts 14:17, does not mean that God is well pleased (Septuagint, Isaaki, Luther, Calvin), nor does it refer to His willingness (Hitzig), or blessing (Vulg., Geier), but to the desire, wishing, craving of living creatures (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and most of the recent expositors). [Translate Psalms 145:17 b.: and gracious in all His works.—J. F. M.] The last word of Psa 145:18 b. does not express a contrast to doubt, as in James 1:6, so that the translation should be: in faith, believingly (Hitzig), but a contrast to hypocrisy, and thoughtless perfunctoriness in prayer. AND It is easier to promise to praise God unceasingly than it is to fulfil that promise; for there come evil times, when some do not stand the test.—As we know God to be the sum and source of all good, let us ever draw from that fountain ourselves, and direct others to it also.—Every day has its troubles, has it also its prayers?—The blessedness of living in God’s kingdom, under the dominion of the heavenly King. Starke: The more a soul knows the greatness of God’s glorious mercy, the more will it be stirred up to praise Him.—If the Holy Spirit does but once enkindle the heart, it will never be satisfied in praising Him, it must praise Him for ever.—The greatness of the King of glory is especially manifested in the compassion which He manifests to sinners, whose consciences tell them that they are guilty of eternal death.—It is an act worthy of severe punishment for a man to limit God’s love and mercy, and wantonly to exclude himself from their influence.—All angels, all saints, yea, all God’s works praise Him their Creator; dost thou, O man, not praise Him too? Thou then art not worthy to be or to be called a work or creature of His.—The extension of Christ’s kingdom through the word of the gospel is a great work of God. Every true Christian should help to advance that work by counsel and deed.—Christ begins His kingdom here on earth in the hearts of believers, and takes them at last into the kingdom of glory, where they shall be ever with the Lord.—Our gracious God fulfils His promise even in regard to bodily afflictions; for He lays no more upon the sufferer than he can bear, and in his afflictions often revives him with the sweetest consolation.—You sometimes distress yourself about temporal sustenance; but what are you in need of? Whither all eyes are directed turn yours too.—We are all beggars before God; we would have nothing, if He did not answer our prayers by giving us food and the necessaries of life.—Our appetite and the relish which we have in our bread and other food is alas! not recognized by most as one of God’s blessings until they are deprived of them.—To know God as near and omnipresent may deter the wicked from sin, but to the pious it is a consolation in all their troubles.—It is much better that God should answer us in a way that will bless us, than according to the will of the flesh. In that case our souls would often suffer harm.—He who sincerely loves God is in awe of Him also, lest he should offend Him by transgressing His commands and forfeit His favor.—Thy mouth should be a living organ to praise God. Woe to those who open their mouths in imprecation and abuse and other sinful words! Frisch: A man’s compassion extends only to his neighbor, that of God extends to all.—God does everything in His own time. That time He knows better than thou dost; therefore await it in patience.—Rieger: How often does our narrow-hearted unbelief prefer to remain under the close pressure of earth, rather than be refreshed by the heart-reviving praise to God that arises from all places of His dominion.—Guenther: The heavenly King has the death-judgment and the words of mercy; pray for the latter, so that thou mayst live in His kingdom beneath His sway, and serve Him for ever.—Taube: A song of praise whose theme is the glory of the eternal King, His kingdom, and His mode of government. [Matt. Henry: If the heart be full of God, out of the abundance of that the mouth will speak with reverence to His praise on all occasions.—No day must pass, though never so busy a day, though never so sorrowful a day, without praising God; we ought to reckon it the most needful of our daily business, the most delightful of our daily comforts. God is every day blessing us, doing well for us, there is therefore reason we should be every day blessing Him, speaking well of Him.—The works of God’s mercy outshine all His other works, and declare Him more than any of them. In nothing will the glory of God be for ever so illustrious, as in the vessels of mercy ordained to glory.—His saints bless Him, for they collect the rent and tribute of praise from the inferior creatures, and pay it into the treasury above. All God’s works praise Him, as the beautiful building praises the builder, or the well-drawn picture praises the painter. But His saints bless Him as the children of prudent, tender parents rise up and call them blessed. Of all God’s works, His saints, the workmanship of His grace, the first-fruits of His creatures have most reason to bless Him.—At the end of one mercy is the beginning of another, so should the end of our thanksgiving be.—Bp. Horne: We see the whole animal world assembled before us, with their eyes fixed on the great King and Father of all, like those of a flock on the shepherd when he enters the field with provender for them. From the same Divine Person as the Saviour of men, as the King, Father, and Pastor of the Church, do believers with earnest expectation wait for the food of eternal life. And neither the one nor the other look and wait in vain.—Scott: Those who under troubles and temptations abound in fervent prayer, shall in due season abound in grateful praise, which is the genuine language of holy joy.—J. F. M.] Footnotes: [It is holy in all His works, in the Sept. Dr. Moll also has an error in his version of Psa 145:18, where he translates: Jehovah is near to all that fear Him.—J. F. M.] Psalms 146 1         Praise ye the Lord.Praise the Lord, O my soul. 2    While I live will I praise the Lord:I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. 3    Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 4    His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. 5    Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God: 6    Which made heaven, and earth, The sea, and all that therein is:Which keepeth truth for ever: 7    Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: Which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: 8    The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: The Lord loveth the righteous: 9    The Lord preserveth the strangers; He relieveth the fatherless and widow: But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. 10    The Lord shall reign for ever, Even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—This Psalm begins and ends with the familiar liturgical formula (Psalms 111 ff.). It has many points of coincidence with the preceding; but this does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that both were composed by the same author (Delitzsch), or that the one before us is the last of a dodecade, supposed to begin with Psalms 135. (Hengstenberg). It is merely its place in the Psalter that is due to this relationship, being the first of the five Hallelujah-Psalms which conclude the collection. At a later time this last group was used in the daily morning prayers, portions of other Psalms and Books of the Old Testament being united with it. Among the Rabbins the name Hallel was applied sometimes to this whole group, and sometimes to its several parts, but especially to Psalms 148, 150; but it was called the Greek Hallel, in distinction from the so-called Egyptian Hallel, recited at the feasts. The allusion in 1Ma 2:63 to Psalms 146:4 does not decide for a composition in the Maccabæan period (Venema). It is taken specially by Hitzig as an allusion to the name of Demetrius. The superscription in the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac: Of Haggai and Zechariah, is of just as little historical value. We can only infer from the language a post-exilic period, and from the contents a condition of the people in which they were oppressed, and in need of consolation and direction to look to God for aid. The purpose of the Psalm is to give this direction by exhibiting some of God’s attributes. After a preliminary warning not to trust in princes, for they are perishable men (Psalms 146:3-4), these attributes are presented, supporting the declaration that the man is blessed who relies with all assurance upon the God of Israel as his God (Psalms 146:5-9). These strophes form the kernel of the Psalm, and are inclosed by an introduction, in which the Psalmist calls upon himself and promises to praise God (Psalms 146:1-2), and a conclusion (Psalms 146:10) full of assurance of the uninterrupted and eternal continuance of Jehovah’s kingly government. [Hengstenberg: “That this Psalm is not contemporaneous with the preceding Davidic Psalm. … is clear from the fact that it does not rest upon the Davidic Psalms, and from the traces it contains of a late post-exile period—the hallelujah, which is never found in Psalms which bear the name of David, comp. Psalms 104, where it first occurs, and Psalms 105; the borrowing of Psa 146:1-2 from Psalms 104, which was composed after the exile, and of Psa 146:3 from Psalms 118, which was sung when the foundation of the Second Temple was laid. That the Psalm was composed at a period of great depression for the people of God, is indicated by the predicates of God, which are all of a kind fitted to elevate the distressed, console the afflicted, and give them confidence in their God.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 146:1-8. The introduction follows Psalms 104:1; Psalms 104:33-34, comp. Psalms 103:22. Psalms 146:3 recalls Psalms 118:8 f., Jeremiah 17:5; and Psalms 146:4, Psalms 104:29. Psalms 146:5 is similarly related to Psalms 144:15; Psalms 33:12; Psalms 35:2 after Exodus 18:4; the beginning of Psa 146:6, to Psalms 115:15; Psalms 121:2; Psalms 124:8; Psalms 134:3; Psalms 146:7 a., to Psalms 103:6; Psalms 146:7 b., to Psalms 104:27 f., Psalms 107:9, Psalms 136:25, if not to Psalms 33:19; Psalms 37:19; Psalms 146:7 c. to Psalms 105:20. [On Psalms 146:6, Perowne: “Who keepeth. In the series of participles marking the several acts or attributes of God in this and the next two verses, this only has the article prefixed, perhaps because the Psalmist designed to give a certain prominence or emphasis to this attribute of God, that He is One ‘who keepeth truth for ever.’ It is in fact the central thought of the Psalm. For upon this ground beyond all others is God the object of trust. He is true and His word is truth, and that word He keeps not for a time but for ever.” In Psalms 146:8 the context shows that it is a figure applied to physical weakness, as in Deuteronomy 28:29.—J. F. M.] Psalms 146:9-10. The strangers are usually combined in the singular with widows and orphans (Deut. and often). The plural here is scarcely to be referred to the Jews who dwelt together for defence in foreign lands (Hitzig). The crooked way of the wicked, in which death lies (Proverbs 12:28), is turned by Jehovah down towards, hell (Proverbs 15:24, comp. Proverbs 2:18, Proverbs 1:6). [Delitzsch: “There is only a single line devoted to this manifestation of Jehovah’s punitive justice. For He rules in love and wrath, but delights most to rule in love. And Jehovah is the God of Zion. The eternal duration of His kingdom is also the pledge of its glorious perfection, the triumph of love. Hallelujah!”—J. F. M.] AND God’s love the ground of our life and the matter of our eternal praise.—Alas, how often do we trust when we should be afraid, and become afraid when we should trust!—God has not only the power, He has also the will to help; and in both He remains unchangeably the same; but it is only those who trust in Him, that can make His faithfulness their consolation. Starke: He who makes a man his god, must be expecting his god to die every hour.—On meditating upon the frailty of life, let us strive to make all our plans pleasing to God, and then we will be able to enjoy their results in eternity.—If you find anything in the world to give you confidence, do not make it your strength. What is not the God of Jacob, is not to be your strength.—Fidelity and truth are declining very much among men in these last times; let true Christians then rely all the more upon the faithfulness of the God who abides by His promises.—God is to His children all that they need. Nothing can befall them in the world, against which He cannot afford comfort, counsel and aid—What a sweet word: the Lord loves thee! I would not take a kingdom for that word. Love unites God’s heart to mine.—The everlasting kingdom of Christ affords reason to the citizens of the spiritual Zion, both now and for ever, to praise God. Frisch: He who does not pass his life in the praise of God, is dead while he liveth.—The favor of all men is worthless when God does not favor.—When the favor of men ceases, that of God begins, and when the children of man withdraw the hand, then God truly begins to care for us.—Rieger: The exhortation to praise God out of true trust in Him, is fitly accompanied by the warning, not to trust in man.—Guenther: It is as though the psalms of praise Which arise from the suppliant’s lips, returned to him from God, as means of sanctification.—Taube: How the precious name of the Lord becomes explained to us in different kinds of distress! the Saviour and Helper, the Redeemer and Liberator, the Comforter, the Physician of Israel, the Defender of His people, the Father and Guardian!—A blissful vision of the time of fulfilment in the kingdom of rest, and the subject of our hallelujahs. [Matt. Henry: Then is praise most pleasant when in praising God we have an eye to Him as ours, whom we have an interest in, and stand in relation to.—That which is the great end of our being ought to be our enjoyment and employment while we have any being.—It is a great support to faith, that the Redeemer of the world is the same who was the Creator of it, and therefore has a good will to it, a perfect knowledge of its case, and power to help it.—Bp. Horne: There are no changes in the politics of heaven.—Scott: With these glorious prospects before our eyes, how mean do the pursuits of ambition or connections with the great seem to us! and how needful does it appear to dissuade men from this common but destructive idolatry!—J. F. M.] Psalms 147 1         Praise ye the Lord:For it is good to sing praises unto our God; For it is pleasant; And praise is comely. 2    The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. 3    He healeth the broken in heart, And bindeth up their wounds. 4    He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. 5    Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite. 6    The Lord lifteth up the meek: He casteth the wicked down to the ground. 7    Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praise upon the harp unto our God; 8    Who covereth the heaven with clouds Who prepareth rain for the earth, Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. 9    He giveth to the beast his food, And to the young ravens which cry. 10    He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. 11    The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, In those that hope in his mercy. 12    Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Praise thy God, O Zion. 13    For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; He hath blessed thy children within thee. 14    He maketh peace in thy borders, And filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. 15    He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: His word runneth very swiftly. 16    He giveth snow like wool: He scattereth the hoar frost like ashes. 17    He casteth forth his ice like morsels: Who can stand before his cold? 18    He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: He causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow. 19    He sheweth his word unto Jacob, His statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 20    He hath not dealt so with any nation: And as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalm consists of three sections without any regular rhythmical structure: Psalms 147:1-6; Psalms 7-11; Psalms 12-20, each of which begins with an exhortation to praise Jehovah. The ground and matter of such praise is the gracious exercise of His power, and is so exhibited here to the Church. The poet introduces the subject by telling of the restoration of Jerusalem, and the gathering of Israel, and then describes the helpful acts of the Almighty as those of an infinitely wise God, who sets even the stars in order, and as those of a physician who heals and comforts mankind in its countless wounds. He then recounts proofs of His care over all creatures, in connection with the reflection that God takes pleasure, not in natural strength and beauty, but in those that fear Him and seek His salvation. Finally, he extols the aid which the Almighty has rendered to His people, who are advanced above all nations by the revelation of His law, by blessing the inhabitants of the newly strengthened city, and of the country whose boundaries are secured, and blessing the land itself by regulating the seasons of the year and the weather. There is nothing to prove the supposition that the restoration of the walls by Hyrcanus is referred to (1Ma 16:23), and that Psalms 147:12 ff. are a later addition (Hitz.). The same remark applies to the division into two Psalms (Sept.) and to the opinion that this Psalm was sung at the Dedication (Nehemiah 12) of the walls completed by Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:15), a view maintained by Hengstenberg. It is enough to know that it was of late composition. [On the other hand Perowne: “It is not improbable, as Hengstenberg suggests, that not this Psalm only, but the rest of the Psalms, to the end of the Book, are all anthems originally composed for this occasion. The wall had been built under circumstances of no ordinary difficulty and discouragement (Nehemiah 2:17 to Nehemiah 4:23); its completion was celebrated with no common joy and thankfulness (Nehemiah 12:27-43).”—J. F. M.] Psalms 147:1-2. For it is good.—A change in the accents, and, to a certain extent, in the reading (Venema, Olshausen, Hupfeld) in order to get the sense: “praise Jehovah, for He is good; play to our God, for He is pleasant,” is not necessary, as is shown from Psalms 92:2; Psalms 133:1; Psalms 135:3. It is the less to be recommended here, as the passage before us is imitated from the one last named, and the last clause, which describes the appropriateness of such praise, is taken from Psalms 33:1. The mention of the outcasts (Psalms 147:2), that is, the exiles (Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 56:8), shows that it is not building in general that is alluded to, but the building of Jerusalem after its destruction. It is only the application which can justify the interpretation in a spiritual sense (Calvin, Stier). Psalms 147:3-6. How easy it is for God to help men is illustrated after Psalms 40:26 f., by the fact that He has assigned a number to the stars which men cannot count (Genesis 15:5). This means that, in creating them, He called forth a number determined by Himself. It is also said that He calls them all by name, i.e., that He knows and names them according to their special features, and employs them in His service according to His will, in conformity with the names which correspond to such knowledge. The Omniscience and Omnipresence of God are thus presented at once to the soul, but in Psalms 147:5 they are mentioned separately, and these references are the more consoling, as the thought of the members of His Church, scattered in countless numbers through foreign lands, is clearly discerned through the figurative drapery of the expression itself. The greatness of God (Psalms 147:5) with respect to might (Job 37:23) corresponds to the fulness of His understanding (Psalms 145:3), which no number can express. Psalms 147:6 then calls attention to the exercise of these Divine attributes in its love and justice. [Perowne: “The same Lord who, with infinite power and unsearchable wisdom, rules the stars in their courses, rules also the world of man. The history of the world is a mirror both of His love and of His righteous anger. His rule and order are a correction of man’s anarchy and disorder.”—J. F. M.] Psalms 147:7-14. Answer to Jehovah.—[E. V.: sing to the Lord]. There is no allusion here to an antiphonal choral song (Sept., Luther) as in Exodus 15:21, but a song of praise is called for as the answer of grateful men, to the honor of the Divine Giver (Exodus 32:18; Numbers 21:17; Isaiah 27:2). Psalms 147:9 recalls Job 38:41, as Psalms 147:8 f. Psalms 104:14. The strength of the steed and his own muscular power will not save the warrior; if God purposes to destroy him, he cannot escape from Him (Psalms 33:16 f.; Amos 2:14 f.); neither do these natural powers achieve the victory (Proverbs 21:31). God is well pleased not with natural, but with spiritual advantages and power, especially with fear of and trust in Him. And they are followed by security and blessing in city, house, and land, as by Divine gifts. [Psalms 147:13 a is taken by Dr. Moll, as by Hupfeld and those who do not perceive any special historical reference, as a figurative expression denoting security. Those who, like Hengstenberg, with whom Alexander, Perowne, and most agree, hold the view referred to in the Introduction and its addition above, understand it to refer to the restoration of the city walls, completed by Nehemiah.—J. F. M.] Psalms 147:15-20. The word in Psalms 147:15 alludes to Genesis 1; Psalms 33:6-9. For the immediate reference is to the word as the messenger of God’s power and His active work in nature (Psalms 107:20). There is no mention before Psalms 147:19 f. of the historical word of revelation, whose sphere is Israel. The transition is not made by the enumeration of particular blessings of God in their universal exercise (Geier, Amyrald), but by the idea of His speaking. In the vicissitudes of nature here described there is perhaps presented an image of the period of suffering and of the returning deliverance (Hengstenberg). The comparison of the snow to wool is hardly based upon the circumstance that the snow covers the earth warmly and softly like wool, but alludes either to the small particles which fly away, or more probably to the white color common to both, (Isaiah 1:18; Ezekiel 27:18; Daniel 7:9). The commandment or the word (Psalms 147:18) is described as God’s messenger also in Psalms 78:49; Psalms 105:17; Psalms 107:20. As in Psalms 147:19δִ ?βּ ?ιγ is used, and not ξַּ ?βּ ?ιγ, expression is given to the thought that God continues to testify concerning Himself in prophecy, upon the ground of the Thora (Delitzsch). In the final sentence, according to Psalms 94:10; Acts 14:16 f.; Romans 1:20, there is denied to the heathen not an absolute (Hengstenberg), but only a relative knowledge of the Divine judgment (Geier, et al.) The privilege of Israel is to possess the positive or historical revelation (Deuteronomy 4:7 f.; 32 f.; Bar 4:4). [Delitzsch: “The joyful hallelujah is not sounded because these other nations do not possess such a positive knowledge of God’s judgments, but because Israel does possess it. It is declared abundantly in other places that this knowledge of Israel shall be the means of making salvation the common property of the whole world of nations.”—J. F. M.] AND Praise to God for His blessings is due to Him and becoming to us.—God’s sovereign deeds in His dealings with His people, show the same omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness, as do His sovereign deeds in nature.—Among all God’s blessings, the gift of His word is to be ranked specially high, and to be praised by its right use. Augustine: Thou canst not be ever singing with thy voice; but thy life can and ought to be one unceasing song of praise to God. Starke: God’s praise is nothing but a thankful recital of His great blessings, for which the glory is due to Him alone.—If true songs of praise are to flow forth to God, the heart must first be filled with His knowledge and love.—The indolence of the heart is no excuse for the neglect of God’s praise.—If God’s government is incomprehensible, let us leave it uncensured.—The wicked, in their temporal prosperity and pride, stand, as it were, upon a round and slippery ball; God touches it, and they fall to the ground. But the salvation of believers is founded upon a firm rock.—The starry heavens are a true masterpiece of God’s wisdom.—Everything lies bare and unveiled under the eye of God; even thy name, thy heart, and thy deeds, are well known to Him; see to it that He may be able to remember thee in mercy.—The grace of God makes the pious strong in tribulation, so that they by faith triumph in Christ, and overcome the world.—He who has a voice to sing, let him use it to the praise of God.—A thankful heart is the true harp, which plays well before God.—To please God and enjoy His favor are better than all the honor and glory of the world.—The true strength, which is never put to shame, is on the side of those who fear the Lord, those who would rather give up their lives than offend God.—God’s almighty protection is the true defence of a country; without it all other defences can neither help or endure.—The best peace in a Christian Church is the union of its teachers in the true doctrine.—As God changes the weather, so does He regulate the vicissitudes of affliction. After the storm He makes the sun shine again.—God’s word is the greatest treasure on earth. Happy are the people and country who have received it pure and simple. Franke: If there is anything that human strength cannot overcome, God needs but to speak a word, and all nature, as it were, is changed.—The matter of our praise is the glory of Jehovah; the motive to praise is given in the knowledge of that glory by the experience of faith.—What men do to the glory of God becomes a blessing to themselves; and the more they love to do what they should, the more is duty changed into blessing. [Matt. Henry: Praising God is work that is its own wages.—In giving honor to God, we really do ourselves a great deal of honor.—In the same heart and at the same time there must be both a reverence of God’s majesty, and a complacency in His goodness; both a believing dread of His wrath, and a believing expectation of His favor. Not that we must hang in suspense between hope and fear, but must act under the gracious influence of hope and fear. Our fear must save our hope from swelling into presumption, and our hope must save our fear from sinking into despair.—Bp. Horne: To exalt and reward the humble, penitent, believing, and obedient; to depress and punish the proud, impenitent, and unbelieving, and disobedient; these are the measures and ends of all the Divine dispensations. And as a man ranks himself in one or the other of these two divisions, he may expect from heaven storm or sunshine, mercy or judgment.—Barnes: The fact that the ancient people of God possessed His judgments was a sufficient reason for the Hallelujah with which the Psalm closes. The fact that we possess them is a sufficient reason why we should re-echo the shout of praise, and cry Hallelujah!—J. F. M.] Psalms 148 1         Praise ye the Lord.Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: Praise him in the heights. 2    Praise ye him, all his angels: Praise ye him, all his hosts. 3    Praise ye him, sun and moon. Praise him, all ye stars of light. 4    Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, And ye waters that be above the heavens. 5    Let them praise the name of the Lord:For he commanded, and they were created. 6    He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: He hath made a decree which shall not pass. 7    Praise the Lord from the earth, Ye dragons, and all deeps: 8    Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; Stormy wind fulfilling his word: 9    Mountains, and all hills; Fruitful trees, and all cedars; 10    Beasts, and all cattle; Creeping things, and flying fowl: 11    Kings of the earth, and all people; Princes, and all judges of the earth: 12    Both young men, and maidens; Old men, and children: 13    Let them praise the name of the Lord:For his name alone is excellent; His glory is above the earth and heaven. 14    He also exalteth the horn of his people, The praise of all his saints: Even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—All heavenly creatures are to praise from heaven the name of Jehovah (Psalms 148:1-4), for God has created them, and granted to them perpetual existence, within firmly established limits (Psalms 148:5-6). And all earthly creatures are to do the same from earth (Psalms 148:7-12), because Jehovah is exalted alone above everything in heaven and upon earth, and has exalted His peculiar people (Psalms 148:13-14). The two halves are in structure and course of thought parallel throughout, except that each of the last two verses consists of three lines. In the former half the praise is to be directed to God as the Creator and the Lord of nature; in the latter as the Controller of the destinies of all creatures, and as the God of help and salvation for His people. The individualizing of the departments of creation and instancing of creatures that exist in each, illustrate the all-comprehensiveness of God’s dominion, and the universal obligation to praise God, which lies naturally upon every creature, after its kind and according to the manner of its special sphere of life. The poetical figure of personification is not unusual in the Prophets and Psalms. Delitzsch thinks that the Psalm is intended to set forth the truth that the glorious transformation of nature in connection with the transformation of mankind, through the Church, shall become a clear mirror of the Divine glory, and a living, thousand-tongued hymn of praise. But this idea is imported into the text; for in the first half the ground of praise is different from that presented in the second, and nowhere is there any allusion to the universal significance which the experiences of the Church have with relation to the whole of created life. The comparison with Romans 8:18 f., and the related passages in Isaiah is not quite suitable. The conjecture that the Psalm was composed at the accession of Aristobulus to the throne, B. C. 107 (Hitzig), is far-fetched. [The view assigned above to Delitzsch has been held from an early period. It was held by Hilary (quoted by Perowne) in a somewhat different form. On the beauty of this and of similar Hebrew anthems, see Isaac Taylor, Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry, pp. 157, 158.—J. F. M.] Psalms 148:1-6. Heights are here the heights of heaven (Job 16:19; Job 25:2; Job 31:2), as the place whence the praise issues forth. It is not the Church above (Delitzsch) that is named thereafter; but the angels are mentioned first as messengers of God, then the host of heaven generally, one portion of which comprises the angels (Joshua 5:14; 1 Kings 22:10), and the other the stars (Deuteronomy 4:19). The latter may be alluded to here in connection with the sun and moon, but they are elsewhere (e.g.Job 38:7) also connected with the angels. Next the heavens of heavens (Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalms 68:34; Sir 16:18) are introduced. This expression does not apply to the third (2 Corinthians 12:2) or the seventh (Rabbins) heaven, but is equivalent to the heights of the heights, the highest and sublimest parts. Finally, the water above the heavens, after Genesis 1:7, is invoked. The Septuagint have inserted in Psalms 148:5 b. the second member of Psa 33:6. The heavenly bodies and the angels are not to change the positions which God has assigned them, but retain them for ever (Psalms 111:8), nor overstep the limits imposed upon them. This thought is given in Job 14:5; Job 38:10; Jeremiah 5:22; Psalms 104:9 (Delitzsch, Hupfeld). That God does not interfere with this law, is expressed in a different manner in Jer. 30:31; Jeremiah 33:20 (Hitzig). That the law does not pass away, but is eternal (Septuagint, Itala, Jerome, Kimchi, Maurer, Ewald), is proper to the thought, but does not agree with the usage of ςָ ?αַ ?ψ, when employed with ηֹ ?χ. [Hengstenberg: “The law is, according to the parallel passages, the sphere of being, which is appointed to each part of the creation, and in which it is held by the Divine omnipotence; as, for example, the stars must pursue their course, the upper and lower waters must remain continually distinct.”—J. F. M.] [Translate Psalms 148:7 a.: Yea, sea monsters, etc.] Psalms 148:7-12. The vapor (Psalms 148:8) is not mist, as the vapor of the heights (Rabbins, Geier, et al., De Wette), but smoke answering to fire [as snow to hail.—J. F. M.] The cedars (Psalms 148:9) represent the forest-trees in distinction from fruit-trees. The birds (Psalms 148:10) have the same appellation as in Deuteronomy 4:17, comp. Genesis 8:14; Ezekiel 39:17. Psalms 148:13-14. The exaltation of God’s name is single, incomparable (Isaiah 2:11; Psalms 72:18 [E. V.: His name is excellent]. His glorious testimony of Himself is above heaven and earth (Psalms 8:2). Psalms 148:14 b. does not mean that the exaltation of the horn, i.e., the gift of strength and power tends to the renown of his people (Isaiah 61:11; Isaiah 62:7), as though ϊְּ ?δִ ?μָּ ?δ were the second object (Hengstenberg), but that it is the subject of the praise of God on the part of the saints (Septuagint, Jerome, Kimchi, Luther, Calvin), who are the people near to God as His kingdom and inheritance, the holy (Deuteronomy 4:7) and priestly (Leviticus 10:3) nation. AND He who knows the majesty of God, is not only to acknowledge it, and submit himself to it, but also to proclaim what he knows and maintains concerning it.—The Creator and Lord of the universe is also the Deliverer and Helper of His people; hence it is the highest duty of the Church to set forth to the world how great a blessing it is to be near to God.—Unreasoning creatures praise God by their being, upon which the law of the Divine will is impressed; what they do unconsciously, we are to do intelligently and voluntarily, and while we give to God the glory that is His due, obtain blessing for ourselves. Starke: Men should not be turned away from God by inferior creatures, but be stirred up to know and praise Him. No creature is so great and none so small, as that it should not animate and encourage them to His praise.—When God commands the inferior creatures, they execute His bidding at once; man alone is disobedient and refractory.—The third petition of the Lord’s prayer is offered up by many, but very few seek to act in accordance with it.—A blind man does not know how to make the right use of those things that are the most beautiful to the sight, and an unenlightened man may gaze upon the greatest works of nature and not think once of God, their almighty Creator.—All created things must serve believers, if we only have the favor of God; but all creation must be opposed to us, if God is angry.—No period of life should be spent without praising God, who portions out His blessings during them all.—Kings and princes should be God’s praise, and all in authority His glory, for they are God’s vicegerents.—If we are to continue to praise God rightly, we must be truly united to Him and come near to Him. Frisch: God’s creatures have a threefold voice. The first is: accept, O man! the blessings which thy Creator conveys to thee through us. The second is: render, O man! to Him the thanks that are due. The third is: beware, O man, lest thou give occasion to our Creator, by sin and ingratitude towards Him, to employ us against thee.—Taube: When men find engraved everywhere the royal signature of God, they may be expected to learn that the name of the Lord alone is exalted. But this is given only to those who have the deeper, the profoundest experience in their own hearts of Jehovah’s name, of the revelation of salvation, of the mercy of redemption. And such mercy is experienced by Israel, the people near to God, through long paths of humiliation, and yet blessed paths of grace. [Matt. Henry: When, in singing this Psalm, we call upon the angels to praise God, as we did in Psalms 103:20, we mean that we desire God to be praised by the ablest hands, and in the best manner, and that we have a spiritual communion with those that dwell in His house above, and are still praising Him, and that we are come, by faith, hope, and holy love, to the innumerable company of angels, Hebrews 12:22.—All the creatures that praised God at first for their creation, must praise Him still for their continuance. And we have reason to praise Him that they are kept within the bounds of a decree, for to that it is owing that the waters above the heavens have not a second time drowned the earth.—Those that will not fulfil God’s word, but rise up in rebellion against it, show themselves to be more violent and head-strong than the stormy winds; for they fulfil it.—Barnes (Psalms 148:12): Those in the morning of life; just entering upon their career; just forming their character; with ardor, elasticity, cheerfulness and hope: let them consecrate all this to God; let all that is in them of the buoyancy of their feelings, of the melody of their voices, of their ardor and vigor, be employed in the praise and service of God. Old men, with what remains of life, and children, with all that there is of joyousness—let all unite in praising God. Life as it closes, and life as it begins, let it all be devoted to God.—J. F. M.] Psalms 149 1         Praise ye the Lord.Sing unto the Lord a new song, And his praise in the congregation of saints. 2    Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. 3    Let them praise his name in the dance: Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. 4    For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: He will beautify the meek with salvation. 5    Let the saints be joyful in glory: Let them sing aloud upon their beds. 6    Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a twoedged sword in their hand; 7    To execute vengeance upon the heathen, And punishments upon the people; 8    To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron; 9    To execute upon them the judgment written: This honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—The first part of the Psalm contains an exhortation to the Church of Israel to praise Jehovah, its Creator and King, in a new song, since it is well-pleasing to Him that His saints should thus honor Him (Psalms 149:1-5). This passes over in the second part, into a triumphant expression of joy at the means afforded, at that time, for the execution of the Divine judgments upon the heathen and their princes (Psalms 149:6-9). Psalms 149:6 has nothing to do with Nehemiah 4:11. For that passage relates to defence during the erection of the walls; this, to the subjection of the nations in fulfilment of the Divine judgment. It is neither self-contradictory nor irreligious that a people should feel themselves called to this work, and regard themselves as an instrument in the hand of the Almighty, and should accordingly have in mind the destruction of their enemies as enemies of God, at the same time with the praise and glory of God, and utter both in the same breath. On the other hand, Old Testament and New Testament conceptions must not be confounded together, as must always happen when Israel and Zion are brought directly into comparison with the Christian Dispensation and Church. In relation to the resulting abuse of this passage, Bake has already instanced the fact, that Scioppius, in a book written, as he said, not with ink, but with blood, employed this Psalm to excite the Roman Catholic Princes to the Thirty Years’ Religious War which rent Germany. Delitzsch also alludes to Thomas Münzer, who stirred up the Peasant War by the use of this very Psalm. There is no reference in the passage to the spiritual weapons of our warfare (2 Corinthians 10:4); nor to the Sword of the Spirit, which Israel, in the time of the Messiah, should draw, and with it take the noblest revenge upon their heathen conquerors (Hengst., after older expositors, also Stier). It is the spirit of the later Judaism that is displayed here (2Ma 15:27). And yet there is no reason for assigning the composition historically to the Maccabæan period (Hitzig), or to assume that the Psalm is a prophecy of the same (many older commentators). It is impossible to assign the exact period with certainty; we can only recognize a strong affinity with the preceding Psalm. It is very questionable whether there is a reference to the military procession to the Temple (Nehemiah 12:31 f.) at the dedication of the newly-restored walls (Hengstenberg). The “new song,” however, alludes to renewed experience of mercy, and that in the history of God’s people; for they are summoned as such to the solemn praise of the Lord. This, together with the whole tone of joyous and elevated feeling, decides against a time of oppression, when thoughts of vengeance and triumph would be excited (Hupfeld). But it is very suitable to the renovation of the people in the period of Ezra and Nehemiah. [So the English expositors, Alexander, Perowne, Wordsworth, and generally. Wordsworth, like Hengstenberg, takes the spiritual view of the sword, fetters, etc., and draws the following contrast between the second Psalm and this, the second from the end of the Psalter: “Doubtless this latter Psalm refers to the former, and is to be explained by it. The bands of God’s laws were broken asunder, and His cords were cast away by kings of the earth and rulers of the heathen, and the people at the Passover when Christ was crucified, and they are so treated by all anti-Christian imitators of such rebellion. But these bands and cords are voluntarily assumed by kings and nations of heathendom, influenced by the grace of the Holy Ghost, given to the world at Pentecost.” There is a great deal of beauty in this comparison, but the actual feelings of those who first sung the Psalm are probably better represented in the words of Perowne, which express the opinion more generally held: “The old days of the nation, and the old martial spirit are revived. God is their king (Psalms 149:2) and they are His soldiers, going forth to wage His battles, with His praises in their mouths and a two-edged sword in their hands. A spirit, which now seems sanguinary and revengeful, had, it is not too much to say, its proper function under the Old Testament, and was not only natural, but necessary, if that small nation was to maintain itself against the powerful tribes by which it was hemmed in on all sides.—”J. F. M.] Psalms 149:4-8. Psalms 149:4. Beautifies. The help which God vouchsafes to His oppressed people against their oppressors is not merely manifested to the world as deliverance and salvation generally, but serves also as an ornament and honor to that people themselves, so that, coming forth arrayed in it, they gain for it recognition and praise (Isaiah 55:5; Isaiah 60:7; Isaiah 60:9; Isaiah 60:13; Isaiah 61:3; Isaiah 61:11; Isaiah 62:7; comp. Psalms 103:5; Isaiah 49:18). [Translate: He beautifies the oppressed with salvation. J. F. M.] Their being joyful upon their beds (Psalms 149:5) is probably not a silent praise in their hearts during the night, comp. Psalms 4:5 (Hupfeld), as contrasted with the loud rejoicing just mentioned. It stands in contrast to the previous lamentation (Hosea 7:14) and weeping (Psalms 6:7) in longings after a better time, Isaiah 26:8 (Hengstenberg, Del.). Psalms 149:8 recalls the hopes expressed in Isaiah 45:14; Isaiah 49:7; Isaiah 49:23; Isaiah 60:3; comp. Jeremiah 52:24 f. Psalms 149:9.—The judgment written is regarded by most as that written in the “Book of the Law” (Chald., Kimchi); by some expositors in the sense of a command, with special reference to the judgment ordered to be executed upon the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 32:41 f.), which is then taken as a type of the divine judgments generally (Geier, Amyrald, Stier). A better view is that of those who view it as a divine declaration and promise of the vengeance which God will in His own time inflict upon the enemies of His people, with special reference to Deuteronomy 32:40 f. (Hengstenberg). But the best view is that which goes beyond the Pentateuch, and not merely adds Isaiah 45:14; Ezekiel 25:14 (Del.), and kindred passages, such as Ezek. 38:39; Zechariah 14 (Kimchi), but understands in the expression of Psa 149:9 a. the judgments registered in the Sacred Books generally, and thereby legitimized for Israel, with reference to prisoners of war and vanquished nations, including statements concerning actual events, Numbers 31:8;Deuteronomy 20:13; 1 Samuel 15:3; 1 Samuel 15:32-33; 1 Samuel 16:8 f.; 1 Kings 20:42 (Hitz.). These written rules of justice (Geier, et al.) are not at the same time contrasted to the promptings of carnal passion (Calvin). Some explain the words to refer to a decision firmly established in the divine counsel, which is here described as having been written down, the Psalmist being supposed to transfer to the counsels of God the custom followed in courts of justice of committing the decisions to writing, Isaiah 10:1 (Grotius, Clericus, Venema, Hupfeld). But this is unnatural. [It is the view preferred by Perowne, who refers also to Isaiah 65:6.—J. F. M.] The last clause does not mean that God is glory for the saints (Venema, Hupfeld) either as Author of their glory or as Object of their glorifying. Nor does it mean that this honor falls to the lot of all the saints (Sept., J. H. Michaelis), but that this, namely, the subjection of the world in fulfilment of the divine judgments, is to all saints the glory, i.e. the praise and honor of God. AND The Church is to restrain its praise of God as little as His wonderful deeds towards His Church come to an end.—God gives to His Church one victory after another, and therefore she must ever praise Him with new songs. God will preserve against all her foes the Church which He has founded; but she must yield herself up to His control. Starke: The old song of the law, which could only condemn, is abolished by Christ: with the gospel He has put a new song into thy mouth. Praise Him then with renewed lips and heart.—Those who still remain in the old birth cannot have the new song.—Earthly victors know how to boast of and delight in their victories; much greater reason have the children of God to do the same.—What more lofty or glorious could be said of a believer than that God takes pleasure in him? If thou wouldst exchange that for the whole world, what would it help thee? Thou must nevertheless die.—Rejoice, O believing soul, in thy glory with God. The earthly glory of an emperor, king or prince dies with him. But salvation and glory follow thee in heaven.—If the heart is full of the knowledge of God and Christ, the lips will overflow with it, and no idle words will be heard.—The true means of the conversion of unbelievers are not outward force, but the testimony of the divine word in spirit and in power.—Wage a good warfare against thyself above all; take vengeance and inflict punishment upon the heathenish desires of thy heart; strike down with the sword of the Spirit what contends against God and His honor.—Many a heart is dissatisfied in view of the glory of God’s children, doubting whether it has a share; but thou hearest here what may delight thee. All the saints shall be partakers of the same.—If Christ’s victory is ours, so are also His honor and glory; for we are His saints and the sharers of His mercy. If thou dost stand in the faith, thou art one of these. Diedrich: Let believers be joyful and confident in God; but let them expect all conflict in the world.—God’s people are the royal nation over all nations.—Taube: The new salvation gives a new heart, and a new heart gives a new song.—The time will come when all who once would not, from the heart, bow the knee before the Lord, must bow it with anguish. And the Lion will rend those who would not follow the Lamb. [Matt. Henry: We must sing a new song, newly composed on every special occasion; sing with new affections, which make the song new, though the words may have been used before, and keeping them from growing threadbare.—When God’s Israel is brought to a quiet settlement, let them enjoy that with thankfulness to God; much more may true believers, that are entered into God’s rest, and find repose in Jesus Christ, sing aloud for joy of that. Upon their sick beds, upon their death-beds, let them sing the praises of their God.— Bp. Horne: From heaven Christ shall return to beautify the meek with salvation and to place on the heads of His true disciples, the lowly, patient and peaceable ones, a bright and incorruptible crown. Therefore are the saints joyful in glory; they sing aloud in a state of perfect ease and security, resting from their labors, but not from their hallelujahs.—Scott: Christ shall clothe the meek with the robes of righteousness, adorn them with the graces of His Spirit, renew them to the beauty of holiness, and cause them to bear His image, reflect His glory, and rejoice in His felicity forever.—Barnes: It should lead us to shout Hallelujah! that we are permitted to be employed in any way, however humble, in carrying out the divine plans, or in accomplishing those great designs which He contemplates towards our race.—J. F. M. Psalms 150 1         Praise ye the Lord.Praise God in his sanctuary: Praise him in the firmament of his power. 2    Praise him for his mighty acts: Praise him according to his excellent greatness. 3    Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: Praise him with the psaltery and harp. 4    Praise him with the timbrel and dance: Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 5    Praise him upon the loud cymbals: Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. 6    Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.Praise ye the Lord. AND Contents and Composition.—The Psalm calls upon all the living to praise God in all places of His worship, with all the accompaniments of solemn pomp and joy, for the glory of His deeds and His nature. This closing Psalm is of liturgical character throughout. Nothing is known of the time when it was composed. We can hardly believe that it was added by the latest Collector of the Psalter to form the conclusion (Hitzig). For it sounds too fresh and unalloyed to justify the opinion, that the short doxology closing the First Book (Ps. 41:14), which appears enlarged at the end of the second (Ps. (Psalms 72:18-20), and is also found at the close of the Third (Ps. 89:53) and Fourth Books (Psalms 106:48), here assumes the form of an entire Psalm, taking the place of a final doxology. It is supposed by Delitzsch that the tenfold exhortation enclosed by two Hallelujahs, and in the same form of words, while in Psalms 150:6 another form is adopted, is connected with the number ten, as the number of conclusion, exclusion, completion, and exhausted possibility. This might be more easily established than the attempt to gain a connection with the number ten by making “praise” in Psalms 150:6 one of the instruments, and thus obtaining ten instruments (Amyrald, Hengst.). The thirteen-fold occurrence of the word δμμ has been artificially connected with the thirteen divine attributes (Kimchi), reckoned by the Synagogue after Exodus 34:6 f. It is uncertain, at all events, whether the form δַ ?μְ ?μζּ, which appears on the twelfth occasion, and the three-fold Jah, betray design, and have a symbolical meaning. In either case a division into three strophes cannot be grounded upon this (Hengstenberg). Psalms 150:1. Sanctuary.—Hitzig renders: in His holiness, i.e., unapproachableness. But, on account of the parallelism it is best to assume the local designation. This, however, is not to be understood attributively of God as the heavenly object of praise (Delitzsch), but of the earthly sanctuary, corresponding to the rakia stretched out by God’s power and giving testimony concerning Him (Psalms 68:35). Earthly and heavenly places of dwelling and worship are mentioned together, as in 1 Kings 8:39 f.; 43 f.; 49 f.; Psalms 11:4, to indicate universality. On the instruments, see Introd. § 11. [Psalms 150:4-6. Translate the last word of Psa 150:4 : pipe. Hengstenberg: “In Psalms 150:4 the pipe, as a wind instrument, forms a contrast to the stringed instruments. There is no trace elsewhere of the pipe being used in the public worship of God; the only instruments in use for blowing upon were trumpets. Beyond doubt the pipe, which did not belong otherwise to the temple service, was brought into requisition here, only because the feast had, at the same time, the character of a popular rejoicing. In like manner, also, timbrels and dances.” The last verse is generally supposed to refer to the living voice of man in contrast to the dead instruments. Alexander, who translates: Let all breath, etc., sees a further gradation: “The very ambiguity of all breath gives an extraordinary richness of meaning to the closing sentence. From the simple idea of wind-instruments mentioned in the context, it leads us by a beautiful transition to that of vocal, articulate, intelligent praise, uttered by the breath of living men, as distinguished from mere lifeless instruments. Then, lastly, by a natural association, we ascend to the idea expressed in the common version, everything that hath breath, not merely all that lives, but all that has a voice to praise God. There is nothing in the Psalter more majestic or more beautiful than this brief, but most significant finale, in which solemnity of tone predominates, without, however, in the least disturbing the exhilaration which the close of the Psalter seems intended to produce, as if in emblematical allusion to the triumph which awaits the Church and all its members, when, through much tribulation, they shall enter into rest.”—J. F. M.] AND Not only the Psalter, but the life of believers and the history of the Church, should conclude with Hallelujah, and celebrate their completeness in God with the praise of His glory.—All creatures should join their voices to the praise of God; but the members of His Church should lead the choir. Starke: With regard to God’s praise, true Christians make, as it were, a circle whose beginning, middle, and end are hallelujah.—Our churches should be houses of praise and thanksgiving, in which we assemble to praise God for His blessings.—Every believing soul is God’s sanctuary, wherein He should be praised.—Since, O soul, thou hast so many and great reasons to praise God, do not become weary of it! How many things are still forgotten! If thou dost consider well, thou hast scarcely begun to praise.—He who will review only his own life will discover so many of God’s deeds that he will not be able to thank Him sufficiently through eternity.—God displays His glory both in the deliverance of the pious and the punishment of the wicked; for both praise and honor are due.—Avoid the abuse of music, and check it as far as possible in others. Many have played and piped themselves to hell. Do not be ensnared by it.—The finest music before God is the harmonious praise and glorifying of God by the soul united in all its powers, with all the senses and all the members. As many instruments in a musical performance make a single harmony, so there is produced a spiritual harmony, when the various gifts of the Holy Spirit are directed by the members of Christ to one end.—If it grieves you that your praise is so weak, remember: let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, and there must be many weak ones in such a host. But they praise their God, and you are joining with them.—If you cannot succeed with strong cries and loud notes, only keep breathing forth to God the desires of your heart, and this will be acceptable to Him: He is still praised by you.—In heaven alone will God’s praise rightly sound forth; everything will there have a better sound. What we shall know better, we shall be able to praise better. In God’s praise, the end must be as the beginning, that is, it must continue without end. Thy praise, O God, shall also be forever in my mouth. Amen. Hallelujah! [Matt. Henry: It is a comfort to us, when we find we praise God so poorly, that it is done so well in heaven.—Be not afraid of saying too much in the praises of God, as we often do in praising great and good men. Deus non patitur hyperbolen.—The best music in God’s ears is devout and pious affections. Non musica chordula sed cor. The New Testament concert, instead of this, is with one mind and one mouth to glorify God.—Let every one that breathes forth to God in prayer, finding the benefit of that, breathe forth His praises too. Having breath, let the praises of God perfume our breath; let us be in this work as in our element; let it be to us as the air we breathe, and which we could not do without. Having our breath in our nostrils, let us consider that it is still going forth, and will shortly go and not return. Since, therefore, we must shortly breathe our last, while we have breath let us praise the Lord, and then we shall breathe our last with comfort; and when death runs us out of breath, we shall remove to a better state to breathe God’s praises in a freer, better air.—The nearer good Christians come to their end, the fuller they should be of the praises of God.—Hallelujah is the word there, Revelation 19:1; Revelation 19:3. Let us therefore echo to it now, as those that hope to join in it shortly.—Bp. Horne: If the worshippers of Baal join in a chorus to celebrate the praises of their idol, the servants of Jehovah should drown it by one that is stronger and more powerful, in praise of Him who made heaven and earth.—J. F. M.]