{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_42488/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_42488","id":"gutenberg_42488","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42488","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE\n\n\n\n EDITED BY THE REV.\n SIR W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n _Editor of \"The Expositor,\" etc._\n\n\n\n THE PSALMS\n\n BY\n\n ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n\n\n _VOLUME II._\n PSALMS XXXIX.-LXXXIX.\n\n\n\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO\n\n\n\n\n The Expositor's Bible.\n _crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 7s. 6d. Each Vol._\n\n\n First Series.\n\n Colossians.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D., D.Lit.\n St. Mark.\n By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n Genesis.\n By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n 1 Samuel.\n By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n 2 Samuel.\n By the same Author.\n Hebrews.\n By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.\n\n\n SECOND SERIES.\n\n Galatians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n The Pastoral Epistles.\n By the Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n Isaiah I.-XXXIX.\n By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. I.\n The Book of Revelation.\n By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.\n 1 Corinthians.\n By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n The Epistles of St. John.\n By the Most Rev. the Archbishop of Armagh.\n\n\n THIRD SERIES.\n\n Judges and Ruth.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n Jeremiah.\n By the Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.\n Isaiah XL.-LXVI.\n By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. II.\n St. Matthew.\n By the Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.\n Exodus.\n By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n St. Luke.\n By the Rev. H. BURTON, M.A.\n\n\n FOURTH SERIES.\n\n Ecclesiastes.\n By the Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.\n St. James and St. Jude.\n By the Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n Proverbs.\n By the Rev. R. F. HORTON, D.D.\n Leviticus.\n By the Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.\n The Gospel of St. John.\n By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I.\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n\n FIFTH SERIES.\n\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I.\n 1 and 2 Thessalonians.\n By Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n The Book of Job.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n Ephesians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n The Gospel of St. John.\n By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II.\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n\n SIXTH SERIES.\n\n 1 Kings.\n By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR, F.R.S.\n Philippians.\n By Principal RAINY, D.D.\n Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.\n By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n Joshua.\n By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II.\n The Epistles of St. Peter.\n By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.\n\n\n SEVENTH SERIES.\n\n 2 Kings.\n By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR, F.R.S.\n Romans.\n By the Right Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D.\n The Books of Chronicles.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, D.D., D.Lit.\n 2 Corinthians.\n By Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n Numbers.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. III.\n\n\n EIGHTH SERIES.\n\n Daniel.\n By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR, F.R.S.\n The Book of Jeremiah.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, D.D., D.Lit.\n Deuteronomy.\n By Prof. ANDREW HARPER, B.D.\n The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.\n By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n Ezekiel.\n By Prof. JOHN SKINNER, M.A.\n The Books of the Twelve Prophets.\n By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Two Vols.\n\n\n\n\n THE PSALMS\n\n\n\n BY\n ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n\n\n\n _VOLUME II._\n PSALMS XXXIX.-LXXXIX.\n\n\n\n\n\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO\n\n\n\n\n _Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n PAGE\n\n PSALM XXXIX. 1\n\n \" XL. 14\n\n \" XLI. 30\n\n \" XLII., XLIII. 41\n\n \" XLIV. 54\n\n \" XLV. 63\n\n \" XLVI. 79\n\n \" XLVII. 86\n\n \" XLVIII. 92\n\n \" XLIX. 100\n\n \" L. 115\n\n \" LI. 125\n\n \" LII. 142\n\n \" LIII. 148\n\n \" LIV. 151\n\n \" LV. 158\n\n \" LVI. 171\n\n \" LVII. 180\n\n \" LVIII. 189\n\n \" LIX. 198\n\n \" LX. 209\n\n \" LXI. 216\n\n \" LXII. 223\n\n \" LXIII. 232\n\n \" LXIV. 241\n\n \" LXV. 246\n\n \" LXVI. 255\n\n \" LXVII. 264\n\n \" LXVIII. 269\n\n \" LXIX. 293\n\n \" LXX. 306\n\n \" LXXI. 308\n\n \" LXXII. 315\n\n \" LXXIII. 333\n\n \" LXXIV. 348\n\n \" LXXV. 359\n\n \" LXXVI. 366\n\n \" LXXVII. 371\n\n \" LXXVIII. 382\n\n \" LXXIX. 396\n\n \" LXXX. 404\n\n \" LXXXI. 414\n\n \" LXXXII. 425\n\n \" LXXXIII. 431\n\n \" LXXXIV. 440\n\n \" LXXXV. 451\n\n \" LXXXVI. 461\n\n \" LXXXVII. 470\n\n \" LXXXVIII. 477\n\n \" LXXXIX. 487\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXIX.\n\n 1 I said, I will guard my ways, that I sin not with my tongue;\n I will put a muzzle on my mouth\n So long as the wicked is before me.\n 2 I made myself dumb in still submission,\n I kept silence joylessly,\n And my sorrow was stirred.\n 3 My heart was hot within me;\n While I mused the fire blazed up;\n I spake with my tongue.\n\n 4 Make me, Jehovah, to know my end,\n And the measure of my days, what it is;\n Let me know how fleeting I am.\n 5 Behold, as handbreadths hast Thou made my days,\n And my lifetime is as nothing before Thee;\n Surely nothing but a breath is every man, stand he ever so firm.\n Selah.\n 6 Surely every man goes about like a shadow;\n Surely for a breath do they make [such a stir];\n He heaps up [goods] and knows not who will gather them.\n\n 7 And now what wait I for, Lord?\n My hope--to Thee it goes.\n 8 From all my transgressions deliver me;\n Make me not a reproach of the fool.\n 9 I make myself dumb, I open not my mouth,\n For Thou hast done [it].\n\n 10 Remove Thy stroke from me;\n I am wasted by the assault of Thy hand.\n 11 When with rebukes for iniquity Thou correctest a man,\n Like a moth Thou frayest away his gracefulness;\n Surely every man is [but] a breath. Selah.\n\n 12 Hear my prayer, Jehovah, and give ear to my cry;\n At my weeping be not silent:\n For I am a guest with Thee,\n And a sojourner like all my fathers.\n 13 Look away from me, that I may brighten up,\n Before I go hence and be no more.\n\n\nProtracted suffering, recognised as chastisement for sin, had wasted\nthe psalmist's strength. It had been borne for a while in silence,\nbut the rush of emotion had burst the floodgates. The psalm does not\nrepeat the words which forced themselves from the hot heart, but\npreserves for us the calmer flow which followed. It falls into four\nparts, the first three of which contain three verses each, and the\nfourth is expanded into four, divided into two couples.\n\nIn the first part (vv. 1-3) the frustrated resolve of silence is\nrecorded. Its motive was fear of sinning in speech \"while the wicked\nis before me.\" That phrase is often explained as meaning that the\nsight of the prosperity of the godless in contrast with his own\nsorrows tempted the singer to break out into arraigning God's\nprovidence, and that he schooled himself to look at their insolent\nease unmurmuringly. But the psalm has no other references to other\nmen's flourishing condition; and it is more in accordance with its\ntone to suppose that his own pains, and not their pleasures, prompted\nto the withheld words. The presence of \"the wicked\" imposed on his\ndevout heart silence as a duty. We do not complain of a friend's\nconduct in the hearing of his enemies. God's servants have to watch\ntheir speech about Him when godless ears are listening, lest hasty\nwords should give occasion for malicious glee or blasphemy. So, for\nGod's honour, the psalmist put restraint on himself. The word rendered\n\"bridle\" in ver. 2 by the A.V. and R.V. is better taken as muzzle,\nfor a muzzle closes the lips, and a bridle does not. The resolution\nthus energetically expressed was vigorously carried out: \"I made\nmyself dumb in still submission; I kept silence.\" And what came of\nit? \"My sorrow was stirred.\" Grief suppressed is increased, as all\nthe world knows. The closing words of ver. 2 _b_ (lit. _apart from\ngood_) are obscure, and very variously understood, some regarding\nthem as an elliptical form of \"from good and bad,\" and expressing\ncompleteness of silence; others taking \"the good\" to mean \"the law, or\nthe praise of God, or good-fortune, or such words as would serve to\nprotect the singer from slanders.\" \"But the preposition here employed,\nwhen it follows a verb meaning silence, does not introduce that\nconcerning which silence is kept, but a negative result of silence\"\n(Hupfeld). The meaning, then, is best given by some such paraphrase\nas \"joylessly\" or \"and I had no comfort\" (R.V.). The hidden sorrow\ngnawed beneath the cloak like a fire in a hollow tree; it burned\nfiercely unseen, and ate its way at last into sight. Locked lips\nmake hearts hotter. Repression of utterance only feeds the fire, and\nsooner or later the \"muzzle\" is torn off, and pent-up feeling breaks\ninto speech, often the wilder for the violence done to nature by the\nattempt to deny it its way. The psalmist's motive was right, and in a\nmeasure his silence was so; but his resolve did not at first go deep\nenough. It is the heart, not the mouth, that has to be silenced. To\nbuild a dam across a torrent without diminishing the sources that\nsupply its waters only increases weight and pressure, and ensures a\nmuddy flood when it bursts.\n\nDoes the psalm proceed to recount what its author said when he broke\nsilence? It may appear so at first sight. On the other hand, the calm\nprayer which follows, beginning with ver. 4, is not of the character\nof the wild and whirling words which were suppressed for fear of\nsinning, nor does the fierce fire of which the psalm has been speaking\nflame in it. It seems, therefore, more probable that those first\nutterances, in which the overcharged heart relieved itself, and which\nwere tinged with complaint and impatience, are not preserved, and did\nnot deserve to be, and that the pathetic, meditative petitions of\nthe rest of the psalm succeeded them, as after the first rush of the\nrestrained torrent comes a stiller flow. Such a prayer might well have\nbeen offered \"while the wicked is before me,\" and might have been laid\nto heart by them. Its thoughts are as a cool hand laid on the singer's\nhot heart. They damp the fire burning in him. There is no surer remedy\nfor inordinate sensibility to outward sorrows than fixed convictions\nof life's brevity and illusoriness; and these are the two thoughts\nwhich the prayer casts into sweet, sad music.\n\nIt deals with commonplaces of thought, which poets and moralists\nhave been singing and preaching since the world began, in different\ntones and with discordant applications, sometimes with fierce revolt\nagainst the inevitable, sometimes with paralysing consciousness of\nit, sometimes using these truths as arguments for base pleasures and\naims, sometimes toying with them as occasions for cheap sentiment and\nartificial pathos, sometimes urging them as motives for strenuous\ntoil. But of all the voices which have ever sung or prophesied of\nlife's short span and shadowy activities, none is nobler, saner,\nhealthier, and calmer than this psalmist's. The stately words in\nwhich he proclaimed the transiency of all earthly things are not\ntransient. They are \"nothing but a breath,\" but they have outlasted\nmuch that seemed solid, and their music will sound as long as man\nis on his march through time. Our \"days\" have a \"measure\"; they\nare a limited period, and the Measurer is God. But this fleeting\ncreature man has an obstinate fancy of his permanence, which is not\nall bad indeed--since without it there would be little continuity of\npurpose or concentration of effort--but may easily run to extremes\nand hide the fact that there is an end. Therefore the prayer for\nDivine illumination is needed, that we may not be ignorant of that\nwhich we know well enough, if we would bethink ourselves. The solemn\nconvictions of ver. 5 are won by the petitions of ver. 4. He who asks\nGod to make him know his end has already gone far towards knowing\nit. If he seeks to estimate the \"measure\" of his days, he will soon\ncome to the clear conviction that it is only the narrow space that\nmay be covered by one or two breadths of a hand. So do noisy years\nshrink when heaven's chronology is applied to them. A lifetime looks\nlong, but set against God's eternal years, it shrivels to an all but\nimperceptible point, having position, but not magnitude.\n\nThe thought of brevity naturally draws after it that of illusoriness.\nJust because life is so frail does it assume the appearance of being\nfutile. Both ideas are blended in the metaphors of \"a breath\" and \"a\nshadow.\" There is a solemn earnestness in the threefold \"surely,\"\nconfirming each clause of the seer's insight into earth's hollowness.\nHow emphatically he puts it in the almost pleonastic language,\n\"Surely nothing but a breath is every man, stand he ever so firm.\"\nThe truth proclaimed is undeniably certain. It covers the whole\nground of earthly life, and it includes the most prosperous and\nfirmly established. \"A breath\" is the very emblem of transiency and\nof unsubstantiality. Every solid body can be melted and made gaseous\nvapour, if heat enough is applied. They who habitually bring human\nlife \"before Thee\" dissolve into vapour the solid-seeming illusions\nwhich cheat others, and save their own lives from being but a breath\nby clearly recognising that they are.\n\nThe Selah at the end of ver. 4 does not here seem to mark a logical\npause in thought nor to coincide with the strophe division, but\nemphasises by some long-drawn, sad notes the teaching of the words.\nThe thought runs on unbroken, and ver. 6 is closely linked to ver.\n5 by the repeated \"surely\" and \"breath\" as well as in subject. The\nfigure changes from breath to \"shadow,\" literally \"image,\" meaning not\na sculptured likeness, but an _eidolon_, or unsubstantial apparition.\n\n \"The glories of our birth and state\n Are shadows, not substantial things\";\n\nand all the movements of men coming and going in the world are but\nlike a dance of shadows. As they are a breath, so are their aims.\nAll their hubbub and activity is but like the bustle of ants on\ntheir hill--immense energy and toil, and nothing coming of it all.\nIf any doubt remained as to the correctness of this judgment of the\naimlessness of man's toil, one fact would confirm the psalmist's\nsentence, viz., that the most successful man labours to amass, and has\nto leave his piles for another whom he does not know, to gather into\nhis storehouses and to scatter by his prodigality. There may be an\nallusion in the words to harvesting work. The sheaves are piled up,\nbut in whose barn are they to be housed? Surely, if the grower and\nreaper is not the ultimate owner, his toil has been for a breath.\n\nAll this is no fantastic pessimism. Still less is it an account of\nwhat life must be. If any man's is nothing but toiling for a breath,\nand if he himself is nothing but a breath, it is his own fault. They\nwho are joined to God have \"in their embers something that doth\nlive\"; and if they labour for Him, they do _not_ labour for vanity,\nnor do they leave their possessions when they die. The psalmist has\nno reference to a future life, but the immediately following strophe\nshows that, though he knew that his days were few, he knew, too,\nthat, if his hope were set on God he was freed from the curse of\nillusoriness and grasped no shadow, but the Living Substance, who\nwould make his life blessedly real and pour into it substantial good.\n\nThe effect of such convictions of life's brevity and emptiness should\nbe to throw the heart back on God. In the third part of the psalm\n(vv. 7-9) a higher strain sounds. The singer turns from his dreary\nthoughts, which might so easily become bitter ones, to lay hold on\nGod. What should earth's vanity teach but God's sufficiency? It does\nnot need the light of a future life to be flashed upon this mean,\nswiftly vanishing present in order to see it \"apparelled in celestial\nlight.\" Without that transforming conception, it is still possible to\nmake it great and real by bringing it into conscious connection with\nGod; and if hope and effort are set on Him amid all the smallnesses\nand perishablenesses of the outer world, hope will not chase a shadow,\nnor effort toil for very vanity. The psalmist sought to calm his hot\nheart by the contemplation of his end, but that is a poor remedy for\nperturbation and grief unless it leads to actual contact with the one\nenduring Substance. It did so with him, and therefore \"grief grew\ncalm,\" just because \"hope was\" not \"dead.\" To preach the vanity of all\nearthly things to heavy hearts is but pouring vinegar on nitre, unless\nit is accompanied with the great antidote to all sad and depreciating\nviews of life: the thought that in it men may reach their hands beyond\nthe time-film that enmeshes them and grasp the unchanging God. This\npsalm has no reference to life beyond the grave; but it finds in\npresent communion by waiting and hope, emancipation from the curse\nof fleeting triviality which haunts every life separated from Him,\nlike that which the Christian hope of immortality gives. God is the\nsignificant figure which gives value to the row of ciphers of which\nevery life is without Him made up. Blessed are they who are driven by\nearth's vanity and drawn by God's fulness of love and power to fling\nthemselves into His arms and nestle there! The strong recoil of the\ndevout soul from a world which it has profoundly felt to be shadowy,\nand its great venture of faith, which is not a venture after all,\nwere never more nobly or simply expressed than in that quiet \"And\nnow\"--things being so--\"what wait I for? My hope\"--in contrast with\nthe false directions which other men's takes--\"to Thee it turns.\"\n\nThe burden is still on the psalmist's shoulders. His sufferings are not\nended, though his trust has taken the poison out of them. Therefore\nhis renewed grasp of God leads at once to prayer for deliverance from\nhis \"transgressions,\" in which cry may be included both sins and their\nchastisement. \"The fool\" is the name of a class, not of an individual,\nand, as always in Scripture, denotes moral and religious obliquity, not\nintellectual feebleness. The expression is substantially equivalent\nto \"the wicked\" of ver. 1, and a similar motive to that which there\ninduced the psalmist to be silent is here urged as a plea with God for\nthe sufferer's deliverance. Taunts launched at a good man suffering will\nglance off him and appear to reach his God.\n\nVer. 9 pleads as a reason for God's deliverance the psalmist's silence\nunder what he recognised as God's chastisement. The question arises\nwhether this is the same silence as is referred to in vv. 1, 2, and\nmany authorities take that view. But that silence was broken by a rush\nof words from a hot heart, and, if the account of the connection in the\npsalm given above is correct, by a subsequent more placid meditation and\nprayer. It would be irrelevant to recur to it here, especially as a plea\nwith God. But there are two kinds of silence under His chastisements:\none which may have for its motive regard to His honour, but is none\nthe less tinged with rebellious thoughts, and brings no good to the\nsufferer, and another which is silence of heart and will, not of lips\nonly, and soothes sorrow which the other only aggravated, and puts out\nthe fire which the other fanned. Submission to God's hand discerned\nbehind all visible causes is the blessed silence. \"To lie still, let Him\nstrike home, and bless the rod,\" is best. And when that is attained, the\nuses of chastisement are accomplished; and we may venture to ask God to\nburn the rod. The desire to be freed from its blow is not inconsistent\nwith such submission. This prayer does not break the silence, though\nit may seem to do so, for this is the privilege of hearts that love\nGod: that they can breathe desires to Him without His holding them\nunsubmissive to His supreme will.\n\nThe last part (vv. 10-13) is somewhat abnormally long, and falls into\ntwo parts separated by \"Selah,\" which musical note does not here\ncoincide with the greater divisions. The two pairs of verses are\nboth petitions for removal of sickness, either real or figurative.\nTheir pleading persistence presents substantially the same prayer\nand supports it by the same considerations of man's transiency.\nThe Pattern of perfect resignation thrice \"prayed, saying the\nsame words\"; and His suffering followers may do the same, and yet\nneither sin by impatience, nor weary the Judge by their continual\ncoming. The psalmist sees in his pains God's \"stroke,\" and pleads\nthe effects already produced on him as a reason for cessation. He is\nalready \"wasted by the assault of God's hand.\" One more buffet, and\nhe feels that he must die. It is bold for a sufferer to say to God,\n\"Hold! enough!\" but all depends on the tone in which it is said. It\nmay be presumption, or it may be a child's free speech, not in the\nleast trenching on a Father's authority. The sufferer underrates his\ncapacity of endurance, and often thinks, \"I can bear no straw more\";\nbut yet he has to bear it. Yet the psalmist's cry rests upon a deep\ntruth: that God cannot mean to crush; therefore he goes on to a deeper\ninsight into the meaning of that \"stroke.\" It is not the attack of an\nenemy, but the \"correction\" of a friend.\n\nIf men regarded sorrows and sicknesses as rebukes for iniquity, they\nwould better understand why sinful life, separated from God, is so\nfleeting. The characteristic ground tone of the Old Testament echoes\nhere, according to which \"the wages of sin is death.\" The commonplace\nof man's frailty receives a still more tragic colouring when thus\nregarded as a consequence of his sin. The psalmist has learned it in\nrelation to his own sufferings, and, because he sees it so clearly,\nhe pleads that these may cease. He looks on his own wasted form; and\nGod's hand seems to him to have taken away all that made it or life\ndesirable and fair, as a moth would gnaw a garment. What a daring\nfigure to compare the mightiest with the feeblest, the Eternal with\nthe very type of evanescence!\n\nThe second subdivision of this part (vv. 12, 13) reiterates the\nformer with some difference of tone. There is a beautiful climax of\nearnestness in the psalmist's appeal to God. His prayer swells into\ncrying, and that again melts into tears, which go straight to the\ngreat Father's heart. Weeping eyes are never turned to heaven in vain;\nthe gates of mercy open wide when the hot drops touch them. But his\nfervour of desire is not this suppliant's chief argument with God. His\nmeditation has won for him deeper insight into that transiency which\nat first he had only laid like ice on his heart, to cool its feverish\nheat. He sees now more clearly, by reason of his effort to turn away\nhis hope from earth and fix it on God, that his brief life has an\naspect in which its brevity is not only calming, but exalting, and\ngives him a claim on God, whose guest he is while here, and with whom\nhe has guest-rights, whether his stay is longer or shorter. \"The land\nis mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me\" (Lev. xxv. 23).\nThat which was true in a special way of Israel's tenure of the soil is\ntrue for the individual, and true for ever. All men are God's guests;\nand if we betake ourselves behind the curtains of His tent, we have\nrights of shelter and sustenance. All the bitterness of the thought\nof the brevity of life is sucked out of it by such a confidence. If\na man dwells with God, his Host will care for the needs, and not be\nindifferent to the tears, of His guest. The long generations which\nhave come and gone like shadows are not a melancholy procession out\nof nothing through vanity into nothing again, nor \"disquieted in\nvain,\" if they are conceived as each in turn lodging for a little\nwhile in that same ancestral home which the present generation\ninhabits. It has seen many sons succeeding their fathers as its\ntenants, but its stately strength grows not old, and its gates are\nopen to-day as they have been in all generations.\n\nThe closing prayer in ver. 13 has a strange sound. \"Look away from\nme\" is surely a singular petition, and the effect of God's averting\nHis face is not less singular. The psalmist thinks that it will be\nhis regaining cheerfulness and brightness, for he uses a word which\nmeans to clear up or to brighten, as the sky becomes blue again after\nstorm. The light of God's face makes men's faces bright. \"They cried\nunto God, and were lightened,\" not because He looked away from them,\nbut because He regarded them. But the intended paradox gives the more\nemphatic expression to the thought that the psalmist's pains came from\nGod's angry look, and it is that which he asks may be turned from\nhim. That mere negative withdrawal, however, would have no cheering\npower, and is not conceivable as unaccompanied by the turning to the\nsuppliant of God's loving regard. The devout psalmist had no notion of\na neutral God, nor could he ever be contented with simple cessation of\nthe tokens of Divine displeasure. The ever-outflowing Divine activity\nmust reach every man. It may come in one or other of the two forms of\nfavour or of displeasure, but come it will; and each man can determine\nwhich side of that pillar of fire and cloud is turned to him. On one\nside is the red glare of anger, on the other the white lustre of love.\nIf the one is turned from, the other is turned to us.\n\nNot less remarkable is the prospect of going away into non-being which\nthe last words of the psalm present as a piteous reason for a little\ngleam of brightness being vouchsafed in this span-long life. There is\nno vision here of life beyond the grave; but, though there is not,\nthe singer \"throws himself into the arms of God.\" He does not seek\nto solve the problem of life by bringing the future in to redress\nthe balance of good and evil. To him the solution lies in present\ncommunion with a present God, in whose house he is a guest now, and\nwhose face will make his life bright, however short it may be.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XL.\n\n 1 Waiting, I waited for Jehovah,\n And He bent to me and heard my [loud] cry.\n 2 And lifted me from the pit of destruction,\n From the mire of the bog,\n And set my feet on a rock--\n Established my steps,\n 3 And put in my mouth a new song,\n Praise unto our God.\n Many shall see and fear,\n And trust in Jehovah.\n\n 4 Blessed is the man who has made Jehovah his trust,\n And has not turned [away] to the proud and deserters to a lie.\n 5 In multitudes hast Thou wrought, Jehovah, my God;\n Thy wonders and Thy purposes towards us--\n There is none to be set beside Thee--\n Should I declare them and speak them,\n They surpass numbering.\n\n 6 Sacrifice and meal-offering Thou didst not delight in--\n Ears hast Thou pierced for me--\n Burnt-offering and sin-offering Thou didst not demand.\n 7 Then I said, Behold, I am come--\n In the roll of the book it is prescribed to me--\n 8 To do Thy pleasure, my God, I delight,\n And Thy law is within my inmost parts.\n\n 9 I proclaimed glad tidings of Thy righteousness in the great\n congregation;\n Behold, my lips I did not restrain,\n Jehovah, Thou knowest.\n 10 Thy righteousness did I not hide within my heart;\n Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation did I speak;\n I concealed not Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth from the great\n congregation.\n 11 Thou, Jehovah, wilt not restrain Thy compassions from me;\n Thy loving-kindness and Thy troth will continually preserve me.\n\n 12 For evils beyond numbering have compassed me;\n My iniquities have overtaken me, and I am not able to see:\n They surpass the hairs of my head,\n And my heart has forsaken me.\n 13 Be pleased, Jehovah, to deliver me;\n Jehovah, hasten to my help.\n 14 Shamed and put to the blush together be the seekers after my soul\n to carry it away!\n Turned back and dishonoured be they who delight in my calamity!\n 15 Paralysed by reason of their shame\n Be they who say to me, Oho! Oho!\n 16 Joyful and glad in Thee be all who seek Thee!\n Jehovah be magnified, may they ever say who love Thy salvation!\n 17 But as for me, I am afflicted and needy;\n The Lord purposes [good] for me:\n My Help and my Deliverer art Thou;\n My God, delay not.\n\n\nThe closing verses of this psalm reappear with slight changes as an\nindependent whole in Psalm lxx. The question arises whether that is a\nfragment or this a conglomerate. Modern opinion inclines to the latter\nalternative, and points in support to the obvious change of tone in the\nsecond part. But that change does not coincide with the supposed line\nof junction, since Psalm lxx. begins with our ver. 13, and the change\nbegins with ver. 12. Cheyne and others are therefore obliged to suppose\nthat ver. 12 is the work of a third poet or compiler, who effected a\njunction thereby. The cumbrousness of the hypothesis of fusion is plain,\nand its necessity is not apparent, for it is resorted to in order to\nexplain how a psalm which keeps so lofty a level of confidence at first\nshould drop to such keen consciousness of innumerable evils and such\nfaint-heartedness. But surely such resurrection of apparently dead\nfears is not uncommon in devout, sensitive souls. They live beneath\nApril skies, not unbroken blue. However many the wonderful works which\nGod has done and however full of thankfulness the singer's heart, his\ndeliverance is not complete. The contrast in the two parts of the\npsalm is true to facts and to the varying aspects of feeling and of\nfaith. Though the latter half gives greater prominence to encompassing\nevils, they appear but for a moment; and the prayer for deliverance\nwhich they force from the psalmist is as triumphant in faith as were\nthe thanksgivings of the former part. In both the ground tone is that\nof victorious grasp of God's help, which in the one is regarded in\nits mighty past acts, and in the other is implored and trusted in for\npresent and future needs. The change of tone is not such as to demand\nthe hypothesis of fusion. The unity is further supported by verbal links\nbetween the parts: _e.g._, the innumerable evils of ver. 12 pathetically\ncorrespond to the innumerable mercies of ver. 5, and the same word for\n\"surpass\" occurs in both verses; \"be pleased\" in ver. 13 echoes \"Thy\npleasure\" (will, A.V.) in ver. 8; \"cares\" or _thinks_ (A.V.) in ver. 17\nis the verb from which the noun rendered _purposes_ (thoughts, A.V.) in\nver. 5 is derived.\n\nThe attribution of the psalm to David rests solely on the\nsuperscription. The contents have no discernible points of connection\nwith known circumstances in his or any other life. Jeremiah has been\nthought of as the author, on the strength of giving a prosaic literal\nmeaning to the obviously poetical phrase \"the pit of destruction\"\n(ver. 2). If it is to be taken literally, what is to be made of the\n\"rock\" in the next clause? Baethgen and others see the return from\nBabylon in the glowing metaphors of ver. 2, and, in accordance with\ntheir conceptions of the evolution of spiritual religion, take the\nsubordination of sacrifice to obedience as a clear token of late date.\nWe may, however, recall 1 Sam. xv. 22, and venture to doubt whether\nthe alleged process of spiritualising has been so clearly established,\nand its stages dated, as to afford a criterion of the age of a psalm.\n\nIn the first part, the current of thought starts from thankfulness\nfor individual deliverances (vv. 1-3); widens into contemplation of\nthe blessedness of trust and the riches of Divine mercies (vv. 4,\n5); moved by these and taught what is acceptable to God, it rises\nto self-consecration as a living sacrifice (vv. 6-8); and, finally,\npleads for experience of God's grace in all its forms on the ground of\npast faithful stewardship in celebrating these (vv. 9-11). The second\npart is one long-drawn cry for help, which admits of no such analysis,\nthough its notes are various.\n\nThe first outpouring of the song is one long sentence, of which the\nclauses follow one another like sunlit ripples, and tell the whole\nprocess of the psalmist's deliverance. It began with patient waiting;\nit ended with a new song. The voice first raised in a cry, shrill\nand yet submissive enough to be heard above, is at last tuned into\nnew forms of uttering the old praise. The two clauses of ver. 1 (\"I\"\nand \"He\") set over against each other, as separated by the distance\nbetween heaven and earth, the psalmist and his God. He does not begin\nwith his troubles, but with his faith. \"Waiting, he waited\" for\nJehovah; and wherever there is that attitude of tense and continuous\nbut submissive expectance, God's attitude will be that of bending to\nmeet it. The meek, upturned eye has power to draw His towards itself.\nThat is an axiom of the devout life confirmed by all experience, even\nif the tokens of deliverance delay their coming. Such expectance,\nhowever patient, is not inconsistent with loud crying, but rather\nfinds voice in it. Silent patience and impatient prayer, in too great\na hurry to let God take His own time, are equally imperfect. But the\ncry, \"Haste to my help\" (ver. 13), and the final petition, \"My God,\ndelay not,\" are consistent with true waiting.\n\nThe suppliant and God have come closer together in ver. 2, which\nshould not be regarded as beginning a new sentence. As in Psalm\nxviii., prayer brings God down to help. His hand reaches to the man\nprisoned in a pit or struggling in a swamp; he is dragged out, set on\na rock, and feels firm ground beneath his feet. Obviously the whole\nrepresentation is purely figurative, and it is hopelessly flat and\nprosaic to refer it to Jeremiah's experience. The \"many waters\" of\nPsalm xviii. are a parallel metaphor. The dangers that threatened the\npsalmist are described as \"a pit of destruction,\" as if they were a\ndungeon into which whosoever was thrown would come out no more, or in\nwhich, like a wild beast, he has been trapped. They are also likened\nto a bog or quagmire, in which struggles only sink a man deeper.\nBut the edge of the bog touches rock, and there is firm footing and\nunhindered walking there, if only some great lifting power can drag\nthe sinking man out. God's hand can, and does, because the lips,\nalmost choked with mire, could yet cry. The psalmist's extremity\nof danger was probably much more desperate than is usual in such\nconditions as ours, so that his cries seem too piercing for us to make\nour own; but the terrors and conflicts of humanity are nearly constant\nquantities, though the occasions calling them forth are widely\ndifferent. If we look deeper into life than its surface, we shall\nlearn that it is not violent \"spiritualising\" to make these utterances\nthe expression of redeeming grace, since in truth there is but one or\nother of these two possibilities open for us. Either we flounder in a\nbottomless bog, or we have our feet on the Rock.\n\nGod's deliverance gives occasion for fresh praise. The psalmist has to\nadd his voice to the great chorus, and this sense of being but one of a\nmultitude, who have been blessed alike and therefore should bless alike,\noccasions the significant interchange in ver. 3 of \"my\" and \"our,\" which\nneeds no theory of the speaker being the nation to explain it. It is\never a joy to the heart swelling with the sense of God's mercies to\nbe aware of the many who share the mercies and gratitude. The cry for\ndeliverance is a solo; the song of praise is choral. The psalmist did\nnot need to be bidden to praise; a new song welled from his lips as by\ninspiration. Silence was more impossible to his glad heart than even to\nhis sorrow. To shriek for help from the bottom of the pit and to be dumb\nwhen lifted to the surface is a churl's part.\n\nThough the song was new in this singer's mouth, as befitted a\nrecipient of deliverances fresh from heaven, the theme was old;\nbut each new voice individualises the commonplaces of religious\nexperience, and repeats them as fresh. And the result of one man's\nconvinced and jubilant voice, giving novelty to old truths because he\nhas verified them in new experiences, will be that \"many shall see,\"\nas though they behold the deliverance of which they hear, \"and shall\nfear\" Jehovah and trust themselves to Him. It was not the psalmist's\ndeliverance, but his song, that was to be the agent in this extension\nof the fear of Jehovah. All great poets have felt that their words\nwould win audience and live. Thus, even apart from consciousness of\ninspiration, this lofty anticipation of the effect of his words is\nintelligible, without supposing that their meaning is that the signal\ndeliverance of the nation from captivity would spread among heathens\nand draw them to Israel's faith.\n\nThe transition from purely personal experience to more general thoughts\nis completed in vv. 4, 5. Just as the psalmist began with telling of\nhis own patient expectance and thence passed on to speak of God's\nhelp, so in these two verses he sets forth the same sequence in terms\nstudiously cast into the most comprehensive form. Happy indeed are\nthey who can translate their own experience into these two truths for\nall men: that trust is blessedness and that God's mercies are one long\nsequence, made up of numberless constituent parts. To have these for\none's inmost convictions and to ring them out so clearly and melodiously\nthat many shall be drawn to listen, and then to verify them by their own\n\"seeing,\" is one reward of patient waiting for Jehovah. That trust must\nbe maintained by resolute resistance to temptations to its opposite.\nHence the negative aspect of trust is made prominent in ver. 4 _b_, in\nwhich the verb should be rendered \"turns not\" instead of \"respecteth\nnot,\" as in the A.V. and R.V. The same motion, looked at from opposite\nsides, may be described in turning to and turning from. Forsaking other\nconfidences is part of the process of making God one's trust. But it is\nsignificant that the antithesis is not completely carried out, for those\nto whom the trustful heart does not turn are not here, as might have\nbeen expected, rival objects of trust, but those who put their own trust\nin false refuges. \"The proud\" are the class of arrogantly self-reliant\npeople who feel no need of anything but their own strength to lean on.\n\"Deserters to a lie\" are those who fall away from Jehovah to put their\ntrust in any creature, since all refuges but Himself will fail. Idols\nmay be included in this thought of _a lie_, but it is unduly limited if\nconfined to them. Much rather it takes in all false grounds of security.\nThe antithesis fails in accuracy, for the sake of putting emphasis on\nthe prevalence of such mistaken trust, which makes it so much the harder\nto keep aloof from the multitudes and stand alone in reliance on Jehovah.\n\nVer. 5 corresponds with ver. 4, in that it sets forth in similar\ngenerality the great deeds with which God is wont to answer man's\ntrust. But the personality of the poet breaks very beautifully through\nthe impersonal utterances at two points: once when he names Jehovah as\n\"my God,\" thus claiming his separate share in the general mercies and\nhis special bond of connection with the Lover of all; and once when he\nspeaks of his own praises, thus recognising the obligation of individual\ngratitude for general blessings. Each particle of finely comminuted\nmoisture in the rainbow has to flash back the broad sunbeam at its\nown angle. God's \"wonders and designs\" are \"realised Divine thoughts\nand Divine thoughts which are gradually being realised\" (Delitzsch).\nThese are wrought and being wrought in multitudes innumerable; and, as\nthe psalmist sees the bright, unbroken beams pouring forth from their\ninexhaustible source, he breaks into an exclamation of adoring wonder\nat the incomparable greatness of the ever-giving God. \"There is none\nto set beside Thee\" is far loftier and more accordant with the tone\nof the verse than the comparatively flat and incongruous remark that\nGod's mercies cannot be told to Him (A.V. and R.V.). A precisely similar\nexclamation occurs in Psalm lxxi. 19, in which God's incomparable\ngreatness is deduced from the great things which He has done. Happy\nthe singer who has an inexhaustible theme! He is not silenced by the\nconsciousness of the inadequacy of his songs, but rather inspired to the\nnever-ending, ever-beginning, joyful task of uttering some new fragment\nof that transcendent perfection. Innumerable wonders wrought should be\nmet by ever-new songs. If they cannot be counted, the more reason for\nopen-eyed observance of them as they come, and for a stream of praise as\nunbroken as is their bright continuance.\n\nIf God's mercies thus baffle enumeration and beggar praise, the\nquestion naturally rises, \"What shall I render to the Lord for all\nHis benefits?\" Therefore the next turn of thought shows the psalmist\nas reaching the lofty spiritual conception that heartfelt delight in\nGod's will is the true response to God's wonders of love. He soars\nfar above external rites as well as servile obedience to unloved\nauthority, and proclaims the eternal and ultimate truth that what\nGod delights in is man's delight in His will. The great words which\nrang the knell of Saul's kingship may well have sounded in his\nsuccessor's spirit. Whether they are the source of the language of\nour psalm or not, they are remarkably similar. \"To obey is better\nthan sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams\" (1 Sam. xv.\n23), teaches precisely the same lesson as vv. 6-8 of this psalm.\nThe strong negation in ver. 6 does not deny the Divine institution\nof the sacrificial law, but affirms that something much deeper than\nexternal sacrifices is the real object of God's desire. The negation\nis made emphatic by enumerating the chief kinds of sacrifice. Whether\nthey are bloody or bloodless, whether meant to express consecration\nor to effect reconciliation, they are none of them the true\nsacrifices of God. In ver. 6 the psalmist is entirely occupied with\nGod's declarations of His requirements; and he presents these in a\nremarkable fashion, intercalating the clause, \"Ears hast Thou pierced\nfor me,\" between the two parallel clauses in regard to sacrifice. Why\nshould the connection be thus broken? The fact that God has endowed\nthe psalmist with capacity to apprehend the Divine speech reveals\nGod's desire concerning him. Just because he has ears to hear, it\nis clear that God wishes him to hear, and therefore that outward\nacts of worship cannot be the acknowledgment of mercies in which God\ndelights. The central clause of the verse is embedded in the others,\nbecause it deals with a Divine act which, pondered, will be seen to\nestablish their teaching. The whole puts in simple, concrete form a\nwide principle, namely, that the possession of capacity for receiving\ncommunications of God's will imposes the duty of loving reception and\nobedience, and points to inward joyful acceptance of that will as the\npurest kind of worship.\n\nVv. 7 and 8 are occupied with the response to God's requirements thus\nmanifested by His gift of capacity to hear His voice. \"Then said I.\"\nAs soon as he had learned the meaning of his ears he found the right\nuse of his tongue. The thankful heart was moved to swift acceptance of\nthe known will of God. The clearest recognition of His requirements\nmay coexist with resistance to them, and needs the impulse of loving\ncontemplation of God's unnumbered wonders to vivify it into glad\nservice. \"Behold, I am come,\" is the language of a servant entering\nhis master's presence in obedience to his call. In ver. 7 the second\nclause interrupts just as in ver. 6. There the interruption spoke of\nthe organ of receiving Divine messages as to duty; here it speaks\nof the messages themselves: \"In the roll of the book is my duty\nprescribed for me.\" The promise implied in giving ears is fulfilled\nby giving a permanent written law. This man, having ears to hear, has\nheard, and has not only heard, but welcomed into the inmost recesses\nof his heart and will, the declared will of God. The word rendered\n\"delight\" in ver. 8 is the same as is rendered \"desire\" in ver. 6\n(A.V.); and that rendered by the A.V. and R.V. in ver. 8 \"will\" is\nproperly \"good pleasure.\" Thus God's delight and man's coincide.\nThankful love assimilates the creature's will with the Divine, and\nso changes tastes and impulses that desire and duty are fused into\none. The prescriptions of the book become the delight of the heart.\nAn inward voice directs. \"Love, and do what Thou wilt\"; for a will\ndetermined by love cannot but choose to please its Beloved. Liberty\nconsists in freely willing and victoriously doing what we ought, and\nsuch liberty belongs to hearts whose supreme delight is to please\nthe God whose numberless wonders have won their love and made their\nthanksgivings poor. The law written in the heart was the ideal even\nwhen a law was written on tables of stone. It was the prophetic\npromise for the Messianic age. It is fulfilled in the Christian life\nin the measure of its genuineness. Unless the heart delights in the\nlaw, acts of obedience count for very little.\n\nThe quotation of vv. 7, 8, in Heb. x. 5-7, is mainly from the LXX.,\nwhich has the remarkable rendering of ver. 6 _b_, \"A body hast Thou\nprepared for me.\" Probably this is meant as paraphrase rather than\nas translation; and it does represent substantially the idea of the\noriginal, since the body is the instrument for fulfilling, just as the\near is the organ for apprehending, the uttered will of God. The value\nof the psalm for the writer of Hebrews does not depend on that clause,\nbut on the whole representation which it gives of the ideal of the\nperfectly righteous servant's true worship, as involving the setting\naside of sacrifice and the decisive pre-eminence of willing obedience.\nThat ideal is fulfilled in Jesus, and really pointed onwards to Him.\nThis use of the quotation does not imply the directly Messianic\ncharacter of the psalm.\n\n\"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,\" and thus\nthe passage is easy from inward delight in God's will to public\ndeclaration of His character. Every true lover of God is a witness of\nHis sweetness to the world. Since the psalmist had His law hidden in\nthe depths of his being, he could not \"hide\" His righteousness within\nhis heart, but must magnify it with his tongue. That is a feeble and\ndoubtful love which knows no necessity of utterance. To \"love and be\nsilent\" is sometimes imperative, but always burdensome; and a heart\nhappy in its love cannot choose but ripple out in music of speech.\nThe psalmist describes himself as a messenger of glad tidings, a true\nevangelist. The multiplicity of names for the various aspects of God's\ncharacter and acts which he heaps together in these verses serves to\nindicate their manifoldness, which he delighted to contemplate, and\nhis long, loving familiarity with them. He sets his treasure in all\nlights, and views it from all points, as a man will turn a jewel in\nhis hand and get a fresh flash from every facet. \"Righteousness,\" the\ngood news that the Ruler of all is inflexibly just, with a justice\nwhich scrupulously meets all creatures' needs and becomes penal and\nawful only to the rejecters of its tender aspect; \"faithfulness,\"\nthe inviolable adherence to every promise; \"salvation,\" the actual\nfulness of deliverance and well-being flowing from these attributes;\n\"loving-kindness\" and \"troth,\" often linked together as expressing at\nonce the warmth and the unchangeableness of the Divine heart--these\nhave been the psalmist's themes. Therefore they are his hope; and\nhe is sure that, as he has been their singer, they will be his\npreservers. Ver. 11 is not prayer, but bold confidence. It echoes the\npreceding verse, since \"I did not restrain\" (ver. 9) corresponds with\n\"Thou wilt not restrain,\" and \"Thy loving-kindness and Thy troth\" with\nthe mention of the same attributes in ver. 10. The psalmist is not so\nmuch asserting his claims as giving voice to his faith. He does not\nso much think that his utterance is deserving of remuneration as that\nGod's character makes impossible the supposition that he, who had so\nloved and sung His great name in its manifold glories, should find\nthat name unavailing in his hour of need.\n\nThere is an undertone of such felt need even in the confidence of\nver. 11; and it becomes dominant from ver. 12 to the end, but not so\nas to overpower the clear note of trust. The difference between the\ntwo parts of the psalm is great, but is not to be exaggerated as if\nit were contrariety. In the former part thanksgiving for deliverance\nfrom dangers recently past predominates; in the latter, petition for\ndeliverance from dangers still threatening: but in both the psalmist\nis exercising the same confidence; and if in the beginning he hymns\nthe praises of God who brought him out of the pit of destruction,\nin the end he keeps firm hold of Him as His \"Help and Deliverer.\"\nSimilarly, while in the first portion he celebrates the \"purposes\nwhich are to usward,\" in the latter he is certain that, needy as he\nis, Jehovah has \"purposes\" of kindness to him. The change of tone is\nnot so complete as to negative the original unity, and surely it is\nnot difficult to imagine a situation in which both halves of the psalm\nshould be appropriate. Are there any deliverances in this perilous\nand incomplete life so entire and permanent that they leave no room\nfor future perils? Must not prevision of coming dangers accompany\nthankfulness for past escapes? Our Pharaohs are seldom drowned in\nthe Red Sea, and we do not often see their corpses stretched on the\nsand. The change of tone, of which so much use is made as against\nthe original unity of the psalm, begins with ver. 12; but that\nverse has a very strong and beautiful link of connection with the\nprevious part, in the description of besetting evils as innumerable.\nBoth words of ver. 5 are repeated, that for \"surpass\" or \"are more\nthan\" in ver. 12 _c_, that for \"number\" in _a_. The heart that has\nfelt how innumerable are God's thoughts and deeds of love is not\nutterly reduced to despair, even while it beholds a sea of troubles\nrolling its white-crested billows shoreward as far as the horizon.\nThe sky stretches beyond them, and the true numberlessness of God's\nmercies outdoes the great yet really limited range of apparently\nnumberless sins or sorrows, the consequences of sin. \"Mine iniquities\nhave overtaken me\" like pursuing foes, and every calamity that held\nhim in its grip was a child of a sin of his. Such consciousness of\ntransgression is not inconsistent with \"delight in the law of God\nafter the inward man,\" as Paul found out (Rom. vii. 22, 23), but it\nsets aside the attempt to make this a directly Messianic psalm. \"I am\nnot able to see.\" Such is the only possible rendering, for there is\nno justification for translating the simple word by \"look up.\" Either\nthe crowd of surrounding calamities prevent the psalmist from seeing\nanything but themselves, or, more probably, the failure of vital power\naccompanying his sorrow dims his vision (Psalm xxxviii. 10).\n\nFrom ver. 13 onwards Psalm lxx. repeats this psalm, with unimportant\nverbal differences. The first of these is the omission of \"Be pleased\"\nin ver. 13, which binds this second part to the first, and points\nback to \"Thy pleasure\" (ver. 8). The prayer for the confusion of\nenemies closely resembles that in Psalm xxxv., ver. 14 being almost\nidentical with vv. 4 and 26 there, and ver. 15 recalling ver. 21 of\nthat psalm. The prayer that enemies may fail in their designs is\nconsistent with the most Christlike spirit, and nothing more is asked\nby the psalmist, but the tinge of satisfaction with which he dwells\non their discomfiture, however natural, belongs to the less lofty\nmoral standard of his stage of revelation. He uses extraordinarily\nforcible words to paint their bewilderment and mortification--may they\nblush, turn pale, be driven back, be as if paralysed with shame at\ntheir baffled malice! The prayer for the gladness of God's servants\nand seekers is like Psalm xxxv. 27. It asks that fruition as complete\nas the disappointment of the foes may be the lot of those whose\ndesires set towards God, and it is prophecy as well as prayer. Seekers\nafter God ever find Him, and are more joyful in possession than they\nhoped to be while seeking. He alone never eludes search, nor ever\ndisappoints attainment. They who long for His salvation will receive\nit; and their reception will fill their hearts so full of blessedness\nthat their lips will not be able to refrain from ever-new outbursts of\nthe old praise, \"The Lord be magnified.\"\n\nVery plaintively and touchingly does the low sigh of personal need\nfollow this triumphant intercession for the company of the saints.\nIts triple elements blend in one believing aspiration, which is not\nimpatience, though it pleads for swift help. \"I am afflicted and\nneedy\"; there the psalmist turns his eye on his own sore necessity.\n\"Jehovah has purposes for me\"; there he turns to God, and links his\nfinal petitions with his earlier trust by the repetition of the word\nby which he described (ver. 5) the many gracious designs of God.\n\"My God, delay not\"; there he embraces both in one act of faithful\nlonging. His need calls for, and God's loving counsels ensure, swift\nresponse. He who delights when an afflicted and poor man calls Him\n\"my God\" will not be slack to vindicate His servant's confidence, and\nmagnify His own name. That appeal goes straight to the heart of God.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XLI.\n\n 1 Happy the man who considers the helpless;\n In the day of calamity will Jehovah deliver him\n 2 Jehovah will preserve him and keep him alive,\n --He shall be counted happy in the land,--\n And do not Thou give him up to the wrath of his enemies.\n 3 Jehovah will sustain him on the bed of languishing;\n All his lying down in his sickness Thou hast turned into health.\n\n 4 As for me, I said, Jehovah, be merciful to me,\n Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.\n 5 My enemies speak evil against me:\n \"When will he die, and his name perish?\"\n 6 And if one [of them] comes to see [me], he speaks falsehood\n (insincere sympathy);\n His heart collects malice for itself;\n He goes forth, he speaks it.\n\n 7 Together against me do all my haters whisper;\n Against me they plan my hurt:\n 8 \"A fatal thing is fixed upon him,\n And he who has [now] lain down will rise no more.\"\n 9 Even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread,\n Has lifted his heel against me.\n\n 10 But Thou, Jehovah, be merciful to me and raise me up,\n That I may requite them.\n 11 By this I know that Thou delightest in me,\n Since my enemy triumphs not over me.\n 12 And as for me, in my integrity Thou upholdest me,\n And settest me before Thy face for ever.\n\n 13 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel,\n From everlasting and to everlasting\n Amen and Amen.\n\n\nThe central mass of this psalm describes the singer as suffering from\ntwo evils: sickness and treacherous friends. This situation naturally\nleads up to the prayer and confidence of the closing strophe (vv.\n10-12). But its connection with the introductory verses (1-3) is less\nplain. A statement of the blessings ensured to the compassionate\nseems a singular introduction to the psalmist's pathetic exhibition\nof his sorrows. Cheyne thinks that the opening verses were added by\nthe framer of the collection to adapt the poem to the use of the\nChurch of his own time, and that \"the original opening must have been\ndifferent\" (\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" 246, _n._). It is to be observed,\nhowever, that the two points of the psalmist's affliction are the\ntwo from which escape is assured to the compassionate, who shall not\nbe \"delivered to the desire of his enemies,\" and shall be supported\nand healed in sickness. Probably, therefore, the general promises of\nvv. 1-3 are silently applied by the psalmist to himself; and he is\ncomforting his own sorrow with the assurance which in his humility he\ncasts into impersonal form. He has been merciful, and believes, though\nthings look dark, that he will obtain mercy. There is probably also\nan intentional contrast with the cruel exacerbation of his sufferings\nby uncompassionate companions, which has rubbed salt into his wounds.\nHe has a double consciousness in these opening verses, inasmuch as he\npartly thinks of himself as the compassionate man and partly as the\n\"weak\" one who is compassionated.\n\nThe combination of sickness and treachery is remarkable, especially\nif the former is taken literally, as the strongly marked details seem\nto require. The sick man is visited by an insincere sympathiser, who\nis all eyes to note symptoms of increasing weakness, and all tongue,\nas soon as he gets out of the sick-room, to give the result, which is\nto his malice the better the worse it is. Such a picture looks as if\ndrawn from life, and the sketch of the traitor friend seems to be a\nportrait of a real person. The supporters of the post-exilic date and\nnational interpretation of the psalm have not succeeded in pointing out\nwho the false friends of Israel were, who seemed to condole with, and\nreally rejoiced over, its weakness, or who were the treacherous allies\nwho failed it. The theory of the Davidic origin has in its favour the\ncorrespondence of Ahithophel's treason with the treachery of the trusted\nfriend in the psalm; and, while it must be admitted that there is no\nmention of sickness in the narrative in 2 Samuel, the supposition that\ntrouble of conscience had brought illness gains some countenance from\nPsalm xxxii., if it is Davidic, and would naturally explain David's\nsingular passiveness whilst Absalom was hatching his plot.\n\nThe psalm may be divided into four strophes, of which, however, the two\nmiddle ones cohere very closely. Vv. 1-3 give the mercy requited to\nthe merciful; vv. 4-6, after a brief prayer and confession begin the\npicture of the psalmist's sufferings, which is carried on through the\nnext strophe (vv. 7-9), with the difference that in the former the scene\nis mainly the sick man's chamber, and in the latter the meeting-place\nof the secret conspirators. Vv. 10-12 build on this picture of distress\na prayer for deliverance, and rise to serene confidence in its certain\nanswer. The closing doxology is not part of the psalm, but is appended\nas the conclusion of the first book of the Psalter.\n\nThe principle that God's dealings with us correspond to our dealings\nwith men, as clouds are moulded after the curves of the mountains\nwhich they touch, is no less characteristic of the New Testament\nthan of the Old. The merciful obtain mercy; God forgives those who\nforgive their brethren. The absoluteness of statement in this psalm\nis, of course, open to misunderstanding; but the singer had not such\na superficial view of his relations to God as to suppose that kindly\nsympathy was the sole condition of Divine compassion. That virtue,\nthe absence of which added pangs to his pains, might well seem to a\nsufferer writhing under the bitterness of its opposite the Divinest\nof all excellencies, and worthiest of recompense. That its requital\nshould be mainly considered as consisting in temporal deliverance\nand physical health is partly due to the characteristics of the Old\nTestament promises of blessedness, and partly to the psalmist's\nmomentary needs. We have noted that these are reflected in the\nblessings promised in vv. 1-3. The \"happy\" of ver. 1 is caught up in\nthe abruptly introduced \"He shall be counted happy\" of ver. 2, which\nmay carry tacit reference to the malicious slanders that aggravated\nthe psalmist's sufferings, and anticipates deliverance so perfect\nthat all who see him shall think him fortunate. The next clause rises\ninto direct address of Jehovah, and is shown by the form of the\nnegative in the Hebrew to be petition, not assertion, thus strongly\nconfirming the view that \"me\" lurks below \"him\" in this context. A\nsimilar transition from the third to the second person occurs in ver.\n3, as if the psalmist drew closer to his God. There is also a change\nof tense in the verbs there: \"Jehovah _will_ sustain\"; \"Thou _hast_\nturned,\" the latter tense converting the general truth expressed in\nthe former clause into a fact of experience. The precise meaning of\nthis verse is questioned, some regarding both clauses as descriptive\nof tender nursing, which sustains the drooping head and smoothes the\ncrumpled bedding, while others, noting that the word rendered \"bed\"\n(A.V. and R.V.) in the second clause means properly \"lying down,\" take\nthat clause as descriptive of turning sickness into convalescence. The\nlatter meaning gives a more appropriate ending to the strophe, as it\nleaves the sick man healed, not tossing on a disordered bed, as the\nother explanation does. Jehovah does not half cure.\n\nThe second and third strophes (vv. 4-9) are closely connected. In\nthem the psalmist recounts his sorrows and pains, but first breathes\na prayer for mercy, and bases it no longer on his mercifulness, but\non his sin. Only a shallow experience will find contradiction here to\neither the former words, or to the later profession of \"integrity\"\n(ver. 12). The petition for soul-healing does not prove that sickness\nin the following verses is figurative, but results from the belief that\nsorrow is the effect of sin, a view which belongs to the psalmist's\nstage of revelation, and is not to be held by Christians in the same\nabsolute fashion. If the Davidic origin of the psalm is recognised,\nthe connection of the king's great sin with all his after-sorrows is\npatent. However he had been merciful and compassionate in general, his\nown verdict on the man in Nathan's parable was that he \"showed no pity,\"\nand that sin bore bitter fruit in all his life. It was the parent of\nall the sensual outrages in his own house; it underlay Ahithophel's\ntreachery; it had much to do in making his reign abhorred; it brought\nthe fuel which Absalom fired, and if our supposition is right as to the\norigin of the sickness spoken of in this psalm, that sin and the remorse\nthat followed it gnawed at the roots of bodily health. So the psalmist,\nif he is indeed the royal sinner, had need to pray for soul-healing\nfirst, even though he was conscious of much compassion and hoped for\nits recompense. While he speaks thus to Jehovah, his enemies speak\nin a different tone. The \"evil\" which they utter is not calumny, but\nmalediction. Their hatred is impatient for his death. The time seems\nlong till they can hear of it. One of them comes on a hypocritical\nvisit of solicitude (\"see\" is used for visiting the sick in 2 Kings\nviii. 29), and speaks lying condolence, while he greedily collects\nencouraging symptoms that the disease is hopeless. Then he hurries\nback to tell how much worse he had found the patient; and that ignoble\ncrew delight in the good news, and send it flying. This very special\ndetail goes strongly in favour of the view that we have in this whole\ndescription a transcript of literal, personal experience. There were\nplenty of concealed enemies round David in the early stages of Absalom's\nconspiracy, who would look eagerly for signs of his approaching death,\nwhich might save the need of open revolt and plunge the kingdom into\nwelcome confusion. The second strophe ends with the exit of the false\nfriend.\n\nThe third (vv. 7-9) carries him to the meeting-place of the plotters,\nwho eagerly receive and retail the good news that the sick man is\nworse. They feed their ignoble hate by picturing further ill as laying\nhold of him. Their wish is parent to their thought, which is confirmed\nby the report of their emissary. \"A thing of Belial is poured out on\nhim,\" or \"is fastened upon him,\" say they. That unusual expression\nmay refer either to moral or physical evil. In the former sense it\nwould here mean the sufferer's sin, in the latter a fatal disease.\nThe connection makes the physical reference the more likely. This\nincurable disease is conceived of as \"poured out,\" or perhaps as\n\"molten on him,\" so that it cannot be separated from him. Therefore\nhe will never rise from his sick-bed. But even this murderous glee\nis not the psalmist's sharpest pang. \"The man of my peace,\" trusted,\nhonoured, admitted to the privileges, and therefore bound by the\nobligations, of hospitality so sacred in the old world, has kicked\nthe prostrate sufferer, as the ass in the fable did the sick lion.\nThe treachery of Ahithophel at once occurs to mind. No doubt many\ntreacherous friends have wounded many trustful hearts, but the\ncorrespondence of David's history with this detail is not to be got\nrid of by the observation that treachery is common. Still less is it\nsufficient to quote Obad. 7, where substantially the same language\nis employed in reference to the enemies of Edom, as supporting the\nnational reference of the present passage. No one denies that false\nallies may be described by such a figure, or that nations may be\npersonified; but is there any event in the post-exilic history which\nshows Israel deceived and spurned by trusted allies? The Davidic\nauthorship and the personal reference of the psalm are separable. But\nif the latter is adopted, it will be hard to find any circumstances\nanswering so fully to the details of the psalm as the Absalomic\nrebellion and Ahithophel's treason. Our Lord's quotation of part of\nver. 9, with the significant omission of \"in whom I trusted,\" does not\nimply the Messianic character of the psalm, but is an instance of an\nevent and a saying which were not meant as prophetic, finding fuller\nrealisation in the life of the perfect type of suffering godliness\nthan in the original sufferer.\n\nThe last strophe (vv. 10-12) recurs to prayer, and soars to confidence\nborn of communion. A hand stretched out in need and trust soon comes\nback filled with blessings. Therefore here the moment of true petition\nis the moment of realised answer. The prayer traverses the malicious\nhopes of enemies. They had said, \"He will rise no more\"; it prays,\n\"Raise me up.\" It touches a note which sounds discordant in the desire\n\"that I may requite them\"; and it is far more truly reverential and\nappreciative of the progress of revelation to recognise the relative\ninferiority of the psalmist's wish to render _quid pro quo_ than to put\nviolence on his words, in order to harmonise them with Christian ethics,\nor to slur over the distinction between the Law, of which the keynote\nwas retribution, and the Gospel, of which it is forgiveness.\n\nBut the last words of the psalm are sunny with the assurance of present\nfavour and with boundless hope. The man is still lying on his sick-bed,\nringed by whispering foes. There is no change without, but this change\nhas passed: that he has tightened his hold of God, and therefore can\nfeel that his enemies' whispers will never rise or swell into a shout\nof victory over him. He can speak of the future deliverance as if\npresent; and he can look ahead over an indefinite stretch of sunlit\ncountry, scarcely knowing whether the furthest point is earth or no. His\nintegrity is not sinless, nor does he plead it as a reason for Jehovah's\nupholding, but hopes for it as the consequence of His sustaining hand.\nHe knows that he will have close approach to Jehovah; and though, no\ndoubt, \"for ever\" on his lips meant less than it does on ours, his\nassurance of continuous communion with God reached, if not to actual,\nclear consciousness of immortality, at all events to assurance of a\nfuture so indefinitely extended, and so brightened by the sunlight\nof God's face, that it wanted but little additional extension or\nbrightening to be the full assurance of life immortal.\n\n\n\n\n BOOK II.\n\n _PSALMS XLII.-LXXII._\n\n\n\n\n PSALMS XLII., XLIII.\n\n PSALM XLII.\n\n 1 Like a hind which pants after the water-brooks,\n So pants, my soul after Thee, O God.\n 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;\n When shall I come and appear before God?\n 3 My tears have been bread to me day and night,\n While they say to me all the day, Where is thy God?\n 4 This would I remember, and pour out my soul in me,\n How I went with the throng, led them in procession to the house of\n God,\n With shrill cries of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping\n festival.\n 5 Why art thou bowed down, my soul, and moanest within me?\n Hope in God, for I shall yet give Him thanks,\n [As] the help of my countenance and my God.\n\n 6 Within me is my soul bowed down;\n Therefore let me remember Thee from the land of Jordan and of the\n Hermons, from Mount Mizar.\n 7 Flood calls to flood at the voice of Thy cataracts;\n All Thy breakers and rollers are gone over me.\n 8 [Yet] by day will Jehovah command His loving-kindness,\n And in the night shall a song to Him be with me,\n [Even] a prayer to the God of my life.\n 9 Let me say to God my Rock, Why hast Thou forgotten me?\n Why must I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?\n 10 As if they crushed my bones, my adversaries reproach me,\n Whilst all the day they say to me, Where is thy God?\n 11 Why art thou bowed down, my soul, and why moanest thou within me?\n Hope thou in God, for I shall yet give Him thanks\n [As] the help of my countenance and my God.\n\n\n PSALM XLIII.\n\n 1 Do me right, O God, and plead my plea against a loveless nation;\n From the man of fraud and mischief rescue me.\n 2 For Thou art God my stronghold; why hast Thou cast me off?\n Why must I wearily go mourning because of the oppression of the\n enemy?\n 3 Send out Thy light and Thy troth; let them lead me;\n Let them bring me to Thy holy hill and to Thy tabernacles,\n 4 That I may come in to the altar of God,\n To God, the gladness of my joy,\n And give Thee thanks with the harp, O God, my God.\n 5 Why art thou bowed down, my soul, and why moanest thou within me?\n Hope in God, for I shall yet give Him thanks,\n [As] the help of my countenance and my God.\n\n\nThe second book of the Psalter is characterised by the use of the\nDivine name \"Elohim\" instead of \"Jehovah.\" It begins with a cluster\nof seven psalms (reckoning Psalms xlii. and xliii. as one) of which\nthe superscription is most probably regarded as ascribing their\nauthorship to \"the sons of Korach.\" These were Levites, and (according\nto 1 Chron. ix. 19 _seq._) the office of keepers of the door of the\nsanctuary had been hereditary in their family from the time of Moses.\nSome of them were among the faithful adherents of David at Ziklag\n(1 Chron. xii. 6), and in the new model of worship inaugurated by\nhim the Korachites were doorkeepers and musicians. They retained the\nformer office in the second Temple (Neh. xi. 19). The ascription of\nauthorship to a group is remarkable, and has led to the suggestion\nthat the superscription does not specify the authors, but the persons\nfor whose use the psalms in question were composed. The Hebrew would\nbear either meaning; but if the latter is adopted, all these psalms\nare anonymous. The same construction is found in Book I. in Psalms\nxxv.-xxviii., xxxv., xxxvii., where it is obviously the designation\nof authorship, and it is naturally taken to have the same force\nin these Korachite psalms. It has been ingeniously conjectured by\nDelitzsch that the Korachite Psalms originally formed a separate\ncollection entitled \"Songs of the Sons of Korach,\" and that this\ntitle afterwards passed over into the superscriptions when they were\nincorporated in the Psalter. It may have been so, but the supposition\nis unnecessary. It was not exactly literary fame which psalmists\nhungered for. The actual author, as one of a band of kinsmen who\nworked and sang together, would, not unnaturally, be content to sink\nhis individuality and let his song go forth as that of the band.\nClearly the superscriptions rested upon some tradition or knowledge,\nelse defective information would not have been acknowledged as it is\nin this one; but some name would have been coined to fill the gap.\n\nThe two psalms (xlii., xliii.) are plainly one. The absence of a title\nfor the second, the identity of tone throughout, the recurrence of\nseveral phrases, and especially of the refrain, put this beyond doubt.\nThe separation, however, is old, since it is found in the LXX. It is\nuseless to speculate on its origin.\n\nThere is much in the psalms which favours the hypothesis that the\nauthor was a Korachite companion of David's in his flight before\nAbsalom; but the locality, described as that of the singer, does not\nentirely correspond to that of the king's retreat, and the description\nof the enemies is not easily capable of application in all points to\nhis foes. The house of God is still standing; the poet has been there\nrecently, and hopes soon to return and render praise. Therefore the\npsalm must be pre-exilic; and while there is no certainty attainable\nas to date, it may at least be said that the circumstances of the\nsinger present more points of contact with those of the supposed\nKorachite follower of David's fortunes on the uplands across Jordan\nthan with those of any other of the imaginary persons to whom modern\ncriticism has assigned the poem. Whoever wrote it has given immortal\nform to the longings of the soul after God. He has fixed for ever and\nmade melodious a sigh.\n\nThe psalm falls into three parts, each closing with the same\nrefrain. Longings and tears, remembrances of festal hours passed in\nthe sanctuary melt the singer's soul, while taunting enemies hiss\ncontinual sarcasms at him as forsaken by his God. But his truer self\nsilences these lamentations, and cheers the feebler \"soul\" with clear\nnotes of trust and hope, blown in the refrain, like some trumpet-clang\nrallying dispirited fugitives to the fight. The stimulus serves for\na moment; but once more courage fails, and once more, at yet greater\nlength and with yet sadder tones, plaints and longings are wailed\nforth. Once more, too, the higher self repeats its half-rebuke,\nhalf-encouragement. So ends the first of the psalms; but obviously it\nis no real ending, for the victory over fear is not won, and longing\nhas not become blessed. So once more the wave of emotion rolls over\nthe psalmist, but with a new aspect which makes all the difference.\nHe prays now; he had only remembered and complained and said that he\nwould pray before. Therefore now he triumphs, and though he still is\nkeenly conscious of his enemies, they appear but for a moment, and,\nthough he still feels that he is far from the sanctuary, his heart\ngoes out in hopeful visions of the gladness of his return thither,\nand he already tastes the rapture of the joy that will then flood\nhis heart. Therefore the refrain comes for a third time; and this\ntime the longing, trembling soul continues at the height to which the\nbetter self has lifted it, and silently acknowledges that it need\nnot have been cast down. Thus the whole song is a picture of a soul\nclimbing, not without backward slips, from the depths to the heights,\nor, in another aspect, of the transformation of longing into certainty\nof fruition, which is itself fruition after a kind.\n\nPerhaps the singer had seen, during his exile on the eastern side of\nJordan, some gentle creature, with open mouth and heaving flanks,\neagerly seeking in dry wadies for a drop of water to cool her\noutstretched tongue; and the sight had struck on his heart as an\nimage of himself longing for the presence of God in the sanctuary. A\nsimilar bit of local colour is generally recognised in ver. 7. Nature\nreflects the poet's moods, and overmastering emotion sees its own\nanalogues everywhere. That lovely metaphor has touched the common\nheart as few have done, and the solitary singer's plaint has fitted\nall devout lips. Injustice is done it, if it is regarded merely as\nthe longing of a Levite for approach to the sanctuary. No doubt the\npsalmist connected communion with God and presence in the Temple more\nclosely together than they should do who have heard the great charter,\n\"neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem\"; but, however the two\nthings were coupled in his mind, they were sufficiently separate to\nallow of approach by longing and prayer while distant in body, and the\ntrue object of yearning was not access to the Temple, but communion\nwith the God of the Temple.\n\nThe \"soul\" is feminine in Hebrew, and is here compared to the female\ndeer, for \"pants\" is the feminine form of the verb, though its noun is\nmasculine. It is better therefore to translate \"hind\" than \"hart.\"\nThe \"soul\" is the seat of emotions and desires. It \"pants\" and\n\"thirsts,\" is \"cast down\" and disquieted; it is \"poured out\"; it can\nbe bidden to \"hope.\" Thus tremulous, timid, mobile, it is beautifully\ncompared to a hind. The true object of its longings is always God,\nhowever little it knows for what it is thirsting. But they are happy\nin their very yearnings who are conscious of the true direction of\nthese, and can say that it is God for whom they are athirst. All\nunrest of longing, all fever of thirst, all outgoings of desire, are\nfeelers put out blindly, and are only stilled when they clasp Him. The\ncorrespondence between man's needs and their true object is involved\nin that name \"the living God\"; for a heart can rest only in one\nall-sufficient Person, and must have a heart to throb against. Neither\nabstractions nor dead things can still its cravings. That which does\nmust be living. But no finite being can still them; and after all\nsweetnesses of human loves and helps of human strengths, the soul's\nthirst remains unslaked, and the Person who is enough must be the\nliving God. The difference between the devout and the worldly man is\njust that the one can only say, \"My soul pants and thirsts,\" and the\nother can add \"after Thee, O God.\"\n\nThis man's longing was intensified by his unwilling exile from the\nsanctuary, a special privation to a door-keeper of the Temple. His\nsituation and mood closely resemble those in another Korachite psalm\n(lxxxiv.), in which, as here, the soul \"faints for the courts of the\nLord,\" and as here the panting hind, so there the glancing swallows\nflitting about the eaves are woven into the song. Unnamed foes taunt the\npsalmist with the question, \"Where is thy God?\" There is no necessity\nto conclude that these were heathens, though the taunt is usually put\ninto heathen lips (Psalms lxxix. 10; lii. 2) but it would be quite as\nnatural from co-religionists, flouting his fervour and personal grasp of\nGod and taking his sorrows as tokens of God's abandonment of him. That\nis the world's way with the calamities of a devout man, whose humble\ncry, \"My God,\" it resents as presumption or hypocrisy.\n\nBut even these bitter sarcasms are less bitter than the remembrance\nof \"happier things,\" which is his \"sorrow's crown of sorrow.\" Yet,\nwith the strange but universal love of summoning up remembrance of\ndeparted joys, the psalmist finds a certain pleasure in the pain of\nrecalling how he, a Levite, led the festal march to the Temple, and in\nlistening in fancy again to the shrill cries of joy which broke from\nthe tumultuous crowd. The form of the verbs \"remember\" and \"pour out\"\nin ver. 4 indicates set purpose.\n\nThe higher self arrests this flow of self-pity and lamentation. The\nfeminine soul has to give account of her moods to calmer judgment, and\nto be lifted and steadied by the strong spirit. The preceding verses\nhave given ample reason why she has been dejected, but now she is\nsummoned to repeat them to a judicial ear. The insufficiency of the\ncircumstances described to warrant the vehement emotions expressed is\nimplied in the summons. Feeling has to vindicate its rationality or\nto suppress itself, and its grounds have often only to be stated to\nthe better self, to be found altogether disproportioned to the storm\nthey have raised. It is a very elementary but necessary lesson for the\nconduct of life that emotion of all sorts, sad or glad, religious or\nother, needs rigid scrutiny and firm control, sometimes stimulating\nand sometimes chilling. The true counterpoise to its excess lies in\ndirecting it to God and in making Him the object of hope and patient\nwaiting. Emotion varies, but God is the same. The facts on which faith\nfeeds abide while faith fluctuates. The secret of calm is to dwell in\nthat inner chamber of the secret place of the Most High, which whoso\ninhabits \"heareth not the loud winds when they call,\" and is neither\ndejected nor uplifted, neither disturbed by excessive joys nor torn by\nanxieties.\n\nVer. 5 has the refrain in a form slightly different from that of the\nother two instances of its occurrence (ver. 11 and xliii. 5). But\nprobably the text is faulty. The shifting of the initial word of ver.\n6 to the end of ver. 5, and the substitution of _My_ for _His_, bring\nthe three refrains into line, and avoid the harsh expression \"help of\nHis countenance.\" Since no reason for the variation is discernible,\nand the proposed slight change of text improves construction and\nrestores uniformity, it is probably to be adopted. If it is, the\nsecond part of the psalm is also conformed to the other two in regard\nto its not beginning with the Divine name.\n\nThe break in the clouds is but momentary, and the grey wrack fills the\nsky once more. The second part of the psalm takes up the question of\nthe refrain, and first reiterates with bitter emphasis that the soul\nis bowed down, and then pours out once more the stream of reasons\nfor dejection. But the curb has not been applied quite in vain, for\nthroughout the succeeding verses there is a striking alternation\nof despondency and hope. Streaks of brightness flash through the\ngloom. Sorrow is shot with trust. This conflict of opposite emotions\nis the characteristic of the second part of the psalm, while that\nof the first part is an all but unrelieved predominance of gloom,\nand that of the third an all but undisputed victory of sunshine.\nNaturally this transition strophe is marked by the mingling of both.\nIn the former part, memory was the handmaid of sorrow, and came\ninvoluntarily, and increased the singer's pain; but in this part he\nmakes an effort of will to remember, and in remembrance finds an\nantidote to sorrow. To recall past joys adds stings to present grief,\nbut to remember God brings an anodyne for the smart. The psalmist\nis far from the sanctuary, but distance does not hinder thought.\nThis man's faith was not so dependent on externals that it could not\ncome close to God while distant from His temple. It had been so far\nstrengthened by the encouragement of the refrain that the reflux\nof sadness at once rouses it to action. \"My soul is cast down; ...\n_therefore_ let me remember Thee.\" With wise resolve he finds in\ndejection a reason for nestling closer to God. In reference to the\ndescription of the psalmist's locality, Cheyne beautifully says, \"The\npreposition 'from' is chosen (rather than 'in') with a subtle purpose.\nIt suggests that the psalmist's faith will bridge over the interval\nbetween himself and the sanctuary: 'I can send my thoughts to Thee\nfrom the distant frontier'\" (_in loc._). The region intended seems\nto be \"the north-eastern corner of Palestine, near the lower slopes\nof Hermon\" (Cheyne, _u.s._). The plural \"Hermons\" is probably used\nin reference to the group of crests. \"Mizar\" is probably the name of\na hill otherwise unknown, and specifies the singer's locality more\nminutely, though not helpfully to us. Many ingenious attempts have\nbeen made to explain the name either as symbolical or as a common\nnoun, and not a proper name, but these need not be dealt with here.\nThe locality thus designated is too far north for the scene of David's\nretreat before Absalom, unless we give an unusual southward extension\nto the names; and this makes a difficulty in the way of accepting the\nhypothesis of the author's having been in his retinue.\n\nThe twofold emotions of ver. 6 recur in vv. 7, 8, where we have\nfirst renewed despondency and then reaction into hope. The imagery\nof floods lifting up their voices, and cataracts sounding as they\nfall, and breaking waves rolling over the half-drowned psalmist has\nbeen supposed to be suggested by the scenery in which he was; but the\nrushing noise of Jordan in its rocky bed seems scarcely enough to\ndeserve being described as \"flood calling to flood,\" and \"breakers\nand rollers\" is an exaggeration if applied to any commotion possible\non such a stream. The imagery is so usual that it needs no assumption\nof having been occasioned by the poet's locality. The psalmist paints\nhis calamities as storming on him in dismal continuity, each \"flood\"\nseeming to summon its successor. They rush upon him, multitudinous\nand close following; they pour down on him as with the thunder of\ndescending cataracts; they overwhelm him like the breakers and\nrollers of an angry ocean. The bold metaphors are more striking when\ncontrasted with the opposite ones of the first part. The dry and\nthirsty land there and the rush of waters here mean the same thing, so\nflexible is nature in a poet's hands.\n\nThen follows a gleam of hope, like a rainbow spanning the waterfall.\nWith the alternation of mood already noticed as characteristic,\nthe singer looks forward, even from the midst of overwhelming seas\nof trouble, to a future day when God will give His angel, Mercy or\nLoving-kindness, charge concerning him and draw him out of many\nwaters. That day of extrication will surely be followed by a night\nof music and of thankful prayer (for supplication is not the only\nelement in prayer) to Him who by His deliverance has shown Himself\nto be the \"God of\" the rescued man's \"life.\" The epithet answers to\nthat of the former part, \"the living God,\" from which it differs\nby but one additional letter. He who has life in Himself is the\nGiver and Rescuer of our lives, and to Him they are to be rendered\nin thankful sacrifice. Once more the contending currents meet in\nvv. 9 and 10, in the former of which confidence and hope utter\nthemselves in the resolve to appeal to God and in the name given to\nHim as \"my Rock\"; while another surge of despondency breaks, in the\nquestion in which the soul interrogates God, as the better self had\ninterrogated her, and contrasts almost reproachfully God's apparent\nforgetfulness, manifested by His delay in deliverance, with her\nremembrance of Him. It is not a question asked for enlightenment's\nsake, but is an exclamation of impatience, if not of rebuke. Ver.\n10 repeats the enemies' taunt, which is there represented as like\ncrushing blows which broke the bones. And then once more above this\nconflict of emotion soars the clear note of the refrain, summoning to\nself-command, calmness, and unfaltering hope.\n\nBut the victory is not quite won, and therefore Psalm xliii. follows.\nIt is sufficiently distinct in tone to explain its separation from\nthe preceding, inasmuch as it is prayer throughout, and the note\nof joy is dominant, even while an undertone of sadness links it\nwith the previous parts. The unity is vouched by the considerations\nalready noticed, and by the incompleteness of Psalm xlii. without\nsuch triumphant close and of Psalm xliii. without such despondent\nbeginning. The prayer of vv. 1, 2, blends the two elements, which\nwere at war in the second part; and for the moment the darker is\nthe more prominent. The situation is described as in the preceding\nparts. The enemy is called a \"loveless nation.\" The word rendered\n\"loveless\" is compounded of the negative prefix and the word which is\nusually found with the meaning of \"one whom God favours,\" or visits\nwith loving-kindness. It has been much disputed whether its proper\nsignification is active (one who shows loving-kindness) or passive\n(one who receives it). But, considering that loving-kindness is in the\nPsalter mainly a Divine attribute, and that, when a human excellence,\nit is regarded as derived from and being the echo of experienced\nDivine mercy, it is best to take the passive meaning as the principal,\nthough sometimes, as unmistakably here, the active is more suitable.\nThese loveless people are not further defined, and may either have\nbeen Israelites or aliens. Perhaps there was one \"man\" of special\nmischief prominent among them, but it is not safe to treat that\nexpression as anything but a collective. Ver. 2 looks back to xlii.\n9, the former clause in each verse being practically equivalent, and\nthe second in xliii. being a quotation of the second in ver. 9, with a\nvariation in the form of the verb to suggest more vividly the picture\nof weary, slow, dragging gait, fit for a man clad in mourning garb.\n\nBut the gloomier mood has shot its last bolt. Grief which finds no\nfresh words is beginning to dry up. The stage of mechanical repetition\nof complaints is not far from that of cessation of them. So the higher\nmood conquers at last, and breaks into a burst of joyous petition,\nwhich passes swiftly into realisation of the future joys whose coming\nshines thus far off. Hope and trust hold the field. The certainty of\nreturn to the Temple overbears the pain of absence from it, and the\nvivid realisation of the gladness of worshipping again at the altar\ntakes the place of the vivid remembrance of former festal approach\nthither. It is the prerogative of faith to make pictures drawn by\nmemory pale beside those painted by hope. Light and Troth--_i.e._,\nLoving-kindness and Faithfulness in fulfilling promises--are like\ntwo angels, despatched from the presence-chamber of God, to guide\nwith gentleness the exile's steps. That is to say, because God is\nmercy and faithfulness, the return of the psalmist to the home of\nhis heart is sure. God being what He is, no longing soul can ever\nremain unsatisfied. The actual return to the Temple is desired because\nthereby new praise will be occasioned. Not mere bodily presence there,\nbut that joyful outpouring of triumph and gladness, is the object of\nthe psalmist's longing. He began with yearning after the living God.\nIn his sorrow he could still think of Him at intervals as the help of\nhis countenance and call Him \"my God.\" He ends with naming Him \"the\ngladness of my joy.\" Whoever begins as he did will finish where he\nclimbed. The refrain is repeated for a third time, and is followed by\nno relapse into sadness. The effort of faith should be persistent,\neven if old bitternesses begin again and \"break the low beginnings of\ncontent\"; for, even if the wild waters burst through the dam once and\nagain, they do not utterly wash it away and there remains a foundation\non which it may be built up anew. Each swing of the gymnast lifts him\nhigher, until he is on a level with a firm platform on which he can\nspring and stand secure. Faith may have a long struggle with fear,\nbut it will have the last word, and that word will be \"the help of my\ncountenance and my God.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XLIV.\n\n 1 O God, with our ears we have heard,\n Our fathers have told to us,\n The work Thou didst work in their days,\n In the days of yore.\n 2 Thou [with] Thy hand didst dispossess nations, and didst plant\n _them_,\n Didst afflict peoples and spread _them_ forth.\n 3 For not by their own sword did they possess the land,\n And their own arm did not save them,\n But Thy right hand and Thine arm, and the light of Thy face,\n Because Thou hadst delight in them.\n 4 Thou Thyself art my King, O God;\n Command salvations for Jacob.\n 5 Through Thee can we butt down our oppressors;\n In Thy name can we trample those that rise against us.\n 6 For not in my own bow do I trust,\n And my own sword does not save me.\n 7 But Thou hast saved us from our oppressors,\n And our haters Thou hast put to shame.\n 8 In God have we made our boast all the day,\n And Thy name will we thank for ever. Selah.\n\n 9 Yet Thou hast cast [us] off and shamed us,\n And goest not forth with our hosts.\n 10 Thou makest us turn back from the oppressor,\n And our haters plunder to their hearts' content.\n 11 Thou makest us like sheep for food,\n And among the nations hast Thou scattered us.\n 12 Thou sellest Thy people at no profit,\n And hast not increased [Thy wealth] by their price.\n 13 Thou makest us a reproach for our neighbours,\n A mockery and derision to those around us.\n 14 Thou makest us a proverb among the nations,\n A nodding of the head among the peoples.\n 15 All the day is my dishonour before me,\n And the shame of my face has covered me,\n 16 Because of the voice of the rebuker and blasphemer,\n Because of the face of the enemy and the revengeful.\n\n 17 All this is come upon us, and [yet] have we not forgotten Thee,\n Nor been false to Thy covenant.\n 18 Our heart has not turned back,\n Nor our footsteps swerved from Thy way.\n 19 That Thou shouldest have crushed us in the place of jackals,\n And covered us with thick darkness.\n 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God\n And spread out our hands to a strange God,\n 21 Would not God search out this? for He knows the secrets of the\n heart.\n 22 Nay, for Thy sake are we killed all the day;\n We are reckoned as sheep for slaughter.\n\n 23 Awake; why sleepest Thou, Lord?\n Arise; cast not off for ever.\n 24 Why hidest Thou Thy face,\n Forgettest our affliction and oppression?\n 25 For bowed to the dust is our soul;\n Our body cleaves to the earth.\n 26 Arise [for] a help for us,\n And redeem us for Thy loving-kindness' sake.\n\n\nCalvin says that the authorship of this psalm is uncertain, but\nthat it is abundantly clear that it was composed by any one rather\nthan David, and that its plaintive contents suit best the time when\nthe savage tyranny of Antiochus raged. No period corresponds to the\nsituation which makes the background of the psalm so completely as\nthe Maccabean, for only then could it be truly said that national\ncalamities fell because of the nation's rigid monotheism. Other epochs\nhave been thought of, so as to avoid the necessity of recognising\nMaccabean psalms, but none of them can be said to meet the conditions\ndescribed in the psalm. The choice lies between accepting the\nMaccabean date and giving up the attempt to fix one at all.\n\nObjections to that late date based upon the history of the completion\nof the canon take for granted more accurate and complete knowledge\nof a very obscure subject than is possessed, and do not seem strong\nenough to negative the indications arising from the very unique fact,\nasserted in the psalm, that the nation was persecuted for its faith\nand engaged in a religious war. The psalm falls into four parts: a\nwistful look backwards to days already \"old,\" when God fought for\nthem (vv. 1-8); a sad contrast in present oppression (vv. 9-16);\na profession of unfaltering national adherence to the covenant\nnotwithstanding all these ills (vv. 17-22); and a fervent cry to a God\nwho seems asleep to awake and rescue His martyred people (vv. 23-26).\n\nThe first part (vv. 1-8) recalls the fact that shone so brightly in\nall the past, the continual exercise of Divine power giving victory to\ntheir weakness, and builds thereon a prayer that the same law of His\nprovidence might be fulfilled now. The bitter side of the retrospect\nforces itself into consciousness in the next part, but here Memory is\nthe handmaid of Faith. The whole process of the Exodus and conquest of\nCanaan is gathered up as one great \"work\" of God's hand. The former\ninhabitants of the land were uprooted like old trees, to give room for\nplanting the \"vine out of Egypt.\" Two stages in the settlement are\ndistinguished in ver. 2: first came the \"planting\" and next the growth;\nfor the phrase \"didst spread them forth\" carries on the metaphor of\nthe tree, and expresses the extension of its roots and branches. The\nascription of victory to God is made more emphatic by the negatives in\nver. 3, which take away all credit of it from the people's own weapons\nor strength. The consciousness of our own impotence must accompany\nadequate recognition of God's agency in our deliverances. The conceit\nof our own power blinds our vision of His working hand. But what moved\nHis power? No merit of man's, but the infinite free grace of God's\nheart. \"The light of Thy face\" is the symbol of God's loving regard,\nand the deepest truth as to His acts of favour is that they are the\noutcome of His own merciful nature. He is His own motive. \"Thou hadst\ndelight in them\" is the ultimate word, leading us into sacred abysses of\nself-existent and self-originated Deity. The spirit, then, of Israel's\nhistory is contained in these three thoughts: the positive assertion\nof God's power as the reason for their victories; the confirmatory\nnegative, putting aside their own prowess; and the tracing of all God's\nwork for them solely to His unmerited grace.\n\nOn this grand generalisation of the meaning of past centuries a\nprayer is built for their repetition in the prosaic present. The\npsalmist did not think that God was nearer in some majestic past\nthan now. His unchangeableness had for consequence, as he thought,\ncontinuous manifestation of Himself in the same character and relation\nto His people. To-day is as full of God as any yesterday. Therefore\nver. 4 begins with an emphatic recognition of the constancy of the\nDivine nature in that strong expression \"Thou Thyself,\" and with an\nindividualising transition for a moment to the singular in \"my King,\"\nin order to give most forcible utterance to the thought that He was\nthe same to each man of that generation as He had been to the fathers.\nOn that unchanging relation rests the prayer, \"Command salvations for\n(lit. _of_) Jacob,\" as if a multitude of several acts of deliverance\nstood before God, as servants waiting to be sent on His errands. Just\nas God (Elohim) takes the place of Jehovah in this second book of\nthe Psalter, so in it Jacob frequently stands for Israel. The prayer\nis no sooner spoken than the confidence in its fulfilment lifts the\nsuppliant's heart buoyantly above present defeat, which will in the\nnext turn of thought insist on being felt. Such is the magic of every\nact of true appeal to God. However dark the horizon, there is light if\na man looks straight up. Thus this psalmist breaks into anticipatory\np\u00e6ans of victory. The vivid image of ver. 5 is taken from the\nmanner of fighting common to wild horned animals, buffaloes and the\nlike, who first prostrate their foe by their fierce charge and then\ntrample him. The individualising \"my\" reappears in ver. 6, where the\nnegation that had been true of the ancestors is made his own by the\ndescendant. Each man must, as his own act, appropriate the universal\nrelation of God to men and make God his God, and must also disown for\nhimself reliance on himself. So he will enter into participation in\nGod's victories. Remembrance of the victorious past and confidence\nin a like victorious future blend in the closing burst of praise\nand vow for its continuance, which vow takes for granted the future\ncontinued manifestation of deliverances as occasions for uninterrupted\nthanksgivings. Well might some long-drawn, triumphant notes from the\ninstruments prolong the impression of the jubilant words.\n\nThe song drops in the second part (vv. 9-16) from these clear heights\nwith lyric suddenness. The grim facts of defeat and consequent\nexposure to mocking laughter from enemies force themselves into\nsight, and seem utterly to contradict the preceding verses. But the\nfirst part speaks with the voice of faith, and the second with that\nof sense, and these two may sound in very close sequence or even\nsimultaneously. In ver. 9 the two verbs are united by the absence of\n\"us\" with the first; and the difference of tense in the Hebrew brings\nout the dependence of the second on the first, as effect and cause.\nGod's rejection is the reason for the nation's disgrace by defeat.\nIn the subsequent verses the thoughts of rejection and disgrace are\nexpanded, the former in ver. 9 _b_ to ver. 12, and the latter in vv.\n13-16. The poet paints with few strokes the whole disastrous rout. We\nsee the fated band going out to battle, with no Pillar of Cloud or Ark\nof the Covenant at their head. They have but their own weapons and\nsinews to depend on--not, as of old, a Divine Captain. No description\nof a fight under such conditions is needed, for it can have only one\nissue; and so the next clause shows panic-struck flight. Whoever goes\ninto battle without God comes out of it without victory. Next follows\nplundering, as was the savage wont of these times, and there is no\nforce to oppose the spoilers. The routed fugitives are defenceless and\nunresisting as sheep, and their fate is to be devoured, or possibly\nthe expression \"sheep for food\" may be substantially equivalent to\n\"sheep for the slaughter\" (ver. 22), and may refer to the usual\nbutchery of a defeated army. Some of them are slain and others carried\noff as slaves. The precise rendering of ver. 12 _b_ is doubtful.\nCalvin, and, among the moderns, Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch, Cheyne,\ntake it to mean \"Thou didst not set their prices high.\" Others, such\nas Hupfeld, Baethgen, etc., adhere to the rendering, \"Thou didst not\nincrease [Thy wealth] by their price.\" The general sense is clear, and\nas bold as clear. It is almost sarcasm, directed against the Divine\ndealings: little has He gained by letting His flock be devoured and\nscattered. Hupfeld attaches to the bitter saying a deep meaning:\nnamely, that the \"sale\" did not take place \"for the sake of profit\nor other external worldly ends, as is the case with men, but from\nhigher disciplinary grounds of the Divine government--namely, simply\nas punishment for their sins, for their improvement.\" Rather it may\nindicate the dishonour accruing to the God, according to the ideas\nof the old world, when His votaries were defeated; or it may be the\nbitter reflection, \"We can be of little worth in our Shepherd's eyes\nwhen He parts with us so easily.\" If there is any hint of tarnish\nadhering to the name of God by His people's defeat, the passage to the\nsecond main idea of this part is the easier.\n\nDefeat brings dishonour. The nearer nations, such as Edomites,\nAmmonites, and other ancestral foes, are ready with their gibes. The\nmore distant peoples make a proverb out of the tragedy, and nod their\nheads in triumph and scorn. The cowering creature, in the middle of\nthis ring of mockers, is covered with shame as he hears the babel of\nheartless jests at his expense, and steals a glance at the fierce\nfaces round him.\n\nIt is difficult to find historical facts corresponding with this\npicture. Even if the feature of selling into captivity is treated\nas metaphor, the rest of the picture needs some pressure to be made\nto fit the conditions of the Maccabean struggle, to which alone the\nsubsequent avowals of faithfulness to God as the cause of calamity\nanswer. For there were no such periods of disgraceful defeat and utter\ndevastation when once that heroic revolt had begun. The third part of\nthe psalm is in full accord with the religious consciousness of that\nIndian summer of national glories; but it must be acknowledged that\nthe state of things described in this second part does not fit quite\nsmoothly into the hypothesis of a Maccabean date.\n\nThe third part (vv. 17-22) brings closely together professions of\nrighteousness, which sound strangely in Christian ears, and complaints\nof suffering, and closes with the assertion that these two are cause and\neffect. The sufferers are a nation of martyrs, and know themselves to be\nso. This tone is remarkable when the nation is the speaker; for though\nwe find individuals asserting innocence and complaining of undeserved\nafflictions in many psalms, a declaration of national conformity with\nthe Law is in sharp contradiction both to history and to the uniform\ntone of prophets. This psalmist asserts not only national freedom from\nidolatry, but adherence in heart and act to the Covenant. No period\nbefore the exile was clear of the taint of idol worship and yet darkened\nby calamity. We have no record of any events before the persecutions\nthat roused the Maccabean struggle which answer to the martyr cry of\nver. 22: \"For Thy sake we are killed all the day.\" It may, indeed, be\nquestioned what is the relation in time of the two facts spoken of in\nvv. 17-19. Which comes first, the calamity or the steadfastness? Does\nthe psalmist mean, \"We are afflicted, and yet we are in affliction\ntrue to God,\" or \"We were true to God, and yet are afflicted\"?\nProbably the latter, as in the remainder of this part. \"The place of\njackals\" is apparently the field of defeat referred to in the second\npart, where obscene creatures would gather to feast on the plundered\ncorpses. The Christian consciousness cannot appropriate the psalmist's\nasseverations of innocence, and the difference between them and it\nshould not be slurred over. But, on the other hand, his words should\nnot be exaggerated into charges of injustice against God, nor claims\nof absolute sinlessness. He does feel that present national distresses\nhave not the same origin as past ones had had. There has been no such\nfalling away as to account for them. But he does not arraign God's\ngovernment. He knows why the miseries have come, and that he and his\nfellows are martyrs. He does not fling that fact down as an accusation\nof Providence, but as the foundation of a prayer and as a plea for God's\nhelp. The words may sound daring; still they are not blasphemy, but\nsupplication.\n\nThe fourth part is importunate prayer. Its frank anthropomorphisms of a\nsleeping God, forgetting His people, surely need little defence. Sleep\nwithdraws from knowledge of and action on the external world, and hence\nis attributed to God, when He allows evils to run unchecked. He is said\nto \"awake,\" or, with another figure, to \"arise,\" as if starting from His\nthroned calm, when by some great act of judgment He smites flourishing\nevil into nothingness. Injustice is surely done to these cries of\nthe _Ecclesia pressa_ when they are supposed to be in opposition to\nthe other psalmist's word: \"He that keepeth Israel slumbers not, nor\nsleeps.\" Some commentators call these closing petitions commonplace; and\nso they are. Extreme need and agony of supplication have other things to\nthink of than originality, and so long as sorrows are so commonplace and\nlike each other, the cries of the sorrowful will be very much alike. God\nis pleased with well-worn prayers, which have fitted many lips, and is\nnot so fastidious as some critics.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XLV.\n\n 1 My heart seethes [with] goodly speech:\n I speak my work (poem) to a king:\n My tongue is the pen of a swift scribe.\n\n 2 Thou art fair beyond the sons of men;\n Grace is poured on thy lips:\n Therefore God has blessed thee for ever.\n 3 Gird thy sword on thy thigh, O hero,\n Thy splendour and thy majesty.\n 4 [And [in] thy majesty] press forward, ride on,\n For the help of truth, and meekness-righteousness:\n And thy right hand shall teach thee awe-striking deeds.\n 5 Thine arrows are keen--\n The peoples fall under thee--\n Into the heart of the enemies of the king.\n 6 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and aye:\n 7 A sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.\n Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest iniquity:\n Therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee\n With the oil of gladness above thy fellows.\n 8 Myrrh and aloes [and] cassia [are] all thy robes;\n Out of palaces of ivory, stringed instruments make thee glad.\n 9 Kings' daughters are among thy favourites:\n The consort stands at thy right hand in Ophir gold.\n\n 10 Hearken, O daughter, and behold, and incline thine ear;\n And forget thy people, and thy father's house;\n 11 So shall the king desire thy beauty:\n For he is thy lord; and bow thou down to him.\n 12 And the daughter of Tyre [shall come] with a gift;\n The richest among the peoples shall seek thy favour.\n 13 All glorious is the king's daughter in the inner palace:\n Of cloth of gold is her garment.\n 14 In embroidered robes is she led to the king:\n Maidens behind her, her friends, are brought to thee.\n 15 They are brought with gladness and exultation:\n They enter into the palace of the king.\n\n 16 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children:\n Thou wilt make them princes in all the earth.\n 17 I will commemorate thy name through generation after generation:\n Therefore shall the peoples praise thee for ever and aye.\n\n\nThis is an epithalamion or ode on a king's marriage. The usual\nbewildering variety of conjectures as to his identity meets us in\ncommentaries. The older opinion points to Solomon's marriage to an\nEgyptian princess, to which it is objected that he was not a warrior\nking, as the monarch of the psalm is. Hitzig regards \"daughter of\nTyre,\" in ver. 12, as a vocative, and therefore looks for a king who\nmarried a Tyrian woman. He is obliged to go to the northern kingdom\nto find one, and pitches on Ahab, because Jezebel was the daughter\nof \"a king of the Zidonians,\" and Ahab had an \"ivory house\" (1 Kings\nxxii. 39). It is hard to believe that that wedded pair of evil memory\nare the originals of the lovely portraits in the psalm, or that a\npsalmist would recognise the kingdom of Israel as divinely established\nand to be eternally upheld. Besides, the construction of ver. 12, on\nwhich this theory pivots, is doubtful, and the daughter of Tyre there\nmentioned is more probably one of the bringers of gifts to the bride.\nThe attributes of the king and the promises for his descendants cannot\nbe extended, without incongruity, beyond the Davidic line. Hence\nDelitzsch has selected Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, principally\nbecause his wife, Athaliah, was of Tyrian descent, being Jezebel's\ndaughter, and partly because his father had been a trader, which\naccounts for the allusions to gold of Ophir and ivory. These are\nslender grounds of identification, to say nothing of the miserable\ncontrast which Jehoram's reign--a dreary record of apostasy and\ndefeat, culminating in a tragic death and a dishonoured grave (2\nChron. xxi.)--would present to the psalm. Some commentators have\nthought of the marriage of a Persian king, mainly because the peculiar\nword for _consort_ in ver. 9 is employed for Persian queens (Neh.\nii. 6), and also because the Tyrians were tributary to Persia, and\nbecause the sons of the king are to be \"called princes in all lands,\"\nwhich reminds us of Persian satraps. Ewald finally fixed on Jeroboam\nII. of Israel. Cheyne (\"Orig. of Psalt.\") finds the king of the psalm\nin Ptolemy Philadelphus, the inspirer, as was believed, of the LXX.\ntranslation, whom Josephus and Philo extol. Its author puts this\nidentification only as \"tentative.\" Notwithstanding his anticipatory\nprotest against making Philadelphus' moral character an objection, he\nfeels that it is an objection; for he urges that its darker shades had\nnot yet disclosed themselves, and confesses that \"a haze of illusion\nencompassed our poet,\" who \"overrated this Ptolemy, from taking too\nexternal a view of the Messianic promise, and being flattered by a\nHellenic king's partiality for his people\" (_u.s._, 172). Philadelphus\nafterwards married his sister. His hands were red with blood. Was a\nJewish psalmist likely to take \"up the singing robes of a court poet\"\n(_u.s._) in honour of a Ptolemy, or to transfer the promises to the\nDavidic line to, and to speak of God as the God of, a foreign king? Or\nhow, if he did, came his song to find and keep a place in the Psalter?\nAll these conjectures show the hopelessness of identifying the person\nintended addressed in the psalm. It is said that a knowledge of the\nhistorical allusions in the Psalter is indispensable to enjoying it.\nThey would often be helpful if they could be settled, but that is no\nreason for elevating conjecture to the place of knowledge.\n\nOne reason for the failure of attempts at identification is that the\nlanguage is a world too wide for the best and greatest of Jewish\nkings. Much in the psalm applies to a historical occasion, the\nmarriage of some monarch; but there is much that as obviously goes\nbeyond it. Either, then, the psalm is hyperbole, outstripping even\npoetical licence, or there appear in it characteristics of the ideal\nmonarch whom the psalmist knew to be promised to Israel. Every king of\nJudah by descent and office was a living prophecy. The singer sees the\nMessiah shining, as it were, through the shadowy form of the earthly\nking, whose limitations and defects, no less than his excellences and\nglories, pointed onwards to a greater than Solomon, in whom the \"sure\nmercies\" promised to David should be facts at last.\n\nThe psalm has two main divisions, prefaced by a prelude (ver. 1), and\nfollowed by prediction of happy issue of the marriage and enduring and\nwide dominion. The two main parts are respectively addressed to the\nroyal bridegroom (vv. 2-9) and to the bride (vv. 10-15).\n\nThe singer lays claim to at least _poetic_ inspiration. His heart\nis seething or boiling over with goodly words, or perhaps with the\njoyful matter which occasions his song--namely, the royal nuptials. He\ndedicates his \"work\" (like the original meaning of \"poem\"--a thing made)\nto \"a king,\" the absence of the definite article suggesting that the\noffice is more prominent than the person. He sings to a king; therefore\nhis strains must be lofty. So full is his heart that the swift words\npour out as the stylus of a rapid writer races over the parchment. The\nprevious musing has been long, the fire has burned slowly; but at last\nall is molten, and rushes out, fluent because fervent.\n\nThe picture of the king begins with two features on which the\nold-world ideal of a monarch laid stress--personal beauty and gracious\nspeech. This monarch is fairer than the sons of men. The note of\nsuperhuman excellence is struck at the outset; and though the surface\nreference is only to physical beauty, that is conceived of as the\nindication of a fair nature which moulds the fair form.\n\n \"For of the soul the body form doth take;\n For soul is form, and doth the body make.\"\n\nThe highest truth of this opening word is realised only in Him of whom\nit was also said, in apparent contradiction, but real harmony with it,\n\"His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than\nthe sons of men.\" The craving for \"whatsoever things are lovely,\" like\nall other desires, has for its object Jesus Christ. Another kingly\nexcellence is sweet courtesy of speech. Possibly, indeed, the \"grace\npoured on the lips\" may mean the gracious smile which moulds their\ncurves, but more likely it refers to the kindly speech that so well\nbecome a mouth that can command. The sweetest examples of such words\nare poor beside \"the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth.\"\nThe psalmist's ideal is that of a gentle king. Where else than in the\nKing whose sceptre was a reed, not an iron rod, has it been fulfilled?\n\n \"Nor know we anything more fair\n Than is the smile upon Thy face.\"\n\nFrom such characteristics the psalmist draws an inference--\"therefore\nGod hath blessed thee for ever\"; for that \"therefore\" does not\nintroduce the result of the preceding excellences, but the cause of\nthem. The psalmist knows that God has blessed the king because he sees\nthese beauties. They are the visible signs and tokens of the Divine\nbenediction. In its reference to Christ, the thought expressed is that\nHis superhuman beauty is to all men the proof of a unique operation of\nGod. Abiding divinity is witnessed by perfect humanity.\n\nThe scene changes with startling suddenness to the fury of battle.\nIn a burst of lyric enthusiasm, forgetting for a moment nuptials and\nwedding marches, the singer calls on the king to array himself for war\nand to rush on the foe. Very striking is this combination of gentleness\nand warrior strength--a union which has been often realised in heroic\nfigures, which is needful for the highest type of either, and which is\nfulfilled in the Lamb of God, who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The\nking is to gird on his sword, and to array himself, as in glittering\narmour, in his splendour and majesty, and, thus arrayed, to mount his\nchariot, or, less probably, to bestride his war-horse, and hurl himself\non the yielding ranks of the enemy. \"Press forward, drive (or _ride_)\non,\" crushing obstacles and forcing a path. But Israel's king could be\nno vulgar conqueror, impelled by lust of dominion or \"glory.\" His sword\nis to be girt on for the help or \"on behalf of truth, meekness, and\nrighteousness.\" These abstracts may be used for concretes--namely, the\npossessors of the qualities named. But the limitation is not necessary.\nThe monarch's warfare is for the spread of these. The Hebrew binds\nthe two latter closely together by an anomalous construction, which\nmay be represented by connecting the two words with a hyphen. They\nare regarded as a double star. Then follows a verse of hurry: \"Thy\nright hand shall teach thee awe-striking deeds.\" He has no allies.\nThe canvas has no room for soldiers. The picture is like the Assyrian\nsculptures, in which the king stands erect and alone in his chariot, a\ngiant in comparison with the tiny figures beneath him. Like Rameses in\nPentaur's great battle-song, \"he pierced the line of the foe; ... he\nwas all alone, no other with him.\" Then follow three abrupt clauses,\nreflecting in their fragmentary character the stress of battle: \"Thine\narrows are sharp--The peoples fall under thee--In the heart of the\nenemies of the king.\" The bright arrow is on the string; it whizzes;\nthe plain is strewed with prostrate forms, the king's shaft in the\nheart of each. It is no mere fanciful spiritualising which sees in this\npicture an adumbration of the merciful warfare of Christ all through\nthe ages. We get to the kernel of the history of Israel when we regard\nit as the preparation for Christ. We understand the _raison d'\u00eatre_ of\nits monarchy when we see in these poor shadows the types of the King\nof men, who was to be all that they should have been and were not. The\nworld-wide conflict for truth and meekness and righteousness is His\nconflict, and the help which is done on earth He doeth it all Himself.\nThe psalm waits for its completion still, and will wait until the day\nwhen the marriage supper of the Lamb is preceded by the last battle and\ncrowning victory of Him who \"in righteousness doth judge and make war.\"\n\nAll the older versions take \"God,\" in ver. 6 _a_, as a vocative,\nwhile most moderns seek another construction or text. \"The sum of the\nmatter is that the only natural rendering of the received text is that\nof the Versions, 'Thy throne, O God'\" (Cheyne, _in loc._). Three\nrenderings have been proposed, all of which are harsh. \"Thy throne\nis the throne of God,\" etc., is Ewald's suggestion, revived from a\nJewish expositor, and adopted widely by many recent commentators,\nand in the margin of the R.V. It is clumsy, and leaves it doubtful\nwhether the stress of the assertion lies on the Divine appointment\nor on the eternal duration of the throne. \"Thy God's throne is,\"\netc., is very questionable grammatically, and extremely harsh. The\nonly other suggested rendering, \"Thy throne is God,\" etc., may fairly\nbe pronounced impossible. If the vocative construction is retained,\nare we shut up to Cheyne's further opinion, that \"the only natural\ninterpretation [is] that of the Targum, 'Thy throne, O Jehovah'\"?\nIf so, we shall be obliged to admit textual corruption; for a\nreference to the eternal duration of Jehovah's dominion is quite\nout of place here, where the parallelism of the next clause demands\nsome characteristic of the king's throne corresponding to that of\nhis sceptre, there stated. But in Exod. xxi. 6, xxii. 8, and Psalm\nlxxxii. 6, the name God (Elohim) is applied to rulers and judges, on\nthe ground, as our Lord puts it, in John x. 35, that \"unto them the\nword of God came\"--_i.e._, that they were theocratic officers. The\ndesignation, therefore, of the king as Elohim is not contrary to the\nHebrew line of thought. It does not predicate divinity, but Divine\npreparation for and appointment to office. The recurrence of Elohim\n(God) in its full Divine signification in the next verse is felt by\nmany to be an insuperable objection to recognising the lower sense\nhere. But the emphatic \"thy God,\" which is appended to the name in\nver. 7, seems expressly intended to distinguish between the uses of\nthe word in the two verses. August, then, as the title is, it proves\nnothing as to the divinity of the person addressed. We recognise\nthe prophetic character of the psalm, and strongly believe that it\npoints onwards to Christ the King. But we cannot take the ascription\nof the title \"O God\" as having reference to His Divine nature. Such\na thought lay far beyond the prophetic horizon. The Old Testament\nusage, which is appealed to in order to justify the translation of\nthe word \"God\" as a vocative, must govern its meaning. The careful\ndistinction drawn by the expressions of ver. 7, between the lower and\nhigher senses of the name, forbid the attempt to find here a premature\nand anomalous statement of deep truth, for which the ages were not\nripe. While we, who know the full truth, may permissibly apply the\npsalmist's words as its expression, we must not forget that in so\ndoing we are going beyond their real meaning. The controversies waged\nover the construction of this verse have sometimes been embittered\nby the supposition that it was a buttress for the truth of Christ's\nDivine nature. But that is a mistake. The psalm goes no further than\nto declare that the king is divinely endowed and appointed. It does\noutline a character fairer than the sons of men, which requires\nindwelling Deity for its realisation in humanity. But it does not\nspeak the decisive word, which alone could solve the mystery of its\nrequirement, by proclaiming the fact of incarnation.\n\nThe perpetuity of the king's throne is guaranteed, not only by his\ntheocratic appointment by God, but by the righteousness of his rule.\nHis sceptre is not a rod of iron, but \"a sceptre of uprightness.\"\nHe is righteous in character as well as in official acts. He \"loves\nrighteousness,\" and therefore cannot but \"hate iniquity.\" His broad\nshield shelters all who love and seek after righteousness, and he\nwars against evil wherever it shows itself. Therefore his throne\nstands firm, and is the world's hope. A singer who had grasped the\ntruth that power divorced from justice could not endure was far in\nadvance of his time. The nations have not yet learned his lesson. The\nvast robber-kingdoms which seemed to give the lie to his faith have\nconfirmed it by their evanescence.\n\nThe king's love of righteousness leads to his being \"anointed with\nthe oil of gladness above his fellows.\" This anointing is not that of\na coronation, but that of a feast. His \"fellows\" may either be other\nkings or his attendant companions at his marriage. The psalmist looks\nas deep into individual life as he has just done into politics, and\nascribes to righteousness lofty powers in that region too. The heart\nwhich loves it will be joyful, whatever befalls. Conformity to the\nhighest ideal known to a man, or, at all events, hearty love thereof,\nleading to efforts after it, is the surest foundation for lasting and\ndeep joy. Since Christ is the fulfilment of the psalmist's picture,\nand perfectly realised the perfection of manhood, the psalmist's words\nhere are most fully applicable to Him.\n\nTrue, He was \"a man of sorrows,\" but beneath His sorrow had abiding\nand central joy, which He bequeathed to us, with the assurance that\nto possess it would make our joy full. His pure manhood was ever in\ntouch with God, and lived in conscious righteousness, and therefore\nthere was ever light within, though there was darkness around. He, the\nsaddest, was likewise the gladdest of men, and \"anointed with the oil\nof joy above His fellows.\"\n\nIn ver. 8 the Psalm reaches its main theme--the marriage of the king.\nThe previous verses have painted his grace of person, his heroic deeds\nin battle, and his righteous rule. Now he stands ready to pass into the\npalace to meet his bride. His festival robes are so redolent of perfumes\nthat they seem to be composed of nothing but woven fragrance. There are\ndifficulties in the rendering of ver. 8 _a_, but that adopted above\nis generally accepted as the most probable. The clause then describes\nthe burst of jubilant music which welcomed and rejoiced the king as he\napproached the \"palaces of ivory,\" where his bride waited his coming.\n\nVer. 9 carries the king into his harem. The inferior wives are\nof royal blood, but nearest him and superior to these is the\nqueen-consort glittering with golden ornaments. This feature of\nthe psalmist's description can only have reference to the actual\nhistorical occasion of the psalm, and warns against overlooking that\nin seeking a prophetic reference to the Christ in every particular.\n\nThe second half of the psalm is an address to the bride and a\ndescription of her beauty and state. The singer assumes a fatherly\ntone, speaking to her as \"daughter.\" She is a foreigner by birth,\nand is called upon to give up all her former associations, with\nwhole-hearted consecration to her new duties. It is difficult to\nimagine Jezebel or Athaliah as the recipient of these counsels, nor\ndoes it seem to the present writer to add anything to the enjoyment\nof the psalm that the person to whom they were addressed should be\nidentified. The exhortation to give up all for love's sake goes to\nthe heart of the sacred relation of husband and wife, and witnesses\nto the lofty ideal of that relation which prevailed in Israel, even\nthough polygamy was not forbidden. The sweet necessity of wedded love\nsubordinates all other love, as a deeper well, when sunk, draws the\nsurface waters and shallower springs into itself.\n\n \"The rich, golden shaft\n Hath killed the flock of all affections else\n That live in her.\"\n\nThe king sung of in the psalm was a type of Christ. Every true\nmarriage is in the same fashion a type of the union of the soul with\nJesus, the lover of all, the bridegroom of humanity. So it is not\narbitrary spiritualising, but recognition of the nobleness of the\nlower love and of its essential similarity with the highest, when the\ncounsel to this bride is regarded as shadowing the duties of the soul\nwedded to Christ. If a heart is really influenced by love to Him,\nthat love will make self-surrender blessed. A child gladly drops toys\nwhen it stretches out its little hand for better gifts. If we are\njoined to Jesus, we shall not be unwilling to \"count all things but\nloss for the excellency of the knowledge\" of Him. Have the terms of\nwedded life changed since this psalm was written? Have the terms of\nChristian living altered since it was said, \"Whosoever he be of you\nthat forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple\"? The\nlaw still remains, \"Daughter, forget thine own people and Thy father's\nhouse.\" The exhortation is followed by a promise: \"So shall the king\ndesire thy beauty.\" The application of these words to the relations\nof Christ and His people carries with it a striking thought that He\nis affected by the completeness of our self-surrender and dependence.\nHe pours love on the unworthy, but that is a different thing from\nthe love with which He responds to such abandonment of self and other\nloves. Holy, noble living will bring a smile into His face and draw\nHim nearer to us.\n\nBut whilst there is all this sweet commerce of love and giving, the\nbride is reminded that the king is her lord, and is to be reverenced\nas well as loved. There is here, no doubt, the influence of an archaic\nmode of regarding marriage and the wife's position. But it still is\ntrue that no woman finds all that her heart needs in her husband,\nunless she can bring her reverence where she has brought her love;\nand that love will not long remain if reverence departs. Nor is the\nwarning less needed in the higher region of the wedlock of the soul\nwith the Saviour. Some types of emotional religion have more to say\nabout love than about obedience. They are full of half-wholesome\napostrophes to a \"dear Lord,\" and are apt to forget the last word in\nthe emphasis which they put on the first. The beggar-maid married to a\nking was full of reverence as well as love; and the souls whom Jesus\nstoops to love and wash and wed are never to forget to blend adoration\nwith approach and obedience with love.\n\nA picture of the reflected honour and influence of the bride follows\nin ver. 12. When she stands by the king's side, those around recognise\nher dignity, and seek to secure her favour. Hupfeld, Hitzig, and\nothers take \"daughter of Tyre\" to be a vocative, addressed to the\nbride, who is, according to their view, a Tyrian princess. But\nthere is a strong grammatical objection to that construction in the\ncopula (\"and\") prefixed to \"daughter,\" which is never so prefixed\nto a vocative unless preceded by another vocative. Delitzsch,\nBaethgen, Perowne, and Cheyne agree in recognising the force of\nthat consideration, and the three former regard the phrase not as a\nvocative, but as a nominative. It is a personification of the Tyrians\naccording to a familiar idiom. The clause is elliptical, and has to\nbe supplemented by supposing that the same verb, which appears in the\nnext clause in the plural, is to be supplied in thought, just as that\nclause requires the supplement of \"with a gift\" from this one. There\nappears to be some flaw in the text, as the clauses are unsymmetrical,\nand possibly the punctuators have marked a hiatus by the sign (Pasek)\nafter the word \"daughter of Tyre.\" To \"seek thy favour\" is literally\nto \"smooth thy face\"--a graphic representation. In the highest region,\nwhich we regard the psalm as adumbrating, the words have fulfilment.\nThe bride standing by her bridegroom, and showing her love and\ndevotion by self-abandonment and reverence, will be glorious in the\neyes of those around. They who manifestly live in loving communion\nwith their Lord will be recognised for what they are, and, though\nsometimes hated therefor, will also be honoured. When the Church has\ncast all but Christ out of its heart, it will conquer the world. \"The\nsons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee.\"\n\nIn vv. 13-15 the bride's apparel and nuptial procession are described.\nShe is \"all glorious within,\"--by which is not meant, as ordinarily\nsupposed, that she possesses an inner beauty of soul, but that the\npoet conceives of her as standing in the inner chamber, where she\nhas been arrayed in her splendour. Krochmal, followed by Graetz\nand Cheyne, changes the text so as to read _corals_, or, as Cheyne\nrenders, _pearls_ (Heb. _p'ninim_), for _within_ (_p'ninah_), and\nthus preserves unity of subject in the verse by removing the local\ndesignation. But the existing reading is intelligible. In ver. 14\nthe marriage procession is described. The words rendered \"embroidered\nrobes\" are by some taken to mean \"tapestry of divers colours\"\n(Perowne), or richly woven carpets spread for the bride to walk on,\nand by others (Hitzig, Riehm) gay-coloured cushions, to which she is\nled in order to sit beside the bridegroom. But the word means apparel\nelsewhere, and either of the other meanings introduces an irrelevant\ndetail of another kind into the picture. The analogy of other\nScripture metaphors leads at once to interpreting the bride's attire\nas symbolic of the purity of character belonging to the Church. The\nApocalypse dresses \"the Lamb's wife\" in \"fine linen, clean and white.\"\nThe psalm arrays her in garments gleaming with gold, which symbolise\nsplendour and glory, and in embroidered robes, which suggest the\npatient use of the slow needle, and the variegated harmony of colour\nattained at last. There is no marriage between Christ and the soul,\nunless it is robed in the beauty of righteousness and manifold graces\nof character. In other places we read that the bride \"made _herself_\nready,\" and also that \"to her was _granted_ that she should be arrayed\nin fine linen, clean and white,\" in which sayings are set forth the\ndouble sources of such a garment of the soul. It is a gift from above.\nIt is \"put on\" by continual effort, based on faith. The picture of the\nhome-coming of the bride follows. She is attended by her maidens, and\nwith them she passes into the palace amid joys and exultation. The\npsalm stops at the threshold. It is not for the singer to draw back\nthe curtains and let in the day. \"The door was shut.\" The presence of\nvirgin companions waiting on the bride no more interferes with the\napplication of the psalm to Christ and His Church than the similar\nrepresentation brings confusion into our Lord's parable of the Ten\nVirgins. Parables and symbols are elastic, and often duplicate their\nrepresentations of the same thing; and such is the case here.\n\nThe closing verses are addressed, not to the bride, but to the king,\nand can only in a very modified way and partially be supposed to pass\nbeyond the Jewish monarch and refer to the true King. Hopes that he\nmight be blessed with fortunate issue of the marriage were quite\nin place in an epithalamion, and the delicacy of the light touch\nwith which this closing note is struck is noteworthy, especially in\ncontrast with the tone of many famous secular songs of similar import.\nBut much straining is needed to extract a spiritual sense from the\nwords. Perowne truly says that it is \"wiser to acknowledge at once\nthe mixed character\" of the psalm, and he quotes a sagacious saying\nof Calvin's to the effect that it is not necessary that every detail\nshould be carefully fitted to Christ. The psalm had a historical\nbasis; and it has also a prophetic meaning, because the king of Israel\nwas himself a type, and Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the ideal\nnever realised by its successive occupants. Both views of its nature\nmust be kept in view in its interpretation; and it need cause no\nsurprise if, at some points, the rind of prose fact is, so to speak,\nthicker than at others, or if certain features absolutely refuse to\nlend themselves to the spiritual interpretation.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XLVI.\n\n 1 God is a refuge and stronghold for us,\n A help in troubles most readily to be found.\n 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth do change,\n And the mountains reel into the heart of the sea.\n 3 Let its waters roar and foam;\n Let mountains shake at its pride. Selah.\n [Jehovah of hosts is with us;\n A high tower for us is Jacob's God.]\n\n 4 [There is] a river--its branches make glad the city of God\n The sanctuary of the tabernacles of the Most High.\n 5 God is in her midst; she shall not be moved:\n God shall help her at the morning dawn.\n 6 Nations roared, kingdoms were moved:\n He gave forth His voice, the earth melts.\n 7 Jehovah of hosts is with us;\n A high tower for us is Jacob's God. Selah.\n\n 8 Come, behold the deeds of Jehovah,\n Who has made desolations in the earth.\n 9 Quelling wars to the end of the earth:\n The bow He breaks, and hews the spear in splinters;\n The chariots He burns in the fire.\n 10 \"Desist, and know that I am God:\n I will be exalted in the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.\"\n 11 Jehovah of hosts is with us;\n A high tower for us is Jacob's God. Selah.\n\n\nThere are two events, one or other of which probably supplies the\nhistorical basis of this and the two following psalms. One is\nJehoshaphat's deliverance from the combined forces of the bordering\nnations (2 Chron. xx.). Delitzsch adopts this as the occasion of\nthe psalm. But the other more usually accepted reference to the\ndestruction of Sennacherib's army is more probable. Psalms xlvi. and\nxlviii. have remarkable parallelisms with Isaiah. The noble contrast\nof the quiet river which makes glad the city of God with a tossing,\nearth-shaking sea resembles the prophet's threatening that the\neffect of refusing the \"waters of Shiloah which go softly\" would be\ninundation by the strong and mighty river, the Assyrian power. And the\nemblem is expanded in the striking language of Isa. xxxiii. 21: \"The\nglorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams;\nwherein shall go no galley with oars.\" Encircled by the flashing\nlinks of that broad moat, Jerusalem sits secure. Again, the central\nthought of the refrain in the psalm, \"The Lord of hosts is with us,\"\nis closely allied to the symbolic name which Isaiah gave as a pledge\nof deliverance, \"Immanuel, God with us.\"\n\nThe structure is simple. The three strophes into which the psalm\nfalls set forth substantially the same thought, that God's presence\nis safety and peace, whatever storms may roar. This general theme\nis exhibited in the first strophe (vv. 1-3) in reference to natural\nconvulsions; in the second (vv. 4-7) in reference to the rage of\nhostile kingdoms; and in the third (vv. 8-11) men are summoned to\nbehold a recent example of God's delivering might, which establishes\nthe truth of the preceding utterances and has occasioned the psalm.\nThe grand refrain which closes the second and third strophes should\nprobably be restored at the end of ver. 3.\n\nIn the first strophe the psalmist paints chaos come again, by the\nfamiliar figures of a changed earth, tottering mountains sinking in\nthe raging sea from which they rose at creation, and a wild ocean\nwith thunderous dash appalling the ear and yeasty foam terrifying\nthe eye, sweeping in triumphant insolence over all the fair earth.\nIt is prosaic to insist on an allegorical meaning for the picture.\nIt is rather a vivid sketch of utter confusion, dashed in with three\nor four bold strokes, an impossible case supposed in order to bring\nout the unshaken calm of those who have God for ark in such a deluge.\nHe is not only a sure refuge and stronghold, but one easy of access\nwhen troubles come. There is little good in a fortress, however\nimpregnable, if it is so difficult to reach that a fugitive might be\nslain a hundred times before he was safe in it. But this high tower,\nwhich no foe can scale, can be climbed at a thought, and a wish lifts\nus within its mighty walls. The psalmist speaks a deep truth, verified\nin the spiritual life of all ages, when he celebrates the refuge of\nthe devout soul as \"most readily to be found.\"\n\nAs the text stands, this strophe is a verse too short, and ver.\n3 drags if connected with \"will not we fear.\" The restoration of\nthe refrain removes the anomaly in the length of the strophe, and\nenables us to detach ver. 3 from the preceding. Its sense is then\ncompleted, if we regard it as the protasis of a sentence of which\nthe refrain is the apodosis, or if, with Cheyne and others, we take\nver. 3, \"Let its waters roar,\" etc.--what of that? \"Jehovah of hosts\nis with us.\" If the strophe is thus completed, it conforms to the\nother two, in each of which may be traced a division into two pairs\nof verses. These two verse-pairs of the first strophe would then be\ninverted parallelism,--the former putting security in God first, and\nsurrounding trouble second, the latter dealing with the same two\nsubjects, but in reversed sequence.\n\nThe second strophe brings a new picture to view with impressive\nsuddenness, which is even more vividly dramatic if the refrain is not\nsupplied. Right against the vision of confusion comes one of peace.\nThe abrupt introduction of \"a river\" as an isolated noun, which\ndislocates grammatical structure, is almost an exclamation. \"There\nis a river\" enfeebles the swing of the original. We might almost\ntranslate, \"Lo! a river!\" Jerusalem was unique among historical cities\nin that it had no great river. It had one tiny thread of water, of\nwhich perhaps the psalmist is thinking. But whether there is here the\nsame contrast between Siloam's gentle flow and the surging waters of\nhostile powers as Isaiah sets forth in the passage already referred\nto (Isa. viii. 6), the meaning of this gladdening stream is the\never-flowing communication of God Himself in His grace. The stream is\nthe fountain in flow. In the former strophe we hear the roar of the\ntroubled waters, and see the firm hills toppling into their depths.\nNow we behold the gentle flow of the river, gliding through the city,\nwith music in its ripples and sunshine in its flash and refreshment\nin its waters, parting into many arms and yet one in diversity, and\nbringing life and gladness wherever it comes. Not with noise nor\ntumult, but in silent communication, God's grace and peace refresh the\nsoul. Power is loud, but Omnipotence is silent. The roar of all the\nbillows is weak when compared with the quiet sliding onwards of that\nstill stream. It has its divisions. As in old days each man's bit of\ngarden was irrigated by a branch led from the stream, so in endless\ndiversity, corresponding to the infinite greatness of the source and\nthe innumerable variety of men's needs, God's grace comes. \"All these\nworketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man\nseverally.\" The streams gladden the city of God with the gladness of\nsatisfied thirsts, with the gladness which comes from the contact of\nthe human spirit with Divine completeness. So supplied, the city may\nlaugh at besiegers. It has unfailing supplies within itself, and the\nenemy may cut off all surface streams, but its \"water shall be sure.\"\n\nSubstantially the same thought is next stated in plain words: \"God is\nin the midst of her.\" And therefore two things follow. One is unshaken\nstability, and another is help at the right time--\"at the turn of the\nmorning.\" \"The Lord is in the midst of her\"--that is a perennial fact.\n\"The Lord shall help her\"--that is the \"grace for seasonable help.\"\nHe, not we, determines when the night shall thin away its blackness\ninto morning twilight. But we may be sure that the presence which is\nthe pledge of stability and calm even in storm and darkness will flash\ninto energy of help at the moment when He wills. The same expression\nis used to mark the time of His looking from the pillar of cloud and\ntroubling the Egyptians, and there may be an allusion to that standing\ninstance of His help here. \"It is not for you to know the times and the\nseasons\"; but this we may know--that the Lord of all times will always\nhelp at the right time; He will not come so quickly as to anticipate our\nconsciousness of need, nor delay so long as to let us be irrevocably\nengulfed in the bog. \"Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.\nWhen He heard _therefore_ that he was sick, He abode two days still in\nthe same place where He was.\" Yet He came in time.\n\nWith what vigour the short, crashing clauses of ver. 6 describe the\nwrath and turbulence of the nations, and the instantaneous dissolving\nof their strength into weakness at a word from those awful lips!\nThe verse may be taken as hypothetical or as historical. In either\ncase we see the sequence of events as by a succession of lightning\nflashes. The hurry of the style, marked by the omission of connecting\nparticles, reflects the swiftness of incident, like _Veni, vidi,\nvici_. The utterance of God's will conquers all. At the sound of that\nvoice stillness and a pause of dread fall on the \"roar\" (same word as\nin ver. 3) of the nations, like the hush in the woods when thunder\nrolls. He speaks, and all meaner sounds cease. \"The lion hath roared,\nwho shall not fear?\" No material vehicle is needed. To every believer\nin God there is an incomprehensible action of the Divine Will on\nmaterial things; and no explanations bridge the gulf recognised in the\npsalmist's broken utterances, which declare sequence and not mode of\noperation: \"He uttered His voice, the earth melted.\"\n\nAgain the triumph of the refrain peals forth, with its musical\naccompaniment prolonging the impression. In it the psalmist gives\nvoice, for himself and his fellows, to their making their own of the\ngeneral truths which the psalm has been declaring. The two names of\nGod set forth a twofold ground for confidence. \"Jehovah of hosts\" is\nall the more emphatic here since the Second Book of the Psalter is\nusually Elohistic. It proclaims God's eternal, self-existent Being,\nand His covenant relation, as well as His absolute authority over the\nranked forces of the universe, personal or impersonal, spiritual or\nmaterial. The Lord of all these legions is with us. When we say \"The\nGod of Jacob,\" we reach back into the past and lay hold of the Helper\nof the men of old as ours. What He has been, He is; what He did, He\nis doing still. The river is full to-day, though the van of the army\ndid long ago drink and were satisfied. The bright waters are still as\npellucid and abundant as then, and the last of the rear-guard will\nfind them the same.\n\nThe third strophe summons to contemplate with fixed attention the\n\"desolations\" made by some great manifestation of God's delivering\npower. It is presupposed that these are still visible. Broken bows,\nsplintered spears, half-charred chariots, strew the ground, and Israel\ncan go forth without fear and feast their eyes on these tokens of\nwhat God has done for them. The language is naturally applied to the\nrelics of Sennacherib's annihilated force. In any case it points to a\nrecent act of God's, the glad surprise of which palpitates all through\nthe psalm. The field of history is littered with broken, abandoned\nweapons, once flourished in hands long since turned to dust; and the\ncity and throne of God against which they were lifted remain unharmed.\nThe voice which melted the earth speaks at the close of the psalm;\nnot now with destructive energy, but in warning, through which tones\nof tenderness can be caught. God desires that foes would cease their\nvain strife before it proves fatal. \"Desist\" is here an elliptical\nexpression, of which the full form is \"Let your hands drop\"; or, as\nwe say, \"Ground your weapons,\" and learn how vain is a contest with\nHim who is God, and whose fixed purpose is that all nations shall\nknow and exalt Him. The prospect hinted at in the last words, of a\nworld submissive to its King, softens the terrors of His destructive\nmanifestations, reveals their inmost purpose, and opens to foes the\npossibility of passing, not as conquerors, but as subjects, and\ntherefore fellow-citizens, through the gate into the city.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XLVII.\n\n 1 All ye peoples, clap [your] hands;\n Shout to God with joyful cry.\n 2 For Jehovah is most High [and] dread,\n A great King over all the earth.\n 3 He subdues peoples under us,\n And nations under our feet,\n 4 He chooses for us our inheritance,\n The pride of Jacob whom He loved. Selah.\n\n 5 God is gone up with a shout,\n Jehovah with trumpet clang.\n 6 Sing with the harp to God, sing with the harp:\n Sing with the harp to our King, sing with the harp.\n 7 For King of all the earth is God:\n Sing with the harp a skilful song.\n 8 God has become King over the nations:\n He has taken His seat on His holy throne.\n\n 9 The princes of the peoples gather themselves together\n [As] a people of the God of Abraham:\n For to God belong the shields of the earth;\n Greatly has He exalted Himself.\n\n\nThe closing thought of Psalm xlvi. is nobly expanded in this jubilant\nsummons to all nations to praise Jehovah as their King. Both psalms have\na similar, and probably the same, historical basis: a Divine act so\nrecent that the tumult of triumph has not yet subsided, and the waves of\njoy still run high. Only in Psalm xlvi. the effect of that God-wrought\ndeliverance is principally regarded as the security and peace of Israel,\nand in this psalm as the drawing of the nations to obey Israel's King,\nand so to join the chorus of Israel's praise. While the psalm has many\nresemblances to the Songs of the King (Psalm xciii. _seqq._), it is\nclearly in its right place here, as forming with the preceding and\nsucceeding psalms a trilogy, occasioned by one great manifestation of\nGod's care for the nation. No event is more appropriate than the usually\naccepted destruction of Sennacherib's army. The psalm has little of\ncomplexity in structure or thought. It is a gush of pure rapture. It\nrises to prophetic foresight, and, by reason of a comparatively small\nhistorical occasion, has a vision of the world-wide expansion of the\nkingdom of God. It falls into two strophes of four verses each, with one\nlonger verse appended to the latter.\n\nIn the first strophe the nations are invited to welcome God as their\nKing, not only because of His Divine exaltation and world-wide\ndominion, but also because of His deeds for \"Jacob.\" The same\nDivine act which in Psalm xlvi. is represented as quelling wars\nand melting the earth, and in Psalm xlviii. as bringing dismay,\npain, and flight, is here contemplated as attracting the nations\nto worship. The psalmist knows that destructive providences have\ntheir gracious aspect, and that God's true victory over men is not\nwon when opposition is crushed and hearts made to quake, but when\nrecognition of His sway and joy in it swell the heart. The quick\nclatter of clapping hands in sign of homage to the King (2 Kings xi.\n12) blends with the shrill cries with which Easterns express joy, in\n\"a tumult of acclaim.\" Hupfeld thinks that to suppose the heathen\ncalled upon to do homage because of the victory for Israel won over\nthem is entirely mistaken. But unless that victory is the reason for\nthe summons, the psalm offers none; and it is surely not difficult\nto suppose that the exhibition of God's power leads to reflection\nwhich issues in recognition of His sovereignty. Vv. 3, 4, seem to\nstate the grounds for the summons in ver. 1. The tenses in these\nverses present a difficulty in the way of taking them for a historical\nretrospect of the conquest and partition of Canaan, which but for\nthat objection would be the natural interpretation. It is possible\nto take them as \"a truth of experience inferred from what had just\nbeen witnessed, the historical fact being expressed not in historical\nform, but generalised and idealised\" (Delitzsch, _in loc._). The\njust accomplished deliverance repeated in essence the wonders of the\nfirst entrance on possession of the land, and revealed the continuous\nworking of the same Divine hand, ever renewing the choice of Jacob's\ninheritance, and ever scattering its enemies. \"The pride of Jacob\"\nis a phrase in apposition with \"our inheritance.\" The Holy Land was\nthe object of \"pride\" to \"Jacob,\" not in an evil sense but in that he\nboasted of it as a precious treasure intrusted to him by God. The root\nfact of all God's ancient and continued blessings is that He \"loved.\"\nHis own heart, not Jacob's deserts, prompted His mercies.\n\nThe second strophe is distinguished from the first by the increased\nfervour of its calls to praise, by its still more exultant rush, and\nby its omission of reference to Jacob. It is wholly concerned with the\npeoples whom it invites to take up the song. As in the former strophe\nthe singer showed to the peoples God working in the world, here he bids\nthem look up and see Him ascending on high. \"Now that He ascended,\nwhat is it but that He also descended first?\" The mighty deliverance\nof which the triumph throbs through this trilogy of p\u00e6ans of victory\nwas God's coming down. Now He has gone back to His throne and seated\nHimself thereon, not as having ceased to work in the world--for He is\nstill King over it all--but as having completed a delivering work.\nHe does not withdraw when He goes up. He does not cease to work here\nbelow when He sits throned in His palace-temple above. The \"shout\" and\n\"voice of a trumpet,\" which accompany that ascent, are borrowed from the\nordinary attendants on a triumphal procession. He soars as in a chariot\nof praises,--from whose lips the psalm does not say, but probably it\nintends Israel to be understood as the singer. To that choir the nations\nare called to join their voices and harps, since God is their King too,\nand not Jacob's only. The word rendered in the A.V. and R.V. (text)\n\"with understanding\" is a noun, the name of a description of psalm,\nwhich occurs in several psalm titles, and is best understood as \"a\nskilful song.\" Ver. 8 gathers up the reasons for the peoples' homage to\nGod. He has \"become King\" over them by His recent act, having manifested\nand established His dominion; and He has now \"sat down on His throne,\"\nas having accomplished His purpose, and as thence administering the\nworld's affairs.\n\nA final verse, of double the length of the others, stands somewhat\napart from the preceding strophe both in rhythm and in thought. It\ncrowns the whole. The invitations to the nations are conceived of as\nhaving been welcomed and obeyed. And there rises before the poet's\neye a fair picture of a great convocation, such as might wait before\na world-ruling monarch's throne on the day of his coronation. The\nprinces of the nations, like tributary kings, come flocking to do\nhomage, \"as if they surely knew their sovereign Lord was by.\"\n\nThe obliteration of distinction between Israel and the nations, by the\nincorporation of the latter, so that \"the peoples\" become part of the\n\"people of the God of Abraham,\" floats before the singer's prophetic\neye, as the end of God's great manifestation of Himself. The two parts\nof that double choir, which the preceding strophes summon to song,\ncoalesce at last, and in grand unison send up one full-throated,\nuniversal melodious shout of praise. \"The shields of the earth\" are\nbest understood as a figurative expression for the princes just spoken\nof, who now at last recognise to whom they belong. Thus God has\nexalted Himself by His deeds; and the result of these deeds is that He\nis greatly exalted by the praise of a world, in which Israel and the\n\"peoples\" dwell as one beneath His sceptre and celebrate His name.\n\nThe psalmist looked far ahead. His immediate experience was as \"a\nlittle window through which he saw great matters.\" The prophecy of\nthe universal spread of God's kingdom and the inclusion in it of the\nGentiles is Messianic; and whether the singer knew that he spoke\nof a fair hope which should not be a fact for weary centuries, or\nanticipated wider and permanent results from that triumph which\ninspired his song, he spake of the Christ, and his strains are true\nprophecies of His dominion. There is no intentional reference in the\npsalm to the Ascension; but the thoughts underlying its picture of\nGod's going up with a shout are the same which that Ascension sets\nforth as facts,--the merciful coming down into humanity of the Divine\nHelper; the completeness of His victory as attested by His return\nthither where He was before; His session in heaven, not as idle nor\nwearied, but as having done what He meant to do; His continuous\nworking as King in the world; and the widening recognition of His\nauthority by loving hearts. The psalmist summons us all to swell with\nour voices that great chorus of praise which, like a sea, rolls and\nbreaks in music round His royal seat.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XLVIII.\n\n 1 Great is Jehovah, and much to be praised,\n In the city of our God, His holy mountain.\n 2 Lovely in loftiness, a joy of all the earth,\n Is Mount Zion, the recesses of the north, the city of the great\n King.\n\n 3 God in her palaces\n Has made Himself known as a high tower.\n 4 For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,\n They marched onwards together.\n 5 They saw, then they were amazed;\n They were terror-struck, they fled.\n 6 Trembling seized them there;\n Pain, as [of] a woman in travail.\n 7 With an east wind\n Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish.\n 8 According as we have heard, so have we seen\n In the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our God:\n God will establish her for ever. Selah.\n\n 9 We have thought, O God, of Thy loving-kindness\n In the midst of Thy Temple.\n 10 According to Thy name, O God,\n So is Thy praise to the ends of the earth:\n Thy right hand is full of righteousness.\n 11 Let Mount Zion rejoice,\n Let the daughters of Judah exult,\n Because of Thy judgments.\n 12 Compass Zion, and walk round her:\n Reckon her towers.\n 13 Give heed to her bulwark,\n Pass through her palaces;\n That ye may tell it to the generation after.\n 14 That such is God, our God:\n For ever and aye He will guide us.\n Al-Muth.\n\n\nThe situation seems the same as in Psalm xlvi., with which this psalm\nhas many points of contact. In both we have the same triumph, the same\nproud affection for the holy city and sanctuary, the same confidence\nin God's dwelling there, the same vivid picturing of the mustering of\nenemies and their rapid dispersion, the same swift movement of style\nin describing that overthrow, the same thought of the diffusion of\nGod's praise in the world as its consequence, the same closing summons\nto look upon the tokens of deliverance, with the difference that, in\nthe former psalm, these are the shattered weapons of the defeated foe,\nand in this the unharmed battlements and palaces of the delivered\ncity. The emphatic word of the refrain in Psalm xlvi. also reappears\nhere in ver. 3. The psalm falls into three parts, of which the first\n(vv. 1, 2) is introductory, celebrating the glory of Zion as the city\nof God; the second (vv. 3-8) recounts in glowing words the deliverance\nof Zion; and the third tells of the consequent praise and trust of the\ninhabitants of Zion (vv. 9-14).\n\nThe general sense of the first part is plain, but ver. 2 is difficult.\n\"Mount Zion\" is obviously subject, and \"lovely in loftiness\" and \"joy\nof all the earth\" predicates; but the grammatical connection of the\ntwo last clauses is obscure. Further, the meaning of \"the sides of\nthe north\" has not been satisfactorily ascertained. The supposition\nthat there is an allusion in the phrase to the mythological mountain\nof the gods, with which Zion is compared, is surely most unnatural.\nWould a Hebrew psalmist be likely to introduce such a parallel, even\nin order to assert the superiority of Zion? Nor is the grammatical\nobjection to the supposition less serious. It requires a good deal\nof stretching and inserting to twist the two words \"the sides of\nthe north\" into a comparison. It is more probable that the clause\nis topographical, describing some part of the city, but what part\nis far from clear. The accents make all the verse after \"earth\" the\nsubject of the two preceding predicates, and place a minor division\nat \"north,\" implying that \"the sides of the north\" is more closely\nconnected with \"Mount Zion\" than with the \"city of the great King,\" or\nthan that last clause is.\n\nFollowing these indications, Stier renders \"Mount Zion [and] the\nnorthern side (_i.e._, the lower city, on the north of Zion), which\ntogether make the city,\" etc. Others see here \"the Holy City regarded\nfrom three points of view\"--viz., \"the Mount Zion\" (the city of\nDavid), \"the sides of the north\" (Mount Moriah and the Temple), \"the\ncity of the great King\" (Jerusalem proper). So Perowne and others.\nDelitzsch takes Zion to be the Temple hill, and \"the sides of the\nnorth\" to be in apposition. \"The Temple hill or Zion, in the narrower\nsense, actually formed the north-eastern corner of ancient Jerusalem,\"\nsays he, and thus regards the subject of the whole sentence as really\ntwofold, not threefold, as appears at first--Zion on the north, which\nis the palace-temple, and Jerusalem at its feet, which is \"the city of\nthe great King.\" But it must be admitted that no interpretation runs\nquite smoothly, though the summary ejection of the troublesome words\n\"the sides of the north\" from the text is too violent a remedy.\n\nBut the main thought of this first part is independent of such minute\ndifficulties. It is that the one thing which made Zion-Jerusalem\nglorious was God's presence in it. It was beautiful in its elevation;\nit was safely isolated from invaders by precipitous ravines, inclosing\nthe angle of the plateau on which it stood. But it was because God\ndwelt there and manifested Himself there that it was \"a joy for all\nthe earth.\" The name by which even the earthly Zion is called is\n\"Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there.\" We are not forcing New Testament\nideas into Old Testament words when we see in the psalm an eternal\ntruth. An idea is one thing; the fact which more or less perfectly\nembodies it is another. The idea of God's dwelling with men had its less\nperfect embodiment in the presence of the Shechinah in the Temple, its\nmore perfect in the dwelling of God in the Church, and will have its\ncomplete when the city \"having the glory of God\" shall appear, and He\nwill dwell with men and be their God. God in her, not anything of her\nown, makes Zion lovely and gladdening. \"Thy beauty was perfect through\nMy comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord.\"\n\nThe second part pictures Zion's deliverance with picturesque vigour\n(vv. 3-8). Ver. 3 sums up the whole as the act of God, by which He has\nmade Himself known as that which the refrain of Psalm xlvi. declared\nHim to be--a refuge, or, literally, a high tower. Then follows the\nmuster of the hosts. \"The kings were assembled.\" That phrase need\nnot be called exaggeration, nor throw doubt on the reference to\nSennacherib's army, if we remember the policy of Eastern conquerors in\nraising their armies from their conquests, and the boast which Isaiah\nputs into the mouth of the Assyrian: \"Are not my princes altogether\nkings?\" They advance against the city. \"They saw,\"--no need to say\nwhat. Immediately they \"were amazed.\" The sight of the city broke on\nthem from some hill-crest on their march. Basilisk-like, its beauty\nwas paralysing, and shot a nameless awe into their hearts. \"They were\nterror-struck; they fled.\" As in Psalm xlvi. 6, the clauses, piled up\nwithout cement of connecting particles, convey an impression of hurry,\nculminating in the rush of panic-struck fugitives. As has been often\nnoticed, they recall C\u00e6sar's _Veni, vidi, vici_; but these kings came,\nsaw, _were_ conquered. No cause for the rout is named. No weapons were\ndrawn in the city. An unseen hand \"smites once, and smites no more\";\nfor once is enough. The process of deliverance is not told; for a\nhymn of victory is not a chronicle. One image explains it all, and\nsignalises the Divine breath as the sole agent. \"Thou breakest the\nships of Tarshish with an east wind\" is not history, but metaphor. The\nunwieldy, huge vessel, however strong for fight, is unfit for storms,\nand, caught in a gale, rolls heavily in the trough of the sea, and is\ndriven on a lee shore and ground to pieces on its rocks. \"God blew\nupon them, and they were scattered,\" as the medal struck on the defeat\nof the Armada had it. In the companion psalm God's uttered voice did\nall. Here the breath of the tempest, which is the breath of His lips,\nis the sole agent.\n\nThe past, of which the nation had heard from its fathers, lives again\nin their own history; and that verification of traditional belief by\nexperience is to a devout soul the chief blessing of its deliverances.\nThere is rapture in the thought that \"As we have heard, so have we\nseen.\" The present ever seems commonplace. The sky is farthest from\nearth right overhead, but touches the ground on the horizon behind\nand before. Miracles were in the past; God will be manifestly in the\nfar-off future, but the present is apt to seem empty of Him. But if\nwe rightly mark His dealings with us, we shall learn that nothing in\nHis past has so passed that it is not present. As the companion psalm\nsays, \"The God of Jacob is _our_ refuge,\" this exclaims, \"As we have\nheard, so have we seen.\"\n\nBut not only does the deliverance link the present with the past, but\nit flings a steady light into the future. \"God shall establish her for\never.\" The city is truly \"the eternal city,\" because God dwells in it.\nThe psalmist was thinking of the duration of the actual Jerusalem, the\nimperfect embodiment of a great idea. But whatever may be its fate,\nthe heart of his confidence is no false vision; for God's city will\noutlast the world. Like the \"maiden fortresses,\" of which there is\none in almost every land, fondly believed never to have been taken by\nenemies, that city is inexpugnable, and the confident answer to every\nthreatening assailant is, \"The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath\ndespised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem\nhath shaken her head at thee.\" \"God will establish her for ever.\" The\npledges of that stability are the deliverances of the past and present.\n\nThe third part (vv. 9-14) deals with the praise and trust of the\ninhabitants of Zion. Deliverance leads to thankful meditation on the\nloving-kindness which it so signally displayed, and the ransomed\npeople first gather in the Temple, which was the scene of God's\nmanifestation of His grace, and therefore is the fitting place for\nthem to ponder it. The world-wide consequences of the great act of\nloving-kindness almost shut out of sight for the moment its bearing\non the worshippers. It is a lofty height to which the song climbs,\nwhen it regards national deliverance chiefly as an occasion for wider\ndiffusion of God's praise. His \"name\" is the manifestation of His\ncharacter in act. The psalmist is sure that wherever that character is\ndeclared praise will follow, because he is sure that that character\nis perfectly and purely good, and that God cannot act but in such\na way as to magnify Himself. That great sea will cast up nothing\nbut pearls. The words carry also a lesson for recipients of Divine\nloving-kindness, teaching them that they misapprehend the purpose of\ntheir blessings, if they confine these to their own well-being and\nlose sight of the higher object--that men may learn to know and love\nHim. But the deliverance not only produces grateful meditation and\nwidespread praise; it sets the mother city and her daughter villages\nastir, like Miriam and her maidens, with timbrel and dance, and\nringing songs which celebrate \"Thy judgments,\" terrible as they were.\nThat dead host was an awful sight, and hymns of praise seem heartless\nfor its dirge. But it is not savage glee nor fierce hatred which\nunderlies the psalmist's summons, and still less is it selfish joy.\n\"Thy judgments\" are to be hymned when they smite some giant evil; and\nwhen systems and their upholders that array themselves against God are\ndrowned in some Red Sea, it is fitting that on its banks should echo,\n\"Sing ye to Jehovah, for He hath triumphed gloriously.\"\n\nThe close of this part may be slightly separated from vv. 9-11. The\ncitizens who have been cooped up by the siege are bidden to come\nforth, and, free from fear, to compass the city without, and pass\nbetween its palaces within, and so see how untouched they are. The\ntowers and bulwark or rampart remain unharmed, with not a stone\nsmitten from its place. Within, the palaces stand without a trace\nof damage to their beauty. Whatever perishes in any assaults, that\nwhich is of God will abide; and, after all musterings of the enemy,\nthe uncaptured walls will rise in undiminished strength, and the\nfair palaces which they guard glitter in untarnished splendour. And\nthis complete exemption from harm is to be told to the generation\nfollowing, that they may learn what a God this God is, and how safely\nand well He will guide all generations.\n\nThe last word in the Hebrew text, which the A.V. and R.V. render\n\"even unto death,\" can scarcely have that meaning. Many attempts have\nbeen made to find a signification appropriate to the close of such\na triumphal hymn as this, but the simplest and most probable course\nis to regard the words as a musical note, which is either attached\nabnormally to the close of the psalm, or has strayed hither from\nthe superscription of Psalm xlix. It is found in the superscription\nof Psalm ix. (\"Al-Muth\") as a musical direction, and has in all\nlikelihood the same meaning here. If it is removed, the psalm ends\nabruptly, but a slight transposition of words and change of the main\ndivision of the verse remove that difficulty by bringing \"for ever\nand aye\" from the first half. The change improves both halves, laying\nthe stress of the first exclusively on the thought that this God is\nsuch a God (or, by another rendering, \"is here,\" _i.e._, in the city),\nwithout bringing in reference to the eternity of His protection, and\ncompleting the second half worthily, with the thought of His eternal\nguidance of the people among whom He dwells.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XLIX.\n\n 1 Hear this, all ye peoples;\n Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:\n 2 Both low-born and high-born,\n Rich and poor together.\n 3 My mouth shall speak wisdom;\n And the meditation of my heart shall utter understanding\n 4 I will bend my ear to a parable:\n I will open my riddle on the harp.\n\n 5 Why should I fear in the days of evil,\n When the malice of my pursuers surrounds me,\n 6 [Even of] those who rely on their riches,\n And boast of their wealth?\n 7 No man can at all redeem a brother;\n He cannot give to God a ransom for him\n 8 (Yea, too costly is the redemption price of their soul,\n And he must leave it alone for ever):\n 9 That he may continue living on for ever,\n And may not see the pit.\n 10 Nay, he must see that the wise die\n The fool and the brutish perish alike,\n And leave to others their riches.\n 11 Their inward thought [is that] their houses [shall last] for ever,\n Their dwellings to generation after generation;\n They call their lands by their own names.\n 12 But man [being] in honour abides not:\n He becomes like the beasts [that] are brought to silence.\n\n 13 This is the lot of them to whom presumptuous confidence belongs:\n And after them men approve their sayings. Selah.\n 14 Like sheep they are folded in Sheol;\n Death shepherds them:\n And the upright shall rule over them in the morning;\n And their form shall be wasted away by Sheol,\n So that it is without a dwelling.\n 15 Surely God shall redeem my soul from the power of Sheol:\n For He shall take me. Selah.\n 16 Fear not thou when a man becomes rich,\n When the glory of his house increases:\n 17 For when he dies he will not take away any [of it];\n His glory shall not go down after him.\n 18 Though in his lifetime he bless his soul\n (And [men] praise thee when thou doest well for thyself)\n 19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers;\n For evermore they see not light.\n 20 Man [who is] in honour, and has not understanding,\n Becomes like the beasts that are brought to silence.\n\n\nThis psalm touches the high-water mark of Old Testament faith in\na future life; and in that respect, as well as in its application\nof that faith to alleviate the mystery of present inequalities and\nnon-correspondence of desert with condition, is closely related to the\nnoble Psalm lxxiii., with which it has also several verbal identities.\nBoth have the same problem before them--to construct a theodicy,\nor \"to vindicate the ways of God to man\"--and both solve it in the\nsame fashion. Both appear to refer to the story of Enoch in their\nremarkable expression for ultimate reception into the Divine presence.\nBut whether the psalms are contemporaneous cannot be determined\nfrom these data. Cheyne regards the treatment of the theme in Psalm\nlxxiii. as \"more skilful,\" and therefore presumably later than\nPsalm xlix., which he would place \"somewhat before the close of the\nPersian period.\" This date rests on the assumption that the amount of\ncertitude as to a future life expressed in the psalm was not realised\nin Israel till after the exile.\n\nAfter a solemn summons to all the world to hear the psalmist's\nutterance of what he has learned by Divine teaching (vv. 1-4), the\npsalm is divided into two parts, each closed with a refrain. The\nformer of these (vv. 5-12) contrasts the arrogant security of the\nprosperous godless with the end that awaits them; while the second\n(vv. 13-20) contrasts the dreary lot of these victims of vain\nself-confidence with the blessed reception after death into God's\nown presence which the psalmist grasped as a certainty for himself,\nand thereon bases an exhortation to possess souls in patience while\nthe godless prosper, and to be sure that their lofty structures will\ntopple into hideous ruin.\n\nThe psalmist's consciousness that he speaks by Divine inspiration,\nand that his message imports all men, is grandly expressed in his\nintroductory summons. The very name which he gives to the world suggests\nthe latter thought; for it means--the world considered as fleeting.\nSince we dwell in so transitory an abode, it becomes us to listen to\nthe deep truths of the psalm. These have a message for high and low,\nfor rich and poor. They are like a keen lancet to let out too great\nfulness of blood from the former, and to teach moderation, lowliness,\nand care for the Unseen. They are a calming draught for the latter,\nsoothing when perplexed or harmed by \"the proud man's contumely.\"\nBut the psalmist calls for universal attention, not only because his\nlessons fit all classes, but because they are in themselves \"wisdom,\"\nand because he himself had first bent his ear to receive them before he\nstrung his lyre to utter them. The brother-psalmist, in Psalm lxxiii.,\npresents himself as struggling with doubt and painfully groping his way\nto his conclusion. This psalmist presents himself as a divinely inspired\nteacher, who has received into purged and attentive ears; in many a\nwhisper from God, and as the result of many an hour of silent waiting,\nthe word which he would now proclaim on the housetops. The discipline\nof the teacher of religious truth is the same at all times. There must\nbe the bent ear before there is the message which men will recognise as\nimportant and true.\n\nThere is no parable in the ordinary sense in the psalm. The word seems\nto have acquired the wider meaning of a weighty didactic utterance, as\nin Psalm lxxviii. 2. The expression \"Open my riddle\" is ambiguous, and\nis by some understood to mean the proposal and by others the solution\nof the puzzle; but the phrase is more naturally understood of solving\nthan of setting a riddle, and if so, the disproportion between the\ncharacters and fortunes of good and bad is the mystery or riddle, and\nthe psalm is its solution.\n\nThe main theme of the first part is the certainty of death, which makes\ninfinitely ludicrous the rich man's arrogance. It is one version of\n\n \"There is no armour against Fate;\n Death lays his icy hand on kings.\"\n\nTherefore how vain the boasting in wealth, when all its heaps cannot\nbuy a day of life! This familiar thought is not all the psalmist's\ncontribution to the solution of the mystery of life's unequal\npartition of worldly good; but it prepares the way for it, and it\nlays a foundation for his refusal to be afraid, however pressed by\ninsolent enemies. Very significantly he sets the conclusion, to which\nobservation of the transiency of human prosperity has led him, at the\nbeginning of his \"parable.\" In the parallel psalm (lxxiii.) the singer\nshows himself struggling from the depths of perplexity up to the sunny\nheights of faith. But here the poet begins with the clear utterance\nof trustful courage, and then vindicates it by the thought of the\nimpotence of wealth to avert death.\n\nThe hostility to himself of the self-confident rich boasters appears\nonly for a moment at first. It is described by a gnarled, energetic\nphrase which has been diversely understood. But it seems clear that\nthe \"iniquity\" (A.V. and R.V.) spoken of in ver. 5 _b_ is not the\npsalmist's sin, for a reference here to his guilt or to retribution\nwould be quite irrelevant; and if it were the consequences of his\nown evil that dogged him at his heels, he had every reason to fear,\nand confidence would be insolent defiance. But the word rendered in\nthe A.V. _heels_, which is retained in the R.V. with a change in\nconstruction, may be a participial noun, derived from a verb meaning\nto trip up or supplant; and this gives a natural coherence to the\nwhole verse, and connects it with the following one. \"Pursuers\" is a\nweak equivalent for the literal \"those who would supplant me,\" but\nconveys the meaning, though in a somewhat enfeebled condition. Ver. 6\nis a continuance of the description of the supplanters. They are \"men\nof this world,\" the same type of man as excites stern disapproval in\nmany psalms: as, for instance, in xvii. 14--a psalm which is closely\nrelated to this, both in its portrait of the godless and its lofty\nhope for the future. It is to be noted that they are not described\nas vicious or God-denying or defying. They are simply absorbed in\nthe material, and believe that land and money are the real, solid\ngoods. They are the same men as Jesus meant when He said that it\nwas hard for those who trusted in riches to enter into the kingdom\nof heaven. It has been thought that the existence of such a class\npoints to a late date for the psalm; but the reliance on riches\ndoes not require large riches to rely on, and may flourish in full\nperniciousness in very primitive social conditions. A small elevation\nsuffices to lift a man high enough above his fellows to make a weak\nhead giddy. Those to whom material possessions are the only good have\na natural enmity towards those who find their wealth in truth and\ngoodness. The poet, the thinker, and, most of all, the religious man,\nare targets for more or less active \"malice,\" or, at all events, are\nrecognised as belonging to another class, and regarded as singular and\n\"unpractical,\" if nothing worse. But the psalmist looks far enough\nahead to see the end of all the boasting, and points to the great\ninstance of the impotence of material good--its powerlessness to\nprolong life. It would be more natural to find in ver. 7 the statement\nthat the rich man cannot prolong his own days than that he cannot do\nso for a \"brother.\" A very slight change in the text would make the\ninitial word of the verse (\"brother\") the particle of asseveration,\nwhich occurs in ver. 15 (the direct antithesis of this verse), and is\ncharacteristic of the parallel Psalm lxxiii. With that reading (Ewald,\nCheyne, Baethgen, etc.) other slight difficulties are smoothed; but\nthe present text is attested by the LXX. and other early versions,\nand is capable of defence. It may be necessary to observe that there\nis no reference here to any other \"redemption\" than that of the body\nfrom physical death. There is a distinct intention to contrast the\nman's limited power with God's, for ver. 15 points back to this verse,\nand declares that God can do what man cannot. Ver. 8 must be taken as\na parenthesis, and the construction carried on from ver. 7 to ver.\n9, which specifies the purpose of the ransom, if it were possible.\nNo man can secure for another continuous life or an escape from the\nnecessity of seeing the pit--_i.e._, going down to the depths of\ndeath. It would cost more than all the rich man's store; wherefore\nhe--the would-be ransomer--must abandon the attempt for ever.\n\nThe \"see\" in ver. 10 is taken by many to have the same object as\nthe \"see\" in ver. 9. \"Yea, he shall see it.\" (So Hupfeld, Hitzig,\nPerowne, and others.) \"The wise die\" will then begin a new sentence.\nBut the repetition is feeble, and breaks up the structure of ver. 10\nundesirably. The fact stares the rich man in the face that no difference\nof position or of character affects the necessity of death. Down into\nthat insatiable maw of Sheol (\"the ever-asking\"?) beauty, wisdom,\nwealth, folly, and animalism go alike, and it still gapes wide for fresh\nfood. But a strange hallucination in the teeth of all experience is\ncherished in the \"inward thought\" of \"the men of this world\"--namely,\nthat their houses shall continue for ever. Like the godless man in Psalm\nx., this rich man has reached a height of false security, which cannot\nbe put into words without exposing its absurdity, but which yet haunts\nhis inmost thoughts. The fond imagination of perpetuity is not driven\nout by the plain facts of life and death. He acts on the presumption\nof permanence; and he whose working hypothesis is that he is to abide\nalways as his permanent home in his sumptuous palace, is rightly set\ndown as believing in the incredible belief that the common lot will not\nbe his. A man's real belief is that which moulds his life, though he has\nnever formulated it in words. This \"inward thought\" either underlies\nthe rich godless man's career, or that career is inexplicable. There\nis an emphatic contrast drawn between what he \"sees\" and what he, all\nthe while, hugs in his secret heart. That contrast is lost if the\nemendation found in the LXX. and adopted by many modern commentators\nis accepted, according to which, by the transposition of a letter, we\nget \"their grave\" instead of \"their inward [thought].\" A reference to\nthe grave comes too early; and if the sense of ver. 11 _a_ is that\n\"their grave (or, the graves) are their houses for ever,\" there is no\nparallelism between ver. 11 _a_ and _c_. The delusion of continuance is,\non the other hand, naturally connected with the proud attempt to make\ntheir names immortal by impressing them on their estates. The language\nof ver. 11 _c_ is somewhat ambiguous; but, on the whole, the rendering\n\"they call their lands by their own names\" accords best with the context.\n\nThen comes with a crash the stern refrain which pulverises all this\ninsanity of arrogance. The highest distinction among men gives no\nexemption from the grim law which holds all corporeal life in its\ngripe. The psalmist does not look, and probably did not see, beyond\nthe external fact of death. He knows nothing of a future for the men\nwhose portion is in this life. As we shall see in the second part of\nthe psalm, the confidence in immortality is for him a deduction from\nthe fact of communion with God here, and, apparently, his bent ear\nhad received no whisper as to any distinction between the godless man\nand the beast in the regard to their deaths. They are alike \"brought\nto silence.\" The awful dumbness of the dead strikes on his heart and\nimagination as most pathetic. \"That skull had a tongue in it, and\ncould sing once,\" and now the pale lips are locked in eternal silence,\nand some ears hunger in vain \"for the sound of a voice that is still.\"\n\nHupfeld would transfer ver. 13, which begins the second part, so that\nit should stand before the refrain, which would then have the Selah,\nthat now comes in peculiarly at the end of ver. 13. But there is nothing\nunnatural in the first verse of the second part summing up the contents\nof the first part; and such a summary is needed in order to bring out\nthe contrast between the godless folly and end of the rich men on the\none hand, and the hope of the psalmist on the other. The construction\nof ver. 13 is disputed. The \"way\" may either mean conduct or fate, and\nthe word rendered in the A.V. and R.V. \"folly\" has also the meaning of\nstupid security or self-confidence. It seems best to regard the sentence\nas not pronouncing again that the conduct described in vv. 6-11 is\nfoolish, but that the end foretold in ver. 12 surely falls on such as\nhave that dogged insensibility to the facts of life which issues in such\npresumptuous assurance. Many commentators would carry on the sentence\ninto ver. 13 _b_, and extend the \"lot\" to those who in after-generations\napprove their sayings. But the paradoxical fact that notwithstanding\neach generation's experience the delusion is obstinately maintained from\nfather to son yields a fuller meaning. In either case the notes of the\nmusical interlude fix attention on the thought, in order to make the\nforce of the following contrast greater. That contrast first deals with\nthe fate of godless men after death. The comparison with the \"beasts\"\nin the refrain may have suggested the sombre grandeur of the metaphor\nin ver. 14 _a_ and _b_: Sheol is as a great fold into which flocks are\ndriven. There Death rules as the shepherd of that dim realm. What a\ncontrast to the fold and the flock of the other Shepherd, who guides\nHis unterrified sheep through the \"valley of the shadow of death\"! The\nwaters of stillness beside which this sad shepherd makes his flock lie\ndown are doleful and sluggish. There is no cheerful activity for these,\nnor any fair pastures, but they are penned in compelled inaction in that\ndreadful fold.\n\nSo far the picture is comparatively clear, but with the next clause\ndifficulties begin. Does the \"morning\" mean only the end of the night\nof trouble, the beginning in this life of the \"upright's\" deliverance,\nor have we here an eschatological utterance? The whole of the rest of\nthe verse has to do with the unseen world, and to confine this clause\nto the temporal triumph of the righteous over their dead oppressors\ndrags in an idea belonging to another sphere altogether. We venture to\nregard the interpretation of these enigmatical words, which sees in\nthem a dim adumbration of a great morning which will yet stream its\nlight into the land of darkness, and in which not this or that upright\nman but the class as a whole shall triumph, as the only one which\nkeeps the parts of the verse in unity. It is part of the \"riddle\" of\nthe psalmist, probably not perfectly explicable to himself. We cannot\nsay that there is here the clear teaching of a resurrection, but there\nis the germ of it, whether distinctly apprehended by the singer or\nnot. The first glimpses of truth in all regions are vague, and the\ngazer does not know that the star he sees is a sun. Not otherwise\ndid the great truths of the future life rise on inspired men of old.\nThis psalmist divined, or, more truly, heard in his bent ear, that\nGood and its lovers should triumph beyond the grave, and that somehow\na morning would break for them. But he knew nothing of any such\nfor the godless dead. And the remainder of the verse expresses in\nenigmatical brevity and obscurity the gloomy fate of those for whom\nthere was no such awakening as he hoped for himself. Very different\nrenderings have been given of the gnarled words. If we adhere to the\naccents, the literal translation is, \"Their form is [destined] for\nthe wasting of Sheol, from a dwelling-place for it,\" or \"without its\ndwelling-place\"--an obscure saying, which is, however, intelligible\nwhen rendered as above. It describes the wasting away of the whole\nman, not merely his corporeal form, in Sheol, of which the corruption\nof the body in the grave may stand as a terrible symbol, so that only\na thin shred of personality remains, which wanders homeless, unclothed\nwith any house either \"of this tabernacle\" or any other, and so found\ndrearily naked. Homeless desolation of bare being, from which all that\nis fair or good has been gnawed away, is awfully expressed in the\nwords. Other renderings, neglecting the accents and amending the text,\nbring out other meanings: such as \"Their form is for corruption; Hades\n[will be] its dwelling-place\" (Jennings and Lowe); \"Their form shall\nwaste away. Sheol shall be their castle for ever\" (so Cheyne in \"Book\nof Psalms\"; in \"Orig. of Psalt.\" _frame_ is substituted for _form_,\nand _palace_ for _castle_. Baethgen gives up the attempt to render the\ntext or to restore it, and takes to asterisks).\n\nTo this condition of dismal inactivity, as of sheep penned in a fold, of\nloss of beauty, of wasting and homelessness, the psalmist opposes the\nfate which he has risen to anticipate for himself. Ver. 15 is plainly\nantithetical, not only to ver. 14, but to ver. 7. The \"redemption\" which\nwas impossible with men is possible with God. The emphatic particle of\nasseveration and restriction at the beginning is, as we have remarked,\ncharacteristic of the parallel Psalm lxiii. It here strengthens the\nexpression of confidence, and points to God as alone able to deliver\nHis servant from the \"hand of Sheol.\" That deliverance is clearly not\nescape from the universal lot, which the psalmist has just proclaimed so\nimpressively as affecting wise and foolish alike. But while he expects\nthat he, too, will have to submit to the strong hand that plucks all men\nfrom their dwelling-places, he has won the assurance that sameness of\noutward lot covers absolute difference in the conditions of those who\nare subjected to it. The faith that he will be delivered from the power\nof Sheol does not necessarily imply the specific kind of deliverance\ninvolved in resurrection, and it may be a question whether that idea was\ndefinitely before the singer's mind. But, without dogmatising on that\ndoubtful point, plainly his expectation was of a life beyond death, the\nantithesis of the cheerless one just painted in such gloomy colours.\nThe very brevity of the second clause of the verse makes it the more\nemphatic.\n\nThe same pregnant phrase occurs again with the same emphasis in Psalm\nlxxiii. 24, \"Thou shalt take me,\" and in both passages the psalmist is\nobviously quoting from the narrative of Enoch's translation. \"God took\nhim\" (Gen. v. 24). He has fed his faith on that signal instance of the\nend of a life of communion with God, and it has confirmed the hopes\nwhich such a life cannot but kindle, so that he is ready to submit to\nthe common lot, bearing in his heart the assurance that, in experiencing\nit, he will not be driven by that grim shepherd into his gloomy fold,\nbut lifted by God into His own presence. As in Psalms xvi. and xvii.,\nwe have here the certainty of immortality filling a devout soul as\nthe result of present experience of communion with God. These great\nutterances as to the two contrasted conditions after death are, in one\naspect, the psalmist's \"riddle,\" in so far as they are stated in \"dark\nand cloudy words,\" but, in another view, are the solution of the painful\nenigma of the prosperity of the godless and the afflictions of the\nrighteous. Fittingly the Selah follows this solemn, great hope.\n\nAs the first part began with the psalmist's encouraging of himself to\nput away fear, so the whole ends with the practical application of the\ntruths declared, in the exhortation to others not to be terrified nor\nbewildered out of their faith by the insolent inflated prosperity of\nthe godless. The lofty height of wholesome mysticism reached in the\nanticipation of personal immortality is not maintained in this closing\npart. The ground of the exhortation is simply the truth proclaimed\nin the first part, with additional emphasis on the thought of the\nnecessary parting from all wealth and pomp. \"Shrouds have no pockets.\"\nAll the external is left behind, and much of the inward too--such as\nhabits, desires, ways of thinking, and acquirements which have been\ndirected to and bounded by the seen and temporal. What is not left\nbehind is character and desert. The man of this world is wrenched from\nhis possessions by death; but he who has made God his portion here\ncarries his portion with him, and does not enter on that other state\n\n \"in utter nakedness,\n But trailing clouds of glory does he come\n _To_ God who is his home.\"\n\nOur Lord's parable of the foolish rich man has echoes of this psalm.\n\"Whose shall those things be?\" reminds us of \"He will not take\naway any of it\"; and \"Soul, thou hast much goods laid up ... take\nthine ease\" is the best explanation of what the psalmist meant by\n\"blessing his soul.\" The godless rich man of the psalm is a selfish\nand godless one. His condemnation lies not in his wealth, but in his\nabsorption in it and reliance upon it, and in his cherishing the\ndream of perpetual enjoyment of it, or at least shunning the thought\nof its loss. Therefore, \"when he dies, he goes to the generation of\nhis fathers,\" who are conceived of as gathered in solemn assembly in\nthat dark realm. \"Generation\" here implies, as it often does, moral\nsimilarity. It includes all the man's predecessors of like temper with\nhimself. A sad company sitting there in the dark! _Going to them_\nis not identical with death nor with burial, but implies at least\nsome rudimentary notion of companionship according to character, in\nthat land of darkness. The _darkness_ is the privation of all which\ndeserves the name of light, whether it be joy or purity. Ver. 18\n_b_ is by some taken to be the psalmist's address to the rich man,\nand by others to be spoken to the disciple who had been bidden not\nto fear. In either case it brings in the thought of the popular\napplause which flatters success, and plays chorus to the prosperous\nman's own self-congratulations. Like ver. 13 _b_, it gibbets the\nservile admiration of such men, as indicating what the praisers would\nfain themselves be, and as a disclosure of that base readiness to\nworship the rising sun, which has for its other side contempt for the\nunfortunate who should receive pity and help.\n\nThe refrain is slightly but significantly varied. Instead of \"abides\nnot,\" it reads \"and has not understanding.\" The alteration in the Hebrew\nis very slight, the two verbs differing only by one letter, and the\nsimilarity in sound is no doubt the reason for the selection of the\nword. But the change brings out the limitations under which the first\nform of the refrain is true, and guards the whole teaching of the psalm\nfrom being taken to be launched at rich men as such. The illuminative\naddition in this second form shows that it is the abuse of riches, when\nthey steal away that recognition of God and of man's mortality which\nunderlies the psalmist's conception of _understanding_, that is doomed\nto destruction like the beasts that are put to silence. The two forms\nof the refrain are, then, precisely parallel to our Lord's two sayings,\nwhen He first declared that it was hard for a rich man to enter the\nkingdom of heaven, and then, in answer to His disciples' surprise, put\nHis dictum in the more definite form, \"How hard is it for them that\ntrust in riches to enter into the kingdom!\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM L.\n\n 1 El, Elohim, Jehovah has spoken, and called the earth\n From the place of sunrise to its going down.\n 2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,\n God has shone.\n 3 Our God will come, and cannot be silent:\n Fire devours before Him,\n And round Him it is tempestuous exceedingly.\n 4 He calls to the heavens above,\n And to the earth, that He may judge His people:\n 5 \"Assemble to Me My favoured ones,\n Who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.\"\n 6 And the heavens declare His righteousness;\n For God--the judge is He. Selah.\n\n 7 Hearken, My people, and I will speak;\n O Israel, and I will witness against thee:\n Elohim, thy God am I.\n 8 Not on [account of] thy sacrifices will I reprove thee;\n Yea, thy burnt offerings are before me continually.\n 9 I will not take a bullock out of thy house,\n Nor out of thy folds he-goats.\n 10 For Mine is every beast of the forest,\n The cattle on the mountains in thousands.\n 11 I know every bird of the mountains,\n And whatever moves on the field is before Me.\n 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee:\n For Mine is the world and its fulness.\n 13 Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or the blood of he-goats shall I\n drink?\n 14 Sacrifice to God thanksgiving;\n And pay thy vows to the Most High:\n 15 And call on Me in the day of trouble.\n I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.\n 16 But to the wicked [man] God saith,\n What hast thou to do to tell My statutes,\n And that thou takest My covenant into thy mouth?\n 17 And [all the while] thou hatest correction,\n And flingest My words behind thee.\n 18 If thou seest a robber, thou art pleased with him;\n And with adulterers is thy portion.\n 19 Thy mouth thou dost let loose for evil,\n And thy tongue weaves deceit.\n 20 Thou sittest [and] speakest against thy brother;\n At thine own mother's son thou aimest a thrust.\n 21 These things hast thou done, and I was silent;\n Thou thoughtest that I was altogether like thyself:\n I will reprove thee, and order [the proofs] before thine eyes.\n\n 22 Consider now this, ye that forget God,\n Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be no deliverer:\n 23 He who offers thanksgiving as sacrifice glorifies Me;\n And he who orders his way [aright]--I will show him the salvation\n of God.\n\n\nThis is the first of the Asaph psalms, and is separated from the other\neleven (Psalms lxxiii.-lxxxiii.) for reasons that do not appear.\nProbably they are no more recondite than the verbal resemblance\nbetween the summons to all the earth at the beginning of Psalm xlix.\nand the similar proclamation in the first verses of Psalm l. The\narrangement of the Psalter is often obviously determined by such\nslight links. The group has certain features in common, of which some\nappear here: _e.g._, the fondness for descriptions of theophanies;\nthe prominence given to God's judicial action; the preference for\nthe Divine names of El, Adonai (the Lord), Ely\u014dn (Most High). Other\npeculiarities of the class--_e.g._, the love for the designation\n\"Joseph\" for the nation, and delight in the image of the Divine\nShepherd--are not found in this psalm. It contains no historical\nallusions which aid in dating it. The leading idea of it--viz., the\ndepreciation of outward sacrifice--is unhesitatingly declared by many\nto have been impossible in the days of the Levite Asaph, who was one\nof David's musical staff. But is it so certain that such thoughts\nwere foreign to the period in which Samuel declared that obedience\nwas better than sacrifice? Certainly the tone of the psalm is that of\nlater prophets, and there is much probability in the view that Asaph\nis the name of the family or guild of singers from whom these psalms\ncame rather than that of an individual.\n\nThe structure is clear and simple. There is, first, a magnificent\ndescription of God's coming to judgment and summoning heaven and earth\nto witness while He judges His people (vv. 1-6). The second part (vv.\n7-15) proclaims the worthlessness of sacrifice; and the third (vv.\n16-21) brands hypocrites who pollute God's statutes by taking them\ninto their lips while their lives are foul. A closing strophe of two\nverses (22, 23) gathers up the double lesson of the whole.\n\nThe first part falls again into two, of three verses each, of which\nthe former describes the coming of the judge, and the latter the\nopening of the judgment. The psalm begins with a majestic heaping\ntogether of the Divine names, as if a herald were proclaiming the\nstyle and titles of a mighty king at the opening of a solemn assize.\nNo English equivalents are available, and it is best to retain the\nHebrew, only noting that each name is separated from the others by the\naccents in the original, and that to render either \"the mighty God\"\n(A.V.) or \"the God of gods\" is not only against that punctuation, but\ndestroys the completeness symbolised by the threefold designation.\nHupfeld finds the heaping together of names \"frosty.\" Some ears will\nrather hear in it a solemn reiteration like the boom of triple\nthunders. Each name has its own force of meaning. El speaks of God\nas mighty; Elohim, as the object of religious fear; Jehovah, as the\nself-existent and covenant God.\n\nThe earth from east to west is summoned, not to be judged, but to\nwitness God judging His people. The peculiarity of this theophany is\nthat God is not represented as coming from afar or from above, but as\nletting His light blaze out from Zion, where He sits enthroned. As His\npresence made the city \"the joy of the whole earth\" (Psalm xlviii.\n2), so it makes Zion the sum of all beauty. The idea underlying the\nrepresentation of His shining out of Zion is that His presence among\nHis people makes certain His judgment of their worship. It is the\npoetic clothing of the prophetic announcement, \"You only have I known\nof all the inhabitants of the earth; therefore will I punish you for\nyour iniquities.\" The seer beholds the dread pomp of the advent of the\nJudge, and describes it with accessories familiar in such pictures:\ndevouring fire is His forerunner, as clearing a path for Him among\ntangles of evil, and wild tempests whirl round His stable throne.\n\"He cannot be silent.\" The form of the negation in the original is\nemotional or emphatic, conveying the idea of the impossibility of His\nsilence in the face of such corruptions.\n\nThe opening of the court or preparation for the judgment follows.\nThat Divine voice speaks, summoning heaven and earth to attend as\nspectators of the solemn process. The universal significance of God's\nrelation to and dealings with Israel, and the vindication of His\nrighteousness by His inflexible justice dealt out to their faults,\nare grandly taught in this making heaven and earth assessors of that\ntribunal. The court having been thus constituted, the Judge on His\nseat, the spectators standing around, the accused are next brought in.\nThere is no need to be prosaically definite as to the attendants who\nare bidden to escort them. His officers are everywhere, and to ask who\nthey are in the present case is to apply to poetry the measuring lines\nmeant for bald prose. It is more important to note the names by which\nthe persons to be judged are designated. They are \"My favoured ones,\nwho have made a covenant with Me by (lit. _over_) sacrifice.\" These\nterms carry an indictment, recalling the lavish mercies so unworthily\nrequited, and the solemn obligations so unthankfully broken. The\napplication of the name \"favoured ones\" to the whole nation is\nnoteworthy. In other psalms it is usually applied to the more devout\nsection, who are by it sharply distinguished from the mass; here\nit includes the whole. It does not follow that the diversity of\nusage indicates difference of date. All that is certainly shown is\ndifference of point of view. Here the ideal of the nation is set\nforth, in order to bring out more emphatically the miserable contrast\nof the reality. Sacrifice is set aside as worthless in the subsequent\nverses. But could the psalmist have given clearer indication that\nhis depreciation is not to be exaggerated into entire rejection of\nexternal rites, than by thus putting in front of it the worth of\nsacrifice when offered aright, as the means of founding and sustaining\ncovenant relations with God? If his own words had been given heed to,\nhis commentators would have been saved the blunder of supposing that\nhe is antagonistic to the sacrificial worship which he thus regards.\n\nBut before the assize opens, the heavens, which had been summoned to\nbehold, declare beforehand His righteousness, as manifested by the\nfact that He is about to judge His people. The Selah indicates that a\nlong-drawn swell of music fills the expectant pause before the Judge\nspeaks from His tribunal.\n\nThe second part (vv. 7-15) deals with one of the two permanent\ntendencies which work for the corruption of religion--namely,\nthe reliance on external worship, and neglect of the emotions of\nthankfulness and trust. God appeals first to the relation into which\nHe has entered with the people, as giving Him the right to judge.\nThere may be a reference to the Mosaic formula, \"I am Jehovah, thy\nGod,\" which is here converted, in accordance with the usage of this\nbook of the Psalter, into \"God (Elohim), thy God.\" The formula which\nwas the seal of laws when enacted is also the warrant for the action\nof the Judge. He has no fault to find with the external acts of\nworship. They are abundant and \"continually before Him.\" Surely this\ndeclaration at the outset sets aside the notion that the psalmist\nwas launching a polemic against sacrifices _per se_. It distinctly\ntakes the ground that the habitual offering of these was pleasing\nto the Judge. Their presentation continually is not reproved, but\napproved. What then is condemned? Surely it can be nothing but\nsacrifice without the thanksgiving and prayer required in vv. 14, 15.\nThe irony of vv. 9-13 is directed against the folly of believing that\nin sacrifice itself God delighted; but the shafts are pointless as\nagainst offerings which are embodied gratitude and trust. The gross\nstupidity of supposing that man's gift makes the offering to be God's\nmore truly than before is laid bare in the fine, sympathetic glance\nat the free, wild life of forest, mountain, and plain, which is all\nGod's possession, and present to His upholding thought, and by the\nside of which man's folds are very small affairs. \"The cattle\" in\nver. 10 are not, as usually, domesticated animals, but the larger wild\nanimals. They graze or roam \"on the mountains of a thousand\"--a harsh\nexpression, best taken, perhaps, as meaning mountains where thousands\n[of the cattle] are. But the omission of one letter gives the more\nnatural reading \"mountains of God\" (_cf._ Psalm xxxvi. 6). It is\nadopted by Olshausen and Cheyne, and smooths the construction, but has\nagainst it its obliteration of the fine thought of the multitudes of\ncreatures peopling the untravelled hills. The word rendered \"whatever\nmoves\" is obscure; but that meaning is accepted by most. Cheyne in his\nCommentary gives as alternative \"that which comes forth abundantly,\"\nand in \"Orig. of Psalt.,\" 473, \"offspring.\" All these are \"with\nMe\"--_i.e._, present to His mind--a parallel to \"I know\" in the first\nclause of the same verse.\n\nVv. 12, 13, turn the stream of irony on another absurdity involved\nin the superstition attacked--the grossly material thought of God\ninvolved in it. What good do bulls' flesh and goats' blood do to Him?\nBut if these are expressions of thankful love, they are delightsome\nto Him. Therefore the section ends with the declaration that the true\nsacrifice is thanksgiving and the discharge of vows. Men honour God by\nasking and taking, not by giving. They glorify Him when, by calling\non Him in trouble, they are delivered; and then, by thankfulness and\nservice, as well as by the evidence which their experience gives that\nprayer is not in vain, they again glorify Him. All sacrifices are\nGod's before they are offered, and do not become any more His by being\noffered. He neither needs nor can partake of material sustenance. But\nmen's hearts are not His without their glad surrender, in the same\nway as after it; and thankful love, trust, and obedience are as the\nfood of God, sacrifices acceptable, well-pleasing to Him.\n\nThe third part of the psalm is still sterner in tone. It strikes at\nthe other great corruption of worship by hypocrites. As has been often\nremarked, it condemns breaches of the second table of the law, just as\nthe former part may be regarded as dealing with transgressions of the\nfirst. The eighth, seventh, and ninth commandments are referred to in\nvv. 18, 19, as examples of the hypocrites' sins. The irreconcilable\ncontradiction of their professions and conduct is vividly brought out\nin the juxtaposition of \"declare My statutes\" and \"castest My words\nbehind thee.\" They do two opposite things with the same words--at the\nsame time proclaiming them with all lip-reverence, and scornfully\nflinging them behind their backs in their conduct. The word rendered\nin the A.V. \"slanderest\" is better taken as in margin of the R.V.,\n\"givest a thrust,\" meaning to use violence so as to harm or overthrow.\n\nHypocrisy finds encouragement in impunity. God's silence is an\nemphatic way of expressing His patient tolerance of evil unpunished.\nSuch \"long-suffering\" is meant to lead to repentance, and indicates\nGod's unwillingness to smite. But, as experience shows, it is often\nabused, and \"because sentence against an evil work is not executed\nspeedily, the heart of the sons of men is throughly set in them to\ndo evil.\" The gross mind has gross conceptions of God. One nemesis\nof hypocrisy is the dimming of the idea of the righteous Judge.\nAll sin darkens the image of God. When men turn away from God's\nself-revelation, as they do by transgression and most fatally by\nhypocrisy, they cannot but make a God after their own image. Browning\nhas taught us in his marvellous \"Caliban on Setebos\" how a coarse\nnature projects its own image into the heavens and calls it God. God\nmade man in His own likeness. Men who have lost that likeness make\nGod in theirs, and so sink deeper in evil till He speaks. Then comes\nan apocalypse to the dreamer, when there is flashed before him what\nGod is and what he himself is. How terror-stricken the gaze of these\neyes before which God arrays the deeds of a life, seen for the first\ntime in their true character! It will be the hypocrite's turn to keep\nsilence then, and his thought of a complaisant God like himself will\nperish before the stern reality.\n\nThe whole teaching of the psalm is gathered up in the two closing\nverses. \"Ye that forget God\" includes both the superstitious\nformalists and the hypocrites. Reflection upon such truths as those\nof the psalm will save them from else inevitable destruction. \"This\"\npoints on to ver. 23, which is a compendium of both parts of the\npsalm. The true worship, which consists in thankfulness and praise, is\nopposed in ver. 23 _a_ to mere externalisms of sacrifice, as being the\nright way of glorifying God. The second clause presents a difficulty.\nBut it would seem that we must expect to find in it a summing up\nof the warning of the third part of the psalm similar to that of\nthe second part in the preceding clause. That consideration goes\nagainst the rendering in the R.V. margin (adopted from Delitzsch):\n\"and prepares a way [by which] I may show,\" etc. The ellipsis of\nthe relative is also somewhat harsh. The literal rendering of the\nambiguous words is, \"one setting a way.\" Graetz, who is often wild in\nhis emendations, proposes a very slight one here--the change of one\nletter, which would yield a good meaning: \"he that is perfect in his\nway.\" Cheyne adopts this, and it eases a difficulty. But the received\ntext is capable of the rendering given in the A.V., and, even without\nthe natural supplement \"aright,\" is sufficiently intelligible. To\norder one's way or \"conversation\" is, of course, equivalent to giving\nheed to it according to God's word, and is the opposite of the conduct\nstigmatised in vv. 16-21. The promise to him who thus acts is that\nhe shall see God's salvation, both in the narrower sense of daily\ninterpositions for deliverance, and in the wider of a full and final\nrescue from all evil and endowment with all good. The psalm has as\nkeen an edge for modern as for ancient sins. Superstitious reliance\non externals of worship survives, though sacrifices have ceased; and\nhypocrites, with their mouths full of the Gospel, still cast God's\nwords behind them, as did those ancient hollow-hearted proclaimers and\nbreakers of the Law.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LI.\n\n 1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness:\n According to the greatness of Thy compassions blot out my\n transgressions.\n 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,\n And from my sin make me clean.\n 3 For I, I know my transgressions:\n And my sin is before me continually.\n 4 Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,\n And done what is evil in Thine eyes:\n That Thou mightest appear righteous when Thou speakest,\n And clear when Thou judgest.\n\n 5 Behold, in iniquity was I born;\n And in sin did my mother conceive me.\n 6 Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts:\n Therefore in the hidden part make me to know wisdom.\n\n 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:\n Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.\n 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness;\n That the bones Thou hast crushed may exult.\n 9 Hide Thy face from my sins, and all my iniquities blot out.\n\n 10 A clean heart create for me, O God;\n And a steadfast spirit renew within me.\n 11 Cast me not out from Thy presence;\n And Thy holy spirit take not from me.\n 12 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation:\n And with a willing spirit uphold me.\n\n 13 [Then] will I teach transgressors Thy ways;\n And sinners shall return to Thee.\n 14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;\n And my tongue shall joyfully sing Thy righteousness.\n 15 Lord, open my lips;\n And my mouth shall declare Thy praise.\n 16 For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:\n In burnt offering Thou hast no pleasure.\n 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:\n A heart broken and crushed, O God, Thou wilt not despise.\n\n 18 Do good in Thy good pleasure to Zion:\n O build the walls of Jerusalem.\n 19 Then shalt Thou delight in sacrifices of righteousness, burnt\n offering and whole burnt offering:\n Then shall they offer bullocks on Thine altar.\n\n\nThe main grounds on which the Davidic authorship of this psalm is\ndenied are four. First, it is alleged that its conceptions of sin\nand penitence are in advance of his stage of religious development;\nor, as Cheyne puts it, \"David could not have had these ideas\" (\"Aids\nto Dev. Study of Crit.,\" 166). The impossibility depends on a theory\nwhich is not yet so established as to be confidently used to settle\nquestions of date. Again, the psalmist's wail, \"Against Thee only\nhave I sinned,\" is said to be conclusive proof that the wrong done\nto Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah cannot be referred to. But is\nnot _God_ the correlative of _sin_, and may not the same act be\nqualified in one aspect as a crime and in another as a sin, bearing\nin the latter character exclusive relation to God? The prayer in ver.\n18 is the ground of a third objection to the Davidic authorship.\nCertainly it is hopeless to attempt to explain. \"Build the walls of\nJerusalem\" as David's prayer. But the opinion held by both advocates\nand opponents of David's authorship, that vv. 18, 19, are a later\nliturgical addition, removes this difficulty. Another ground on which\nthe psalm is brought down to a late date is the resemblances in it to\nIsa. xl.-lxvi., which are taken to be echoes of the prophetic words.\nThe resemblances are undoubted; the assumption that the psalmist is\nthe copyist is not.\n\nThe personified nation is supposed by most modern authorities to be\nthe speaker; and the date is sometimes taken to be the Restoration\nperiod, before the rebuilding of the walls by Nehemiah (Cheyne, \"Orig.\nof Psalt.,\" 162); by others, the time of the Babylonish exile; and,\nas usual, by some, the Maccabean epoch. It puts a considerable strain\nupon the theory of personification to believe that these confessions\nof personal sin, and longing cries for a clean heart, which so many\ngenerations have felt to fit their most secret experiences, were not\nthe wailings of a soul which had learned the burden of individuality,\nby consciousness of sin, and by realisation of the awful solitude of\nits relation to God. There are also expressions in the psalm which\nseem to clog the supposition that the speaker is the nation with great\ndifficulties--_e.g._, the reference to birth in ver. 5, the prayer for\ninward truth in ver. 6, and for a clean heart in ver. 10. Baethgen\nacknowledges that the two latter only receive their full meaning when\napplied to an individual. He quotes Olshausen, a defender of the\nnational reference, who really admits the force of the objection to\nit, raised on the ground of these expressions, while he seeks to parry\nit by saying that \"it is not unnatural that the poet, speaking in the\nsingular, should, although he writes for the congregation, bring in\noccasional expressions here and there which do not fit the community so\nwell as they do each individual in it.\" The acknowledgment is valuable;\nthe attempt to turn its edge may be left to the reader's judgment.\n\nIn vv. 1-9 the psalmist's cry is chiefly for pardon; in vv. 10-12 he\nprays chiefly for purity; in vv. 13-17 he vows grateful service. Vv.\n18, 19, are probably a later addition.\n\nThe psalm begins with at once grasping the character of God as the\nsole ground of hope. That character has been revealed in an infinite\nnumber of acts of love. The very number of the psalmist's sins\ndrove him to contemplate the yet greater number of God's mercies.\nFor where but in an infinite placableness and loving-kindness could\nhe find pardon? If the Davidic authorship is adopted, this psalm\nfollowed Nathan's assurance of forgiveness, and its petitions are\nthe psalmist's efforts to lay hold of that assurance. The revelation\nof God's love precedes and causes true penitence. Our prayer for\nforgiveness is the appropriation of God's promise of forgiveness. The\nassurance of pardon does not lead to a light estimate of sin, but\ndrives it home to the conscience.\n\nThe petitions of vv. 1, 2, teach us how the psalmist thought of sin.\nThey are all substantially the same, and their repetition discloses\nthe depth of longing in the suppliant. The language fluctuates between\nplural and singular nouns, designating the evil as \"transgressions\" and\nas \"iniquity\" and \"sin.\" The psalmist regards it, first, as a multitude\nof separate acts, then as all gathered together into a grim unity. The\nsingle deeds of wrong-doing pass before him. But these have a common\nroot; and we must not only recognise acts, but that alienation of heart\nfrom which they come--not only sin as it comes out in the life, but as\nit is coiled round our hearts. Sins are the manifestations of sin.\n\nWe note, too, how the psalmist realises his personal responsibility.\nHe reiterates \"my\"--\"_my_ transgressions, _my_ iniquity, _my_ sin.\" He\ndoes not throw blame on circumstances, or talk about temperament or\nmaxims of society or bodily organisation. All these had some share in\nimpelling him to sin; but after all allowance made for them, the deed\nis the doer's, and he must bear its burden.\n\nThe same eloquent synonyms for evil deeds which are found in Psalm\nxxxii. occur again here. \"Transgression\" is literally _rebellion_;\n\"iniquity,\" _that which is twisted_ or _bent_; \"sin,\" _missing a\nmark_. Sin is rebellion, the uprising of the will against rightful\nauthority--not merely the breach of abstract propriety or law, but\nopposition to a living Person, who has right to obedience. The\ndefinition of virtue is obedience to God, and the sin in sin is the\nassertion of independence of God and opposition to His will.\n\nNot less profound is that other name, which regards sin as \"iniquity\"\nor distortion. Then there is a straight line to which men's lives\nshould run parallel. Our life's paths should be like these conquering\nRoman roads, turning aside for nothing, but going straight to their\naim over mountain and ravine, stream or desert. But this man's passion\nhad made for him a crooked path, where he found no end, \"in wandering\nmazes lost.\" Sin is, further, missing an aim, the aim being either the\nDivine purpose for man, the true Ideal of manhood, or the satisfaction\nproposed by the sinner to himself as the result of his sin. In both\nsenses every sin misses the mark.\n\nThese petitions show also how the psalmist thought of forgiveness. As\nthe words for sin give a threefold view of it, so those for pardon set\nit forth in three aspects. \"Blot out\";--that petition conceives of\nforgiveness as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment.\nOur past is a blurred manuscript, full of false and bad things. The\nmelancholy theory of some thinkers is summed up in the despairing\nwords, \"What I have written, I have written.\" But the psalmist knew\nbetter than that; and we should know better than he did. Our souls may\nbecome palimpsests; and, as devotional meditations might be written by\na saint on a parchment that had borne foul legends of false gods, the\nbad writing on them may be obliterated, and God's law be written there.\n\"Wash me thoroughly\" needs no explanation. But the word employed is\nsignificant, in that it probably means washing by kneading or beating,\nnot by simple rinsing. The psalmist is ready to submit to any painful\ndiscipline, if only he may be cleansed. \"Wash me, beat me, tread me\ndown, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, do anything with\nme, if only these foul stains are melted from the texture of my soul.\"\nThe psalmist had not heard of the alchemy by which men can \"wash their\nrobes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb\"; but he held fast\nby God's \"loving-kindness,\" and knew the blackness of his own sin, and\ngroaned under it; and therefore his cry was not in vain. An anticipation\nof the Christian teaching as to forgiveness lies in his last expression\nfor pardon, \"make me clean,\" which is the technical word for the\npriestly act of declaring ceremonial purity, and for the other priestly\nact of making as well as declaring clean from the stains of leprosy.\nThe suppliant thinks of his guilt not only as a blotted record or as a\npolluted robe, but as a fatal disease, the \"first-born of death,\" and as\ncapable of being taken away only by the hand of the Priest laid on the\nfeculent mass. We know who put out his hand and touched the leper, and\nsaid, \"I will: be thou clean.\"\n\nThe petitions for cleansing are, in ver. 3, urged on the ground of the\npsalmist's consciousness of sin. Penitent confession is a condition of\nforgiveness. There is no need to take this verse as giving the reason\nwhy the psalmist offered his prayer, rather than as presenting a plea\nwhy it should be answered. Some commentators have adopted the former\nexplanation, from a fear lest the other should give countenance to the\nnotion that repentance is a meritorious cause of forgiveness; but that\nis unnecessary scrupulousness. \"Sin is always sin, and deserving of\npunishment, whether it is confessed or not. Still, confession of sin is\nof importance on this account--that God will be gracious to none but to\nthose who confess their sin\" (Luther, quoted by Perowne).\n\nVer. 4 sounds the depths in both its clauses. In the first the\npsalmist shuts out all other aspects of his guilt, and is absorbed\nin its solemnity as viewed in relation to God. It is asked, How\ncould David have thought of his sin, which had in so many ways been\n\"against\" others, as having been \"against Thee, Thee only\"? As has\nbeen noted above, this confession has been taken to demonstrate\nconclusively the impossibility of the Davidic authorship. But surely\nit argues a strange ignorance of the language of a penitent soul,\nto suppose that such words as the psalmist's could be spoken only\nin regard to sins which had no bearing at all on other men. David's\ndeed had been a crime against Bathsheba, against Uriah, against his\nfamily and his realm; but these were not its blackest characteristics.\nEvery crime against man is sin against God. \"Inasmuch as ye have\ndone it unto one of the least of these ... ye have done it unto Me\"\nis the spirit of the Decalogue as well as the language of Jesus. And\nit is only when considered as having relation to God that crimes\nare darkened into sins. The psalmist is stating a strictly true and\nprofound thought when he declares that he has sinned \"against Thee\nonly.\" Further, that thought has, for the time being, filled his whole\nhorizon. Other aspects of his shameful deed will torture him enough\nin coming days, even when he has fully entered into the blessedness\nof forgiveness; but they are not present to his mind now, when the\none awful thought of his perverted relation to God swallows up all\nothers. A man who has never felt that all-engrossing sense of his sin\nas against God only has much to learn.\n\nThe second clause of ver. 4 opens the question whether \"in order that\"\nis always used in the Old Testament in its full meaning as expressing\nintention, or sometimes in the looser signification of \"so that,\"\nexpressing result. Several passages usually referred to on this point\n(_e.g._, Psalm xxx. 12; Exod. xi. 9; Isa. xliv. 9; Hos. viii. 4)\nstrongly favour the less stringent view, which is also in accordance\nwith the genius of the Hebrew race, who were not metaphysicians. The\nother view, that the expression here means \"in order that,\" insists\non grammatical precision in the cries of a penitent heart, and clogs\nthe words with difficulty. If their meaning is that the psalmist's\nsin was intended to show forth God's righteousness in judging, the\nintention must have been God's, not the sinner's; and such a thought\nnot only ascribes man's sin directly to God, but is quite irrelevant\nto the psalmist's purpose in the words. For he is not palliating his\ntransgression or throwing it on Divine predestination (as Cheyne takes\nhim to be doing), but is submitting himself, in profoundest abasement of\nundivided guilt, to the just judgment of God. His prayer for forgiveness\nis accompanied with willingness to submit to chastisement, as all true\ndesire for pardon is. He makes no excuses for his sin, but submits\nhimself unconditionally to the just judgment of God. \"Thou remainest\nthe Holy One; I am the sinner; and therefore Thou mayest, with perfect\njustice, punish me and spurn me from Thy presence\" (Stier).\n\nVv. 5, 6, are marked as closely related by the \"Behold\" at the beginning\nof each. The psalmist passes from penitent contemplation and confession\nof his acts of sin to acknowledge his sinful nature, derived from\nsinful parents. \"Original sin\" is theological terminology for the same\nfacts which science gathers together under the name of \"heredity.\" The\npsalmist is not responsible for later dogmatic developments of the\nidea, but he feels that he has to confess not only his acts but his\nnature. \"A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit.\" The taint is\ntransmitted. No fact is more plain than this, as all the more serious\nobservers of human life and of their own characters have recognised.\nOnly a superficial view of humanity or an inadequate conception of\nmorality can jauntily say that \"all children are born good.\" Theologians\nhave exaggerated and elaborated, as is their wont, and so have made the\nthought repugnant; but the derived sinful bias of human nature is a\nfact, not a dogma, and those who know it and their own share of it best\nwill be disposed to agree with Browning, in finding one great reason for\nbelieving in Biblical religion, that--\n\n \"'Tis the faith that launched point-blank her dart\n At the head of a lie--taught Original Sin,\n The Corruption of Man's Heart.\"\n\nThe psalmist is not, strictly speaking, either extenuating or\naggravating his sin by thus recognising his evil nature. He does\nnot think that sin is the less his, because the tendency has been\ninherited. But he is spreading all his condition before God. In fact,\nhe is not so much thinking of his criminality as of his desperate\nneed. From a burden so heavy and so intertwined with himself none but\nGod can deliver him. He cannot cleanse himself; for self is infected.\nHe cannot find cleansing among men, for they too have inherited the\npoison. And so he is driven to God, or else must sink into despair.\nHe who once sees into the black depths of his own heart will give\nup thereafter all ideas of \"every man his own redeemer.\" That the\npsalmist's purpose was not to minimise his own guilt is clear, not\nonly from the tone of the psalm, but from the antithesis presented by\nthe Divine desire after inward truth in the next verse, which is out\nof place if this verse contains a palliation for sin.\n\nWe can scarcely miss the bearing of this verse on the question of\nwhether the psalm is the confession of an individual penitent or that\nof the nation. It strongly favours the former view, though it does not\nmake the latter absolutely impossible.\n\nThe discovery of inherent and inherited sinfulness brings with it\nanother discovery--that of the penetrating depth of the requirements\nof God's law. He cannot be satisfied with outside conformity in deed.\nThe more intensely conscience realises sin, the more solemnly rises\nbefore it the Divine ideal of man in its inwardness as well as in its\nsweep. Truth within--inward correspondence with His will, and absolute\nsincerity of soul are His desire. But I am \"born in iniquity\": a\nterrible antithesis, and hopeless but for one hope, which dawns over\nthe suppliant like morning on a troubled sea. If we cannot ask God to\nmake us what He wishes us to be, these two discoveries of our nature\nand of His will are open doorways to despair; but he who apprehends\nthem wisely will find in their conjoint operation a force impelling\nhim to prayer, and therefore to confidence. Only God can enable such a\nBeing as man to become such as He will delight in; and since He seeks\nfor truth within, He thereby pledges Himself to give the truth and\nwisdom for which He seeks.\n\nMeditation on the sin which was ever before the psalmist, passes into\nrenewed prayers for pardon, which partly reiterate those already\noffered in vv. 1, 2. The petition in ver. 7 for purging with hyssop\nalludes to sprinkling of lepers and unclean persons, and indicates\nboth a consciousness of great impurity and a clear perception of the\nsymbolic meaning of ritual cleansings. \"Wash me\" repeats a former\npetition; but now the psalmist can venture to dwell more on the\nthought of future purity than he could do then. The approaching answer\nbegins to make its brightness visible through the gloom, and it seems\npossible to the suppliant that even his stained nature shall glisten\nlike sunlit snow. Nor does that expectation exhaust his confidence.\nHe hopes for \"joy and gladness.\" His bones have been crushed--_i.e._,\nhis whole self has been, as it were, ground to powder by the weight\nof God's hand; but restoration is possible. A penitent heart is not\ntoo bold when it asks for joy. There is no real well-founded gladness\nwithout the consciousness of Divine forgiveness. The psalmist closes\nhis petitions for pardon (ver. 9) with asking God to \"hide His face\nfrom his sins,\" so that they be, as it were, no more existent for\nHim, and, by a repetition of the initial petition in ver. 1, for the\nblotting out of \"all mine iniquities.\"\n\nThe second principal division begins with ver. 10, and is a prayer for\npurity, followed by vows of glad service. The prayer is contained in\nthree verses (10-12), of which the first implores complete renewal of\nnature, the second beseeches that there may be no break between the\nsuppliant and God, and the third asks for the joy and willingness to\nserve which would flow from the granting of the desires preceding.\nIn each verse the second clause has \"spirit\" for its leading word,\nand the middle one of the three asks for \"_Thy_ holy spirit.\" The\npetitions themselves, and the order in which they occur, are deeply\nsignificant, and deserve much more elucidation than can be given here.\nThe same profound consciousness of inward corruption which spoke in\nthe former part of the psalm shapes the prayer for renewal. Nothing\nless than a new creation will make this man's heart \"clean.\" His\npast has taught him that. The word employed is always used of God's\ncreative act; and the psalmist feels that nothing less than the power\nwhich brooded over the face of primeval chaos, and evolved thence an\nordered world, can deal with the confused ruin within himself. What\nhe felt that he must have is what prophets promised (Jer. xxiv. 7;\nEzek. xxxvi. 26) and Christ has brought--a new creation, in which,\nwhile personality remains unaffected, and the components of character\ncontinue as before, a real new life is bestowed, which stamps new\ndirections on affections, gives new aims, impulses, convictions, casts\nout inveterate evils, and gradually changes \"all but the basis of the\nsoul.\" A desire for pardon which does not unfold into such longing for\ndeliverance from the misery of the old self is not the offspring of\ngenuine penitence, but only of base fear.\n\n\"A steadfast spirit\" is needful in order to keep a cleansed heart\nclean; and, on the other hand, when, by cleanness of heart, a man\nis freed from the perturbations of rebellious desires and the\nweakening influences of sin, his spirit will be steadfast. The two\ncharacteristics sustain each other. Consciousness of corruption\ndictated the former desire; penitent recognition of weakness and\nfluctuation inspires the latter. It may be observed, too, that the\ntriad of petitions having reference to \"spirit\" has for its central\none a prayer for God's Spirit, and that the other two may be regarded\nas dependent on that. Where God's Spirit dwells, the human spirit in\nwhich it abides will be firm with uncreated strength. His energy,\nbeing infused into a tremulous, changeful humanity, will make it\nstable. If we are to stand fast, we must be stayed on God.\n\nThe group of petitions in ver. 11 is negative. It deprecates a\npossible tragic separation from God, and that under two aspects.\n\"Part me not from Thee; part not Thyself from me.\" The former prayer,\n\"Cast me not out from Thy presence,\" is by some explained according\nto the analogy of other instances of the occurrence of the phrase,\nwhere it means expulsion from the land of Israel; and is claimed,\nthus interpreted, as a clear indication that the psalmist speaks in\nthe name of the nation. But however certainly the expression is thus\nused elsewhere, it cannot, without introducing an alien thought, be so\ninterpreted in its present connection, imbedded in petitions of the\nmost spiritual and individual character: much rather, the psalmist\nis recoiling from what he knows only too well to be the consequence\nof an unclean heart--separation from God, whether in the sense of\nexclusion from the sanctuary, or in the profounder sense, which is\nnot too deep for such a psalm, of conscious loss of the light of\nGod's face. He dreads being, Cain-like, shut out from that presence\nwhich is life; and he knows that, unless his previous prayer for a\nclean heart is answered, that dreary solitude of great darkness must\nbe his lot. The sister petition, \"Take not Thy holy spirit from me,\"\ncontemplates the union between God and him from the other side. He\nregards himself as possessing that Divine spirit; for he knows that,\nnotwithstanding his sin, God has not left him, else he would not have\nthese movements of godly sorrow and yearnings for purity. There is no\nreason to commit the anachronism of supposing that the psalmist had\nany knowledge of New Testament teaching of a personal Divine Spirit.\nBut if we may suppose that he is David, this prayer has special force.\nThat anointing which designated and fitted him for kingly office\nsymbolised the gift of a Divine influence accompanying a Divine call.\nIf we further remember how it had fared with his predecessor, from\nwhom, because of impenitence, \"the Spirit of the Lord departed, and\nan evil spirit from the Lord troubled him,\" we understand how Saul's\nsuccessor, trembling as he remembers his fate, prays with peculiar\nemphasis, \"Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.\"\n\nThe last member of the triad, in ver. 12, looks back to former\npetitions, and asks for restoration of the \"joy of Thy salvation,\"\nwhich had lain like dew on this man before he fell. In this connection\nthe supplication for joy follows on the other two, because the joy\nwhich it desires is the result of their being granted. For what is\n\"Thy salvation\" but the gift of a clean heart and a steadfast spirit,\nthe blessed consciousness of unbroken closeness of communion with God,\nin which the suppliant suns himself in the beams of God's face, and\nreceives an uninterrupted communication of His Spirit's gifts? These\nare the sources of pure joy, lasting as God Himself, and victorious\nover all occasions for surface sorrow. The issue of all these gifts\nwill be \"a willing spirit,\" delighting to obey, eager to serve. If\nGod's Spirit dwells in us, obedience will be delight. To serve God\nbecause we must is not service. To serve Him because we had rather\ndo His will than anything else is the service which delights Him\nand blesses us. The word rendered \"willing\" comes by a very natural\nprocess, to mean nobles. God's servants are princes and lords of\neverything besides, themselves included. Such obedience is freedom.\nIf desires flow with equable motion parallel to God's will, there is\nno sense of restraint in keeping within limits beyond which we do not\ndesire to go. \"I will walk at liberty; for I keep Thy precepts.\"\n\nThe last part of the psalm runs over with joyful vows--first,\nof magnifying God's name (vv. 13-15), and then of offering true\nsacrifices. A man who has passed through such experiences as the\npsalmist's, and has received the blessings for which he prayed, cannot\nbe silent. The instinct of hearts touched by God's mercies is to speak\nof them to others. And no man who can say \"I will tell what He has\ndone for my soul\" is without the most persuasive argument to bring\nto bear on others. A piece of autobiography will touch men who are\nunaffected by elaborate reasonings and deaf to polished eloquence.\nThe impulse and the capacity to \"teach transgressors Thy ways\" are\ngiven in the experience of sin and forgiveness; and if any one has\nnot the former, it is questionable whether he has, in any real sense\nor large measure, received the latter. The prayer for deliverance\nfrom blood-guiltiness in ver. 14 breaks for a moment the flow of\nvows; but only for a moment. It indicates how amid them the psalmist\npreserved his sense of guilt, and how little he was disposed to\nthink lightly of the sins of whose forgiveness he had prayed himself\ninto the assurance. Its emergence here, like a black rock pushing\nits grimness up through a sparkling, sunny sea, is no sign of doubt\nwhether his prayers had been answered; but it marks the abiding sense\nof sinfulness, which must ever accompany abiding gratitude for pardon\nand abiding holiness of heart. It seems hard to believe, as the\nadvocates of a national reference in the psalm are obliged to do, that\n\"blood-guiltiness\" has no special reference to the psalmist's crime,\nbut is employed simply as typical of sin in general. The mention of\nit finds a very obvious explanation on the hypothesis of Davidic\nauthorship, and a rather constrained one on any other.\n\nVer. 16 introduces the reason for the preceding vow of grateful praise,\nas is shown by the initial \"For.\" The psalmist will bring the sacrifices\nof a grateful heart making his lips musical, because he has learned that\nthese, and not ritual offerings, are acceptable. The same depreciation\nof external sacrifices is strongly expressed in Psalm xl. 6, and here,\nas there, is not to be taken as an absolute condemnation of these, but\nas setting them decisively below spiritual service. To suppose that\nprophets or psalmists waged a polemic against ritual observances _per\nse_ misapprehends their position entirely. They do war against \"the\nsacrifice of the wicked,\" against external acts which had no inward\nreality corresponding to them, against reliance on the outward and\nits undue exaltation. The authors of the later addition to this psalm\nhad a true conception of its drift when they appended to it, not as a\ncorrection of a heretical tendency, but as a liturgical addition in full\nharmony with its spirit, the vow to \"offer whole burnt offerings on\"\nthe restored \"altar,\" when God should again build up Zion.\n\nThe psalmist's last words are immortal. \"A heart broken and crushed, O\nGod, Thou wilt not despise.\" But they derive still deeper beauty and\npathos when it is observed that they are spoken after confession has\nbeen answered to his consciousness by pardon, and longing for purity\nby at least some bestowal of it. The \"joy of Thy salvation,\" for which\nhe had prayed, has begun to flow into his heart. The \"bones\" which had\nbeen \"crushed\" are beginning to reknit, and thrills of gladness to\nsteal through his frame; but still he feels that with all these happy\nexperiences contrite consciousness of his sin must mingle. It does not\nrob his joy of one rapture, but it keeps it from becoming careless. He\ngoes safely who goes humbly. The more sure a man is that God has put\naway the iniquity of his sin, the more should he remember it; for the\nremembrance will vivify gratitude and bind close to Him without whom\nthere can be no steadfastness of spirit nor purity of life. The clean\nheart must continue contrite, if it is not to cease to be clean.\n\nThe liturgical addition implies that Jerusalem is in ruins. It cannot\nbe supposed without violence to come from David. It is not needed in\norder to form a completion to the psalm, which ends more impressively,\nand has an inner unity and coherence, if the deep words of ver. 17 are\ntaken as its close.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LII.\n\n 1 Why boastest thou in wickedness, O tyrant?\n God's loving-kindness lasts always.\n 2 Destructions does thy tongue devise;\n Like a sharpened razor, thou framer of deceit!\n 3 Thou lovest evil rather than good;\n A lie rather than speaking righteousness. Selah.\n\n 4 Thou lovest all words that swallow men up,\n Thou deceitful tongue!\n 5 So God shall break thee down for ever,\n Shall lay hold of thee and drag thee out of the tent,\n And root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.\n\n 6 And the righteous shall see and fear,\n And at him shall they laugh.\n 7 \"See! the man that made not God his stronghold,\n And trusted in the abundance of his wealth,\n And felt strong in his evil desire.\"\n\n 8 But I am like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God:\n I trust in the loving-kindness of God for ever and aye.\n 9 I will give Thee thanks for ever, for Thou hast done [this]:\n And I will wait on Thy name before Thy favoured ones, for it is\n good.\n\n\nThe progress of feeling in this psalm is clear, but there is no very\ndistinct division into strophes, and one of the two Selahs does not\nmark a transition, though it does make a pause. First, the poet, with\na few indignant and contemptuous touches, dashes on his canvas an\noutline portrait of an arrogant oppressor, whose weapon was slander\nand his words like pits of ruin. Then, with vehement, exulting\nmetaphors, he pictures his destruction. On it follow reverent awe\nof God, whose justice is thereby displayed, and deepened sense in\nrighteous hearts of the folly of trust in anything but Him. Finally,\nthe singer contrasts with thankfulness his own happy continuance in\nfellowship with God with the oppressor's fate, and renews his resolve\nof praise and patient waiting.\n\nThe themes are familiar, and their treatment has nothing distinctive.\nThe portrait of the oppressor does not strike one as a likeness either\nof the Edomite herdsman Doeg, with whose betrayal of David's asylum\nat Nob the superscription connects the psalm, or of Saul, to whom\nHengstenberg, feeling the difficulty of seeing Doeg in it, refers it.\nMalicious lies and arrogant trust in riches were not the crimes that\ncried for vengeance in the bloody massacre at Nob. Cheyne would bring\nthis group of \"Davidic\" psalms (lii.-lix.) down to the Persian period\n(\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" 121-23). Olshausen, after Theodore of Mopsuestia\n(see Cheyne _loc. cit._) to the Maccabean. But the grounds alleged are\nscarcely strong enough to carry more than the weight of a \"may be\";\nand it is better to recognise that, if the superscription is thrown\nover, the psalm itself does not yield sufficiently characteristic\nmarks to enable us to fix its date. It may be worth considering\nwhether the very absence of any obvious correspondences with David's\ncircumstances does not show that the superscription rested on a\ntradition earlier than itself, and not on an editor's discernment.\n\nThe abrupt question at the beginning reveals the psalmist's long-pent\nindignation. He has been silently brooding over the swollen arrogance\nand malicious lies of the tyrant, till he can restrain himself no\nlonger, and out pours a fiery flood. Evil gloried in is worse than\nevil done. The word rendered in the A.V. and R.V. \"mighty man\" is here\nused in a bad sense, to indicate that he has not only a giant's power,\nbut uses it tyrannously, like a giant. How dramatically the abrupt\nquestion is followed by the equally abrupt thought of the ever-during\nloving-kindness of God! That makes the tyrant's boast supremely absurd,\nand the psalmist's confidence reasonable, even in face of hostile power.\n\nThe prominence given to sins of speech is peculiar. We should have\nexpected high-handed violence rather than these. But the psalmist is\ntracking the deeds to their source; and it is not so much the tyrant's\nwords as his love of a certain kind of words which is adduced as proof\nof his wickedness. These words have two characteristics in addition to\nboastfulness. They are false and destructive. They are, according to\nthe forcible literal meaning in ver. 4, \"words of swallowing.\" They\nare, according to the literal meaning of \"destructions,\" in ver. 2,\n\"yawning gulfs.\" Such words lead to acts which make a tyrant. They\nflow from perverted preference of evil to good. Thus the deeds of\noppression are followed up to their den and birthplace. Part of the\ndescription of the \"words\" corresponds to the fatal effect of Doeg's\nreport; but nothing in it answers to the other part--falsehood. The\npsalmist's hot indignation speaks in the triple, direct address to\nthe tyrant, which comes in each case like a lightning flash at the\nend of a clause (vv. 1, 2, 4). In the second of these the epithet\n\"framing deceit\" does not refer to the \"sharpened razor,\" but to the\ntyrant. If referred to the former, it weakens rather than strengthens\nthe metaphor, by bringing in the idea that the sharp blade misses its\nproper aim, and wounds cheeks instead of shearing off hair. The Selah\nof ver. 3 interrupts the description, in order to fix attention, by a\npause filled up by music, on the hideous picture thus drawn.\n\nThat description is resumed and summarised in ver. 4, which, by the\nSelahs, is closely bound to ver. 5, in order to enforce the necessary\nconnection of sin and punishment, which is strongly underlined by\nthe \"also\" or \"so\" at the beginning of the latter verse. The stern\nprophecy of destruction is based upon no outward signs of failure in\nthe oppressor's might, but wholly on confidence in God's continual\nloving-kindness, which must needs assume attributes of justice when its\nobjects are oppressed. A tone of triumph vibrates through the imagery of\nver. 5, which is not in the same key as Christ has set for us.\n\nIt is easy for those who have never lived under grinding, godless\ntyranny to reprobate the exultation of the oppressed at the sweeping\naway of their oppressors; but if the critics had seen their brethren\nset up as torches to light Nero's gardens, perhaps they would have\nknown some thrill of righteous joy when they heard that he was dead.\nThree strong metaphors describe the fall of this tyrant. He is broken\ndown, as a building levelled with the ground. He is laid hold of, as\na coal in the fire, with tongs (for so the word means), and dragged,\nas in that iron grip, out of the midst of his dwelling. He is uprooted\nlike a tree with all its pride of leafage. Another blast of trumpets\nor clang of harps or clash of cymbals bids the listeners gaze on the\nspectacle of insolent strength laid prone, and withering as it lies.\n\nThe third movement of thought (vv. 6, 7) deals with the effects of\nthis retribution. It is a conspicuous demonstration of God's justice\nand of the folly of reliance on anything but Himself. The fear which\nit produces in the \"righteous\" is reverential awe, not dread lest the\nsame should happen to them. Whether or not history and experience\nteach evil men that \"verily there is a God that judgeth,\" their\nlessons are not wasted on devout and righteous souls. But this is the\ntragedy of life, that its teachings are prized most by those who have\nalready learned them, and that those who need them most consider them\nleast. Other tyrants are glad when a rival is swept off the field, but\nare not arrested in their own course. It is left to \"the righteous\" to\ndraw the lesson which all men should have learned. Although they are\npictured as laughing at the ruin, that is not the main effect of it.\nRather it deepens conviction, and is a \"modern instance\" witnessing to\nthe continual truth of \"an old saw.\" There is one safe stronghold, and\nonly one. He who conceits himself to be strong in his own evil, and,\ninstead of relying on God, trusts in material resources, will sooner\nor later be levelled with the ground, dragged, resisting vainly the\ntremendous grasp, from his tent, and laid prostrate, as melancholy a\nspectacle as a great tree blown down by tempest, with its roots turned\nup to the sky and its arms with drooping leaves trailing on the ground.\n\nA swift turn of feeling carries the singer to rejoice in the contrast\nof his own lot. No uprooting does he fear. It may be questioned\nwhether the words \"in the house of God\" refer to the psalmist or\nto the olive tree. Apparently there were trees in the Temple area\n(Psalm xcii. 13); but the parallel in the next clause, \"in the\nloving-kindness of God,\" points to the reference of the words to the\nspeaker. Dwelling in enjoyment of God's fellowship, as symbolised\nby and realised through presence in the sanctuary, whether it were\nat Nob or in Jerusalem, he dreads no such forcible removal as had\nbefallen the tyrant. Communion with God is the source of flourishing\nand fruitfulness, and the guarantee of its own continuance. Nothing in\nthe changes of outward life need touch it. The mists which lay on the\npsalmist's horizon are cleared away for us, who know that \"for ever\nand aye\" designates a proper eternity of dwelling in the higher house\nand drinking the full dew of God's loving-kindness. Such consciousness\nof present blessedness in communion lifts a soul to prophetic\nrealisation of deliverance, even while no change has occurred in\ncircumstances. The tyrant is still boasting; but the psalmist's\ntightened hold of God enables him to see \"things that are not as\nthough they were,\" and to anticipate actual deliverance by praise for\nit. It is the prerogative of faith to alter tenses, and to say, Thou\nhast done, when the world's grammar would say, Thou wilt do. \"I will\n_wait on_ Thy name\" is singular, since what is done \"in the presence\nof Thy favoured ones\" would naturally be something seen or heard by\nthem. The reading \"I will declare\" has been suggested. But surely the\nattitude of patient, silent expectance implied in \"wait\" may very\nwell be conceived as maintained in the presence of, and perceptible\nby, those who had like dispositions, and who would sympathise and be\nhelped thereby. Individual blessings are rightly used when they lead\nto participation in common thankfulness and quiet trust.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LIII.[1]\n\n 1 The fool says in his heart, There is no God.\n They corrupt _and_ make abominable their _iniquity_;\n There is no one doing good.\n 2 _God_ looketh down from heaven upon the sons of men,\n To see if there is any having discernment seeking after God.\n 3 _Each of them_ is _turned aside_; together they are become putrid;\n There is no one doing good;\n There is not even one.\n 4 Do the workers of iniquity not know\n Who devour my people [as] they devour bread?\n On _God_ they do not call.\n 5 There they feared a [great] fear, _where no fear was_:\n For God _has scattered the bones of him that encamps against thee_;\n _Thou hast_ put _them_ to shame; for God _has rejected them_.\n 6 Oh that the salvations of Israel were come out of Zion!\n When _God_ brings back the captivity of His people,\n May Jacob exult, may Israel be glad!\n\n\nIn this psalm we have an Elohistic recast of Psalm xiv., differing from\nits original in substituting Elohim for Jehovah (four times) and in the\nlanguage of ver. 5. There are also other slight deviations not affecting\nthe sense. For the exposition the reader is referred to that of Psalm\nxiv. It is only necessary here to take note of the divergences.\n\nThe first of these occurs in ver. 1. The forcible rough construction\n\"they corrupt, they make abominable,\" is smoothed down by the\ninsertion of \"and.\" The editor apparently thought that the loosely\npiled words needed a piece of mortar to hold them together, but his\nemendation weakens as well as smooths. On the other hand, he has\naimed at increased energy of expression by substituting \"iniquity\"\nfor \"doings\" in the same clause, which results in tautology and is no\nimprovement. In ver. 3 the word for \"turned aside\" is varied, without\nsubstantial difference of meaning. The alteration is very slight,\naffecting only one letter, and may be due to error in transcription or\nto mere desire to emend. In ver. 4 \"all,\" which in Psalm xiv. precedes\n\"workers of iniquity,\" is omitted, probably as unnecessary.\n\nThe most important changes are in ver. 5, which stands for vv. 5 and\n6 of Psalm xiv. The first is the insertion of \"where no fear was.\"\nThese words may be taken as describing causeless panic, or, less\nprobably, as having a subjective reference, and being equal to \"while\nin the midst of careless security.\" They evidently point to some fact,\npossibly the destruction of Sennacherib's army. Their insertion shows\nthat the object of the alterations was to adapt an ancient psalm as a\nhymn of triumph for recent deliverance, thus altering its application\nfrom evil-doers within Israel to enemies without. The same purpose\nis obvious in the transformations effected in the remainder of this\nverse. Considerable as these are, the recast most ingeniously conforms\nto the sound of the original. If we could present the two versions in\ntabular form, the resemblance would appear more strikingly than we can\nhere bring it out. The first variation--_i.e._, \"scatters\" instead of\n\"in the generation\"--is effected by reading \"pizzar\" for \"b'dhor,\" a\nclear case of intentional assonance. Similarly the last word of the\nverse, \"has rejected them,\" is very near in consonants and sound\nto \"his refuge\" in Psalm xiv. 6. The like effort at retaining the\ngeneral sound of the earlier psalm runs through the whole verse.\nVery significantly the complaint of the former singer is turned into\ntriumph by the later, who addresses the delivered Israel with \"Thou\nhast put them to shame,\" while the other psalm could but address the\n\"fools\" with \"Ye would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted.\" In\nlike manner the tremulous hope of the original, \"God is his refuge,\"\nswells into commemoration of an accomplished fact in \"God has rejected\nthem.\" The natural supposition is that some great deliverance of\nIsrael had just taken place, and inspired this singular attempt to\nfit old words to new needs. Whatever the historical occasion may have\nbeen, the two singers unite in one final aspiration, a sigh of longing\nfor the coming of Israel's full salvation, which is intensified in\nthe recast by being put in the plural (\"salvations\") instead of\nthe singular, as in Psalm xiv., to express the completeness and\nmanifoldness of the deliverance thus yearned for of old, and not yet\ncome in its perfection.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[1] Italics show variations from text of Psalm xiv.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LIV.\n\n 1 O God, by Thy name save me,\n And by Thy might right me.\n 2 O God, hear my prayer;\n Give ear to the words of my mouth.\n 3 For strangers are risen up against me,\n And violent men seek my soul:\n They set not God before them. Selah.\n\n 4 Behold, God is a helper for me:\n The Lord is He that sustains my soul.\n 5 He will requite evil to the liers in wait for me:\n In Thy troth destroy them.\n 6 Of [my own] free impulse will I sacrifice to Thee:\n I will thank Thy name, for it is good.\n 7 For from all distress it has delivered me;\n And my eye has seen [its desire] on my enemies.\n\n\nThe tone and language of this psalm have nothing special. The\nsituation of the psalmist is the familiar one of being encompassed by\nenemies. His mood is the familiar one of discouragement at the sight\nof surrounding perils, which passes through petition into confidence\nand triumph. There is nothing in the psalm inconsistent with the\naccuracy of the superscription, which ascribes it to David, when the\nmen of Ziph would have betrayed him to Saul. Internal evidence does\nnot suffice to fix its date, if the traditional one is discarded. But\nthere seems no necessity for regarding the singer as the personified\nnation, though there is less objection to that theory in this instance\nthan in some psalms with a more marked individuality and more fervent\nexpression of personal emotion, to which it is proposed to apply it.\n\nThe structure is simple, like the thought and expression. The psalm\nfalls into two parts, divided by Selah,--of which the former is\nprayer, spreading before God the suppliant's straits; and the latter\nis confident assurance, blended with petition and vows of thanksgiving.\n\nThe order in which the psalmist's thoughts run in the first part (vv.\n1-3) is noteworthy. He begins with appeal to God, and summons before his\nvision the characteristics in the Divine nature on which he builds his\nhope. Then he pleads for the acceptance of his prayer, and only when\nthus heartened does he recount his perils. That is a deeper faith which\nbegins with what God is, and thence proceeds to look calmly at foes,\nthan that which is driven to God in the second place, as a consequence\nof an alarmed gaze on dangers. In the latter case fear strikes out a\nspark of faith in the darkness; in the former, faith controls fear.\n\nThe name of God is His manifested nature or character, the sum of all\nof Him which has been made known by His word or work. In that rich\nmanifoldness of living powers and splendours this man finds reserves\nof force, which will avail to save him from any peril. That name is\nmuch more than a collection of syllables. The expression is beginning\nto assume the meaning which it has in post-Biblical Hebrew, where\nit is used as a reverential euphemism for the ineffable Jehovah.\nEspecially to God's power does the singer look with hopeful petitions,\nas in ver. 1 _b_. But the whole name is the agent of his salvation.\nNothing less than the whole fulness of the manifested God is enough\nfor the necessities of one poor man; and that prayer is not too\nbold, nor that estimate of need presumptuous, which asks for nothing\nless. Since it is God's \"might\" which is appealed to, to judge the\npsalmist's cause, the judgment contemplated is clearly not the Divine\nestimate of the moral desert of his doings, or retribution to him for\nthese, but the vindication of his threatened innocence and deliverance\nof him from enemies. The reason for the prayer is likewise alleged as\na plea with God to hear. The psalmist prays because he is ringed about\nby foes. God will hear because He is so surrounded. It is blessed to\nknow that the same circumstances in our lot which drive us to God\nincline God to us.\n\n\"Strangers,\" in ver. 3, would most naturally mean foreigners, but\nnot necessarily so. The meaning would naturally pass into that of\nenemies--men who, even though of the psalmist's own blood, behave\nto him in a hostile manner. The word, then, does not negative the\ntradition in the superscription; though the men of Ziph belonged to\nthe tribe of Judah, they might still be called \"strangers.\" The verse\nrecurs in Psalm lxxxvi. 14, with a variation of reading--namely,\n\"proud\" instead of \"strangers.\" The same variation is found here in\nsome MSS. and in the Targum. But probably it has crept in here in\norder to bring our psalm into correspondence with the other, and it\nis better to retain the existing reading, which is that of the LXX.\nand other ancient authorities. The psalmist has no doubt that to hunt\nafter his life is a sign of godlessness. The proof that violent men\nhave not \"set God before them\" is the fact that they \"seek his soul.\"\nThat is a remarkable assumption, resting upon a very sure confidence\nthat he is in such relation to God that enmity to him is sin. The\ntheory of a national reference would make such identification of the\nsinger's cause with God's most intelligible. But the theory that he is\nan individual, holding a definite relation to the Divine purposes and\nbeing for some end a Divine instrument, would make it quite as much\nso. And if David, who knew that he was destined to be king, was the\nsinger, his confidence would be natural. The history represents that\nhis Divine appointment was sufficiently known to make hostility to\nhim a manifest indication of rebellion against God. The unhesitating\nfusion of his own cause with God's could scarcely have been ventured\nby a psalmist, however vigorous his faith, if all that he had to go\non and desired to express was a devout soul's confidence that God\nwould protect him. That may be perfectly and yet it may not follow\nthat opposition to a man is godlessness. We cannot regard ourselves as\nstanding in such a relation; but we may be sure that the name, with\nall its glories, is mighty to save us too.\n\nPrayer is, as so often in the Psalter, followed by immediately\ndeepened assurance of victory. The suppliant rises from his knees,\nand points the enemies round him to his one Helper. In ver. 4 _b_ a\nliteral rendering would mislead. \"The Lord is among the upholders of\nmy soul\" seems to bring God down to a level on which others stand.\nThe psalmist does not mean this, but that God gathers up in Himself,\nand that supremely, the qualities belonging to the conception of an\nupholder. It is, in form, an inclusion of God in a certain class. It\nis, in meaning, the assertion that He is the only true representative\nof the class. Commentators quote Jephthah's plaintive words to his\ndaughter as another instance of the idiom: \"Alas, my daughter, ...\nthou art one of them that trouble me\"--_i.e._, my greatest troubler.\nThat one thought, vivified into new power by the act of prayer, is the\npsalmist's all-sufficient buckler, which he plants between himself and\nhis enemies, bidding them \"behold.\" Strong in the confidence that has\nsprung in his heart anew, he can look forward in the certainty that\nhis adversaries (lit. _those who lie in wait for me_) will find their\nevil recoiling on themselves. The reading of the Hebrew text is, _Evil\nshall return to_; that of the Hebrew margin, adopted by the A.V. and\nR.V., is, _He shall requite evil to_. The meanings are substantially\nthe same, only that the one makes the automatic action of retribution\nmore prominent, while the other emphasises God's justice in inflicting\nit. The latter reading gives increased force to the swift transition\nto prayer in ver. 5 _b_.\n\nThat petition is, like others in similar psalms, proper to the spiritual\nlevel of the Old Testament, and not to that of the New; and it is far\nmore reverent, as well as accurate, to recognise fully the distinction\nthan to try to slur it over. At the same time, it is not to be forgotten\nthat the same lofty consciousness of the identity of his cause with\nGod's, which we have already had to notice, operating here in these\nwishes for the enemies' destruction, gives another aspect to them than\nthat of mere outbursts of private vengeance. That higher aspect is\nmade prominent by the addition \"in Thy troth.\" God's faithfulness to\nHis purposes and promises was concerned in the destruction, because\nthese were pledged to the psalmist's protection. His well-being was so\nintertwined with God's promises that the Divine faithfulness demanded\nthe sweeping away of his foes. That is evidently not the language which\nfits our lips. It implies a special relation to God's plans, and it\nmodifies the character of this apparently vindictive prayer.\n\nThe closing verses of this simple, little psalm touch very familiar\nnotes. The faith which has prayed has grown so sure of answer that\nit already begins to think of the thank-offerings. This is not\nlike the superstitious vow, \"I will give so-and-so if Jupiter\"--or\nthe Virgin--\"will hear me.\" This praying man knows that he is\nheard, and is not so much vowing as joyfully anticipating his glad\nsacrifice. The same incipient personification of the name as in ver.\n1 is very prominent in the closing strains. Thank-offerings--not\nmerely statutory and obligatory, but brought by free, uncommanded\nimpulse--are to be offered to \"Thy name,\" because that name is\ngood. Ver. 7 probably should be taken as going even further in the\nsame direction of personification, for \"Thy name\" is probably to be\ntaken as the subject of \"hath delivered.\" The tenses of the verbs\nin ver. 7 are perfects. They contemplate the deliverance as already\naccomplished. Faith sees the future as present. This psalmist,\nsurrounded by strangers seeking his life, can quietly stretch out a\nhand of faith, and bring near to himself the to-morrow when he will\nlook back on scattered enemies and present, glad sacrifices! That\npower of drawing a brighter future into a dark present belongs not to\nthose who build anticipations on wishes, but to those who found their\nforecasts on God's known purpose and character. _The name_ is a firm\nfoundation for hope. There is no other.\n\nThe closing words express confidence in the enemies' defeat and\ndestruction, with a tinge of feeling that is not permissible to\nChristians. But the supplement, \"my desire,\" is perhaps rather too\nstrongly expressive of wish for their ruin. Possibly there needs no\nsupplement at all, and the expression simply paints the calm security\nof the man protected by God, who can \"look upon\" impotent hostility\nwithout the tremor of an eyelid, because he knows who is his Helper.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LV.\n\n 1 Give ear, O God, to my prayer;\n And hide not Thyself from my entreaty.\n 2 Attend unto me, and answer me:\n I am distracted as I muse, and must groan;\n 3 For the voice of [my] enemy,\n On account of the oppression of the wicked;\n For they fling down iniquity upon me,\n And in wrath they are hostile to me.\n 4 My heart writhes within me:\n And terrors of death have fallen upon me.\n 5 Fear and trembling come upon me,\n Horror wraps me round.\n 6 Then I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove!\n I would fly away, and [there] abide.\n 7 Lo, then would I migrate far away,\n I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah.\n 8 I would hasten my escape\n From stormy wind and tempest.\n\n 9 Swallow [them up], Lord; confuse their tongue:\n For I see violence and strife in the city.\n 10 Day and night they go their rounds upon her walls:\n And iniquity and mischief are in her midst.\n 11 Destructions are in her midst:\n And from her open market-place depart not oppression and deceit.\n 12 For it is not an enemy that reviles me--that I could bear:\n It is not my hater that magnifies himself against me--from him I\n could shelter myself:\n 13 But it is thou, a man my equal,\n My companion, and my familiar friend.\n 14 We who together used to make familiar intercourse sweet,\n And walked to the house of God with the crowd.\n 15 Desolations [fall] on them!\n May they go down alive to Sheol!\n For wickednesses are in their dwelling, in their midst.\n\n 16 As for me, I will cry to God;\n And Jehovah will save me.\n 17 Evening, and morning, and noon will I muse and groan:\n And He will hear my voice.\n 18 He has redeemed my soul in peace, so that they come not near me\n For in great numbers were they round me.\n 19 God will hear, and answer them--\n Even He that sitteth throned from of old-- Selah.\n Them who have no changes\n And who fear not God.\n 20 He has laid his hands on those who were at peace with him:\n He has broken his covenant.\n 21 Smooth are the buttery words of his mouth,\n But his heart is war:\n Softer are his words than oil,\n Yet are they drawn swords.\n 22 Cast upon Jehovah thy burden,\n And He, He will hold thee up:\n He will never let the righteous be moved.\n 23 But Thou, O God, shall bring them down to the depth of the pit:\n Men of blood and deceit shall not attain half their days;\n But as for me, I will trust in Thee.\n\n\nThe situation of the psalmist has a general correspondence with that\nof David in the period of Absalom's rebellion, and the identification\nof the traitorous friend with Ahithophel is naturally suggested. But\nthere are considerable difficulties in the way of taking that view. The\npsalmist is evidently in the city, from which he longs to escape; but\nAhithophel's treachery was not known to David till after his flight.\nWould a king have described his counsellor, however trusted, as \"a man\nmy equal\"? The doubt respecting the identity of the traitor, however,\ndoes not seriously militate against the ordinary view of the date and\noccasion of the psalm, if we suppose that it belongs to the period\nimmediately before the outburst of the conspiracy, when David was still\nin Jerusalem, but seeing the treason growing daily bolder, and already\nbeginning to contemplate flight. The singularly passive attitude which\nhe maintained during the years of Absalom's plotting was due to his\nconsciousness of guilt and his submission to punishment. Hitzig ascribes\nthe psalm to Jeremiah, principally on the ground of the resemblance of\nthe prophet's wish for a lodge in the wilderness (Jer. ix. 2) to the\npsalmist's yearning in vv. 6-8. Cheyne brings it down to the Persian\nperiod; Olshausen, to the Maccabean. The Davidic authorship has at least\nas much to say for itself as any of these conjectures.\n\nThe psalm may be regarded as divided into three parts, in each of which\na different phase of agitated feeling predominates, but not exclusively.\nStrong excitement does not marshal emotions or their expression\naccording to artistic proprieties of sequence, and this psalm is all\nablaze with it. That vehemence of emotion sufficiently accounts for both\nthe occasional obscurities and the manifest want of strict accuracy in\nthe flow of thought, without the assumption of dislocation of parts or\npiecing it with a fragment of another psalm. When the heart is writhing\nwithin, and tumultuous feelings are knocking at the door of the lips,\nthe words will be troubled and heaped together, and dominant thoughts\nwill repeat themselves in defiance of logical continuity. But, still,\ncomplaint and longing sound through the waning, yearning notes of vv.\n1-8; hot indignation and terrible imprecations in the stormy central\nportion (vv. 9-15); and a calmer note of confidence and hope, through\nwhich, however, the former indignation surges up again, is audible in\nthe closing verses (vv. 16-23).\n\nThe psalmist pictures his emotions in the first part, with but one\nreference to their cause, and but one verse of petition. He begins,\nindeed, with asking that his prayer may be heard; and it is well when\na troubled heart can raise itself above the sea of troubles to stretch\na hand towards God. Such an effort of faith already prophesies firm\nfooting on the safe shore. But very pathetic and true to the experience\nof many a sorrowing heart is the psalmist's immediately subsequent\ndilating on his griefs. There is a dumb sorrow, and there is one which\nunpacks its heart in many words and knows not when to stop. The psalmist\nis _distracted_ in his bitter brooding on his troubles. The word means\nto move restlessly, and may either apply to body or mind, perhaps to\nboth; for Eastern demonstrativeness is not paralysed, but stimulated to\nbodily tokens, by sorrow. He can do nothing but groan or moan. His heart\n\"writhes\" in him. Like an avalanche, deadly terrors have fallen on him\nand crushed him. Fear and trembling have pierced into his inner being,\nand \"horror\" (a rare word, which the LXX. here renders _darkness_) wraps\nhim round or covers him, as a cloak does. It is not so much the pressure\nof present evil, as the shuddering anticipation of a heavier storm about\nto burst, which is indicated by these pathetic expressions. The cause of\nthem is stated in a single verse (3). \"The voice of the enemy\" rather\nthan his hand is mentioned first, since threats and reproaches precede\nassaults; and it is budding, not full-blown, enmity which is in view.\nIn ver. 3 _b_ \"oppression\" is an imperfect parallelism with \"voice,\"\nand the conjectural emendation (which only requires the prefixing of\na letter) of \"cries,\" adopted by Cheyne, after Olshausen and others,\nis tempting. They \"fling down iniquity\" on him as rocks are hurled or\nrolled from a height on invaders--a phrase which recalls David's words\nto his servants, urging flight before Absalom, \"lest he bring down evil\nupon us.\"\n\nThen, from out of all this plaintive description of the psalmist's\nagitation and its causes, starts up that immortal strain which answers\nto the deepest longings of the soul, and has touched responsive chords\nin all whose lives are not hopelessly outward and superficial--the\nyearning for repose. It may be ignoble, or lofty and pure; it may mean\nonly cowardice or indolence; but it is deepest in those who stand most\nunflinchingly at their posts, and crush it down at the command of\nduty. Unless a soul knows that yearning for a home in stillness, \"afar\nfrom the sphere of our sorrow,\" it will remain a stranger to many high\nand noble things. The psalmist was moved to utter this longing by his\npainful consciousness of encompassing evils; but the longing is more\nthan a desire for exemption from these. It is the cry of the homeless\nsoul, which, like the dove from the ark, finds no resting-place in a\nworld full of carrion, and would fain return whence it came. \"O God,\nThou hast made us for Thyself, and we are unquiet till we find rest\nin Thee.\" No obligation of duty keeps migratory birds in a land where\nwinter is near. But men are better than birds, because they have other\nthings to think of than repose, and must face, not flee, storms and\nhurricanes. It is better to have wings \"like birds of tempest-loving\nkind,\" and to beat up against the wind, than to outfly it in retreat.\nSo the psalmist's wish was but a wish; and he, like the rest of us,\nhad to stand to his post, or be tied to his stake, and let enemies\nand storms do their worst. The LXX. has a striking reading of ver. 8,\nwhich Cheyne has partially adopted. It reads for ver. 8 _a_ \"waiting\nfor Him who saves me\"; but beautiful as this is, as giving the picture\nof the restful fugitive in patient expectation, it brings an entirely\nnew idea into the picture, and blends metaphor and fact confusedly.\nThe Selah at the close of ver. 7 deepens the sense of still repose by\na prolonged instrumental interlude.\n\nThe second part turns from subjective feelings to objective facts. A\ncry for help and a yearning for a safe solitude were natural results\nof the former; but when the psalmist's eye turns to his enemies, a\nflash of anger lights it, and, instead of the meek longings of the\nearlier verses, prayers for their destruction are vehemently poured\nout. The state of things in the city corresponds to what must have\nbeen the condition of Jerusalem during the incubation of Absalom's\nconspiracy, but is sufficiently general to fit any time of strained\nparty feeling. The caldron simmers, ready to boil over. The familiar\nevils, of which so many psalms complain, are in full vigour. The\npsalmist enumerates them with a wealth of words which indicates\ntheir abundance. Violence, strife, iniquity, mischief, oppression,\nand deceit--a goodly company to patrol the streets and fill the open\nplaces of the city! Ver. 10 _a_ is sometimes taken as carrying on the\npersonification of Violence and Strife in ver. 9, by painting these as\ngoing their rounds on the walls, like sentries; but it is better to\nsuppose that the actual foes are meant, and that they are keeping up a\nstrict watch to prevent the psalmist's escape.\n\nSeveral commentators consider that the burst of indignation against\nthe psalmist's traitorous friend in vv. 12-14 interrupts the sequence,\nand propose rearrangements by which vv. 20, 21, will be united\nwith vv. 12-14, and placed either before ver. 6 or after ver. 15.\nBut the very abruptness with which the thought of the traitor is\ninterjected here, and in the subsequent reference to him, indicates\nhow the singer's heart was oppressed by the treason; and the return\nto the subject in ver. 20 is equally significant of his absorbed\nand pained brooding on the bitter fact. That is a slight pain which\nis removed by one cry. Rooted griefs, overwhelming sorrows, demand\nmany repetitions. Trouble finds ease in tautology. It is absurd to\nlook for cool, logical sequence in such a heart's cry as this psalm.\nSmooth continuity would be most unnatural. The psalmist feels that\nthe defection of his false friend is the worst blow of all. He could\nhave braced himself to bear an enemy's reviling; he could have found\nweapons to repel, or a shelter in which to escape from, open foes; but\nthe baseness which forgets all former sweet companionship in secret,\nand all association in public and in worship, is more than he can bear\nup against. The voice of wounded love is too plain in the words for\nthe hypothesis that the singer is the personified nation. Traitors are\ntoo common to allow of a very confident affirmation that the psalm\nmust point to Ahithophel, and the description of the perfidious friend\nas the _equal_ of the psalmist does not quite fit that case.\n\nAs he thinks of all the sweetness of past intimacy, turned to gall\nby such dastardly treachery, his anger rises. The description of\nthe city and of the one enemy in whom all its wickedness is, as it\nwere, concentrated, is framed in a terrible circlet of prayers for\nthe destruction of the foes. Ver. 9 _a_ begins and ver. 15 ends this\npart with petitions which do not breathe the spirit of \"Father,\nforgive them.\" There may be a reference to the confusion of tongues\nat Babel in the prayer of ver. 9. As then the impious work was\nstopped by mutual unintelligibility, so the psalmist desires that\nhis enemies' machinations may be paralysed in like manner. In ver.\n15 the translation \"desolations\" follows the Hebrew text, while\nthe alternative and in some respects preferable reading \"May death\ncome suddenly\" follows the Hebrew marginal correction. There are\ndifficulties in both, and the correction does not so much smooth the\nlanguage as to be obviously an improvement. The general sense is\nclear, whichever reading is preferred. The psalmist is calling down\ndestruction on his enemies; and while the fact that he is in some\nmanner an organ of the Divine purpose invests hostility to him with\nthe darker character of rebellion against God, and therefore modifies\nthe personal element in the prayer, it still remains a plain instance\nof the lower level on which the Old Testament saints and singers\nstood, when compared with the \"least in the kingdom of heaven.\"\n\nThe third part of the psalm returns to gentler tones of devotion and\ntrust. The great name of Jehovah appears here significantly. To that\never-living One, the Covenant God, will the psalmist cry, in assurance\nof answer. \"Evening, and morning, and noon\" designate the whole day by\nits three principal divisions, and mean, in effect, continually. Happy\nare they who are impelled to unintermitting prayer by the sight of\nunslumbering enmity! Enemies may go their rounds \"day and night,\" but\nthey will do little harm, if the poor, hunted man, whom they watch so\nclosely, lifts his cries to Heaven \"evening, and morning, and noon.\"\nThe psalmist goes back to his first words. He had begun by saying that\nhe was distracted as he mused, and could do nothing but groan, and in\nver. 17 he repeats that he will still do so. Has he, then, won nothing\nby his prayer but the prolongation of his first dreary tone of feeling?\nHe has won this--that his musing is not accompanied by distraction, and\nthat his groaning is not involuntary expression of pain, but articulate\nprayer, and therefore accompanied by the confidence of being heard.\nCommunion with God and prayerful trust in his help do not at once end\nsadness and sobbing, but do change their character and lighten the\nblackness of grief. This psalmist, like so many of his fellows, realises\ndeliverance before he experiences it, and can sing \"He has redeemed my\nsoul\" even while the calamity lasts. \"They come not near me,\" says he.\nA soul hidden in God has an invisible defence which repels assaults. As\nwith a man in a diving-bell, the sea may press on the crystal walls, but\ncannot crush them in or enter, and there is safe, dry lodging inside,\nwhile sea billows and monsters are without, close to the diver and yet\nfar from him.\n\nVer. 19 is full of difficulty, and most probably has suffered some\ntextual corruption. To \"hear and answer\" is uniformly an expression\nfor gracious hearing and beneficent answering. Here it can only mean\nthe opposite, or must be used ironically. God will hear the enemies'\nthreats, and will requite them. Various expedients have been suggested\nfor removing the difficulty. It has been proposed to read \"me\" for\n\"them,\" which would bring everything into order--only that, then, the\nlast clauses of the verse, which begin with a relative (\"who have no\nchanges,\" etc.), would want an antecedent. It has been proposed to\nread \"will humble them\" for \"will answer them,\" which is the LXX.\ntranslation. That requires a change in the vowels of the verb, and\n\"answer\" is more probable than \"humble\" after \"hear.\" Cheyne follows\nOlshausen in supposing that \"the cry of the afflicted\" has dropped out\nafter \"hear.\" The construction of ver. 19 _b_ is anomalous, as the\nclause is introduced by a superfluous \"and,\" which may be a copyist's\nerror. The Selah attached is no less anomalous. It is especially\ndifficult to explain, in view of the relative which begins the third\nclause, and which would otherwise be naturally brought into close\nconnection with the \"them,\" the objects of the verbs in _a_. These\nconsiderations lead Hupfeld to regard ver. 19 as properly ending\nwith Selah, and the remaining clauses as out of place, and properly\nbelonging to ver. 15 or 18; while Cheyne regards the alternative\nsupposition that they are a fragment of another psalm as possible.\nThere is probably some considerable corruption of the text, not now\nto be remedied; but the existing reading is at least capable of\nexplanation and defence. The principal difficulty in the latter part\nof ver. 19 is the meaning of the word rendered \"changes.\" The persons\nspoken of are those whom God will hear and answer in His judicial\ncharacter, in which He has been throned from of old. Their not having\n\"changes\" is closely connected with their not fearing God. The word is\nelsewhere used for changes of raiment, or for the relief of military\nguards. Calvin and others take the changes intended to be vicissitudes\nof fortune, and hence draw the true thought that unbroken prosperity\ntends to forgetfulness of God. Others take the changes to be those of\nmind or conduct from evil to good, while others fall back upon the\nmetaphor of relieving guard, which they connect with the picture in\nver. 10 of the patrols on the walls, so getting the meaning \"they have\nno cessation in their wicked watchfulness.\" It must be acknowledged\nthat none of these meanings is quite satisfactory; but probably\nthe first, which expresses the familiar thought of the godlessness\nattendant on uninterrupted prosperity, is best.\n\nThen follows another reference to the traitorous friend, which, by\nits very abruptness, declares how deep is the wound he has inflicted.\nThe psalmist does not stand alone. He classes with himself those who\nremained faithful to him. The traitor has not yet thrown off his mask,\nthough the psalmist has penetrated his still retained disguise. He\ncomes with smooth words; but, in the vigorous language of ver. 21,\n\"his heart is war.\" The fawning softness of words known to be false\ncuts into the heart, which had trusted and knows itself betrayed, more\nsharply than keen steel.\n\nVer. 22 has been singularly taken as the smooth words which cut so deep;\nbut surely that is a very strained interpretation. Much rather does\nthe psalmist exhort himself and all who have the same bitterness to\ntaste, to commit themselves to Jehovah. What is it which he exhorts us\nto cast on Him? The word employed is used here only, and its meaning is\ntherefore questionable. The LXX. and others translate \"care.\" Others,\nrelying on Talmudic usage, prefer \"burden,\" which is appropriate to the\nfollowing promise of being held erect. Others (Hupfeld, etc.) would\nread \"that which He has given thee.\" The general sense is clear, and\nthe faith expressed in both exhortation and appended promise has been\nwon by the singer through his prayer. He is counselling and encouraging\nhimself. The spirit has to spur the \"soul\" to heroisms of faith and\npatience. He is declaring a universal truth. However crushing our loads\nof duty or of sorrow, we receive strength to carry them with straight\nbacks, if we cast them on Jehovah. The promise is not that He will\ntake away the pressure, but that He will hold us up under it; and,\nsimilarly, the last clause declares that the righteous will not be\nallowed to stumble. Faith is mentioned before righteousness. The two\nmust go together; for trust which is not accompanied and manifested by\nrighteousness is no true trust, and righteousness which is not grounded\nin trust is no stable or real righteousness.\n\nThe last verse sums up the diverse fates of the \"men of blood and\ndeceit\" and of the psalmist. The terrible prayers of the middle portion\nof the psalm have wrought the assurance of their fulfilment, just as the\ncries of faith have brought the certainty of theirs. So the two closing\nverses of the psalm turn both parts of the earlier petitions into\nprophecies; and over against the trustful, righteous psalmist, standing\nerect and unmoved, there is set the picture of the \"man of blood and\ndeceit,\" chased down the black slopes to the depths of destruction by\nthe same God whose hand holds up the man that trusts in Him. It is a\ndreadful contrast, and the spirit of the whole psalm is gathered into\nit. The last clause of all makes \"I\" emphatic. It expresses the final\nresolution which springs in the singer's heart in view of that dread\npicture of destruction and those assurances of support. He recoils\nfrom the edge of the pit, and eagerly opens his bosom for the promised\nblessing. Well for us if the upshot of all our meditations on the\npainful riddle of this unintelligible world, and of all our burdens and\nof all our experiences and of our observation of other men's careers, is\nthe absolute determination, \"As for me, I will trust in Jehovah!\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LVI.\n\n 1 Be gracious to me, O God; for man would swallow me up:\n All day the fighting oppresses me.\n 2 My liers-in-wait would swallow me up all the day:\n For many proudly fight against me.\n 3 [In] the day [when] I fear,\n I will trust in Thee.\n 4 In God do I praise His word:\n In God do I trust, I will not fear;\n What can flesh do to me?\n\n 5 All day they wrest my words;\n All their thoughts are against me for evil.\n 6 They gather together, they set spies,\n They mark my steps,\n Even as they have waited for my soul.\n 7 Shall there be escape for them because of iniquity?\n In anger cast down the peoples, O God.\n 8 My wanderings hast Thou reckoned:\n Put Thou my tears into Thy bottle;\n Are they not in Thy reckoning?\n 9 Then shall my enemies turn back in the day [when] I call:\n This I know, that God is for me (_or_ mine).\n 10 In God will I praise the word:\n In Jehovah will I praise the word.\n 11 In God have I trusted, I will not fear;\n What can man do to me?\n\n 12 Upon me, O God, are Thy vows:\n I will requite praises to Thee.\n 13 For Thou hast delivered my soul from death:\n Hast Thou not delivered my feet from stumbling?\n That I may walk before God in the light of the living.\n\n\nThe superscription dates this psalm from the time of David's being\nin Gath. Probably his first stay there is meant, during which he had\nrecourse to feigned insanity in order to secure his safety. What a\ncontrast between the seeming idiot scrabbling on the walls and the\nsaintly singer of this lovely song of purest trust! But striking as the\ncontrast is, it is not too violent to be possible. Such heroic faith\nmight lie very near such employment of pardonable dissimulation, even if\nthe two moods of feeling can scarcely have been contemporaneous. Swift\ntransitions characterise the poetic temperament; and, alas! fluctuations\nof courage and faith characterise the devout soul. Nothing in the psalm\nspecially suggests the date assigned in the superscription; but, as we\nhave already had occasion to remark, that may be an argument for, not\nagainst, the correctness of the superscription.\n\nThe psalm is simple in structure. Like others ascribed to David during\nthe Sauline period, it has a refrain, which divides it into two parts;\nbut these are of substantially the same purport, with the difference\nthat the second part enlarges the description of the enemies'\nassaults, and rises to confident anticipation of their defeat. In that\nconfidence the singer adds a closing expression of thankfulness for\nthe deliverance already realised in faith.\n\nThe first part begins with that significant contrast which is the\nbasis of all peaceful fronting of a hostile world or any evil. On one\nside stands man, whose very name here suggests feebleness, and on the\nother is God. \"Man\" in ver. 1 is plainly a collective. The psalmist\nmasses the foes, whom he afterwards individualises and knows only\ntoo well to be a multitude, under that generic appellation, which\nbrings out their inherent frailty. Be they ever so many, still they\nall belong to the same class, and an infinite number of nothings\nonly sums up into nothing. The Divine Unit is more than all these.\nThe enemy is said to \"pant after\" the psalmist, as a wild beast\nopen-mouthed and ready to devour; or, according to others, the word\nmeans to _crush_. The thing meant by the strong metaphor is given in\nver. 1 _b_. 2; namely, the continual hostile activity of the foe. The\nword rendered \"proudly\" is literally \"on high,\" and Baethgen suggests\nthat the literal meaning should be retained. He supposes that the\nantagonists \"held an influential position in a princely court.\" Even\nmore literally the word may describe the enemies as occupying a post\nof vantage, from which they shower down missiles.\n\nOne brief verse, the brevity of which gives it emphasis, tells of\nthe singer's fears, and of how he silences them by the dead lift of\neffort by which he constrains himself to trust. It is a strangely\nshallow view which finds a contradiction in this utterance, which all\nhearts, that have ever won calmness in agitation and security amid\nencompassing dangers by the same means, know to correspond to their\nown experience. If there is no fear, there is little trust. The two\ndo co-exist. The eye that takes in only visible facts on the earthly\nlevel supplies the heart with abundant reasons for fear. But it rests\nwith ourselves whether we shall yield to those, or whether, by lifting\nour eyes higher and fixing the vision on the Unseen and on Him who is\ninvisible, we shall call such an ally to our side as shall make fear\nand doubt impossible. We have little power of directly controlling\nfear or any other feeling, but we can determine the objects on which\nwe shall fix attention. If we choose to look at \"man,\" we shall be\nunreasonable if we do not fear; if we choose to look at God, we shall\nbe more unreasonable if we do not trust. The one antagonist of fear\nis faith. Trust is a voluntary action for which we are responsible.\n\nThe frequent use of the phrase \"In the day when\" is noticeable. It\noccurs in each verse of the first part, excepting the refrain. The\nantagonists are continually at work, and the psalmist, on his part,\nstrives to meet their machinations and to subdue his own fears with\nas continuous a faith. The phrase recurs in the second part in a\nsimilar connection. Thus, then, the situation as set forth in the\nfirst part has three elements,--the busy malice of the foes; the\neffort of the psalmist, his only weapon against them, to hold fast his\nconfidence; and the power and majesty of God, who will be gracious\nwhen besought. The refrain gathers up these three in a significantly\ndifferent order. The preceding verses arranged them thus--God, man,\nthe trusting singer. The refrain puts them thus--God, the trusting\nsinger, man. When the close union between a soul and God is clearly\nseen and inwardly felt, the importance of the enemies dwindles.\nWhen faith is in the act of springing up, God, the refuge, and man,\nthe source of apprehension, stand over against each other, and the\nsuppliant, looking on both, draws near to God. But when faith has\nfruited, the believing soul is coupled so closely to the Divine\nObject of its faith, that He and it are contemplated as joined in\nblessed reciprocity of protection and trust, and enemies are in an\nouter region, where they cannot disturb its intercourse with its God.\nThe order of thought in the refrain is also striking. First, the\nsinger praises God's word. By God's gracious help he knows that he\nwill receive the fulfilment of God's promises (not necessarily any\nspecial \"word,\" such as the promise of a throne to David). And then,\non the experience of God's faithfulness thus won, is reared a further\nstructure of trust, which completely subdues fear. This is the reward\nof the effort after faith which the psalmist made. He who begins with\ndetermining not to fear will get such tokens of God's troth that fear\nwill melt away like a cloud, and he will find his sky cleared, as the\nnightly heavens are swept free of cloud-rack by the meek moonlight.\n\nThe second part covers the same ground. Trust, like love, never finds\nit grievous to write the same things. There is delight, and there is\nstrengthening for the temper of faith, in repeating the contemplation\nof the earthly facts which make it necessary, and the super-sensuous\nfacts which make it blessed. A certain expansion of the various parts\nof the theme, as compared with the first portion of the psalm, is\nobvious. Again the phrase \"all the day\" occurs in reference to the\nunwearying hostility which dogs the singer. \"They wrest my words\" may\nbe, as Cheyne prefers, \"They torture me with words.\" That rendering\nwould supply a standing feature of the class of psalms to which this\nbelongs. The furtive assembling, the stealthy setting of spies who\nwatch his steps (lit. _heels_, as ready to spring on him from behind),\nare no new things, but are in accordance with what has long been the\nenemies' practice.\n\nVer. 7 brings in a new element not found in the first part--namely,\nthe prayer for the destruction of these unwearied watchers. Its first\nclause is obscure. If the present text is adhered to, the rendering of\nthe clause as a question is best. A suggested textual correction has\nbeen largely adopted by recent commentators, which by a very slight\nalteration gives the meaning \"For their iniquity requite them.\" The\nalteration, however, is not necessary, and the existing text may be\nretained, though the phrase is singular. The introduction of a prayer\nfor a world-wide judgment in the midst of so intensely individual a\npsalm is remarkable, and favours the theory that the afflicted man\nof the psalm is really the nation; but it may be explained on the\nground that, as in Psalm vii. 8, the judgment on behalf of one man is\ncontemplated as only one smaller manifestation of the same judicial\nactivity which brings about the universal judgment. This single\nreference to the theme which fills so considerable a part of the other\npsalms of this class is in harmony with the whole tone of this gem\nof quiet faith, which is too much occupied with the blessedness of\nits own trust to have many thoughts of the end of others. It passes,\ntherefore, quickly, to dwell on yet another phase of that blessedness.\n\nThe tender words of ver. 8 need little elucidation. They have brought\ncomfort to many, and have helped to dry many tears. How the psalmist\npresses close to God, and how sure he is of His gentle care and love!\n\"Thou reckonest my wandering.\" The thought is remarkable, both in its\nrealisation of God's individualising relation to the soul that trusts\nHim, and as in some degree favouring the Davidic authorship. The\nhunted fugitive feels that every step of his weary interlacing tracks,\nas he stole from point to point as danger dictated, was known to God.\nThe second clause of the verse is thought by prosaic commentators\nto interrupt the sequence, because it interjects a petition between\ntwo statements; but surely nothing is more natural than such an\n\"interruption.\" What a lovely figure is that of God's treasuring up\nHis servants' tears in His \"bottle,\" the skin in which liquids were\nkept! What does He keep them for? To show how precious they are in His\nsight, and perhaps to suggest that they are preserved for a future\nuse. The tears that His children shed and give to Him to keep cannot\nbe tears of rebellious or unmeasured weeping, and will be given back\none day to those who shed them, converted into refreshment, by the\nsame Power which of old turned water into wine.\n\n \"Think not thou canst weep a tear,\n And thy Maker is not near.\"\n\nNot only in order to minister retribution to those who inflicted them,\nbut also in order to give recompense of gladness to weepers, are these\ntears preserved by God; and the same idea is repeated by the other\nmetaphor of ver. 8 _c_. God's book, or reckoning, contains the count\nof all the tears as well as wanderings of His servant. The certainty\nthat it is so is expressed by the interrogative form of the clause.\n\nThe \"then\" of ver. 9 may be either temporal or logical. It may mean\n\"things being so,\" or \"in consequence of this,\" or it may mean \"at\nthe time when,\" and may refer to the further specification of period\nin the next clause. That same day which has already been designated\nas that of the enemies' panting after the psalmist's life, and\nwresting of his words, and, on the other hand, as that of his fear,\nis now the time of his prayer, and consequently of their defeat and\nflight. The confidence which struggled with fear in the closing\nwords of the first part, is now consolidated into certain knowledge\nthat God is on the singer's side, and in a very deep sense belongs\nto him. This is the foundation of his hope of deliverance; and in\nthis clear knowledge he chants once more his refrain. As is often the\ncase, slight differences, mainly due to artistic love of variety in\nuniformity, occur in the repeated refrain. \"Word\" stands instead of\n\"His word\"; \"man,\" instead of \"flesh\"; and a line is intercalated,\nin which Jehovah is substituted for God. The addition may be a later\ninterpolation, but is probably part of the original text, and due to\nthe same intelligible motives which prompted the occasional use of the\ngreat Covenant Name in the Elohistic psalms of this second book.\n\nThe psalmist's exuberant confidence overflows the limits of his\nsong, in a closing couple of verses which are outside its scheme.\nSo sure is he of deliverance, that, as often in similar psalms, his\nthoughts are busied in preparing his sacrifice of thanks before\nthe actual advent of the mercy for which it is to be offered. Such\nswift-footed Gratitude is the daughter of very vivid Faith. The ground\nof the thankoffering is deliverance of \"the soul,\" for which foes\nhave \"waited.\" \"Thou hast delivered\" is a perfect tense expressing\nconfidence in the certainty of the as yet unrealised exercise of God's\npower. The question of ver. 13 _b_, like that of ver. 8 _c_ (and\nperhaps that of ver. 7 _a_), is an emphatic affirmation, and the verb\nto be supplied is not \"Wilt thou?\" as the A.V. has it, but, as is\nplain from the context, and from the quotation of this verse in Psalm\ncxvi. 8, \"Hast thou?\" The Divine deliverance is complete,--not only\ndoing the greater, but also the less; and not barely saving life, but\nsustaining the steps. God does not rescue by halves, either in the\nnatural or spiritual realm; but in the former He first rescues and\nnext preserves, and in the latter He delivers from the true death of\nthe spirit, and then inspires to glad obedience. The psalm crowns\nits celebration of God's miracles of deliverance by declaring the aim\nof them all to be that their recipient may walk before God--_i.e._,\nin continual consciousness of His cognisance of his deeds, and \"in\nthe light of the living\" or \"of life.\" The expression seems here to\nmean simply the present life, as contrasted with the darkness and\ninactivity of Sheol; but we can scarcely help remembering the deeper\nmeaning given to it by Him who said that to follow Him was to have\nthe light of life. Whether any dim foreboding of a better light\nthan streams from even an Eastern sun, and of a truer life than the\nvain shadow which men call by that august name, floated before the\nsinger or not, we can thankfully interpret his words, so as to make\nthem the utterance of the Christian consciousness that the ultimate\ndesign of all God's deliverances of souls from death and of feet\nfrom falling is that, not only in ways of holiness here, but in the\nmore perfect consciousness of His greater nearness hereafter, and in\ncorrespondingly increased perfectness of active service, we should\nwalk before God in the light of the living.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LVII.\n\n 1 Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me;\n For in Thee has my soul taken refuge:\n And in the shadow of Thy wings will I take refuge,\n Until the [tempest of] destructions is gone by.\n 2 I will cry to God Most High;\n To God who accomplishes for me.\n 3 He will send from heaven, and save me;\n [For] He that would swallow me up blasphemes. Selah.\n God shall send His Loving-kindness and His Troth.\n 4 My soul is among lions;\n I must lie down among those who breathe out fire--\n Sons of men, whose teeth are spear and arrows,\n Their tongue a sharp sword.\n 5 Exalt Thyself above the heavens, O God,\n Above all the earth Thy glory.\n\n 6 A net have they prepared for my steps:\n They have bowed down my soul:\n They have digged before me a pit;\n They have fallen into the midst of it. Selah.\n 7 Steadfast is my heart, O God, steadfast is my heart:\n I will sing and harp.\n 8 Awake, my glory; awake, harp and lute:\n I will wake the dawn.\n 9 I will give Thee thanks among the peoples, O Lord:\n I will harp to Thee among the nations.\n 10 For great unto the heavens is Thy Loving-kindness,\n And unto the clouds Thy Troth.\n 11 Exalt Thyself above the heavens, O God,\n Above all the earth Thy glory.\n\n\nThis psalm resembles the preceding in the singer's circumstances of\nperil and in his bold faith. It has also points of contact in the cry,\n\"Be gracious,\" and in the remarkable expression for enemies, \"Those\nthat would swallow me up.\" It has also several features in common with\nthe other psalms ascribed by the superscriptions to the time of the\nSauline persecution. Like Psalm vii. are the metaphor of _lions_ for\nenemies, that of _digging a pit_ for their plots, the use of _glory_\nas a synonym for soul. The difficult word rendered \"destructions\" in\nver. 1 connects this psalm with Psalm lv. 11, dated as belonging to\nthe time of Saul's hostility, and with Psalms v. 9 and xxxviii. 12,\nboth traditionally Davidic. There is nothing in the psalm against the\nattribution of it to David in the cave, whether of Adullam or Engedi,\nand the allusions to lying down among lions may possibly have been\nsuggested by the wild beasts prowling round the psalmist's shelter.\nThe use in ver. 1 of the picturesque word for taking refuge derives\nspecial appropriateness from the circumstances of the fugitive, over\nwhose else defenceless head the sides of his cave arched themselves\nlike great wings, beneath which he lay safe, though the growls of\nbeasts of prey echoed round. But there is no need to seek for further\ncertainty as to the occasion of the psalm. Baethgen thinks that it can\nonly have been composed after \"the annihilation of the independence\nof the Israelite state,\" because the vow in ver. 9 to make God's name\nknown among the nations can only be the utterance of the oppressed\ncongregation, which is sure of deliverance, because it is conscious\nof its Divine call to sing God's praise to heathens. But that vow is\nequally explicable on the assumption that the individual singer was\nconscious of such a call.\n\nThere is no very sharp division of parts in the psalm. A grand refrain\nseparates it into two portions, in the former of which prayer for\ndeliverance and contemplation of dangers prevail, while in the latter\nthe foe is beheld as already baffled, and exuberant praise is poured\nforth and vowed.\n\nAs in Psalm liv. and often, the first part begins with an act of faith\nreaching out to God, and strengthening itself by the contemplation of\nHis character and acts. That energy of confidence wins assurance of\nhelp, and only after that calming certitude has filled the soul does\nthe psalmist turn his eye directly on his enemies. His faith does not\nmake him oblivious of his danger, but it minimises his dread. An eye\nthat has seen God sees little terror in the most terrible things.\n\nThe psalmist knows that a soul which trusts has a right to God's\ngracious dealings, and he is not afraid to urge his confidence as a\nplea with God. The boldness of the plea is not less indicative of\nthe depth and purity of his religious experience than are the tender\nmetaphors in which it is expressed. What truer or richer description\nof trust could be given than that which likens it to the act of a\nfugitive betaking himself to the shelter of some mountain fastness,\nimpregnable and inaccessible? What lovelier thought of the safe,\nwarm hiding-place which God affords was ever spoken than that of\n\"the shadow of Thy wings\"? Very significant is the recurrence of the\nsame verb in two different tenses in two successive clauses (1 _b_,\n_c_). The psalmist heartens himself for present and future trust by\nremembrance of past days, when he exercised it and was not put to\nshame. That faith is blessed, and cannot but be strong, which is\nnurtured by the remembrance of past acts of rewarded faith, as the\nleaves of bygone summers make rich mould for a new generation of\nflowers. When kites are in the sky, young birds seek protection from\nthe mother's wing as well as warmth from her breast. So the singer\nbetakes himself to his shelter till \"destructions are gone by.\"\nPossibly these are likened to a wild storm which sweeps across the\nland, but is not felt in the stillness of the cave fortress. Hidden in\nGod, a man \"heareth not the loud winds when they call,\" and may solace\nhimself in the midst of their roar by the thought that they will soon\nblow over. He will not cease to take refuge in God when the stress is\npast, nor throw off his cloak when the rain ceases; but he will nestle\nclose while it lasts, and have as his reward the clear certainty of\nits transiency. The faith which clings to God after the tempest is no\nless close than that which screened itself in Him while it raged.\n\nHidden in his shelter, the psalmist, in ver. 2, tells himself the\ngrounds on which he may be sure that his cry to God will not be in\nvain. His name is \"Most High,\" and His elevation is the pledge of His\nirresistible might. He is the \"God\" (the Strong) who accomplishes all\nfor the psalmist which he needs, and His past manifestations in that\ncharacter make His future interventions certain. Therefore the singer is\nsure of what will happen. Two bright angels--Loving-kindness and Troth\nor Faithfulness their names--will be despatched from heaven for the\nrescue of the man who has trusted. That is certain, because of what God\nis and has done. It is no less certain, because of what the psalmist is\nand has done; for a soul that gazes on God as its sole Helper, and has\npressed, in its feebleness, close beneath these mighty pinions, cannot\nbut bring down angel helpers, the executants of God's love.\n\nThe confidence expressed in ver. 2 is interrupted by an abrupt glance\nat the enemy. \"He that would swallow me up blasphemes\" is the most\nprobable rendering of a difficult phrase, the meaning and connection\nof which are both dubious. If it is so rendered, the connection is\nprobably that which we have expressed in the translation by inserting\n\"For.\" The wish to destroy the psalmist is itself blasphemy, or is\naccompanied with blasphemy; and therefore God will surely send down\nwhat will bring it to nought. The same identification of his own cause\nwith God's, which marks many of the psalms ascribed to the persecuted\nDavid, underlies this sudden reference to the enemy, and warrants the\nconclusion drawn, that help will come. The Selah at the end of the\nclause is unusual in the middle of a verse; but it may be intended to\nunderscore, as it were, the impiety of the enemy, and so corresponds\nwith the other Selah in ver. 6, which is also in an unusual place, and\npoints attention to the enemy's ruin, as this does to his wickedness.\n\nThe description of the psalmist's circumstances in ver. 4 presents\nconsiderable difficulty. The division of clauses, the force of the\nform of the verb rendered _I must lie down_, and the meaning and\nconstruction of the word rendered \"those who breathe out fire,\" are\nall questionable. If the accents are adhered to, the first clause\nof the verse is \"My soul is among lions.\" That is by some--_e.g._,\nDelitzsch--regarded as literal description of the psalmist's\nenvironment, but it is more natural to suppose that he is applying a\nfamiliar metaphor to his enemies. In v. 4 _b_ the verb rendered above\n\"I must lie down\" is in a form which has usually a cohortative or\noptative force, and is by some supposed to have that meaning here,\nand to express trust which is willing to lie down even in a lion's\nden. It seems, however, here to denote objective necessity rather\nthan subjective willingness. Hupfeld would read _lies down_ (third\nperson), thus making \"My soul\" the subject of the verb, and getting\nrid of the difficult optative form. Cheyne suggests a further slight\nalteration in the word, so as to read, \"My soul hath dwelt\"--a phrase\nfound in Psalm cxx. 6; and this emendation is tempting. The word\nrendered \"those who breathe out fire\" is by some taken to mean \"those\nwho devour,\" and is variously construed, as referring to the _lions_\nin _a_, taken literally, or as describing the _sons of men_ in _c_.\nThe general drift of the verse is clear. The psalmist is surrounded\nby enemies, whom he compares, as the Davidic psalms habitually do, to\nwild beasts. They are ready to rend. Open-mouthed they seem to breathe\nout flames, and their slanders cut like swords.\n\nThe psalmist's contemplation of his forlorn lair among men worse\nthan beasts of prey drives him back to realise again his refuge in\nGod. He, as it were, wrenches his mind round to look at God rather\nthan at the enemies. Clear perception of peril and weakness does its\nbest work, when it drives to as clear recognition of God's help, and\nwings faithful prayer. The psalmist, in his noble refrain, has passed\nbeyond the purely personal aspect of the desired deliverance, and\nwishes not only that he may be shielded from his foes, but that God\nwould, in that deliverance, manifest Himself in His elevation above\nand power over all created things. To conceive of his experience as\nthus contributing to God's world-wide glory seems presumptuous; but\neven apart from the consideration that the psalmist was conscious of\na world-wide mission, the lowliest suppliant has a right to feel that\nhis deliverance will enhance the lustre of that Glory; and the lowlier\nhe feels himself, the more wonderful is its manifestations in his\nwell-being. But if there is a strange note in the apparent audacity\nof this identification, there is a deep one of self-suppression in the\nfading from the psalmist's prayer of all mention of himself, and the\nexclusive contemplation of the effects on the manifestation of God's\ncharacter, which may follow his deliverance. It is a rare and lofty\nattainment to regard one's own well-being mainly in its connection\nwith God's \"glory,\" and to desire the latter more consciously and\ndeeply than the former.\n\nIt has been proposed by Hupfeld to transpose vv. 5, 6, on the ground\nthat a recurrence to the description of dangers is out of place after\nthe refrain, and incongruous with the tone of the second part of the\npsalm. But do the psalmists observe such accuracy in the flow of their\nemotions? and is it not natural for a highly emotional lyric like this\nto allow some surge of feeling to run over its barriers? The reference\nto the enemies in ver. 6 is of a triumphant sort, which naturally\nprepares for the burst of praise following, and worthily follows even\nthe lyrical elevation of the refrain. The perfects seem at first sight\nto refer to past deliverances, which the psalmist recalls in order to\nassure himself of future ones. But this retrospective reference is not\nnecessary, and the whole description in ver. 6 is rather to be taken\nas that of approaching retribution on the foes, which is so certain\nto come that the singer celebrates it as already as good as done. The\nfamiliar figures of the net and pit, by both of which wild animals\nare caught, and the as familiar picture of the hunter trapped in his\nown pitfall, need no elucidation. There is a grim irony of events,\nwhich often seems to delight in showing \"the engineer hoised with his\nown petard\"; and whether that spectacle is forthcoming or not, the\nautomatic effects of wrongdoing always follow, and no man digs pits\nfor others but somehow and somewhen he finds himself at the bottom of\nthem, and his net wrapped round his own limbs. The Selah at the end\nof ver. 6 calls spectators to gather, as it were, round the sight of\nthe ensnared plotter, lying helpless down there. A slight correction\nof the text does away with a difficulty in ver. 6 _b_. The verb there\nis transitive, and in the existing text is in the singular, but \"He\nhas bowed down my soul\" would be awkward, though not impossible, when\ncoming between two clauses in which the enemies are spoken of in the\nplural. The emendation of the verb to the third person plural by the\naddition of a letter brings the clauses into line, and retains the\nusual force of the verb.\n\nThe psalmist has done with the enemies; they are at the bottom of the\npit. In full confidence of triumph and deliverance, he breaks out into\na grand burst of praise. \"My heart is fixed,\" or \"steadfast.\" Twice\nthe psalmist repeats this, as he does other emphatic thoughts, in this\npsalm (_cp._ vv. 2, 4, 8, 9). What power can steady that fluttering,\nwayward, agitated thing, a human heart? The way to keep light articles\nfixed on deck, amidst rolling seas and howling winds, is to lash them\nto something fixed; and the way to steady a heart is to bind it to\nGod. Built into the Rock, the building partakes of the steadfastness\nof its foundation. Knit to God, a heart is firm. The psalmist's was\nsteadfast because it had taken refuge in God; and so, even before his\nrescue from his enemies came to pass, he was emancipated from the fear\nof them, and could lift this song of praise. He had said that he must\nlie down among lions. But wherever his bed may be, he is sure that\nhe will rise from it; and however dark the night, he is sure that a\nmorning will come. In a bold and beautiful figure he says that he\nwill \"wake the dawn\" with his song.\n\nThe world-wide destination of his praise is clear to him. It is plain\nthat such anticipations as those of ver. 9 surpass the ordinary poetic\nconsciousness, and must be accounted for on some special ground. The\nfavourite explanation at present is that the singer is Israel, conscious\nof its mission. The old explanation that the singer is a king, conscious\nof his inspiration and divinely given office, equally meets the case.\n\nThe psalmist had declared his trust that God would send out His angels\nof Loving-kindness and Troth. He ends his song with the conviction,\nwhich has become to him matter of experience, that these Divine\n\"attributes\" tower to heaven, and in their height symbolise their own\ninfinitude. Nor is the other truth suggested by ver. 10 to be passed\nover, that the manifestation of these attributes on earth leads to\ntheir being more gloriously visible in heaven. These two angels, who\ncome forth from on high to do God's errands for His poor, trusting\nservant, go back, their work done, and are hailed as victors by the\ncelestial inhabitants. By God's manifestation of these attributes to\na man, His glory is exalted above the heavens and all the earth. The\nsame thought is more definitely expressed in Paul's declaration that\n\"to the principalities and powers in heavenly places is known by the\nChurch the manifold wisdom of God.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LVIII.\n\n 1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O ye gods?\n In uprightness do ye judge the sons of men?\n 2 Yea, in heart ye work iniquity;\n In the earth ye weigh out the violence of your hands.\n 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb:\n Gone astray from birth are the speakers of lies.\n 4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent,\n Like the deaf adder that stops its ear,\n 5 That will not hearken to the voice of the charmers,\n The skilled weaver of spells.\n\n 6 O God, break their teeth in their mouth:\n The grinders of the young lions wrench out, Jehovah.\n 7 Let them melt like waters [that] run themselves [dry]:\n [When] he shoots his arrows, let them be as if pointless.\n 8 [Let them be] as a slug that dissolves as it crawls:\n As the premature birth of a woman, [that] has not seen the sun.\n 9 Before your pots feel the thorns,\n Whether it be green or burning, He shall whirl it away.\n\n 10 The righteous shall rejoice that he has beheld [the] vengeance:\n His footsteps shall he bathe in the blood of the wicked.\n 11 And men shall say, Surely there is fruit for the righteous:\n Surely there is a God judging in the earth.\n\n\nThis psalmist's fiery indignation against unjust judges and evil-doers\ngenerally is not kindled by personal wrongs. The psalm comes hot\nfrom a heart lacerated by the sight of widespread corruption, and\nconstrained to seek for patience in the thought of the swift sweeping\naway of evil men before their plans are effected. Stern triumph in the\npunitive manifestations of God's rule, and keen sense of the need of\nsuch, are its keynotes. Vehement emotion stirs the poet's imagination\nto heap together strong and, in part, obscure metaphors. Here\nemphatically \"Indignatio facit versus.\" The psalm is Dantesque in its\nwealth of sombre imagination, which produces the most solemn effects\nwith the homeliest metaphors, and in its awed and yet satisfied\ncontemplation of the fate of evil-doers. It parts itself into three\nportions,--a dark picture of abounding evil (vv. 1-5); it's punishment\nprayed for (vv. 6-9); and the consequent joy of the righteous and\nwidespread recognition of the rule of a just God (vv. 10, 11).\n\nThe abrupt question of ver. 1 speaks of long pent-up indignation,\nexcited by protracted experience of injustice, and anticipates the\nnecessary negative answer which follows. The word rendered by the\nA.V. and R.V. \"in silence\" or \"dumb\" can scarcely be twisted into\nintelligibility, and the small alteration of reading required for\nthe rendering \"gods\" is recommended by the similar expressions in\nthe kindred Psalm lxxxii. Taken thus, the question is hurled at the\nappointed depositaries of judicial power and supreme authority. There\nis no need to suppose, with Hupfeld and others, whom Cheyne follows,\nthat these \"gods\" are supernatural beings intrusted with the government\nof the world. The explanation of the name lies in the conception of\nsuch power as bestowed by God, and in some sense a delegation of His\nattribute; or, as our Lord explained the similar name in Psalm lxxxii.,\nas given because \"to them the word of God came.\" It sets in sinister\nlight the flagrant contradiction between the spirit in which these men\nexercised their office and the source from which they derived it, and\nthus sharpens the reproach of the question. The answer is introduced\nby a particle conveying a strong opposition to the previous supposition\ncouched in the question. \"Heart\" and \"hands\" are so obviously\nantithetical, that the alteration of \"in heart\" to \"ye all\" is not\nacceptable, though it removes the incongruity of plans being wrought in\nthe heart, the seat of devices, not of actions. \"Work\" may be here used\nanomalously, as we say \"work out,\" implying the careful preparation of\na plan, and there may even be a hint that the true acts are the undone\nacts of the heart. The unaccomplished purpose is a deed, though never\nclothed in outward fact. Evil determined is, in a profound sense, done\nbefore it is done; and, in another equally solemn, not done when \"'tis\ndone,\" as Macbeth has taught us. The \"act,\" as men call it, follows: \"In\nthe earth\"--not only in the heart--\"ye weigh out the violence of your\nhands.\" The scales of justice are untrue. Instead of dispensing equity,\nas they were bound to do, they clash into the balance the weight of\ntheir own violence.\n\nIt is to be noted that the psalm says no more about the sins of unjust\nauthorities, but passes on to describe the \"wicked\" generally. The\ntransition may suggest that under unjust rulers all wrongdoers find\nimpunity, and so multiply and worsen; or it may simply be that these\nformer are now merged in the class to which they belong. The type of\n\"wickedness\" gibbeted is the familiar one of malicious calumniators\nand persecutors. From birth onwards they have continuously been doers\nof evil. The psalmist is not laying down theological propositions\nabout heredity, but describing the inveterate habit of sin which has\nbecome a second nature, and makes amendment hopeless. The reference\nto \"lies\" naturally suggests the image of the serpent's poison. An\nenvenomed tongue is worse than any snake's bite. And the mention of\nthe serpent stimulates the poet's imagination to yet another figure,\nwhich puts most graphically that disregard of warnings, entreaties,\nand every voice, human or Divine, that marks long-practised, customary\nsinfulness. There can be no more striking symbol of determined\ndisregard to the calls of patient Love and the threats of outraged\nJustice than that of the snake lying coiled, with its head in the\ncentre of its motionless folds, as if its ears were stopped by its\nown bulk, while the enchanter plays his softest notes and speaks his\nstrongest spells in vain. There are such men, thinks this psalmist.\nThere are none whom the mightiest spell, that of God's love in Christ,\ncould not conquer and free from their poison; but there are such\nas will close their ears to its plaintive sweetness. This is the\ncondemnation that light is come and men love darkness, and had rather\nlie coiled in their holes than have their fangs extracted.\n\nThe general drift of the second part (vv. 6-9) is to call down Divine\nretribution on these obstinate, irreclaimable evil-doers. Figure is\nheaped on figure in a fashion suggestive of intense emotion. The\ntransiency of insolent evil, the completeness of its destruction,\nare the thoughts common to them all. There are difficulties in\ntranslation, and, in ver. 9, probable textual corruption; but these\nshould not hide the tremendous power of gloomy imagination, which can\nlay hold of vulgar and in part loathsome things, and, by sheer force\nof its own solemn insight, can free them from all low or grotesque\nassociations, and turn them into awful symbols. The intense desire\nfor the sweeping away of evil-doers has met us in many previous\npsalms, and it is needless to repeat former observations on it. But\nit is nowhere expressed with such a wealth of metaphor as here. The\nfirst of these, that of crushing the jaws and breaking the teeth of a\nbeast of prey, occurs also in Psalm iii. 7. It is less terrible than\nthe subsequent imprecations, since it only contemplates the wickeds'\ndeprivation of power to do harm. In ver. 7 _a_ their destruction is\nsought, while, in the second clause of the same verse, the defeat\nof their attempts is desired. Ver. 8 then expands the former wish,\nand ver. 9 the latter. This plain symmetrical arrangement makes the\nproposals to resort to transposition unnecessary. Mountain torrents\nquickly run themselves dry; and the more furious their rush, the\nswifter their exhaustion. They leave a chaos of whitened stones, that\nlie bleaching in the fierce sun when the wild spate is past. So stormy\nand so short will be the career of evil-doers. So could a good man of\nold wish it to be; and so may we be sure of and desire the cessation\nof oppression and man's inhumanity to man. Ver. 7 _b_ is obscure. All\nthese figures are struck out with such parsimony of words that they\nare difficult. They remind one of some of the stern, unfinished work\nof Michael Angelo, where a blow or two of his chisel, or a dash or two\nof his brush, has indicated rather than expressed his purpose, and\nleft a riddle, fascinating in its incompleteness, for smaller men to\nspell out. In ver. 7 _b_ it may be asked, Who is the archer? If God,\nthen the whole is a presentation as if of an occurrence taking place\nbefore our eyes. God shoots His arrow, and at once it lodges in the\nheart of the enemies, and they are as though cut off. But it is better\nto take the wicked as the subject of both verbs, the change from\nsingular to plural being by no means unusual in successive clauses\nwith the same subject. If so, this clause recurs to the thought of\nver. 6, and prays for the neutralising of the wicked man's attempts.\nHe fits his arrows, aims, and draws the bow. May they fall harmless,\nas if barbless! An emendation has been proposed by which the clause\nis made parallel with Psalm xxxvii. 2, \"As grass let them be quickly\ncut off,\" thus securing a complete parallel with _a_, and avoiding the\ndifficulty in the word rendered by us \"pointless.\" But the existing\ntext gives a vigorous metaphor, the peculiarity of which makes it\npreferable to the feebler image of withering grass.\n\nThe prayer for destruction is caught up again in ver. 8, in two daring\nfigures which tremble on the verge of lowering the key of the whole;\nbut by escaping that peril, produce the contrary effect, and heighten\nit. A slug leaves a shining track of slime as it creeps, which exudes\nfrom its soft body, and thus it seems to disintegrate itself by its\nown motion. It is the same thought of the suicidal character of bad\nmen's efforts which was expressed by the stream foaming itself away\nin the nullah. It is the eternal truth that opposition to God's\nwill destroys itself by its own activity. The unfulfilled life of a\npremature birth, with eyes which never opened to the light for which\nthey were made, and possibilities which never unfolded, and which is\nhuddled away into a nameless grave, still more impressively symbolises\nfutility and transiency.\n\nIn ver. 9 the figure has given much trouble to commentators. Its\nbroad meaning is, however, undoubted. It is, as ver. 6 and ver. 7\n_b_, symbolic of the Divine intervention which wrecks wicked men's\nplans before they are wrought out. The picture before the psalmist\nseems to be that of a company of travellers round their camp fire,\npreparing their meal. They heap brushwood under the pot, and expect\nto satisfy their hunger; but before the pot is warmed through, not\nto say before the water boils or the meat is cooked, down comes a\nwhirlwind, which sweeps away fire, pot, and all. Every word of the\nclause is doubtful, and, with the existing text, the best that can be\ndone is not wholly satisfactory. If emendation is resorted to, the\nsuggestion of Bickell, adopted by Cheyne, gives a good sense: \"[And]\nwhile your [flesh] is yet raw, the hot wrath [of Jehovah] shall sweep\nit away.\" Baethgen makes a slighter alteration, and renders, \"While\nit is still raw, He sweeps it away in wrath.\" Retaining the existing\ntext (which is witnessed by the LXX. and other old versions), probably\nthe best rendering is, \"Whether [it be] green or burning, He shall\nwhirl it away.\" This general understanding of the words is shared by\ncommentators who differ as to what is represented as swept away,--some\nmaking it the thorn fire, the twigs of which may be either full of\nsap or well alight; while others take the reference to be to the\nmeat in the pot, which may be either \"living,\" _i.e._ raw, or well\non the way to being cooked. Neither application is quite free from\ndifficulty, especially in view of the fact that some pressure has to\nbe put on the word rendered \"burning,\" which is not an adjective,\nbut a noun, and is usually employed to designate the fiery wrath of\nGod, as it is rendered in the amended text just mentioned. After all\nattempts at clearing up the verse, one must be content to put a mark\nof interrogation at any rendering. But the scope of the figure seems\ndiscoverable through the obscurity. It is a homely and therefore\nvigorous picture of half-accomplished plans suddenly reduced to utter\nfailure, and leaving their concocters hungry for the satisfaction\nwhich seemed so near. The cookery may go on merrily and the thorns\ncrackle cheerily, but the simoom comes, topples over the tripod on\nwhich the pot swung, and blows the fire away in a hundred directions.\nPeter's gibbet was ready, and the morning of his execution was near;\nbut when day dawned, \"there was no small stir what was become of him.\"\nThe wind had blown him away from the expectation of the people of the\nJews into safe quarters; and the fire was dispersed.\n\nThe closing part (vv. 10, 11) breathes a stern spirit of joy over\nthe destruction of the wicked. That is a terrible picture of the\nrighteous bathing his feet in the blood of the wicked (Psalm lxviii.\n23). It expresses not only the dreadful abundance of blood, but also\nthe satisfaction of the \"righteous\" at its being shed. There is an\nignoble and there is a noble and Christian satisfaction in even\nthe destructive providences of God. It is not only permissible but\nimperative on those who would live in sympathy with His righteous\ndealings and with Himself, that they should see in these the\nmanifestation of eternal justice, and should consider that they\nroll away burdens from earth and bring hope and rest to the victims\nof oppression. It is no unworthy shout of personal vengeance, nor\nof unfeeling triumph, that is lifted up from a relieved world when\nBabylon falls. If it is right in God to destroy, it cannot be wrong\nin His servants to rejoice that He does. Only they have to take heed\nthat their emotion is untarnished by selfish gratulation, and is not\nuntinged with solemn pity for those who were indeed doers of evil, but\nwere themselves the greatest sufferers from their evil. It is hard,\nbut not impossible, to take all that is expressed in the psalm, and\nto soften it by some effluence from the spirit of Him who wept over\nJerusalem, and yet pronounced its doom.\n\nThe last issue of God's judgments contemplated by the psalm warrants\nthe joy of the righteous; for in these there is a demonstration to the\nworld that there is \"fruit\" to the righteous, and that notwithstanding\nall bewilderments from the sight of prosperous wickedness and\noppressed righteousness \"there is a God who judges in the earth.\"\nThe word \"judging\" is here in the plural, corresponding with \"God\"\n(Elohim), which is also plural in form. Possibly the construction is\nto be explained on the ground that the words describe the thoughts\nof surrounding, polytheistic nations, who behold the exhibition\nof God's righteousness. But more probably the plural is here used\nfor the sake of the contrast with the \"gods\" of ver. 1. Over these\nunworthy representatives of Divine justice sits the true judge, in\nthe manifoldness of His attributes, exercising His righteous though\nslow-footed judgments.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LIX.\n\n 1 Deliver me from my enemies, O my God:\n Out of the reach of those who arise against me set me on high.\n 2 Deliver me from workers of iniquity,\n And from men of blood save me.\n 3 For, see, they have lain in wait for my soul,\n The violent gather together against me:\n Not for transgression or sin of mine, Jehovah.\n 4 Without [my] fault they run and set themselves in array:\n Awake to meet me, and behold.\n 5 And Thou, Jehovah, God of hosts, God of Israel,\n Rouse Thyself to visit all the nations:\n Be not gracious to wicked apostates. Selah.\n\n 6 They return at evening, they snarl like dogs, and prowl round the\n city.\n 7 See, they foam at the mouth;\n Swords are in their lips:\n For \"Who hears?\"\n 8 But Thou, Jehovah, shalt laugh at them;\n Thou mockest at all the nations.\n 9 My Strength, for Thee will I watch:\n For God is my high tower.\n\n 10 My God shall come to meet me with His loving-kindness:\n God will let me look on my adversaries.\n 11 Slay them not, lest my people forget:\n Make them wanderers by Thy power (army?), and cast them down,\n O Lord our shield.\n 12 [Each] word of their lips is a sin of their mouth,\n And they snare themselves in their pride,\n And for the cursing and lying [which] they speak.\n 13 End [them] in wrath, end [them], that they be no more:\n And let them know that God is ruler in Jacob,\n Unto the ends of the earth. Selah.\n\n 14 And they shall return at evening, they shall growl like dogs,\n And prowl round the city.\n 15 They--they shall wander about for food,\n If they are not gorged, then [so must] they pass the night.\n 16 And I will sing Thy strength,\n And sound aloud Thy loving-kindness in the morning,\n For Thou hast been a high tower for me,\n And a refuge in the day of my straits.\n 17 My strength, to Thee will I harp,\n For God is my high tower, the God of my loving-kindness.\n\n\nThe superscription makes this the earliest of David's psalms, dating\nfrom the Sauline persecution. It has many points of connection\nwith the others of that group, but its closest affinities are with\nPsalm lv., which is commonly considered to belong to the period of\nincubation of Absalom's rebellion (_cf._ Psalm lv. 10 with lix. 6,\n14, and lv. 21 with lix. 7). The allusion to enemies patrolling the\ncity, which is common to both psalms, seems to refer to a fact, and\nmay in this psalm be founded on the watchfulness of Saul's emissaries;\nbut its occurrence in both weakens its force as here confirmatory of\nthe superscription. It does not necessarily follow from the mention\nof the \"nations\" that the psalmist's enemies are foreigners. Their\npresence in the city and the stress laid on words as their weapons are\nagainst that supposition. On the whole, the contents of the psalm do\nnot negative the tradition in the title, but do not strongly attest\nit. If we have accepted the Davidic authorship of the other psalms\nof this group, we shall extend it to this one; for they clearly are\na group, whether Davidic or not. The psalm falls into two principal\ndivisions (vv. 1-9 and 10-17), each closing with a refrain, and each\nsubdivided into two minor sections, the former of which in each case\nends with Selah, and the latter begins with another refrain. The two\nparts travel over much the same ground of petition, description of the\nenemies, confidence in deliverance and in the defeat of the foes. But\nin the first half the psalmist prays for himself, and in the second\nhe prays against his persecutors, while assured confidence in his own\ndeliverance takes the place of alarmed gaze on their might and cruelty.\n\nThe former half of the first part begins and ends with petitions.\nImbedded in these is a plaintive recounting of the machinations of\nthe adversaries, which are, as it were, spread before God's eyes,\naccompanied with protestations of innocence. The prayers, which\nenclose, as in a circlet, this description of unprovoked hatred, are\nvaried, so that the former petitions are directed to the singer's\ndeliverance, while the latter invoke judgment on his antagonists.\nThe strong assertion of innocence is, of course, to be limited to\nthe psalmist's conduct to his enemies. They attack him without\nprovocation. Obviously this feature corresponds to the facts of\nSaul's hatred of David, and as obviously it does not correspond to\nthe facts of Israel's sufferings from foreign enemies, which are\nsupposed by the present favourite interpretation to be the occasion\nof the psalm. No devout singer could so misunderstand the reason\nof the nation's disasters as to allege that they had fallen upon\ninnocent heads. Rather, when a psalmist bewailed national calamities,\nhe traced them to national sins. \"Anger went up against Israel,\nbecause they believed not in God.\" The psalmist calls God to look\nupon the doings of his enemies. Privy plots and open assaults are\nboth directed against him. The enemy lie in wait for his life; but\nalso, with fell eagerness, like that of soldiers making haste to rank\nthemselves in battle-array, they \"run and set themselves.\" This is\nprobably simply metaphor, for the rest of the psalm does not seem to\ncontemplate actual warfare. The imminence of peril forces an urgent\nprayer from the threatened man. So urgent is it that it breaks in\non the parallelism of ver. 4, substituting its piercing cry \"Awake,\nbehold!\" for the proper second clause carrying on the description in\nthe first. The singer makes haste to grasp God's hand, because he\nfeels the pressure of the wind blowing in his face. It is wise to\nbreak off the contemplation of enemies and dangers by crying to God.\nPrayer is a good interruption of a catalogue of perils. The petitions\nin ver. 5 are remarkable, both in their accumulation of the Divine\nnames and in their apparent transcending of the suppliant's need. The\nformer characteristic is no mere artificial or tautological heaping\ntogether of titles, but indicates repeated acts of faith and efforts\nof contemplation. Each name suggests something in God which encourages\nhope, and when appealed to by a trusting soul, moves Him to act. The\nvery introductory word of invocation, \"And Thou,\" is weighty. It sets\nthe might of God in grand contrast to the hurrying hatred of the\nadversary; and its significance is enhanced if its recurrence in ver.\n8 and its relation to \"And I\" in ver. 16 are taken into account.\n\nThe combination of the Divine names is remarkable here, from the\ninsertion of God (Elohim) between the two parts of the standing\nname, Jehovah of hosts. The anomaly is made still more anomalous\nby the peculiar form of the word Elohim, which does not undergo\nthe modification to be expected in such a construction. The same\npeculiarities occur in other Elohistic psalms (lxxx. 4, 19, and\nlxxxiv. 8). The peculiar grammatical form would be explained if the\nthree words were regarded as three co-ordinate names, Jehovah, Elohim,\nZebaoth, and this explanation is favoured by good critics. But it\nis going too far to say, with Baethgen, that \"Zebaoth _can only_ be\nunderstood as an independent Divine name\" (Komm., _in loc._). Other\nexplanations are at least possible, such as that of Delitzsch, that\n\"Elohim, like Jehovah, has become a proper name,\" and so does not\nsuffer modification. The supplicatory force of the names, however,\nis clear, whatever may be the account of the formal anomalies. They\nappeal to God and they hearten the appellant's confidence by setting\nforth the loftiness of God, who rules over the embattled forces of the\nuniverse, which \"run and set themselves in array\" at His bidding and\nfor His servant's help, and before which the ranks of the foes seem\nthin and few. They set forth also God's relation to Israel, of which\nthe single suppliant is a member.\n\nThe petition, grounded upon these names, is supposed by modern\ncommentators to prove that the psalmist's enemies were heathens, which\nwould, of course, destroy the Davidic authorship, and make the singer a\npersonification of the nation. But against this is to be observed the\ndescription of the enemies in the last clause of ver. 5 as \"apostates,\"\nwhich must refer to Israelites. The free access to the \"city,\" spoken\nof in ver. 6, is also unfavourable to that supposition, as is the\nprominence given to the _words_ of the enemy. Foreign foes would have\nhad other swords than those carried between their lips. The prayer\nthat Jehovah would arise to visit \"all nations\" is much more naturally\nexplained, as on the same principle as the judgment of \"the peoples\"\nin Psalm vii. All special cases are subsumed under the one general\njudgment. The psalmist looks for his own deliverance as one instance\nof that world-wide manifestation of Divine justice which will \"render\nto every man according to his deeds.\" Not only personal considerations\nmove him to his prayer; but, pressing as these are, and shrill as is\nthe cry for personal deliverance, the psalmist is not so absorbed in\nself as that he cannot widen his thoughts and desires to a world-wide\nmanifestation of Divine righteousness, of which his own escape will be\na tiny part. Such recognition of the universal in the particular is the\nprerogative in lower walks of the poet and the man of genius; it is the\nstrength and solace of the man who lives by faith and links all things\nwith God. The instruments here strike in, so as to fix attention on the\nspectacle of God aroused to smite and of the end of apostates.\n\nThe comparison of the psalmist's enemies to dogs occurs in another\npsalm ascribed to David (xxii. 16, 20). They are like the masterless,\ngaunt, savage curs which infest the streets of Eastern cities, hungrily\nhunting for offal and ready to growl or snarl at every passer-by.\nThough the dog is not a nocturnal animal, evening would naturally be\na time when these would specially prowl round the city in search of\nfood, if disappointed during the day. The picture suggests the enemies'\neagerness, lawlessness, foulness, and persistency. If the psalm is\nrightly dated in the superscription, it finds most accurate realisation\nin the crafty, cruel watchfulness of Saul's spies. The word rendered by\nthe A.V. and R.V. \"make a noise\" is \"said usually of the growling of the\nbear and the cooing of the dove\" (Delitzsch). It indicates a lower sound\nthan barking, and so expresses rage suppressed lest its object should\ntake alarm. The word rendered (A.V. and R.V.) \"belch\" means to gush\nout, and is found in a good sense in Psalm xix. 1. Here it may perhaps\nbe taken as meaning \"foam,\" with some advantage to the truth of the\npicture. \"Swords are in their lips\"--_i.e._, their talk is of slaying\nthe psalmist, or their slanders cut like swords; and the crown of their\nevil is their scoff at the apparently deaf and passive God.\n\nWith startling suddenness, as if one quick touch drew aside a curtain,\nthe vision of God as He really regards the enemies is flashed on\nthem in ver. 8. The strong antithesis expressed by the \"And Thou,\"\nas in ver. 5, comes with overwhelming force. Below is the crowd of\ngreedy foes, obscene, cruel, and blasphemous; above, throned in dread\nrepose, which is not, as they dream, carelessness or ignorance, is\nJehovah, mocking their fancied security. The tremendous metaphor of\nthe laughter of God is too boldly anthropomorphic to be misunderstood.\nIt sounds like the germ of the solemn picture in Psalm ii., and is\nprobably the source of the similar expression in Psalm xxxvii. 13.\nThe introduction of the wider thought of God's \"mocking\"--_i.e._,\ndiscerning, and manifesting in act, the impotence of the ungodly\nefforts of \"all nations\"--is to be accounted for on the same principle\nof the close connection discerned by the devout singer between the\nparticular and the general, which explains the similar extension of\nview in ver. 5.\n\nVer. 9 is the refrain closing the first part. The reading of the Hebrew\ntext, \"His strength,\" must be given up, as unintelligible, and the\nslight alteration required for reading \"my\" instead of \"his\" adopted, as\nin the second instance of the refrain in ver. 17. The further alteration\nof text, however, by which \"I will harp\" would be read in ver. 9 instead\nof \"I will watch\" is unnecessary, and the variation of the two refrains\nis not only in accordance with usage, but brings out a delicate phase\nof progress in confidence. He who begins with waiting for God ends with\nsinging praise to God. The silence of patient expectance is changed for\nthe melody of received deliverance.\n\nThe first part of the second division, like the corresponding portion\nof the fist division, is mainly prayer, but with the significant\ndifference that the petitions now are directed, not to the psalmist's\ndeliverance, but to his enemies' punishment. For himself, he is sure\nthat his God will come to meet him with His loving-kindness, and\nthat, thus met and helped, he will look on, secure, at their ruin.\nThe Hebrew margin proposes to read \"The God of my loving-kindness\nwill meet me\"--an incomplete sentence, which does not tell with what\nGod will meet him. But the text needs only the change of one vowel\npoint in order to yield the perfectly appropriate reading, \"my God\nshall meet me with His loving-kindness,\" which is distinctly to be\npreferred. It is singular that the substitution of \"my\" for \"his,\"\nwhich is needlessly suggested by the Hebrew margin for ver. 10, is\nrequired but not suggested for ver. 9. One is tempted to wonder\nwhether there has been a scribe's blunder attaching the correction\nto the wrong verse. The central portion of this part of the psalm\nis composed of terrible wishes for the enemies' destruction. There\nis nothing more awful in the imprecations of the Psalter than that\npetition that the boon of a swift end to their miseries may not be\ngranted them. The dew of pity for suffering is dried up by the fire\nof stern desire for the exhibition of a signal instance of Divine\njudicial righteousness. That desire lifts the prayer above the level\nof personal vengeance, but does not lighten its awfulness. There may\nbe an allusion to the fate of Cain, who was kept alive and made a\n\"fugitive and a vagabond.\" Whether that is so or not, the wish that\nthe foes may be kept alive to be buffeted by God's _strength_--or,\nas the word may mean, to be scattered in panic-struck rout by God's\n_army_--is one which marks the difference between the old and the\nnew covenants. The ground of these fearful punishments is vehemently\nset forth in ver. 12. Every word which the adversaries speak is sin.\nTheir own self-sufficient pride, which is revolt against dependence\non God, is like a trap to catch them. They speak curses and lies, for\nwhich retribution is due. This recounting of their crimes, not so much\nagainst the psalmist, though involving him, as against God, fires\nhis indignation anew, and he flames out with petitions which seem to\nforget the former ones for lingering destruction: \"End them in wrath,\nend them.\" The contradiction may be apparent only, and this passionate\ncry may presuppose the fulfilment of the former. The psalmist will\nthen desire two dreadful things--first, protracted suffering, and then\na crushing blow to end it. His ultimate desire in both is the same.\nHe would have the evil-doers spared long enough to be monuments of\nGod's punitive justice; he would have them ended, that the crash of\ntheir fall may reverberate afar and proclaim that God rules in Jacob.\n\"Unto the ends of the earth\" may be connected either with \"rules\" or\nwith \"know.\" In the former construction the thought will be, that\nfrom His throne in Israel God exercises dominion universally; in the\nlatter, that the echo of the judgment on these evil-doers will reach\ndistant lands. The latter meaning is favoured by the accents, and\nis, on the whole, to be preferred. But what a strange sense of his\nown significance for the manifestation of God's power to the world\nthis singer must have had, if he could suppose that the events of his\nlife were thus of universal importance! One does not wonder that the\nadvocates of the personification theory find strong confirmation of it\nin such utterances; and, indeed, the only other explanation of them\nis that the psalmist held, and knew himself to hold, a conspicuous\nplace in the evolution of the Divine purpose, so that in his life,\nas in a small mirror, there were reflected great matters. If such\nanticipations were more than wild dreams, the cherisher of them must\neither have been speaking in the person of the nation, or he must have\nknown himself to be God's instrument for extending His name through\nthe world. No single person so adequately meets the requirements of\nsuch words as David.\n\nThe second part of this division (ver. 14) begins with the same words\nas the corresponding part of the first division (ver. 6), so that\nthere is a kind of refrain here. The futures in vv. 14, 15, may be\neither simple futures or optatives. In the latter case the petitions\nof the preceding verses would be continued here, and the pregnant\ntruth would result that continuance in sin is the punishment of sin.\nBut probably the imprecations are better confined to the former part,\nas the Selah draws a broad line of demarcation, and there would be an\nincongruity in following the petition \"End them\" with others which\ncontemplated the continuance of the enemies. If the verses are taken\nas simply predictive, the point of the reintroduction of the figure of\nthe pack of dogs hunting for their prey lies in ver. 15. There they\nare described as balked in their attempts, and having to pass the\nnight unsatisfied. Their prey has escaped. Their eager chase, their\nnocturnal quest, their growling and prowling, have been vain. They lie\ndown empty and in the dark--a vivid picture, which has wider meanings\nthan its immediate occasion. \"Ye lust and desire to have, and cannot\nobtain.\" An eternal nemesis hangs over godless lives, condemning them\nto hunger, after all efforts, and wrapping their pangs of unsatisfied\ndesire in tragic darkness.\n\nA clear strain of trust springs up, like a lark's morning song. The\nsinger contrasts himself with his baffled foes. The \"they\" at the\nbeginning of ver. 15 is emphatic in the Hebrew, and is matched with\nthe emphatic \"And I\" which begins ver. 16. His \"morning\" is similarly\nset over against their \"night.\" So petition, complaint, imprecation,\nall merge into a song of joy and trust, and the whole ends with the\nrefrain significantly varied and enlarged. In its first form the\npsalmist said, \"For Thee will I watch\"; in its second he rises to\n\"To Thee will I harp.\" Glad praise is ever the close of the vigils\nof a faithful, patient heart. The deliverance won by waiting and\ntrust should be celebrated by praise. In the first form the refrain\nran \"God is my high tower,\" and the second part of the psalm began\nwith \"My God shall meet me with His loving-kindness.\" In its second\nform the refrain draws into itself these words which had followed\nit, and so modifies them that the loving-kindness which in them was\ncontemplated as belonging to and brought by God is now joyfully\nclasped by the singer as his very own, by Divine gift and through his\nown acceptance. Blessed they who are led by occasion of foes and fears\nto take God's rich gifts, and can thankfully and humbly feel that His\nloving-kindness and all its results are theirs, because He Himself is\ntheirs and they are His!\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LX.\n\n 1 O God, Thou hast cast us off, hast broken us,\n Hast been angry with us--restore us again.\n 2 Thou hast shaken the land, hast rent it--\n Heal its breaches, for it trembles.\n 3 Thou hast made Thy people see hard things,\n Thou hast given them to drink reeling as wine.\n 4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee,\n [Only] that they may flee before the bow. Selah.\n\n 5 That Thy beloved ones may be delivered,\n Save with Thy right hand, and answer us.\n 6 God has spoken in His holiness,--I will exult:\n I will divide Shechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth.\n 7 Mine is Gilead, and mine Manasseh,\n And Ephraim is the strength of my head,\n Judah, my baton of command.\n 8 Moab is my wash basin,\n Upon Edom will I throw my shoe,\n Because of me, Philistia, shout aloud.\n\n 9 Who will bring me into the fenced city?\n Who has guided me into Edom?\n 10 Hast not Thou, O God, cast us off?\n And goest not out, O God, with our hosts.\n 11 Give us help from the oppressor\n For vain is help of man.\n 12 In God we shall do prowess:\n And He, He will tread down our oppressors.\n\n\nThis psalm has evidently a definite historical background. Israel has\nbeen worsted in fight, but still continues its campaign against Edom.\nMeditating on God's promises, the psalmist anticipates victory, which\nwill cover defeat and perfect partial successes, and seeks to breathe\nhis own spirit of confidence into the ranks of his countrymen. But\nthe circumstances answering to those required by the psalm are hard\nto find. The date assigned by the superscription cannot be called\nsatisfactory; for David's war there referred to (2 Sam. viii.) had\nno such stunning defeats as are here lamented. The Divine Oracle, of\nwhich the substance is given in the central part of the psalm, affords\nbut dubious indications of date. At first sight it seems to imply the\nunion of all the tribes in one kingdom, and therefore to favour the\nDavidic authorship. But it may be a question whether the united Israel\nof the Oracle is fact or prophecy. To one school of commentators,\nthe mention of Ephraim in conjunction with Judah is token that the\npsalm is prior to the great revolt; to another, it is proof positive\nthat the date is after the destruction of the northern kingdom. The\nMaccabean date is favoured by Olshausen, Hitzig, and Cheyne among\nmoderns; but, apart from other objections, the reappearance of vv.\n5-12 in Psalm cviii. implies that this piece of Hebrew psalmody was\nalready venerable when a later compiler wove part of it into that\npsalm. On the whole, the Davidic authorship is possible, though\nclogged with the difficulty already mentioned. But the safest\nconclusion seems to be Baethgen's modest one, which contrasts strongly\nwith the confident assertions of some other critics--namely, that\nassured certainty in dating the psalm \"is no longer possible.\"\n\nIt falls into three parts of four verses each, of which the first (vv.\n1-4) is complaint of defeat and prayer for help; the second (vv. 5-8),\na Divine Oracle assuring victory; and the third (vv. 9-12), the flash\nof fresh hope kindled by that God's-word.\n\nThe first part blends complaint and prayer in the first pair of\nverses, in each of which there is, first, a description of the\ndesperate state of Israel, and then a cry for help. The nation is\nbroken, as a wall is broken down, or as an army whose ordered ranks\nare shattered and scattered. Some crushing defeat is meant, which\nin ver. 2 is further described as an earthquake. The land trembles,\nand then gapes in hideous clefts, and houses become gaunt ruins. The\nstate is disorganised as in consequence of defeat. It is an unpoetical\nmixture of fact and figure to see in the \"rending\" of the land\nallusion to the separation of the kingdoms, especially as that was not\nthe result of defeat.\n\nThere is almost a tone of wonder in the designation of Israel as\n\"Thy people,\" so sadly does the fate meted out to them contrast with\ntheir name. Stranger still and more anomalous is it, that, as ver.\n3 _b_ laments, God's own hand has commended such a chalice to their\nlips as should fill them with infatuation. The construction \"wine of\nreeling\" is grammatically impossible, and the best explanation of the\nphrase regards the nouns as in apposition--\"wine which is reeling,\" or\n\"reeling as wine.\" The meaning is that God not only sent the disaster\nwhich had shaken the nation like an earthquake, but had sent, too, the\npresumptuous self-confidence which had led to it.\n\nVer. 4 has received two opposite interpretations, being taken by\nsome as a prolongation of the tone of lament over disaster, and by\nothers as commemoration of God's help. The latter meaning violently\ninterrupts the continuity of thought. \"The only natural view is\nthat which sees\" in ver. 4 \"a continuation of the description of\ncalamity\" in ver. 3 (Cheyne, _in loc._). Taking this view, we render\nthe second clause as above. The word translated \"that they may flee\"\nmay indeed mean to lift themselves up, in the sense of gathering\nround a standard, but the remainder of the clause cannot be taken as\nmeaning \"because of the truth,\" since the preposition here used never\nmeans \"because of.\" It is best taken here as _from before_. The word\nvariously rendered _bow_ and _truth_ is difficult. It occurs again in\nProv. xxii. 21, and is there parallel with \"truth\" or faithfulness in\nfulfilling Divine promises. But that meaning would be inappropriate\nhere, and would require the preceding preposition to be taken in the\nimpossible sense already noted. It seems better, therefore, to follow\nthe LXX. and other old versions, in regarding the word as a slightly\nvaried mode of spelling the ordinary word for a bow (the final dental\nletter being exchanged for a cognate dental). The resulting meaning is\ndeeply coloured by sad irony. \"Thou hast indeed given a banner--but\nit was a signal for flight rather than for gathering round.\" Such\nseems the best view of this difficult verse; but it is not free\nfrom objection. \"Those who fear Thee\" is not a fitting designation\nfor persons who were thus scattered in flight by God, even if it is\ntaken as simply a synonym for the nation. We have to make choice\nbetween two incongruities. If we adopt the favourite view, that the\nverse continues the description of calamity, the name given to the\nsufferers is strange. If we take the other, that it describes God's\ngracious rallying of the fugitives, we are confronted with a violent\ninterruption of the tone of feeling in this first part of the psalm.\nPerowne accepts the rendering _from before the bow_, but takes the\nverb in the sense of mustering round, so making the banner to be a\nrallying-point, and the giving of it a Divine mercy.\n\nThe second part (vv. 5-8) begins with a verse which Delitzsch and\nothers regard as really connected, notwithstanding the Selah at the\nend ver. 4, with the preceding. But it is quite intelligible as\nindependent, and is in its place as the introduction to the Divine\nOracle which follows, and makes the kernel of the psalm. There is\nbeautiful strength of confidence in the psalmist's regarding the\nbeaten, scattered people as still God's \"darlings.\" He appeals to Him\nto answer, in order that a result so accordant with God's heart as the\ndeliverance of His beloved ones may be secured. And the prayer has no\nsooner passed his lips than he hears the thunderous response, \"God has\nspoken in His holiness.\" That infinite elevation of His nature above\ncreatures is the pledge of the fulfilment of His word.\n\nThe following verses contain the substance of the Oracle; but it is too\ndaring to suppose that they reproduce its words; for \"I will exult\"\ncan scarcely be reverently put into the mouth of God. The substance of\nthe whole is a twofold promise--of a united Israel, and a submissive\nheathendom. Shechem on the west and Succoth on the east of Jordan,\nGilead and Manasseh on the east, and Ephraim and Judah on the west, are\nthe possession of the speaker, whether he is king or representative of\nthe nation. No trace of a separation of the kingdoms is here. Ephraim,\nthe strongest tribe of the northern kingdom, is the \"strength of my\nhead,\" the helmet, or perhaps with allusion to the horns of an animal as\nsymbols of offensive weapons. Judah is the ruling tribe, the commander's\nbaton, or possibly \"lawgiver,\" as in Gen. xlix. Israel thus compact\ntogether may count on conquests over hereditary foes.\n\nTheir defeat is foretold in contemptuous images. The basin for washing\nthe feet was \"a vessel unto dishonour\"; and, in Israel's great house,\nno higher function for his ancestral enemy, when conquered, would be\nfound. The meaning of casting the shoe upon or over Edom is doubtful.\nIt may be a symbol for taking possession of property, though that\nlacks confirmation; or Edom may be regarded as the household slave\nto whom the master's shoes are thrown when taken off; or, better, in\naccordance with the preceding reference to Moab, Edom may be regarded\nas part of the master's house or furniture. The one was the basin for\nhis feet; the other, the corner where he kept his sandals.\n\nIf the text of ver. 8 _c_ is correct, Philistia is addressed with\nbitter sarcasm, and bidden to repeat her ancient shouts of triumph\nover Israel now, if she can. But the edition of these verses in Psalm\ncviii. gives a more natural reading, which may be adopted here: \"Over\nPhilistia will I shout aloud.\"\n\nThe third part (vv. 9-12) is taken by some commentators to breathe\nthe same spirit as the first part. Cheyne, for instance, speaks of\nit as a \"relapse into despondency,\" whilst others more truly hear\nin it the tones of rekindled trust. In ver. 9 there is a remarkable\nchange of tense from \"Who will bring?\" in the first clause, to \"Who\nhas guided?\" in the second. This is best explained by the supposition\nthat some victory over Edom had preceded the psalm, which is regarded\nby the singer as a guarantee of success in his assault of \"the fenced\ncity,\" probably Petra. There is no need to supplement ver. 10, so as\nto read, \"Wilt not Thou, O God, which,\" etc. The psalmist recurs to\nhis earlier lament, not as if he thought that it still held true, but\njust because it does not. It explained the reason of past disasters;\nand, being now reversed by the Divine Oracle, becomes the basis of\nthe prayer which follows. It is as if he had said, \"We were defeated\nbecause Thou didst cast us off. Now help as Thou hast promised, and we\nshall do deeds of valour.\" It is impossible to suppose that the result\nof the Divine answer which makes the very heart of the psalm, should\nbe a hopeless repetition of the initial despondency. Rather glad faith\nacknowledges past weakness and traces past failures to self-caused\nabandonment by a loving God, who let His people be worsted that they\nmight learn who was their strength, and ever goes forth with those who\ngo forth to war with the consciousness that all help but His is vain,\nand with the hope that in Him even their weakness shall do deeds of\nprowess. \"Hast not Thou cast us off?\" may be the utterance of despair;\nbut it may also be that of assured confidence, and the basis of a\nprayer that will be answered by God's present help.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXI.\n\n 1 Hear, O God, my shrill cry,\n Attend to my prayer.\n\n 2 From the end of the earth I cry to Thee, when my heart is wrapped\n [in gloom]:\n Lead me on to a rock that is too high for me to [reach]\n 3 For Thou hast been a place of refuge for me,\n A tower of strength from the face of the foe.\n 4 Let me dwell a guest in Thy tent for ever,\n Let me find refuge in the covert of Thy wings. Selah.\n 5 For Thou, O God, hast hearkened to my vows,\n Thou hast given [me] the heritage of them that fear Thy name.\n\n 6 Days mayest Thou add to the days of the king,\n May his years be as many generations.\n 7 May he sit before God for ever:\n Give charge to loving-kindness and troth, that they guard him.\n\n 8 So will I harp to Thy name for aye,\n That I may fulfil my vows day by day.\n\n\nThe situation of the singer in this psalm is the same as in Psalm\nlxiii. In both he is an exile longing for the sanctuary, and in both\n\"the king\" is referred to in a way which leaves his identity with\nthe psalmist questionable. There are also similarities in situation,\nsentiment, and expression with Psalms xlii. and xliii.--_e.g._,\nthe singers exile, his yearning to appear in the sanctuary, the\ncommand given by God to His Loving-kindness (xlii. 8 and lxi. 8),\nthe personification of Light and Troth as his guides (xliii. 3),\ncompared with the similar representation here of Loving-kindness\nand Troth as guards set by God over the psalmist. The traditional\nattribution of the psalm to David has at least the merit of providing\nan appropriate setting for its longings and hopes, in his flight from\nAbsalom. No one of the other dates proposed by various critics seems\nto satisfy anybody but its proposer. Hupfeld calls Hitzig's suggestion\n\"wunderbar zu lesen.\" Graetz inclines to the reign of Hezekiah and\nthinks that \"the connection gains\" if the prayer for the preservation\nof the king's life refers to that monarch's sickness. The Babylonish\ncaptivity, with Zedekiah for \"the king,\" is preferred by others. Still\nlater dates are in favour now. Cheyne lays it down that \"pre-Jeremian\nsuch highly spiritual hymns (_i.e._, Psalms lxi. and lxiii.) obviously\ncannot be,\" and thinks that \"it would not be unplausible to make\nthem contemporaneous with Psalm xlii., the king being Antiochus the\nGreat,\" but prefers to assign them to the Maccabean period, and to\ntake \"Jonathan, or (better) Simon\" as the king. Are \"highly spiritual\nhymns\" probable products of that time?\n\nIf the Selah is accepted as marking the end of the first part of the\npsalm, its structure is symmetrical, so far as it is then divided into\ntwo parts of four verses each; but that division cuts off the prayer\nin ver. 4 from its ground in ver. 5. Selah frequently occurs in the\nmiddle of a period, and is used to mark emphasis, but not necessarily\ndivision. It is therefore better to keep vv. 4 and 5 together, thus\npreserving their analogy with vv. 2 and 3. The scheme of this little\npsalm will then be an introductory verse, followed by two parallel\npairs of verses, each consisting of petition and its grounding in past\nmercies (vv. 2, 3, and 4, 5), and these again succeeded by another\npair containing petitions for the king, while a final single verse,\ncorresponding to the introductory one, joyfully foresees life-long\npraise evoked by the certain answers to the singer's prayer.\n\nThe fervour of the psalmist's supplication is strikingly expressed\nby his use in the first clause, of the word which is ordinarily\nemployed for the shrill notes of rejoicing. It describes the quality\nof the sound as penetrating and emotional, not the nature of the\nemotion expressed by it. Joy is usually louder-tongued than sorrow;\nbut this suppliant's need has risen so high that his cry is resonant.\nTo himself he seems to be at \"the end of the earth\"; for he measures\ndistance not as a map-maker, but as a worshipper. Love and longing are\npotent magnifiers of space. His heart \"faints,\" or is \"overwhelmed.\"\nThe word means literally \"covered,\" and perhaps the metaphor may be\npreserved by some such phrase as _wrapped in gloom_. He is, then,\nan exile, and therefore sunk in sadness. But while he had external\nseparation from the sanctuary chiefly in view, his cry wakes an\necho in all devout hearts. They who know most about the inner life\nof communion with God best know how long and dreary the smallest\nseparation between Him and them seems, and how thick is the covering\nspread over the heart thereby.\n\nThe one desire of such a suppliant is for restoration of interrupted\naccess to God. The psalmist embodies that yearning in its more outward\nform, but not without penetrating to the inner reality in both the\nparallel petitions which follow. In the first of these, (ver. 2 _b_)\nthe thought is fuller than the condensed expression of it. \"Lead\nme on\" or in, says he, meaning, Lead me _to_ and set me _on_. His\nimagination sees towering above him a great cliff, on which, if he\ncould be planted, he might defy pursuit or assault. But he is distant\nfrom it, and the inaccessibility which, were he in its clefts, would\nbe his safety, is now his despair. Therefore he turns to God and asks\nHim to bear him up in His hands, that he may set his foot on that\nrock. The figure has been, strangely enough, interpreted to mean a\nrock of difficulty, but against the usage in the Psalter. But we do\nnot reach the whole significance of the figure if we give it the mere\ngeneral meaning of a place of safety. While it would be too much to\nsay that \"rock\" is here an epithet of God (the absence of the definite\narticle and other considerations are against that), it may be affirmed\nthat the psalmist, like all devout men, knew that his only place of\nsafety was in God. \"_A_ rock\" will not afford adequate shelter; our\nperils and storms need \"_the_ Rock.\" And, therefore, this singer bases\nhis prayer on his past experience of the safe hiding that he had found\nin God. Place of refuge and strong tower are distinctly parallel with\n\"rock.\" The whole, then, is like the prayer in Psalm xxxi. 2, 3: \"Be\nThou to me a strong rock. For Thou art my rock.\"\n\nThe second pair of verses, containing petition and its ground in past\nexperience (vv. 4, 5), brings out still more clearly the psalmist's\nlonging for the sanctuary. The futures in ver. 4 may be taken either\nas simple expressions of certainty, or, more probably, as precative,\nas is suggested by the parallelism with the preceding pair. The \"tent\"\nof God is the sanctuary, possibly so called because at the date of the\npsalm \"the ark of God dwelt in curtains.\" The \"hiding-place of Thy\nwings\" may then be an allusion to the Shechinah and outspread pinions\nof the Cherubim. But the inner reality is more to the psalmist than\nthe external symbols, however his faith was trained to connect the\ntwo more indissolubly than is legitimate for us. His longing was no\nsuperstitious wish to be near that sanctuary, as if external presence\nbrought blessing, but a reasonable longing, grounded on the fact for\nhis stage of revelation, that such presence was the condition of\nfullest realisation of spiritual communion, and of the safety and\nblessedness thence received. His prayer is the deepest desire of every\nsoul that has rightly apprehended the facts of life, its own needs and\nthe riches of God. The guests in God's dwelling have guest-rights of\nprovision and protection. Beneath His wings are safety, warmth, and\nconscious nearness to His heart. The suppliant may feel far off, at\nthe end of the world; but one strong desire has power to traverse all\nthe distance in a moment. \"Where the treasure is, there will the heart\nbe also\"; and where the heart is, there the man is.\n\nThe ground of this second petition is laid in God's past listening to\nvows, and His having given the psalmist \"the heritage of those that\nfear Thy name.\" That is most naturally explained as meaning primarily\nthe land of Israel, and as including therein all other blessings\nneedful for life there. While it is capable of being otherwise\nunderstood, it is singularly appropriate to the person of David during\nthe period of Absalom's rebellion, when victory was beginning to\ndeclare itself for the king. If we suppose that he had already won a\nbattle (2 Sam. xviii. 6), we can understand how he takes that success\nas an omen and urges it as a plea. The pair of verses will then be one\ninstance of the familiar argument which trustful hearts instinctively\nuse, when they present past and incomplete mercies as reasons for\ncontinued gifts, and for the addition of all which is needed to\n\"perfect that which concerneth\" them. It rests on the confidence that\nGod is not one who \"begins and is not able to finish.\"\n\nVery naturally, then, follows the closing prayer in vv. 6, 7. The\npurely individual character of the rest of the psalm, which is resumed\nin the last verse, where the singer, speaking in the first person,\nrepresents his continual praise as the result of the answer to his\npetitions for the king, makes these petitions hopelessly irrelevant,\nunless the psalmist is the king and these prayers are for himself.\nThe transition to the third person does not necessarily negative this\ninterpretation, which seems to be required by the context. The prayer\nsounds hyperbolical, but has a parallel in Psalm xxi. 4, and need not be\nvindicated by taking the dynasty rather than the individual to be meant,\nor by diverting it to a Messianic reference. It is a prayer for length\nof days, in order that the deliverance already begun may be perfected,\nand that the psalmist may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever (_cf._\nPsalms xxiii. 6; xxvii. 4). He asks that he may sit enthroned before God\nfor ever--that is, that his dominion may by God's favour be established\nand his throne upheld in peace. The psalm is in so far Messianic that\nthe everlasting kingdom of the Christ alone fulfils its prayer.\n\nThe final petition has, as has been noticed above, parallels in\nPsalms xlii., xliii., to which may be added the personifications of\nGoodness and Loving-kindness in Psalm xxiii. 6. These bright harnessed\nangels stand sentries over the devout suppliant, set on their guard\nby the great Commander; and no harm can come to him over whom God's\nLoving-kindness and Faithfulness keep daily and nightly watch.\n\nThus guarded, the psalmist's prolonged life will be one long anthem\nof praise, and the days added to his days will be occupied with the\nfulfilment of his vows made in trouble and redeemed in his prosperity.\nWhat congruity is there between this closing verse, which is knit\nclosely to the preceding by that \"So,\" and the previous pair of\nverses, unless the king is himself the petitioner? \"Let _him_ sit\nbefore God for ever\"--how comes that to lead up to \"So will _I_ harp\nto Thy name for ever\"? Surely the natural answer is, Because \"he\" and\n\"I\" are the same person.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXII.\n\n 1 Only upon God [waits] my soul [in] silence:\n From Him is my salvation.\n 2 Only He is my rock and my salvation,\n My high tower, I shall not be greatly moved.\n 3 How long will ye rush upon a man?\n [How long] will ye all of you break him down,\n Like a bulging wall, a tottering fence?\n 4 Only from his elevation do they consult to thrust him down, they\n delight in lies:\n Each blesses with his mouth, and in their inner [part] they\n curse. Selah.\n\n 5 Only to God be silent, my soul,\n For from Him is my expectation.\n 6 Only He is my rock and my salvation,\n My high tower; I shall not be moved.\n 7 On God is my salvation and my glory,\n The rock of my strength, my refuge, is in God.\n 8 Trust in him in every time, O people!\n Pour out before Him your heart,\n God is a refuge for us. Selah.\n\n 9 Only vanity are the sons of the lowly, a lie are the sons of the\n lofty,\n In the scales they go up, they are [lighter] than vanity\n altogether.\n 10 Trust not in oppressions and in robbery become not vain,\n When wealth grows, set not your heart thereon.\n 11 Once has God spoken, twice have I heard this,\n That strength [belongs] to God.\n 12 And to Thee, O God, [belongs] loving-kindness,\n For Thou, Thou renderest to a man according to his work.\n\n\nThere are several points of affinity between this psalm and\nthe thirty-ninth,--such as the frequent use of the particle of\nasseveration or restriction (\"surely\" or \"only\"); the rare\nand beautiful word for \"silence,\" as expressing restful, still\nresignation; and the characterisation of men as \"vanity.\" These\nresemblances are not proofs of identity of authorship, though\nestablishing a presumption in its favour. Delitzsch accepts the psalm\nas Davidic, and refers it to the time of Absalom's revolt. The singer\nis evidently in a position of dignity (\"elevation,\" ver. 4), and one\nwhose exhortations come with force to the \"people\" (ver. 8), whether\nthat word is understood as designating the nation or his immediate\nfollowers. Cheyne, who relegates the psalm to the Persian period,\nfeels that the recognition of the singer as \"a personage who is the\nChurch's bulwark\" is the natural impression on reading the psalm\n(\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" 227, and 242, _n._). If so, David's position is\nprecisely that which is required. Whoever sang this immortal psalm,\nrose to the heights of conquering faith, and gave voice to the deepest\nand most permanent emotions of devout souls.\n\nThe psalm is in three strophes of four verses each, the divisions\nbeing marked by Selah. The two former have a long refrain at the\nbeginning, instead of, as usually, at the end. In the first the\npsalmist sets his quiet trust in contrast with the furious assaults of\nhis foes; while, in the second, he stirs himself to renewed exercise\nof it, and exhorts others to share with him in the security of God as\na place of refuge. In the third strophe the nothingness of man is set\nin strong contrast to the power and loving-kindness of God, and the\ndehortation from trust in material wealth urged as the negative side\nof the previous exhortation to trust in God.\n\nThe noble saying of ver. 1 _a_ is hard to translate without weakening.\nThe initial word may have the meanings of \"Only\" or \"Surely.\" The\nformer seems more appropriate in this psalm, where it occurs six\ntimes, in one only of which (ver. 4) does the latter seem the more\nnatural rendering, though even there the other is possible. It is,\nhowever, to be noticed that its restrictive power is not always\ndirected to the adjacent word; and here it may either present God as\nthe exclusive object of the psalmist's waiting trust, or his whole\nsoul as being nothing else but silent resignation. The reference to\nGod is favoured by ver. 2, but the other is possible. The psalmist's\nwhole being is, as it were, but one stillness of submission. The\nnoises of contending desires, the whispers of earthly hopes, the\nmutterings of short-sighted fears, the self-asserting accents of an\ninsisting will, are hushed, and all his nature waits mutely for God's\nvoice. No wonder that a psalm which begins thus should end with \"God\nhath spoken once, twice have I heard this\"; for such waiting is never\nin vain. The soul that cleaves to God is still; and, being still, is\ncapable of hearing the Divine whispers which deepen the silence which\nthey bless. \"There is no joy but calm\"; and the secret of calm is to\nturn the current of the being to God. Then it is like a sea at rest.\n\nThe psalmist's silence finds voice, which does not break it, in saying\nover to himself what God is to him. His accumulation of epithets\nreminds us of Psalm xviii. 1, 2. Not only does his salvation come\nfrom God, but God Himself is the salvation which He sends forth like\nan angel. The recognition of God as his defence is the ground of\n\"silence\"; for if He is \"my rock and my salvation,\" what can be wiser\nthan to keep close to Him, and let Him do as He will? The assurance of\npersonal safety is inseparable from such a thought of God. Nothing\nwhich does not shake the rock can shake the frail tent pitched on it.\nAs long as the tower stands, its inhabitant can look down from his\ninaccessible fastness with equanimity, though assailed by crowds.\nThus the psalmist turns swiftly, in the latter pair of verses making\nup the first strophe, to address remonstrances to his enemies, as\nengaged in a useless effort, and then drops direct address and speaks\n_of_ their hostility and treachery. The precise meaning of parts of\nver. 3 has been misapprehended, by reason of the peculiarities of some\nof the words and the condensed character of the imagery in _b_, _c_.\nThe rendering above is substantially that generally accepted now. It\nsets in striking contrast the single figure of the psalmist and the\nmultitude of his assailants. \"All of you\" rush upon a man like a pack\nof hounds on one defenceless creature, and try to break him down,\nas men put their shoulders to a wall in order to overthrow it. The\npartial success of the assault is hinted in the epithets applied to\nwall and fence, which are painted as beginning to give under pressure.\nLanguage of confidence sounds strangely in such circumstances. But\nthe toppling wall, with all these strong men pushing at it, will \"not\nbe greatly moved.\" The assailants might answer the psalmist's \"How\nlong?\" with defiant confidence that a short time only was needed to\ncomplete the begun ruin; but he, firm in his faith, though tottering\nin his fortunes, knows better, and, in effect, tells them by his\nquestion that, however long they may press against his feebleness,\nthey will never overthrow him. The bulging wall outlasts its would-be\ndestroyers. But appeal to them is vain; for they have one settled\npurpose absorbing them--namely, to cast him down from his height. He\nis, then, probably in some position of distinction, threatened by\nfalse friends, who are plotting his deposition, while their words are\nfair. All these circumstances agree well with the Davidic authorship.\n\nThe second strophe reiterates the refrain, with slight but significant\nvariations, and substitutes for the address to and contemplation\nof the plotters a meditation on the psalmist's own security, and\nan invitation to others to share it. In ver. 5 the refrain is\nchanged from a declaration of the psalmist's silent waiting to\nself-exhortation thereto. Cheyne would assimilate the two verses\nby making both verbs imperatives; but that change destroys the\nbeautiful play of feeling, so true to experience, which passes from\nconsciousness of one's attitude towards God to effort at preserving\nit. No emotions, however blessed, deep, and real, will last, unless\nperpetually renewed. Like carbon points in electric lights, they burn\naway as they burn, and the light dies, unless there is some impulse\nwhich presses a fresh surface forward to receive the fiery kiss that\nchanges its blackness into radiance. The \"expectation\" in ver. 5 _b_\nis substantially equivalent to the \"salvation\" in ver. 1 _b_. It means\nnot the emotion (which could not be said to be \"from Him\"), but the\nthing expected, just as \"hope\" is used for the _res sperata_. The\nchange in expression from \"salvation\" to \"expectation\" makes prominent\nthe psalmist's attitude. In his silence his wistful eyes look up,\nwatching for the first far-off brightening which tells him that help\nis on its road from the throne. Salvation will not come unexpected,\nand expectation will not look for succours in vain.\n\nThere may be deep meaning in the slight omission of \"greatly\" in the\nsecond refrain. Confidence has grown. The first hope was that the\nwaiting heart should not be much shaken, that the tottering fence\nshould not be quite thrown down; the second is that it shall not be\nshaken at all. An access of faith has poured into the singer's soul\nwith his song; and now he has no thought of the crowd of assailants,\nwho have faded from his sight because he is gazing on God. Hence the\nsecond pair of verses in this strophe (vv. 7, 8) substitutes for the\ndescription of their fierce rush the triumphant reiteration of what\nGod is to the psalmist, and an invitation to others to come with him\ninto that strong refuge. The transition to addressing the \"people\" is\nnatural, if the psalm is David's. The phrase would then apply to his\nimmediate followers, who were one with him in peril, and whom he would\nfain have one with him in trust. But the LXX. has another reading,\nwhich involves only the insertion of a letter, that may easily have\ndropped out, in the word rendered \"time,\" and which makes the verse\nrun more smoothly. It reads \"all the congregation of the people,\" in\nwhich it is followed by Baethgen, Cheyne, and others. Whoever the\npsalmist was, he felt the impulse which follows all deep experience\nof the security that comes from hiding in God--namely, the longing\nto beckon in others out of the storm into peace. Every man who has\nlearned that God is a refuge for him is thereby assured that He is the\nsame for all men, and thereby moved to beseech them to make the like\nblessed discovery. The way into that hiding-place is trust. \"Pour out\nbefore Him your heart,\" says the psalmist. \"In everything by prayer\nand supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known\nunto God,\" says Paul. They both mean the same thing. We take refuge\nin our refuge when we set our faith on God, and tell Him all that\nthreatens or troubles us. When we do, we are no longer in the open,\ndefenceless before the rush of enemies, but housed in God, or, as Paul\nputs it, guarded in Christ Jesus, as in a fortress. No wonder that the\npsalm pauses for a moment on that thought, and lets the notes of harp\nand horn impress it on the listeners!\n\nThe third strophe sets the emptiness of men in strong contrast to the\nsufficiency of God. \"Vanity\" is literally \"a breath,\" and would better\nbe so rendered in ver. 9, but for the recurrence of the verb from the\nsame root in ver. 10, which requires the rendering \"be not vain.\" It is\ndesirable to preserve identity of translation, so as to retain the play\nof words. But by doing so ver. 9 is somewhat weakened. The eyes that\nhave been looking on God are cleared to see the shadowy nothingness of\nmen of all degrees. The differences of high and low dwindle when seen\nfrom that \"high tower,\" as lower lands appear flat when viewed from a\nmountain top. They are but \"breath,\" so fleeting, unsubstantial are\nthey. They are a \"lie,\" in so far as hopes directed to them are deceived\nand trust misplaced. The singer is not cynically proclaiming man's\nworthlessness, but asserting his insufficiency as the object of man's\ntrust. His point of view is different from that of Psalm xxxix., though\nhis words are the same. The \"Only\" which begins ver. 9 carries us back\nto the similar beginning of the preceding strophes, and brings out the\ntrue force of the following words, by suggesting the contrast between\nmen and the God on whom the psalmist's soul waits in silence. That\ncontrast may be further continued in ver. 9 _b_. The lowly and the lofty\nare in one scale. What is in the other, the solid weight of which sends\nthem aloft as lighter? Is it pressing the metaphor too far to suppose\nthat the psalmist is weighing the whole mass of men against God only?\nHeap them altogether and balance them against Him, and the gathered mass\ndoes not weigh as much as an imponderable breath. Who could trust in\nthat emptiness when he has God to trust in? Who would grasp shadows when\nhe may cling to that eternal Substance?\n\nThe natural conclusion from ver. 9 follows in the exhortation of ver.\n10, which completes the positive presentation of the true object of\ntrust (ver. 8) by the warning against false refuges. The introduction of\n\"oppression\" and \"robbery\" is singular, for it can scarcely be supposed\nthat the assailants of the psalmist are here addressed, and still less\nthat his followers needed to be warned against these crimes. Cheyne,\ntherefore, follows Graetz and others in reading \"perverseness\" for\n\"oppression,\" and \"crookedness\" for \"robbery\"; but the alteration throws\nthe clause out of harmony with the next clause. It may be that in ver.\n10 _a_ the psalmist has in view unjust gain and in _b_ justly acquired\nwealth, and that thus his two dehortations cover the whole ground of\nmaterial riches, as if he had said, \"Whether rightly or wrongly won,\nthey are wrongly used if they are trusted in.\" The folly and misery\nof such trust are vigorously set forth by that word \"become vain.\"\nThe curse of misplaced confidence is that it brings down a man to the\nlevel of what he trusts in, as the blessing of wisely placed trust is\nthat it lifts him to that level. Trust in vanity is vain, and makes the\ntruster \"vanity.\" Wind is not a nourishing diet. It may inflate, or, as\nPaul says about knowledge, may \"puff up,\" but not \"build up.\" Men are\nassimilated to the objects of their trust; and if these are empty, \"so\nis every one that trusteth in them.\"\n\nSo far the psalmist has spoken. But his silent waiting has been\nrewarded with a clear voice from heaven, confirming that of his faith.\nIt is most natural to regard the double revelation received by the\npsalmist as repeated in the following proclamation of the two great\naspects of the Divine nature--Power and Loving-kindness. The psalmist\nhas learned that these two are not opposed nor separate, but blend\nharmoniously in God's nature, and are confluent in all His works.\nPower is softened and directed by Loving-kindness. Loving-kindness\nhas as its instrument Omnipotence. The synthesis of these two is in\nthe God whom men are invited to trust; and such trust can never be\ndisappointed; for His Power and His Loving-kindness will co-operate\nto \"render to a man according to his work.\" The last word of the\npsalm adds the conception of Righteousness to those of Power and\nLoving-kindness. But the psalmist seems to have in view mainly one\ndirection in which that rendering \"to a man according to his work\" is\nactive--namely, in answering the trust which turns away from human\npower which is weakness, and from human love which may change and must\ndie, to anchor itself on the might and tenderness of God. Such \"work\nof faith\" will not be in vain; for these twin attributes of Power and\nLove are pledged to requite it with security and peace.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXIII.\n\n 1 O God, my God art Thou, I seek Thee earnestly,\n My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh pines for Thee,\n In a dry and weary land, without water.\n 2 So in the sanctuary have I gazed on Thee,\n To see Thy power and Thy glory.\n 3 For Thy loving-kindness is better than life,\n [Therefore] my lips shall praise Thee.\n 4 So will I bless Thee while I live,\n In Thy name will I lift my hands.\n\n 5 As [with] fat and marrow shall my soul be satisfied,\n And with lips that joyfully shout shall my mouth praise Thee,\n 6 When I remember Thee on my bed,\n Through the watches [of the night] do I meditate on Thee.\n 7 For Thou hast been a help for me,\n And in the shadow of Thy wings will I shout for joy.\n\n 8 My soul cleaves [to and presses] after Thee,\n Me does Thy right hand uphold.\n 9 But these--for its destruction they seek my soul;\n They shall go into the undermost parts of the earth.\n 10 They shall be given over to the power of the sword,\n The portion of jackals shall they be.\n 11 But the king shall rejoice in God,\n Every one that swears by Him shall glory,\n For the mouth of them that speak a lie shall be stopped.\n\n\nIf the psalmist is allowed to speak, he gives many details of his\ncircumstances in his song. He is in a waterless and weary land,\nexcluded from the sanctuary, followed by enemies seeking his life.\nHe expects a fight, in which they are to fall by the sword, and\napparently their defeat is to lead to his restoration to his kingdom.\n\nThese characteristics converge on David. Cheyne has endeavoured to\nshow that they fit the faithful Jews in the Maccabean period, and\nthat the \"king\" in ver. 2 is \"Jonathan or [better] Simon\" (\"Orig. of\nPsalt.,\" 99, and \"Aids to Dev. Study of Crit.,\" 308 _seqq._). But\nunless we are prepared to accept the dictum that \"Pre-Jeremian such\nhighly spiritual hymns obviously cannot be\" (_u.s._), the balance of\nprobability will be heavily in favour of the Davidic origin.\n\nThe recurrence of the expression \"My soul\" in vv. 1, 5, 8, suggests the\ndivisions into which the psalm falls. Following that clue, we recognise\nthree parts, in each of which a separate phase of the experience of the\nsoul in its communion with God is presented as realised in sequence by\nthe psalmist. The soul longs and thirsts for God (vv. 1-4). The longing\nsoul is satisfied in God (vv. 5-7). The satisfied soul cleaves to and\npresses after God (vv. 8-11). These stages melt into each other in the\npsalm as in experience, but are still discernible.\n\nIn the first strophe the psalmist gives expression in immortal words\nto his longing after God. Like many a sad singer before and after\nhim, he finds in the dreary scene around an image of yet drearier\nexperiences within. He sees his own mood reflected in the grey\nmonotony of the sterile desert, stretching waterless on every side,\nand seamed with cracks, like mouths gaping for the rain that does not\ncome. He is weary and thirsty; but a more agonising craving is in his\nspirit, and wastes his flesh. As in the kindred Psalms xlii., xliii.,\nhis separation from the sanctuary has dimmed his sight of God. He\nlongs for the return of that vision in its former clearness. But even\nwhile he thirsts, he in some measure possesses, since his resolve to\n\"seek earnestly\" is based on the assurance that God is his God. In the\nregion of the devout life the paradox is true that we long precisely\nbecause we have. Every soul is athirst for God; but unless a man can\nsay, \"Thou art my God,\" he knows not how to interpret nor where to\nslake his thirst, and seeks, not after the living Fountain of waters,\nbut after muddy pools and broken cisterns.\n\nVer. 2 is difficult principally because the reference of the initial\n\"So\" is doubtful. By some it is connected with the first clause of\nver. 1: \"So\"--_i.e._, as my God--\"have I seen Thee.\" Others suppose a\ncomparison to be made between the longing just expressed and former\nones, and the sense to be, \"With the same eager desire as now I feel\nin the desert have I gazed in the sanctuary.\" This seems the better\nview. Hupfeld proposes to transpose the two clauses, as the A.V. has\ndone in its rendering, and thus gets a smoother run of thought. The\nimmediate object of the psalmist's desire is thus declared to be \"to\nbehold Thy power and glory,\" and the \"So\" is substantially equivalent\nto \"According as.\" If we retain the textual order of the clauses, and\nunderstand the first as paralleling the psalmist's desert longing with\nthat which he felt in the sanctuary, the second clause will state\nthe aim of the ardent gaze--namely, to \"behold Thy power and Thy\nglory.\" These attributes were peculiarly manifested amid the imposing\nsanctities where the light of the Shechinah, which was especially\ndesignated as \"the Glory,\" shone above the ark.\n\nThe first clause of ver. 3 is closely connected with the preceding,\nand gives the reason for some part of the emotion there expressed,\nas the introductory \"For\" shows. But it is a question to which part\nof the foregoing verses it refers. It is probably best taken as\nassigning the reason for their main subject--namely, the psalmist's\nthirst after God. \"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be\nalso.\" Our desires are shaped by our judgments of what is good. The\nconviction of God's transcendent excellence and absolute sufficiency\nfor all our cravings must precede the direction of these to Him.\nUnless all enjoyments and possessions, which become ours through our\ncorporeal life, and that life itself, are steadfastly discerned to\nbe but a feather's weight in comparison with the pure gold of God's\nloving-kindness, we shall not long for it more than for them.\n\nThe deep desires of this psalmist were occasioned by his seclusion\nfrom outward forms of worship, which were to him so intimately related\nto the inward reality, that he felt farther away from God in the\nwilderness than when he caught glimpses of His face, through the power\nand glory which he saw visibly manifested in the sanctuary. But in his\nisolation he learns to equate his desert yearnings with his sanctuary\ncontemplations, and thus glides from longing to fruition. His\ndevotion, nourished by forms, is seen in the psalm in the very act of\npassing on to independence of form; and so springs break out for him\nin the desert. His passion of yearning after God rebukes and shames\nour faint desires. This man's soul was all on the stretch to grasp and\nhold God. His very physical frame was affected by his intense longing.\nIf he did not long too much, most men, even those who thirst after\nGod most, long terribly too little. Strong desire has a joy in its\nvery aching; feeble desire only makes men restless and uncomfortable.\nNothing can be more preposterous than tepid aspirations after the\ngreatest and only good. To hold as creed that God's loving-kindness\nis better than life, and to wish a little to possess it, is surely\nirrational, if anything is so.\n\nThe remaining clauses of ver. 3 and ver. 4 form a transition to the\nfull consciousness of satisfaction which animates the psalmist in the\nsecond part. The resolve to praise, and the assurance that he will\nhave occasion to praise, succeed his longing with startling swiftness.\nThe \"So\" of ver. 4 seems to be equivalent to \"Accordingly\"--_i.e._,\nsince Thy loving-kindness is such supreme good, and is mine because I\nhave desired it. Continual praise and as continual invocation are the\nfitting employments of those who receive it, and by these alone can\ntheir possession of the loving-kindness bestowed be made permanent.\nIf empty palms are not ever lifted towards God, His gifts will not\ndescend. When these are received, they will fall like morning sunbeams\non stony and dumb lips, which before were only parted to let out\nsighs, and will draw forth music of praise. There are longings which\nnever are satisfied; but God lets no soul that thirsts for Him perish\nfor lack of the water of life. Wisdom bids us fix our desires on that\nSovereign Good, to long for which is ennobling and blessed, and to\npossess which is rest and the beginning of heaven.\n\nThus the psalmist passes imperceptibly to the second strophe, in which\nthe longing soul becomes the satisfied soul. The emblem of a feast\nis naturally suggested by the previous metaphor of thirst. The same\nconviction, which urged the psalmist forward in his search after God,\nnow assures him of absolute satisfaction in finding Him. Since God's\nloving-kindness is better than life, the soul that possesses Him can\nhave no unappeased cravings, nor any yet hungry affections or wishes.\nIn the region of communion with God, fruition is contemporaneous with\nand proportioned to desire. When the rain comes in the desert, what was\nbaked earth is soon rich pasture, and the dry torrent beds, where the\nwhite stones glittered ghastly in the sunshine, are musical with rushing\nstreams and fringed with budding oleanders. On that telegraph a message\nis flashed upwards and an answer speeds downwards, in a moment of time.\nMany of God's gifts are delayed by Love; but the soul that truly desires\nHim has never long to wait for a gift that equals its desire.\n\nWhen God is possessed, the soul is satisfied. So entire is the\ncorrespondence between wants and gift, that every concavity in us\nfinds, as it were, a convexity to match it in Him. The influx of the\ngreat ocean of God fills every curve of the shore to the brim, and the\nflashing glory of that sunlit sea covers the sands, and brings life\nwhere stagnation reigned and rotted. So the satisfied soul lives to\npraise, as the psalm goes on to vow. Lips that drink such draughts of\nLoving-kindness will not be slow to tell its sweetness. If we have\nnothing to say about God's goodness, the probable cause is our want of\nexperience of it.\n\nThat feast leaves no bitter taste. The remembrance of it is all but\nas sweet as its enjoyment was. Thus, in ver. 6, the psalmist recounts\nhow, in the silent hours of night, when many joys are seen to be\nhollow, and conscience wakes to condemn coarse delights, he recalled\nhis blessednesses in God, and, like a ruminant animal, tasted their\nsweetness a second time. The verse is best regarded as an independent\nsentence. So blessed was the thought of God, that, if once it rose\nin his wakeful mind as he lay on his bed, he \"meditated\" on it\nall the night. Hasty glances show little of anything great. Nature\ndoes not unveil her beauty to a cursory look; much less does God\ndisclose His. If we would feel the majesty of the heavens, we must\ngaze long and steadfastly into their violet depths. The mention of\nthe \"night-watches\" is appropriate, if this psalm is David's. He and\nhis band of fugitives had to keep vigilant guard as they lay down\nshelterless in the desert; but even when thus ringed by possible\nperils, and listening for the shout of nocturnal assailants, the\npsalmist could recreate and calm his soul by meditation on God. Nor\ndid his experience of God's sufficiency bring only remembrances; it\nkindled hopes. \"For Thou hast been a help for me; and in the shadow\nof Thy wings will I shout for joy.\" Past deliverances minister to\npresent trust and assure of future joy. The prerogative of the soul,\nblessed in the sense of possessing God, is to discern in all that has\nbeen the manifestations of His help, and to anticipate in all that is\nto come the continuance of the same. Thus the second strophe gathers\nup the experiences of the satisfied soul as being fruition, praise,\nsweet lingering memories that fill the night of darkness and fear, and\nsettled trust in the coming of a future which will be of a piece with\nsuch a present and past.\n\nThe third strophe (vv. 8-11) presents a stage in the devout soul's\nexperience which naturally follows the two preceding. Ver. 8 has a\nbeautifully pregnant expression for the attitude of the satisfied\nsoul. Literally rendered, the words run, \"cleaves after Thee,\"\nthus uniting the ideas of close contact and eager pursuit. Such\nunion, however impossible in the region of lower aims, is the very\ncharacteristic of communion with God, in which fruition subsists along\nwith longing, since God is infinite, and the closest approach to and\nfullest possession of Him are capable of increase. Satisfaction tends\nto become satiety when that which produces it is a creature whose\nlimits are soon reached; but the cup which God gives to a thirsty soul\nhas no cloying in its sweetness. On the other hand, to seek after Him\nhas no pain nor unrest along with it, since the desire for fuller\npossession comes from the felt joy of present attainment. Thus, in\nconstant interchange satisfaction and desire beget each other, and\neach carries with it some trace of the other's blessedness.\n\nAnother beautiful reciprocity is suggested by the very order of the\nwords in the two clauses of ver. 8. The first ends with \"Thee\"; the\nsecond begins with \"Me.\" The mutual relation of God and the soul is\nhere set forth. He who \"cleaves after God\" is upheld in his pursuit\nby God's hand. And not in his pursuit only, but in all his life; for\nthe condition of receiving sustaining help is desire for it, directed\nto God and verified by conduct. Whoever thus follows hard after God\nwill feel his outstretched, seeking hand inclosed in a strong and\nloving palm, which will steady him against assaults and protect him in\ndangers. \"No man is able to pluck them out of the Father's hand,\" if\nonly they do not let it go. It may slip from slack fingers.\n\nWe descend from the heights of mystic communion in the remainder of\nthe psalm. But in the singer's mind his enemies were God's enemies,\nand, as ver. 11 shows, were regarded as apostates from God in being\ntraitors to \"the king.\" They did not \"swear by Him\"--_i.e._, they did\nnot acknowledge God as God. Therefore, such being their character, the\npsalmist's confidence that God's right hand upheld him necessarily\npasses into assurance of their defeat. This is not vindictiveness, but\nconfidence in the sufficiency of God's protection, and is perfectly\naccordant with the lofty strains of the former part of the psalm.\nThe picture of the fate of the beaten foe is partly drawn from that\nof Korah and his company. These rebels against God's king shall go,\nwhere those rebels against His priest long ago descended. \"They\nshall be poured out upon the hands of the sword,\" or, more literally\nstill, \"They shall pour him out,\" is a vigorous metaphor, incapable\nof transference into English, describing how each single enemy is\ngiven over helplessly, as water is poured out, to the sword, which is\nenergetically and to our taste violently, conceived of as a person\nwith hands. The meaning is plain--a battle is impending, and the\npsalmist is sure that his enemies will be slain, and their corpses\ntorn by beasts of prey.\n\nHow can the \"king's\" rejoicing in God be the consequence of their\nslaughter, unless they are rebels? And what connection would the\ndefeat of a rebellion have with the rest of the psalm, unless the\nsinger were himself the king? \"This one line devoted to the king is\nstrange,\" says Cheyne. The strangeness is unaccounted for, but on\nthe supposition that David is the king and singer. If so, it is most\nnatural that his song should end with a note of triumph, and should\nanticipate the joy of his own heart and the \"glorying\" of his faithful\nfollowers, who had been true to God in being loyal to His anointed.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXIV.\n\n 1 Hear, O God, my voice in my complaint,\n From the fear of the enemy guard my life.\n 2 Hide me from the secret assembly of evil-doers,\n From the noisy crowd of workers of iniquity:\n\n 3 Who whet, like a sword, their tongue,\n [Who] aim [as] their arrow a bitter word,\n 4 To shoot in hiding-places [at] the upright:\n Suddenly they shoot [at] him, and fear not.\n\n 5 They strengthen themselves [in] an evil plan,\n They talk of laying snares,\n They say, Who looks at them?\n 6 They scheme villainies,\n We have perfected [say they] a scheme [well] schemed:\n And the inward part of each, and [his] heart, is deep.\n\n 7 But God shoots [at] them [with] an arrow,\n Suddenly come their wounds.\n 8 And they are made to stumble,\n Their own tongue [comes] upon them,\n All who look on them shake the head.\n\n 9 And all men fear,\n And declare the act of God,\n And understand His work.\n 10 The righteous shall rejoice in Jehovah, and take refuge in Him,\n And all the upright in heart shall glory.\n\n\nFamiliar notes are struck in this psalm, which has no very distinctive\nfeatures. Complaint of secret slanderers, the comparison of their\nwords to arrows and swords, their concealed snares, their blasphemous\ndefiance of detection, the sudden flashing out of God's retribution,\nthe lesson thereby read to and learned by men, the vindication of God's\njustice, and praise from all true hearts, are frequent themes. They are\nwoven here into a whole which much resembles many other psalms. But the\nsinger's heart is none the less in his words because many others before\nhim have had to make like complaints and to stay themselves on like\nconfidence. \"We have all of us one human heart,\" and well-worn words\ncome fresh to each lip when the grip of sorrow is felt.\n\nThe division into pairs of verses is clear here. The burdened psalmist\nbegins with a cry for help, passes on to dilate on the plots of his\nfoes, turns swiftly from these to confidence in God, which brings\nfuture deliverance into present peril and sings of it as already\naccomplished, and ends with the assurance that his enemies' punishment\nwill witness for God and gladden the upright.\n\nIn the first pair of verses complaint is sublimed into prayer, and so\nbecomes strengthening instead of weakening. He who can cry \"Hear, O\nGod, guard, hide\" has already been able to hide in a safe refuge. \"The\nterror caused by the enemy\" is already dissipated when the trembling\nheart grasps at God; and escape from facts which warrant terror will\ncome in good time. This man knows himself to be in danger of his\nlife. There are secret gatherings of his enemies, and he can almost\nhear their loud voices as they plan his ruin. What can he do, in such\ncircumstances, but fling himself on God? No thought of resistance has\nhe. He can _but_ pray, but he _can_ pray; and no man is helpless who\ncan look up. However high and closely engirdling may be the walls that\nmen or sorrows build around us, there is always an opening in the\ndungeon roof, through which heaven is visible and prayers can mount.\n\nThe next two pairs of verse (3-6) describe the machinations of the\nenemies in language for the most part familiar, but presenting some\ndifficulties. The metaphors of a slanderous tongue as a sword and\nmischief-meaning words as arrows have occurred in several other\npsalms (_e.g._, lv. 21; lvii. 4; lix. 7). The reference may either\nbe to calumnies or to murderous threats and plans. The latter is the\nmore probable. Secret plots are laid, which are suddenly unmasked.\nFrom out of some covert of seeming friendship an unlooked-for arrow\nwhizzes. The archers \"shoot, and fear not.\" They are sure of remaining\nconcealed, and fear neither man's detection of them nor God's.\n\nThe same ideas are enlarged on in the third verse-pair (5, 6) under a\nnew metaphor. Instead of arrows flying in secret, we have now snares\nlaid to catch unsuspecting prey. \"They strengthen themselves [in]\nan evil plan\" (lit. _word_) pictures mutual encouragement and fixed\ndetermination. They discuss the best way of entrapping the psalmist,\nand, as in the preceding verse, flatter themselves that their subtle\nschemes are too well buried to be observed, whether by their victim or\nby God. Ver. 6 tells without a figure the fact meant in both figures.\n\"They scheme villainies,\" and plume themselves upon the cleverness of\ntheir unsuspected plots. The second clause of the verse is obscure. But\nthe suppositions that in it the plotters speak as in the last clause\nof the preceding verse, and that \"they say\" or the like expression is\nomitted for the sake of dramatic effect, remove much of the difficulty.\n\"We have schemed a well-schemed plan\" is their complacent estimate.\n\nGod's retribution scatters their dreams of impunity, as the next pair of\nverses (7, 8) tells. The verbs are in the past tense, though the events\ndescribed are still in the future; for the psalmist's faith reckons them\nto be as good as done. They were shooting at him. God will shoot at\nthem. The archer becomes a target. \"With what measure ye mete, it shall\nbe measured to you again.\" Punishment is moulded after the guise of sin.\nThe allusion to ver. 4 is made more obvious by adopting a different\ndivision of ver. 7 from that directed by the accents, and beginning the\nsecond half with \"Suddenly,\" as in ver. 4. Ver. 8 _b_ is with difficulty\nmade intelligible with the existing reading. Probably the best that can\nbe done with it is to render it as above, though it must be acknowledged\nthat \"their tongue comes upon them\" needs a good deal of explanation\nto be made to mean that the consequences of their sins of speech fall\non them. The drift of the clause must be that retribution falls on the\noffending tongue; but there is probably some textual corruption now\nunremovable. Cheyne wisely falls back on asterisks. Whatever is the\nprecise nature of the instance of _lex talionis_ in the clause, it is\nhailed with gestures of scornful approval by all beholders. Many men\napprove the Divine punishments, who have no deep horror of the sins that\nare punished. There is something of a noble, if rough, sense of justice\nin most men, and something of an ignoble satisfaction in seeing the\ndownfall of the powerful, and both sentiments set heads nodding approval\nof God's judgments.\n\nThe psalm closes with the familiar thought that these judgments will\nmove to wholesome awe and be told from lip to lip, while they become\nto the righteous occasion of joy, incitements to find refuge in God,\nand material for triumph. These are large consequences to flow from\none man's deliverance. The anticipation would be easily explained if we\ntook the speaker to be the personified nation. But it would be equally\nintelligible if he were in any way a conspicuous or representative\nperson. The humblest may feel that his experience of Divine deliverance\nwitnesses, to as many as know it, of a delivering God. That is a high\ntype of godliness which, like this psalmist, counts the future as so\ncertain that it can be spoken of as present even in peril. It augurs a\nstill higher to welcome deliverance, not only for the ease it brings to\nthe suppliant, but for the glory it brings to God.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXV.\n\n 1 To Thee silence is praise, O God, in Zion,\n And to Thee shall the vow be paid.\n 2 O Thou hearer of prayer,\n To Thee all flesh comes.\n 3 Deeds of iniquity have been too strong for me:\n Our transgressions--Thou, Thou coverest them.\n 4 Blessed is he whom Thou choosest and bringest near,\n That he may dwell in Thy courts:\n We would be filled with the goodness of Thy house,\n Thy holy temple.\n\n 5 By dread deeds in righteousness Thou dost answer us, O God of our\n salvation,\n The confidence of all the ends of the earth and of the remotest\n sea:\n 6 Setting fast the mountains by His strength,\n Being girded with might,\n 7 Stilling the roar of the seas, the roar of their billows,\n And the tumult of the peoples.\n 8 So that the inhabitants of the ends [of the earth] become afraid\n at Thy signs:\n The regions whence morning and evening come forth\n Thou makest to shout for joy.\n\n 9 Thou hast visited the land and watered it,\n Thou enrichest it abundantly [by] a river of God, full of water,\n Thou preparest their corn when thus Thou preparest it:\n 10 Watering its furrows, levelling its ridges,\n With showers Thou softenest it,\n Its outgrowth Thou dost bless.\n 11 Thou hast crowned the year of Thy goodness,\n And Thy chariot-tracks drop fatness.\n 12 The pastures of the wilderness drop,\n And the heights gird themselves with leaping gladness.\n 13 The meadows are clothed with flocks,\n And the valleys are covered with corn,\n They shout for joy, they also sing.\n\n\nThis and the two following psalms form a little group, with one great\nthought dominant in each--namely, that God's manifestations of grace\nand providence to Israel are witnesses to the world. They all reach\nout to \"the ends of the earth\" in yearning and confidence that God's\nname will be adored there, and they all regard His dealings with His\npeople as His appeals to mankind, which will not always be vain.\nPsalm lxv. begins with that privilege of approach to God with which\nPsalm lxvi. ends. In both, iniquity in heart is regarded as hindering\naccess to God; and, in both, the psalmist's experience of answered\nprayer is treated as testimony for the world of the blessedness of\nworshipping Israel's God. This psalm falls into three parts, which set\nforth a threefold revelation of God in His acts. The first (vv. 1-4)\ndeals with the most intimate privileges of the men who dwell in His\nhouse. The second (vv. 5-8) points to His rule in nature, the tokens\nof God's power in the mighty things of creation--mountains, ocean,\nday and night, the radiant east, the solemn sunset-west. The third\n(vv. 9-13) gives a lovely picture of the annual miracle which brings\nharvest joys. The underlying thought binding these three parts into\nunity seems to be the witness to God's name which each set of His\nacts bears--a witness which \"they that dwell in the uttermost parts\"\nhear sounded in their ears. If this is the true view of the psalm, we\nmay hear a reminiscence of it in Paul's remonstrance with the rude\nLycaonian peasants: \"He left not Himself without witness, in that He\ndid good, and gave you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling\nyour hearts with food and gladness.\"\n\nThe first strophe is wholly concerned with the glory of God as\nanswering prayer. It begins with enigmatical words, which, if the\nexisting text is adhered to, carry a deep truth. There are two kinds\nof prayer--wordless submission of will and spoken vows. The former is\ntruly praise. The same thought is found in Psalm lxii. It goes down\nto the root of the matter. The true notion of prayer is not that of\nswaying God's will to gratify ours, but that of bringing ours into\nunremonstrating acceptance of His. When the accents of eager desire or\nof impatient murmuring and vain sobs and weeping are hushed, the still\nsoul enters into closeness of communion, else unattainable. Beautiful\nand profoundly true as this is, it is not indubitably the psalmist's\nmeaning; and there is much to be said for the rendering which is adopted\nfrom the LXX. by many commentators, and which only requires a slight\nchange in the vocalisation--namely, \"Praise is meet for Thee.\" But\nthat idea is expressed in Psalm xxxiii. 1 by a different word, and the\nmeaning of the one used here is not _to be suitable for_, but _to be\nlike_. So that we have to choose between altering the text and then\nimposing a somewhat unusual meaning on the word gained, and adhering\nto the present reading and gaining a meaning which is admitted to be\n\"fine\" but alleged to be \"unbiblical.\" On the whole, that meaning seems\npreferable. The convictions that God accepts silent devotion and answers\nvows, so that the thank-offering promised in trouble will be called\nfor by deliverance, \"fill the psalmist with a longing that all mankind\nmay have recourse to the same Divine Friend\" (Cheyne, _in loc._). His\nexperience of accepted prayers has taught him that it is God's nature\nand property to be \"the hearer of prayer\" (the word is a participle,\nexpressive of a permanent characteristic), and therefore he is sure that\n\"all flesh,\" in its weariness and need of an ear into which to pour\nnecessities and sorrows, will come to Him. His eye travels far beyond\nIsrael, and contemplates mankind as coming to worship. But one black\nbarrier rises between men and God, the separating power of which the\nsinger has painfully felt. Sin chokes the stream that would flow from\nseeking hearts into the ocean of God. The very act of gathering himself\nup to pray and praise quickens the sense of sinfulness in the psalmist.\nTherefore his look turns swiftly inwards, for the only time in the\npsalm. The consciousness of transgression wakes the sense of personality\nand isolation as nothing else will, and for one bitter moment the\nsinger is, as it were, prisoned in the awful solitude of individual\nresponsibility. His words reflect his vivid sight of his sins in their\nmanifoldness, for he says that \"matters of iniquities\" have overcome\nhim. The exuberant expression is not tautological, but emotional. And\nthen he passes into sunshine again, and finds that, though he had to be\nalone in guilt, he is one of a company in the experience of forgiveness.\nEmphatically he reduplicates \"Thou\" in his burst of confidence in God's\ncovering of sins; for none but God can cope with the evil things that\nare too strong for man. I can neither keep them out, nor drive them\nout when they have come in, nor cleanse the stains that their hoofs\nhave made; but Thou, Thou canst and dost cover them. Is not that an\nadditional reason for \"all flesh\" coming to God, and almost a guarantee\nthat they will?\n\nThe strophe ends with an exclamation celebrating the blessedness of\ndwelling with God. That refers, no doubt, to Israel's prerogative\nof access to the Temple; but the inward and outward are blended, as\nin many places in the Psalter where dwelling in the house of the\nLord is yearned for or rejoiced in. The universalism of the psalm\ndoes not forget the special place held by the nation whom God \"has\nchosen and brought near.\" But the reality beneath the symbol is too\nfamiliar and sweet to this singer for him to suppose that mere outward\naccess exhausts the possibilities of blessed communion. It is no\nviolent forcing more into his words than they contain, if we read in\nthem deeply spiritual truths. It is noteworthy that they follow the\nreference to forgiveness, and, when taken in conjunction therewith,\nmay be called an itinerary of the road to God. First comes forgiveness\nby expiation, for such is the meaning of \"covering,\" Then the cleansed\nsoul has \"access with confidence\"; then approaching, it happily dwells\na guest in the house, and is supplied with that which satisfies all\ndesires. The guest's security in the house of his host, his right to\nprotection, help, and food, are, as usual, implied in the imagery. The\nprerogative of his nation, which the psalmist had in mind, is itself\nimagery, and the reality which it shadowed is that close abiding\nin God which is possible by faith, love, communion of spirit, and\nobedience of life, and which, wherever realised, keeps a soul in a\ngreat calm, whatever tempests rave, and satisfies its truest needs\nand deepest longings, whatever famine may afflict the outward life.\nForgiven men may dwell with God. They who do are blessed.\n\nThe second strophe (vv. 5-8) celebrates another aspect of God's\nmanifestation by deeds, which has, in like manner, a message for the\nends of the earth. Israel is again the immediate recipient of God's\nacts, but they reverberate through the world. Therefore in ver. 5 the\ntwo clauses are not merely adjacent, but connected. It is because God is\never revealing Himself to the nation (for the tense of the verb \"answer\"\nexpresses continuous action) that He is revealed as the trust of the\nwhole earth. God's grace fructifies through Israel to all. How clearly\nthe psalmist had grasped the truth that God has limited the knowledge of\nHimself to one spot of earth in order to its universal diffusion!\n\nThe light is focussed and set in a tower that it may shine out over sea\nand storm. The fire is gathered into a brasier that it may warm all\nthe house. Some commentators take that strong expression \"the trust of\nall the ends of the earth\" as asserting that even the confidences of\nidolaters in their gods are at bottom trust in Jehovah and find their\nway to Him. But such a view of idolatry is foreign to the Old Testament,\nand is not needed to explain the psalmist's words. God is the only\nworthy object of trust, and remains so whether men do in fact trust Him\nor not. And one day, thinks the psalmist, God's patient manifestation\nof His grace to Israel will tell, and all men will come to know Him for\nwhat He is. \"The remotest sea\" is not translation, but paraphrase. The\npsalmist speaks in vague terms, as one who knew not what lay beyond the\nhorizon of that little-traversed western ocean. Literally his words\nare \"the sea of the remote [peoples]\"; but a possible emendation has\nbeen suggested, reading instead of _sea_ \"regions\" or \"nations.\" The\nchange is slight, and smooths an awkward expression, but destroys the\nantithesis of earth and sea, and makes the second clause a somewhat weak\nrepetition of the first.\n\nFrom the self-revelation of God in history the psalm passes to His\nmighty deeds in nature (vv. 6, 7 _a_), and from these it returns to\nHis providential guidance of human affairs (ver. 7 _b_). The two\nspecimens of Divine power celebrated in vv. 6, 7, are suggested by the\nclosing words of ver. 5. \"The ends of the earth\" were, according to\nancient cosmography, girdled by mountains; and God has set these fast.\nThe dash of \"the remotest seas\" is hushed by Him. Two mighty things\nare selected to witness to the Mightier who made and manages them. The\nfirm bulk of the mountains is firm because He is strong. The tossing\nwaves are still because He bids them be silent. How transcendently\ngreat then is He, and how blind those who, seeing hill and ocean, do\nnot see God! The mention of the sea, the standing emblem of unrest\nand rebellious power, suggests the \"tumult of the peoples,\" on which\nsimilar repressive power is exercised. The great deeds of God, putting\ndown tyranny and opposition to Israel, which is rebellion against\nHimself, strike terror, which is wholesome and is purified into\nreverence, into the distant lands; and so, from the place where the\nsun rises to the \"sad-coloured end of evening\" where it sinks in the\nwest, _i.e._, through all the earth, there rings out a shout of joy.\nSuch glowing anticipations of universal results from the deeds of God,\nespecially for Israel, are the products of diseased national vanity,\nunless they are God-taught apprehension of the Divine purpose of\nIsrael's history, which shall one day be fulfilled, when the knowledge\nof the yet more wondrous deeds which culminated in the Cross is spread\nto the ends of the earth and the remotest seas.\n\nGod reveals Himself not only in the sanctities of His house, nor\nin His dread \"signs\" in nature and history, but in the yearly\nrecurring harvest, which was waving, as yet unreaped, while the poet\nsang. The local colouring which regards rain as the chief factor in\nfertility and the special gift of God is noticeable. In such a land\nas Palestine, irrigation seems the one thing needful to turn desert\ninto fruitful field. To \"water\" the soil is there emphatically to\n\"enrich\" it. The psalmist uses for \"river\" the technical word for an\nirrigation cutting, as if he would represent God in the guise of the\ncultivator, who digs his ditches that the sparkling blessing may reach\nall his field. But what a difference between men-made watercourses and\nGod's! The former are sometimes flooded, but often dry; His are full\nof water. The prose of the figure is, of course, abundant rain. It\nprepares the earth for the seed, and \"so\" in effect prepares the corn.\nThe one is the immediate, the other the ultimate issue and purpose.\nSpring showers prepare autumn fruits. It is so in all regions of man's\nendeavour and of God's work; and it is practical wisdom to train\nourselves to see the assurance of the end in His means, and to be\nconfident that whatever His doings have a manifest tendency to effect\nshall one day be ripened and harvested. How lovingly and patiently\nthe psalm represents the Divine Husbandman as attending to all the\nsteps of the process needed for the great ingathering! He guides the\nshowers, He fills the little valleys of the furrows, and smooths down\nthe tiny hills of the intervening ridges. He takes charge of the\ngerminating seed, and His sunshine smiles a benediction on the tender\ngreen blade, as it pricks through the earth which has been made soft\nenough for it to pierce from beneath. This unhesitating recognition of\nthe direct action of God in all \"natural\" processes is the true point\nof view from which to regard them. God is the only force; and His\nimmediate action is present in all material changes. The Bible knows\nnothing of self-moving powers in nature, and the deepest conception of\nGod's relations to things sensible knows as little. \"There is no power\nbut of God\" is the last word of religion and of true philosophy.\n\nThe poet stands in the joyous time when all the beauty of summer flushes\nthe earth, and the harvest is yet a hope, not a possibly disappointing\nreality. It is near enough to fill his song with exultation. It is\nfar enough off to let him look on the whitened fields, and not on the\nbristly stubble. So he regards the \"crown\" as already set on a year of\ngoodness. He sees God's chariot passing in triumph and blessing over\nthe land, and leaving abundance wherever its wheel-tracks go. Out in\nthe uncultivated prairie, where sweet grass unsown by man grows, is the\nflush of greenery, where, before the rain, was baked and gaping earth.\nThe hills, that wear a girdle of forest trees half-way up towards their\nbarren summits, wave their foliage, as if glad. The white fleeces of\nflocks are dotted over the vivid verdure of every meadow, and one cannot\nsee the ground for the tall corn that stands waiting for the sickle, in\neach fertile plain. The psalmist hears a hymn of glad praise rising from\nall these happy and sunny things; and for its melody he hushes his own,\nthat he and we may listen to\n\n \"The fair music that all creatures make\n To their great Lord.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXVI.\n\n 1 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,\n 2 Harp [unto] the glory of His name,\n Render glory [to Him by] His praise.\n 3 Say to God, How dread are Thy works!\n For the greatness of Thy strength shall Thy enemies feign\n [submission] to Thee.\n 4 All the earth shall bow down to Thee, and harp to Thee,\n They shall harp [to] Thy name. Selah.\n\n 5 Come, and behold the deeds of God;\n He is dread in His doing towards the sons of men,\n 6 He turned the sea to dry land,\n They went through the river on foot,\n There let us rejoice in Him.\n 7 He rules by His might for ever;\n His eyes watch the nations,\n The rebellious--let them not exalt themselves. Selah.\n\n 8 Bless our God, ye peoples,\n And let the voice of His praise be heard!\n 9 Who has set our soul in life,\n And has not let our foot slip.\n 10 For Thou hast proved us, O God,\n Thou hast refined us, as silver is refined.\n 11 Thou hast brought us into the fortress-dungeon,\n Thou hast laid a heavy burden on our loins.\n 12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our head,\n We have come into the fire and into the water,\n But Thou broughtest us out into abundance.\n\n 13 I will go into Thy house with burnt offerings,\n I will render to Thee my vows,\n 14 Which my lips uttered,\n And my mouth spoke, in my straits.\n 15 Burnt offerings of fatlings will I offer to Thee,\n With the savour of rams,\n I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.\n\n 16 Come, hearken, and I will recount, all ye that fear God,\n What He has done for my soul.\n 17 To Him did I cry with my mouth,\n And a song extolling [Him] was [already] under my tongue.\n 18 If I had intended iniquity in my heart,\n The Lord would not hear:\n 19 But surely God has heard,\n He has attended to the voice of my prayer.\n 20 Blessed be God,\n Who has not turned away my prayer, nor His loving-kindness from\n me.\n\n\nThe most striking feature of this psalm is the transition from the\nplural \"we\" and \"our,\" in vv. 1-12, to the singular \"I\" and \"my,\"\nin vv. 13-20. Ewald supposes that two independent psalms have been\nunited, but ver. 12 is as abrupt for an ending as ver. 13 is for a\nbeginning; and the \"Come, hear,\" of ver. 16 echoes the \"Come, and\nsee,\" of ver. 5. It is possible that \"the 'I' of the second part\nis identical with the 'we' of the first; in other words, that the\npersonified community speaks here\" (Baethgen); but the supposition\nthat the psalm was meant for public worship, and is composed of a\nchoral and a solo part, accounts for the change of number. Such\nexpressions as \"my soul\" and \"my heart\" favour the individual\nreference. Of course, the deliverance magnified by the single voice is\nthe same as that celebrated by the loud acclaim of many tongues; but\nthere is a different note in the praise of the former--there is a tone\nof inwardness in it, befitting individual appropriation of general\nblessings. To this highest point, that of the action of the single\nsoul in taking the deliverances of the community for its very own,\nand pouring out its own praise, the psalm steadily climbs. It begins\nwith the widest outlook over \"all the earth,\" summoned to ring forth\njoyous praise. It ends focussed to one burning point, in a heart fired\nby the thought that God \"has not turned away his loving-kindness from\n_me_.\" So we learn how each single soul has to claim its several part\nin world-wide blessings, as each flower-calyx absorbs the sunshine\nthat floods the pastures.\n\nThe psalm has no superscription of date or author, and no clue in its\nlanguage to the particular deliverance that called it forth. The usual\nvariety of conjectures have been hazarded. The defeat of Sennacherib\noccurs to some; the return from Babylon to others; the Maccabean\nperiod to yet another school of critics. It belongs to a period when\nIsrael's world-significance and mission were recognised (which Cheyne\nconsiders a post-exilic feature, \"Orig. of Psalt.,\" 176), and when the\nsacrificial worship was in full force; but beyond these there are no\nclear data for period of composition.\n\nIt is divided into five strophes, three of which are marked by Selah.\nThat musical indication is wanting at the close of the third strophe\n(ver. 12), which is also the close of the first or choral part, and\nits absence may be connected with the transition to a single voice.\nA certain progress in thought is noticeable, as will appear as we\nproceed. The first strophe calls upon all the earth to praise God\nfor His works. The special deeds which fire the psalmist are not\nyet mentioned, though they are present to his mind. The summons of\nthe world to praise passes over into prophecy that it shall praise.\nThe manifestation of God's character by act will win homage. The\ngreat thought that God has but to be truly known in order to be\nreverenced is an axiom with this psalmist; and no less certain is\nhe that such knowledge and such praise will one day fill the world.\nTrue, he discerns that submission will not always be genuine; for he\nuses the same word to express it as occurs in Psalm xviii. 44, which\nrepresents \"feigned homage.\" Every great religious awakening has a\nfringe of adherents, imperfectly affected by it, whose professions\noutrun reality, though they themselves are but half conscious that\nthey feign. But though this sobering estimate of the shallowness\nof a widely diffused recognition of God tones down the psalmist's\nexpectations, and has been abundantly confirmed by later experience,\nhis great hope remains as an early utterance of the conviction, which\nhas gathered assurance and definiteness by subsequent Revelation, and\nis now familiar to all. The world is God's. His Self-revelation will\nwin hearts. There shall be true submission and joyous praise, girdling\nthe earth as it rolls. The psalmist dwells mainly on the majestic and\nawe-inspiring aspect of God's acts. His greatness of power bears down\nopposition. But the later strophes introduce other elements of the\nDivine nature and syllables of the Name, though the inmost secret of\nthe \"power of God\" in the weakness of manhood and the all-conquering\nmight of Love is not yet ripe for utterance.\n\nThe second strophe advances to a closer contemplation of the deeds\nof God, which the nations are summoned to behold. He is not only\n\"dread\" in His doings towards mankind at large, but Israel's history\nis radiant with the manifestation of His name, and that past lives on,\nso that ancient experiences give the measure and manner of to-day's\nworking. The retrospect embraces the two standing instances of God's\ndelivering help--the passage of the Red Sea and of Jordan--and these\nare not dead deeds in a far-off century. For the singer calls on\nhis own generation to rejoice \"there\" in Him. Ver. 6 _c_ is by some\ntranslated as \"There did we rejoice,\" and more accurately by others,\n\"Let us rejoice.\" In the former case the essential solidarity of all\ngenerations of the nation is most vividly set forth. But the same idea\nis involved in the correct rendering, according to which the men of\nthe psalmist's period are entitled and invoked to associate themselves\nin thought with that long-past generation, and to share in their joy,\nsince they do possess the same power which wrought then. God's work\nis never antiquated. It is all a revelation of eternal activities.\nWhat He has been, He is. What He did, He does. Therefore faith may\nfeed on all the records of old time, and expect the repetition of all\nthat they contain. Such an application of history to the present makes\nthe nerve of this strophe. For ver. 7, following on the retrospect,\ndeclares the perpetuity of God's rule, and that His eyes still keep\nan outlook, as a watchman on a tower might do, to mark the enemies'\ndesigns, in order that He may intervene, as of old, for His people's\ndeliverance. He \"looked forth upon the Egyptians through the pillar\nof fire and of cloud\" (Exod. xiv. 24). Thus He still marks the\nactions and plans of Israel's foes. Therefore it were wise for the\n\"rebellious\" not to rear their heads so high in opposition.\n\nThe third strophe comes still closer to the particular deliverance\nunderlying the psalm. Why should all \"peoples\" be called upon to praise\nGod for it? The psalmist has learned that Israel's history is meant\nto teach the world what God is, and how blessed it is to dwell under\nHis wing. No exclusiveness taints his enjoyment of special national\nprivileges. He has reached a height far above the conceptions of the\nrest of the world in his day, and even in this day, except where the\nChristian conception of \"humanity\" has been heartily accepted. Whence\ncame this width of view, this purifying from particularism, this\nanticipation by so many centuries of a thought imperfectly realised even\nnow? Surely a man who in those days and with that environment could soar\nso high must have been lifted by something mightier than his own spirit.\nThe details of the Divine dealings described in the strophe are of small\nconsequence in comparison with its fixed expectation of the world's\nparticipation in Israel's blessings. The familiar figures for affliction\nreappear--namely, proving and refining in a furnace. A less common\nmetaphor is that of being prisoned in a _dungeon_, as the word rendered\n\"net\" in the A.V. and R.V. probably means. Another peculiar image is\nthat of ver. 12: \"Thou hast caused men to ride over our head.\" The word\nfor \"men\" here connotes feebleness and frailty, characteristics which\nmake tyranny more intolerable; and the somewhat harsh metaphor is best\nexplained as setting forth insolent and crushing domination, whether the\npicture intended is that of ruthless conquerors driving their chariots\nover their prone victims, or that of their sitting as an incubus on\ntheir shoulders and making them like beasts of burden. Fire and water\nare standing figures for affliction. With great force these accumulated\nsymbols of oppression are confronted by one abrupt clause ending the\nstrophe, and describing in a breath the perfect deliverance which sweeps\nthem all away: \"Thou broughtest us out into abundance.\" There is no\nneed for the textual alteration of the last word into \"a wide place\"\n(Hupfeld), a place of liberty (Cheyne), or freedom (Baethgen). The\nword in the received text is that employed in Psalm xxiii. 5. \"My cup\nis _overfulness_\" and \"abundance\" yields a satisfactory meaning here,\nthough not closely corresponding to any of the preceding metaphors for\naffliction.\n\nThe fourth strophe (vv. 13-15) begins the solo part. It clothes in a\ngarb appropriate to a sacrificial system the thought expressed in more\nspiritual dress in the next strophe, that God's deliverance should\nevoke men's praise. The abundance and variety of sacrifices named, and\nthe fact that \"rams\" were not used for the offerings of individuals,\nseem to suggest that the speaker is, in some sense, representing the\nnation, and it has been supposed that he may be the high priest. But\nthis is merely conjecture, and the explanation may be that there is a\ncertain ideal and poetical tone over the representation, which does\nnot confine itself to scrupulous accuracy.\n\nThe last strophe (vv. 16-20) passes beyond sacrificial symbols, and\ngives the purest utterance to the emotions and resolves which ought\nto well up in a devout soul on occasion of God's goodness. Not only\ndoes the psalmist teach us how each individual must take the general\nblessing for his very own--of which act the faith which takes the\nworld's Christ for my Christ is the supreme example--but he teaches us\nthat the obligation laid on all recipients of God's mercy is to tell\nit forth, and that the impulse is as certain to follow real reception\nas the command is imperative. Just as Israel received deliverances\nthat the whole earth might learn how strong and gracious was Israel's\nGod, we receive His blessings, and chiefly His highest gift of life in\nChrist, not only that we may live, but that, living, we may \"declare\nthe works of the Lord.\" He has little possession of God's grace who\nhas not felt the necessity of speech, and the impossibility of the\nlips being locked when the heart is full.\n\nThe psalmist tells his experience of God's answers to his prayer in a\nvery striking fashion. Ver. 17 says that he cried to God; and while\nhis uttered voice was supplication, the song extolling God for the\ndeliverance asked was, as it were, lying under his tongue, ready to\nbreak forth,--so sure was he that his cry would be heard. That is a\nstrong faith which prepares banners and music for the triumph before\nthe battle is fought. It would be presumptuous folly, not faith, if it\nrested on anything less certain than God's power and will.\n\n\"I find David making a syllogism in mood and figure.... 'If I regard\niniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: but verily God\nhath heard me; He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.' Now, I\nexpected that David would have concluded thus: 'Therefore I regard\nnot wickedness in my heart. But far otherwise he concludes: 'Blessed\nbe God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.'\nThus David hath deceived but not wronged me. I looked that he should\nhave clapped the crown on his own, and he puts it on God's head. I\nwill learn this excellent logic.\" So says Fuller (\"Good Thoughts in\nBad Times,\" p. 34, Pickering's ed., 1841). No doubt, however, the\npsalmist means to suggest, though he does not state, that his prayer\nwas sincere. There is no self-complacent attribution of merit to his\nsupplication, in the profession that it was untainted by any secret,\nsidelong looking towards evil; and Fuller is right in emphasising\nthe suppression of the statement. But even the appearance of such is\navoided by the jet of praise which closes the psalm. Its condensed\nbrevity has induced some critics to mend it by expansion, as they\nregard it as incongruous to speak of turning away a man's prayer from\nhimself. Some would therefore insert \"from Him\" after \"my prayer,\"\nand others would expand still further by inserting an appropriate\nnegative before \"His loving-kindness.\" But the slight incongruity\ndoes not obscure the sense, and brings out strongly the flow of\nthought. So fully does the psalmist feel the connection between God's\nloving-kindness and his own prayer, that these are, as it were,\nsmelted into one in his mind, and the latter is so far predominant in\nhis thoughts that he is unconscious of the anomaly of his expression.\nTo expand only weakens the swing of the words and the power of the\nthought. It is possible to tame lyric outbursts into accuracy at the\ncost of energy. Psalmists are not bound to be correct in style. Rivers\nwind; canals are straight.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXVII.\n\n 1 God be gracious to us, and bless us,\n And cause His face to shine among us; Selah.\n 2 That Thy way may be known upon earth,\n Thy salvation among all nations.\n\n 3 Let peoples give Thee thanks, O God,\n Let peoples, all of them, give Thee thanks.\n 4 Let tribes rejoice and shout aloud,\n For Thou wilt judge peoples in equity,\n And tribes on the earth wilt Thou lead. Selah.\n 5 Let peoples give Thee thanks, O God,\n Let peoples, all of them, give Thee thanks.\n\n 6 The earth has yielded her increase:\n May God, [even] our God, bless us!\n 7 May God bless us,\n And may all the ends of the earth fear Him!\n\n\nThis little psalm condenses the dominant thought of the two preceding\ninto a series of aspirations after Israel's blessing, and the\nconsequent diffusion of the knowledge of God's way among all lands.\nLike Psalm lxv., it sees in abundant harvests a type and witness of\nGod's kindness. But, whereas in Psalm lxv. the fields were covered\nwith corn, here the increase has been gathered in. The two psalms may\nor may not be connected in date of composition as closely as these two\nstages of one harvest-time.\n\nThe structure of the psalm has been variously conceived. Clearly the\nSelahs do not guide as to divisions in the flow of thought. But it may\nbe noted that the seven verses in the psalm have each two clauses,\nwith the exception of the middle one (ver. 4), which has three. Its\nplace and its abnormal length mark it as the core, round which, as\nit were, the whole is built up. Further, it is as if encased in two\nverses (vv. 3, 5), which, in their four clauses, are a fourfold\nrepetition of a single aspiration. These three verses are the heart\nof the psalm--the desire that all the earth may praise God, whose\nprovidence blesses it all. They are again enclosed in two strophes of\ntwo verses each (vv. 1, 2, and 6, 7), which, like the closer wrapping\nround the core, are substantially parallel, and, unlike it, regard\nGod's manifestation to Israel as His great witness to the world.\nThus, working outwards from the central verse, we have symmetry of\nstructure, and intelligible progress and distinctness of thought.\n\nAnother point of difficulty is the rendering of the series of\nverbs in the psalm. Commentators are unanimous in taking those of\nver. 1 as expressions of desire; but they bewilderingly diverge in\ntheir treatment of the following ones. Details of the divergent\ninterpretations, or discussions of their reasons, cannot be entered\non here. It may be sufficient to say that the adherence throughout to\nthe optative rendering, admitted by all in ver. 1, gives a consistent\ncolouring to the whole. It is arbitrary to vary the renderings in so\nshort a psalm. But, as is often the case, the aspirations are so sure\nof their correspondence with the Divine purpose that they tremble on\nthe verge of being prophecies, as, indeed, all wishes that go out\nalong the line of God's \"way\" are. Every deep, God-inspired longing\nwhispers to its utterer assurance that so it shall be; and therefore\nsuch desires have ever in them an element of fruition, and know\nnothing of the pain of earthly wishes. They who stretch out empty\nhands to God never \"gather dust and chaff.\"\n\nThe priestly blessing (Numb. vi. 24-26) moulds ver. 1, but with the\nsubstitution of _God_ for _Jehovah_, and of \"among us\" for \"upon us.\"\nThe latter variation gives an impression of closer contact of men with\nthe lustre of that Divine Light, and of yet greater condescension in\nGod. The soul's longing is not satisfied by even the fullest beams\nof a Light that is fixed on high; it dares to wish for the stooping\nof the Sun to dwell among us. The singer speaks in the name of the\nnation; and, by using the priestly formula, claims for the whole\npeople the sacerdotal dignity which belonged to it by its original\nconstitution. He gives that idea its widest extension. Israel is\nthe world's high priest, lifting up intercessions and holy hands of\nbenediction for mankind. What self-effacement, and what profound\ninsight into and sympathy with the mind of God breathe in that\ncollocation of desires, in which the gracious lustre of God's face\nshining on us is longed for, chiefly that thence it may be reflected\ninto the dark places of earth, to gladden sad and seeking eyes! This\npsalmist did not know in how true a sense the Light would come to\ndwell among men of Israel's race, and thence to flood the world; but\nhis yearning is a foreshadowing of the spirit of Christianity, which\nforbids self-regarding monopoly of its blessings. If a man is \"light\nin the Lord,\" he cannot but shine. \"God hath shined into our hearts,\nthat we may give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.\" A\nChurch illuminated with a manifestly Divine light is the best witness\nfor God. Eyes which cannot look on the Sun may gaze at the clouds,\nwhich tone down its colourless radiance into purple and gold.\n\nThe central core of the psalm may either be taken as summons to the\nnations or as expression of desire for them. The depth of the longing\nor the stringency of the summons is wonderfully given by that fourfold\nrepetition of the same words in vv. 3 and 5, with the emphatic \"all\nof them\" in the second clause of each. Not less significant is the\nuse of three names for the aggregations of men--nations (ver. 2),\npeoples, and tribes. All are included, whatever bond knits them in\ncommunities, whatever their societies call themselves, however many\nthey are. The very vagueness gives sublimity and universality. We\ncan fill the vast outline drawn by these sweeping strokes; and wider\nknowledge should not be attended with narrowed desires, nor feebler\nconfidence that the Light shall lighten every land. It is noticeable\nthat in this central portion the deeds of God among the nations are\nset forth as the ground of their praise and joy in Him. Israel had the\nlight of His face, and that would draw men to Him. But all peoples\nhave the strength of His arm to be their defender, and the guidance\nof His hand by providences and in other ways unrecognised by them.\nThe \"judgments\" here contemplated are, of course, not retribution for\nevil, but the aggregate of dealings by which God shows His sovereignty\nin all the earth. The psalmist does not believe that God's goodness\nhas been confined to Israel, nor that the rest of the world has been\nleft orphaned. He agrees with Paul, \"That which may be known of God is\nmanifest in them, for God manifested it to them.\"\n\nThe final strophe (vv. 6, 7) is substantially a repetition of vv. 1,\n2, with the addition that a past fact is laid as the foundation of\nthe desires or hopes of future blessings. \"The earth has yielded her\nincrease.\" This may show that the psalm is a harvest hymn, but it\ndoes not necessarily imply this. The thought may have been born at any\ntime. The singer takes the plain fact that, year by year, by mysterious\nquickening which he recognises as of God, the fertile earth \"causes the\nthings sown in it to bring forth and bud,\" as an evidence of Divine care\nand kindliness, which warrants the desire and the confidence that all\nblessings will be given. It seems a large inference from such a premise;\nbut it is legitimate for those who recognise God as working in nature,\nand have eyes to read the parables amid which we live. The psalmist\nreminds God of His own acts, and, further, of His own name, and builds\non these his petitions and his faith. Because He is \"our God\" He will\nbless us; and since the earth has, by His gift, \"yielded her increase,\"\nHe will give the better food which souls need. This the singer desires,\nnot only because he and his brethren need it, but because a happy people\nare the best witnesses for a good King, and worshippers \"satisfied\nwith favour and full of the blessing of the Lord\" proclaim most\npersuasively, \"Taste, and see that God is good.\" This psalm is a truly\nmissionary psalm, in its clear anticipation of the universal spread of\nthe knowledge of God, in its firm grasp of the thought that the Church\nhas its blessings in order to the evangelisation of the world, and in\nits intensity of longing that from all the ends of the earth a shout of\npraise may go up to the God who has sent some rays of His light into\nthem all, and committed to His people the task of carrying a brighter\nillumination to every land.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXVIII.\n\n 1 Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered,\n And let them who hate Him flee before Him.\n 2 As smoke is whirled, whirl [them] away:\n As wax melts before fire,\n May the wicked perish before God!\n 3 But may the righteous rejoice [and] exult before God,\n And be mirthful in joy.\n 4 Sing to God, harp [to] His name:\n Throw up a way for Him who rides through the deserts\n [In] Jah is His name; and exult ye before Him;\n 5 The orphans' father and the widows' advocate,\n God in His holy dwelling-place,\n 6 God, who makes the solitary to dwell in a home,\n Who brings out the prisoners into prosperity:\n Yet the rebellious inhabit a burnt-up land.\n\n 7 O God, at Thy going forth before Thy people,\n At Thy marching through the wilderness; Selah.\n 8 The earth quaked, the heavens also dropped before God\n Yonder Sinai [quaked] before God, the God of Israel.\n 9 With a gracious rain, O God, Thou didst besprinkle Thine\n inheritance;\n And [when it was] faint, Thou didst refresh it.\n 10 Thine assembly dwelt herein:\n Thou didst prepare in Thy goodness for the poor, O God.\n\n 11 The Lord gives the word:\n The women telling the good tidings are a great army.\n 12 Kings of armies flee, they flee:\n And the home-keeping [woman] divides the spoil.\n 13 Will ye lie among the sheep-pens?\n [Ye shall be as] the wings of a dove that is covered with\n silver, (?)\n And her pinions with yellow gold\n 14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it,\n It snowed in Salmon.\n 15 A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan,\n A many-peaked mountain is the mountain of Bashan.\n 16 Why look ye with envy, O many-peaked mountains,\n On the mountain which God has desired to dwell in?\n Yea, God will abide in it for ever.\n 17 The chariots of God are myriads and myriads, thousands on\n thousands:\n God is among them;\n Sinai is in the sanctuary.\n 18 Thou hast ascended on high,\n Thou hast led captive a band of captives,\n Thou hast taken gifts among men,\n Yea, even the rebellious shall dwell with Jah, God.\n\n 19 Blessed be the Lord!\n Day by day He bears our burdens,\n Even the God [who is] our salvation.\n 20 God is to us a God of deliverances,\n And Jehovah the Lord has escape from death.\n 21 Yea, God will crush the head of His enemies,\n The hairy skull of him that goes on in his guiltiness.\n 22 The Lord has said, From Bashan I will bring back,\n I will bring back from the depths of the sea:\n 23 That thou mayest bathe thy foot in blood,\n That the tongue of thy dogs may have its portion from the enemy.\n\n 24 They have seen Thy goings, O God,\n The goings of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.\n 25 Before go singers, after [come] those who strike the strings,\n In the midst of maidens beating timbrels.\n 26 \"In the congregations bless ye God,\n The Lord, [ye who spring] from the fountain of Israel.\"\n 27 There was little Benjamin their ruler, (?)\n The princes of Judah, their shouting multitude,\n The princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.\n\n 28 Command, O God, Thy strength,\n Show Thyself strong, O God, Thou that hast wrought for us.\n 29 From Thy temple above Jerusalem\n Unto Thee shall kings bring presents.\n 30 Rebuke the beast of the reeds,\n The herd of bulls, with the calves of the peoples;\n Tread down those that have pleasure in silver; (?)\n Scatter the peoples that delight in wars.\n 31 Great ones shall come from Egypt,\n Cush shall quickly stretch out her hands to God.\n\n 32 Ye kingdoms of the earth, sing to God;\n Harp [unto] the Lord; Selah.\n 33 To Him who rides on the heavens of heavens, [which are] of old;\n Lo, He utters His voice, a voice of strength.\n 34 Ascribe to God strength,\n Whose majesty is over Israel, and His strength in the clouds.\n 35 Dread [art Thou], O God, from Thy sanctuaries,\n The God of Israel,\n He gives strength and fulness of might to His people.\n Blessed be God!\n\n\nThis superb hymn is unsurpassed, if not unequalled, in grandeur,\nlyric fire, and sustained rush of triumphant praise. It celebrates a\nvictory; but it is the victory of the God who enters as a conqueror\ninto His sanctuary. To that entrance (vv. 15-18) all the preceding\npart of the psalm leads up; and from it all the subsequent part flows\ndown. The Exodus is recalled as the progress of a king at the head\nof his hosts, and old p\u00e6ans re-echo. That dwelling of God in the\nsanctuary is \"for ever.\" Therefore in the second part of the psalm\n(vv. 19-35) its consequences for the psalmist's generation and for\nthe future are developed--Israel's deliverance, the conquest of the\nnations, and finally the universal recognition of God's sovereignty\nand ringing songs sent up to Him.\n\nThe Davidic authorship is set aside as impossible by most recent\ncommentators, and there is much in the psalm which goes against it;\nbut, on the other hand, the Syro-Ammonite war (2 Sam. xi.), in which\nthe ark was taken into the field, is not unnaturally supposed by\nDelitzsch and others to explain the special reference to the entrance\nof God into the sanctuary. The numerous quotations and allusions\nare urged as evidence of late date, especially the undeniable\nresemblance with Isaiah II. But the difficulty of settling which of\ntwo similar passages is original and which copy is great; and if by\none critical canon such allusions are marks of lateness, by another,\nrugged obscurities, such as those with which this psalm bristles, are\nevidences of an early date.\n\nThe mention of only four tribes in ver. 27 is claimed as showing that\nthe psalm was written when Jud\u00e6a and Galilee were the only orthodox\ndistricts, and central Palestine was in the hands of the Samaritans.\nBut could there be any talk of \"princes of Zebulun and Naphtali\"\nthen? The exultant tone of the psalm makes its ascription to such\na date as the age of the Ptolemies unlikely, when \"Israel is too\nfeeble, too depressed, to dream of self-defence; and, if God does not\nsoon interpose, will be torn to pieces\" (Cheyne, \"Aids to the Devout\nStudy,\" etc., 335).\n\nTo the present writer it does not appear that the understanding and\nenjoyment of this grand psalm depend so much on success in dating it\nas is supposed. It may be post-exilic. Whoever fused its reminiscences\nof ancient triumph into such a glowing outburst of exultant faith, his\nvision of the throned God and his conviction that ancient facts reveal\neternal truths remain for all generations as an encouragement of trust\nand a prophecy of God's universal dominion.\n\nThe main division at ver. 18 parts the psalm into two equal halves,\nwhich are again easily subdivided into strophes.\n\nThe first strophe (vv. 1-6) may be regarded as introductory to the\nchief theme of the first half--namely, the triumphant march of the\nconquering God to His sanctuary. It consists of invocation to Him\nto arise, and of summons to His people to prepare His way and to\nmeet Him with ringing gladness. The ground of both invocation and\nsummons is laid in an expansion of the meaning of His name as Helper\nof the helpless, Deliverer of the captive, righteous, and plentifully\nrewarding the proud doer. The invocation echoes the Mosaic prayer\n\"when the ark set forward\" (Numb. x. 35), with the alteration of the\ntense of the verb from a simple imperative into a precative future,\nand of \"Jehovah\" into God. This is the first of the quotations\ncharacteristic of the psalm, which is penetrated throughout with the\nidea that the deeds of the past are revelations of permanent relations\nand activities. The ancient history glows with present life. Whatever\nGod has done He is doing still. No age of the Church needs to look\nback wistfully to any former, and say, \"Where be all His wondrous\nworks which our fathers have told us of?\" The twofold conditions\nof God's intervention are, as this strophe teaches, Israel's cry\nto Him to arise, and expectant diligence in preparing His way. The\ninvocation, which is half of Israel's means of insuring His coming,\nbeing a quotation, the summons to perform the other half is naturally\nregarded by the defenders of the post-exilic authorship as borrowed\nfrom Isaiah II. (_e.g._, xl. 3, lvii. 14, lxii. 10), while the\nsupporters of an earlier date regard the psalm as the primary passage\nfrom which the prophet has drawn.\n\nGod \"arises\" when He displays by some signal act His care for His\npeople. That strong anthropomorphism sets forth the plain truth that\nthere come crises in history, when causes, long silently working,\nsuddenly produce their world-shaking effects. God has seemed to sit\npassive; but the heavens open, and all but blind eyes can see Him,\nstanding ready to smite that He may deliver. When He rises to His\nfeet; the enemy scatters in panic. His presence revealed is enough.\nThe emphatic repetition of \"before\" in these verses is striking,\nespecially when fully rendered,--from His face (ver. 1); from the\nface of the fire (ver. 2); from the face of God (ver. 2); before His\nface (vv. 3, 4). To His foes that face is dreadful, and they would\nfain cower away from its light; His friends sun themselves in its\nbrightness. The same fire consumes and vivifies. All depends on the\ncharacter of the recipients. In the psalm \"the righteous\" are Israel,\nthe ideal nation; the \"wicked\" are its heathen foes; but the principle\nunderlying the fervid words demands a real assimilation of moral\ncharacter to the Divine, as a condition of being at ease in the Light.\n\nThe \"deserts\" are, in consonance with the immediately following\nreminiscences, those of the Exodus. Hupfeld and those who discover in\nthe psalm the hopes of the captives in Babylon, take them to be the\nwaste wilderness stretching between Babylon and Palestine. But it is\nbetter to see in them simply a type drawn from the past, of guidance\nthrough any needs or miseries. Vv. 5, 6, draw out at length the blessed\nsignificance of the name Jah, in order to hearten to earnest desire and\nexpectance of Him. They are best taken as in apposition with \"Him\" in\nver. 4. Well may we exult before Him who is the orphans' father, the\nwidows' advocate. There may be significance in the contrast between\nwhat He is \"in His holy habitation\" and when He arises to ride through\nthe deserts. Even in the times when he seems to be far above, dwelling\nin the separation of His unapproachable holiness, He is still caring\nand acting for the sad and helpless. But when He comes forth, it is\nto make the solitary to dwell in a home, to bring out prisoners into\nprosperity. Are these simply expressions for God's general care of\nthe afflicted, like the former clauses, or do they point back to the\nExodus? A very slight change in the text gives the reading, \"Makes the\nsolitary to return home\"; but even without that alteration, the last\nclause of the verse is so obviously an allusion to the disobedient,\n\"whose carcasses fell in the wilderness,\" that the whole verse is best\nregarded as pointing back to that time. The \"home\" to which the people\nwere led is the same as the \"prosperity\" into which the prisoners are\nbrought--namely, the rest and well-being of Canaan; while the fate\nof the \"rebellious\" is, as it ever is, to live and die amidst the\ndrought-stricken barrenness which they have chosen.\n\nWith the second strophe (vv. 7-10) begins the historical retrospect,\nwhich is continued till, at the end of the fourth (ver. 18), God is\nenthroned in the sanctuary, there to dwell for ever. In the second\nstrophe the wilderness life is described. The third (vv. 11-14) tells\nof the victories which won the land. The fourth triumphantly contrasts\nthe glory of the mountain where God at last has come to dwell, with\nthe loftier peaks across the Jordan on which no such lustre gleams.\n\nVv. 7, 8, are from Deborah's song, with slight omissions and\nalterations, notably of \"Jehovah\" into \"God.\" The phrase \"before\"\nstill rings in the psalmist's ears, and he changes Deborah's words, in\nthe first clause of ver. 7, so as to give the picture of God marching\nin front of His people, instead of, as the older song represented\nHim, coming from the east, to meet them marching from the west.\nThe majestic theophany at the giving of the Law is taken as the\nculmination of His manifestations in the wilderness. Vv. 9, 10, are\ncapable of two applications. According to one, they anticipate the\nchronological order, and refer to the fertility of the land, and the\nabundance enjoyed by Israel when established there. According to the\nother, they refer to the sustenance of the people in the wilderness.\nThe former view has in its favour the ordinary use of \"inheritance\"\nfor the land, the likelihood that \"rain\" should be represented as\nfalling on soil rather than on people, and the apparent reference in\n\"dwelt therein,\" to the settlement in Canaan. The objection to it is\nthat reference to peaceful dwelling in the land is out of place, since\nthe next strophe pictures the conquest. If, then, the verses belong\nto the age of wandering, to what do they refer? Hupfeld tries to\nexplain the \"rain\" as meaning the manna, and, still more improbably,\ntakes the somewhat enigmatical \"assembly\" of ver. 10 to mean (as it\ncertainly does) \"living creatures,\" and to allude (as it surely does\nnot) to the quails that fell round the camp. Most commentators now\nagree in transferring \"thine inheritance\" to the first clause, and\nin understanding it of the people, not of the land. The verse is\nintelligible either as referring to gifts of refreshment of spirit and\ncourage bestowed on the people, in which case \"rain\" is symbolical;\nor to actual rainfall during the forty years of desert life, by which\nsowing and reaping were made possible. The division of the verse as\nin our translation is now generally adopted. The allusion to the\nprovision of corn in the desert is continued in ver. 10, in which\nthe chief difficulty is the ambiguous word \"assembly.\" It may mean\n\"living creatures,\" and is so taken here by the LXX. and others. It is\ntwice used in 2 Sam. xxii. 11 (?), 13, for an army. Delitzsch takes\nit as a comparison of Israel to a flock, thus retaining the meaning\nof _creatures_. If the verse is interpreted as alluding to Israel's\nwilderness life, \"therein\" must be taken in a somewhat irregular\nconstruction, since there is no feminine noun at hand to which the\nfeminine pronominal suffix in the word can be referred. In that barren\ndesert, God's flock dwelt for more than a generation, and during all\nthat time His goodness provided for them. The strophe thus gives two\naspects of God's manifestation in the wilderness--the majestic and\nterrible, and the gentle and beneficent. In the psalmist's triumphant\nretrospect no allusion is made to the dark obverse--Israel's long\ningratitude. The same history which supplies other psalmists and\nprophets with material for penetrating accusations yields to this one\nonly occasion of praise. God's part is pure goodness; man's is shaded\nwith much rebellious murmuring.\n\nThe next strophe (vv. 11-14) is abrupt and disconnected, as if echoing\nthe hurry of battle and the tumult of many voices on the field. The\ngeneral drift is unmistakable, but the meaning of part is the despair\nof commentators. The whole scene of the conflict, flight, and division\nof the spoil is flashed before us in brief clauses, panting with\nexcitement and blazing with the glow of victory. \"The Lord giveth the\nword.\" That \"word\" may be the news which the women immediately repeat.\nBut it is far more vivid and truer to the spirit of the psalm, which\nsees God as the only actor in Israel's history, to regard it as the\nself-fulfilling decree which scatters the enemy. This battle is the\nLord's. There is no description of conflict. But one mighty word is\nhurled from heaven, like a thunder-clap (the phrase resembles that\nemployed so often, \"the Lord gave His voice,\" which frequently means\nthunder-peals), and the enemies' ranks are broken in panic. Israel\ndoes not need to fight. God speaks, and the next sound we hear is\nthe clash of timbrels and the clear notes of the maidens chanting\nvictory. This picture of a battle, with the battle left out, tells\nbest Who fought, and how He fought it. \"He spake, and it was done.\"\nWhat scornful picture of the flight is given by the reduplication\n\"they flee, they flee\"! It is like Deborah's fierce gloating over the\ndead Sisera: \"He bowed, he fell, he lay: at her feet he bowed, he\nfell: where he bowed, there he fell.\" What confidence in the power\nof weakness, when God is on its side, in the antithesis between the\nmighty kings scattered in a general _sauve qui peut_, and the matrons\nwho had \"tarried at home\" and now divide the spoil! Sisera's mother\nwas pictured in Deborah's song as looking long through her lattice\nfor her son's return, and solacing herself with the thought that he\ndelayed to part the plunder and would come back laden with it. What\nshe vainly hoped for Israel's matrons enjoy.\n\nVv. 13, 14, are among the hardest in the Psalter. The separate clauses\noffer no great difficulties, but the connection is enigmatical indeed.\n\"Will (lit. _if_) ye lie among the sheepfolds?\" comes from Deborah's\nsong (Judg. v. 16), and is there a reproach flung at Reuben for\npreferring pastoral ease to warlike effort. Is it meant as reproach\nhere? It is very unlikely that a song of triumph like this should\nhave for its only mention of Israel's warriors a taunt. The lovely\npicture of the dove with iridescent wings is as a picture perfect.\nBut what does it mean here? Herder, whom Hupfeld follows, supposes\nthat the whole verse is rebuke to recreants, who preferred lying\nstretched at ease among their flocks, and bidding each other admire\nthe glancing plumage of the doves that flitted round them. But this\nis surely violent, and smacks of modern \u00e6stheticism. Others suppose\nthat the first clause is a summons to be up and pursue the flying foe,\nand the second and third a description of the splendour with which\nthe conquerors (or their households) should be clothed by the spoil.\nThis meaning would require the insertion of some such phrase as \"ye\nshall be\" before the second clause. Delitzsch regards the whole as a\nconnected description of the blessings of peace following on victory,\nand sees a reference to Israel as God's dove. \"The new condition of\nprosperity is compared with the play of colours of a dove basking in\nthe rays of the sun.\" All these interpretations assume that Israel is\naddressed in the first clause. But is this assumption warranted? Is\nit not more natural to refer the \"ye\" to the \"kings\" just mentioned,\nespecially as the psalmist recurs to them in the next verse? The\nquestion will then retain the taunting force which it has in Deborah's\nsong, while it pictures a very different kind of couching among the\nsheepfolds--namely, the hiding there from pursuit. The kings are first\nseen in full flight. Then the triumphant psalmist flings after them\nthe taunt, \"Will ye hide among the cattle?\" If the initial particle\nretains its literal force, the first clause is hypothetical, and\nthe suppression of the conclusion speaks more eloquently than its\nexpression would have done: \"If ye couch----\" The second and third\nclauses are then parallel with the second of ver. 12, and carry on\nthe description of the home-keeping matron, \"the dove,\" adorned with\nrich spoils and glorious in her apparel. We thus have a complete\nparallelism between the two verses, which both lay side by side the\ncontrasted pictures of the defeated kings and the women; and we\nfurther establish continuity between the three verses (13-15), in so\nfar as the \"kings\" are dealt with in them all.\n\nVer. 14 is even harder than the preceding. What does \"in it\" refer to?\nIs the second clause metaphor, requiring to be eked out with \"It is\nlike as when\"? If figure, what does it mean? One is inclined to say\nwith Baethgen, at the end of his comment on the words, \"After all this,\nI can only confess that I do not understand the verse.\" Salmon was an\ninconsiderable hill in Central Palestine, deriving its name (Shady), as\nis probable, from forests on its sides. Many commentators look to that\ncharacteristic for explanation of the riddle. Snow on the dark hill\nwould show very white. So after the defeat the bleached bones of the\nslain, or, as others, their glittering armour, would cover the land.\nOthers take the point of comparison to be the change from trouble to\njoy which follows the foe's defeat, and is likened to the change of the\ndark hillside to a gleaming snow-field. Hupfeld still follows Herder\nin connecting the verse with the reproach which he finds in the former\none, and seeing in the words \"It snowed on Salmon\" the ground of the\nrecreants' disinclination to leave the sheepfolds--namely, that it was\nbad weather, and that, if snow lay on Salmon in the south, it would be\nworse in the north, where the campaign was going on! He acknowledges\nthat this explanation requires \"a good deal of acuteness to discover,\"\nand says that the only alternative to accepting it, provisionally, at\nall events, is to give up the hope of any solution. Cheyne follows\nBickell in supposing that part of the text has dropped out, and proposes\nan additional clause at the beginning of the verse and an expansion of\nthe last clause, arriving at this result: \"[For full is our land of\nspoil], When Shaddai scatters kings therein, [As the snow,] when it\nsnows in Salmon.\" The adoption of these additions is not necessary to\nreach this meaning of the whole, which appears the most consonant with\nthe preceding verses, as continuing the double reference which runs\nthrough them--namely, to the fugitive kings and the dividers of the\nspoil. On the one side we see the kings driven from their lurking-places\namong the sheepfolds; on the other, the gleam of rich booty, compared\nnow to the shining white wrapping the dark hill, as formerly to the\ncolours that shimmer on sunlit pinions of peaceful doves. If this is not\nthe meaning, we can only fall back on the confession already quoted.\n\nThe battle is over, and now the Conqueror enters His palace-temple.\nThe third strophe soars with its theme, describing His triumphal\nentry thither and permanent abiding there. The long years between the\nconquest of Canaan and the establishment of the ark on Zion dwindle\nto a span; for God's enthronement there was in one view the purpose\nof the conquest, which was incomplete till that was effected. There\nis no need to suppose any reference in the mention of Bashan to\nthe victories over Og, its ancient king. The noble figure needs no\nhistoric allusion to explain it. These towering heights beyond Jordan\nhad once in many places been seats of idol worship. They are emblems\nof the world's power. No light rests upon them, lofty though they are,\nlike that which glorifies the insignificant top of Zion. They may well\nlook enviously across the Jordan to the hill which God has desired\nfor His abode. His triumphal procession is not composed of earthly\nwarriors, for none such had appeared in the battle. He had conquered,\nnot by employing human hands, but by His own \"bright-harnessed\nangels.\" They now surround Him in numbers innumerable, which language\nstrains its power in endeavouring to reckon. \"Myriads doubled,\nthousands of repetition,\" says the psalmist--indefinite expressions\nfor a countless host. But all their wide-flowing ranks are clustered\nround the Conqueror, whose presence makes their multitude an unity,\neven as it gives their immortal frames their life and strength, and\ntheir faces all their lustrous beauty. \"God is in the midst of them\";\ntherefore they conquer and exult. \"Sinai is in the sanctuary.\" This\nbold utterance has led to a suggested emendation, which has the\nadvantage of bringing out clearly a quotation from Deut. xxxiii. 2.\nIt combines the second and third clauses of ver. 17, and renders \"The\nLord hath come from Sinai into the sanctuary.\" But the existing text\ngives a noble thought--that now, by the entrance of God thither,\nSinai itself is in the sanctuary, and all the ancient sanctities and\nsplendours, which flamed round its splintered peaks, are housed to\nshine lambent from that humble hill. Sinai was nothing but for God's\npresence. Zion has that presence; and all that it ever meant it means\nstill. The profound sense of the permanent nature of past revelation,\nwhich speaks all through the psalm, reaches its climax here.\n\nThe \"height\" to which ver. 18 triumphantly proclaims that God has gone\nup, can only be Zion. To take it as meaning the heavenly sanctuary,\nas in Psalm vii. 7 it unquestionably does, is forbidden by the\npreceding verses. Thither the conquering God has ascended, as to\nHis palace, leading a long procession of bound captives, and there\nreceiving tribute from the vanquished. Assyrian slabs and Egyptian\npaintings illustrate these representations. The last clause has been\nvariously construed and understood. Is \"Yea, even the rebellious\"\nto be connected with the preceding, and \"among\" to be supplied, so\nthat those once rebellious are conceived of as tributary, or does the\nphrase begin an independent clause? The latter construction makes\nthe remainder of the verse run more intelligibly, and obviates the\nneed for supplying a preposition with \"the rebellious.\" It still\nremains a question whether the last words of the clause refer to God's\ndwelling among the submissive rebels, or to their dwelling with God.\nIf, however, it is kept in view that the context speaks of God as\ndwelling in His sanctuary, the latter is the more natural explanation,\nespecially as a forcible contrast is thereby presented to the fate of\nthe \"rebellious\" in ver. 6. They dwell in a burnt-up land; but, if\nthey fling away their enmity, may be guests of God in His sanctuary.\nThus the first half of the psalm closes with grand prophetic hopes\nthat, when God has established His abode on Zion, distant nations\nshall bring their tribute, rebels return to allegiance, and men be\ndwellers with God in His house.\n\nIn such anticipations the psalm is Messianic, inasmuch as these are\nonly fulfilled in the dominion of Jesus. Paul's quotation of this\nverse in Eph. iv. 8 does not require us to maintain its directly\nprophetic character. Rather, the apostle, as Calvin says, \"deflects\"\nit to Christ. That ascent of the ark to Zion was a type rather than\na prophecy. Conflict, conquest, triumphant ascent to a lofty home,\ntribute, widespread submission, and access for rebels to the royal\npresence--all these, which the psalmist saw as facts or hopes in their\nearthly form, are repeated in loftier fashion in Christ, or are only\nattainable through His universal reign. The apostle significantly\nalters \"received among\" into \"gave to,\" sufficiently showing that he\nis not arguing from a verbal prophecy, but from a typical fact, and\nbringing out the two great truths, that, in the highest manifestation\nof the conquering God, the conquered receive gifts from the victor,\nand that the gifts which the ascended Christ bestows are really the\ntrophies of His battle, in which He bound the strong man and spoiled\nhis house. The attempt to make out that the Hebrew word has the\nextraordinary doubled-barrelled meaning of _receiving in order to\ngive_ is futile, and obscures the intentional freedom with which the\napostle deals with the text. The Ascension is, in the fullest sense,\nthe enthronement of God; and its results are the growing submission of\nnations and the happy dwelling of even the rebellious in His house.\n\nThe rapturous emphasis with which this psalm celebrates God's entrance\ninto His sanctuary is most appropriate to Davidic times.\n\nThe psalm reaches its climax in God's enthronement on Zion. Its\nsubsequent strophes set forth the results thereof. The first of these,\nthe fifth of the psalm (vv. 19-23), suddenly drops from strains of\nexultation to a plaintive note, and then again as suddenly breaks out\ninto stern rejoicing over the ruin of the foe. There is wonderful\ndepth of insight and tenderness in laying side by side the two\nthoughts of God, that He sits on high as conqueror, and that He daily\nbears our burdens, or perhaps bears us as a shepherd might his lambs.\n\nTruly a Divine use for Divine might! To such lowly offices of\ncontinual individualising care will the Master of many legions stoop,\nreaching out from amid their innumerable myriads to sustain a poor\nweak man stumbling under a load too great for him. Israel had been\ndelivered by a high hand, but still was burdened. The psalmist has\nbeen recalling the deeds of old, and he finds in them grounds for\ncalm assurance as to the present. To-day, he thinks, is as full of God\nas any yesterday, and our \"burdens\" as certain to be borne by Him,\nas were those of the generation that saw His Sinai tremble at His\npresence. To us, as to them, He is \"a God of deliverances,\" and for us\ncan provide ways of escape from death. The words breathe a somewhat\nplaintive sense of need, such as shades our brightest moments, if we\nbethink ourselves; but they do not oblige us to suppose that the psalm\nis the product of a time of oppression and dejection. That theory is\ncontradicted by the bounding gladness of the former part, no less than\nby the confident anticipations of the second half. But no song sung by\nmortal lips is true to the singer's condition, if it lacks the minor\nkey into which this hymn of triumph is here modulated for a moment.\n\nIt is but for a moment, and what follows is startlingly different.\nIsrael's escape from death is secured by the destruction of the\nenemy, and in it the psalmist has joy. He pictures the hand that\nsustained him and his fellows so tenderly, shattering the heads of\nthe rebellious. These are described as long-haired, an emblem of\nstrength and insolence which one is almost tempted to connect with\nAbsalom; and the same idea of determined and flaunting sin is conveyed\nby the expression \"goes on in his guiltinesses.\" There will be such\nrebels, even though the house of God is open for them to dwell in, and\nthere can be but one end for such. If they do not submit, they will\nbe crushed. The psalmist is as sure of that as of God's gentleness;\nand his two clauses do state the alternative that every man has to\nface--either to let God bear his burden or to be smitten by Him.\n\nVv. 22, 23, give a terrible picture of the end of the rebels. The\npsalmist hears the voice of the Lord promising to bring some unnamed\nfugitives from Bashan and the depths of the sea in order that they may\nbe slain, and that he (or Israel) may bathe his foot in their blood,\nand his dogs may lick it, as they did Ahab's. Who are to be brought\nback? Some have thought that the promise referred to Israel, but it is\nmore natural to apply it to the flying foe. There is no reference to\nBashan either as the kingdom of an ancient enemy or as envying Zion\n(ver. 15). But the high land of Bashan in the east and the depths of\nthe sea to the west are taken (_cf._ Amos ix. 1-3) as representing the\nfarthest and most inaccessible hiding-places. Wherever the enemies\nlurk, thence they will be dragged and slain.\n\nThe existing text is probably to be amended by the change of one\nletter in the verb, so as to read \"shall wash\" or bathe, as in\nPsalm lviii. 10, and the last clause to be read, \"That the tongue\nof thy dogs may have its portion from the enemy.\" The blood runs\nankle-deep, and the dogs feast on the carcasses or lick it--a dreadful\npicture of slaughter and fierce triumph. It is not to be softened or\nspiritualised or explained away.\n\nThere is, no doubt, a legitimate Christian joy in the fall of\nopposition to Christ's kingdom, and the purest benevolence has\nsometimes a right to be glad when hoary oppressions are swept away and\ntheir victims set free; but such rejoicing is not after the Christian\nlaw unless it is mingled with pity, of which the psalm has no trace.\n\nThe next strophe (vv. 24-27) is by some regarded as resuming the\ndescription of the procession, which is supposed to have been\ninterrupted by the preceding strophe. But the joyous march now to\nbe described is altogether separate from the majestic progress of\nthe conquering King in vv. 17, 18. This is the consequence of that.\nGod has gone into His sanctuary. His people have seen His solemn\nentrance thither, and therefore they now go up to meet Him there\nwith song and music. Their festal procession is the second result of\nHis enthronement, of which the deliverance and triumph described in\nthe preceding strophe were the first. The people escaped from death\nflock to thank their Deliverer. Such seems to be the connection of\nthe whole, and especially of vv. 24, 25. Instead of myriads of angels\nsurrounding the conquering God, here are singers and flute-players\nand damsels beating their timbrels, like Miriam and her choir. Their\nshrill call in ver. 26 summons all who \"spring from the fountain of\nIsrael\"--_i.e._, from the eponymous patriarch--to bless God. After\nthese musicians and singers, the psalmist sees tribe after tribe go up\nto the sanctuary, and points to each as it passes. His enumeration is\nnot free from difficulties, both in regard to the epithets employed\nand the specification of the tribes. The meaning of the word rendered\n\"ruler\" is disputed. Its form is peculiar, and the meaning of the\nverb from which it is generally taken to come is rather to _subdue_\nor _tread down_ than to _rule_. If the signification of _ruler_ is\naccepted, a question rises as to the sense in which Benjamin is so\ncalled. Allusion to Saul's belonging to that tribe is thought of by\nsome; but this seems improbable, whether the psalm is Davidic or\nlater. Others think that the allusion is to the fact that, according\nto Joshua xviii. 16, the Temple was within Benjamite territory; but\nthat is a far-fetched explanation. Others confine the \"rule\" to the\nprocession, in which Benjamin marches at the head, and so may be\ncalled its leader; but ruling and leading are not the same. Others\nget a similar result by a very slight textual change, reading \"in\nfront\" instead of \"their ruler.\" Another difficulty is in the word\nrendered above \"their shouting multitude,\" which can only be made to\nmean a company of people by a somewhat violent twist. Hupfeld (with\nwhom Bickell and Cheyne agree) proposes an alteration which yields the\nformer sense and is easy. It may be tentatively adopted.\n\nA more important question is the reason for the selection of the four\ntribes named. The mention of Benjamin and Judah is natural; but why\nare Zebulun and Naphtali the only representatives of the other tribes?\nThe defenders of a late date answer, as has been already noticed,\nBecause in the late period when the psalm was written, Galilee and\nJud\u00e6a \"formed the two orthodox provinces.\" The objection to this\nis that in the post-exilic period there were no distinct tribes of\nZebulun and Naphtali, and no princes to rule.\n\nThe mention of these tribes as sharing in the procession to the\nsanctuary on Zion would have been impossible during the period of the\nnorthern kingdom. If, then, these two periods are excluded, what is left\nbut the Davidic? The fact seems to be that we have here another glance\nat Deborah's song, in which the daring valour of these two tribes is set\nin contrast with the sluggish cowardice of Reuben and the other northern\nones. Those who had done their part in the wars of the Lord now go up in\ntriumph to His house. That is the reward of God's faithful soldiers.\n\nThe next strophe (vv. 28-31) is the prayer of the procession. It\nfalls into two parts of two verses each, of which the former verse is\npetition, and the latter confident anticipation of the results of\nanswered prayer. The symmetry of the whole requires the substitution\nin ver. 28 of \"command\" for \"hath commanded.\" God's strength is\npoetically regarded as distinct from Himself and almost personified,\nas \"loving-kindness\" is in Psalm xlii. 8. The prayer is substantially\nequivalent to the following petition in ver. 28 _b_. Note how \"strength\"\noccurs four times in vv. 33-35. The prayer for its present manifestation\nis, in accordance with the historical retrospect of the first part,\nbased upon God's past acts. It has been proposed to detach \"From Thy\nTemple\" from ver. 29, and to attach it to ver. 28. This gets over a\ndifficulty, but unduly abbreviates ver. 29, and is not in harmony with\nthe representation in the former part, which magnifies what God has\nwrought, not \"from the Temple,\" but in His progress thither. No doubt\nthe retention of the words in ver. 29 introduces a singular expression\nthere. How can presents be brought to God \"from Thy Temple\"? The only\nexplanation is that \"Temple\" is used in a restricted sense for the \"holy\nplace,\" as distinguished from the \"holy of holies,\" in which the ark was\ncontained. The tribute-bearers stand in that outer sanctuary, and thence\npresent their tokens of fealty. The city is clustered round the Temple\nmount, and therefore the psalm says, \"Thy Temple above Jerusalem.\" One\nis tempted to read \"unto\" instead of \"from\"; for this explanation can\nscarcely be called quite satisfactory. But it seems the best that has\nbeen suggested. The submission of kings of unnamed lands is contemplated\nas the result of God's manifestation of strength for Israel. Ver. 30\nresumes the tone of petition, and maintains it throughout. \"The beast of\nthe reeds,\" probably the crocodile, is a poetic designation for Egypt,\nthe reference to which is claimed by both the defenders of the Davidic\nand of the post-exilic date as in their favour. The former say that, in\nDavid's day, Egypt was the greatest world-power known to the Hebrews;\nand the latter, that the mention of it points to the time when Israel\nlay exposed to the attacks of Seleucid\u00e6 on the one hand and of Ptolemies\non the other. Why, then, should only one of the two hostile neighbours\nbe mentioned here? \"Bulls\" are a standing emblem of leaders of nations,\nand \"calves\" are accordingly their subjects. The two metaphors are\nnaturally connected, and the correction \"leaders of the peoples\" is\nunnecessary, and a prosaic intermingling of figure and fact.\n\nVer. 30 _c_ is extremely obscure. Baethgen roundly says, \"The meaning\nof the words can no longer be ascertained, and in all probability they\nare corrupt.\" The first word is a participle, which is variously taken\nas meaning \"casting oneself to the ground\" (_i.e._, in submission),\nand \"trampling to the ground.\" It is also variously referred to the\nnations and their leaders spoken of in the previous verse, and to God.\nIn the former case it would describe their attitude of submission in\nconsequence of \"rebuke\"; in the latter, God's subjugation of them.\nThe slightest change would make the word an imperative, thus bringing\nit into line with \"rebuke\"; but, even without this, the reference\nto God is apparently to be preferred. The structure of the strophe\nwhich, in the first verse of each pair, seems to put petitions and to\nconfine its descriptions of the resulting subjugation of the enemy to\nthe second verse in each case, favours the latter interpretation. The\nnext words are also disputed. One rendering is, \"with bars of silver\";\nanother, \"those that delight in silver.\" The former presupposes a\nvery unusual word for \"bars.\" It is necessarily adopted by those who\nrefer the first word to the submission of the \"herd of bulls.\" The\nenemies come with tribute of silver. The other rendering, which avoids\nthe necessity of bringing in an otherwise unknown word, is necessarily\npreferred by the supporters of the second explanation of the preceding\nword. God is implored to crush \"those who delight in silver,\" which\nmay stand for a description of men of this world, but must be\nacknowledged to be rather a singular way of designating active enemies\nof God and Israel. Cheyne's rendering, \"That rolls itself in mire\nfor gain of money,\" brings in the mercenaries of the Seleucid\u00e6. But\n\"rolling oneself in mire\" is a strange way of saying \"hiring oneself\nout to fight.\" Certainty seems unattainable, and we must be content\nwith the general trend of the verse as supplication for an exhibition\nof God's strength against proud opponents. The last clause sums up the\nwhole in the petition, \"Scatter the peoples that delight in wars.\"\n\nOne verse then tells what the result of that will be. \"Great ones\" shall\ncome from the land of the beast of the reeds, and Ethiopia shall make\nhaste to stretch out tribute-bearing hands to God. The vision of a world\nsubjugated and loving its subjugation is rising before the poet. That is\nthe end of the ways of God with Israel. So deeply had this psalmist been\nled into comprehension of the Divine purpose; so clearly was he given to\nsee the future, \"and all the wonder that should be.\"\n\nTherefore he breaks forth, in the last strophe, into invocation to all\nthe kingdoms of the earth to sing to God. He had sung of His majesty as\nof old Jehovah \"rode through the deserts\"; and that phrase described\nHis intervention in the field of history on behalf of Israel. Now the\nsinger calls for praise from all the earth to Him who rides in the\n\"most ancient heavens\"; and that expression sets forth His transcendent\nmajesty and eternal, universal sway. The psalmist had hymned the victory\nwon when \"God gave the word.\" Now he bids earth listen as \"He gives His\nvoice, a voice of strength,\" which moves and controls all creatures and\nevents. Therefore all nations are summoned to give strength to God, who\ngives all fulnesses of strength to His people. The psalm closes with\nthe utterance of the thought which has animated it throughout--that\nGod's deeds for and in Israel are the manifestation for the world of\nHis power, and that these will one day lead all men to bless the God of\nIsrael, who shines out in dread majesty from the sanctuary, which is\nhenceforth His abode for evermore.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXIX.\n\n 1 Save me, O God;\n For the waters have come in even to [my] soul.\n 2 I am sunk in the mud of an abyss, without standing-ground\n I am come into depths of waters, and a flood has overwhelmed me.\n 3 I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched,\n My eyes fail whilst I wait for my God.\n 4 More than the hairs of my head are they who hate me without\n provocation.\n Strong are my destroyers, my enemies wrongfully\n What I did not rob, then I must restore.\n 5 O God, Thou, Thou knowest my folly,\n And my guiltinesses are not hidden from Thee.\n 6 Let not those who wait for Thee be put to shame through me, Lord,\n Jehovah of hosts:\n Let not those be confounded through me who seek Thee, O God of\n Israel.\n\n 7 For Thy sake have I borne reproach;\n Confusion has covered my face.\n 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,\n And an alien to my mother's sons.\n 9 For zeal for Thine house has consumed me,\n And the reproaches of those that reproach Thee have fallen upon\n me.\n 10 And I wept, in fasting my soul [wept];\n And that became [matter of] reproaches to me.\n 11 Also I made sackcloth my clothing;\n And I became to them a proverb.\n 12 They who sit at the gate talk of me,\n And the songs of the quaffers of strong drink [are about me].\n\n 13 But as for me, my prayer is unto Thee, Jehovah, in a time of\n favour,\n O God, in the greatness of Thy loving-kindness,\n Answer me in the troth of Thy salvation.\n 14 Deliver me from [the] mire, that I sink not,\n Rescue me from those who hate me, and from depths of waters.\n 15 Let not the flood of waters overwhelm me,\n And let not the abyss swallow me,\n And let not [the] pit close her mouth over me.\n 16 Answer me, Jehovah; for Thy loving-kindness is good:\n In the multitude of Thy compassions turn toward me.\n 17 And hide not Thy face from Thy servant,\n For I am in straits; answer me speedily.\n 18 Draw near to my soul, redeem it,\n Because of my enemies set me free.\n\n 19 Thou, Thou knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my confusion.\n Before Thee are all my adversaries.\n 20 Reproach has broken my heart; and I am sick unto death,\n And I looked for pitying, and there was none,\n And for comforters, and found none.\n 21 But they gave me gall for my food,\n And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.\n\n 22 Let their table become before them a snare,\n And to them in their peacefulness, [let it become] a trap.\n 23 Darkened be their eyes, that they see not,\n And make their loins continually to quake.\n 24 Pour out upon them Thine indignation,\n And let the glow of Thy wrath overtake them.\n 25 May their encampment be desolate!\n In their tents may there be no dweller!\n 26 For him whom Thou, Thou hast smitten, they persecute,\n And they tell of the pain of Thy wounded ones.\n 27 Add iniquity to their iniquity,\n And let them not come into Thy righteousness.\n 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,\n And let them not be inscribed with the righteous.\n\n 29 But as for me, I am afflicted and pained,\n Let Thy salvation, O God, set me on high.\n 30 I will praise the name of God in a song,\n And I will magnify it with thanksgiving.\n 31 And it shall please Jehovah more than an ox,\n A bullock horned and hoofed.\n\n 32 The afflicted see it; they shall rejoice,\n Ye who seek God, [behold,] and let your heart live.\n 33 For Jehovah listens to the needy,\n And His captives He does not despise.\n 34 Let heaven and earth praise Him,\n The seas, and all that moves in them.\n 35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah,\n And they shall dwell there, and possess it.\n 36 And the seed of His servants shall inherit it,\n And those who love His name shall abide therein.\n\n\nThe Davidic authorship of this psalm is evidently untenable, if for\nno other reason, yet because of the state of things presupposed in\nver. 35. The supposition that Jeremiah was the author has more in its\nfavour than in the case of many of the modern attributions of psalms\nto him, even if, as seems most probable, the references to sinking in\ndeep mire and the like are metaphorical. Cheyne fixes on the period\npreceding Nehemiah's first journey to Jerusalem as the earliest\npossible date for this psalm and its kindred ones (xxii., xxxv., and\nxl. 13-18). Baethgen follows Olshausen in assigning the psalm to the\nMaccabean period. The one point which seems absolutely certain is that\nDavid was not its author.\n\nIt falls into two equal parts (vv. 1-18 and 19-36). In the former part\nthree turns of thought or feeling may be traced: vv. 1-6 being mainly\na cry for Divine help, with plaintive spreading out of the psalmist's\nextremity of need; vv. 7-12 basing the prayer on the fact that his\nsufferings flow from his religion; and vv. 13-18 being a stream of\npetitions for deliverance, with continuous allusion to the description\nof his trials in vv. 1-6. The second part (vv. 19-36) begins with\nrenewed description of the psalmist's affliction (vv. 19-21), and\nthence passes to invocation of God's justice on his foes (vv. 22-28),\nwhich takes the place of the direct petitions for deliverance in\nthe first part. The whole closes with trustful anticipation of\nanswers to prayer, which will call forth praise from ever-widening\ncircles,--first from the psalmist himself; then from the oppressed\nrighteous; and, finally, from heaven, earth, and sea.\n\nThe numerous citations of this psalm in the New Testament have led\nmany commentators to maintain its directly Messianic character. But\nits confessions of sin and imprecations of vengeance are equally\nincompatible with that view. It is Messianic as typical rather than as\nprophetic, exhibiting a history, whether of king, prophet, righteous\nman, or personified nation, in which the same principles are at work\nas are manifest in their supreme energy and highest form in the Prince\nof righteous sufferers. But the correspondence of such a detail as\ngiving gall and vinegar, with the history of Jesus, carries us beyond\nthe region of types, and is a witness that God's Spirit shaped the\nutterances of the psalmist for a purpose unknown to himself, and\nworked in like manner on the rude soldiers, whose clumsy mockery and\nclumsy kindness fulfilled ancient words. There is surely something\nmore here than coincidence or similarity between the experience of one\nrighteous sufferer and another. If Jesus cried \"I thirst\" in order to\nbring about the \"fulfilment\" of one verse of our psalm, His doing so\nis of a piece with some other acts of His which were distinct claims\nto be the Messiah of prophecy; but His wish could not influence the\nsoldiers to fulfil the psalm.\n\nThe first note is petition and spreading out of the piteous story of\nthe psalmist's need. The burdened heart finds some ease in describing\nhow heavy its burden is, and the devout heart receives some foretaste\nof longed-for help in the act of telling God how sorely His help is\nneeded. He who knows all our trouble is glad to have us tell it to\nHim, since it is thereby lightened, and our faith in Him is thereby\nincreased. Sins confessed are wholly cancelled, and troubles spoken to\nGod are more than half calmed. The psalmist begins with metaphors in vv.\n1, 2, and translates these into grim prose in vv. 3, 4, and then, with\nacknowledgment of sinfulness, cries for God's intervention in vv. 5, 6.\nIt is flat and prosaic to take the expressions in vv. 1, 2, literally,\nas if they described an experience like Jeremiah's in the miry pit.\nNor can the literal application be carried through; for the image of\n\"waters coming in unto the soul\" brings up an entirely different set of\ncircumstances from that of sinking in mud in a pit. The one describes\ntrouble as rushing in upon a man, like a deluge which has burst its\nbanks and overwhelms him; the other paints it as yielding and tenacious,\naffording no firm spot to stand on, but sucking him up in its filthy,\nstifling slime. No water was in Jeremiah's pit. The two figures are\nincompatible in reality, and can only be blended in imagination. What\nthey mean is put without metaphor in vv. 3, 4. The psalmist is \"weary\nwith calling\" on God; his throat is dry with much prayer; his eyes ache\nand are dim with upward gazing for help which lingers. Yet he does not\ncease to call, and still prays with his parched throat, and keeps the\nweary eyes steadfastly fixed, as the psalm shows. It is no small triumph\nof patient faith to wait for tarrying help. Ver. 4 tells why he thus\ncries. He is compassed by a crowd of enemies. Two things especially\ncharacterise these--their numbers, and their gratuitous hatred. As to\nthe former, they are described as more numerous than the hairs of the\npsalmist's head. The parallelism of clauses recommends the textual\nalteration which substitutes for the unnecessary word \"my destroyers\"\nthe appropriate expression \"more than my bones,\" which is found in\nsome old versions. Causeless hatred is the portion of the righteous in\nall ages; and our Lord points to Himself as experiencing it in utmost\nmeasure (John xv. 25), inasmuch as He, the perfectly righteous One, must\ntake into His own history all the bitterness which is infused into the\ncup of those who fear God and love the right, by a generation who are\nout of sympathy with them.\n\nThe same experience, in forms varying according to the spirit of the\ntimes, is realised still in all who have the mind of Christ in them. As\nlong as the world is a world, it will have some contempt mingling with\nits constrained respect for goodness, some hostility, now expressed by\nlight shafts of mockery and ridicule, now by heavier and more hurtful\nmissiles, for Christ's true servants. The ancient \"Woe\" for those of\nwhom \"all men speak well\" is in force to-day. The \"hatred\" is \"without\na cause,\" in so far as its cherishers have received no hurt, and its\nobjects desire only their enemies' good; but its cause lies deep in the\nirreconcilable antagonism of life-principles and aims between those who\nfollow Christ and those who do not.\n\nThe psalmist had to bear unjust charges, and to make restitution of\nwhat he had never taken. Causeless hatred justified itself by false\naccusations, and innocence had but to bear silently and to save life\nat the expense of being robbed in the name of justice.\n\nHe turns from enemies to God. But his profession of innocence assumes a\ntouching and unusual form. He does not, as might be expected, say, \"Thou\nknowest my guiltlessness,\" but, \"Thou knowest my foolishness.\" A true\nheart, while conscious of innocence in regard to men, and of having\ndone nothing to evoke their enmity, is, even in the act of searching\nitself, arrested by the consciousness of its many sins in God's sight,\nand will confess these the more penitently, because it stands upright\nbefore men, and asserts its freedom from all crime against them.\nIn so far as men's hatred is God's instrument, it inflicts merited\nchastisement. That does not excuse men; but it needs to be acknowledged\nby the sufferer, if things are to be right between him and God. Then,\nafter such confession, he can pray, as this psalmist does, that God's\nmercy may deliver him, so that others who, like him, wait on God may not\nbe disheartened or swept from their confidence, by the spectacle of his\nvain hopes and unanswered cries. The psalmist has a strong consciousness\nof his representative character, and, as in so many other psalms, thinks\nthat his experience is of wide significance as a witness for God. This\nconsciousness points to something special in his position, whether we\nfind the speciality in his office, or in the supposed personification of\nthe nation, or in poetic consciousness heightened by the sense of being\nan organ of God's Spirit. In a much inferior degree, the lowliest devout\nman may feel the same; for there are none whose experiences of God as\nanswering prayer may not be a light of hope to some souls sitting in the\ndark.\n\nIn vv. 7-12 the prayer for deliverance is urged on the ground that the\nsinger's sufferings are the result of his devotion. Psalm xliv. 13-22\nmay be compared, and Jer. xv. 15 is an even closer parallel. Fasting\nand sackcloth are mentioned again together in Psalm xxxv. 13; and Lam.\niii. 14 and Job xxx. 9 resemble ver. 12 _b_. Surrounded by a godless\ngeneration, the psalmist's earnestness of faith and concern for God's\nhonour made him an object of dislike, a target for drunken ridicule.\nThese broke the strong ties of kindred, and acted as separating forces\nmore strongly than brotherhood did, as a uniting one. \"Zeal for God's\nhouse\" presupposes the existence of the Temple, and also either its\nneglect or its desecration. That sunken condition of the sanctuary\ndistressed the psalmist more than personal calamity, and it was the\ndeparture of Israel from God that made him clothe himself in sackcloth\nand fast and weep. But so far had deterioration gone that his mourning\nand its cause supplied materials for tipsy mirth, and his name became\na by-word and a butt for malicious gossip. The whole picture is that\nof the standing experience of the godly among the godless. The Perfect\nExample of devotion and communion had to pass through these waters\nwhere they ran deepest and chilliest, but all who have His Spirit have\ntheir share of the same fate.\n\nThe last division of this first part (vv. 13-18) begins by setting\nin strong contrast the psalmist's prayer and the drunkard's song.\nHe is sure that his cry will be heard, and so he calls the present\ntime \"a time of favour,\" and appeals, as often in the Psalter, to\nthe multitude of God's loving-kindnesses and the faithfulness of His\npromise of salvation. Such a pleading with God on the ground of His\nmanifested character is heard in vv. 13, 16, thus inclosing, as it\nwere, the prayer for deliverance in a wrapping of reminders to God of\nHis own name. The petitions here echo the description of peril in the\nformer part--mire and watery depths--and add another kindred image in\nthat of the \"pit shutting her mouth\" over the suppliant. He is plunged\nin a deep dungeon, well-shaped; and if a stone is rolled on to its\nopening, his last gleam of daylight will be gone, and he will be\nburied alive. Beautifully do the pleas from God's character and those\nfrom the petitioner's sore need alternate, the latter predominating\nin vv. 17, 18. His thoughts pass from his own desperate condition to\nGod's mercy, and from God's mercy to his own condition, and he has\nthe reward of faith, in that he finds in his straits reasons for his\nassurance that this is a time of favour, as well as pleas to urge with\nGod. They make the black backing which turns his soul into a mirror,\nreflecting God's promises in its trust.\n\nThe second part of the psalm (ver. 19 to end) has, like the former,\nthree main divisions. The first of these, like vv. 1-6, is mainly a\nrenewed spreading before God of the psalmist's trouble (vv. 19-21).\nRooted sorrows are not plucked up by one effort. This recrudescence\nof fear breaking in upon the newly won serenity of faith is true to\nnature. On some parts of our coasts, where a narrow outlet hinders\nthe free run of the tide, a second high water follows the first\nafter an hour or so; and often a similar bar to the flowing away of\nfears brings them back in full rush after they had begun to sink.\nThe psalmist had appealed to God's knowledge of His \"foolishness\" as\nindorsing his protestations of innocence towards men. He now (ver.\n19) appeals to His knowledge of his distresses, as indorsing his\npitiful plaints. His soul is too deeply moved now to use metaphors.\nHe speaks no more of mire and flood, but we hear the moan of a broken\nheart, and that wail which sounds sad across the centuries and wakes\nechoes in many solitary hearts. The psalmist's eyes had failed, while\nhe looked upwards for a God whose coming seemed slow; but they had\nlooked yet more wearily and vainly for human pity and comforters,\nand found none. Instead of pity He had received only aggravation\nof misery. Such seems to be the force of giving gall for food, and\nvinegar to His thirst. The precise meaning of the word rendered \"gall\"\nis uncertain, but the general idea of something bitter is sufficient.\nThat was all that His foes would give Him when hungry; and vinegar,\nwhich would make Him more thirsty still, was all that they proffered\nfor His thirst. Such was their sympathy and comforting. According\nto Matthew, the potion of \"wine (or vinegar) mingled with gall\" was\noffered to and rejected by Jesus, before being fastened to the cross.\nHe does not expressly quote the psalm, but probably refers to it.\nJohn, on the other hand, does tell us that Jesus, \"that the scripture\nmight be accomplished, said, I thirst,\" and sees its fulfilment in the\nkindly act of moistening the parched lips. The evangelist's expression\ndoes not necessarily imply that a desire to fulfil the scripture\nwas our Lord's motive. Crucifixion was accompanied with torturing\nthirst, which wrung that last complaint from Jesus. But the evangelist\ndiscerns a Divine purpose behind the utterance of Jesus' human\nweakness; and it is surely less difficult, for any one who believes\nin supernatural revelation at all, to believe that the words of the\npsalmist were shaped by a higher power, and the hands of the Roman\nsoldiers moved by another impulse than their own, than to believe that\nthis minute correspondence of psalm and gospel is merely accidental.\n\nBut the immediately succeeding section warns us against pushing\nthe Messianic character of the psalm too far, for these fearful\nimprecations cannot have any analogies in Christ's words (vv. 22-28).\nThe form of the wish in \"Let their table become a snare\" is explained\nby remembering that the Eastern table was often a leather flap laid\non the ground, which the psalmist desires may start up as a snare,\nand close upon the feasters as they sit round it secure. Disease,\ncontinual terror, dimmed eyes, paralysed or quaking loins, ruin\nfalling on their homes, and desolation round their encampment, so\nthat they have no descendants, are the least of the evils invoked.\nThe psalmist's desires go further than all this corporeal and\nmaterial disaster. He prays that iniquity may be added to their\niniquity--_i.e._, that they may be held guilty of sin after sin; and\nthat they may have no portion in God's righteousness--_i.e._, in the\ngifts which flow from His adherence to His covenant.\n\nThe climax of all these maledictions is that awful wish that the\npersecutors may be blotted out of the book of life or of the living.\nTrue, the high New Testament conception of that book, according to\nwhich it is the burgess-roll of the citizens of the New Jerusalem,\nthe possessors of eternal life, does not plainly belong to it in Old\nTestament usage, in which it means apparently the register of those\nliving on earth. But to blot names therefrom is not only to kill,\nbut to exclude from the national community, and so from all the\nprivileges of the people of God. The psalmist desires for his foes the\naccumulation of all the ills that flesh is heir to, the extirpation\nof their families, and their absolute exclusion from the company\nof the living and the righteous. It is impossible to bring such\nutterances into harmony with the teachings of Jesus, and the attempt\nto vindicate them ignores plain facts and does violence to plain\nwords. Better far to let them stand as a monument of the earlier stage\nof God's progressive revelation, and discern clearly the advance which\nChristian ethics has made on them.\n\nThe psalm ends with glad anticipations of deliverance and vows of\nthanksgiving. The psalmist is sure that God's salvation will lift him\nhigh above his enemies, and as sure that then he will be as grateful\nas he is now earnest in prayer, and surest of all that his thankful\nvoice will sound sweeter in God's ear than any sacrifice would smell\nin His nostrils. There is no contempt of sacrifices expressed in\n\"horned and hoofed,\" but simply the idea of maturity which fits the\nanimal to be offered.\n\nThe single voice of praise will be caught up, the singer thinks, by a\ngreat chorus of those who would have been struck dumb with confusion\nif his prayer had not been answered (ver. 6), and who, in like\nmanner, are gladdened by seeing his deliverance. The grace bestowed\non one brings thanksgivings from many, which redound to the glory\nof God. The sudden transition in ver. 32 _b_ to direct address to\nthe seekers after God, as if they stood beside the solitary singer,\ngives vividness to the anticipation. The insertion of \"behold\" is\nwarranted, and tells what revives the beholders' hearts. The seekers\nafter God feel the pulse of a quicker life throbbing, when they\nsee the wonders wrought through prayer. The singer's thoughts go\nbeyond his own deliverance to that of Israel. \"His captives\" is most\nnaturally understood as referring to the exiled nation. And this\nwider manifestation of God's restoring power will evoke praise from\na wider circle, even from heaven, earth, and sea. The circumstances\ncontemplated in vv. 33-36 are evidently those of a captivity.\nGod's people are in bondage, the cities of Judah are in ruins, the\ninhabitants scattered far from their homes. The only reason for taking\nthe closing verses as being a liturgical addition is unwillingness to\nadmit exilic or post-exilic psalms. But these verses cannot be fairly\ninterpreted without recognising that they presuppose that Israel is\nin bondage, or at least on the verge of it. The circumstances of\nJeremiah's life and times coincide closely with those of the psalmist.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXX.[2]\n\n 1 _O God_, [be pleased] to deliver me,\n Jehovah, hasten to my help.\n 2 Shamed and put to the blush be the seekers after my soul!\n Turned back and dishonoured be they who delight in my calamity!\n 3 _Let them turn back_ by reason of their shame who say, Oho! Oho!\n 4 Joyful and glad in Thee be all who seek Thee!\n _And \"God_ be magnified\" may they ever say who love Thy salvation!\n 5 But as for me, I am afflicted and needy;\n _O God, hasten_ to me:\n My help and my deliverer art Thou;\n _Jehovah_, delay not.\n\n\nThis psalm is all but identical with the last verses of Psalm xl.\n13-17. Some unimportant alterations have been made, principally in the\nDivine names; but the principle on which they have been made is not\nobvious. It is scarcely correct to say, with Delitzsch, that the psalm\n\"has been transformed, so as to become Elohistic\"; for though it twice\nreplaces the name of Jehovah with that of God (vv. 1, 4), it makes the\nconverse change in ver. 5, last clause, by reading Jehovah instead of\n\"God,\" as in Psalm xl.\n\nOther changes are of little moment. The principal are in vv. 3 and\n5. In the former the vehement wish that the psalmist's mockers may\nbe _paralysed with shame_ is softened down into a desire that they\nmay be _turned back_. The two verbs are similar in sound, and the\nsubstitution may have been accidental, a slip of memory or a defect in\nhearing, or it may have been an artistic variation of the original. In\nver. 5 a prayer that God will hasten to the psalmist's help takes the\nplace of an expression of confidence that \"Jehovah purposes [good]\"\nto him, and again there is similarity of sound in the two words. This\nchange is like the subtle alteration which a painter might make on his\npicture by taking out one spot of high light. The gleam of confidence\nis changed to a call of need, and the tone of the whole psalm is\nthereby made more plaintive.\n\nHupfeld holds that this psalm is the original, and Psalm xl. a\ncomposite; but most commentators agree in regarding this as a fragment\nof that psalm. The cut has not been very cleanly made; for the\nnecessary verb \"be pleased\" has been left behind, and the symmetry of\nver. 1 is destroyed for want of it. The awkward incompleteness of this\nbeginning witnesses that the psalm is a fragment.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[2] Italics show variations from Psalm xl.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXI.\n\n 1 In Thee, Jehovah, do I take refuge,\n Let me not be put to shame for ever.\n 2 In Thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me,\n Bend Thine ear and save me.\n 3 Be to me for a rock of habitation to go to continually:\n Thou hast commanded to save me,\n For my rock and my fortress art Thou.\n\n 4 My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked,\n From the fist of the evil-doer and the violent man.\n 5 For Thou [art] my hope,\n O Lord Jehovah, [Thou art] my trust from my youth.\n 6 On Thee have I been stayed from the womb,\n From my mother's bowels Thou hast been my protector:\n Of Thee is my praise continually.\n\n 7 As a wonder am I become to many,\n But Thou art my refuge--a strong one.\n 8 My mouth is filled with Thy praise,\n All the day with Thine honour.\n 9 Cast me not away in the time of old age,\n When my strength fails, forsake me not.\n\n 10 For mine enemies speak concerning me,\n And the watchers of my soul consult together,\n 11 Saying, God has left him,\n Chase and seize him; for there is no deliverer.\n 12 O God, be not far from me,\n My God, haste to my help.\n\n 13 Ashamed, confounded, be the adversaries of my soul,\n Covered with reproach and confusion be those who seek my hurt.\n\n 14 But as for me, continually will I hope,\n And add to all Thy praise.\n 15 My mouth shall recount Thy righteousness,\n All the day Thy salvation,\n For I know not the numbers [thereof].\n 16 I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord Jehovah,\n I will celebrate Thy righteousness, [even] Thine only.\n 17 O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth,\n And up till now I declare Thy wonders.\n 18 And even to old age and grey hairs,\n O God, forsake me not,\n Till I declare Thine arm to [the next] generation,\n To all who shall come Thy power.\n 19 And Thy righteousness, O God, [reaches] to the height.\n O Thou who hast done great things,\n Who is like Thee?\n 20 Thou who hast made us see straits many and sore,\n Thou wilt revive us again,\n And from the abysses of the earth will bring us up again.\n 21 Thou wilt increase my greatness,\n And wilt turn to comfort me.\n\n 22 Also I will thank Thee with the lyre, [even] Thy troth, my God,\n I will harp unto Thee with the harp, Thou Holy One of Israel.\n 23 My lips shall sing aloud when I harp unto Thee,\n And my soul, which Thou hast redeemed.\n 24 Also my tongue shall all the day muse on Thy righteousness,\n For shamed, for put to the blush, are they that seek my hurt.\n\n\nEchoes of former psalms make the staple of this one, and even those\nparts of it which are not quotations have little individuality. The\nthemes are familiar, and the expression of them is scarcely less so.\nThere is no well-defined strophical structure, and little continuity\nof thought or feeling. Vv. 13 and 24 _b_ serve as a kind of partial\nrefrain, and may be taken as dividing the psalm into two parts, but\nthere is little difference between the contents of the two. Delitzsch\ngives in his adhesion to the hypothesis that Jeremiah was the author;\nand there is considerable weight in the reasons assigned for that\nascription of authorship. The pensive, plaintive tone; the abundant\nquotations, with slight alterations of the passages cited; the\nautobiographical hints which fit in with Jeremiah's history, are the\nchief of these. But they can scarcely be called conclusive. There is\nmore to be said for the supposition that the singer is the personified\nnation in this case than in many others. The sudden transition to\n\"us\" in ver. 20, which the Massoretic marginal correction corrects\ninto \"me,\" favours, though it does not absolutely require, that view,\nwhich is also supported by the frequent allusion to \"youth\" and \"old\nage.\" These, however, are capable of a worthy meaning, if referring to\nan individual. Vv. 1-3 are slightly varied from Psalm xxxi. 1-3. The\ncharacter of the changes win be best appreciated by setting the two\npassages side by side.\n\n PSALM XXXI. PSALM LXXI.\n\n 1 In Thee, Jehovah, do I take 1 In Thee, Jehovah, do I take\n refuge; let me not be ashamed refuge:\n for ever: Let me not be put to shame\n In Thy righteousness rescue for ever.\n me.\n 2 In Thy righteousness deliver\n 2 _a_ Bend Thine ear to me and rescue me:\n me; deliver me speedily. Bend Thine ear and save me.\n\nThe two verbs, which in the former psalm are in separate clauses\n(\"deliver\" and \"rescue\"), are here brought together. \"Speedily\" is\nomitted, and \"save\" is substituted for \"deliver,\" which has been drawn\ninto the preceding clause. Obviously no difference of meaning is\nintended to be conveyed, and the changes look very like the inaccuracies\nof memoriter quotations. The next variation is as follows:--\n\n PSALM XXXI. PSALM LXXI.\n\n 2 _b_ Be to me for a 3 Be to me for a rock of\n strong rock, for a house of habitation to go to continually:\n defence to save me. Thou hast commanded to save\n me;\n 3 For my rock and my fortress For my rock and my fortress\n art Thou. art Thou.\n\nThe difference between \"a strong rock\" and \"rock of habitation\" is\nbut one letter. That between \"for a house of defence\" and \"to go to\ncontinually: Thou hast commanded\" is extremely slight, as Baethgen\nhas well shown. Possibly both of these variations are due to textual\ncorruption, but more probably this psalmist intentionally altered the\nwords of an older psalm. Most of the old versions have the existing\ntext, but the LXX. seems to have read the Hebrew here as in Psalm\nxxxi. The changes are not important, but they are significant. That\nthought of God as a habitation to which the soul may continually\nfind access goes very deep into the secrets of the devout life.\nThe variation in ver. 3 is recommended by observing the frequent\nrecurrence of \"continually\" in this psalm, of which that word may\nalmost be said to be the motto. Nor is the thought of God's command\ngiven to His multitude of unnamed servants, to save this poor man, one\nwhich we can afford to lose.\n\nVv. 5, 6, are a similar variation of Psalm xxii. 9, 10. \"On Thee have\nI been stayed from the womb,\" says this psalmist; \"On Thee was I cast\nfrom the womb,\" says the original passage. The variation beautifully\nbrings out, not only reliance on God, but the Divine response to that\nreliance by life-long upholding. That strong arm answers leaning\nweakness with firm support, and whosoever relies on it is upheld by\nit. The word rendered above \"protector\" is doubtful. It is substituted\nfor that in Psalm xxii. 9 which means \"One that takes out,\" and some\ncommentators would attach the same meaning to the word used here,\nreferring it to God's goodness before and at birth. But it is better\ntaken as equivalent to benefactor, provider, or some such designation,\nand as referring to God's lifelong care.\n\nThe psalmist has been \"a wonder\" to many spectators, either in the\nsense that they have gazed astonished at God's goodness, or, as\naccords better with the adversative character of the next clause (\"But\nThou art my refuge\"), that his sufferings have been unexampled. Both\nideas may well be combined, for the life of every man, if rightly\nstudied, is full of miracles both of mercy and judgment. If the psalm\nis the voice of an individual, the natural conclusion from such words\nis that his life was conspicuous; but it is obvious that the national\nreference is appropriate here.\n\nOn this thankful retrospect of life-long help and life-long trust the\npsalm builds a prayer for future protection from eager enemies, who\nthink that the charmed life is vulnerable at last.\n\nVv. 9-13 rise to a height of emotion above the level of the rest of the\npsalm. On one hypothesis, we have in them the cry of an old man, whose\nstrength diminishes as his dangers increase. Something undisclosed in\nhis circumstances gave colour to the greedy hopes of his enemies. Often\nprosperous careers are overclouded at the end, and the piteous spectacle\nis seen of age overtaken by tempests which its feebleness cannot resist,\nand which are all the worse to face because of the calms preceding them.\nOn the national hypothesis, the psalm is the prayer of Israel at a late\nstage of its history, from which it looks back to the miracles of old,\nand then to the ring of enemies rejoicing over its apparent weakness,\nand then upwards to the Eternal Helper.\n\nVv. 12, 13, are woven out of other psalms. 12 _a_, \"Be not far from\nme,\" is found in xxii. 11, 19; xxxv. 22; xxxviii. 21, etc. \"Haste\nto my help\" is found in xxxviii. 22; xl. 13 (lxx. 1). For ver. 13\ncompare xxxv. 4, 26; xl. 14 (lxx. 2). With this, as a sort of\nrefrain, the first part of the psalm ends.\n\nThe second part goes over substantially the same ground, but with\nlighter heart. The confidence of deliverance is more vivid, and it,\nas well as the vow of praise following thereon, bulk larger. The\nsinger has thinned away his anxieties by speaking them to God, and has\nby the same process solidified his faith. Aged eyes should see God,\nthe helper, more clearly when earth begins to look grey and dim. The\nforward look of such finds little to stay it on this side of heaven.\nAs there seems less and less to hope for here, there should be more\nand more there. Youth is the time for buoyant anticipation, according\nto the world's notions, but age may have far brighter lights ahead\nthan youth had leisure to see. \"I will hope always\" becomes sublime\nfrom aged lips, which are so often shaped to say, \"I have nothing left\nto hope for now.\"\n\nThis psalmist's words may well be a pattern for old men, who need\nfear no failure of buoyancy, nor any collapse of gladness, if they\nwill fix their thoughts where this singer did his. Other subjects\nof thought and speech will pall and run dry; but he whose theme is\nGod's righteousness and the salvation that flows from it will never\nlack materials for animating meditation and grateful praise. \"I know\nnot the numbers thereof.\" It is something to have fast hold of an\ninexhaustible subject. It will keep an old man young.\n\nThe psalmist recognises his task, which is also his joy, to declare\nGod's wondrous works, and prays for God's help till he has discharged\nit. The consciousness of a vocation to speak to later generations\ninspires him, and assures him that he is immortal till his work is\ndone. His anticipations have been fulfilled beyond his knowledge. His\nwords will last as long as the world. But men with narrower spheres\nmay be animated by the same consciousness, and they who have rightly\nunderstood the purpose of God's mercies to themselves will, like the\npsalmist, recognise in their own participation in His salvation an\nimperative command to make it known, and an assurance that nothing shall\nby any means harm them till they have fulfilled their witnessing. A\nmany-wintered saint should be a convincing witness for God.\n\nVer. 20, with its sudden transition to the plural, may simply\nshow that the singer passes out from individual contemplation\nto the consciousness of the multitude of fellow-sufferers and\nfellow-participants in God's mercy. Such transition is natural; for\nthe most private passages of a good man's communion with God are swift\nto bring up the thought of others like-minded and similarly blessed.\n\"Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,\npraising.\" Every solo swells into a chorus. Again the song returns to\n\"my\" and \"me,\" the confidence of the single soul being reinvigorated\nby the thought of sharers in blessing.\n\nSo all ends with the certainty of, and the vow of praise for,\ndeliverances already realised in faith, though not in fact. But the\nimitative character of the psalm is maintained even in this last\ntriumphant vow; for ver. 24 _a_ is almost identical with xxxv. 28;\nand _b_, as has been already pointed out, is copied from several\nother psalms. But imitative words are none the less sincere; and new\nthankfulness may be run into old moulds without detriment to its\nacceptableness to God and preciousness to men.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXII.\n\n 1 O God, give Thy judgments to the king,\n And Thy righteousness to the king's son.\n 2 May he judge Thy people with righteousness,\n And Thine afflicted with judgment!\n 3 May the mountains bring forth peace to the people,\n And the hills, through righteousness!\n 4 May he judge the afflicted of the people,\n Save the children of the needy,\n And crush the oppressor!\n\n 5 May they fear Thee as long as the sun shines,\n And as long as the moon shows her face, generation after\n generation!\n 6 May he come down like rain upon mown pasture,\n Like showers--a heavy downpour on the earth!\n 7 May the righteous flourish in his days,\n And abundance of peace, till there be no more a moon!\n\n 8 May he have dominion from sea to sea,\n And from the River to the ends of the earth!\n 9 Before him shall the desert peoples bow;\n And his enemies shall lick the dust.\n 10 The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring tribute:\n The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.\n 11 And all kings shall fall down before him:\n All nations shall serve him.\n\n 12 For he shall deliver the needy when he cries,\n And the afflicted, and him who has no helper.\n 13 He shall spare the weak and needy,\n And the souls of the needy shall he save.\n 14 From oppression and from violence he shall ransom their soul;\n And precious shall their blood be in his eyes.\n 15 So that he lives and gives to him of the gold of Sheba,\n And prays for him continually,\n Blesses him all the day.\n\n 16 May there be abundance of corn in the earth on the top of the\n mountains!\n May its fruit rustle like Lebanon!\n And may [men] spring from the city like grass of the earth!\n 17 May his name last for ever!\n May his name send forth shoots as long as the sun shines,\n And may men bless themselves in him,\n May all nations pronounce him blessed!\n\n 18 Blessed be Jehovah, God, the God of Israel,\n Who only doeth wondrous works,\n 19 And blessed be His glorious name for ever,\n And let the whole earth be filled with His glory!\n Amen, and Amen.\n\n 20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.\n\n\nRightly or wrongly, the superscription ascribes this psalm to Solomon.\nIts contents have led several commentators to take the superscription\nin a meaning for which there is no warrant, as designating the\nsubject, not the author. Clearly, the whole is a prayer for the king;\nbut why should not he be both suppliant and object of supplication?\nModern critics reject this as incompatible with the \"phraseological\nevidence,\" and adduce the difference between the historical Solomon\nand the ideal of the psalm as negativing reference to him. Ver. 8 is\nsaid by them to be quoted from Zech. ix. 10, though Cheyne doubts\nwhether there is borrowing. Ver. 17 _b_ is said to be dependent on\nGen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4, which are assumed to be later than the seventh\ncentury. Ver. 12 is taken to be a reminiscence of Job xxix. 12, and\nver. 16 _b_ of Job v. 25. But these are too uncertain criteria to\nuse as conclusive,--partly because coincidence does not necessarily\nimply quotation; partly because, quotation being admitted, the\ndelicate question of priority remains, which can rarely be settled by\ncomparison of the passages in question; and partly because, quotation\nand priority being admitted, the date of the original is still under\ndiscussion. The impossibility of Solomon's praying thus for himself\ndoes not seem to the present writer so completely established that\nthe hypothesis must be abandoned, especially if the alternative is\nto be, as Hitzig, followed by Olshausen and Cheyne, proposes, that\nthe king in the psalm is Ptolemy Philadelphus, to whom Psalm xlv. is\nfitted by the same authorities. Baethgen puts the objections which\nmost will feel to such a theory with studied moderation when he says\n\"that the promises given to the patriarchs in Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4,\nshould be transferred by a pious Israelite to a foreign king appears\nto me improbable.\" But another course is open--namely, to admit that\nthe psalm gives no materials for defining its date, beyond the fact\nthat a king of Davidic descent was reigning when it was composed.\nThe authorship may be left uncertain, as may the name of the king\nfor whom such far-reaching blessings were invoked; for he was but a\npartial embodiment of the kingly idea, and the very disproportion\nbetween the reality seen in any Jewish monarch and the lofty idealisms\nof the psalm compels us to regard the earthly ruler as but a shadow,\nand the true theme of the singer as being the Messianic King. We are\nnot justified, however, in attempting to transfer every point of the\npsalmist's prayer to the Messiah. The historical occasion of the psalm\nis to be kept in mind. A human monarch stands in the foreground; but\nthe aspirations expressed are so far beyond anything that he is or can\nbe, that they are either extravagant flattery, or reach out beyond\ntheir immediate occasion to the King Messiah.\n\nThe psalm is not properly a prediction, but a prayer. There is some\ndivergence of opinion as to the proper rendering of the principal\nverbs,--some, as the A.V. and R.V. (text), taking them as uniformly\nfutures, which is manifestly wrong; some taking them as expressions of\nwish throughout, which is also questionable; and others recognising pure\nfutures intermingled with petitions, which seems best. The boundaries\nof the two are difficult to settle, just because the petitions are so\nconfident that they are all but predictions, and the two melt into\neach other in the singer's mind. The flow of thought is simple. The\npsalmist's prayers are broadly massed. In vv. 1-4 he prays for the\nfoundation of the king's reign in righteousness, which will bring peace;\nin vv. 5-7 for its perpetuity, and in vv. 8-11 for its universality;\nwhile in vv. 12-15 the ground of both these characteristics is laid\nin the king's becoming the champion of the oppressed. A final prayer\nfor the increase of his people and the perpetuity and world-wide glory\nof his name concludes the psalm, to which are appended in vv. 18-20 a\ndoxology, closing the Second Book of the Psalter.\n\nThe first petitions of the psalm all ask for one thing for the\nking--namely, that he should give righteous judgment. They reflect\nthe antique conception of a king as the fountain of justice, himself\nmaking and administering law and giving decisions. Thrice in these four\nverses does \"righteousness\" occur as the foundation attribute of an\nideal king. Caprice, self-interest, and tyrannous injustice were rank\nin the world's monarchies round the psalmist. Bitter experience and\nsad observation had taught him that the first condition of national\nprosperity was a righteous ruler. These petitions are also animated\nby the conception, which is as true in the modern as in the ancient\nworld, that righteousness has its seat in the bosom of God, and that\nearthly judgments are righteous when they conform to and are the echo\nof His. \"Righteousness\" is the quality of mind, of which the several\n\"judgments\" are the expressions. This king sits on an ancestral throne.\nHis people are God's people. Since, then, he is God's viceroy, the\ndesire cannot be vain that in his heart there may be some reflection\nof God's righteousness, and that his decisions may accord with God's.\nOne cannot but remember Solomon's prayer for \"an understanding heart,\"\nthat he might judge this people; nor forget how darkly his later reign\nshowed against its bright beginning. A righteous king makes a peaceful\npeople, especially in a despotic monarchy. The sure results of such\na reign--which are, likewise, the psalmist's chief reason for his\npetitions--are set forth in the vivid metaphor of ver. 3, in which\npeace is regarded as the fruit which springs, by reason of the king's\nrighteousness, from mountains and hills. This psalmist has special\nfondness for that figure of vegetable growth (vv. 7, 16, 17); and it\nis especially suitable in this connection, as peace is frequently\nrepresented in Scripture as the fruit of righteousness, both in single\nsouls and in a nation's history. The mountains come into view here\nsimply as being the most prominent features of the land, and not, as\nin ver. 16, with any reference to their barrenness, which would make\nabundant growth on them more wonderful, and indicative of yet greater\nabundance on the plains.\n\nA special manifestation of judicial righteousness is the vindication\nof the oppressed and the punishment of the oppressor (ver. 4). The\nword rendered \"judge\" in ver. 4 differs from that in ver. 2, and is\nthe same from which the name of the \"Judges\" in Israel is derived.\nLike them, this king is not only to pronounce decisions, as the word\nin ver. 2 means, but is to execute justice by acts of deliverance,\nwhich smite in order to rescue. Functions which policy and dignity\nrequire to be kept apart in the case of earthly rulers are united\nin the ideal monarch. He executes his own sentences. His acts are\ndecisions. The psalmist has no thought of inferior officers by the\nking's side. One figure fills his mind and his canvas. Surely such\nan ideal is either destined to remain for ever a fair dream, or its\nfulfilment is to be recognised in the historical Person in whom God's\nrighteousness dwelt in higher fashion than psalmists knew, who was,\n\"first, King of righteousness, and then, after that, also King of\npeace,\" and who, by His deed, has broken every yoke, and appeared as\nthe defender of all the needy. The poet prayed that Israel's king\nmight perfectly discharge his office by Divine help; the Christian\ngives thanks that the King of men has been and done all which Israel's\nmonarchs failed to be and do.\n\nThe perpetuity of the king's reign and of his subjects' peace is the\npsalmists second aspiration (vv. 5-7). The \"Thee\" of ver. 5 presents a\ndifficulty, as it is doubtful to whom it refers. Throughout the psalm\nthe king is spoken _of_, and never _to_; and if it is further noticed\nthat, in the preceding verses, God has been directly addressed, and\n\"Thy\" used thrice in regard to Him, it will appear more natural to\ntake the reference in ver. 5 to be to Him. The fear of God would be\ndiffused among the king's subjects, as a consequence of his rule in\nrighteousness. Hupfeld takes the word as referring to the king, and\nsuggests changing the text to \"him\" instead of \"Thee\"; while others,\namong whom are Cheyne and Baethgen, follow the track of the LXX. in\nadopting a reading which may be translated \"May he live,\" or \"Prolong\nhis days.\" But the thought yielded by the existing text, if referred\nto God, is most natural and worthy. The king is, as it were, the\nshadow on earth of God's righteousness, and consequently becomes an\norgan for the manifestation thereof, in such manner as to draw men to\ntrue devotion. The psalmist's desires are for something higher than\nexternal prosperity, and his conceptions of the kingly office are very\nsacred. Not only peace and material well-being, but also the fear of\nJehovah, are longed for by him to be diffused in Israel. And he prays\nthat these blessings may be perpetual. The connection between the\nking's righteousness and the fear of God requires that that permanence\nshould belong to both. The cause is as lasting as its effect. Through\ngeneration after generation he desires that each shall abide. He uses\npeculiar expressions for continual duration: \"with the sun\"--_i.e._,\ncontemporaneous with that unfading splendour; \"before the face of the\nmoon\"--_i.e._, as long as she shines. But could the singer anticipate\nsuch length of dominion for any human king? Psalm xxi. has similar\nlanguage in regard to the same person; and here, as there, it seems\nsufficiently accounted for by the consideration that, while the\npsalmist was speaking of an individual, he was thinking of the office\nrather than of the person, and that the perpetual continuance of the\nDavidic dynasty, not the undying life of any one representative of it,\nwas meant. The full light of the truth that there is a king whose\nroyalty, like his priesthood, passes to no other is not to be forced\nupon the psalm. It stands as a witness that devout and inspired souls\nlonged for the establishment of a kingdom, against which revolutions\nand enemies and mortality were powerless. They knew not that their\ndesires could not be fulfilled by the longest succession of dying\nkings, but were to be more than accomplished by One, \"of whom it is\nwitnessed that He liveth.\"\n\nThe psalmist turns for a moment from his prayer for the perpetuity\nof the king's rule, to linger upon the thought of its blessedness as\nset forth in the lovely image of ver. 6. Rain upon mown grass is no\nblessing, as every farmer knows; but what is meant is, not the grass\nwhich has already been mown, but the naked meadow from which it has\nbeen taken. It needs drenching showers, in order to sprout again\nand produce an aftermath. The poet's eye is caught by the contrast\nbetween the bare look of the field immediately after cutting and the\nrich growth that springs, as by magic, from the yellow roots after\na plentiful shower. This king's gracious influences shall fall upon\neven what seems dead, and charm forth hidden life that will flush the\nplain with greenness. The psalmist dwells on the picture, reiterating\nthe comparison in ver. 6 _b_, and using there an uncommon word, which\nseems best rendered as meaning a heavy rainfall. With such affluence\nof quickening powers will the righteous king bless his people. The\n\"Mirror for Magistrates,\" which is held up in the lovely poem in 2\nSam. xxiii. 4, has a remarkable parallel in its description of the\njust ruler as resembling a \"morning without clouds, when the tender\ngrass springeth out of the earth through clear shining after rain\";\nbut the psalmist heightens the metaphor by the introduction of the\nmown meadow as stimulated to new growth. This image of the rain\nlingers with him and shapes his prayer in ver. 7 _a_. A righteous\nking will insure prosperity to the righteous, and the number of such\nwill increase. Both these ideas seem to be contained in the figure\nof their flourishing, which is literally _bud_ or _shoot_. And, as\nthe people become more and more prevailingly righteous, they receive\nmore abundant and unbroken peace. The psalmist had seen deeply into\nthe conditions of national prosperity, as well as those of individual\ntranquillity, when he based these on rectitude.\n\nWith ver. 8 the singer takes a still loftier flight, and prays for\nthe universality of the king's dominion. In that verse the form of\nthe verb is that which expresses desire, but in ver. 9 and following\nverses the verbs may be rendered as simple futures. Confident prayers\ninsensibly melt into assurances of their own fulfilment. As the\npsalmist pours out his petitions, they glide into prophecies; for\nthey are desires fashioned upon promises, and bear, in their very\nearnestness, the pledge of their realisation. As to the details of the\nform which the expectation of universal dominion here takes, it need\nonly be noted that we have to do with a poet, not with a geographer.\nWe are not to treat the expressions as if they were instructions to\na boundary commission, and to be laid down upon a map. \"The sea\" is\nprobably the Mediterranean; but what the other sea which makes the\nopposite boundary may be is hard to say. Commentators have thought\nof the Persian Gulf, or of an imaginary ocean encircling the flat\nearth, according to ancient ideas. But more probably the expression\nis as indeterminate as the parallel one, \"the ends of the earth.\"\nIn the first clause of the verse the psalmist starts from the\nMediterranean, the western boundary, and his anticipations travel\naway into the unknown eastern regions; while, in the second clause,\nhe begins with the Euphrates, which was the eastern boundary of the\ndominion promised to Israel, and, coming westward, he passes out in\nthought to the dim regions beyond. The very impossibility of defining\nthe boundaries declares the boundlessness of the kingdom. The poet's\neyes have looked east and west, and in ver. 9 he turns to the south,\nand sees the desert tribes, unconquered as they have hitherto been,\ngrovelling before the king, and his enemies in abject submission at\nhis feet. The word rendered \"desert peoples\" is that used in Psalm\nlxxiv. 14 for wild beasts inhabiting the desert, but here it can only\nmean _wilderness tribes_. There seems no need to alter the text, as\nhas been proposed, and to read \"adversaries.\" In ver. 10 the psalmist\nagain looks westward, across the mysterious ocean of which he, like\nall his nation, knew so little. The great city of Tarshish lay for\nhim at the farthest bounds of the world; and between him and it, or\nperhaps still farther out in the waste unknown, were islands from\nwhich rich and strange things sometimes reached Jud\u00e6a. These shall\nbring their wealth in token of fealty. Again he looks southward to\nSheba in Arabia, and Seba far south below Egypt, and foresees their\nsubmission. His knowledge of distant lands is exhausted, and therefore\nhe ceases enumeration, and falls back on comprehensiveness. How little\nhe knew, and how much he believed! His conceptions of the sweep of\nthat \"all\" were childish; his faith that, however many these unknown\nkings and nations were, God's anointed was their king was either\nextravagant exaggeration, or it was nurtured in him by God, and meant\nto be fulfilled when a world, wide beyond his dreams and needy\nbeyond his imagination, should own the sway of a King, endowed with\nGod's righteousness and communicative of God's peace, in a manner and\nmeasure beyond his desires.\n\nThe triumphant swell of these anticipations passes with wonderful\npathos into gentler music, as if the softer tones of flutes should\nfollow trumpet blasts. How tenderly and profoundly the psalm bases\nthe universality of the dominion on the pitying care and delivering\npower of the King! The whole secret of sway over men lies in that\n\"For,\" which ushers in the gracious picture of the beneficent and\ntender-hearted Monarch. The world is so full of sorrow, and men are so\nmiserable and needy, that he who can stanch their wounds, solace their\ngriefs, and shelter their lives will win their hearts and be crowned\ntheir king. Thrones based on force are as if set on an iceberg which\nmelts away. There is no solid foundation for rule except helpfulness.\nIn the world and for a little while \"they that exercise authority are\ncalled benefactors\"; but in the long-run the terms of the sentence\nare inverted, and they that are rightly called benefactors exercise\nauthority. The more earthly rulers approximate to this ideal portrait,\nthe more \"broad-based upon their people's will\" and love will their\nthrones stand. If Israel's kings had adhered to it, their throne would\nhave endured. But their failures point to Him in whom the principle\ndeclared by the psalmist receives its most tender illustration.\nThe universal dominion of Jesus Christ is based upon the fact that\nHe \"tasted death for every man.\" In the Divine purpose, He has won\nthe right to rule men because He has died for them. In historical\nrealisation, He wins men's submission because He has given Himself\nfor them. Therefore does He command with absolute authority; therefore\ndo we obey with entire submission. His sway not only reaches out over\nall the earth, inasmuch as the power of His cross extends to all men,\nbut it lays hold of the inmost will and makes submission a delight.\n\nThe king is represented in ver. 14 as taking on himself the office\nof Goel, or Kinsman-Redeemer, and ransoming his subjects' lives from\n\"deceit and violence.\" That \"their blood is precious in his eyes\" is\nanother way of saying that they are too dear to him to be suffered to\nperish. This king's treasure is the life of his subjects. Therefore\nhe will put forth his power to preserve them and deliver them. The\nresult of such tender care and delivering love is set forth in ver.\n15, but in obscure language. The ambiguity arises from the absence\nof expressed subjects for the four verbs in the verse. Who is he\nwho \"lives\"? Is the same person the giver of the gold of Sheba, and\nto whom is it given? Who prays, and for whom? And who blesses, and\nwhom does he bless? The plain way of understanding the verse is to\nsuppose that the person spoken of in all the clauses is the same; and\nthen the question comes whether he is the king or the ransomed man.\nDifficulties arise in carrying out either reference through all the\nclauses; and hence attempts have been made to vary the subject of the\nverbs. Delitzsch, for instance, supposes that it is the ransomed man\nwho \"lives,\" the king who gives to the ransomed man gold, and the man\nwho prays for and blesses the king. But such an arbitrary shuttling\nabout of the reference of \"he\" and \"him\" is impossible. Other attempts\nof a similar kind need not be noticed here. The only satisfactory\ncourse is to take one person as spoken of by all the verbs. But then\nthe question comes, Who is he? There is much to be said in favour of\neither hypothesis as answering that question. The phrase which is\nrendered above \"So that he lives\" is so like the common invocation\n\"May the king live,\" that it strongly favours taking the whole verse\nas a continuance of the petitions for the monarch. But if so, the verb\nin the second clause (_he shall give_) must be taken impersonally, as\nequivalent to \"one will give\" or \"there shall be given,\" and those\nin the remaining clauses must be similarly dealt with, or the text\naltered so as to make them plurals, reading, \"They shall pray for him\n(the king), ... and shall bless him.\" On the whole, it is best to\nsuppose that the ransomed man is the subject throughout, and that the\nverse describes his glad tribute, and continual thankfulness. Ransomed\nfrom death, he brings offerings to his deliverer. It seems singular\nthat he should be conceived of both as \"needy\" and as owning \"gold\"\nwhich he can offer; but in the literal application the incongruity is\nnot sufficient to prevent the adoption of this view of the clause; and\nin the higher application of the words to Christ and His subjects,\nwhich we conceive to be warranted, the incongruity becomes fine and\ndeep truth; for the poorest soul, delivered by Him, can bring tribute,\nwhich He esteems as precious beyond all earthly treasure. Nor need\nthe remaining clauses militate against the view that the ransomed man\nis the subject in them. The psalm had a historical basis, and all its\npoints cannot be introduced into the Messianic interpretation. This\none of praying for the king cannot be; notwithstanding the attempts of\nsome commentators to find a meaning for it in Christian prayers for\nthe spread of Christ's kingdom. That explanation does violence to\nthe language, mistakes the nature of Messianic prophecy, and brings\ndiscredit on the view that the psalm has a Messianic character.\n\nThe last part of the psalm (vv. 16, 17) recurs to petitions for the\ngrowth of the nation and the perpetual flourishing of the king's\nname. The fertility of the land and the increase of its people are\nthe psalmist's desires, which are also certainties, as expressed in\nver. 16. He sees in imagination the whole land waving with abundant\nharvests, which reach even to the tops of the mountains, and rustle\nin the summer air, with a sound like the cedars of Lebanon, when\nthey move their layers of greenness to the breeze. The word rendered\nabove \"abundance\" is doubtful; but there does not seem to be in\nthe psalmist's mind the contrast which he is often supposed to be\nexpressing, beautiful and true as it, is between the small beginnings\nand the magnificent end of the kingdom on earth. The mountains are\nhere thought of as lofty and barren. If waving harvests clothe their\ngaunt sides, how will the vales laugh in plentiful crops! As the earth\nyields her increase, so the people of the king shall be multiplied,\nand from all his cities they shall spring forth abundant as grass.\nThat figure would bear much expansion; for what could more beautifully\nset forth rapidity of growth, close-knit community, multiplication of\nunits, and absorption of these in a lovely whole, than the picture of\na meadow clothed with its grassy carpet? Such hopes had only partial\nfulfilment in Israel. Nor have they had adequate fulfilment up till\nnow. But they lie on the horizon of the future, and they shall one\nday be reached. Much that is dim is treasured in them. There may\nbe a renovated world, from which the curse of barrenness has been\nbanished. There shall be a swift increase of the subjects of the\nKing, until the earlier hope of the psalm is fulfilled, and all\nnations shall serve Him.\n\nBut bright as are the poet's visions concerning the kingdom, his last\ngaze is fastened on its king, and he prays that his name may last for\never, and may send forth shoots as long as the sun shines in the sky.\nHe probably meant no more than a prayer for the continual duration of\nthe dynasty, and his conception of the name as sending forth shoots was\nprobably that of its being perpetuated in descendants. But, as has been\nalready noticed, the perpetuity, which he conceived of as belonging\nto a family and an office, really belongs to the One King, Jesus\nChrist, whose Name is above every name, and will blossom anew in fresh\nrevelations of its infinite contents, not only while the sun shines,\nbut when its fires are cold and its light quenched. The psalmist's last\ndesire is that the ancient promise to the fathers may be fulfilled in\nthe King, their descendant, in whom men shall bless themselves. So full\nof blessedness may He seem to all men, that they shall take Him for the\nvery type of felicity, and desire to be even as He is! In men's relation\nto Christ the phrase assumes a deeper meaning still; and though that is\nnot intended by the psalmist, and is not the exposition of his words,\nit still is true that in Christ all blessings for humanity are stored,\nand that therefore if men are to be truly blessed they must plunge\nthemselves into Him, and in Him find all that they need for blessedness\nand nobility of life and character. If He is our supreme type of\nwhatsoever things are fair and of good report, and if we have bowed\nourselves to Him because He has delivered us from death, then we share\nin His life, and all His blessings are parted among us.\n\n\n\n\n BOOK III.\n\n _PSALMS LXXIII.-LXXXIX._\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXIII.\n\n 1 Surely God is good to Israel,\n To those who are pure in heart;\n 2 But I--within a little of turning aside were my feet,\n All but slipping were my steps.\n\n 3 For I was envious of the foolish,\n When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.\n 4 For they have no bonds [dragging them] to death,\n And their body is lusty.\n 5 In the trouble belonging to frail mortals they have no part\n And [in common] with men they are not smitten.\n 6 Therefore pride is their necklace;\n Violence covers them as a robe.\n\n 7 Out of fat their eye flashes;\n The imaginations of their heart overflow.\n 8 They mock and speak wickedly of oppression,\n [As] from on high they speak.\n 9 They set in the heavens their mouth,\n And their tongue stalks on the earth.\n 10 Therefore he turns his people thither,\n And waters of abundance are drunk up by them.\n\n 11 And they say, How does God know?\n And is there knowledge in the Most High?\n 12 Behold! these are wicked,\n And, prosperous for ever, they have increased their wealth.\n 13 Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart,\n And in innocency have washed my hands.\n 14 Yet have I been smitten all the day,\n And my correction [came] every morning.\n\n 15 If I had said, I will speak thus,\n Behold, I should have been unfaithful to the generation of Thy\n children.\n 16 When I gave thought in order to understand this,\n It was too difficult in my eyes--\n 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God,\n And gave heed to their end.\n 18 Surely in slippery places Thou dost set them;\n Thou castest them down to ruins.\n\n 19 How are they become a desolation in a moment,\n Are ended, consumed with terrors!\n 20 Like a dream on awaking,\n So Lord, on [Thy] arousing, Thou wilt despise their shadowy form.\n 21 For my heart was growing bitter,\n And I was pricked [in] my reins.\n 22 And I, I was brutish and ignorant,\n A [very] beast was I before Thee.\n\n 23 And yet I, I am continually with Thee;\n Thou hast grasped [me] by my right hand\n 24 In Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me,\n And afterwards to glory wilt \"take\" me.\n 25 Whom have I in heaven?\n And, possessing Thee, I have no delight on earth.\n 26 [Though] my flesh and my heart fail,\n The rock of my heart and my portion is God for ever.\n\n 27 For, behold, they that are far from Thee shall perish;\n Thou hast destroyed every one that goes whoring from Thee.\n 28 But I, I--to draw near to God is good to me;\n I have made in the Lord Jehovah my refuge,\n That I may recount all Thy works.\n\n\nThe perennial problem of reconciling God's moral government with\nobserved facts is grappled with in this psalm, as in Psalms xxxvii.\nand xlix. It tells how the prosperity of the godless, in apparent flat\ncontradiction of Divine promises, had all but swept the psalmist from\nhis faith, and how he was led, through doubt and struggle, to closer\ncommunion with God, in which he learned, not only the evanescence of\nthe external well-being which had so perplexed him, but the eternity\nof the true blessedness belonging to the godly. His solution of\nthe problem is in part that of the two psalms just mentioned, but\nit surpasses them in its clear recognition that the portion of the\nrighteous, which makes their lot supremely blessed, is no mere earthly\nprosperity, but God Himself, and in its pointing to \"glory\" which\ncomes afterwards, as one element in the solution of the problem.\n\nThe psalm falls into two divisions, in the first of which (vv. 1-14) the\npsalmist tells of his doubts, and, in the second (vv. 15-28), of his\nvictory over them. The body of the psalm is divided into groups of four\nverses, and it has an introduction and conclusion of two verses each.\n\nThe introduction (vv. 1, 2) asserts, with an accent of assurance, the\nconviction which the psalmist had all but lost, and therefore had the\nmore truly won. The initial word \"Surely\" is an indication of his\npast struggle, when the truth that God was good to Israel had seemed\nso questionable. \"This I have learned by doubts; this I now hold as\nmost sure; this I proclaim, impugn it who list, and seem to contradict\nit what may.\" The decisiveness of the psalmist's conviction does not\nlead him to exaggeration. He does not commit himself to the thesis\nthat outward prosperity attends Israel. That God is good to those who\ntruly bear that name is certain; but how He shows His goodness, and\nwho these are, the psalmist has, by his struggles, learned to conceive\nof in a more spiritual fashion than before. That goodness may be\nplainly seen in sorrows, and it is only sealed to those who are what\nthe name of Israel imports--\"pure in heart.\" That such are blessed in\npossessing God, and that neither are any other blessed, nor is there\nany other blessedness, are the lessons which the singer has brought\nwith him from the darkness, and by which the ancient faith of the\nwell-being of the righteous is set on surer foundations than before.\n\nThe avowal of conquered doubts follows on this clear note of certitude.\nThere is a tinge of shame in the emphatic \"I\" of ver. 2, and in the\nbroken construction and the change of subject to \"my feet\" and \"my\nsteps.\" The psalmist looks back to that dreary time, and sees more\nclearly than he did, while he was caught in the toils of perplexity\nand doubt, how narrow had been his escape from casting away his\nconfidence. He shudders as he remembers it; but he can do so now from\nthe vantage-ground of tried and regained faith. How eloquently the order\nof thought in these two verses speaks of the complete triumph over doubt!\n\nIn the first quatrain of verses, the prosperity of the godless, which\nhad been the psalmist's stumbling-block, is described. Two things are\nspecified--physical health, and exemption from calamity. The former is\nthe theme of ver. 4. Its first clause is doubtful. The word rendered\n\"bands\" only occurs here and in Isa. lviii. 6. It literally means\nbands, but may pass into the figurative signification of pains, and is\nsometimes by some taken in that meaning here, and the whole clause as\nasserting that the wicked have painless and peaceful deaths. But such\na declaration is impossible in the face of vv. 18, 19, which assert\nthe very opposite, and would be out of place at this point of the\npsalm, which is here occupied with the lives, not the deaths, of the\nungodly. Hupfeld translates \"They are without pains even until their\ndeaths\"; but that rendering puts an unusual sense on the preposition\n\"to,\" which is not \"till.\" A very plausible conjecture alters the\ndivision of words, splitting the one which means \"to their death\"\n(_l'motham_) into two (_lamo tam_), of which the former is attached\nto the preceding words (\"there are no pains _to them_\" = \"they have\nno pains\"), and the latter to the following clause (\"_Sound_ and well\nnourished is,\" etc.). This suggestion is adopted by Ewald and most\nmodern commentators, and has much in its favour. If the existing\ntext is retained, the rendering above seems best. It describes the\nprosperous worldling as free from troubles or diseases, which would\nbe like chains on a captive, by which he is dragged to execution.\nIt thus gives a parallel to the next clause, which describes their\nbodies (lit., belly) as stalwart. Ver. 5 carries on the description,\nand paints the wicked's exemption from trouble. The first clause is\nliterally, \"In the trouble of man they are not.\" The word for man here\nis that which connotes frailty and mortality, while in the next clause\nit is the generic term \"Adam.\" Thus the prosperous worldlings appeared\nto the psalmist, in his times of scepticism, as possessing charmed\nlives, which were free from all the ills that came from frailty and\nmortality, and, as like superior beings, lifted above the universal\nlot. But what did their exemption do for them? Its effects might have\ntaught the doubter that the prosperity at which his faith staggered\nwas no blessing, for it only inflated its recipients with pride, and\nurged them on to high-handed acts. Very graphically does ver. 6 paint\nthem as having the former for their necklace, and the latter for their\nrobe. A proud man carries a stiff neck and a high head. Hence the\npicture in ver. 6 of \"pride\" as wreathed about their necks as a chain\nor necklace. High-handed violence is their garment, according to the\nfamiliar metaphor by which a man's characteristics are likened to his\ndress, the garb of his soul. The double meaning of \"habit,\" and the\nconnection between \"custom\" and \"costume,\" suggest the same figure. As\nthe clothing wraps the body and is visible to the world, so insolent\nviolence, masterfulness enforced by material weapons and contemptuous\nof others' rights, characterised these men, who had never learned\ngentleness in the school of suffering. Tricked out with a necklace of\npride and a robe of violence, they strutted among men, and thought\nthemselves far above the herd, and secure from the touch of trouble.\n\nThe next group of verses (vv. 7-10) further describes the unfeeling\ninsolence begotten of unbroken prosperity, and the crowd of hangers-on,\nadmirers, and imitators attendant on the successful wicked. \"Out of\nfat their eye flashes\" gives a graphic picture of the fierce glare of\ninsolent eyes, set in well-fed faces. But graphic as it is, it scarcely\nfits the context so well as does a proposed amended reading, which by a\nvery small change in the word rendered \"their eye\" yields the meaning\n\"their iniquity,\" and takes \"fat\" as equivalent to a fat, that is, an\nobstinate, self-confident, or unfeeling heart. \"From an unfeeling heart\ntheir iniquity comes forth\" makes a perfect parallel with the second\nclause of the verse rightly rendered, \"the imaginations of their heart\noverflow\"; and both clauses paint the arrogant tempers and bearing of\nthe worldlings. Ver. 8 deals with the manifestation of these in speech.\nWell-to-do wickedness delights in making suffering goodness a butt for\nits coarse jeers. It does not need much wit to do that. Clumsy jests\nare easy, and poverty is fair game for vulgar wealth's ridicule. But\nthere is a dash of ferocity in such laughter, and such jests pass\nquickly into earnest, and wicked oppression. \"As from on high they\nspeak,\"--fancying themselves set on a pedestal above the common masses.\nThe LXX., followed by many moderns, attaches \"oppression\" to the second\nclause, which makes the verse more symmetrical; but the existing\ndivision of clauses yields an appropriate sense.\n\nThe description of arrogant speech is carried on in ver. 9, which has\nbeen variously understood, as referring in _a_ to blasphemy against God\n(\"they set against the heavens their mouth\"), and in _b_ to slander\nagainst men; or, as in _a_, continuing the thought of ver. 8 _b_, and\ndesignating their words as spoken as if from heaven itself, and in _b_\nascribing to their words sovereign power among men. But it is better\nto regard \"heaven\" and \"earth\" as the ordinary designation of the\nwhole visible frame of things, and to take the verse as describing the\nself-sufficiency which gives its opinions and lays down the law about\neverything, and, on the other hand, the currency and influence which are\naccorded by the popular voice to the dicta of prosperous worldlings.\n\nThat thought prepares the way for the enigmatic verse which follows.\nThere are several obscure points in it. First, the verb in the Hebrew\ntext means _turns_ (transitive), which the Hebrew margin corrects\ninto _returns_ (intransitive). With the former reading, \"his people\"\nis the object of the verb, and the implied subject is the prosperous\nwicked man, the change to the singular \"he\" from the plural \"they\" of\nthe preceding clauses being not unusual in Hebrew. With the latter\nreading, \"his people\" is the subject. The next question is to whom the\n\"people\" are conceived as belonging. It is, at first sight, natural\nto think of the frequent Scripture expression, and to take the \"his\"\nas referring to God, and the phrase to mean the true Israel. But the\nmeaning seems rather to be the mob of parasites and hangers-on, who\nservilely follow the successful sinner, in hope of some crumbs from\nhis table. \"Thither\" means \"to himself,\" and the whole describes how\nsuch a one as the man whose portrait has just been drawn is sure to\nattract a retinue of dependants, who say as he says, and would fain\nbe what he is. The last clause describes the share of these parasites\nin their patron's prosperity. \"Waters of abundance\"--_i.e._, abundant\nwaters--may be an emblem of the pernicious principles of the wicked,\nwhich their followers swallow greedily; but it is more probably a\nfigure for fulness of material good, which rewards the humiliation of\nservile adherents to the prosperous worldling.\n\nThe next group (vv. 11-14) begins with an utterance of unbelief or\ndoubt, but it is difficult to reach certainty as to the speakers.\nIt is very natural to refer the \"they\" to the last-mentioned\npersons--namely, the people who have been led to attach themselves to\nthe prosperous sinners, and who, by the example of these, are led to\nquestion the reality of God's acquaintance with and moral government\nof human affairs. The question is, as often, in reality a denial. But\n\"they\" may have a more general sense, equivalent to our own colloquial\nuse of it for an indefinite multitude. \"They say\"--that is, \"the\ncommon opinion and rumour is.\" So here, the meaning may be, that the\nsight of such flushed and flourishing wickedness diffuses widespread\nand deep-going doubts of God's knowledge, and makes many infidels.\n\nEwald, Delitzsch, and others take all the verses of this group as\nspoken by the followers of the ungodly; and, unquestionably, that\nview avoids the difficulty of allotting the parts to different unnamed\ninterlocutors. But it raises difficulties of another kind--as, for\ninstance, those of supposing that these adulators should roundly call\ntheir patrons wicked, and that an apostate should profess that he has\ncleansed his heart. The same objections do not hold against the view\nthat these four verses are the utterance, not of the wicked rich man\nor his coterie of admirers, but of the wider number whose faith has\nbeen shaken. There is nothing in the verses which would be unnatural\non such lips.\n\nVer. 11 would then be a question anxiously raised by faith that was\nbeginning to reel; ver. 12 would be a statement of the anomalous fact\nwhich staggered it; and vv. 13, 14, the complaint of the afflicted\ngodly. The psalmist's repudiation of a share in such incipient\nscepticism would begin with ver. 15. There is much in favour of this\nview of the speakers, but against it is the psalmist's acknowledgment,\nin ver. 2, that his own confidence in God's moral government had been\nshaken, of which there is no further trace in the psalm, unless vv.\n13, 14, express the conclusion which he had been tempted to draw, and\nwhich, as he proceeds to say, he had fought down. If these two verses\nare ascribed to him, ver. 12 is best regarded as a summary of the\nwhole preceding part, and only ver. 11 as the utterance either of the\nprosperous sinner and his adherents (in which case it is a question\nwhich means denial), or as that of troubled faith (in which case it\nis a question that would fain be an affirmation, but has been forced\nunwillingly to regard the very pillars of the universe as trembling).\n\nVv. 15-18 tell how the psalmist strove with and finally conquered his\ndoubts, and saw enough of the great arc of the Divine dealings, to\nbe sure that the anomaly, which had exercised his faith, was capable\nof complete reconciliation with the righteousness of Providence. It\nis instructive to note that he silenced his doubts, out of regard\nto \"the generation of Thy children\"--that is, to the true Israel,\nthe pure in heart. He was tempted to speak as others did not fear to\nspeak, impugning God's justice and proclaiming the uselessness of\npurity; but he locked his lips, lest his words should prove him untrue\nto the consideration which he owed to meek and simple hearts, who\nknew nothing of the speculative difficulties torturing him. He does\nnot say that his speaking would have been sin against God. It would\nnot have been so, if, in speaking, he had longed for confirmation of\nhis wavering faith. But whatever the motive of his words, they might\nhave shaken some lowly believers. Therefore he resolved on silence.\nLike all wise and devout men, he swallowed his own smoke, and let the\nprocess of doubting go on to its end of certainty, one way or another,\nbefore he spoke. This psalm, in which he tells how he overcame them,\nis his first acknowledgment that he had had these temptations to cast\naway his confidence. Fermentation should be done in the dark. When\nthe process is finished, and the product is clear, it is fit to be\nproduced and drank. Certitudes are meant to be uttered; doubts are\nmeant to be struggled with. The psalmist has set an example which many\nmen need to ponder to-day. It is easy, and it is also cruel, to raise\nquestions which the proposer is not ready to answer.\n\nSilent brooding over his problem did not bring light, as ver. 16 tells\nus. The more he thought over it, the more insoluble did it seem to\nhim. There are chambers which the key of thinking will not open.\nUnwelcome as the lesson is, we have to learn that every lock will not\nyield to even prolonged and strenuous investigation. The lamp of the\nUnderstanding throws its beams far, but there are depths of darkness\ntoo deep and dark for them; and they are wisest who know its limits\nand do not try to use it in regions where it is useless.\n\nBut faith finds a path where speculation discerns none. The psalmist\n\"went into the sanctuary (literally, sanctuaries) of God,\" and there\nlight streamed in on him, in which he saw light. Not mere entrance\ninto the place of worship, but closer approach to the God who dwelt\nthere, cleared away the mists. Communion with God solves many problems\nwhich thinking leaves unresolved. The eye which has gazed on God is\npurged for much vision besides. The disproportion between the deserts\nand fortunes of good and bad men assumes an altogether different\naspect when contemplated in the light of present communion with Him,\nwhich brings a blessedness that makes earthly prosperity seem dross,\nand earthly burdens seem feathers. Such communion, in its seclusion\nfrom worldly agitations, enables a man to take calmer, saner views\nof life, and in its enduring blessedness reveals more clearly the\ntransiency of the creatural good which deceives men with the figment\nof its permanence. The lesson which the psalmist learned in the solemn\nstillness of the sanctuary was the end of ungodly prosperity. That\nchanges the aspect of the envied position of the prosperous sinner,\nfor his very prosperity is seen to contribute to his downfall, as well\nas to make that downfall more tragic by contrast. His sure footing,\nexempt as he seemed from the troubles and ills that flesh is heir to,\nwas really on a treacherous slope, like smooth sheets of rock on a\nmountain-side. To stand on them is to slide down to hideous ruin.\n\nThe theme of the end of the prosperous sinners is continued in the\nnext group (vv. 19-22). In ver. 19 the psalmist seems as if standing\nan amazed spectator of the crash, which tumbles into chaos the\nsolid-seeming fabric of their insolent prosperity. An exclamation\nbreaks from his lips as he looks. And then destruction is foretold\nfor all such, under the solemn and magnificent image of ver. 20. God\nhas seemed to sleep, letting evil run its course; but He \"rouses\nHimself\"--that is, comes forth in judicial acts--and as a dreamer\nremembers his dream, which seemed so real, and smiles at its imaginary\nterrors or joys, so He will \"despise\" them, as no more solid nor\nlasting than phantasms of the night. The end contemplated by the\npsalmist is not necessarily death, but any sudden overthrow, of which\nthere are many in the experience of the godless. Life is full of such\nawakings of God, both in regard to individuals and nations, which,\nif a man duly regards, he will find the problem of the psalm less\ninsoluble than at first it appears. But if there are lives which,\nbeing without goodness, are also without chastisement, Death comes at\nlast to such as God's awaking, and a very awful dissipating of earthly\nprosperity into a shadowy nothing.\n\nThe psalmist has no revelation here of future retribution. His\nvindication of God's justice is not based on that, but simply on the\ntransiency of worldly prosperity, and on its dangerous character.\nIt is \"a slippery place,\" and it is sure to come to an end. It is\nobvious that there are many other considerations which have to be\ntaken into account, in order to a complete solution of the problem\nof the psalm. But the psalmist's solution goes far to lighten the\npainful perplexity of it; and if we add his succeeding thoughts as to\nthe elements of true blessedness, we have solution enough for peaceful\nacquiescence, if not for entire understanding. The psalmist's way\nof finding an answer is even more valuable than the answer which he\nfound. They who dwell in the secret place of the Most High can look on\nthe riddle of this painful world with equanimity, and be content to\nleave it half unsolved.\n\nVv. 21, 22, are generally taken as one sentence, and translated as by\nDelitzsch, \"If my heart should grow bitter ... I should be brutish,\"\netc.; or, as by Hupfeld, \"When my heart grew bitter ... then I was\nas a beast,\" etc.; but they are better regarded as the psalmist's\npenitent explanation of his struggle. \"Unbelieving thoughts had\nfermented in his mind, and a pang of passionate discontent had pierced\nhis inmost being. But the higher self blames the lower self for such\nfolly\" (Cheyne, _in loc._). His recognition that his doubts had their\nsource, not in defect in God's providence, but in his own ignorance\nand hasty irritation, which took offence without cause, prepares him\nfor the sweet, clear note of purely spiritual aspiration and fruition\nwhich follows in the next strophe.\n\nHe had all but lost his hold of God; but though his feet had almost gone\nastray, his hand had been grasped by God, and that strong hold had kept\nhim from utterly falling. The pledge of continual communion with God is\nnot our own vacillating, wayward hearts, but God's gentle, strong clasp,\nwhich will not let us go. Thus conscious of constant fellowship, and\nfeeling thrillingly God's touch in his inmost spirit, the psalmist rises\nto a height of joyous assurance, far above doubts and perplexities\ncaused by the unequal distribution of earth's trivial good. For him,\nall life will be illumined by God's counsel, which will guide him as\na shepherd leads his sheep, and which he will obey as a sheep follows\nhis shepherd. How small the delights of the prosperous men seem now!\nAnd can there be an end to that sweet alliance, such as smites earthly\ngood? There are blessings which bear in themselves assurance of their\nown undyingness; and this psalmist, who had nothing to say of the future\nretribution falling on the sinner whose delights were confined to earth,\nfeels that death cannot put a period to a union so blessed and spiritual\nas was his with God. To him, \"afterwards\" was irradiated with light\nfrom present blessedness; and a solemnly joyful conviction springs in\nhis soul, which he casts into words that glance at the story of Enoch's\ntranslation, from which \"take\" is quoted (_cf._ Psalm xlix. 16). Whether\nwe translate \"with glory\" or \"to glory,\" there can be no question that\nthe psalmist is looking beyond life on earth to dwelling with God in\nglory. We have, in this utterance, the expression of the conviction,\ninseparable from any true, deep communion with God, that such communion\ncan never be at the mercy of Death. The real proof of a life beyond the\ngrave is the resurrection of Jesus; and the pledge of it is present\nenjoyment of fellowship with God.\n\nSuch thoughts lift the psalmist to a height from which earth's\ntroubles show small, and as they diminish, the perplexity arising\nfrom their distribution diminishes in proportion. They fade away\naltogether, when he feels how rich he is in possessing God. Surely the\nvery summit of devotional rapture is reached in the immortal words\nwhich follow! Heaven without God were a waste to this man. With God,\nhe needs not nor desires anything on earth. If the impossible should\nbe actual, and heart as well as flesh should fail, his naked self\nwould be clothed and rich, steadfast and secure, as long as he had\nGod; and he is so closely knit to God, that he knows that he will\nnot lose Him though he dies, but have Him for his very own for ever.\nWhat care need he have how earth's vain goods come and go? Whatever\noutward calamities or poverty may be his lot, there is no riddle in\nthat Divine government which thus enriches the devout heart; and the\nrichest ungodly man is poor, because he shuts himself out from the one\nall-sufficient and enduring wealth.\n\nA final pair of verses, answering to the introductory pair, gathers\nup the double truth, which the psalmist has learned to grasp more\nfirmly by occasion of his doubts. To be absent from God is to perish.\nDistance from Him is separation from life. Drawing near to Him is the\nonly good; and the psalmist has deliberately chosen it as _his_ good,\nlet worldly prosperity come or go as it list, or, rather, as God shall\nchoose. By the effort of his own volition he has made God his refuge,\nand, safe in Him, he can bear the sorrows of the godly, and look\nunenvying on the fleeting prosperity of sinners, while, with insight\ndrawn from communion, he can recount with faith and praise all God's\nworks, and find in none of them a stumbling-block, nor fail to find in\nany of them material for a song of thankfulness.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXIV.\n\n 1 Why, O God, hast Thou cast us off for ever?\n [Why] smokes Thine anger against the flock of Thy pasture?\n 2 Remember Thy congregation [which] Thou didst acquire of old,\n Didst redeem [to be] the tribe of Thine inheritance,\n Mount Zion, on which Thou hast dwelt.\n 3 Lift up Thy steps to the everlasting ruins,\n The enemy has marred everything in the sanctuary.\n\n 4 Thine adversaries roared in the midst of the place where Thou\n dost meet [us],\n They set up their signs as signs.\n 5 They seem like one who heaves on high\n Axes against a thicket of trees.\n 6 And now--its carved work altogether\n With hatchet and hammers they break down.\n 7 They have set on fire Thy sanctuary,\n [Rasing it] to the ground, they have profaned the dwelling-place\n of Thy name.\n 8 They have said in their heart, Let us crush them altogether.\n They have burned all meeting-places of God in the land.\n 9 Our signs we see not,\n There is no prophet any more,\n And there is no one who knows how long.\n\n 10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach?\n Shall the enemy despise Thy name for ever?\n 11 Why dost Thou draw back Thy hand, even Thy right hand?\n From the midst of Thy bosom [pluck it and] consume [them].\n\n 12 Yet God is my king from of old,\n Working salvations in the midst of the earth.\n 13 Thou, Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength,\n Didst break the heads of monsters on the waters.\n 14 Thou, Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan,\n That Thou mightest give him [to be] meat for a people--the desert\n beasts.\n 15 Thou, Thou didst cleave [a way for] fountain and torrent;\n Thou, Thou didst dry up perennial streams.\n 16 Thine is day, Thine also is night,\n Thou, Thou didst establish light and sun.\n 17 Thou, Thou didst set all the bounds of the earth;\n Summer and winter, Thou, Thou didst form them.\n\n 18 Remember this--the enemy reviles Jehovah,\n And a foolish people despises Thy name.\n 19 Give not up to the company of greed Thy turtle dove,\n The company of Thine afflicted forget not for ever.\n 20 Look upon the covenant,\n For the dark places of the land are full of habitations of\n violence.\n 21 Let not the oppressed turn back ashamed,\n Let the afflicted and needy praise Thy name.\n 22 Rise, O God, plead Thine own cause,\n Remember Thy reproach from the foolish all the day.\n 23 Forget not the voice of Thine adversaries,\n The tumult of them which rise against Thee goes up continually.\n\n\nTwo periods only correspond to the circumstances described in this\npsalm and its companion (lxxix.)--namely, the Chaldean invasion and\nsack of Jerusalem, and the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes. The\ngeneral situation outlined in the psalm fits either of these; but, of\nits details, some are more applicable to the former and others to the\nlater period. The later date is strongly supported by such complaints\nas those of the cessation of prophecy (ver. 9), the flaunting of\nthe invaders' signs in the sanctuary (ver. 4), and the destruction\nby fire of all the \"meeting-places of God in the land\" (ver. 8). On\nthe other hand, the earlier date better fits other features of the\npsalm--since Antiochus did not destroy or burn, but simply profaned\nthe Temple, though he did, indeed, set fire to the gates and porch,\nbut to these only. It would appear that, on either hypothesis,\nsomething must be allowed for poetical colouring. Calvin, whom\nCheyne follows in this, accounts for the introduction of the burning\nof the Temple into a psalm referring to the desolation wrought by\nAntiochus, by the supposition that the psalmist speaks in the name of\nthe \"faithful, who, looking on the horrid devastation of the Temple,\nand being warned by so sad a sight, carried back their thoughts to\nthat conflagration by which it had been destroyed by the Chaldeans,\nand wove the two calamities together into one.\" It is less difficult\nto pare down the statement as to the burning of the Temple so as to\nsuit the later date, than that as to the silence of prophecy and\nthe other characteristics mentioned, so as to fit the earlier. The\nquestion is still further complicated by the similarities between the\ntwo psalms and Jeremiah (compare ver. 4 with Lam. ii. 7, and ver. 9\nwith Lam. ii. 9). The prophet's well-known fondness for quotations\ngives probability, other things being equal, to the supposition that\nhe is quoting the psalm, which would, in that case, be older than\nLamentations. But this inference scarcely holds good, if there are\nother grounds on which the later date of the psalm is established. It\nwould be very natural in a singer of the Maccabean period to go back\nto the prophet whose sad strains had risen at another black hour. On\nthe whole, the balance is in favour of the later date.\n\nThe psalm begins with a complaining cry to God (vv. 1-3), which passes\ninto a piteous detail of the nation's misery (vv. 4-9), whence it\nrises into petition (vv. 10, 11), stays trembling faith by gazing upon\nHis past deeds of help and the wonders of His creative power (vv.\n12-17), and closes with beseeching God to vindicate the honour of His\nown name by the deliverance of His people (vv. 18-23).\n\nThe main emphasis of the prayer in vv. 1-3 lies on the pleas which\nit presents, drawn from Israel's relation to God. The characteristic\nAsaphic name \"Thy flock\" stands in ver. 1, and appeals to the\nShepherd, both on the ground of His tenderness and of His honour as\ninvolved in the security of the sheep. A similar appeal lies in the\ntwo words \"acquire\" and \"redeem,\" in both of which the deliverance\nfrom Egypt is referred to,--the former expression suggesting the\nprice at which the acquisition was made, as well as the obligations\nof ownership; and the latter, the office of the Goel, the\nKinsman-Redeemer, on whom devolved the duty of obtaining satisfaction\nfor blood. The double designations of Israel as \"Thy congregation\" and\nas \"the tribe of Thine inheritance\" probably point to the religious\nand civil aspects of the national life. The strongest plea is put\nlast--namely, God's dwelling on Zion. For all these reasons, the\npsalmist asks and expects Him to come with swift footsteps to the\ndesolations, which have endured so long that the impatience of despair\nblends with the cry for help, and calls them \"everlasting,\" even while\nit prays that they may be built up again. The fact that the enemy\nof God and of His flock has marred everything _in the sanctuary_ is\nenough, the psalmist thinks, to move God to action.\n\nThe same thought, that the nation's calamities are really dishonouring\nto God, and therefore worthy of His intervention, colours the whole\nof the description of these in vv. 4-9. The invaders are \"_Thine_\nadversaries.\" It is \"in the place where _Thou_ didst meet us\" that\ntheir bestial noises, like those of lions over their prey, echo. It\nis \"_Thy_ sanctuary\" which they have set on fire, \"the dwelling-place\nof _Thy_ name\" which they have profaned. It is \"_Thy_ meeting-places\"\nwhich they have burned throughout the land. Only at the end of the\nsad catalogue is the misery of the people touched on, and that, not\nso much as inflicted by human foes, as by the withdrawal of God's\nSpirit. This is, in fact, the dominant thought of the whole psalm.\nIt says very little about the sufferings resulting from the success\nof the enemy, but constantly recurs to the insult to God, and the\nreproach adhering to His name therefrom. The essence of it all is in\nthe concluding prayer, \"Plead _Thine own_ cause\" (ver. 22).\n\nThe vivid description of devastation in these verses presents some\ndifficulties in detail, which call for brief treatment. The \"signs\" in\nver. 4 _b_ may be taken as military, such as banners or the like; but\nit is more in accordance with the usage of the word to suppose them\nto be religious emblems, or possibly idols, such as Antiochus thrust\nupon the Jews. In vv. 5 and 6 a change of tense represents the action\ndescribed in them, as if in progress at the moment before the singer's\neyes. \"They seem\" is literally \"He is known\" (or _makes himself\nknown_), which may refer to the invaders, the change from plural to\nsingular being frequent in Hebrew; or it may be taken impersonally,\n= \"It seems.\" In either case it introduces a comparison between the\nhacking and hewing by the spoilers in the Temple, and the work of a\nwoodman swinging on high his axe in the forest. \"And now\" seems to\nindicate the next step in the scene; which the psalmist picturesquely\nconceives as passing before his horror-stricken sight. The end of that\nill-omened activity is that at last it succeeds in shattering the\ncarved work, which, in the absence of statues, was the chief artistic\nglory of the Temple. All is hewed down, as if it were no more than\nso much growing timber. With ver. 7 the tenses change to the calmer\ntone of historical narration. The plundered Temple is set on fire--a\npoint which, as has been noticed above, is completely applicable only\nto the Chaldean invasion. Similarly, the next clause, \"they have\nprofaned the dwelling-place of Thy name to the ground,\" does not apply\nin literality to the action of Antiochus, who did indeed desecrate,\nbut did not destroy, the Temple. The expression is a pregnant one,\nand calls for some such supplement as is given above, which, however,\ndilutes its vigour while it elucidates its meaning. In ver. 8 the word\n\"let us crush them\" has been erroneously taken as a noun, and rendered\n\"their brood,\" a verb like \"we will root out\" being supplied. So the\nLXX. and some of the old versions, followed by Hitzig and Baethgen.\nBut, as Delitzsch well asks,--Why are only the children to be rooted\nout? and why should the object of the action be expressed, and not\nrather the action, of which the object would be self-evident? The\n\"meeting-places of God in the land\" cannot be old sanctuaries, nor\nthe high places, which were Israel's sin; for no psalmist could have\nadduced the destruction of these as a reason for God's intervention.\nThey can only be the synagogues. The expression is a strong argument\nfor the later date of the psalm. Equally strong is the lament in ver.\n9 over the removal of the \"signs\"--_i.e._, as in ver. 4, the emblems\nof religion, or the sacrifices and festivals, suppressed by Antiochus,\nwhich were the tokens of the covenant between God and Israel. The\nsilence of prophecy cannot be alleged of the Chaldean period without\nsome straining of facts and of the words here; nor is it true that\nthen there was universal ignorance of the duration of the calamity,\nfor Jeremiah had foretold it.\n\nVv. 10 and 11 are the kernel of the psalm, the rest of which is\nfolded round them symmetrically. Starting from this centre and working\noutwards, we note that it is preceded by six verses dilating on the\nprofanations of the name of God, and followed by six setting forth\nthe glories of that name in the past. The connection of these two\nportions of the psalm is obvious. They are, as it were, the inner\nshell round the kernel. The outer shell is the prayer in three verses\nwhich begins the psalm, and that in six verses which closes it. Ver.\n10 takes up the despairing \"How long\" from the end of the preceding\nportion, and turns it into a question to God. It is best to ask Him,\nwhen ignorance pains us. But the interrogation does not so much beg\nfor enlightenment as to the duration of the calamity as for its\nabbreviation. It breathes not precisely impatience, but longing that\na state of things so dishonouring to God should end. That aspect, and\nnot personal suffering, is prominent in the verse. It is \"Thy name\"\nwhich is insulted by the adversaries actions, and laid open to their\ncontempt, as the name of a Deity powerless to protect His worshippers.\nTheir action \"reproaches,\" and His inaction lets them \"despise,\" His\nname. The psalmist cannot endure that this condition should drag on\nindefinitely, as if \"for ever,\" and his prayer-question \"How long?\" is\nnext exchanged for another similar blending of petition and inquiry,\n\"_Why_ dost Thou draw back Thy hand?\" Both are immediately translated\ninto that petition which they both really mean. \"From the midst of Thy\nbosom consume,\" is a pregnant phrase, like that in ver. 7 _b_, and has\nto be completed as above, though, possibly, the verb stands absolutely\nas equivalent to \"make an end\"--_i.e._, of such a state of things.\n\nThe psalmist's petition is next grounded on the revelation of God's\nname in Israel's past, and in creative acts of power. These at once\nencourage him to expect that God will pluck His hand out from the folds\nof His robe, where it lies inactive, and appeal to God to be what He\nhas been of old, and to rescue the name which He has thus magnified\nfrom insult. There is singular solemnity in the emphatic reiteration\nof \"Thou\" in these verses. The Hebrew does not usually express the\npronominal nominative to a verb, unless special attention is to be\ncalled to it; but in these verses it does so uniformly, with one\nexception, and the sevenfold repetition of the word brings forcibly into\nview the Divine personality and former deeds which pledge God to act\nnow. Remembrance of past wonders made present misery more bitter, but it\nalso fanned into a flame the spark of confidence that the future would\nbe like the past. One characteristic of the Asaph psalms is wistful\nretrospect, which is sometimes the basis of rebuke, and sometimes of\nhope, and sometimes of deepened sorrow, but is here in part appeal to\nGod and in part consolation. The familiar instances of His working\ndrawn from the Exodus history appear in the psalm. First comes the\ndividing of the Red Sea, which is regarded chiefly as occasioning the\ndestruction of the Egyptians, who are symbolised by the \"sea-monsters\"\nand by \"leviathan\" (the crocodile). Their fate is an omen of what the\npsalmist hopes may befall the oppressors of his own day. There is\ngreat poetic force in the representation that the strong hand, which\nby a stroke parted the waters, crushed by the same blow the heads of\nthe foul creatures who \"floated many a rood\" on them. And what an end\nfor the pomp of Pharaoh and his host, to provide a meal for jackals\nand the other beasts of the desert, who tear the corpses strewing\nthe barren shore! The meaning is completely misapprehended when \"the\npeople inhabiting the wilderness\" is taken to be wild desert tribes.\nThe expression refers to animals, and its use as designating them has\nparallels (as Prov. xxx. 25, 26).\n\nIn ver. 15 another pregnant expression occurs, which is best filled\nout as above, the reference being to cleaving the rock for the flow of\nwater, with which is contrasted in _b_ the drying up of the Jordan.\nThus the whole of the Exodus period is covered. It is noteworthy that\nthe psalmist adduces only wonders wrought on waters, being possibly\nguided in his selection by the familiar poetic use of floods and seas\nas emblems of hostile power and unbridled insolence. From the wonders\nof history he passes to those of creation, and chiefly of that might\nby which times alternate and each constituent of the Kosmos has its\nappointed limits. Day and night, summer and winter, recur by God's\ncontinual operation. Is there to be no dawning for Israel's night of\nweeping, and no summer making glad the winter of its discontent? \"Thou\ndidst set all the bounds of the earth,\"--wilt Thou not bid back this\nsurging ocean which has transgressed its limits and filled the breadth\nof Thy land? All the lights in the sky, and chiefly the greatest of\nthem, Thou didst establish,--surely Thou wilt end this eclipse in\nwhich Thy people grope.\n\nThus the psalmist lifts himself to the height of confident though\nhumble prayer, with which the psalm closes, recurring to the opening\ntones. Its centre is, as we have seen, a double remonstrance--\"How\nlong?\" and \"Why?\" The encircling circumference is earnest\nsupplication, of which the keynote is \"Remember\" (vv. 2 and 18).\n\nThe gist of this closing prayer is the same appeal to God to defend\nHis own honour, which we have found in the former verses. It is put in\nvarious forms here. Twice (vv. 18 and 22) God is besought to remember\nthe reproach and contumely heaped on his name, and apparently warranted\nby His inaction. The claim of Israel for deliverance is based in ver. 19\nupon its being \"_Thy_ turtle dove,\" which therefore cannot be abandoned\nwithout sullying Thy fame. The psalmist spreads the \"covenant\" before\nGod, as reminding Him of His obligations under it. He asks that such\ndeeds may be done as will give occasion to the afflicted and needy\nto \"praise Thy name,\" which is being besmirched by their calamities.\nFinally, in wonderfully bold words, he calls on God to take up what\nis, after all, \"His own\" quarrel, and, if the cry of the afflicted\ndoes not move Him, to listen to the loud voices of those who blaspheme\nHim all the day. Reverent earnestness of supplication sometimes sounds\nlike irreverence; but, \"when the heart's deeps boil in earnest,\" God\nunderstands the meaning of what sounds strange, and recognises the\nprofound trust in His faithfulness and love which underlies bold words.\n\nThe precise rendering of ver. 19 is very doubtful. The word rendered\nabove by \"company\" may mean _life_ or _a living creature_, or,\ncollectively, a _company_ of such. It has been taken in all these\nmeanings here, and sometimes in one of them in the first clause,\nand in another in the second, as most recently by Baethgen, who\nrenders \"Abandon not to _the beast_\" in _a_, and \"_The life of_\nthine afflicted\" in _b_. But it must have the same meaning in both\nclauses, and the form of the word shows that it must be construed\nin both with a following \"of.\" If so, the rendering adopted above\nis best, though it involves taking the word rendered \"greed\" (lit.,\nsoul) in a somewhat doubtful sense. This rendering is adopted in the\nR.V. (margin), and is, on the whole, the least difficult, and yields\na probable sense. Delitzsch recognises the necessity for giving the\nambiguous word the same meaning in both clauses, and takes that\nmeaning to be \"creature,\" which suits well enough in _a_, but gives\na very harsh meaning to _b_. \"Forget not Thy poor animals for ever\"\nis surely an impossible rendering. Other attempts have been made to\nturn the difficulty by textual alteration. Hupfeld would transpose two\nwords in _a_, and so gets \"Give not up to rage the life of Thy dove.\"\nCheyne corrects the difficult word into \"to the sword,\" and Graetz\nfollows Dyserinck in preferring \"to death,\" or Krochmal, who reads \"to\ndestruction.\" If the existing text is retained, probably the rendering\nadopted above is best.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXV.\n\n 1 We give thanks to Thee, O God, we give thanks;\n And [that] Thy name is near, Thy wondrous works declare\n\n 2 \"When I seize the set time,\n I, I judge [in] equity.\n 3 Dissolved [in fear] are earth and its inhabitants:\n I, I set firm its pillars. Selah.\n 4 I say to the fools, be not foolish:\n And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:\n 5 Lift not up your horn on high;\n Speak not with stiff neck.\"\n\n 6 For not from east, nor from west,\n And not from the wilderness is lifting up.\n 7 For God is judge:\n This one He abases, and that one He lifts up.\n 8 For a cup is in the hands of Jehovah,\n And it foams with wine; it is full of mixture,\n And He pours out from it:\n Yea, its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth gulp down and\n drink.\n\n 9 And as for me, I will declare [it] for ever,\n I will harp to the God of Jacob.\n 10 And all the horns of the wicked will I cut off:\n Exalted shall be the horns of the righteous.\n\n\nThis psalm deals with the general thought of God's judgment in\nhistory, especially on heathen nations. It has no clear marks of\nconnection with any particular instance of that judgment. The\nprevalent opinion has been that it refers, like the next psalm, to the\ndestruction of Sennacherib's army. There are in it slight resemblances\nto psalm xlvi., and to Isaiah's prophecies regarding that event,\nwhich support the conjecture. Cheyne seems to waver, as on page 148\nof \"Orig. of Psalt.\" he speaks of \"the two Maccabean psalms, lxxiv.\nand lxxv.,\" and on page 166 concludes that they \"may be Maccabean, ...\nbut we cannot claim for this view the highest degree of probability,\nespecially as neither psalm refers to any warlike deeds of Israelites.\nIt is safer, I think, to ... assign them at the earliest to one of the\nhappier parts of the Persian age.\" It is apparently still safer to\nrefrain from assigning them to any precise period.\n\nThe kernel of the psalm is a majestic Divine utterance, proclaiming\nGod's judgment as at hand. The limits of that Divine word are doubtful,\nbut it is best taken as occupying two pairs of verses (2-5). It is\npreceded by one verse of praise, and followed by three (6-8) of warning\nspoken by the psalmist, and by two (9, 10,) in which he again praises\nGod the Judge, and stands forth as an instrument of His judicial acts.\n\nIn ver. 1, which is as a prelude to the great Voice from heaven, we hear\nthe nation giving thanks beforehand for the judgment which is about to\nfall. The second part of the verse is doubtful. It may be taken thus:\n\"And Thy name is near; they (_i.e._, men) declare Thy wondrous works.\"\nSo Delitzsch, who comments: The Church \"welcomes the future acts of God\nwith fervent thanks, and all they that belong to it declare beforehand\nGod's wondrous works.\" Several modern scholars, among whom are Gr\u00e4tz,\nBaethgen, and Cheyne, adopt a textual alteration which gives the\nreading, \"They who call upon Thy name declare,\" etc. But the rendering\nof the A.V., which is also that of Hupfeld and Perowne, gives a good\nmeaning. All God's deeds in history proclaim that He is ever at hand to\nhelp. His name is His character as revealed by His self-manifestation;\nand this is the glad thanks-evoking lesson, taught by all the past and\nby the judicial act of which the psalm is the precursor--that He is near\nto deliver His people. As Deut. iv. 7 has it, \"What nation is there that\nhath God so near unto them?\"\n\nThe Divine voice breaks in with majestic abruptness, as in Psalm xlvi.\n10. It proclaims impending judgment, which will restore society,\ndissolving in dread or moral corruption, and will abase insolent\nwickedness, which is therefore exhorted to submission. In ver. 2 two\ngreat principles are declared--one in regard to the time and the other\nin regard to the animating spirit of God's judgment. Literally, the\nfirst words of the verse run, \"When I lay hold of the appointed time.\"\nThe thought is that He has His own appointed time at which His power\nwill flash forth into act, and that till that moment arrives evil is\npermitted to run its course, and insolent men to play their \"fantastic\ntricks\" before an apparently indifferent or unobserving God. His\nservants are tempted to think that He delays too long; His enemies, that\nHe will never break His silence. But the slow hand traverses the dial\nin time, and at last the hour strikes and the crash comes punctually\nat the moment. The purposes of delay are presented in Scripture as\ntwofold: on the one hand, \"that the long-suffering of God may lead to\nrepentance\"; and on the other, that evil may work itself out and show\nits true character. To learn the lesson that, \"when the set time is\ncome,\" judgment will fall, would save the oppressed from impatience\nand despondency and the oppressor from dreams of impunity. It is a\nlaw fruitful for the interpretation of the world's history. The other\nfundamental truth in this verse is that the principle of God's judgment\nis equity, rigid adherence to justice, so that every act of man's shall\nreceive accurately \"its just recompense of reward.\" The \"I\" of ver. 2\n_b_ is emphatic. It brings to view the lofty personality of the Judge,\nand asserts the operation of a Divine hand in human affairs, while it\nalso lays the basis for the assurance that, the judgment being His, and\nHe being what He is, it must be \"according to truth.\"\n\nSuch a \"set time\" has arrived, as ver. 3 proceeds to declare. Oppression\nand corruption have gone so far that \"the earth and its inhabitants\" are\nas if \"dissolved.\" All things are rushing to ruin. The psalmist does\nnot distinguish between the physical and the moral here. His figure is\nemployed in reference to both orders, which he regards as indissolubly\nconnected. Possibly he is echoing Psalm xlvi. 6, \"The earth melted,\"\nthough there the \"melting\" is an expression for dread occasioned by\nGod's voice, and here rather refers to the results of \"the proud man's\nwrong.\" At such a supreme moment, when the solid framework of society\nand of the world itself seems to be on the point of dissolution, the\nmighty Divine Personality intervenes; that strong hand is thrust forth\nto grasp the tottering pillars and stay their fall; or, in plain words,\nGod Himself then intervenes to re-establish the moral order of society,\nand thus to save the sufferers. (Comp. Hannah's song in 1 Sam. ii. 8.)\nThat intervention has necessarily two aspects, being on the one hand\nrestorative, and on the other punitive. Therefore in vv. 4 and 5 follow\nDivine warnings to the \"fools\" and \"wicked,\" whose insolent boasting and\ntyranny have provoked it. The word rendered \"fools\" seems to include\nthe idea of boastfulness as well as folly in the Biblical sense of\nthat word, which points to moral rather than to merely intellectual\naberration. \"Lifting up the horn\" is a symbol of arrogance. According to\nthe accents, the word rendered \"stiff\" is not to be taken as attached to\n\"neck\", but as the object of the verb \"speak,\" the resulting translation\nbeing, \"Speak not arrogance with a [stretched out] neck\"; and thus\nDelitzsch would render. But it is more natural to take the word in its\nusual construction as an epithet of \"neck\", expressive of superciliously\nholding a high head. Cheyne follows Baethgen in altering the text so as\nto read \"rock\" for \"neck\"--a slight change which is supported by the\nLXX. rendering (\"Speak not unrighteousness against God\")--and renders\n\"nor speak arrogantly of the rock.\" Like the other advocates of a\nMaccabean date, he finds here a reference to the mad blasphemies of\nAntiochus Epiphanes; but the words would suit Rabshakeh's railings quite\nas well.\n\nThe exact point where the Divine oracle passes into the psalmist's own\nwords is doubtful. Ver. 7 is evidently his; and that verse is so closely\nconnected with ver. 6 that it is best to make the break at the end of\nver. 5, and to suppose that what follows is the singer's application\nof the truths which he has heard. Two renderings of ver. 6 _b_ are\npossible, which, though very different in English, turn on the minute\ndifference in the Hebrew of one vowel sign. The same letters spell the\nHebrew word meaning _mountains_ and that meaning _lifting up_. With\none punctuation of the preceding word \"wilderness,\" we must translate\n\"from the wilderness of mountains\"; with another, the two words are less\nclosely connected, and we must render, \"from the wilderness is lifting\nup.\" If the former rendering is adopted, the verse is incomplete, and\nsome phrase like \"help comes\" must be supplied, as Delitzsch suggests.\nBut \"lifting up\" occurs so often in this psalm, that it is more natural\nto take the word in that meaning here, especially as the next verse ends\nwith it, in a different tense, and thus makes a sort of rhyme with this\nverse. \"The wilderness of mountains,\" too, is a singular designation,\neither for the Sinaitic peninsula or for Egypt, or for the wilderness of\nJudah, which have all been suggested as intended here. \"The wilderness\"\nstands for the south, and thus three cardinal points are named. Why is\nthe north omitted? If \"lifting up\" means deliverance, the omission may\nbe due to the fact that Assyria (from which the danger came, if we adopt\nthe usual view of the occasion of the psalm) lay to the north. But the\nmeaning in the rest of the psalm is not _deliverance_, and the psalmist\nis addressing the \"foolish boasters\" here and that consideration takes\naway the force of such an explanation of the omission. Probably no\nsignificance attaches to it. The general idea is simply that \"lifting\nup\" does not come from any quarter of earth, but, as the next verse goes\non to say, solely from God. How absurd, then, is the self-sufficient\nloftiness of godless men! How vain to look along the low levels of\nearth, when all true elevation and dignity come from God! The very\npurpose of His judicial energy is to abase the lofty and raise the low.\nHis hand lifts up, and there is no secure or lasting elevation but that\nwhich He effects. His hand casts down, and that which attracts His\nlightnings is \"the haughtiness of man.\" The outburst of His judgment\nworks like a volcanic eruption, which flings up elevations in valleys\nand shatters lofty peaks. The features of the country are changed after\nit, and the world looks new. The metaphor of ver. 8, in which judgment\nis represented as a cup of foaming wine, which God puts to the lips of\nthe nations, receives great expansion in the prophets, especially in\nJeremiah, and recurs in the Apocalypse. There is a grim contrast between\nthe images of festivity and hospitality called up by the picture of a\nhost presenting the wine cup to his guests, and the stern compulsion\nwhich makes the \"wicked\" gulp down the nauseous draught held by God to\ntheir reluctant lips. The utmost extremity of punitive inflictions,\nunflinchingly inflicted, is suggested by the terrible imagery. And the\njudgment is to be world-wide; for \"all the wicked of the earth\" are to\ndrink, and that to the dregs.\n\nAnd how does the prospect affect the psalmist? It moves him, first,\nto solemn praise--not only because God has proved Himself by these\nterrible things in righteousness to be the God of His people, but\nalso because He has thereby manifested His own character as righteous\nand hating evil. It is no selfish nor cruel joy which stirs in\ndevout hearts, when God comes forth in history and smites oppressing\ninsolence. It is but a spurious benevolence which affects to recoil\nfrom the conception of a God who judges and, when needful, smites.\nThis psalmist not only praised, but in his degree vowed to imitate.\n\nThe last verse is best understood as his declaration of his own\npurpose, though some commentators have proposed to transfer it to the\nearlier part of the psalm, regarding it as part of the Divine oracle.\nBut it is in its right place where it stands. God's servants are His\ninstruments in carrying out His judgments; and there is a very real\nsense in which all of them should seek to fight against dominant evil\nand to cripple the power of tyrannous godlessness.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXVI.\n\n 1 Known in Judah is God,\n In Israel is His name great.\n 2 And in Salem was His tent [pitched],\n And His dwelling in Zion.\n 3 There He shivered the lightnings of the bow,\n Shield and sword and battle. Selah.\n\n 4 Effulgent art Thou [and] glorious\n From the mountains of prey [everlasting mountains?].\n 5 Spoiled are the stout of heart, they slumber [into] their sleep,\n And none of the men of might have found their hands.\n 6 At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,\n Both chariot and horse are sunk in deep sleep.\n\n 7 Thou! dread art Thou,\n And who can stand before Thee, in the time of Thine anger?\n 8 From heaven didst Thou make judgment heard,\n Earth feared and was stilled,\n 9 At the rising of God for judgment\n To save all the afflicted of the earth. Selah.\n\n 10 For the wrath of man shall praise Thee,\n [With] the residue of wraths Thou girdest Thyself.\n 11 Vow and pay to Jehovah your God,\n Let all around Him bring presents to the Terrible One.\n 12 He cuts down the [lofty] spirit of princes,\n A dread to the kings of the earth.\n\n\nIn contents and tone this psalm is connected with Psalms xlvi. and\nxlviii. No known event corresponds so closely with its allusions\nas the destruction of Sennacherib's army, to which the LXX. in\nits superscription refers it. The singer is absorbed in the one\ntremendous judgment which had delivered the dwelling-place of Jehovah.\nHis song has but one theme--God's forth-flashing of judgment on Zion's\nfoes. One note of thankfulness sounds at the close, but till then all\nis awe. The psalm is divided into four strophes, of three verses each.\nThe former two describe the act; the latter two deal with its results,\nin an awed world and thankful praise.\n\nThe emphatic words in the first strophe are those which designate\nthe scene of the Divine act. The glow of humble pride, of wonder and\nthankfulness, is perceptible in the fourfold reiteration--\"in Judah,\nin Israel, in Salem, in Zion\"; all which names are gathered up in\nthe eloquent \"There\" of ver. 3. The true point of view from which to\nregard God's acts is that they are His Self-revelation. The reason\nwhy Israel is the object of the acts which manifest His name is that\nthere He has chosen to dwell. And, since He dwells there, the special\nact of judgment which the psalm celebrates was there performed. \"The\nlightnings of the bow\" picturesquely designate arrows, from their\nswift flight and deadly impact. (Compare Psalm xlvi. 9.)\n\nThe second strophe (vv. 4-6) comes closer to the fact celebrated, and\ndescribes, with magnificent sweep, brevity, and vividness, the death\nsleep of the enemy. But, before it shows the silent corpses, it lifts\none exclamation of reverence to the God who has thus manifested His\npower. The word rendered \"Effulgent\" is doubtful, and by a slight\ntransposition of letters becomes, as in ver. 7 which begins the next\nstrophe, \"dread.\" In ver. 4 _b_ the rendering \"more excellent than,\"\netc., yields a comparison which can scarcely be called worthy. It\nis little to say of God that He is more glorious than the enemies'\n\"mountains of prey,\" though Delitzsch tries to recommend this\nrendering, by supposing that God is represented as towering above \"the\nLebanon of the hostile army of peoples.\" The Hebrew idiom expresses\ncomparison by the preposition _from_ appended to the adjective in\nits simple form, and it is best here to take the construction as\nindicating point of departure rather than comparison. God comes forth\nas \"glorious,\" from the lofty heights where He sits supreme. But\n\"mountains of prey\" is a singular phrase, which can only be explained\nby the supposition that God is conceived of as a Conqueror, who has\nlaid up His spoils in His inaccessible store-house on high. But the\nLXX. translates \"_everlasting_ mountains,\" which fits the context\nwell, and implies a text, which might easily be misinterpreted as\nmeaning \"prey,\" which misinterpretation may afterwards have crept into\nthe body of the text. If this alteration is not adopted, the meaning\nwill be as just stated.\n\nVer. 5 gives some support to the existing text, by its representation\nof the stout-hearted foe as \"spoiled.\" They are robbed of their might,\ntheir weapons, and their life. How graphically the psalmist sets\nbefore the eyes of his readers the process of destruction from its\nbeginning! He shows us the warriors falling asleep in the drowsiness\nof death. How feeble their \"might\" now! One vain struggle, as in the\nthroes of death, and the hands which shot the \"lightnings of the bow\"\nagainst Zion are stiff for evermore. One word from the sovereign\nlips of the God of Jacob, and all the noise of the camp is hushed,\nand we look out upon a field of the dead, lying in awful stillness,\ndreamlessly sleeping their long slumber.\n\nThe third strophe passes from description of the destruction of the\nenemy to paint its widespread results in the manifestation to a\nhushed world of God's judgment. In it anger and love are wondrously\nblended; and while no creature can bear the terrible blaze of His\nface, nor endure the weight of His onset \"in the time of His anger,\"\nthe most awful manifestations thereof have a side of tenderness and\nan inner purpose of blessing. The core of judgment is mercy. It is\nworthy of God to smite the oppressor and to save the \"afflicted,\" who\nnot only suffer, but trust. When He makes His judgments reverberate\nfrom on high, earth should keep an awed stillness, as nature does when\nthunder peals. When some gigantic and hoary iniquity crashes to its\nfall, there is a moment of awed silence after the hideous tumult.\n\nThe last strophe is mainly a summons to praise God for His manifestation\nof delivering judgment. Ver. 10 is obscure. The first clause is\nintelligible enough. Since God magnifies His name by His treatment of\nopposing men, who set themselves against Him, their very foaming fury\nsubserves His praise. That is a familiar thought with all the Scripture\nwriters who meditate on God's dealings. But the second clause is\nhard. Whose \"wraths\" are spoken of in it? God's or man's? The change\nfrom the singular (\"wrath of man\") to plural (\"wraths\") in _b_ makes\nit all but certain that God's fulness of \"wrath\" is meant here. It\nis set over against the finite and puny \"wrath\" of men, as an ocean\nmight be contrasted with a shallow pond. If so, God's girding Himself\nwith the residue of His own wrath will mean that, after every such\nforth-putting of it as the psalm has been hymning, there still remains\nan unexhausted store ready to flame out if need arise. It is a stern and\nterrible thought of God, but it is solemnly true. His loving-kindness\nout-measures man's, and so does His judicial judgment. All Divine\nattributes partake of Infinitude, and the stores of His punitive anger\nare not less deep than those of His gentle goodness.\n\nTherefore men are summoned to vow and pay their vows; and while Israel\nis called to worship, the nations around, who have seen that field of\nthe dead, are called to do homage and bring tribute to Him who, as\nit so solemnly shows, can cut off the breath of the highest, or can\ncut down their pride, as a grape-gatherer does the ripe cluster (for\nsuch is the allusion in the word \"cuts down\"). The last clause of the\npsalm, which stands somewhat disconnected from the preceding, gathers\nup the lessons of the tremendous event which inspired it, when it sets\nHim forth as to be feared by the kings of the earth.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXVII.\n\n 1 [I would lift] my voice to God and cry;\n [I would lift] my voice to God, that He may give ear to me.\n 2 In the day of my straits I sought the Lord:\n My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing;\n My soul refused to be comforted.\n 3 [When] I remember God, I must sigh;\n [When] I muse, my spirit is covered [with gloom]. Selah.\n\n 4 Thou hast held open the guards of my eyes:\n I am buffeted, and cannot speak.\n 5 I considered the days of old,\n The years of ancient times.\n 6 I would remember my song in the night:\n In my heart I would muse,--and my spirit made anxious search.\n\n 7 Will the Lord cast off for ever?\n And will He continue no more to be favourable?\n 8 Is His loving-kindness ended for ever?\n Has His promise failed for all generations?\n 9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?\n Or has He in anger drawn in His compassions? Selah.\n\n 10 Then I said, It is my sickness;\n [But I will remember] the years of the right hand of the Most\n High.\n 11 I will celebrate the deeds of Jah;\n For I will remember Thy wonders of old.\n 12 And I will meditate on all Thy work,\n And will muse on Thy doings.\n\n 13 O God, in holiness is Thy way:\n Who is a great God like God?\n 14 Thou, Thou art the God who doest wonders:\n Thou hast made known among the peoples Thy strength.\n 15 Thou hast redeemed with Thine arm Thy people,\n The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.\n\n 16 The waters saw Thee, O God;\n The waters saw Thee, they writhed in pangs:\n Yea, the abysses trembled.\n 17 The clouds were poured out [in] water;\n The skies gave [forth] a voice:\n Yea, Thine arrows went to and fro.\n 18 The voice of Thy thunder was in [Thy] chariot wheel;\n Lightnings illumined the world:\n The earth trembled and shook.\n 19 In the sea was Thy way,\n And Thy paths in great waters,\n And Thy footprints were not known.\n 20 Thou leadest Thy people like sheep,\n By the hand of Moses and Aaron.\n\n\nThe occasion of the profound sadness of the first part of this psalm\nmay be inferred from the thoughts which brighten it into hope in the\nsecond. These were the memories of past national deliverance. It is\nnatural to suppose that present national disasters were the causes\nof the sorrow which enveloped the psalmist's spirit and suggested\nquestions of despair, only saved from being blasphemous because\nthey were so wistful. But it by no means follows that the singer is\nsimply the personified nation. The piercing tone of individual grief\nis too clear, especially in the introductory verses, to allow of\nthat hypothesis. Rather, the psalmist has taken into his heart the\ntroubles of his people. Public calamity has become personal pain.\nWhat dark epoch has left its marks in this psalm remains uncertain.\nIf Delitzsch's contention that Habakkuk iii. is in part drawn from\nit were indubitably established, the attribution of the psalm to the\ntimes of Josiah would be plausible; but there is, at least, room for\ndoubt whether there has been borrowing, and if so, which is original\nand which echo. The calamities of the Exile in their severity and\nduration would give reasonable ground for the psalmist's doubts\nwhether God had not cast off His people for ever. No brief or partial\neclipse of His favour would supply adequate occasion for these.\n\nThe psalm falls into two parts, in the former of which (vv. 1-9) deepest\ngloom wraps the singer's spirit, while in the latter (vv. 10-20) the\nclouds break. Each of these parts falls into three strophes, usually of\nthree verses; but in the concluding strophe, consisting of five, Selah\nstands at the end of the first and third, and is not present at the end\nof the second, because it is more closely connected with the third than\nwith the first. In like manner the first strophe of the second part (vv.\n10-12) has no Selah, but the second has (vv. 13-15); the closing strophe\n(vv. 16-20) being thus parted off.\n\nThe psalmist's agitation colours his language, which fluctuates in the\nfirst six verses between expressions of resolve or desire (vv. 1, 3,\n6) and simple statement of fact (vv. 2, 4, 5). He has prayed long and\nearnestly, and nothing has been laid in answer on his outstretched\npalm. Therefore his cry has died down into a sigh. He fain would lift\nhis voice to God, but dark thoughts make him dumb for supplication,\nand eloquent only in self-pitying monologue. A man must have waded\nthrough like depths to understand this pathetic bewilderment of\nspirit. They who glide smoothly over a sunlit surface of sea little\nknow the terrors of sinking, with choked lungs, into the abyss. A\nlittle experience will go further than much learning in penetrating\nthe meaning of these moanings of lamed faith. They begin with an\nelliptical phrase, which, in its fragmentary character, reveals the\npsalmist's discomposure. \"My voice to God\" evidently needs some such\ncompletion as is supplied above; and the form of the following verb\n(\"cry\") suggests that the supplied one should express wish or effort.\nThe repetition of the phrase in 1 _b_ strengthens the impression of\nagitation. The last words of that clause may be a petition, \"give\near,\" but are probably better taken as above. The psalmist would fain\ncry to God, that he may be heard. He has cried, as he goes on to\ntell in calmer mood in ver. 2, and has apparently not been heard. He\ndescribes his unintermitted supplications by a strong metaphor. The\nword rendered \"stretched out\" is literally _poured out_ as water, and\nis applied to weeping eyes (Lam. iii. 49). The Targum substitutes eye\nfor hand here, but that is commentary, not translation. The clause\nwhich we render \"without ceasing\" is literally \"and grew not stiff.\"\nThat word, too, is used of tears, and derivatives from it are found in\nthe passage just referred to in Lamentations (\"intermission\"), and in\nLam. ii. 18 (\"rest\"). It carries on the metaphor of a stream, the flow\nof which is unchecked. The application of this metaphor to the hand\nis harsh, but the meaning is plain--that all night long the psalmist\nextended his hand in the attitude of prayer, as if open to receive\nGod's gift. His voice \"rose like a fountain night and day\"; but\nbrought no comfort to his soul; and he bewails himself, in the words\nwhich tell of Jacob's despair when he heard that Joseph was dead. _So_\nrooted and inconsolable does he think his sorrows. The thought of\nGod has changed its nature, as if the sun were to become a source of\ndarkness. When he looks up, he can only sigh; when he looks within,\nhis spirit is clothed or veiled--_i.e._, wrapped in melancholy.\n\nIn the next strophe of three verses (vv. 4-6) the psalmist plunges\nyet deeper into gloom, and unfolds more clearly its occasion. Sorrow,\nlike a beast of prey, devours at night; and every sad heart knows how\neyelids, however wearied, refuse to close upon as wearied eyes, which\ngaze wide opened into the blackness and see dreadful things there.\nThis man felt as if God's finger was pushing up his lids and forcing\nhim to stare out into the night. Buffeted, as if laid on an anvil and\nbattered with the shocks of doom, he cannot speak; he can only moan,\nas he is doing. Prayer seems to be impossible. But to say, \"I cannot\npray; would that I could!\" is surely prayer, which will reach its\ndestination, though the sender knows it not. The psalmist had found no\nease in remembering God. He finds as little in remembering a brighter\npast. That he should have turned to history in seeking for consolation\nimplies that his affliction was national in its sweep, however\nintensely personal in its pressure. This retrospective meditation\non the great deeds of old is characteristic of the Asaph psalms. It\nministers in them to many moods, as memory always does. In this psalm\nwe have it feeding two directly opposite emotions. It may be the nurse\nof bitter Despair, or of bright-eyed Hope. When the thought of God\noccasions but sighs, the remembrance of His acts can only make the\npresent more doleful. The heavy spirit finds reasons for heaviness\nin God's past and in its own. The psalmist in his sleepless vigils\nremembers other wakeful times, when his song filled the night with\nmusic and \"awoke the dawn.\" Ver. 6 is parallel with ver. 3. The three\nkey-words, _remember_, _muse_, _spirit_, recur. There, musing ended\nin wrapping the spirit in deeper gloom. Here, it stings that spirit\nto activity in questionings, which the next strophe flings out in\nvehement number and startling plainness. It is better to be pricked\nto even such interrogations by affliction than to be made torpid by\nit. All depends on the temper in which they are asked. If that is\nright, answers which will scatter gloom are not far off.\n\nThe comparison of present national evils with former happiness naturally\nsuggests such questions. Obviously, the casting off spoken of in ver.\n7 is that of the nation, and hence its mention confirms the view that\nthe psalmist is suffering under public calamities. All the questions\nmean substantially one thing--has God changed? They are not, as some\nquestions are, the strongest mode of asserting their negative; nor are\nthey, like others, a more than half assertion of their affirmative;\nbut they are what they purport to be--the anxious interrogations of an\nafflicted man, who would fain be sure that God is the same as ever,\nbut is staggered by the dismal contrast of Now and Then. He faces with\ntrembling the terrible possibilities, and, however his language may seem\nto regard failure of resources or fickleness of purpose or limitations\nin long-suffering as conceivable in God, his doubts are better put into\nplain speech than lying diffused and darkening, like poisonous mists, in\nhis heart. A thought, be it good or bad, can be dealt with when it is\nmade articulate. Formulating vague conceptions is like cutting a channel\nin a bog for the water to run. One gets it together in manageable shape,\nand the soil is drained. So the end of the despondent half of the psalm\nis marked by the bringing to distinct speech of the suspicions which\nfloated in the singer's mind and made him miserable. The Selah bids\nus dwell on the questions, so as to realise their gravity and prepare\nourselves for their answer.\n\nThe second part begins in ver. 10 with an obscure and\nmuch-commented-on verse, of which two explanations are possible,\ndepending mainly on the meanings of the two words \"sickness\" and\n\"years.\" The former word may mean \"my wounding\" or \"my sickness.\" The\nlatter is by many commentators taken to be an infinitive verb, with\nthe signification _to be changed_, and by others to be a plural noun\nmeaning \"_years_,\" as in ver. 6. Neglecting some minor differences,\nwe may say that those who understand the word to mean _being changed_\nexplain the whole thus: \"This is my wound (misery, sorrow), that the\nright hand of the Most High has changed.\" So the old versions, and\nHupfeld, Perowne, and Baethgen. But the use of the word in ver. 6 for\n\"years\" creates a strong presumption that its sense is the same here.\nAs to the other word, its force is best seen by reference to a closely\nparallel passage in Jer. x. 19--\"I said, Truly this is my grief\n(margin, _sickness_), and I must bear it\"; where the word for _grief_,\nthough not the same as in the psalm, is cognate. The most probable\nmeaning, then, for the expression here is, \"This my affliction is\nsent from God, and I must bear it with resignation.\" Then follows an\nelevating thought expressed in its simplest form like an exclamation,\n\"_the years_,\" etc.--_i.e.,_, \"I will remember (comp. ver. 6) the\ntime when the right hand of Jehovah had the pre-eminence\" (Cheyne,\n_in loc._). Delitzsch leaves the ellipsis unfilled, and takes the\nwhole to mean that the psalmist says to himself that the affliction\nallotted will only last for the time which the mighty hand of God\nhas determined. The rendering adopted above avoids the awkwardness\nof using the same word in two different senses in the same context,\nyields an appropriate meaning, especially in view of the continual\nreferences to remembering, and begins the new strophe with a new note\nof hopefulness, whereas the other renderings prolong the minor key of\nthe first part into the second. It is therefore to be preferred. The\nrevolution in feeling is abrupt. All is sunny and bright in the last\nhalf. What makes the change? The recognition of two great truths:\nfirst, that the calamity is laid on Israel, and on the psalmist as\na member of the nation, by God, and has not come because of that\nimpossible change in Him which the bitter questions had suggested;\nand, second, the unchangeable eternity of God's delivering power. That\nsecond truth comes to him as with a flash, and the broken words of\nver. 10 _b_ hail the sudden rising of the new star.\n\nThe remainder of the psalm holds fast by that thought of the great\ndeeds of God in the past. It is a signal example of how the same facts\nremembered may depress or gladden, according to the point of view from\nwhich they are regarded. We can elect whether memory shall nourish\ndespondency or gladness. Yet the alternative is not altogether a matter\nof choice; for the only people to whom \"remembering happier things\" need\nnot be \"a sorrow's crown of sorrow\" are those who see God in the past,\nand so are sure that every joy that was and is not shall yet again be,\nin more thrilling and lasting form. If He shines out on us from the\neast that we have left behind, His brightness will paint the western\nsky towards which we travel. Beneath confidence in the perpetuity of\npast blessings lies confidence in the eternity of God. The \"years of the\nright hand of the Most High\" answer all questions as to His change of\npurpose or of disposition, and supply the only firm foundation for calm\nassurance of the future. Memory supplies the colours with which Hope\npaints her truest pictures. \"That which hath been is that which shall\nbe\" may be the utterance of the _blas\u00e9_ man of the world, or of the\ndevout man who trusts in the living God, and therefore knows that\n\n \"There shall never be one lost good!\n What was shall live as before.\"\n\nThe strophe in vv. 13-15 fixes on the one great redeeming act of the\nExodus as the pledge of future deeds of a like kind, as need requires.\nThe language is deeply tinged with reminiscences of Exod. xv. \"In\nholiness\" (not \"in the sanctuary\"), the question \"Who is so great a\nGod?\" the epithet \"Who doest wonders,\" all come from Exod. xv. 11.\n\"[Thine] arm\" in the psalm recalls \"By the greatness of Thine arm\" in\nExodus (ver. 16), and the psalmist's \"redeemed Thy people\" reproduces\n\"the people which Thou hast redeemed\" (Exod. xv. 13). The separate\nmention of \"sons of Joseph\" can scarcely be accounted for, if the\npsalm is prior to the division of the kingdoms. But the purpose of the\ndesignation is doubtful. It may express the psalmist's protest against\nthe division as a breach of ancient national unity or his longings for\nreunion.\n\nThe final strophe differs from the others in structure. It contains\nfive verses instead of three, and the verses are (with the exception\nof the last) composed of three clauses each instead of two. Some\ncommentators have supposed that vv. 16-19 are an addition to the\noriginal psalm, and think that they do not cohere well with the\npreceding. This view denies that there is any allusion in the closing\nverses to the passage of the Red Sea, and takes the whole as simply a\ndescription of a theophany, like that in Psalm xviii. But surely the\nwrithing of the waters as if in pangs at the sight of God is such an\nallusion. Ver. 19, too, is best understood as referring to the path\nthrough the sea, whose waters returned and covered God's footprints\nfrom human eyes. Unless there is such a reference in vv. 16-19, the\nconnection with the preceding and with ver. 20 is no doubt loose. But\nthat is not so much a reason for denying the right of these verses\nto a place in the psalm as for recognising the reference. Why should\na mere description of a theophany, which had nothing to do with the\npsalmist's theme, have been tacked on to it? No doubt, the thunders,\nlightnings, and storm so grandly described here are unmentioned in\nExodus; and, quite possibly, may be simply poetic heightening of the\nscene, intended to suggest how majestic was the intervention which\nfreed Israel. Some commentators, indeed, have claimed the picture\nas giving additional facts concerning the passage of the Red Sea.\nDean Stanley, for example, has worked these points into his vivid\ndescription; but that carries literalism too far.\n\nThe picture in the psalm is most striking. The continuous short\nclauses crash and flash like the thunders and lightnings. That\nenergetic metaphor of the waters writhing as if panic-struck is more\nviolent than Western taste approves, but its emotional vigour as a\nrendering of the fact is unmistakable. \"Thine arrows went to and fro\"\nis a very imperfect transcript of the Hebrew, which suggests the\nswift zigzag of the fierce flashes. In ver. 18 the last word offers\nsome difficulty. It literally means _a wheel_, and is apparently\nbest rendered as above, the thunder being poetically conceived of as\nthe sound of the rolling wheels of God's chariot. There are several\ncoincidences between vv. 16-19 of the psalm and Hab. iii. 10-15:\nnamely, the expression \"writhed in pain,\" applied in Habakkuk to\nthe mountains; the word rendered \"overflowing\" (A.V.) or \"tempest\"\n(R.V.) in Hab. v. 10, cognate with the verb in ver. 17 of the psalm,\nand there rendered \"poured out\"; the designation of lightnings as\nGod's arrows. Delitzsch strongly maintains the priority of the psalm;\nHupfeld as strongly that of the prophet.\n\nThe last verse returns to the two-claused structure of the earlier part.\nIt comes in lovely contrast with the majestic and terrible picture\npreceding, like the wonderful setting forth of the purpose of the other\ntheophany in Psalm xviii., which was for no higher end than to draw one\npoor man from the mighty waters. All this pomp of Divine appearance,\nwith lightnings, thunders, a heaving earth, a shrinking sea, had for its\nend the leading the people of God to their land, as a shepherd does his\nflock. The image is again an echo of Exod. xv. 13. The thing intended is\nnot merely the passage of the Red Sea, but the whole process of guidance\nbegun there amid the darkness. Such a close is too abrupt to please\nsome commentators. But what more was needful or possible to be said, in\na retrospect of God's past acts, for the solace of a dark present? It\nwas more than enough to scatter fears and flash radiance into the gloom\nwhich had wrapped the psalmist. He need search no further. He has found\nwhat he sought; and so he hushes his song, and gazes in silence on the\nall-sufficient answer which memory has brought to all his questions and\ndoubts. Nothing could more completely express the living, ever-present\nworth of the ancient deeds of God than the \"abruptness\" with which this\npsalm ceases rather than ends.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXVIII.\n\n 1 Give ear, my people, to my law,\n Bow your ear to the sayings of my mouth.\n 2 I will open my mouth in a parable,\n I will utter riddles from the ancient days,\n 3 What we have heard and known\n And our fathers have told us,\n 4 We will not hide from their sons,\n Recounting to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah,\n And His might and the wonders that He has done.\n\n 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob,\n And appointed a law in Israel,\n Which He commanded our fathers\n To make known to their children;\n 6 In order that the generation to come might know,\n The children who should be born,\n [Who] should rise up and tell to their children,\n 7 That they might place their confidence in God,\n And not forget the deeds of God,\n But keep His commandments;\n 8 And not be as their fathers,\n A stubborn and rebellious generation,\n A generation that did not make its heart steadfast,\n And whose spirit was not faithful towards God.\n\n 9 The children of Ephraim, bearing [and] drawing bows,\n Turned back in the day of onset.\n 10 They kept not the covenant of God,\n And in His law they refused to walk,\n 11 And they forgot His doings,\n And the wonders which He had showed them.\n 12 Before their fathers He did marvels,\n In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.\n 13 He cleft the sea and let them pass through,\n And He reared up the waters like a heap of corn,\n 14 And He guided them in a cloud by day\n And all night in a fiery light.\n 15 He cleft rocks in the wilderness,\n And gave them drink abundantly, as [from] ocean depths.\n 16 And He brought forth streams from the cliff,\n And made waters to flow down like rivers.\n\n 17 But they went on to sin yet more against Him,\n To rebel against the Most High in the desert.\n 18 And they tempted God in their heart,\n In asking meat after their desire.\n 19 And they spoke against God, they said,\n \"Is God able to spread a table in the wilderness?\n 20 Behold, He struck a rock, and waters gushed forth,\n And torrents flowed out.\n Is He able to give bread also?\n Or will He prepare flesh for His people?\"\n\n 21 Jehovah heard and was wroth,\n And a fire was kindled in Jacob,\n And wrath also went up against Israel.\n 22 For they did not believe in God,\n And trusted not in His salvation.\n 23 And He commanded the clouds above,\n And opened the doors of heaven,\n 24 And rained upon them manna to eat,\n And gave them the corn of heaven.\n 25 Men did eat the bread of the Mighty Ones;\n He sent them sustenance to the full.\n\n 26 He made the east wind go forth in the heavens,\n And guided the south wind by His power;\n 27 And He rained flesh upon them like dust,\n And winged fowls like the sand of the seas,\n 28 And let it fall in the midst of their camp,\n Round about their habitations.\n 29 So they ate and were surfeited,\n And their desires He brought to them.\n\n 30 They were not estranged from their desires\n Their food was yet in their mouths.\n 31 And the wrath of God rose against them,\n And slew the fattest of them,\n And struck down the young men of Israel.\n 32 For all this they sinned yet more,\n And believed not in His wonders.\n 33 So He made their days to vanish like a breath,\n And their years in suddenness.\n\n 34 When He slew them, then they inquired after Him,\n And returned and sought God earnestly.\n 35 And they remembered that God was their rock,\n And God Most High their redeemer.\n 36 And they flattered Him with their mouth,\n And with their tongue they lied to Him,\n 37 And their heart was not steadfast with Him,\n And they were not faithful to His covenant.\n\n 38 But He is compassionate, covers iniquity, and destroys not;\n Yea, many a time He takes back His anger,\n And rouses not all His wrath.\n 39 So He remembered that they were [but] flesh,\n A wind that goes and comes not again.\n\n 40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness,\n Did they grieve Him in the desert!\n 41 Yea, again and again they tempted God,\n And the Holy One of Israel they vexed.\n 42 They remembered not His hand,\n The day when He set them free from the adversary,\n 43 When He set forth His signs in Egypt,\n And His wonders in the field of Zoan.\n 44 And He turned to blood their Nile streams,\n And their streams they could not drink.\n\n 45 He sent amongst them flies that devoured them,\n And frogs that destroyed them.\n 46 And He gave their increase to the caterpillar,\n And their toil to the locust.\n 47 He killed their vines with hail,\n And their sycamores with frost. [?]\n 48 And He gave their cattle up to the hail,\n And their flocks to the lightnings.\n\n 49 He sent against them the heat of His anger,\n Wrath and indignation and trouble,\n A mission of angels of evil.\n 50 He levelled a path for His anger,\n He spared not their souls from death,\n But delivered over their life to the pestilence.\n 51 And He smote all the first-born of Egypt,\n The firstlings of [their] strength in the tents of Ham.\n\n 52 And He made His people go forth like sheep,\n And guided them like a flock in the desert.\n 53 And He led them safely, that they did not fear,\n And the sea covered their enemies.\n 54 And He brought them to His holy border,\n This mountain, which His right hand had won.\n 55 And He drove out the nations before them,\n And allotted them by line as an inheritance,\n And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.\n\n 56 But they tempted and provoked God Most High,\n And His testimonies they did not keep.\n 57 And they turned back and were faithless like their fathers,\n They were turned aside like a deceitful bow;\n 58 And they provoked Him to anger with their high places,\n And with their graven images they moved Him to jealousy.\n 59 God heard and was wroth,\n And loathed Israel exceedingly.\n\n 60 So that He rejected the habitation of Shiloh,\n The tent [which] He had pitched among men.\n 61 And He gave His strength to captivity,\n And His beauty into the hand of the adversary.\n 62 And He delivered His people to the sword,\n And against His inheritance He was wroth.\n 63 Their young men the fire devoured,\n And their maidens were not praised in the marriage-song.\n 64 Their priests fell by the sword,\n And their widows made no lamentation.\n\n 65 Then the Lord awoke as one that had slept,\n Like a warrior shouting because of wine.\n 66 And He beat His adversaries back,\n He put on them a perpetual reproach.\n 67 And He loathed the tent of Joseph,\n And the tribe of Ephraim He did not choose.\n 68 But He chose the tribe of Judah,\n Mount Zion, which He loved.\n\n 69 And He built His sanctuary like [heavenly] heights,\n Like the earth which He has founded for ever.\n 70 And He chose David His servant,\n And took him from the sheepfolds;\n 71 From following the ewes that give suck, He brought him\n To feed Jacob His people,\n And Israel His inheritance.\n 72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart,\n And with the skilfulness of his hands he guided them.\n\n\nThis psalm is closely related to Psalms cv.-cvii.\n\nLike them, it treats the history of Israel, and especially the Exodus\nand wilderness wanderings, for purposes of edification, rebuke,\nand encouragement. The past is held up as a mirror to the present\ngeneration. It has been one long succession of miracles of mercy met\nby equally continuous ingratitude, which has ever been punished by\nnational calamities. The psalm departs singularly from chronological\norder. It arranges its contents in two principal masses, each\nintroduced by the same formula (vv. 12, 43) referring to \"wonders in\nEgypt and the field of Zoan.\" But the first mass has nothing to do\nwith Egypt, but begins with the passage of the Red Sea, and is wholly\noccupied with the wilderness. The second group of wonders begins in\nver. 44 with the plagues of Egypt, touches lightly on the wilderness\nhistory, and then passes to the early history of Israel when settled\nin the land, and finishes with the establishment of David on the\nthrone. It is difficult to account for this singular _bouleversement_\nof the history. But the conjecture may be hazarded that its reason\nlies in the better illustration of continual interlacing of mercy\nand unthankfulness afforded by the events in the wilderness, than by\nthe plagues of Egypt. That interlacing is the main point on which\nthe psalmist wishes to lay stress, and therefore he begins with the\nmost striking example of it. The use of the formula in ver. 12 looks\nas if his original intention had been to follow the order of time.\nAnother peculiarity is the prominence given to Ephraim, both in ver.\n9 as a type of faithlessness, and in ver. 67 as rejected in favour of\nJudah. These references naturally point to the date of the psalm as\nbeing subsequent to the separation of the kingdoms; but whether it is\nmeant as rebuke to the northern kingdom, or as warning to Judah from\nthe fate of Ephraim, is not clear. Nor are there materials for closer\ndetermination of date. The tone of the closing reference to David\nimplies that his accession belongs to somewhat remote times.\n\nThere are no regular strophes, but a tendency to run into paragraphs\nof four verses, with occasional irregularities.\n\nVv. 1-4 declare the singer's didactic purpose. He deeply feels the\nsolidarity of the nation through all generations--how fathers and\nchildren are knit by mystic ties, and by possession of an eternal\ntreasure, the mighty deeds of God, of which they are bound to pass on\nthe record from age to age. The history of ancient days is \"a parable\"\nand a \"riddle\" or \"dark saying,\" as containing examples of great\nprinciples, and lessons which need reflection to discern and draw out.\nFrom that point of view, the psalmist will sum up the past. He is not\na chronicler, but a religious teacher. His purpose is edification,\nrebuke, encouragement, the deepening of godly fear and obedience. In a\nword, he means to give the spirit of the nation's history.\n\nVv. 5-8 base this purpose on God's declared will that the knowledge of\nHis deeds for Israel might be handed down from fathers to sons. The\nobligations of parents for the religious training of their children,\nthe true bond of family unity, the ancient order of things when oral\ntradition was the principal means of preserving national history,\nthe peculiarity of this nation's annals, as celebrating no heroes\nand recording only the deeds of God by men, the contrast between the\nchanging bearers of the story and the undying deeds which they had\nto tell, are all expressed in these verses, so pathetic in their\ngaze upon the linked series of short-lived men, so stern in their\nfinal declaration that Divine commandment and mercy had been in\nvain, and that, instead of a tradition of goodness, there had been\na transmission of stubbornness and departure from God, repeating\nitself with tragic uniformity. The devout poet, who knows what God\nmeant family life to be and to do, sadly recognises the grim contrast\npresented by its reality. But yet he will make one more attempt to\nbreak the flow of evil from father to son. Perhaps his contemporaries\nwill listen and shake themselves clear of this entail of disobedience.\n\nThe reference to Ephraim in vv. 9-11 is not to be taken as alluding\nto any cowardly retreat from actual battle. Ver. 9 seems to be a\npurely figurative way of expressing what is put without a metaphor in\nthe two following verses. Ephraim's revolt from God's covenant was\nlike the conduct of soldiers, well armed and refusing to charge the\nfoe. The better their weapons, the greater the cowardice and ignominy\nof the recreants. So the faithlessness of Ephraim was made darker\nin criminality by its knowledge of God and experience of His mercy.\nThese should have knit the tribe to Him. A general truth of wide\napplication is implied--that the measure of capacity is the measure of\nobligation. Guilt increases with endowment, if the latter is misused.\nA poor soldier, with no weapon but a sling or a stick, might sooner be\nexcused for flight than a fully armed archer. The mention of Ephraim\nas prominent in faithlessness may be an allusion to the separation\nof the kingdoms. That allusion has been denied on the ground that it\nis the wilderness history which is here before the psalmist's mind.\nBut the historical retrospect does not begin till ver. 12, and this\nintroduction may well deal with an event later than those detailed in\nthe following verses. Whether the revolt of the Ten Tribes is here in\nview or not, the psalmist sees that the wayward and powerful tribe of\nEphraim had been a centre of religious disaffection, and there is no\nreason why his view should not be believed, or should be supposed to\nbe due to mere prejudiced hostility.\n\nThe historical details begin with ver. 12, but, as has been noticed\nabove, the psalmist seems to change his intention of first narrating\nthe wonders in Egypt, and passes on to dilate on the wilderness\nhistory. \"The field of Zoan\" is the territory of the famous Egyptian\ncity of Tzan, and seems equivalent to the Land of Goshen. The wonders\nenumerated are the familiar ones of the passage of the Red Sea, the\nguidance by the pillar of cloud and fire, and the miraculous supply of\nwater from the rock. In vv. 15, 16, the poet brings together the two\ninstances of such supply, which were separated from each other by the\nforty years of wandering, the first having occurred at Horeb in the\nfirst year, and the second at Kadesh in the last year. The two words\n\"rocks,\" in ver. 15, and \"cliff,\" in ver. 16, are taken from the two\nnarratives of these miracles, in Exod. xvii. and Numb. xx.\n\nThe group of four verses (13-16) sets forth God's mighty deeds; the next\nquartet of verses (17-20) tells of Israel's requital. It is significant\nof the thoughts which filled the singer's heart, that he begins the\nlatter group with declaring that, notwithstanding such tokens of God's\ncare, the people \"went on to sin yet more,\" though he had specified no\nprevious acts of sin. He combines widely separated instances of their\nmurmurings, as he had combined distant instances of God's miraculous\nsupply of water. The complaints which preceded the fall of the manna\nand the first supply of quails (Exod. xvi.), and those which led to\nthe second giving of these (Numb. xi.) are thrown together, as one in\nkind. The speech put into the mouths of the murmurers in vv. 19, 20, is\na poetic casting into bitter, blasphemous words of the half-conscious\nthoughts of the faithless, sensuous crowd. They are represented as\nalmost upbraiding God with His miracle, as quite unmoved to trust by\nit, and as thinking that it has exhausted His power. When they were\nhalf dead with thirst, they thought much of the water, but now they\ndepreciate that past wonder as a comparatively small thing. So, to the\nchurlish heart, which cherishes eager desires after some unattained\nearthly good, past blessings diminish as they recede, and leave neither\nthankfulness nor trust. There is a dash of intense bitterness and\nironical making light of their relation to God in their question,\n\"Can He provide flesh for _His people_?\" Much good that name has done\nus, starving here! The root of all this blasphemous talk was sensuous\ndesire; and because the people yielded to it, they \"tempted God\"--that\nis, they \"unbelievingly and defiantly demanded, instead of trustfully\nwaiting and praying\" (Delitzsch). To ask food for their desires was sin;\nto ask it for their need would have been faith.\n\nIn ver. 21 the allusion is to the \"fire of the Lord,\" which, according\nto Numb. xi. 3, burnt in the camp, just before the second giving of\nquails. It comes in here out of chronological order, for the sending\nof manna follows it; but the psalmist's didactic purpose renders him\nindifferent to chronology. The manna is called \"corn of heaven\" and\n\"bread of the Mighty Ones\"--_i.e._, angels, as the LXX. renders the\nword. Both designations point to its heavenly origin, without its\nbeing necessary to suppose that the poet thought of angels as really\neating it. The description of the fall of the quails (vv. 26-29) is\ntouched with imaginative beauty. The word rendered above \"made to go\nforth\" is originally applied to the breaking up an encampment, and\nthat rendered \"guided\" to a shepherd's leading of his flock. Both\nwords are found in the Pentateuch, the former in reference to the wind\nthat brought the quails (Numb. xi. 31), the latter in reference to\nthat which brought the plague of locusts (Exod. x. 13). So the winds\nare conceived of as God's servants, issuing from their tents at His\ncommand, and guided by Him as a shepherd leads his sheep. \"He let it\nfall in the midst of their camp\" graphically describes the dropping\ndown of the wearied, storm-beaten birds.\n\nVv. 30-33 paint the swift punishment of the people's unbelief, in\nlanguage almost identical with Numb. xi. 33. The psalmist twice\nstigmatises their sin as \"lust,\" and uses the word which enters\ninto the tragical name given to the scene of the sin and the\npunishment--Kibroth-Hat _taavah_ (the graves of Lust). In vv. 32, 33,\nthe faint-hearted despondency after the return of the spies, and the\npunishment of it by the sentence of death on all that generation, seem\nto be alluded to.\n\nThe next group of four verses describes the people's superficial and\ntransient repentance, \"When He slew them they sought Him\"--_i.e._,\nwhen the fiery serpents were sent among them. But such seeking after\nGod, which is properly not seeking Him at all, but only seeking to\nescape from evil, neither goes deep nor lasts long. Thus the end of it\nwas only lip reverence, proved to be false by life, and soon ended.\n\"Their heart was not steadfast.\" The pressure being removed, they\nreturned to their habitual position, as all such penitents do.\n\nFrom the midst of this sad narrative of faithlessness, springs up,\nlike a fountain in a weary land, or a flower among half-cooled lava\nblocks, the lovely description of God's forbearance in vv. 38, 39.\nIt must not be read as if it merely carried on the narrative, and\nwas in continuation of the preceding clauses. The psalmist does not\nsay \"He _was_ full of compassion,\" though that would be much, in\nthe circumstances; but he is declaring God's eternal character. His\ncompassions are unfailing. It is always His wont to cover sin and to\nspare. Therefore He exercised these gracious forbearances towards\nthose obstinate transgressors. He was true to His own compassion in\nremembering their mortality and feebleness. What a melancholy sound,\nas of wind blowing among forgotten graves, has that summing up of\nhuman life as \"a breath that goes and comes not again\"!\n\nWith ver. 40 the second portion of the psalm may be regarded as\nbeginning. The first group of historical details dealt first with\nGod's mercies, and passed on to man's requital. The second starts\nwith man's ingratitude, which it paints in the darkest colours,\nas provoking Him, grieving Him, tempting Him, and vexing Him. The\npsalmist is not afraid to represent God as affected with such emotions\nby reason of men's indifference and unbelief. His language is not to\nbe waved aside as anthropomorphic and antiquated. No doubt, we come\nnearer to the unattainable truth, when we conceive of God as grieved\nby men's sins and delighting in their trust, than when we think of Him\nas an impassive Infinitude, serenely indifferent to tortured or sinful\nhearts. For is not His name of names Love?\n\nThe psalmist traces Israel's sin to forgetfulness of God's mercy,\nand thus glides into a swift summing up of the plagues of Egypt,\nregarded as conducing to Israel's deliverance. They are not arranged\nchronologically, though the list begins with the first. Then follow\nthree of those in which animals were the destroyers: namely, the\nfourth, that of flies; the second, that of frogs; and the eighth,\nthat of locusts. Then comes the seventh, that of hail; and, according\nto some commentators, the fifth, that of the murrain, in ver. 49,\nfollowed by the tenth in ver. 51. But the grand, sombre imagery of\nver. 49 is too majestic for such application. It rather sums up the\nwhole series of plagues, likening them to an embassy (lit., a sending)\nof angels of evil. They are a grim company to come forth from His\npresence--Wrath, Indignation, and Trouble. The same power which sent\nthem out on their errand prepared a way before them; and the crowning\njudgment, which, in the psalmist's view was also the crowning mercy,\nwas the death of the first-born.\n\nThe next quartet of verses (vv. 52-55) passes lightly over the\nwilderness history and the settlement in the land, and hastens on to\na renewed narration of repeated rebellion, which occupies the next\ngroup (vv. 56-59). These verses cover the period from the entrance on\nCanaan to the fall of the sanctuary of Shiloh, during which there was\na continual tendency to relapse into idolatry. That is the special sin\nhere charged against the Israel of the time of the Judges. The figure\nof a \"deceitful bow,\" in ver. 57, well describes the people as failing\nto fulfil the purpose of their choice by God. As such a weapon does\nnot shoot true, and makes the arrow fly wide, however well aimed and\nstrongly drawn, so Israel foiled all Divine attempts, and failed to\ncarry God's message to the world, or to fulfil His will in themselves.\nHence the next verses tell, with intense energy and pathos, the sad\nstory of Israel's humiliation under the Philistines. The language\nis extraordinarily strong in its description of God's loathing and\nrejection of the nation and sanctuary, and is instinct with sorrow,\nblended with stern recognition of His righteousness in judgment. What\na tragic picture the psalmist draws! Shiloh, the dwelling-place of\nGod, empty for evermore; the \"Glory\"--that is, the Ark--in the enemy's\nhands; everywhere stiffening corpses; a pall of silence over the land;\nno brides and no joyous bridal chaunts; the very priests massacred,\nunlamented by their widows, who had wept so many tears already that\nthe fountain of them was dried up, and even sorrowing love was dumb\nwith horror and despair!\n\nThe two last groups of verses paint God's great mercy in delivering\nthe nation from such misery. The daring figure of His awaking as from\nsleep and dashing upon Israel's foes, who are also His, with a shout\nlike that of a hero stimulated by wine, is more accordant with Eastern\nfervour than with our colder imagination; but it wonderfully expresses\nthe sudden transition from a period, during which God seemed passive\nand careless of His people's wretchedness, to one in which His power\nflashed forth triumphant for their defence. The prose fact is the long\nseries of victories over the Philistines and other oppressors, which\nculminated in the restoration of the Ark, the selection of Zion as\nits abode, which involved the rejection of Shiloh and consequently of\nEphraim (in whose territory Shiloh was), and the accession of David. The\nDavidic kingdom is, in the psalmist's view, the final form of Israel's\nnational existence; and the sanctuary, like the kingdom, is perpetual as\nthe lofty heavens or the firm earth. Nor were his visions vain, for that\nkingdom subsists and will subsist for ever, and the true sanctuary, the\ndwelling-place of God among men, is still more closely intertwined with\nthe kingdom and its King than the psalmist knew. The perpetual duration\nof both is, in truth, the greatest of God's mercies, outshining all\nearlier deliverances; and they who truly have become the subjects of the\nChrist, the King of Israel and of the world, and who dwell with God in\nHis house, by dwelling with Jesus, will not rebel against Him any more,\nnor ever forget His wonders, but faithfully tell them to the generations\nto come.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXIX.\n\n 1 O God, [the] heathen have come into Thine inheritance,\n They have profaned Thy holy Temple,\n They have made Jerusalem heaps of stones.\n 2 They have given the corpses of Thy servants [as] meat to the fowls\n of the heavens,\n The flesh of Thy favoured Ones to the beasts of the earth.\n 3 They have poured out their blood like water round Jerusalem,\n And there was none to bury [them].\n 4 We have become a reproach to our neighbours,\n A scoff and a scorn to those round us.\n\n 5 How long, Jehovah, wilt Thou be angry for ever?\n [How long] shall Thy jealousy burn like fire?\n 6 Pour out Thy wrath upon the heathen who know Thee not,\n And upon [the] kingdoms which call not upon Thy name.\n 7 For they have eaten up Jacob,\n And his pasture have they laid waste.\n 8 Remember not against us the iniquities of those before us,\n Speedily let Thy compassions [come to] meet us,\n For we are brought very low.\n\n 9 Help us, O God, for the sake of the glory of Thy name,\n And deliver us, and cover over our sins for the sake of Thy name.\n 10 Why should the heathen say, Where is their God?\n Let there be known among the heathen before our eyes\n The revenging of the blood of Thy servants which is poured out.\n 11 Let there come before Thee the groaning of the captive,\n According to the greatness of Thine arm preserve the sons of death.\n 12 And return to our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom\n Their reproach [with] which they have reproached Thee, O Lord.\n\n 13 And we, we the people and the flock of Thy pasture,\n Will thank Thee for ever;\n To generation after generation will we recount Thy praise.\n\n\nThe same national agony which was the theme of Psalm lxxiv. forced\nthe sad strains of this psalm from the singer's heart. There, the\nprofanation of the Temple, and here, the destruction of the city, are\nthe more prominent. There, the dishonour to God; here, the distresses\nof His people, are set forth. Consequently, confession of sin is\nmore appropriate here, and prayers for pardon blend with those for\ndeliverance. But the tone of both psalms is the same, and there are\nsimilarities of expression which favour, though they do not demand,\nthe hypothesis that the author is the same. Such similarities are the\n\"how long\" (lxxiv. 10 and lxxix. 5); the desecration of the Temple\n(lxxiv. 3, 7, and lxxix. 1); the giving over to wild beasts (lxxiv.\n19, and lxxix. 2); the reproach of God (lxxiv. 10, 18, 22, and lxxix.\n12). The comparison of Israel to a flock is found in both psalms, but\nin others of the Asaph group also.\n\nThe same remarks which were made as to the date of the former psalm\napply in this case. Two arguments have, however, been urged against\nthe Maccabean date. The first is that drawn from the occurrence of\nvv. 6, 7, in Jer. x. 25. It is contended that Jeremiah is in the\nhabit of borrowing from earlier writers, that the verse immediately\npreceding that in question is quoted from Psalm vi. 1, and that the\nconnection of the passage in the psalm is closer than in the prophet,\nand, therefore, that the words are presumably _in situ_ here, as also\nthat the verbal alterations are such as to suggest that the prophet\nrather than the psalmist is the adapter. But, on the other hand,\nHupfeld maintains that the connection in Jeremiah is the closer. Not\nmuch weight can be attached to that point, for neither prophet nor\npoet can be tied down to cool concatenation of sentences. Delitzsch\nclaims the verbal alterations as indubitable proofs of the priority\nof the prophet, and maintains that \"the borrower betrays himself\" by\nchanging the prophet's words into less accurate and elegant ones,\nand by omissions which impair \"the soaring fulness of Jeremiah's\nexpressions.\" The critics who hold that the psalm refers to the\nChaldean invasion, and that Jeremiah has borrowed from it, have to\nface a formidable difficulty. The psalm must have been written after\nthe catastrophe: the prophecy preceded it. How then can the prophet be\nquoting the psalm? The question has not been satisfactorily answered,\nnor is it likely to be.\n\nA second argument against the Maccabean date is based upon the\nquotation of ver. 3 in 1 Macc. vii. 16, which it introduces by\nthe usual formula of quotation from Scripture. It is urged that a\ncomposition so recent as the psalm would be, if of Maccabean date,\nwould not be likely to be thus referred to. But this argument confuses\nthe date of occurrence recorded in 1 Maccabees with the date of the\nrecord; and there is no improbability in the writer of the book\nquoting as Scripture a psalm which had sprung from the midst of the\ntragedy which he narrates.\n\nThe strophical division is not perfectly clear, but it is probably\nbest to recognise three strophes of four verses each, with an\nappended verse of conclusion. The first spreads before God His\npeoples miseries. The second and third are prayer for deliverance\nand confession of sin; but they differ, in that the former strophe\ndwells mainly upon the wished-for destruction of the enemy, and the\nlatter upon the rescue of Israel, while a subordinate diversity is\nthat ancestral sins are confessed in the one, and those of the present\ngeneration in the other. Ver. 13 stands out of the strophe scheme as\na kind of epilogue.\n\nThe first strophe vividly describes the ghastly sights that wrung\nthe psalmist's heart, and will, as he trusts, move God's to pity and\nhelp. The same thought as was expressed in Psalm lxxiv. underlies the\nemphatic repetition of \"Thy\" in this strophe--namely, the implication\nof God's fair name in His people's disasters. \"_Thine_ inheritance\"\nis invaded, and \"_Thy_ holy Temple\" defiled by thee \"heathen.\" The\ncorpses of \"_Thy_ servants\" lie unburied, torn by vultures' beaks\nand jackals' claws. The blood of \"_Thy_ favoured Ones\" saturates the\nground. It was not easy to hold fast by the reality of God's special\nrelation to a nation thus apparently deserted, but the psalmist's\nfaith stood even such a strain, and is not dashed by a trace of doubt.\nSuch times are the test and triumph of trust. If genuine, it will show\nbrightest against the blackest background. The word in ver. 1 rendered\n\"heathen\" is usually translated \"nations,\" but here evidently connotes\nidolatry (ver. 6). Their worship of strange gods, rather than their\nalien nationality, makes their invasion of God's inheritance a tragic\nanomaly. The psalmist remembers the prophecy of Micah (iii. 12) that\nJerusalem should become heaps, and sadly repeats it as fulfilled at\nlast. As already noticed, ver. 3 is quoted in 1 Macc. vii. 16, 17,\nand ver. 4 is found in Psalm xliv. 13, which is by many commentators\nreferred to the Maccabean period.\n\nThe second strophe passes to direct petition, which, as it were, gives\nvoice to the stiffened corpses strewing the streets, and the righteous\nblood crying from the ground. The psalmist goes straight to the cause of\ncalamity--the anger of God--and, in the close of the strophe, confesses\nthe sins which had kindled it. Beneath the play of politics and the\nmadness of Antiochus, he discerned God's hand at work. He reiterates the\nfundamental lesson, which prophets were never weary of teaching, that\nnational disasters are caused by the anger of God, which is excited by\nnational sins. That conviction is the first element in his petitions.\nA second is the twin conviction that the \"heathen\" are used by God as\nHis instrument of chastisement, but that, when they have done their\nwork, they are called to account for the human passion--cruelty, lust of\nconquest, and the like--which impelled them to it. Even as they poured\nout the blood of God's people, they have God's wrath poured out on them,\nbecause \"they have eaten up Jacob.\"\n\nThe same double point of view is frequently taken by the prophets: for\nexample, in Isaiah's magnificent prophecy against \"the Assyrian\" (x.\n5 _seq._), where the conqueror is first addressed as \"the rod of Mine\nanger,\" and then his \"punishment\" is foretold, because, while executing\nGod's purpose, he had been unconscious of his mission, and had been\ngratifying his ambition. These two convictions go very deep into \"the\nphilosophy of history.\" Though modified in their application to modern\nstates and politics, they are true in substance still. The Goths who\nswept down on Rome, the Arabs who crushed a corrupt Christianity, the\nFrench who stormed across Europe, were God's scavengers, gathered\nvulture-like round carrion, but they were each responsible for their\ncruelty, and were punished \"for the fruit of their stout hearts.\"\n\nThe closing verse of the strophe (ver. 8) is intimately connected\nwith the next, which we take as beginning the third strophe: but this\nconnection does not set aside the strophical division, though it\nsomewhat obscures it. The distinction between the similar petitions of\nvv. 8, 9, is sufficient to warrant our recognition of that division,\neven whilst acknowledging that the two parts coalesce more closely\nthan usual. The psalmist knows that the heathen have been hurled\nagainst Israel because God is angry; and he knows that God's anger is\nno arbitrarily kindled flame, but one lit and fed by Israel's sins. He\nknows, too, that there is a fatal entail by which the iniquities of\nthe fathers are visited on the children. Therefore, he asks first that\nthese ancestral sins may not be \"remembered,\" nor their consequences\ndischarged on the children's heads. \"The evil that men do lives after\nthem,\" and history affords abundant instances of the accumulated\nconsequences of ancestors' crimes lighting on descendants that had\nabandoned the ancient evil, and were possibly doing their best to\nredress it. Guilt is not transmitted, but results of wrong are; and\nit is one of the tragedies of history that \"one soweth and another\nreapeth\" the bitter fruit. Upon one generation may, and often does,\ncome the blood of all the righteous men that many generations have\nslain (Matt. xxiii. 35).\n\nThe last strophe (vv. 9-12) continues the strain begun in ver. 8, but\nwith significant deepening into confession of the sins of the existing\ngeneration. The psalmist knows that the present disaster is no case\nof the fathers having eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth\nbeing set on edge, but that he and his contemporaries had repeated\nthe fathers transgressions. The ground of his plea for cleansing and\ndeliverance is the glory of God's name, which he emphatically puts\nat the end of both clauses of ver. 9. He repeats the same thought in\nanother form in the question of ver. 10, \"Why should the heathen say,\nWhere is their God?\" If Israel, sinful though it is, and therefore\nmeriting chastisement, is destroyed, there will be a blot on God's\nname, and the \"heathen\" will take it as proof, not that Israel's God\nwas just, but that He was too feeble or too far off to hear prayers or\nto send succours. It is bold faith which blends acknowledgment of sins\nwith such a conviction of the inextricable intertwining of God's glory\nand the sinners' deliverance. Lowly confession is wonderfully wedded\nto confidence that seems almost too lofty. But the confidence is in\nits inmost core as lowly as the confession, for it disclaims all right\nto God's help, and clasps His name as its only but sufficient plea.\n\nThe final strophe dwells more on the sufferings of the survivors than\nthe earlier parts of the psalm do, and in this respect contrasts with\nPsalm lxxiv., which is all but entirely silent as to these. Not only\ndoes the spilt blood of dead confessors cry for vengeance, since they\ndied for their faith, as \"Thy servants,\" but the groans and sighs of\nthe living who are captives, and \"sons of death\"--_i.e._, doomed to\ndie, if unrescued by God--appeal to Him. The expressions \"the groaning\nof the captive\" and \"the sons of death\" occur in Psalm cii. 20, from\nwhich, if this is a composition of Maccabean date, they are here\nquoted. The strophe ends with recurring to the central thought of both\nthis and the companion psalm--the reproach on God from His servants'\ncalamities--and prays that the enemies' taunts may be paid back into\ntheir bosoms sevenfold--_i.e._, in fullest measure.\n\nThe epilogue in ver. 13 has the image of a flock, so frequent in the\nAsaph psalms, suggesting tender thoughts of the shepherd's care and\nof his obligations. Deliverance will evoke praise, and, instead of\nthe sad succession of sin and suffering from generation to generation,\nthe solidarity of the nation will be more happily expressed by ringing\nsongs, transmitted from father to son, and gathering volume as they\nflow from age to age.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXX.\n\n 1 Shepherd of Israel, give ear,\n Thou who leddest Joseph like a flock,\n Thou that sittest [throned upon] the cherubim, shine forth.\n 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength,\n And come for salvation for us.\n 3 O God, restore us,\n And cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.\n\n 4 Jehovah, God [of] Hosts,\n How long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people?\n 5 Thou hast made them eat tears [as] bread,\n And hast given them to drink [of] tears in large measure.\n 6 Thou makest us a strife to our neighbours,\n And our enemies mock to their hearts' content.\n 7 God [of] Hosts, restore us,\n And cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.\n\n 8 A vine out of Egypt didst Thou transplant,\n Thou didst drive out the nations and plant it.\n 9 Thou didst clear a place before it,\n And it threw out its roots and filled the land.\n 10 The mountains were covered with its shadow,\n And its branches [were like] the cedars of God.\n 11 It spread its boughs [even] unto the sea,\n And to the River its shoots.\n\n 12 Why hast Thou broken down its fences,\n So that all who pass on the way pluck from it?\n 13 The boar of the wood roots it up\n And the beasts of the field feed on it.\n 14 God [of] Hosts, turn, we beseech Thee,\n Look from heaven and see,\n And visit this vine.\n 15 And protect what Thy right hand has planted,\n And the son whom Thou madest strong for Thyself.\n 16 Burned with fire is it--cut down;\n At the rebuke of Thy countenance they perish.\n 17 Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand,\n Upon the son of man [whom] Thou madest strong for Thyself.\n 18 And we will not go back from Thee;\n Revive us, and we will invoke Thy name.\n 19 Jehovah, God [of] Hosts, restore us,\n And cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.\n\n\nThis psalm is a monument of some time of great national calamity; but\nits allusions do not enable us to reach certainty as to what that\ncalamity was. Two striking features of it have been used as clues\nto its occasion--namely, the designation of the nation as \"Joseph,\"\nand the mention of the three tribes in ver. 2. Calvin, Delitzsch,\nHengstenberg, and others are led thereby to regard it as a prayer\nby an inhabitant of Judah for the captive children of the northern\nkingdom; while others, as Cheyne, consider that only the Persian\nperiod explains the usage in question. The name of \"Joseph\" is applied\nto the whole nation in other Asaph psalms (lxxvii. 15; lxxxi. 5). It\nis tempting to suppose, with Hupfeld, that this nomenclature indicates\nthat the ancient antagonism of the kingdoms has passed away with the\ncaptivity of the Ten Tribes, and that the psalmist, a singer in Judah,\nlooks wistfully to the ideal unity, yearns to see breaches healed,\nand the old associations of happier days, when \"Ephraim and Benjamin\nand Manasseh\" encamped side by side in the desert, and marched one\nafter the other, renewed in a restored Israel. If this explanation of\nthe mention of the tribes is adopted, the psalm falls in some period\nafter the destruction of the northern kingdom, but prior to that of\nJudah. The prayer in the refrain \"turn us\" might, indeed, mean \"bring\nus back from exile,\" but may as accurately be regarded as asking for\nrestored prosperity--an explanation which accords better with the rest\nof the psalm. We take the whole, then, as a prayer for the nation,\nconceived of in its original, long-broken unity. It looks back to the\nDivine purpose as expressed in ancient deeds of deliverance, and prays\nthat it may be fulfilled, notwithstanding apparent thwarting. Closer\ndefinition of date is unattainable.\n\nThe triple refrain in vv. 3, 7, 19, divides the psalm into three\nunequal parts. The last of these is disproportionately long, and may\nbe further broken up into three parts, of which the first (vv. 8-11)\ndescribes the luxuriant growth of Israel under the parable of a vine,\nthe second (vv. 12-14) brings to view the bitter contrast of present\nruin, and, with an imperfect echo of the refrain, melts into the\npetitioning tone of the third (vv. 15-19), which is all prayer.\n\nIn the first strophe \"Shepherd of Israel\" reminds us of Jacob's\nblessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, in which he invoked \"the God who\nshepherded me all my life long\" to \"bless the lads,\" and of the title\nin Gen. xlix. 24, \"the shepherd, the stone of Israel.\" The comparison\nof the nation to a flock is characteristic of the Asaph psalms, and\nhere refers to the guidance of the people at the Exodus. Delitzsch\nregards the notions of the earthly and heavenly sanctuary as being\nblended in the designation of God as sitting throned on the cherubim,\nbut it is better to take the reference as being to His dwelling in the\nTemple. The word rendered \"shine forth\" occurs in Psalm l. 2, where\nit expresses His coming from \"Zion,\" and so it does here. The same\nmetaphor underlies the subsequent petition in ver. 3. In both God is\nthought of as light, and the manifestation of His delivering help is\nlikened to the blazing out of the sun from behind a cloud.\n\nIn reference to the mention of the tribes in ver. 2, we need only\nadd to what has been already said, that the petitions of ver. 1,\nwhich look back to the wilderness marches, when the Ark led the van,\nnaturally suggested the mention of the three tribes who were together\nreckoned as \"the camp of Ephraim,\" and who, in the removal of the\nencampment, \"set forth third\"--that is, immediately in the rear of the\ntabernacle. The order of march explains not only the collocation here,\nbut the use of the word \"Before.\" Joseph and Benjamin were children of\nthe same mother, and the schism which parted their descendants is, to\nthe psalmist's faith, as transient as unnatural. Once again shall the\nold unity be seen, when the brothers' sons shall again dwell and fight\nside by side, and God shall again go forth before them for victory.\n\nThe prayer of the refrain, \"turn us,\" is not to be taken as for\nrestoration from exile, which is negatived by the whole tone of the\npsalm, nor as for spiritual quickening, but simply asks for the return\nof the glories of ancient days. The petition that God would let\nHis face shine upon the nation alludes to the priestly benediction\n(Numb. vi. 25), thus again carrying us back to the wilderness. Such\na flashing forth is all that is needed to change blackest night into\nday. To be \"saved\" means here to be rescued from the assaults of\nhostile nations. The poet was sure that Israel's sole defence was God,\nand that one gleam of His face would shrivel up the strongest foes,\nlike unclean, slimy creatures which writhe and die in sunshine. The\nsame conviction is valid in a higher sphere. Whatever elevation of\nmeaning is given to \"saved,\" the condition of it is always this--the\nmanifestation of God's face. That brings light into all dark hearts.\nTo behold that light, and to walk in it, and to be transformed by\nbeholding, as they are who lovingly and steadfastly gaze, is salvation.\n\nA piteous tale of suffering is wailed forth in the second strophe.\nThe peculiar accumulation of the Divine names in vv. 4, 19, is found\nalso in Psalms lix. 5 and lxxxiv. 8. It is grammatically anomalous,\nas the word for God (Elohim) does not undergo the modification\nwhich would show that the next word is to be connected with it by\n\"of.\" Hence, some have regarded \"Ts'bhaoth\" (hosts) as being almost\nequivalent to a proper name of God, which it afterwards undoubtedly\nbecame; while others have explained the construction by supposing the\nphrase to be elliptical, requiring after \"God\" the supplement \"God\nof.\" This accumulation of Divine names is by some taken as a sign of\nlate date. Is it not a mark of the psalmist's intensity rather than\nof his period? In accordance with the Elohistic character of the\nAsaph psalms, the common expression \"Jehovah of Hosts\" is expanded;\nbut the hypothesis that the expansion was the work of a redactor is\nunnecessary. It may quite as well have been that of the author.\n\nThe urgent question \"How long?\" is not petulant impatience, but\nhope deferred, and, though sick at heart, still cleaving to God and\nremonstrating for long-protracted calamities. The bold imagery of ver.\n4 _b_ cannot well be reproduced in translation. The rendering \"wilt\nThou be angry?\" is but a feeble reproduction of the vigorous original,\nwhich runs \"wilt Thou smoke?\" Other psalms (_e.g._, lxxiv. 1) speak\nof God's anger as smoking, but here the figure is applied to God\nHimself. What a contrast it presents to the petition in the refrain!\nThat \"light\" of Israel has become \"as a flaming fire.\" A terrible\npossibility of darkening and consuming wrath lies in the Divine\nnature, and the very emblem of light suggests it. It is questionable\nwhether the following words should be rendered \"against the prayer\nof Thy people,\" or \"while Thy people are praying\" (Delitzsch). The\nformer meaning is in accordance with the Hebrew, with other Scripture\npassages, and with the tone of the psalm, and is to be preferred,\nas more forcibly putting the anomaly of an unanswering God. Ver. 5\npresents the national sorrows under familiar figures. The people's\nfood and drink were tears. The words of _a_ may either be rendered\n\"bread of tears\"--_i.e._, eaten with, or rather consisting of, tears;\nor, as above, \"tears [as] bread.\" The word rendered \"in large measure\"\nmeans \"the third part\"--\"of some larger measure.\" It is found only in\nIsa. xl. 12. \"The third part of an ephah is a puny measure for the\ndust of the earth, [but] it is a large measure for tears\" (Delitzsch,\n_in loc._). Ver. 6 adds one more touch to the picture--gleeful\nneighbours cynically rejoicing to their hearts' content (lit., for\nthemselves) over Israel's calamities. Thus, in three verses, the\npsalmist points to an angry God, a weeping nation, and mocking foes, a\ntrilogy of woe. On all he bases an urgent repetition of the refrain,\nwhich is made more imploring by the expanded name under which God is\ninvoked to help. Instead of the simple \"God,\" as in ver. 3, he now\nsays \"God of Hosts.\" As sense of need increases, a true suppliant goes\ndeeper into God's revealed character.\n\nFrom ver. 8 onwards the parable of the vine as representing Israel\nfills the singer's mind. As has been already noticed, this part of\nthe psalm may be regarded as one long strophe, the parts of which\nfollow in orderly sequence, and are held closely together, as shown\nby the recurrence of the refrain at the close only. Three stages are\ndiscernible in it--a picture of what has been, the contrast of what is\nnow, and a prayer for speedy help. The emblem of the vine, which has\nreceived so great development in the prophets, and has been hallowed\nfor ever by our Lord's use of it, seems to have been suggested to the\npsalmist by the history of Joseph, to which he has already alluded.\nFor, in Jacob's blessing (Gen. xlix. 22 _seqq._), Joseph is likened\nto a fruitful bough. Other Old Testament writers have drawn out the\nmanifold felicities of the emblem as applied to Israel. But these need\nnot concern us here, where the point is rather God's husbandry and the\nvine's growth, both of which are in startling contrast with a doleful\npresent. The figure is carried out with much beauty in detail. The\nExodus was the vine's transplanting; the destruction of the Canaanites\nwas the grubbing up of weeds to clear the ground for it; the numerical\nincrease of the people was its making roots and spreading far. In ver.\n10 _b_ the rendering may be either that adopted above, or \"And the\ncedars of God [were covered with] its branches.\" The latter preserves\nthe parallelism of clauses and the unity of representation in vv. 10,\n11, which will then deal throughout with the spreading growth of the\nvine. But the cedars would not have been called \"of God,\"--which implies\ntheir great size,--unless their dimensions had been in point, which\nwould not be the case if they were only thought of as espaliers for the\nvine. And the image of its running over the great trees of Lebanon is\nunnatural. The rendering as above is to be preferred, even though it\nsomewhat mars the unity of the picture. The extent of ground covered by\nthe vine is described, in ver. 11, as stretching from the Mediterranean\nto the Euphrates (Deut. xi. 24; 1 Kings iv. 24). Such had been the\nglories of the past; and they had all been the work of God's hand.\n\nIn ver. 12 the miserable contrast of present desolation is spread\nbefore God, with the bold and yet submissive question \"Why?\" The\nvineyard wall is thrown down, and the vine lies exposed to every\nvagrant passenger, and to every destructive creature. Swine from the\nwoods burrow at its roots, and \"whatever moves on the plain\" (Psalm\nl. 11, the only other place where the expression occurs) feeds on it.\nThe parallelism forbids the supposition that any particular enemy is\nmeant by the wild boar. Hupfeld would transpose ver. 16 so as to stand\nafter ver. 13, which he thinks improves the connection, and brings the\nlast part of the psalm into symmetrical form, in three equal parts,\ncontaining four verses each. Cheyne would put vv. 14, 15, before vv.\n12, 13, and thereby secures more coherence and sequence. But accuracy\nin these matters is not to be looked for in such highly emotional\npoetry, and perhaps a sympathetic ear may catch in the broken words a\ntruer ring than in the more orderly arrangement of them by critics.\n\nVer. 14 sounds like an imperfect echo of the refrain significantly\nmodified, so as to beseech that God would \"turn\" Himself, even as He\nhad been implored to \"turn\" his people. The purpose of His turning is\nthat He may \"look and see\" the condition of the desolated vineyard,\nand thence be moved to interfere for its restoration. The verse may be\nregarded as closing one of the imperfectly developed strophes of this\nlast part; but it belongs in substance to the following petitions,\nthough in form it is more closely connected with the preceding verses.\nThe picture of Israel's misery passes insensibly into prayer, and the\nburden of that prayer is, first, that God would behold the sad facts,\nas the preliminary to His acting in view of them.\n\nThe last part (vv. 15-19) is prayer for God's help, into which forces\nitself one verse (16), recurring to the miseries of the nation. It\nbursts in like an outcrop of lava, revealing underground disturbance\nand fires. Surely that interruption is more pathetic and natural than\nis the result obtained by the suggested transpositions. The meaning\nof the word in ver. 15 rendered above \"protect\" is doubtful, and many\ncommentators would translate it as a noun, and regard it as meaning\n\"plant,\" or, as the A.V., \"vineyard.\" The verse would then depend\non the preceding verb in ver. 14, \"visit.\" But this construction is\nopposed by the copula (_and_) preceding, and it is best to render\n\"protect,\" with a slight change in the vocalisation. There may be an\nallusion to Jacob's blessing in ver. 15 _b_, for in it (Gen. xlix. 22)\nJoseph is called a \"fruitful bough\"--lit., \"son.\" If so, the figure of\nthe vine is retained in ver. 15 _b_ as well as in _a_.\n\nThe apparent interruption of the petitions by ver. 16 is accounted\nfor by the sharp pang that shot into the psalmist's heart, when he\nrecalled, in his immediately preceding words, the past Divine acts,\nwhich seemed so contradicted now. But the bitterness, though it surges\nup, is overcome, and his petitions return to their former strain in\nver. 17, which pathetically takes up, as it were, the broken thread,\nby repeating \"right hand\" from ver. 15 _a_, and \"whom Thou madest\nstrong for Thyself\" from ver. 15 _b_. Israel, not an individual, is\nthe \"man of Thy right hand,\" in which designation, coupled with \"son,\"\nthere may be an allusion to the name of Benjamin (ver. 2), the \"son\nof the right hand.\" Human weakness and Divine strength clothing it\nare indicated in that designation for Israel \"the son of man whom\nThou madest strong for Thyself.\" The inmost purpose of God's gifts\nis that their recipients may be \"the secretaries of His praise.\"\nIsrael's sacred calling, its own weakness, and the strength of the\nGod who endows it are all set forth, not now as lessons to it, but as\npleas with Him, whose gifts are without repentance, and whose purposes\ncannot be foiled by man's unworthiness or opposition.\n\nThe psalm closes with a vow of grateful adhesion to God as the result\nof His renewed mercy. They who have learned how bitter a thing it is to\nturn away from God, and how blessed when He turns again to them, and\nturns back their miseries and their sins, have good reason for not again\ndeparting from Him. But if they are wise to remember their own weakness,\nthey will not only humbly vow future faithfulness, but earnestly implore\ncontinual help; since only the constant communication of a Divine\nquickening will open their lips to call upon God's name.\n\nThe refrain in its most expanded form closes the psalm. Growing\nintensity of desire and of realisation of the pleas and pledges hived\nin the name are expressed by its successive forms,--God; God of Hosts;\nJehovah, God of Hosts. The faith that grasps all that is contained in\nthat full-toned name already feels the light of God's face shining\nupon it, and is sure that its prayer for salvation is not in vain.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXI.\n\n 1 Shout for joy to God our strength,\n Shout aloud to the God of Jacob.\n 2 Lift up the song, and sound the timbrel,\n The pleasant lyre with the harp.\n 3 Blow the trumpet on the new moon,\n On the full moon, for the day of our feast.\n 4 For this is a statute for Israel,\n An ordinance of the God of Jacob.\n 5 For a testimony in Joseph He appointed it,\n When He went forth over the land of Egypt.\n --A language which I know not I hear.\n\n 6 I removed his shoulder from the burden,\n His hands were freed from the basket.\n 7 In straits thou didst call and I delivered thee,\n I answered thee in the secret place of thunder,\n I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.\n 8 Hear, My people, and I will witness to thee;\n O Israel, would that thou wouldest hearken to Me!\n 9 There shall be no strange god in thee,\n And thou shalt not bow down to an alien god.\n 10 I, I am Jehovah thy God,\n Who brought thee up from the land of Egypt.\n Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it.\n\n 11 But My people hearkened not to My voice,\n And Israel did not yield to Me.\n 12 Then I let them go in the stubbornness of their heart,\n That they might walk in their own counsels.\n\n 13 Would that My people would hearken to Me,\n That Israel would walk in My ways!\n 14 Easily would I humble their enemies,\n And against their adversaries turn My hand.\n 15 The haters of Jehovah would come feigning to Him,\n But their time should endure for ever.\n 16 And He would feed thee with the fat of wheat,\n And with honey from the rock would I satisfy thee.\n\n\nThe psalmist summons priests and people to a solemn festival,\ncommemorative of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, and sets forth the\nlessons which that deliverance teaches, the learning of which is the\ntrue way of keeping the feast. There has been much discussion as to\nwhich feast is in the psalmist's mind. That of Tabernacles has been\nwidely accepted as intended, chiefly on the ground that the first\nday of the month in which it occurred was celebrated by the blowing\nof trumpets, as the beginning of the civil year. This practice is\nsupposed to account for the language of ver. 3, which seems to imply\ntrumpet-blowing both at new and full moon. But, on other grounds,\nthe Passover is more likely to be intended, as the psalm deals with\nthe manifestations of Divine power attending the beginning of the\nExodus, which followed the first Passover, as well as with those\nduring the desert sojourn, which alone were commemorated by the\nfeast of Tabernacles. True, we have no independent knowledge of any\ntrumpet-blowing on the first day of the Passover month (Nisan);\nbut Delitzsch and others suggest that from this psalm it may be\ninferred \"that the commencement of each month, and more especially\nthe commencement of the month (Nisan), which was at the same time the\ncommencement of the ecclesiastical year, was signalised by the blowing\nof horns.\" On the whole, the Passover is most probably the feast in\nquestion.\n\nOlshausen, followed by Cheyne, regards the psalm as made up of two\nfragments (vv. 1-5 _a_, and 5 _c_-16). But surely the exhortations\nand promises of the latter portion are most relevant to the summons to\nthe festival contained in the former part, and there could be no more\nnatural way of preparing for the right commemoration of the deliverance\nthan to draw out its lessons of obedience and to warn against departure\nfrom the delivering God. Definiteness as to date is unattainable. The\npresupposed existence of the full Temple ceremonial shows that the psalm\nwas not written in exile, nor at a time of religious persecution. Its\nwarning against idolatry would be needless in a post-exilic psalm, as\nno tendency thereto existed after the return from captivity. But beyond\nsuch general indications we cannot go. The theory that the psalm is\ncomposed of two fragments exaggerates the difference between the two\nparts into which it falls. These are the summons to the feast (vv. 1-5),\nand the lessons of the feast (vv. 6-16).\n\nDelitzsch suggests that the summons in ver. 1 is addressed to the\nwhole congregation; that in ver. 2 to the Levites, the appointed\nsingers and musicians; and that in ver. 3 to the priests who are\nintrusted with blowing the Shophar, or horn (Josh. vi. 4, and 2 Chron.\nxx. 28). One can almost hear the tumult of joyful sounds, in which the\nroar of the multitude, the high-pitched notes of singers, the deeper\nclash of timbrels, the twanging of stringed instruments, and the\nhoarse blare of rams' horns, mingle in concordant discord, grateful\nto Eastern ears, however unmusical to ours. The religion of Israel\nallowed and required exuberant joy. It sternly rejected painting and\nsculpture, but abundantly employed music, the most ethereal of the\narts, which stirs emotions and longings too delicate and deep for\nspeech. Whatever differences in form have necessarily attended the\nprogress from the worship of the Temple to that of the Church, the\nfree play of joyful emotion should mark the latter even more than the\nformer. Decorum is good, but not if purchased by the loss of ringing\ngladness. The psalmist's summons has a meaning still.\n\nThe reason for it is given in vv. 4, 5 _a_. It--_i.e._, the feast\n(not the musical accompaniments)--is appointed by God. The psalmist\nemploys designations for it, which are usually applied to \"the word\nof the Lord\"; statute, ordinance, testimony, being all found in\nPsalms xix., cxix., with that meaning. A triple designation of the\npeople corresponds with these triple names for the feast. _Israel_,\n_Jacob_, and _Joseph_ are synonyms, the use of the last of these\nhaving probably the same force here as in the preceding psalm--namely,\nto express the singer's longing for the restoration of the shattered\nunity of the nation. The summons to the feast is based, not only on\nDivine appointment, but also on Divine purpose in that appointment.\nIt was \"a testimony,\" a rite commemorative of a historical fact,\nand therefore an evidence of it to future times. There is no better\nproof of such a fact than a celebration of it, which originates\ncontemporaneously and continues through generations. The feast in\nquestion was thus simultaneous with the event commemorated, as ver. 5\n_b_ tells. It was God, not Israel, as is often erroneously supposed,\nwho \"went forth.\" For the following preposition is not \"from,\" which\nmight refer to the national departure, but \"over\" or \"against,\" which\ncannot have such a reference, since Israel did not, in any sense, go\n\"over\" or \"against\" the land. God's triumphant forth-putting of power\nover the whole land, especially in the death of the first-born, on\nthe night of the Passover, is meant to be remembered for ever, and is\nat once the fact commemorated by the feast, and a reason for obeying\nHis appointment of it.\n\nSo far the thoughts and language are limpid, but ver. 5 _c_ interrupts\ntheir clear flow. Who is the speaker thus suddenly introduced? What is\nthe \"language\" (lit., lip) which he \"knew not\"? The explanation implied\nby the A.V. and R.V., that the collective Israel speaks, and that the\nreference is, as in Psalm cxiv. 1, to the \"strange language\" of the\nEgyptians, is given by most of the older authorities, and by Ewald\nand Hengstenberg, but has against it the necessity for the supplement\n\"where,\" and the difficulty of referring the \"I\" to the nation. The more\nusual explanation in modern times is that the speaker is the psalmist,\nand that the language which he hears is the voice of God, the substance\nof which follows in the remainder of the psalm. As in Job iv. 16 Eliphaz\ncould not discern the appearance of the mysterious form that stood\nbefore his eyes, and thus its supernatural character is suggested, so\nthe psalmist hears an utterance of a hitherto unknown kind, which he\nthus implies to have been Divine. God Himself speaks, to impress the\nlessons of the past, and to excite the thoughts and feelings which would\nrightly celebrate the feast. The glad noises of song, harp, and trumpet\nare hushed; the psalmist is silent, to hear that dread Voice, and then\nwith lowly lips he repeats so much of the majestic syllables as he could\ntranslate into words which it was possible for a man to utter. The\ninner coherence of the two parts of the psalm is, on this explanation,\nso obvious, that there is no need nor room for the hypothesis of two\nfragments having been fused into one.\n\nThe Divine Voice begins with recapitulating the facts which the feast\nwas intended to commemorate--namely, the act of emancipation from\nEgyptian bondage (ver. 6), and the miracles of the wilderness sojourn\n(ver. 7). The compulsory labour, from which God delivered the people, is\ndescribed by two terms, of which the former (burden) is borrowed from\nExodus, where it frequently occurs (Exod. i. 11, v. 4, vi. 6), and the\nlatter (basket) is by some supposed to mean the wicker-work implement\nfor carrying, which the monuments show was in use in Egypt (so LXX.,\netc.), and by others to mean an earthen vessel, as \"an example of the\nwork in clay in which the Israelites were engaged\" (Hupfeld). The years\nof desert wandering are summed up, in ver. 7, as one long continuance\nof benefits from God. Whenever they cried to Him in their trouble, He\ndelivered them. He spoke to them \"from the secret place of thunder\"\n(\"_My thunder-covert_,\" Cheyne). That expression is generally taken to\nrefer to the pillar of cloud, but seems more naturally to be regarded as\nalluding to the thick darkness, in which God was shrouded on Sinai, when\nHe spoke His law amid thunderings and lightnings. \"The proving at the\nwaters of Meribah\" is, according to the connection and in harmony with\nExod. xvii. 6, to be regarded as a benefit. \"It was meant to serve the\npurpose of binding Israel still more closely to its God\" (Baethgen). It\nis usually assumed that, in this reference to \"the waters of Meribah,\"\nthe two similar incidents of the miraculous supply of water--one of\nwhich occurred near the beginning of the forty years in the desert, at\n\"Massah and Meribah\" (Exod. xvii. 7), and the other at \"the waters of\nMeribah,\" near Kadesh, in the fortieth year--have been blended, or, as\nCheyne says, \"confused.\" But there is no need to suppose that there\nis any confusion, for the words of the psalm will apply to the latter\nmiracle as well as to the former, and, if the former clause refers to\nthe manifestations at Sinai, the selection of an incident at nearly the\nend of the wilderness period is natural. The whole stretch of forty\nyears is thereby declared to have been marked by continuous Divine care.\nThe Exodus was begun, continued, and ended amid tokens of His watchful\nlove. The Selah bids the listener meditate on that prolonged revelation.\n\nThat retrospect next becomes the foundation of a Divine exhortation\nto the people, which is to be regarded as spoken originally to Israel\nin the wilderness, as ver. 11 shows. Perowne well designates these\nverses (8-10) \"a discourse within a discourse.\" They put into words\nthe meaning of the wilderness experience, and sum up the laws spoken\non Sinai, which they in part repeat. The purpose of God's lavish\nbenefits was to bind Israel to Himself. \"Hear, My people,\" reminds us\nof Deut. v. 1, vi. 4. \"I will bear witness to thee\" here means rather\nsolemn warning to, than testifying against, the person addressed.\nWith infinite pathos, the tone of the Divine Speaker changes from\nthat of authority to pleading and the utterance of a yearning wish,\nlike a sigh. \"Would that thou wouldest hearken!\" God desires nothing\nso earnestly as that, but His Divine desire is tragically and\nmysteriously foiled. The awful human power of resisting His voice\nand of making His efforts vain, the still more awful fact of the\nexercise of that power, were clear before the psalmist, whose daring\nanthropopathy teaches a deep lesson, and warns us against supposing\nthat men have to do with an impassive Deity. That wonderful utterance\nof Divine wish is almost a parenthesis. It gives a moment's glimpse\ninto the heart of God, and then the tone of command is resumed.\n\"In ver. 9 the keynote of the revelation of the law from Sinai is\ngiven; the fundamental command which opens the Decalogue demanded\nfidelity towards Jehovah, and forbade idolatry, as the sin of sins\"\n(Delitzsch). The reason for exclusive devotion to God is based in\nver. 10, as in Exod. xx. 2, the fundamental passage, on His act of\ndeliverance, not on His sole Divinity. A theoretic Monotheism would\nbe cold; the consciousness of benefits received from One Hand alone\nis the only key that will unlock a heart's exclusive devotion and lay\nit at His feet. And just as the commandment to worship God alone is\nfounded on His unaided delivering might and love, so it is followed\nby the promise that such exclusive adhesion to Him will secure the\nfulfilment of the boldest wishes, and the satisfying of the most\nclamant or hungry desires. \"Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it.\"\nIt is folly to go to strange gods for the supply of needs, when God\nis able to give all that every man can wish. We may be well content\nto cleave to Him alone, since He alone is more than enough for each\nand for all. Why should _they_ waste time and strength in seeking for\nsupplies from many, who can find all they need in One? They who put\nHim to the proof, and find Him enough, will have, in their experience\nof His sufficiency, a charm to protect them from all vagrant desire\nto \"go further and fare worse.\" The best defence against temptations\nto stray from God is the possession by experience, of His rich gifts\nthat meet all desires. That great saying teaches, too, that God's\nbestowals are practically measured by men's capacity and desire. The\nultimate limit of them is His own limitless grace; but the working\nlimit in each individual is the individual's receptivity, of which\nhis expectancy and desire are determining factors.\n\nIn vv. 11, 12, the Divine Voice laments the failure of benefits and\ncommandments and promises to win Israel to God. There is a world of\nbaffled tenderness and almost wondering rebuke in the designation of\nthe rebels as \"My people.\" It would have been no cause of astonishment\nif other nations had not listened; but that the tribes bound by so\nmany kindnesses should have been deaf is a sad marvel. Who should\nlisten to \"My voice\" if \"My people\" do not? The penalty of not\nyielding to God is to be left unyielding. The worst punishment of sin\nis the prolongation and consequent intensifying of the sin. A heart\nthat wilfully closes itself against God's pleadings brings on itself\nthe nemesis, that it becomes incapable of opening, as a self-torturing\nHindoo fakir may clench his fist so long, that at last his muscles\nlose their power, and it remains shut for his lifetime. The issue of\nsuch \"stubbornness\" is walking in their own counsels, the practical\nlife being regulated entirely by self-originated and God-forgetting\ndictates of prudence or inclination. He who will not have the Divine\nGuide has to grope his way as well as he can. There is no worse fate\nfor a man than to be allowed to do as he chooses. \"The ditch,\" sooner\nor later, receives the man who lets his active powers, which are in\nthemselves blind, be led by his understanding, which he has himself\nblinded by forbidding it to look to the One Light of Life.\n\nIn ver. 13 the Divine Voice turns to address the joyous crowd of\nfestal worshippers, exhorting them to that obedience which is the\ntrue keeping of the feast, and holding forth bright promises of\nthe temporal blessings which, in accordance with the fundamental\nconditions of Israel's prosperity, should follow thereon. The sad\npicture of ancient rebellion just drawn influences the language in\nthis verse, in which \"My people,\" \"hearken,\" and \"walk\" recur. The\nantithesis to walking in one's own counsels is walking in God's\nways, suppressing native stubbornness, and becoming docile to His\nguidance. The highest blessedness of man is to have a will submissive\nto God's will, and to carry out that submission in all details of\nlife. Self-engineered paths are always hard, and, if pursued to the\nend, lead into the dark. The listening heart will not lack guidance,\nand obedient feet will find God's way the way of peace which steadily\nclimbs to unfading light.\n\nThe blessings attached in the psalm to such conformity with God's will\nare of an external kind, as was to be expected at the Old Testament\nstage of revelation. They are mainly two--victory and abundance. But\nthe precise application of ver. 15 _b_ is doubtful. Whose \"time\" is to\n\"endure for ever\"? There is much to be said in favour of the translation\n\"that so their time might endure for ever,\" as Cheyne renders, and for\nunderstanding it, as he does, as referring to the enemies who yield\nthemselves to God, in order that they \"might be a never-exhausted\npeople.\" But to bring in the purpose of the enemies submission is\nsomewhat irrelevant, and the clause is probably best taken to promise\nlength of days to Israel. In ver. 16 the sudden change of persons in\na is singular, and, according to the existing vocalisation, there is\nan equally sudden change of tenses, which induces Delitzsch and others\nto take the verse as recurring to historical retrospect. The change to\nthe third person is probably occasioned, as Hupfeld suggests, by the\npreceding naming of Jehovah, or may have been due to an error. Such\nsudden changes are more admissible in Hebrew than with us, and are very\neasily accounted for, when God is represented as speaking. The momentary\nemergence of the psalmist's personality would lead him to say \"He,\" and\nthe renewed sense of being but the echo of the Divine Voice would lead\nto the recurrence to the \"I,\" in which God speaks directly. The words\nare best taken as in line with the other hypothetical promises in the\npreceding verses. The whole verse looks back to Deut. xxxii. 13, 14.\n\"Honey from the rock\" is not a natural product; but, as Hupfeld says,\nthe parallel \"oil out of the flinty rock,\" which follows in Deuteronomy,\nshows that \"we are here, not on the ground of the actual, but of\nthe ideal,\" and that the expression is a hyperbole for incomparable\nabundance. Those who hearken to God's voice will have all desires\nsatisfied and needs supplied. They will find furtherance in hindrances,\nfertility in barrenness; rocks will drop honey and stones will become\nbread.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXII.\n\n 1 God stands in the congregation of God,\n In the midst of the gods He judges.\n\n 2 How long win ye judge injustice,\n And accept the persons of wicked men? Selah.\n 3 Right the weak and the orphan,\n Vindicate the afflicted and the poor.\n 4 Rescue the weak and needy,\n From the hand of the wicked deliver [them].\n\n 5 They know not, they understand not,\n In darkness they walk to and fro,\n All the foundations of the earth totter.\n 6 I myself have said, Ye are gods,\n And sons of the Most High are ye all.\n 7 Surely like men shall ye die,\n And like one of the princes shall ye fall.\n\n 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth,\n For Thou, Thou shall inherit all the nations.\n\n\nIn Psalm 1. God is represented as gathering His people together\nto be judged; in this psalm He has garnered them together for His\njudgment on judges. The former psalm begins at an earlier point of\nthe great Cause than this one does. In it, unnamed messengers go\nforth to summons the nation; in this, the first verse shows us the\nassembled congregation, the accused, and the Divine Judge standing\nin \"the midst\" in statuesque immobility. An awe-inspiring pause\nintervenes, and then the silence is broken by a mighty voice of\nreproof and admonition (vv. 2-4). The speaker may be the psalmist,\nbut the grand image of God as judging loses much of its solemnity\nand appropriateness, unless these stern rebukes and the following\nverses till the end of ver. 7 are regarded as His voice of judgment.\nVer. 5 follows these rebukes with \"an indignant aside from the Judge\"\n(Cheyne), evoked by obstinate deafness to His words; and vv. 6, 7,\npronounce the fatal sentence on the accused, who are condemned by\ntheir own refusal to hearken to Divine remonstrances. Then, in ver.\n8, after a pause like that which preceded God's voice, the psalmist,\nwho has been a silent spectator, prays that what he has heard in the\ninward ear, and seen with the inward eye, may be done before the\nnations of the world, since it all belongs to Him by right.\n\nThe scene pictured in ver. 1 has been variously interpreted. \"The\ncongregation of God\" is most naturally understood according to the\nparallel in Psalm l., and the familiar phrase \"the congregation of\nIsrael\" as being the assembled nation. Its interpretation and that\nof the \"gods\" who are judged hang together. If the assembly is the\nnation, the persons at the bar can scarcely be other than those who\nhave exercised injustice on the nation. If, on the other hand, the\n\"gods\" are ideal or real angelic beings, the assembly will necessarily\nbe a heavenly one. The use of the expressions \"The congregation of\nJehovah\" (Numb. xxvii. 17, xxxi. 16; Josh. xxii. 16, 17) and \"Thy\ncongregation\" (Psalm lxxiv. 2) makes the former interpretation the\nmore natural, and therefore exercises some influence in determining\nthe meaning of the other disputed word. The interpretation of \"gods\"\nas angels is maintained by Hupfeld; and Bleek, followed by Cheyne,\ngoes the fun length of regarding them as patron angels of the nations.\nBut, as Baethgen says, \"that angels should be punished with death\nis a thought which lies utterly beyond the Old Testament sphere of\nrepresentation,\" and the incongruity can hardly be reckoned to be\nremoved by Cheyne's remark, that, since angels are in other places\nrepresented as punished, \"it is only a step further\" to say that they\nare punished with death. If, however, these \"gods\" are earthly rulers,\nthe question still remains whether they are Jewish or foreign judges?\nThe latter opinion is adopted chiefly on the ground of the reference\nin ver. 8 to a world-embracing judicial act, which, however, by no\nmeans compels its acceptance, since it is entirely in accordance\nwith the manner of psalmists to recognise in partial acts of Divine\nretribution the operation in miniature of the same Divine power,\nwhich will one day set right all wrongs, and, on occasion of the\nsmaller manifestation of Divine righteousness, to pray for a universal\njudgment. There would be little propriety in summoning the national\nassembly to behold judgments wrought on foreign rulers, unless these\nalien oppressors were afflicting Israel, of which there is no sure\nindications in the psalm. The various expressions for the afflicted\nin vv. 3, 4, are taken, by the supporters of the view that the judges\nare foreigners, to mean the whole nation as it groaned under their\noppression, but there is nothing to show that they do not rather refer\nto the helpless in Israel.\n\nOur Lord's reference to ver. 6 in John x. 34-38 is, by the present\nwriter, accepted as authoritatively settling both the meaning and the\nground of the remarkable name of \"gods\" for human judges. It does not\nneed that we should settle the mystery of His emptying Himself, or trace\nthe limits of His human knowledge, in order to be sure that He spoke\ntruth with authority, when He spoke on such a subject as His own Divine\nnature, and the analogies and contrasts between it and the highest\nhuman authorities. His whole argument is worthless, unless the \"gods\"\nin the psalm are men. He tells us why that august title is applied\nto them--namely, because to them \"the word of God came.\" They were\nrecipients of a Divine word, constituting them in their office; and,\nin so far as they discharged its duties, their decrees were God's word\nministered by them. That is especially true in a theocratic state such\nas Israel, where the rulers are, in a direct way, God's vicegerents,\nclothed by Him with delegated authority, which they exercise under His\ncontrol. But it is also true about all who are set in similar positions\nelsewhere. The office is sacred, whatever its holders are.\n\nThe contents of the psalm need little remark. In vv. 2-4 God speaks in\nstern upbraiding and command. The abrupt pealing forth of the Divine\nVoice, without any statement of who speaks, is extremely dramatic\nand impressive. The judgment hall is filled with a hushed crowd. No\nherald is needed to proclaim silence. Strained expectance sits on\nevery ear. Then the silence is broken. These authoritative accents\ncan come but from one speaker. The crimes rebuked are those to which\nrulers, in such a state of society as was in Israel, are especially\nprone, and such as must have been well-nigh universal at the time of\nthe psalmist. They were no imaginary evils against which these sharp\narrows were launched. These princes were like those gibbeted for ever\nin Isa. 1.--loving gifts and following after rewards, murderers rather\nthan judges, and fitter to be \"rulers of Sodom\" than of God's city.\nThey had prostituted their office by injustice, had favoured the rich\nand neglected the poor, had been deaf to the cry of the helpless, had\nsteeled their hearts against the miseries of the afflicted, and left\nthem to perish in the gripe of the wicked. Such is the indictment.\nDoes it sound applicable to angels?\n\nFor a moment the Divine Voice pauses. Will its tones reach any\nconsciences? No. There is no sign of contrition among the judges, who\nare thus solemnly being judged. Therefore God speaks again, as if\nwondering, grieved, and indignant \"at the blindness of their hearts,\" as\nHis Son was when His words met the same reception from the same class.\nVer. 5 might almost be called a Divine lament over human impenitence,\nere the Voice swells into the fatal sentence. One remembers Christ's\ntears, as He looked across the valley to the city glittering in the\nmorning sun. His tears did not hinder His pronouncing its doom; nor did\nHis pronouncing its doom hinder His tears. These judges were without\nknowledge. They walked in darkness, because they walked in selfishness,\nand never thought of God's judgment. Their gait was insolent, as the\nform of the word \"walk to and fro\" implies. And, since they who were\nset to be God's representatives on earth, and to show some gleam of His\njustice and compassion, were ministers of injustice and vicegerents\nof evil, fostering what they should have crushed, and crushing whom\nthey should have fostered, the foundations of society were shaken,\nand, unless these were swept away, it would be dissolved into chaos.\nTherefore the sentence must fall, as it does in vv. 6, 7. The grant of\ndignity is withdrawn. They are stripped of their honours, as a soldier\nof his uniform before he is driven from his corps. The judge's robe,\nwhich they have smirched, is plucked off their shoulders, and they stand\nas common men.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXIII.\n\n 1 O God, let there be no rest to Thee,\n Be not dumb, and keep not still, O God.\n 2 For, behold, Thy enemies make a tumult,\n And they who hate Thee lift up the head.\n 3 Against Thy people they make a crafty plot,\n And consult together against Thy hidden ones.\n 4 They say, Come, and let us cut them off from [being] a nation,\n And let the name of Israel be remembered no more.\n\n 5 For they consult together with one heart,\n Against Thee they make a league:\n 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,\n Moab and the Hagarenes,\n 7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,\n Philistia with the dwellers in Tyre;\n 8 Asshur also has joined himself to them,\n They have become an arm to the children of Lot. Selah.\n\n 9 Do Thou to them as [to] Midian,\n As [to] Sisera, [to] Jabin at the brook Kishon,\n 10 [Who] were destroyed at Endor,\n [Who] became manure for the land.\n 11 Make them, their nobles, like Oreb and like Zeeb,\n And like Zebah and like Zalmunnah all their princes,\n 12 Who say, Let us take for a possession to ourselves\n The habitations of God.\n\n 13 My God, make them like a whirl of dust,\n Like stubble before the wind,\n 14 Like fire [that] burns [the] forest,\n And like flame [that] scorches [the] mountains.\n 15 So pursue them with Thy storm,\n And with Thy tempest strike them with panic.\n 16 Fill their face with dishonour,\n That they may seek Thy name, Jehovah.\n\n 17 Let them be ashamed and panic-struck for ever,\n And let them be abashed and perish;\n 18 And let them know that Thou, [even] Thy name, Jehovah, alone\n Art the Most High over all the earth.\n\n\nThis psalm is a cry for help against a world in arms. The failure of\nall attempts to point to a period when all the allies here represented\nas confederate against Israel were or could have been united in\nassailing it, inclines one to suppose that the enumeration of enemies\nis not history, but poetic idealisation. The psalm would then be,\nnot the memorial of a fact, but the expression of the standing\nrelation between Israel and the outlying heathendom. The singer\nmasses together ancient and modern foes of diverse nationalities and\nmutual animosities, and pictures them as burying their enmities and\nbridging their separations, and all animated by one fell hatred to the\nDove of God, which sits innocent and helpless in the midst of them.\nThere are weighty objections to this view; but no other is free from\ndifficulties even more considerable. There are two theories which divide\nthe suffrages of commentators. The usual assignment of date is to the\nleague against Jehoshaphat recorded in 2 Chron. xx. But it is hard to\nfind that comparatively small local confederacy of three peoples in the\nwide-reaching alliance described in the psalm. Chronicles enumerates the\nmembers of the league as being the children of Moab and \"the children\nof Ammon, and with them some of the Ammonites,\" which last unmeaning\ndesignation should be read, as in the LXX., \"the Me'unim.\" and adds to\nthese Edom (2 Chron. xx. 2, corrected text). Even if the contention\nof the advocates of this date for the psalm is admitted, and \"the\nMe'unim\" are taken to include the Arab tribes, whom the psalmist calls\nIshmaelites and Hagarenes, there remains the fact that he names also\nPhilistia, Amalek, Tyre, and Asshur, none of whom is concerned in the\nalliance against Jehoshaphat. It was, in fact, confined to eastern and\nsouth-eastern nations, with whom distant western tribes could have no\ncommon interest. Nor is the other view of the circumstances underlying\nthe psalm free from difficulty. It advocates a Maccabean date. In 1\nMacc. v. it is recorded that the nations round about were enraged\nat the restoration of the altar and dedication of the Temple after\nits pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes, and were ready to break out in\nhostility. Cheyne points to the occurrence in Maccabees of six of the\nten names mentioned in the psalm. But of the four not mentioned, two\nare Amalek and Asshur, both of which had been blotted out of the roll\nof nations long before the Maccabees' era. \"The mention of Amalek,\"\nsays Cheyne, \"is half-Haggadic, half-antiquarian.\" But what should\nHaggadic or antiquarian elements do in such a list? Asshur is explained\non this hypothesis as meaning Syria, which is very doubtful, and,\neven if admitted, leaves unsolved the difficulty that the subordinate\nplace occupied by the nation in question would not correspond to the\nimportance of Syria in the time of the Maccabees. Of the two theories,\nthe second is the more probable, but neither is satisfactory; and\nthe view already stated, that the psalm does not refer to any actual\nalliance, seems to the present writer the most probable. The world is\nup in arms against God's people; and what weapon has Israel? Nothing but\nprayer.\n\nThe psalm naturally falls into two parts, separated by Selah, of which\nthe first (vv. 1-8) describes Israel's extremity, and the second (vv.\n9-18) is its supplication.\n\nThe psalmist begins with earnest invocation of God's help, beseeching\nHim to break His apparent inactivity and silence. \"Let there be no\nrest to Thee\" is like Isa. lxii. 6. God seems passive. It needs but\nHis Voice to break the dreary silence, and the foes will be scattered.\nAnd there is strong reason for His intervention, for they are _His_\nenemies, who riot and roar like the hoarse chafing of an angry sea,\nfor so the word rendered \"make a tumult\" implies (Psalm xlvi. 3). It\nis \"Thy people\" who are the object of their crafty conspiracy, and it\nis implied that these are thus hated because they _are_ God's people.\nIsrael's prerogative, which evokes the heathen's rage, is the ground\nof Israel's confidence and the plea urged to God by it. Are we not Thy\n\"hidden ones\"? And shall a hostile world be able to pluck us from our\nsafe hiding-place in the hollow of Thy hand? The idea of preciousness,\nas well as that of protection, is included in the word. Men store\ntheir treasures in secret places; God hides His treasures in the\n\"secret of His face,\" the \"glorious privacy of light\" inaccessible.\nHow vain are the plotters' whisperings against such a people!\n\nThe conspiracy has for its aim nothing short of blotting out the\nnational existence and the very name of Israel. It is therefore\nhigh-handed opposition to God's counsel, and the confederacy is\nagainst _Him_. The true antagonists are, not Israel and the world,\nbut God and the world. Calmness, courage, and confidence spring in\nthe heart with such thoughts. They who can feel that they are hid in\nGod may look out, as from a safe islet on the wildest seas, and fear\nnothing. And all who will may hide in Him.\n\nThe enumeration of the confederates in vv. 6-8 groups together peoples\nwho probably were never really united for any common end. Hatred is\na very potent cement, and the most discordant elements may be fused\ntogether in the fire of a common animosity. What a motley assemblage\nis here! What could bring together in one company Ishmaelites and\nTyrians, Moab and Asshur? The first seven names in the list of allies\nhad their seats to the east and south-east of Palestine. Edom, Moab,\nAmmon, and Amalek were ancestral foes, the last of which had been\ndestroyed in the time of Hezekiah (1 Chron. iv. 43). The mention of\ndescendants of Ishmael and Hagar, nomad Arab tribes to the south and\neast, recalls their ancestors' expulsion from the patriarchal family.\nGebal is probably the mountainous region to the south of the Dead Sea.\nThen the psalmist turns to the west, to Philistia, the ancient foe,\nand Tyre, \"the two peoples of the Mediterranean coast, which also\nappear in Amos (ch. i.; _cf._ Joel iii.) as making common cause with\nthe Edomites against Israel\" (Delitzsch). Asshur brings up the rear--a\nstrange post for it to occupy, to be reduced to be an auxiliary to the\n\"children of Lot,\" _i.e._ Moab and Ammon. The ideal character of this\nmuster-roll is supported by this singular inferiority of position, as\nwell as by the composition of the allied force, and by the allusion\nto the shameful origin of the two leading peoples, which is the only\nreference to Lot besides the narrative in Genesis.\n\nThe confederacy is formidable, but the psalmist does not enumerate\nits members merely in order to emphasise Israel's danger. He is\ncontrasting this miscellaneous conglomeration of many peoples with\nthe Almighty One, against whom they are vainly banded. Faith can look\nwithout a tremor on serried battalions of enemies, knowing that one\npoor man, with God at his back, outnumbers them all. Let them come\nfrom east and west, south and north, and close round Israel; God\nalone is mightier than they. So, after a pause marked by Selah, in\nwhich there is time to let the thought of the multitudinous enemies\nsink into the soul, the psalm passes into prayer, which throbs with\nconfident assurance and anticipatory triumph. The singer recalls\nancient victories, and prays for their repetition. To him, as to\nevery devout man, to-day's exigencies are as sure of Divine help as\nany yesterday's were, and what God has done is pledge and specimen of\nwhat He is doing and will do. The battle is left to be waged by Him\nalone. The psalmist does not seem to think of Israel's drawing sword,\nbut rather that it should stand still and see God fighting for it. The\nvictory of Gideon over Midian, to which Isaiah also refers as the very\ntype of complete conquest (Isa. ix. 3), is named first, but thronging\nmemories drive it out of the singer's mind for a moment, while he goes\nback to the other crushing defeat of Jabin and Sisera at the hands of\nBarak and Deborah (Judg. iv., v.). He adds a detail to the narrative\nin Judges, when he localises the defeat at Endor, which lies on the\neastern edge of the great plain of Esdraelon. In ver. 11 he returns to\nhis first example of defeat--the slaughter of Midian by Gideon. Oreb\n(raven) and Zeeb (wolf) were in command of the Midianites, and were\nkilled by the Ephraimites in the retreat. Zebah and Zalmunnah were\nkings of Midian, and fell by Gideon's own hand (Judg. viii. 21). The\npsalmist bases his prayer for such a dread fate for the foes on their\ninsolent purpose and sacrilegious purpose of making me dwellings (or,\npossibly, the pastures) of God their own property. Not because the\nland and its peaceful homes belonged to the suppliant and his nation,\nbut because they were God's, does he thus pray. The enemies had drawn\nthe sword; it was permissible to pray that they might fall by the\nsword, or by some Divine intervention, since such was the only way of\ndefeating their God-insulting plans.\n\nThe psalm rises to high poetic fervour and imaginative beauty in the\nterrible petitions of vv. 13-16. The word rendered \"whirling dust\" in\nver. 13 is somewhat doubtful. It literally means _a rolling thing_,\nbut what particular thing of the sort is difficult to determine. The\nreference is perhaps to \"spherical masses of dry weeds which course\nover the plains.\" Thomson (\"Land and Book,\" 1870, p. 563) suggests\nthe wild artichoke, which, when ripe, forms a globe of about a foot\nin diameter. \"In autumn the branches become dry and as light as a\nfeather, the parent stem breaks off at the ground, and the wind\ncarries these vegetable globes whithersoever it pleaseth. At the\nproper season thousands of them come scudding over the plain, rolling,\nleaping, bounding.\" So understood, the clause would form a complete\nparallel with the next, which compares the fleeing foe to stubble,\nnot, of course, rooted, but loose and whirled before the wind. The\nmetaphor of ver. 14 is highly poetic, likening the flight of the foe\nto the swift rush of a forest fire, which licks up (for so the word\nrendered _scorches_ means) the woods on the hillsides, and leaves a\nbare, blackened space. Still more terrible is the petition in ver. 15,\nwhich asks that God Himself should chase the flying remnants, and\nbeat them down, helpless and panic-stricken, with storm and hurricane,\nas He did the other confederacy of Canaanitish kings, when they fled\ndown the pass of Beth-Horon, and \"Jehovah cast down great stones on\nthem from heaven\" (Josh. x. 10, 11).\n\nBut there is a deeper desire in the psalmist's heart than the enemies'\ndestruction. He wishes that they should be turned into God's friends,\nand he wishes for their chastisement as the means to that end. \"That\nthey may seek Thy face, Jehovah,\" is the sum of his aspirations, as it\nis the inmost meaning of God's punitive acts. The end of the judgment\nof the world, which is continually going on by means of the history\nof the world, is none other than what this psalmist contemplated as\nthe end of the defeat of that confederacy of God's enemies--that\nrebels should seek His face, not in enforced submission, but with\ntrue desire to sun themselves in its light, and with heart-felt\nacknowledgment of His Name as supreme through all the earth. The\nthought of God as standing alone in His majestic omnipotence, while\na world is vainly arrayed against Him, which we have traced in vv.\n5-7, is prominent in the close of the psalm. The language of ver. 18\nis somewhat broken, but its purport is plain, and its thought is all\nthe more impressive for the irregularity of construction. God alone\nis the Most High. He is revealed to men by His Name. It stands alone,\nas He in His nature does. The highest good of men is to know that\nthat sovereign Name is unique and high above all creatures, hostile\nor obedient. Such knowledge is God's aim in punishment and blessing.\nIts universal extension must be the deepest wish of all who have for\nthemselves learned how strong a fortress against a world in arms that\nName is; and their desires for the foes of God and themselves are not\nin harmony with God's heart, nor with this psalmist's song, unless\nthey are, that His enemies may be led, by salutary defeat of their\nenterprises and experience of the weight of God's hand, to bow, in\nloving obedience, low before the Name which, whether they recognise\nthe fact or not, is high above an the earth.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXIV.\n\n 1 How lovely are Thy dwellings,\n Jehovah of Hosts!\n 2 My soul longs, yea, even languishes, for the courts of Jehovah,\n My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.\n 3 Yea, the sparrow has found a house,\n And the swallow a nest for herself, where she lays her young,\n Thine altars, Jehovah of Hosts.\n My King and my God.\n 4 Blessed they that dwell in Thy house!\n They will be still praising Thee, Selah.\n\n 5 Blessed the man whose strength is in Thee,\n In whose heart are the ways!\n 6 [Who] passing through the valley of weeping make it a place of\n fountains,\n Yea, the early rain covers it with blessings.\n 7 They go from strength to strength,\n Each appears before God in Zion.\n 8 Jehovah, God of Hosts, hear my prayer,\n Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.\n\n 9 [Thou], our shield, behold, O God,\n And look upon the face of Thine anointed.\n 10 For better is a day in Thy courts than a thousand,\n Rather would I lie on the threshold in the house of my God,\n Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.\n 11 For Jehovah God is sun and shield,\n Grace and glory Jehovah gives,\n No good does He deny to them that walk in integrity.\n 12 Jehovah of hosts,\n Blessed the man that trusts in Thee!\n\n\nThe same longing for and delight in the sanctuary which found pathetic\nexpression in Psalms xlii., xliii., inspire this psalm. Like these,\nit is ascribed in the superscription to the Korachites, whose office\nof door-keepers in the Temple seems alluded to in ver. 10. To infer,\nhowever, identity of authorship from similarity of tone is hazardous.\nThe differences are as obvious as the resemblances. As Cheyne well\nsays, \"the notes of the singer of Psalms xlii., xliii., are here\ntransposed into a different key. It is still 'Te saluto, te suspiro,'\nbut no longer 'De longinquo te saluto' (to quote Hildebert).\" The\nlongings after God and the sanctuary, in the first part of the\npsalm, do not necessarily imply exile from the latter, for they may\nbe felt when we are nearest to Him, and are, in fact, an element in\nthat nearness. It is profitless to inquire what were the singer's\ncircumstances. He expresses the perennial emotions of devout souls,\nand his words are as enduring and as universal as the aspirations\nwhich they so perfectly express. No doubt the psalm identifies\nenjoyment of God's presence with the worship of the visible sanctuary\nmore closely than we have to do, but the true object of its longing\nis God, and so long as spirit is tied to body the most spiritual\nworship will be tied to form. The psalm may serve as a warning against\npremature attempts to dispense with outward aids to inward communion.\n\nIt is divided into three parts by the Selahs. The last verse of the\nfirst part prepares the way for the first of the second, by sounding\nthe note of \"Blessed they,\" etc., which is prolonged in ver. 5, The\nlast verse of the second part (ver. 8) similarly prepares for the\nfirst of the third (ver. 9) by beginning the prayer which is prolonged\nthere. In each part there is a verse pronouncing blessing on Jehovah's\nworshippers, and the variation in the designations of these gives the\nkey to the progress of thought in the psalm. First comes the blessing\non those who dwell in God's house (ver. 4), and that abiding is the\ntheme of the first part. The description of those who are thus blessed\nis changed, in the second strophe, to \"those in whose heart are the\n[pilgrim] ways,\" and the joys of the progress of the soul towards God\nare the theme of that strophe. Finally, for dwelling in and journeying\ntowards the sanctuary is substituted the plain designation of \"the man\nthat trusts in Thee,\" which trust is the impulse to following after\nGod and the condition of dwelling with Him; and its joys are the theme\nof the third part.\n\nThe man who thus interpreted his own psalm had no unworthy conception\nof the relation between outward nearness to the sanctuary, and inward\ncommunion with the God who dwelt there. The psalmist's yearning\nfor the Temple was occasioned by his longing for God. It was God's\npresence there which gave it all its beauty. Because they were \"Thy\ntabernacles,\" he felt them to be lovely and lovable, for the word\nimplies both. The abrupt exclamation beginning the psalm is the\nbreaking into speech of thought which had long increased itself in\nsilence. The intensity of his desires is expressed very strikingly by\ntwo words, of which the former (_longs_) literally means _grows pale_,\nand the latter _fails_, or _is consumed_. His whole being, body and\nspirit, is one cry for the living God. The word rendered \"cry out\" is\nusually employed for the shrill cry of joy, and that meaning is by\nmany retained here. But the cognate noun is not infrequently employed\nfor any loud or high-pitched call, especially for fervent prayer\n(Psalm lxxxviii. 2), and it is better to suppose that this clause\nexpresses emotion substantially parallel to that of the former one,\nthan that it makes a contrast to it. \"The living God\" is an expression\nonly found in Psalm xlii., and is one of the points of resemblance\nbetween it and this psalm. That Name is more than a contrast with\nthe gods of the heathen. It lays bare the reason for the psalmist's\nlongings. By communion with Him who possesses life in its fulness,\nand is its fountain for all that live, he will draw supplies of that\n\"life whereof our veins are scant.\" Nothing short of a real, living\nPerson can slake the immortal thirst of the soul, made after God's\nown life, and restless till it rests in Him. The surface current\nof this singer's desires ran towards the sanctuary; the depth of\nthem set towards God; and, for the stage of revelation at which he\nstood, the deeper was best satisfied through the satisfaction of the\nmore superficial. The one is modified by the progress of Christian\nenlightenment, but the other remains eternally the same. Alas that\nthe longings of Christian souls for fellowship with God should be so\ntepid, as compared with the sacred passion of desire which has found\nimperishable utterance in these glowing and most sincere words!\n\nVer. 3 has been felt to present grammatical difficulties, which need\nnot detain us here. The easiest explanation is that the happy, winged\ncreatures who have found resting-places are contrasted by the psalmist\nwith himself, seeking, homeless amid creation, for his haven of\nrepose. We have to complete the somewhat fragmentary words with some\nsupplement before \"Thine altars,\" such as \"So would I find,\" or the\nlike. To suppose that he represents the swallows as actually nesting\non the altar is impossible, and, if the latter clauses are taken to\ndescribe the places where the birds housed and bred, there is nothing\nto suggest the purpose for which the reference to them is introduced.\nIf, on the other hand, the poet looks with a poet's eye on these lower\ncreatures at rest in secure shelters, and longs to be like them, in\nhis repose in the home which his deeper wants make necessary for him,\na noble thought is expressed with adequate poetic beauty. \"Foxes have\nholes, and birds of the air roosting-places, but the Son of Man hath\nnot where to lay His head.\" All creatures find environment suited to\ntheir need, and are at rest in it, man walks like a stranger on earth,\nand restlessly seeks for rest. Where but in God is it to be found?\nWho that seeks it in Him shall fail to find it? What their nests are\nto the swallows, God is to man. The solemnity of the direct address\nto God at the close of ver. 3 would be out of place if the altar were\nthe dwelling of the birds, but is entirely natural if the psalmist is\nthinking of the Temple as the home of his spirit. By the accumulation\nof sacred and dear names, and by the lovingly reiterated \"my,\" which\nclaims personal relation to God, he deepens his conviction of the\nblessedness which would be his, were he in that abode of his heart,\nand lingeringly tells his riches, as a miser might delight to count\nhis gold, piece by piece.\n\nThe first part closes with an exclamation which gathers into one\nall-expressive word the joy of communion with God. They who have it\nare \"blessed,\" with something more sacred and lasting than happiness,\nwith something deeper and more tranquil than joy, even with a calm\ndelight, not altogether unlike the still, yet not stagnant, rest of\nsupreme felicity which fills the life of the living and ever-blessed\nGod. That thought is prolonged by the music.\n\nThe second strophe (vv. 5-8) is knit to the first, chain-wise, by\ntaking up again the closing strain, \"Blessed the man!\" But it turns\nthe blessedness in another direction. Not only are they blessed who\nhave found their rest in God, but so also are they who are seeking it.\nThe goal is sweet, but scarcely less sweet are the steps towards it.\nThe fruition of God has delights beyond all that earth can give, but\nthe desire after Him, too, has delights of its own. The experiences\nof the soul seeking God in His sanctuary are here cast into the image\nof pilgrim bands going up to the Temple. There may be local allusions\nin the details. The \"ways\" in ver. 5 are the pilgrims' paths to the\nsanctuary. Hupfeld calls the reading \"ways\" senseless, and would\nsubstitute \"trust\"; but such a change is unnecessary, and tasteless.\nThe condensed expression is not too condensed to be intelligible, and\nbeautifully describes the true pilgrim spirit. They who are touched\nwith that desire which impels men to \"seek a better country, that is\nan heavenly,\" and to take flight from Time's vanities to the bosom of\nGod, have ever \"the ways\" in their hearts. They count the moments lost\nduring which they linger, or are anywhere but on the road. Amid calls\nof lower duties and distractions of many sorts, their desires turn to\nthe path to God. Like some nomads brought into city life, they are\nalways longing to escape. The caged eagle sits on the highest point of\nhis prison, and looks with filmed eye to the free heavens. Hearts that\nlong for God have an irrepressible instinct stinging them to ever-new\nattainments. The consciousness of \"not having already attained\" is\nno pain, when the hope of attaining is strong. Rather, the very\nblessedness of life lies in the sense of present imperfection, the\neffort for completeness, and the assurance of reaching it.\n\nVer. 6 is highly imaginative and profoundly true. If a man has \"the\nways\" in his heart, he will pass through \"the valley of weeping,\"\nand turn it into a \"place of fountains.\" His very tears will fill\nthe wells. Sorrow borne as a help to pilgrimage changes into joy and\nrefreshment. The remembrance of past grief nourishes the soul which\nis aspiring to God. God puts our tears into His bottle; we lose the\nbenefit of them, and fail to discern their true intent, unless we\ngather them into a well, which may refresh us in many a weary hour\nthereafter. If we do, there will be another source of fertility,\nplentifully poured out upon our life's path. \"The early rain covers\nit with blessings.\" Heaven-descended gifts will not be wanting, nor\nthe smiling harvests which they quicken and mature. God meets the\npilgrims' love and faith with gently falling influences, which bring\nforth rich fruit. Trials borne aright bring down fresh bestowments of\npower for fruitful service. Thus possessed of a charm which transforms\ngrief, and recipients of strength from on high, the pilgrims are\nnot tired by travel, as others are, but grow stronger day by day,\nand their progressive increase in vigour is a pledge that they will\njoyously reach their journey's end, and stand in the courts of the\nLord's house. The seekers after God are superior to the law of decay.\nIt may affect their physical powers, but they are borne up by an\nunfulfilled and certain hope, and reinvigorated by continual supplies\nfrom above; and therefore, though in their bodily frame they, like\nother men, faint and grow weary, they shall not utterly fail, but,\nwaiting on Jehovah, \"will renew their strength.\" The fabled fountain\nof perpetual youth rises at the foot of God's throne, and its waters\nflow to meet those who journey thither.\n\nSuch are the elements of the blessedness of those who seek God's\npresence; and with that great promise of certain finding of the good\nand the God whom they seek, the description and the strophe properly\nends. But just as the first part prepared the way for the second,\nso the second does for the third, by breaking forth into prayer. No\nwonder that the thoughts which he has been dwelling on should move the\nsinger to supplication that these blessednesses may be his. According\nto some, ver. 8 is the prayer of the pilgrim on arriving in the\nTemple, but it is best taken as the psalmist's own.\n\nThe final part begins with invocation. In ver. 9 \"our shield\" is in\napposition to \"God,\" not the object to \"behold.\" It anticipates the\ndesignation of God in ver. 11. But why should the prayer for \"Thine\nanointed\" break in upon the current of thought? Are we to say that\nthe psalmist \"completes his work by some rhythmical but ill-connected\nverses\" (Cheyne)? There is a satisfactory explanation of the apparently\nirrelevant petition, if we accept the view that the psalm, like its\nkindred Psalms xlii., xliii., was the work of a companion of David's\nin his flight. If so, the king's restoration would be the condition\nof satisfying the psalmist's longing for the sanctuary. Any other\nhypothesis as to his date and circumstances fails to supply a connecting\nlink between the main subject of the psalm and this petition. The \"For\"\nat the beginning of ver. 10 favours such a view, since it gives the\ndelights of the house of the Lord, and the psalmist's longing to share\nin them, as the reasons for his prayer that Jehovah would look upon the\nface of His anointed. In that verse he glides back to the proper theme\nof the psalm. Life is to be estimated, not according to its length, but\naccording to the richness of its contents. Time is elastic. One crowded\nmoment is better than a millennium of languid years. And nothing fills\nlife so full or stretches the hours to hold so much of real living, as\ncommunion with God, which works, on those who have plunged into its\ndepths, some assimilation to the timeless life of Him with whom \"one day\nis as a thousand years.\" There may be a reference to the Korachites'\nfunction of door-keepers, in that touchingly beautiful choice of the\npsalmist's, rather to lie on the threshold of the Temple than to dwell\nin the tents of wickedness. Whether there is or not, the sentiment\nbreathes sweet humility, and deliberate choice. Just as the poet has\ndeclared that the briefest moment of communion is in his sight to be\npreferred to years of earthly delight, so he counts the humblest office\nin the sanctuary, and the lowest place there, if only it is within the\ndoorway, as better than aught besides. The least degree of fellowship\nwith God has delights superior to the greatest measure of worldly joys.\nAnd this man, knowing that, chose accordingly. How many of us know it,\nand yet cannot say with him, \"Rather would I lie on the door-sill of the\nTemple than sit in the chief places of the world's feasts!\"\n\nSuch a choice is the only rational one. It is the choice of supreme\ngood, correspondent to man's deepest needs, and lasting as his being.\nTherefore the psalmist vindicates his preference, and encourages\nhimself in it, by the thoughts in ver. 11, which he introduces with\n\"For.\" Because God is what He is, and gives what He gives, it is the\nhighest wisdom to take Him for our true good, and never to let Him go.\nHe is \"sun and shield.\" This is the only place in which He is directly\ncalled a sun, though the idea conveyed is common. He is \"the master\nlight of all our seeing,\" the fountain of warmth, illumination, and\nlife. His beams are too bright for human eyes to gaze on, but their\neffluence is the joy of creation. They who look to Him \"shall not\nwalk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.\" What folly to\nchoose darkness rather than light, and, when that Sun is high in the\nheavens, ready to flood our hearts with its beams, to prefer to house\nourselves in gloomy caverns of our own sad thoughts and evil doings!\nAnother reason for the psalmist's choice is that God is a shield.\n(Compare ver. 9.) Who that knows the dangers and foes that cluster\nthick round every life can wisely refuse to shelter behind that ample\nand impenetrable buckler? It is madness to stand in the open field,\nwith arrows whizzing invisible all round, when one step, one heartfelt\ndesire, would place that sure defence between us and every peril. God\nbeing such, \"grace and glory\" will flow from Him to those who seek\nHim. These two are given simultaneously, not, as sometimes supposed,\nin succession, as though grace were the sum of gifts for earth, and\nglory the all-comprehending expression for the higher bestowments of\nheaven. The psalmist thinks that both are possessed here. _Grace_ is\nthe sum of God's gifts, coming from His loving regard to His sinful\nand inferior creatures. _Glory_ is the reflection of His own lustrous\nperfection, which irradiates lives that are turned to Him, and makes\nthem shine, as a poor piece of broken pottery will, when the sunlight\nfalls on it. Since God is the sum of all good, to possess Him is\nto possess it all. The one gift unfolds into all things lovely and\nneedful. It is the raw material, as it were, out of which can be\nshaped, according to transient and multiform needs, everything that\ncan be desired or can bless a soul.\n\nBut high as is the psalmist's flight of mystic devotion, he does not\nsoar so far as to lose sight of plain morality, as mystics have often\nbeen apt to do. It is the man who walks in his integrity who may hope\nto receive these blessings. \"Without holiness no man shall see the\nLord\"; and neither access to His house nor the blessings flowing from\nHis presence can belong to him who is faithless to his own convictions\nof duty. The pilgrim paths are paths of righteousness. The psalmist's\nlast word translates his metaphors of dwelling in and travelling\ntowards the house of Jehovah into their simple meaning, \"Blessed is\nthe man that _trusteth_ in Thee.\" That trust both seeks and finds God.\nThere has never been but one way to His presence, and that is the way\nof trust. \"I am the way.... No man cometh to the Father but by Me.\"\nSo coming, we shall find, and then shall seek more eagerly and find\nmore fully, and thus shall possess at once the joys of fruition and of\ndesires always satisfied, never satiated, but continually renewed.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXV.\n\n 1 Thou hast become favourable, Jehovah, to Thy land,\n Thou hast turned back the captivity of Jacob.\n 2 Thou hast taken away the iniquity of Thy people,\n Thou hast covered all their sin.\n 3 Thou hast drawn in all Thy wrath,\n Thou hast turned Thyself from the glow of Thine anger.\n\n 4 Turn us, O God of our salvation,\n And cause Thine indignation towards us to cease.\n 5 For ever wilt Thou be angry with us?\n Wilt Thou stretch out Thine anger to generation after generation?\n 6 Wilt Thou not revive us again,\n That Thy people may rejoice in Thee?\n 7 Show us, Jehovah, Thy loving-kindness,\n And give us Thy salvation.\n\n 8 I will hear what God, Jehovah, will speak,\n For He will speak peace to His people and to His favoured [ones];\n Only let them not turn again to folly.\n 9 Surely near to them who fear Him is His salvation,\n That glory may dwell in our land.\n 10 Loving-kindness and Troth have met together,\n Righteousness and Peace have kissed [each other],\n 11 Troth springs from the earth,\n And Righteousness looks down from heaven.\n 12 Yea, Jehovah will give that which is good,\n And our land will give her increase.\n 13 Righteousness shall go before Him,\n And shall make His footsteps a way.\n\n\nThe outstanding peculiarity of this psalm is its sudden transitions\nof feeling. Beginning with exuberant thanksgiving for restoration of\nthe nation (vv. 1-3), it passes, without intermediate gradations, to\ncomplaints of God's continued wrath and entreaties for restoration\n(vv. 4-7), and then as suddenly rises to joyous assurance of inward\nand outward blessings. The condition of the exiles returned from\nBabylon best corresponds to such conflicting emotions. The book of\nNehemiah supplies precisely such a background as fits the psalm. A\npart of the nation had returned indeed, but to a ruined city, a fallen\nTemple, and a mourning land, where they were surrounded by jealous and\npowerful enemies. Discouragement had laid hold on the feeble company;\nenthusiasm had ebbed away; the harsh realities of their enterprise\nhad stripped off its imaginative charm; and the mass of the returned\nsettlers had lost heart as well as devout faith. The psalm accurately\nreflects such a state of circumstances and feelings, and may, with\nsome certitude, be assigned, as it is by most commentators, to the\nperiod of return from exile.\n\nIt falls into three parts, of increasing length,--the first, of three\nverses (vv. 1-3), recounts God's acts of mercy already received; the\nsecond, of four verses (vv. 4-7), is a plaintive prayer in view of\nstill remaining national afflictions; and the third, of six verses, a\nglad report by the psalmist of the Divine promises which his waiting\near had heard, and which might well quicken the most faint-hearted\ninto triumphant hope.\n\nIn the first strophe one great fact is presented in a threefold\naspect, and traced wholly to Jehovah. \"Thou hast turned back the\ncaptivity of Jacob.\" That expression is sometimes used in a figurative\nsense for any restoration of prosperity, but is here to be taken\nliterally. Now, as at first, the restored Israel, like their\nancestors under Joshua, had not won the land by their own arm, but\n\"because God had a favour unto them,\" and had given them favour in the\neyes of those who carried them captive. The restoration of the Jews,\nseen from the conqueror's point of view, was a piece of state policy,\nbut from that of the devout Israelite was the result of God's working\nupon the heart of the new ruler of Babylon. The fact is stated in ver.\n1; a yet more blessed fact, of which it is most blessed as being a\ntoken, is declared in ver. 2.\n\nThe psalmist knows that captivity had been chastisement, the issue of\nnational sin. Therefore he is sure that restoration is the sign of\nforgiveness. His thoughts are running in the same line as in Isa. xl.\n2, where the proclamation to Jerusalem that her iniquity is pardoned\nis connected with the assurance that her hard service is accomplished.\nHe uses two significant words for pardon, both of which occur in Psalm\nxxxii. In ver. 2 _a_ sin is regarded as a weight pressing down the\nnation, which God's mercy lifts off and takes away; in ver. 2 _b_ it\nis conceived of as a hideous stain or foulness, which His mercy hides,\nso that it is no longer an offence to heaven. Ver. 3 ventures still\ndeeper into the sacred recesses of the Divine nature, and traces the\nforgiveness, which in act had produced so happy a change in Israel's\nposition, to its source in a change in God's disposition. \"Thou hast\ndrawn in all Thy wrath,\" as a man does his breath, or, if the comparison\nmay be ventured, as some creature armed with a sting retracts it into\nits sheath. \"Thou hast turned Thyself from the glow of Thine anger\"\ngives the same idea under another metaphor. The word turn has a singular\nfascination for this psalmist. He uses it five times (vv. 1, 3, 4,\n6--_lit._, wilt Thou not turn, quicken us?--and 8). God's turning from\nHis anger is the reason for Israel's returning from captivity.\n\nThe abruptness of the transition from joyous thanksgiving to the sad\nminor of lamentation and supplication is striking, but most natural,\nif the psalmist was one of the band of returning exiles, surrounded\nby the ruins of a happier past, and appalled by the magnitude of the\nwork before them, the slenderness of their resources, and the fierce\nhostility of their neighbours. The prayer of ver. 4, \"Turn us,\" is\nbest taken as using the word in the same sense as in ver. 1, where\nGod is said to have \"turned\" the captivity of Jacob. What was there\nregarded as accomplished is here conceived of as still to be done.\nThat is, the restoration was incomplete, as we know that it was, both\nin regard to the bulk of the nation, who still remained in exile, and\nin regard to the depressed condition of the small part of it which had\ngone back to Palestine. In like manner the petitions of ver. 5 look\nback to ver. 3, and pray that the anger which there had been spoken\nof as passed may indeed utterly cease. The partial restoration of the\npeople implied, in the psalmist's view, a diminution rather than a\ncessation of God's punitive wrath, and he beseeches Him to complete\nthat which He had begun.\n\nThe relation of the first to the second strophe is not only that of\ncontrast, but the prayers of the latter are founded upon the facts of\nthe former, which constitute both grounds for the suppliant's hope\nof answer and pleas with God. He cannot mean to deliver by halves.\nThe mercies received are incomplete; and His work must be perfect. He\ncannot be partially reconciled, nor have meant to bring His people\nback to the land, and then leave them to misery. So the contrast\nbetween the bright dawning of the Return and its clouded day is not\nwholly depressing; for the remembrance of what has been heartens for\nthe assurance that what is shall not always be, but will be followed\nby a future more correspondent to God's purpose as shown in that past.\nWhen we are tempted to gloomy thoughts by the palpable incongruities\nbetween God's ideals and man's realisation of them, we may take a hint\nfrom this psalmist, and, instead of concluding that the ideal was a\nphantasm, argue with ourselves that the incomplete actual will one day\ngive way to the perfect embodiment. God leaves no work unfinished. He\nnever leaves off till He has done. His beginnings guarantee congruous\nendings. He does not half withdraw His anger; and, if He seems to\ndo so, it is only because men have but half turned from their sins.\nThis psalm is rich in teaching as to the right way of regarding the\nincompleteness of great movements which, in their incipient stages,\nwere evidently of God. It instructs us to keep the Divine intervention\nwhich started them clearly in view; to make the shortcomings, which\nmar them, a subject of lowly prayer; and to be sure that all which He\nbegins He will finish, and that the end will fully correspond to the\npromise of the beginning. A \"day of the Lord\" which rose in brightness\nmay cloud over as its hours roll, but \"at eventide it shall be light,\"\nand none of the morning promise will be unfulfilled.\n\nThe third strophe (vv. 8-13) brings solid hopes, based upon Divine\npromises, to bear on present discouragements. In ver. 8 the psalmist,\nlike Habakkuk (ii. 1), encourages himself to listen to what God will\nspeak. The word \"I will hear\" expresses resolve or desire, and might\nbe rendered _Let me hear_, or _I would hear_. Faithful prayer will\nalways be followed by patient and faithful waiting for response from\nGod. God will not be silent, when His servant appeals to Him with\nrecognition of His past mercies, joined with longing that these may\nbe perfected. No voice will break the silence of the heavens; but, in\nthe depths of the waiting soul, there will spring a sweet assurance\nwhich comes from God, and is really His answer to prayer, telling\nthe suppliant that \"He will speak peace to His people,\" and warning\nthem not to turn away from Him to other helps, which is folly. \"His\nfavoured ones\" seems here to be meant as coextensive with \"His\npeople.\" Israel is regarded as having entered into covenant relations\nwith God; and the designation is the pledge that what God speaks will\nbe \"peace.\" That word is to be taken in its widest sense, as meaning,\nfirst and chiefly, peace with Him, who has \"turned Himself from His\nanger\"; and then, generally, well-being of all kinds, outward and\ninward, as a consequence of that rectified relation with God.\n\nThe warning of ver. 8 _c_ is thought by some to be out of place, and\nan emendation has been suggested, which requires little change in the\nHebrew--namely, \"to those who have turned their hearts towards Him.\"\nThis reading is supported by the LXX.; but the warning is perfectly\nappropriate, and carries a large truth--that the condition of God's\nspeaking of peace is our firm adherence to Him. Once more the psalmist\nuses his favourite word \"turn.\" God had turned the captivity; He had\nturned Himself from His anger; the psalmist had prayed Him to turn\nor restore the people, and to turn and revive them, and now He warns\nagainst turning again to folly. There is always danger of relapse in\nthose who have experienced God's delivering mercy. There is a blessed\nturning, when they are brought from the far-off land to dwell near\nGod. But there is a possible fatal turning away from the Voice that\nspeaks peace, and the Arm that brings salvation, to the old distance\nand bondage. Strange that any ears, which have heard the sweetness of\nHis still small Voice whispering Peace, should wish to stray where it\ncannot be heard! Strange that the warning should ever be required, and\ntragic that it should so often be despised!\n\nAfter the introductory ver. 8, the substance of what Jehovah spoke\nto the psalmist is proclaimed in the singer's own words. The first\nassurance which the psalmist drew from the Divine word was that God's\nsalvation, the whole fulness of His delivering grace both in regard\nto external and in inward evils, is ever near to them that fear\nHim. \"Salvation\" here is to be taken in its widest sense. It means,\nnegatively, deliverance from all possible evils, outward and inward;\nand, positively, endowment with all possible good, both for body and\nspirit. With such fulness of complete blessings, they, and they only,\nwho keep near to God, and refuse to turn aside to foolish confidences,\nshall be enriched. That is the inmost meaning of what God said to\nthe psalmist; and it is said to all. And that salvation being thus\npossessed, it would be possible for \"glory\"--_i.e._, the manifest\npresence of God, as in the Shechinah--to tabernacle in the land.\nThe condition of God's dwelling with men is their acceptance of His\nsalvation. That purifies hearts to be temples.\n\nThe lovely personifications in vv. 10-13 have passed into Christian\npoetry and art, but are not clearly apprehended when they are taken\nto describe the harmonious meeting and co-operation, in Christ's\ngreat work, of apparently opposing attributes of the Divine nature.\nNo such thoughts are in the psalmist's mind. Loving-kindness and\nFaithfulness or Troth are constantly associated in Scripture as\nDivine attributes. Righteousness and Peace are as constantly united,\nas belonging to the perfection of human character. Ver. 10 seems to\nrefer to the manifestation of God's Loving-kindness and Faithfulness\nin its first clause, and to the exhibition of His people's virtues\nand consequent happiness in its second. In all God's dealings for\nHis people, His Loving-kindness blends with Faithfulness. In all His\npeople's experience Righteousness and Peace are inseparable. The point\nof the assurance in ver. 10 is that heaven and earth are blended in\npermanent amity. These four radiant angels \"dwell in the land.\" Then,\nin ver. 11, there comes a beautiful inversion of the two pairs of\npersonifications, of each of which one member only reappears. Troth or\nFaithfulness, which in ver. 10 came into view principally as a Divine\nattribute, in ver. 11 is conceived of as a human virtue. It \"springs\nout of the earth\"--that is, is produced among men. All human virtue is\nan echo of the Divine, and they who have received into their hearts\nthe blessed results of God's Faithfulness will bring forth in their\nlives fruits like it in kind. Similarly, Righteousness, which in ver.\n10 was mainly viewed as a human excellence, here appears as dwelling\nin and looking down from heaven, like a gracious angel smiling on the\nabundance of Faithfulness which springs from earth. Thus \"the bridal\nof the earth and sky\" is set forth in these verses.\n\nThe same idea is further presented in ver. 12, in its most general form.\nGod gives that which is good, both outward and inward blessings, and,\nthus fructified by bestowments from above, earth yields her increase.\nHis gifts precede men's returns. Without sunshine and rain there are no\nharvests. More widely still, God gives first before He asks. He does not\ngather where He has not strawed, nor reap what He has not sown. Nor does\nHe only sow, but He \"blesses the springing thereof\"; and to Him should\nthe harvest be rendered. He gives before we can give. Isa. xlv. 8 is\nclosely parallel, representing in like manner the co-operation of heaven\nand earth, in the new world of Messianic times.\n\nIn ver. 13 the thought of the blending of heaven and earth, or of\nDivine attributes as being the foundation and parents of their human\nanalogues, is still more vividly expressed. Righteousness, which in\nver. 10 was regarded as exercised by men, and in ver. 11 as looking\ndown from heaven, is now represented both as a herald preceding God's\nroyal progress, and as following in His footsteps. The last clause is\nrendered in different ways, which all have the same general sense.\nProbably the rendering above is best: \"Righteousness shall make His\nfootsteps a way\"--that is, for men to walk in. All God's workings\namong men, which are poetically conceived as His way, have stamped\non them Righteousness. That strong angel goes before Him to clear\na path for Him, and trace the course which He shall take. That is\nthe imaginative expression of the truth--that absolute, inflexible\nRighteousness guides all the Divine acts. But the same Righteousness,\nwhich precedes, also follows Him, and points His footsteps as the way\nfor us. The incongruity of this double position of God's herald makes\nthe force of the thought greater. It is the poetical embodiment of the\ntruth, that the perfection of man's character and conduct lies in his\nbeing an \"imitator of God,\" and that, however different in degree, our\nrighteousness must be based on His. What a wonderful thought that is,\nthat the union between heaven and earth is so close that God's path is\nour way! How deep into the foundation of ethics the psalmist's glowing\nvision pierces! How blessed the assurance that God's Righteousness is\nrevealed from heaven to make men righteous!\n\nOur psalm needs the completion, which tells of that gospel in which\n\"the Righteousness of God from faith is revealed for faith.\" In Jesus\nthe \"glory\" has tabernacled among men. He has brought heaven and\nearth together. In Him God's Loving-kindness and Faithfulness have\nbecome denizens of earth, as never before. In Him heaven has emptied\nits choicest good on earth. Through Him our barrenness and weeds\nare changed into harvests of love, praise, and service. In Him the\nRighteousness of God is brought near; and, trusting in Him, each of us\nmay tread in His footsteps, and have His Righteousness fulfilled in us\n\"who walk, not after the flesh, but after the spirit.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXVI.\n\n 1 Bow down Thine ear, Jehovah, answer me,\n For I am afflicted and poor.\n 2 Keep my soul, for I am favoured [by Thee],\n Save Thy servant, O Thou my God,\n That trusts in Thee.\n 3 Be gracious to me, Lord,\n For to Thee I cry all the day.\n 4 Rejoice the soul of Thy servant,\n For to Thee, Lord, do I lift up my soul.\n 5 For Thou, Lord, art good and forgiving,\n And plenteous in loving-kindness to all who call on Thee.\n\n 6 Give ear, Jehovah, to my prayer,\n And take heed to the voice of my supplications.\n 7 In the day of my straits will I call [on] Thee,\n For Thou wilt answer me.\n 8 There is none like Thee among the gods, O Lord,\n And no [works] like Thy works.\n 9 All nations whom Thou hast made\n Shall come and bow themselves before Thee,\n And shall give glory to Thy Name,\n 10 For great art Thou and doest wonders,\n Thou art God alone.\n 11 Teach me, Jehovah, Thy way,\n I will walk in Thy troth,\n Unite my heart to fear Thy Name.\n 12 I will thank Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart,\n And I will glorify Thy Name for ever.\n 13 For Thy loving-kindness is great towards me,\n And Thou hast delivered my soul from Sheol beneath.\n\n 14 O God, the proud have risen against me,\n And a crew of violent men have sought after my soul,\n And have not set Thee before them.\n 15 But Thou, Lord, art a God compassionate and gracious,\n Long-suffering and plenteous in loving-kindness and troth.\n 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,\n Give Thy strength to Thy servant,\n And save the son of Thy handmaid.\n 17 Work for me a sign for good,\n That they who hate me may see and be ashamed,\n For Thou, Jehovah, hast helped me and comforted me.\n\n\nThis psalm is little more than a mosaic of quotations and familiar\nphrases of petition. But it is none the less individual, nor is the\npsalmist less heavily burdened, or less truly beseeching and trustful,\nbecause he casts his prayer into well-worn words. God does not give\n\"originality\" to every devout man; and He does not require it as a\ncondition of accepted prayer. Humble souls, who find in more richly\nendowed men's words the best expression of their own needs, may be\nencouraged by such a psalm. Critics may think little of it, as a mere\ncento; but God does not refuse to bow His ear, though He is asked to\ndo so in borrowed words. A prayer full of quotations may be heartfelt,\nand then it will be heard and answered. This psalmist has not only\nshown his intimate acquaintance with earlier devotional words, but\nhe has woven his garland with much quiet beauty, and has blended its\nflowers into a harmony of colour all his own.\n\nThere is no fully developed strophical arrangement but there is a\ndiscernible flow of thought, and the psalm may be regarded as falling\ninto three parts.\n\nThe first of these (vv. 1-5) is a series of petitions, each supported\nby a plea. The petitions are the well-worn ones which spring from\nuniversal need, and there is a certain sequence in them. They begin\nwith \"Bow down Thine ear,\" the first of a suppliant's desires, which,\nas it were, clears the way for those which follow. Trusting that he\nwill not ask in vain, the psalmist then prays that God would \"keep\"\nhis soul as a watchful guardian or sentry does, and that, as the\nresult of such care, he may be saved from impending perils. Nor do his\ndesires limit themselves to deliverance. They rise to more inward and\nselect manifestations of God's heart of tenderness, for the prayer \"Be\ngracious\" asks for such, and so goes deeper into the blessedness of the\ndevout life than the preceding. And the crown of all these requests\nis \"Rejoice the soul of Thy servant,\" with the joy which flows from\nexperience of outward deliverance and of inward whispers of God's\ngrace, heard in the silent depths of communion with Him. It matters not\nthat every petition has parallels in other psalms, which this singer\nis quoting. His desires are none the less his, because they have been\nshared by a company of devout souls before him. His expression of them\nis none the less his, because his very words have been uttered by\nothers. There is rest in thus associating oneself with an innumerable\nmultitude who have \"cried to God and been lightened.\" The petition in\nver. 1 is like that in Psalm lv. 2. Ver. 2 sounds like a reminiscence of\nPsalm xxv. 20; ver. 3 closely resembles Psalm lvii. 1.\n\nThe pleas on which the petitions are grounded are also beautifully\nwreathed together. First, the psalmist asks to be heard because he\nis afflicted and poor (compare Psalm xl. 17). Our need is a valid\nplea with a faithful God. The sense of it drives us to Him; and\nour recognition of poverty and want must underlie all faithful\nappeal to Him. The second plea is capable of two interpretations.\nThe psalmist says that he is _Chasid_; and that word is by some\ncommentators taken to mean _one who exercises_, and by others _one\nwho is the subject of, Chesed_--_i.e._, loving-kindness. As has\nbeen already remarked on Psalm iv. 3, the passive meaning--_i.e._,\none to whom God's loving-kindness is shown--is preferable. Here it\nis distinctly better than the other. The psalmist is not presenting\nhis own character as a plea, but urging God's gracious relation to\nhim, which, once entered on, pledges God to unchanging continuance\nin manifesting His loving-kindness. But, though the psalmist does\nnot plead his character, he does, in the subsequent pleas, present\nhis faith, his daily and day-long prayers, and his lifting of his\ndesires, aspirations, and whole self above the trivialities of earth\nto set them on God. These are valid pleas with Him. It cannot be that\ntrust fixed on Him should be disappointed, nor that cries perpetually\nrising to His ears should be unanswered, nor that a soul stretching\nits tendrils heavenward should fail to find the strong stay, round\nwhich it can cling and climb. God owns the force of such appeals, and\ndelights to be moved to answer, by the spreading before Him of His\nservant's faith and longings.\n\nBut all the psalmist's other pleas are merged at last in that one\ncontained in ver. 5, where he gazes on the revealed Name of God, and\nthinks of Him as He had been described of old, and as this suppliant\ndelights to set to his seal that he has found Him to be--good and\nplacable, and rich in loving-kindness. God is His own motive, and\nFaith can find nothing mightier to urge with God, nor any surer answer\nto its own doubts to urge with itself, than the unfolding of all that\nlies in the Name of the Lord. These pleas, like the petitions which\nthey support, are largely echoes of older words. \"Afflicted and poor\"\ncomes, as just noticed, from Psalm xl. 17. The designation of \"one\nwhom God favours\" is from Psalm iv. 3. \"Unto Thee do I lift up my\nsoul\" is taken verbatim from Psalm xxv. 1. The explication of the\ncontents of the Name of the Lord, like the fuller one in ver. 15, is\nbased upon Exod. xxxiv. 6.\n\nVv. 6-13 may be taken together, as the prayer proper, to which vv. 1-5\nare introductory. In them there is, first, a repetition of the cry\nfor help, and of the declaration of need (vv. 6, 7); then a joyful\ncontemplation of God's unapproachable majesty and works, which insure\nthe ultimate recognition of His Name by all nations (vv. 8-10);\nthen a profoundly and tenderly spiritual prayer for guidance and\nconsecration--wants more pressing still than outward deliverance (ver.\n11); and, finally, as in so many psalms, anticipatory thanksgivings\nfor deliverance yet future, but conceived of as present by vivid faith.\n\nEchoes of earlier psalms sound through the whole; but the general\nimpression is not that of imitation, but of genuine personal need\nand devotion. Ver. 7 is like Psalm xvii. 6 and other passages; ver.\n8 _a_ is from Exod. xv. 11; ver. 8 _b_ is modelled on Deut. iii. 24;\nver. 9, on Psalm xxii. 27; ver. 11 _a_, on Psalm xxvii. 11; ver. 11\n_b_, on Psalm xxvi. 3; \"Sheol beneath\" is from Deut. xxxii. 22. But,\nwithal, there are unity and progress in this cento of citations. The\npsalmist begins with reiterating his cry that God would hear, and in\nver. 7 advances to the assurance that He will. Then in vv. 8-10 he\nturns from all his other pleas to dwell on his final one (ver. 5) of\nthe Divine character. As, in the former verse, he had rested his calm\nhope on God's willingness to help, so now he strengthens himself, in\nassurance of an answer, by the thought of God's unmatched power, the\nunique majesty of His works and His sole Divinity. Ver. 8 might seem\nto assert only Jehovah's supremacy above other gods of the heathen;\nbut ver. 10 shows that the psalmist speaks the language of pure\nMonotheism. Most naturally the prophetic assurance that all nations\nshall come and worship Him is deduced from His sovereign power and\nincomparableness. It cannot be that \"the nations whom Thou hast made\"\nshall for ever remain ignorant of the hand that made them. Sooner or\nlater that great character shall be seen by all men in its solitary\nelevation; and universal praise shall correspond to His sole Divinity.\n\nThe thought of God's sovereign power carries the psalmist beyond\nremembrance of his immediate outward needs, and stirs higher desires\nin him. Hence spring the beautiful and spiritual petitions of ver.\n11, which seek for clearer insight into God's will concerning the\npsalmist's conduct, breathe aspirations after a \"walk\" in that\nGod-appointed way and in \"Thy troth,\" and culminate in one of the\nsweetest and deepest prayers of the Psalter: \"Unite my heart to fear\nThy Name.\" There, at least, the psalmist speaks words borrowed from\nno other, but springing fresh from his heart's depths. Jer. xxxii. 39\nis the nearest parallel, and the commandment in Deut. vi. 5, to love\nGod \"with all thine heart,\" may have been in the psalmist's mind; but\nthe prayer is all his own. He has known the misery of a divided heart,\nthe affections and purposes of which are drawn in manifold directions,\nand are arrayed in conflict against each other. There is no peace\nnor blessedness, neither is any nobility of life possible, without\nwhole-hearted devotion to one great object; and there is no object\ncapable of evoking such devotion or worthy to receive it, except Him\nwho is \"God alone.\" Divided love is no love. It must be \"all in\nall, or not at all.\" With deep truth, the command to love God with\nall the heart is based upon His Unity--\"Hear, O Israel: The Lord thy\nGod is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine\nheart\" (Deut. vi. 4). The very conception of religion requires that\nit should be exclusive, and should dominate the whole nature. It is\nonly God who is great enough to fill and engage all our capacities.\nOnly the mass of the central sun is weighty enough to make giant\norbs its satellites, and to wheel them in their courses. There is\nno tranquillity nor any power in lives frittered away on a thousand\npetty loves. The river that breaks into a multitude of channels is\nsucked up in the sand without reaching the ocean, and has no force in\nits current to scour away obstructions. Concentration makes strong\nmen; consecration makes saints. \"This one thing I do\" is the motto\nof all who have done anything worthy. \"Unite my heart to fear Thy\nName\" is the prayer of all whose devotion is worthy of its object,\nand is the source of joy and power to themselves. The psalmist asks\nfor a heart made one with itself in the fear of God, and then vows\nthat, with that united heart, he will praise his delivering God. As\nin many other psalms, he anticipates the answers to his prayers, and\nin ver. 13 speaks of God's loving-kindness as freshly manifested to\nhim, and of deliverance from the dismal depths of the unseen world,\nwhich threatened to swallow him up. It seems more in accordance with\nthe usage in similar psalms to regard ver. 13 as thus recounting,\nwith prophetic certainty, the coming deliverance as if it were\naccomplished, than to suppose that in it the psalmist is falling back\non former instances of God's rescuing grace.\n\nIn the closing part (vv. 14-17), the psalmist describes more precisely\nhis danger. He is surrounded by a rabble rout of proud and violent\nmen, whose enmity to him is, as in so many of the psalms of persecuted\nsingers, a proof of their forgetfulness of God. Right against this rapid\noutline of his perils, he sets the grand unfolding of the character of\nGod in ver. 15. It is still fuller than that in ver. 5, and, like it,\nrests on Exod. xxxiv. Such juxtaposition is all that is needed to show\nhow little he has to fear from the hostile crew. On one hand are they,\nin their insolence and masterfulness, eagerly hunting after his life;\non the other is God with His infinite pity and loving-kindness. Happy\nare they who can discern high above dangers and foes the calm presence\nof the only God, and, with hearts undistracted and undismayed, can\noppose to all that assails them the impenetrable shield of the Name\nof the Lord! It concerns our peaceful fronting of the darker facts of\nlife, that we cultivate the habit of never looking at dangers or sorrows\nwithout seeing the helping God beside and above them.\n\nThe psalm ends with prayer for present help. If God is, as the\npsalmist has seen Him to be, \"full of compassion and gracious,\" it\nis no presumptuous petition that the streams of these perfections\nshould be made to flow towards a needy suppliant. \"Be gracious to\n_me_\" asks that the light, which pours through the universe, may fall\non one heart, which is surrounded by earth-born darkness. As in the\nintroductory verses, so in the closing petitions, the psalmist grounds\nhis prayer principally on God's manifested character, and secondarily\non his own relation to God. Thus in ver. 16 he pleads that he is God's\nservant, and \"the son of Thy handmaid\" (compare Psalm cxvi. 16). That\nexpression does not imply any special piety in the psalmist's mother,\nbut pleads his hereditary relation as servant to God, or, in other\nwords, his belonging by birth to Israel, as a reason for his prayers\nbeing heard. His last petition for \"a sign\" does not necessarily mean\na miracle, but a clear manifestation of God's favour, which might\nbe as unmistakably shown by an every-day event as by a supernatural\nintervention. To the devout heart, all common things are from God, and\nbear witness for Him. Even blind eyes and hard hearts may be led to\nsee and feel that God is the helper and comforter of humble souls who\ntrust in Him. A heart that is made at peace with itself by the fear\nof God, and has but one dominant purpose and desire, will long for\nGod's mercies, not only because they have a bearing on its own outward\nwell-being, but because they will demonstrate that it is no vain thing\nto wait on the Lord, and may lead some, who cherished enmity to God's\nservant and alienation from Himself, to learn the sweetness of His\nName and the security of trust in Him.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXVII.\n\n 1 His foundation on the holy mountains,\n 2 The gates of Zion Jehovah loves\n More than all the dwellings of Jacob.\n 3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.\n\n 4 I will proclaim Rahab and Babylon as those who know Me:\n \"Behold Philistia and Tyre, with Cush;\n This one was born there.\"\n 5 And of Zion it shall be said,\n \"Man after man was born in her,\"\n And He, the Most High, shall establish her.\n 6 Jehovah shall reckon when He writes down the peoples,\n \"This one was born there.\" Selah.\n\n 7 And singers and dancers [shall chant],\n \"All my fountains are in Thee.\"\n\n\nOne clear note sounds in this remarkable psalm. Its single theme\nis the incorporation of ancestral foes and distant nations with\nthe people of God. Aliens are to be enrolled as home-born citizens\nof Jerusalem. In modern words, the vision of a universal Church,\na brotherhood of humanity, shines radiant before the seer. Other\npsalmists and prophets have like insight into the future expansion\nof the nation, but this psalm stands alone in the emphasis which it\nplaces upon the idea of birth into the rights of citizenship. This\nsinger has had granted to him a glimpse of two great truths--the\nuniversality of the Church, and the mode of entrance into it by\nreception of a new life. To what age of Israel he belonged is\nuncertain. The mention of Babylon as among the enemies who have become\nfellow-citizens favours the supposition of a post-exilic date, which\nis also supported by resemblances to Isa. xl.-lxvi.\n\nThe structure is simple. The psalm is divided by Selah into two\nstrophes, to which a closing verse is appended. The first strophe\nbursts abruptly into rapturous praise of Zion, the beloved of God. The\nsecond predicts the gathering of all nations into her citizenship, and\nthe closing verse apparently paints the exuberant joy of the festal\ncrowds, who shall then throng her streets.\n\nThe abrupt beginning of the first strophe offends some commentators,\nwho have tried to smooth ver. 1 into propriety and tameness, by\nsuggesting possible preliminary clauses, which they suppose to have\ndropped out. But there is no canon which forbids a singer, with the\nrush of inspiration, either poetic or other, on him, to plunge into\nthe heart of his theme. Ver. 1 may be construed, as in the A.V. and\nR.V. (text), as a complete sentence, but is then somewhat feeble. It\nis better to connect it with ver. 2, and to regard \"His foundation\nupon the holy mountains\" as parallel with \"the gates of Zion,\" and\nas, like that phrase, dependent on the verb \"loves.\" Hupfeld, indeed,\nproposes to transfer \"Jehovah loves\" from the beginning of ver. 2,\nwhere it now stands, to the end of ver. 1, supplying the verb mentally\nin the second clause. He thus gets a complete parallelism:--\n\n His foundation upon the holy mountains Jehovah loves,\n The gates of Zion before all the dwellings of Jacob.\n\nBut this is not necessary; for the verb may as well be supplied to the\nfirst as to the second clause. The harshness of saying \"His foundation,\"\nwithout designating the person to whom the pronoun refers, which is\nextreme if ver. 1 is taken as a separate sentence, is diminished when it\nis regarded as connected with ver. 2, in which the mention of Jehovah\nleaves no doubt as to whose the \"foundation\" is. The psalmist's fervent\nlove for Jerusalem is something more than national pride. It is the\napotheosis of that emotion, clarified and hallowed into religion. Zion\nis founded by God Himself. The mountains on which it stands are made\nholy by the Divine dwelling. On their heads shines a glory before which\nthe light that lies on the rock crowned by the Parthenon or on the seven\nhills of Rome pales. Not only the Temple mountain is meant, but the city\nis the psalmist's theme. The hills, on which it stands, are emblems\nof the firmness of its foundation in the Divine purpose, on which it\nreposes. It is beloved of God, and that, as the form of the word \"loves\"\nshows, with an abiding affection. The \"glorious things\" which are spoken\nof Zion may be either the immediately following Divine oracle, or,\nmore probably, prophetic utterances such as many of those in Isaiah,\nwhich predict its future glory. The Divine utterance which follows\nexpresses the substance of these. So far, the psalm is not unlike other\noutpourings in praise of Zion, such as Psalm xlviii. But, in the second\nstrophe, to which the first is introductory, the singer strikes a note\nall his own.\n\nThere can be no doubt as to who is the speaker in ver. 4. The abrupt\nintroduction of a Divine Oracle accords with a not infrequent usage in\nthe Psalter, which adds much to the solemnity of the words. If we regard\nthe \"glorious things\" mentioned in ver. 3 as being the utterances of\nearlier prophets, the psalmist has had his ears purged to hear God's\nvoice, by meditation on and sympathy with these. The faithful use of\nwhat God has said prepares for hearing further disclosures of His lips.\nThe enumeration of nations in ver. 4 carries a great lesson. First\ncomes the ancient enemy, Egypt, designated by the old name of contempt\n(Rahab, _i.e._ pride), but from which the contempt has faded; then\nfollows Babylon, the more recent inflicter of many miseries, once so\ndetested, but towards whom animosity has died down. These two, as the\nchief oppressors, between whom, like a piece of metal between hammer and\nanvil, Israel's territory lay, are named first, with the astonishing\ndeclaration that God will proclaim them as among those who know Him.\nThat knowledge, of course, is not merely intellectual, but the deeper\nknowledge of personal acquaintance or friendship--a knowledge of which\nlove is an element, and which is vital and transforming. Philistia is\nthe old neighbour and foe, which from the beginning had hung on the\nskirts of Israel, and been ever ready to utilise her disasters and\nadd to them. Tyre is the type of godless luxury and inflated material\nprosperity, and, though often in friendly alliance with Israel, as being\nexposed to the same foes which harassed her, she was as far from knowing\nGod as the other nations were. Cush, or Ethiopia, seems mentioned as\na type of distant peoples, rather than because of its hostility to\nIsrael. God points to these nations--some of them near, some remote,\nsome powerful and some feeble, some hereditarily hostile and some more\nor less amicable with Israel--and gives forth the declaration concerning\nthem, \"This one was born there.\"\n\nGod's voice ceases, and in ver. 5 the psalmist takes up the\nwonderful promise which he has just heard. He slightly shifts his\npoint of view: for while the nations that were to be gathered into\nZion were the foremost figures in the Divine utterance, the Zion\ninto which they are gathered is foremost in the psalmist's, in ver.\n5. Its glory, when thus enriched by a multitude of new citizens,\nbulks in his eyes more largely than their blessedness. Another shade\nof difference between the two verses is that, in the former, the\ningathering of the peoples is set forth as collective or national\nincorporation, and, in me latter,--as the expression \"man after (or\n_by_) man\" suggests,--individual accession is more clearly foretold.\nThe establishment of Zion, which the psalmist prophesies, is the\nresult of her reinforcement by these new citizens. The grand figure\nof ver. 6 pictures God as taking a census of the whole world; for it\nis \"the peoples\" whom He numbers. As he writes down each name, He\nsays concerning it, \"This one was born there.\" That list of citizens\nis \"the Book of the Living.\" So \"the end of all history is that Zion\nbecomes the metropolis of all people\" (Delitzsch).\n\nThree great truths had dawned on this psalmist, though their full\nlight was reserved for the Christian era. He had been led to apprehend\nthat the Jewish Church would expand into a world-wide community. If\none thinks of the gulfs of hatred and incompatibility which parted\nthe peoples in his day, his clear utterance of that great truth, the\napprehension of which so far transcended his time, and the realisation\nof which so far transcends ours, will surely be seen to be due to a\nDivine breath. The broadest New Testament expression of Universalism\ndoes not surpass the psalmist's confident certainty, \"There is neither\nGreek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian,\" says no more than he said. More\nremarkable still is his conception of the method by which the nations\nshould be gathered in to Zion. They are to be \"born there.\" Surely\nthere shines before the speaker some glimmering ray of the truth that\nincorporation with the people of God is effected by the communication\nof a new life, a transformation of the natural, which will set men in\nnew affinities, and make them all brethren, because all participant\nof the same wondrous birth. It would be anachronism to read into the\npsalm the clear Christian truth \"Ye must be born again,\" but it would\nbe as false a weakening of its words to refuse to see in them the\ngerm of that truth. The third discovery which the psalmist has made,\nor rather the third revelation which he has received, is that of the\nindividual accession of the members of the outlying nations. The\nDivine voice, in ver. 4, seems to speak of birth into citizenship as\nnational; but the psalmist, in ver. 6, represents Jehovah as writing\nthe names of individuals in the burgess-roll, and of saying in regard\nto each, as He writes, \"This one was born there.\" In like manner, in\nver. 5, the form of expression is \"Man after man,\" which brings out the\nsame thought, with the addition that there is an unbroken series of\nnew citizens. It is by accession of single souls that the population\nof Zion is increased. God's register resolves the community into its\ncomponent units. Men are born one by one, and one by one they enter\nthe true kingdom. In the ancient world the community was more than the\nindividual. But in Christ the individual acquires new worth, while the\nbands of social order are not thereby weakened, but made more stringent\nand sacred. The city, whose inhabitants have one by one been won by its\nKing, and have been knit to Him in the sacred depths of personal being,\nis more closely \"compact together\" than the mechanical aggregations\nwhich call themselves civil societies. The unity of Christ's kingdom\ndoes not destroy national characteristics any more than it interferes\nwith individual idiosyncrasies. The more each constituent member is\nhimself, the more will he be joined to others, and contribute his\nspecial mite to the general wealth and well-being.\n\nVer. 7 is, on any interpretation, extremely obscure, because so abrupt\nand condensed. But probably the translation adopted above, though by\nno means free from difficulty or doubt, brings out the meaning which\nis most in accordance with the preceding. It may be supposed to flash\nvividly before the reader's imagination the picture of a triumphal\nprocession of rejoicing citizens, singers as well as dancers, who\nchant, as they advance, a joyous chorus in praise of the city, in\nwhich they have found all fountains of joy and satisfaction welling up\nfor their refreshment and delight.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXVIII.\n\n 1 Jehovah, God of my salvation,\n By day, by night I cry before Thee.\n 2 Let my prayer come before Thy face,\n Bow Thine ear to my shrill cry.\n 3 For sated with troubles is my soul,\n And my life has drawn near to Sheol.\n 4 I am counted with those that have gone down to the pit,\n I am become as a man without strength.\n 5 [I am] free among the dead,\n Like the slain that lie in the grave,\n Whom Thou rememberest no more,\n But they are cut off from Thy hand.\n 6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,\n In dark places, in the deeps.\n 7 Upon me Thy wrath presses hard,\n And [with] all Thy breakers Thou hast afflicted [me]. Selah\n 8 Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me,\n Thou hast made me an abomination to them,\n I am shut up so that I cannot come forth.\n\n 9 My eye wastes away because of affliction,\n I have called on Thee daily, Jehovah,\n I have spread out my palms to Thee,\n 10 For the dead canst Thou do wonders?\n Or can the shades arise [and] praise Thee? Selah.\n 11 In the grave can Thy loving-kindness be told,\n And Thy faithfulness in destruction?\n 12 Can Thy wonders be made known in darkness,\n And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?\n\n 13 But I, I have cried unto Thee, Jehovah,\n And in the morning my prayer comes to meet Thee.\n 14 Why, Jehovah, dost Thou cast off my soul,\n [And] hidest Thy face from me?\n 15 Afflicted am I and at the point of death from [my] youth,\n I have borne Thy terrors [till] I am distracted.\n 16 Over me have Thy [streams of] wrath passed,\n Thy horrors have cut me off.\n 17 They have compassed me about like waters all the day.\n They have come round me together.\n 18 Thou hast put far from me lover and friend,\n My familiar friends are--darkness.\n\n\nA psalm which begins with \"God of my salvation\" and ends with\n\"darkness\" is an anomaly. All but unbroken gloom broods over it, and\nis densest at its close. The psalmist is so \"weighed upon by sore\ndistress,\" that he has neither definite petition for deliverance nor\nhope. His cry to God is only a long-drawn complaint, which brings\nno respite from his pains nor brightening of his spirit. But yet to\naddress God as the God of his salvation, to discern His hand in the\ninfliction of sorrows, is the operation of true though feeble faith.\n\"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,\" is the very spirit of\nthis psalm. It stands alone in the Psalter, which would be incomplete\nas a mirror of phases of devout experience, unless it had one psalm\nexpressing trust which has ceased to ask or hope for the removal of\nlifelong griefs, but still clasps God's hand even in the \"darkness.\"\nSuch experience is comparatively rare, and is meant to be risen above.\nTherefore this psalm stands alone. But it is not unexampled, and all\nmoods of the devout life would not find lyrical expression in the book\nunless this deep note was once sounded.\n\nIt is useless to inquire what was the psalmist's affliction. His\nlanguage seems to point to physical disease, of long continuance\nand ever threatening a fatal termination; but in all probability\nsickness is a symbol here, as so often. What racked his sensitive\nspirit matters little. The cry which his pains evoked is what we are\nconcerned with. There is little trace of strophical arrangement, and\ncommentators differ much in their disposition of the parts of the\npsalm. But we venture to suggest a principle of division which has not\nbeen observed, in the threefold recurrence of \"I cry\" or \"I call,\"\naccompanied in each case by direct address to Jehovah. The resulting\ndivision into three parts gives, first, the psalmist's description\nof his hopeless condition as, in effect, already dead (vv. 1-8);\nsecond, an expostulation with God on the ground that, if the psalmist\nis actually numbered with the dead, he can no more be the object of\nDivine help, nor bring God praise (vv. 9-12); and, third, a repetition\nof the thoughts of the first part, with slight variation and addition.\n\nThe central portion of the first division is occupied with an expansion\nof the thought that the psalmist is already as good as dead (vv. 3\n_b_-6). The condition of the dead is drawn with a powerful hand, and the\npicture is full of solemn grandeur and hopelessness. It is preceded in\nvv. 1, 2, by an invocation which has many parallels in the psalms, but\nwhich here is peculiarly striking. This saddest of them all has for its\nfirst words the Name which ought to banish sadness. He who can call on\nJehovah as the God of his salvation possesses a charm which has power\nto still agitation, and to flush despair with some light of hope as\nfrom an unrisen sun. But this poet feels no warmth from the beams, and\nthe mists surge up, if not to hide the light, yet to obscure it. All\nthe more admirable, then, the persistence of his cry; and all the more\nprecious the lesson that Faith is not to let present experience limit\nits conceptions. God is none the less the God of salvation and none the\nless to be believed to be so, though no consciousness of His saving\npower blesses the heart at the moment.\n\nVer. 1 _b_ is obscure. Psalm xxii. 2 and other places suggest that\nthe juxtaposition of day and night is meant to express the continuity\nof the psalmist's prayer; but, as the text now stands, the first\npart of the clause can only mean \"In the time (day) when I cry,\"\nand the second has to be supplemented so as to read \"[My cry comes]\nbefore Thee.\" This gives a poor meaning, and there is probability\nin the slight emendation on the word for _day_, which is required\nin order to make it an adverb of time equivalent to \"In the day,\"\nas in the passage already quoted. Another emendation, adopted by\nGraetz, Bickell, and Cheyne, changes \"God of\" into \"my God,\" and \"my\nsalvation\" into \"I cry\" (the same word as in ver. 13), and attaches\n\"by day\" to the first clause. The result is,--\n\n Jehovah, my God, I cry to Thee by day,\n I call in the night before Thee.\n\nThe changes are very slight and easy, and the effect of them is\nsatisfactory. The meaning of the verse is obvious, whether the\nemendation is accepted or not. The gain from the proposed change is\ndearly purchased by the loss of that solitary expression of hope in\nthe name of \"God of my salvation,\" the one star which gleams for a\nmoment through a rift in the blackness.\n\nWith \"For\" in ver. 3 the psalmist begins the dreary description of his\naffliction, the desperate and all but deodly character of which he\nspreads before God as a reason for hearing his prayer. Despair sometimes\nstrikes men dumb, and sometimes makes them eloquent. The sorrow which\nhas a voice is less crushing than that which is tongueless. This\novercharged heart finds relief in self-pitying depicting of its burdens,\nand in the exercise of a gloomy imagination, which draws out in detail\nthe picture of the feebleness, the recumbent stillness, the seclusion\nand darkness of the dead. They have \"no strength.\" Their vital force\nhas ebbed away, and they are but as weak shadows, having an impotent\nexistence, which does not deserve to be called life. The remarkable\nexpression of ver. 5, \"free among the dead,\" is to be interpreted in\nthe light of Job iii. 19, which counts it as one blessing of the grave,\nthat \"there the servant is free from his master.\" But the psalmist\nthinks that that \"freedom\" is loathsome, not desirable, for it means\nremoval from the stir of a life, the heaviest duties and cares of which\nare better than the torpid immunity from these, which makes the state\nof the dead a dreary monotony. They lie stretched out and motionless.\nNo ripple of cheerful activity stirs that stagnant sea. One unvarying\nattitude is theirs. It is not the stillness of rest which prepares for\nwork, but of incapacity of action or of change. They are forgotten by\nHim who remembers all that are. They are parted from the guiding and\nblessing influence of the Hand that upholds all being. In some strange\nfashion they are and yet are not. Their death has a simulacrum of life.\nTheir shadowy life is death. Being and non-being may both be predicated\nof them. The psalmist speaks in riddles; and the contradictions in his\nspeech reflect his dim knowledge of that place of darkness. He looks\ninto its gloomy depths, and he sees little but gloom. It needed the\nresurrection of Jesus to flood these depths with light, and to show that\nthe life beyond may be fuller of bright activity than life here--a state\nin which vital strength is increased beyond all earthly experience, and\nwherein God's all-quickening hand grasps more closely, and communicates\nricher gifts than are attainable in that death which sense calls life.\n\nVer. 7 traces the psalmist's sorrows to God. It breathes not complaint\nbut submission, or, at least, recognition of His hand; and they who,\nin the very paroxysm of their pains, can say, \"It is the Lord,\" are\nnot far from saying, \"Let Him do what seemeth Him good,\" nor from the\npeace that comes from a compliant will. The recognition implies, too,\nconsciousness of sin which has deserved the \"wrath\" of God, and in\nsuch consciousness lies the germ of blessing. Sensitive nerves may\nquiver, as they feel the dreadful weight with which that wrath presses\ndown on them, as if to crush them; but if the man lies still, and lets\nthe pressure do its work, it will not force out his life, but only his\nevil, as foul water is squeezed from cloth. Ver. 7 _b_ is rendered by\nDelitzsch \"All Thy billows Thou pressest down,\" which gives a vivid\npicture; but \"billows\" is scarcely the word to use for the downward\nrushing waters of a cataract, and the ordinary rendering, adopted\nabove, requires only natural supplements.\n\nVer. 8 approaches nearer to a specification of the psalmist's\naffliction. If taken literally, it points to some loathsome\ndisease, which had long clung to and made even his friends shrink\nfrom companionship, and thus had condemned him to isolation. All\nthese details suggest leprosy, which, if referred to here, is most\nprobably to be taken, as sickness is in several psalms, as symbolic\nof affliction. The desertion by friends is a common feature in the\npsalmists' complaints. The seclusion as in a prison-house is, no\ndoubt, appropriate to the leper's condition, but may also simply\nrefer to the loneliness and compulsory inaction arising from heavy\ntrials. At all events, the psalmist is flung back friendless on\nhimself, and hemmed in, so that he cannot expatiate in the joyous\nbustle of life. Blessed are they who, when thus situated, can\nbetake themselves to God, and find that He does not turn away!\nThe consciousness of His loving presence has not yet lighted the\npsalmist's soul; but the clear acknowledgment that it is God who has\nput the sweetness of earthly companionship beyond his reach is, at\nleast, the beginning of the happier experience, that God never makes a\nsolitude round a soul without desiring to fill it with Himself.\n\nIf the recurring cry to Jehovah in ver. 9 is taken, as we have\nsuggested it should be, as marking a new turn in the thoughts,\nthe second part of the psalm will include vv. 9-12. Vv. 10-12 are\napparently the daily prayer referred to in ver. 9. They appeal to\nGod to preserve the psalmist from the state of death, which he\nhas just depicted himself as having in effect already entered,\nby the consideration which is urged in other psalms as a reason\nfor Divine intervention (vi. 5, xxx. 9, etc.)--namely, that His\npower had no field for its manifestation in the grave, and that He\ncould draw no revenue of praise from the pale lips that lay silent\nthere. The conception of the state of the dead is even more dreary\nthan that in vv. 4, 5. They are \"shades,\" which word conveys the\nidea of relaxed feebleness. Their dwelling is Abaddon--_i.e._,\n\"destruction,\"--\"darkness,\" \"the land of forgetfulness\" whose\ninhabitants remember not, nor are remembered, either by God or man. In\nthat cheerless region, God had no opportunity to show His wonders of\ndelivering mercy, for monotonous immobility was stamped upon it, and\nout of that realm of silence no glad songs of praise could sound. Such\nthoughts are in startling contrast with the hopes that sparkle in some\npsalms (such as xvi. 10, etc.), and they show that clear, permanent\nassurance of future blessedness was not granted to the ancient\nChurch. Nor could there be sober certainty of it until after Christ's\nresurrection. But it is also to be noticed that this psalm neither\naffirms nor denies a future resurrection. It does affirm continuous\npersonal existence after death, of however thin and shadowy a sort. It\nis not concerned with what may lie far ahead, but is speaking of the\npresent state of the dead, as it was conceived of, at the then stage\nof revelation, by a devout soul, in its hours of despondency.\n\nThe last part (vv. 13-18) is marked, like the two preceding, by the\nrepetition of the name of Jehovah, and of the allusion to the psalmist's\ncontinual prayer. It is remarkable, and perhaps significant, that the\ntime of prayer should here be \"the morning,\" whereas in ver. 1 it\nwas, according to Delitzsch, _the night_, or, according to the other\nrendering, _day and night_. The psalmist had asked in ver. 2 that his\nprayer might enter into God's presence; he now vows that it will come\nto meet Him. Possibly some lightening of his burden may be hinted at\nby the reference to the time of his petition. Morning is the hour of\nhope, of new vigour, of a fresh beginning, which may not be only a\nprolongation of dreary yesterdays. But if there is any such alleviation,\nit is only for a moment, and then the cloud settles down still more\nheavily. But one thing the psalmist has won by his cry. He now longs\nto know the reason for his affliction. He is confident that God is\nrighteous when He afflicts, and, heavy as his sorrow is, he has passed\nbeyond mere complaint concerning it, to the wish to understand it.\nThe consciousness that it is chastisement, occasioned by his own evil,\nand meant to purge that evil away, is present, in a rudimentary form\nat least, in that cry, \"_Why_ castest Thou off my soul?\" If sorrow has\nbrought a man to offer that prayer, it has done its work, and will cease\nbefore long, or, if it lasts, will be easier to bear, when its meaning\nand purpose are clear. But the psalmist rises to such a height but for a\nmoment, though his momentary attaining it gives promise that he will, by\ndegrees, be able to remain there permanently. It is significant that the\nonly direct naming of Jehovah, in addition to the three which accompany\nthe references to his prayers, is associated with this petition for\nenlightenment. The singer presses close to God in his faith that His\nhardest blows are not struck at random, and that His administration has\nfor its basis, not caprice, but reason, moved by love and righteousness.\n\nSuch a cry is never offered in vain, even though it should be followed,\nas it is here, by plaintive reiterations of the sufferer's pains. These\nare now little more than a summary of the first part. The same idea\nof being in effect dead even while alive is repeated in ver. 15, in\nwhich the psalmist wails that from youth he had been but a dying man,\nso close to him had death seemed, or so death-like had been his life.\nHe has borne God's terrors till he is distracted. The word rendered \"I\nam distracted\" is only used here, and consequently is obscure. Hupfeld\nand others deny that it is a word at all (he calls it an \"Unwort\"), and\nwould read another which means _to become torpid_. The existing text\nis defended by Delitzsch and others, who take the word to mean to be\nweakened in mind or bewildered. The meaning of the whole seems to be\nas rendered above. But it might also be translated, as by Cheyne, \"I\nbear Thy terrors, my senses must fail.\" In ver. 16 the word for wrath\nis in the plural, to express the manifold outbursts of that deadly\nindignation. The word means literally heat; and we may represent the\npsalmist's thought as being that the wrath shoots forth many fierce\ntongues of licking flame, or, like a lava stream, pours out in many\nbranches. The word rendered \"Cut me off\" is anomalous, and is variously\ntranslated _annihilate_, _extinguish_, or as above. The wrath which\nwas a fiery name in ver. 16 is an overwhelming flood in ver. 17. The\ncomplaint of ver. 8 recurs in ver. 18, in still more tragic form. All\nhuman sympathy and help are far away, and the psalmist's only familiar\nfriend is--darkness. There is an infinitude of despair in that sad\nirony. But there is a gleam of hope, though faint and far, like faint\ndaylight seen from the innermost recesses of a dark tunnel, in his\nrecognition that his dismal solitude is the work of God's hand; for, if\nGod has made a heart or a life empty of human love, it is that He may\nHimself fill it with His own sweet and all-compensating presence.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM LXXXIX\n\n 1 The loving-kindnesses of Jehovah will I sing for ever,\n To generation after generation will I make known Thy Faithfulness\n with my mouth.\n 2 For I said, For ever shall Loving-kindness be built up,\n The heavens--in them wilt Thou establish Thy Faithfulness,\n\n 3 I have made a covenant with My chosen one,\n I have sworn to David My servant;\n 4 For ever will I establish thy seed,\n And build up thy throne to generation after generation. Selah.\n\n 5 And the heavens shall make known Thy wonders, Jehovah,\n Thy Faithfulness also in the congregation of Thy holy ones.\n 6 For who in the skies can be set beside Jehovah,\n [Or] likened to Jehovah, amongst the sons of the mighty ones?\n\n 7 A God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,\n And dread above all round about Him.\n 8 Jehovah, God of Hosts, who like Thee is mighty, Jah?\n And Thy Faithfulness [is] round Thee.\n\n 9 Thou, Thou rulest the insolence of the sea,\n When its waves lift themselves on high, Thou, Thou stillest them.\n 10 Thou, Thou hast crushed Rahab as one that is slain,\n By the arm of Thy strength Thou hast scattered Thine enemies.\n\n 11 Thine are the heavens, Thine also the earth,\n The world and its fulness, Thou, Thou hast founded them.\n 12 North and south, Thou, Thou hast created them,\n Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Thy Name.\n\n 13 Thine is an arm with might,\n Strong is Thy hand, high is Thy right hand.\n 14 Righteousness and Justice are the foundation of Thy throne,\n Loving-kindness and Troth go to meet Thy face.\n\n 15 Blessed the people who know the festal shout!\n Jehovah, in the light of Thy face they walk.\n 16 In Thy Name do they exult all the day,\n And in Thy righteousness are they exalted.\n\n 17 For the glory of their strength art Thou,\n And in Thy favour shall our horn be exalted.\n 18 For to Jehovah [belongs] our shield,\n And to the Holy One of Israel our king.\n\n 19 Then Thou didst speak in vision to Thy favoured one and didst say,\n I have laid help upon a hero,\n I have exalted one chosen from the people,\n 20 I have found David My servant,\n With My holy oil have I anointed him\n\n 21 With whom My hand shall be continually,\n Mine arm shall also strengthen him,\n 22 No enemy shall steal upon him,\n And no son of wickedness shall afflict him.\n\n 23 And I shatter his adversaries before him,\n And them that hate him will I smite,\n 24 And My Faithfulness and My Loving-kindness [shall be] with him,\n And in My name shall his horn be exalted.\n 25 And I will set his hand on the sea,\n And his right hand on the rivers.\n\n 26 He, he shall call upon Me, My Father art Thou,\n My God and the rock of my salvation.\n 27 Also I, I will give him [to be My] first-born,\n Higher than the kings of the earth.\n\n 28 For ever will I keep for him My Loving-kindness,\n And My covenant shall be inviolable towards him.\n 29 And I will make his seed [to last] for ever,\n And his throne as the days of heaven.\n\n 30 If his sons forsake My law,\n And walk not in My judgments,\n 31 If they profane My statutes,\n And keep not My commandments,\n\n 32 Then will I visit their transgression with a rod,\n And their iniquity with stripes.\n 33 But My Loving-kindness will I not break off from him,\n And I will not be false to My Faithfulness.\n\n 34 I will not profane My covenant,\n And that which has gone forth from My lips will I not change.\n 35 Once have I sworn by My holiness,\n Verily I will not be false to David.\n\n 36 His seed shall be for ever,\n And his throne as the sun before me,\n 37 As the moon shall he be established for ever,\n And the witness in the sky is true. Selah.\n\n 38 But Thou, Thou hast cast off and rejected,\n Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed,\n 39 Thou hast abhorred the covenant of Thy servant,\n Thou hast profaned his crown to the ground.\n\n 40 Thou hast broken down all his fences,\n Thou hast made his strongholds a ruin.\n 41 All that pass on the way spoil him,\n He is become a reproach to his neighbours.\n\n 42 Thou hast exalted the hand of his adversaries,\n Thou hast made all his enemies rejoice.\n 43 Also Thou turnest the edge of his sword,\n And hast not made him to stand in the battle.\n\n 44 Thou hast made an end of his lustre,\n And cast his throne to the ground,\n 45 Thou hast shortened the days of his youth,\n Thou hast wrapped shame upon him. Selah.\n\n 46 How long, Jehovah, wilt Thou hide Thyself for ever?\n [How long] shall Thy wrath burn like fire?\n 47 Remember how short a time I [have to live],\n For what vanity hast Thou created all the sons of men!\n 48 Who is the man who shall live and not see death,\n [Who] shall deliver his soul from the hand of Sheol?\n\n 49 Where are Thy former loving-kindnesses, Jehovah,\n Which Thou swarest to David in Thy faithfulness?\n 50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants,\n How I bear in my bosom the shame of the peoples(?)\n 51 Wherewith Thine enemies have reproached Thee, Jehovah,\n Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed.\n\n 52 Blessed be Jehovah for evermore.\n Amen and Amen.\n\n\nThe foundation of this psalm is the promise in 2 Sam. vii. which\nguaranteed the perpetuity of the Davidic kingdom. Many of the\ncharacteristic phrases of the prophecy recur here--_e.g._, the\npromises that the children of wickedness shall not afflict, and\nthat the transgressions of David's descendants should be followed\nby chastisement only, not by rejection. The contents of Nathan's\noracle are first given in brief in vv. 3, 4--\"like a text,\" as\nHupfeld says--and again in detail and with poetic embellishments in\nvv. 19-37. But these glorious promises are set in sharpest contrast\nwith a doleful present, which seems to contradict them. They not only\nembitter it, but they bewilder faith, and the psalmist's lament is\nmade almost a reproach of God, whose faithfulness seems imperilled\nby the disasters which had fallen on the monarchy and on Israel. The\ncomplaint and petitions of the latter part are the true burden of the\npsalm, to which the celebration of Divine attributes in vv. 1-18,\nand the expansion of the fundamental promise in vv. 19-37, are meant\nto lead up. The attributes specified are those of Faithfulness (vv.\n1, 2, 5, 8, 14) and of Power, which render the fulfilment of God's\npromises certain. By such contemplations the psalmist would fortify\nhimself against the whispers of doubt, which were beginning to make\nthemselves heard in his mind, and would find in the character of God\nboth assurance that His promise shall not fail, and a powerful plea\nfor his prayer that it may not fail.\n\nThe whole tone of the psalm suggests that it was written when the\nkingdom was toppling to ruin, or perhaps even after its fall. Delitzsch\nimprobably supposes that the young king, whom loss and shame make an old\nman (ver. 45), is Rehoboam, and that the disasters which gave occasion\nto the psalm were those inflicted by the Egyptian king Shishak. Others\nsee in that youthful prince Jehoiachin, who reigned for three months,\nand was then deposed by Nebuchadnezzar, and whom Jeremiah has bewailed\n(xxii. 24-29). But all such conjectures are precarious.\n\nThe structure of the psalm can scarcely be called strophical. There are\nthree well-marked turns in the flow of thought,--first, the hymn to the\nDivine attributes (vv. 1-18); second, the expansion of the promise,\nwhich is the basis of the monarchy (vv. 19-37); and, finally, the lament\nand prayer, in view of present afflictions, that God would be true to\nHis attributes and promises (vv. 38-51). For the most part the verses\nare grouped in pairs, which are occasionally lengthened into triplets.\n\nThe psalmist begins with announcing the theme of his song--the\nLoving-kindness and Faithfulness of God. Surrounded by disasters,\nwhich seem in violent contradiction to God's promise to David, he\nfalls back on thoughts of the Mercy which gave it and the Faithfulness\nwhich will surely accomplish it. The resolve to celebrate these\nin such circumstances argues a faith victorious over doubts, and\nputting forth energetic efforts to maintain itself. This bird can\nsing in midwinter. True, the song has other notes than joyous ones,\nbut they, too, extol God's Loving-kindness and Faithfulness, even\nwhile they seem to question them. Self-command, which insists on a\nman's averting his thoughts from a gloomy outward present to gaze\non God's loving purpose and unalterable veracity, is no small part\nof practical religion. The psalmist will _sing_, because he _said_\nthat these two attributes were ever in operation, and lasting as the\nheavens. \"Loving-kindness snail be built up for ever,\" its various\nmanifestations being conceived as each being a stone in the stately\nbuilding which is in continual course of progress through all ages,\nand can never be completed, since fresh stones will continually be\nlaid, as long as God lives and pours forth His blessings. Much less\ncan it ever fall into ruin, as impatient sense would persuade the\npsalmist that it is doing in his day. The parallel declaration as\nto God's Faithfulness takes the heavens as the type of duration and\nimmobility, and conceives that attribute to be eternal and fixed,\nas they are. These convictions could not burn in the psalmist's\nheart without forcing him to speak. Lover, poet, and devout man, in\ntheir several ways, feel the same necessity of utterance. Not every\nChristian can \"sing,\" but all can and should speak. They will, if\ntheir faith is strong.\n\nThe Divine promise, on which the Davidic throne rests, is summed up\nin the abruptly introduced pair of verses (3, 4). That promise is\nthe second theme of the psalm; and just as, in some great musical\ncomposition, the overture sounds for the first time phrases which\nare to be recurrent and elaborated in the sequel, so, in the four\nfirst verses of the psalm, its ruling thoughts are briefly put. Vv.\n1, 2, stand first, but are second in time to vv. 3, 4. God's oracle\npreceded the singer's praise. The language of these two verses echoes\nthe original passage in 2 Sam. vii., as in \"_David My servant_,\n_establish_, _for ever_, _build_,\" the last three of which expressions\nwere used in ver. 2, with a view to their recurrence in ver. 4. The\nmusic keeps before the mind the perpetual duration of David's throne.\n\nIn vv. 6-18 the psalmist sets forth the Power and Faithfulness of God,\nwhich insure the fulfilment of His promises. He is the incomparably\ngreat and terrible God, who subdues the mightiest forces of nature and\ntames the proudest nations (vv. 9, 10), who is Maker and Lord of the\nworld (vv. 11, 12), who rules with power, but also with righteousness,\nfaithfulness, and grace (vv. 13, 14), and who, therefore, makes His\npeople blessed and safe (vv. 15-18). Since God is such a God, His\npromise cannot remain unfulfilled. Power and willingness to execute it\nto the last tittle are witnessed by heaven and earth, by history and\nexperience. Dark as the present may be, it would, therefore, be folly\nto doubt for a moment.\n\nThe psalmist begins his contemplations of the glory of the Divine\nnature with figuring the very heavens as vocal with His praise. Not\nonly the object but the givers of that praise are noteworthy. The\nheavens are personified, as in Psalm xix.; and from their silent\ndepths comes music. There is One higher, mightier, older, more\nunperturbed, pure, and enduring than they, whom they extol by their\nlustre which they owe to Him. They praise God's \"wonder\" (which here\nmeans, not so much His marvellous acts, as the wonderfulness of His\nBeing, His incomparable greatness and power), and His Faithfulness,\nthe two guarantees of the fulfilment of His promises. Nor are the\nvisible heavens His only praisers. The holy ones, sons of the\nmighty--_i.e._, the angels--bow before Him who is high above their\nholiness and might, and own Him for God alone.\n\nWith ver. 9 the hymn descends to earth, and magnifies God's Power and\nFaithfulness as manifested there. The sea is, as always, the emblem of\nrebellious tumult. Its insolence is calmed by Him. And the proudest\nof the nations, such as Rahab (\"Pride,\" a current name for Egypt),\nhad cause to own His power, when He brought the waves of the sea over\nher hosts, thus in one act exemplifying His sovereign sway over both\nnature and nations. He is Maker, and therefore Lord, of heaven and\nearth. In all quarters of the world His creative hand is manifest,\nand His praise sounds. Tabor and Hermon may stand, as the parallelism\nrequires, for west and east, though some suppose that they are simply\nnamed as conspicuous summits. They \"shout for joy at Thy Name,\" an\nexpression like that used in ver. 16, in reference to Israel. The poet\nthinks of the softly swelling Tabor with its verdure, and of the lofty\nHermon with its snows, as sharing in that gladness, and praising Him\nto whom they owe their beauty and majesty. Creation vibrates with the\nsame emotions which thrill the poet. The sum of all the preceding is\ngathered up in ver. 13, which magnifies the might of God's arm.\n\nBut more blessed still for the psalmist, in the midst of national\ngloom, is the other thought of the moral character of God's rule. His\nthrone is broad-based upon the sure foundation of righteousness and\njustice. The pair of attributes always closely connected--namely,\nLoving-kindness and Troth or Faithfulness--are here, as frequently,\npersonified. They \"go to meet Thy face\"--that is, in order to present\nthemselves before Him. \"The two genii of the history of redemption\n(Psalm xliii. 3) stand before His countenance, like attendant maidens,\nwaiting the slightest indication of His will\" (Delitzsch).\n\nSince God is such a God, His Israel is blessed, whatever its present\nplight. So the psalmist closes the first part of his song, with\nrapturous celebration of the favoured nation's prerogatives. \"The\nfestal shout\" or \"the trumpet-blast\" is probably the music at the\nfestivals (Numb. xxiii. 21 and xxxi. 6), and \"those who know\" it\nmeans \"those who are familiar with the worship of this great God.\"\nThe elements of their blessedness are then unfolded. \"They walk in\nthe light of Thy face.\" Their outward life is passed in continual\nhappy consciousness of the Divine presence, which becomes to them a\nsource of gladness and guidance. \"In Thy Name do they exult all the\nday.\" God's self-manifestation, and the knowledge of Him which arises\ntherefrom, become the occasion of a calm, perpetual joy, which is\nsecure from change, because its roots go deeper than the region where\nchange works. \"In Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.\" Through\nGod's strict adherence to His covenant, not by any power of their\nown, shall they be lifted above foes and fears. \"The glory of their\nstrength art Thou.\" In themselves they are weak, but Thou, not any\narm of flesh, art their strength, and by possession of Thee they are\nnot only clothed with might, but resplendent with beauty. Human power\nis often unlovely; God-given strength is, like armour inlaid with\ngold, ornament as well as defence. \"In Thy favour our horn shall be\nexalted.\" The psalmist identifies himself at last with the people,\nwhose blessedness he has so glowingly celebrated. He could keep up\nthe appearance of distinction no longer. \"They\" gives place to \"we\"\nunconsciously, as his heart swells with the joy which he paints.\nDepressed as he and his people are for the moment, he is sure that\nthere is lifting up. The emblem of the lifted horn is common, as\nexpressive of victory. The psalmist is confident of Israel's triumph,\nbecause he is certain that the nation, as represented by and, as it\nwere, concentrated in its king, belongs to God, who will not lose what\nis His. The rendering of ver. 18 in the A.V. cannot be sustained. \"Our\nshield\" in the first clause is parallel with \"our king\" in the second,\nand the meaning of both clauses is that the king of Israel is God's,\nand therefore secure. That ownership rests on the promise to David,\nand on it in turn is rested the psalmist's confidence that Israel\nand its king are possessed of a charmed life, and shall be exalted,\nhowever now abject and despondent.\n\nThe second part (vv. 19-37) draws out in detail, and at some points\nwith heightened colouring, the fundamental prophecy by Nathan. It\nfalls into two parts, of which the former (vv. 19-27) refers more\nespecially to the promises given to David, and the second (vv. 28-37)\nto those relating to his descendants. In ver. 19 \"vision\" is quoted\nfrom 2 Sam. vii. 17; \"then\" points back to the period of giving the\npromise; \"Thy favoured one,\" is possibly Nathan, but more probably\nDavid. The Masoretic reading, however, which is followed by many\nancient versions, has the plural \"favoured ones,\" which Delitzsch\ntakes to mean Samuel and Nathan. \"Help\" means the help which, through\nthe king, comes to his people, and especially, as appears from the\nuse of the word \"hero,\" aid in battle. But since the selection of\nDavid for the throne is the subject in hand, the emendation which\nreads for \"help\" _crown_ recommends itself as probable. David's\nprowess, his humble origin, and his devotion to God's service are\nbrought into view in vv. 19, 20, as explaining and magnifying the\nDivine choice. His dignity is all from God. Consequently, as the\nnext pair of verses goes on to say, God's protecting hand will ever\nbe with him, since He cannot set a man in any position and fail to\nsupply the gifts needed for it. Whom He chooses He will protect.\nSheltered behind that strong hand, the king will be safe from all\nassaults. The word rendered \"steal upon\" in ver. 22 is doubtful, and\nby some is taken to mean _to exact_, as a creditor does, but that\ngives a flat and incongruous turn to the promise. For ver. 22 _b_\ncompare 2 Sam. vii. 10. Victory over all enemies is next promised in\nvv. 23-25, and is traced to the perpetual presence with the king of\nGod's Faithfulness and Loving-kindness, the two attributes of which\nso much has been sung in the former part. The manifestation of God's\ncharacter (_i.e._, His Name) will secure the exaltation of David's\nhorn--_i.e._, the victorious exercise of his God-given strength.\nTherefore a wide extension of his kingdom is promised in ver. 25, from\nthe Mediterranean to the Euphrates and its canals, on which God will\nlay the king's hand--_i.e._, will put them in his possession.\n\nThe next pair of verses (26, 27) deals with the inward side of the\nrelations of God and the king. On David's part there will be child-like\nlove, with all the lowliness of trust and obedience which lies in the\nrecognition of God's fatherhood, and on God's part there will be the\nacknowledgment of the relation, and the adoption of the king as His\n\"first-born,\" and therefore, in a special sense, beloved and exalted.\nIsrael is called by the same name in other places, in reference to\nits special prerogative amongst the nations. The national dignity is\nconcentrated in the king, who stands to other monarchs as Israel to\nother nations, and is to them \"Most High,\" the august Divine title,\nwhich here may possibly mean that David is to the rulers of the earth\nan image of God. The reciprocal relation of Father and Son is not here\nconceived in its full inwardness and depth as Christianity knows it,\nfor it has reference to office rather than to the person sustaining\nthe office, but it is approximating thereto. There is an echo of the\nfundamental passage in ver. 26. (Compare 2 Sam. vii. 14.)\n\nFrom ver. 28 onwards the psalmist turns to expand the promises to\nDavid's line. His words are mainly a poetical paraphrase of 2 Sam.\nvii. 14. Transgression shall indeed be visited with chastisement,\nwhich the fatherly relation requires, as the original passage\nindicates by the juxtaposition of the promise \"I will be his Father,\"\nand the declaration \"I will chasten him.\" But it will be chastisement\nonly, and not rejection. The unchangeableness of God's loving purpose\nis very strongly and beautifully put in ver. 33, in which the twin\nattributes of Loving-kindness and Faithfulness are again blended\nas the ground of sinful men's hope. The word rendered above \"break\noff\" occasions a difficulty, both in regard to its form and its\nappropriateness in this connection. The clause is a quotation from 2\nSam. vii. 15, and the emendation which substitutes for _break off_ the\nmore natural word used there--namely, _withdraw_--is to be preferred.\nIn ver. 33 b the paradoxical expression of _being false to My\nfaithfulness_ suggests the contradiction inherent in the very thought\nthat He can break His plighted word. The same idea is again put in\nstriking form in ver. 34: \"I will not profane My covenant,\" even\nthough degenerate sons of David \"profane\" God's statute. His word,\nonce spoken, is inviolable. He is bound by His oath. He has given His\nholiness as the pledge of His word, and, till that holiness wanes,\nthose utterances which He has sealed with it cannot be recalled. The\ncertainty that sin does not alter God's promise is not traced here to\nHis placableness, but to His immutable nature, and to the obligations\nunder which He is laid by His own word and acts. That unchangeableness\nis a rock-foundation, on which sinful men may build their certitude.\nIt is much to know that they cannot sin away God's mercy nor exhaust\nHis gentle long-suffering. It is even more to know that His holiness\nguarantees that they cannot sin away His promises, nor by any breach\nof His commandments provoke Him to break His covenant.\n\nThe allusions to the ancient promise are completed in vv. 36, 37,\nwith the thought of the perpetual continuance of the Davidic line\nand kingdom, expressed by the familiar comparison of its duration to\nthat of the sun and moon. Ver. 37 _b_ is best understood as above.\nSome take the faithful witness to be the moon; others the rainbow,\nand render, as in the A.V. and R.V., \"and as the faithful witness.\"\nBut the designation of the moon as a witness is unexampled and almost\nunintelligible. It is better to take the clause as independent, and to\nsuppose that Jehovah is His own witness, and that the psalmist here\nspeaks in his own person, the quotation of the promises being ended.\nCheyne encloses the clause in a parenthesis and compares Rev. iii. 14.\n\nThe third part begins with ver. 38, and consists of two portions, in\nthe first of which the psalmist complains with extraordinary boldness\nof remonstrance, and describes the contrast between these lofty\npromises and the sad reality (vv. 38-45), and, in the second prays\nfor the removal of the contradiction of God's promise by Israel's\naffliction, and bases this petition on the double ground of the\nshortness of life, and the dishonour done to His own Name thereby.\n\nThe expostulation very nearly crosses the boundary of reverent\nremonstrance, when it charges God with having Himself \"abhorred\" or,\naccording to another rendering, \"made void\" His covenant, and cast\nthe king's crown to the ground. The devastation of the kingdom is\ndescribed, in vv. 40, 41, in language borrowed from Psalm lxxx. 12. The\npronouns grammatically refer to the king, but the ideas of the land\nand the monarch are blended. The next pair of verses (42, 43) ventures\nstill further in remonstrance, by charging God with taking the side\nof Israel's enemies and actively intervening to procure its defeat.\nThe last verse-pair of this part (44, 45) speaks more exclusively of\nthe king, or perhaps of the monarchy. The language, especially in ver.\n45 _a_, seems most naturally understood of an individual. Delitzsch\ntakes such to be its application, and supposes it to describe the\nking as having been prematurely aged by calamity; while Hupfeld, with\nHengstenberg and others, prefer to regard the expression as lamenting\nthat the early days of the monarchy's vigour had so soon been succeeded\nby decrepitude like that of age. That family, which had been promised\nperpetual duration and dominion, has lost its lustre, and is like a\ndying lamp. That throne has fallen to the ground, which God had promised\nshould stand for ever. Senile weakness has stricken the monarchy, and\ndisaster, which makes it an object of contempt, wraps it like a garment,\ninstead of the royal robe. A long, sad wail of the music fixes the\npicture on the mind of the hearer.\n\nThen follows prayer, which shows how consistent with true reverence\nand humble dependence is the outspoken vigour of the preceding\nremonstrance. The boldest thoughts about the apparent contradiction\nof God's words and deeds are not too bold, if spoken straight to Him,\nand not muttered against Him, and if they lead the speaker to prayer\nfor the removal of the anomaly. In ver. 46 there is a quotation from\nPsalm lxxix. 5. The question \"How long\" is the more imploring because\nlife is so short. There is but a little while during which it is\npossible for God to manifest Himself as full of Loving-kindness and\nFaithfulness. The psalmist lets his feelings of longing to see for\nhimself the manifestation of these attributes peep forth for a moment,\nin that pathetic sudden emergence of \"I\" instead of \"we\" or \"men,\" in\nver. 47 _a_. His language is somewhat obscure, but the sense is clear.\nLiterally, the words read \"Remember--I, what a transitoriness.\" The\nmeaning is plain enough, when it is observed that, as Perowne rightly\nsays, \"I\" is placed first for the sake of emphasis. It is a tender\nthought that God may be moved to show forth His Loving-kindness by\nremembrance of the brief period within which a man's opportunity of\nbeholding it is restricted, and by the consideration that so soon he\nwill have to look on a grimmer sight, and \"see death.\" The music again\ncomes in with a melancholy cadence, emphasising the sadness which\nenwraps man's short life, if no gleams of God's loving-kindness fall\non its fleeting days.\n\nThe last three verses (vv. 49-51) urge yet another plea--that of the\ndishonour accruing to God from the continuance of Israel's disasters.\nA second \"Remember\" presents that plea, which is preceded by the\nwistful question \"Where are Thy former loving-kindnesses?\" The psalmist\nlooks back on the glories of early days, and the retrospect is bitter\nand bewildering. That these were sworn to David in God's faithfulness\nstaggers him, but he makes the fact a plea with God. Then in vv. 50, 51,\nhe urges the insults and reproaches which enemies hurled against him and\nagainst \"Thy servants,\" and therefore against God.\n\nVer. 50 _b_ is obscure. To \"bear in the bosom\" usually implies\ntender care, but here can only mean sympathetic participation. The\npsalmist again lets his own personality appear for a moment, while\nhe identifies himself as a member of the nation with \"Thy servants\"\nand \"Thine anointed.\" The last words of the clause are so obscure\nthat there must apparently have been textual corruption. If the\nexisting text is retained, the object of the verb _I bear_ must be\nsupplied from _a_, and this clause will run, \"I bear in my bosom\nthe reproach of all the many peoples.\" But the collocation of _all_\nand _many_ is harsh, and the position of _many_ is anomalous. An\ningenious conjecture, adopted by Cheyne from B\u00f6ttcher and Bickell, and\naccepted by Baethgen, reads for \"all, many peoples,\" _the shame of the\npeoples_, which gives a good meaning, and may be received as at all\nevents probable, and expressing the intent of the psalmist. Insolent\nconquerors and their armies triumph over the fallen Israel, and\n\"reproach the footsteps\" of the dethroned king or royal line--_i.e._,\nthey pursue him with their taunts, wherever he goes. These reproaches\ncut deep into the singer's heart; but they glance off from the earthly\nobjects and strike the majesty of Heaven. God's people cannot be\nflouted without His honour being touched. Therefore the prayer goes\nup, that the Lord would remember these jeers which mocked Him as well\nas His afflicted people, and would arise to action on behalf of His\nown Name. His Loving-kindness and Faithfulness, which the psalmist\nhas magnified, and on which he rests his hopes, are darkened in the\neyes of men and even of His own nation by the calamities, which give\npoint to the rude gibes of the enemy. Therefore the closing petitions\nbeseech God to think on these reproaches, and to bring into act once\nmore His Loving-kindness, and to vindicate His Faithfulness, which He\nhad sealed to David by His oath.\n\nVer. 52 is no part of the original psalm, but is the closing doxology\nof Book III.\n\n\n\n\n _Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nObvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.\n\nInconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 2: Psalms XXXIX.-LXXXIX.","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":146193}