{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_44027/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_44027","id":"gutenberg_44027","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44027","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries","Category: Poetry","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE\n\n\n\n\n EDITED BY THE REV.\n W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n _Editor of \"The Expositor\"_\n\n\n\n\n\n THE PSALMS\n\n\n BY\n ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n\n\n\n _VOLUME III._\n PSALM XC.-CL.\n\n\n\n\n NEW YORK\n A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON\n 51 EAST TENTH STREET\n 1894\n\n\n\n\n THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.\n\n _Crown_ 8_vo, cloth, price_ $1.50 _each vol._\n\n\n FIRST SERIES, 1887-8.\n\n Colossians.\n By A. MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n St. Mark.\n By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh.\n\n Genesis.\n By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n 1 Samuel.\n By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n 2 Samuel.\n By the same Author.\n\n Hebrews.\n By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.\n\n\n SECOND SERIES, 1888-9.\n\n Galatians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n\n The Pastoral Epistles.\n By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Isaiah I.-XXXIX.\n By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n The Book of Revelation.\n By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n 1 Corinthians.\n By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n The Epistles of St. John.\n By Rt. Rev. W. ALEXANDER, D.D.\n\n\n THIRD SERIES, 1889-90.\n\n Judges and Ruth.\n By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n Jeremiah.\n By Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.\n\n Isaiah XL.-LXVI.\n By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n St. Matthew.\n By Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.\n\n Exodus.\n By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh.\n\n St. Luke.\n By Rev. H. BURTON, M.A.\n\n\n FOURTH SERIES, 1890-1.\n\n Ecclesiastes.\n By Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.\n\n St. James and St. Jude.\n By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Proverbs.\n By Rev. R. F. HORTON, D.D.\n\n Leviticus.\n By Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n\n FIFTH SERIES, 1891-2.\n\n The Psalms.\n By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n 1 and 2 Thessalonians.\n By JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n The Book of Job.\n By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n Ephesians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n\n SIXTH SERIES, 1892-3.\n\n 1 Kings.\n By Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR.\n\n Philippians.\n By Principal RAINY, D.D.\n\n Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.\n By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n Joshua.\n By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n The Psalms.\n By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n The Epistles of St. Peter.\n By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.\n\n\n SEVENTH SERIES, 1893-4.\n\n 2 Kings.\n By Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR.\n\n Romans.\n By H. C. G. MOULE, M.A.\n\n The Books of Chronicles.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.\n\n 2 Corinthians.\n By JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n Numbers.\n By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n The Psalms.\n By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. III.\n\n\n EIGHTH SERIES, 1895-6.\n\n Daniel.\n By the Ven. Archdeacon F. W. FARRAR.\n\n The Book of Jeremiah.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.\n\n Deuteronomy.\n By Prof. ANDREW HARPER, B.D.\n\n The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.\n By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n Ezekiel.\n By Prof. JOHN SKINNER, M.A.\n\n The Minor Prophets.\n By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Two Vols.\n\n\n\n\n THE PSALMS\n\n\n\n\n\n BY\n ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n\n\n\n\n _VOLUME III_\n PSALMS XC.-CL.\n\n\n\n\n\n NEW YORK\n A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON\n 51 EAST TENTH STREET\n 1894\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n PAGE\n\n PSALM XC. 3\n\n \" XCI. 14\n\n \" XCII. 26\n\n \" XCIII. 33\n\n \" XCIV. 38\n\n \" XCV. 48\n\n \" XCVI. 55\n\n \" XCVII. 60\n\n \" XCVIII. 68\n\n \" XCIX. 71\n\n \" C. 78\n\n \" CI. 81\n\n \" CII. 87\n\n \" CIII. 101\n\n \" CIV. 111\n\n \" CV. 124\n\n \" CVI. 137\n\n \" CVII. 155\n\n \" CVIII. 169\n\n \" CIX. 172\n\n \" CX. 183\n\n \" CXI. 193\n\n \" CXII. 198\n\n \" CXIII. 205\n\n \" CXIV. 210\n\n \" CXV. 214\n\n \" CXVI. 221\n\n \" CXVII. 229\n\n \" CXVIII. 231\n\n \" CXIX. 244\n\n \" CXX. 292\n\n \" CXXI. 297\n\n \" CXXII. 303\n\n \" CXXIII. 307\n\n \" CXXIV. 310\n\n \" CXXV. 313\n\n \" CXXVI. 318\n\n \" CXXVII. 323\n\n \" CXXVIII. 327\n\n \" CXXIX. 331\n\n \" CXXX. 335\n\n \" CXXXI. 341\n\n \" CXXXII. 344\n\n \" CXXXIII. 355\n\n \" CXXXIV. 359\n\n \" CXXXV. 361\n\n \" CXXXVI. 366\n\n \" CXXXVII. 370\n\n \" CXXXVIII. 376\n\n \" CXXXIX. 382\n\n \" CXL. 393\n\n \" CXLI. 398\n\n \" CXLII. 405\n\n \" CXLIII. 410\n\n \" CXLIV. 418\n\n \" CXLV. 424\n\n \" CXLVI. 434\n\n \" CXLVII. 440\n\n \" CXLVIII. 448\n\n \" CXLIX. 454\n\n \" CL. 458\n\n\n\n\n BOOK IV.\n\n _PSALMS XC.-CVI._\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XC.\n\n 1 Lord, a dwelling-place hast Thou been for us\n In generation after generation.\n 2 Before the mountains were born,\n Or Thou gavest birth to the earth and the world,\n Even from everlasting, Thou art God.\n 3 Thou turnest frail man back to dust,\n And sayest, \"Return, ye sons of man.\"\n 4 For a thousand years in Thine eyes are as yesterday when it was\n passing,\n And a watch in the night.\n 5 Thou dost flood them away, a sleep do they become,\n In the morning they are like grass [which] springs afresh.\n 6 In the morning it blooms and springs afresh,\n By evening it is cut down and withers.\n\n 7 For we are wasted away in Thine anger,\n And by Thy wrath have we been panic-struck.\n 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee,\n Our secret [sins] in the radiance of Thy face.\n 9 For all our days have vanished in Thy wrath,\n We have spent our years as a murmur.\n 10 The days of our years--in them are seventy years,\n Or if [we are] in strength, eighty years,\n And their pride is [but] trouble and vanity,\n For it is passed swiftly, and we fly away.\n 11 Who knows the power of Thine anger,\n And of Thy wrath according to the [due] fear of Thee?\n 12 To number our days--thus teach us,\n That we may win ourselves a heart of wisdom.\n\n 13 Return, Jehovah; how long?\n And have compassion upon Thy servants.\n 14 Satisfy us in the morning [with] Thy loving-kindness,\n And we shall ring out joyful cries and be glad all our days.\n 15 Gladden us according to the days [when] Thou hast afflicted us,\n The years [when] we have seen adversity.\n 16 To Thy servants let Thy working be manifested,\n And Thy majesty upon their children.\n 17 And let the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us,\n And the work of our hands establish upon us,\n Yea, the work of our hands establish it.\n\n\nThe sad and stately music of this great psalm befits the dirge of a\nworld. How artificial and poor, beside its restrained emotion and\nmajestic simplicity, do even the most deeply felt strains of other\npoets on the same themes sound! It preaches man's mortality in immortal\nwords. In its awestruck yet trustful gaze on God's eternal being, in\nits lofty sadness, in its archaic directness, in its grand images so\nclearly cut and so briefly expressed, in its emphatic recognition of\nsin as the occasion of death, and in its clinging to the eternal God\nwho can fill fleeting days with ringing gladness, the psalm utters once\nfor all the deepest thoughts of devout men. Like the God whom it hymns,\nit has been \"for generation after generation\" an asylum.\n\nThe question of its authorship has a literary interest, but little\nmore. The arguments against the Mosaic authorship, apart from\nthose derived from the as yet unsettled questions in regard to the\nPentateuch, are weak. The favourite one, adduced by Cheyne after\nHupfeld and others, is that the duration of human life was greater,\naccording to the history, in Moses' time than seventy years; but\nthe prolonged lives of certain conspicuous persons in that period\ndo not warrant a conclusion as to the average length of life; and\nthe generation that fell in the wilderness can clearly not have\nlived beyond the psalmist's limit. The characteristic Mosaic tone in\nregarding death as the wages of sin, the massive simplicity and the\nentire absence of dependence on other parts of the Psalter, which\nseparate this psalm from almost all the others of the Fourth Book, are\nstrongly favourable to the correctness of the superscription. Further,\nthe section vv. 7-12 is distinctly historical, and is best understood\nas referring not to mankind in general, but to Israel; and no period\nis so likely to have suggested such a strain of thought as that when\nthe penalty of sin was laid upon the people, and they were condemned to\nfind graves in the wilderness. But however the question of authorship\nmay be settled, the psalm is \"not of an age, but for all time.\"\n\nIt falls into three parts, of which the two former contain six\nverses each, while the last has but five. In the first section (vv.\n1-6), the transitoriness of men is set over against the eternity of\nGod; in the second, (vv. 7-12) that transitoriness is traced to its\nreason, namely sin; and in the third, prayer that God would visit His\nservants is built upon both His eternity and their fleeting days.\nThe short ver. 1 blends both the thoughts which are expanded in the\nfollowing verses, while in it the singer breathes awed contemplation\nof the eternal God as the dwelling-place or asylum of generations\nthat follow each other, swift and unremembered, as the waves that\nbreak on some lonely shore. God is invoked as \"Lord,\" the sovereign\nruler, the name which connotes His elevation and authority. But,\nthough lofty, He is not inaccessible. As some ancestral home shelters\ngeneration after generation of a family, and in its solid strength\nstands unmoved, while one after another of its somewhile tenants is\nborne forth to his grave, and the descendants sit in the halls where\ncenturies before their ancestors sat, God is the home of all who find\nany real home amidst the fluctuating nothings of this shadowy world.\nThe contrast of His eternity and our transiency is not bitter, though\nit may hush us into wisdom, if we begin with the trust that He is the\nabiding abode of short-lived man. For this use of _dwelling-place_\ncompare Deut. xxxiii. 27.\n\nWhat God has been to successive generations results from what He is in\nHimself before all generations. So ver. 2 soars to the contemplation\nof His absolute eternity, stretching boundless on either side of \"this\nbank and shoal of time\"--\"From everlasting to everlasting Thou art\nGod\"; and in that name is proclaimed His self-derived strength, which,\nbeing eternal, is neither derived from nor diminished by time, that\nfirst gives to, and then withdraws from, all creatures their feeble\npower. The remarkable expressions for the coming forth of the material\nworld from the abyss of Deity regard creation as a birth. The Hebrew\ntext reads in ver. 2_b_ as above, \"Thou gavest birth to\"; but a very\nsmall change in a single vowel gives the possibly preferable reading\nwhich preserves the parallelism of a passive verb in both clauses, \"Or\nthe earth and the world were brought forth.\"\n\nThe poet turns now to the other member of his antithesis. Over\nagainst God's eternal Being is set the succession of man's\ngenerations, which has been already referred to in ver. 1. This\nthought of successiveness is lost unless ver. 3_b_ is understood as\nthe creative fiat which replaces by a new generation those who have\nbeen turned back to dust. Death and life, decay and ever-springing\ngrowth, are in continual alternation. The leaves, which are men,\ndrop; the buds swell and open. The ever-knitted web is being ever\nrun down and woven together again. It is a dreary sight, unless one\ncan say with our psalm, \"_Thou_ turnest.... _Thou_ sayest, Return.\"\nThen one understands that it is not aimless or futile. If a living\nPerson is behind the transiencies of human life, these are still\npathetic and awe-kindling, but not bewildering. In ver. 3_a_ there is\nclear allusion to Gen. iii. 19. The word rendered \"dust\" may be an\nadjective taken as neuter = _that which is crushed_, _i.e._ dust; or,\nas others suppose, a substantive = _crushing_; but is probably best\nunderstood in the former sense. The psalm significantly uses the word\nfor _man_ which connotes frailty, and in _b_ the expression \"sons of\nman\" which suggests birth.\n\nThe psalmist rises still higher in ver. 4. It is much to say that\nGod's Being is endless, but it is more to say that He is raised above\nTime, and that none of the terms in which men describe duration have\nany meaning for Him. A thousand years, which to a man seem so long,\nare to Him dwindled to nothing, in comparison with the eternity\nof His Being. As Peter has said, the converse must also be true,\nand \"one day be with the Lord as a thousand years.\" He can crowd a\nfulness of action into narrow limits. Moments can do the work of\ncenturies. The longest and shortest measures of time are absolutely\nequivalent, for both are entirely inapplicable, to His timeless\nBeing. But what has this great thought to do here, and how is the\n\"For\" justified? It may be that the psalmist is supporting the\nrepresentation of ver. 2, God's eternity, rather than that of ver.\n3, man's transiency; but, seeing that this verse is followed by one\nwhich strikes the same note as ver. 3, it is more probable that here,\ntoo, the dominant thought is the brevity of human life. It never\nseems so short, as when measured against God's timeless existence.\nSo, the underlying thought of ver. 3, namely, the brevity of man's\ntime, which is there illustrated by the picture of the endless flux\nof generations, is here confirmed by the thought that all measures of\ntime dwindle to equal insignificance with Him.\n\nThe psalmist next takes his stand on the border-moment between to-day\nand yesterday. How short looks the day that is gliding away into the\npast! \"A watch in the night\" is still shorter to our consciousness,\nfor it passes over us unnoted.\n\nThe passing of mortal life has hitherto been contemplated in immediate\nconnection with God's permanence, and the psalmist's tone has been\na wonderful blending of melancholy and trust. But in ver. 5 the\nsadder side of his contemplations becomes predominant. Frail man,\nfrail because sinful, is his theme. The figures which set forth man's\nmortality are grand in their unelaborated brevity. They are like some\nof Michael Angelo's solemn statues. \"Thou floodest them away\"--a bold\nmetaphor, suggesting the rush of a mighty stream, bearing on its tawny\nbosom crops, household goods, and corpses, and hurrying with its spoils\nto the sea. \"They become a sleep.\" Some would take this to mean falling\ninto the sleep of death; others would regard life as compared to a\nsleep--\"for before we are rightly conscious of being alive, we cease\nto live\" (Luther, quoted by Cheyne); while others find the point of\ncomparison in the disappearance, without leaving a trace behind, of\nthe noisy generations, sunk at once into silence, and \"occupying no\nmore space on the scroll of Time than a night's sleep\" (so Kay). It is\ntempting to attach \"in the morning\" to \"a sleep,\" but the recurrence\nof the expression in ver. 7 points to the retention of the present\ndivision of clauses, according to which the springing grass greets\nthe eye at dawn, as if created by a night's rain. The word rendered\n\"springs afresh\" is taken in two opposite meanings, being by some\nrendered _passes away_, and by others as above. Both meanings come from\nthe same radical notion of change, but the latter is evidently the\nmore natural and picturesque here, as preserving, untroubled by any\nintrusion of an opposite thought, the cheerful picture of the pastures\nrejoicing in the morning sunshine, and so making more impressive the\nsudden, sad change wrought by evening, when all the fresh green blades\nand bright flowers lie turned already into brown hay by the mower's\nscythe and the fierce sunbeams.\n\n \"So passeth, in the passing of an hour,\n Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flower.\"\n\nThe central portion of the psalm (vv. 7-12) narrows the circle of\nthe poet's vision to Israel, and brings out the connection between\ndeath and sin. The transition from truths of universal application is\nmarked by the use of _we_ and _us_, while the past tenses indicate\nthat the psalm is recounting history. That transitoriness assumes\na still more tragic aspect, when regarded as the result of the\ncollision of God's \"wrath\" with frail man. How can such stubble but\nbe wasted into ashes by such fire? And yet this is the same psalmist\nwho has just discerned that the unchanging Lord is the dwelling-place\nof all generations. The change from the previous thought of the\neternal God as the dwelling-place of frail men is very marked in this\nsection, in which the destructive anger of God is in view. But the\nsinger felt no contradiction between the two thoughts, and there is\nnone. We do not understand the full blessedness of believing that God\nis our asylum, till we understand that He is our asylum from all that\nis destructive in Himself; nor do we know the significance of the\nuniversal experience of decay and death, till we learn that it is not\nthe result of our finite being, but of sin.\n\nThat one note sounds on in solemn persistence through these verses,\ntherein echoing the characteristic Mosaic lesson, and corresponding\nwith the history of the people in the desert. In ver. 7 the cause\nof their wasting away is declared to be God's wrath, which has\nscattered them as in panic (Psalm xlviii. 5). The occasion of that\nlightning flash of anger is confessed in ver. 8 to be the sins\nwhich, however hidden, stand revealed before God. The expression for\n\"the light of Thy face\" is slightly different from the usual one,\na word being employed which means a luminary, and is used in Gen.\ni. for the heavenly bodies. The ordinary phrase is always used as\nexpressing favour and blessing; but there is an illumination, as from\nan all-revealing light, which flashes into all dark corners of human\nexperience, and \"there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.\" Sin\nsmitten by that light must die. Therefore, in ver. 9, the consequence\nof its falling on Israel's transgressions is set forth. Their days\nvanish as mists before the sun, or as darkness glides out of the\nsky in the morning. Their noisy years are but as a murmur, scarce\nbreaking the deep silence, and forgotten as soon as faintly heard.\nThe psalmist sums up his sad contemplations in ver. 10, in which\nlife is regarded as not only rigidly circumscribed within a poor\nseventy or, at most, eighty years, but as being, by reason of its\ntransitoriness, unsatisfying and burdensome. The \"pride\" which is\nbut trouble and vanity is that which John calls \"the pride of life,\"\nthe objects which, apart from God, men desire to win, and glory in\npossessing. The self-gratulation would be less ridiculous or tragic,\nif the things which evoke it lasted longer, or we lasted longer to\npossess them. But seeing that they swiftly pass and we fly too,\nsurely it is but \"trouble\" to fight for what is \"vanity\" when won,\nand what melts away so surely and soon.\n\nPlainly, then, things being so, man's wisdom is to seek to know two\nthings--the power of God's anger, and the measure of his own days.\nBut alas for human levity and bondage to sense, how few look beyond\nthe external, or lay to heart the solemn truth that God's wrath is\ninevitably operative against sin, and how few have any such just\nconception of it as to lead to reverential awe, proportioned to the\nDivine character which should evoke it! Ignorance and inoperative\nknowledge divide mankind between them, and but a small remnant have\nlet the truth plough deep into their inmost being and plant there\nholy fear of God. Therefore, the psalmist prays for himself and his\npeople, as knowing the temptations to inconsiderate disregard and to\ninadequate feeling of God's opposition to sin, that His power would\ntake untaught hearts in hand and teach them this--to count their\ndays. Then we shall bring home, as from a ripened harvest field,\nthe best fruit which life can yield, \"a heart of wisdom,\" which,\nhaving learned the power of God's anger, and the number of our days,\nturns itself to the eternal dwelling-place, and no more is sad, when\nit sees life ebbing away, or the generations moving in unbroken\nsuccession into the darkness.\n\nThe third part (vv. 13-17) gathers all the previous meditations into\na prayer, which is peculiarly appropriate to Israel in the wilderness,\nbut has deep meaning for all God's servants. We note the invocation of\nGod by the covenant name \"Jehovah,\" as contrasted with the \"Lord\" of\nver. 1. The psalmist draws nearer to God, and feels the closer bond of\nwhich that name is the pledge. His prayer is the more urgent, by reason\nof the brevity of life. So short is his time that he cannot afford to\nlet God delay in coming to him and to his fellows. \"How long?\" comes\npathetically from lips which have been declaring that their time of\nspeech is so short. This is not impatience, but wistful yearning,\nwhich, even while it yearns, leaves God to settle His own time, and,\nwhile it submits, still longs. Night has wrapped Israel, but the\npsalmist's faith \"awakes the morning,\" and he prays that its beams may\nsoon dawn and Israel be satisfied with the longed-for loving-kindness\n(compare Psalm xxx. 5); for life at its longest is but brief, and he\nwould fain have what remains of it be lit with sunshine from God's\nface. The only thing that will secure life-long gladness is a heart\nsatisfied with the experience of God's love. That will make morning in\nmirk midnight; that will take all the sorrow out of the transiency of\nlife. The days which are filled with God are long enough to satisfy us;\nand they who have Him for their own will be \"full of days,\" whatever\nthe number of these may be.\n\nThe psalmist believes that God's justice has in store for His\nservants joys and blessings proportioned to the duration of their\ntrials. He is not thinking of any future beyond the grave; but his\nprayer is a prophecy, which is often fulfilled even in this life and\nalways hereafter. Sorrows rightly borne here are factors determining\nthe glory that shall follow. There is a proportion between the\nyears of affliction and the millenniums of glory. But the final\nprayer, based upon all these thoughts of God's eternity and man's\ntransitoriness, is not for blessedness, but for vision and Divine\nfavour on work done for Him. The deepest longing of the devout heart\nshould be for the manifestation to itself and others of God's work.\nThe psalmist is not only asking that God would put forth His acts\nin interposition for himself and his fellow-servants, but also that\nthe full glory of these far-reaching deeds may be disclosed to their\nunderstandings as well as experienced in their lives. And since he\nknows that \"through the ages an increasing purpose runs,\" he prays\nthat coming generations may see even more glorious displays of Divine\npower than his contemporaries have done. How the sadness of the\nthought of fleeting generations succeeded by new ones vanishes when\nwe think of them all as, in turn, spectators and possessors of God's\n\"work\"! But in that great work we are not to be mere spectators.\nFleeting as our days are, they are ennobled by our being permitted\nto be God's tools; and if \"the work of our hands\" is the reflex or\ncarrying on of His working, we can confidently ask that, though we\nthe workers have to pass, it may be \"established.\" \"In our embers\"\nmay be \"something that doth live,\" and that life will not all die\nwhich has done the will of God, but it and its doer will \"endure for\never.\" Only there must be the descent upon us of \"the graciousness\"\nof God, before there can flow from us \"deeds which breed not shame,\"\nbut outlast the perishable earth and follow their doers into the\neternal dwelling-place. The psalmist's closing prayer reaches further\nthan he knew. Lives on which the favour of God has come down like a\ndove, and in which His will has been done, are not flooded away, nor\ndo they die into silence like a whisper, but carry in themselves the\nseeds of immortality, and are akin to the eternity of God.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCI.\n\n 1 He that sits in the secret place of the Most High,\n In the shadow of the Almighty shall he lodge.\n\n 2 I will say to Jehovah, \"My refuge and my fortress,\n My God, in whom I will trust.\"\n\n 3 For He, He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler\n From the pestilence that destroys.\n 4 With His pinions shall He cover thee,\n And under His wings shalt thou take refuge,\n A shield and target is His Troth.\n 5 Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night,\n Of the arrow [that] flies by day,\n 6 Of the pestilence [that] stalks in darkness,\n Of the sickness [that] devastates at noonday.\n 7 A thousand may fall at thy side,\n And a myriad at thy right hand,\n To thee it shall not reach.\n 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou look on,\n And see the recompense of the wicked.\n\n 9_a_ \"For Thou, Jehovah, art my refuge.\"\n\n 9_b_ The Most High thou hast made thy dwelling-place.\n 10 No evil shall befall thee,\n And no scourge shall come near thy tent.\n 11 For His angels will He command concerning thee,\n To keep thee in all thy ways.\n 12 Upon [their] hands shall they bear thee,\n Lest thou strike thy foot against a stone.\n 13 Upon lion and adder shalt thou tread,\n Thou shalt trample upon young lion and dragon.\n\n 14 \"Because to Me he clings, therefore will I deliver him\n I will lift him high because he knows My name.\n\n 15 He shall call on Me, and I will answer him;\n With him will I, even I, be in trouble,\n I will rescue him and bring him to honour.\n 16 [With] length of days will I satisfy him,\n And give him to gaze on My salvation.\"\n\n\nThe solemn sadness of Psalm xc. is set in strong relief by the\nsunny brightness of this song of happy, perfect trust in the Divine\nprotection. The juxtaposition is, however, probably due to the verbal\ncoincidence of the same expression being used in both psalms in\nreference to God. In Psalm xc. 1, and in xci. 9, the somewhat unusual\ndesignation \"dwelling-place\" is applied to Him, and the thought\nconveyed in it runs through the whole of this psalm.\n\nAn outstanding characteristic of it is its sudden changes of persons;\n\"He,\" \"I,\" and \"thou\" alternate in a bewildering fashion, which has\nled to many attempts at explanation. One point is clear--that, in\nvv. 14-16, God speaks, and that He speaks of, not to, the person who\nloves and clings to Him. At ver. 14, then, we must suppose a change\nof speaker, which is unmarked by any introductory formula. Looking\nback over the remainder of the psalm, we find that the bulk of it is\naddressed directly _to_ a person who must be the same as is spoken _of_\nin the Divine promises. The \"him\" of the latter is the \"thee\" of the\nmass of the psalm. But this mass is broken at two points by clauses\nalike in meaning, and containing expressions of trust (vv. 2, 9_a_).\nObviously the unity of the psalm requires that the \"I\" of these two\nverses should be the \"thou\" of the great portion of the psalm, and the\n\"he\" of the last part. Each profession of trust will then be followed\nby assurances of safety thence resulting, ver. 2 having for pendant vv.\n3-8, and ver. 9_a_ being followed by vv. 9_b_-13. The two utterances of\npersonal faith are substantially identical, and the assurances which\nsucceed them are also in effect the same. It is by some supposed that\nthis alternation of persons is due simply to the poet expressing partly\n\"his own feelings as from himself, and partly as if they were uttered\nby another\" (Perowne after Ewald). But that is not an explanation of\nthe structure; it is only a statement of the structure which requires\nto be explained. No doubt the poet is expressing his own feelings or\nconvictions all through the psalm: but why does he express them in this\nsingular fashion?\n\nThe explanation which is given by Delitzsch, Stier, Cheyne and many\nothers takes the psalm to be antiphonal, and distributes the parts\namong the voices of a choir, with some variations in the allocation.\n\nBut ver. 1 still remains a difficulty. As it stands it sounds flat\nand tautological, and hence attempts have been made to amend it,\nwhich will presently be referred to. But it will fall into the\ngeneral antiphonal scheme, if it is regarded as a prelude, sung by\nthe same voice which twice answers the single singer with choral\nassurances that reward his trust. We, then, have this distribution\nof parts: ver. 1, the broad statement of the blessedness of dwelling\nwith God; ver. 2, a solo, the voice of a heart encouraged thereby to\nexercise personal trust; vv. 3-8, answers, setting forth the security\nof such a refuge; ver. 9_a_, solo, reiterating with sweet monotony\nthe word of trust; vv. 9_b_-13, the first voice or chorus repeating\nwith some variation the assurances of vv. 3-8; and vv. 14-16, God's\nacceptance of the trust and confirmation of the assurances.\n\nThere is, no doubt, difficulty in ver. 1; for, if it is taken as\nan independent sentence, it sounds tautological, since there is no\nwell-marked difference between \"sitting\" and \"lodging,\" nor much\nbetween \"secret place\" and \"shadow.\" But possibly the idea of safety\nis more strongly conveyed by \"shadow\" than by \"secret place,\" and\nthe meaning of the apparently identical assertion may be, that he\nwho quietly enters into communion with God thereby passes into His\nprotection; or, as Kay puts it, \"Loving faith on man's part shall be\nmet by faithful love on God's part.\" The LXX. changes the person of\n\"will say\" in ver. 2, and connects it with ver. 1 as its subject (\"He\nthat sits ... that lodges ... shall say\"). Ewald, followed by Baethgen\nand others, regards ver. 1 as referring to the \"I\" of ver. 2, and\ntranslates \"Sitting ... I say.\" Hupfeld, whom Cheyne follows, cuts the\nknot by assuming that \"Blessed is\" has dropped out at the beginning of\nver. 1, and so gets a smooth run of construction and thought (\"Happy is\nhe who sits ... who lodges ... who says\"). It is suspiciously smooth,\nobliterates the characteristic change of persons, of which the psalm\nhas other instances, and has no support except the thought that the\npsalmist would have saved us a great deal of trouble, if he had only\nbeen wise enough to have written so. The existing text is capable of a\nmeaning in accordance with his general drift. A wide declaration like\nthat of ver. 1 fittingly preludes the body of the song, and naturally\nevokes the pathetic profession of faith which follows.\n\nAccording to the accents, ver. 2 is to be read \"I will say, 'To\nJehovah [belongs] my refuge,'\" etc. But it is better to divide as\nabove. Jehovah _is_ the refuge. The psalmist speaks _to_ Him, with the\nexclamation of yearning trust. He can only call Him by precious names,\nto use which, in however broken a fashion, is an appeal that goes\nstraight to His heart, as it comes straight from the suppliant's. The\nsinger lovingly accumulates the Divine names in these two first verses.\nHe calls God \"Most High,\" \"Almighty,\" when he utters the general truth\nof the safety of souls that enter His secret place; but, when he speaks\nhis own trust, he addresses Jehovah, and adds to the wide designation\n\"God\" the little word \"my,\" which claims personal possession of His\nfulness of Deity. The solo voice does not say much, but it says enough.\nThere has been much underground work before that clear jet of personal\n\"appropriating faith\" could spring into light.\n\nWe might have looked for a Selah here, if this psalm had stood in\nthe earlier books, but we can feel the brief pause before the choral\nanswer comes in vv. 3-8. It sets forth in lofty poetry the blessings\nthat such a trust secures. Its central idea is that of safety. That\nsafety is guaranteed in regard to two classes of dangers--those from\nenemies, and those from diseases. Both are conceived of as divided\ninto secret and open perils. Ver. 3 proclaims the trustful soul's\nimmunity, and ver. 4 beautifully describes the Divine protection\nwhich secures it. Vv. 5, 6, expand the general notion of safety, into\ndefence against secret and open foes and secret and open pestilences;\nwhile vv. 7, 8, sum up the whole, in a vivid contrast between the\nmultitude of victims and the man sheltered in God, and looking out\nfrom his refuge on the wide-rolling flood of destruction. As in\nPsalm xviii. 5, Death is represented as a \"fowler\" into whose snares\nmen heedlessly flutter, unless held back by God's delivering hand.\nThe mention of pestilence in ver. 3 somewhat anticipates the proper\norder, as the same idea recurs in its appropriate place in ver. 6.\nHence the rendering \"word,\" which requires no consonantal change, is\nadopted from the LXX. by several moderns. But that is feeble, and\nthe slight irregularity of a double mention of one form of peril,\nwhich is naturally suggested by the previous reference to Death,\nis not of much moment. The beautiful description of God sheltering\nthe trustful man beneath His pinions recalls Deut. xxxii. 11 and\nPsalms xvii. 8, lxiii. 7. The mother eagle, spreading her dread wing\nover her eaglets, is a wonderful symbol of the union of power and\ngentleness. It would be a bold hand which would drag the fledglings\nfrom that warm hiding-place and dare the terrors of that beak and\nclaws. But this pregnant verse (4) not only tells of the strong\ndefence which God is, but also, in a word, sets in clear light man's\nway of reaching that asylum. \"Thou shalt take refuge.\" It is the word\nwhich is often vaguely rendered \"trust,\" but which, if we retain its\noriginal signification, becomes illuminative as to what that trust\nis. The flight of the soul, conscious of nakedness and peril, to\nthe safe shelter of God's breast is a description of faith which,\nin practical value, surpasses much learned dissertation. And this\nverse adds yet another point to its comprehensive statements, when,\nchanging the figure, it calls God's _Troth_, or faithful adherence\nto His promises and obligations, our \"shield and target.\" We have\nnot to fly to a dumb God for shelter, or to risk anything upon a\nPeradventure. He has spoken, and His word is inviolable. Therefore,\ntrust is possible. And between ourselves and all evil we may lift the\nshield of His Troth. His faithfulness is our sure defence, and Faith\nis our shield only in a secondary sense, its office being but to\ngrasp our true defence, and to keep us well behind that.\n\nThe assaults of enemies and the devastations of pestilence are\ntaken in vv. 5, 6, as types of all perils. These evils speak of a\nless artificial stage of society than that in which our experience\nmoves, but they serve us as symbols of more complex dangers besetting\noutward and inward life. \"The terror of the night\" seems best\nunderstood as parallel with the \"arrow that flies by day,\" in so far\nas both refer to actual attacks by enemies. Nocturnal surprises were\nfavourite methods of assault in early warfare. Such an explanation\nis worthier than the supposition that the psalmist means demons that\nhaunt the night. In ver. 6 Pestilence is personified as stalking,\nshrouded in darkness, the more terrible because it strikes unseen.\nVer. 6_b_ has been understood, as by the Targum and LXX., to refer\nto demons who exercise their power in noonday. But this explanation\nrests upon a misreading of the word rendered \"devastates.\" The other\ntranslated \"sickness\" is only found, besides this place, in Deut.\nxxxii. 24 (\"destruction\") and Isa. xxviii. 2 (\"a destroying storm,\"\nlit. a storm of destruction), and in somewhat different form in Hosea\nxiii. 14. It comes from a root meaning _to cut_, and seems here to\nbe a synonym for pestilence. Baethgen sees in \"the arrow by day\" the\nfierce sunbeams, and in \"the _heat_ (as he renders) which rages at\nnoonday\" the poisonous simoom. The trustful man, sheltered in God,\nlooks on while thousands fall round him, as Israel looked from their\nhomes on the Passover night, and sees that there is a God that judges\nand recompenses evil-doers by evil suffered.\n\nHeartened by these great assurances, the single voice once more\ndeclares its trust. Ver. 9_a_ is best separated from _b_, though\nHupfeld here again assumes that \"thou hast said\" has fallen out\nbetween \"For\" and \"Thou.\"\n\nThis second utterance of trust is almost identical with the first.\nFaith has no need to vary its expression. \"Thou, Jehovah, art my\nrefuge\" is enough for it. God's mighty name and its personal possession\nof all which that name means, as its own hiding-place, are its\ntreasures, which it does not weary of recounting. Love loves to repeat\nitself. The deepest emotions, like song-birds, have but two or three\nnotes, which they sing over and over again all the long day through. He\nthat can use this singer's words of trust has a vocabulary rich enough.\n\nThe responsive assurances (vv. 9_b_-13) are, in like manner,\nsubstantially identical with the preceding ones, but differences\nmay be discerned by which these are heightened in comparison with\nthe former. The promise of immunity is more general. Instead of\ntwo typical forms of danger, the widest possible exemption from\nall forms of it is declared in ver. 10. _No_ evil shall come\nnear, _no_ scourge approach, the \"tent\" of the man whose real and\npermanent \"dwelling-place\" is Jehovah. There are much beauty and\nsignificance in that contrast of the two homes in which a godly\nman lives, housing, as far as his outward life is concerned, in a\ntransitory abode, which to-morrow may be rolled up and moved to\nanother camping-place in the desert, but abiding, in so far as his\ntrue being is concerned, in God, the permanent dwelling-place through\nall generations. The transitory outward life has reflected on it\nsome light of peaceful security from that true home. It is further\nnoteworthy that the second group of assurances is concerned with\nactive life, while the first only represented a passive condition of\nsafety beneath God's wing. In vv. 11, 12, His angels take the place\nof protectors, and the sphere in which they protect is \"in all thy\n_ways_\"--_i.e._, in the activities of ordinary life. The dangers\n_there_ are of stumbling, whether that be construed as referring to\noutward difficulties or to temptations to sin.\n\nThe perils, further specified in ver. 13, correspond to those\nof the previous part in being open and secret: the lion with its\nroar and leap, the adder with its stealthy glide among the herbage\nand its unlooked-for bite. So, the two sets of assurances, taken\ntogether, cover the whole ground of life, both in its moments of\nhidden communion in the secret place of the Most High, and in its\ntimes of diligent discharge of duty on life's common way. Perils\nof communion and perils of work are equally real, and equally may\nwe be sheltered from them. God Himself spreads His wing over the\ntrustful man, and sends His messengers to keep him, in all the paths\nappointed for him by God. The angels have no charge to take stones\nout of the way. Hinderances are good for us. Smooth paths weary and\nmake presumptuous. Rough ones bring out our best and drive us to\nlook to God. But His messengers have for their task to lift us on\ntheir palms over difficulties, not so that we shall not feel them\nto be difficult, but so that we shall not strike our foot against\nthem. Many a man remembers the elevation and buoyancy of spirit which\nstrangely came to him when most pressed by work or trouble. God's\nangels were bearing him up. Active life is full of open and secret\nfoes as well as of difficulties. He that keeps near to God will pass\nunharmed through them all, and, with a foot made strong and firm by\nGod's own power infused into it, will be able to crush the life out\nof the most formidable and the most sly assailants. \"The God of peace\nshall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.\"\n\nFinally, God Himself speaks, and confirms and deepens the previous\nassurances. That He is represented as speaking _of_, not _to_, His\nservant increases the majesty of the utterance, by seeming to call\nthe universe to hear, and converts promises to an individual into\npromises to every one who will fulfil the requisite conditions. These\nare threefold.\n\nGod desires that men should cling to Him, know His name, and call\non Him. The word rendered \"cling\" includes more than \"setting love\nupon\" one. It means to bind or knit oneself to anything, and so\nembraces the cleaving of a fixed heart, of a \"recollected\" mind,\nand of an obedient will. Such clinging demands effort; for every\nhand relaxes its grasp, unless ever and again tightened. He who thus\nclings will come to \"know\" God's \"name,\" with the knowledge which is\nborn of experience, and is loving familiarity, not mere intellectual\napprehension. Such clinging and knowledge will find utterance in\ncontinual converse with God, not only when needing deliverance, but\nin perpetual aspiration after Him.\n\nThe promises to such an one go very deep and stretch very far. \"I\nwill deliver him.\" So the previous assurance that no evil shall\ncome nigh him is explained and brought into correspondence with the\nfacts of life. Evil may be experienced. Sorrows will come. But they\nwill not touch the central core of the true life, and from them God\nwill deliver, not only by causing them to cease, but by fitting us\nto bear. Clinging to Him, a man will be \"drawn out of many waters,\"\nlike Peter on the stormy lake. \"I will set him on high\" is more than\na parallel promise to that of deliverance. It includes that; for a\nman lifted to a height is safe from the flood that sweeps through\nthe valley, or from the enemies that ravage the plain. But that\nelevation, which comes from knowing God's name, brings more than\nsafety, even a life lived in a higher region than that of things\nseen. \"I will answer him.\" How can He fail to hear when they who\ntrust Him cry? Promises, especially for the troubled, follow, which\ndo not conflict with the earlier assurances, rightly understood. \"I\nwill be with him in trouble.\" God's presence is the answer to His\nservant's call. God comes nearer to devout and tried souls, as a\nmother presses herself caressingly closer to a weeping child. So, no\nman need add solitude to sadness, but may have God sitting with him,\nlike Job's friends, waiting to comfort him with true comfort. And His\npresence delivers from, and glorifies after, trouble borne as becomes\nGod's friend. The bit of dull steel might complain, if it could feel,\nof the pain of being polished, but the result is to make it a mirror\nfit to flash back the sunlight.\n\n\"With length of days will I satisfy him\" is, no doubt, a promise\nbelonging more especially to Old Testament times; but if we put\nemphasis on \"satisfy,\" rather than on the extended duration, it may\nfairly suggest that, to the trustful soul, life is long enough,\nwhatever its duration, and that the guest, who has sat at God's table\nhere, is not unwilling to rise from it, when his time comes, being\n\"satisfied with favour, and full of the goodness of the Lord.\" The\nvision of God's salvation, which is set last, seems from its position\nin the series to point, however dimly, to a vision which comes after\nearth's troubles and length of days. The psalmist's language implies\nnot a mere casual beholding, but a fixed gaze. Delitzsch renders\n\"revel in My salvation\" (English translation). Cheyne has \"feast his\neyes with.\" Such seeing is possession. The crown of God's promises\nto the man who makes God his dwelling-place is a full, rapturous\nexperience of a full salvation, which follows on the troubles and\ndeliverances of earth, and brings a more dazzling honour and a more\nperfect satisfaction.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCII.\n\n 1 Good is it to give thanks to Jehovah,\n And to harp to Thy name, Most High;\n 2 To declare in the morning Thy loving-kindness,\n And thy faithfulness in the night seasons,\n 3 Upon a ten-stringed [instrument], even upon the psaltery,\n With skilful music on the lyre.\n\n 4 For Thou hast gladdened me, Jehovah, with Thy working,\n In the works of Thy hands will I shout aloud my joy.\n 5 How great are Thy works, Jehovah,\n Exceeding deep are Thy purposes!\n 6 A brutish man knows not,\n And a fool understands not this.\n\n 7 When the wicked sprang like herbage,\n And all the workers of iniquity blossomed,\n [It was only] for their being destroyed for ever.\n 8 But Thou art [enthroned] on high for evermore, Jehovah!\n 9 For behold Thy enemies, Jehovah,\n For behold Thy enemies--shall perish,\n All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.\n\n 10 But Thou hast exalted my horn like a wild ox,\n I am anointed with fresh oil (?).\n 11 My eye also gazed on my adversaries,\n Of them that rose against me as evil-doers my ear heard.\n 12 The righteous shall spring like the palm,\n Like a cedar in Lebanon shall he grow.\n\n 13 Planted in the house of Jehovah,\n They shall spring in the courts of our God.\n 14 Still shall they bear fruit in old age,\n Full of sap and verdant shall they be.\n 15 To declare that Jehovah is upright,\n My Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.\n\n\nAuthorities differ in their arrangement of this psalm. Clearly,\nthe first three verses are a prelude; and if these are left out of\naccount, the remainder of the psalm consists of twelve verses, which\nfall into two groups of six each, the former of which mainly deals\nwith the brief prosperity and final overthrow of the wicked, while\nthe latter paints the converse truth of the security and blessedness\nof the righteous. Both illustrate the depth of God's works and\npurposes, which is the psalmist's theme. A further division of each\nof these six verses into groups of three is adopted by Delitzsch, and\nmay be accepted. There will then be five strophes of three verses\neach, of which the first is introductory; the second and third, a\npair setting forth the aspect of Providence towards the wicked; and\nthe fourth and fifth, another pair, magnifying its dealings with the\nrighteous. Perowne takes the eighth verse, which is distinguished\nby containing only one clause, as the kernel of the psalm, which\nis preceded by seven verses, constituting the first division, and\nfollowed by seven, making the second. But this arrangement, though\ntempting, wrenches ver. 9 from its kindred ver. 7.\n\nVv. 1-3 are in any case introductory. In form they are addressed\nto Jehovah, in thankful acknowledgment of the privilege and joy\nof praise. In reality they are a summons to men to taste its\ngladness, and to fill each day and brighten every night by music of\nthanksgiving. The devout heart feels that worship is \"good,\" not\nonly as being acceptable to God and conformable to man's highest\nduty, but as being the source of delight to the worshipper. Nothing\nis more characteristic of the Psalter than the joy which often\ndances and sings through its strains. Nothing affords a surer test\nof the reality of worship than the worshipper's joy in it. With much\nsignificance and beauty, \"Thy loving-kindness\" is to be the theme of\neach morning, as we rise to a new day and find His mercy, radiant as\nthe fresh sunshine, waiting to bless our eyes, and \"Thy faithfulness\"\nis to be sung in the night seasons, as we part from another day which\nhas witnessed to His fulfilment of all His promises.\n\nThe second strophe contains the reason for praise--namely, the\ngreatness and depth of the Divine works and purposes. The works\nmeant are, as is obvious from the whole strain of the psalm, those\nof God's government of the world. The theme which exercised earlier\npsalmists reappears here, but the struggles of faith with unbelief,\nwhich are so profoundly and pathetically recorded in Psalm lxxiii.,\nare ended for this singer. He bows in trustful adoration before the\ngreatness of the works and the unsearchable depth of the purpose of\nGod which directs the works. The sequence of vv. 4-6 is noteworthy.\nThe central place is occupied by ver. 5--a wondering and reverent\nexclamation, evoked by the very mysteries of Providence. On either\nside of it stand verses describing the contrasted impression made\nby these on devout and on gross minds. The psalmist and his fellows\nare \"gladdened,\" though he cannot see to the utmost verge or deepest\nabyss of Works or Plans. What he does see is good; and if sight does\nnot go down to the depths, it is because eyes are weak, not because\nthese are less pellucid than the sunlit shallows. What gladdens the\ntrustful soul, which is in sympathy with God, only bewilders the\n\"brutish man\"--_i.e._, the man who, by immersing his faculties in\nsense, has descended to the animal level; and it is too grave and\nweighty for the \"fool,\" the man of incurable levity and self-conceit,\nto trouble himself to ponder. The eye sees what it is capable of\nseeing. A man's judgment of God's dealings depends on his relation to\nGod and on the dispositions of his soul.\n\nThe sterner aspect of Providence is dealt with in the next strophe\n(vv. 7-9). Some recent signal destruction of evil-doers seems\nto be referred to. It exemplifies once more the old truth which\nanother psalmist had sung (Psalm xxxvii. 2), that the prosperity\nof evil-doers is short-lived, like the blossoming herbage, and not\nonly short-lived, but itself the occasion of their destruction. The\napparent success of the wicked is as a pleasant slope that leads\ndownwards. The quicker the blossoming, the sooner the petals fall.\n\"The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.\" As in the previous\nstrophe the middle verse was central in idea as well as in place, so\nin this one. Ver. 8 states the great fact from which the overthrow\nof the wicked, which is declared in the verses before and after,\nresults. God's eternal elevation above the Transitory and the Evil\nis not merely contrasted with these, but is assigned as the reason\nwhy what is evil is transitory. We might render \"Thou, Jehovah, art\nhigh (lit. a height) for evermore,\" as, in effect, the LXX. and other\nold versions do; but the application of such an epithet to God is\nunexampled, and the rendering above is preferable. God's eternal\nexaltation \"is the great pillar of the universe and of our faith\"\n(Perowne). From it must one day result that all God's enemies shall\nperish, as the psalmist reiterates, with triumphant reduplication\nof the designation of the foes, as if he would make plain that the\nvery name \"God's enemies\" contained a prophecy of their destruction.\nHowever closely banded, they \"shall be scattered.\" Evil may make\nconspiracies for a time, for common hatred of good brings discordant\nelements into strange fellowship, but in its real nature it is\ndivisive, and, sooner or later, allies in wickedness become foes, and\nno two of them are left together. The only lasting human association\nis that which binds men to one another, because all are bound to God.\n\nFrom the scattered fugitives the psalmist turns first to joyful\ncontemplation of his own blessedness, and then to wider thoughts\nof the general well-being of all God's friends. The more personal\nreferences are comprised in the fourth strophe (vv. 10-12). The\nmetaphor of the exalted horn expresses, as in Psalms lxxv. 10,\nlxxxix. 17, triumph or the vindication of the psalmist by his\ndeliverance. Ver. 10_b_ is very doubtful. The word usually rendered\n\"I am anointed\" is peculiar. Another view of the word takes it for\nan infinitive used as a noun, with the meaning \"growing old,\" or, as\nCheyne renders, \"wasting strength.\" This translation (\"my wasting\nstrength with rich oil\") is that of the LXX. and other ancient\nversions, and of Cheyne and Baethgen among moderns. If adopted, the\nverb must be understood as repeated from the preceding clause, and\nthe slight incongruity thence arising can be lessened by giving a\nsomewhat wider meaning to \"exalted,\" such as \"strengthen\" or the\nlike. The psalmist would then represent his deliverance as being like\nrefreshing a failing old age, by anointing with fresh oil.\n\nThus triumphant and quickened, he expects to gaze on the downfall\nof his foes. He uses the same expression as is found in Psalm xci.\n8, with a similar connotation of calm security, and possibly of\nsatisfaction. There is no need for heightening his feelings into\n\"desire,\" as in the Authorised and Revised Versions. The next clause\n(ver. 11_b_) \"seems to have been expressly framed to correspond with\nthe other; it occurs nowhere else in this sense\" (Perowne). A less\npersonal verse (ver. 12) forms the transition to the last strophe,\nwhich is concerned with the community of the righteous. Here the\nsingular number is retained. By \"the righteous\" the psalmist does not\nexactly mean himself, but he blends his own individuality with that\nof the ideal character, so that he is both speaking of his own future\nand declaring a general truth. The wicked \"spring like herbage\" (ver.\n7), but the righteous \"spring like the palm.\" The point of comparison\nis apparently the gracefulness of the tree, which lifts its slender\nbut upright stem, and is ever verdant and fruitful. The cedar in\nits massive strength, its undecaying vigour, and the broad shelves\nof its foliage, green among the snows of Lebanon, stands in strong\ncontrast to the palm. Gracefulness is wedded to strength, and both\nare perennial in lives devoted to God and Right. Evil blooms quickly,\nand quickly dies. What is good lasts. One cedar outlives a hundred\ngenerations of the grass and flowers that encircle its steadfast feet.\n\nThe last part extends the thoughts of ver. 12 to all the righteous.\nIt does not name them, for it is needless to do so. Imagery and\nreality are fused together in this strophe. It is questionable\nwhether there were trees planted in the courts of the Temple; but\nthe psalmist's thought is that the righteous will surely be found\nthere, and that it is their native soil, in which rooted, they are\npermanent. The facts underlying the somewhat violent metaphor are\nthat true righteousness is found only in the dwellers with God, that\nthey who anchor themselves in Him, as a tree in the earth, are both\nstayed on, and fed from, Him. The law of physical decay does not\nenfeeble all the powers of devout men, even while they are subject to\nit. As aged palm trees bear the heaviest clusters, so lives which are\nplanted in and nourished from God know no term of their fruitfulness,\nand are full of sap and verdant, when lives that have shut themselves\noff from Him are like an old stump, gaunt and dry, fit only for\nfirewood. Such lives are prolonged and made fruitful, as standing\nproofs that Jehovah is upright, rewarding all cleaving to Him and\ndoing of His will, with conservation of strength, and ever-growing\npower to do His will.\n\nVer. 15 is a reminiscence of Deut. xxxii. 4. The last clause is\nprobably to be taken in connection with the preceding, as by Cheyne\n(\"And that in my Rock there is no unrighteousness\"). But it may also\nbe regarded as a final avowal of the psalmist's faith, the last\nresult of his contemplations of the mysteries of Providence. These\nbut drive him to cling close to Jehovah, as his sole refuge and his\nsure shelter, and to ring out _this_ as the end which shall one day\nbe manifest as the net result of Providence--that there is no least\ntrace of unrighteousness in Him.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCIII.\n\n 1 Jehovah is King, with majesty has He clothed Himself,\n Jehovah has clothed Himself, has girded Himself with strength,\n Yea, the world is set fast [that] it cannot be moved.\n 2 Fast is set Thy throne from of yore,\n From eternity art Thou.\n\n 3 The streams, Jehovah, have lifted up,\n The streams have lifted up their voice,\n The streams lift up their tumult.\n 4 Above the voices of many waters,\n Mighty [waters], ocean breakers,\n Mightier is Jehovah on high.\n\n 5 Thy testimonies are utterly to be trusted:\n Holiness fits Thy house,\n Jehovah, for length of days.\n\n\nThis is the first of a group of psalms celebrating Jehovah as King.\nIt is followed by one which somewhat interrupts the unity of subject\nin the group, but may be brought into connection with them by being\nregarded as hymning Jehovah's kingly and judicial providence, as\nmanifested in the subjugation of rebels against His throne. The\nremaining members of the group (Psalms xcv.-c.) rise to a height\nof lyric exultation in meditating on the reign of Jehovah. Psalms\nxciii. and xciv. are followed by two (xcv: vi.) beginning with\nringing calls for new songs to hail the new manifestation of Himself,\nby which Jehovah has, as it were, inaugurated a new stage in His\nvisible reign on earth. Psalm xcvii. again breaks out into the joyful\nproclamation \"Jehovah is King,\" which is followed, as if by a chorus,\nwith a repeated summons for a new song (Psalm xcviii.). Once more\nthe proclamation \"Jehovah is King\" is sounded out in Psalm xcix.,\nand then the group is closed by Psalm c., with its call to all lands\nto crowd round Jehovah's throne with \"tumult of acclaim.\" Probably\nthe historical fact underlying this new conviction of, and triumph\nin, the Kingdom of Jehovah is the return from exile. But the tone of\nprophetic anticipation in these exuberant hymns of confident joy can\nscarcely fail of recognition. The psalmists sang of an ideal state to\nwhich their most glorious experiences but remotely approximated. They\nsaw \"not yet all things put under Him,\" but they were sure that He is\nKing, and they were as sure, though with the certitude of faith fixed\non His word and not with that of sight, that His universal dominion\nwould one day be universally recognised and rejoiced in.\n\nThis short psalm but strikes the keynote for the group. It is\noverture to the oratorio, prelude of the symphony. Jehovah's\nreign, the stability of His throne, the consequent fixity of the\nnatural order, His supremacy over all noisy rage of opposition\nand lawlessness, either in Nature or among men, are set forth\nwith magnificent energy and brevity. But the King of the world is\nnot a mere Nature-compelling Jove. He has spoken to men, and the\nstability of the natural order but faintly shadows the firmness of\nHis \"testimonies,\" which are worthy of absolute reliance, and which\nmake the souls that do rely on them stable as the firm earth, and\nsteadfast with a steadfastness derived from Jehovah's throne. He not\nonly reigns over, but dwells among, men, and His power keeps His\ndwelling-place inviolate, and lasting as His reign.\n\nVer. 1 describes an act rather than a state. \"Jehovah has become\nKing\" by some specific manifestation of His sovereignty. Not as\nthough He had not been King before, as ver. 2 immediately goes on to\npoint out, but that He has shown the world, by a recent deed, the\neternal truth that He reigns. His coronation has been by His own\nhands. No others have arrayed Him in His royal robes. The psalmist\ndwells with emphatic reiteration on the thought that Jehovah has\nclothed _Himself_ with majesty and girded _Himself_ with strength.\nAll the stability of Nature is a consequence of His self-created and\nself-manifested power. That Strength holds a reeling world steady.\nThe psalmist knew nothing about the fixity of natural law, but his\nthought goes down below that fixity, and finds its reason in the\nconstant forth-putting of Divine power. Ver. 2 goes far back as well\nas deep down or high up, when it travels into the dim, unbounded\npast, and sees there, amidst its mists, one shining, solid substance,\nJehovah's throne, which stood firm before every \"then.\" The word\nrendered _from of yore_ is literally \"from then,\" as if to express\nthe priority of that throne to every period of defined time. And even\nthat grand thought can be capped by a grander climax: \"From eternity\nart Thou.\" Therefore the world stands firm.\n\nBut there are things in the firm world that are not firm. There\nare \"streams\" or perhaps \"floods,\" which seem to own no control, in\ntheir hoarse dash and devastating rush. The sea is ever the symbol of\nrebellious opposition and of ungoverned force. Here both the natural\nand symbolic meanings are present. And the picture is superbly\npainted. The sound of the blows of the breakers against the rocks,\nor as they clash with each other, is vividly repeated in the word\nrendered \"tumult,\" which means rather a blow or collision, and here\nseems to express the thud of the waves against an obstacle.\n\nVer. 4 is difficult to construe. The word rendered \"mighty\" is,\naccording to the accentuation, attached to \"breakers,\" but stands\nin an unusual position if it is to be so taken. It seems better to\ndisregard the accents, and to take \"mighty\" as a second adjective\nbelonging to \"waters.\" These will then be described as both\nmultitudinous and proud in their strength, while \"ocean breakers\"\nwill stand in apposition to _waters_. Jehovah's might is compared\nwith these. It would be but a poor measure of it to say that it was\nmore than they; but the comparison means that He subdues the floods,\nand proves His power by taming and calming them. Evidently we are\nto see shining through the nature-picture Jehovah's triumphant\nsubjugation of rebellious men, which is one manifestation of His\nkingly power. That dominion is not such as to make opposition\nimpossible. Antagonism of the wildest sort neither casts doubt on its\nreality nor impinges a hair's-breadth on its sovereignty. All such\nfutile rebellion will be subdued. The shriek of the storm, the dash\nof the breakers, will be hushed when He says \"Peace,\" and the highest\ntoss of their spray does not wet, much less shake, His stable throne.\nSuch was the psalmist's faith as he looked out over a revolted world.\nSuch may well be ours, who \"hear a deeper voice across the storm.\"\n\nThat sweet closing verse comes by its very abruptness with singular\nimpressiveness. We pass from wild commotion into calm. Jehovah speaks,\nand His words are witnesses both of what He is and of what men should\nand may be. Power is not an object for trust to fasten on, unless it is\ngracious, and gives men account of its motives and ends. Words are not\nobjects for trust to fasten on, unless they have power for fulfilment\nbehind them. But if the King, who sets fast earth and bridles seas,\nspeaks to us, we may utterly confide in His word, and, if we do,\nwe shall share in His stable being, in so far as man is capable of\nresemblance to the changeless God. Trust in firm promises is the secret\nof firmness. Jehovah has not only given Israel His word, but His house,\nand His kingly power preserves His dwelling-place from wrong.\n\n\"Holiness\" in ver. 5 expresses an attribute of Jehovah's house, not\na quality of the worshippers therein. It cannot but be preserved\nfrom assault, since He dwells there. A king who cannot keep his own\npalace safe from invaders can have little power. If this psalm is,\nas it evidently is, post-exilic, how could the singer, remembering\nthe destruction of the Temple, speak thus? Because he had learned the\nlesson of that destruction, that the earthly house in which Jehovah\ndwelt among men had ceased to be His, by reason of the sins of its\nfrequenters. Therefore, it was \"burned with fire.\" The profaned house\nis no longer Jehovah's, but, as Jesus said with strong emphasis on the\nfirst word, \"_Your_ house is left unto you desolate.\" The Kingship of\nJehovah is proclaimed eloquently and tragically by the desolated shrine.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCIV.\n\n 1 God of vengeances, Jehovah,\n God of vengeances, shine forth.\n 2 Lift up Thyself, Judge of the earth,\n Return recompense to the proud.\n\n 3 For how long, Jehovah, shall the wicked,\n For how long shall the wicked exult?\n 4 They well out, they speak--arrogance,\n They give themselves airs like princes--all these workers of\n iniquity.\n 5 Thy people, Jehovah, they crush in pieces,\n And Thine inheritance they afflict.\n 6 Widow and stranger they kill,\n And orphans they murder.\n\n 7 And they say, \"Jah sees [it] not,\n And the God of Jacob considers it not.\"\n 8 Consider, ye brutish among the people,\n And ye fools, when will ye be wise?\n 9 The Planter of the ear, shall He not hear?\n Or the Former of the eye, shall He not see?\n 10 The Instructor of the nations, shall He not punish,--\n The Teacher of knowledge to man?\n 11 Jehovah knows the thoughts of men,\n For they are [but] a breath.\n\n 12 Happy the man whom Thou instructest, Jehovah,\n And teachest from Thy law,\n 13 To give him rest from the days of evil,\n Till there be digged for the wicked a pit.\n 14 For Jehovah will not spurn away His people,\n And His inheritance He will not forsake.\n 15 For to righteousness shall judgment return,\n And after it shall all the upright in heart [follow].\n 16 Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers?\n Who will set himself for me against the workers of iniquity?\n 17 Unless Jehovah had been a help for me,\n My soul had soon dwelt in silence.\n 18 When I say, \"My foot slips,\"\n Thy loving-kindness, Jehovah, stays me.\n 19 In the multitude of my divided thoughts within me,\n Thy comforts delight my soul.\n\n 20 Can the throne of destruction be confederate with Thee,\n Which frameth mischief by statute?\n 21 They come in troops against the soul of the righteous,\n And innocent blood they condemn.\n 22 But Jehovah is to me a high tower,\n And my God the rock of my refuge.\n 23 And He brings back upon them their iniquities,\n And by their own evil will He root them out,\n Jehovah our God will root them out.\n\n\nThe theme of God the Judge is closely allied to that of God the King,\nas other psalms of this group show, in which His coming to judge the\nworld is the subject of rapturous praise. This psalm hymns Jehovah's\nretributive sway, for which it passionately cries, and in which it\nconfidently trusts. Israel is oppressed by insolent rulers, who have\npoisoned the fountains of justice, condemning the innocent, enacting\nunrighteous laws, and making a prey of all the helpless. These\n\"judges of Sodom\" are not foreign oppressors, for they are \"among the\npeople\"; and even while they scoff at Jehovah's judgments they call\nHim by His covenant names of \"Jah\" and \"God of Jacob.\" There is no\nneed, therefore, to look beyond Israel for the originals of the dark\npicture, nor does it supply data for fixing the period of the psalm.\n\nThe structure and course of thought are transparent. First comes an\ninvocation to God as the Judge of the earth (vv. 1, 2); then follow\ngroups of four verses each, subdivided into pairs,--the first of\nthese (vv. 3-6) pictures the doings of the oppressors; the second\n(vv. 7-11) quotes their delusion that their crimes are unseen by\nJehovah, and refutes their dream of impunity, and it is closed by\na verse in excess of the normal number, emphatically asserting\nthe truth which the mockers denied. The third group declares the\nblessedness of the men whom God teaches, and the certainty of His\nretribution to vindicate the cause of the righteous (vv. 12-15).\nThen follow the singer's own cry for help in his own need, as one\nof the oppressed community, and a sweet reminiscence of former aid,\nwhich calms his present anxieties. The concluding group goes back to\ndescription of the lawless law-makers and their doings, and ends with\ntrust that the retribution prayed for in the first verses will verily\nbe dealt out to them, and that thereby both the singer, as a member\nof the nation, and the community will find Jehovah, who is both \"my\nGod\" and \"our God,\" a high tower.\n\nThe reiterations in the first two verses are not oratorical\nembellishments, but reveal intense feeling and pressing need. It is\na cold prayer which contents itself with one utterance. A man in\nstraits continues to cry for help till it comes, or till he sees it\ncoming. To this singer, the one aspect of Jehovah's reign which was\nforced on him by Israel's dismal circumstances was the judicial.\nThere are times when no thought of God is so full of strength as\nthat He is \"the God of recompenses,\" as Jeremiah calls Him (li.\n56), and when the longing of good men is that He would flash forth,\nand slay evil by the brightness of His coming. They who have no\nprofound loathing of sin, or who have never felt the crushing weight\nof legalised wickedness, may shrink from such aspirations as the\npsalmist's, and brand them as ferocious; but hearts longing for the\ntriumph of righteousness will not take offence at them.\n\nThe first group (vv. 3-6) lifts the cry of suffering Faith, which\nhas almost become impatience, but turns to, not from, God, and so\nchecks complaints of His delay, and converts them into prayer. \"How\nlong, O Lord?\" is the burden of many a tried heart; and the Seer\nheard it from the souls beneath the altar. This psalm passes quickly\nto dilate on the crimes of the rulers which forced out that prayer.\nThe portrait has many points of likeness to that drawn in Psalm\nlxxiii. Here, as there, boastful speech and haughty carriage are\nmade prominent, being put before even cruelty and oppression. \"They\nwell out, they speak--arrogance\": both verbs have the same object.\nInsolent self-exaltation pours from the fountain of their pride in\ncopious jets. \"They give themselves airs like princes.\" The verb in\nthis clause may mean _to say among themselves_ or _to boast_, but is\nnow usually regarded as meaning _to behave like a prince_--_i.e._,\nto carry oneself insolently. Vain-glorious arrogance manifest in\nboasting speech and masterful demeanour characterises Eastern rulers,\nespecially those who have risen from low origin. Every little village\ntyrant gave himself airs, as if he were a king; and the lower his\nrank, the greater his insolence. These oppressors were grinding the\nnation to powder, and what made their crime the darker was that\nit was Jehovah's people and inheritance which they thus harassed.\nHelplessness should be a passport to a ruler's care, but it had\nbecome a mark for murderous attack. Widow, stranger, and orphan are\nnamed as types of defencelessness.\n\nNothing in this strophe indicates that these oppressors are\nforeigners. Nor does the delusion that Jehovah neither saw nor cared\nfor their doings, which the next strophe (vv. 7-11) states and\nconfutes, imply that they were so. Cheyne, indeed, adduces the name\n\"God of Jacob,\" which is put into their mouths, as evidence that\nthey are pictured as knowing Jehovah only as one among many tribal\nor national deities; but the name is too familiar upon the lips of\nIsraelites, and its use by others is too conjectural, to allow of such\na conclusion. Rather, the language derives its darkest shade from\nbeing used by Hebrews, who are thereby declaring themselves apostates\nfrom God as well as oppressors of His people. Their mad, practical\natheism makes the psalmist blaze up in indignant rebuke and impetuous\nargumentation. He turns to them, and addresses them in rough, plain\nwords, strangely contrasted with their arrogant utterances regarding\nthemselves. They are \"brutish\" (cf. Psalm lxxiii. 22) and \"fools.\"\nThe psalmist, in his height of moral indignation, towers above these\npetty tyrants, and tells them home truths very profitable for such\npeople, however dangerous to their utterer. There is no obligation\nto speak smooth words to rulers whose rule is injustice and their\nreligion impiety. Ahab had his Elijah, and Herod his John Baptist. The\nsuccession has been continued through the ages.\n\nDelitzsch and others, who take the oppressors to be foreigners,\nare obliged to suppose that the psalmist turns in ver. 8 to those\nIsraelites who had been led to doubt God by the prosperity of the\nwicked; but there is nothing, except the exigencies of that mistaken\nsupposition, to show that any others than the deniers of God's\nprovidence who have just been quoted are addressed as \"among the\npeople.\" Their denial was the more inexcusable, because they belonged\nto the people whose history was one long proof that Jehovah did see\nand recompense evil. Two considerations are urged by the psalmist,\nwho becomes for the moment a philosophical theologian, in confutation\nof the error in question. First, he argues that nothing can be in the\neffect which is not in the cause, that the Maker of men's eyes cannot\nbe blind, nor the Planter of their ears deaf. The thought has wide\napplications. It hits the centre, in regard to many modern denials as\nwell as in regard to these blunt, ancient ones. Can a universe plainly\nfull of purpose have come from a purposeless source? Can finite persons\nhave emerged from an impersonal Infinity? Have we not a right to argue\nupwards from man's make to God his maker, and to find in Him the\narchetype of all human capacity. We may mark that, as has been long ago\nobserved, the psalm avoids gross anthropomorphism, and infers, not that\nthe Creator of the ear has ears, but that He hears. As Jerome (quoted\nby Delitzsch) says, \"Membra sustulit, efficientias dedit.\"\n\nIn ver. 10 a second argument is employed, which turns on the thought\nthat God is the educator of mankind. That office of instructor cannot\nbe carried out unless He is also their chastiser, when correction\nis needed. The psalmist looks beyond the bounds of Israel, the\nrecipient of special revelation (cf. ver. 12), and recognises, what\nseldom appears in the Old Testament, but is unquestionably there, the\ngreat thought that He is teaching all mankind by manifold ways, and\nespecially by the law written in their hearts. Jewish particularism,\nthe exaggeration into a lie of the truth of God's special revelation\nto Israel, came to forget or deny God's education of mankind. Alas\nthat the same mistake was inherited by so many epochs of the Church!\n\nThe teaching of the strophe is gathered up in ver. 11, which exceeds\nthe normal number of four verses in each group, and asserts strongly\nthe conclusion for which the psalmist has been arguing. The rendering\nof _b_ is, \"For (not That) they (_i.e._ men) are but a breath.\" \"The\nground of the Omniscience which sees the thoughts of men through and\nthrough is profoundly laid in the vanity, _i.e._ the finiteness, of\nmen, as the correlative of the Infiniteness of God\" (Hupfeld).\n\nIn the strophe vv. 12-15, the psalmist turns from the oppressors\nto their victims, the meek of the earth, and changes his tone from\nfiery remonstrance to gracious consolation. The true point of view\nfrom which to regard the oppressors' wrong is to see in it part of\nGod's educational processes. Jehovah, who \"instructs\" all men by\nconscience, \"instructs\" Israel, and by the Law \"teaches\" the right\ninterpretation of such afflictive providences. Happy he who accepts\nthat higher education! A further consolation lies in considering the\npurpose of the special revelation to Israel, which will be realised\nin patient hearts that are made wise thereby--namely, calm repose of\nsubmission and trust, which are not disturbed by any stormy weather.\nThere is possible for the harassed man \"peace subsisting at the heart\nof endless agitation.\"\n\nIf we recognise that life is mainly educational, we shall neither\nbe astonished nor disturbed by sorrows. It is not to be wondered at\nthat the schoolmaster has a rod, and uses it sometimes. There is\nrest from evil even while in evil, if we understand the purpose of\nevil. Yet another consolation lies in the steadfast anticipation of\nits transiency and of the retribution measured to its doers. That is\nno unworthy source of comfort. And the ground on which it rests is\nthe impossibility of God's forsaking His people, His inheritance.\nThese designations of Israel look back to ver. 5, where the crushed\nand afflicted are designated by the same words. Israel's relation\nto Jehovah made the calamities more startling; but it also makes\ntheir cessation, and retribution for them on their inflicters, more\ncertain. It is the trial and triumph of Faith to be sure, while\ntyrants grind and crush, that Jehovah has not deserted their victims.\nHe cannot change His purpose; therefore, sorrows and prosperity are\nbut divergent methods, concurring in carrying out His unalterable\ndesign. The individual sufferer may take comfort from his belonging\nto the community to which the presence of Jehovah is guaranteed for\never. The singer puts his convictions as to what is to be the upshot\nof all the perplexed riddles of human affairs into epigrammatic\nform, in the obscure, gnome-like saying, \"To righteousness shall\njudgment return,\" by which he seems to mean that the administration\nof justice, which at present was being trampled under foot, \"shall\ncome back to the eternal principle of all judicial action, namely,\nrighteousness,\"--in shorter words, there shall be no schism between\nthe judgments of earthly tribunals and justice. The psalmist's hope\nis that of all good men and sufferers from unjust rulers. All the\nupright in heart long for such a state of things and follow after it,\neither in the sense of delight in it (\"Dem Recht m\u00fcssen alle frommen\nHerzen zufallen\"--Luther), or of seeking to bring it about. The\npsalmist's hope is realised in the King of Men, whose own judgments\nare truth, and who infuses righteousness and the love of it into all\nwho trust in Him.\n\nThe singer comes closer to his own experience in the next strophe\n(vv. 16-19), in which he claims his share in these general sources of\nrest and patience, and thankfully thinks of past times, when he found\nthat they yielded him streams in the desert. He looks out upon the\nmultitude of \"evil-doers,\" and, for a moment, asks the question which\nfaithless sense is ever suggesting and pronouncing unanswerable: \"Where\nshall I find a champion?\" As long as our eyes range along the level of\nearth, they see none such. But the empty earth should turn our gaze to\nthe occupied throne. There sits the Answer to our almost despairing\nquestion. Rather, there He stands, as the proto-martyr saw Him,\nrisen to His feet in swift readiness to help His servant. Experience\nconfirms the hope of Jehovah's aid; for unless in the past He had been\nthe singer's help, he could not have lived till this hour, but must\nhave gone down into the silent land. No man who still draws breath is\nwithout tokens of God's sufficient care and ever-present help. The\nmystery of continued life is a witness for God. And not only does\nthe past thus proclaim where a man's help is, but devout reflection\non it will bring to light many times when doubts and tremors were\ndisappointed. Conscious weakness appeals to confirming strength. If we\nfeel our foot giving, and fling up our hands towards Him, He will grasp\nthem and steady us in the most slippery places. Therefore, when divided\nthoughts (for so the picturesque word employed in ver. 19 means)\nhesitate between hope and fear, God's consolations steal into agitated\nminds, and there is a great calm.\n\nThe last strophe (vv. 20-23) weaves together in the finale, as a\nmusician does in the last bars of his composition, the main themes\nof the psalm--the evil deeds of unjust rulers, the trust of the\npsalmist, his confidence in the final annihilation of the oppressors,\nand the consequent manifestation of God as the God of Israel. The\nheight of crime is reached when rulers use the forms of justice as\nmasks for injustice, and give legal sanction to \"mischief.\" The\nancient world groaned under such travesties of the sanctity of Law;\nand the modern world is not free from them. The question often\ntortures faithful hearts, \"Can such doings be sanctioned by God,\nor in any way be allied to Him?\" To the psalmist the worst part\nof these rulers' wickedness was that, in his doubting moments, it\nraised the terrible suspicion that God was perhaps on the side of\nthe oppressors. But when such thoughts came surging on him, he fell\nback, as we all have to do, on personal experience and on an act of\nrenewed trust. He remembered what God had been to him in past moments\nof peril, and he claimed Him for the same now, his own refuge and\nfortress. Strong in that individual experience and conviction, he\nwon the confidence that all which Jehovah had to do with the throne\nof destruction was, not to connive at its evil, but to overthrow\nit and root out the evil-doers, whose own sin will be their ruin.\nThen Jehovah will be known, not only for the God who belongs to, and\nworks for, the single soul, but who is \"our God,\" the refuge of the\ncommunity, who will not forsake His inheritance.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCV.\n\n 1 Come, let us raise shrill cries of joy to Jehovah,\n Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our Salvation.\n 2 Let us go to meet His face with thanksgiving,\n With songs let us shout aloud to Him.\n 3 For Jehovah is a great God,\n And a great King above all gods.\n 4 In whose hand are the deep places of the earth,\n And the peaks of the mountains are His.\n 5 Whose is the sea, and He made it,\n And the dry land His hands formed.\n\n 6 Come, let us worship and bow down,\n Let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker,\n 7 For He is our God,\n And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.\n\n To-day, if ye would listen to His voice,\n 8 Harden not your hearts, as [at] Meribah,\n As [in] the day of Massah in the wilderness,\n 9 Where your fathers tempted Me,\n Proved Me and saw My work.\n 10 Forty years loathed I [that] generation,\n And said, \"A people going astray in heart are they,\n And they know not My ways.\"\n 11 So that I sware in My wrath,\n \"Surely they shall not come into My rest.\"\n\n\nThis psalm is obviously divided into two parts, but there is no\nreason for seeing in these two originally unconnected fragments.\nRather does each part derive force from the other; and nothing is\nmore natural than that, after the congregation has spoken its joyful\nsummons to itself to worship, Jehovah should speak warning words as\nto the requisite heart-preparation, without which worship is vain.\nThe supposed fragments are fragmentary indeed, if considered apart.\nSurely a singer has the liberty of being abrupt and of suddenly\nchanging his tone. Surely he may as well be credited with discerning\nthe harmony of the change of key as some later compiler. There could\nbe no more impressive way of teaching the conditions of acceptable\nworship than to set side by side a glad call to praise and a solemn\nwarning against repeating the rebellions of the wilderness. These\nwould be still more appropriate if this were a post-exilic hymn; for\nthe second return from captivity would be felt to be the analogue of\nthe first, and the dark story of former hard-heartedness would fit\nvery close to present circumstances.\n\nThe invocation to praise in vv. 1, 2, gives a striking picture of\nthe joyful tumult of the Temple worship. Shrill cries of gladness,\nloud shouts of praise, songs with musical accompaniments, rang\nsimultaneously through the courts, and to Western ears would have\nsounded as din rather than as music, and as more exuberant than\nreverent. The spirit expressed is, alas! almost as strange to many\nmoderns as the manner of its expression. That swelling joy which\nthrobs in the summons, that consciousness that jubilation is a\nconspicuous element in worship, that effort to rise to a height of\njoyful emotion, are very foreign to much of our worship. And their\nabsence, or presence only in minute amount, flattens much devotion,\nand robs the Church of one of its chief treasures. No doubt, there\nmust often be sad strains blended with praise. But it is a part of\nChristian duty, and certainly of Christian wisdom, to try to catch\nthat tone of joy in worship which rings in this psalm.\n\nThe three following verses (3-5) give Jehovah's creative and\nsustaining power, and His consequent ownership of this fair world, as\nthe reasons for worship. He is King by right of creation. Surely it\nis forcing unnatural meanings on words to maintain that the psalmist\nbelieved in the real existence of the \"gods\" whom he disparagingly\ncontrasts with Jehovah. The fact that these were worshipped\nsufficiently warrants the comparison. To treat it as in any degree\ninconsistent with Monotheism is unnecessary, and would scarcely\nhave occurred to a reader but for the exigencies of a theory. The\nrepeated reference to the \"hand\" of Jehovah is striking. In it are\nheld the deeps; it is a plastic hand, \"forming\" the land, as a potter\nfashioning his clay; it is a shepherd's hand, protecting and feeding\nhis flock (ver. 7). The same power created and sustains the physical\nuniverse, and guides and guards Israel. The psalmist has no time\nfor details; he can only single out extremes, and leave us to infer\nthat what is true of these is true of all that is enclosed between\nthem. The depths and the heights are Jehovah's. The word rendered\n\"peaks\" is doubtful. Etymologically it should mean \"fatigue,\" but\nit is not found in that sense in any of the places where it occurs.\nThe parallelism requires the meaning of _heights_ to contrast with\n_depths_, and this rendering is found in the LXX., and is adopted by\nmost moderns. The word is then taken to come from a root meaning \"to\nbe high.\" Some of those who adopt the translation _summits_ attempt\nto get that meaning out of the root meaning _fatigue_, by supposing\nthat the labour of getting to the top of the mountain is alluded to\nin the name. Thus Kay renders \"the mountains' toilsome heights,\" and\nso also Hengstenberg. But it is simpler to trace the word to the\nother root, _to be high_. The ownerless sea is owned by Him; He made\nboth its watery waste and the solid earth.\n\nBut that all-creating Hand has put forth more wondrous energies than\nthose of which heights and depths, sea and land, witness. Therefore,\nthe summons is again addressed to Israel to bow before \"Jehovah our\nMaker.\" The creation of a people to serve Him is the work of His\ngrace, and is a nobler effect of His power than material things. It\nis remarkable that the call to glad praise should be associated with\nthoughts of His greatness as shown in creation, while lowly reverence\nis enforced by remembrance of His special relation to Israel. We\nshould have expected the converse. The revelation of God's love,\nin His work of creating a people for Himself, is most fittingly\nadored by spirits prostrate before Him. Another instance of apparent\ntransposition of thoughts occurs in ver. 7_b_, where we might have\nexpected \"people of His hand and sheep of His pasture.\" Hupfeld\nproposes to correct accordingly, and Cheyne follows him. But the\ncorrection buys prosaic accuracy at the cost of losing the forcible\nincorrectness which blends figure and fact, and by keeping sight\nof both enhances each. \"The sheep of His hand\" suggests not merely\nthe creative but the sustaining and protecting power of God. It is\nhallowed for ever by our Lord's words, which may be an echo of it:\n\"No man is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.\"\n\nThe sudden turn from jubilant praise and recognition of Israel's\nprerogative as its occasion to grave warning is made more impressive\nby its occurring in the middle of a verse. God's voice breaks in upon\nthe joyful acclamations with solemn effect. The shouts of the adoring\nmultitude die on the poet's trembling ear, as that deeper Voice is\nheard. We cannot persuade ourselves that this magnificent transition,\nso weighty with instruction, so fine in poetic effect, is due to the\nafter-thought of a compiler. Such an one would surely have stitched\nhis fragments more neatly together than to make the seam run through\nthe centre of a verse--an irregularity which would seem small to a\nsinger in the heat of his inspiration. Ver. 7_c_ may be either a wish\nor the protasis to the apodosis in ver. 8. \"If ye would but listen to\nHis voice!\" is an exclamation, made more forcible by the omission of\nwhat would happen then. But it is not necessary to regard the clause as\noptative. The conditional meaning, which connects it with what follows,\nis probably preferable, and is not set aside by the expression \"His\nvoice\" instead of \"My voice\"; for \"similar change of persons is very\ncommon in utterances of Jehovah, especially in the Prophets\" (Hupfeld).\n\"To-day\" stands first with strong emphasis, to enforce the critical\ncharacter of the present moment. It may be the last opportunity. At all\nevents, it is an opportunity, and therefore to be grasped and used.\nA doleful history of unthankfulness lay behind; but still the Divine\nvoice sounds, and still the fleeting moments offer space for softening\nof heart and docile hearkening. The madness of delay when time is\nhurrying on, and the longsuffering patience of God, are wonderfully\nproclaimed in that one word, which the Epistle to the Hebrews lays hold\nof, with so deep insight, as all-important.\n\nThe warning points Israel back to ancestral sins, the tempting\nof God in the second year of the Exodus, by the demand for water\n(Exod. xvii. 1-7). The scene of that murmuring received both\nnames, Massah (temptation) and Meribah (strife). It is difficult\nto decide the exact force of ver. 9_b_. \"Saw My work\" is most\nnaturally taken as referring to the Divine acts of deliverance and\nprotection seen by Israel in the desert, which aggravated the guilt\nof their faithlessness. But the word rendered \"and\" will, in that\ncase, have to be taken as meaning \"although\"--a sense which cannot\nbe established. It seems better, therefore, to take \"work\" in the\nunusual meaning of acts of judgment--His \"strange work.\" Israel's\ntempting of God was the more indicative of hardheartedness that it\nwas persisted in, in spite of chastisements. Possibly both thoughts\nare to be combined, and the whole varied stream of blessings and\npunishments is referred to in the wide expression. Both forms of\nGod's work should have touched these hard hearts. It mattered not\nwhether He blessed or punished. They were impervious to both. The\nawful issue of this obstinate rebellion is set forth in terrible\nwords. The sensation of physical loathing followed by sickness is\ndaringly ascribed to God. We cannot but remember what John heard in\nPatmos from the lips into which grace was poured: \"I will spue thee\nout of My mouth.\"\n\nBut before He cast Israel out, He pled with them, as ver. 10_b_ goes\non to tell: \"He said, 'A people going astray in heart are they.'\" He\nsaid so, by many a prophet and many a judgment, in order that they\nmight come back to the true path. The desert-wanderings were but a\nsymbol, as they were a consequence, of their wanderings in heart.\nThey did not know His ways; therefore they chose their own. They\nstrayed in heart; therefore they had an ever-increasing ignorance of\nthe right road. For the averted heart and the blind understanding\nproduce each other.\n\nThe issue of the long-protracted departure from the path which God\nhad marked was, as it ever is, condemnation to continue in the\npathless wilderness, and exclusion from the land of rest which God\nhad promised them, and in which He Himself had said that He would\nmake His resting-place in their midst. But what befell Israel in\noutward fact was symbolical of universal spiritual truth. The hearts\nthat love devious ways can never be restful. The path which leads\nto calm is traced by God, and only those who tread it with softened\nhearts, earnestly listening to His voice, will find repose even on\nthe road, and come at last to the land of peace. For others, they\nhave chosen the desert, and in it they will wander wearily, \"for ever\nroaming with a hungry heart.\"\n\nThe author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is laying hold of the very\nkernel of the psalm, when he adduces the fact that, so many centuries\nafter Moses, the warning was still addressed to Israel, and the\npossibility of entering the Rest of God, and the danger of missing\nit, still urged, as showing that the Rest of God remained to be won\nby later generations, and proclaiming the eternal truth that \"we\nwhich have believed do enter into rest.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCVI.\n\n 1 Sing to Jehovah a new song,\n Sing to Jehovah, all the earth.\n 2 Sing to Jehovah, bless His name,\n Publish the glad tidings of His salvation from day to day.\n 3 Recount among the nations His glory,\n Among all peoples His wonders.\n\n 4 For great is Jehovah, and to be praised exceedingly,\n Dread is He above all gods.\n 5 For all the gods of the people are Nothings,\n And Jehovah made the heavens.\n 6 Honour and majesty are before Him,\n Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.\n\n 7 Give to Jehovah, ye families of the peoples,\n Give to Jehovah glory and strength.\n 8 Give to Jehovah the glory of His name,\n Take an offering and come into His courts.\n 9 Worship Jehovah in holy attire,\n Tremble before Him, all the earth.\n\n 10 Say among the nations, \"Jehovah is King,\"\n Yea, the world is set fast [that] it cannot be moved,\n He shall deal judgment to the peoples in equity.\n 11 Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth exult,\n Let the sea thunder and its fulness,\n 12 Let the plain rejoice and all that is in it,\n Then shall all the trees of the forest ring out joyful cries,\n 13 Before Jehovah, for He comes,\n He comes to judge the earth,\n He will judge the world in righteousness,\n And peoples in His faithfulness.\n\n\nThe praise of Jehovah as King has, in the preceding psalms, chiefly\ncelebrated His reign over Israel. But this grand coronation anthem\ntakes a wider sweep, and hymns that kingdom as extending to all\nnations, and as reaching beyond men, for the joy and blessing of a\nrenovated earth. It falls into four strophes, of which the first three\ncontain three verses each, while the last extends to four. These\nstrophes are like concentric circles, drawn round that eternal throne.\nThe first summons Israel to its high vocation of Jehovah's evangelist,\nthe herald who proclaims the enthronement of the King. The second sets\nHim above all the \"Nothings\" which usurp the name of gods, and thus\nprepares the way for His sole monarchy. The third summons outlying\nnations to bring their homage, and flings open the Temple gates to\nall men, inviting them to put on priestly robes, and do priestly acts\nthere. The fourth calls on Nature in its heights and depths, heaven and\nearth, sea, plain and forest, to add their acclaim to the shouts which\nhail the establishment of Jehovah's visible dominion.\n\nThe song is to be new, because a new manifestation of Jehovah's\nKinghood has wakened once more the long-silent harps, which had been\nhung on the willows of Babylon. The psalm is probably a lyric echo of\nthe Restoration, in which the prophet-singer sees the beginning of\nJehovah's world-wide display of His dominion. He knew not how many\nweary years were to pass in a weary and God-defying world, before his\nraptures became facts. But though His vision tarries, His song is no\nover-heated imagining, which has been chilled down for succeeding\ngenerations into a baseless hope. The perspective of the world's\nchronology hid from him the deep valley between His standpoint and the\nfulfilment of his glowing words. Mankind still marches burdened, down\namong the mists, but it marches towards the sunlit heights. The call\nto sing a new song is quoted from Isa. xlii. 10. The word in ver. 2_b_\nrendered \"publish glad tidings\" is also a favourite word with Isaiah\nII. (xl. 9, lii. 7, etc.). Ver. 3_a_ closely resembles Isa. lxvi. 19.\n\nThe second strophe is full of allusions to earlier psalms and\nprophets. The new manifestation of Jehovah's power has vindicated\nHis supremacy above the vanities which the peoples call gods, and\nhas thereby given new force to old triumphant words which magnified\nHis exalted name. Long ago a psalmist had sung, after a signal\ndefeat of assailants of Jerusalem, that God was \"great and greatly\nto be praised\" (Psalm xlviii. 1), and this psalmist makes the old\nwords new. \"Dread\" reminds us of Psalm xlvii. 2. The contemptuous\nname of the nations' gods as \"Nothings\" is frequent in Isaiah.\nThe heavens, which roof over all the earth, declare to every land\nJehovah's creative power, and His supremacy above all gods. But the\nsinger's eye pierces their abysses, and sees some gleams of that\nhigher sanctuary of which they are but the floor. There stand Honour\nand Majesty, Strength and Beauty. The psalmist does not speak of\n\"attributes.\" His vivid imagination conceives of these as servants,\nattending on Jehovah's royal state. Whatsoever things are lovely, and\nwhatsoever are august, are at home in that sanctuary. Strength and\nbeauty are often separated in a disordered world, and each is maimed\nthereby, but, in their perfection, they are indissolubly blended.\nMen call many things strong and fair which have no affinity with\nholiness; but the archetypes of both excellences are in the Holy\nPlace, and any strength which has not its roots there is weakness,\nand any beauty which is not a reflection from \"the beauty of the Lord\nour God\" is but a mask concealing ugliness.\n\nThe third strophe builds on this supremacy of Jehovah, whose\ndwelling-place is the seat of all things worthy to be admired,\nthe summons to all nations to render praise to Him. It is mainly\na variation of Psalm xxix. 1, 2, where the summons is addressed\nto angels. Here \"the families of the peoples\" are called on to\nascribe to Jehovah \"glory and strength,\" or \"the glory of His name\"\n(_i.e._, of His character as revealed). The call presupposes a new\nmanifestation of His Kingship, as conspicuous and earth-shaking\nas the thunder-storm of the original psalm. As in it the \"sons of\nGod\" were called to worship in priestly garb, so here, still more\nemphatically, Gentile nations are invited to assume the priestly\noffice, to \"take an offering and come into His courts.\" The issue\nof Jehovah's manifestation of kingly sway will be that Israel's\nprerogative of priestly access to Him will be extended to all men,\nand that the lowly worship of earth will have characteristics which\nassimilate it to that of the elder brethren who ever stand before\nHim, and also characteristics which distinguish it from that, and\nare necessary while the worshippers are housed in flesh. Material\nofferings and places consecrated to worship belong to earth. The\n\"sons of God\" above have them not, for they need them not.\n\nThe last strophe has four verses, instead of the normal three.\nThe psalmist's chief purpose in it is to extend his summons for\npraise to the whole creation; but he cannot refrain from once more\nringing out the glad tidings for which praise is to be rendered. He\nfalls back in ver. 10 on Psalm xciii. 1, and Psalm ix. 8. In his\nquotation from the former psalm, he brings more closely together the\nthoughts of Jehovah's reign and the fixity of the world, whether\nthat is taken with a material reference, or as predicting the calm\nperpetuity of the moral order established by His merciful rule and\nequitable judgment. The thought that inanimate nature will share\nin the joy of renovated humanity inspires many glowing prophetic\nutterances, eminently those of Isaiah--as, _e.g._, Isa. xxxv. The\nconverse thought, that it shared in the consequences of man's sin, is\ndeeply stamped on the Genesis narrative. The same note is struck with\nunhesitating force in Rom. viii., and elsewhere in the New Testament.\nA poet invests Nature with the hues of his own emotions, but this\nsummons of the psalmist is more than poetry. How the transformation\nis to be effected is not revealed, but the consuming fires will\nrefine, and at last man will have a dwelling-place where environment\nwill correspond to character, where the external will image the\ninward state, where a new form of the material will be the perpetual\nally of the spiritual, and perfected manhood will walk in a \"new\nheaven and new earth, where dwelleth righteousness.\"\n\nIn the last verse of the psalm, the singer appears to extend his\nprophetic gaze from the immediate redeeming act by which Jehovah\nassumes royal majesty, to a still future \"coming,\" in which He will\njudge the earth. \"The accession is a single act; the judging is a\ncontinual process. Note that 'judging' has no terrible sound to a\nHebrew\" (Cheyne, _in loc._). Ver. 13_c_ is again a verbatim quotation\nfrom Psalm ix. 8.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCVII.\n\n 1 Jehovah is King, let the earth exult,\n Let many lands be glad.\n 2 Cloud and deep darkness are round Him,\n Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne.\n 3 Fire goes before Him,\n And devours His enemies round about.\n\n 4 His lightnings lighted up the world,\n The earth saw and trembled.\n 5 Mountains melted like wax, from before the face of Jehovah,\n From before the face of the Lord of the whole earth.\n 6 The heavens declared His righteousness,\n And all the peoples saw His glory.\n\n 7 Shamed are all they who serve graven images,\n Who boast themselves of the Nothings.\n Worship Him, all ye gods!\n 8 Zion heard and was glad,\n And the daughters of Judah exulted,\n Because of Thy judgments, Jehovah.\n 9 For Thou, Jehovah, art most high above all the earth,\n Thou art exceedingly exalted above all gods.\n\n 10 Ye who love Jehovah, hate evil;\n He keeps the souls of His favoured ones,\n From the hand of the wicked He delivers them.\n 11 Light is sown for the righteous man,\n And for the upright-hearted, gladness.\n 12 Be glad, ye righteous, in Jehovah,\n And give thanks to His holy memorial.\n\n\nThe summons to praise the King with a new song (Psalm xcvi.) is\nfollowed by this psalm, which repeats the dominant idea of the group,\n\"Jehovah is King,\" but from a fresh point of view. It represents His\nrule under the form of a theophany, which may possibly be regarded\nas the fuller description of that coming of Jehovah to judgment with\nwhich Psalm xcvi. closes. The structure of both psalms is the same,\neach being divided into four strophes, normally consisting of three\nverses each, though the last strophe of Psalm xcvi. runs over into\nfour verses. In this psalm, the first group of verses celebrates the\nroyal state of the King (vv. 1-3); the second describes His coming\nas a past fact (vv. 4-6); the third portrays the twofold effects\nof Jehovah's appearance on the heathen and on Zion (vv. 7-9); and\nthe last applies the lessons of the whole to the righteous, in\nexhortation and encouragement (vv. 10-12). The same dependence on\nearlier psalms and prophets which marks others of this group is\nobvious here. The psalmist's mind is saturated with old sayings,\nwhich he finds flashed up into new meaning by recent experiences. He\nis not \"original,\" and does not try to be so; but he has drunk in the\nspirit of his predecessors, and words which to others were antiquated\nand cold blaze with light for him, and seem made for his lips. He\nwho reads aright the solemn significance of to-day will find it no\nless sacred than any past, and may transfer to it all which seers and\nsingers have said and sung of Jehovah's presence of old.\n\nThe first strophe is mosaic-work. Ver. 1 (_lands_=_isles_) may be\ncompared with Isa. xlii. 10, li. 5. Ver. 2_a_ is from Exod. xix. 9,\n16, etc., and Psalm xviii. 9. Ver. 2_b_ is quoted from Psalm lxxxix.\n14. Ver. 3_a_ recalls Psalms l. 3 and xviii. 8. The appearance of God\non Sinai is the type of all later theophanies, and the reproduction\nof its principal features witnesses to the conviction that that\ntransient manifestation was the unveiling of permanent reality. The\nveil had dropped again, but what had been once seen continued always,\nthough unseen; and the veil could and would be drawn aside, and the\nlong-hidden splendour blaze forth again. The combination of the pieces\nof mosaic in a new pattern here is striking. Three thoughts fill the\nsinger's mind. God is King, and His reign gladdens the world, even away\nout to the dimly seen lands that are washed by the western ocean. \"The\nislands\" drew Isaiah's gaze. Prophecy began in him to look seawards and\nwestwards, little knowing how the course of empire was to take its way\nthither, but feeling that whatever lands might lie towards the setting\nsun were ruled, and would be gladdened, by Jehovah.\n\nGladness passes into awe in ver. 2_a_, as the seer beholds the cloud\nand gloom which encircle the throne. The transcending infinitude of the\nDivine nature, the mystery of much of the Divine acts, are symbolised\nby these; but the curtain is the picture. To know that God cannot\nbe known is a large part of the knowledge of Him. Faith, built on\nexperience, enters into the cloud, and is not afraid, but confidently\ntells what it knows to be within the darkness. \"Righteousness and\njudgment\"--the eternal principle and the activity thereof in the\nseveral acts of the King--are the bases of His throne, more solid\nthan the covering cloud. Earth can rejoice in His reign, even though\ndarkness may make parts of it painful riddles, if the assurance is held\nfast that absolute righteousness is at the centre, and that the solid\ncore of all is judgment. Destructive power, symbolised in ver. 3 by\nfire which devours His adversaries, the fire which flashed first on\nSinai, is part of the reason for the gladness of earth in His reign.\nFor His foes are the world's foes too; and a God who could not smite\ninto nothingness that which lifted itself against His dominion would\nbe no God for whom the isles could wait. These three characteristics,\nmystery, righteousness, power to consume, attach to Jehovah's royalty,\nand should make every heart rejoice.\n\nIn the second strophe, the tenses suddenly change into pure narrative.\nThe change may be simply due, as Cheyne suggests, to the influence\nof the earlier passages descriptive of theophanies, and in which the\nsame tense occurs; but more probably it points to some event fresh in\nthe experience of Israel, such as the return from Babylon. In this\nstrophe again, we have mosaic. Ver. 4_a_ is quoted from Psalm lxxvii.\n18. With ver. 4_b_ may be compared Psalm lxxvii. 16. Ver. 5_a_ is like\nMicah i. 4, and, in a less degree, Psalm lxviii. 2. \"The Lord of the\nwhole earth\" is an unusual designation, first found in a significant\nconnection in Josh. iii. 11, 13, as emphasising His triumph over\nheathen gods, in leading the people into Canaan, and afterwards found\nin Zech. iv. 14, vi. 5, and Micah iv. 13. Ver. 6_a_ comes from the\ntheophany in Psalm l. 6; and ver. 6_b_ has parallels in both parts of\nIsaiah--_e.g._, Isa. xxxv. 2, xl. 5, lii. 10--passages which refer\nto the restoration from Babylon. The picture is grand as a piece of\nword-painting. The world lies wrapped in thunder-gloom, and is suddenly\nillumined by the fierce blaze of lightning. The awestruck silence of\nNature is wonderfully given by ver. 4_b_: \"The earth saw and trembled.\"\nBut the picture is symbol, and the lightning-flash is meant to set\nforth the sudden, swift forth-darting of God's delivering power, which\nawes a gazing world, while the hills melting like wax from before His\nface solemnly proclaim how terrible its radiance is, and how easily\nthe mere showing of Himself annihilates all high things that oppose\nthemselves. Solid-seeming and august powers, which tower above His\npeople's ability to overcome them, vanish when He looks out from the\ndeep darkness. The end of His appearance and of the consequent removal\nof obstacles is the manifestation of His righteousness and glory. The\nheavens are the scene of the Divine appearance, though earth is the\ntheatre of its working. They \"declare His righteousness,\" not because,\nas in Psalm xix. they are said to tell forth His glory by their myriad\nlights, but because in them He has shone forth, in His great act of\ndeliverance of His oppressed people. Israel receives the primary\nblessing, but is blessed, not for itself alone, but that all peoples\nmay see in it Jehovah's glory. Thus once more the psalm recognises the\nworld-wide destination of national mercies, and Israel's place in the\nDivine economy as being of universal significance.\n\nThe third strophe (vv. 7-9) sets forth the results of the theophany\non foes and friends. The worshippers of \"the Nothings\" (xcvi. 5)\nare put to confusion by the demonstration by fact of Jehovah's\nsovereignty over their helpless deities. Ver. 7_a_, _b_, recall\nIsa. xlii. 17, xliv. 9. As the worshippers are ashamed, so the gods\nthemselves are summoned to fall down before this triumphant Jehovah,\nas Dagon did before the Ark. Surely it is a piece of most prosaic\npedantry to argue, from this flash of scorn, that the psalmist\nbelieved that the gods whom he had just called \"Nothings\" had a real\nexistence, and that therefore he was not a pure Monotheist.\n\nThe shame of the idolaters and the prostration of their gods\nheighten the gladness of Zion, which the psalm describes in old words\nthat had once celebrated another flashing forth of Jehovah's power\n(Psalm xlviii. 11). Hupfeld, whom Cheyne follows, would transpose\nvv. 7 and 8, on the grounds that \"the transposition explains what\nZion heard, and brings the summons to the false gods into connection\nwith the emphatic claim on behalf of Jehovah in ver. 9.\" But there is\nno need for the change, since there is no ambiguity as to what Zion\nheard, if the existing order is retained, and her gladness is quite\nas worthy a consequence of the exaltation of Jehovah in ver. 9 as the\nsubjugation of the false gods would be. With ver. 9 compare Psalm\nlxxxiii. 18, and Psalm xlvii. 2.\n\nThe last strophe (vv. 10-12) draws exhortation and promises from\nthe preceding. There is a marked diminution of dependence on earlier\npassages in this strophe, in which the psalmist points for his own\ngeneration the lessons of the great deliverance which he has been\ncelebrating. Ver. 12_a_ is like Psalm xxxii. 11; ver. 12_b_ is\nfrom Psalm xxx. 4; but the remainder is the psalmist's own earnest\nexhortation and firm faith, cast into words which come warm from\nhis own heart's depths. Love to Jehovah necessarily implies hatred\nof evil, which is His antagonist, and which He hates. That higher\nlove will not be kept in energy, unless it is guarded by wholesome\nantipathy to everything foul. The capacity for love of the noble is\nmaimed unless there is hearty hatred of the ignoble. Love to God is\nno idle affection, but withdraws a man from rival loves. The stronger\nthe attraction, the stronger the recoil. The closer we cleave to\nGod, the more decided our shrinking from all that would weaken our\nhold of Him. A specific reference in the exhortation to temptations\nto idolatry is possible, though not necessary. All times have their\n\"evil,\" with which God's lovers are ever tempted to comply. The\nexhortation is never out of place, nor the encouragement which\naccompanies it ever illusory. In such firm adherence to Jehovah,\nmany difficulties will rise, and foes be made; but those who obey it\nwill not lack protection. Mark the alternation of names for such.\nThey are first called \"lovers of God\"; they are then designated as\nHis \"favoured ones.\" That which is first in time is last in mention.\nThe effect is in view before it is traced to its cause. \"We love Him\nbecause He first loved us.\" Then follow names drawn from the moral\nperfecting which will ensue on recognition and reception of God's\nfavour, and on the cherishing of the love which fulfils the law. They\nwho love because they are loved, become righteous and upright-hearted\nbecause they love. For such the psalmist has promise as well as\nexhortation. Not only are they preserved in and from dangers, but\n\"light is sown\" for them. Many commentators think that the figure\nof light being sown, as seeds are buried in the ground to shoot up\nin beauty in a future spring-time, is too violent, and they propose\nto understand \"sown\" in the sense of _scattered on_, not _deposited\nin_, the earth, \"so that he, the righteous, goes forward step by step\nin the light\" (Delitzsch). Others would correct into \"is risen\" or\n\"arises.\" But one is reluctant to part with the figure, the violence\nof which is permissible in an Eastern singer. Darkness often wraps\nthe righteous, and it is not true to experience to say that his way\nis always in the sunlight. But it is consolation to know that light\nis sown, invisible and buried, as it were, but sure to germinate\nand fruit. The metaphor mingles figures and offends purists, but it\nfits closer to fact than the weakening of it which fits the rules of\ncomposition. If we are God's lovers, present darkness may be quieted\nby hope, and we may have the \"fruit of the light\" in our lives now,\nand the expectation of a time when we shall possess in fulness and in\nperpetuity all that light of knowledge, purity, and gladness which\nJesus the Sower went forth to sow, and which had been ripened by\nstruggles and sorrows and hatred of evil while we were here.\n\nTherefore, because of this magnificent theophany, and because of\nits blessed consequences for loving souls, the psalmist ends with\nthe exhortation to the righteous to rejoice. He began with bidding\nthe world be glad. He now bids each of us concentrate that universal\ngladness in our own hearts. Whether earth obeys Him or not, it is for\nus to clasp firmly the great facts which will feed the lamp of our\njoy. God's holy memorial is His name, or His self-revealed character.\nHe desires to be known and remembered by His acts. If we rightly\nretain and ponder His utterance of Himself, not in syllables, but in\ndeeds, we shall not be silent in His praise. The righteous man should\nnot be harsh and crabbed, but his soul should dwell in a serene\natmosphere of joy in Jehovah, and his life be one thanksgiving to\nthat mighty, never-to-be-forgotten Name.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCVIII.\n\n 1 Sing to Jehovah a new song,\n For wonders He has done,\n His right hand has brought Him salvation, and His holy arm\n 2 Jehovah has made known His salvation,\n To the eyes of the nations He has revealed His righteousness.\n 3 He has remembered His loving-kindness and His faithfulness\n to the house of Israel,\n All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.\n\n 4 Shout aloud to Jehovah, all the earth,\n Break forth into shrill cries of joy and make melody,\n 5 Make melody to Jehovah with the lyre,\n With lyre and voice of melody.\n 6 With trumpets and blast of horn,\n Shout aloud before Jehovah, the King.\n\n 7 Let the sea thunder and its fulness,\n The world and the dwellers therein,\n 8 Let streams clap hands,\n Together let mountains ring out joyful cries,\n 9 Before Jehovah, for He comes to judge the earth,\n He will judge the world in righteousness,\n And peoples in equity.\n\n\nThe two preceding psalms correspond in number and division of\nverses. The first begins with a summons to sing to Jehovah; the\nsecond, with a proclamation that He is King. A precisely similar\nconnection exists between this and the following psalm. Psalm xcviii.\nis an echo of Psalm xcvi., and Psalm xcix. of Psalm xcvii. The number\nof verses in each of the second pair is nine, and in each there is\na threefold division. The general theme of both pairs is the same,\nbut with considerable modifications. The abundant allusions to older\npassages continue here, and the second part of Isaiah is especially\nfamiliar to the singer.\n\nThe first strophe (vv. 1-3), though modelled on the first of Psalm\nxcvi., presents the theme in a different fashion. Instead of\nreiterating through three verses the summons to Israel to praise\nJehovah, and declare His glory to the nations, this psalm passes at\nonce from the summons to praise, in order to set forth the Divine\ndeed which evokes the praise, and which, the psalmist thinks, will\nshine by its own lustre to \"the ends of the earth,\" whether it has\nhuman voices to celebrate it or not. This psalmist speaks more\ndefinitely of Jehovah's wonders of deliverance. Israel appears rather\nas the recipient than as the celebrator of God's loving-kindness. The\nsun shines to all nations, whether any voices say \"Look,\" or no. Ver.\n1_a_ is from Psalm xcvi. 1; vv. 1_c_-3 weave together snatches of\nvarious passages in the second part of Isaiah, especially Isa. lii.\n10, lix. 16, lxiii. 5. The remarkable expression \"brought salvation\nto Him\" (from the second passage in Isaiah) is rendered by many\n\"helped Him,\" and that rendering gives the sense but obliterates\nthe connection with \"salvation,\" emphatically repeated in the two\nfollowing verses. The return from Babylon is naturally suggested as\nbest corresponding to the psalmist's words. That was \"the salvation\nof our God,\" who seemed to have forgotten His people, as Isa. xlix.\n2 represents Israel as complaining, but now, before \"the eyes of\nall nations,\" has shown how well He remembers and faithfully keeps\nHis covenant obligations. Israel is, indeed, Jehovah's witness, and\nshould ring out her grateful joy; but Jehovah's deed speaks more\nloudly than Israel's proclamation of it can ever do.\n\nThe second strophe (vv. 4-6) corresponds to the third of Psalm\nxcvi.; but whereas there the Gentiles were summoned to bring\nofferings into the courts of Jehovah, here it is rather the glad\ntumult of vocal praise, mingled with the twang of harps, and the\nblare of trumpets and horns, which is present to the singer's\nimagination. He hears the swelling chorus echoing through the courts,\nwhich are conceived as wide enough to hold \"all the earth.\" He has\nsome inkling of the great thought that the upshot of God's redeeming\nself-manifestation will be glad music from a redeemed world. His\ncall to mankind throbs with emotion, and sounds like a prelude to\nthe melodious commingling of voice and instrument which he at once\nenjoins and foretells. His words are largely echoes of Isaiah.\nCompare Isa. xliv. 23, xlix. 13, lii. 9, for \"break forth into,\" and\nli. 3 for \"voice of melody.\"\n\nThe final strophe is almost identical with that of Psalm xcvi., but,\nin accordance with the variation found in vv. 1-3, omits the summons to\nIsrael to proclaim God's Kinghood among the nations. It also inverts\nthe order of clauses in ver. 7, and in ver. 7_b_ quotes from Psalm\nxxiv. 1, where also \"the fulness of it\" precedes, with the result of\nhaving no verb expressed which suits the nouns, since \"the world and\nthe dwellers therein\" cannot well be called on to \"thunder.\" Instead\nof the \"plain\" and \"trees of the forest\" in the original, ver. 8\nsubstitutes streams and mountains. The bold figure of the streams\nclapping hands, in token of homage to the King (2 Kings xi. 12; Psalm\nxlvii. 1) occurs in Isa. lv. 12. The meeting waves are conceived of as\nstriking against each other, with a sound resembling that of applauding\npalms. Ver. 9 is quoted from Psalm xcvi., with the omission of the\nsecond \"He cometh\" (which many versions of the LXX. retain), and the\nsubstitution of \"equity\" for \"His faithfulness.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XCIX.\n\n 1 Jehovah is King--the peoples tremble;\n Throned [on] the cherubim--the earth totters.\n 2 Jehovah in Zion is great,\n And exalted above all the peoples.\n 3 Let them praise Thy great and dread name,\n Holy is He.\n\n 4 And the strength of the King loves judgment,\n Thou, Thou hast established equity,\n Judgment and righteousness in Jacob hast Thou wrought.\n 5 Exalt Jehovah our God,\n And prostrate yourselves at His footstool,\n Holy is He.\n\n 6 Moses and Aaron among His priests,\n And Samuel among them that call [on] His name;\n They called on Jehovah, and He, He answered them.\n 7 In a pillar of cloud He spoke to them,\n They kept His testimonies,\n And the statute [which] He gave them.\n 8 Jehovah our God! Thou, Thou didst answer them,\n A forgiving God wast Thou unto them,\n And executing retribution for their deeds.\n 9 Exalt Jehovah our God,\n And prostrate yourselves at His holy mountain,\n For holy is Jehovah our God.\n\n\nDelitzsch has well called this psalm \"an earthly echo of the\nseraphic Trisagion,\" the threefold proclamation of the Divine\nholiness, which Isaiah heard (Isa. vi. 3). It is, as already noted, a\npendant to Psalm xcviii., but is distinguished from the other psalms\nof this group by its greater originality, the absence of distinct\nallusion to the great act of deliverance celebrated in them, and its\nabsorption in the one thought of the Divine holiness. Their theme\nis the event by which Jehovah manifested to the world His sovereign\nrule; this psalm passes beyond the event, and grasps the eternal\ncentral principle of that rule--namely, holiness. The same thought\nhas been touched on in the other members of the group, but here it\nis the single subject of praise. Its exhibition in God's dealings\nwith Israel is here traced in ancient examples, rather than in recent\ninstances; but the view-point of the other psalms is retained, in so\nfar as the Divine dealings with Israel are regarded as the occasion\nfor the world's praise.\n\nThe first strophe (vv. 1-3) dwells in general terms on Jehovah's\nholiness, by which august conception is meant, not only moral purity,\nbut separation from, by elevation above, the finite and imperfect. Ver.\n1 vividly paints in each clause the glory reigning in heaven, and its\neffect on an awestruck world. We might render the verbs in the second\npart of each clause as futures or as optatives (_shall tremble, shall\ntotter_, or _Let peoples tremble_, etc.), but the thought is more\nanimated if they are taken as describing the result of the theophany.\nThe participial clause \"throned on the cherubim\" adds detail to the\npicture of Jehovah as King. It should not, strictly speaking, be\nrendered with a finite verb. When that vision of Him sitting in royal\nstate is unveiled, all people are touched with reverence, and the solid\nearth staggers. But the glory which is made visible to all men has its\nearthly seat in Zion, and shines from thence into all lands. It is by\nHis deeds in Israel that God's exaltation is made known. The psalmist\ndoes not call on men to bow before a veiled Majesty, of which they\nonly know that it is free from all creatural limitations, lowliness\nand imperfections; but before a God, who has revealed Himself in acts,\nand has thereby made Himself a name. \"Great and dread\" is that name,\nbut it is a sign of His loving-kindness that it is known by men, and\nthanksgiving, not dumb trembling, befits men who know it. The refrain\nmight be rendered \"It is holy,\" referring to the name, but vv. 5\nand 9 make the rendering _Holy is He_ more probable. The meaning is\nunaffected whichever translation is adopted.\n\nJehovah is holy, not only because lifted above and separated from\ncreatural limitations, but because of His righteousness. The second\nstrophe therefore proclaims that all His dominion is based on\nuprightness, and is a continual passing of that into acts of \"judgment\nand righteousness.\" The \"And\" at the beginning of ver. 4, following the\nrefrain, is singular, and has led many commentators to link the words\nwith ver. 3_a_, and, taking the refrain as parenthetical, to render,\n\"Let them give thanks to Thy great and dread name, [for it is holy],\nand [to] the strength of the King [who] loveth,\" etc. But the presence\nof the refrain is an insuperable bar to this rendering. Others, as\nDelitzsch and Cheyne, regard \"the strength of the king\" as dependent\non \"established\" in ver. 4_b_, and suppose that the theocratic monarch\nof Israel is represented as under Jehovah's protection, if he reigns\nrighteously. But surely one King only is spoken of in this psalm,\nand it is the inmost principle and outward acts of His rule which\nare stated as the psalmist's reason for summoning men to prostrate\nthemselves at His footstool. The \"And\" at the beginning of the strophe\nlinks its whole thought with that of the preceding, and declares\neloquently how closely knit together are Jehovah's exaltation and His\nrighteousness. The singer is in haste to assert the essentially moral\ncharacter of infinite power. Delitzsch thinks that love cannot be\npredicated of \"strength,\" but only of the possessor of strength; but\nsurely that is applying the measuring line of prosaic accuracy to lyric\nfervour. The intertwining of Divine power and righteousness could not\nbe more strongly asserted than by that very intelligible attribution to\nHis power of the emotion of love, impelling it ever to seek union with\nuprightness. He is no arbitrary ruler. His reign is for the furtherance\nof justice. Its basis is \"equity,\" and its separate acts are \"judgment\nand righteousness.\" These have been done in and for Jacob. Therefore\nthe call to worship rings out again. It is addressed to an undefined\nmultitude, which, as the tone of all this group of psalms leads us to\nsuppose, includes the whole race of man. They are summoned to lift high\nthe praise of Him who in Himself is so high, and to cast themselves low\nin prostrate adoration at His footstool--_i.e._, at His sanctuary on\nZion (ver. 9). Thus again, in the centre strophe of this psalm, as in\nPsalms xcvi. and xcviii., mankind are called to praise the God who has\nrevealed Himself in Israel; but while in the former of these two psalms\nworship was represented as sacrificial, and in the second as loud music\nof voice and instrument, here silent prostration is the fitting praise\nof the holiness of the infinitely exalted Jehovah.\n\nThe third strophe turns to examples drawn from the great ones of\nold, which at once encourage to worship and teach the true nature of\nworship, while they also set in clear light Jehovah's holiness in\ndealing with His worshippers. Priestly functions were exercised by\nMoses, as in sprinkling the blood of the covenant (Exod. xxiv.), and\nin the ceremonial connected with the consecration of Aaron and his\nsons (Lev. viii.), as well as at the first celebration of worship in\nthe Tabernacle (Exod. xl. 18 _sqq._). In the wider sense of the word\n_priest_, he acted as mediator and intercessor, as in Exod. xvii. 12,\nin the fight against Amalek, and xxxii. 30-32, after the worship of the\ngolden calf. Samuel, too, interceded for Israel after their seeking a\nking (1 Sam. xii. 19 _sqq._), and offered sacrifices (1 Sam. vii. 9).\nJeremiah couples them together as intercessors with God (xv. 1).\n\nFrom these venerable examples the psalmist draws instruction as\nto the nature of the worship befitting the holiness of Jehovah.\nHe goes deeper than all sacrifices, or than silent awe. To call\non God is the best adoration. The cry of a soul, conscious of\nemptiness and need, and convinced of His fulness and of the love\nwhich is the soul of His power, is never in vain. \"They called, and\nHe\"--even He in all the unreachable separation of His loftiness from\ntheir lowliness--\"answered them.\" There is a commerce of desire\nand bestowal between the holy Jehovah and us. But these answers\ncome on certain conditions, which are plain consequences of His\nholiness--namely, that His worshippers should keep His testimonies,\nby which He has witnessed both to His own character and to their\nduty. The psalmist seems to lose sight of his special examples, and\nto extend his view to the whole people, when he speaks of answers\nfrom the pillar of cloud, which cannot apply to Samuel's experience.\nThe persons spoken of in ver. 8 as receiving answers may indeed be\nMoses, Aaron, and Samuel, all of whom were punished for evil deeds,\nas well as answered when they cried; but more probably they are the\nwhole community. The great principle, firmly grasped and clearly\nproclaimed by the singer, is that a holy God is a forgiving God,\nwilling to hearken to men's cry, and rich to answer with needed\ngifts, and that indissolubly interwoven with the pardon, which He\nin His holiness gives, is retribution for evil. God loves too well\nto grant impunity. Forgiveness is something far better than escape\nfrom penalties. It cannot be worthy of God to bestow or salutary\nfor men to receive, unless it is accompanied with such retribution\nas may show the pardoned man how deadly his sin was. \"Whatsoever\na man soweth that shall he also reap\" is a law not abrogated by\nforgiveness. The worst penalty of sin, indeed--namely, separation\nfrom God--is wholly turned aside by repentance and forgiveness; but\nfor the most part the penalties which are inflicted on earth, and\nwhich are the natural results of sin, whether in character, memory,\nhabit, or circumstances, are not removed by pardon. Their character\nis changed; they become loving chastisement for our profit.\n\nSuch, then, is the worship which all men are invited to render to\nthe holy Jehovah. Prostrate awe should pass into the cry of need,\ndesire, and aspiration. It will be heard, if it is verified as real\nby obedience to God's known will. The answers will be fresh witnesses\nof God's holiness, which declares itself equally in forgiveness and\nin retribution. Therefore, once more the clear summons to all mankind\nrings out, and once more the proclamation of His holiness is made.\n\nThere is joyful confidence of access to the Inaccessible in the\nreiteration in ver. 9 of _Jehovah our God_. \"Holy is He,\" sang the\npsalmist at first, but all the gulf between Jehovah and us is bridged\nover when to the name which emphasises the eternal, self-existent\nbeing of the holy One we can add \"our God.\" Then humble prostration\nis reconcilable with confident approach; and His worshippers have not\nonly to lie lowly at His footstool, but to draw near, with children's\nfrankness, to His heart.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM C.\n\n 1 Shout aloud to Jehovah, all the earth.\n 2 Serve Jehovah with gladness,\n Come before His face with joyful cry.\n 3 Know ye that Jehovah He is God,\n He, He has made us, and His are we,\n His people and the sheep of His pasture.\n 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving,\n His courts with praise,\n Give thanks to Him, bless His name.\n 5 For Jehovah is good, for ever endures His loving-kindness,\n And to generation after generation His faithfulness.\n\n\nThe Psalms of the King end with this full-toned call to all the earth\nto do Him homage. It differs from the others of the group, by making no\ndistinct mention either of Jehovah's royal title or of the great act\nof deliverance which was His visible exercise of sovereignty. But it\nresembles them in its jubilant tone, its urgent invitation to all men\nto walk in the light which shone on Israel, and its conviction that the\nmercies shown to the nation had blessing in them for all the world. The\nstructure is simple. A call to praise Jehovah is twice given, and each\nis followed by reasons for His praise, which is grounded, in the first\ninstance (ver. 3), on His dealings with Israel, and, in the second, on\nHis character as revealed by all His works.\n\nVer. 1 consists of but a single clause, and, as Delitzsch says, is\nlike the signal-blast of a trumpet. It rings out a summons to \"all\nthe earth,\" as in Psalm xcviii. 4, which is expanded in ver. 2. The\nservice there enjoined is that of worship in the Temple, as in ver.\n4. Thus, the characteristic tone of this group of psalms echoes here,\nin its close, and all men are called and welcomed to the Sanctuary.\nThere is no more a Court of the Gentiles. Not less striking than the\nuniversality of the psalm is its pulsating gladness. The depths of\nsorrow, both of that which springs from outward calamities and of\nthat more heart-breaking sort which wells up from dark fountains in\nthe soul, have been sounded in many a psalm. But the Psalter would\nnot reflect all the moods of the devout soul, unless it had some\nstrains of unmingled joy. The Christian Year has perfect days of\nsunlit splendour, when all the winds are still, and no cloud darkens\nthe unbroken blue. There is no music without passages in minor keys;\nbut joy has its rights and place too, and they know but little of the\nhighest kind of worship who do not sometimes feel their hearts swell\nwith gladness more poignant and exuberant than earth can minister.\n\nThe reason for the world's gladness is given in ver. 3. It is\nJehovah's special relation to Israel. So far as the language of the\nverse is concerned, it depends on Psalm xcv. 7. \"He hath made us\"\ndoes not refer to creation, but to the constituting of Israel the\npeople of God. \"We are His\" is the reading of the Hebrew margin, and\nis evidently to be preferred to that of the text, \"Not we ourselves.\"\nThe difference in Hebrew is only in one letter, and the pronunciation\nof both readings would be the same. Jewish text-critics count fifteen\npassages, in which a similar mistake has been made in the text. Here,\nthe comparison of Psalm xcv. and the connection with the next clause\nof ver. 3 are decidedly in favour of the amended reading. It is to\nbe observed that this is the only place in the psalm in which \"we\"\nand \"us\" are used; and it is natural to lay stress on the opposition\nbetween \"ye\" in ver. 3_a_, and \"we\" and \"us\" in _b_. The collective\nIsrael speaks, and calls all men to rejoice in Jehovah, because of\nHis grace to it. The psalm is, then, not, as Cheyne calls it, \"a\nnational song of thanksgiving, with which an universalistic element\nis not completely fused,\" but a song which starts from national\nblessings, and discerns in them a message of hope and joy for all\nmen. Israel was meant to be a sacred hearth on which a fire was\nkindled, that was to warm all the house. God revealed Himself _in_\nIsrael, but _to_ the world.\n\nThe call to praise is repeated in ver. 4 with more distinct\nreference to the open Temple gates into which all the nations may now\nenter. The psalmist sees, in prophetic hope, crowds pouring in with\nglad alacrity through the portals, and then hears the joyful tumult\nof their many voices rising in a melodious surge of praise. His eager\ndesire and large-hearted confidence that so it will one day be are\nvividly expressed by the fourfold call in ver. 4. And the reason\nwhich should draw all men to bless God's revealed character is that\nHis self-revelation, whether to Israel or to others, shows that the\nbasis of that character is goodness--_i.e._, kindness or love--and\nthat, as older singers have sung, \"His loving-kindness endures for\never,\" and, as a thousand generations in Israel and throughout the\nearth have proved, His faithful adherence to His word, and discharge\nof all obligations under which He has come to His creatures, give\na basis for trust and a perpetual theme for joyful thanksgiving.\nTherefore, all the world has an interest in Jehovah's royalty, and\nshould, and one day shall, compass His throne with joyful homage, and\nobey His behests with willing service.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CI.\n\n 1 Of loving-kindness and judgment will I sing,\n To Thee, Jehovah, will I harp.\n 2 I will give heed to the way of perfectness,\n When wilt Thou come to me?\n I will walk with a perfect heart\n Within my house.\n 3 I will not set before my eyes any villainous thing,\n The doing of transgressions do I hate,\n It shall not cleave to me.\n 4 A perverse heart shall depart from me,\n Evil will I not know.\n\n 5 The secret slanderer of his neighbour,\n Him will I root out,\n The lofty-eyed and proud-hearted,\n Him will I not endure.\n 6 My eyes are on the faithful of the land,\n That they may dwell with me,\n He who walks in the way of perfectness,\n He shall serve me.\n 7 He shall not dwell in my house\n Who practises deceit,\n He that speaks lies\n Shall not be established before my eyes.\n 8 Every morning will I root out\n All the wicked of the land,\n To cut off from the city of Jehovah\n All workers of iniquity.\n\n\nThe contents of this psalm go far towards confirming the correctness\nof the superscription in ascribing it to David, as Ewald acknowledges.\nTo call it an ideal description of a Jewish king, dramatically put into\nsuch a ruler's mouth, does not do justice to the ring of earnestness\nin it. No doubt, subjective impressions are unreliable guides, but it\nis difficult to resist the impression that a kingly voice is audible\nhere, speaking no ideal description, but his own stern resolves. It is\na royal \"proclamation against vice and immorality,\" appropriate to the\nbeginning of a reign. If we accept the superscription, and interpret\nthe abrupt question in ver. 2 \"When wilt Thou come to me?\" as the\nutterance of David's longing to see the Ark set in Jerusalem, we get\na most fitting period for the psalm. He had but recently ascended the\nthrone. The abuses and confusions of Saul's last troubled years had\nto be reformed. The new king felt that he was God's viceroy, and here\ndeclares what he will strive to make his monarchy--a copy of God's. He\ngives evil-doers fair warning, and bids all true men be sure of his\nfavour. But he will take heed to himself, before he seeks to purge his\ncourt. So the psalm, though it has no strophical arrangement, falls\ninto two main parts, in the first of which the king lays down the rule\nof his own conduct, and, in the second, declares war against the vermin\nthat infest especially an Eastern court--slanderers, arrogant upstarts,\ntraffickers in lies. His ambition is to have Jehovah's city worthy of\nits true King, when He shall deign to come and dwell in it. Therefore\nhis face will be gracious to all good men, and his hand heavy on all\nevil-doers. The psalm is \"A Mirror for Magistrates,\" to quote the title\nof an old English book.\n\nThe first words of the psalm seem at first sight incongruous with\nits contents, which are singularly devoid of praise. But they are not\nmeant to refer to the psalm, but declare the singer's purpose for his\nwhole life. If the speaker is a real character, he is a poet-king. Of\nwhom is that singular combination of royalty and minstrelsy so true\nas of David? If the speaker is an ideal, is it not peculiar that the\nfirst qualification of the ideal king should be that he is a poet?\nThe suggestion that \"loving-kindness and judgment\" are here the\nmonarch's virtues, not Divine attributes, is negatived by usage and\nby the following clause, \"To Thee, _Jehovah_, will I sing.\" But it is\nas a king that the psalmist vows to praise these twin characteristics\nof the Divine rule; and his song is to be accompanied by melodious\ndeeds, which shape themselves after that pattern for rulers and all\nmen. Earthly power is then strongest when, like God's, it is informed\nby loving-kindness and based on righteousness. In this connection,\nit is significant that this psalm, describing what a king should be,\nhas been placed immediately after the series which tells who the true\nKing of Israel and the world is, in whom these same attributes are\never linked together.\n\nVv. 2-4 outline the king's resolves for himself. With noble\nself-control, this ruler of men sets before himself the narrow,\nthorny way of perfectness, not the broad, flowery road of indulgence.\nHe owns a law above himself and a far-off goal of moral completeness,\nwhich, he humbly feels, is yet unattained, but which he vows will\nnever be hidden from his undazzled eyes, by the glitter of lower\nearthly good, or the rank mists of sensual pleasures. He had abundant\nfacilities for reaching lower aims, but he turns from these to \"give\nheed\" to the way of perfectness. That resolve must be clearly and\nstrongly made by every man, prince or peasant, who would attain to\nthe dominion over self and externals, which is man's true royalty.\n\nThe suddenly interjected question of longing, \"When wilt Thou come to\nme?\" is best explained by connecting it with David's desire that the\nArk should be permanently domiciled in Jerusalem--a desire which was\nchecked by his reflections on his own unworthiness (2 Sam. vi. 9).\nNow he feels that, on the one hand, his whole-hearted desire after\nrighteousness makes him capable of receiving such a guest; and that,\non the other, his firmest resolves will be evanescent, without God's\npresence to confirm his wavering and to help him to make his resolves\ninto acts. He longed for that \"coming\" of the symbol of God's dwelling\nwith men, not with heathenish desire to have it as a magic-working\ncharm against outward foes, but as helping his faith to grasp the fact\nthat God was with him, as his ally in the nobler fight against his own\nbaseness and his position's temptations. We dare not ask God to come\nto us, unless we are conscious of desire to be pure; we cannot hope to\nrealise that desire, unless He is with us. So, the natural sequel of\ndetermination to give heed to the way of perfectness is petition to\nHim, to come very near and take up His abode with us.\n\nAfter this most significant interruption, the stream of resolutions\nruns on again. In the comparative privacy of his house, he will \"walk\nwith a perfect heart,\" ever seeking to translate his convictions of\nright into practice, and regulating his activities by conscience.\nThe recesses of an Eastern palace were often foul with lust, and hid\nextravagances of caprice and self-indulgence; but this ruler will\nbehave there as one who has Jehovah for a guest. The language of ver.\n3 is very energetic. \"Any villainous thing\" is literally \"a thing\nof Belial\"; \"the doing of transgressions\" is literally \"doing deeds\nthat turn aside\", _i.e._ from the course prescribed. He will not take\nthe former as models for imitation or objects of desire. The latter\nkindle wholesome hatred; and if ever he is tempted to dally with sin,\nhe will shake it off, as a venomous reptile that has fastened on him.\n\"A perfect heart\" will expel \"a perverse heart,\" but neither will the\none be gained nor the other banished without vehement and persistent\neffort. This man does not trust the improvement of his character to\nchance or expect it to come of itself. He means to bend his strength\nto effect it. He cannot but \"know evil,\" in the sense of being aware\nof it and conscious of its seductions; but he will _not_ \"know\"\nit, in the sense of letting it into his inner nature, or with the\nknowledge which is experience and love.\n\nFrom ver. 5 onwards, the king lays down the principles of his public\naction, and that mainly in reference to bad men. One verse suffices\nto tell of his fostering care of good men. The rest describes how he\nmeans to be a terror to evil-doers. The vices against which he will\nimplacably war are not gross crimes such as ordinarily bring down\nthe sword of public justice. This monarch has regard to more subtle\nevils--slander, superciliousness, inflated vanity (\"proud-hearted\" in\nver. 5 is literally wide in heart, _i.e._ dilated with self-sufficiency\nor ambition). His eyes are quick to mark \"the faithful in the land.\"\nHe looks for those whose faithfulness to God guarantees their fidelity\nto men and general reliableness. His servants shall be like himself,\nfollowers of \"the way of perfectness.\" In that court, dignity and\noffice will go, not to talent, or to crafty arts of servility, or to\nbirth, but to moral and religious qualities.\n\nIn the last two verses, the psalm returns to evil-doers. The actors\nand speakers of lies shall be cleared out of the palace. Such base\ncreatures crawl and sting about the purlieus of courts, but this\nprince will have his immediate _entourage_ free from them. He longs\nto get rid of the stifling atmosphere of deceit, and to have honest\nmen round him, as many a ruler before and since has longed. But not\nonly palace, but city, has to be swept clean, and one cleansing at\nthe beginning of a reign will not be enough. So \"every morning\" the\nwork has to be done again. \"Ill weeds grow apace,\" and the mower must\nnot get weary of his scythe. God's city must be pure. \"Without are\n... whatsoever worketh and maketh a lie.\"\n\nThe psalm is a God-given vision of what a king and a kingdom might\nand should be. If David wrote it, his early resolves were sadly\nfalsified. \"I will set no villainous things before my eyes\"--yet from\nhis \"house,\" where he vowed to \"walk with a perfect heart,\" he looked\non Bathsheba. \"He that speaks lies shall not be established in my\nsight\"--yet Absalom, Ahithophel, and the sons of Zeruiah stood round\nhis throne. The shortcomings of the earthly shadows of God's rule\nforce us to turn away to the only perfect King and Kingdom, Jesus\nChrist and His realm, and to the city \"into which shall in nowise\nenter anything that defileth.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CII.\n\n 1 Jehovah, hear my prayer,\n And let my cry come to Thee.\n 2 Hide not Thy face from me in the day of my trouble,\n Bend to me Thine ear,\n In the day that I call answer me speedily.\n\n 3 For my days are consumed in smoke,\n And my bones are burned like a brand.\n 4 Smitten like herbage and dried up is my heart,\n For I have forgotten to eat my bread.\n 5 Because of the noise of my groaning,\n My bones stick to my flesh.\n 6 I am like a pelican of the desert,\n I am become like an owl of the ruins.\n 7 I am sleepless,\n And am become like a sparrow lonely on the roof.\n 8 All day long my enemies reproach me,\n They that are mad at me curse by me.\n 9 For ashes like bread have I eaten,\n And my drink with tears have I mingled.\n 10 Because of Thy indignation and Thy wrath,\n For Thou hast caught me up and flung me away\n 11 My days are like a long-drawn-out shadow,\n And I like herbage am dried up.\n\n 12 But Thou, Jehovah, sittest enthroned for ever,\n And Thy memorial is to generation after generation.\n 13 Thou, Thou shalt arise, shalt pity Zion,\n For it is time to show her favour,\n For the appointed time is come.\n 14 For Thy servants delight in her stones,\n And [to] her dust they show favour.\n 15 And the nations shall fear the name of Jehovah,\n And all the kings of the earth His glory,\n\n 16 Because Jehovah has built up Zion,\n He has been seen in His glory,\n 17 He has turned to the prayer of the destitute,\n And has not despised their prayer.\n 18 This shall be written for the generation after,\n And a people [yet] to be created shall praise Jah.\n 19 Because He has looked down from His holy height,\n Jehovah has gazed from heaven upon the earth,\n 20 To hear the sighing of the captive,\n To free the children of death,\n 21 That they may tell in Zion the name of Jehovah,\n And His praise in Jerusalem,\n 22 When the peoples are assembled together,\n And the kingdoms to serve Jehovah.\n\n 23 He has brought down my strength in the way,\n He has cut short my days.\n 24 I said, \"My God, take me not away at the half of my days,\"\n [Since] Thy years endure through all generations.\n 25 Of old Thou didst found the earth,\n And the heavens are the work of Thy hands.\n 26 They, they shall perish, but Thou, Thou shalt continue,\n And all of them like a garment shall wear out,\n Like a robe shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed.\n 27 But Thou art He,\n And Thy years shall never end.\n 28 The sons of Thy servants shall dwell,\n And their seed shall be established before Thee.\n\n\nVerses 13, 14, show that the psalm was written when Zion was in\nruins and the time of her restoration at hand. Sadness shot with\nhope, as a cloud with sunlight, is the singer's mood. The pressure\nof present sorrows points to the time of the Exile; the lightening\nof these, by the expectation that the hour for their cessation has\nall but struck, points to the close of that period. There is a\ngeneral consensus of opinion on this, though Baethgen is hesitatingly\ninclined to adopt the Maccabean date, and Cheyne prefers the time of\nNehemiah, mainly because the references to the \"stones\" and \"dust\"\nrecall to him \"Nehemiah's lonely ride round the burned walls,\" and\n\"Sanballat's mocking at the Jews for attempting to revive the stones\nout of heaps of rubbish\" (\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" p. 70). These references\nwould equally suit any period of desolation; but the point of time\nindicated by ver. 13 is more probably the eve of restoration than the\ncompletion of the begun and interrupted re-establishment of Israel\nin its land. Like many of the later psalms, this is largely coloured\nby earlier ones, as well as by Deuteronomy, Job, and the second\nhalf of Isaiah, while it has also reminiscences of Jeremiah. Some\ncommentators have, indeed, supposed it to be his work.\n\nThe turns of thought are simple. While there is no clear strophical\narrangement, there are four broadly distinguished parts: a prelude,\ninvoking God to hearken (vv. 1, 2); a plaintive bemoaning of the\npsalmist's condition (vv. 3-11); a triumphant rising above his\nsorrows, and rejoicing in the fair vision of a restored Jerusalem,\nwhose Temple-courts the nations tread (vv. 12-22); and a momentary\nglance at his sorrows and brief life, which but spurs him to lay hold\nthe more joyously on God's eternity, wherein he finds the pledge of\nthe fulfilment of his hopes and of God's promises (vv. 23-28).\n\nThe opening invocations in vv. 1, 2, are mostly found in other\npsalms. \"Let my cry come unto Thee\" recalls Psalm xviii. 6. \"Hide not\nThy face\" is like Psalm xxvii. 9. \"In the day of my straits\" recurs\nin Psalm lix. 16. \"Bend to me Thy ear\" is in Psalm xxxi. 2. \"In the\nday when I call\" is as in Psalm lvi. 9. \"Answer me speedily\" is found\nin Psalm lxix. 17. But the psalmist is not a cold-blooded compiler,\nweaving a web from old threads, but a suffering man, fain to give his\ndesires voice, in words which sufferers before him had hallowed, and\nsecuring a certain solace by reiterating familiar petitions. They are\nnone the less his own, because they have been the cry of others. Some\naroma of the answers that they drew down in the past clings to them\nstill, and makes them fragrant to him.\n\nSorrow and pain are sometimes dumb, but, in Eastern natures,\nmore often eloquent; finding ease in recounting their pangs. The\npsalmist's first words of self-lamentation echo familiar strains, as\nhe bases his cry for speedy answer on the swiftness with which his\ndays are being whirled away, and melting like smoke as it escapes\nfrom a chimney. The image suggests another. The fire that makes\nthe smoke is that in which his very bones are smouldering like a\nbrand. The word for _bones_ is in the singular, the bony framework\nbeing thought of as articulated into a whole. \"Brand\" is a doubtful\nrendering of a word which the Authorised Version, following some\nancient Jewish authorities, renders _hearth_, as do Delitzsch and\nCheyne. It is used in Isa. xxxiii. 14 as = \"burning,\" but \"brand\"\nis required to make out the metaphor. The same theme of physical\ndecay is continued in ver. 4, with a new image struck out by the\ningenuity of pain. His heart is \"smitten\" as by sunstroke (compare\nPsalm cxxi. 6, Isa. xlix. 10, and for still closer parallels Hosea\nix. 16, Jonah iv. 7, in both of which the same effect of fierce\nsunshine is described as the sufferer here bewails). His heart\nwithers like Jonah's gourd. The \"For\" in ver. 4_b_ can scarcely\nbe taken as giving the reason for this withering. It must rather\nbe taken as giving the proof that it was so withered, as might\nbe concluded by beholders from the fact that he refused his food\n(Baethgen). The psalmist apparently intends in ver. 5 to describe\nhimself as worn to a skeleton by long-continued and passionate\nlamentations. But his phrase is singular. One can understand that\nemaciation should be described by saying that the bones adhered to\nthe skin, the flesh having wasted away, but that they stick to the\nflesh can only describe it, by giving a wide meaning to \"flesh,\" as\nincluding the whole outward part of the frame in contrast with the\ninternal framework. Lam. iv. 8 gives the more natural expression.\nThe psalmist has groaned himself into emaciation. Sadness and\nsolitude go well together. We plunge into lonely places when we\nwould give voice to our grief. The poet's imagination sees his own\nlikeness in solitude-loving creatures. The pelican is never now seen\nin Palestine but on Lake Huleh. Thomson (\"Land and Book,\" p. 260:\nLondon, 1861) speaks of having found it there only, and describes\nit as \"the most sombre, austere bird I ever saw.\" \"The owl of the\nruins\" is identified by Tristram (\"Land of Israel,\" p. 67) with the\nsmall owl _Athene meridionalis_, the emblem of Minerva, which \"is\nvery characteristic of all the hilly and rocky portions of Syria.\"\nThe _sparrow_ may be here a generic term for any small song-bird, but\nthere is no need for departing from the narrower meaning. Thomson\n(p. 43) says: \"When one of them has lost his mate--an every-day\noccurrence--he will sit on the housetop alone and lament by the hour.\"\n\nThe division of ver. 7 is singular, as the main pause in it falls\non \"am become,\" to the disruption of the logical continuity. The\ndifficulty is removed by Wickes (\"Accentuation of the Poetical\nBooks,\" p. 29), who gives several instances which seem to establish\nthe law that, in the musical accentuation, there is \"an apparent\nreluctance to place the main dividing accent after the first, or\nbefore the last, word of the verse.\" The division is not logical, and\nwe may venture to neglect it, and arrange as above, restoring the\ndividing accent to its place after the first word. Others turn the\nflank of the difficulty by altering the text to read, \"I am sleepless\nand must moan aloud\" (so Cheyne, following Olshausen).\n\nYet another drop of bitterness in the psalmist's cup is the frantic\nhatred which pours itself out in voluble mockery all day long, making\na running accompaniment to his wail. Solitary as he is, he cannot get\nbeyond hearing of shrill insults. So miserable does he seem, that\nenemies take him and his distresses for a formula of imprecation, and\ncan find no blacker curse to launch at other foes than to wish that\nthey may be like him. So ashes, the token of mourning, are his food,\ninstead of the bread which he had forgotten to eat, and there are\nmore tears than wine in the cup he drinks.\n\nBut all this only tells how sad he is. A deeper depth opens when he\nremembers why he is sad. The bitterest thought to a sufferer is that\nhis sufferings indicate God's displeasure; but it may be wholesome\nbitterness, which, leading to the recognition of the sin which evokes\nthe wrath, may change into a solemn thankfulness for sorrows which\nare discerned to be chastisements, inflicted by that Love of which\nindignation is one form. The psalmist confesses sin in the act of\nbewailing sorrow, and sees behind all his pains the working of that\nhand whose interposition for him he ventures to implore. The tremendous\nmetaphor of ver. 10_b_ pictures it as thrust forth from heaven to grasp\nthe feeble sufferer, as an eagle stoops to plunge its talons into a\nlamb. It lifts him high, only to give more destructive impetus to the\nforce with which it flings him down, to the place where he lies, a\nhuddled heap of broken bones and wounds. His plaint returns to its\nbeginning, lamenting the brief life which is being wasted away by sore\ndistress. Lengthening shadows tell of approaching night. His day is\nnearing sunset. It will be dark soon, and, as he has said (ver. 4), his\nvery self is withering and becoming like dried-up herbage.\n\nOne can scarcely miss the tone of individual sorrow in the preceding\nverses; but national restoration, not personal deliverance, is\nthe theme of the triumphant central part of the psalm. That is no\nreason for flattening the previous verses into the voice of the\npersonified Israel, but rather for hearing in them the sighing of\none exile, on whom the general burden weighed sorely. He lifts his\ntear-laden eyes to heaven, and catches a vision there which changes,\nas by magic, the key of his song--Jehovah sitting in royal state\n(compare Psalms ix. 7, xxix. 10) for ever. That silences complaints,\nbreathes courage into the feeble and hope into the despairing. In\nanother mood the thought of the eternal rule of God might make man's\nmortality more bitter, but Faith grasps it, as enfolding assurances\nwhich turn groaning into ringing praise. For the vision is not only\nof an everlasting Some One who works a sovereign will, but of the\nage-long dominion of Him whose name is Jehovah; and since that name\nis the revelation of His nature, it, too, endures for ever. It is\nthe name of Israel's covenant-making and keeping God. Therefore,\nancient promises have not gone to water, though Israel is an exile,\nand all the old comfort and confidence are still welling up from\nthe Name. Zion cannot die while Zion's God lives. Lam. v. 19 is\nprobably the original of this verse, but the psalmist has changed\n\"throne\" into \"memorial,\" _i.e._ _name_, and thereby deepened the\nthought. The assurance that God will restore Zion rests not only on\nHis faithfulness, but on signs which show that the sky is reddening\ntowards the day of redemption. The singer sees the indication that\nthe hour fixed in God's eternal counsels is at hand, because he sees\nhow God's servants, who have a claim on Him and are in sympathy\nwith His purposes, yearn lovingly after the sad ruins and dust of\nthe forlorn city. Some new access of such feelings must have been\nstirring among the devouter part of the exiles. Many large truths are\nwrapped in the psalmist's words. The desolations of Zion knit true\nhearts to her more closely. The more the Church or any good cause\nis depressed, the more need for its friends to cling to it. God's\nservants should see that their sympathies go toward the same objects\nas God's do. They are proved to be His servants, because they favour\nwhat He favours. Their regards, turned to existing evils, are the\nprecursors of Divine intervention for the remedy of these. When good\nmen begin to lay the Church's or the world's miseries to heart, it is\na sign that God is beginning to heal them. The cry of God's servants\ncan \"hasten the day of the Lord,\" and preludes His appearance like\nthe keen morning air stirring the sleeping flowers before sunrise.\n\nThe psalmist anticipates that a rebuilt Zion will ensure a worshipping\nworld. He expresses that confidence, which he shares with Isa.\nxl.-lxvi., in vv. 15-18. The name and glory of Jehovah will become\nobjects of reverence to all the earth, because of the manifestation of\nthem by the rebuilding of Zion, which is a witness to all men of His\npower and tender regard to His people's cry. The past tenses of vv.\n16, 17, do not indicate that the psalm is later than the Restoration.\nIt is contemplated as already accomplished, because it is the occasion\nof the \"fear\" prophesied in ver. 15, and consequently prior in time to\nit. \"Destitute,\" in ver. 17, is literally _naked_ or _stript_. It is\nused in Jer. xvii. 6 as the name of a desert plant, probably a dwarf\njuniper, stunted and dry, but seems to be employed here as simply\ndesignating utter destitution. Israel had been stripped of every beauty\nand made naked before her enemies. Despised, she had cried to God,\nand now is clothed again with the garments of salvation, \"as a bride\nadorneth herself with her jewels.\"\n\nA wondering world will adore her delivering God. The glowing hopes\nof psalmist and prophet seem to be dreams, since the restored Israel\nattracted no such observance and wrought no such convictions. But the\nsinger was not wrong in believing that the coming of Jehovah in His\nglory for the rebuilding of Zion would sway the world to homage. His\nfacts were right, but he did not know their perspective, nor could he\nunderstand how many weary years lay, like a deep gorge hidden from\nthe eye of one who looks over a wide prospect, between the rebuilding\nof which he was thinking, and that truer establishment of the city of\nGod, which is again parted from the period of universal recognition\nof Jehovah's glory by so many sad and stormy generations. But the\nvision is true. The coming of Jehovah in His glory will be followed\nby a world's recognition of its light.\n\nThat praise accruing to Jehovah shall be not only universal, but\nshall go on sounding, with increasing volume in its tone, through\ncoming generations. This expectation is set forth in vv. 18-22,\nwhich substantially reiterate the thought of the preceding, with\nthe addition that there is to be a new Israel, a people yet to be\ncreated (Psalm xxii. 31). The psalmist did not know \"the deep things\nhe spoke.\" He did know that Israel was immortal, and that the seed\nof life was in the tree that had cast its leaves and stood bare and\napparently dead. But he did not know the process by which that new\nIsrael was to be created, nor the new elements of which it was to\nconsist. His confidence teaches us never to despair of the future\nof God's Church, however low its present state, but to look down\nthe ages, in calm certainty that, however externals may change, the\nsuccession of God's children will never fail, nor the voice of their\npraise ever fall silent.\n\nThe course of God's intervention for Israel is described in vv. 19,\n20. His looking down from heaven is equivalent to His observance, as\nthe all-seeing Witness and Judge (compare Psalms xiv. 2, xxxiii. 13,\n14, etc.), and is preparatory to His hearing the sighing of the captive\nIsrael, doomed to death. The language of ver. 20 is apparently drawn\nfrom Psalm lxxix. 11. The thought corresponds to that of ver. 17. The\npurpose of His intervention is set forth in vv. 21, 22, as being the\ndeclaration of Jehovah's name and praise in Jerusalem before a gathered\nworld. The aim of Jehovah's dealings is that all men, through all\ngenerations, may know and praise Him. That is but another way of saying\nthat He infinitely desires, and perpetually works for, men's highest\ngood. For our sakes, He desires so much that we should know Him, since\nthe knowledge is life eternal. He is not greedy of adulation nor\ndependent on recognition, but He loves men too well not to rejoice in\nbeing understood and loved by them, since Love ever hungers for return.\nThe psalmist saw what shall one day be, when, far down the ages, he\nbeheld the world gathered in the temple-courts, and heard the shout of\ntheir praise borne to him up the stream of time. He penetrated to the\ninmost meaning of the Divine acts, when he proclaimed that they were\nall done for the manifestation of the Name, which cannot but be praised\nwhen it is known.\n\nIf the poet was one of the exiles, on whom the burden of the general\ncalamity weighed as a personal sorrow, it is very natural that\nhis glowing anticipations of national restoration should be, as\nin this psalm, enclosed in a setting of more individual complaint\nand petition. The transition from these to the purely impersonal\ncentre of the psalm, and the recurrence to them in vv. 23-28, are\ninexplicable, if the \"I\" of the first and last parts is Israel, but\nperfectly intelligible if it is one Israelite. For a moment the tone\nof sadness is heard in ver. 23; but the thought of his own afflicted\nand brief life is but a stimulus to the psalmist to lay hold of God's\nimmutability and to find rest there. The Hebrew text reads \"_His_\nstrength,\" and is followed by the LXX., Vulgate, Hengstenberg, and\nKay (\"He afflicted on the way with His power\"); but the reading\nof the Hebrew margin, adopted above and by most commentators, is\npreferable, as supplying an object for the verb, which is lacking in\nthe former reading, and as corresponding to \"_my_ days\" in _b_.\n\nThe psalmist has felt the exhaustion of long sorrow and the shortness\nof his term. Will God do all these glorious things of which he has\nbeen singing, and he, the singer, not be there to see? That would\nmingle bitterness in his triumphant anticipations; for it would be\nlittle to him, lying in his grave, that Zion should be built again. The\nhopes with which some would console us for the loss of the Christian\nassurance of immortality, that the race shall march on to new power and\nnobleness, are poor substitutes for continuance of our own lives and\nfor our own participation in the glories of the future. The psalmist's\nprayer, which takes God's eternity as its reason for deprecating his\nown premature death, echoes the inextinguishable confidence of the\ndevout heart, that somehow even its fleeting being has a claim to be\nassimilated in duration to its Eternal Object of trust and aspiration.\nThe contrast between God's years and man's days may be brooded on in\nbitterness or in hope. They who are driven by thinking of their own\nmortality to clutch, with prayerful faith, God's eternity, use the one\naright, and will not be deprived of the other.\n\nThe solemn grandeur of vv. 25, 26, needs little commentary, but it\nmay be noted that a reminiscence of Isaiah II. runs through them,\nboth in the description of the act of creation of heaven and earth\n(Isa. xlviii. 13, xliv. 24), and in that of their decaying like\na garment (Isa. li. 6, liv. 10). That which has been created can\nbe removed. The creatural is necessarily the transient. Possibly,\ntoo, the remarkable expression \"changed,\" as applied to the visible\ncreation, may imply the thought which had already been expressed in\nIsaiah, and was destined to receive such deepening by the Christian\ntruth of the new heavens and new earth--a truth the contents of\nwhich are dim to us until it is fulfilled. But whatever may be the\nfate of creatures, He who receives no accession to His stable being\nby originating suffers no diminution by extinguishing them. Man's\ndays, the earth's ages, and the \u00e6ons of the heavens pass, and still\n\"Thou art He,\" the same Unchanging Author of change. Measures of time\nfail when applied to His being, whose years have not that which all\ndivisions of time have--an end. An unending year is a paradox, which,\nin relation to God, is a truth.\n\nIt is remarkable that the psalmist does not draw the conclusion\nthat he himself shall receive an answer to his prayer, but that\n\"the children of Thy servants shall dwell,\" _i.e._ in the land,\nand that there will always be an Israel \"established before Thee.\"\nHe contemplates successive generations as in turn dwelling in the\npromised land (and perhaps in the ancient \"dwelling-place to all\ngenerations,\" even in God); but of his own continuance he is silent.\nWas he not assured of that? or was he so certain of the answer to his\nprayer that he had forgotten himself in the vision of the eternal God\nand the abiding Israel? Having regard to the late date of the psalm,\nit is hard to believe that silence meant ignorance, while it may\nwell be that it means a less vivid and assured hope of immortality,\nand a smaller space occupied by that hope than with us. But the\nother explanation is not to be left out of view, and the psalmist's\noblivion of self in rapt gazing on God's eternal being--the pledge of\nHis servants' perpetuity--may teach us that we reach the summit of\nFaith when we lose ourselves in God.\n\nThe Epistle to the Hebrews quotes vv. 25-27 as spoken of \"the Son.\"\nSuch an application of the words rests on the fact that the psalm\nspeaks of the coming of Jehovah for redemption, who is none other\nthan Jehovah manifested fully in the Messiah. But Jehovah whose\ncoming brings redemption and His recognition by the world is also\nCreator. Since, then, the Incarnation is, in truth, the coming of\nJehovah, which the psalmist, like all the prophets, looked for as\nthe consummation, He in whom the redeeming Jehovah was manifested\nis He in whom Jehovah the Creator \"made the worlds.\" The writer of\nthe Epistle is not asserting that the psalmist consciously spoke of\nthe Messiah, but he is declaring that his words, read in the light\nof history, point to Jesus as the crowning manifestation of the\nredeeming, and therefore necessarily of the creating, God.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CIII.\n\n 1 Bless Jehovah, my soul,\n And all within me [bless] His holy name!\n 2 Bless Jehovah, my soul!\n And forget not all His benefits,\n 3 Who forgives all thy iniquity,\n Who heals all thy diseases,\n 4 Who redeems thy life from the pit,\n Who crowns thee [with] loving-kindness and compassions,\n 5 Who satisfies thy mouth (?) with good,\n [So that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle.\n\n 6 Jehovah executes righteousness\n And judgments for all the oppressed.\n 7 He made known His ways to Moses,\n To the children of Israel His great deeds.\n 8 Full of compassion and gracious is Jehovah,\n Slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness.\n 9 He will not continually contend,\n And will not keep His anger for ever.\n 10 Not according to our sins has He dealt with us,\n And not according to our iniquities has He recompensed us.\n 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,\n [So] great is His loving-kindness to them that fear Him.\n 12 As far as sunrise is from sunset,\n [So] far has He put our transgressions from us.\n 13 As a father has compassion on his children,\n Jehovah has compassion on them that fear Him.\n 14 For He--He knows our frame,\n Being mindful that we are dust.\n 15 Frail man--like grass are his days,\n Like a flower of the field, so he flowers.\n 16 For a wind passes over him and he is not,\n And his place knows him no more.\n 17 But the loving-kindness of Jehovah is from everlasting even to\n everlasting upon them that fear Him,\n And His righteousness is to children's children;\n 18 To those who keep His covenant,\n And to those who remember His statutes to do them.\n\n 19 Jehovah has established His throne in the heavens,\n And His kingdom rules over all.\n 20 Bless Jehovah, ye His angels,\n Ye mighty in strength, who perform His word,\n Hearkening to the voice of His word!\n 21 Bless Jehovah, all His hosts,\n Ye His ministers, who perform His will!\n 22 Bless Jehovah, all His works,\n In all places of His dominion!\n Bless Jehovah, my soul!\n\n\nThere are no clouds in the horizon, nor notes of sadness in the\nmusic, of this psalm. No purer outburst of thankfulness enriches the\nChurch. It is well that, amid the many psalms which give voice to\nmingled pain and trust, there should be one of unalloyed gladness,\nas untouched by sorrow as if sung by spirits in heaven. Because it\nis thus purely an outburst of thankful joy, it is the more fit to be\npondered in times of sorrow.\n\nThe psalmist's praise flows in one unbroken stream. There are no\nclear marks of division, but the river broadens as it runs, and\npersonal benefits and individual praise open out into gifts which are\nseen to fill the universe, and thanksgiving which is heard from every\nextremity of His wide dominion of loving-kindness.\n\nIn ver. 1-5 the psalmist sings of his own experience. His _spirit_,\nor _ruling self_, calls on his \"soul,\" the weaker and more feminine\npart, which may be cast down (Psalms xlii., xliii.) by sorrow, and\nneeds stimulus and control, to contemplate God's gifts and to praise\nHim. A good man will rouse himself to such exercise, and coerce\nhis more sensuous and sluggish faculties to their noblest use.\nEspecially must memory be directed, for it keeps woefully short-lived\nrecords of mercies, especially of continuous ones. God's gifts are\nall \"benefits,\" whether they are bright or dark. The catalogue of\nblessings lavished on the singer's soul begins with forgiveness and\nends with immortal youth. The profound consciousness of sin, which\nit was one aim of the Law to evoke, underlies the psalmist's praise;\nand he who does not feel that no blessings could come from heaven,\nunless forgiveness cleared the way for them, has yet to learn the\ndeepest music of thankfulness. It is followed by \"healing\" of \"all\nthy diseases,\" which is no cure of merely bodily ailments, any more\nthan redeeming of life \"from the pit\" is simply preservation of\nphysical existence. In both there is at least included, even if we do\nnot say that it only is in view, the operation of the pardoning God\nin delivering from the sicknesses and death of the spirit.\n\nThe soul thus forgiven and healed is crowned with \"loving-kindness\nand compassions,\" wreathed into a garland for a festive brow, and its\nadornment is not only a result of these Divine attributes, but the\nvery things themselves, so that an effluence from God beautifies the\nsoul. Nor is even this all, for the same gifts which are beauty are\nalso sustenance, and God satisfies the soul with good, especially\nwith the only real good, Himself. The word rendered above \"mouth\" is\nextremely difficult. It is found in Psalm xxxii. 9, where it seems\nbest taken in the meaning of _trappings_ or _harness_. That meaning\nis inappropriate here, though Hupfeld tries to retain it. The LXX.\nrenders \"desire,\" which fits well, but can scarcely be established.\nOther renderings, such as \"age\" or \"duration\"--_i.e._, the whole\nextent of life--have been suggested. Hengstenberg and others regard\nthe word as a designation of the soul, somewhat resembling the other\nterm applied to it, \"glory\"; but the fact that it is the soul which\nis addressed negatives that explanation. Graetz and others resort to\na slight textual alteration, resulting in the reading \"thy misery.\"\nDelitzsch, in his latest editions, adopts this emendation doubtingly,\nand supposes that with the word _misery_ or _affliction_ there is\nassociated the idea \"of beseeching and therefore of longing,\" whence\nthe LXX. rendering would originate. \"Mouth\" is the most natural word\nin such a connection, and its retention here is sanctioned by \"the\ninterpretation of the older versions in Psalm xxxii. 9 and the Arabic\ncognate\" (Perowne). It is therefore retained above, though with some\nreluctance.\n\nHow should a man thus dealt with grow old? The body may, but not the\nsoul. Rather it will drop powers that can decay, and for each thus\nlost will gain a stronger--moulting, and not being stripped of its\nwings, though it changes their feathers. There is no need to make\nthe psalmist responsible for the fables of the eagle's renewal of\nits youth. The comparison with the monarch of the air does not refer\nto the process by which the soul's wings are made strong, but to the\nresult in wings that never tire, but bear their possessor far up in\nthe blue and towards the throne.\n\nIn vv. 6-18 the psalmist sweeps a greater circle, and deals with\nGod's blessings to mankind. He has Israel specifically in view in the\nearlier verses, but passes beyond Israel to all \"who fear Him.\" It\nis very instructive that he begins with the definite fact of God's\nrevelation through Moses. He is not spinning a filmy idea of a God\nout of his own consciousness, but he has learned all that he knows of\nHim from His historical self-revelation. A hymn of praise which has\nnot revelation for its basis will have many a quaver of doubt. The\nGod of men's imaginations, consciences, or yearnings is a dim shadow.\nThe God to whom love turns undoubting and praise rises without one\nnote of discord is the God who has spoken His own name by deeds\nwhich have entered into the history of the world. And what has He\nrevealed Himself to be? The psalmist answers almost in the words of\nthe proclamation made to Moses (vv. 8, 9). The lawgiver had prayed,\n\"I beseech Thee . . . show me now Thy ways, that I may know Thee\";\nand the prayer had been granted, when \"the Lord passed by before\nhim,\" and proclaimed His name as \"full of compassion and gracious,\nslow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth.\" That proclamation\nfills the singer's heart, and his whole soul leaps up in him, as he\nmeditates on its depth and sweetness. Now, after so many centuries\nof experience, Israel can repeat with full assurance the ancient\nself-revelation, which has been proved true by many \"mighty deeds.\"\n\nThe psalmist's thoughts are still circling round the idea of\nforgiveness, with which he began his contemplations. He and his\npeople equally need it; and all that revelation of God's character\nbears directly on His relation to sin. Jehovah is \"long of\nanger\"--_i.e._, slow to allow it to flash out in punishment--and as\nlavish of loving-kindness as sparing of wrath. That character is\ndisclosed by deeds. Jehovah's graciousness forces Him to \"contend\"\nagainst a man's sins for the man's sake. But it forbids Him to be\nperpetually chastising and condemning, like a harsh taskmaster.\nNor does He keep His anger ever burning, though He does keep His\nloving-kindness aflame for a thousand generations. Lightning is\ntransitory; sunshine, constant. Whatever His chastisements, they have\nbeen less than our sins. The heaviest is \"light,\" and \"for a moment,\"\nwhen compared with the \"exceeding weight of\" our guilt.\n\nThe glorious metaphors in vv. 11, 12, traverse heaven to the zenith,\nand from sunrise to sunset, to find distances distant enough to\nexpress the towering height of God's mercy and the completeness of\nHis removal from us of our sins. That pure arch, the topstone of\nwhich nor wings nor thoughts can reach, sheds down all light and heat\nwhich make growth and cherish life. It is high above us, but it pours\nblessings on us, and it bends down all round the horizon to kiss the\nlow, dark earth. The loving-kindness of Jehovah is similarly lofty,\nboundless, all-fructifying. In ver. 11_b_ the parallelism would be\nmore complete if a small textual alteration were adopted, which would\ngive \"high\" instead of \"great\"; but the slight departure which the\nexisting text makes from precise correspondence with _a_ is of little\nmoment, and the thought is sufficiently intelligible as the words\nstand. Between East and West all distances lie. To the eye they bound\nthe world. So far does God's mercy bear away our sins. Forgiveness\nand cleansing are inseparably united.\n\nBut the song drops--or shall we say rises?--from these magnificent\nmeasures of the immeasurable to the homely image of a father's\npity. We may lose ourselves amid the amplitudes of the lofty,\nwide-stretching sky, but this emblem of paternal love goes straight\nto our hearts. A pitying God! What can be added to that? But that\nfatherly pity is decisively limited to \"them that fear Him.\" It is\npossible, then, to put oneself outside the range of that abundant\ndew, and the universality of God's blessings does not hinder\nself-exclusion from them.\n\nIn vv. 14-16 man's brief life is brought in, not as a sorrow or as\na cloud darkening the sunny joy of the song, but as one reason for\nthe Divine compassion. \"He, He knows our frame.\" The word rendered\n\"frame\" is literally \"formation\" or \"fashioning,\" and comes from\nthe same root as the verb employed in Gen. ii. 7 to describe man's\ncreation, \"The Lord God _formed_ man of the dust of the ground.\" It\nis also used for the potter's action in moulding earthen vessels\n(Isa. xxix. 16, etc.). So, in the next clause, \"dust\" carries on\nthe allusion to Genesis, and the general idea conveyed is that of\nfrailty. Made from dust and fragile as an earthen vessel, man by his\nweakness appeals to Jehovah's compassion. A blow, delivered with the\nfull force of that almighty hand, would \"break him as a potter's\nvessel is broken.\" Therefore God handles us tenderly, as mindful of\nthe brittle material with which He has to deal. The familiar figure\nof fading vegetation, so dear to the psalmists, recurs here; but it\nis touched with peculiar delicacy, and there is something very sweet\nand uncomplaining in the singer's tone. The image of the fading\nflower, burned up by the simoom, and leaving one little spot in the\ndesert robbed of its beauty, veils much of the terror of death, and\nexpresses no shrinking, though great pathos. Ver. 16 may either\ndescribe the withering of the flower, or the passing away of frail\nman. In the former case, the pronouns would be rendered by \"it\" and\n\"its\"; in the latter, by \"he,\" \"him,\" and \"his.\" The latter seems the\npreferable explanation. Ver. 16_b_ is verbally the same as Job vii.\n10. The contemplation of mortality tinges the song with a momentary\nsadness, which melts into the pensive, yet cheerful, assurance that\nmortality has an accompanying blessing, in that it makes a plea for\npity from a Father's heart.\n\nBut another, more triumphant thought springs up. A devout soul,\nfull-charged with thankfulness based on faith in God's name and ways,\ncannot but be led by remembering man's brief life to think of God's\neternal years. So, the key changes at ver. 17 from plaintive minors\nto jubilant notes. The psalmist pulls out all the stops of his organ,\nand rolls along his music in a great _crescendo_ to the close. The\ncontrast of God's eternity with man's transitoriness is like the\nsimilar trend of thought in Psalms xc., cii. The extension of His\nloving-kindness to children's children, and its limitation to those\nwho fear Him and keep His covenant in obedience, rest upon Exod.\nxx. 6, xxxiv. 7; Deut. vii. 9. That limitation has been laid down\ntwice already (vv. 11-13). All men share in that loving-kindness,\nand receive the best gifts from it of which they are capable; but\nthose who cling to God in loving reverence, and who are moved by that\nblissful \"fear\" which has no torment, to yield their wills to Him\nin inward submission and outward obedience, do enter into the inner\nrecesses of that loving-kindness, and are replenished with good, of\nwhich others are incapable.\n\nIf God's loving-kindness is \"from everlasting to everlasting,\" will\nnot His children share in it for as long? The psalm has no articulate\ndoctrine of a future life; but is there not in that thought of\nan eternal outgoing of God's heart to its objects some (perhaps\nhalf-conscious) implication that these will continue to exist?\nMay not the psalmist have felt that, though the flower of earthly\nlife \"passed in the passing of an hour,\" the root would be somehow\ntransplanted to the higher \"house of the Lord,\" and \"flourish in\nthe courts of our God,\" as long as His everlasting mercy poured its\nsunshine? We, at all events, know that His eternity is the pledge of\nours. \"Because I live, ye shall live also.\"\n\nFrom ver. 19 to the end, the psalm takes a still wider sweep. It now\nembraces the universe. But it is noticeable that there is no more\nabout \"loving-kindness\" in these verses. Man's sin and frailty make\nhim a fit recipient of it, but we do not know that in all creation\nanother being, capable of and needing it, is found. Amid starry\ndistances, amid heights and depths, far beyond sunrise and sunset,\nGod's all-including kingdom stretches and blesses all. Therefore, all\ncreatures are called on to bless Him, since all are blessed by Him,\neach according to its nature and need. If they have consciousness,\nthey owe Him praise. If they have not, they praise Him by being.\nThe angels, \"heroes of strength,\" as the words literally read, are\n\"His,\" and they not only execute His behests, but stand attent before\nHim, listening to catch the first whispered indication of His will.\n\"His hosts\" are by some taken to mean the stars; but surely it is\nmore congruous to suppose that beings who are His \"ministers\" and\nperform His \"will\" are intelligent beings. Their praise consists in\nhearkening to and doing His word. But obedience is not all their\npraise; for they, too, bring Him tribute of conscious adoration\nin more melodious music than ever sounded on earth. That \"choir\ninvisible\" praises the King of heaven; but later revelation has\ntaught us that men shall teach a new song to \"principalities and\npowers in heavenly places,\" because men only can praise Him whose\nloving-kindness to them, sinful and dying, redeemed them by His blood.\n\nTherefore, it is no drop from these heavenly anthems, when the psalm\ncircles round at last to its beginning, and the singer calls on his\nsoul to add its \"little human praise\" to the thunderous chorus.\nThe rest of the universe praises the mighty Ruler; he blesses the\nforgiving, pitying Jehovah. Nature and angels, stars and suns, seas\nand forests, magnify their Maker and Sustainer; we can bless the God\nwho pardons iniquities and heals diseases which our fellow-choristers\nnever knew.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CIV.\n\n 1 My soul, bless Jehovah,\n Jehovah my God, Thou art exceeding great,\n Thou hast clothed Thyself with honour and majesty;\n 2 Covering Thyself with light as with a garment,\n Stretching out the heavens like a curtain.\n 3 Who lays the beams of His chambers in the waters,\n Who makes clouds His chariot,\n Who walks on the wings of the wind,\n 4 Making winds His messengers,\n Flaming fire His servants.\n\n 5 He sets fast the earth upon its foundations,\n [That] it should not be moved for ever and aye.\n 6 [With] the deep as [with] a garment Thou didst cover it,\n Above the mountains stood the waters.\n 7 At Thy rebuke they fled,\n At the voice of Thy thunder they were scared away.\n 8 --Up rose the mountains, down sank the valleys--\n To the place which Thou hadst founded for them.\n 9 A bound hast Thou set [that] they should not pass over,\n Nor return to cover the earth.\n\n 10 He sends forth springs into the glens,\n Between the hills they take their way.\n 11 They give drink to every beast of the field,\n The wild asses slake their thirst.\n 12 Above them dwell the birds of heaven,\n From between the branches do they give their note.\n 13 He waters the mountains from His chambers,\n With the fruit of Thy works the earth is satisfied.\n 14 He makes grass to spring for the cattle,\n And the green herb for the service of men,\n To bring forth bread from the earth,\n 15 And that wine may gladden the heart of feeble man;\n To cause his face to shine with oil,\n And that bread may sustain the heart of feeble man.\n 16 The trees of Jehovah are satisfied,\n The cedars of Lebanon which He has planted,\n 17 Wherein the birds nest;\n The stork--the cypresses are her house.\n 18 The high mountains are for the wild goats,\n The rocks are a refuge for the conies.\n\n 19 He has made the moon for (_i.e._, to measure) seasons,\n The sun knows its going down.\n 20 Thou appointest darkness and it is night,\n Wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth.\n 21 The young lions roar for their prey,\n And to seek from God their meat.\n 22 The sun rises--they steal away,\n And lay them down in their dens.\n 23 Forth goes man to his work\n And to his labour till evening.\n 24 How manifold are Thy works, Jehovah!\n In wisdom hast Thou made them all,\n The earth is full of Thy possessions.\n 25 Yonder [is] the sea, great and spread on either hand,\n There are creeping things without number,\n Living creatures small and great.\n 26 There the ships go on,\n [There is] that Leviathan whom Thou hast formed to sport in it.\n 27 All these look to Thee,\n To give their food in its season.\n 28 Thou givest to them--they gather;\n Thou openest Thy hand--they are filled [with] good.\n 29 Thou hidest Thy face--they are panic-struck;\n Thou withdrawest their breath--they expire,\n And return to their dust.\n 30 Thou sendest forth Thy breath--they are created,\n And Thou renewest the face of the earth.\n\n 31 Let the glory of Jehovah endure for ever,\n Let Jehovah rejoice in His works.\n 32 Who looks on the earth and it trembles,\n He touches the mountains and they smoke.\n 33 Let me sing to Jehovah while I live,\n Let me harp to my God while I have being.\n 34 Be my meditation sweet to Him!\n I, I will rejoice in Jehovah.\n 35 Be sinners consumed from the earth,\n And the wicked be no more!\n Bless Jehovah, my soul!\n Hallelujah!\n\n\nLike the preceding psalm, this one begins and ends with the\npsalmist's call to his soul to bless Jehovah. The inference has\nbeen drawn that both psalms have the same author, but that is much\ntoo large a conclusion from such a fact. The true lesson from it\nis that Nature, when looked at by an eye that sees it to be full\nof God, yields material for devout gratitude no less than do His\nfatherly \"mercies to them that fear Him.\" The key-note of the psalm\nis struck in ver. 24, which breaks into an exclamation concerning\nthe manifoldness of God's works and the wisdom that has shaped\nthem all. The psalm is a gallery of vivid Nature-pictures, touched\nwith wonderful grace and sureness of hand. Clearness of vision and\nsympathy with every living thing make the swift outlines inimitably\nfirm and lovely. The poet's mind is like a crystal mirror, in which\nthe Cosmos is reflected. He is true to the uniform Old Testament\npoint of view, and regards Nature neither from the scientific\nnor \u00e6sthetic standpoint. To him it is the garment of God, the\napocalypse of a present Deity, whose sustaining energy is but the\nprolongation of His creative act. All creatures depend on Him; His\ncontinuous action is their life. He rejoices in His works. The\nCreation narrative in Genesis underlies the psalm, and is in the main\nfollowed, though not slavishly.\n\nVer. 1 would be normal in structure if the initial invocation were\nomitted, and as ver. 35 would also be complete without it, the\nsuggestion that it is, in both verses, a liturgical addition is\nplausible. The verse sums up the whole of the creative act in one grand\nthought. In that act the invisible God has arrayed Himself in splendour\nand glory, making visible these inherent attributes. That is the\ndeepest meaning of Creation. The Universe is the garment of God.\n\nThis general idea lays the foundation for the following picture\nof the process of creation which is coloured by reminiscences of\nGenesis. Here, as there, Light is the first-born of Heaven; but the\ninfluence of the preceding thought shapes the language, and Light\nis regarded as God's vesture. The Uncreated Light, who is darkness\nto our eyes, arrays Himself in created light, which reveals while\nit veils Him. Everywhere diffused, all-penetrating, all-gladdening,\nit tells of the Presence in which all creatures live. This clause\nis the poetic rendering of the work of the first creative day. The\nnext clause in like manner deals with that of the second. The mighty\narch of heaven is lifted and expanded over earth, as easily as a\nman draws the cloth or skin sides and canopy of his circular tent\nover its framework. But our roof is His floor; and, according to\nGenesis, the firmament (lit. expanse) separates the waters above from\nthose beneath. So the psalm pictures the Divine Architect as laying\nthe beams of His _upper chambers_ (for so the word means) in these\nwaters, above the tent roof. The fluid is solid at His will, and the\nmost mobile becomes fixed enough to be the foundation of His royal\nabode. The custom of having chambers on the roof, for privacy and\nfreshness, suggests the image.\n\nIn these introductory verses the poet is dealing with the grander\ninstances of creative power, especially as realised in the heavens.\nNot till ver. 5 does he drop to earth. His first theme is God's\ndominion over the elemental forces, and so he goes on to represent\nthe clouds as His chariot, the wind as bearing Him on its swift\npinions, and, as the parallelism requires, the winds as His\nmessengers, and devouring fire as His servants. The rendering of ver.\n4 adopted in Hebrews from the LXX. is less relevant to the psalmist's\npurpose of gathering all the forces which sweep through the wide\nheavens into one company of obedient servants of God, than that\nadopted above, and now generally recognised. It is to be observed\nthat the verbs in vv. 2-4 are participles, which express continuous\naction. These creative acts were not done once for all, but are going\non still and always. Preservation is continued creation.\n\nWith ver. 6 we pass to the work of the third of the Genesis days,\nand the verb is in the form which describes a historical fact. The\nearth is conceived of as formed, and already moulded into mountains\nand valleys, but all covered with \"the deep\" like a vesture--a sadly\ndifferent one from the robe of Light which He wears. That weltering\ndeep is bidden back to its future appointed bounds; and the process is\ngrandly described, as if the waters were sentient, and, panic-struck\nat God's voice, took to flight. Ver. 8_a_ throws in a vivid touch,\nto the disturbance of grammatical smoothness. The poet has the scene\nbefore his eye, and as the waters flee he sees the earth emerging, the\nmountains soaring, and the vales sinking, and he breaks his sentence,\nas if in wonder at the lovely apparition, but returns, in ver. 8_b_,\nto tell whither the fugitive waters fled--namely, to the ocean-depths.\nThere they are hemmed in by God's will, and, as was promised to Noah,\nshall not again run wasting over a drowned world.\n\nThe picture of the emerging earth, with its variations of valleys\nand mountains, remains before the psalmist's eye throughout vv. 10-18,\nwhich describe how it is clothed and peopled. These effects are due to\nthe beneficent ministry of the same element, when guided and restrained\nby God, which swathed the world with desolation. Water runs through\nthe vales, and rain falls on the mountains. Therefore the former bear\nherbs and corn, vines and olives, and the latter are clothed with\ntrees not planted by human hand, the mighty cedars which spread their\nbroad shelves of steadfast green high up among the clouds. \"Everything\nlives whithersoever water cometh,\" as Easterns know. Therefore round\nthe drinking-places in the vales thirsty creatures gather, birds flit\nand sing; up among the cedars are peaceful nests, and inaccessible\ncliffs have their sure-footed inhabitants. All depend on water, and\nwater is God's gift. The psalmist's view of Nature is characteristic\nin the direct ascription of all its processes to God. He makes the\nsprings flow, and sends rain on the peaks. Equally characteristic is\nthe absence of any expression of a sense of beauty in the sparkling\nstreams tinkling down the gloomy wadies, or in the rain-storms\ndarkening the hills, or in the green mantle of earth, or in the bright\ncreatures. The psalmist is thinking of use, not of beauty. And yet it\nis a poet's clear and kindly eye which looks upon all, and sees the\ncentral characteristic of each,--the eager drinking of the wild ass;\nthe music of the birds blending with the brawling of the stream, and\nsweeter because the singers are hidden among the branches; the freshly\nwatered earth, \"satisfied\" with \"the fruit of Thy works\" (_i.e._, the\nrain which God has sent from His \"upper chambers\"), the manifold gifts\nwhich by His wondrous alchemy are produced from the ground by help of\none agency, water; the forest trees with their foliage glistening,\nas if glad for the rain; the stork on her nest; the goats on the\nmountains; the \"conies\" (for which we have no popular name) hurrying\nto their holes in the cliffs. Man appears as depending, like the lower\ncreatures, on the fruit of the ground; but he has more varied supplies,\nbread and wine and oil, and these not only satisfy material wants,\nbut \"gladden\" and \"strengthen\" the heart. According to some, the word\nrendered \"service\" in ver. 14 means \"tillage,\" a meaning which is\nsupported by ver. 23, where the same word is rendered \"labour,\" and\nwhich fits in well with the next clause of ver. 14, \"to bring forth\nbread from the earth,\" which would describe the purpose of the tillage.\nHis prerogative of labour is man's special differentia in creation.\nIt is a token of his superiority to the happy, careless creatures who\ntoil not nor spin. Earth does not yield him its best products without\nhis co-operation. There would thus be an allusion to him as the only\nworker in creation, similar to that in ver. 23, and to the reference to\nthe \"ships\" in ver. 26. But probably the meaning of \"service,\" which is\nsuggested by the parallelism, and does not introduce the new thought of\nco-operation with Nature or God, is to be preferred. The construction\nis somewhat difficult, but the rendering of vv. 14, 15, given above\nseems best. The two clauses with infinitive verbs (_to bring forth_\nand _to cause to shine_) are each followed by a clause in which the\nconstruction is varied into that with a finite verb, the meaning\nremaining the same; and all four clauses express the Divine purpose in\ncausing vegetation to spring. Then the psalmist looks up once more to\nthe hills. \"The trees of Jehovah\" are so called, not so much because\nthey are great, as because, unlike vines and olives, they have not been\nplanted or tended by man, nor belong to him. Far above the valleys,\nwhere men and the cattle dependent on him live on earth's cultivated\nbounties, the unowned woods stand and drink God's gift of rain, while\nwild creatures lead free lives amid mountains and rocks.\n\nWith ver. 19 the psalmist passes to the fourth day, but thinks of\nmoon and sun only in relation to the alternation of day and night as\naffecting creatural life on earth. The moon is named first, because\nthe Hebrew day began with the evening. It is the _measurer_, by whose\nphases seasons (or, according to some, _festivals_) are reckoned. The\nsun is a punctual servant, knowing the hour to set and duly keeping\nit. \"Thou appointest darkness and it is night.\" God wills, and His\nwill effects material changes. He says to His servant Night, \"Come,\"\nand she \"comes.\" The psalmist had peopled the vales and mountains of\nhis picture. Everywhere he had seen life fitted to its environment;\nand night is populous too. He had outlined swift sketches of tame\nand wild creatures, and now he half shows us beasts of prey stealing\nthrough the gloom. He puts his finger on two characteristics--their\nstealthy motions, and their cries which made night hideous. Even\ntheir roar was a kind of prayer, though they knew it not; it was\nGod from whom they sought their food. It would not have answered\nthe purpose to have spoken of \"all the loves, Now sleeping in those\nquiet groves.\" The poet desired to show how there were creatures that\nfound possibilities of happy life in all the variety of conditions\nfashioned by the creative Hand, which was thus shown to be moved by\nWisdom and Love. The sunrise sends these nocturnal animals back to\ntheir dens, and the world is ready for man. \"The sun looked over the\nmountain's rim,\" and the beasts of prey slunk to their lairs, and\nman's day of toil began--the mark of his pre-eminence, God's gift for\nhis good, by which he uses creation for its highest end and fulfils\nGod's purpose. Grateful is the evening rest when the day has been\nfilled with strenuous toil.\n\nThe picture of earth and its inhabitants is now complete, and the\ndominant thought which it leaves on the psalmist's heart is cast into\nthe exultant and wondering exclamation of ver. 24. The variety as well\nas multitude of the forms in which God's creative idea is embodied,\nthe Wisdom which shapes all, His ownership of all, are the impressions\nmade by the devout contemplation of Nature. The scientist and the\nartist are left free to pursue their respective lines of investigation\nand impression; but scientist and artist must rise to the psalmist's\npoint of view, if they are to learn the deepest lesson from the ordered\nkingdoms of Nature and from the beauty which floods the world.\n\nWith the exclamation in ver. 24 the psalmist has finished his\npicture of the earth, which he had seen as if emerging from the\nabyss, and watched as it was gradually clothed with fertility and\npeopled with happy life. He turns, in vv. 25, 26, to the other half\nof his Vision of Creation, and portrays the gathered and curbed\nwaters which he now calls the \"sea.\" As always in Scripture, it\nis described as it looks to a landsman, gazing out on it from the\nsafe shore. The characteristics specified betray unfamiliarity with\nmaritime pursuits. The far-stretching roll of the waters away out to\nthe horizon, the mystery veiling the strange lives swarming in its\ndepths, the extreme contrasts in the magnitude of its inhabitants,\nstrike the poet. He sees \"the stately ships go on.\" The introduction\nof these into the picture is unexpected. We should have looked for\nan instance of the \"small\" creatures, to pair off with the \"great\"\none, Leviathan, in the next words. \"A modern poet,\" says Cheyne, _in\nloc._, \"would have joined the mighty whale to the fairy nautilus.\" It\nhas been suggested that \"ship\" here is a name for the nautilus, which\nis common in the Eastern Mediterranean. The suggestion is a tempting\none, as fitting in more smoothly with the antithesis of _small_ and\n_great_ in the previous clause. But, in the absence of any proof that\nthe word has any other meaning than \"ship,\" the suggestion cannot be\ntaken as more than a probable conjecture. The introduction of \"ships\"\ninto the picture is quite in harmony with the allusions to man's\nworks in the former parts of the psalm, such as ver. 23, and possibly\nver. 14. The psalmist seems to intend to insert such reference to\nman, the only toiler, in all his pictures. \"Leviathan\" is probably\nhere the whale. Ewald, Hitzig, Baethgen, Kay, and Cheyne follow the\nLXX. and Vulgate in reading \"Leviathan whom Thou hast formed to sport\nwith him,\" and take the words to refer to Job xli. 5. The thought\nwould then be that God's power can control the mightiest creatures'\nplunges; but \"the two preceding 'there's are in favour of the usual\ninterpretation, 'therein'\" (Hupfeld), and consequently of taking the\n\"sporting\" to be that of the unwieldy gambols of the sea-monster.\n\nVerses 27-30 mass all creatures of earth and sea, including man,\nas alike dependent on God for sustenance and for life. Dumbly these\nlook expectant to Him, though man only knows to whom all living eyes\nare directed. The swift clauses in vv. 28-30, without connecting\nparticles, vividly represent the Divine acts as immediately followed\nby the creatural consequences. To this psalmist the links in the\nchain were of little consequence. His thoughts were fixed on its two\nends--the Hand that sent its power thrilling through the links, and\nthe result realised in the creature's life. All natural phenomena\nare issues of God's present will. Preservation is as much His act,\nas inexplicable without Him, as creation. There would be nothing to\n\"gather\" unless He \"gave.\" All sorts of supplies, which make the\n\"good\" of physical life, are in His hand, whether they be the food\nof the wild asses by the streams, or of the conies among the cliffs,\nor of the young lions in the night, or of Leviathan tumbling amidst\nthe waves, or of toiling man. Nor is it only the nourishment of life\nwhich comes straight from God to all, but life itself depends on His\ncontinual inbreathing. His face is creation's light; breath from Him\nis its life. The withdrawal of it is death. Every change in creatural\ncondition is wrought by Him. He is the only Fountain of Life, and the\nreservoir of all the forces that minister to life or to inanimate\nbeing. But the psalmist will not end his contemplations with the\nthought of the fair creation returning to nothingness. Therefore\nhe adds another verse (30); which tells of \"life re-orient out of\ndust.\" Individuals pass; the type remains. New generations spring.\nThe yearly miracle of Spring brings greenness over the snow-covered\nor brown pastures and green shoots from stiffened boughs. Many of\nlast year's birds are dead, but there are nests in the cypresses,\nand twitterings among the branches in the wadies. Life, not death,\nprevails in God's world.\n\nSo the psalmist gathers all up into a burst of praise. He desires\nthat the glory of God, which accrues to Him from His works, may ever\nbe rendered through devout recognition of Him as working them all\nby man, the only creature who can be the spokesman of creation. He\nfurther desires that, as God at first saw that all was \"very good,\"\nHe may ever continue thus to rejoice in His works, or, in other\nwords, that these may fulfil His purpose. Possibly His rejoicing in\nHis works is regarded as following upon man's giving glory to Him for\nthem. That rejoicing, which is the manifestation both of His love and\nof His satisfaction, is all the more desired, because, if His works\ndo _not_ please Him, there lies in Him a dread abyss of destructive\npower, which could sweep them into nothingness. Superficial readers\nmay feel that the tone of ver. 32 strikes a discord, but it is a\ndiscord which can be resolved into deeper harmony. One frown from\nGod, and the solid earth trembles, as conscious to its depths of His\ndispleasure. One touch of the hand that is filled with good, and the\nmountains smoke. Creation perishes if He is displeased. Well then may\nthe psalmist pray that He may for ever rejoice in His works, and make\nthem live by His smile.\n\nVery beautifully and profoundly does the psalmist ask, in vv. 33,\n34, that some echo of the Divine joy may gladden his own heart, and\nthat his praise may be coeval with God's glory and his own life. This\nis the Divine purpose in creation--that God may rejoice in it and\nchiefly in man its crown, and that man may rejoice in Him. Such sweet\ncommerce is possible between heaven and earth; and they have learned\nthe lesson of creative power and love aright who by it have been\nled to share in the joy of God. The psalm has been shaped in part\nby reminiscences of the creative days of creation. It ends with the\nDivine Sabbath, and with the prayer, which is also a hope, that man\nmay enter into God's rest.\n\nBut there is one discordant note in creation's full-toned hymn, \"the\nfair music that all creatures made.\" There are sinners on earth; and\nthe last prayer of the psalmist is that that blot may be removed, and\nso nothing may mar the realisation of God's ideal, nor be left to\nlessen the completeness of His delight in His work. And so the psalm\nends, as it began, with the singer's call to his own soul to bless\nJehovah.\n\nThis is the first psalm which closes with Hallelujah (Praise Jehovah).\nIt is appended to the two following psalms, which close Book IV., and\nis again found in Book V., in Psalms cxi.-cxiii., cxv.-cxvii., and in\nthe final group, Psalms cxlvi.-cl. It is probably a liturgical addition.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CV.\n\n 1 Give thanks to Jehovah, call on His name,\n Make known among the peoples His deeds.\n 2 Sing to Him, harp to Him,\n Speak musingly of all His wonders.\n 3 Glory in His holy name,\n Glad be the heart of them that seek Jehovah!\n 4 Inquire after Jehovah and His strength,\n Seek His face continually.\n 5 Remember His wonders which He has done,\n His marvels and the judgments of His mouth.\n 6 O seed of Abraham His servant,\n Sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.\n\n 7 He, Jehovah, is our God,\n In all the earth are His judgments.\n 8 He remembers His covenant for ever,\n The word which He commanded for a thousand generations;\n 9 Which He made with Abraham,\n And His oath to Isaac.\n 10 And He established it with Jacob for a statute,\n To Israel for an everlasting covenant,\n 11 Saying, \"To thee will I give the land of Canaan,\n [As] your measured allotment;\"\n 12 Whilst they were easily counted,\n Very few, and but sojourners therein;\n 13 And they went about from nation to nation,\n From [one] kingdom to another people.\n 14 He suffered no man to oppress them,\n And reproved kings for their sakes;\n 15 [Saying], \"Touch not Mine anointed ones,\n And to My prophets do no harm.\"\n\n 16 And He called for a famine on the land,\n Every staff of bread He broke.\n 17 He sent before them a man,\n For a slave was Joseph sold.\n 18 They afflicted his feet with the fetter,\n He was put in irons.\n 19 Till the time [when] his word came [to pass],\n The promise of Jehovah tested him.\n 20 The king sent and loosed him,\n The ruler of peoples, and let him go.\n 21 He made him lord over his house,\n And ruler over all his substance;\n 22 To bind princes at his pleasure,\n And to make his elders wise.\n\n 23 So Israel came to Egypt,\n And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.\n 24 And He made His people fruitful exceedingly,\n And made them stronger than their foes.\n 25 He turned their heart to hate His people,\n To deal craftily with His servants.\n 26 He sent Moses His servant,\n [And] Aaron whom He had chosen.\n 27 They set [forth] among them His signs,\n And wonders in the land of Ham.\n\n 28 He sent darkness, and made it dark,\n And they rebelled not against His words.\n 29 He turned their waters to blood,\n And slew their fish.\n 30 Their land swarmed [with] frogs,\n In the chambers of their kings.\n 31 He spake and the gad-fly came,\n Gnats in all their borders.\n 32 He gave hail [for] their rains,\n Flaming fire in their land.\n 33 And He smote their vine and their fig-tree,\n And broke the trees of their borders.\n 34 He spoke and the locust came,\n And caterpillar-locusts without number,\n 35 And ate up every herb in their land,\n And ate up the fruit of their ground.\n 36 And He smote every first-born in their land,\n The firstlings of all their strength.\n 37 And He brought them out with silver and gold,\n And there was not one among His tribes who stumbled.\n 38 Glad was Egypt at their departure,\n For the fear of them had fallen upon them.\n 39 He spread a cloud for a covering,\n And fire to light the night.\n 40 They asked and He brought quails,\n And [with] bread from heaven He satisfied them.\n 41 He opened the rock and forth gushed waters,\n They flowed through the deserts, a river.\n 42 For He remembered His holy word,\n [And] Abraham His servant;\n 43 And He brought out His people [with] joy,\n With glad cries His chosen [ones];\n 44 And He gave them the lands of the nations,\n And they took possession of the toil of the peoples,\n 45 To the end that they might observe His statutes,\n And keep His laws.\n Hallelujah!\n\n\nIt is a reasonable conjecture that the Hallelujah at the end of\nPsalm civ., where it is superfluous, properly belongs to this psalm,\nwhich would then be assimilated to Psalm cvi., which is obviously\na companion psalm. Both are retrospective and didactic; but Psalm\ncv. deals entirely with God's unfailing faithfulness to Israel,\nwhile Psalm cvi. sets forth the sad contrast presented by Israel's\ncontinual faithlessness to God. Each theme is made more impressive by\nbeing pursued separately, and then set over against the other. The\nlong series of God's mercies massed together here confronts the dark\nuniformity of Israel's unworthy requital of them there. Half of the\nsky is pure blue and radiant sunshine; half is piled with unbroken\nclouds. Nothing drives home the consciousness of sin so surely\nas contemplation of God's loving acts. Probably this psalm, like\nothers of similar contents, is of late date. The habit of historical\nretrospect for religious purposes is likely to belong to times remote\nfrom the events recorded. Vv. 1-15 are found in 1 Chron. xvi. as part\nof the hymn at David's setting up of the Ark on Zion. But that hymn\nis unmistakably a compilation from extant psalms, and cannot be taken\nas deciding the Davidic authorship of the psalm.\n\nVv. 1-6 are a ringing summons to extol and contemplate God's\ngreat deeds for Israel. They are full of exultation, and, in their\nreiterated short clauses, are like the joyful cries of a herald\nbringing good tidings to Zion. There is a beautiful progress of\nthought in these verses. They begin with the call to thank and\npraise Jehovah and to proclaim His doings among the people. That\nrecognition of Israel's office as the world's evangelist does not\nrequire the supposition that the nation was dispersed in captivity,\nbut simply shows that the singer understood the reason for the long\nseries of mercies heaped on it. It is significant that God's \"deeds\"\nare Israel's message to the world. By such deeds His \"name\" is\nspoken. What God has done is the best revelation of what God is. His\nmessengers are not to speak their own thoughts about Him, but to tell\nthe story of His acts and let these speak for Him. Revelation is not\na set of propositions, but a history of Divine facts. The foundation\nof audible praise and proclamation is contemplation. Therefore the\nexhortation in ver. 2_b_ follows, which means not merely \"speak,\" but\nmay be translated, as in margin of the Revised Version, \"meditate,\"\nand is probably best rendered so as to combine both ideas, \"musingly\nspeak.\" Let not the words be mere words, but feel the great deeds\nwhich you proclaim. In like manner, ver. 3 calls upon the heralds to\n\"glory\" for themselves in the name of Jehovah, and to make efforts\nto possess Him more fully and to rejoice in finding Him. Aspiration\nafter clearer and closer knowledge and experience of God should ever\nunderlie glad pealing forth of His name. If it does not, eloquent\ntongues will fall silent, and Israel's proclamation will be cold and\npowerless. To seek Jehovah is to find His strength investing our\nfeebleness. To turn our faces towards His in devout desire is to\nhave our faces made bright by reflected light. And one chief way of\nseeking Jehovah is the remembrance of His merciful wonders of old,\n\"He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered\" (Psalm cxi. 4),\nand His design in them is that men should have solid basis for their\nhopes, and be thereby encouraged to seek Him, as well as be taught\nwhat He is. Thus the psalmist reaches his main theme, which is to\nbuild a memorial of these deeds for an everlasting possession. The\n\"wonders\" referred to in ver. 5 are chiefly those wrought in Egypt,\nas the subsequent verses show.\n\nVer. 6 contains, in the names given to Israel, the reason for their\nobeying the preceding summonses. Their hereditary relation to God\ngives them the material, and imposes on them the obligation and the\nhonour, of being \"secretaries of God's praise.\" In ver. 6_a_ \"His\nservant\" may be intended to designate the nation, as it often does in\nIsa. xl.-lxvi. \"His chosen ones\" in ver. 6_b_ would then be an exact\nparallel; but the recurrence of the expression in ver. 42, with the\nindividual reference, makes that reference more probable here.\n\nThe fundamental fact underlying all Israel's experience of God's\ncare is His own loving will, which, self-moved, entered into\ncovenant obligations, so that thereafter His mercies are ensured by\nHis veracity, no less than by His kindness. Hence the psalm begins\nits proper theme by hymning the faithfulness of God to His oath,\nand painting the insignificance of the beginnings of the nation,\nas showing that the ground of God's covenant relation was laid in\nHimself, not in them. Israel's consciousness of holding a special\nrelation to God never obscured, in the minds of psalmists and\nprophets, the twin truth that all the earth waited on Him, and was\nthe theatre of His manifestations. Baser souls might hug themselves\non their prerogative. The nobler spirits ever confessed that it\nlaid on them duties to the world, and that God had not left Himself\nwithout witness in any land. These two truths have often been rent\nasunder, both in Israel and in Christendom, but each needs the other\nfor its full comprehension. \"Jehovah is our God\" may become the\nwar-cry of bitter hostility to them that are without, or of contempt,\nwhich is quite as irreligious. \"In all the earth are His judgments\"\nmay lead to a vague theism, incredulous of special revelation. He who\nis most truly penetrated with the first will be most joyfully ready\nto proclaim the second of these sister-thoughts, and will neither\nshut up all God's mercies within the circle of revelation, nor lose\nsight of His clearest utterances while looking on His more diffused\nand less perfect ones.\n\nThe obligations under which God has come to Israel are represented\nas a covenant, a word and an oath. In all the general idea of\nexplicit declaration of Divine purpose, which henceforth becomes\nbinding on God by reason of His faithfulness, is contained; but the\nconception of a _covenant_ implies mutual obligations, failure to\ndischarge which on one side relieves the other contracting party\nfrom his promise, while that of a _word_ simply includes the notion\nof articulate utterance, and that of an _oath_ adds the thought of\na solemn sanction and a pledge given. God swears by Himself--that\nis, His own character is the guarantee of His promise. These various\ndesignations are thus heaped together, in order to heighten the\nthought of the firmness of His promise. It stands \"for ever,\" \"to a\nthousand generations\"; it is an \"everlasting covenant.\" The psalmist\ntriumphs, as it were, in the manifold repetition of it. Each of the\nfathers of the nation had it confirmed to himself,--Abraham; Isaac\nwhen, ready to flee from the land in famine, he had renewed to\nhim (Gen. xxvi. 3) the oath which he had first heard as he stood,\ntrembling but unharmed, by the rude altar where the ram lay in his\nstead (Gen. xxii. 16); Jacob as he lay beneath the stars at Bethel.\nWith Jacob (Israel) the singer passes from the individuals to the\nnation, as is shown by the alternation of \"thee\" and \"you\" in ver. 11.\n\nThe lowly condition of the recipients of the promise not only exalts\nthe love which chose them, but the power which preserved them and\nfulfilled it. And if, as may be the case, the psalm is exilic or\npost-exilic, its picture of ancient days is like a mirror, reflecting\npresent depression and bidding the downcast be of good cheer. He who\nmade a strong nation out of that little horde of wanderers must have\nbeen moved by His own heart, not by anything in them; and what He\ndid long ago He can do to-day. God's past is the prophecy of God's\nfuture. Literally rendered, ver. 12_a_ runs \"Whilst they were men of\nnumber,\" _i.e._, easily numbered (Gen. xxxiv. 30, where Jacob uses\nthe same phrase). \"Very few\" in _b_ is literally \"like a little,\"\nand may either apply to number or to worth. It is used in the latter\nsense, in reference to \"the heart of the wicked,\" in Prov. x. 20, and\nmay have the same meaning here. That little band of wanderers, who\nwent about as sojourners among the kinglets of Canaan and Philistia,\nwith occasional visits to Egypt, seemed very vulnerable; but God\nwas, as He had promised to the first of them at a moment of extreme\nperil, their \"shield,\" and in their lives there were instances of\nstrange protection afforded them, which curbed kings, as in the case\nof Abram in Egypt (Gen. xii.) and Gerar (Gen. xx.), and of Isaac in\nthe latter place (Gen. xxvi.). The patriarchs were not, technically\nspeaking, \"anointed,\" but they had that of which anointing was but\na symbol. They were Divinely set apart and endowed for their tasks,\nand, as consecrated to God's service, their persons were inviolable.\nIn a very profound sense all God's servants are thus anointed, and\nare \"immortal till their work is done.\" \"Prophets\" in the narrower\nsense of the word the patriarchs were not, but Abraham is called\nso by God in one of the places already referred to (Gen. xx. 7).\nPrior to prophetic utterance is prophetic inspiration; and these\nmen received Divine communications, and were, in a special degree,\npossessed of the counsels of Heaven. The designation is equivalent\nto Abraham's name of the \"friend of God.\" Thus both titles, which\nguaranteed a charmed, invulnerable life to their bearers, go deep\ninto the permanent privileges of God-trusting souls. All such \"have\nan anointing from the Holy One,\" and receive whispers from His lips.\nThey are all under the \u00e6gis of His protection, and for their sakes\nkings of many a dynasty and age have been rebuked.\n\nIn vv. 16-22 the history of Joseph is poetically and summarily\ntreated, as a link in the chain of providences which brought about\nthe fulfilment of the Covenant. Possibly the singer is thinking about\na captive Israel in the present, while speaking about a captive\nJoseph in the past. In God's dealings humiliation and affliction are\noften, he thinks, the precursors of glory and triumph. Calamities\nprepare the way for prosperity. So it was in that old time; and so\nit is still. In this _r\u00e9sum\u00e9_ of the history of Joseph, the points\nsignalised are God's direct agency in the whole--the errand on which\nJoseph was sent (\"before them\") as a forerunner to \"prepare a place\nfor them,\" the severity of his sufferings, the trial of his faith by\nthe contrast which his condition presented to what God had promised,\nand his final exaltation. The description of Joseph's imprisonment\nadds some dark touches to the account in Genesis, whether these are\ndue to poetic idealising or to tradition. In ver. 18_b_ some would\ntranslate \"Iron came over his soul.\" So Delitzsch, following the\nVulgate (\"Ferrum pertransiit animam ejus\"), and the picturesque\nPrayer-Book Version, \"The iron entered into his soul.\" But the\noriginal is against this, as the word for _iron_ is masculine and the\nverb is feminine, agreeing with the feminine noun _soul_. The clause\nis simply a parallel to the preceding. \"His soul\" is best taken as\na mere periphrasis for _he_, though it may be used emphatically to\nsuggest that \"his soul entered, whole and entire, in its resolve to\nobey God, into the cruel torture\" (Kay). The meaning is conveyed by\nthe free rendering above.\n\nVer. 19 is also ambiguous, from the uncertainty as to whose word is\nintended in _a_. It may be either God's or Joseph's. The latter is\nthe more probable, as there appears to be an intentional contrast\nbetween \"His word\" in _a_, and \"the promise of Jehovah\" in _b_. If this\nexplanation is adopted, a choice is still possible between Joseph's\ninterpretation of his fellow-prisoners' dreams, the fulfilment of\nwhich led to his liberation, and his earlier word recounting his own\ndreams, which led to his being sold by his brethren. In any case, the\nthought of the verse is a great and ever true one, that God's promise,\nwhile it remains unfulfilled, and seems contradicted by present facts,\nserves as a test of the genuineness and firmness of a man's reliance\non Him and it. That promise is by the psalmist almost personified, as\nputting Joseph to the test. Such testing is the deepest meaning of all\nafflictions. Fire will burn off a thin plating of silver from a copper\ncoin and reveal the base metal beneath, but it will only brighten into\na glow the one which is all silver.\n\nThere is a ring of triumph in the singer's voice as he tells of the\nhonour and power heaped on the captive, and of how the king of many\nnations \"sent,\" as the mightier King in heaven had done (vv. 20 and\n17), and not only liberated but exalted him, giving him, whose soul\nhad been bound in fetters, power to \"bind princes according to his\nsoul,\" and to instruct and command the elders of Egypt.\n\nVv. 23-27 carry on the story to the next step in the evolution of\nGod's purposes. The long years of the sojourn in Egypt are summarily\ndealt with, as they are in the narrative in Genesis and Exodus, and the\nsalient points of its close alone are touched--the numerical growth of\nthe people, the consequent hostility of the Egyptians, and the mission\nof Moses and Aaron. The direct ascription to God of all the incidents\nmentioned is to be noted. The psalmist sees only one hand moving, and\nhas no hesitation in tracing to God the turning of the Egyptians'\nhearts to hatred. Many commentators, both old and new, try to weaken\nthe expression, by the explanation that the hatred was \"indirectly\nthe work of God, inasmuch as He lent increasing might to the people\"\n(Delitzsch). But the psalmist means much more than this, just as Exodus\ndoes in attributing the hardening of Pharaoh's heart to God.\n\nVer. 27, according to the existing text, breaks the series of verses\nbeginning with a singular verb of which God is the subject, which\nstretch with only one other interruption from ver. 24 to ver. 37. It\nseems most probable, therefore, that the LXX. is right in reading\n_He_ instead of _They_. The change is but the omission of one\nletter, and the error supposed is a frequent one. The word literally\nmeans _set_ or _planted_, and _did_ is an explanation rather than a\nrendering. The whole expression is remarkable. Literally, we should\ntranslate \"He\" (or \"They\") \"set among them words\" (or \"matters\")\n\"of His signs\"; but this would be unintelligible, and we must have\nrecourse to reproduction of the meaning rather than of the words.\n\nIf \"words of His signs\" is not merely pleonastic, it may be rendered,\nas by Kay, \"His long record of signs,\" or as by Cheyne, \"His varied\nsigns.\" But it is better to take the expression as suggesting that\nthe _miracles_ were indeed _words_, as being declarations of God's\nwill and commands to let His people go. The phrase in ver. 5, \"the\njudgments of His mouth,\" would then be roughly parallel. God's deeds\nare words. His signs have tongues. \"He speaks and it is done\"; but\nalso, \"He does and it is spoken.\" The expression, however, may be\nlike Psalm lxv. 4, where the same form of phrase is applied to sins,\nand where it seems to mean \"deeds of iniquity.\" It would then mean\nhere \"His works which were signs.\"\n\nThe following enumeration of the \"signs\" does not follow the order\nin Exodus, but begins with the ninth plague, perhaps because of its\nseverity, and then in the main adheres to the original sequence,\nthough it inverts the order of the third and forth plagues (flies and\ngnats or mosquitoes, not \"lice\") and omits the fifth and sixth. The\nreason for this divergence is far from clear, but it may be noted\nthat the first two in the psalmist's order attack the elements; the\nnext three (frogs, flies, gnats) have to do with animal life; and the\nnext two (hail and locusts), which embrace both these categories, are\nconsidered chiefly as affecting vegetable products. The emphasis is\nlaid in all on God's direct act. _He_ sends darkness, _He_ turns the\nwaters into blood, and so on. The only other point needing notice\nin these verses is the statement in ver. 28_b_. \"They rebelled not\nagainst His word,\" which obviously is true only in reference to Moses\nand Aaron, who shrank not from their perilous embassage.\n\nThe tenth plague is briefly told, for the psalm is hurrying on to\nthe triumphant climax of the Exodus, when, enriched with silver and\ngold, the tribes went forth, strong for their desert march, and Egypt\nrejoiced to see the last of them, \"for they said, We be all dead men\"\n(Exod. xii. 33). There may be a veiled hope in this exultant picture\nof the Exodus, that present oppression will end in like manner. The\nwilderness sojourn is so treated in ver. 39 _sqq._ as to bring into\nsight only the leading instances, sung in many psalms, of God's\nprotection, without one disturbing reference to the sins and failures\nwhich darkened the forty years. These are spread out at length, without\nflattery or minimising, in the next psalm; but here the theme is\nGod's wonders. Therefore, the pillar of cloud which guided, covered,\nand illumined the camp, the miracles which provided food and water,\nare touched on in vv. 39-41, and then the psalmist gathers up the\nlessons which he would teach in three great thoughts. The reason for\nGod's merciful dealings with His people is His remembrance of His\ncovenant, and of His servant Abraham, whose faith made a claim on God,\nfor the fulfilment which would vindicate it. That covenant has been\namply fulfilled, for Israel came forth with ringing songs, and took\npossession of lands which they had not tilled, and houses which they\nhad not built. The purpose of covenant and fulfilment is that the\nnation, thus admitted into special relations with God, should by His\nmercies be drawn to keep His commandments, and in obedience find rest\nand closer fellowship with its God. The psalmist had learned that God\ngives before He demands or commands, and that \"Love,\" springing from\ngrateful reception of His benefits, \"is the fulfilling of the Law.\" He\nanticipates the full Christian exhortation, \"I beseech you, brethren,\nby the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CVI.\n\n 1 Hallelujah!\n Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good,\n For His loving-kindness [endures] for ever.\n 2 Who can speak forth the mighty deeds of Jehovah?\n [Who] can cause all His praise to be heard?\n 3 Blessed are they who observe right,\n He who does righteousness at all times.\n 4 Remember me, Jehovah, with the favour which Thou bearest to Thy\n people,\n Visit me with Thy salvation;\n 5 That I may look on the prosperity of Thy chosen ones,\n That I may joy in the joy of Thy nation,\n That I may triumph with Thine inheritance.\n\n 6 We have sinned with our fathers,\n We have done perversely, have done wickedly.\n 7 Our fathers in Egypt considered not Thy wonders,\n They remembered not the multitude of Thy loving-kindnesses,\n And rebelled at the Sea, by the Red Sea.\n 8 And He saved them for His name's sake,\n To make known His might;\n 9 And He rebuked the Red Sea and it was dried up,\n And He led them in the depths as in a wilderness;\n 10 And He saved them from the hand of the hater,\n And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy;\n 11 And the waters covered their oppressors,\n Not one of them was left;\n 12 And they believed on His words,\n They sang His praise.\n\n 13 They hasted [and] forgot His works,\n They waited not for His counsel;\n 14 And they lusted a lust in the wilderness,\n And tempted God in the desert;\n 15 And He gave them what they asked for,\n And sent wasting sickness into their soul.\n 16 They were jealous against Moses in the camp,\n Against Aaron, the holy one of Jehovah.\n 17 The earth opened and swallowed Dathan,\n And covered the company of Abiram;\n 18 And fire blazed out on their company,\n Flame consumed the wicked ones.\n\n 19 They made a calf in Horeb,\n And bowed down to a molten image;\n 20 And they changed their Glory\n For the likeness of a grass-eating ox.\n 21 They forgot God their Saviour,\n Who did great things in Egypt,\n 22 Wonders in the land of Ham,\n Dread things by the Red Sea.\n 23 And He said that He would annihilate them,\n Had not Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach confronting\n Him\n To turn His anger from destroying.\n\n 24 And they despised the delightsome land,\n They trusted not to His word;\n 25 And they murmured in their tents,\n They hearkened not to the voice of Jehovah;\n 26 And He lifted up His hand to them, [swearing]\n That He would make them fall in the wilderness,\n 27 And that He would make their seed fall among the nations,\n And scatter them in the lands.\n\n 28 And they yoked themselves to Baal-Peor,\n And ate the sacrifices of dead [gods];\n 29 And they provoked Him by their doings,\n And a plague broke in upon them;\n 30 And Phinehas stood up and did judgment,\n And the plague was stayed;\n 31 And it was reckoned to him for righteousness,\n To generation after generation, for ever.\n\n 32 And they moved indignation at the waters of Meribah,\n And it fared ill with Moses on their account.\n 33 For they rebelled against [His] Spirit,\n And he spoke rashly with his lips.\n 34 They destroyed not the peoples\n [Of] whom Jehovah spoke to them;\n 35 And they mixed themselves with the nations\n And learned their works;\n 36 And they served their idols\n And they became to them a snare;\n 37 And they sacrificed their sons\n And their daughters to demons;\n 38 And they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and\n daughters,\n Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,\n And the land was profaned by bloodshed.\n 39 And they became unclean through their works,\n And committed whoredom through their doings.\n\n 40 And the anger of Jehovah kindled on His people,\n And He abhorred His inheritance;\n 41 And He gave them into the hand of the nations,\n And their haters lorded it over them;\n 42 And their enemies oppressed them,\n And they were bowed down under their hand.\n 43 Many times did He deliver them,\n And they--they rebelliously followed their own counsel,\n And were brought low through their iniquity;\n 44 And He looked on their distress\n When He heard their cry;\n 45 And He remembered for them His covenant,\n And repented according to the multitude of His loving-kindness,\n 46 And caused them to find compassion,\n In the presence of all their captors.\n\n 47 Save us, Jehovah, our God,\n And gather us from among the nations,\n That we may thank Thy holy name,\n That we may make our boast in Thy praise.\n\n 48 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel,\n From everlasting and to everlasting,\n And let all the people say Amen.\n Hallelujah!\n\n\nThe history of God's past is a record of continuous mercies, the\nhistory of man's, one of as continuous sin. The memory of the former\nquickened the psalmist into his sunny song of thankfulness in the\nprevious psalm. That of the latter moves him to the confessions in this\none. They are complements of each other, and are connected not only as\nbeing both retrospective, but by the identity of their beginnings and\nthe difference of their points of view. The parts of the early history\ndealt with in the one are lightly touched or altogether omitted in the\nother. The key-note of Psalm cv. is, \"Remember His mighty deeds\"; that\nof Psalm cvi. is, \"They forgot His mighty deeds.\"\n\nSurely never but in Israel has patriotism chosen a nation's sins for\nthe themes of song, or, in celebrating its victories, written but one\nname, the name of Jehovah, on its trophies. But in the Psalter we have\nseveral instances of such hymns of national confession; and, in other\nbooks, there are the formulary at the presentation of the first-fruits\n(Deut. xxvi.), Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple (1\nKings viii.), Nehemiah's prayer (Neh. ix.), and Daniel's (Dan. ix.).\n\nAn exilic date is implied by the prayer of ver. 47, for the gathering\nof the people from among the nations. The occurrence of vv. 1 and 47,\n48, in the compilation in 1 Chron. xvi. shows that this psalm, which\nmarks the close of the Fourth Book, was in existence prior to the\ndate of 1 Chronicles.\n\nNo trace of strophical arrangement is discernible. But, after an\nintroduction in some measure like that in Psalm cv., the psalmist\nplunges into his theme, and draws out the long, sad story of Israel's\nfaithlessness. He recounts seven instances during the wilderness\nsojourn (vv. 7-33), and then passes to those occurring in the Land\n(vv. 34-39), with which he connects the alternations of punishment\nand relenting on God's part and the obstinacy of transgression on\nIsrael's, even down to the moment in which he speaks (vv. 40-46). The\nwhole closes with a prayer for restoration to the Land (ver. 47); to\nwhich is appended the doxology (ver. 48), the mark of the end of Book\nIV., and not a part of the psalm.\n\nThe psalmist preludes his confession and contemplation of his\npeople's sins by a glad remembrance of God's goodness and enduring\nloving-kindness and by a prayer for himself. Some commentators regard\nthese introductory verses as incongruous with the tone of the psalm,\nand as mere liturgical commonplace, which has been tacked on without\nmuch heed to fitness. But surely the thought of God's unspeakable\ngoodness most appropriately precedes the psalmist's confession, for\nnothing so melts a heart in penitence as the remembrance of God's\nlove, and nothing so heightens the evil of sin as the consideration\nof the patient goodness which it has long flouted. The blessing\npronounced in ver. 3 on those who \"do righteousness\" and keep the law\nis not less natural, before a psalm which sets forth in melancholy\ndetail the converse truth of the misery that dogs breaking the law.\n\nIn vv. 4, 5, the psalmist interjects a prayer for himself, the\nabruptness of which strongly reminds us of similar jets of personal\nsupplication in Nehemiah. The determination to make the \"I\" of the\nPsalter the nation perversely insists on that personification here,\nin spite of the clear distinction thrice drawn in ver. 5 between\nthe psalmist and his people. The \"salvation\" in which he desires\nto share is the deliverance from exile for which he prays in the\nclosing verse of the psalm. There is something very pathetic in this\nmomentary thought of self. It breathes wistful yearning, absolute\nconfidence in the unrealised deliverance, lowly humility which bases\nits claim with God on that of the nation. Such a prayer stands in the\nclosest relation to the theme of the psalm, which draws out the dark\nrecord of national sin, in order to lead to that national repentance\nwhich, as all the history shows, is the necessary condition of\n\"the prosperity of Thy chosen ones.\" Precisely because the hope of\nrestoration is strong, the delineation of sin is unsparing.\n\nWith ver. 6 the theme of the psalm is given forth, in language which\nrecalls Solomon's and Daniel's similar confessions (1 Kings viii.\n47; Dan. ix. 5). The accumulation of synonyms for sin witnesses\nat once to the gravity and manifoldness of the offences, and to\nthe earnestness and comprehensiveness of the acknowledgment. The\nremarkable expression \"We have sinned _with_ our fathers\" is not to\nbe weakened to mean merely that the present generation had sinned\nlike their ancestors, but gives expression to the profound sense of\nnational solidarity, which speaks in many other places of Scripture,\nand rests on very deep facts in the life of nations and their\nindividual members. The enumeration of ancestral sin begins with the\nmurmurings of the faint-hearted fugitives by the Red Sea. In Psalm\ncv. the wonders in Egypt were dilated on and the events at the Red\nSea unmentioned. Here the signs in Egypt are barely referred to\nand treated as past at the point where the psalm begins, while the\nincidents by the Red Sea fill a large space in the song. Clearly,\nthe two psalms supplement each other. The reason given for Israel's\nrebellion in Psalm cvi. is its forgetfulness of God's mighty deeds\n(ver. 7_a_, _b_), while in Psalm cv. the remembrance of these is\nurgently enjoined. Thus, again, the connection of thought in the\npair of psalms is evident. Every man has experiences enough of God's\ngoodness stored away in the chambers of his memory to cure him of\ndistrust, if he would only look at them. But they lie unnoticed, and\nso fear has sway over him. No small part of the discipline needed for\nvigorous hope lies in vigorous exercise of remembrance. The drying\nup of the Red Sea is here poetically represented, with omission of\nMoses' outstretched rod and the strong east wind, as the immediate\nconsequence of God's omnipotent rebuke. Ver. 9_b_ is from Isa. lxiii.\n13, and picturesquely describes the march through that terrible\ngorge of heaped-up waters as being easy and safe, as if it had\nbeen across some wide-stretching plain, with springy turf to tread\non. The triumphant description of the completeness of the enemies'\ndestruction in ver. 11_b_ is from Exod. xiv. 28, and \"they believed\non His words\" is in part quoted from Exod. xiv. 31, while Miriam's\nsong is referred to in ver. 12_b_.\n\nThe next instance of departure is the lusting for food (vv. 13-15).\nAgain the evil is traced to forgetfulness of God's doings, to which in\nver. 13_b_ is added impatient disinclination to wait the unfolding of\nHis counsel or plan. These evils cropped up with strange celerity. The\nmemory of benefits was transient, as if they had been written on the\nblown sands of the desert. \"They hasted, they forgot His works.\" Of\nhow many of us that has to be said! We remember pain and sorrow longer\nthan joy and pleasure. It is always difficult to bridle desires and be\nstill until God discloses His purposes. We are all apt to try to force\nHis hand open, and to impose our wishes on Him, rather than to let\nHis will mould us. So, on forgetfulness and impatience there followed\nthen, as there follow still, eager longings after material good and\na tempting of God. \"They lusted a lust\" is from Num. xi. 4. \"Tempted\nGod\" is found in reference to the same incident in the other psalm of\nhistorical retrospect (lxxviii. 18). He is \"tempted\" when unbelief\ndemands proofs of His power, instead of waiting patiently for Him. In\nNum. xi. 33 Jehovah is said to have smitten the people \"with a very\ngreat plague.\" The psalm specifies more particularly the nature of the\nstroke by calling it \"wasting sickness,\" which invaded the life of the\nsinners. The words are true in a deeper sense, though not so meant. For\nwhoever sets his hot desires in self-willed fashion on material good,\nand succeeds in securing their gratification, gains with the satiety\nof his lower sense the loss of a shrivelled spiritual nature. Full-fed\nflesh makes starved souls.\n\nThe third instance is the revolt headed by Korah, Dathan, and\nAbiram against the exclusive Aaronic priesthood (vv. 16-18). It was\nrebellion against God, for He had set apart Aaron as His own, and\ntherefore the unusual title of \"the holy one of Jehovah\" is here\ngiven to the high priest. The expression recalls the fierce protest\nof the mutineers, addressed to Moses and Aaron, \"Ye take too much\nupon you, seeing all the congregation are holy\" (Num. xvi. 3); and\nalso Moses' answer, \"Jehovah will show ... who is holy.\" Envy often\nmasquerades as the champion of the rights of the community, when it\nonly wishes to grasp these for itself. These aristocratic democrats\ncared nothing for the prerogatives of the nation, though they talked\nabout them. They wanted to pull down Aaron, not to lift up Israel.\nTheir end is described with stern brevity, in language coloured by\nthe narrative in Numbers, from which the phrases \"opened\" (_i.e._,\nher mouth) and \"covered\" are drawn. Korah is not mentioned here,\nin which the psalm follows Num. xvi. and Deut. xi. 6, whereas Num.\nxxvi. 10 includes Korah in the destruction. The difficulty does not\nseem to have received any satisfactory solution. But Cheyne is too\nperemptory when he undertakes to divine the reason for the omission\nof Korah here and in Deut. xi. 6, \"because he was a Levite and his\nname was dear to temple-poets.\" Such clairvoyance as to motives is\nbeyond ordinary vision. In ver. 18 the fate of the two hundred and\nfifty \"princes of Israel\" who took part in the revolt is recorded as\nin Num. xvi. 35.\n\nThe worship of the calf is the fourth instance (vv. 19-23) in the\nnarrative of which the psalmist follows Exod. xxxii., but seems\nalso to have Deut. ix. 8-12 floating in his mind, as appears from\nthe use of the name \"Horeb,\" which is rare in Exodus and frequent\nin Deuteronomy. Ver. 20 is apparently modelled on Jer. ii. 11: \"My\npeople have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.\"\nCompare also Paul's \"_changed_ the _glory_ of the incorruptible God\nfor the _likeness_,\" etc. (Rom. i. 23). \"His glory\" is read instead\n\"their glory\" by Noldeke, Graetz, and Cheyne, following an old\nJewish authority. The LXX., in Codd. Alex. and Sin. (second hand),\nhas this reading, and Paul seems to follow it in the passage just\nquoted. It yields a worthy meaning, but the existing text is quite\nappropriate. It scarcely means that God was the source of Israel's\nglory or their boast, for the word is not found in that sense. It is\nmuch rather the name for the collective attributes of the revealed\nGodhead, and is here substantially equivalent to \"their God,\" that\nlustrous Light which, in a special manner, belonged to the people\nof revelation, on whom its first and brightest beams shone. The\nstrange perverseness which turned away from such a radiance of glory\nto bow down before an idol is strikingly set forth by the figure of\nbartering it for an image, and that of an ox that ate grass. The one\ntrue Substance given away for a shadow! The lofty Being whose light\nfilled space surrendered: and for what? A brute that had to feed,\nand that on herbage! Men usually make a profit, or think they do, on\ntheir barter: but what do they gain by exchanging God for anything?\nYet _we_ keep making the same mistake of parting with Substance for\nshadows. And the reason which moved Israel is still operative. As\nbefore, the psalmist traces their mad apostasy to forgetfulness of\nGod's deeds. The list of these is now increased by the addition of\nthose at the Red Sea. With every step new links were added to the\nchain that should have bound the recipients of so many mercies to\nGod. Therefore each new act of departure was of a darker hue of\nguilt, and drew on the apostates severer punishment, which also,\nrightly understood, was greater mercy.\n\n\"He said that He would annihilate them\" is quoted from Deut. ix. 25.\nMoses' intercession for the people is here most vividly represented\nunder the figure of a champion, who rushes into the breach by which\nthe enemy is about to pour into some beleaguered town, and with his\nown body closes the gap and arrests the assault (cf. Ezek. xxii. 30).\n\nThe fifth instance is the refusal to go up to the land, which\nfollowed on the report of the spies (vv. 24-27). These verses are\nfull of reminiscences of the Pentateuch and other parts of Scripture.\n\"The delightsome land\" (lit. \"land of desire\") is found in Jer. iii.\n19 and Zech. vii. 14. \"They despised\" is from Num. xiv. 31. \"They\nmurmured in their tents\" is from Deut. i. 27 (the only other place\nin which the word for murmuring occurs in this form). Lifting up\nthe hand is used, as here, not in the usual sense of threatening to\nstrike, but in that of swearing, in Exod. vi. 8, and the oath itself\nis given in Num. xiv. 28 _sqq._, while the expression \"lifted up My\nhand\" occurs in that context, in reference to God's original oath\nto the patriarch. The threat of exile (ver. 27) does not occur in\nNumbers, but is found as the punishment of apostasy in Lev. xxvi. 33\nand Deut. xxviii. 64. The verse, however, is found almost exactly\nin Ezek. xx. 23, with the exception that there \"scatter\" stands in\n_a_ instead of _make to fall_. The difference in the Hebrew is only\nin the final letter of the words, and the reading in Ezekiel should\nprobably be adopted here. So the LXX. and other ancient authorities\nand many of the moderns.\n\nThe sixth instance is the participation in the abominable Moabitish\nworship of \"Baal-Peor,\" recorded in Num. xxv. The peculiar phrase\n\"yoked themselves to\" is taken from that chapter, and seems to refer\nto \"the mystic, quasi-physical union supposed to exist between a god\nand his worshippers, and to be kept up by sacrificial meals\" (Cheyne).\nThese are called sacrifices of the dead, inasmuch as idols are dead\nin contrast with the living God. The judicial retribution inflicted\naccording to Divine command by the judges of Israel slaying \"every\none his man\" is here called a \"plague,\" as in the foundation passage,\nNum. xxv. 9. The word (lit. \"a stroke,\" _i.e._ from God) is usually\napplied to punitive sickness; but God smites when He bids men smite.\nBoth the narrative in Numbers and the psalm bring out vividly the\npicture of the indignant Phinehas springing to his feet from the midst\nof the passive crowd. He \"rose up,\" says the former; he \"stood up,\"\nsays the latter. And his deed is described in the psalm in relation to\nits solemn judicial character, without particularising its details.\nThe psalmist would partially veil both the sin and the horror of its\npunishment. Phinehas' javelin was a minister of God's justice, and\nthe death of the two culprits satisfied that justice and stayed the\nplague. The word rendered \"did judgment\" has that meaning only, and\nsuch renderings as _mediated_ or _appeased_ give the effect of the deed\nand not the description of it contained in the word. \"It was reckoned\nto him for righteousness,\" as Abraham's faith was (Gen. xv. 6). It was\nindeed an act which had its origin \"in the faithfulness that had its\nroot in faith, and which, for the sake of this its ultimate ground,\ngained him the acceptation of a righteous man, inasmuch as it proved\nhim to be such\" (Delitzsch, Eng. Trans.). He showed himself a true son\nof Abraham in the midst of these degenerate descendants, and it was\nthe same impulse of faith which drove his spear, and which filled the\npatriarch's heart when he gazed into the silent sky and saw in its\nnumberless lights the promise of his seed. Phinehas' reward was the\npermanence of the priesthood in his family.\n\nThe seventh instance is the rebellion at the waters of Meribah\n(Strife), in the fortieth year (Num. xx. 2-13). The chronological\norder is here set aside, for the events recorded in vv. 28-31\nfollowed those dealt with in vv. 32, 33. The reason is probably\nthat here Moses himself is hurried into sin, through the people's\nfaithlessness, and so a climax is reached. The leader, long-tried,\nfell at last, and was shut out from entering the land. That was in\nsome aspects the master-piece and triumph of the nation's sin. \"It\nfared ill with Moses on their account,\" as in Deut. i. 37, iii. 26,\n\"Jehovah was angry with me for your sakes.\" \"His Spirit,\" in ver.\n33, is best taken as meaning the Spirit of God. The people's sin is\nrepeatedly specified in the psalm as being rebellion against God,\nand the absence of a more distinct definition of the person referred\nto is like the expression in ver. 32, where \"indignation\" is that of\nGod, though His name is not mentioned. Isa. lxiii. 10 is a parallel\nto this clause, as other parts of the same chapter are to other parts\nof the psalm. The question which has been often raised, as to what\nwas Moses' sin, is solved in ver. 33_b_, which makes his passionate\nwords, wherein he lost his temper and arrogated to himself the power\nof fetching water from the rock, the head and front of his offending.\nThe psalmist has finished his melancholy catalogue of sins in the\nwilderness with this picture of the great leader dragged down by the\nprevailing tone, and he next turns to the sins done in the land.\n\nTwo flagrant instances are given--disobedience to the command to\nexterminate the inhabitants, and the adoption of their bloody worship.\nThe conquest of Canaan was partial; and, as often is the case, the\nconquerors were conquered and the invaders caught the manners of\nthe invaded. Intermarriage poured a large infusion of alien blood\ninto Israel; and the Canaanitish strain is perceptible to-day in the\nfellahin of the Holy Land. The proclivity to idolatry, which was\nnatural in that stage of the world's history, and was intensified\nby universal example, became more irresistible, when reinforced by\nkinship and neighbourhood, and the result foretold was realised--the\nidols \"became a snare\" (Judg. ii. 1-3). The poet dwells with special\nabhorrence on the hideous practice of human sacrifices, which exercised\nso strong and horrible a fascination over the inhabitants of Canaan.\nThe word in ver. 37 _demons_ is found only here and in Deut. xxxii. 17.\nThe above rendering is that of the LXX. Its literal meaning seems to\nbe \"lords.\" It is thus a synonym for \"Baalim.\" The epithet \"Shaddai\"\nexclusively applied to Jehovah may be compared.\n\nIn vv. 40-46 the whole history of Israel is summed up as alternating\nperiods of sin, punishment, deliverance, recurring in constantly\nrepeated cycles, in which the mystery of human obstinacy is set over\nagainst that of Divine long-suffering, and one knows not whether\nto wonder most at the incurable levity which learned nothing from\nexperience, or the inexhaustible long-suffering which wearied not in\ngiving wasted gifts. Chastisement and mercies were equally in vain.\nThe outcome of God's many deliverances was, \"they rebelled in their\ncounsel\"--_i.e._, went on their own stiff-necked way, instead of\nwaiting for and following God's merciful plan, which would have made\nthem secure and blessed. The end of such obstinacy of disobedience\ncan only be, \"they were brought low through their iniquity.\" The\npsalmist appears to be quoting Lev. xxvi. 39, \"they that are left of\nyou shall pine away in their iniquity\"; but he intentionally slightly\nalters the word, substituting one of nearly the same sound, but with\nthe meaning of _being brought low_ instead of _fading away_. To\nfollow one's own will is to secure humiliation and degradation. Sin\nweakens the true strength and darkens the true glory of men.\n\nIn vv. 44-46 the singer rises from these sad and stern thoughts\nto recreate his spirit with the contemplation of the patient\nloving-kindness of God. It persists through all man's sin and God's\nanger. The multitude of its manifestations far outnumbers that of our\nsins. His eye looks on Israel's distress with pity, and every sorrow\non which He looks He desires to remove. Calamities melt away beneath\nHis gaze, like damp-stains in sunlight. His merciful \"look\" swiftly\nfollows the afflicted man's cry. No voice acknowledges sin and calls\nfor help in vain. The covenant forgotten by men is none the less\nremembered by Him. The numberless number of His loving-kindnesses,\ngreater than that of all men's sins, secures forgiveness after the\nmost repeated transgressions. The law and measure of His \"repenting\"\nlie in the endless depths of His own heart. As the psalmist had sung\nat the beginning, that loving-kindness endures for ever; therefore\nnone of Israel's many sins went unchastised, and no chastisement\noutlasted their repentance. Solomon had prayed that God would \"give\nthem compassion before those who carried them captive\" (1 Kings viii.\n50); and thus has it been, as the psalmist joyfully sees. He may\nhave written when the Babylonian captivity was near an end, and such\ninstances as those of Daniel or Nehemiah may have been in his mind.\nIn any case, it is beautifully significant that a psalm, which tells\nthe doleful story of centuries of faithlessness, should end with\nGod's faithfulness to His promises, His inexhaustible forgiveness,\nand the multitude of His loving-kindnesses. Such will be the last\nresult of the world's history no less than of Israel's.\n\nThe psalm closes with the prayer in ver. 47, which shows that it was\nwritten in exile. It corresponds in part with the closing words of\nPsalm cv. Just as there the purpose of God's mercies to Israel was\nsaid to be that they might be thereby moved to keep His statutes,\nso here the psalmist hopes and vows that the issue of his people's\nrestoration will be thankfulness to God's holy name, and triumphant\npealing forth from ransomed lips of His high praises.\n\nVer. 48 is the concluding doxology of the Fourth Book. Some\ncommentators suppose it an integral part of the psalm, but it is more\nprobably an editorial addition.\n\n\n\n\n BOOK V.\n\n _PSALMS CVII.-CL._\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CVII.\n\n 1 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good,\n For His loving-kindness [endures] for ever.\n 2 Let the redeemed of Jehovah say [thus],\n Whom He has redeemed from the gripe of distress,\n 3 And gathered them from the lands,\n From east and west,\n From north and from [the] sea.\n\n 4 They wandered in the wilderness, in a waste of a way,\n An inhabited city they found not.\n 5 Hungry and thirsty,\n Their soul languished within them,\n 6 And they cried to Jehovah in their distress,\n From their troubles He delivered them,\n 7 And He led them by a straight way,\n To go to an inhabited city.\n 8 Let them give thanks to Jehovah [for] His loving-kindness,\n And His wonders to the sons of men.\n 9 For He satisfies the longing soul,\n And the hungry soul He fills with good.\n\n 10 Those who sat in darkness and in deepest gloom,\n Bound in affliction and iron,\n 11 Because they rebelled against the words of God,\n And the counsel of the Most High they rejected.\n 12 And He brought down their heart with sorrow,\n They stumbled, and helper there was none.\n 13 And they cried to Jehovah in their distress,\n From their troubles He saved them.\n 14 He brought them out from darkness and deepest gloom,\n And broke their bonds [asunder].\n 15 Let them give thanks to Jehovah [for] His loving-kindness,\n And His wonders to the sons of men.\n 16 For He broke the doors of brass,\n And the bars of iron He hewed in pieces.\n 17 Foolish men, because of the course of their transgression,\n And because of their iniquities, brought on themselves\n affliction.\n 18 All food their soul loathed,\n And they drew near to the gates of death.\n 19 And they cried to Jehovah in their distress,\n From their troubles He saved them.\n 20 He sent His word and healed them,\n And rescued them from their graves.\n 21 Let them give thanks to Jehovah [for] His loving-kindness\n And His wonders to the sons of men.\n 22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,\n And tell His works with joyful joy.\n\n 23 They who go down to the sea in ships,\n Who do business on the great waters,\n 24 They see the works of Jehovah,\n And His wonders in the foaming deep.\n 25 And He spoke and raised a stormy wind,\n Which rolled high the waves thereof.\n 26 They went up to the sky, they went down to the depths,\n Their soul melted in trouble.\n 27 They went round and round and staggered like one drunk,\n And all their wisdom forsook them [was swallowed up].\n 28 And they cried to Jehovah in their distress,\n From their trouble He brought them out.\n 29 He stilled the storm into a light air,\n And hushed were their waves.\n 30 And they were glad because these were quieted,\n And He brought them to the haven of their desire.\n 31 Let them give thanks to Jehovah [for] His loving-kindness\n And His wonders to the sons of men.\n 32 And let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people,\n And praise Him in the session of the elders.\n\n 33 He turned rivers into a wilderness,\n And water-springs into thirsty ground,\n 34 A land of fruit into a salt desert,\n For the wickedness of the dwellers in it.\n 35 He turned a wilderness into a pool of water,\n And a dry land into water-springs.\n 36 And He made the hungry to dwell there,\n And they found an inhabited city.\n 37 And they sowed fields and planted vineyards,\n And these yielded fruits of increase.\n 38 And He blessed them and they multiplied exceedingly,\n And their cattle He diminished not.\n\n 39 And they were diminished and brought low,\n By the pressure of ill and sorrow.\n 40 \"He pours contempt on princes,\n And makes them wander in a pathless waste.\"\n 41 He lifted the needy out of affliction,\n And made families like a flock.\n 42 The upright see it and rejoice,\n And all perverseness stops its mouth.\n\n 43 Whoso is wise, let him observe these things,\n And let them understand the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah.\n\n\nNotwithstanding the division of Books which separates Psalm cvii.\nfrom the two preceding, it is a pendant to these. The \"gathering\nfrom among the heathen\" prayed for in Psalm cvi. 47 has here come\nto pass (ver. 3). The thanksgiving which there is regarded as the\npurpose of that restoration is here rendered for it. Psalm cv. had\nfor theme God's mercies to the fathers. Psalm cvi. confessed the\nhereditary faithlessness of Israel and its chastisement by calamity\nand exile. Psalm cvii. begins with summoning Israel as \"the redeemed\nof Jehovah,\" to praise Him for His enduring loving-kindness in\nbringing them back from bondage, and then takes a wider flight, and\ncelebrates the loving Providence which delivers, in all varieties\nof peril and calamity, those who cry to God. Its vivid pictures of\ndistress and rescue begin, indeed, with one which may fairly be\nsupposed to have been suggested by the incidents of the return from\nexile; and the second of these, that of the liberated prisoners, is\npossibly coloured by similar reminiscences; but the great restoration\nis only the starting-point, and the bulk of the psalm goes further\nafield. Its instances of Divine deliverance, though cast into\nnarrative form, describe not specific acts, but God's uniform way\nof working. Wherever there are trouble and trust, there will be\ntriumph and praise. The psalmist is propounding a partial solution\nof the old problem--the existence of pain and sorrow. They come as\nchastisements. If terror or misery drive men to God, God answers,\nand deliverance is assured, from which fuller-toned praise should\nspring. It is by no means a complete vindication of Providence, and\nexperience does not bear out the assumption of uniform answers to\nprayers for deliverance from external calamities, which was more\nwarranted before Christ than it is now; but the essence of the\npsalmist's faith is ever true--that God hears the cry of a man driven\nto cry by crushing burdens, and will give him strength to bear and\nprofit by them, even if He does not take them away.\n\nThe psalm passes before us a series of pictures, all alike in the\ndisposition of their parts, and selected from the sad abundance\nof troubles which attack humanity. Travellers who have lost their\nway, captives, sick men, storm-tossed sailors, make a strangely\nmiscellaneous company, the very unlikenesses of which suggest the\nwidth of the ocean of human misery. The artistic regularity of\nstructure in all the four strophes relating to these cannot escape\nnotice. But it is more than artistic. Whatever be a man's trouble,\nthere is but one way out of it--to cry to God. That way is never\nvain. Always deliverance comes, and always the obligation of praise\nlies on the \"redeemed of Jehovah.\"\n\nWith ver. 33 the psalm changes its structure. The refrains, which came\nin so strikingly in the preceding strophes, are dropped. The complete\npictures give place to mere outline sketches. These diversities have\nsuggested to some that vv. 33-43 are an excrescence; but they have some\npoints of connection with the preceding, such as the peculiar phrase\nfor \"inhabited city\" (vv. 4, 5, 36), \"hungry\" (vv. 5, 36), and the\nfondness for references to Isaiah and Job. In these latter verses the\npsalmist does not describe deliverances from peril or pain, but the\nsudden alternations effected by Providence on lands and men, which pass\nfrom fertility and prosperity to barrenness and trouble, and again from\nthese to their opposites. Loving-kindness, which hears and rescues, is\nthe theme of the first part; loving-kindness, which \"changes all things\nand is itself unchanged,\" is the theme of the second. Both converge\non the final thought (ver. 43), that the observance of God's ways is\nthe part of true wisdom, and will win the clear perception of the\nall-embracing \"loving-kindness of Jehovah.\"\n\nNew mercies give new meaning to old praises. Fresh outpourings of\nthankfulness willingly run in well-worn channels. The children can\nrepeat the fathers' doxology, and words hallowed by having borne the\ngratitude of many generations are the best vehicles for to-day's\npraise. Therefore, the psalm begins with venerable words, which it\nbids the recipients of God's last great mercy ring out once more. They\nwho have yesterday been \"redeemed from captivity\" have proof that \"His\nloving-kindness endures for ever,\" since it has come down to them\nthrough centuries. The characteristic fondness for quotations, which\nmarks the psalm, is in full force in the three introductory verses.\nVer. 1 is, of course, quoted from several psalms. \"The redeemed of\nJehovah\" is from Isa. lxii. 12. \"Gathered out of the lands\" looks back\nto Psalm cvi. 47, and to many prophetic passages. The word rendered\nabove \"distress\" may mean _oppressor_, and is frequently rendered so\nhere, which rendering fits better the preceding word \"hand.\" But the\nrecurrence of the same word in the subsequent refrains (vv. 6, 13,\n19, 28) makes the rendering _distress_ preferable here. To ascribe to\n_distress_ a \"hand\" is poetical personification, or the latter word\nmay be taken in a somewhat wider sense as equivalent to a grasp or\ngrip, as above. The return from Babylon is evidently in the poet's\nthoughts, but he widens it out into a restoration from every quarter.\nHis enumeration of the points from which the exiles flock is irregular,\nin that he says \"from north and from the _sea_,\" which always means\nthe Mediterranean, and stands for the west. That quarter has, however,\nalready been mentioned, and, therefore, it has been supposed that\nsea here means, abnormally, the Red Sea, or \"the southern portion\nof the Mediterranean.\" A textual alteration has also been proposed,\nwhich, by the addition of two letters to the word for _sea_, gives\nthat for _south_. This reading would complete the enumeration of\ncardinal points; but possibly the psalmist is quoting Isa. xlix. 12,\nwhere the same phrase occurs, and the _north_ is set over against the\nsea--_i.e._, the west. The slight irregularity does not interfere with\nthe picture of the streams of returning exiles from every quarter.\n\nThe first scene, that of a caravan lost in a desert, is probably\nsuggested by the previous reference to the return of the \"redeemed\nof Jehovah,\" but is not to be taken as referring only to that. It\nis a perfectly general sketch of a frequent incident of travel.\nIt is a remarkable trace of a state of society very unlike modern\nlife, that two of the four instances of \"distress\" are due to the\nperils of journeying. By land and by sea men took their lives in\ntheir hands, when they left their homes. Two points are signalised\nin this description,--the first, the loss of the track; the second,\nthe wanderers' hunger and thirst. \"A waste of a way\" is a singular\nexpression, which has suggested various unnecessary textual\nemendations. It is like \"a wild ass of a man\" (Gen. xvi. 12), which\nseveral commentators quote as a parallel, and means a way which is\ndesert (compare Acts viii. 26). The bewildered, devious march leads\nnowhither. Vainly the travellers look for some elevation,\n\n \"From whence the lightened spirit sees\n That shady city of Palm Trees.\"\n\nNo place where men dwell appears in the wide expanse of pathless\nwilderness. The psalmist does not think of a particular city, but\nof any inhabited spot, where rest and shelter might be found. The\nwater-skins are empty; food is finished; hopelessness follows\nphysical exhaustion, and gloom wraps their souls; for ver. 5_b_,\nliterally translated, is, \"Their soul covered itself\"--_i.e._, with\ndespondency (Psalm lxxvii. 3).\n\nThe picture is not an allegory or a parable, but a transcript of\na common fact. Still, one can scarcely help seeing in it a vivid\nrepresentation of the inmost reality of a life apart from God.\nSuch a life ever strays from the right road. \"The labour of the\nfoolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to\ncome to the city.\" The deepest needs of the soul are unsatisfied;\nand however outward good abounds, gnawing hunger and fierce thirst\ntorment at times; and however mirth and success seem to smile, joys\nare superficial, and but mask a central sadness, as vineyards which\nclothe the outside of a volcano and lie above sulphurous fires.\n\nThe travellers are driven to God by their \"distress.\" Happy they\nwho, when lost in a desert, bethink themselves of the only Guide.\nHe does not reject the cry which is forced out by the pressure of\ncalamity; but, as the structure of vv. 6, 7, shows, His answer is\nsimultaneous with the appeal to Him, and it is complete, as well as\nimmediate. The track appears as suddenly as it had faded. God Himself\ngoes at the head of the march. The path is straight as an arrow's\nflight, and soon they are in the city.\n\nVer. 6 is the first instance of the refrain, which, in each of the\nfour pictures, is followed by a verse (or, in the last of the four,\nby two verses) descriptive of the act of deliverance, which again is\nfollowed by the second refrain, calling on those who have experienced\nsuch a mercy to thank Jehovah. This is followed in the first two\ngroups by a verse reiterating the reason for praise--namely, the\ndeliverance just granted; and, in the last two, by a verse expanding\nthe summons. Various may be the forms of need. But the supply of them\nall is one, and the way to get it is one, and one is the experience\nof the suppliants, and one should be their praise. Life's diversities\nhave underlying them identity of soul's wants. Waiters on God have\nvery different outward fortunes, but the broad outlines of their\ninward history are identical. This is the law of His providence--they\ncry, He delivers. This should be the harvest from His sowing of\nbenefits--\"Let them give thanks to Jehovah.\" Some would translate\nver. 8, \"Let them thankfully confess to Jehovah His loving-kindness,\nand to the children of men [confess] His wonders\"; but the usual\nrendering as above is better, as not introducing a thought which,\nhowever important, is scarcely in the psalmist's view here, and as\npreserving the great thought of the psalm--namely, that of God's\nprovidence to all mankind.\n\nThe second scene, that of captives, probably retains some allusion to\nBabylon, though an even fainter one than in the preceding strophe. It\nhas several quotations and references to Isaiah, especially to the\nlatter half (Isa. xl.-lxvi.). The deliverance is described in ver. 16\nin words borrowed from the prophecy as to Cyrus, the instrument of\nIsrael's restoration (Isa. xlv. 2). The gloom of the prison-house is\ndescribed in language closely resembling Isa. xlii. 7, xlix. 9. The\ncombination of \"darkness and the shade of deepest gloom\" is found in\nIsa. ix. 2. The cause of the captivity described is rebellion against\nGod's counsel and word. These things point to Israel's Babylonian\nbondage; but the picture in the psalm draws its colour rather than its\nsubject from that event, and is quite general. The psalmist thinks that\nsuch bondage, and deliverance on repentance and prayer, are standing\nfacts in Providence, both as regards nations and individuals. One may\nsee, too, a certain parabolic aspect hinted at, as if the poet would\nhave us catch a half-revealed intention to present calamity of any\nkind under this image of captivity. We note the slipping in of words\nthat are not required for the picture, as when the fetters are said\nto be \"affliction\" as well as \"iron.\" Ver. 12, too, is not specially\nappropriate to the condition of prisoners; persons in fetters and\ngloom do not _stumble_, for they do not move. There may, therefore,\nbe a half-glance at the parabolic aspect of captivity, such as poetic\nimagination, and especially Oriental poetry, loves. At most it is a\ndelicate suggestion, shyly hiding while it shows itself, and made too\nmuch of if drawn out in prosaic exposition.\n\nWe may perceive also the allegorical pertinence of this second\npicture, though we do not suppose that the singer intended such a\nuse. For is not godless life ever bondage? and is not rebellion\nagainst God the sure cause of falling under a harsher dominion? and\ndoes He not listen to the cry of a soul that feels the slavery of\nsubjection to self and sin? and is not true enlargement found in\nHis free service? and does He not give power to break the strongest\nchains of habit? The synagogue at Nazareth, where the carpenter's\nSon stood up to read and found the place where it was written, \"The\nSpirit of the Lord is upon Me. . . . He hath sent Me to proclaim\nliberty to the captives,\" warrants the symbolical use of the\npsalmist's imagery, which is, as we have seen, largely influenced by\nthe prophet whose words Jesus quoted. The first scene taught that\ndevout hearts never lack guidance from God. The second adds to their\nblessings freedom, the true liberty which comes with submission and\nacceptance of His law.\n\nSickness, which yields the third type of suffering, is a commoner\nexperience than the two preceding. The picture is lightly sketched,\nemphasis being laid on the cause of the sickness, which is sin,\nin accordance with the prevailing view in the Old Testament. The\npsalmist introduces the persons of whom he is to speak by the\nstrongly condemnatory term \"foolish ones,\" which refers not to\nintellectual feebleness, but to moral perversity. All sin is folly.\nNothing is so insane as to do wrong. An ingenious correction has\nbeen suggested, and is accepted by Cheyne in the wake of Dyserinck,\nGraetz, and others, by which \"sick men\" is read for \"foolish men.\"\nBut it does not appear to the present writer to be so impossible as\nCheyne thinks to \"conceive the psalmist introducing a fresh tableau\nby an ethical term such as fools.\" The whole verse (17) lays more\nstress on the sin than on the sickness, and the initial designation\nof the sufferers as \"fools\" is quite in harmony with its tone. They\nare habitual evil-doers, as is expressed by the weighty expression\n\"the way (or course) of their transgression.\" Not by one or two\nbreaches of moral law, but by inveterate, customary sins, men ruin\ntheir physical health. So the psalmist uses a form of the verb in\nver. 17_b_ which expresses that the sinner drags down his punishment\nwith his own hands. That is, of course, eminently true in such gross\nforms of sin as sow to the flesh, and of the flesh reap corruption.\nBut it is no less really true of all transgression, since all brings\nsickness to the soul. Ver. 18 is apparently quoted from Job xxxiii.\n20-22. It paints with impressive simplicity the failing appetite and\nconsequent ebbing strength. The grim portals, of which Death keeps\nthe keys, have all but received the sick men; but, before they pass\ninto their shadow, they cry to Jehovah, and, like the other men in\ndistress, they too are heard, feeble as their sick voice may be.\nThe manner of their deliverance is strikingly portrayed. \"He sent\nHis word and healed them.\" As in Psalm cv. 19, God's word is almost\npersonified. It is the channel of the Divine power. God's uttered\nwill has power on material things. It is the same great thought as is\nexpressed in \"He spake and it was done.\" The psalmist did not know\nthe Christian teaching that the personal Word of God is the agent\nof all the Divine energy in the realm of nature and of history, and\nthat a far deeper sense than that which he attached to them would one\nday be found in his words, when the Incarnate Word was manifested,\nas Himself bearing and bearing away the sicknesses of humanity,\nand rescuing not only the dying from going down to the grave, but\nbringing up the dead who had long lain there. God, who is Guide and\nEmancipator, is also Healer and Life-giver, and He is all these in\nthe Word, which has become flesh, and dwelt and dwells among men.\n\nAnother travel-scene follows. The storm at sea is painted as a\nlandsman would do it; but a landsman who had seen, from a safe shore,\nwhat he so vividly describes. He is impressed with the strange things\nthat the bold men who venture to sea must meet, away out there\nbeyond the point where sea and sky touch. With sure poetic instinct,\nhe spends no time on trivial details, but dashes on his canvas the\nsalient features of the tempest,--the sudden springing up of the\ngale; the swift response of the waves rolling high, with new force in\ntheir mass and a new voice in their breaking; the pitching craft, now\non the crest, now in the trough; the terror of the helpless crew; the\nloss of steering power; the heavy rolling of the unmanageable, clumsy\nship; and the desperation of the sailors, whose wisdom or skill was\n\"swallowed up,\" or came to nothing.\n\nTheir cry to Jehovah was heard above the shriek of the storm, and\nthe tempest fell as suddenly as it rose. The description of the\ndeliverance is extended beyond the normal single verse, just as that\nof the peril had been prolonged. It comes like a benediction after\nthe hurly-burly of the gale. How gently the words echo the softness\nof the light air into which it has died down, and the music which\nthe wavelets make as they lap against the ship's sides! With what\nsympathy the poet thinks of the glad hearts on board, and of their\nreaching the safe harbour, for which they had longed when they\nthought they would never see it more! Surely it is a permissible\napplication of these lovely words to read into them the Christian\nhope of preservation amid life's tempests,--\n\n \"Safe into the haven guide,\n O receive my soul at last.\"\n\nGod the guide, the emancipator, the healer, is also the stiller of the\nstorm, and they who cry to Him from the unquiet sea will reach the\nstable shore. \"And so it came to pass, they all came safe to land.\"\n\nAs already observed, the tone changes with ver. 33, from which point\nonwards the psalmist adduces instances of Providential working of a\ndifferent kind from those in the four vivid pictures preceding, and\ndrops the refrains. In vv. 33-38 he describes a double change wrought\non a land. The barrenness which blasts fertile soil is painted in\nlanguage largely borrowed from Isaiah. \"Ver. 33_a_ recalls Isa. l.\n2_b_; ver. 33_b_ is like Isa. xxxv. 7_a_\" (Delitzsch). The opposite\nchange of desert into fertile ground is pictured as in Isa. xli. 18.\nThe references in ver. 36 to \"the hungry\" and to \"an inhabited city\"\nconnect with the previous part of the psalm, and are against the\nsupposition that the latter half is not originally part of it. The\nincidents described refer to no particular instance, but are as general\nas those of the former part. Many a land, which has been blasted by the\nvices of its inhabitants, has been transformed into a garden by new\nsettlers. \"Where the Turks' horse has trod, no grass will grow.\"\n\nVer. 39 introduces the reverse, which often befalls prosperous\ncommunities, especially in times when it is dangerous to seem rich for\nfear of rapacious rulers. \"The pressure\" referred to in ver. 39 is\nthe oppression of such. If so, ver. 40, which is quoted from Job xii.\n21, 24, though introduced abruptly, does not disturb the sequence of\nthought. It grandly paints the judgment of God on such robber-princes,\nwho are hunted from their seats by popular execration, and have to hide\nthemselves in the pathless waste, from which those who cry to God were\ndelivered (vv. 41_b_ and 4_a_). On the other hand, the oppressed are\nlifted, as by His strong arm, out of the depths and set on high, like\na man perched safely on some crag above high-water mark. Prosperity\nreturning is followed by large increase and happy, peaceful family\nlife, the chief good of man on earth. The outcome of the various\nmethods of God's unvarying purpose is that all which is good is glad,\nand all which is evil is struck dumb. The two clauses of ver. 42, which\ndescribe this double effect, are quoted from two passages in Job--_a_\nfrom xxii. 19, and _b_ from v. 16.\n\nThe psalm began with hymning the enduring loving-kindness of Jehovah.\nIt ends with a call to all who would be wise to give heed to the\nvarious dealings of God, as exemplified in the specimens chosen in it,\nthat they may comprehend how in all these one purpose rules, and all\nare examples of the manifold loving-kindnesses of Jehovah. This closing\nnote is an echo of the last words of Hosea's prophecy. It is the broad\ntruth which all thoughtful observance of Providence brings home to a\nman, notwithstanding many mysteries and apparent contradictions. \"All\nthings work together for good to them that love God\"; and the more they\nlove Him, the more clearly will they see, and the more happily will\nthey feel, that so it is. How can a man contemplate the painful riddle\nof the world, and keep his sanity, without that faith? He who has it\nfor his faith will have it for his experience.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CVIII.\n\n 1 Steadfast is my heart, O God,\n I will sing and harp, yea, my glory [shall sing].\n 2 Awake, harp and lute,\n I will wake the dawn.\n 3 I will give Thee thanks among the peoples, Jehovah,\n And I will harp to Thee among the nations.\n 4 For great above the heavens is Thy loving-kindness,\n And to the clouds Thy troth.\n 5 Exalt Thyself above the heavens, O God,\n And above all the earth Thy glory.\n\n 6 That Thy beloved ones may be delivered,\n Save with Thy right hand and answer me.\n 7 God has spoken in His holiness,\n I will divide Shechem and measure out the valley of Succoth.\n 8 Mine is Gilead, mine Manasseh,\n And Ephraim is the strength of my head,\n Judah my baton of command.\n 9 Moab is my wash-basin,\n Upon Edom will I throw my shoe,\n Over Philistia will I shout aloud.\n 10 Who will bring me into the fortified city?\n Who has guided me into Edom?\n 11 Hast not Thou, O God, cast us off,\n And goest not out, O God, with our hosts?\n 12 Give us help from trouble,\n For vain is help of man.\n 13 In God we shall do prowess,\n And He, He will tread down our oppressors.\n\n\nTwo fragments of Davidic psalms are here tacked together with\nslight variations. Vv. 1-5 are from Psalm lvii. 7-11; and vv. 6-13\nfrom Psalm lx. 5-12. The return from Babylon would be an appropriate\noccasion for thus revivifying ancient words. We have seen in\npreceding psalms that Israel's past drew the thoughts of the singers\nof that period, and the conjecture may be hazarded that the recent\ndeliverance suggested to some devout man, whose mind was steeped\nin the songs of former days, the closeness with which old strains\nsuited new joys. If so, there is pathetic meaning in the summons to\nthe \"psaltery and harp,\" which had hung silent on the willows of\nBabylon so long, to wake their ancient minstrelsy once more, as well\nas exultant confidence that the God who had led David to victory\nstill leads His people. The hopes of conquest in the second part, the\nconsciousness that while much has been achieved by God's help, much\nstill remains to be won before Israel can sit secure, the bar or two\nin the minor key in ver. 11, which heighten the exultation of the\nrest of the song, and the cry for help against adversaries too strong\nfor Israel's unassisted might, are all appropriate to the early\nstages of the return.\n\nThe variations from the original psalms are of slight moment. In ver.\n1 the reduplication of the clause \"Steadfast is my heart\" is omitted,\nand \"my glory\" is detached from ver. 2, where it stands in Psalm\nlvii., and is made a second subject, equivalent to \"I.\" In ver. 3_a_\n_Jehovah_ is substituted for _Lord_, and the copula \"and\" prefixed\nto _b_. Ver. 4 is not improved by the change of \"unto the heavens\"\nto \"above the heavens,\" for an anti-climax is produced by following\n\"_above_ the heavens\" with \"_unto_ the clouds.\"\n\nIn the second part, the only change affecting the sense is in ver. 9,\nwhere the summons to Philistia to \"shout aloud because of me,\" which\nis probably meant in sarcasm, is transformed into the plain expression\nof triumph, \"Over Philistia will I shout aloud.\" The other changes are\n\"me\" for \"us\" in ver. 6, the omission of \"and\" before \"mine Manasseh\"\nin ver. 8, the substitution of a more usual synonym for \"fenced\" in\nver. 10, and the omission of the pronoun \"Thou\" in ver. 11.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CIX.\n\n 1 God of my praise, be not silent,\n 2 For a wicked man's mouth and a mouth of deceit have they opened\n on me.\n 3 And with words of hate have they compassed me,\n And have fought [against] me causelessly.\n 4 In return for my love, they have been my adversaries,\n But I--I was [all] prayer.\n 5 And they have laid upon me evil in return for good,\n And hate in return for my love.\n\n 6 Set in office over him a wicked man,\n And may an adversary stand at his right hand!\n 7 When he is judged, let him go out guilty,\n And let his prayer be [counted] for sin!\n 8 Be his days few,\n His office may another take!\n 9 Be his children orphans,\n And his wife a widow!\n 10 And may his children wander up and down and beg,\n May they seek [bread] [far] from the ruins [of their house]!\n 11 May a creditor get into his nets all that he has,\n And may strangers plunder [the fruit of] his toil!\n 12 May there be no one to continue loving-kindness to him,\n And may there be no one that shows favour to his orphans!\n 13 May his posterity be cut off,\n In the next generation may their name be blotted out!\n 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before Jehovah,\n And the sin of his mother not be blotted out!\n 15 May they be before Jehovah continually,\n And may He cut off their memory from the earth!\n\n 16 Because he remembered not to show loving-kindness,\n And persecuted the afflicted and poor man,\n And the heart-stricken, to do him to death.\n 17 And he loved cursing--and it came on him,\n And delighted not in blessing--and it remained far from him.\n 18 And he clothed himself [with] cursing like his garment,\n And it came like water into his inwards,\n And like oil into his bones.\n 19 May it be to him like a robe [with which] he covers himself,\n And for a girdle [which] he continually girds on!\n 20 Be this the wage of my adversaries from Jehovah,\n And of those who speak evil against my soul!\n\n 21 But Thou, Jehovah, Lord, deal with me for Thy name's sake,\n Because Thy loving-kindness is good, deliver me,\n 22 Because afflicted and poor am I,\n And my heart is pierced within me.\n 23 Like a shadow when it stretches out am I gone,\n I am shaken out, like the locust.\n 24 My knees give out through fasting,\n And my flesh falls away from fatness.\n 25 And I--I have become a reproach to them,\n They see me, they nod their head.\n 26 Help me, Jehovah, my God,\n Save me, according to Thy loving-kindness:\n 27 That they may know that this is Thy hand,\n Thou--Thou, Jehovah, hast done it.\n 28 They--they curse, but Thou--Thou dost bless;\n They arose, and were put to shame,\n And Thy servant rejoices.\n 29 My adversaries clothe themselves [with] disgrace,\n And cover themselves like a mantle with their shame.\n 30 I will praise Jehovah greatly with my mouth,\n And amidst many will I praise Him.\n 31 For He stands at the right hand of the poor,\n To save him from those that judge his soul.\n\n\nThis is the last and the most terrible of the imprecatory psalms.\nIts central portion (vv. 6-20) consists of a series of wishes,\naddressed to God, for the heaping of all miseries on the heads of\none \"adversary\" and of all his kith and kin. These maledictions are\nenclosed in prayers, which make the most striking contrast to them;\nvv. 1-5 being the plaint of a loving soul, shrinkingly conscious of\nan atmosphere of hatred, and appealing gently to God; while vv. 21-31\nexpatiate in the presentation to Him of the suppliant's feebleness\nand cries for deliverance, but barely touch on the wished-for\nrequital of enemies. The combination of devout meekness and trust\nwith the fiery imprecations in the core of the psalm is startling\nto Christian consciousness, and calls for an effort of \"historical\nimagination\" to deal with it fairly. The attempts to attenuate the\ndifficulty, either by making out that the wishes are not wishes,\nbut prophecies of the fate of evil-doers, or that vv. 6-20 are the\npsalmist's quotation of his enemies' wishes about him, or that the\nwhole is Messianic prediction of the fate of Judas or of the enemies\nof the Christ, are too obviously makeshifts. It is far better to\nrecognise the discordance between the temper of the psalmist and that\nenjoined by Christ than to try to cover it over. Our Lord Himself has\nsignalised the difference between His teaching and that addressed\nto \"them of old time\" on the very point of forgiveness of enemies,\nand we are but following His guidance when we recognise that the\npsalmist's mood is distinctly inferior to that which has now become\nthe law for devout men.\n\nDivine retribution for evil was the truth of the Old Testament, as\nforgiveness is that of the New. The conflict between God's kingdom\nand its enemies was being keenly and perpetually waged, in most\nliteral fashion. Devout men could not but long for the triumph of\nthat with which all good was associated, and therefore for the\ndefeat and destruction of its opposite. For no private injuries,\nor for these only in so far as the suffering singer is a member of\nthe community which represents God's cause, does he ask the descent\nof God's vengeance, but for the insults and hurts inflicted on\nrighteousness. The form of these maledictions belongs to a lower\nstage of revelation; the substance of them, considered as passionate\ndesires for the destruction of evil, burning zeal for the triumph of\nTruth, which is God's cause, and unquenchable faith that He is just,\nis a part of Christian perfection.\n\nThe usual variety of conjectures as to authorship exists. Delitzsch\nhesitatingly accepts the superscription as correct in assigning the\npsalm to David. Olshausen, as is his custom, says, \"Maccabean\"; Cheyne\ninclines to \"the time of Nehemiah (in which case the enemy might be\nSanballat), or even perhaps the close of the Persian age\" (\"Orig. of\nPsalt.,\" 65). He thinks that the \"magnanimous David\" could not have\nuttered \"these laboured imprecations,\" and that the speaker is \"not a\nbrave and bold warrior, but a sensitive poet.\" Might he not be both?\n\nTo address God as the \"God of my praise,\" even at such a moment of\ndejection, is a triumph of faith. The name recalls to the psalmist past\nmercies, and expresses his confidence that he will still have cause to\nextol his Deliverer, while it also pleads with God what He has done as\na reason for doing the like in new circumstances of need. The suppliant\nspeaks in praise and prayer; he asks God to speak in acts of rescuing\npower. A praying man cannot have a dumb God. And His mighty Voice,\nwhich hushes all others and sets His suppliants free from fears and\nfoes, is all the more longed for and required, because of those cruel\nvoices that yelp and snarl round the psalmist. The contrast between the\nthree utterances--his, God's, and his enemies'--is most vivid. The foes\nhave come at him with open mouths. \"A wicked man's mouth\" would read,\nby a slight alteration, \"a mouth of wickedness\"; but the recurrence of\nthe word \"wicked man\" in ver. 6 seems to look back to this verse, and\nto make the rendering above probable. Lies and hatred ring the psalmist\nround, but his conscience is clear. \"They have hated me without a\ncause\" is the experience of this ancient sufferer for righteousness'\nsake, as of the Prince of all such. This singer, who is charged with\npouring out a flood of \"unpurified passion,\" had, at any rate, striven\nto win over hatred by meekness; and if he is bitter, it is the pain\nand bitterness of love flung back with contumely, and only serving to\nexacerbate enmity. Nor had he met with evil the first returns of evil\nfor good, but, as he says, \"I was [all] prayer\" (compare Psalm cxx. 7,\n\"I am--peace\"). Repelled, his whole being turned to God, and in calm\ncommunion with Him found defence and repose. But his patient meekness\navailed nothing, for his foes still \"laid evil\" on him in return for\ngood. The prayer is a short record of a long martyrdom. Many a foiled\nattempt of patient love preceded the psalm. Not till the other way had\nbeen tried long enough to show that malignity was beyond the reach of\nconciliation did the psalmist appeal to the God of recompenses. Let\nthat be remembered in judging the next part of the psalm.\n\nThe terrible maledictions (vv. 6-20) need little commentary. They\nmay be left in all their awfulness, which is neither to be extenuated\nnor degraded into an outburst of fierce personal vindictiveness. It\nis something far more noble than that. These terrible verses are\nprophecy, but they are prayers too; and prayers which can only be\naccounted for by remembering the spirit of the old dispensation.\nThey are the more intense, because they are launched against an\nindividual, probably the chief among the foes. In vv. 6-15 we have\nimprecations pure and simple, and it is noteworthy that so large a\npart of these verses refers to the family of the evil-doer. In vv.\n16-20 the grounds of the wished-for destruction are laid in the\nsinner's perverted choice, and the automatic action of sin working\nits own punishment is vividly set forth.\n\nVv. 6-8 are best taken in close connection, as representing the\ntrial and condemnation of the object of the psalmist's imprecations,\nbefore a tribunal. He prays that the man may be haled before a wicked\njudge. The word rendered \"set\" is the root from which that rendered\n\"office\" in ver. 8 comes, and here means to set in a position of\nauthority--_i.e._, in a judicial one. His judge is to be \"a wicked\nman\" like himself, for such have no mercy on each other. An accuser\nis to stand at his right hand. The word rendered _adversary_ (the\nverb cognate with which is used in ver. 4) is \"Satan\"; but the\ngeneral meaning of hostile accuser is to be preferred here. With\nsuch a judge and prosecutor the issue of the cause is certain--\"May\nhe go out [from the judgment-hall] guilty.\" A more terrible petition\nfollows, which is best taken in its most terrible sense. The\ncondemned man cries for mercy, not to his earthly judge, but to God,\nand the psalmist can ask that the last despairing cry to Heaven may\nbe unanswered, and even counted sin. It could only be so, if the\nheart that framed it was still an evil heart, despairing, indeed, but\nobdurate. Then comes the end: the sentence is executed. The criminal\ndies, and his office falls to another; his wife is a widow, and his\nchildren fatherless. This view of the connection gives unity to\nwhat is otherwise a mere heap of unconnected maledictions. It also\nbrings out more clearly that the psalmist is seeking not merely the\ngratification of private animosity, but the vindication of public\njustice, even if ministered by an unjust judge. Peter's quotation of\nver. 8_b_ in reference to Judas (Acts i. 20) does not involve the\nMessianic character of the psalm.\n\nVv. 10-15 extend the maledictions to the enemy's children and\nparents, in accordance with the ancient strong sense of family\nsolidarity, which was often expressed in practice by visiting\nthe kindred of a convicted criminal with ruin, and levelling his\nhouse with the ground. The psalmist wishes these consequences to\nfall in all their cruel severity, and pictures the children as\nvagabonds, driven from the desolation which had, in happier days,\nbeen their home, and seeking a scanty subsistence among strangers.\nThe imprecations of ver. 11 at first sight seem to hark back to an\nearlier stage in the wicked man's career, contemplating him as still\nin life. But the wish that his wealth may be \"ensnared\" by creditors\nand stolen by strangers is quite appropriate as a consequence of his\nsentence and execution; and the prayer in ver. 12, that there may\nbe no one to \"draw out loving-kindness\" to him, is probably best\nexplained by the parallel clause. A dead man lives a quasi-life in\nhis children, and what is done to them is a prolongation of what\nwas done to him. Thus helpless, beggars, homeless, and plundered,\n\"the seed of evil-doers\" would naturally be short-lived, and the\npsalmist desires that they may be cut off, and the world freed from\nan evil race. His wishes go backwards too, and reach to the previous\nas well as the subsequent generation. The foe had come of a bad\nstock--parents, son, and son's sons are to be involved in a common\ndoom, because partakers of a common sin. The special reason for\nthe terrible desire that the iniquity of his father and mother may\nnever be blotted out seems to be, the desire that the accumulated\nconsequences of hereditary sin may fall on the heads of the third\ngeneration--a dread wish, which experience shows is often tragically\nfulfilled, even when the sufferers are far less guilty than their\nancestors. \"Father, forgive them\" is the strongest conceivable\ncontrast to these awful prayers. But the psalmist's petition implies\nthat the sins in question were unrepented sins, and is, in fact, a\ncry that, as such, they should be requited in the \"cutting off the\nmemory\" of such a brood of evil-doers \"from the earth.\"\n\nIn ver. 16 a new turn of thought begins, which is pursued till\nver. 20--namely, that of the self-retributive action of a perverted\nchoice of evil. \"He remembered not\" to be gracious to him who needed\ncompassion; therefore it is just that he should not be remembered\non earth, and that his sin should be remembered in heaven. He\ndeliberately chose cursing rather than blessing as his attitude and\nact towards others; therefore cursing comes to him and blessing\nremains far from him, as others' attitude and act to him. The world\nis a mirror which, on the whole, gives back the smile or the frown\nwhich we present to it. Though the psalmist has complained that\nhe had loved and been hated in return, he does not doubt that, in\ngeneral, the curser is cursed back again and the blesser blessed.\nOutwardly and inwardly, the man is wrapped in and saturated with\n\"cursing.\" Like a robe or a girdle, it encompasses him; like a\ndraught of water, it passes into his inmost nature; like anointing\noil oozing into the bones, it steals into every corner of his soul.\nHis own doings come back to poison him. The kick of the gun which\nhe fires is sure to hurt his own shoulder, and it is better to be\nin front of the muzzle than behind the trigger. The last word of\nthese maledictions is not only a wish, but a declaration of the Law\nof Divine Retribution. The psalmist could not have found it in his\nheart to pray such a prayer unless he had been sure that Jehovah paid\nmen's wages punctually in full, and that conviction is the kernel of\nhis awful words. He is equally sure that his cause is God's--because\nhe is sure that God's cause is his, and that he suffers for\nrighteousness and for the righteous Jehovah.\n\nThe final part (vv. 21-31) returns to lowly, sad petitions for\ndeliverance, of the kind common to many psalms. Very pathetically, and\nas with a tightening of his grasp, does the singer call on his helper\nby the double name \"Jehovah, Lord,\" and plead all the pleas with God\nwhich are hived in these names. The prayer in ver. 21_b_ resembles that\nin Psalm lxix. 16, another of the psalms of imprecation. The image of\nthe long-drawn-out shadow recurs in Psalm cii. 11. The word rendered\n\"am I gone\" occurs here only, and implies compulsory departure. The\nsame idea of external force hurrying one out of life is picturesquely\npresented in the parallel clause. \"I am shaken out,\" as a thing which a\nman wishes to get rid of is shaken out of the folds of a garment. The\npsalmist thinks of himself as being whirled away, helpless, as a swarm\nof locusts blown into the sea. The physical feebleness in ver. 24 is\nprobably to be taken literally, as descriptive of the havoc wrought\non him by his persecutions and trouble of soul, but may be, as often,\nmetaphor for that trouble itself.\n\nThe expression in ver. 24_b_ rendered above \"_falls away_ from\nfatness\" is literally \"has become a liar,\" or faithless, which is\nprobably a picturesque way of saying that the psalmist's flesh had, as\nit were, become a renegade from its former well-nourished condition,\nand was emaciated by his sorrow. Others would keep the literal meaning\nof the word rendered \"fatness\"--_i.e._, oil--and translate \"My flesh\nhas shrunk up for lack of oil\" (so Baethgen and Kay).\n\nOne more glance at the enemies, now again regarded as many, and one\nmore flash of confidence that his prayer is heard, close the psalm.\nOnce again God is invoked by His name Jehovah, and the suppliant\npresses close to Him as \"my God\"; once again he casts himself on that\nloving-kindness, whose measure is wider than his thoughts and will\nensure him larger answers than his desires; once again he builds\nall his hope on it, and pleads no claims of his own. He longs for\npersonal deliverance; but not only for personal ends, but rather\nthat it may be an undeniable manifestation of Jehovah's power. That\nis a high range of feeling which subordinates self to God even while\nlonging for deliverance, and wishes more that He should be glorified\nthan that self should be blessed. There is almost a smile on the\npsalmist's face as he contrasts his enemies' curses with God's\nblessing, and thinks how ineffectual are these and how omnipotent\nis that. He takes the issue of the strife between cursing men and a\nblessing God to be as good as already decided. So he can look with\nnew equanimity on the energetic preparations of his foes; for he sees\nin faith their confusion and defeat, and already feels some springing\nin his heart of the joy of victory, and is sure of already clothing\nthemselves with shame. It is the prerogative of Faith to behold\nthings that are not as though they were, and to live as in the hour\nof triumph even while in the thick of the fight.\n\nThe psalm began with addressing \"the God of my _praise_\"; it ends\nwith the confidence and the vow that the singer will yet _praise_\nHim. It painted an adversary standing at the right hand of the wicked\nto condemn him; it ends with the assurance that Jehovah stands at the\nright hand of His afflicted servant, as his advocate to protect him.\nThe wicked man was to \"go out guilty\"; he whom God defends shall come\nforth from all that would judge his soul. \"If God be for us, who can\nbe against us? It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth?\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CX.\n\n 1 The oracle of Jehovah to my lord;\n Sit Thou [enthroned] at My right hand,\n Until I make Thine enemies the stool for Thy feet.\n 2 The sceptre of Thy might shall Jehovah stretch forth from Zion,\n \"Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.\"\n 3 Thy people are free-will offerings in the day of Thine army;\n In holy attire,\n From the womb of the dawn,\n [Comes] to Thee the dew of Thy youth[s].\n 4 Jehovah has sworn and will not repent,\n Thou art a priest for ever,\n After the manner of Melchizedek.\n\n 5 The Lord at Thy right hand\n Has crushed kings in the day of His wrath.\n 6 He shall judge among the nations,\n He has filled [the land] with corpses,\n He has crushed the head over a wide land.\n 7 Of the brook shall He drink on the way,\n Therefore shall He lift up [His] head.\n\n\nDoes our Lord's attribution of this psalm to David foreclose the\nquestion of its authorship for those who accept His authority?\nMany, who fully recognise and reverently bow to that authority,\nthink that it does not, and appeal for support of their view to the\nunquestionable limitations of His earthly knowledge. It is urged\nthat His object in His argument with the Pharisees, in which this\npsalm is quoted by Him (Matt. xxii. 41-46 and parallels), is not to\ninstruct them on the authorship of the psalm, but to argue from its\ncontents; and though He assumes the Davidic authorship, accepted\ngenerally at the time, yet the cogency of His argument is unimpaired,\nso long as it is recognised that the psalm is a Messianic one, and\nthat the august language used in it of the Messiah is not compatible\nwith the position of One who was a mere human son of David (Driver,\n\"Introd.,\" p. 363, note). So also Dr. Sanday (\"Inspiration,\" p. 420)\nsays that \"the Pharisees were taken upon their own ground, and the\nfallacy of their conclusion was shown on their own premises.\" But\nour Lord's argument is not drawn from the \"august language\" of the\npsalm, but from David's relationship to the Messiah, and crumbles to\npieces if he is not the singer. It may freely be admitted that there\nare instances in our Lord's references to the Old Testament in which\nHe speaks from the point of view of His hearers in regard to it; but\nthese are cases in which nothing turned on the question whether that\npoint of view was correct or not. Here everything turns on it; and\nto maintain that, in so important a crisis, He based His arguments\non an error comes perilously near to imputing fallibility to Him as\nour teacher. Most of recent writers who advocate the view in question\nwould recoil from such a consequence; but their position is divided\nfrom it by a thin line. Whatever the limitations of our Lord's human\nknowledge, they did not affect His authority in regard to what He did\nteach; and the present writer ventures to believe that He did teach\nthat _David_ in this psalm calls Messiah his Lord.\n\nIf so, the psalm stands alone, as not having primary reference to an\nearthly king. It is not, like other Messianic psalms, typical, but\ndirectly prophetic of Messiah, and of Him only. We are not warranted\nin denying the possibility of such direct prophecy; and the picture\ndrawn in this psalm, so far transcending any possible original among\nthe sons of men, has not full justice done to its majestic lines,\nunless it is recognised as setting forth none other than the personal\nMessiah. True, it is drawn with colours supplied from earthly\nexperiences, and paints a warrior-monarch. The prophet-psalmist, no\ndoubt, conceived of literal warfare; but a prophet did not always\nunderstand the oracles which he spoke.\n\nThe psalm falls into two parts: the Vision of the Priest-King and His\narmy (vv. 1-4); the King's Warfare and Victory (vv. 5-7).\n\n\"The oracle of Jehovah\" introduces a fresh utterance of God's,\nheard by the psalmist, who thus claims to be the mouthpiece of the\nDivine will. It is a familiar prophetic phrase, but usually found\nat the close--not, as here, at the beginning--of the utterance to\nwhich it refers (see, however, Isa. lvi. 8; Zech. xii. 1). The\nunusual position makes the Divine origin of the following words more\nemphatic. \"My Lord\" is a customary title of respect in addressing\na superior, but not in speaking _of_ him. Its use here evidently\nimplies that the psalmist regards Messiah as his king, and the best\ncomment on it is Matt. xxii. 43: \"How then doth David in spirit call\nHim Lord?\" The substance of the oracle follows. He who is exalted to\nsit at the right hand of a king is installed thereby as his associate\nin rule. He who is seated by God at His right hand is received into\nsuch mystery of participation in Divine authority and power, as\ncannot be imposed on frail humanity. The rigid monotheism of the\nJewish singers makes this tremendous \"oracle\" the more remarkable.\nGreek gods might have their assessors from among mortals, but who\nshall share Jehovah's throne? \"Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord\nas king\" (1 Chron. xxix. 23); but that is no parallel, nor does\nit show that the oracle of this psalm simply states the dignity\nof the theocratic king. Solomon's throne was Jehovah's, as being\nestablished by Him, and since he represented Jehovah on earth; but to\nsit at Jehovah's right hand means far more than this. That session\nof Messiah is represented as the prelude to the exercise of Divine\npower for His triumph over His foes; and that apparent repose, while\nJehovah fights for him, is singularly contrasted with his activity\nas described in verses 6, 7. The singer speaks riddles about a union\nof undisturbed tranquillity and of warlike strenuousness, which are\nonly solved when we see their fulfilment in Him who sitteth at the\nright hand of God, and who yet goes with His armies where they go.\n\"He was received up, and sat on the right hand of God, . . . the Lord\nalso working with them\" (Mark xvi. 19, 20). The opened heavens showed\nto Stephen his Master, not sitting, but standing in the posture of\nreadiness to help him dying, and to receive him made more alive by\ndeath. His foot shall be on the neck of His foes, as Joshua bade\nthe men of Israel put theirs on the conquered kings'. Opposition\nshall not only be subdued, but shall become subsidiary to Messiah's\ndominion, \"a stepping-stone to higher things.\"\n\nThe Divine oracle is silent, and the strain is taken up by the\npsalmist himself, who speaks \"in the spirit,\" in the remainder of the\npsalm, no less than he did when uttering Jehovah's word. Messiah's\ndominion has a definite earthly centre. From Zion is this King to\nrule. His mighty sceptre, the symbol and instrument of His God-given\npower, is to stretch thence. How far? No limit is named to the sweep of\nHis sway. But since Jehovah is to extend it, it must be conterminous\nwith the reach of His omnipotence. Ver. 2_b_ may be taken as the\nwords of Jehovah, but more probably they are the loyal exclamation of\nthe psalmist, moved to his heart's depths by the vision which makes\nthe bliss of his solitude. The word rendered \"rule\" is found also in\nBalaam's prophecy of Messiah (Numb. xxiv. 19) and in the Messianic\nPsalm lxxii. 8. The kingdom is to subsist in the midst of enemies. The\nnormal state of the Church on earth is militant. Yet the enemies are\nnot only a ring of antagonists round a centre of submission, but into\ntheir midst His power penetrates, and Messiah dominates them too, for\nall their embattled hostility. A throne round which storms of rebellion\nrage is an insecure seat. But this throne is established through\nenmity, because it is upheld by Jehovah.\n\nThe kingdom in relation to its subjects is the theme of ver. 3,\nwhich accords with the warlike tone of the whole psalm, by describing\nthem as an army. The period spoken of is \"the day of Thy host,\"\nor array--the time when the forces are mustered and set in order\nfor battle. The word rendered _free-will offerings_ may possibly\nmean simply \"willingnesses,\" and the abstract noun may be used as\nin \"I am--prayer\" (Psalm cix. 4)--_i.e._, most willing; but it is\nbetter to retain the fuller and more picturesque meaning of glad,\nspontaneous sacrifices, which corresponds with the priestly character\nafterwards ascribed to the people, and goes very deep into the\nessence of Christian service. There are to be no pressed men or\nmercenaries in that host. As Deborah sang of her warriors, these\n\"offer themselves willingly.\" Glad consecration of self, issuing in\nspontaneous enlisting for the wars of the King, is to characterise\nall His subjects. The army is the nation. These soldiers are to be\npriests. They are clad in holy attire, \"fine linen, clean and white.\"\nThat representation goes as deep into the nature of the warfare they\nhave to wage and the weapons they have to wield, as the former did\ninto the impulse which sends them to serve under Messiah's flag.\nThe priestly function is to bring God and man near to one another.\nTheir warfare can only be for the carrying out of their office. Their\nweapons are sympathy, gentleness, purity. Like the Templars, the\nChristian soldier must bear the cross on his shield and the hilt of\nhis sword. Another reading of this phrase is \"on the holy mountains,\"\nwhich is preferred by many, among whom are Hupfeld and Cheyne. But\nthe great preponderance of evidence is against the change, which\nobliterates a very striking and profound thought.\n\nVer. 3_c_, _d_ gives another picture of the host. The usual\nexplanation of the clause takes \"youth\" as meaning, not the young\nvigour of the King, but, in a collective sense, the assembled\nwarriors, whom it paints as in the bloom of early manhood. The\nprincipal point of comparison of the army with the dew is probably\nits multitude (2 Sam. xvii. 12). The warriors have the gift of\nun-aging youth, as all those have who renew their strength by serving\nChrist. And it is permissible to take other characteristics of the\ndew than its abundance, and to think of the mystery of its origin,\nof the tiny mirrors of the sunshine hanging on every cobweb, of its\npower to refresh, as well as of the myriads of its drops.\n\nBut this explanation, beautiful and deep as it is, is challenged\nby many. The word rendered \"dawn\" is unusual. \"Youth\" is not found\nelsewhere in the sense thus assigned to it. \"Dew\" is thought to be\nan infelicitous emblem. \"From a linguistic point of view\" Cheyne\npronounces both \"dawn\" and \"dew\" to be intolerable. Singularly\nenough, in the next sentence, he deprecates a previous opinion of his\nown as premature \"until we know something certain of the Hebrew of\nthe Davidic age\" (\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" p. 482). But if such certainty\nis lacking, why should these two words be \"intolerable\"? He approves\nBickell's conjectural emendation, \"From the womb, from the dawn [of\nlife], Thy youthful band is devoted to Thee.\"\n\nVer. 4 again enshrines a Divine utterance, which is presented\nin an even more solemn manner than that of ver. 1. The oath of\nJehovah by Himself represents the thing sworn as guaranteed by the\nDivine character. God, as it were, pledges His own name, with its\nfulness of unchanging power, to the fulfilment of the word; and this\nirrevocable and omnipotent decree is made still more impressive by\nthe added assurance that He \"will not repent.\" Thus inextricably\nintertwined with the augustness of God's nature, the union of the\nroyal and priestly offices in the person of Messiah shall endure\nfor ever. Some commentators contend that every theocratic king of\nIsrael was a priest, inasmuch as he was king of a priestly nation.\nBut since the national priestliness did not hinder the appointment\nof a special order of priests, it is most natural to assume that\nthe special order is here referred to. Why should the singer have\ngone back into the mists of antiquity, in order to find the type\nof a priest-king, if the union of offices belonged, by virtue of\nhis kinghood, to every Jewish monarch? Clearly the combination was\nunexampled; and such an incident as that of Uzziah's leprosy shows\nhow carefully the two great offices were kept apart. Their opposition\nhas resulted in many tragedies: probably their union would be still\nmore fatal, except in the case of One whose priestly sacrifice of\nHimself as a willing offering is the basis of His royal sway. The\n\"order of Melchizedek\" has received unexpected elucidation from the\nTel-el-Amarna tablets, which bring to light, as a correspondent of\nthe Pharaoh, one Ebed-tob, king of Uru-salim (the city of Salim, the\ngod of peace). In one of his letters he says, \"Behold, neither my\nfather nor my mother have exalted me in this place; the prophecy [or\nperhaps, arm] of the mighty King has caused me to enter the house of\nmy father.\" By the mighty King is meant the god whose sanctuary stood\non the summit of Mount Moriah. He was king of Jerusalem, because\nhe was priest of its god (Sayce, \"Criticism and the Monuments,\" p.\n175). The psalm lays stress on the eternal duration of the royalty\nand priesthood of Messiah; and although in other Messianic psalms the\npromised perpetuity may be taken to refer to the dynasty rather than\nthe individual monarch, that explanation is impossible here, where a\nperson is the theme.\n\nMany attempts have been made to fit the language of the psalm to\none or other of the kings of Israel; but, not to mention other\ndifficulties, this ver. 4 remains as an insuperable obstacle. In\ndefault of Israelite kings, one or other of the Maccabean family has\nbeen thought of. Cheyne strongly pronounces for Simon Maccab\u00e6us,\nand refers, as others have done, to a popular decree in his favour,\ndeclaring him \"ruler and high priest for ever\" (\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" p.\n26). On this identification, Baethgen asks if it is probable that the\nsinger should have taken his theme from a popular decree, and have\ntransformed it (_umgestempelt_) into a Divine oath. It may be added\nthat Simon was not a king, and that he was by birth a priest.\n\nThe second part of the psalm carries the King into the battle-field.\nHe comes forth from the throne, where He sat at Jehovah's right\nhand, and now Jehovah stands at His right hand. The word rendered\n_Lord_ in ver. 5 is never used of any but God, and it is best to\ntake it so here, even though to do so involves the necessity of\nsupposing a change in the subject either in ver. 6 or ver. 7, which\nlatter verse can only refer to the Messiah. The destructive conflict\ndescribed is said to take place \"in the day of His wrath\"--_i.e._, of\nJehovah's. If this is strictly interpreted, the period intended is\nnot that of \"the day of Thine army,\" when by His priestly warriors\nthe Priest-King wages a warfare among His enemies, which wins them\nto be His lovers, but that dread hour when He comes forth from His\nascended glory to pronounce doom among the nations and to crush all\nopposition. Such a final apocalypse of the wrath of the Lamb is\ndeclared to us in clearer words, which may well be permitted to cast\na light back on this psalm (Rev. xix. 11). \"He has crushed kings\" is\nthe perfect of prophetic certainty or intuition, the scene being so\nvividly bodied before the singer that he regards it as accomplished.\n\"He shall judge\" or give doom \"among the nations,\"--the future of\npure prediction. Ver. 6_b_ is capable of various renderings. It may\nbe rendered as above, or the verb may be intransitive and the whole\nclause translated, _It becomes full of corpses_ (so Delitzsch); or\nthe word may be taken as an adjective, in which case the meaning\nwould be the same as if it were an intransitive verb. \"The head over\na wide land\" is also ambiguous. If \"head\" is taken as a collective\nnoun, it means rulers. But it may be also regarded as referring\nto a person, the principal antagonist of the Messiah. This is the\nexplanation of many of the older interpreters, who think of Death or\n\"the prince of this world,\" but is too fanciful to be adopted.\n\nVer. 7 is usually taken as depicting the King as pausing in His\nvictorious pursuit of the flying foe, to drink, like Gideon's men,\nfrom the brook, and then with renewed vigour pressing on. But is not\nthe idea of the Messiah needing refreshment in that final conflict\nsomewhat harsh?--and may there not be here a certain desertion of\nthe order of sequence, so that we are carried back to the time\nprior to the enthronement of the King? One is tempted to suggest\nthe possibility of this closing verse being a full parallel with\nPhil. ii. 7-9. Christ on the way to His throne drank of \"waters of\naffliction,\" and precisely therefore is He \"highly exalted.\"\n\nThe choice for every man is, being crushed beneath His foot, or\nbeing exalted to sit with Him on His throne. \"He that overcometh,\nto him will I give to sit down with Me on My throne, even as I also\novercame, and am set down with My Father on His throne.\" It is better\nto sit on His throne than to be His footstool.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXI.\n\n Hallelujah.\n 1 \u05d0 I will thank Jehovah with my whole heart,\n \u05d1 In the council of the upright and in the congregation.\n 2 \u05d2 Great are the works of Jehovah,\n \u05d3 Inquired into by all who delight in them.\n 3 \u05d4 Honour and majesty is His working,\n \u05d5 And His righteousness stands fast for aye.\n 4 \u05d6 He has made a memorial for His wonders,\n \u05d7 Gracious and compassionate is Jehovah.\n 5 \u05d8 Food has He given to those who fear Him,\n \u05d9 He remembers His covenant for ever.\n 6 \u05db The power of His works has He showed to His people,\n \u05dc In giving them the inheritance of the nations.\n 7 \u05de The works of His hands are truth and judgment\n \u05e0 Trustworthy are all His commandments;\n 8 \u05e1 Established for aye and for ever,\n \u05e2 Done in truth and uprightness.\n 9 \u05e4 Redemption has He sent to His people,\n \u05e6 He has ordained His covenant for ever,\n \u05e7 Holy and dread is His name.\n 10 \u05e8 The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom,\n \u05e9 Good understanding [belongs] to all who do them;\n \u05ea His praise stands fast for aye.\n\n\nAnother series of psalms headed with Hallelujah begins here, and\nincludes the two following psalms. The prefix apparently indicates\nliturgical use. The present psalm is closely allied to the next. Both\nare acrostic, and correspond verse to verse, as will appear in the\nexposition. Together they represent God and the godly, this psalm\nmagnifying the Divine character and acts, the other painting the ideal\ngodly man as, in some real fashion, an \"imitator of God as a beloved\nchild.\" Both are gnomic, and built up by accumulation of slightly\nconnected particulars, rather than flowing continuously in a sequence\nwhich springs from one pregnant thought. Both have allusions to other\npsalms and to the Book of Proverbs, and share with many of the psalms\nof Book V. the character of being mainly working over of old materials.\n\nThe Psalmist begins by a vow to thank Jehovah with his whole heart,\nand immediately proceeds to carry it out. \"The upright\" is by\nsome understood as a national designation, and \"council\" taken as\nequivalent to \"congregation.\" But it is more in accordance with usage\nto regard the psalmist as referring first to a narrower circle of\nlike-minded lovers of good, to whose congenial ears he rejoices to\nsing. There was an Israel within Israel, who would sympathise with\nhis song. The \"congregation\" is then either the wider audience of the\ngathered people, or, as Delitzsch takes it, equivalent to \"_their_\ncongregation\"--_i.e._, of the upright.\n\nThe theme of thanksgiving is, as ever, God's works for Israel; and\nthe first characteristic of these which the psalmist sings is their\ngreatness. He will come closer presently, and discern more delicate\nfeatures, but now, the magnitude of these colossal manifestations\nchiefly animates his song. Far-stretching in their mass and in their\nconsequences, deep-rooted in God's own character, His great deeds draw\nthe eager search of \"those who delight in them.\" These are the same\nsympathetic auditors to whom the song is primarily addressed. There\nwere indolent beholders in Israel, before whom the works of God were\npassed without exciting the faintest desire to know more of their\ndepth. Such careless onlookers, who see and see not, are rife in all\nages. God shines out in His deeds, and they will not give one glance of\nsharpened interest. But the test of caring for His doings is the effort\nto comprehend their greatness, and plunge oneself into their depths.\nThe more one gazes, the more one sees. What was at first but dimly\napprehended as great resolves itself, as we look; and, first, \"Honour\nand majesty,\" the splendour of His reflected character, shine out from\nHis deeds, and then, when still more deeply they are pondered, the\ncentral fact of their righteousness, their conformity to the highest\nstandard of rectitude, becomes patent. Greatness and majesty, divorced\nfrom righteousness, would be no theme for praise. Such greatness is\nlittleness, such splendour is phosphorescent corruption.\n\nThese general contemplations are followed in vv. 4-6 by references\nto Israel's history as the greatest example of God's working. \"He\nhas made a memorial for His wonders.\" Some find here a reference to\nthe Passover and other feasts commemorative of the deliverance from\nEgypt. But it is better to think of Israel itself as the \"memorial,\"\nor of the deeds themselves, in their remembrance by men, as being,\nas it were, a monument of His power. The men whom God has blessed\nare standing evidences of His wonders. \"Ye are My witnesses, saith\nthe Lord.\" And the great attribute, which is commemorated by that\n\"memorial,\" is Jehovah's gracious compassion. The psalmist presses\nsteadily towards the centre of the Divine nature. God's works become\neloquent of more and more precious truth as he listens to their\nvoice. They spoke of greatness, honour, majesty, righteousness, but\ntenderer qualities are revealed to the loving and patient gazer. The\ntwo standing proofs of Divine kindness are the miraculous provision\nof food in the desert and the possession of the promised land. But\nto the psalmist these are not past deeds to be remembered only, but\ncontinually repeated operations. \"He remembers His covenant for\never,\" and so the experiences of the fathers are lived over again by\nthe children, and to-day is as full of God as yesterday was. Still He\nfeeds _us_, still He gives us _our_ heritage.\n\nFrom ver. 7 onwards a new thought comes in. God has spoken as well\nas wrought. His very works carry messages of \"truth and judgment,\"\nand they are interpreted further by articulate precepts, which are at\nonce a revelation of what He is and a law for what we should be. His\nlaw stands as fast as His righteousness (vv. 3, 8). A man may utterly\ntrust His commandments. They abide eternally, for Duty is ever Duty,\nand His Law, while it has a surface of temporary ceremonial, has a\ncore of immutable requirement. His commandments are _done_--_i.e._,\nappointed by Him--\"in truth and uprightness.\" They are tokens of His\ngrace and revelations of His character.\n\nThe two closing verses have three clauses each, partly from the\nexigencies of the acrostic structure, and partly to secure a more\nimpressive ending. Ver. 9 sums up all God's works in the two chief\nmanifestations of His goodness which should ever live in Israel's\nthanks, His sending redemption and His establishing His everlasting\ncovenant--the two facts which are as fresh to-day, under new and\nbetter forms, as when long ago this unknown psalmist sang. And\nhe gathers up the total impression which God's dealings should\nleave, in the great saying, \"Holy and dread is His name.\" In ver.\n10 he somewhat passes the limits of his theme, and trenches on the\nterritory of the next psalm, which is already beginning to shape\nitself in his mind. The designation of the fear of the Jehovah as\n\"the beginning of wisdom\" is from Prov. i. 7, ix. 10. \"Beginning\"\nmay rather mean \"principal part\" (Prov. iv. 7, \"principal thing\").\nThe \"them\" of ver. 10_b_ is best referred, though the expression\nis awkward, to \"commandments\" in ver. 7. Less probably it is taken\nto allude to the \"fear\" and \"wisdom\" of the previous clause. The\ntwo clauses of this verse descriptive of the godly correspond in\nstructure to _a_ and _b_ of ver. 9, and the last clause corresponds\nto the last of that verse, expressing the continual praise which\nshould rise to that holy and dread Name. Note that the perpetual\nduration, which has been predicated of God's attributes, precepts,\nand covenant (vv. 3, 5, 8, 9), is here ascribed to His praise. Man's\nsongs cannot fall dumb, so long as God pours out Himself in such\ndeeds. As long as that Sun streams across the desert, stony lips will\npart in music to hail its beams.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXII.\n\n Hallelujah.\n 1 \u05d0 Happy the man who fears Jehovah,\n \u05d1 [Who] delights exceedingly in His commandments.\n 2 \u05d2 Mighty on the earth shall his seed be,\n \u05d3 The generation of the upright shall be blessed.\n 3 \u05d4 Wealth and riches are in his house,\n \u05d5 And his righteousness stands fast for aye.\n 4 \u05d6 There riseth in the darkness light to the upright,--\n \u05d7 Gracious and pitiful and righteous is he.\n 5 \u05d8 Well is the man who pities and lends,\n \u05d9 He shall maintain his causes in [the] judgment.\n 6 \u05db For he shall not be moved for ever,\n \u05dc In everlasting remembrance shall the righteous be held.\n 7 \u05de Of evil tidings he shall not be afraid,\n \u05e0 Steadfast is his heart, trusting in Jehovah.\n 8 \u05e1 Established is his heart, he shall not fear,\n \u05e2 Until he looks on his adversaries.\n 9 \u05e4 He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor,\n \u05e6 His righteousness stands fast for aye,\n \u05e7 His horn shall be exalted with glory.\n 10 \u05e8 The wicked man shall see it and be grieved,\n \u05e9 He shall gnash his teeth and melt away,\n \u05ea The desire of wicked men shall perish.\n\n\n\"Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect,\" might be\ninscribed on this picture of a godly man, which, in structure and\nsubstance, reflects the contemplation of God's character and works\ncontained in the preceding psalm. The idea that the godly man is, in\nsome real sense, an image of God runs through the whole, and comes out\nstrongly, at several points, in the repetition of the same expressions\nin reference to both. The portrait of the ideal good man, outlined in\nthis psalm, may be compared with those in Psalms xv. and xxiv. Its\nmost characteristic feature is the prominence given to beneficence,\nwhich is regarded as eminently a reflection of God's. The foundation\nof righteousness is laid in ver. 1, in devout awe and inward delight\nin the commandments. But the bulk of the psalm describes the blessed\nconsequences, rather than the essential characteristics, of godliness.\n\nThe basis of righteousness and beneficence to men must be laid in\nreverence and conformity of will towards God. Therefore the psalm\nbegins with proclaiming that, apart from all external consequences,\nthese dispositions carry blessedness in themselves. The close of the\npreceding psalm had somewhat overpassed its limits, when it declared\nthat \"the fear of Jehovah\" was the beginning of wisdom and that to do\nHis commandments was sound discretion.\n\nThis psalm echoes these sayings, and so links itself to the former\none. It deepens them by pointing out that the fear of Jehovah is a\nfountain of joy as well as of wisdom, and that inward delight in the\nLaw must precede outward doing of it. The familiar blessing attached\nin the Old Testament to godliness, namely, prosperous posterity, is\nthe first of the consequences of righteousness which the psalm holds\nout. That promise belongs to another order of things from that of\nthe New Testament; but the essence of it is true still, namely, that\nthe only secure foundation for permanent prosperity is in the fear\nof Jehovah. \"The generation of the upright\" (ver. 2) does not merely\nmean the natural descendants of a good man--\"It is a moral rather than\na genealogical term\" (Hupfeld)--as is usually the case with the word\n\"generation.\" Another result of righteousness is declared to be \"wealth\nand riches\" (ver. 3), which, again, must be taken as applying more\nfully to the Old Testament system of Providence than to that of the New.\n\nA parallelism of the most striking character between God and the\ngodly emerges in ver. 3_b_, where the same words are applied to the\nlatter as were used of the former, in the corresponding verse of\nPsalm cxi. It would be giving too great evangelical definiteness\nto the psalmist's words, to read into them the Christian teaching\nthat man's righteousness is God's gift through Christ, but it\nunwarrantably eviscerates them of their meaning, if we go to the\nother extreme, and, with Hupfeld, suppose that the psalmist put in\nthe clause under stress of the exigencies of the acrostic structure,\nand regard it as a \"makeshift\" and \"stop-gap.\" The psalmist has\na very definite and noble thought. Man's righteousness is the\nreflection of God's; and has in it some kindred with its original,\nwhich guarantees stability not all unlike the eternity of that\nsource. Since ver. 3_b_ thus brings into prominence the ruling\nthought of the two psalms, possibly we may venture to see a fainter\nutterance of that thought, in the first clause of the verse, in which\nthe \"wealth and riches\" in the righteous man's house may correspond\nto the \"honour and majesty\" attendant on God's works (cxi. 3_a_).\n\nVer. 4 blends consequences of righteousness and characterisation\nof it, in a remarkable way. The construction is doubtful. In _a_,\n\"upright\" is in the plural, and the adjectives in _b_ are in the\nsingular number. They are appended abruptly to the preceding clause;\nand the loose structure has occasioned difficulty to expositors,\nwhich has been increased by the scruples of some, who have not given\ndue weight to the leading thought of correspondence between the human\nand Divine, and have hesitated to regard ver. 4_b_ as referring to\nthe righteous man, seeing that in Psalm cxi. 4_b_ it refers to God.\nHence efforts have been made to find other renderings. Delitzsch\nwould refer the clause to God, whom he takes to be meant by \"light\"\nin the previous clause, while Hitzig, followed by Baethgen, would\ntranslate, \"As a light, he (the righteous) rises in darkness for the\nupright,\" and would then consider \"gracious,\" etc., as in apposition\nwith \"light,\" and descriptive of the righteous man's character as\nsuch. But the very fact that the words are applied to God in the\ncorresponding verse of the previous psalm suggests their application\nhere to the godly man, and the sudden change of number is not so\nharsh as to require the ordinary translation to be abandoned. However\ndark may be a good man's road, the very midnight blackness is a\nprophecy of sunrise; or, to use another figure,\n\n \"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?\"\n\n(Compare Psalm xcvii. 11.) The fountain of pity in human hearts must\nbe fed from the great source of compassion in God's, if it is to gush\nout unremittingly and bless the deserts of sorrow and misery. He who\nhas received \"grace\" will surely exercise grace. \"Be ye merciful,\neven as your Father is merciful\" (Luke vi. 36).\n\nVer. 5 blends characteristics and consequences of goodness in\nreverse order from that in ver. 4. The compassionate man of ver.\n4_b_ does not let pity evaporate, but is moved by it to act and to\nlend (primarily money, but secondarily) any needful help or solace.\nBenevolence which is not translated into beneficence is a poor\naffair. There is no blessing in it or for it; but it is well with\nthe man who turns emotions into deeds. Lazy compassion hurts him\nwho indulges in it, but that which \"lends\" gets joy in the act of\nbestowing aid. The result of such active compassion is stated in ver.\n5_b_ as being that such a one will \"maintain his causes in judgment,\"\nby which seems to be meant the judgment of earthly tribunals. If\ncompassion and charity guide a life, it will have few disputes, and\nwill contain nothing for which a judge can condemn. He who obeys the\nhigher law will not break the lower.\n\nVv. 6-8 dwell mainly on one consequence of righteousness, namely,\nthe stability which it imparts. While such a man lives, he shall\nbe unmoved by shocks, and after he dies, his memory will live,\nlike a summer evening's glow which lingers in the west till a\nnew morning dawns. In ver. 7 the resemblance of the godly to God\ncomes very beautifully to the surface. Psalm cxi. 7 deals with\nGod's commandments as \"trustworthy.\" The human parallel is an\n_established_ heart. He who has learned to lean upon Jehovah (for\nsuch is the literal force of \"trusting\" here), and has proved the\ncommandments utterly reliable as basis for his life, will have his\nheart steadfast. The same idea is repeated in ver. 8 with direct\nquotation of the corresponding verse of Psalm cxi. In both the word\nfor \"established\" is the same. The heart that delights in God's\nestablished commandments is established by them, and, sooner or\nlater, will look in calm security on the fading away of all evil\nthings and men, while it rests indeed, because it rests in God. He\nwho builds his transient life on and into the Rock of Ages wins\nrocklike steadfastness, and some share in the perpetuity of his\nRefuge. Lives rooted in God are never uprooted.\n\nThe two final verses are elongated, like the corresponding ones\nin Psalm cxi. Again, beneficence is put in the forefront, as a\nkind of shorthand summing up of all virtues. And, again, in ver. 9\nthe analogy is drawn out between God and the godly. \"He has sent\nredemption to His people\"; and they, in their degree, are to be\ncommunicative of the gifts of which they have been made recipient.\nLittle can they give, compared with what they have received; but what\nthey have they hold in trust for those who need it, and the sure test\nof having obtained \"redemption\" is a \"heart open as day to melting\ncharity.\" In the former psalm, ver. 9_b_ declared that God has\n\"ordained His covenant for ever\"; and here the corresponding clause\nre-affirms that the good man's righteousness endures for ever. The\nfinal clauses of both verses also correspond, in so far as, in the\nformer psalm, God's Name is represented as \"holy and dread\"--_i.e._,\nthe total impression made by His deeds exalts Him--and in the latter,\nthe righteous man's \"horn\" is represented as \"exalted in glory\" or\nhonour--_i.e._, the total impression made by his deeds exalts _him_.\nPaul quotes the two former clauses of ver. 9 in 2 Cor. ix. 9 as\ninvolving the truth that Christian giving does not impoverish. The\nexercise of a disposition strengthens it; and God takes care that\nthe means of beneficence shall not be wanting to him who has the\nspirit of it. The later Jewish use of \"righteousness\" as a synonym\nfor _almsgiving_ has probably been influenced by this psalm, in which\nbeneficence is the principal trait in the righteous man's character,\nbut there is no reason for supposing that the psalmist uses the word\nin that restricted sense.\n\nVer. 10 is not parallel with the last verse of Psalm cxi., which\nstands, as we have seen, somewhat beyond the scope of the rest of\nthat psalm. It gives one brief glimpse of the fate of the evil-doer,\nin opposition to the loving picture of the blessedness of the\nrighteous. Thus it too is rather beyond the immediate object of the\npsalm of which it forms part. The wicked _sees_, in contrast with the\nrighteous man's _seeing_ in ver. 8. The one looks with peace on the\nshort duration of antagonistic power, and rejoices that there is a\nGod of recompenses; the other grinds his teeth in envious rage, as\nhe beholds the perpetuity of the righteous. He \"shall melt away,\"\n_i.e._, in jealousy or despair. Opposition to goodness, since it is\nenmity towards God, is self-condemned to impotence and final failure.\nDesires turned for satisfaction elsewhere than to God are sure to\nperish. The sharp contrast between the righteousness of the good man,\nwhich endures for ever, in his steadfast because trustful heart, and\nthe crumbling schemes and disappointed hopes which gnaw the life\nof the man whose aims go athwart God's will, solemnly proclaims an\neternal truth. This psalm, like Psalm i., touches the two poles of\npossible human experience, in its first and last words, beginning\nwith \"happy the man\" and ending with \"shall perish.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXIII.\n\n Hallelujah.\n\n 1 Praise, ye servants of Jehovah,\n Praise the name of Jehovah.\n 2 Be the name of Jehovah blessed\n From henceforth and for evermore!\n 3 From the rising of the sun to its going down,\n Praised be the name of Jehovah.\n\n 4 High above all nations is Jehovah,\n Above the heavens His glory.\n 5 Who is like Jehovah our God?\n Who sits enthroned on high,\n 6 Who looks far below\n On the heavens and on the earth;\n\n 7 Who raises the helpless from the dust,\n From the rubbish-heap He lifts the needy,\n 8 To seat him with nobles,\n With the nobles of His people;\n 9 Who seats the barren [woman] in a house,\n --A glad mother of her children.\n\n\nThis pure burst of praise is the first of the psalms composing\nthe Hallel, which was sung at the three great feasts (Passover,\nPentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles), as well as at the festival\nof Dedication and at the new moons. \"In the domestic celebration of\nthe Passover night 'the Hallel' is divided into two parts; the one\nhalf, Psalms cxiii., cxiv., being sung before the repast, before\nthe emptying of the second festal cup, and the other half, Psalms\ncxv.-cxviii., after the repast, after the filling of the fourth cup,\nto which the 'having sung an hymn' in Matt. xxvi. 30, Mark xiv. 26,\n... may refer\" (Delitzsch, _in loc._).\n\nThree strophes of three verses each may be recognised, of which the\nfirst summons Israel to praise Jehovah, and reaches out through all\ntime and over all space, in longing that God's name may be known\nand praised. The second strophe (vv. 4-6) magnifies God's exalted\ngreatness; while the third (vv. 7-9) adores His condescension,\nmanifested in His stooping to lift the lowly. The second and third\nof these strophes, however, overlap in the song, as the facts which\nthey celebrate do. God's loftiness can never be adequately measured,\nunless His condescension is taken into account; and His condescension\nnever sufficiently wondered at, unless His loftiness is felt.\n\nThe call to praise is addressed to Israel, whose designation \"servants\nof Jehovah\" recalls Isaiah II.'s characteristic use of that name in\nthe singular number for the nation. With strong emphasis, the _name_\nof Jehovah is declared as the theme of praise. God's revelation of His\ncharacter by deed and word must precede man's thanksgiving. They, to\nwhom that Name has been entrusted, by their reception of His mercies\nare bound to ring it out to all the world. And in the Name itself,\nthere lies enshrined the certainty that through all ages it shall be\nblessed, and in every spot lit by the sun shall shine as a brighter\nlight, and be hailed with praises. The psalmist has learned the\nworld-wide significance of Israel's position as the depository of the\nName, and the fair vision of a universal adoration of it fills his\nheart. Ver. 3_b_ may be rendered \"worthy to be praised is the name,\"\nbut the context seems to suggest the rendering above.\n\nThe infinite exaltation of Jehovah above all dwellers on this\nlow earth and above the very heavens does not lift Him too high\nfor man's praise, for it is wedded to condescension as infinite.\nIncomparable is He; but still adoration can reach Him, and men do\nnot clasp mist, but solid substance, when they grasp His Name. That\nincomparable uniqueness of Jehovah is celebrated in ver. 5_a_ in\nstrains borrowed from Exod. xv. 11, while the striking description\nof loftiness combined with condescension in vv. 5_b_ and 6 resembles\nIsa. lvii. 15. The literal rendering of vv. 5_b_ and 6_a_ is, \"Who\nmakes high to sit, Who makes low to behold,\" which is best understood\nas above. It may be questioned whether \"On the heavens and on the\nearth\" designates the objects on which His gaze is said to be\nturned; or whether, as some understand the construction, it is to be\ntaken with \"Who is like Jehovah our God?\" the intervening clauses\nbeing parenthetical; or whether, as others prefer, \"in heaven\"\npoints back to \"enthroned on high,\" and \"on earth\" to \"looks far\nbelow.\" But the construction which regards the totality of created\nthings, represented by the familiar phrase \"the heavens and the\nearth,\" as being the objects on which Jehovah looks down from His\ninconceivable loftiness, accords best with the context and yields an\naltogether worthy meaning. Transcendent elevation, condescension, and\nomniscience are blended in the poet's thought. So high is Jehovah\nthat the highest heavens are far beneath Him, and, unless His gaze\nwere all-discerning, would be but a dim speck. That He should enter\ninto relations with creatures, and that there should be creatures\nfor Him to enter into relations with, are due to His stooping\ngraciousness. These far-darting looks are looks of tenderness, and\nsignify care as well as knowledge. Since all things lie in His sight,\nall receive from His hand.\n\nThe third strophe pursues the thought of the Divine condescension as\nespecially shown in stooping to the dejected and helpless and lifting\nthem. The effect of the descent of One so high must be to raise the\nlowliness to which He bends. The words in vv. 7, 8, are quoted from\nHannah's song (1 Sam. ii. 8). Probably the singer has in his mind\nIsrael's restoration from exile, that great act in which Jehovah had\nshown His condescending loftiness, and had lifted His helpless people\nas from the ash-heap, where they lay as outcasts. The same event\nseems to be referred to in ver. 9, under a metaphor suggested by the\nstory of Hannah, whose words have just been quoted. The \"barren\"\nis Israel (comp. Isa. liv. 1). The expression in the original is\nsomewhat obscure. It stands literally \"the barren of the house,\" and\nis susceptible of different explanations; but probably the simplest\nis to regard it as a contracted expression for the unfruitful wife in\na house, \"a housewife, but yet not a mother. Such an one has in her\nhusband's house no sure position.... If God bestows children upon her,\nHe by that very fact makes her for the first time thoroughly at home\nand rooted in her husband's house\" (Delitzsch, _in loc._). The joy\nof motherhood is tenderly touched in the closing line, in which the\ndefinite article is irregularly prefixed to \"sons,\" as if the poet\n\"points with his finger to the children with whom God blesses her\"\n(Delitzsch, _u.s._). Thus Israel, with her restored children about\nher, is secure in her home. That restoration was the signal instance\nof Jehovah's condescension and delight in raising the lowly. It was\ntherefore the great occasion for world-wide and age-long praise.\n\nThe singer did not know how far it would be transcended by a more\nwonderful, more heart-touching manifestation of stooping love, when\n\"The Word became flesh.\" How much more exultant and world-filling\nshould be the praises from the lips of those who do know how low that\nWord has stooped, how high He has risen, and how surely all who hold\nHis hand will be lifted from any ash-heap and set on His throne,\nsharers in the royalty of Him who has been partaker of their weakness!\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXIV.\n\n 1 When Israel went forth from Egypt,\n The house of Jacob from a stammering people,\n 2 Judah became His sanctuary,\n Israel His dominion.\n\n 3 The sea beheld and fled,\n Jordan turned back.\n 4 The mountains leaped like rams,\n The hills like the sons of a flock.\n\n 5 What ails thee, Sea, that thou fleest?\n Jordan, that thou art turned back?\n 6 Mountains, that ye leap like rams?\n Hills, like the sons of a flock?\n\n 7 At the presence of the Lord, writhe in pangs, O earth,\n At the presence of the God of Jacob,\n 8 Who turns the rock into a pool of water,\n The flint into a fountain of waters.\n\n\nIt is possible that in this psalm Israel, restored from Babylon,\nis looking back to the earlier Exodus, and thrilling with the great\nthought that that old past lives again in the present. Such a\nhistorical parallel would minister courage and hope. But the eyes of\npsalmists were ever turning to the great days when a nation was born,\nand there are no data in this psalm which connect it with a special\nperiod, except certain peculiarities in the form of the words \"turns\"\nand \"fountain\" in ver. 8, both of which have a vowel appended (_i_ in\nthe former, _o_ in the latter word), which is probably an archaism,\nused by a late poet for ornament's sake. The same peculiarity is\nfound in Psalm cxiii. 5-9, where it occurs five times.\n\nA familiar theme is treated here with singular force and lyric\nfervour. The singer does not heap details together, but grasps one\ngreat thought. To him there are but two outstanding characteristics\nof the Exodus one, its place and purpose as the beginning of Israel's\nprerogative, and another, its apocalypse of the Majesty of Jehovah,\nthe Ruler of Nature in its mightiest forms. These he hymns, and then\nleaves them to make their own impression. He has no word of \"moral,\"\nno application, counsel, warning, or encouragement to give. Whoso\nwill can draw these. Enough for him to lift his soaring song, and to\ncheck it into silence in the midst of its full music. He would be a\nconsummate artist, if he were not something much better. The limpid\nclearness, the eloquent brevity of the psalm are not more obvious\nthan its masterly structure. Its four pairs of verses, each laden\nwith one thought, the dramatic vividness of the sudden questions in\nthe third pair, the skilful suppression of the Divine name till the\nclose, where it is pealed out in full tones of triumph, make this\nlittle psalm a gem.\n\nIn vv. 1, 2, the slighting glance at the land left by the ransomed\npeople is striking. The Egyptians are to this singer \"a stammering\npeople,\" talking a language which sounded to him barely articulate.\nThe word carries a similar contempt to that in the Greek \"barbarian,\"\nwhich imitates the unmeaning babble of a foreign tongue. To such\ninsignificance in the psalmist's mind had the once dreaded oppressors\nsunk! The great fact about the Exodus was that it was the birthday of\nthe Nation, the beginning of its entrance on its high prerogatives.\nIf the consecration of Judah as \"His sanctuary\" took place when\nIsrael went forth from Egypt, there can be no reference to the later\nerection of the material sanctuary in Jerusalem, and the names of\nJudah and Israel must both apply to the people, not to the land,\nwhich it would be an anachronism to introduce here. That deliverance\nfrom Egypt was in order to God's dwelling in Israel, and thereby\nsanctifying or setting it apart to Himself, \"a kingdom of priests\nand an holy nation.\" Dwelling in the midst of them, He wrought\nwonders for them, as the psalm goes on to hymn; but this is the grand\nfoundation fact, that Israel was brought out of bondage to be God's\ntemple and kingdom. The higher deliverance of which that Exodus is\na foreshadowing is, in like manner, intended to effect a still more\nwonderful and intimate indwelling of God in His Church. Redeemed\nhumanity is meant to be God's temple and realm.\n\nThe historical substratum for vv. 3, 4, is the twin miracles of\ndrying up the Red Sea and the Jordan, which began and closed the\nExodus, and the \"quaking\" of Sinai at the Theophany accompanying the\ngiving of the Law. These physical facts are imaginatively conceived\nas the effects of panic produced by some dread vision; and the\npsalmist heightens his representation by leaving unnamed the sight\nwhich dried the sea, and shook the steadfast granite cliffs. In\nthe third pair of verses he changes his point of view from that of\nnarrator to that of a wondering spectator, and asks what terrible\nthing, unseen by him, strikes such awe? All is silent now, and the\nwonders long since past. The sea rolls its waters again over the\nplace where Pharaoh's host lie. Jordan rushes down its steep valley\nas of old, the savage peaks of Sinai know no tremors;--but these\nmomentary wonders proclaimed an eternal truth.\n\nSo the psalmist answers his own question, and goes beyond it in\nsummoning the whole earth to tremble, as sea, river, and mountain had\ndone, for the same Vision before which they had shrunk is present\nto all Nature. Now the psalmist can peal forth the Name of Him, the\nsight of whom wrought these wonders. It is \"the Lord,\" the Sovereign\nRuler, whose omnipotence and plastic power over all creatures were\nshown when His touch made rock and flint forget their solidity and\nbecome fluid, even as His will made the waves solid as a wall, and\nHis presence shook Sinai. He is still Lord of Nature. And, more\nblessed still, the Lord of Nature is the God of Jacob. Both these\nnames were magnified in the two miracles (which, like those named in\nver. 3, are a pair) of giving drink to the thirsty pilgrims. With\nthat thought of omnipotence blended with gracious care, the singer\nceases. He has said enough to breed faith and hearten courage, and he\ndrops his harp without a formal close. The effect is all the greater,\nthough some critics prosaically insist that the text is defective and\nput a row or two of asterisks at the end of ver. 8, \"since it is not\ndiscernible what purpose the representation [_i.e._, the whole psalm]\nis to serve\" (Graetz)!\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXV.\n\n 1 Not to us, not to us, Jehovah,\n But to Thy name give glory,\n For the sake of Thy lovingkindness, for the sake of Thy troth.\n 2 Why should the nations say,\n \"Where, then, is their God?\"\n\n 3 But our God is in the heavens,\n Whatsoever He willed, He has done.\n 4 Their idols are silver and gold,\n The work of the hands of men.\n 5 A mouth is theirs--and they cannot speak,\n Eyes are theirs--and they cannot see,\n 6 Ears are theirs--and they cannot hear,\n A nose is theirs--and they cannot smell.\n 7 Their hands--[with them] they cannot handle\n Their feet--[with them] they cannot walk,\n Not a sound can they utter with their throat.\n 8 Like them shall those who make them be,\n [Even] every one that trusts in them.\n\n 9 Israel, trust thou in Jehovah,\n Their help and shield is He.\n 10 House of Aaron, trust in Jehovah,\n Their help and shield is He.\n 11 Ye who fear Jehovah, trust in Jehovah,\n Their help and shield is He.\n\n 12 Jehovah has remembered us--He will bless,\n He will bless the house of Israel,\n He will bless the house of Aaron,\n 13 He will bless those who fear Jehovah,\n The small as well as the great.\n 14 Jehovah will add to you,\n To you and to your children.\n 15 Blessed be ye of Jehovah,\n Who made heaven and earth!\n\n 16 The heavens are Jehovah's heavens,\n But the earth He has given to the children of men.\n 17 It is not the dead who praise Jehovah,\n Neither all they who descend into silence.\n 18 But we--we will bless Jehovah,\n From henceforth and for evermore.\n Hallelujah.\n\n\nIsrael is in straits from heathen enemies, and cries to Jehovah to\nvindicate His own Name by delivering it. Strengthened by faith, which\nhas been stung into action by taunts aimed at both the nation and\nits Protector, the psalmist triumphantly contrasts Jehovah in the\nheavens, moving all things according to His will, with idols which\nhad the semblance of powers the reality of which was not theirs.\nSarcastic contempt, indignation, and profound insight into the effect\nof idolatry in assimilating the worshipper to his god, unite in\nthe picture (vv. 3-8). The tone swiftly changes into a summons to\nwithdraw trust from such vanities, and set it on Jehovah, who can\nand will bless His servants (vv. 9-15); and the psalm closes with\nrecognition of Jehovah's exaltation and beneficence, and with the vow\nto return blessing to Him for the blessings, already apprehended by\nfaith, which He bestows on Israel.\n\nObviously the psalm is intended for temple worship, and was\nmeant to be sung by various voices. The distribution of its parts\nmay be doubtful. Ewald would regard vv. 1-11 as the voice of the\ncongregation while the sacrifice was being offered; vv. 12-15 as that\nof the priest announcing its acceptance; and vv. 16-18 as again the\nsong of the congregation. But there is plainly a change of singer at\nver. 9; and the threefold summons to trust in Jehovah in the first\nclauses of vv. 9, 10, 11, may with some probability be allotted to a\nministering official, while the refrain, in the second clause of each\nof these verses, may be regarded as pealed out with choral force. The\nsolo voice next pronounces the benediction on the same three classes\nto whom it had addressed the call to trust. And the congregation,\nthus receiving Jehovah's blessing, sends back its praise, as sunshine\nfrom a mirror, in vv. 16-18.\n\nThe circumstances presupposed in the psalm suit many periods of\nIsrael's history. But probably this, like the neighbouring psalms, is\na product of the early days after the return from Babylon, when the\nfeeble settlers were ringed round by scoffing foes, and had brought\nback from exile a more intimate knowledge and contemptuous aversion\nfor idols and idolatry than had before been felt in Israel. Cheyne\ntakes the psalm to be Maccabean, but acknowledges that there is\nnothing in it to fix that date, which he seeks to establish for the\nwhole group mainly because he is sure of it for one member of the\ngroup, namely, Psalm cxviii. (_Orig. of Psalt._, 18 _sq._).\n\nThe prayer in vv. 1, 2, beautifully blends profound consciousness\nof demerit and confidence that, unworthy as Israel is, its welfare\nis inextricably interwoven with Jehovah's honour. It goes very deep\ninto the logic of supplication, even though the thing desired is but\ndeliverance from human foes. Men win their pleas with God, when they\nsue _in form\u00e2 pauperis_. There must be thorough abnegation of all\nclaims based on self, before there can be faithful urging of the one\nprevalent motive, God's care for His own fair fame. The under side of\nfaith is self-distrust, the upper side is affiance on Jehovah. God\nhas given pledges for His future by His past acts of self-revelation,\nand cannot but be true to His Name. His lovingkindness is no\ntransient mood, but rests on the solid basis of His faithfulness,\nlike flowers rooted in the clefts of a rock. The taunts that had\ntortured another psalmist long before (Psalm xlii. 3) have been flung\nnow from heathen lips, with still more bitterness, and call for\nJehovah's thunderous answer. If Israel goes down before its foes, the\nheathen will have warrant to scoff.\n\nBut, from their bitter tongues and his own fears, the singer turns,\nin the name of the sorely harassed congregation, to ring out the\nproclamation which answers the heathen taunt, before God answers it\nby deeds. \"Our God is in heaven\"--that is where He is; and He is not\ntoo far away to make His hand felt on earth. He is no impotent image;\nHe does what He wills, executing to the last tittle His purposes; and\nconversely, He wills what He does, being constrained by no outward\nforce, but drawing the determinations of His actions from the depths\nof His being. Therefore, whatever evil has befallen Israel is not a\nsign that it has lost Him, but a proof that He is near. The brief,\npregnant assertion of God's omnipotence and sovereign freedom, which\nshould tame the heathens' arrogance and teach the meaning of Israel's\ndisasters, is set in eloquent opposition to the fiery indignation\nwhich dashes off the sarcastic picture of an idol. The tone of the\ndescription is like that of the manufacture of an image in Isa. xliv.\n9-20. Psalm cxxxv. 15-18 repeats it verbatim. The vehemence of scorn\nin these verses suggests a previous, compelled familiarity with\nidolatry such as the exiles had. It corresponds with the revolution\nwhich that familiarity produced, by extirpating for ever the former\nhankering after the gods of the nations. No doubt, there are higher\nweapons than sarcasm; and, no doubt, a Babylonian wise man could have\ndrawn distinctions between the deity and its image, but such cobwebs\nare too fine-spun for rough fingers to handle, and the idolatry both\nof pagans and of Christians identifies the two.\n\nBut a deeper note is struck in ver. 8, in the assertion that, as\nis the god, so becomes the worshipper. The psalmist probably means\nchiefly, if not exclusively, in respect to the impotence just spoken\nof. So the worshipper and his idol are called by the same name (Isa.\nxliv. 9, _vanity_), and, in the tragic summary of Israel's sins and\npunishment in 2 Kings xvii. 15, it is said, that \"they followed after\nvanity and became vain.\" But the statement is true in a wider sense.\nWorship is sure to breed likeness. A lustful, cruel god will make his\ndevotees so. Men make gods after their own image, and, when made, the\ngods make men after theirs. The same principle which degrades the\nidolater lifts the Christian to the likeness of Christ. The aim and\neffect of adoration is assimilation.\n\nProbably the congregation is now silent, and a single voice takes up\nthe song, with the call, which the hollowness of idolatry makes so\nurgent and reasonable, to trust in Jehovah, not in vanities. It is\nthrice repeated, being first addressed to the congregation, then to\nthe house of Aaron, and finally to a wider circle, those who \"fear\nJehovah.\" These are most naturally understood as proselytes, and, in\nthe prominence given to them, we see the increasing consciousness in\nIsrael of its Divine destination to be God's witness to the world.\nExile had widened the horizon, and fair hopes that men who were not\nof Israel's blood would share Israel's faith and shelter under the\nwings of Israel's God stirred in many hearts. The crash of the triple\nchoral answer to the summons comes with magnificent effect, in the\nsecond clauses of vv. 9, 10, 11, triumphantly telling how safe are\nthey who take refuge behind that strong buckler. The same threefold\ndivision into _Israel_, _house of Aaron_, and _they who fear Jehovah_\noccurs in Psalm cxviii. 2-4, and, with the addition of \"house of\nLevi,\" in Psalm cxxxv.\n\nPromises of blessing occupy vv. 12-15, which may probably have been\nsung by priests, or rather by Levites, the musicians of the Temple\nservice. In any case, these benedictions are authoritative assurances\nfrom commissioned lips, not utterances of hopeful faith. They are\nJehovah's response to Israel's obedience to the preceding summons;\nswiftly sent, as His answers ever are. Calm certainty that He will\nbless comes at once into the heart that deeply feels that He is its\nshield, however His manifestation of outward help may be lovingly\ndelayed. The blessing is parted among those who had severally been\ncalled to trust, and had obeyed the call. Universal blessings have\nspecial destinations. The fiery mass breaks up into cloven tongues,\nand sits on each. Distinctions of position make no difference in its\nreception. Small vessels are filled, and great ones can be no more\nthan full. Cedars and hyssop rejoice in impartial sunshine. Israel,\nwhen blessed, increases in number, and there is an inheritance of good\nfrom generation to generation. The seal of such hopes is the Name of\nHim who blesses, \"the Maker of heaven and earth,\" to whose omnipotent,\nuniversal sway these impotent gods in human form are as a foil.\n\nFinally, we may hear the united voices of the congregation thus\nblessed breaking into full-throated praise in vv. 16-18. As in ver. 3\nGod's dwelling in heaven symbolised His loftiness and power, so here\nthe thought that \"the heavens are Jehovah's heavens\" implies both\nthe worshippers' trust in His mighty help and their lowliness even\nin trust. The earth is man's, but by Jehovah's gift. Therefore its\ninhabitants should remember the terms of their tenure, and thankfully\nrecognise His giving love. But heaven and earth do not include all the\nuniverse. There is another region, the land of silence, whither the\ndead descend. No voice of praise wakes its dumb sleep. (Comp. Isa.\nxxxviii. 18, 19.) That pensive contemplation, on which the light of\nthe New Testament assurance of Immortality has not shone, gives keener\nedge to the bliss of present ability to praise Jehovah. We who know\nthat to die is to have a new song put into immortal lips may still be\nstimulated to fill our brief lives here with the music of thanksgiving,\nby the thought that, so far as our witness for God to men is concerned,\nmost of us will \"descend into silence\" when we pass into the grave.\nTherefore we should shun silence, and bless Him while we live here.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXVI.\n\n 1 I love--for Jehovah hears\n My voice, my supplications.\n 2 For He has bent His ear to me,\n And throughout my days will I call.\n 3 The cords of death ringed me round,\n And the narrows of Sheol found me,\n Distress and trouble did I find.\n 4 And on the name of Jehovah I called,\n \"I beseech Thee, Jehovah, deliver my soul.\"\n\n 5 Gracious is Jehovah and righteous,\n And our God is compassionate.\n 6 The keeper of the simple is Jehovah,\n I was brought low and He saved me.\n 7 Return, my soul, to thy rest,\n For Jehovah has lavished good on thee.\n 8 For Thou hast delivered my soul from death,\n My eye from tears,\n My foot from stumbling.\n 9 I shall walk before Jehovah in the lands of the living.\n\n 10 I believed when I [thus] spake,\n \"I am greatly afflicted.\"\n 11 I said in my agitation,\n \"All men deceive.\"\n 12 What shall I return to Jehovah,\n [For] all His goodness lavished on me?\n 13 The cup of salvations will I lift,\n And on the name of Jehovah will I call.\n 14 My vows will I repay to Jehovah,\n Oh! may I [do it] before all His people!\n\n 15 Precious in the eyes of Jehovah\n Is the death of His favoured ones.\n 16 I beseech Thee, Jehovah--for I am Thy servant,\n I am Thy servant, the son of Thy handmaid,\n Thou hast loosed my bonds.\n 17 To Thee will I offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving,\n And on the name of Jehovah will I call.\n 18 My vows will I repay to Jehovah,\n Oh! may I [do it] before all His people!\n 19 In the courts of the house of Jehovah,\n In the midst of thee, Jerusalem.\n Hallelujah.\n\n\nThis psalm is intensely individual. \"I,\" \"me,\" or \"my\" occurs\nin every verse but two (vv. 5, 19). The singer is but recently\ndelivered from some peril, and his song heaves with a ground-swell\nof emotion after the storm. Hupfeld takes offence at its \"continual\nalternation of petition and recognition of the Divine beneficence and\ndeliverance, or vows of thanksgiving,\" but surely that very blending\nis natural to one just rescued and still panting from his danger.\nCertain grammatical forms indicate a late date, and the frequent\nallusions to earlier psalms point in the same direction. The words\nof former psalmists were part of this singer's mental furniture, and\ncame to his lips, when he brought his own thanksgivings. Hupfeld\nthinks it \"strange\" that \"such a patched-up (_zusammengestoppelter_)\npsalm\" has \"imposed\" upon commentators, who speak of its depth and\ntenderness; it is perhaps stranger that its use of older songs has\nimposed upon so good a critic and hid these characteristics from\nhim. Four parts may be discerned, of which the first (vv. 1-4)\nmainly describes the psalmist's peril; the second (vv. 5-9), his\ndeliverance; the third glances back to his alarm and thence draws\nreasons for his vow of praise (vv. 10-14); and the fourth bases the\nsame vow on the remembrance of Jehovah's having loosed his bonds.\n\nThe early verses of Psalm xviii. obviously colour the psalmist's\ndescription of his distress. That psalm begins with an expression\nof love to Jehovah, which is echoed here, though a different word\nis employed. \"I love\" stands in ver. 1 without an object, just as\n\"I will call\" does in ver. 2, and \"I believed\" and \"I spoke\" in\nver. 10. Probably \"Thee\" has fallen out, which would be the more\neasy, as the next word begins with the letter which stands for it in\nHebrew. Cheyne follows Graetz in the conjectural adoption of the same\nbeginning as in ver. 10, \"I am confident.\" This change necessitates\ntranslating the following \"for\" as \"that,\" whereas it is plainly to\nbe taken, like the \"for\" at the beginning of ver. 2, as causal. Ver.\n3 is moulded on Psalm xviii. 5, with a modification of the metaphors\nby the unusual expression \"the narrows of Sheol.\" The word rendered\n_narrows_ may be employed simply as = distress or straits, but it is\nallowable to take it as picturing that gloomy realm as a confined\ngorge, like the throat of a pass, from which the psalmist could find\nno escape. He is like a creature caught in the toils of the hunter\nDeath. The stern rocks of a dark defile have all but closed upon him,\nbut, like a man from the bottom of a pit, he can send out one cry\nbefore the earth falls in and buries him. He cried to Jehovah, and\nthe rocks flung his voice heavenwards. Sorrow is meant to drive to\nGod. When cries become prayers, they are not in vain. The revealed\ncharacter of Jehovah is the ground of a desperate man's hope. His\nown Name is a plea which Jehovah will certainly honour. Many words\nare needless when peril is sore and the suppliant is sure of God.\nTo name Him and to cry for deliverance are enough. \"I beseech Thee\"\nrepresents a particle which is used frequently in this psalm, and by\nsome peculiarities in its use here indicates a late date.\n\nThe psalmist does not pause to say definitely that he was delivered,\nbut breaks into the celebration of the Name on which he had called,\nand from which the certainty of an answer followed. Since Jehovah\nis gracious, righteous (as strictly adhering to the conditions He\nhas laid down), and merciful (as condescending in love to lowly and\nimperfect men), there can be no doubt how He will deal with trustful\nsuppliants. The psalmist turns for a moment from his own experience\nto sun himself in the great thought of the Name, and thereby to come\ninto touch with all who share his faith. The cry for help is wrung\nout by personal need, but the answer received brings into fellowship\nwith a great multitude. Jehovah's character leads up in ver. 6 to a\nbroad truth as to His acts, for it ensures that He cannot but care\nfor the \"simple,\" whose simplicity lays them open to assailants,\nand whose single-hearted adhesion to God appeals unfailingly to His\nheart. Happy the man who, like the psalmist, can give confirmation\nfrom his own experience to the broad truths of God's protection to\ningenuous and guileless souls! Each individual may, if he will, thus\nnarrow to his own use the widest promises, and put \"I\" and \"me\"\nwherever God has put \"whosoever.\" If he does he will be able to turn\nhis own experience into universal maxims, and encourage others to put\n\"whosoever\" where his grateful heart has put \"I\" and \"me.\"\n\nThe deliverance, which is thus the direct result of the Divine\ncharacter, and which extends to all the simple, and therefore included\nthe psalmist, leads to calm repose. The singer does not say so in cold\nwords, but beautifully wooes his \"soul,\" his sensitive nature, which\nhad trembled with fear in death's net, to come back to its rest. The\nword is in the plural, which may be only another indication of late\ndate, but is more worthily understood as expressing the completeness of\nthe repose, which in its fulness is only found in God, and is made the\nmore deep by contrast with previous \"agitation.\"\n\nVv. 8, 9, are quoted from Psalm lvi. 13 with slight variations, the\nmost significant of which is the change of \"light\" into \"lands.\"\nIt is noticeable that the Divine deliverance is thus described as\nsurpassing the psalmist's petition. He asked, \"Deliver my soul.\"\nBare escape was all that he craved, but he received, not only the\ndeliverance of his soul from death, but, over and above, his tears\nwere wiped away by a loving hand, his feet stayed by a strong arm.\nGod over-answers trustful cries, and does not give the minimum\nconsistent with safety, but the maximum of which we are capable. What\nshall a grateful heart do with such benefits? \"I will walk before\nJehovah in the lands of the living,\" joyously and unconstrainedly\n(for so the form of the word \"walk\" implies), as ever conscious of\nthat presence which brings blessedness and requires holiness. The\npaths appointed may carry the traveller far, but into whatever lands\nhe goes, he will have the same glad heart within to urge his feet and\nthe same loving eye above to beam guidance on him.\n\nThe third part (vv. 10-14) recurs to the psalmist's mood in his\ntrouble, and bases on the retrospect of that and of God's mercy the\nvow of praise. Ver. 10 may be variously understood. The \"speaking\"\nmay be taken as referring to the preceding expressions of trust or\nthanksgivings for deliverance. The sentiment would then be that the\npsalmist was confident that he should one day thus speak. So Cheyne;\nor the rendering may be \"I believed in that I spake thus\"--_i.e._,\nthat he spake those trustful words of ver. 9 was the result of sheer\nfaith (so Kay). The thing spoken may also be the expressions which\nfollow, and this seems to yield the most satisfactory meaning. \"Even\nwhen I said, I am afflicted and men fail me, I had not lost my\nfaith.\" He is re-calling the agitation which shook him, but feels\nthat, through it all, there was an unshaken centre of rest in God.\nThe presence of doubt and fear does not prove the absence of trust.\nThere may live a spark of it, though almost buried below masses of\ncold unbelief. What he said was the complaint that he was greatly\nafflicted, and the bitter wail that all men deceive or disappoint. He\nsaid so in his agitation (Psalm xxxi. 22). But even in recognising\nthe folly of trusting in men, he was in some measure trusting God,\nand the trust, though tremulous, was rewarded.\n\nAgain he hurries on to sing the issues of deliverance, without\nwaiting to describe it. That little dialogue of the devout soul with\nitself (vv. 12, 13) goes very deep. It is an illuminative word as\nto God's character, an emancipating word as to the true notion of\nservice to Him, a guiding word as to common life. For it declares\nthat men honour God most by taking His gifts with recognition of\nthe Giver, and that the return which He in His love seeks is only\nour thankful reception of His mercy. A giver who desires but these\nresults is surely Love. A religion which consists first in accepting\nGod's gift and then in praising by lip and life Him who gives\nbanishes the religion of fear, of barter, of unwelcome restrictions\nand commands. It is the exact opposite of the slavery which says,\n\"Thou art an austere man, reaping where thou didst not sow.\" It is\nthe religion of which the initial act is faith, and the continual\nactivity, the appropriation of God's spiritual gifts. In daily life\nthere would be less despondency and weakening regrets over vanished\nblessings, if men were more careful to take and enjoy thankfully all\nthat God gives. But many of us have no eyes for other blessings,\nbecause some one blessing is withdrawn or denied. If we treasured all\nthat is given, we should be richer than most of us are.\n\nIn ver. 14 the particle of beseeching is added to \"before,\" a\nsingular form of expression which seems to imply desire that the\npsalmist may come into the temple with his vows. He may have\nbeen thinking of the \"sacrificial meal in connection with the\npeace-offerings.\" In any case, blessings received in solitude should\nimpel to public gratitude. God delivers His suppliants that they may\nmagnify Him before men.\n\nThe last part (vv. 15-19) repeats the refrain of ver. 14, but with\na different setting. Here the singer generalises his own experience,\nand finds increase of joy in the thought of the multitude who dwell\nsafe under the same protection. The more usual form of expression\nfor the idea in ver. 15 is \"their _blood_ is precious\" (Psalm lxxii.\n14). The meaning is that the death of God's saints is no trivial\nthing in God's eyes, to be lightly permitted. (Compare the contrasted\nthought, xliv. 12.) Then, on the basis of that general truth, is built\nver. 16, which begins singularly with the same beseeching word which\nhas already occurred in vv. 4 and 14. Here it is not followed by an\nexpressed petition, but is a yearning of desire for continued or\nfuller manifestation of God's favour. The largest gifts, most fully\naccepted and most thankfully recognised, still leave room for longing\nwhich is not pain, because it is conscious of tender relations with\nGod that guarantee its fulfilment. \"I am Thy servant.\" Therefore the\nlonging which has no words needs none. \"Thou hast loosed my bonds.\" His\nthoughts go back to \"the cords of death\" (ver. 3), which had held him\nso tightly. God's hand has slackened them, and, by freeing him from\nthat bondage, has bound him more closely than before to Himself. \"Being\nmade free from sin, ye became the slaves of righteousness.\" So, in the\nfull blessedness of received deliverance, the grateful heart offers\nitself to God, as moved by His mercies to become a living sacrifice,\nand calls on the Name of Jehovah, in its hour of thankful surrender,\nas it had called on that Name in its time of deep distress. Once more\nthe lonely suppliant, who had waded such deep waters without companion\nbut Jehovah, seeks to feel himself one of the glad multitude in the\ncourts of the house of Jehovah, and to blend his single voice in the\nshout of a nation's praise. We suffer and struggle for the most part\nalone. Grief is a hermit, but Joy is sociable; and thankfulness desires\nlisteners to its praise. The perfect song is the chorus of a great\n\"multitude which no man can number.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXVII.\n\n 1 Praise Jehovah, all nations,\n Laud Him, all peoples.\n 2 For great is His lovingkindness over us,\n And the troth of Jehovah endures for ever.\n Hallelujah.\n\n\nThis shortest of the psalms is not a fragment, though some MSS. attach\nit to the preceding and some to the following psalm. It contains\nlarge \"riches in a narrow room,\" and its very brevity gives force to\nit. Paul laid his finger on its special significance, when he quoted\nit in proof that God meant His salvation to be for the whole race.\nJewish narrowness was an after-growth and a corruption. The historical\nlimitations of God's manifestation to a special nation were means to\nits universal diffusion. The fire was gathered in a grate, that it\nmight warm the whole house. All men have a share in what God does for\nIsrael. His grace was intended to fructify through it to all. The\nconsciousness of being the special recipients of Jehovah's mercy was\nsaved from abuse, by being united with the consciousness of being\nendowed with blessing that they might diffuse blessing.\n\nNor is the psalmist's thought of what Israel's experience\nproclaimed concerning God's character less noteworthy. As often,\nlovingkindness is united with troth or faithfulness as twin stars\nwhich shine out in all God's dealings with His people. That\nlovingkindness is \"mighty over us\"--the word used for _being mighty_\nhas the sense of _prevailing_, and so \"where sin abounded, grace did\nmuch more abound.\" The permanence of the Divine Lovingkindness is\nguaranteed by God's Troth, by which the fulfilment of every promise\nand the prolongation of every mercy are sealed to men. These two fair\nmessengers have appeared in yet fairer form than the psalmist knew,\nand the world has to praise Jehovah for a world-wide gift, first\nbestowed on and rejected by a degenerate Israel, which thought that\nit owned the inheritance, and so lost it.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXVIII.\n\n 1 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good,\n For His lovingkindness endures for ever.\n 2 O let Israel say,\n That His lovingkindness endures for ever.\n 3 O let the house of Aaron say,\n That His lovingkindness endures for ever.\n 4 O let those who fear Jah say,\n That His lovingkindness endures for ever.\n\n 5 Out of the strait place I called on Jah,\n Jah answered me [by bringing me out] into an open place.\n 6 Jehovah is for me, I will not fear,\n What can man do to me?\n 7 Jehovah is for me, as my helper,\n And I shall gaze on my haters.\n\n 8 Better is it to take refuge in Jehovah\n Than to trust in man.\n 9 Better is it to take refuge in Jehovah\n Than to trust in princes.\n\n 10 All nations beset me round about;\n In the name of Jehovah will I cut them down.\n 11 They have beset me round about, yea, round about beset me;\n In the name of Jehovah will I cut them down.\n 12 They beset me round about like bees,\n They were extinguished like a thorn fire;\n In the name of Jehovah will I cut them down.\n 13 Thou didst thrust sore at me that I might fall,\n But Jehovah helped me.\n 14 Jah is my strength and song,\n And He is become my salvation.\n 15 The sound of shrill shouts of joy and salvation is [heard] in\n the tents of the righteous;\n The right hand of Jehovah does prowess.\n 16 The right hand of Jehovah is exalted,\n The right hand of Jehovah does prowess.\n\n 17 I shall not die, but live,\n And I tell forth the works of Jah.\n 18 Jah has chastened me sore,\n But to death He has not given me up.\n 19 Open ye to me the gates of righteousness,\n I will go in by them, I will thank Jah.\n\n 20 This is the gate of Jehovah:\n The righteous may go in by it.\n\n 21 I will thank Thee, for Thou hast answered me,\n And art become my salvation.\n\n 22 The stone [which] the builders rejected\n Is become the head [stone] of the corner.\n 23 From Jehovah did this come to pass,\n It is wonderful in our eyes.\n 24 This is the day [which] Jehovah has made,\n Let us leap for joy and be glad in it.\n\n 25 O, I beseech Thee, Jehovah, save, I beseech;\n O, I beseech Thee, Jehovah, give prosperity.\n\n 26 Blessed be he that comes in the name of Jehovah,\n We bless you from the house of Jehovah.\n 27 Jehovah is God, and He has given us light;\n Order the bough-bearing procession,--\n To the horns of the altar!\n\n 28 My God art Thou, and I will thank Thee,\n My God, I will exalt Thee.\n\n 29 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good,\n For His lovingkindness endures for ever.\n\n\nThis is unmistakably a psalm for use in the Temple worship, and\nprobably meant to be sung antiphonally, on some day of national\nrejoicing (ver. 24). A general concurrence of opinion points to the\nperiod of the Restoration from Babylon as its date, as in the case\nof many psalms in this Book V., but different events connected with\nthat restoration have been selected. The psalm implies the completion\nof the Temple, and therefore shuts out any point prior to that.\nDelitzsch fixes on the dedication of the Temple as the occasion; but\nthe view is still more probable which supposes that it was sung on\nthe great celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, recorded in Neh.\nviii. 14-18. In later times ver. 25 was the festal cry raised while\nthe altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed, once on each of\nthe first six days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and seven times on\nthe seventh. This seventh day was called the \"Great Hosanna; and not\nonly the prayers at the Feast of Tabernacles, but even the branches\nof osiers (including the myrtles), which are bound to the palm branch\n(_Lulab_), were called Hosannas\" (Delitzsch). The allusions in the\npsalm fit the circumstances of the time in question. Stier, Perowne,\nand Baethgen concur in preferring this date: the last-named critic,\nwho is very slow to recognise indications of specific dates, speaks\nwith unwonted decisiveness, when he writes, \"I believe that I can\nsay with certainty, Psalm cxviii. was sung for the first time at\nthe Feast of Tabernacles in the year 444 B.C.\" Cheyne follows his\nusual guides in pointing to the purification and reconstruction of\nthe Temple by Judas Maccab\u00e6us as \"fully adequate to explain alike\nthe tone and the expressions.\" He is \"the terrible hero,\" to whose\ncharacter the refrain, \"In the name of Jehovah I will cut them down,\"\ncorresponds. But the allusions in the psalm are quite as appropriate\nto any other times of national jubilation and yet of danger, such as\nthat of the Restoration, and Judas the Maccabee had no monopoly of\nthe warrior trust which flames in that refrain.\n\nApparently the psalm falls into two halves, of which the former\n(vv. 1-16) seems to have been sung as a processional hymn while\napproaching the sanctuary, and the latter (vv. 17-29), partly at the\nTemple gates, partly by a chorus of priests within, and partly by the\nprocession when it had entered. Every reader recognises traces of\nantiphonal singing; but it is difficult to separate the parts with\ncertainty. A clue may possibly be found by noting that verses marked\nby the occurrence of \"I,\" \"me,\" and \"my\" are mingled with others more\nimpersonal. The personified nation is clearly the speaker of the\nformer class of verses, which tells a connected story of distress,\ndeliverance, and grateful triumph; while the other less personal\nverses generalise the experience of the first speaker, and sustain\nsubstantially the part of the chorus in a Greek play. In the first\npart of the psalm we may suppose that a part of the procession sang\nthe one and another portion the other series; while in the second\npart (vv. 17-29) the more personal verses were sung by the whole\n_cort\u00e8ge_ arrived at the Temple, and the more generalised other part\nwas taken by a chorus of priests or Levites within the sanctuary.\nThis distribution of verses is occasionally uncertain, but on the\nwhole is clear, and aids the understanding of the psalm.\n\nFirst rings out from the full choir the summons to praise, which\npeculiarly belonged to the period of the Restoration (Ezra iii. 11;\nPsalms cvi. 1, cvii. 1). As in Psalm cxv., three classes are called\non: the whole house of Israel, the priests, and \"those who fear\nJehovah\"--_i.e._, aliens who have taken refuge beneath the wings of\nIsrael's God. The threefold designation expresses the thrill of joy\nin the recovery of national life; the high estimate of the priesthood\nas the only remaining God-appointed order, now that the monarchy\nwas swept away; and the growing desire to draw the nations into the\ncommunity of God's people.\n\nThen, with ver. 5, the single voice begins. His experience, now to\nbe told, is the reason for the praise called for in the previous\nverses. It is the familiar sequence reiterated in many a psalm and\nmany a life,--distress, or \"a strait place\" (Psalm cxvi. 3), a cry\nto Jehovah, His answer by enlargement, and a consequent triumphant\nconfidence, which has warrant in the past for believing that no hand\ncan hurt him whom Jehovah's hand helps. Many a man passes through\nthe psalmist's experience without thereby achieving the psalmist's\nsettled faith and power to despise threatening calamities. We fail\nboth in recounting clearly to ourselves our deliverances and in\ndrawing assurance from them for the future. Ver. 5_b_ is a pregnant\nconstruction. He \"answered me in [or, into] an open place\"--_i.e._,\nby bringing me into it. The contrast of a narrow gorge and a wide\nplain picturesquely expresses past restraints and present freedom\nof movement. Ver. 6 is taken from Psalm lvi. 9, 11; and ver. 7 is\ninfluenced by Psalm liv. 4, and reproduces the peculiar expression\noccurring there, \"Jehovah is among my helpers,\"--on which compare\nremarks on that passage.\n\nVv. 8, 9, are impersonal, and generalise the experience of the\npreceding verses. They ring out loud, like a trumpet, and are the\nmore intense for reiteration. Israel was but a feeble handful. Its\nvery existence seemed to depend on the caprice of the protecting\nkings who had permitted its return. It had had bitter experience of\nthe unreliableness of a monarch's whim. Now, with superb reliance,\nwhich was felt by the psalmist to be the true lesson of the immediate\npast, it peals out its choral confidence in Jehovah with a \"heroism\nof faith which may well put us to the blush.\" These verses surpass\nthe preceding in that they avow that faith in Jehovah makes men\nindependent of human helpers, while the former verses declared that\nit makes superior to mortal foes. Fear of and confidence in man are\nboth removed by trust in God. But it is perhaps harder to be weaned\nfrom the confidence than to rise above the fear.\n\nThe individual experience is resumed in vv. 10-14. The energetic\nreduplications strengthen the impression of multiplied attacks,\ncorresponding with the facts of the Restoration period. The same\nimpression is accentuated by the use in ver. 11_a_ of two forms of\nthe same verb, and in ver. 12_a_ by the metaphor of a swarm of angry\nbees (Deut. i. 44). Numerous, venomous, swift, and hard to strike\nat as the enemies were, buzzing and stinging around, they were but\ninsects after all, and a strong hand could crush them. The psalmist\ndoes not merely look to God to interpose for him, as in vv. 6, 7, but\nexpects that God will give him power to conquer by the use of his\nown strengthened arm. We are not only objects of Divine protection,\nbut organs of Divine power. Trusting in the revealed character of\nJehovah, we shall find conquering energy flowing into us from Him,\nand the most fierce assaults will die out as quickly as a fire of\ndry thorn twigs, which sinks into ashes the sooner the more it\ncrackles and blazes. Then the psalmist individualises the multitude\nof foes, just as the collective Israel is individualised, and brings\nassailants and assailed down to two antagonists, engaged in desperate\nduel. But a third Person intervenes. \"Jehovah helped me\" (ver. 13);\nas in old legends, the gods on their immortal steeds charged at the\nhead of the hosts of their worshippers. Thus delivered, the singer\nbreaks into the ancient strain, which had gone up on the shores of\nthe sullen sea that rolled over Pharaoh's army, and is still true\nafter centuries have intervened: \"Jah is my strength and song, and He\nis become my salvation.\" Miriam sang it, the restored exiles sang it,\ntried and trustful men in every age have sung and will sing it, till\nthere are no more foes; and then, by the shores of the sea of glass\nmingled with fire, the calm victors will lift again the undying \"song\nof Moses and of the Lamb.\"\n\nVv. 15, 16, are probably best taken as sung by the chorus,\ngeneralising and giving voice to the emotions excited by the\npreceding verses. The same reiteration which characterised vv. 8,\n9, reappears here. Two broad truths are built on the individual\nvoice's autobiography: namely, that trust in Jehovah and consequent\nconformity to His law are never in vain, but always issue in joy; and\nthat God's power, when put forth, always conquers. \"The tents of the\nrighteous\" may possibly allude to the \"tabernacles\" constructed for\nthe feast, at which the song was probably sung.\n\nVv. 17-19 belong to the individual voice. The procession has reached\nthe Temple. Deeper thoughts than before now mark the retrospect of past\ntrial and deliverance. Both are recognised to be from Jehovah. It is\nHe who has corrected, severely indeed, but still \"in measure, not to\nbring to nothing, but to make capable and recipient of fuller life.\"\nThe enemy thrust sore, with intent to make Israel fall; but God's\nstrokes are meant to make us stand the firmer. It is beautiful that\nall thought of human foes has faded away, and God only is seen in all\nthe sorrow. But His chastisement has wider purposes than individual\nblessedness. It is intended to make its objects the heralds of His\nname to the world. Israel is beginning to lay to heart more earnestly\nits world-wide vocation to \"tell forth the works of Jehovah.\" The\nimperative obligation of all who have received delivering help from Him\nis to become missionaries of His name. The reed is cut and pared thin\nand bored with hot irons, and the very pith of it extracted, that it\nmay be fit to be put to the owner's lips, and give out music from his\nbreath. Thus conscious of its vocation and eager to render its due of\nsacrifice and praise, Israel asks that \"the gates of righteousness\" may\nbe opened for the entrance of the long procession. The Temple doors are\nso called, because Righteousness is the condition of entrance (Isa.\nxxvi. 2: compare Psalm xxiv.).\n\nVer. 20 may belong to the individual voice, but is perhaps better\ntaken as the answer from within the Temple, of the priests or Levites\nwho guarded the closed doors, and who now proclaim what must be\nthe character of those who would tread the sacred courts. The gate\n(not as in ver. 19, _gates_) belongs to Jehovah, and therefore\naccess by it is permitted to none but the righteous. That is an\neverlasting truth. It is possible to translate, \"This is the gate\n_to_ Jehovah\"--_i.e._, by which one comes to His presence; and that\nrendering would bring out still more emphatically the necessity of\nthe condition laid down: \"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.\"\n\nThe condition is supposed to be met; for in ver. 21 the individual\nvoice again breaks into thanksgiving, for being allowed once more to\nstand in the house of Jehovah. \"Thou hast answered me\": the psalmist\nhad already sung that Jah had answered him (ver. 5). \"And art become\nmy salvation\": he had already hailed Jehovah as having become such\n(ver. 14). God's deliverance is not complete till full communion\nwith Him is enjoyed. Dwelling in His house is the crown of all His\nblessings. We are set free from enemies, from sins and fears and\nstruggles, that we may abide for ever with Him, and only then do we\nrealise the full sweetness of His redeeming hand, when we stand in\nHis presence and commune evermore with Him.\n\nVv. 22, 23, 24, probably belong to the priestly chorus. They set\nforth the great truth made manifest by restored Israel's presence\nin the rebuilt Temple. The metaphor is suggested by the incidents\nconnected with the rebuilding. The \"stone\" is obviously Israel, weak,\ncontemptible, but now once more laid as the very foundation stone\nof God's house in the world. The broad truth taught by its history\nis that God lays as the basis of His building--_i.e._, uses for the\nexecution of His purposes--that which the wisdom of man despises and\ntosses aside. There had been abundant faint-heartedness among even the\nrestored exiles. The nations around had scoffed at these \"feeble Jews,\"\nand the scoffs had not been without echoes in Israel itself. Chiefly,\nthe men of position and influence, who ought to have strengthened\ndrooping courage, had been infected with the tendency to rate low the\nnation's power, and to think that their enterprise was destined to\ndisaster. But now the Temple is built, and the worshippers stand in it.\nWhat does that teach but that all has been God's doing? So wonderful is\nit, so far beyond expectation, that the very objects of such marvellous\nintervention are amazed to find themselves where they stand. So rooted\nis our tendency to unbelief that, when God does what He has sworn\nto do, we are apt to be astonished with a wonder which reveals the\ngreatness of our past incredulity. No man who trusts God ought to be\nsurprised at God's answers to trust.\n\nThe general truth contained here is that of Paul's great saying, \"God\nhath chosen the weak things of the world that He might put to shame\nthe things that are strong.\" It is the constant law, not because\nGod chooses unfit instruments, but because the world's estimates of\nfitness are false, and the qualities which it admires are irrelevant\nwith regard to His designs, while the requisite qualities are of\nanother sort altogether. Therefore, it is a law which finds its\nhighest exemplification in _the_ foundation for God's true temple,\nother than which can no man lay. \"Israel is not only a figure of\nChrist--there is an organic unity between Him and them. Whatever,\ntherefore, is true of Israel in a lower sense is true in its highest\nsense of Christ. If Israel is the rejected stone made the head of the\ncorner, this is far truer of Him who was indeed rejected of men, but\nchosen of God and precious, the corner stone of the one great living\ntemple of the redeemed\" (Perowne).\n\nVer. 24 is best regarded as the continuation of the choral praise\nin vv. 22, 23. \"The day\" is that of the festival now in process, the\njoyful culmination of God's manifold deliverances. It is a day in\nwhich joy is duty, and no heart has a right to be too heavy to leap\nfor gladness. Private sorrows enough many of the jubilant worshippers\nno doubt had, but the sight of the Stone laid as the head of the\ncorner should bring joy even to such. If sadness was ingratitude\nand almost treason then, what sorrow should now be so dense that it\ncannot be pierced by the Light which lighteth every man? The joy of\nthe Lord should float, like oil on stormy waves, above our troublous\nsorrows, and smooth their tossing.\n\nAgain the single voice rises, but not now in thanksgiving, as might\nhave been expected, but in plaintive tones of earnest imploring\n(ver. 25). Standing in the sanctuary, Israel is conscious of its\nperils, its need, its weakness, and so with pathetic reiteration of\nthe particle of entreaty, which occurs twice in each clause of the\nverse, cries for continued deliverance from continuing evils, and\nfor prosperity in the course opening before it. The \"day\" in which\nunmingled gladness inspires our songs has not yet dawned, fair as\nare the many days which Jehovah has made. In the earthly house of\nthe Lord thanksgiving must ever pass into petition. An unending day\ncomes, when there will be nothing to dread, and no need for the\nsadder notes occasioned by felt weakness and feared foes.\n\nVv. 26, 27, come from the chorus of priests, who welcome the entering\nprocession, and solemnly pronounce on them the benediction of\nJehovah. They answer, in His name, the prayer of ver. 25, and bless\nthe single leader of the procession and the multitudes following. The\nuse of ver. 26_a_ and of the \"Hosanna\" (an attempted transliteration\nof the Hebrew \"Save I beseech\") from ver. 25 at Christ's entrance\ninto Jerusalem probably shows that the psalm was regarded as\nMessianic. It is so, in virtue of the relation already referred to\nbetween Israel and Christ. He \"cometh in the name of Jehovah\" in a\ndeeper sense than did Israel, the servant of the Lord.\n\nVer. 27_a_ recalls the priestly benediction (Numb. vi. 25), and\nthankfully recognises its ample fulfilment in Israel's history,\nand especially in the dawning of new prosperity now. Ver. 27_b_,\n_c_, is difficult. Obviously it should be a summons to worship, as\nthanksgiving for the benefits acknowledged in _a_. But what is the\nact of worship intended is hard to say. The rendering \"Bind the\nsacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar,\" has against\nit the usual meaning of the word rendered _sacrifice_, which is\nrather _festival_, and the fact that the last words of the verse\ncannot possibly be translated \"_to_ the horns,\" etc., but must mean\n\"as far as\" or \"even up to the horns,\" etc. There must therefore\nbe a good deal supplied in the sentence; and commentators differ\nas to how to fill the gap. Delitzsch supposes that \"the number of\nthe sacrificial animals is to be so great that the whole space of\nthe courts of the priests becomes full of them, and the binding of\nthem has therefore to take place even up to the horns of the altar.\"\nPerowne takes the expression to be a pregnant one for \"till [the\nvictim] is sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the horns of the\naltar.\" So Hupfeld, following Chaldee and some Jewish interpreters.\nOthers regard the supposed ellipsis as too great to be natural, and\ntake an entirely different view. The word rendered _sacrifice_ in the\nformer explanation is taken to mean a _procession_ round the altar,\nwhich is etymologically justifiable, and is supported by the known\ncustom of making such a circuit during the Feast of Tabernacles. For\n\"cords\" this explanation would read _branches_ or _boughs_, which\nis also warranted. But what does \"binding a procession with boughs\"\nmean? Various answers are given. Cheyne supposes that the branches\nborne in the hands of the members of the procession were in some\nunknown way used to bind or link them together before they left the\nTemple. Baethgen takes \"with boughs\" as = \"bearing boughs,\" with\nwhich he supposes that the bearers touched the altar horns, for the\npurpose of transferring to themselves the holiness concentrated\nthere. Either explanation has difficulties,--the former in requiring\nan unusual sense for the word rendered _sacrifice_; the latter in\nfinding a suitable meaning for that translated _bind_. In either\n_c_ is but loosely connected with _b_, and is best understood as\nan exclamation. The verb rendered _bind_ is used in 1 Kings xx.\n14, 2 Chron. xiii. 3, in a sense which fits well with \"procession\"\nhere--_i.e._, that of marshalling an army for battle. If this meaning\nis adopted, _b_ will be the summons to order the bough-bearing\nprocession, and _c_ a call to march onwards, so as to encircle\nthe altar. This meaning of the obscure verse may be provisionally\naccepted, while owning that our ignorance of the ceremonial referred\nto prevents complete understanding of the words.\n\nOnce more Miriam's song supplies ancient language of praise for\nrecent mercies, and the personified Israel compasses the altar with\nthanksgiving (ver. 28). Then the whole multitude, both of those who\nhad come up to the Temple and of those who had welcomed them there,\njoin in the chorus of praise with which the psalm begins and ends,\nand which was so often pealed forth in those days of early joy for\nthe new manifestations of that Lovingkindness which endures through\nall days, both those of past evil and those of future hoped-for good.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXIX.\n\n\nIt is lost labour to seek for close continuity or progress in this\npsalm. One thought pervades it--the surpassing excellence of the\nLaw; and the beauty and power of the psalm lie in the unwearied\nreiteration of that single idea. There is music in its monotony,\nwhich is subtilely varied. Its verses are like the ripples on a sunny\nsea, alike and impressive in their continual march, and yet each\ncatching the light with a difference, and breaking on the shore in a\ntone of its own. A few elements are combined into these hundred and\nseventy-six gnomic sentences. One or other of the usual synonyms for\nthe Law--viz., word, saying, statutes, commandments, testimonies,\njudgments--occurs in every verse, except vv. 122 and 132. The prayers\n\"Teach me, revive me, preserve me--according to Thy word,\" and the\nvows \"I will keep, observe, meditate on, delight in---Thy law,\" are\nfrequently repeated. There are but few pieces in the psalmist's\nkaleidoscope, but they fall into many shapes of beauty; and though\nall his sentences are moulded after the same general plan, the\nvariety within such narrow limits is equally a witness of poetic\npower which turns the fetters of the acrostic structure into helps,\nand of devout heartfelt love for the Law of Jehovah.\n\nThe psalm is probably of late date; but its allusions to the\nsinger's circumstances, whether they are taken as autobiographical or\nas having reference to the nation, are too vague to be used as clues\nto the period of its composition. An early poet is not likely to have\nadopted such an elaborate acrostic plan, and the praises of the Law\nnaturally suggest a time when it was familiar in an approximately\ncomplete form. It may be that the rulers referred to in vv. 23,\n46, were foreigners, but the expression is too general to draw a\nconclusion from. It may be that the double-minded (ver. 113), who err\nfrom God's statutes (ver. 118), and forsake His law (ver. 53), are\nIsraelites who have yielded to the temptations to apostatise, which\ncame with the early Greek period, to which Baethgen, Cheyne, and\nothers would assign the psalm. But these expressions, too, are of so\ngeneral a nature that they do not give clear testimony of date.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d0\n\n 1 Blessed the perfect in [their] way,\n Who walk in the law of Jehovah!\n 2 Blessed they who keep His testimonies,\n That seek Him with the whole heart,\n 3 [Who] also have done no iniquity,\n [But] have walked in His ways!\n 4 Thou hast commanded Thy precepts,\n That we should observe them diligently.\n 5 O that my ways were established\n To observe Thy statutes!\n 6 Then shall I not be ashamed,\n When I give heed to all Thy commandments.\n 7 I will thank Thee with uprightness of heart,\n When I learn Thy righteous judgments.\n 8 Thy statutes will I observe;\n Forsake me not utterly.\n\nThe first three verses are closely connected. They set forth in\ngeneral terms the elements of the blessedness of the doers of the\nLaw. To walk in it--_i.e._, to order the active life in conformity\nwith its requirements--ensures perfectness. To keep God's testimonies\nis at once the consequence and the proof of seeking Him with\nwhole-hearted devotion and determination. To walk in His ways is the\npreservative from evil-doing. And such men cannot but be blessed with\na deep sacred blessedness, which puts to shame coarse and turbulent\ndelights, and feeds its pure fires from God Himself. Whether these\nverses are taken as exclamation or declaration, they lead up\nnaturally to ver. 4, which reverently gazes upon the loving act of\nGod in the revelation of His will in the Law, and bethinks itself of\nthe obligations bound on us by that act. It is of God's mercy that\nHe has commanded, and His words are meant to sway our wills, since\nHe has broken the awful silence, not merely to instruct us, but to\ncommand; and nothing short of practical obedience will discharge\nour duties to His revelation. So the psalmist betakes himself to\nprayer, that he may be helped to realise the purpose of God in giving\nthe Law. His contemplation of the blessedness of obedience and of\nthe Divine act of declaring His will moves him to longing, and\nhis consciousness of weakness and wavering makes the longing into\nprayer that his wavering may be consolidated into fixity of purpose\nand continuity of obedience. When a man's ways are established to\nobserve, they will be established by observing, God's statutes. For\nnothing can put to the blush one whose eye is directed to these.\n\n \"Whatever record leap to light,\n He never shall be shamed.\"\n\nNor will he cherish hopes that fail, nor desires that when\naccomplished, are bitter of taste. To give heed to the commandments\nis the condition of learning them and recognising how righteous they\nare; and such learning makes the learner's heart righteous like them,\nand causes it to run over in thankfulness for the boon of knowledge\nof God's will. By all these thoughts the psalmist is brought to his\nfixed resolve in ver. 8, to do what God meant him to do when He gave\nthe Law; and what the singer had just longed that he might be able to\ndo--namely, to observe the statutes. But in his resolve he remembers\nhis weakness, and therefore he glides into prayer for that Presence\nwithout which resolves are transient and abortive.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d1\n\n 9 Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his path?\n By taking heed, according to Thy word.\n 10 With my whole heart have I sought Thee,\n Let me not wander from Thy commandments.\n 11 In my heart have I hid Thy saying,\n That I may not sin against Thee.\n 12 Blessed art Thou, Jehovah,\n Teach me Thy statutes.\n 13 With my lips have I rehearsed\n All the judgments of Thy mouth.\n 14 In the way of Thy testimonies have I rejoiced,\n As over all [kinds of] wealth.\n 15 In Thy precepts will I meditate,\n And will have respect to all Thy paths.\n 16 In Thy statutes will I delight myself,\n I will not forget Thy word.\n\nThe inference drawn from ver. 9, that the psalmist was a young man,\nis precarious. The language would be quite as appropriate to an aged\nteacher desirous of guiding impetuous youth to sober self-control.\nWhile some verses favour the hypothesis of the author's youth (ver.\n141, and perhaps vv. 99, 100), the tone of the whole, its rich\nexperience and comprehensive grasp of the manifold relations of the\nLaw to life, imply maturity of years and length of meditation. The\npsalm is the ripe fruit of a life which is surely past its spring.\nBut it is extremely questionable whether these apparently personal\ntraits are really so. Much rather is the poet \"thinking ... of the\nindividuals of different ages and spiritual attainments who may use\nhis works\" (Cheyne, _in loc._).\n\nThe word rendered \"By taking heed\" has already occurred in vv. 4, 5\n(\"observe\"). The careful study of the Word must be accompanied with\nas careful study of self. The object observed there was the Law;\nhere, it is the man himself. Study God's law, says the psalmist, and\nstudy Thyself in its light; so shall youthful impulses be bridled,\nand the life's path be kept pure. That does not sound so like a young\nman's thought as an old man's maxim, in which are crystallised many\nexperiences.\n\nThe rest of the section intermingles petitions, professions, and\nvows, and is purely personal. The psalmist claims that he is one of\nthose whom he has pronounced blessed, inasmuch as he _has_ \"sought\"\nGod with his \"whole heart.\" Such longing is no mere idle aspiration,\nbut must be manifested in obedience, as ver. 2 has declared. If a\nman longs for God, he will best find Him by doing His will. But no\nheart-desire is so rooted as to guarantee that it shall not die, nor\nis past obedience a certain pledge of a like future. Wherefore the\npsalmist prays, not in reliance on his past, but in dread that he\nmay falsify it, \"Let me not wander.\" He had not only sought God in\nhis heart, but had there hid God's law, as its best treasure, and as\nan inward power controlling and stimulating. Evil cannot flow from a\nheart in which God's law is lodged. That is the tree which sweetens\nthe waters of the fountain. But the cry \"Teach me Thy statutes\"\nwould be but faltering, if the singer could not rise above himself,\nand take heart by gazing upon God, whose own great character is the\nguarantee that He will not leave a seeking soul in ignorance.\n\nProfessions and vows now take the place of petitions. \"From the\nabundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,\" and the word hid in it\nwill certainly not be concealed. It is buried deep, that it may grow\nhigh. It is hidden, that it may come abroad. Therefore ver. 13 tells\nof bold utterance, which is as incumbent on men as obedient deeds.\n\nA sane estimate of earthly good will put it decisively below the\nknowledge of God and of His will. Lives which despise what the world\ncalls riches, because they are smitten with the desire of any sort\nof wisdom, are ever nobler than those which keep the low levels. And\nhighest of all is the life which gives effect to its conviction that\nman's true treasure is to know God's mind and will. To rejoice in\nHis testimonies is to have wealth that cannot be lost and pleasures\nthat cannot wither. That glad estimate will surely lead to happy\nmeditation on them, by which their worth shall be disclosed and their\nsweep made plain. The miser loves to tell his gold; the saint, to\nponder his wealth in God. The same double direction of the mind,\nalready noted, reappears in ver. 15, where quiet meditation on God's\nstatutes is associated with attention to the ways which are called\nHis, as being pointed out by, and pleasing to, Him, but are ours, as\nbeing walked in by us. Inward delight in, and practical remembrance\nof, the Law are vowed in ver. 16, which covers the whole field of\ncontemplative and active life.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d2\n\n 17 Deal bountifully with Thy servant, that I may live,\n So will I observe Thy word.\n 18 Open my eyes, that I may behold\n Wonders out of Thy law.\n 19 A stranger am I on the earth,\n Hide not from me Thy commandments.\n 20 Crushed is my soul with longing\n Towards Thy judgments at all times.\n 21 Thou hast rebuked the proud [so that they are] cursed,\n Those who wander from Thy commandments.\n 22 Remove from me reproach and shame,\n For Thy testimonies do I keep.\n 23 Princes also sit and speak with one another against me,\n Thy servant meditates on Thy statutes.\n 24 Also Thy testimonies are my delight,\n The men of my counsel.\n\nIn ver. 17 the psalmist desires continued life, mainly because it\naffords the opportunity of continued obedience. He will \"observe Thy\nword,\" not only in token of gratitude, but because to him life is\nprecious chiefly because in its activities he can serve God. Such\na reason for wishing to live may easily change to a willingness to\ndie, as it did with Paul, who had learned that a better obedience was\npossible when he had passed through the dark gates, and therefore\ncould say, \"To die is gain.\" Vv. 18, 19, are connected, in so far as\nthe former desires subjective illumination and the latter objective\nrevelation. Opened eyes are useless, if commandments are hidden; and\nthe disclosure of the latter is in vain unless there are eyes to\nsee them. Two great truths lie in the former petition--namely, that\nscales cover our spiritual vision which only God can take away, and\nthat His revelation has in its depths truths and treasures which can\nonly be discerned by His help. The cognate petition in ver. 19 is\nbased upon the pathetic thought that man is a stranger on earth, and\ntherefore needs what will take away his sense of homelessness and\nunrest. All other creatures are adapted to their environments, but he\nhas a consciousness that he is an exile here, a haunting, stinging\nsense, which vaguely feels after repose in his native land. \"Thy\ncommandments\" can still it. To know God's will, with knowledge which\nis acceptance and love, gives rest, and makes every place a mansion\nin the Father's house.\n\nThere may possibly be a connection between vv. 20 and 21--the\nterrible fate of those who wander from the commandments, as described\nin the latter verse, being the motive for the psalmist's longing\nexpressed in the former. The \"judgments\" for which he longed,\nwith a yearning which seemed to bruise his soul are not, as might\nbe supposed, God's judicial acts, but the word is a synonym for\n\"commandments,\" as throughout the psalm.\n\nThe last three verses of the section appear to be linked together.\nThey relate to the persecutions of the psalmist for his faithfulness\nto God's law. In ver. 22 he prays that reproach and shame, which\nwrapped him like a covering, may be lifted from him; and his plea\nin ver. 22_b_ declares that he lay under these because he was true\nto God's statutes. In ver. 23 we see the source of the reproach and\nshame, in the conclave of men in authority, whether foreign princes\nor Jewish rulers, who were busy slandering him and plotting his ruin;\nwhile, with wonderful beauty, the contrasted picture in _b_ shows the\nobject of that busy talk, sitting silently absorbed in meditation on\nthe higher things of God's statutes. As long as a man can do that,\nhe has a magic circle drawn round him, across which fears and cares\ncannot step. Ver. 24 heightens the impression of the psalmist's rest.\n\"Also Thy testimonies are my delight\"--not only the subjects of his\nmeditation, but bringing inward sweetness, though earth is in arms\nagainst him; and not only are they his delights, but \"the men of his\ncounsel,\" in whom he, solitary as he is, finds companionship that\narms him with resources against that knot of whispering enemies.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d3\n\n 25 My soul cleaves to the dust,\n Revive me according to Thy word.\n 26 My ways I told and Thou answeredst me,\n Teach me Thy statutes.\n 27 The way of Thy precepts make me understand,\n And I will meditate on Thy wonders.\n 28 My soul weeps itself away for grief,\n Raise me up according to Thy word.\n 29 The way of lying remove from me,\n And [with] Thy law be gracious to me.\n 30 The way of faithfulness I have chosen,\n Thy judgments have I set [before me].\n 31 I have cleaved to Thy testimonies;\n Jehovah, put me not to shame.\n 32 The way of Thy commandments will I run,\n For Thou dost enlarge my heart.\n\nThe exigencies of the acrostic plan are very obvious in this\nsection, five of the verses of which begin with \"way\" or \"ways,\" and\ntwo of the remaining three with \"cleaves.\" The variety secured under\nsuch conditions is remarkable. The psalmist's soul cleaves to the\ndust--_i.e._, is bowed in mourning (cf. xliv. 25); but still, though\nthus darkened by sorrow and weeping itself away for grief (ver. 28),\nit cleaves to \"Thy testimonies\" (ver. 31). Happy in their sorrow are\nthey who, by reason of the force which bows their sensitive nature to\nthe dust, cling the more closely in their true selves to the declared\nwill of God! Their sorrow appeals to God's heart, and is blessed if\nit dictates the prayer for His quickening (ver. 25). Their cleaving\nto His law warrants their hope that He will not put them to shame.\n\nThe first pair of verses in which \"way\" is the acrostic word (vv.\n26, 27) sets \"my ways\" over against \"the way of Thy precepts.\" The\npsalmist has made God his confidant, telling Him all his life's\nstory, and has found continual answers, in gifts of mercy and inward\nwhispers. He asks, therefore, for further illumination, which will\nbe in accordance with these past mutual communications. Tell God thy\nways and He will teach thee His statutes. The franker our confession,\nthe more fervent our longing for fuller knowledge of His will. \"The\nway of Thy precepts\" is the practical life according to these, the\nideal which shall rebuke and transform \"my ways.\" The singer's\ncrooked course is spread before God, and he longs to see clearly\nthe straight path of duty, on which he vows that he will meditate,\nand find wonders in the revelation of God's will. Many a sunbeam is\nwasted for want of intent eyes. The prayer for understanding is vain\nwithout the vow of pondering. The next pair of \"way-\" verses (vv. 29,\n30) contrasts ways of \"lying\" and of \"faithfulness\"--_i.e._, sinful\nlife which is false towards God and erroneous in its foundation\nmaxims, and life which is true in practice to Him and to man's\nobligations. The psalmist prays that the former may be put far from\nhim; for he feels that it is only too near, and his unhelped feet too\nready to enter on it. He recognises the inmost meaning of the Law as\nan outcome of God's favour. It is not harsh, but glowing with love,\nGod's best gift. The prayer in ver. 29 has the psalmist's deliberate\nchoice in ver. 30 as its plea. That choice does not lift him above\nthe need of God's help, and it gives him a claim thereon. Our wills\nmay seem fixed, but the gap between choice and practice is wide, and\nour feebleness will not bridge it, unless He strengthens us. So the\nlast verse of this section humbly vows to transform meditation and\nchoice into action, and to \"run the way of God's commandments,\" in\nthanksgiving for the joy with which, while the psalmist prays, he\nfeels that his heart swells.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d4\n\n 33 Teach me, Jehovah, the way of Thy statutes,\n And I will keep it to the end.\n 34 Make me understand so that I may keep Thy law,\n And I will observe it with [my] whole heart.\n 35 Make me walk in the path of Thy commandments,\n For in it I delight.\n 36 Incline my heart to Thy testimonies,\n And not to plunder.\n 37 Make my eyes go aside from beholding vanity,\n In Thy ways revive me.\n 38 Confirm to Thy servant Thy promise,\n Which tends to Thy fear.\n 39 Make my reproach pass away which I dread,\n For Thy judgments are good.\n 40 Behold, I have longed for Thy precepts,\n In Thy righteousness revive me.\n\nVv. 33 and 34 are substantially identical in their prayer for\nenlightenment and their vow of obedience. Both are based on the\nconviction that outward revelation is incomplete without inward\nillumination. Both recognise the necessary priority of enlightened\nreason as condition of obedient action, and such action as the test\nand issue of enlightenment. Both vow that knowledge shall not remain\nbarren. They differ in that the former verse pledges the psalmist\nto obedience unlimited in time and the latter to obedience without\nreservation. But even in uttering his vow the singer remembers his need\nof God's help to keep it, and turns it, in ver. 35, into petition,\nwhich he very significantly grounds on his heart's delight in the Law.\nWarm as that delight may be, circumstances and flesh will cool it,\nand it is ever a struggle to translate desires into deeds. Therefore\nwe need the sweet constraint of our Divine Helper to make us walk in\nthe right way. Again, in ver. 36 the preceding profession is caught\nup and modulated into petition. \"Incline my heart\" stands to \"In it\nI delight,\" just as \"Make me walk\" does to \"I will observe it.\" Our\npurest joys in God and in His Will depend on Him for their permanence\nand increase. Our hearts are apt to spill their affection on the earth,\neven while we would bear the cup filled to God. And one chief rival of\n\"Thy testimonies\" is worldly gain, from which there must be forcible\ndetachment in order to, and as accompaniment of, attachment to God. All\npossessions which come between us and Him are \"plunder,\" unjust gain.\n\nThe heart is often led astray by the eyes. The senses bring fuel to\nits unholy flames. Therefore, the next petition (ver. 37) asks that\nthey may be made, as it were, to pass on one side of tempting things,\nwhich are branded as being \"vanity,\" without real substance or worth,\nhowever they may glitter and solicit the gaze. To look longingly on\nearth's good makes us torpid in God's ways; and to be earnest in the\nlatter makes us dead to the former. There is but one real life for\nmen, the life of union with God and of obedience to His commandments.\nTherefore, the singer prays to be revived in God's ways. Experience of\nGod's faithfulness to His plighted word will do much to deliver from\nearth's glamour, as ver. 38 implies. The second clause is elliptical\nin Hebrew, and is now usually taken as above, meaning that God's\npromise fulfilled leads men to reverence Him. But the rendering \"who is\n[devoted] to Thy fear\" is tenable and perhaps better. The \"reproach\" in\nver. 39 is probably that which would fall on the psalmist if he were\nunfaithful to God's law. This interpretation gives the best meaning to\nver. 39_b_, which would then contain the reason for his desire to keep\nthe \"judgments\"--_i.e._, the commandments, not the judicial acts--which\nhe feels to be good. The section ends with a constantly recurring\nstrain. God's righteousness, His strict discharge of all obligations,\nguarantees that no longing, turned to Him, can be left unsatisfied. The\nlanguishing desire will be changed into fuller joy of more vigorous\nlife. The necessary precursor of deeper draughts from the Fountain\nof Life is thirst for it, which faithfully turns aside from earth's\nsparkling but drugged potions.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d5\n\n 41 And let Thy lovingkindnesses come to me, Jehovah,\n Thy salvation according to Thy promise.\n 42 And I shall have a word to answer him that reproaches me,\n For I trust in Thy word.\n 43 And pluck not the word of truth out of my mouth utterly,\n For I have waited for Thy judgments.\n 44 And I would observe Thy law continually,\n For ever and aye.\n 45 And I would walk at liberty,\n For I have sought Thy precepts.\n 46 And I would speak of Thy testimonies before kings,\n And not be ashamed.\n 47 And I will delight myself in Thy judgments,\n Which I love.\n 48 And I will lift up my palms to Thy commandments [which I love],\n And meditate on Thy statutes.\n\nThere are practically no Hebrew words beginning with the letter\nrequired as the initial in this section, except the copula\n\"and.\" Each verse begins with it, and it is best to retain it\nin translation, so as to reproduce in some measure the original\nimpression of uniformity. The verses are aggregated rather than\nlinked. \"And\" sometimes introduces a consequence, as probably in\nver. 42, and sometimes is superfluous in regard to the sense. A\npredominant reference to the duty of bearing witness to the Truth\nruns through the section. The prayer in ver. 41 for the visits of\nGod's lovingkindnesses which, in their sum, make salvation, and are\nguaranteed by His word of promise, is urged on the ground that, by\nexperience of these, the psalmist will have his answer ready for\nall carpers who scoff at him and his patient faith. Such a prayer\nis entirely accordant with the hypothesis that the speaker is the\ncollective Israel, but not less so with the supposition that he\nis an individual. \"Whereas I was blind, now I see\" is an argument\nthat silences sarcasm. Ver. 43 carries on the thought of witnessing\nand asks that \"the word of truth\"--_i.e._, the Law considered as\ndisclosure of truth rather than of duty--may not be snatched from the\nwitness's mouth, as it would be if God's promised lovingkindnesses\nfailed him. The condition of free utterance is rich experience.\nIf prayers had gone up in vain from the psalmist's lips, no glad\nproclamation could come from them.\n\nThe verbs at the beginnings of vv. 44-46 are best taken as\noptatives, expressing what the psalmist would fain do, and, to some\nextent, has done. There is no true religion without that longing for\nunbroken conformity with the manifest will of God. Whoever makes that\nhis deepest desire, and seeks after God's precepts, will \"walk at\nliberty,\" or _at large_, for restraints that are loved are not bonds,\nand freedom consists not in doing as I would, but in willing to do\nas I ought. Strong in such emancipation from the hindrances of one's\nown passions, and triumphant over external circumstances which may\nmould, but not dominate, a God-obeying life, the psalmist would fain\nopen his mouth unabashed before rulers. The \"kings\" spoken of in ver.\n46 may be foreign rulers, possibly the representatives of the Persian\nmonarch, or later alien sovereigns, or the expression may be quite\ngeneral, and the speaker be a private person, who feels his courage\nrising as he enters into the liberty of perfect submission.\n\nVv. 47, 48, are general expressions of delight in the Law. Lifting\nthe hands towards the commandments seems to be a figure for reverent\nregard, or longing, as one wistfully stretches them out towards some\ndear person or thing that one would fain draw closer. The phrase\n\"which I love\" in ver. 48 overweights the clause, and is probably a\nscribe's erroneous repetition of 47_b_.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d6\n\n 49 Remember the word to Thy servant,\n On which Thou hast caused me to hope.\n 50 This is my comfort in my affliction,\n That Thy promise has given me life.\n 51 The proud have derided me exceedingly,\n From Thy law I have not declined.\n 52 I have remembered Thy judgments [which are] from of old, Jehovah,\n And I have comforted myself.\n 53 Fiery anger has seized me because of the wicked,\n Who forsake Thy law.\n 54 Thy statutes have been songs for me,\n In my house of sojourning.\n 55 I remembered Thy name in the night, Jehovah,\n And observed Thy law.\n 56 This good has been mine,\n That I have kept Thy precepts.\n\nThis section has only one verse of petition, the others being mainly\navowals of adherence to the Law in the face of various trials.\nThe single petition (ver. 49) pleads the relation of servant, as\ngiving a claim on the great Lord of the household, and adduces God's\nhaving encouraged hope as imposing on Him an obligation to fulfil\nit. Expectations fairly deduced from His word are prophets of their\nown realisation. In ver. 50, \"This\" points to the fact stated in\n_b_--namely, that the Word had already proved its power in the past\nby quickening the psalmist to new courage and hope--and declares that\nthat remembered experience solaces his present sorrow. A heart that\nhas been revived by life-giving contact with the Word has a hidden\nwarmth beneath the deepest snows, and cleaves the more to that Word.\n\nVv. 51-53 describe the attitude of the lover of the Law in presence\nof the ungodly. He is as unmoved by shafts of ridicule as by the\nheavier artillery of slander and plots (ver. 23). To be laughed out\nof one's faith is even worse than to be terrified out of it. The\nlesson is not needless in a day when adherence and obedience to\nthe Word are smiled at in so many quarters as indicating inferior\nintelligence. The psalmist held fast by it, and while laughter, with\nmore than a trace of bitterness, rung about him, threw himself back\non God's ancient and enduring words, which made the scoffs sound very\nhollow and transient (ver. 52). Righteous indignation, too, rises\nin a devout soul at sight of men's departure from God's law (ver.\n53). The word rendered \"fiery anger\" is found in xi. 6 (\"a wind of\n_burning_\"), and is best taken as above, though some would render\n_horror_. The wrath was not unmingled with compassion (ver. 136),\nand, whilst it is clearly an emotion belonging to the Old Testament\nrather than to the Christian type of devotion, it should be present,\nin softened form, in our feelings towards evil.\n\nIn ver. 54 the psalmist turns from gainsayers. He strikes again the\nnote of ver. 19, calling earth his place of transitory abode, or,\nas we might say, his inn. The brevity of life would be crushing,\nif God had not spoken to us. Since He has, the pilgrims can march\n\"with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads,\" and all about\ntheir moving camp the sound of song may echo. To its lovers, God's\nlaw is not \"harsh and crabbed ... but musical as is Apollo's lute.\"\nThis psalm is one of the poet's songs. Even those of us who are not\nsingers can and should meditate on God's law, till its melodious\nbeauty is disclosed and its commandments, that sometimes sound stern,\nset themselves to rhythm and harmony. As God's words took bitterness\nout of the thought of mortality, so His name remembered in the night\nbrought light into darkness, whether physical or other. We often lose\nour memory of God and our hold of His hand when in sorrow, and grief\nsometimes thinks that it has a dispensation from obedience. So we\nshall be the better for remembering the psalmist's experience, and\nshould, like him, cling to the Name in the dark, and then we shall\nhave light enough to \"observe Thy law.\" Ver. 56 looks back on the\nmingled life of good and evil, of which some of the sorrows have just\nbeen touched, and speaks deep contentment with its portion. Whatever\nelse is withheld or withdrawn, that lot is blessed which has been\nhelped by God to keep His precepts, and they are happy and wise who\ndeliberately prefer that good to all beside.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d7\n\n 57 My portion is Jehovah,\n I have said that I would observe Thy words.\n 58 I have sought Thy favour with my whole heart,\n Be merciful to me according to Thy promise.\n 59 I have thought on my ways,\n And turned my feet to Thy testimonies.\n 60 I hasted and delayed not\n To observe Thy commandments.\n 61 The cords of the wicked have enwrapped me,\n Thy law have I not forgotten.\n 62 At midnight will I rise to thank Thee,\n Because of Thy righteous judgments.\n 63 A companion am I of all who fear Thee,\n And of those who observe Thy precepts.\n 64 Of Thy lovingkindness, Jehovah, the earth is full,\n Thy statutes do Thou teach me.\n\nVer. 57 goes to the root of the matter in setting forth the resolve\nof obedience as the result of the consciousness of possessing God. He\nwho feels, in his own happy heart, that Jehovah is his portion will\nbe moved thereby to vow to keep His words. This psalmist had learned\nthe evangelical lesson that he did not win God by keeping the Law,\nbut that he was moved to keep the Law because he had won God; and he\nhad also learned the companion truth, that the way to retain that\npossession is obedience.\n\nVer. 58 corresponds in some measure to ver. 57, but the order of\nclauses is inverted, _a_ stating the psalmist's prayer, as ver. 57_b_\ndid his resolve, and _b_ building on his cry the hope that God would\nbe truly his portion and bestow His favour on him. But the true ground\nof our hope is not our most whole-hearted prayers, but God's promise.\nThe following five verses change from the key of petition into that\nof profession of obedience to, and delight in, the Law. The fruit of\nwise consideration of one's conduct is willing acceptance of God's\nlaw as His witness of what is right for us. The only \"ways\" which\nsober consideration will approve are those marked out in mercy by\nHim, and meditation on conduct is worthless if it does not issue in\nturning our feet into these. Without such meditation we shall wander\non bye-ways and lose ourselves. Want of thought ruins men (ver. 59).\nBut such turning of our feet to the right road has many foes, and\nchief among them is lingering delay. Therefore resolve must never be\nlet cool, but be swiftly carried into action (ver. 60). The world is\nfull of snares, and they lie thick round our feet whenever these are\nturned towards God's ways. The only means of keeping clear of them\nis to fix heart and mind on God's law. Then we shall be able to pick\nour steps among traps and pits (ver. 61). Physical weariness limits\nobedience, and needful sleep relaxes nervous tension, so that many a\nstrenuous worker and noble aspirant falls beneath his daylight self\nin wakeful night seasons. Blessed they who in the night see visions\nof God and meditate on His law, not on earthly vanities or aims (ver.\n62). Society has its temptations as solitude has. The man whose heart\nhas fed in secret on God and His law will naturally gravitate towards\nlike-minded people. Our relation to God and His uttered will should\ndetermine our affinities with men, and it is a bad sign when natural\nimpulses do not draw us to those who fear God. Two men who have that\nfear in common are liker each other in their deepest selves, however\ndifferent they may be in other respects, than either of them is to\nthose to whom he is likest in surface characteristics and unlike in\nthis supreme trait (ver. 63). One pathetic petition closes the section.\nIn ver. 19 the psalmist had based his prayer for illumination on his\nbeing a stranger on earth; here he grounds it on the plenitude of God's\nloving-kindness, which floods the world. It is the same plea in another\nform. All creatures bask in the light of God's love, which falls on\neach in a manner appropriate to its needs. Man's supreme need is the\nknowledge of God's statutes; therefore, the same all-embracing Mercy,\nwhich cares for these happy, careless creatures, will not be implored\nin vain, to satisfy his nobler and more pressing want. All beings get\ntheir respective boons unasked; but the pre-eminence of ours is partly\nseen in this, that it cannot be given without the co-operation of our\ndesire. It will be given wherever that condition is fulfilled (ver. 64).\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d8\n\n 65 Good hast Thou done with Thy servant,\n Jehovah, according to Thy word.\n 66 Good judgment and knowledge teach me,\n For I have believed Thy commandments.\n 67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray,\n But now have I observed Thy saying.\n 68 Good art Thou and doing good,\n Teach me Thy statutes.\n 69 The proud have trumped up a lie against me,\n I, I with all [my] heart will keep Thy precepts.\n 70 Gross as fat is their heart,\n I, I delight in Thy law.\n 71 Good for me was it that I was afflicted,\n That I might learn Thy statutes.\n 72 Good for me is the law of Thy mouth,\n Above thousands of gold and silver.\n\nThe restrictions of the acrostic structure are very obvious in this\nsection, five of the eight verses of which begin with \"Good.\" The\nepithet is first applied in ver. 65 to the whole of God's dealings\nwith the psalmist. To the devout soul all life is of one piece, and\nits submission and faith exercise transmuting power on pains and\nsorrows, so that the psalmist can say--\n\n \"Let one more attest,\n I have lived, seen God's hand through a lifetime,\n And all was for best.\"\n\nThe epithet is next applied (ver. 66) to the perception (lit. taste)\nor faculty of discernment of good and evil, for which the psalmist\nprays, basing his petition on his belief of God's word. Swift, sure,\nand delicate apprehension of right and wrong comes from such belief.\nThe heart in which it reigns is sensitive as a goldsmith's scales or\na thermometer which visibly sinks when a cloud passes before the sun.\nThe instincts of faith work surely and rapidly. The settled judgment\nthat life had been good includes apparent evil (ver. 67), which is\nreal evil in so far as it pains, but is, in a deeper view, good,\ninasmuch as it scourges a wandering heart back to true obedience\nand therefore to well-being. The words of ver. 67 are specially\nappropriate as the utterance of the Israel purified from idolatrous\ntendencies by captivity, but may also be the expression of individual\nexperience. The epithet is next applied to God Himself (ver. 68). How\nsteadfast a gaze into the depths of the Divine nature and over the\nbroad field of the Divine activity is in that short, all-including\nclause, containing but three words in the Hebrew, \"Good art Thou and\ndoing good\"! The prayer built on it is the one which continually\nrecurs in this psalm, and is reached by many paths. Every view of\nman's condition, whether it is bright or dark, and every thought of\nGod, bring the psalmist to the same desire. Here God's character and\nbeneficence, widespread and continual, prompt to the prayer, both\nbecause the knowledge of His will is our highest good, and because a\ngood God cannot but wish His servants to be like Himself, in loving\nrighteousness and hating iniquity.\n\nVv. 69 and 70 are a pair, setting forth the antithesis, frequent\nin the psalm, between evil men's conduct to the psalmist and his\ntranquil contemplation of, and delight in, God's precepts. False\nslanders buzz about him, but he cleaves to God's Law, and is\nconscious of innocence. Men are dull and insensible, as if their\nhearts were waterproofed with a layer of grease, through which no\ngentle rain from heaven could steal; but the psalmist is all the more\nled to open his heart to the gracious influences of that law, because\nothers close theirs. If a bad man is not made worse by surrounding\nevil, he is made better by it.\n\nJust as in vv. 65 and 68 the same thought of God's goodness is\nexpressed, ver. 71 repeats the thought of ver. 67, with a slight\ndeepening. There the beneficent influence of sorrow was simply declared\nas a fact; here it is thankfully accepted, with full submission and\nconsent of the will. \"Good for me\" means not only good in fact, but _in\nmy estimate_. The repetition of the phrase at the beginning of the next\nverse throws light on its meaning in ver. 71. The singer thinks that\nhe has two real goods, pre-eminent among the uniform sequence of such,\nand these are, first, his sorrows, which he reckons to be blessings,\nbecause they have helped him to a firmer grasp of the other, the real\ngood for every man, the Law which is sacred and venerable, because it\nhas come from the very lips of Deity. That is our true wealth. Happy\nthey whose estimate of it corresponds to its real worth, and who have\nlearned, by affliction or anyhow, that material riches are dross,\ncompared with its solid preciousness!\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05d9\n\n 73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me,\n Give me understanding that I may learn Thy commandments.\n 74 Let those who fear Thee see me and rejoice,\n For I have waited for Thy word.\n 75 I know, Jehovah, that Thy judgments are in righteousness,\n And that [in] faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me.\n 76 Oh let Thy lovingkindness be [sent] to comfort me,\n According to Thy promise to Thy servant.\n 77 Let Thy compassions come to me that I may live,\n For Thy law is my delight.\n 78 Let the proud be shamed, for they have lyingly dealt perversely\n with me;\n I, I meditate on Thy precepts.\n 79 Let those who fear Thee turn to me,\n And they shall know Thy testimonies.\n 80 Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes,\n That I be not shamed.\n\nPrayer for illumination is confined to the first and last verses of\nthis section, the rest of which is mainly occupied with petitions for\ngracious providences, based upon the grounds of the psalmist's love\nof the Law, and of the encouragement to others to trust, derivable\nfrom his experience. Ver. 73 puts forcibly the thought that man is\nevidently an incomplete fragment, unless the gift of understanding\nis infused into his material frame. God has begun by shaping it, and\ntherefore is pledged to go on to bestow spiritual discernment, when\nHis creature asks it. But that prayer will only be answered if the\nsuppliant intends to use the gift for its right purpose of learning\nGod's statutes. Ver. 74 prays that the psalmist may be a witness\nthat hope in His word is never vain, and so that his deliverances\nmay be occasions of widespread gladness. God's honour is involved\nin answering His servant's trust. Vv. 75-77 are linked together.\n\"Judgments\" (ver. 75) seem to mean here providential acts, not, as\ngenerally in this psalm, the Law. The acknowledgment of the justice\nand faithfulness which send sorrows precedes the two verses of\npetition for \"lovingkindness\" and \"compassions.\" Sorrows still sting\nand burn, though recognised as sent in love, and the tried heart\nyearns for these other messengers to come from God to sustain and\nsoothe. God's promise and the psalmist's delight in God's law are\nthe double ground of the twin petitions. Then follow three verses\nwhich are discernibly connected, as expressing desires in regard to\n\"the proud,\" the devout, and the psalmist himself. He prays that\nthe first may be shamed--_i.e._, that their deceitful or causeless\nhostility may be balked--and, as in several other verses, contrasts\nhis own peaceful absorption in the Law with their machinations. He\nrepeats the prayer of ver. 74 with a slight difference, asking that\nhis deliverance may draw attention to him, and that others may,\nfrom contemplating his security, come to know the worth of God's\ntestimonies. In ver. 79_b_ the text reads \"they shall know\" (as the\nresult of observing the psalmist), which the Hebrew margin needlessly\nalters into \"those who know.\" For himself he prays that his heart may\nbe sound, or thoroughly devoted to keep the law, and then he is sure\nthat nothing shall ever put him to shame. \"Who is he who will harm\nyou, if ye be zealous for that which is good?\"\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05db\n\n 81 My soul has pined for Thy salvation,\n For Thy word have I waited.\n 82 My eyes have pined for Thy promise,\n Saying, When wilt Thou comfort me?\n 83 For I am become like a wine-skin in the smoke;\n Thy statutes have I not forgotten.\n 84 How many are the days of Thy servant?\n When wilt Thou execute judgment on my persecutors?\n 85 The proud have digged pits for me,\n --They who are not according to Thy law.\n 86 All Thy commandments are faithfulness,\n Lyingly they persecute me, help Thou me.\n 87 They had all but made an end of me on earth,\n But I, I have not forgotten Thy precepts.\n 88 According to Thy lovingkindness revive me,\n And I will observe the testimonies of Thy mouth.\n\nThis section has more than usual continuity. The psalmist is\npersecuted, and in these eight verses pours out his heart to God.\nTaken as a whole, they make a lovely picture of patient endurance and\nsubmissive longing. Intense and protracted yearning for deliverance\nhas wasted his very soul, but has not merged in impatience or\nunbelief, for he has \"waited for Thy word.\" His eyes have ached with\nstraining for the signs of approaching comfort, the coming of which\nhe has not doubted, but the delay of which has tried his faith. This\nlonging has been quickened by troubles, which have wrapped him round\nlike pungent smoke-wreaths eddying among the rafters, where disused\nwine-skins hang and get blackened and wrinkled. So has it been with\nhim, but, through all, he has kept hold of God's statutes. So he\nplaintively reminds God of the brevity of his life, which has so\nshort a tale of days that judgment on his persecutors must be swift,\nif it is to be of use. Vv. 85-87 describe the busy hostility of his\nfoes. It is truculently contrary to God's law, and therefore, as is\nimplied, worthy of God's counter-working. Ver. 85_b_ is best taken\nas a further description of the \"proud,\" which is spread before God\nas a reason for His judicial action. The antithesis in ver. 86,\nbetween the \"faithfulness\" of the Law and the \"lying\" persecutors, is\nthe ground of the prayer, \"Help Thou me.\" Even in extremest peril,\nwhen he was all but made away with, the psalmist still clung to\nGod's precepts (ver. 87), and therefore he is heartened to pray for\nreviving, and to vow that then, bound by new chains of gratitude, he\nwill, more than ever, observe God's testimonies. The measure of the\nnew wine poured into the shrivelled wine-skin is nothing less than\nthe measureless lovingkindness of God; and nothing but experience of\nHis benefits melts to obedience.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05dc\n\n 89 For ever, Jehovah,\n Thy word is set fast in the heavens.\n 90 To generation after generation lasts Thy faithfulness,\n Thou hast established the earth, and it stands firm.\n 91 According to Thy ordinances they stand firm to-day,\n For all [things] are Thy servants.\n 92 Unless Thy law had been my delight,\n Then had I perished in my affliction.\n 93 Never will I forget Thy precepts,\n For with them Thou hast revived me.\n 94 To Thee do I belong, save me,\n For Thy precepts have I sought.\n 95 For me have the wicked waited to destroy me,\n Thy testimonies will I consider.\n 96 To all perfection have I seen a limit,\n Thy commandment is exceeding broad.\n\nThe stability of nature witnesses to the steadfastness of the Word\nwhich sustains it. The Universe began and continues, because God puts\nforth His will. The heavens with their pure depths would collapse,\nand all their stars would flicker into darkness, if that uttered\nWill did not echo through their overwhelming spaces. The solid earth\nwould not be solid, but for God's power immanent in it. Heaven and\nearth are thus His servants. Ver. 91_a_ may possibly picture them\nas standing waiting \"_for_ Thine ordinances,\" but the indefinite\npreposition is probably better regarded as equivalent to _In\naccordance with_. The psalmist has reached the grand conceptions of\nthe universal reign of God's law, and of the continuous forth-putting\nof God's will as the sustaining energy of all things. He seeks to\nlink himself to that great band of God's servants, to be in harmony\nwith stars and storms, with earth and ocean, as their fellow-servant;\nbut yet he feels that his relation to God's law is closer than\ntheirs, for he can delight in that which they unconsciously obey.\nSuch delight in God's uttered will changes affliction from a foe,\nthreatening life, to a friend, ministering strength (ver. 92). Nor\ndoes that Law when loved only avert destruction; it also increases\nvital power (ver. 93) and re-invigorates the better self. There is\na sense in which the law _can_ give life (Gal. iii. 21), but it\nmust be welcomed and enshrined in the heart, in order to do so. The\nfrequently recurring prayer for \"salvation\" has a double plea in\nver. 94. The soul that has yielded itself to God in joyful obedience\nthereby establishes a claim on Him. He cannot but protect His own\npossession. Ownership has its obligations, which He recognises.\nThe second plea is drawn from the psalmist's seeking after God's\nprecepts, without which seeking there would be no reality in his\nprofession of being God's. To seek them is the sure way to find\nboth them and salvation (ver. 94). Whom God saves, enemies will\nvainly try to destroy, and, while they lurk in waiting to spring\non the psalmist, his eyes are directed, not towards them, but to\nGod's testimonies. To give heed to these is the sure way to escape\nsnares (ver. 95). Lifelong experience has taught the psalmist that\nthere is a flaw in every human excellence, a limit soon reached\nand never passed to all that is noblest in man; but high above all\nachievements, and stretching beyond present vision, is the fair ideal\nbodied forth in the Law. Since it is God's commandment, it will not\nalways be an unreached ideal, but may be indefinitely approximated\nto; and to contemplate it will be joy, when we learn that it is\nprophecy because it is commandment.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05de\n\n 97 How I love Thy law!\n All the day is it my meditation.\n 98 Wiser than my enemies do Thy commandments make me,\n For they are mine for ever.\n 99 More than all my teachers am I prudent,\n For Thy testimonies are my meditation.\n 100 More than the aged do I understand,\n For Thy precepts have I kept.\n 101 From every evil path have I held back my feet,\n That I might observe Thy word.\n 102 From Thy judgments have I not departed,\n For Thou, Thou hast instructed me.\n 103 How sweet are Thy promises to my palate,\n More than honey to my mouth!\n 104 By Thy precepts I have understanding,\n Therefore I hate every path of falsehood.\n\nOne thought pervades this section, that the Law is the fountain\nof sweetest wisdom. The rapture of love with which it opens is\nsustained throughout. The psalmist knows that he has not merely more\nwisdom of the same sort as his enemies, his teachers, and the aged\nhave, but wisdom of a better kind. His foes were wise in craft,\nand his teachers drew their instructions from earthly springs,\nand the elders had learned that bitter, worldly wisdom, which has\nbeen disillusioned of youth's unsuspectingness and dreams, without\nbeing thereby led to grasp that which is no illusion. But a heart\nwhich simply keeps to the Law reaches, in its simplicity, a higher\ntruth than these know, and has instinctive discernment of good and\nevil. Worldly wisdom is transient. \"Whether there be knowledge, it\nshall be done away,\" but the wisdom that comes with the commandment\nis enduring as it (ver. 98). Meditation must be accompanied with\npractice, in order to make the true wisdom one's own. The depths of\nthe testimonies must be sounded by patient brooding on them, and\nthen the knowledge thus won must be carried into act. To do what we\nknow is the sure way to know it better, and to know more (vv. 99,\n100). And that positive obedience has to be accompanied by abstinence\nfrom evil ways; for in such a world as this \"Thou shalt not\" is the\nnecessary preliminary to \"Thou shalt.\" The psalmist has a better\nteacher than those whom he has outgrown, even God Himself, and His\ninstruction has a graciously constraining power, which keeps its\nconscious scholars in the right path (ver. 102). These thoughts draw\nanother exclamation from the poet, who feels, as he reflects on his\nblessings, that the law beloved ceases to be harsh and is delightsome\nas well as healthgiving. It is promise as well as law, for God will\nhelp us to be what He commands us to be. They who love the Lawgiver\nfind sweetness in the law (ver. 103). And this is the blessed effect\nof the wisdom which it gives, that it makes us quick to detect\nsophistries which tempt into forbidden paths, and fills us with\nwholesome detestation of these (ver. 104).\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05e0\n\n 105 A lamp to my foot is Thy word,\n And a light to my path.\n 106 I have sworn, and have fulfilled it,\n To observe Thy righteous judgments.\n 107 I am afflicted exceedingly,\n Jehovah, revive me according to Thy word.\n 108 The free-will offerings of my mouth accept, I pray Thee,\n Jehovah,\n And teach me Thy judgments.\n 109 My soul is continually in my hand,\n But Thy law I do not forget.\n 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me,\n Yet from Thy precepts I do not stray.\n 111 Thy testimonies have I taken as my heritage for ever,\n For the joy of my heart are they.\n 112 I have inclined my heart to perform Thy statutes,\n For ever, [to the] end.\n\nA lamp is for night; light shines in the day. The Word is both, to\nthe psalmist. His antithesis may be equivalent to a comprehensive\ndeclaration that the Law is light of every sort, or it may intend to\nlay stress on the varying phases of experience, and turn our thoughts\nto that Word which will gleam guidance in darkness, and shine, a better\nsun, on bright hours. The psalmist's choice, not merely the inherent\npower of the Law, is expressed in ver. 105. He has taken it for his\nguide, or, as ver. 106 says, has sworn and kept his oath, that he would\nobserve the righteous decisions, which would point to his foot the\ntrue path. The affliction bemoaned in ver. 107 is probably the direct\nresult of the conduct professed in ver. 106. The prayer for reviving,\nwhich means deliverance from outward evils rather than spiritual\nquickening, is, therefore, presented with confidence, and based upon\nthe many promises in the Word of help to sufferers for righteousness.\nWhatever our afflictions, there is ease in telling God of them, and\nif our desires for His help are \"according to Thy word,\" they will be\nas willing to accept help to bear as help which removes the sorrow,\nand thus will not be offered unanswered. That cry for reviving is\nbest understood as being \"the free-will offerings\" which the psalmist\nprays may be accepted. Happy in their afflictions are they whose chief\ndesire even then is to learn more of God's statutes! They will find\nthat their sorrows are their best teachers. If we wish most to make\nadvances in His school, we shall not complain of the guides to whom He\ncommits us. Continual alarms and dangers tend to foster disregard of\nDuty, as truly as does the opposite state of unbroken security. A man\nabsorbed in keeping himself alive is apt to think he has no attention\nto spare for God's law (ver. 109), and one ringed about by traps is apt\nto take a circuit to avoid them, even at the cost of divergence from\nthe path marked out by God (ver. 110). But, even in such circumstances,\nthe psalmist did what all good men have to do, deliberately chose his\nportion, and found God's law better than any outward good, as being\nable to diffuse deep, sacred, and perpetual joy through all his inner\nnature. The heart thus filled with serene gladness is thereby drawn to\nperform God's statutes with lifelong persistency, and the heart thus\ninclined to obedience has tapped the sources of equally enduring joy.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05e1\n\n 113 The double-minded I hate,\n But Thy law I love.\n 114 My shelter and my shield art Thou,\n For Thy word have I waited.\n 115 Depart from me, ye evil-doers,\n That I may keep the commandments of my God.\n 116 Uphold me according to Thy promise that I may live,\n And let me not be ashamed of my hope.\n 117 Hold me up and I shall be saved,\n And have regard to Thy statutes continually.\n 118 Thou makest light of all those who stray from Thy statutes,\n For their deceit is a lie.\n 119 [Like] dross Thou hast cast aside all the wicked of the earth,\n Therefore I love Thy testimonies.\n 120 My flesh creeps for fear of Thee,\n And of Thy judgments I am afraid.\n\nThis section is mainly the expression of firm resolve to cleave\nto the Law. Continuity may be traced in it, since vv. 113-115\nbreathe love and determination, which pass in vv. 116, 117, into\nprayer, in view of the psalmist's weakness and the strength of\ntemptation, while in vv. 118-120 the fate of the despisers of the Law\nintensifies the psalmist's clinging grasp of awe-struck love. Hatred\nof \"double-minded\" who waver between God and idols, and are weak\naccordingly, rests upon, and in its turn increases, whole-hearted\nadherence to the Law.\n\nIt is a tepid devotion to it which does not strongly recoil from\nlives that water down its precepts and try to walk on both sides of\nthe way at once. Whoever has taken God for his defence can afford\nto bide God's time for fulfilment of His promises (ver. 114). And\nthe natural results of such love to, and waiting for, His word are\nresolved separation from the society of those whose lives are moulded\non opposite principles, and the ordering of external relations in\naccordance with the supreme purpose of keeping the commandments of\nHim whom love and waiting claim as \"my God\" (ver. 115). But resolves\nmelt in the fire of temptation, and the psalmist knows life and\nhimself too well to trust himself. So he betakes himself to prayer\nfor God's upholding, without which he cannot live. A hope built on\nGod's promise has a claim on Him, and its being put to shame in\ndisappointment would be dishonour to God (ver. 116). The psalmist\nknows that his wavering will can only be fixed by God, and that\nexperience of His sustaining hand will make a stronger bond between\nGod and him than anything besides. The consciousness of salvation\nmust precede steadfast regard to the precepts of the God who saves\n(ver. 117). To stray from the Law is ruin, as is described in vv.\n118, 119. They who wander are despised or made light of, \"for their\ndeceit is a lie\"--_i.e._, the hopes and plans with which they deceive\nthemselves are false. It is a gnarled way of saying that all godless\nlife is a blunder as well as a sin, and is fed with unrealisable\npromises. Dross is flung away when the metal is extracted. Slag from\na furnace is hopelessly useless, and this psalmist thinks that the\nwicked of the earth are \"thrown as rubbish to the void.\" He is not\ncontemplating a future life, but God's judgments as manifested here\nin providence, and his faith is assured that, even here, that process\nis visible. Therefore, gazing upon the fate of evil-doers, his flesh\ncreeps and every particular hair stands on end (as the word means).\nHis dread is full of love, and love is full of dread. Profoundly are\nthe two emotions yoked together in vv. 119_b_ and 120_b_, \"I _love_\nThy testimonies ... of Thy judgments I am _afraid_.\"\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05e2\n\n 121 I have done judgment and righteousness,\n Thou wilt not leave me to my oppressors.\n 122 Be surety for Thy servant for good,\n Let not the proud oppress me.\n 123 My eyes pine for Thy salvation\n And for Thy righteous promise.\n 124 Deal with Thy servant according to Thy lovingkindness,\n And teach me Thy statutes.\n 125 Thy servant am I; give me understanding,\n That I may know Thy testimonies.\n 126 It is time for Jehovah to work,\n They have made void Thy law.\n 127 Therefore I love Thy commandments\n More than gold and more than fine gold.\n 128 Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts to be right,\n Every false way do I hate.\n\nThe thought of evil-doers tinges most of this section. It opens with\na triplet of verses, occasioned by their oppressions of the psalmist,\nand closes with a triplet occasioned by their breaches of the Law. In\nthe former, he is conscious that he has followed the \"judgment\" or law\nof God, and hence hopes that he will not be abandoned to his foes. The\nconsciousness and the hope equally need limitation, to correspond with\ntrue estimates of ourselves and with facts; for there is no absolute\nfulfilment of the Law, and good men are often left to be footballs for\nbad ones. But in its depths the confidence is true. Precisely because\nhe has it, the psalmist prays that it may be vindicated by facts. \"Be\nsurety for Thy servant\"--a profound image, drawn from legal procedure,\nin which one man becomes security for another and makes good his\ndeficiencies. Thus God will stand between the hunted man and his foes,\nundertaking for him. \"Thou shalt answer, Lord, for me.\" How much the\nfulfilment in Christ has exceeded the desire of the psalmist! \"The\noppressors' wrong\" had lasted long, and the singer's weary eyes had\nbeen strained in looking for the help which seemed to tarry (compare\nver. 82), and that fainting gaze humbly appeals to God. Will He not end\nthe wistful watching speedily? Vv. 124, 125, are a pair, the psalmist's\nrelation of servant being adduced in both as the ground of his prayer\nfor teaching. But they differ, in that the former verse lays stress\non the consonance of such instruction with God's lovingkindness,\nand the latter, on its congruity with the psalmist's position and\ncharacter as His servant. God's best gift is the knowledge of His will,\nwhich He surely will not withhold from spirits willing to serve, if\nthey only knew how. Vv. 126-128 are closely linked. The psalmist's\npersonal wrongs melt into the wider thought of wickedness which does\nits little best to make void that sovereign, steadfast law. Delitzsch\nwould render \"It is time to work for Jehovah\"; and the meaning thus\nobtained is a worthy one. But that given above is more in accordance\nwith the context. It is bold--and would be audacious if a prayer did\nnot underlie the statement--to undertake to determine when evil has\nreached such height as to demand God's punitive action. But, however\nslow we should be to prescribe to Him the when or the how of His\nintervention, we may learn from the psalmist's emphatic \"Therefores,\"\nwhich stand co-ordinately at the beginnings of vv. 127, 128, that the\nmore men make void the Law, the more should God's servants prize it,\nand the more should they bind its precepts on their moral judgment, and\nheartily loathe all paths which, specious as they may be, are \"paths of\nfalsehood,\" though all the world may avow that they are true.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05e4\n\n 129 Wonderful are Thy testimonies,\n Therefore my soul keeps them.\n 130 The opening of Thy words gives light,\n It gives understanding to the simple.\n 131 My mouth did I open wide, and panted,\n For I longed for Thy commandments.\n 132 Turn to me and be gracious to me,\n According to the right of those who love Thy name.\n 133 Establish my steps by Thy promise,\n And let not iniquity lord it over me.\n 134 Redeem me from the oppression of men,\n That I may observe Thy precepts.\n 135 Cause Thy face to shine upon Thy servant,\n And teach me Thy statutes.\n 136 My eyes run down [in] streamlets of water,\n Because men observe not Thy law.\n\nDevout souls do not take offence at the depths and difficulties of\nGod's word, but are thereby drawn to intenser contemplation of them. We\nweary of the Trivial and Obvious. That which tasks and outstrips our\npowers attracts. But the obscurity must not be arbitrary, but inherent,\na clear obscure, like the depths of a pure sea. These wonderful\ntestimonies give light, notwithstanding, or rather because of, their\nwonderfulness, and it is the simple heart, not the sharpened intellect,\nthat penetrates furthest into them and finds light most surely (ver.\n130). Therefore the psalmist longs for God's commandments, like a\nwild creature panting open-mouthed for water. He puts to shame our\nindifference. If his longing was not excessive, how defective is ours!\nVer. 132, like ver. 122, has no distinct allusion to the Law, though\nthe word rendered in it \"right\" is that used in the psalm for the Law\nconsidered as \"judgments.\" The prayer is a bold one, pleading what is\njustly due to the lovers of God's name. Kay appropriately quotes \"God\nis not _unrighteous_ to forget your work and labour of _love_, which ye\nhave showed towards His _name_\" (Heb. vi. 10). One would have expected\n\"Law\" instead of \"name\" in the last word of the verse, and possibly\nthe conception of Law may be, as it were, latent in \"name,\" for the\nlatter does carry in it imperative commandments and plain revelations\nof duty. God's Name holds the Law in germ. The Law is but the expansion\nof the meaning of the Name. \"Promise\" in ver. 133 (lit. saying) must\nbe taken in a widened sense, as including all God's revealed will. The\nonly escape from the tyranny of sin is to have our steps established by\nGod's word, and His help is needed for such establishment. Rebellion\nagainst sin's dominion is already victory over it, if the rebel summons\nGod's heavenly reinforcements to his help. It is a high attainment to\ndesire deliverance from men, chiefly in order to observe, unhindered,\nGod's commandments (ver. 134). And it is as high a desire to seek\nthe light of God's face mainly as the means of seeing His will more\nclearly. The psalmist did not merely wish for outward prosperity or\ninward cheer and comfort, but that these might contribute to fulfilling\nhis deepest wish of learning better what God would have him to do (ver.\n135). The moods of indignation (ver. 53) and of hatred (vv. 104, 113,\n128) have given place to softer emotions, as they ever should (ver.\n136). Tears and dewy pity should mingle with righteous anger, as when\nJesus \"looked round about on them with anger, being with the anger\ngrieved at the hardening of their heart\" (Mark iii. 5).\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05e6\n\n 137 Righteous art Thou, Jehovah,\n And upright are Thy judgments.\n 138 In righteousness Thou hast commanded Thy testimonies,\n And in exceeding faithfulness.\n 139 My zeal has consumed me,\n For my adversaries have forgotten Thy words.\n 140 Well tried by fire is Thy promise,\n And Thy servant loves it.\n 141 Small and despised am I,\n Thy precepts have I not forgotten.\n 142 Thy righteousness is righteousness for ever,\n And Thy law is truth.\n 143 Distress and anguish have found me,\n Thy commandments are my delight.\n 144 Righteousness for ever are Thy testimonies,\n Give me understanding that I may live.\n\nThe first word suggested to the psalmist under this letter is\nRighteousness. That august conception was grasped by devout Israelites\nwith a tenacity, and assumed a prominence in their thoughts,\nunparalleled elsewhere. It is no mere yielding to the requirements of\nthe acrostic scheme which sets that great word in four of the eight\nverses of this section (137, 138, 142, 144). Two thoughts are common to\nthem all, that Righteousness has its seat in the bosom of God, and that\nthe Law is a true transcript of that Divine righteousness. These things\nbeing so, it follows that the Law is given to men in accordance with\nthe Divine \"faithfulness\"--_i.e._, in remembrance and discharge of the\nobligations which God has undertaken towards them. Nor less certainly\ndoes it follow that that Law, which is the \"eradiation\" of God's\nrighteousness, is eternal as its fontal source (vv. 142, 144). The beam\nmust last as long as the sun. No doubt, there are transient elements\nin the Law which the psalmist loved, but its essence is everlasting,\nbecause its origin is God's everlasting Righteousness. So absorbed is\nhe in adoring contemplation of it, that he even forgets to pray for\nhelp to keep it, and not till ver. 144 does he ask for understanding\nthat he may live. True life is in the knowledge of the Law by which God\nis known, as Jesus has taught us that to know the only true God is life\neternal. A faint gleam of immortal hope perhaps shines in that prayer,\nfor if the \"testimonies\" are for ever, and the knowledge of them is\nlife, it cannot be that they shall outlast the soul that knows and\nlives by them. One more characteristic of God's righteous testimonies\nis celebrated in ver. 140--namely, that they have stood sharp tests,\nand, like metal in the furnace, have not been dissolved but brightened\nby the heat. They have been tested, when the psalmist was afflicted and\nfound them to hold true. The same fire tried him and them, and he does\nnot glorify his own endurance, but the promise which enabled him to\nstand firm. The remaining verses of the section describe the psalmist's\nafflictions and clinging to the Law. Ver. 139 recurs to his emotions\non seeing men's neglect of it. \"Zeal\" here takes the place of grief\n(ver. 136) and of indignation and hatred. Friction against widespread\ngodlessness generates a flame of zeal, as it should always do. \"Small\nand despised\" was Israel among the great powers of the ancient world,\nbut he who meditates on the Law is armed against contempt and contented\nin insignificance (ver. 141). \"Distress and anguish\" may surround him,\nbut hidden springs of \"delight\" well up in the heart that cleaves to\nthe Law, like outbursts of fresh water rising to the surface of a salt\nsea (ver. 144).\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05e7\n\n 145 I have called with my whole heart; answer me, Jehovah;\n Thy statutes will I keep.\n 146 I have called unto Thee, save me,\n And I will observe Thy testimonies.\n 147 I anticipated the morning twilight and cried aloud,\n For Thy word I waited.\n 148 My eyes anticipated the night watches,\n That I might meditate on Thy promise.\n 149 Hear my voice according to Thy lovingkindness,\n Jehovah, according to Thy judgments revive me.\n 150 They draw near who follow after mischief,\n From Thy law they are far off.\n 151 Near art Thou, Jehovah,\n And all Thy commandments are truth.\n 152 Long ago have I known from Thy testimonies,\n That Thou hast founded them for ever.\n\nThe first two verses are a pair, in which former prayers for\ndeliverance and vows of obedience are recalled and repeated. The\ntone of supplication prevails through the section. The cries now\npresented are no new things. The psalmist's habit has been prayer,\nwhole-hearted, continued, and accompanied with the resolve to keep by\nobedience and to observe with sharpened watchfulness the utterances\nof God's will. Another pair of verses follows (vv. 147, 148), which\nrecall the singer's wakeful devotion. His voice rose to God ere\nthe dim morning broke, and his heart kept itself in submissive\nexpectance. His eyes saw God's promises shining in the nightly\ndarkness, and making meditation better than sleep. The petitions\nin ver. 149 may be taken as based upon the preceding pairs. The\npsalmist's patient continuance gives him ground to expect an answer.\nBut the true ground is God's character, as witnessed by His deeds of\nloving-kindness and His revelation of His \"judgments\" in the Law.\n\nAnother pair of verses follows (vv. 150, 151), in which the hostile\nnearness of the psalmist's foes, gathering round him with malignant\npurpose, is significantly contrasted, both with their remoteness\nin temper from the character enjoined in the Law, and with the yet\ncloser proximity of the assailed man's defender. He who has God near\nhim, and who realises that His \"commandments are truth,\" can look\nuntrembling on mustering masses of enemies. This singer had learned\nthat before danger threatened. The last verse of the section breathes\nthe same tone of long-continued and habitual acquaintance with God\nand His Law as the earlier pairs of verses do. The convictions of a\nlifetime were too deeply rooted to be disturbed by such a passing\nstorm. There is, as it were, a calm smile of triumphant certitude in\nthat \"Long ago.\" Experience teaches that the foundation, laid for\ntrust as well as for conduct in the Law, is too stable to be moved,\nand that we need not fear to build our all on it. Let us build rock\non that rock, and answer God's everlasting testimonies with our\nunwavering reliance and submission.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05e8\n\n 153 See my affliction, and deliver me,\n For Thy law do I not forget.\n 154 Plead my plea and redeem me,\n Revive me according to Thy promise.\n 155 Far from the wicked is salvation,\n For they seek not Thy statutes.\n 156 Thy compassions are many, Jehovah,\n According to Thy judgments revive me.\n 157 Many are my pursuers and my adversaries,\n From Thy testimonies I have not declined.\n 158 I beheld the faithless and loathed [them]\n Because they observed not Thy promise.\n 159 See how I love Thy precepts,\n Jehovah, according to Thy lovingkindness revive me.\n 160 The sum of Thy word is truth,\n And every one of Thy righteous judgments endures for ever.\n\nThe prayer \"revive me\" occurs thrice in this section. It is not\na petition for spiritual quickening so much as for removal of\ncalamities, which restrained free, joyous life. Its repetition\naccords with other characteristics of this section, which is markedly\na cry from a burdened heart. The psalmist is in affliction; he is, as\nit were, the defendant in a suit, a captive needing a strong avenger\n(ver. 154), compassed about by a swarm of enemies (ver. 157), forced\nto endure the sight of the faithless and to recoil from them (ver.\n158). His thoughts vibrate between his needs and God's compassions,\nbetween his own cleaving to the Law and its grand comprehensiveness\nand perpetuity. His prayer now is not for fuller knowledge of the\nLaw, but for rescue from his troubles. It is worth while to follow\nhis swift turns of thought, which, in their windings, are shaped\nby the double sense of need and of Divine fulness. First come two\nplaintive cries for rescue, based in one case on his adherence to the\nLaw, and in the other on God's promise. Then his eye turns on those\nwho do not, like him, seek God's statutes, and these he pronounces,\nwith solemn depth of insight, to be far from the salvation which he\nfeels is his, because they have no desire to know God's will. That\nis a pregnant word. Swiftly he turns from these unhappy ones to gaze\non the multitude of God's compassions, which hearten him to repeat\nhis prayer for revival, according to God's \"judgments\"--_i.e._, His\ndecisions contained in the Law. But, again, his critical position\namong enemies forces itself into remembrance, and he can only plead\nthat, in spite of them, he has held fast by the Law, and, when\ncompelled to see apostates, has felt no temptation to join them, but\na wholesome loathing of all departure from God's word. That loathing\nwas the other side of his love. The more closely we cleave to God's\nprecepts, the more shall we recoil from modes of thought and life\nwhich flout them. And then the psalmist looks wistfully up once\nmore, and asks that his love may receive what God's loving-kindness\nemboldens it to look for as its result--namely, the reviving, which\nhe thus once more craves. That love for the Law has led him into\nthe depths of understanding God's Word, and so his lowly petitions\nswell into the declaration, which he has verified in life, that its\nsum-total is truth, and a perpetual possession for loving hearts,\nhowever ringed round by enemies and \"weighed upon by sore distress.\"\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05e9\n\n 161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause,\n But at Thy words my heart stands in awe.\n 162 I rejoice over Thy promise,\n As one that finds great booty.\n 163 Lying I hate and abhor,\n Thy law do I love.\n 164 Seven times a day I praise Thee,\n Because of Thy righteous judgments.\n 165 Great peace have they that love Thy law,\n And they have no stumbling-block.\n 166 I have hoped for Thy salvation, Jehovah,\n And Thy commandments have I done.\n 167 My soul has observed Thy testimonies,\n And I love them exceedingly.\n 168 I have observed Thy precepts and Thy testimonies,\n For all my ways are before Thee.\n\nThe tone of this section is in striking contrast with that of the\npreceding. Here, with the exception of the first clause of the first\nverse, all is sunny, and the thunder-clouds are hull down on the\nhorizon. Joy, peace, and hope breathe through the song. Beautifully\nare reverential awe and exuberant gladness blended as contemporaneous\nresults of listening to God's word. There is rapture in that awe;\nthere is awe in that bounding gladness. To possess that Law is\nbetter than to win rich booty. The spoils of the conflict, which we\nwage with our own negligence or disobedience, are our best wealth.\nThe familiar connection between love of the Law and hatred of lives\nwhich depart from it, and are therefore lies and built on lies,\nre-appears, yet not as the ground of prayer for help, but as part of\nthe blessed treasures which the psalmist is recounting. His life is\naccompanied by music of perpetual praise. Seven times a day--_i.e._,\nunceasingly--his glad heart breaks into song, and \"the o'ercome of\nhis song\" is ever God's righteous judgments. His own experience\ngives assurance of the universal truth that the love of God's law\nsecures peace, inasmuch as such love brings the heart into contact\nwith absolute good, inasmuch as submission to God's will is always\npeace, inasmuch as the fountain of unrest is dried up, inasmuch as\nall outward things are allies of such a heart and serve the soul\nthat serves God. Such love saves from falling over stumbling-blocks,\nand enables a man \"to walk firmly and safely on the clear path of\nduty.\" Like the dying Jacob, such a man waits for God's salvation,\npatiently expecting that each day will bring its own form of help and\ndeliverance, and his waiting is no idle anticipation, but full of\nstrenuous obedience (ver. 166), and of watchful observance, such as\nthe eyes of a servant direct to his master (ver. 167_a_). Love makes\nsuch a man keen to note the slightest indications of God's will,\nand eager to obey them all (vv. 167_b_, 168_a_). All this joyous\nprofession of the psalmist's happy experience he spreads humbly\nbefore God, appealing to Him whether it is true. He is not flaunting\nhis self-righteousness in God's face, but gladly recounting to God's\nhonour all the \"spoil\" that he has found, as he penetrated into the\nLaw and it penetrated into his inmost being.\n\n\n \u00a7 \u05ea\n\n 169 Let my cry come near before Thy face, Jehovah,\n According to Thy word give me understanding.\n 170 Let my supplication come before Thy face,\n According to Thy promise deliver me.\n 171 My lips shall well forth praise,\n For Thou teachest me Thy statutes.\n 172 My tongue shall sing of Thy promise,\n For all Thy commandments are righteousness.\n 173 Let Thy hand be [stretched out] to help me,\n For Thy precepts have I chosen.\n 174 I long for Thy salvation, Jehovah,\n And Thy law is my delight.\n 175 Let my soul live and it shall praise Thee,\n And let Thy judgments help me.\n 176 I have strayed like a lost sheep, seek Thy servant,\n For Thy commandments do I not forget.\n\nThe threads that have run through the psalm are knotted firmly\ntogether in this closing section, which falls into four pairs\nof verses. In the first, the manifold preceding petitions are\nconcentrated into two for understanding and deliverance, the twin\nneeds of man, of which the one covers the whole ground of inward\nillumination, and the other comprises all good for outward life,\nwhile both are in accordance with the large confidence warranted\nby God's faithful words. Petition passes into praise. The psalmist\ninstinctively obeys the command, \"By prayer and supplication with\nthanksgiving let your requests be made known.\" His lips give forth\nnot only shrill cries of need, but well up songs of thanks; and,\nwhile a thousand mercies impel the sparkling flood of praise, the\nchief of these is God's teaching him His righteous statutes (vv.\n171, 172). In the next pair of verses, the emphasis lies, not on\nthe prayer for help, so much as on its grounds in the psalmist's\ndeliberate choice of God's precepts, his patient yearning for God's\nsalvation, and his delight in the Law, all of which characteristics\nhave been over and over again professed in the psalm. Here, once\nmore, they are massed together, not in self-righteousness, but as\nmaking it incredible that, God being the faithful and merciful\nGod which He is, His hand should hang idle when His servant cries\nfor help (vv. 173, 174). The final pair of verses sets forth the\nrelations of the devout soul with God in their widest and most\npermanent forms. The true life of the soul must come from Him, the\nFountain of Life. A soul thus made to live by communion with, and\nderivation of life from, God lives to praise, and all its motions are\nworship. To it the Law is no menace nor unwelcome restriction but a\nhelper. Life drawn from God, turned to God in continual praise, and\ninvigorated by unfailing helps ministered through His uttered will,\nis the only life worth living. It is granted to all who ask for it.\nBut a lower, sadder note must ever mingle in our prayers. Aspiration\nand trust must be intertwined with consciousness of weakness and\ndistrust of one's self. Only those who are ignorant of the steps\nof the soul's pilgrimage to God can wonder that the psalmist's\nlast thoughts about himself blend confession of wandering like a\nstraying sheep, and profession of not forgetting God's commandments.\nBoth phases of consciousness co-exist in the true servant of God,\nas, alas! both have grounds in his experience. But our sense of\nhaving wandered should ever be accompanied with the tender thought\nthat the lost sheep _is_ a sheep, beloved and sought for by the\ngreat Shepherd, in whose search, not in our own docile following\nof His footsteps, lies our firmest hope. The psalmist prayed \"Seek\nThy servant,\" for he knew how continually he would be tempted to\nstray. But we know better than he did how wonderfully the answer has\nsurpassed his petition. \"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save\nthat which was lost.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALMS CXX.-CXXXIV.\n\n\nThese fifteen psalms form a short psalter within the Psalter, each\nhaving the same title (with a slight grammatical variation in Psalm\ncxxi.). Its meaning is very doubtful. Many of the older authorities\nunderstand it to signify \"a song of steps,\" and explain it by a very\nuncertain tradition that these psalms were sung on fifteen steps\nleading from the court of the women to that of the men, each on\none step. The R.V.'s rendering, \"degrees,\" uses that word in this\nsense (like the Latin _gradus_). But though undoubtedly the word\nmeans steps, there is no sufficient support for the tradition in\nquestion; and, as Delitzsch well observes, if this were the meaning\nof the title, \"it would be much more external than any of the other\ninscriptions to the Psalms.\"\n\nAnother explanation fixes on the literal meaning of the word--_i.e._,\n\"goings up\"--and points to its use in the singular for the Return\nfrom Babylon (Ezra vii. 9), as supporting the view that these were\npsalms sung by the returning exiles. There is much in the group of\nsongs to favour this view; but against it is the fact that Psalms\ncxxii. and cxxxiv. imply the existence of the Temple, and the fully\norganised ceremonial worship.\n\nA third solution is that the name refers to the structure of these\npsalms, which have a \"step-like, progressive rhythm.\" This is Gesenius'\nexplanation, adopted by Delitzsch. But the peculiar structure in\nquestion, though very obvious in several of these psalms, is scarcely\nperceptible in others, and is entirely absent from Psalm cxxxii.\n\nThe remaining explanation of the title is the most probable--that\nthe \"goings up\" were those of the worshippers travelling to Jerusalem\nfor the feasts. This little collection is, then, \"The Song Book of\nthe Pilgrims,\" a designation to which its contents well correspond.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXX.\n\n 1 To Jehovah in my straits I cried,\n And He answered me.\n\n 2 Jehovah, deliver my soul from the lying lip,\n From the deceitful tongue.\n 3 What shall He give to thee, and what more shall He give thee,\n Deceitful tongue?\n 4 Arrows of the Mighty, sharpened ones,\n With coals of broom.\n\n 5 Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech,\n [That] I dwell beside the tents of Kedar!\n 6 Long has my soul had her dwelling\n With him who hates peace.\n 7 I am--peace; but when I speak,\n They are for war.\n\n\nThe collection of pilgrim songs is appropriately introduced by one\nexpressive of the unrest arising from compulsory association with\nuncongenial and hostile neighbours. The psalmist laments that his\nsensitive \"soul\" has been so long obliged to be a \"sojourner\" where\nhe has heard nothing but lying and strife. Weary of these, his soul\nstretches her wings towards a land of rest. His feeling ill at ease\namidst present surroundings stings him to take the pilgrim's staff.\n\"In\" this singer's \"heart are the ways.\"\n\nThe simplicity of this little song scarcely admits of separation\ninto parts; but one may note that an introductory verse is followed\nby two groups of three verses each,--the former of which is prayer\nfor deliverance from the \"deceitful tongue,\" and prediction that\nretribution will fall on it (vv. 2-4); while the latter bemoans the\npsalmist's uncongenial abode among enemies (vv. 5-7).\n\nThe verbs in ver. 1 are most naturally referred to former\nexperiences of the power of prayer, which encourage renewed petition.\nDevout hearts argue that what Jehovah has done once He will do again.\nSince His mercy endureth for ever, He will not weary of bestowing,\nnor will former gifts exhaust His stores. Men say, \"I have given so\noften that I can give no more\"; God says, \"I have given, therefore\nI will give.\" The psalmist was not in need of defence against armed\nfoes, but against false tongues. But it is not plain whether these\nwere slanderous, flattering, or untrustworthy in their promises of\nfriendship. The allusions are too general to admit of certainty. At\nall events, he was surrounded by a choking atmosphere of falsehood,\nfrom which he longed to escape into purer air. Some commentators\nwould refer the allusions to the circumstances of the exiles in\nBabylon; others to the slanders of the Samaritans and others who\ntried to hinder the rebuilding of the Temple; others think that his\nown hostile fellow-countrymen are the psalmist's foes. May we not\nrather hear in his plaint the voice of the devout heart, which ever\npainfully feels the dissonance between its deep yearnings and the\nBabel of vain words which fills every place with jangling and deceit?\nTo one who holds converse with God, there is nothing more appalling\nor more abhorrent than the flood of empty talk which drowns the\nworld. If there was any specific foe in the psalmist's mind, he has\nnot described him so as to enable us to identify him.\n\nVer. 3 may be taken in several ways, according as \"deceitful tongue\"\nis taken as a vocative or as the nominative of the verb \"give,\" and as\nthat verb is taken in a good or a bad sense, and as \"thee\" is taken\nto refer to the tongue or to some unnamed person. It is unnecessary\nto enter here on a discussion of the widely divergent explanations\ngiven. They fall principally into two classes. One takes the words\n\"deceitful tongue\" as vocative, and regards the question as meaning,\n\"What retribution shall God give to thee, O deceitful tongue?\" while\nthe other takes it as asking what the tongue shall give unto an unnamed\nperson designated by \"thee.\" That person is by some considered to\nbe the owner of the tongue, who is asked what profit his falsehood\nwill be to him; while others suppose the \"thee\" to mean Jehovah,\nand the question to be like that of Job (x. 3). Baethgen takes this\nview, and paraphrases, \"What increase of Thy riches canst Thou expect\ntherefrom, that Thou dost permit the godless to oppress the righteous?\"\nGrammatically either class of explanation is warranted; and the\nreader's feeling of which is most appropriate must decide. The present\nwriter inclines to the common interpretation, which takes ver. 3 as\naddressed to the deceitful tongue, in the sense, \"What punishment shall\nGod inflict upon thee?\" Ver. 4 is the answer, describing the penal\nconsequences of falsehood, as resembling the crimes which they avenge.\nSuch a tongue is likened to sharp arrows and swords in Psalms lvii. 4,\nlxiv. 3, etc. The punishment shall be like the crime. For the sentiment\ncompare Psalm cxl. 9, 10. It is not necessary to suppose that the\n\"Mighty\" is God, though such a reference gives force to the words. \"The\ntongue which shot piercing arrows is pierced by the sharpened arrows of\nan irresistibly strong One; it, which set its neighbour in a fever of\nanguish, must endure a lasting heat of broom-coals, which consumes it\nsurely\" (Delitzsch).\n\nIn the group of vv. 5-7, the psalmist bemoans his compulsory\nassociation with hostile companions, and longs to \"flee away and be\nat rest.\" Meshech was the name of barbarous tribes who, in the times\nof Sargon and Sennacherib, inhabited the highlands to the east of\nCilicia, and in later days retreated northwards to the neighbourhood\nof the Black Sea (Sayce, \"Higher Criticism and Monuments,\" p. 130).\nKedar was one of the Bedawin tribes of the Arabian desert. The\nlong distance between the localities occupied by these two tribes\nrequires an allegorical explanation of their names. They stand as\ntypes of barbarous and truculent foes--as we might say, Samoyeds\nand Patagonians. The psalmist's plaint struck on Cromwell's heart,\nand is echoed, with another explanation of its meaning which he\nhad, no doubt, learned from some Puritan minister: \"I live, you\nknow where, in Meshech, which they say signifies prolonging; in\nKedar, which signifies blackness; yet the Lord forsaketh me not\"\n(Carlyle, \"Letters and Speeches,\" i. 127: London, 1846). The\npeace-loving psalmist describes himself as stunned by the noise and\nquarrelsomeness of those around him. \"I am--peace\" (compare Psalm\ncix. 4). But his gentlest word is like a spark on tinder. If he but\nspeaks, they fly to their weapons, and are ready without provocation\nto answer with blows.\n\nSo the psalm ends as with a long-drawn sigh. It inverts the\nusual order of similar psalms, in which the description of need\nis wont to precede the prayer for deliverance. It thus sets forth\nmost pathetically the sense of discordance between a man and his\nenvironment, which urges the soul that feels it to seek a better\nhome. So this is a true pilgrim psalm.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXI.\n\n 1 I will lift mine eyes to the hills;\n Whence cometh my help?\n 2 My help [comes] from Jehovah,\n The Maker of heaven and earth.\n\n 3 May He not suffer thy feet to totter,\n May thy Keeper not slumber!\n 4 Behold, thy Keeper slumbers not;\n Behold, He slumbers not nor sleeps\n [Who is] the Keeper of Israel.\n\n 5 Jehovah is thy Keeper,\n Jehovah is thy shade on thy right hand.\n 6 By day the sun shall not smite thee,\n Nor the moon by night.\n\n 7 Jehovah shall keep thee from all evil,\n He shall keep thy soul.\n 8 Jehovah shall keep thy going out and thy coming in,\n From now, even for evermore.\n\n\nHow many timid, anxious hearts has this sweet outpouring of quiet\ntrust braced and lifted to its own serene height of conscious safety!\nThis psalmist is so absorbed in the thought of his Keeper that he\nbarely names his dangers. With happy assurance of protection, he says\nover and over again the one word which is his amulet against foes\nand fears. Six times in these few verses does the thought recur that\nJehovah is the Keeper of Israel or of the single soul. The quietness\nthat comes of confidence is the singer's strength. Whether he is an\nexile, looking across the plains of Mesopotamia towards the blue\nhills, which the eye cannot discern, or a pilgrim catching the first\nsight of the mountain on which Jehovah sits enshrined, is a question\nwhich cannot be decisively answered; but the power and beauty of\nthis little breathing of peaceful trust are but slightly affected by\nany hypothesis as to the singer's circumstances. Vv. 1 and 2 stand\napart from the remainder, in so far as in them the psalmist speaks\nin the first person, while in the rest of the psalm he is spoken to\nin the second. But this does not necessarily involve the supposition\nof an antiphonal song. The two first verses may have been sung by a\nsingle voice, and the assurances of the following ones by a chorus or\nsecond singer. But it is quite as likely that, as in other psalms,\nthe singer is in vv. 3-8 himself the speaker of the assurances which\nconfirm his own faith.\n\nHis first words describe the earnest look of longing. He will lift\nhis eyes from all the coil of troubles and perils to the heights.\n_Sursum corda_ expresses the true ascent which these psalms enjoin\nand exemplify. If the supposition that the psalmist is an exile on\nthe monotonous levels of Babylon is correct, one feels the pathetic\nbeauty of his wistful gaze across the dreary flats towards the point\nwhere he knows that the hills of his father-land rise. To look\nbeyond the low levels where we dwell, to the unseen heights where\nwe have our home, is the condition of all noble living amid these\nlower ranges of engagement with the Visible and Transient. \"Whence\ncomes my help?\" is a question which may be only put in order to make\nthe assured answer more emphatic, but may also be an expression of\nmomentary despondency, as the thought of the distance between the\ngazer and the mountains chills his aspirations. \"It is easy to look,\nbut hard to journey thither. How shall I reach that goal? I am weak;\nthe way is long and beset with foes.\" The loftier the ideal, the more\nneedful, if it is ever to be reached, that our consciousness of its\nheight and of our own feebleness should drive us to recognise our\nneed of help in order to attain it.\n\nWhoever has thus high longings sobered by lowly estimates of self is\nready to receive the assurance of Divine aid. That sense of impotence\nis the precursor of faith. We must distrust ourselves, if we are ever\nto confide in God. To know that we need His aid is a condition of\nobtaining it. Bewildered despondency asks, \"Whence comes my help?\" and\nscans the low levels in vain. The eye that is lifted to the hills is\nsure to see Him coming to succour; for that question on the lips of one\nwhose looks are directed thither is a prayer, rather than a question;\nand the assistance he needs sets out towards him from the throne, like\na sunbeam from the sun, as soon as he looks up to the light.\n\nThe particle of negation in ver. 3 is not that used in ver. 4, but\nthat which is employed in commands or wishes. The progress from\nsubjective desire in ver. 3, to objective certainty of Divine help as\nexpressed in ver. 4 and the remainder of the psalm, is best exhibited\nif the verbs in the former verse are translated as expressions of\nwish--\"May He not,\" etc. Whether the speaker is taken to be the\npsalmist or another makes little difference to the force of ver. 3,\nwhich lays hold in supplication of the truth just uttered in ver.\n2, and thereby gains a more assured certainty that it is true, as\nthe following verses go on to declare. It is no drop to a lower\nmood to pass from assertion of God's help to prayer for it. Rather\nit is the natural progress of faith. Both clauses of ver. 3 become\nspecially significant if this is a song for pilgrims. Their daily\nmarch and their nightly encampment will then be placed under the\ncare of Jehovah, who will hold up their feet unwearied on the road\nand watch unslumbering over their repose. But such a reference is\nnot necessary. The language is quite general. It covers the whole\nground of toil and rest, and prays for strength for the one and quiet\nsecurity in the other.\n\nThe remainder of the psalm expands the one thought of Jehovah the\nKeeper, with sweet reiteration, and yet comprehensive variation.\nFirst, the thought of the last clause of the preceding verse is\ncaught up again. Jehovah is the keeper of the community, over which\nHe watches with unslumbering care. He keeps Israel, so long as Israel\nkeeps His law; for the word so frequently used here is the same as\nis continually employed for observance of the commandments. He had\nseemed to slumber while Israel was in exile, and had been prayed to\nawake, in many a cry from the captives. Now they have learned that He\nnever slumbers: His power is unwearied, and needs no recuperation;\nHis watchfulness is never at fault. But universal as is His care,\nit does not overlook the single defenceless suppliant. He is \"_thy_\nKeeper,\" and will stand at thy right hand, where helpers stand, to\nshield thee from all dangers. Men lose sight of the individual in\nthe multitude, and the wider their benevolence or beneficence, the\nless it takes account of units; but God loves all because He loves\neach, and the aggregate is kept because each member of it is. The\nlight which floods the universe gently illumines every eye. The two\nconceptions of defence and impartation of power are smelted together\nin the pregnant phrase of ver. 5_b_, \"thy shade at thy right hand.\"\n\nThe notion of shelter from evils predominates in the remainder of\nthe psalm. It is applied in ver. 6 to possible perils from physical\ncauses: the fierce sunlight beat down on the pilgrim band, and the\nmoon was believed, and apparently with correctness, to shed malignant\ninfluences on sleepers. The same antithesis of day and night, work\nand rest, which is found in ver. 3 appears again here. The promise is\nwidened out in ver. 7 so as to be all-inclusive. \"All evil\" will be\naverted from him who has Jehovah for his keeper; therefore, if any\nso-called Evil comes, he may be sure that it is Good with a veil on.\nWe should apply the assurances of the psalm to the interpretation of\nlife, as well as take them for the antidote of fearful anticipations.\n\nEqually comprehensive is the designation of that which is to be\nkept. It is \"thy soul,\" the life or personal being. Whatever may be\nshorn away by the sharp shears of Loss, that will be safe; and if it\nis, nothing else matters very much. The individual soul is of large\naccount in God's sight: He keeps it as a deposit entrusted to Him\nby faith. Much may go; but His hand closes round us when we commit\nourselves into it, and none is able to pluck us thence.\n\nIn the final verse, the psalmist recurs to his favourite antithesis\nof external toil and repose in the home, the two halves of the\npilgrim life for every man; and while thus, in the first clause of\nthe verse, he includes all varieties of circumstance, in the second\nhe looks on into a future of which he does not see the bounds, and\ntriumphs over all possible foes that may lurk in its dim recesses, in\nthe assurance that, however far it may extend, and whatever strange\nconditions it may hide, the Keeper will be there, and all will be\nwell. Whether or not he looked to the last \"going out,\" our exodus\nfrom earth (Luke ix. 31; 2 Peter i. 15), or to that abundant entrance\n(2 Peter i. 11) into the true home which crowns the pilgrimage here,\nwe cannot but read into his indefinite words their largest meaning,\nand rejoice that we have One who \"is able to keep that which we have\ncommitted to Him against that day.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXII.\n\n 1 I rejoiced when they said to me,\n To the house of Jehovah let us go.\n 2 Standing are our feet\n In thy gates, Jerusalem.\n\n 3 Jerusalem that art built [again]\n As a city that is compact together.\n 4 Whither went up the tribes, the tribes of Jah,\n --[According to] the precept for Israel--\n To give thanks to the name of Jehovah.\n 5 For there were set thrones of judgment,\n Thrones for the house of David.\n\n 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem;\n Prosperous be they who love thee!\n 7 Be peace within thy bulwark,\n Prosperity within thy palaces.\n 8 Because of my brethren and my companions' sake\n Let me now wish thee peace.\n 9 Because of the house of Jehovah our God\n Let me now seek thy good.\n\n\nThis is very distinctly a pilgrim psalm. But there is difficulty\nin determining the singer's precise point of view, arising from the\npossibility of understanding the phrase in ver. 2, \"are standing,\"\nas meaning either \"are\" or \"were standing\" or \"have stood.\" If it\nis taken as a present tense, the psalm begins by recalling the joy\nwith which the pilgrims began their march, and in ver. 2 rejoices\nin reaching the goal. Then, in vv. 3, 4, 5 the psalmist paints\nthe sight of the city which gladdened the gazers' eyes, remembers\nancient glories when Jerusalem was the rallying-point for united\nworship and the seat of the Davidic monarchy, and finally pours out\npatriotic exhortations to love Jerusalem and prayers for her peace\nand prosperity. This seems the most natural construing of the psalm.\nIf, on the other hand, ver. 2 refers to a past time, \"the poet,\nnow again returning home or actually returned, remembers the whole\npilgrimage from its beginning onwards.\" This is possible; but the\nwarmth of emotion in the exclamation in ver. 3 is more appropriate to\nthe moment of rapturous realisation of a long-sought joy than to the\npaler remembrance of it.\n\nTaking, then, the former view of the verse, we have the beginning and\nend of the pilgrimage brought into juxtaposition in vv. 1 and 2. It\nwas begun in joy; it ends in full attainment and a satisfied rapture,\nas the pilgrim finds the feet which have traversed many a weary mile\nplanted at last within the city. How fading the annoyances of the\nroad! Happy they whose life's path ends where the psalmist's did! The\njoy of fruition will surpass that of anticipation, and difficulties\nand dangers will be forgotten.\n\nVv. 3-5 give voice to the crowding thoughts and memories waked\nby that moment of supreme joy, when dreams and hopes have become\nrealities, and the pilgrim's happy eyes do actually see the city.\nIt stands \"built,\" by which is best understood _built anew_, rising\nfrom the ruins of many years. It is \"compact together,\" the former\nbreaches in the walls and the melancholy gaps in the buildings being\nfilled up. Others take the reference to be to the crowding of its\nhouses, which its site, a narrow peninsula of rock with deep ravines\non three sides, made necessary. But fair to his eyes as the Jerusalem\nof to-day looked, the poet-patriot sees auguster forms rising behind\nit, and recalls vanished glories, when all the twelve tribes came up\nto worship, according to the commandment, and there was yet a king in\nIsrael. The religious and civil life of the nation had their centres\nin the city; and Jerusalem had become the seat of worship because it\nwas the seat of the monarchy. These days were past; but though few\nin number, the tribes still were going up; and the psalmist does not\nfeel the sadness but the sanctity of the vanished past.\n\nThus moved to the depths of his soul, he breaks forth into exhortation\nto his companion pilgrims to pray for the peace of the city. There is a\nplay on the meaning of the name in ver. 6_a_; for, as the Tel-el-Amarna\ntablets have told us, the name of the city of the priest-king was Uru\nSalim--the city of [the god of] peace. The prayer is that the _nomen_\nmay become _omen_, and that the hope that moved in the hearts that\nhad so long ago and in the midst of wars given so fair a designation\nto their abode, may be fulfilled now at last. A similar play of words\nlies in the interchange of \"peace\" and \"prosperity,\" which are closely\nsimilar in sound in the Hebrew. So sure is the psalmist that God will\nfavour Zion, that he assures his companions that individual well-being\nwill be secured by loyal love to her. The motive appealed to may be so\nput as to be mere selfishness, though, if any man loved Zion not for\nZion's sake but for his own, he could scarcely be deemed to love her\nat all. But rightly understood, the psalmist proclaims an everlasting\ntruth, that the highest good is realised by sinking self in a passion\nof earnest love for and service to the City of God. Such love is in\nitself well-being; and while it may have no rewards appreciable by\nsense, it cannot fail of sharing in the good of Zion and the prosperity\nof God's chosen.\n\nThe singer puts forth the prayers which he enjoins on others, and\nrises high above all considerations of self. His desires are winged\nby two great motives,--on the one hand, his self-oblivious wish for\nthe good of those who are knit to him by common faith and worship; on\nthe other, his loving reverence for the sacred house of Jehovah. That\nhouse hallowed every stone in the city. To wish for the prosperity\nof Jerusalem, forgetting that the Temple was in it, would have been\nmere earthly patriotism, a very questionable virtue. To wish and\nstruggle for the growth of an external organisation called a Church,\ndisregarding the Presence which gives it all its sanctity, is no\nuncommon fault in some who think that they are actuated by \"zeal for\nthe Lord,\" when it is a much more earthly flame that burns in them.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXIII.\n\n 1 To Thee lift I mine eyes,\n O Thou that art enthroned in the heavens.\n 2 Behold, as the eyes of slaves are towards the hand of their\n masters,\n As the eyes of a maid are towards the hand of her mistress,\n So [are] our eyes towards Jehovah our God,\n Till He be gracious to us.\n\n 3 Be gracious to us, Jehovah, be gracious to us,\n For we are abundantly filled with contempt.\n 4 Abundantly is our soul filled\n With the scorn of them that are at ease,\n The contempt of the proud.\n\n\nA sigh and an upward gaze and a sigh! No period is more appropriate,\nas that of this psalm, than the early days after the return from\nexile, when the little community, which had come back with high\nhopes, found themselves a laughing-stock to their comfortable and\nmalicious neighbours. The contrast of tone with the joy of the\npreceding psalm is very striking. After the heights of devout\ngladness have been reached, it is still needful to come down to stern\nrealities of struggle, and these can only be faced when the eye of\npatient dependence and hope is fixed on God.\n\nThat attitude is the great lesson of this brief and perfect expression\nof wistful yet unfaltering trust joined with absolute submission. The\nupward look here is like, but also unlike, that in Psalm cxxi., in that\nthis is less triumphant, though not less assured, and has an expression\nof lowly submission in the appealing gaze. Commentators quote\nillustrations of the silent observance of the master's look by his\nrows of slaves; but these are not needed to elucidate the vivid image.\nIt tells its own story. Absolute submission to God's hand, whether it\nwields a rod or lavishes gifts or points to service, befits those whose\nhighest honour is to be His slaves. They should stand where they can\nsee Him; they should have their gaze fixed upon Him; they should look\nwith patient trust, as well as with eager willingness to start into\nactivity when He indicates His commands.\n\nThe sigh for deliverance, in the second half of the psalm, is no\nbreach of that patient submission. Trust and resignation do not kill\nnatural shrinking from contempt and scorn. It is enough that they\nturn shrinking into supplication and lamentations into appeals to\nGod. He lets His servants make their moan to Him, and tell how full\ntheir souls have long been of men's scorn. As a plea with Him the\npsalmist urges the mockers' \"ease.\" In their security and full-fed\ncomplacency, they laughed at the struggling band, as men gorged\nwith material good ever do at enthusiasts; but it is better to be\ncontemned for the difficulties which cleaving to the ruins of God's\ncity brings, than to be the contemners in their selfish abundance.\nThey are further designated as \"haughty,\" by a word which the Hebrew\nmargin reads as two words, meaning \"proud ones of the oppressors\";\nbut this is unnecessary, and the text yields a good meaning as it\nstands, though the word employed is unusual.\n\nThis sweet psalm, with all its pained sense of the mockers' gibes\nand their long duration, has no accent of impatience. Perfect\nsubmission, fixed observance, assured confidence that, \"till He is\ngracious,\" it is best to bear what He sends, befit His servants, and\nneed not hinder their patient cry to Him, nor their telling Him how\nlong and hard their trial has been.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXIV.\n\n 1 Had not Jehovah been for us,\n --Thus let Israel say--\n 2 Had not Jehovah been for us,\n When men rose against us:\n 3 Then had they swallowed us alive,\n When their wrath blazed out upon us;\n 4 Then had the waters overwhelmed us,\n The torrent had gone over our soul;\n 5 Then had gone over our soul\n The proud waters.\n\n 6 Blessed be Jehovah,\n Who has not given us [as] a prey to their teeth.\n 7 Our soul is like a bird escaped from the fowlers' snare;\n The snare is broken, and we--we are escaped.\n 8 Our help is in the name of Jehovah,\n Maker of heaven and earth.\n\n\nA sequence may be traced connecting this with the two adjacent\npsalms. In Psalm cxxiii., patient resignation sighed for deliverance,\nwhich here has been received and has changed the singer's note into\njubilant and wondering praise; while, in the next little lyric, we\nhave the escaped Israel established in Jerusalem, and drawing omens\nof Divine guardianship from its impregnable position, on a mountain\ngirt by mountains. This psalm is an outgush of the first rapture of\nastonishment and joy for deliverance so sudden and complete. It is\nmost naturally taken as the expression of the feelings of the exiles\non their restoration from Babylon. One thought runs through it all,\nthat the sole actor in their deliverance has been Jehovah. No human\narm has been bared for them; no created might could have rescued them\nfrom the rush of the swelling deluge. Like a bird in a net panting\nwith fear and helplessness, they waited the fowler's grasp; but, lo,\nby an unseen Power the net was broken, and they are free to wing\ntheir flight to their nest. So, triumphantly they ring out at last\nthe Name which has been their help, abjuring any share in their own\nrescue, and content to owe it all to Him.\n\nThe step-like structure is very obvious in this psalm. As Delitzsch\nputs it, \"In order to take a step forward, it always goes back half\na step.\" But the repetitions are not mere artistic embellishments;\nthey beautifully correspond to the feelings expressed. A heart\nrunning over with thankful surprise at its own new security and\nfreedom cannot but reiterate the occasion of its joy. It is quite\nas much devotion as art which says twice over that Jehovah was on\nthe singers' side, which twice recalls how nearly they had been\nsubmerged in the raging torrent, and twice remembers their escape\nfrom the closely wrapping but miraculously broken snare. A suppliant\nis not guilty of vain repetitions though he asks often for the same\nblessing, and thanksgiving for answered petitions should be as\npersistent as the petitions were. That must be a shallow gratitude\nwhich can be all poured out at one gush.\n\nThe psalmist's metaphors for Israel's danger are familiar ones.\n\"They had swallowed us alive\" may refer to the open jaws of Sheol,\nas in other psalms, but more probably is simply a figure drawn from\nbeasts of prey, as in ver. 6. The other image of a furious swollen\ntorrent sweeping over the heads (or, as here, over the soul) recalls\nthe grand contrast drawn by Isaiah between the gently flowing \"waters\nof Siloam\" and the devastating rush of the \"river,\" symbolising the\nKing of Assyria, which, like some winter torrent swollen by the\nrains, suddenly rises and bears on its tawny bosom to the sea the\nruins of men's works and the corpses of the workers.\n\nThe word rendered \"proud\" is a rare word, coming from a root meaning\n_to boil over_, and may be used here in its literal sense, but is\nmore probably to be taken in its metaphorical meaning of haughty, and\napplied rather to the persons signified by the waters than to the\nflood itself. Vv. 6 and 7 are an advance on the preceding, inasmuch\nas those described rather the imminence of danger, and these magnify\nthe completeness of Jehovah's delivering mercy. The comparison of\nthe soul to a bird is beautiful (Psalm xi. 1). It hints at tremors\nand feebleness, at alternations of feeling like the flutter of some\nweak-winged songster, at the utter helplessness of the panting creature\nin the toils. One hand only could break the snare, and then the bruised\nwings were swiftly spread for flight once more, and up into the blue\nwent the ransomed joy, with a song instead of harsh notes of alarm.\n\"We--we are escaped.\" That is enough: we are out of the net. Whither\nthe flight may be directed does not concern the singer in the first\nbliss of recovered freedom. All blessedness is contained in the one\nword \"escaped,\" which therefore he reiterates, and with which the song\ncloses, but for that final ascription of the glory of the escape to the\nmighty Name of Him who made heaven and earth.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXV.\n\n 1 They who trust in Jehovah\n Are like Mount Zion, [which] cannot be moved,\n For ever it shall sit steadfast.\n 2 Jerusalem--mountains are round her,\n And Jehovah is round His people\n From now and for ever.\n 3 For the sceptre of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the\n righteous ones,\n Lest the righteous put forth their hands to iniquity.\n\n 4 Do good, Jehovah, to the good,\n And to the upright in their hearts.\n 5 And those who warp their crooked paths,\n Jehovah shall make them go with the workers of iniquity.\n Peace be upon Israel!\n\n\nThe references to the topography of Jerusalem in vv. 1, 2, do\nnot absolutely require, though they recommend, the supposition,\nalready mentioned, that this psalm completes a triad which covers\nthe experience of the restored Israel from the time just prior to\nits deliverance up till the period of its return to Jerusalem. The\nstrength of the city perched on its rocky peninsula, and surrounded\nby guardian heights, would be the more impressive to eyes accustomed\nto the plains of Babylon, where the only defence of cities was\nartificial. If this hypothesis as to the date of the psalm is\naccepted, its allusions to a foreign domination and to half-hearted\nmembers of the community, as distinguished from manifest workers\nof evil, fall in with the facts of the period. The little band of\nfaithful men was surrounded by foes, and there were faint hearts\namong themselves, ready to temporise and \"run with the hare,\" as well\nas \"hunt with the hounds.\" In view of deliverance accomplished and of\nperils still to be faced, the psalmist sings this strong brief song\nof commendation of the excellence of Trust, anticipates as already\nfulfilled the complete emancipation of the land from alien rule,\nand proclaims, partly in prayer and partly in prediction, the great\nlaw of retribution--certain blessedness for those who are good, and\ndestruction for the faithless.\n\nThe first of the two grand images in vv. 1, 2, sets forth the\nstability of those who trust in Jehovah. The psalmist pictures Mount\nZion somewhat singularly as \"sitting steadfast,\" whereas the usual\nexpression would be \"stands firm.\" But the former conveys still more\nforcibly the image and impression of calm, effortless immobility. Like\nsome great animal couched at ease, the mountain lies there, in restful\nstrength. Nothing can shake it, except One Presence, before which the\nhills \"skip like young rams.\" Thus quietly steadfast and lapped in\nrepose, not to be disturbed by any external force, should they be who\ntrust in Jehovah, and shall be in the measure of their trust.\n\nBut trust could not bring such steadfastness, unless the other figure\nin ver. 2 represented a fact. The steadfastness of the trustful soul\nis the consequence of the encircling defence of Jehovah's power. The\nmountain fortress is girdled by mountains; not, indeed, as if it\nwas ringed about by an unbroken circle of manifestly higher peaks;\nbut still Olivet rises above Zion on the east, and a spur of higher\nground runs out thence and overlooks it on the north, while the levels\nrise to the west, and the so-called Hill of Evil Counsel is on the\nsouth. They are not conspicuous summits, but they hide the city from\nthose approaching, till their tops are reached. Perhaps the very\ninconspicuousness of these yet real defences suggested to the poet the\ninvisible protection which to purblind eyes looked so poor, but was\nso valid. The hills of Bashan might look scornfully across Jordan to\nthe humble heights round Jerusalem; but they were enough to guard the\ncity. The psalmist uses no words of comparison, but lays his two facts\nside by side: the mountains round Jerusalem--Jehovah round His people.\nThat circumvallation is their defence. They who have the everlasting\nhills for their bulwark need not trouble themselves to build a wall\nsuch as Babylon needed. Man's artifices for protection are impertinent\nwhen God flings His hand round His people. Zechariah, the prophet of\nthe Restoration, drew that conclusion from the same thought, when\nhe declared that Jerusalem should be \"inhabited as villages without\nwalls,\" because Jehovah would be \"unto her a wall of fire round about\"\n(Zech. ii. 4, 5).\n\nVer. 3 seems at first sight to be appended to the preceding in\ndefiance of logical connection, for its \"for\" would more naturally\nhave been \"therefore,\" since the deliverance of the land from foreign\ninvaders is a consequence of Jehovah's protection. But the psalmist's\nfaith is so strong that he regards that still further deliverance as\nalready accomplished, and adduces it as a confirmation of the fact\nthat Jehovah ever guards His people. In the immediate historical\nreference this verse points to a period when the lot of the\nrighteous--_i.e._, the land of Israel--was, as it were, weighed down\nby the crushing sceptre of some alien power that had long lain on it.\nBut the psalmist is sure that that is not going to last, because his\neyes are lifted to the hills whence his aid comes. With like tenacity\nand longsightedness, Faith ever looks onward to the abolition of\npresent evils, however stringent may be their grip, and however heavy\nmay be the sceptre which Evil in possession of the heritage of God\nwields. The rod of the oppressor shall be broken, and one more proof\ngiven that they dwell safely who dwell encircled by God.\n\nThe domination of evil, if protracted too long, may tempt good men,\nwho are righteous because they trust, to lose their faith and so\nto lose their righteousness, and make common cause with apparently\ntriumphant iniquity. It needs Divine wisdom to determine how\nlong a trial must last in order that it may test faith, thereby\nstrengthening it, and may not confound faith, thereby precipitating\nfeeble souls into sin. He knows when to say, It is enough.\n\nSo the psalm ends with prayer and prediction, which both spring from\nthe insight into Jehovah's purposes which trust gives. The singer\nasks that the good may receive good, in accordance with the law of\nretribution. The expressions describing these are very noticeable,\nespecially when connected with the designation of the same persons\nin ver. 1 as those who trust in Jehovah. Trust makes righteous\nand good and upright in heart. If these characteristics are to be\ndistinguished, _righteous_ may refer to action in conformity with\nthe law of God, _good_ to the more gentle and beneficent virtues,\nand _upright in heart_ to inward sincerity. Such persons will get\n\"good\" from Jehovah, the God of recompenses, and that good will be as\nvarious as their necessities and as wide as their capacities. But the\nrighteous Protector of those who trust in Him is so, partly because\nHe smites as well as blesses, and therefore the other half of the law\nof retribution comes into view, not as a petition, but as prediction.\nThe psalmist uses a vivid image to describe half-hearted adherents\nto the people of Jehovah: \"they bend their ways,\" so as to make them\ncrooked. Sometimes the tortuous path points towards one direction,\nand then it swerves to almost the opposite. \"Those crooked, wandering\nways,\" in which irresolute men, who do not clearly know whether they\nare for Jehovah or for the other side, live lives miserable from\nvacillation, can never lead to steadfastness or to any good. The\npsalmist has taken his side. He knows whom he is for; and he knows,\ntoo, that there is at bottom little to choose between the coward who\nwould fain be in both camps and the open antagonist. Therefore they\nshall share the same fate.\n\nFinally the poet, stretching out his hands over all Israel, as if\nblessing them like a priest, embraces all his hopes, petitions,\nand wishes in the one prayer \"Peace be upon Israel!\" He means the\ntrue Israel of God (Gal. vi. 16), upon whom the Apostle, with a\nreminiscence possibly of this psalm, invokes the like blessing, and\nwhom he defines in the same spirit as the psalmist does, as those who\nwalk according to this rule, and not according to the crooked paths\nof their own devising.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXVI.\n\n 1 When Jehovah brought back the captives of Zion,\n We were like as if dreaming.\n 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter,\n And our tongues with joyful cries;\n Then said they among the nations,\n Jehovah has done great things with these [people].\n 3 Jehovah has done great things with us;\n We were glad.\n\n 4 Bring back, Jehovah, our captives,\n Like watercourses in the Southland.\n 5 They who sow with tears\n With joyful cries shall reap.\n 6 [The husbandman] goes, going and weeping,\n [While] bearing the handful of seed;\n He shall surely come with joyful cries,\n [When] bearing his sheaves.\n\n\nAs in Psalm lxxxv., the poet's point of view here is in the midst\nof a partial restoration of Israel. In vv. 1-3 he rejoices over\nits happy beginning, while in vv. 4-6 he prays for and confidently\nexpects its triumphant completion. Manifestly the circumstances\nfit the period to which most of these pilgrim psalms are to be\nreferred--namely, the dawn of the restoration from Babylon. Here the\npressure of the difficulties and hostility which the returning exiles\nmet is but slightly expressed. The throb of wondering gratitude\nis still felt; and though tears mingle with laughter, and hard\nwork which bears no immediate result has to be done, the singer's\nconfidence is unfaltering. His words set a noble example of the\nspirit in which inchoate deliverances should be welcomed, and toil\nfor their completion encountered with the lightheartedness which is\nfolly if it springs from self-trust, but wisdom and strength if its\nground is the great things which Jehovah has begun to do.\n\nThe word in ver. 1 rendered captives is capable of other meanings.\nIt is an unusual form, and is probably an error for the more common\nword which occurs in ver. 4. It is most probable that the expressions\nshould be identical in both instances, though small changes in a\nrefrain are not infrequent. But if this correction is adopted, there\nis room for difference of opinion as to the meaning of the phrase.\nCheyne, with the support of several other commentators, takes the\nphrase to mean \"turn the fortunes\" (lit., a turning), but allows that\nthe \"debate is not absolutely closed\" (Critical Note on Psalm xiv.\n7). The ordinary rendering is, however, more natural, \"captivity\"\nbeing the mass of captives. Others would regard the two words in\nvv. 1 and 4 as different, and render the former \"those who return\"\n(Delitzsch) or \"the returned\" (Perowne).\n\nSudden and great revolutions for the better have for their first\neffect bewilderment and a sense of unreality. Most men have some\nsupreme moment of blessedness in their memories with which they were\nstunned; but, alas! it is oftener the rush of unexpected miseries\nthat makes them wonder whether they are awake or dreaming. It is not\nlack of faith, but slowness in accommodating oneself to surprising\nnew conditions, which makes these seem unreal at first. \"The sober\ncertainty of waking bliss\" is sweeter than the first raptures. It is\ngood to have had such experience of walking, as it were, on air; but\nit is better to plant firm feet on firm ground.\n\nThe mood of the first part of this little psalm is momentary; but\nthe steadfast toil amid discouragements, not uncheered by happy\nconfidence, which is pictured in the second part, should be the\npermanent temper of those who have once tasted the brief emotion. The\njubilant laughter and ringing cries with which the exiles streamed\nforth from bondage, and made the desert echo as they marched,\nwitnessed to the nations that Jehovah had magnified His dealings with\nthem. Their extorted acknowledgment is caught up triumphantly by the\nsinger. He, as it were, thanks the Gentiles for teaching him that\nword. There is a world of restrained feeling, all the more impressive\nfor the simplicity of the expression, in that quiet \"We became\nglad.\" When the heathen attested the reality of the deliverance,\nIsrael became calmly conscious of it. These exclamations of envious\nonlookers sufficed to convince the returning exiles that it was\nno dream befooling them. Tumultuous feeling steadied itself into\nconscious joy. There is no need to say more. The night of weeping was\npast, and Joy was their companion in the fresh morning light.\n\nBut the work was but partly done. Difficulties and hardships were\nnot abolished from the world, as Israel had half expected in the\nfirst flush of joy. We all are apt to think so, when some long\nwished and faintly hoped-for good is ours at last. But not such is\nthe Divine purpose for any life here. He gives moments of untroubled\njoy, when no cloud stains the blue and all the winds are still, in\norder to prepare us for toil amid tempests and gloomy skies. So the\nsecond half of the psalm breathes petitions for the completion of the\nRestoration, and animates the returned exiles with assurances that,\nwhatever may be their toils, and however rough the weather in which\nthey have to sow the seed, and however heavy the hearts with which\nthey do it, \"the slow result of winter showers\" is sure. Lessons\nof persevering toil, of contented doing of preparatory work, of\nconfidence that no such labour can fail to be profitable to the doer\nand to the world, have been drawn for centuries from the sweet words\nof this psalm. Who can tell how many hearts they have braced, how\nmuch patient toil they have inspired? The psalmist was sowing seed,\nthe fruit of which he little dreamed of, when he wrote them, and his\nsheaves will be an exceeding weight indeed.\n\nThe metaphor in ver. 4 brings before the imagination the dried\ntorrent-beds in the arid Negeb, or Southland, which runs out into the\nArabian desert. Dreary and desolate as these dried wadies lie bleaching\nin the sunshine, so disconsolate and lonely had the land been without\ninhabitants. The psalmist would fain see, not the thin trickle of a\nstreamlet, to which the returned captives might be compared, but a\nfull, great rush of rejoicing fellow-countrymen coming back, like the\ntorrents that fill the silent watercourses with flashing life.\n\nHe prays, and he also prophesies. \"They who sow with tears\" are\nthe pioneers of the return, to whom he belonged. Vv. 6, 7, merely\nexpand the figure of ver. 5 with the substitution of the image\nof a single husbandman for the less vivid, clear-cut plural. The\nexpression rendered \"handful of seed\" means literally a \"draught of\nseed\"--_i.e._, the quantity taken out of the basket or cloth at one\ngrasp, in order to be sown. It is difficult to convey the force of\nthe infinitives in combination with participles and the finite verb\nin ver. 6. But the first half of the verse seems to express repeated\nactions on the part of the husbandman, who often goes forth to sow,\nand weeps as he goes; while the second half expresses the certainty\nof his glad coming in with his arms full of sheaves. The meaning\nof the figure needs no illustration. It gives assurances fitted to\nanimate to toil in the face of dangers without, and in spite of a\nheavy heart--namely, that no seed sown and watered with tears is\nlost; and further, that, though it often seems to be the law for\nearth that one soweth and another reapeth, in deepest truth \"every\nman shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour,\"\ninasmuch as, hereafter, if not now, whatsoever of faith and toil and\nholy endeavour a man soweth, trusting to God to bless the springing\nthereof, that shall he also reap. In the highest sense and in the\nlast result the prophet's great words are ever true: \"They shall not\nplant, and another eat ... for My chosen shall long enjoy the work of\ntheir hands\" (Isa. lxv. 22).\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXVII.\n\n 1 If Jehovah build not a house,\n Vainly do its builders toil upon it;\n If Jehovah keeps not a city,\n Vainly wakes the keeper.\n 2 Vain is it for you, ye that make early [your] rising and your\n sitting down late,\n That eat the bread of painful toil;\n Even so He gives [it] to His beloved while in sleep.\n\n 3 Behold, sons are an heritage from Jehovah,\n The fruit of the womb is [His] reward.\n 4 Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man,\n So are sons of [a father's] youth.\n 5 Happy the man who has filled his quiver with them,\n They shall not be ashamed\n When they speak with enemies in the gate.\n\n\nThis pure expression of conscious dependence on God's blessing for\nall well-being may possibly have special reference to the Israel of\nthe Restoration. The instances of vain human effort and care would\nthen have special force, when the ruins of many generations had to be\nrebuilt and the city to be guarded. But there is no need to seek for\nspecific occasion, so general is this psalm. It sings in a spirit of\nhappy trust the commonplace of all true religion, that God's blessing\nprospers all things, and that effort is vain without it. There is no\nsweeter utterance of that truth anywhere, till we come to our Lord's\nparallel teaching, lovelier still than that of our psalm, when He\npoints us to the flowers of the field and the fowls of the air, as\nour teachers of the joyous, fair lives that can be lived, when no\ncarking care mars their beauty.\n\nIn ver. 1 the examples chosen by the singer are naturally connected.\nThe house when built is one in the many that make the city. The owner's\ntroubles are not over when it is built, since it has to be watched. It\nis as hard to keep as to acquire earthly goods. The psalmist uses the\npast tenses in describing the vanity of building and watching unblessed\nby God. \"They\" have built in vain, and watched in vain. He, as it were,\nplaces us at the point of time when the failure is developed,--the\nhalf-built house a ruin, the city sacked and in flames.\n\nVer. 2 deals with domestic life within the built house and guarded\ncity. It is vain to eke out the laborious day by early beginning and\nlate ending. Long hours do not mean prosperous work. The evening meal\nmay be put off till a late hour; and when the toil-worn man sits down\nto it, he may eat bread made bitter by labour. But all is in vain\nwithout God's blessing. The last clause of the verse must be taken as\npresenting a contrast to the futile labour reprehended in the former\nclauses; and therefore the beautiful rendering of the A.V. must be\nabandoned, though it has given many sweet thoughts to trustful souls,\nand none sweeter than in Mrs. Browning's pathetic lines. But clearly\nthe contrast is between labour which effects nothing, but is like\nspinning ropes out of sea-sand, and God's gift of the good which the\nvain toil had aimed at, and which He gives to His beloved in their\nsleep. \"So\" seems here to be equivalent to \"Even so,\" and the thought\nintended is probably that God's gift to His beloved secures to them\nthe same result as is ineffectually sought by godless struggles.\n\nThis is no preaching of laziness masquerading as religious trust.\nThe psalmist insists on one side of the truth. Not work, but\nself-torturing care and work, without seeking God's blessing, are\npronounced vanity.\n\nThe remainder of the psalm dwells on one special instance of God's\ngifts, that of a numerous family, which, in accordance with the Hebrew\nsentiment, is regarded as a special blessing. But the psalmist is\ncarried beyond his immediate purpose of pointing out that that chief\nearthly blessing, as he and his contemporaries accounted it, is God's\ngift, and he lingers on the picture of a father surrounded in his old\nage by a band of stalwart sons born unto him in his vigorous youth,\nand so now able to surround him with a ring of strong protectors\nof his declining days. \"They shall speak with their enemies in the\ngate.\" Probably \"they\" refers to the whole band, the father in the\nmidst and his sons about him. The gate was the place where justice\nwas administered, and where was the chief place of concourse. It is\ntherefore improbable that actual warfare is meant: rather, in the\ndisputes which might arise with neighbours, and in the intercourse of\ncity life, which would breed enmities enough, the man with his sons\nabout him could hold his own. And such blessing is God's gift.\n\nThe lesson of the psalm is one that needs to be ever repeated. It\nis so obvious that it is unseen by many, and apt to be unnoticed by\nall. There are two ways of going to work in reference to earthly\ngood. One is that of struggling and toiling, pushing and snatching,\nfighting and envying, and that way comes to no successful issue;\nfor if it gets what it has wriggled and wrestled for, it generally\ngets in some way or other an incapacity to enjoy the good won, which\nmakes it far less than the good pursued. The other way is the way of\nlooking to God and doing the appointed tasks with quiet dependence\non Him, and that way always succeeds; for, with its modest or large\noutward results, there is given likewise a quiet heart set on God,\nand therefore capable of finding water in the desert and extracting\nhoney from the rock. The one way is that of \"young lions,\" who, for\nall their claws and strength, \"do lack and suffer hunger\"; the other\nis that of \"them that seek the Lord,\" who \"shall not want any good.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXVIII.\n\n 1 Happy is every one that fears Jehovah,\n That walks in His ways.\n 2 The labour of thy hands shalt thou surely eat,--\n Happy art thou, and it is well with thee.\n 3 Thy wife [shall be] like a fruitful vine in the inmost chambers of\n thy house,\n Thy children like young olive plants round thy table.\n 4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed\n Who fears Jehovah.\n\n 5 Jehovah bless thee out of Zion!\n And mayest thou look on the prosperity of Jerusalem\n All the days of thy life,\n 6 And see children to thy children!\n Peace be upon Israel!\n\n\nThe preceding psalm traced all prosperity and domestic felicity to\nGod's giving hand. It painted in its close the picture of a father\nsurrounded by his sons able to defend him. This psalm presents the same\nblessings as the result of a devout life, in which the fear of Jehovah\nleads to obedience and diligence in labour. It presents the inner side\nof domestic happiness. It thus doubly supplements the former, lest\nany should think that God's gift superseded man's work, or that the\nonly blessedness of fatherhood was that it supplied a corps of sturdy\ndefenders. The first four verses describe the peaceful, happy life of\nthe God-fearing man, and the last two invoke on him the blessing which\nalone makes such a life his. Blended with the sweet domesticity of the\npsalm is glowing love for Zion. However blessed the home, it is not to\nweaken the sense of belonging to the nation.\n\nNo purer, fairer idyll was ever penned than this miniature picture of\na happy home life. But its calm, simple beauty has deep foundations.\nThe poet sets forth the basis of all noble, as of all tranquil,\nlife when he begins with the fear of Jehovah, and thence advances\nto practical conformity with His will, manifested by walking in the\npaths which He traces for men. Thence the transition is easy to the\nmention of diligent labour, and the singer is sure that such toil\ndone on such principles and from such a motive cannot go unblessed.\nOutward prosperity does not follow good men's work so surely as the\nletter of the psalm teaches, but the best fruits of such work are\nnot those which can be stored in barns or enjoyed by sense; and the\nlabourer who does his work \"heartily, as to the Lord,\" will certainly\nreap a harvest in character and power and communion with God,\nwhatever transitory gain may be attained or missed.\n\nThe sweet little sketch of a joyous home in ver. 3 is touched with\ntrue grace and feeling. The wife is happy in her motherhood, and\nready, in the inner chambers (literally _sides_) of the house, where\nshe does her share of work, to welcome her husband returning from\nthe field. The family gathers for the meal won and sweetened by his\ntoil; the children are in vigorous health, and growing up like young\n\"layered\" olive plants. It may be noted that this verse exhibits a\nhome in the earlier stages of married life, and reflects the happy\nhopes associated with youthful children, all still gathered under the\nfather's roof; while, in the latter part of the psalm, a later stage\nis in view, when the father sits as a spectator rather than a worker,\nand sees children born to his children. Ver. 4 emphatically dwells\nonce more on the foundation of all as laid in the fear of Jehovah.\nHappy a nation whose poets have such ideals and sing of such themes!\nHow wide the gulf separating this \"undisturbed song\" of pure home\njoys from the foul ideals which baser songs try to adorn! Happy the\nman whose ambition is bounded by its limits, and whose life is\n\n \"True to the kindred points of heaven and home\"!\n\nIsrael first taught the world how sacred the family is; and\nChristianity recognises \"a church in the house\" of every wedded pair\nwhose love is hallowed by the fear of Jehovah.\n\nIn vv. 5, 6, petitions take the place of assurances, for the\nsinger knows that none of the good which he has been promising will\ncome without that blessing of which the preceding psalm had spoken.\nAll the beautiful and calm joys just described must flow from\nGod, and be communicated from that place which is the seat of His\nself-revelation. The word rendered above \"mayest thou look\" is in the\nimperative form, which seems here to be intended to blend promise,\nwish, and command. It is the duty of the happiest husband and father\nnot to let himself be so absorbed in the sweets of home as to have\nhis heart beat languidly for the public weal. The subtle selfishness\nwhich is but too commonly the accompaniment of such blessings is to\nbe resisted. From his cheerful hearth the eyes of a lover of Zion\nare to look out, and be gladdened when they see prosperity smiling\non Zion. Many a Christian is so happy in his household that his\nduties to the Church, the nation, and the world are neglected. This\nancient singer had a truer conception of the obligations flowing from\npersonal and domestic blessings. He teaches us that it is not enough\nto \"see children's children,\" unless we have eyes to look for the\nprosperity of Jerusalem, and tongues which pray not only for those in\nour homes, but for \"peace upon Israel.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXIX.\n\n 1 Sorely have they oppressed me from my youth,\n Let Israel now say,\n 2 Sorely have they oppressed me from my youth,\n But they have not also prevailed against me.\n 3 On my back the ploughers ploughed,\n They made their furrows long.\n 4 Jehovah the righteous\n Has cut the cord of the wicked.\n\n 5 Let them be shamed and turned back,\n All they who hate Zion.\n 6 Let them be as the grass of the housetops,\n Which, before it shoots forth, withers:\n 7 With which the mower fills not his hand,\n Nor the sheaf-binder his bosom;\n 8 And the passers-by say not,\n \"The blessing of Jehovah be to you!\"\n \"We bless you in the name of Jehovah!\"\n\n\nThe point of view here is the same as in Psalm cxxiv., with which\nthe present psalm has much similarity both in subject and in\nexpression. It is a retrospect of Israel's past, in which the poet\nsees a uniform exemplification of two standing facts--sore affliction\nand wonderful deliverance. The bush burned, _nec tamen consumebatur_.\n\"Cast down, but not destroyed,\" is the summary of the Church's\nhistory. No doubt the recent deliverance from captivity underlies\nthis, as most of the pilgrim psalms. The second part (vv. 5-8) blends\nconfidence and wish, founded on the experience recorded in the first\npart, and prophesies and desires the overthrow of Israel's foes. The\nright use of retrospect is to make it the ground of hope. They who\nhave passed unscathed through such afflictions may well be sure that\nany to-morrow shall be as the yesterdays were, and that all future\nassaults will fail as all past ones have failed.\n\nThe words which Israel is called upon to say twice with triumphant\nremembrance are the motto of the _Ecclesia pressa_ in all ages. Ever\nthere is antagonism; never is there overthrow. Israel's \"youth\" was\nfar back in the days of Egyptian bondage; and many an affliction\nhas he since met, but he lives still, and his existence proves that\n\"they have not prevailed against\" him. Therefore the backward look is\ngladsome, though it sees so many trials. Survived sorrows yield joy\nand hope, as gashes in trees exude precious gums.\n\nVer. 3 expresses Israel's oppressions by a strong metaphor, in\nwhich two figures are blended--a slave under the lash, and a field\nfurrowed by ploughing. Cruel lords had laid on the whip, till the\nvictim's back was scored with long wounds, straight and parallel,\nlike the work of a ploughman. The Divine deliverance follows in ver.\n4. The first words of the verse do not stand in the usual order,\nif rendered \"Jehovah is righteous,\" and are probably to be taken\nas above; \"righteous\" standing in apposition to \"Jehovah,\" and\nexpressing the Divine characteristic which guaranteed and, in due\ntime, accomplished Israel's deliverance. God could not but be true to\nHis covenant obligations. Therefore He cut the \"cord of the wicked.\"\nThe figure is here changed to one occasioned by the former. Israel is\nnow the draught ox harnessed to the plough; and thus both sides of\nhis bondage are expressed--cruel treatment by the former, and hard\ntoil by the latter, figure. The same act which, in the parallel 124th\nPsalm, is described as breaking the fowler's snare, is in view here;\nand the restoration from Babylon suits the circumstances completely.\n\nThe story of past futile attempts against Israel animates the\nconfidence and vindicates the wish breathed in the latter half of the\npsalm. To hate Zion, which Jehovah so manifestly loves and guards,\nmust be suicidal. It is something far nobler than selfish vengeance\nwhich desires and foresees the certain failure of attempts against\nit. The psalmist is still under the influence of his earlier metaphor\nof the ploughed field, but now has come to think of the harvest. The\ngraphic image of the grass on flat housetops of clay, which springs\nquickly because it has no depth of earth, and withers as it springs,\nvividly describes the short-lived success and rapid extinction of\nplots against Zion and of the plotters. The word rendered above\n\"shoots forth\" is by some translated \"is plucked up,\" and that\nmeaning is defensible, but grass on the housetops would scarcely be\nworth plucking, and the word is used elsewhere for unsheathing a\nsword. It may, therefore, be taken here to refer to the shooting out\nof the spikelets from their covering. The psalmist dilates upon his\nmetaphor in ver. 7, which expresses the fruitlessness of assaults\non God's chosen. No harvest is to be reaped from such sowing. The\nenemies may plot and toil, and before their plans have had time to\nbud they are smitten into brown dust; and when the contrivers come\nexpecting success, there is nothing to mow or gather. \"They look\nfor much, and behold little.\" So it has been; so it shall be; so it\nshould be; so may it be, wishes the psalmist; and true hearts will\nsay Amen to his aspiration.\n\nSuch reapers have no joy in harvest, and no man can invoke Jehovah's\nblessing on their bad work. Ver. 8 brings up a lovely little picture\nof a harvest field, where passers-by shout their good wishes to the\nglad toilers, and are answered by these with like salutations. It\nis doubtful whether ver. 8_c_ is spoken by the passers-by or is the\nreapers' responsive greeting. The latter explanation gives animation\nto the scene. But in any case the verse suggests by contrast the\ngloomy silence of Israel's would-be destroyers, who find, as all who\nset themselves against Jehovah's purposes do find, that He blasts\ntheir plans with His breath, and makes their \"harvest an heap in the\nday of grief and desperate sorrow.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXX.\n\n 1 Out of the depths have I cried to Thee, Jehovah.\n 2 Lord, hearken to my voice,\n Be Thine ears attent\n To the voice of my supplications.\n\n 3 If Thou, Jah, shouldest mark iniquities,\n Lord, who could stand?--\n 4 For with Thee is forgiveness,\n That Thou mayest be feared.\n\n 5 I have waited for Jehovah,\n And in His word have I hoped.\n 6 My soul [hopes] for the Lord\n More than watchers for the morning,\n --Watchers for the morning.\n\n 7 Let Israel hope in Jehovah,\n For with Jehovah is loving-kindness,\n And in abundance with Him is redemption.\n 8 And He--He will redeem Israel\n From all his iniquities.\n\n\nIn a very emphatic sense this is a song of ascents, for it climbs\nsteadily from the abyss of penitence to the summits of hope. It falls\ninto two divisions of four verses each, of which the former breathes\nthe prayer of a soul penetrated by the consciousness of sin, and the\nlatter the peaceful expectance of one that has tasted God's forgiving\nmercy. These two parts are again divided into two groups of two\nverses, so that there are four stages in the psalmist's progress from\nthe depths to the sunny heights.\n\nIn the first group we have the psalmist's cry. He has called, and\nstill calls. He reiterates in ver. 2 the prayer that he had long\noffered and still presents. It is not only quotation, but is the cry\nof present need. What are these \"depths\" from which his voice sounds,\nas that of a man fallen into a pit and sending up a faint call? The\nexpression does not merely refer to his creatural lowliness, nor\neven to his troubles, nor even to his depression of spirit. There\nare deeper pits than these--those into which the spirit feels itself\ngoing down, sick and giddy, when it realises its sinfulness. Unless a\nman has been down in that black abyss, he has scarcely cried to God\nas he should do. The beginning of true personal religion is the sense\nof personal sin. A slight conception of the gravity of that fact\nunderlies inadequate conceptions of Christ's nature and work, and is\nthe mother of heresies in creed and superficialities and deadnesses\nin practice. A religion that sits lightly upon its professor,\nimpelling to no acts of devotion, flashing out in no heroisms, rising\nto no heights of communion--that is to say, the average Christianity\nof great masses of so-called Christians--bears proof, in its languor,\nthat the man knows nothing about the depths, and has never cried to\nGod from them. Further, if out of the depths we cry, we shall cry\nourselves out of the depths. What can a man do who finds himself at\nthe foot of a beetling cliff, the sea in front, the wall of rock\nat his back, without foothold for a mouse, between the tide at the\nbottom and the grass at the top? He can do but one thing: he can\nshout, and perhaps may be heard, and a rope may come dangling down\nthat he can spring at and clutch. For sinful men in the miry pit the\nrope is already let down, and their grasping it is the same act as\nthe psalmist's cry. God has let down His forgiving love in Christ,\nand we need but the faith which accepts while it asks, and then we\nare swung up into the light, and our feet set on a rock.\n\nVv. 3, 4, are the second stage. A dark fear shadows the singer's\nsoul, and is swept away by a joyful assurance. The word rendered above\n\"mark\" is literally _keep_ or _watch_, as in ver. 6, and here seems\nto mean to _take account of_, or _retain_ in remembrance, in order to\npunish. If God should take man's sin into account in His dispositions\nand dealings, \"O Lord, who shall stand?\" No man could sustain that\nrighteous judgment. He must go down before it like a flimsy hut before\na whirlwind, or a weak enemy before a fierce charge. That thought comes\nto the psalmist like a blast of icy air from the north, and threatens\nto chill his hope to death and to blow his cry back into his throat.\nBut its very hypothetical form holds a negation concealed in it. Such\nan implied negative is needed in order to explain the \"for\" of ver. 4.\nThe singer springs, as it were, to that confidence by a rebound from\nthe other darker thought. We must have tremblingly entertained the\ncontrary dread possibility, before we can experience the relief and\ngladness of its counter-truth. The word rendered \"forgiveness\" is a\nlate form, being found only in two other late passages (Neh. ix. 17;\nDan. ix. 9). It literally means _cutting off_, and so suggests the\nmerciful surgery by which the cancerous tumour is taken out of the\nsoul. Such forgiveness is \"with God,\" inherent in His nature. And that\nforgiveness lies at the root of true godliness. No man reverences,\nloves, and draws near to God so rapturously and so humbly as he who has\nmade experience of His pardoning mercy, lifting a soul from its abysses\nof sin and misery. Therefore the psalmist, taught by what pardon has\ndone for him in drawing him lovingly near to God, declares that its\ngreat purpose is \"that Thou mayest be feared,\" and that not only by\nthe recipient, but by beholders. Strangely enough, many commentators\nhave found a difficulty in this idea, which seems sun-clear to those\nwhose own history explains it to them. Gr\u00e4tz, for instance, calls it\n\"completely unintelligible.\" It has been very intelligible to many a\npenitent who has been by pardon transformed into a reverent lover of\nGod.\n\nThe next stage in the ascent from the depths is in vv. 5, 6, which\nbreathe peaceful, patient hope. It may be doubtful whether the\npsalmist means to represent that attitude of expectance as prior to\nand securing forgiveness or as consequent upon it. The latter seems\nthe more probable. A soul which has received God's forgiveness is\nthereby led into tranquil, continuous, ever-rewarded waiting on Him,\nand hope of new gifts springs ever fresh in it. Such a soul sits\nquietly at His feet, trusting to His love, and looking for light and\nall else needed, to flow from Him. The singleness of the object of\ndevout hope, the yearning which is not impatience, characterising\nthat hope at its noblest, are beautifully painted in the simile\nof the watchers for morning. As they who have outwatched the long\nnight look eagerly to the flush that creeps up in the east, telling\nthat their vigil is past, and heralding the stir and life of a\nnew day with its wakening birds and fresh morning airs, so this\nsinger's eyes had turned to God, and to Him only. Ver. 6 does not\nabsolutely require the supplement \"hopes.\" It may read simply \"My\nsoul is towards Jehovah\"; and that translation gives still more\nemphatically the notion of complete turning of the whole being to\nGod. Consciousness of sin was as a dark night; forgiveness flushed\nthe Eastern heaven with prophetic twilight. So the psalmist waits for\nthe light, and his soul is one aspiration towards God.\n\nIn vv. 7, 8, the psalmist becomes an evangelist, inviting Israel to\nunite in his hope, that they may share in his pardon. In the depths\nhe was alone, and felt as if the only beings in the universe were\nGod and himself. The consciousness of sin isolates, and the sense of\nforgiveness unites. Whoever has known that \"with Jehovah is pardon\"\nis impelled thereby to invite others to learn the same lesson in\nthe same sweet way. The psalmist has a broad gospel to preach, the\ngeneralisation of his own history. He had said in ver. 4 that \"with\nJehovah is forgiveness\" (lit. _the_ forgiveness, possibly meaning\n_the needed forgiveness_), and he thereby had animated his own hope.\nNow he repeats the form of expression, only that he substitutes\nfor \"forgiveness\" the loving-kindness which is its spring, and\nthe redemption which is its result; and these he presses upon his\nfellows as reasons and encouragements for their hope. It is \"abundant\nredemption,\" or \"multiplied,\" as the word might be rendered. \"Seventy\ntimes seven\"--the perfect numbers seven and ten being multiplied\ntogether and their sum increased sevenfold--make a numerical symbol for\nthe unfailing pardons which we are to bestow; and the sum of the Divine\npardon is surely greater than that of the human. God's forgiving grace\nis mightier than all sins, and able to conquer them all.\n\n\"He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities\"; not only from their\nconsequences in punishment, but from their power, as well as from their\nguilt and their penalty. The psalmist means something a great deal\ndeeper than deliverance from calamities which conscience declared to be\nthe chastisement of sin. He speaks New Testament language. He was sure\nthat God would redeem from all iniquity; but he lived in the twilight\ndawn, and had to watch for the morning. The sun is risen for us; but\nthe light is the same in quality, though more in degree: \"Thou shalt\ncall His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXI.\n\n 1 Jehovah, not haughty is my heart,\n And not lofty are mine eyes;\n And I go not into great things,\n Nor things too wonderful for me.\n 2 I have calmed and quieted my soul,\n Like a weaned child with its mother,\n Like the weaned child is my soul with me.\n\n 3 Let Israel hope in Jehovah,\n From now, even for evermore.\n\n\nA quiet, because self-quieted, heart speaks here in quiet accents,\nnot unlike the \"crooning\" of the peaceful child on its mother's\nbosom, to which the sweet singer likens his soul. The psalm is the\nmost perfect expression of the child-like spirit, which, as Christ\nhas taught, is characteristic of the subjects of the kingdom of\nheaven. It follows a psalm of penitence, in which a contrite soul\nwaited on Jehovah for pardon, and, finding it, exhorted Israel to\nhope in His redemption from all iniquity. Consciousness of sin and\nconscious reception of redemption therefrom precede true lowliness,\nand such lowliness should follow such consciousness.\n\nThe psalmist does not pray; still less does he contradict his\nlowliness in the very act of declaring it, by pluming himself on it. He\nspeaks in that serene and happy mood, sometimes granted to lowly souls,\nwhen fruition is more present than desire, and the child, folded to\nthe Divine heart, feels its blessedness so satisfyingly that fears and\nhopes, wishes and dreams, are still. Simple words best speak tranquil\njoys. One note only is sounded in this psalm, which might almost be\ncalled a lullaby. How many hearts it has helped to hush!\n\nThe haughtiness which the psalmist disclaims has its seat in the\nheart and its manifestation in supercilious glances. The lowly heart\nlooks higher than the proud one does, for it lifts its eyes to the\nhills, and fixes them on Jehovah, as a slave on his lord. Lofty\nthoughts of self naturally breed ambitions which seek great spheres\nand would intermeddle with things above reach. The singer does not\nrefer to questions beyond solution by human faculty, but to worldly\nambitions aiming at prominence and position. He aims low, as far as\nearth is concerned; but he aims high, for his mark is in the heavens.\n\nShaking off such ambitions and loftiness of spirit, he has found\nrepose, as all do who clear their hearts of that perilous stuff.\nBut it is to be noted that the calm which he enjoys is the fruit of\nhis own self-control, by which his dominant self has smoothed and\nstilled the sensitive nature with its desires and passions. It is\nnot the tranquillity of a calm nature which speaks here, but that\ninto which the speaker has entered, by vigorous mastery of disturbing\nelements. How hard the struggle had been, how much bitter crying\nand petulant resistance there had been before the calm was won, is\ntold by the lovely image of the weaned child. While being weaned it\nsobs and struggles, and all its little life is perturbed. So no man\ncomes to have a quiet heart without much resolute self-suppression.\nBut the figure tells of ultimate repose, even more plainly than of\npreceding struggle. For, once the process is accomplished, the child\nnestles satisfied on the mother's warm bosom, and wishes nothing more\nthan to lie there. So the man who has manfully taken in hand his own\nweaker and more yearning nature, and directed its desires away from\nearth by fixing them on God, is freed from the misery of hot desire,\nand passes into calm. He that ceases from his own works enters into\nrest. If a man thus compels his \"soul\" to cease its cravings for what\nearth can give, he will have to disregard its struggles and cries,\nbut these will give place to quietness; and the fruition of the\nblessedness of setting all desires on God will be the best defence\nagainst the recurrence of longings once silenced.\n\nThe psalmist would fain have all Israel share in his quietness of\nheart, and closes his tender snatch of song with a call to them\nto hope in Jehovah, whereby they, too, may enter into peace. The\npreceding psalm ended with the same call; but there God's mercy\nin dealing with sin was principally in question, while here His\nsufficiency for all a soul's wants is implied. The one secret of\nforgiveness and deliverance from iniquity is also the secret of rest\nfrom tyrannous longings and disturbing desires. Hope in Jehovah\nbrings pardon, purity, and peace.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXII.\n\n 1 Remember, Jehovah, to David\n All the pains he took\n 2 Who swore to Jehovah,\n [And] vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,\n 3 \"I will not go into the tent of my house,\n I will not go up to the bed of my couch,\n 4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes,\n To mine eyelids slumber,\n 5 Till I find a place for Jehovah,\n A habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob.\"\n\n 6 Behold, we heard [of] it at Ephrathah,\n We found it in the Fields of the Wood.\n 7 Let us come to His habitation,\n Let us bow ourselves at His footstool.\n\n 8 Arise, Jehovah, to Thy rest,\n Thou and the Ark of Thy strength.\n 9 Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness,\n And Thy favoured ones utter shrill cries of joy.\n 10 For the sake of David Thy servant,\n Turn not away the face of Thine anointed.\n\n 11 Jehovah has sworn to David,\n It is truth--He will not go back from it--\n \"Of the fruit of thy body will I set on thy throne.\n 12 If thy sons keep My covenant\n And My testimonies which I will teach them,\n Their sons also for ever and aye\n Shall sit on thy throne.\"\n\n 13 For Jehovah has chosen Zion,\n He has desired it for His dwelling.\n 14 \"This is My rest for ever and aye,\n Here will I abide, for I have desired it.\n 15 Her provision blessing I will bless,\n Her poor will I satisfy with bread.\n 16 Her priests also will I clothe with salvation,\n And her favoured ones uttering will utter shrill cries of joy.\n 17 There will I cause a horn to sprout for David,\n I have trimmed a lamp for Mine anointed.\n 18 His enemies will I clothe with shame,\n But upon himself shall his crown glitter.\"\n\n\nThe continuance of \"the sure mercies of David\" to his descendants\nfor his sake is first besought from God, and is then promised, for\nhis sake, by God Himself, speaking in the singer's spirit. The\nspecial blessing sought for is Jehovah's dwelling in His house, which\nis here contemplated as reared after long toil. Expositors differ,\nas usual, in regard to the date and occasion of this psalm. Its\nplace among the pilgrim psalms raises a presumption in favour of a\npost-exilic date, and one class of commentators refers it confidently\nto the period of the rebuilding of the Temple. But the mention of the\nArk (which disappeared after the destruction of Solomon's Temple)\ncan be reconciled with that supposed date only by a somewhat violent\nexpedient. Nor is it easy to suppose that the repeated references\nto David's descendants as reigning in accordance with God's promise\ncould have been written at a time when there was no king in Israel.\nZerubbabel has, indeed, been suggested as \"the anointed\" of this\npsalm; but he was not king, and neither in fact nor in idea was he\nanointed. And could a singer in Israel, in the post-exilic period,\nhave recalled the ancient promises without some passing sigh for\ntheir apparent falsification in the present? Psalm lxxxix. is often\nreferred to as the \"twin\" of this psalm. Its wailings over the\nvanished glories of the Davidic monarchy have nothing corresponding\nto them here. These considerations are against a post-exilic date,\nfor which the chief argument is the inclusion of the psalm in the\ncollection of pilgrim songs.\n\nIf, on the other hand, we disregard its place in the Psalter and look\nat its contents, it must be admitted that they perfectly harmonise\nwith the supposition that its occasion was the completion of\nSolomon's Temple. The remembrance of David's long-cherished purpose\nto build the House, of the many wanderings of the Ark, the glad\nsummons to enter the courts to worship, the Divine promises to David,\nwhich were connected with his design of building a Temple, all fit\nin with this view of the occasion of the psalm. Singularly enough,\nsome advocates of later dates than even the building of the second\nTemple catch in the psalm tones of depression, and see indications\nof its having been written when the glowing promises which it quotes\nappeared to have failed. It is not in reference to \"Nature\" only that\n\"we receive but what we give.\" To other ears, with perhaps equal\nthough opposite bias, glad confidence in a promise, of which the\nincipient fulfilment was being experienced, sounds in the psalm. To\nsome it is plain that it was written when Ark and king had been swept\naway; to others it is equally clear that it presupposes the existence\nof both. The latter view is to the present writer the more probable.\n\nThe psalm is not divided into regular strophes. There is, however,\na broad division into two parts, of which vv. 1-10 form the first,\nthe pleading of Israel with Jehovah; and vv. 11-18 the second, the\nanswer of Jehovah to Israel. The first part is further divided into\ntwo: vv. 1-5 setting forth David's vow; vv. 6-10 the congregation's\nglad summons to enter the completed sanctuary, and its prayer for\nblessings on the worshipping nation with its priests and king. The\nsecond part is Jehovah's renewed promises, which take up and surpass\nthe people's prayer. It is broken by a single verse (13), which is an\ninterjected utterance of Israel's.\n\n\"One remembers anything to another, when one requites him for what\nhe has done, or when one performs for him what one has promised him\"\n(Delitzsch). David's earnest longing to find a fixed place for the\nArk, his long-continued and generous amassing of treasure for the\npurpose of building the Temple, are regarded as a plea with God.\nThe solidarity of the family, which was so vividly realised in old\ntimes, reaches its highest expression in the thought that blessings\nto David's descendants are as if given to him, sleeping in the royal\ntomb. Beautifully and humbly the singer, as representing the nation,\nhas nothing to say of the toil of the actual builders. Not the hand\nwhich executes, but the heart and mind which conceived and cherished\nthe plan, are its true author. The psalmist gives a poetic version\nof David's words in 2 Sam. vii. 2. \"See now, I dwell in an house of\ncedar, but the Ark of God dwelleth in curtains,\" contains in germ\nall which the psalmist here draws out of it. He, the aged king, was\nalmost ashamed of his own ease. \"God gave him rest from his enemies,\"\nbut he will not \"give sleep to his eyes\" till he finds out a place\nfor Jehovah. Wearied with a stormy life, he might well have left it\nto others to care for the work which the prophet had told him that he\nwas not to be permitted to begin. But not so does a true man reason.\nRather, he will consecrate to God his leisure and his old age, and\nwill rejoice to originate work which he cannot hope to see completed,\nand even to gather materials which happier natures and times may turn\nto account. He will put his own comfort second, God's service first.\n\nSuch devotedness does make a plea with God. The psalmist's prayer goes\non that supposition, and God's answer endorses it as valid. He does\nnot require perfect faithfulness in His servants ere He prospers their\nwork with His smile. Stained offerings, in which much of the leaven of\nearthly motives may be fermenting, are not therefore rejected.\n\nVv. 6-10 are the petitions grounded on the preceding plea, and\nasking that Jehovah would dwell in the sanctuary and bless the\nworshippers. Ver. 6 offers great difficulties. It seems clear,\nhowever, that it and the next verse are to be taken as very closely\nconnected (note the \"we\" and \"us\" occurring in them for the only time\nin the psalm). They seem to describe continuous actions, of which\nthe climax is entrance into the sanctuary. The first question as to\nver. 6 is what the \"it\" is, which is spoken of in both clauses; and\nthe most natural answer is--the Ark, alluded to here by anticipation,\nthough not mentioned till ver. 8. The irregularity is slight and\nnot unexampled. The interpretation of the verse mainly depends on\nthe meaning of the two designations of locality, \"Ephrathah\" and\n\"the fields of the Wood.\" Usually the former is part of the name of\nBethlehem, but the Ark in all its wanderings is never said to have\nbeen there. Most probably Shiloh, in which the Ark did remain for a\ntime, is intended. But why should Shiloh be called Ephrathah? The\nanswer usually given, but not altogether satisfactory, is that Shiloh\nlay in the territory of Ephraim, and that we have instances in which\nan Ephraimite is called an \"Ephrathite\" (Judg. xii. 5; 1 Sam. i. 1;\n1 Kings xi. 26), and therefore it may be presumed that the territory\nof Ephraim was called Ephrathah. \"The fields of the Wood,\" on the\nother hand, is taken to be a free poetic variation of the name of\nKirjath-jearim (the city of the woods), where the Ark long lay, and\nwhence it was brought up to Jerusalem by David. In this understanding\nof the verse, the two places where it remained longest are brought\ntogether, and the meaning of the whole verse is, \"We heard that it\nlay long at Shiloh, but we found it in Kirjath-jearim.\" Delitzsch,\nfollowed by Cheyne, takes a different view, regarding \"Ephrathah\" as\na name for the district in which Kirjath-jearim lay. He founds this\nexplanation on the genealogies in 1 Chron. ii. 19, 50, according to\nwhich Caleb's wife, Ephrath, was the mother of Hur, the ancestor\nof the Bethlehemites, and whose son Shobal was the ancestor of the\npeople of Kirjath-jearim; Ephrathah was thus a fitting name for the\nwhole district, which included both Bethlehem and Kirjath-jearim. In\nthis understanding of the names, the verse means, \"We heard that the\nArk was at Kirjath-jearim, and there we found it.\"\n\nVer. 7 must be taken as immediately connected with the preceding.\nIf the same persons who found the Ark still speak, the \"tabernacle\"\ninto which they encourage each other to enter must be the tent\nwithin which, as David said, it dwelt \"in curtains\"; and the joyful\nutterance of an earlier age will then be quoted by the still happier\ngeneration who, at the moment while they sing, see the sacred symbol\nof the Divine Presence enshrined within the Holy Place of the Temple.\nAt all events, the petitions which follow are most naturally regarded\nas chanted forth at that supreme moment, though it is possible that\nthe same feeling of the solidity of the nation in all generations,\nwhich, as applied to the reigning family, is seen in ver. 1, may\naccount for the worshippers in the new Temple identifying themselves\nwith the earlier ones who brought up the Ark to Zion. The Church\nremains the same, while its individual members change.\n\nThe first of the petitions is partly taken from the invocation in\nNumb. x. 35, when \"the Ark set forward\"; but there it was a prayer\nfor guidance on the march; here, for Jehovah's continuance in His\nfixed abode. It had wandered far and long. It had been planted in\nShiloh, but had deserted that sanctuary which He had once loved. It\nhad tarried for a while at Mizpeh and at Bethel. It had been lost\non the field of Aphek, been borne in triumph through Philistine\ncities, and sent back thence in terror. It had lain for three months\nin the house of Obed-edom, and for twenty years been hidden at\nKirjath-jearim. It had been set with glad acclaim in the tabernacle\nprovided by David, and now it stands in the Temple. There may it\nabide and go no more out! Solomon and Hiram and all their workmen\nmay have done their best, and the result of their toils may stand\ngleaming in the sunlight in its fresh beauty; but something more\nis needed. Not till the Ark is in the Shrine does the Glory fill\nthe house. The lesson is for all ages. Our organisations and works\nare incomplete without that quickening Presence. It will surely be\ngiven if we desire it. When His Church prays, \"Arise, O Lord, into\nThy rest, Thou and the Ark of Thy strength,\" His answer is swift and\nsure, \"Lo, I am with you always.\"\n\nFrom this petition all the others flow. If \"the Ark of Thy strength\"\ndwells with us, we too shall be strong, and have that Might for\nour inspiration as well as our shield. \"Let Thy priests be clothed\nwith righteousness.\" The pure vestments of the priests were symbols\nof stainless character, befitting the ministers of a holy God. The\npsalmist prays that the symbol may truly represent the inner reality.\nHe distinguishes between priests and the mass of the people; but in\nthe Church to-day, as indeed in the original constitution of Israel,\nall are priests, and must be clothed in a righteousness which they\nreceive from above. They do not weave that robe, but they must \"put\non\" the garment which Christ gives them. Righteousness is no hazy,\ntheological virtue, having little to do with every-day life and\nsmall resemblance to secular morality. To be good, gentle, and just,\nself-forgetting and self-ruling, to practise the virtues which all\nmen call \"lovely and of good report,\" and to consecrate them all by\nreference to Him in whom they dwell united and complete, is to be\nrighteous; and that righteousness is the garb required of, and given\nby God to, all those who seek it and minister in His Temple.\n\n\"Let Thy favoured ones utter shrill cries of joy.\" Surely, if they\ndwell in the Temple, gladness will not fail them. True religion is\njoyful. If a man has only to lift his eyes to see the Ark, what but\naverted eyes should make him sad? True, there are enemies, but we are\nclose to the fountain of strength. True, there are sins, but we can\nreceive the garment of righteousness. True, there are wants, but the\nsacrifice whereof \"the meek shall eat and be satisfied\" is at hand.\nThere is much unreached as yet, but there is a present God. So we may\n\"walk all the day in the light of His countenance,\" and realise the\ntruth of the paradox of always rejoicing, though sometimes we sorrow.\n\nThe final petition is for the anointed king, that his prayers may be\nheard. To \"turn away the face\" is a graphic expression, drawn from\nthe attitude of one who refuses to listen to a suppliant. It is harsh\nin the extreme to suppose that the king referred to is David himself,\nthough Hupfeld and others take that view. The reference to Solomon is\nnatural.\n\nSuch are the psalmist's petitions. The answers follow in the\nremainder of the psalm, which, as already noticed, is parted in two\nby an interjected verse (ver. 13), breaking the continuity of the\nDivine Voice. The shape of the responses is determined by the form of\nthe desires, and in every case the answer is larger than the prayer.\nThe Divine utterance begins with a parallel between the oath of\nDavid and that of God. David \"sware to Jehovah.\" Yes, but \"Jehovah\nhas sworn to David.\" That is grander and deeper. With this may be\nconnected the similar parallel in vv. 13 and 14 with ver. 5. David\nhad sought to \"find a habitation\" for Jehovah. But He Himself had\nchosen His habitation long ago. He is throned there now, not because\nof David's choice or Solomon's work, but because His will had settled\nthe place of His feet. These correspondences of expression point to\nthe great truth that God is His own all-sufficient reason. He is not\nwon to dwell with men by their importunity, but in the depths of His\nunchangeable love lies the reason why He abides with us unthankful.\nThe promise given in ver. 12, which has respect to the closing\npetition of the preceding part, is substantially that contained in\n2 Sam. vii. Similar references to that fundamental promise to David\nare found in Psalm lxxxix., with which this psalm is sometimes taken\nto be parallel; but that psalm comes from a time when the faithful\npromise seemed to have failed for evermore, and breathes a sadness\nwhich is alien to the spirit of this song.\n\nVer. 13 appears to be spoken by the people. It breaks the stream of\npromises. God has been speaking, but now, for a moment, He is spoken\nof. His choice of Zion for His dwelling is the glad fact, which the\ncongregation feels so borne in on its consciousness that it breaks\nforth into speech. The \"For\" at the beginning of the verse gives\na striking sequence, assigning, as it does, the Divine selection\nof Zion for His abode, as the reason for the establishment of the\nDavidic monarchy. If the throne was set up in Jerusalem, because\nthere God would dwell, how solemn the obligation thereby laid on\nits occupant to rule as God's viceroy, and how secure each in turn\nmight feel, if he discharged the obligations of his office, that God\nwould grant to the kingdom an equal date with the duration of His own\nabode! Throne and Temple are indissolubly connected.\n\nWith ver. 14 the Divine Voice resumes, and echoes the petitions of the\nearlier part. The psalmist asked God to arise into His rest, and He\nanswers by granting the request with the added promise of perpetuity:\n\"Here will I dwell _for ever_.\" He adds a promise which had not been\nasked--abundance for all, and bread to fill even the poor. The psalmist\nasked that the priests might be clothed in righteousness, and the\nanswer promises robes of _salvation_, which is the perfecting and most\nglorious issue of righteousness. The psalmist asked that God's favoured\nones might utter shrill cries of joy, and God replies with an emphatic\nreduplication of the word, which implies the exuberance and continuance\nof the gladness. The psalmist asked for favour to the anointed, and God\nreplies by expanded and magnificent promises. The \"horn\" is an emblem\nof power. It shall continually \"sprout\"--_i.e._, the might of the\nroyal house shall continually increase. The \"lamp for Mine anointed\"\nmay be simply a metaphor for enduring prosperity and happiness, but\nmany expositors take it to be a symbol of the continuance of the\nDavidic house, as in 1 Kings xv. 4, where, however, the word employed\nis not the same as that used here, though closely connected with it.\nThe promise of perpetuity to the house of David does not fit into the\ncontext as well as that of splendour and joy, and it has already been\ngiven in ver. 12. Victory will attend the living representative of\nDavid, his foes being clothed by Jehovah with shame--_i.e._, being\nfoiled in their hostile attempts--while their confusion is as a dark\nbackground, against which the radiance of his diadem sparkles the more\nbrightly. These large promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, of the\nseed of David; and the psalm is Messianic, as presenting the ideal\nwhich it is sure shall be realised, and which is so in Him alone.\n\nThe Divine promises teach the great truth that God over-answers our\ndesires, and puts to shame the poverty of our petitions by the wealth\nof His gifts. He is \"able to do exceeding abundantly above all that\nwe ask or think,\" for the measure of His doing is none other than\n\"according to the Power that worketh in us,\" and the measure of that\nPower is none other than \"the working of the strength of His might,\nwhich He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set\nHim at His own right hand in the heavenly places.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXIII.\n\n 1 Behold, how good and how pleasant [it is]\n That brethren dwell in unity!\n 2 Like the precious oil on the head,\n Flowing down on the beard,\n [Even] Aaron's beard,\n That flows down on the opening of his garments.\n 3 Like the dew of Hermon, that flows down on the mountains of Zion.\n For there Jehovah has commanded the blessing,\n Life for evermore.\n\n\nIt is natural to suppose that this psalm was occasioned by, or at\nleast refers to, the gathering of the pilgrims or restored exiles\nin Jerusalem. The patriot-poet's heart glows at the sight of the\nassembled multitudes, and he points with exultation to the good and\nfair sight. Like the other short psalms in this group, this one is\nthe expression of a single thought--the blessing of unity, and that\nnot merely as shown in the family, but in the church-state of the\nrestored Israel. The remembrance of years of scattering among the\nnations, and of the schism of the Northern tribes, makes the sight of\nan united Israel the more blessed, even though its numbers are small.\n\nThe psalm begins with a \"Behold,\" as if the poet would summon others\nto look on the goodly spectacle which, in reality or in imagination,\nis spread before him. Israel is gathered together, and the sight is\ngood, as securing substantial benefits, and \"pleasant,\" as being\nlovely. The original in ver. 1_b_ runs, \"That brethren dwell _also_\ntogether.\" The \"also\" suggests that, in addition to local union,\nthere should be heart harmony, as befits brothers. To speak in modern\ndialect, the psalmist cares little for external unity, if the spirit\nof oneness does not animate the corporate whole.\n\nHis two lovely metaphors or parables set forth the same\nthought--namely, the all-diffusive, all-blessing nature of such inward\nconcord. The repetition in both figures of the same word, \"flows down,\"\nis not merely due to the \"step-like\" structure common to this with\nother of the pilgrim psalms, but is the key to its meaning.\n\nIn the first emblem, the consecrating oil, poured on Aaron's head,\nrepresents the gracious spirit of concord between brethren. The emblem\nis felicitous by reason of the preciousness, the fragrance, and the\nmanifold uses of oil; but these are only to be taken into account in a\nsubordinate degree, if at all. The one point of comparison is the flow\nof the oil from the priestly head on to the beard and thence to the\ngarments. It is doubtful whether ver. 2_d_ refers to the oil or to the\nbeard of the high priest. The latter reference is preferred by many,\nbut the former is more accordant with the parallelism, and with the use\nof the word \"flows down,\" which can scarcely be twice used in regard\nto oil and dew, the main subjects in the figures, and be taken in an\nentirely different reference in the intervening clause. The \"opening\"\n(lit. _mouth_) of the robe is the upper edge or collar, the aperture\nthrough which the wearer's head was passed.\n\nThe second figure illustrates the same thought of the diffusive\nblessing of concord, but it presents some difficulty. How can the\ndew of Hermon in the far north fall on the mountains of Zion? Some\ncommentators, as Delitzsch, try to make out that \"an abundant dew in\nJerusalem might rightly be accounted for by the influence of the cold\ncurrent of air sweeping down from the north over Hermon.\" But that is\na violent supposition; and there is no need to demand meteorological\naccuracy from a poet. It is the one dew which falls on both mountains;\nand since Hermon towers high above the lower height of Zion, and is\nvisited with singular abundance of the nightly blessing, it is no\ninadmissible poetic licence to say that the loftier hill transmits it\nto the lesser. Such community of blessing is the result of fraternal\nconcord, whereby the high serve the lowly, and no man grudgingly keeps\nanything to himself, but all share in the good of each. Dew, like oil,\nis fitted for this symbolic use, by reason of qualities which, though\nthey do not come prominently into view, need not be wholly excluded.\nIt refreshes the thirsty ground and quickens vegetation; so fraternal\nconcord, falling gently on men's spirits, and linking distant ones\ntogether by a mysterious chain of transmitted good, will help to revive\nfailing strength and refresh parched places.\n\nThat brotherly unity is blessed, not only because it diffuses\nitself, and so blesses all in whose hearts it dwells, but also\nbecause it is the condition on which still higher gifts are spread\namong brethren by their brethren's mediation. God Himself pours on\nmen the sacred anointing of His Divine Spirit and the dew of His\nquickening influences. When His servants are knit together, as they\nshould be, they impart to one another the spiritual gifts received\nfrom above. When Christians are truly one as brethren, God's grace\nwill fructify through each to all.\n\nVer. 3_b_, _c_, seem to assign the reason why the dew of Hermon\nwill descend on Zion--_i.e._, why the blessings of brotherly concord\nshould there especially be realised. There God has appointed to be\nstored His blessing of life; therefore it becomes those who, dwelling\nthere, receive that blessing, to be knit together in closest bonds,\nand to impart to their brethren what they receive from the Fountain\nof all good. That Zion should not be the home of concord, or that\nJerusalem should not be the city of peace, contradicts both the name\nof the city and the priceless gift which Jehovah has placed there for\nall its citizens.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXIV.\n\n 1 Behold, bless Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah,\n Who stand in the house of Jehovah in the night seasons.\n 2 Lift up your hands to the sanctuary,\n And bless Jehovah.\n\n 3 Jehovah bless thee out of Zion,\n The Maker of heaven and earth!\n\n\nThis fragment of song closes the pilgrim psalms after the manner of\na blessing. It is evidently antiphonal, vv. 1, 2, being a greeting,\nthe givers of which are answered in ver. 3 by a corresponding\nsalutation from the receivers. Who are the parties to the little\ndialogue is doubtful. Some have thought of two companies of priestly\nwatchers meeting as they went their rounds in the Temple; others,\nmore probably, take vv. 1, 2, to be addressed by the congregation to\nthe priests, who had charge of the nightly service in the Temple,\nwhile ver. 3 is the response of the latter, addressed to the speakers\nof vv. 1, 2. 1 Chron. ix. 33 informs us that there was such a nightly\nservice, of the nature of which, however, nothing is known. The\ndesignation \"servants of Jehovah\" here denotes not the people, but\nthe priests, for whose official ministrations \"stand\" is a common\nterm. They are exhorted to fill the night with prayer as well as\nwatchfulness, and to let their hearts go up in blessing to Jehovah.\nThe voice of praise should echo through the silent night and float\nover the sleeping city. The congregation is about to leave the\ncrowded courts at the close of a day of worship, and now gives this\nparting salutation and charge to those who remain.\n\nThe answer in ver. 3 is addressed to each individual of the\ncongregation--\"Jehovah bless _thee_!\" and it invokes on each a share\nin the blessing which, according to the preceding psalm, \"Jehovah has\ncommanded\" in Zion. The watchers who remain in the sanctuary do not\nmonopolise its blessings. These stream out by night, as by day, to\nall true hearts; and they are guaranteed by the creative omnipotence\nof Jehovah, the thought of which recurs so often in these pilgrim\npsalms, and may be due to the revulsion from idolatry consequent on\nthe Captivity and Restoration.\n\nWith this sweet interchange of greeting and exhortation to continual\nworship, this group of psalms joyously ends.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXV.\n\n 1 Hallelujah!\n Praise the name of Jehovah,\n Praise, ye servants of Jehovah,\n 2 Who stand in the house of Jehovah,\n In the courts of the house of our God.\n 3 Praise Jah, for Jehovah is good;\n Harp to His name, for it is pleasant.\n 4 For Jah has chosen Jacob for Himself,\n Israel for His own possession.\n\n 5 For I--I know that Jehovah is great,\n And [that] our Lord is above all gods.\n 6 Whatsoever Jehovah wills He has done,\n In the heaven and in the earth,\n In the seas and all depths;\n 7 Who makes the vapours go up from the end of the earth,\n He makes lightnings for the rain,\n Who brings forth wind from His storehouses.\n\n 8 Who smote the first-born of Egypt,\n Both of man and of cattle;\n 9 He sent signs and wonders into thy midst, O Egypt,\n On Pharaoh and all his servants.\n\n 10 Who smote many nations,\n And slew mighty kings;\n 11 Sihon, king of the Amorites,\n And Og, king of Bashan;\n 12 And gave their land [as] an inheritance,\n An inheritance to Israel His people.\n\n 13 Jehovah, Thy name [endures] for ever,\n Jehovah, Thy memorial [endures] to generation after generation.\n 14 For Jehovah will right His people,\n And will relent concerning His servants.\n 15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,\n The work of the hands of men.\n 16 A mouth is theirs--and they cannot speak;\n Eyes are theirs--and they cannot see;\n 17 Ears are theirs--and they cannot give ear;\n Yea, there is no breath at all in their mouths.\n 18 Like them shall those who make them be,\n [Even] every one that trusts in them.\n\n 19 House of Israel, bless ye Jehovah;\n House of Aaron, bless ye Jehovah;\n 20 House of Levi, bless ye Jehovah;\n Ye who fear Jehovah, bless ye Jehovah.\n 21 Blessed be Jehovah from Zion,\n Who dwells in Jerusalem!\n Hallelujah!\n\n\nLike Psalms xcvii. and xcviii., this is a cento, or piece of mosaic\nwork, apparently intended as a call to worship Jehovah in the Temple.\nHis greatness, as manifested in Nature, and especially in His\nplanting Israel in its inheritance, is set forth as the reason for\npraise; and the contemptuous contrast of the nothingness of idols is\nrepeated from Psalm cxv., and followed, as there, by an exhortation\nto Israel to cleave to Him. We have not here to do with a song which\ngushed fresh from the singer's heart, but with echoes of many strains\nwhich a devout and meditative soul had made its own. The flowers\nare arranged in a new bouquet, because the poet had long delighted\nin their fragrance. The ease with which he blends into a harmonious\nwhole fragments from such diverse sources tells how familiar he was\nwith these, and how well he loved them.\n\nVv. 1-4 are an invocation to praise Jehovah, and largely consist\nof quotations or allusions. Thus Psalm cxxxiv. 1 underlies vv. 1,\n2. But here the reference to nightly praises is omitted, and the\nsummons is addressed not only to those who stand in the house of\nJehovah, but to those who stand in its _courts_. That expansion may\nmean that the call to worship is here directed to the people as well\nas to the priests (so in ver. 19). Ver. 3 closely resembles Psalm\ncxlvii. 1, but the question of priority may be left undecided. Since\nthe act of praise is said to be \"pleasant\" in Psalm cxlvii. 1, it is\nbest to refer the same word here to the same thing, and not, as some\nwould do, to the Name, or to take it as an epithet of Jehovah. To a\nloving soul praise is a delight. The songs which are not winged by\nthe singer's joy in singing will not rise high. True worship pours\nout its notes as birds do theirs--in order to express gladness which,\nunuttered, loads the heart. Ver. 4 somewhat passes beyond the bounds\nof the invocation proper, and anticipates the subsequent part of the\npsalm. Israel's prerogative is so great to this singer that it forces\nutterance at once, though \"out of season,\" as correct critics would\nsay. But the throbs of a grateful heart are not always regular. It\nis impossible to keep the reasons for praise out of the summons to\npraise. Ver. 4 joyfully and humbly accepts the wonderful title given\nin Deut. vii. 6.\n\nIn vv. 5-7 God's majesty as set forth in Nature is hymned. The\npsalmist says emphatically in ver. 5 \"I--I know,\" and implies the\nprivilege which he shared, in common with his fellow-Israelites\n(who appear in the \"our\" of the next clause), of knowing what the\nheathen did not know--how highly Jehovah was exalted above all their\ngods. Ver. 6 is from Psalm cxv. 3, with the expansion of defining\nthe all-inclusive sphere of God's sovereignty. Heaven, earth, seas,\nand depths cover all space. The enumeration of the provinces of His\ndominion prepares for that of the phases of His power in Nature,\nwhich is quoted with slight change from Jer. x. 13, li. 16. The\nmysterious might which gathers from some unknown region the filmy\nclouds which grow, no man knows how, in the clear blue; the power\nwhich weds in strange companionship the fire of the lightning flash\nand the torrents of rain; the controlling hand which urges forth the\ninvisible wind,--these call for praise.\n\nBut while the psalmist looks on physical phenomena with a devout poet's\neye, he turns from these to expatiate rather on what Jehovah has done\nfor Israel. Psalmists are never weary of drawing confidence and courage\nfor to-day from the deeds of the Exodus and the Conquest. Ver. 8 is\ncopied from Exod. xiii. 15, and the whole section is saturated with\nphraseology drawn from Deuteronomy. Ver. 13 is from Exod. iii. 15, the\nnarrative of the theophany at the Bush. That Name, proclaimed then as\nthe basis of Moses' mission and Israel's hope, is now, after so many\ncenturies and sorrows, the same, and it will endure for ever. Ver. 14\nis from Deut. xxxii. 36. Jehovah will right His people--_i.e._, deliver\nthem from oppressors--which is the same thing as \"relent concerning His\nservants,\" since His wrath was the reason of their subjection to their\nfoes. That judicial deliverance of Israel is at once the sign that\nHis Name, His revealed character, continues the same, unexhausted and\nunchanged for ever, and the reason why the Name shall continue as the\nobject of perpetual adoration and trust.\n\nVv. 15-20 are taken bodily from Psalm cxv., to which the reader is\nreferred. Slight abbreviations and one notable difference occur. In\nver. 17_b_, \"Yea, there is no breath at all in their mouths,\" takes the\nplace of \"A nose is theirs--and they cannot smell.\" The variation has\narisen from the fact that the particle of strong affirmation (yea) is\nspelt like the noun \"nose,\" and that the word for \"breath\" resembles\nthe verb \"smell.\" The psalmist plays upon his original, and by his\nvariation makes the expression of the idols' lifelessness stronger.\n\nThe final summons to praise, with which the end of the psalm returns\nto its beginning, is also moulded on Psalm cxv. 9-11, with the\naddition of \"the house of Levi\" to the three groups mentioned there,\nand the substitution of a call to \"bless\" for the original invitation\nto \"trust.\" Ver. 21 looks back to the last verse of the preceding\npsalm, and significantly modifies it. There, as in Psalm cxviii.,\nJehovah's blessing comes out of Zion to His people. Here the people's\nblessing in return goes from Zion and rises to Jehovah. They gathered\nthere for worship, and dwelt with Him in His city and Temple. Swift\ninterchange of the God-given blessing, which consists in mercies\nand gifts of gracious deliverance, and of the human blessing, which\nconsists in thanksgiving and praise, fills the hours of those who\ndwell with Jehovah, as guests in His house, and walk the streets of\nthe city which He guards and Himself inhabits.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXVI.\n\n 1 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n 2 Give thanks to the God of gods,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever,\n 3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n\n 4 To Him who alone does great wonders,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n 5 To Him who made the heavens by understanding,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n 6 To Him who spread the earth above the waters,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n 7 To Him who made great lights,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 8 The sun to rule by day,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 9 The moon and stars to rule by night,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n\n 10 To Him who smote the Egyptians in their first-born,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 11 And brought forth Israel from their midst,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 12 With mighty strong hand and outstretched arm,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n 13 To Him that cut the Red Sea into parts,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 14 And made Israel pass through the midst of it,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 15 And shook out Pharaoh and his host into the Red Sea,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n\n 16 To Him who led His people in the wilderness,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n 17 To Him who smote great kings,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 18 And slew mighty kings,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 20 And Og, king of Bashan,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 21 And gave their land for an inheritance,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 22 An inheritance to Israel His servant,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n\n 23 Who in our low estate remembered us,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever;\n 24 And tore us from the grasp of our adversaries,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n 25 Who gives bread to all flesh,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n 26 Give thanks to the God of heaven,\n For His loving-kindness endures for ever.\n\n\nThis psalm is evidently intended for liturgic use. It contains\nreminiscences of many parts of Scripture, and is especially based on\nthe previous psalm, which it follows closely in vv. 10-18, and quotes\ndirectly in vv. 19-22. Delitzsch points out that if these quoted\nverses are omitted, the psalm falls into triplets. It would then also\ncontain twenty-two verses, corresponding to the number of letters in\nthe Hebrew alphabet. The general trend of thought is like that of\nPsalm cxxxv.; but the addition in each verse of the refrain gives a\nnoble swing and force to this exulting song.\n\nThe first triplet is a general invocation to praise, coloured by the\nphraseology of Deuteronomy. Vv. 2_a_ and 3_a_ quote Deut. x. 17. The\nsecond and third triplets (vv. 4-9) celebrate Jehovah's creative power.\n\"Doeth great wonders\" (ver. 4) is from Psalm lxxii. 18. The thought\nof the Divine Wisdom as the creative agent occurs in Psalm civ. 24,\nand attains noble expression in Prov. iii. In ver. 6 the word rendered\n_spread_ is from the same root as that rendered \"firmament\" in Genesis.\nThe office of the heavenly bodies to rule day and night is taken from\nGen. i. But the psalm looks at the story of Creation from an original\npoint of view, when it rolls out in chorus, after each stage of that\nwork, that its motive lay in the eternal loving-kindness of Jehovah.\nCreation is an act of Divine love. That is the deepest truth concerning\nall things visible. They are the witnesses, as they are the result, of\nloving-kindness which endures for ever.\n\nVv. 10-22 pass from world-wide manifestations of that creative\nloving-kindness to those specially affecting Israel. If vv. 19-22 are\nleft out of notice, there are three triplets in which the Exodus,\ndesert life, and conquest of Canaan are the themes,--the first (vv.\n10-12) recounting the departure; the second (vv. 13-15) the passage\nof the Red Sea; the third (vv. 16-18) the guidance during the forty\nyears and the victories over enemies. The whole is largely taken\nfrom the preceding psalm, and has also numerous allusions to other\nparts of Scripture. Ver. 12_a_ is found in Deut. iv. 34, etc. The\nword for dividing the Red Sea is peculiar. It means to hew in pieces\nor in two, and is used for cutting in halves the child in Solomon's\njudgment (1 Kings iii. 25); while the word \"parts\" is a noun from\nthe same root, and is found in Gen. xv. 17, to describe the two\nportions into which Abraham clave the carcasses. Thus, as with a\nsword, Jehovah hewed the sea in two, and His people passed between\nthe parts, as between the halves of the covenant sacrifice. In ver.\n15 the word describing Pharaoh's destruction is taken from Exod. xiv.\n27, and vividly describes it as a \"shaking out,\" as one would vermin\nor filth from a robe.\n\nIn the last triplet (vv. 23-25) the singer comes to the Israel of the\npresent. It, too, had experienced Jehovah's remembrance in its time\nof need, and felt the merciful grasp of His hand plucking it, with\nloving violence, from the claws of the lion. The word for \"low estate\"\nand that for \"tore us from the grasp\" are only found besides in late\nwritings--the former in Eccles. x. 6, and the latter in Lam. v. 8.\n\nBut the song will not close with reference only to Israel's\nblessings. \"He gives bread to all flesh.\" The loving-kindness which\nflashes forth even in destructive acts, and is manifested especially\nin bringing Israel back from exile, stretches as wide in its\nbeneficence as it did in its first creative acts, and sustains all\nflesh which it has made. Therefore the final call to praise, which\nrounds off the psalm by echoing its beginning, does not name Him by\nthe Name which implied Israel's special relation, but by that by\nwhich other peoples could and did address Him, \"the God of heaven,\"\nfrom whom all good comes down on all the earth.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXVII.\n\n 1 By the streams of Babylon, there we sat, yea, wept,\n When we remembered Zion.\n 2 On the willows in the midst thereof\n We hung our harps.\n 3 For there our captors required of us words of song,\n And our plunderers [required of us] mirth;\n \"Sing us one of the songs of Zion.\"\n 4 How can we sing Jehovah's songs\n In a strange land?\n\n 5 If I forget thee, Jerusalem,\n May my right hand forget!\n 6 May my tongue cleave to my palate,\n If I remember thee not,\n If I set not Jerusalem\n Above the summit of my joy!\n\n 7 Remember, Jehovah, to the children of Edom\n The day of Jerusalem,\n Who said, \"Lay bare, lay bare,\n To the foundation therein.\"\n 8 Daughter of Babylon, thou that art laid waste,\n Happy he that requites thee\n Thy doing which thou hast done to us!\n 9 Happy he that seizes and dashes thy little ones\n Against the rock!\n\n\nThe Captivity is past, as the tenses in vv. 1-3 show, and as is\nmanifest from the very fact that its miseries have become themes\nfor a psalm. Grief must be somewhat removed before it can be sung.\nBut the strains of triumph heard in other psalms are wanting in\nthis, which breathes passionate love for Jerusalem, tinged with\nsadness still. The date of the psalm is apparently the early days\nof the Return, when true-hearted patriots still felt the smart of\nrecent bondage and sadly gazed on the dear ruins of the city. The\nsinger passes in brief compass from tender music breathing plaintive\nremembrance of the captives' lot, to passionate devotion, and at last\nto an outburst of vehement imprecation, magnificent in its fiery\nrush, amply explicable by Israel's wrongs and Babylon's crimes,\nand yet to be frankly acknowledged as moving on a lower plane of\nsentiment than is permissible to those who have learned to repay\nscorn with gentleness, hate with love, and injuries with desires for\nthe injurer's highest good. The coals of fire which this psalmist\nscatters among Israel's foes are not those which Christ's servants\nare bidden to heap on their enemies' heads.\n\nNothing sweeter or sadder was ever written than that delicate,\ndeeply felt picture of the exiles in the early verses of the psalm.\nWe see them sitting, as too heavy-hearted for activity, and half\nnoting, as adding to their grief, the unfamiliar landscape round\nthem, with its innumerable canals, and the monotonous \"willows\"\n(rather, a species of poplar) stretching along their banks. How\nunlike this flat, tame fertility to the dear home-land, with its\nhills and glens and rushing streams! The psalmist was probably a\nTemple singer, but he did not find solace even in \"the harp, his\nsole remaining joy.\" No doubt many of the exiles made themselves at\nhome in captivity, but there were some more keenly sensitive or more\ndevout, who found that it was better to remember Zion and weep than\nto enjoy Babylon. \"Alas, alas! how much less it is to hold converse\nwith others than to remember thee!\" So they sat, like Michael\nAngelo's brooding figure of Jeremiah in the Sistine Chapel, silent,\nmotionless, lost in bitter-sweet memories.\n\nBut there was another reason than their own sadness for hanging\ntheir idle harps upon the willows. Their coarse oppressors bade them\nsing to make mirth. They wished entertainment from the odd sounds of\nforeign music, or they were petulantly angry that such dumb hang-dog\npeople should keep sullen faces, like unilluminated windows, when\ntheir masters were pleased to be merry. So, like tipsy revellers,\nthey called out \"Sing!\" The request drove the iron deeper into sad\nhearts, for it came from those who had made the misery. They had led\naway the captives, and now they bid them make sport.\n\nThe word rendered _plunderers_ is difficult. The translation adopted\nhere is that of the LXX. and others. It requires a slight alteration\nof reading, which is approved by Hupfeld (as an alternative),\nPerowne, Baethgen, Graetz, etc. Cheyne follows Halevy in preferring\nanother conjectural alteration which gives \"dancers\" (\"and of our\ndancers, festive glee\"), but admits that the other view is \"somewhat\nmore natural.\" The roystering Babylonians did not care what kind of\nsongs their slaves sang--Temple music would do as well as any other;\nbut the devout psalmist and his fellows shrank from profaning the\nsacred songs that praised Jehovah by making them parts of a heathen\nbanquet. Such sacrilege would have been like Belshazzar's using the\nTemple vessels for his orgy. \"Give not that which is holy to dogs.\"\nAnd the singers were not influenced by superstition, but by reverence\nand by sadness, when they could not sing these songs in that strange\nland. No doubt it was a fact that the Temple music fell into\ndesuetude during the Captivity. There are moods and there are scenes\nin which it is profanation to utter the deep music which may be\nsounding on perpetually in the heart. \"Songs unheard\" are sometimes\nnot only \"sweetest,\" but the truest worship.\n\nThe psalmist's remembrances of Babylon are suddenly broken off. His\nheart burns as he broods on that past, and then lifts his eyes to see\nhow forlorn and forgotten-like Jerusalem stands, as if appealing to\nher sons for help. A rush of emotion sweeps over him, and he breaks\ninto a passion of vowed loyalty to the mother city. He has Jerusalem\nwritten on his heart. It is noteworthy that her remembrance _was_\nthe exiles' crown of sorrow; it now becomes the apex of the singer's\njoy. No private occasion for gladness so moves the depths of a soul,\nsmitten with the noble and ennobling love of the city of God, as does\nits prosperity. Alas that the so-called citizens of the true city of\nGod should have so tepid interest in its welfare, and be so much more\nkeenly touched by individual than by public prosperity or adversity!\nAlas that so often they should neither weep when they remember its\nbondage nor exult in its advancement!\n\nVer. 5_b_ is emphatic by its incompleteness. \"May my right hand\nforget!\" What? Some word like \"power,\" \"cunning,\" or \"movement\" may\nbe supplied. It would be as impossibly unnatural for the poet to\nforget Jerusalem as for his hand to forget to move or cease to be\nconscious of its connection with his body.\n\nVer. 6_d_ reads literally \"Above the head of my joy\": an expression\nwhich may either mean the summit of my joy--_i.e._, my greatest\njoy; or the sum of my joy--_i.e._, my whole joy. In either case the\nwell-being of Jerusalem is the psalmist's climax of gladness; and so\nutterly does he lose himself in the community founded by God, that\nall his springs of felicity are in her. He had chosen the better\npart. Unselfish gladness is the only lasting bliss; and only they\ndrink of an unfailing river of pleasures whose chiefest delight lies\nin beholding and sharing in the rebuilding of God's city on earth.\n\nThe lightning flashes of the last part of the psalm need little\ncommenting. The desire for the destruction of Zion's enemies, which\nthey express, is not the highest mood of the loyal citizen of God's\ncity, and is to be fully recognised as not in accordance with\nChristian morality. But it has been most unfairly judged, as if it\nwere nothing nobler than ferocious thirsting for vengeance. It is a\ngreat deal more. It is desire for retribution, heavy as the count of\ncrimes which demands it is heavy. It is a solemn appeal to God to\nsweep away the enemies of Zion, who, in hating her, rebelled against\nHim. First, the psalmist turns to the treacherous kinsmen of Israel,\nthe Edomites, who had, as Obadiah says, \"rejoiced over the children\nof Judah in the days of their destruction\" (Obad. 12), and stimulated\nthe work of rasing the city. Then the singer turns to Babylon, and\nsalutes her as already laid waste; for he is a seer as well as a\nsinger, and is so sure of the judgment to be accomplished that it is\nas good as done. The most repellent part of the imprecation, that\nwhich contemplates the dreadful destruction of tender infants, has\nits harshness somewhat softened by the fact that it is the echo of\nIsaiah's prophecy concerning Babylon (Isa. xiii. 16-18), and still\nfurther by the consideration that the purpose of the apparently\nbarbarous cruelty was to make an end of a \"seed of evil-doers,\" whose\ncontinuance meant misery for wide lands.\n\nUndoubtedly, the words are stern, and the temper they embody is\nharsh discord, when compared with the Christian spirit. But they are\nnot the utterances of mere ferocious revenge. Rather they proclaim\nGod's judgments, not with the impassiveness, indeed, which best\nbefits the executors of such terrible sentences, but still less with\nthe malignant gratification of sanguinary vengeance which has been\noften attributed to them. Perhaps, if some of their modern critics\nhad been under the yoke from which this psalmist has been delivered,\nthey would have understood a little better how a good man of that age\ncould rejoice that Babylon was fallen and all its race extirpated.\nPerhaps, it would do modern tender-heartedness no harm to have a\nlittle more iron infused into its gentleness, and to lay to heart\nthat the King of Peace must first be King of Righteousness, and that\nDestruction of evil is the complement of Preservation of Good.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXVIII.\n\n 1 I will thank Thee, Jehovah, with my whole heart,\n In presence of the gods will I harp to Thee.\n 2 I will worship toward Thy holy Temple,\n And will thank Thy name for Thy loving-kindness and for Thy truth,\n For Thou hast magnified Thy promise above all Thy name.\n 3 In the day [when] I called Thou answeredst me,\n Thou didst make me bold--in my soul [welled up] strength.\n\n 4 Jehovah, all the kings of the earth shall thank Thee,\n When they have heard the words of Thy mouth.\n 5 And they shall sing of the ways of Jehovah,\n For great is the glory of Jehovah.\n 6 For Jehovah is high, and the lowly He regards,\n And the lofty from afar off He knows.\n\n 7 If I walk in the midst of trouble Thou wilt revive me,\n Against the wrath of mine enemies Thou wilt stretch forth Thy\n hand,\n And Thy right hand shall save me.\n 8 Jehovah will complete [all] that concerns me;\n Jehovah, Thy loving-kindness [endures] for ever;\n The works of Thy hands abandon not.\n\n\nThis is the first of a group of eight psalms attributed to David in\nthe superscriptions. It precedes the closing hallelujah psalms, and\nthus stands where a \"find\" of Davidic psalms at a late date would\nnaturally be put. In some cases, there is no improbability in the\nassigned authorship; and this psalm is certainly singularly unlike\nthose which precede it, and has many affinities with the earlier\npsalms ascribed to David.\n\nIn reading it, one feels the return to familiar thoughts and tones.\nThe fragrance it exhales wakes memories of former songs. But the\nresemblance may be due to the imitative habit so marked in the last\nbook of the Psalter. If it is a late psalm, the speaker is probably\nthe personified Israel, and the deliverance which seems to the singer\nto have transcended all previous manifestations of the Divine name is\nthe Restoration, which has inspired so many of the preceding psalms.\nThe supporters of the Davidic authorship, on the other hand, point to\nthe promise to David by Nathan of the perpetuity of the kinghood in\nhis line, as the occasion of the psalmist's triumph.\n\nThe structure of the psalm is simple. It falls into three parts, of\nwhich the two former consist of three verses each, and the last of\ntwo. In the first, the singer vows praise and recounts God's wondrous\ndealings with him (vv. 1-3); in the second, he looks out over all the\nearth in the confidence that these blessings, when known, will bring\nthe world to worship (vv. 4-6); and in the third, he pleads for the\ncompletion to himself of mercies begun (vv. 7, 8).\n\nThe first part is the outpouring of a thankful heart for recent\ngreat blessing, which has been the fulfilment of a Divine promise.\nSo absorbed in his blessedness is the singer, that he neither names\nJehovah as the object of his thanks, nor specifies what has set his\nheart vibrating. The great Giver and the great gift are magnified by\nbeing unspoken. To whom but Jehovah could the current of the psalmist's\npraise set? He feels that Jehovah's mercy to him requires him to become\nthe herald of His name; and therefore he vows, in lofty consciousness\nof his mission, that he will ring out God's praises in presence of\nfalse gods, whose worshippers have no such experience to loose their\ntongues. Dead gods have dumb devotees; the servants of the living\nJehovah receive His acts of power, that they may proclaim His name.\n\nThe special occasion for this singer's praise has been some act, in\nwhich Jehovah's faithfulness was very conspicuously shown. \"Thou hast\nmagnified Thy promise above all Thy name.\" If the history of David\nunderlies the psalm, it is most natural to interpret the \"promise\"\nas that of the establishment of the monarchy. But the fulfilment,\nnot the giving, of a promise is its magnifying, and hence one would\nincline to take the reference to be to the great manifestation\nof God's troth in restoring Israel to its land. In any case the\nexpression is peculiar, and has induced many attempts at emendation.\nBaethgen would strike out \"Thy name\" as a dittograph from the\nprevious clause, and thus gets the reading \"done great things beyond\nThy word\"--_i.e._, transcended the promise in fulfilment--which\nyields a good sense. Others make a slight alteration in the word \"Thy\nname,\" and read it \"Thy heavens,\" supposing that the psalmist is\nmaking the usual comparison between the manifestation of Divine power\nin Nature and in Revelation, or in the specific promise in question.\nBut the text as it stands, though peculiar, is intelligible, and\nyields a meaning very appropriate to the singer's astonished\nthankfulness. A heart amazed by the greatness of recent blessings is\never apt to think that they, glittering in fresh beauty, are greater,\nas they are nearer and newer, than the mercies which it has only\nheard of as of old. To-day brings growing revelations of Jehovah to\nthe waiting heart. The psalmist is singing, not dissertating. It\nis quite true that if his words are measured by the metaphysical\ntheologian's foot-rule, they are inaccurate, for \"the name of God\ncannot be surpassed by any single act of His, since every single\nact is but a manifestation of that name\"; but thankfulness does not\nspeak by rule, and the psalmist means to say that, so great has been\nthe mercy given to him and so signal its confirmation of the Divine\npromise, that to him, at all events, that whole name blazes with new\nlustre, and breathes a deeper music. So should each man's experience\nbe the best teacher of what God is to all men.\n\nIn ver. 3_b_ the psalmist uses a remarkable expression, in saying\nthat Jehovah had made him bold, or, as the word is literally,\n_proud_. The following words are a circumstantial or subsidiary\nclause, and indicate how the consciousness of inbreathed strength\nwelling up in his soul gave him lofty confidence to confront foes.\n\nThe second part (vv. 4-6) resembles many earlier psalms in\nconnecting the singer's deliverance with a world-wide manifestation\nof God's name. Such a consciousness of a vocation to be the world's\nevangelist is appropriate either to David or the collective Israel.\nEspecially is it natural, and, as a fact, occurs in post-exilic\npsalms. Here \"the words of Thy mouth\" are equivalent to the promise\nalready spoken of, the fulfilment of which has shown that Jehovah the\nHigh has regard to the lowly--_i.e._, to the psalmist; and \"knows\nthe lofty\"--_i.e._, his oppressors--\"afar off.\" He reads their\ncharacters thoroughly, without, as it were, needing to approach for\nminute study. The implication is that He will thwart their plans\nand judge the plotters. This great lesson of Jehovah's providence,\ncare for the lowly, faithfulness to His word, has exemplification in\nthe psalmist's history; and when it is known, the lofty ones of the\nearth shall learn the principles of Jehovah's ways, and become lowly\nrecipients of His favours and adoring singers of His great glory.\n\nThe glowing vision is not yet fulfilled; but the singer was\ncherishing no illusions when he sang. It _is_ true that the story\nof God's great manifestation of Himself in Christ, in which He has\nmagnified His Word above all His name, is one day to win the world.\nIt _is_ true that the revelation of a God who regards the lowly is\nthe conquering Gospel which shall bow all hearts.\n\nIn the third part (vv. 7, 8), the psalmist comes back to his\nown needs, and takes to his heart the calming assurance born of\nhis experience, that he bears a charmed life. He but speaks the\nconfidence which should strengthen every heart that rests on God.\nSuch an one may be girdled about by troubles, but he will have an\ninner circle traced round him, within which no evil can venture. He\nmay walk in the valley of the shadow of death unfearing, for God will\nhold his soul in life. Foes may pour out floods of enmity and wrath,\nbut one strong hand will be stretched out against (or _over_) the\nwild deluge, and will draw the trustful soul out of its rush on to\nthe safe shore. So was the psalmist assured; so may and should those\nbe who have yet greater wonders for which to thank Jehovah.\n\nThat last prayer of the psalm blends very beautifully confidence\nand petition. Its central clause is the basis of both the confidence\nin its first, and the petition in its last, clause. Because Jehovah's\nloving-kindness endures for ever, every man on whom His shaping\nSpirit has begun to work, or His grace in any form to bestow its\ngifts, may be sure that no exhaustion or change of these is possible.\nGod is not as the foolish tower-builder, who began and was not\nable to finish. He never stops till He has completed His work; and\nnothing short of the entire conformity of a soul to His likeness and\nthe filling of it with Himself can be the termination of His loving\npurpose, or of His achieving grace. Therefore the psalmist \"found it\nin his heart to pray\" that God would not abandon the works of His own\nhands. That prayer appeals to His faithfulness and to His honour. It\nsets forth the obligations under which God comes by what He has done.\nIt is a prayer which goes straight to His heart; and they who offer\nit receive the old answer, \"I will not leave thee till I have done\nunto thee that which I have spoken to thee of.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXXXIX.\n\n 1 Jehovah, Thou hast searched me and known [me].\n 2 Thou, Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising,\n Thou understandest my thought afar off.\n 3 My walking and my lying down Thou siftest,\n And with all my ways Thou art familiar.\n 4 For there is not a word on my tongue,\n --Behold, Thou, Jehovah, knowest it all.\n 5 Behind and before Thou hast shut me in,\n And hast laid upon me Thy hand.\n 6 [Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me,\n Too high, I am not able for it.\n\n 7 Whither shall I go from Thy spirit?\n And whither from Thy face shall I flee?\n 8 If I climb heaven, there art Thou,\n Or make Sheol my bed, lo, Thou [art there].\n 9 [If] I lift up the wings of the dawn,\n [If] I dwell at the farthest end of the sea,\n 10 Even there Thy hand shall lead me,\n And Thy right hand shall hold me.\n 11 And [if] I say, \"Only let darkness cover me,\n And the light about me be [as] night,\"\n 12 Even darkness darkens not to Thee,\n And night lightens like day;\n As is the darkness, so is the light.\n\n 13 For Thou, Thou hast formed my reins,\n Thou hast woven me together in my mother's womb.\n 14 I will thank Thee for that in dread fashion I am wondrously made\n Wondrous are Thy works,\n And my soul knows [it] well.\n 15 My bones were not hid from Thee,\n When I was made in secret,\n [And] wrought like embroidery [as] in the depths of the earth.\n 16 Thine eyes saw my shapeless mass,\n And in Thy book were they all written,\n The days [that] were fashioned,\n And yet there was not one among them.\n 17 And to me how precious are Thy thoughts, O God,\n How great is their sum!\n 18 Would I reckon them, they outnumber the sand;\n I awake--and am still with Thee.\n\n 19 Oh, if Thou wouldest smite the wicked, O God!\n --And [ye] men of blood, depart from me,\n 20 Who rebel against Thee with wicked deeds,\n They lift up [themselves] against Thee vainly (?)\n 21 Do not I hate them which hate Thee, Jehovah?\n And am not I grieved with those who rise against Thee?\n 22 With perfect hatred I hate them,\n They are counted for enemies to me.\n 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart,\n Try me and know my thoughts,\n 24 And see if there be any way of grief in me,\n And lead me in a way everlasting.\n\n\nThis is the noblest utterance in the Psalter of pure contemplative\ntheism, animated and not crushed by the thought of God's omniscience\nand omnipresence. No less striking than the unequalled force and\nsublimity with which the psalm hymns the majestic attributes of an\nall-filling, all-knowing, all-creating God, is the firmness with which\nthe singer's personal relation to that God is grasped. Only in the last\nverses is there reference to other men. In the earlier parts of the\npsalm, there are but two beings in the universe--God and the psalmist.\nWith impressive reiteration, God's attributes are gazed on in their\nbearing on him. Not mere omniscience, but a knowledge which knows\n_him_ altogether, not mere omnipresence, but a presence which _he_\ncan nowhere escape, not mere creative power, but a power which shaped\n_him_, fill and thrill the psalmist's soul. This is no cold theism,\nbut vivid religion. Conscience and the consciousness of individual\nrelation to God penetrate and vitalise the whole. Hence the sudden turn\nto prayer against evil men and for the singer's direction in the right\nway, which closes the hymn, is natural, however abrupt.\n\nThe course of thought is plain. There are four strophes of six verses\neach,--of which the first (vv. 1-6) magnifies God's omniscience;\nthe second (vv. 7-12), His omnipresence; the third (vv. 13-18), His\ncreative act, as the ground of the preceding attributes; and the\nfourth (vv. 19-24) recoils from men who rebel against such a God,\nand joyfully submits to the searching of His omniscient eye, and the\nguidance of His ever-present hand.\n\nThe psalmist is so thoroughly possessed by the thought of his\npersonal relation to God that his meditation spontaneously takes the\nform of address to Him. That form adds much to the impressiveness,\nbut is no rhetorical or poetic artifice. Rather, it is the shape in\nwhich such intense consciousness of God cannot but utter itself.\nHow cold and abstract the awestruck sentences become, if we\nsubstitute \"He\" for \"Thou,\" and \"men\" for \"I\" and \"me\"! The first\noverwhelming thought of God's relation to the individual soul is\nthat He completely knows the whole man. \"Omniscience\" is a pompous\nword, which leaves us unaffected by either awe or conscience. But\nthe psalmist's God was a God who came into close touch with him, and\nthe psalmist's religion translated the powerless generality of an\nattribute referring to the Divine relation to the universe into a\ncontinually exercised power having reference to himself. He utters\nhis reverent consciousness of it in ver. 1 in a single clause, and\nexpands that verse in the succeeding ones. \"Thou hast searched me\"\ndescribes a process of minute investigation; \"and known [me],\" its\nresult in complete knowledge.\n\nThat knowledge is then followed out in various directions, and\nrecognised as embracing the whole man in all his modes of action\nand repose, in all his inner and outward life. Vv. 2 and 3 are\nsubstantially parallel. \"Down-sitting\" and \"up-rising\" correspond to\n\"walking\" and \"lying down,\" and both antitheses express the contrast\nbetween action and rest. \"My thought\" in ver. 2 corresponds to \"my\nways\" in ver. 3,--the former referring to the inner life of thought,\npurpose, and will; the latter to the outward activities which carry\nthese into effect. Ver. 3 is a climax to ver. 2, in so far as it\nascribes a yet closer and more accurate knowledge to God. \"Thou\nsiftest\" or _winnowest_ gives a picturesque metaphor for careful\nand judicial scrutiny which discerns wheat from chaff. \"Thou art\nfamiliar\" implies intimate and habitual knowledge. But thought and\naction are not the whole man. The power of speech, which the Psalter\nalways treats as solemn and a special object of Divine approval or\ncondemnation, must also be taken into account. Ver. 4 brings it, too,\nunder God's cognisance. The meaning may either be that \"There is no\nword on my tongue [which] Thou dost not know altogether\"; or, \"The\nword is not yet on my tongue, [but] lo! Thou knowest,\" etc. \"Before\nit has shaped itself on the tongue, [much less been launched from\nit], thou knowest all its secret history\" (Kay).\n\nThe thought that God knows him through and through blends in the\nsinger's mind with the other, that God surrounds him on every side.\nVer. 5 thus anticipates the thought of the next strophe, but presents\nit rather as the basis of God's knowledge, and as limiting man's\nfreedom. But the psalmist does not feel that he is imprisoned, or\nthat the hand laid on him is heavy. Rather, he rejoices in the\ndefence of an encompassing God, who shuts off evil from him, as well\nas shuts him in from self-willed and self-determined action; and\nhe is glad to be held by a hand so gentle as well as strong. \"Thou\nGod seest me\" may either be a dread or a blessed thought. It may\nparalyse or stimulate. It should be the ally of conscience, and,\nwhile it stirs to all noble deeds, should also emancipate from all\nslavish fear. An exclamation of reverent wonder and confession of the\nlimitation of human comprehension closes the strophe.\n\nWhy should the thought that God is ever with the psalmist be put in\nthe shape of vivid pictures of the impossibility of escape from Him?\nIt is the sense of sin which leads men to hide from God, like Adam\namong the trees of the garden. The psalmist does not desire thus to\nflee, but he supposes the case, which would be only too common if\nmen realised God's knowledge of all their ways. He imagines himself\nreaching the extremities of the universe in vain flight, and stunned\nby finding God there. The utmost possible height is coupled with the\nutmost possible depth. Heaven and Sheol equally fail to give refuge\nfrom that moveless Face, which confronts the fugitive in both, and\nfills them as it fills all the intervening dim distances. The dawn\nflushes the east, and swiftly passes on roseate wings to the farthest\nbounds of the Mediterranean, which, to the psalmist, represented the\nextreme west, a land of mystery. In both places and in all the broad\nlands between, the fugitive would find himself in the grasp of the\nsame hand (compare ver. 5).\n\nDarkness is the friend of fugitives from men; but is transparent to\nGod. In ver. 11 the language is somewhat obscure. The word rendered\nabove \"cover\" is doubtful, as the Hebrew text reads \"bruise,\" which\nis quite unsuitable here. Probably there has been textual error,\nand the slight correction which yields the above sense is to be\nadopted, as by many moderns. The second clause of the verse carries\non the supposition of the first, and is not to be regarded, as in the\nA.V., as stating the result of the supposition, or, in grammatical\nlanguage, the apodosis. That begins with ver. 12, and is marked\nthere, as in ver. 10, by \"even.\"\n\nThe third strophe (vv. 13-18) grounds the psalmist's relation to\nGod on God's creative act. The mysteries of conception and birth\nnaturally struck the imagination of non-scientific man, and are to\nthe psalmist the direct result of Divine power. He touches them with\npoetic delicacy and devout awe, casting a veil of metaphor over the\nmystery, and losing sight of human parents in the clear vision of\nthe Divine Creator. There is room for his thought of the origin of\nthe individual life, behind modern knowledge of embryology. In ver.\n13 the word rendered in the A.V. \"possessed\" is better understood in\nthis context as meaning \"formed,\" and that rendered there \"covered\"\n(as in Psalm cxl. 7) here means to _plait_ or _weave together_, and\npicturesquely describes the interlacing bones and sinews, as in\nJob x. 11. But description passes into adoration in ver. 14. Its\nlanguage is somewhat obscure. The verb rendered \"wondrously made\"\nprobably means here \"selected\" or \"distinguished,\" and represents man\nas the _chef d'\u0153uvre_ of the Divine Artificer. The psalmist cannot\ncontemplate his own frame, God's workmanship, without breaking into\nthanks, nor without being touched with awe. Every man carries in his\nown body reasons enough for reverent gratitude.\n\nThe word for \"bones\" in ver. 15 is a collective noun, and might be\nrendered \"bony framework.\" The mysterious receptacle in which the\nunborn body takes shape and grows is delicately described as \"secret,\"\nand likened to the hidden region of the underworld, where are the\ndead. The point of comparison is the mystery enwrapping both. The\nsame comparison occurs in Job's pathetic words, \"Naked came I out of\nmy mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.\" It is doubtful\nwhether the word rendered above \"wrought like embroidery\" refers\nto a pattern wrought by weaving or by needlework. In any case, it\ndescribes \"the variegated colour of the individual members, especially\nof the viscera\" (Delitzsch). The mysteries of antenatal being are\nstill pursued in ver. 16, which is extremely obscure. It is, however,\nplain that _a_ sets forth the Divine knowledge of man in his first\nrudiments of corporeity. \"My shapeless mass\" is one word, meaning\nanything rolled up in a bundle or ball. But in _b_ it is doubtful what\nis referred to in \"they all.\" Strictly, the word should point back to\nsomething previously mentioned; and hence the A.V. and R.V. suppose\nthat the \"shapeless mass\" is thought of as resolved into its component\nparts, and insert \"my members\"; but it is better to recognise a slight\nirregularity here, and to refer the word to the \"days\" immediately\nspoken of, which existed in the Divine foreknowledge long before they\nhad real objective existence in the actual world. The last clause of\nthe verse is capable of two different meanings, according as the Hebrew\ntext or margin is followed. This is one of a number of cases in which\nthere is a doubt whether we should read \"not\" or \"to him\" (or \"it\").\nThe Hebrew words having these meanings are each of two letters, the\ninitial one being the same in both, and both words having the same\nsound. Confusion might easily therefore arise, and as a matter of\nfact there are numerous cases in which the text has the one and the\nmargin the other of these two words. Here, if we adhere to the text,\nwe read the negative, and then the force of the clause is to declare\nemphatically that the \"days\" were written in God's book, and in a real\nsense \"fashioned,\" when as yet they had not been recorded in earth's\ncalendars. If, on the other hand, the marginal reading is preferred, a\nstriking meaning is obtained: \"And for it [_i.e._, for the birth of the\nshapeless mass] there was one among them [predestined in God's book].\"\n\nIn vv. 17, 18, the poet gathers together and crowns all his\nprevious contemplations by the consideration that this God, knowing\nhim altogether, ever near him, and Former of his being, has great\n\"thoughts\" or purposes affecting him individually. That assurance makes\nomniscience and omnipresence joys, and not terrors. The root meaning\nof the word rendered \"precious\" is _weighty_. The singer would weigh\nGod's thoughts towards him, and finds that they weigh down his scales.\nHe would number them, and finds that they pass his enumeration. It is\nthe same truth of the transcendent greatness and graciousness of God's\npurposes as is conveyed in Isaiah's \"As the heavens are higher than\nthe earth, so are . . . My thoughts than your thoughts.\" \"I awake, and\nam still with Thee,\"--this is an artless expression of the psalmist's\nblessedness in realising God's continual nearness. He awakes from\nsleep, and is conscious of glad wonder to find that, like a tender\nmother by her slumbering child, God has been watching over him, and\nthat all the blessed communion of past days abides as before.\n\nThe fiery hatred of evil and evil men which burns in the last strophe\noffends many and startles more. But while the vehement prayer that\n\"Thou wouldest slay the wicked\" is not in a Christian tone, the\nrecoil from those who could raise themselves against such a God is\nthe necessary result of the psalmist's delight in Him. Attraction and\nrepulsion are equal and contrary. The measure of our cleaving to that\nwhich is good, and to Him who is good, settles the measure of our\nabhorrence of that which is evil. The abrupt passing from petition\nin ver. 19_a_ to command in _b_ has been smoothed away by a slight\nalteration which reads, \"And that men of blood would depart from me\";\nbut the variation in tense is more forcible, and corresponds with the\nspeaker's strong emotion. He cannot bear companionship with rebels\nagainst God. His indignation has no taint of personal feeling, but is\npure zeal for God's honour.\n\nVer. 20 presents difficulties. The word rendered in the A.V. and\nR.V. (text) \"speak against Thee\" is peculiarly spelt if this is its\nmeaning, and its construction is anomalous. Probably, therefore, the\nrendering should be as above. That meaning does not require a change of\nconsonants, but only of vowel points. The difficulty of the last clause\nlies mainly in the word translated in the A.V. _adversaries_ and in\nthe R.V. \"_enemies_.\" That meaning is questionable; and if the word is\nthe nominative to the verb in the clause, the construction is awkward,\nsince the preceding \"who\" would naturally extend its influence to this\nclause. Textual emendation has been resorted to; the simplest form of\nwhich is to read \"against Thee\" for \"Thine adversaries,\" a change of\none letter. Another form of emendation, which is adopted by Cheyne and\nGraetz, substitutes \"Thy name,\" and reads the whole, \"And pronounce Thy\nname for falsehoods.\" Delitzsch adheres to the reading \"adversaries,\"\nand by a harsh ellipsis makes the whole to run, \"Who pronounce [Thy\nname] deceitfully--Thine adversaries.\"\n\nThe vindication of the psalmist's indignation lies in vv. 21, 22.\nThat soul must glow with fervent love to God which feels wrong done\nto His majesty with as keen a pain as if it were itself struck. What\nGod says to those who love Him, they in their degree say to God: \"He\nthat toucheth Thee toucheth the apple of mine eye.\" True, hate is not\nthe Christian requital of hate, whether that is directed against God\nor God's servant. But recoil there must be, if there is any vigour of\ndevotion; only, pity and love must mingle with it, and the evil of\nhatred be overcome by their good.\n\nVery beautifully does the lowly prayer for searching and guidance\nfollow the psalmist's burst of fire. It is easier to glow with\nindignation against evil-doers than to keep oneself from doing evil.\nMany secret sins may hide under a cloak of zeal for the Lord. So the\npsalmist prays that God would search him, not because he fancies that\nthere is no lurking sin to be burned by the light of God's eye, like\nvermin that nestle and multiply under stones and shrivel when the\nsunbeams strike them, but because he dreads that there is, and would\nfain have it cast out. The psalm began with declaring that Jehovah\nhad searched and known the singer, and it ends with asking for that\nsearching knowledge.\n\nIt makes much difference, not indeed in the reality or completeness\nof God's knowledge of us, but in the good we derive therefrom, whether\nwe welcome and submit to it, or try to close our trembling hearts, that\ndo not wish to be cleansed of their perilous stuff, from that loving\nand purging gaze. God will cleanse the evil which He sees, if we are\nwilling that He should see it. Thoughts of the inner life and \"ways\" of\nthe outer are equally to be submitted to Him. There are two \"ways\" in\nwhich men can walk. The one is a \"way of grief or pain,\" because that\nis its terminus. All sin is a blunder. And the inclination to such ways\nis \"in me,\" as every man who has dealt honestly with himself knows.\nThe other is \"a way everlasting,\" a way which leads to permanent good,\nwhich continues uninterrupted through the vicissitudes of life, and\neven (though that was not in the psalmist's mind) through the darkness\nof death, and with ever closer approximation to its goal in God,\nthrough the cycles of eternity. And that way is not \"in me,\" but I must\nbe led into and in it by the God who knows me altogether and is ever\nwith me, to keep my feet in the way of life, if I will hold the guiding\nhand which He lays upon me.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXL.\n\n 1 Deliver me, Jehovah, from the evil man,\n From the man of violence guard me,\n 2 Who plot evils in heart,\n Every day they stir up wars.\n 3 They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent,\n Adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.\n\n 4 Keep me, Jehovah, from the hands of the wicked man,\n From the man of violences guard me,\n Who have plotted to overthrow my steps.\n 5 The proud have hidden a snare for me and cords,\n They have spread a net hard by the path,\n They have set gins for me. Selah.\n\n 6 I said to Jehovah, My God art Thou,\n Give ear, Jehovah, to the voice of my supplications.\n 7 Jehovah, Lord, my stronghold of salvation!\n Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle\n 8 Grant not, Jehovah, the desires of the wicked,\n Further not his plan. Selah.\n\n 9 They who compass me about lift up the head--\n The mischief of their own lips cover them!\n 10 [Jehovah] rain hot coals on them! (?)\n Let Him cause them to fall into fire,\n Into floods, that they rise no more!\n 11 The man with a [slanderous] tongue shall not continue on earth;\n The man of violence--evil shall hunt him with blow upon blow.\n\n 12 I know that Jehovah will maintain the cause of the afflicted,\n The right of the needy.\n 13 Surely the righteous shall thank Thy name,\n The upright shall dwell with Thy face.\n\n\nIn tone and contents this psalm has many parallels in the earlier\nbooks, especially among the psalms ascribed to David. Its originality\nlies principally in its use of peculiar words, and in the extreme\nobscurity of a part of it. The familiar situation of a man ringed\nabout by slanderous enemies, the familiar metaphors of snares and\ntraps, the familiar venture of faith flinging itself into God's arms\nfor refuge, the familiar prayers for retribution, are all here. One\ncannot argue about impressions, but the present writer receives the\nimpression strongly from the psalm that it is cast in the Davidic\nmanner by a later singer, and is rather an echo than an original\nvoice, while, no doubt, the feelings expressed, both of distress and\nof confidence, are none the less felt by the singer, though he falls\nback on familiar forms for their expression.\n\nThe arrangement is in four strophes of approximately equal length,\nthe first and third of which consist of three verses of two clauses\neach, while the fourth is abnormally elongated by having three\nclauses in ver. 10, and the second (vv. 4, 5) has two verses of three\nclauses each. Selah again appears as dividing the strophes, but is\nomitted at the end of the fourth, to which a closing strophe of two\nverses is appended.\n\nThe first two strophes (vv. 1-3 and 4, 5) cover the same ground. Both\nset forth the psalmist's need, and plead for deliverance. The first\nverse of the second strophe (ver. 4) is almost identical with ver.\n1. Both paint the psalmist's enemies as evil and violent, plotting\nagainst him privily. The only difference in the two strophes is in the\nmetaphors describing the foes and their devices, and in the prominence\ngiven in the first to their slanderous and sharp tongues. The forms\nof their malice are like those in earlier psalms. A characteristic of\nthe Psalter is the prominence given to hostility which has but bitter\nspeech for its weapon (Psalm x. 7, lviii. 4). The slanderer's tongue is\nsharp like a serpent's, with which the popular opinion supposed that\nthe venom was injected. The particular kind of serpent meant in ver.\n3_a_ is doubtful, as the word is only found here.\n\nThe figures for hostility in the second strophe are the other equally\nfamiliar ones of setting snares and traps. The contrivers are here\ncalled \"proud,\" since their hostility to God's servant implies\nhaughty antagonism to God. But they are not too proud to resort to\ntricks. Cunning and pride do not go well together, but they are\nunited in these enemies, who spread a net \"by the hand of the path.\"\n\nIn the third strophe, Faith rouses itself to lay hold on God. The\npsalmist turns from contemplating what his foes are doing, to realise\nwhat Jehovah is to him, and is wont to do for him. Since He is the\nsinger's God and protects him in all conflict, he \"finds it in his\nheart\" to ask confidently that the plots of the foe may be wrecked.\nConsciousness of danger drove the poet in the former strophes to\nprayer; Jehovah's character and loving relations to him draw him, in\nthis one.\n\n\"The day of battle\" is literally \"the day of armour\"--when weapons\nclash and helmets are fitting wear. Then Jehovah will be as a\nhead-piece to him, for He always gives the shape to His help which is\nrequired at the moment. The words in ver. 8 for \"desires\" and \"plan\"\nare found here only.\n\nThe text here is evidently in some disorder, and the word\nwhich is now awkwardly attached to the end of ver. 8 is by most\ncommentators carried over to ver. 9. The change of position clears\naway difficulties in both verses, but a considerable crop remains in\nthis fourth strophe. The language becomes gnarled and obscure under\nthe stress of the poet's emotion, as he prays for the destruction of\nhis persecutors. If the transference of the word from ver. 8 to ver.\n9 is accepted, that verse describes in vivid fashion what in prose\nwould have been cast into the form of, \"_When_ my encompassers lift\nup the head [_i.e._, in proud assault], _then_,\" etc. The psalmist\nomits the particles which would give a hypothetical form, and prefers\nto set the two things side by side, and leave sympathetic readers\nto feel their connection. Ver. 10 is very obscure. According to the\nHebrew text, the first clause would have to be rendered, \"Let coals\nbe thrown on them\"; but such a rendering is \"contrary to the usage of\nthe language.\" The Hebrew margin, therefore, corrects into, \"Let them\n[_i.e._, men indefinitely] cast down coals\"; but this is harsh, and\nthe office is strange as one attributed to men. The emendation which\nfinds favour with most moderns substitutes for the inappropriate\nverb of the present text that which is used in precisely the same\nconnection in Psalm xi. 6, and gives the reading, \"Let Him [_i.e._,\nJehovah] rain coals on them.\" The following clause then swiftly adds\nanother element of horror. Fire rains down from above; fire yawns\nbelow. They are beaten down by the burning storm, and they fall into\na mass of flame. The noun in ver. 10_c_ is found only here, and is by\nsome rendered \"pits,\" by others \"floods,\" and by others is corrected\ninto \"nets.\" If \"floods\" is taken as the meaning, destruction by\nwater is set by the side of that by fire, as if the antagonistic\nelements forgot their opposition and joined in strange amity to sweep\nthe wicked from the earth. The terrible strophe ends with the assured\ndeclaration of the Divinely appointed transiency of the evil-doers,\nespecially of the slanderers against whom the psalmist took refuge\nin Jehovah. They shall be soon cut off, and the hunters (ver. 5)\nshall become the hunted. \"Evil\"--_i.e._, the punishment of their evil\ndeeds--shall dog their heels, and with stroke after stroke chase them\nas dogs would follow vermin.\n\nIn vv. 13, 14, the poet comes back to brighter thoughts, and his\nwords become limpid again with his change of mood. He \"knows,\" as\nthe result of meditation and experience, that not only he, but all\nthe afflicted and needy, who are righteous and upright, have God on\ntheir side. He will stand by their side in their hour of distress; He\nwill admit them to dwell by His side, in deep, still communion, made\nmore real and sweet by the harassments of earth, which drive them for\nshelter and peace to His breast. That confidence is a certitude for\nthe psalmist. He announces it with an \"I know,\" and seals it with\na \"surely.\" Such is the issue of trouble which was spread before\nJehovah, and vented itself in prayer.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLI.\n\n 1 Jehovah, I have called on Thee; haste to me,\n Give ear to my voice when I call to Thee.\n 2 Let my prayer appear before Thee [as] incense,\n The lifting up of my hands [as] an evening sacrifice.\n\n 3 Set a watch, Jehovah, before my mouth,\n Keep guard over the door of my lips.\n 4 Incline not my heart to any evil thing,\n To practise wicked practices with men that work iniquity;\n And let me not eat of their dainties.\n\n 5 Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me,\n [Such] oil for the head shall not my head refuse.\n For so is it that my prayer shall continue in their\n wickednesses. (?)\n 6 Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the cliff, (?)\n And they hear my sayings, that they are sweet. (?)\n 7 As a man ploughing and cleaving the earth,\n Our bones are strewn at the mouth of Sheol.\n\n 8 For toward Thee, Jehovah, Lord, are mine eyes [turned];\n In Thee do I take refuge--pour not out my soul.\n 9 Keep me from the hands of the snare which they have laid for me,\n And from the gins of the doers of iniquity.\n 10 May the wicked fall into their own nets,\n Whilst at the same time I pass by!\n\n\nPart of this psalm is hopelessly obscure, and the connection is\ndifficult throughout. It is a prayer of a harassed soul, tempted to\nslacken its hold on God, and therefore betaking itself to Him. Nothing\nmore definite as to author or occasion can be said with certainty.\n\nThe allusions in vv. 6, 7, are dark to us, and the psalm must,\nin many parts, remain an enigma. Probably Baethgen and Cheyne are\nwise in giving up the attempt to extract any intelligible meaning\nfrom ver. 5_c_ and ver. 6 as the words stand, and falling back on\nasterisks. Delitzsch regards the psalm as being composed as suitable\nto \"a Davidic situation,\" either by David himself, or by some one who\nwished to give expression in strains like David's to David's probable\nmood. It would thus be a \"Dramatic Idyll,\" referring, according to\nDelitzsch, to Absalom's revolt. Ver. 2 is taken by him to allude to\nthe king's absence from the sanctuary, and the obscure ver. 6, to the\nfate of the leaders of the revolt and the return of the mass of the\npeople to loyal submission. But this is a very precarious reference.\n\nThe psalm begins with the cry to God to hear, which so often\nforms the introduction to psalms of complaint and supplications\nfor deliverance. But here a special colouring is given by the\npetition that the psalmist's prayers may be equivalent to incense\nand sacrifice. It does not follow that he was shut out from outward\nparticipation in worship, but only that he had learned what that\nworship meant. \"Appear\" might be rendered \"established.\" The word\nmeans to be set firm, or, reflexively, to station oneself, and hence\nis taken by some as equivalent to \"appear\" or \"come\" before Thee;\nwhile others give prominence rather to the notion of stability in the\nword, and take it to mean _continue_--_i.e._, be accepted. There may\nbe a reference to the morning sacrifice in the \"incense,\" so that\nboth morning and evening ritual would be included; but it is more\nnatural to think of the evening incense, accompanying the evening\n\"meal offering,\" and to suppose that the psalm is an evening prayer.\nThe penetrating insight into the realities of spiritual worship which\nthe singer has gained is more important to note than such questions\nabout the scope of his figures.\n\nThe prayer in vv. 3, 4, is for deliverance not from dangers,\nbut from temptation to sin in word or deed. The psalmist is not\nsuffering from the hostility of the workers of iniquity, but dreads\nbecoming infected with their sin. This phase of trial was not David's\nin Absalom's revolt, and the prominence given to it here makes\nDelitzsch's view of the psalm very doubtful. An earlier psalmist had\nvowed to \"put a muzzle on his mouth,\" but a man's own guard over\nhis words will fail, unless God keeps the keeper, and, as it were,\nsets a sentry to watch the lips. The prayer for strength to resist\ntemptation to wrong acts, which follows that against wrong speech, is\ncuriously loaded with synonymous terms. The psalmist asks that his\nheart, which is but too apt to feel the risings of inclination to\nfall in with the manners around him, may be stiffened into wholesome\nloathing of every evil--\"To practise practices in wickedness with men\n[perhaps, _great men_] who work iniquity.\" The clause rather drags,\nand the proposed insertion of \"Let me not sit\" before \"with men that\nwork iniquity\" lightens the weight, and supplies a good parallel\nwith \"Let me not eat of their dainties.\" It is, however, purely\nconjectural, and the existing reading is intelligible, though heavy.\nThe psalmist wishes to keep clear of association with the corrupt\nsociety around him, and desires to be preserved from temptations to\nfall in with its luxurious sensuality, lest thereby he should slide\ninto imitation of its sins. He chose plain living, because he longed\nfor high thinking, and noble doing, and grave, reverend speech. All\nthis points to a period when the world fought against goodness by\nproffering vulgar delights, rather than by persecution. Martyrs have\nlittle need to pray that they may not be tempted by persecutors'\nfeasts. This man \"scorned delights\" and chose to dwell with good men.\n\nThe connection of ver. 5 with the preceding seems to be that in it\nthe psalmist professes his preference for the companionship of the\nrighteous, even if they reprove him. It is better, in his judgment,\nto have the wholesome correction of the righteous than to feast with\nthe wicked. But while this is the bearing of the first part of the\nverse, the last clause is obscure, almost to unintelligibility, and\neven the earlier ones are doubtful. If the Hebrew accents are adhered\nto, the rendering above must be adopted. The division of clauses and\nrendering adopted by Hupfeld and many others, and in the A.V. and R.V.,\ngives vividness, but requires \"it shall be\" to be twice supplied. The\nwhole sentence seems to run more smoothly, if the above translation is\naccepted. \"Oil for the head\" is that with which the head is anointed\nas for a feast; and there is probably a tacit suggestion of a better\nfestival, spread in the austere abodes of the righteous poor, than on\nthe tables loaded with the dainties of the wicked rich.\n\nBut what is the meaning and bearing of the last clause of ver. 5?\nNo wholly satisfactory answer has been given. It is needless here\nto travel through the various more or less violent and unsuccessful\nattempts to unravel the obscurities of this clause and of the\nnext verse. One sympathises with Hupfeld's confession that it is\nan unwelcome (_sauer_) task to him to quote the whirl of varying\nconjectures. The rendering adopted above, as, on the whole, the least\nunlikely, is substantially Delitzsch's. It means that the psalmist\n\"will oppose no weapon but prayer to his enemies' wickedness, and\nis therefore in the spiritual mood susceptible to well-meaning\nreproof.\" The logic of the clause is not very clear, even with this\nexplanation. The psalmist's continuance in prayer against the wicked\nis not very obviously a reason for his accepting kindly rebuke. But\nno better explanation is proposed.\n\nThe darkness thickens in ver. 6. The words indeed are all easily\ntranslatable; but what the whole sentence means, or what an allusion\nto the destruction of some unnamed people's rulers has to do here,\nor who they are who hear the psalmist's words, are questions as yet\nunanswered. To cast men down \"by the sides [lit., _hands_] of a\nrock\" is apparently an expression for the cruel punishment mentioned\nas actually inflicted on ten thousand of the \"children of Seir\" (2\nChron. xxv. 12). Those who, with Delitzsch, take the revolt under\nAbsalom to be the occasion of the psalm, find in the casting down\nof these judges an imaginative description of the destruction of\nthe leaders of the revolt, who are supposed to be hurled down the\nrocks by the people whom they had misled; while the latter, having\nagain come to their right mind, attend to David's word, and find\nit pleasant and beneficent. But this explanation requires much\nsupplementing of the language, and does not touch the difficulty of\nbringing the verse into connection with the preceding.\n\nNor is the connection with what follows more clear. A various\nreading substitutes \"Their\" for \"Our\" in ver. 7, and so makes the\nwhole verse a description of the bones of the ill-fated \"judges\"\nlying in a litter at the base of the precipice. But apparently the\nreading is merely an attempt to explain the difficulty. Clearly\nenough the verse gives an extraordinarily energetic and graphic\npicture of a widespread slaughter. But who are the slain, and what\nevent or events in the history of Israel are here imaginatively\nreproduced, is quite unknown. All that is certain is the tremendous\nforce of the representation, the \u00c6schylean ruggedness of the\nmetaphor, and the desperate condition to which it witnesses. The\npoint of the figure lies in the resemblance of the bones strewn at\nthe mouth of Sheol to broken clods turned up by a plough. _Sheol_\nseems here to waver between the meanings of the unseen world of\nsouls and the grave. The unburied bones of slaughtered saints \"lie\nscattered,\" as unregarded as the lumps of soil behind the ploughman.\n\nIn vv. 8-10 the familiar psalm-tone recurs, and the language clears\nitself. The stream has been foaming among rocks in a gorge, but\nit has emerged into sunlight, and flows smoothly. Only the \"For\"\nat the beginning of ver. 8 is difficult, if taken to refer to the\nimmediately preceding verses. Rather, it overleaps the obscure\nmiddle part of the psalm, and links on to the petitions of vv. 1-4.\nPatient, trustful expectance is the psalmist's temper, which gazes\nnot interrogatively, but with longing which is sure of satisfaction,\ntowards God, from amidst the temptations or sorrows of earth. The\nreason for that fixed look of faith lies in the Divine names, so rich\nin promise, which are here blended in an unusual combination. The\ndevout heart pleads its own act of faith in conjunction with God's\nnames, and is sure that, since He is Jehovah, Lord, it cannot be vain\nto hide oneself in Him. Therefore, the singer prays for preservation\nfrom destruction. \"Pour not out my soul\" recalls Isa. liii. 12, where\nthe same vivid metaphor is used. The prayer of the earlier verses was\nfor protection from temptation; here, circumstances have darkened,\nand the psalmist's life is in danger. Possibly the \"snares\" and\n\"gins\" of ver. 9 mean both temptations and perils.\n\nThe final petition in ver. 10 is like many in earlier psalms. It was\na fundamental article of faith for all the psalmists that a great _Lex\nTalionis_ was at work, by which every sin was avenged in kind; and\nif one looks deeper than the outside of life, the faith is eternally\nwarranted. For nothing is more certain than that, whomsoever else a man\nmay harm by his sin, he harms himself most. Nets woven and spread for\nothers may or may not ensnare them, but their meshes cling inextricably\nround the feet of their author, and their tightening folds will wrap\nhim helpless, like a fly in a spider's web. The last clause presents\nsome difficulties. The word rendered above \"at the same time\" is\nliterally \"together,\" but seems to be used here, as in Psalm iv. 8\n(_at once_), with the meaning of _simultaneously_. The two things are\nco-temporaneous--the enemies' ensnaring and the psalmist's escape. The\nclause is abnormal in its order of words. It stands thus: \"At the same\ntime I, while [until] I pass by.\" Probably the irregularity arose from\na desire to put the emphatic word \"at the same time\" in the prominent\nplace. It is doubtful whether we should translate \"while\" or \"until.\"\nAuthorities are divided, and either meaning is allowable. But though\nthe rendering _until_ gives picturesqueness to the representation of\nthe snared foe restrained and powerless, until his hoped-for prey walks\ncalmly through the toils, the same idea is conveyed by \"while,\" and\nthat rendering avoids the implication that the snaring lasted only as\nlong as the time taken for the psalmist's escape. What is uppermost\nin the psalmist's mind is, in any case, not the destruction of his\nenemies, but their being made powerless to prevent his \"passing by\"\ntheir snares uncaptured.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLII.\n\n 1 With my voice to Jehovah will I cry,\n With my voice to Jehovah will I make supplication.\n 2 I will pour out before Him my complaint,\n My straits before Him will I declare.\n 3 When my spirit wraps itself in gloom upon me,\n Then Thou--Thou knowest my path;\n In the way wherein I have to go\n They have hidden a snare for me.\n 4 Look on the right hand and see,\n There is none that knows me,\n Shelter is perished from me,\n There is no one that makes inquiry after my soul.\n\n 5 I have cried unto Thee, Jehovah,\n I have said, Thou art my refuge,\n My portion in the land of the living.\n 6 Attend to my shrill cry,\n For I am become very weak;\n Deliver me from my pursuers,\n For they are too strong for me.\n 7 Bring out from prison my soul,\n That I may thank Thy name;\n In me shall the righteous glory,\n For Thou dealest bountifully with me.\n\n\nThe superscription not only calls this a psalm of David's, but\nspecifies the circumstances of its composition. It breathes the same\nspirit of mingled fear and faith which characterises many earlier\npsalms; but one fails to catch the unmistakable note of freshness,\nand there are numerous echoes of preceding singers. This psalmist\nhas as deep sorrows as his predecessors, and as firm a grasp of\nJehovah, his helper. His song runs naturally in well-worn channels,\nand is none the less genuine and acceptable to God because it does.\nTrouble and lack of human sympathy or help have done their best work\non him, since they have driven him to God's breast. He has cried in\nvain to man; and now he has gathered himself up in a firm resolve\nto cast himself upon God. Men may take offence that they are only\nappealed to as a last resort, but God does not. The psalmist is too\nmuch in earnest to be content with unspoken prayers. His voice must\nhelp his thoughts. Wonderful is the power of articulate utterance in\ndefining, and often in diminishing, sorrows. Put into words, many a\nburden shrinks. Speaking his grief, many a man is calmed and braced\nto endure. The complaint poured out before God ceases to flood the\nspirit; the straits told to Him begin to grip less tightly.\n\nVer. 1 resembles Psalm lxxvii. 1, and ver. 3 has the same vivid\nexpression for a spirit swathed in melancholy as Psalm lxxvii. 3.\nHupfeld would transfer ver. 3_a_ to ver. 2, as being superfluous\nin ver. 3, and, in connection with the preceding, stating the\nsituation or disposition from which the psalmist's prayer flows.\nIf so taken, the copula (And) introducing _b_ will be equivalent\nto \"But,\" and contrasts the omniscience of God with the psalmist's\nfaintheartedness. If the usual division of verses is retained, the\nsame contrast is presented still more forcibly, and the copula may\nbe rendered \"Then.\" The outpouring of complaint is not meant to tell\nJehovah what He does not know. It is for the complainer's relief,\nnot for God's information. However a soul is wrapped in gloom, the\nthought that God knows the road which is so dark brings a little\ncreeping beam into the blackness. In the strength of that conviction\nthe psalmist beseeches Jehovah to behold what He does behold. That\nis the paradox of faithful prayer, which asks for what it knows that\nit possesses, and dared not ask for unless it knew. The form of the\nword rendered above \"Look\" is irregular, a \"hybrid\" (Delitzsch);\nbut when standing beside the following \"see,\" it is best taken\nas an imperative of petition to Jehovah. The old versions render\nboth words as first person singular, in which they are followed by\nBaethgen, Graetz, and Cheyne. It is perhaps more natural that the\npsalmist should represent himself as looking round in vain for help,\nthan that he should ask God to look; and, as Baethgen remarks, the\ncopula before \"There is none\" in ver. 4_b_ favours this reading,\nas it is superfluous with an imperative. In either case the drift\nof ver. 4 is to set forth the suppliant's forlorn condition. The\n\"right hand\" is the place for a champion or helper, but this lonely\nsufferer's is unguarded, and there is none who knows him, in the\nsense of recognising him as one to be helped (Ruth ii. 10, 19). Thus\nabandoned, friendless, and solitary, confronted by foes, he looks\nabout for some place to hide in; but that too has failed him (Job xi.\n20; Jer. xxv. 35; Amos ii. 14). There is no man interested enough\nin him to make inquiry after his life. Whether he is alive or dead\nmatters not a straw to any.\n\nThus utterly naked of help, allies, and earthly hiding-place, what\ncan a man do but fling himself into the arms of God? This one does so,\nas the rest of the psalm tells. He had looked all round the horizon\nin vain for a safe cranny to creep into and escape. He was out in the\nopen, without a bush or rock to hide behind, on all the dreary level.\nSo he looks up, and suddenly there rises by his side an inexpugnable\nfortress, as if a mountain sprang at once from the flat earth. \"I have\nsaid, Thou art my refuge!\" Whoso says thus has a shelter, Some One\nto care for him, and the gloom begins to thin off from his soul. The\npsalmist is not only safe in consequence of his prayer, but rich; for\nthe soul which, by strong resolve, even in the midst of straits, claims\nGod as its portion will at once realise its portion in God.\n\nThe prayer for complete deliverance in vv. 6, 7, passes into\ncalmness, even while it continues fully conscious of peril and of\nthe power of the pursuers. Such is the reward of invoking Jehovah's\nhelp. Agitation is soothed, and, even before any outward effect has\nbeen manifest, the peace of God begins to shed itself over heart and\nmind. The suppliant still spreads his needs before God, is still\nconscious of much weakness, of strong persecutors, and feels that he\nis, as it were, in prison (an evident metaphor, though Graetz, with\nsingular prosaicness, will have it to be literal); but he has hold of\nGod now, and so is sure of deliverance, and already begins to shape\nhis lips for songs of praise, and to anticipate the triumph which\nhis experience will afford to those who are righteous, and so are\nhis fellows. He was not, then, so utterly solitary as he had wailed\nthat he was. There were some who would joy in his joy, even if they\ncould not help his misery. But the soul that has to wade through deep\nwaters has always to do it alone; for no human sympathy reaches to\nfull knowledge of, or share in, even the best loved one's grief. We\nhave companions in joy; sorrow we have to face by ourselves. Unless\nwe have Jesus with us in the darkness, we have no one.\n\nThe word rendered above \"shall glory\" is taken in different meanings.\nAccording to some, it is to be rendered here \"surround\"--_i.e._, with\ncongratulations; others would take the meaning to be \"shall crown\nthemselves\"--_i.e._, \"triumph on my account\" (Delitzsch, etc.). Graetz\nsuggests a plausible emendation, which Cheyne adopts, reading \"glory\nin,\" the resulting meaning being the same as that of Delitzsch. The\nnotion of participation in the psalmist's triumph is evidently intended\nto be conveyed; and any of these renderings preserves that. Possibly\n_surround_ is most in accordance with the usage of the word. Thus\nthe psalmist's plaints end, as plaints which are prayers ever do, in\ntriumph anticipated by faith, and one day to be realised in experience.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLIII.\n\n 1 Jehovah, hear my prayer, give ear to my supplications,\n In Thy faithfulness answer me, in Thy righteousness;\n 2 And enter not into judgment with Thy servant,\n For before Thee shall no man living be righteous.\n 3 For the enemy has pursued my soul,\n Crushed my life to the ground,\n Made me to dwell in dark places, like the dead of long ago.\n\n 4 Therefore my spirit wraps itself in gloom in me,\n Within me is my heart benumbed.\n 5 I remember the days of old,\n I muse on all Thy doings,\n On the work of Thy hands I brood.\n 6 I spread my hands to Thee,\n My soul is towards Thee like a thirsty land. Selah.\n\n 7 Make haste, answer me, Jehovah; my spirit faints;\n Hide not Thy face from me,\n Lest I become like those that descend into the pit.\n 8 Make me hear Thy loving-kindness in the morning,\n For in Thee do I trust;\n Make me know the way in which I should go,\n For to Thee do I lift my soul.\n 9 Deliver me from mine enemies, Jehovah,\n For to Thee do I flee for refuge. (?)\n\n 10 Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God;\n Let Thy good spirit lead me in a level land.\n 11 For Thy name's sake, Jehovah, quicken me;\n In Thy righteousness bring my soul out of all straits;\n 12 And in Thy loving-kindness cut off my foes,\n And destroy all who oppress my soul,\n For I am Thy servant.\n\n\nThis psalm's depth of sadness and contrition, blended with yearning\ntrust, recalls the earlier psalms attributed to David. Probably this\ngeneral resemblance in inwardness and mood is all that is meant by the\nsuperscription in calling it \"a psalm of David.\" Its copious use of\nquotations and allusions indicate a late date. But there is no warrant\nfor taking the speaker to be the personified Israel. It is clearly\ndivided into two equal halves, as indicated by the Selah, which is not\nfound in Books IV. and V., except here, and in Psalm cxl. The former\nhalf (vv. 1-6) is complaint; the latter (vv. 7-12), petition. Each part\nmay again be regarded as falling into two equal portions, so that the\ncomplaint branches out into a plaintive description of the psalmist's\nperil (vv. 1-3), and a melancholy disclosure of his feelings (vv. 4-6);\nwhile the prayer is similarly parted into cries for deliverance (vv.\n7-9), and for inward enlightenment and help (vv. 10-12). But we are not\nreading a logical treatise, but listening to the cry of a tried spirit,\nand so need not wonder if the discernible sequence of thought is here\nand there broken.\n\nThe psalmist knows that his affliction is deserved. His enemy could\nnot have hunted and crushed him (ver. 3) unless God had been thereby\npunishing him. His peril has forced home the penitent conviction of\nhis sin, and therefore he must first have matters set right between\nhim and God by Divine forgiveness. His cry for help is not based\nupon any claims of his own, nor even on his extremity of need, but\nsolely on God's character, and especially on the twin attributes\nof Faithfulness and Righteousness. By the latter is not meant the\nretributive righteousness which gives according to desert, but\nthat by which He maintains the order of salvation established by\nHis holy love. The prayer anticipates St. John's declaration that\nGod is \"faithful and just to forgive us our sins.\" That answer in\nrighteousness is as eagerly desired as God's dealing on the footing\nof retributive justice is shrunk from. \"Enter not into judgment\nwith Thy servant\" is not a prayer referring to a future appearance\nbefore the Judge of all, but the judgment deprecated is plainly\nthe enmity of men, which, as the next verse complains, is crushing\nthe psalmist's life out of him. His cry is for deliverance from\nit, but he feels that a more precious gift must precede outward\ndeliverance, and God's forgiveness must first be sealed on his soul.\nThe conviction that, when the light of God's face is turned on the\npurest life, it reveals dark stains which retributive justice cannot\nbut condemn, is not, in the psalmist's mouth, a palliation of his\nguilt. Rather, it drives him to take his place among the multitude\nof offenders, and from that lowly position to cry for pardon to the\nvery Judge whose judgment he cannot meet. The blessedness of contrite\ntrust is that it nestles the closer to God, the more it feels its\nunworthiness. The child hides its face on the mother's bosom when it\nhas done wrong. God is our refuge from God. A little beam of light\nsteals into the penitent's darkness, while he calls himself God's\nservant, and ventures to plead that relation, though he has done\nwhat was unworthy of it, as a reason for pardon. The significant\n\"For\" beginning ver. 3 shows that the enemy's acts were, to the\ncontrite psalmist, those of God's stern justice. Vv. 3_a_, _b_, are\nmoulded on Psalm vii. 5, and _c_ is verbally identical with Lam.\niii. 6. \"The dead of long ago\" is by some rendered _dead for ever_;\nbut the translation adopted above adds force to the psalmist's sad\ndescription of himself, by likening him to those forgotten ones away\nback in the mists of bygone ages.\n\nIn vv. 4-6 the record of the emotions caused by his peril follows.\nThey begin with the natural gloom. As in Psalm cxlii. 3 (with which\nthis has many points of resemblance, possibly indicating identity\nof author), he describes his \"spirit\" as swathed in dark robes of\nmelancholy. His heart, too, the centre of personality, was _stunned_\nor _benumbed_, so that it almost ceased to beat. What should a\n\"servant\" of Jehovah's, brought to such a pass, do? If he is truly\nGod's, he will do precisely what this man did. He will compel his\nthoughts to take another direction, and call Memory in to fight\nDespair and feed Hope. His own past and God's past are arguments\nenough to cheer the most gloom-wrapped sufferer. \"A sorrow's crown\nof sorrow\" may be \"remembering happier things,\" but the remembrance\nwill be better used to discrown a sorrow which threatens to lord it\nover a life. Psalm lxxvii. 5, 6, 11, 12, has shaped the expressions\nhere. Both the contrast of present misery with past mercy, and\nthe assurances of present help given by that past mercy, move the\npsalmist to appeal to God, stretching out his hands in entreaty.\nPsalm lxiii. 1 echoes in ver. 6_b_, the pathos and beauty of which\nneed no elucidation. The very cracks in parched ground are like\nmouths opened for the delaying rains; so the singer's soul was gaping\nwide in trouble for God's coming, which would refresh and fertilise.\nBlessed is that weariness which is directed to Him; it ever brings\nthe showers of grace for which it longs. The construction of ver.\n6_b_ is doubtful, and the supplement \"thirsteth\" (A.V. and R.V.) is\npossibly better than the \"is\" given above.\n\nThe second half of the psalm is purely petition. Vv. 7-9 ask\nespecially for outward deliverance. They abound with reminiscences of\nearlier psalms. \"Make haste, answer me\" recalls Psalm lxix. 17; \"my\nspirit faints\" is like Psalm lxxxiv. 2; \"Hide not Thy face from me\"\nis a standing petition, as in Psalms xxvii. 9, cii. 2, etc.; \"Lest\nI become like those who descend into the pit\" is exactly reproduced\nfrom Psalm xxviii. 1. The prayer for the manifestation of God's\nloving-kindness in the morning is paralleled in Psalm xc. 14, and\nthat for illumination as to the way to walk in is like Exod. xxxiii.\n13; Psalm xxv. 4. The plea \"To Thee do I lift my soul\" is found in\nPsalms xxv. 1, lxxxvi. 4.\n\nThe plea appended to the petition in ver. 9_b_ is difficult.\nLiterally, the words run, \"To Thee have I covered [myself],\" which\ncan best be explained as a pregnant construction, equivalent to \"I\nhave fled to Thee and hid myself in Thee.\" Much divergence exists\nin the renderings of the clause. But a slight emendation, adopted\nby Hupfeld and Cheyne from an ancient Jewish commentator, reads the\nfamiliar expression, \"I have fled for refuge.\" Baethgen prefers to\nread \"have waited,\" which also requires but a trivial alteration;\nwhile Graetz reaches substantially the same result by another way,\nand would render \"I have hope.\"\n\nA glance at these three verses of petition as a whole brings out the\nsequence of the prayers and of their pleas. The deepest longing of\nthe devout soul is for the shining of God's face, the consciousness\nof His loving regard, and that not only because it scatters fears\nand foes, but because it is good to bathe in that sunshine. The next\nlonging is for the dawning of a glad morning, which will bring to a\nwaiting heart sweet whispers of God's loving-kindness, as shown by\noutward deliverances. The night of fear has been dark and tearful,\nbut joy comes with the morning. The next need is for guidance in the\nway in which a man should go, which here must be taken in the lower\nsense of practical direction, rather than in any higher meaning. That\nhigher meaning follows in vv. 10-12; but in ver. 8 the suppliant\nasks to be shown the path by which he can secure deliverance from\nhis foes. That deliverance is the last of his petitions. His pleas\nare beautiful as examples of the logic of supplication. He begins\nwith his great need. His spirit faints, and he is on the edge of\nthe black pit into which so much brightness and strength have gone\ndown. The margin is slippery and crumbling; his feet are feeble. One\nHelper alone can hold him up. But his own exceeding need is not all\nthat he pleads. He urges his trust, his fixing of his desires, hopes,\nand whole self, by a dead lift of faith, on God. That is a reason\nfor Divine help. Anything is possible rather than that such hope\nshould be disappointed. It cannot be that any man, who has fled for\nsanctuary to the asylum of God's heart, should be dragged thence and\nslain before the God whose altar he has vainly clasped.\n\nThe last part (vv. 10-12) puts foremost the prayer for conformity\nof will with God's, and, though it closes with recurring prayer\nfor outward deliverance, yet breathes desires for more inward\nblessings. As in the preceding verses, there are, in these closing\nones, many echoes of other psalms. The sequence of petitions and\npleas is instructive. To do, not merely to know, God's will is the\ncondition of all blessedness, and will be the deepest desire of\nevery man who is truly God's servant. But that obedience of heart\nand hand must be taught by God, and He regards our taking Him for\nour God as establishing a claim on Him to give all illumination\nof heart and all bending of will and all skill of hand which are\nnecessary to make us doers of His will. His teaching is no mere\noutward communication of knowledge, but an inbreathing of power to\ndiscern, and of disposition and ability to perform, what is His\nwill. Ver. 10_b_ is best taken as a continuous sentence, embodying\na prayer for guidance. The plea on which it rests remains the same,\nthough the statement of it as a separate clause is not adopted in\nour translation. For the fact that God's spirit is \"good\"--_i.e._,\nbeneficently self-communicative--heartens us to ask, and binds Him to\ngive, all such direction as is needed. This is not a mere repetition\nof the prayer in ver. 8, but transcends it. \"A level land\" (or,\naccording to a possible suggested emendation, _path_) is one in which\nthe psalmist can freely walk, unhindered in doing God's will. His\nnext petition goes deepest of the three, inasmuch as it asks for that\nnew Divine life to be imparted, without which no teaching to do God's\nwill can be assimilated, and no circumstances, however favourable,\nwill conduce to doing it. He may not have known all the depth which\nhis prayer sounded; but no man who has real desires to conform heart\nand life to the supreme will of God but must have felt his need of\na purer life to be poured into his spirit. As this prayer is deep,\nso its plea is high. \"For Thy name's sake\"--nothing can be pleaded\nof such force as that. God supremely desires the glory of His name;\nand, for the sake of men whose blessedness depends on their knowing\nand loving it, will do nothing that can dim its lustre. His name is\nthe record of His past acts, the disclosure of that in Him which\nis knowable. That name contains the principles of all His future\nacts. He will be what He has been. He will magnify His name; and the\nhumblest, most tormented soul that can say, \"Thou art my God,\" may\nbe sure that Divinely given life will throb in it, and that even its\nlowliness may contribute to the honour of the name.\n\nThe hunted psalmist cannot but come back, in the close of his psalm,\nto his actual circumstances, for earthly needs do clog the soul's\nwings. He unites righteousness and loving-kindness as co-operating\npowers, as in ver. 1 he had united faithfulness and righteousness.\nAnd as in the first verses he had blended pleas drawn from God's\ncharacter with those drawn from his relation to God, so he ends his\npetitions with pleading that he is God's servant, and, as such, a fit\nobject of God's protection.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLIV.\n\n 1 Blessed be Jehovah my rock, who trains my hands for battle,\n My fingers for war;\n 2 My loving-kindness and my fortress, my high tower and my\n deliverer,\n My shield and He in whom I take refuge,\n Who subdues my people under me.\n\n 3 Jehovah, what is man, that Thou takest knowledge of him?\n The son of frail man, that Thou takest account of him?\n 4 Man--he is like to a breath,\n His days are like a shadow passing away.\n\n 5 Jehovah, bow Thy heavens and come down,\n Touch the mountains that they smoke.\n 6 Lighten lightning and scatter them,\n Shoot Thy arrows and confound them.\n 7 Stretch Thy hands from on high,\n Pluck me [out] and deliver me from many waters,\n From the hands of the sons of the alien,\n 8 Whose mouth speaks falsehood,\n And whose right hand is a right hand of lies.\n\n 9 O God, a new song will I sing to Thee,\n On a ten-stringed harp will I harp to Thee,\n 10 Who giveth salvation to kings,\n Who snatches David His servant from the evil sword.\n 11 Pluck me [out] and deliver me from the hand of the sons of the\n alien,\n Whose mouth speaks falsehood,\n And whose right hand is a right hand of lies.\n\n 12 So that (? or Because) our sons [may be] as plants,\n Grown tall in their youth;\n Our daughters like corner-pillars,\n Carved after the fashion of a palace;\n 13 Our granaries full, giving forth kind after kind [of supply];\n Our flocks producing thousands,\n Producing tens of thousands in our fields;\n 14 Our kine heavy with young;\n No breach and no sally,\n And no [battle-] cry in our open spaces.\n 15 Happy the people that is in such a case!\n Happy the people whose God is Jehovah!\n\n\nThe force of compilation could no further go than in this psalm,\nwhich is, in the first eleven verses, simply a _r\u00e9chauff\u00e9_ of known\npsalms, and in vv. 12-15 is most probably an extract from an unknown\none of later date. The junctions are not effected with much skill,\nand the last is tacked on very awkwardly (ver. 12). It is completely\nunlike the former part, inasmuch as there the speaker is a warlike\nking praying for victory, while in the latter the nation sings of the\ntranquil blessings of peaceful expansion. The language of the later\nportion is full of late forms and obscurities. But the compiler's\ncourse of thought is traceable. He begins by praising Jehovah, who\nhas taught him warlike skill; then adoringly thinks of his own\nweakness, made strong by God's condescending regard; next prays for\ncomplete victory, and vows fresh praises for new mercies; and closes\nwith a picture of the prosperity which follows conquest, and is\nsecured to Israel because Jehovah is its God.\n\nVv. 1, 2, are echoes of Psalm xviii. 2, 34, 46, with slight\nvariations. The remarkable epithet \"My loving-kindness\" offends\nsome critics, who emend so as to read \"My stronghold\"; but it has a\nparallel in Jonah ii. 9, and is forcible as an emotional abbreviation\nof the fuller \"God of my loving-kindness\" (Psalm lix. 10). The\noriginal passage reads \"people,\" which is the only appropriate word\nin this connection, and should probably be read in ver. 2_c_.\n\nPsalm viii. supplies the original of vv. 3, 4, with a reminiscence\nof Psalm xxxix. 5, and of Psalm cii. 11, from which comes the\npathetic image of the fleeting shadow. The link between this and the\nformer extract seems to be the recognition of God's condescension\nin strengthening so weak and transient a creature for conflict and\nconquest.\n\nThe following prayer for further Divine help in further struggles\nis largely borrowed from the magnificent picture of a theophany\nin Psalm xviii. 9, 14-16. The energetic \"Lighten lightning\" is\npeculiar to this psalm, as is the use of the word for \"Pluck out.\"\nThe description of the enemies as \"sons of the alien\" is like Psalm\nxviii. 44, 45. As in many other psalms, the treachery of the foe\nis signalised. They break their oaths. The right hand which they\nhad lifted in swearing is a lying hand. The vow of new praise\nrecalls Psalms xxxiii. 2, 3, and xcvi. 1, xcviii. 1. Ver. 10 is a\nreproduction of Psalm xviii. 50. The mention of David's deliverance\nfrom the \"evil sword\" has apparently been the reason for the LXX.\nreferring the psalm to the victory over Goliath--an impossible view.\nThe new song is not here sung; but the psalm drops from the level\nof praise to renew the petition for deliverance, in the manner\nof a refrain caught up in ver. 11 from ver. 7. This might make a\nwell-rounded close, and may have originally been the end of the psalm.\n\nThe appended fragment (vv. 12-15) is attached to the preceding in\na most embarrassing fashion. The first word of ver. 12 is the sign\nof the relative. The LXX. accordingly translates \"Whose sons are,\"\netc., and understands the whole as a description of the prosperity of\nthe enemies, which view necessarily involves the alteration of \"our\"\ninto \"their\" in the following clauses. Others supply an antecedent\nto the relative by inserting _save us_ or the like expression at\nthe beginning of the verse. Others, again--_e.g._, Ewald, followed\nby Perowne--connect the relative with ver. 15: \"We whose sons are,\"\netc.... \"Happy is the people,\" etc. Delitzsch takes the relative to\nsignify here \"because,\" and compares Judg. ix. 17; Jer. xvi. 13. The\nprosperity subsequently described would then be alleged as the occasion\nof the enemies' envy. Others would slightly emend the text so as to\nread, \"I pronounce happy,\" or \"Happy are we.\" The latter, which makes\nall smooth, and corresponds with ver. 15, is Graetz's proposal. The\nrendering of the A.V., \"that\" or \"in order that,\" has much in its\nfavour. The word which is the sign of the relative is a component of\nthe full expression usually so rendered, and stands alone as equivalent\nto it in Deut. iv. 40, Gen. xi. 7. It is true, as Delitzsch objects to\nthis rendering, that the following verbs are usually finite, while here\nthey are participles; but that is not a fatal objection. The whole that\nfollows would then be dependent on the petition of ver. 11, and would\ndescribe the purpose of the desired deliverance. \"This is, in fact,\nthe poet's meaning. He prays for deliverance from enemies, in order\nthat the happy condition pictured in ver. 12 _sqq._ may come to pass\"\n(Baethgen). On the whole, that rendering presents least difficulty, but\nin any case the seam is clumsy.\n\nThe substance of the description includes three things--a vigorous,\ngrowing population, agricultural prosperity, and freedom from\ninvasion. The language is obscure, especially in ver. 14, but the\ngeneral drift is plain. The characteristic Jewish blessing of\nnumerous offspring is first touched on in two figures, of which\nthe former is forcible and obvious, and the latter obscure. The\ncomparison of the virgin daughters of Israel to \"corners\" is\nbest understood by taking the word to mean \"corner-pillars,\" not\nnecessarily caryatides, as is usually supposed--an architectural\ndecoration unknown in the East. The points of comparison would then\nbe slender uprightness and firm grace. Delitzsch prefers to take the\nword as meaning _cornices_, such as, to the present day, are found\nin the angles of Eastern rooms, and are elaborately carved in mazy\npatterns and brightly coloured. He would also render \"variegated\"\ninstead of \"carved.\" But such a comparison puts too much stress on\ngay dresses, and too little on qualities corresponding to those of\nthe \"well-grown\" youths in the former clause.\n\nThe description of a flourishing rural community is full of\ndifficult words. \"Granaries\" is found only here, and \"kind\" is a late\nword. \"Fields\" is the same word as is usually rendered \"streets\";\nit literally means \"places outside,\" and here obviously must refer\nto the open pastures without the city, in contrast to the \"open\nspaces\" within it, mentioned in the next verse. In that verse almost\nevery word is doubtful. That rendered \"kine\" is masculine in form,\nbut is generally taken as being applicable to both sexes, and here\nused for the milky mothers of the herd. The word translated above\n\"heavy with young\" means _laden_, and if the accompanying noun is\nmasculine, must mean laden with the harvest sheaves; but the parallel\nof the increasing flocks suggests the other rendering. The remainder\nof ver. 14 would in form make a complete verse, and it is possible\nthat something has fallen out between the first clause and the two\nlatter. These paint tranquil city life when enemies are far away.\n\"No breach\"--_i.e._, in the defences, by which besiegers could\nenter; \"No going forth\"--_i.e._, sally of the besieged, as seems\nmost probable, though _going forth as captured_ or _surrendering_\nhas been suggested; \"No cry\"--_i.e._, of assailants who have forced\nan entrance, and of defenders who make their last stand in the open\nplaces of the city.\n\nThe last verse sums up all the preceding picture of growth,\nprosperity, and tranquillity, and traces it to the guardian care and\nblessing of Jehovah. The psalmist may seem to have been setting too\nmuch store by outward prosperity. His last word not only points to\nthe one Source of it, but sets high above the material consequences\nof God's favour, joyous as these are, that favour itself, as the\nclimax of human blessedness.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLV.\n\n 1 \u05d0 I will exalt Thee, my God, O King,\n And I will bless Thy name for ever and aye.\n 2 \u05d1 Every day will I bless Thee,\n And I will praise Thy name for ever and aye.\n 3 \u05d2 Great is Jehovah and much to be praised,\n And of His greatness there is no searching.\n 4 \u05d3 Generation to generation shall loudly praise Thy works\n And Thy mighty acts shall they declare.\n 5 \u05d4 The splendour of the glory of Thy majesty,\n And the records of Thy wonders will I meditate.\n 6 \u05d5 And the might of Thy dread acts shall they speak,\n And Thy greatness will I tell over.\n\n 7 \u05d6 The memory of Thy abundant goodness shall they well forth,\n And Thy righteousness shall they shout aloud.\n 8 \u05d7 Gracious and full of compassion is Jehovah,\n Slow to anger and great in loving-kindness.\n 9 \u05d8 Good is Jehovah to all,\n And His compassions are upon all His works.\n 10 \u05d9 All Thy works thank Thee, Jehovah,\n And Thy favoured ones shall bless Thee.\n\n 11 \u05db The glory of Thy kingdom shall they speak,\n And talk of Thy might;\n 12 \u05dc To make known to the sons of men His mighty deeds\n And the glory of the splendour of His kingdom.\n 13 \u05de Thy kingdom is a kingdom for all ages,\n And Thy dominion [endures] through every generation after\n generation.\n\n 14 \u05e1 Jehovah upholds all the falling,\n And raises all the bowed down.\n 15 \u05e2 The eyes of all look expectantly to Thee,\n And Thou givest them their food in its season.\n 16 \u05e4 Thou openest Thy hand,\n And satisfiest every living thing [with] its desire.\n 17 \u05e6 Jehovah is righteous in all His ways,\n And loving in all His works.\n 18 \u05e7 Jehovah is near to all who call on Him,\n To all who call on Him in truth.\n 19 \u05e8 The desire of them that fear Him He will fulfil,\n And their cry He will hear and will save them.\n 20 \u05e9 Jehovah keeps all who love Him,\n And all the wicked will He destroy.\n\n 21 \u05ea The praise of Jehovah my mouth shall speak,\n And let all flesh bless His holy name for ever and aye.\n\n\nThis is an acrostic psalm. Like several others of that kind, it is\nslightly irregular, one letter (Nun) being omitted. The omission is\nsupplied in the LXX. by an obviously spurious verse inserted in the\nright place between vv. 13 and 14. Though the psalm has no strophical\ndivisions, it has distinct sequence of thought, and celebrates the\nglories of Jehovah's character and deeds from a fourfold point of view.\nIt sings of His greatness (vv. 1-6), goodness (vv. 7-10), His kingdom\n(vv. 11-13), and the universality of His beneficence (vv. 14-21). It is\nlargely coloured by other psalms, and is unmistakably of late origin.\n\nThe first group of verses has two salient characteristics--the\naccumulation of epithets expressive of the more majestic aspects of\nJehovah's self-revelation, and the remarkable alternation of the\npsalmist's solo of song and the mighty chorus, which takes up the\ntheme and sends a shout of praise echoing down the generations.\n\nThe psalmist begins with his own tribute of praise, which he vows\nshall be perpetual. Ver. 1 recalls Psalms xxx. 1 and xxxiv. 1. We\n\"exalt\" God, when we recognise that He is King, and worthily adore\nHim as such. A heart suffused with joy in the thought of God would\nfain have no other occupation than the loved one of ringing out His\nname. The singer sets \"for ever and aye\" at the end of both ver. 1\nand ver. 2, and while it is possible to give the expression a worthy\nmeaning as simply equivalent to _continually_, it is more in harmony\nwith the exalted strain of the psalm and the emphatic position of\nthe words to hear in them an expression of the assurance which such\ndelight in God and in the contemplation of Him naturally brings with\nit, that over communion so deep and blessed, Death has no power.\n\"Every day will I bless Thee\"--that is the happy vow of the devout\nheart. \"And I will praise Thy name for ever and ever\"--that is the\ntriumphant confidence that springs from the vow. The experiences of\nfellowship with God are prophets of their own immortality.\n\nVer. 3_a_ is from Psalm xlviii. 1, and _b_ is tinged by Isaiah\nxl., but substitutes \"greatness,\" the key-note of the first part of\nthis psalm, for \"understanding.\" That note having been thus struck,\nis taken up in vv. 4-6, which set forth various aspects of that\ngreatness, as manifested in works which are successively described as\n\"mighty\"--_i.e._, instinct with conquering power such as a valiant\nhero wields; as, taken together, constituting the \"splendour of the\nglory of Thy majesty,\" the flashing brightness with which, when\ngathered, as it were, in a radiant mass, they shine out, like a\ngreat globe of fire; as \"wonders,\" not merely in the narrower sense\nof miracles, but as being productive of lowly astonishment in the\nthoughtful spectator; and as being \"dread acts\"--_i.e._, such as fill\nthe beholder with holy awe. In ver. 5_b_ the phrase rendered above\n\"records of His wonders\" is literally \"words of His wonders,\" which\nsome regard as being like the similar phrase in Psalm lxv. 3 (words\nor matters of iniquities), a pleonasm, and others would take as they\ndo the like expression in Psalm cv. 27, as equivalent to \"_deeds_\nof the Divine wonders\" (Delitzsch). But \"words\" may very well\nhere retain its ordinary sense, and the poet represent himself as\nmeditating on the records of God's acts in the past as well as gazing\non those spread before his eyes in the present.\n\nHis passing and repassing from his own praise in vv. 1, 2, to that of\nsuccessive generations in ver. 4, and once more to his own in ver.\n5, and to that of others in ver. 6, is remarkable. Does he conceive\nof himself as the chorus leader, teaching the ages his song? Or does\nhe simply rejoice in the less lofty consciousness that his voice is\nnot solitary? It is difficult to say, but this is clear, that the\nMessianic hope of the world's being one day filled with the praises\nwhich were occasioned by God's manifestation in Israel burned in this\nsinger's heart. He could not bear to sing alone, and his hymn would\nlack its highest note, if he did not believe that the world was to\ncatch up the song.\n\nBut greatness, majesty, splendour, are not the Divinest parts of\nthe Divine nature, as this singer had learned. These are but the\nfringes of the central glory. Therefore the song rises from greatness\nto celebrate better things, the moral attributes of Jehovah (vv.\n7-10). The psalmist has no more to say of himself, till the end of\nhis psalm. He gladly listens rather to the chorus of many voices\nwhich proclaims Jehovah's widespread goodness. In ver. 7 the two\nattributes which the whole Old Testament regards as inseparable are\nthe themes of the praise of men. Goodness and righteousness are\nnot antithetic, but complementary, as green and red rays blend in\nwhite light. The exuberance of praise evoked by these attributes\nis strikingly represented by the two strong words describing it;\nof which the former, \"well forth,\" compares its gush to the clear\nwaters of a spring bursting up into sunlight, dancing and flashing,\nmusical and living, and the other describes it as like the shrill\ncries of joy raised by a crowd on some festival, or such as the women\ntrilled out when a bride was brought home. Ver. 8 rests upon Exod.\nxxxiv. 6 (compare Psalm ciii. 8). It is difficult to de-synonymise\n\"gracious\" and \"full of compassion.\" Possibly the former is the\nwider, and expresses love in exercise towards the lowly in its most\ngeneral aspect, while the latter specialises graciousness as it\nreveals itself to those afflicted with any evil. As \"slow to anger,\"\nJehovah keeps back the wrath which is part of His perfection, and\nonly gives it free course after long waiting and wooing. The contrast\nin ver. 8_b_ is not so much between anger and loving-kindness, which\nto the psalmist are not opposed, as between the slowness with which\nthe one is launched against a few offenders and the plenitude of the\nother. That thought of abundant loving-kindness is still further\nwidened, in ver. 9, to universality. God's goodness embraces all,\nand His compassions hover over all His works, as the broad wing and\nwarm breast of the mother eagle protect her brood. Therefore the\npsalmist hears a yet more multitudinous voice of praise from all\ncreatures; since their very existence, and still more their various\nblessednesses, give witness to the all-gladdening Mercy which\nencompasses them. But Creation's anthem is a song without words, and\nneeds to be made articulate by the conscious thanksgivings of those\nwho, being blessed by possession of Jehovah's loving-kindness, render\nblessing to Him with heart and lip.\n\nThe Kingship of God was lightly touched in ver. 1. It now becomes\nthe psalmist's theme in vv. 11-13. It is for God's favoured ones to\n_speak_, while Creation can but _be_. It is for men who can recognise\nGod's sovereign Will as their law, and know Him as Ruler, not only by\npower, but by goodness, to proclaim that kingdom which psalmists knew\nto be \"righteousness, peace, and joy.\" The purpose for which God has\nlavished His favour on Israel is that they might be the heralds of\nHis royalty to \"the sons of men.\" The recipients of His grace should\nbe the messengers of His grace. The aspects of that kingdom which\nfill the psalmist's thoughts in this part of his hymn, correspond\nwith that side of the Divine nature celebrated in vv. 1-6--namely,\nthe more majestic--while the graciousness magnified in vv. 7-10 is\nagain the theme in the last portion (vv. 14-20). An intentional\nparallelism between the first and third parts is suggested by the\nrecurrence in ver. 12 of part of the same heaped-together phrase\nwhich occurs in ver. 5. There we read of \"the splendour of the\nglory of Thy majesty\"; here of \"the glory of the splendour of Thy\nkingdom,\"--expressions substantially identical in meaning. The very\nglory of the kingdom of Jehovah is a pledge that it is eternal. What\ncorruption or decay could touch so radiant and mighty a throne?\nIsrael's monarchy was a thing of the past; but as, \"in the year that\nKing Uzziah died,\" Isaiah saw the true King of Israel throned in\nthe Temple, so the vanishing of the earthly head of the theocracy\nseems to have revealed with new clearness to devout men in Israel\nthe perpetuity of the reign of Jehovah. Hence the psalms of the King\nare mostly post-exilic. It is blessed when the shattering of earthly\ngoods or the withdrawal of human helpers and lovers makes more plain\nthe Unchanging Friend and His abiding power to succour and suffice.\n\nThe last portion of the psalm is marked by a frequent repetition of\n\"all,\" which occurs eleven times in these verses. The singer seems\nto delight in the very sound of the word, which suggests to him\nboundless visions of the wide sweep of God's universal mercy, and of\nthe numberless crowd of dependents who wait on and are satisfied by\nHim. He passes far beyond national bounds.\n\nVer. 14 begins the grand catalogue of universal blessings by an\naspect of God's goodness which, at first sight, seems restricted,\nbut is only too wide, since there is no man who is not often ready\nto fall and needing a strong hand to uphold him. The universality of\nman's weakness is pathetically testified by this verse. Those who are\nin the act of falling are upheld by Him; those who have fallen are\nhelped to regain their footing. Universal sustaining and restoring\ngrace are His. The psalmist says nothing of the conditions on which\nthat grace in its highest forms is exercised; but these are inherent\nin the nature of the case, for, if the falling man will not lay\nhold of the outstretched hand, down he must go. There would be no\nplace for restoring help, if sustaining aid worked as universally\nas it is proffered. The word for \"raises\" in ver. 14_b_ occurs only\nhere and in Psalm cxlvi. 8. Probably the author of both Psalms is\none. In vv. 15, 16, the universality of Providence is set forth in\nlanguage partly taken from Psalm civ. 27, 28. The petitioners are all\ncreatures. They mutely appeal to God, with expectant eyes fixed on\nHim, like a dog looking for a crust from its master. He has but to\n\"open His hand\" and they are satisfied. The process is represented as\neasy and effortless. Ver. 16_b_ has received different explanations.\nThe word rendered \"desire\" is often used for \"favour\"--_i.e._,\nGod's--and is by some taken in that meaning here. So Cheyne\ntranslates \"fillest everything that lives with goodwill.\" But seeing\nthat the same word recurs in ver. 19, in an obvious parallel with\nthis verse, and has there necessarily the meaning of _desire_, it is\nmore natural to give it the same signification here. The clause then\nmeans that the opening of God's hand satisfies every creature, by\ngiving it that which it desires in full enjoyment.\n\nThese common blessings of Providence avail to interpret deeper\nmysteries. Since the world is full of happy creatures nourished\nby Him, it is a reasonable faith that His work is all of a piece,\nand that in all His dealings the twin attributes of righteousness\nand loving-kindness rule. There are enough plain tokens of God's\ncharacter in plain things to make us sure that mysterious and\napparently anomalous things have the same character regulating them.\nIn ver. 17_b_ the word rendered _loving_ is that usually employed\nof the objects of loving-kindness, God's \"favoured ones.\" It is\nused of God only here and in Jer. iii. 12, and must be taken in an\nactive sense, as _One who exercises loving-kindness_. The underlying\nprinciple of all His acts is Love, says the psalmist, and there is no\nantagonism between that deepest motive and Righteousness. The singer\nhas indeed climbed to a sun-lit height, from which he sees far and\ncan look down into the deep of the Divine judgments and discern that\nthey are a clear-obscure.\n\nHe does not restrict this universal beneficence when he goes on to\nlay down conditions on which the reception of its highest forms depend.\nThese conditions are not arbitrary; and within their limits, the same\nuniversality is displayed. The lower creation makes its mute appeal to\nGod, but men have the prerogative and obligation of calling upon Him\nwith real desire and trust. Such suppliants will universally be blessed\nwith a nearness of God to them, better than His proximity through\npower, knowledge, or the lower manifestations of His loving-kindness,\nto inferior creatures. Just as the fact of life brought with it certain\nwants, which God is bound to supply, since He gives it, so the fear and\nlove of Him bring deeper needs, which He is still more (if that were\npossible) under pledge to satisfy. The creatures have their desires\nmet. Those who fear Him will certainly have theirs; and that, not only\nin so far as they share physical life with worm and bee, whom their\nheavenly Father feeds, but in so far as their devotion sets in motion\na new series of aspirations, longings, and needs, which will certainly\nnot be left unfulfilled. \"Food\" is all the boon that the creatures\ncrave, and they get it by an easy process. But man, especially man who\nfears and loves God, has deeper needs, sadder in one aspect, since\nthey come from perils and ills from which he has to be saved, but more\nblessed in another, since every need is a door by which God can enter\na soul. These sacreder necessities and more wistful longings are not\nto be satisfied by simply opening God's hand. More has to be done\nthan that. For they can only be satisfied by the gift of Himself, and\nmen need much disciplining before they will to receive Him into their\nhearts. They who love and fear Him will desire Him chiefly, and that\ndesire can never be balked. There is a region, and only one, in which\nit is safe to set our hearts on unattained good. They who long for God\nwill always have as much of God as they long for and are capable of\nreceiving.\n\nBut notwithstanding the universality of the Divine loving-kindness,\nmankind still parts into two sections, one capable of receiving the\nhighest gifts, one incapable, because not desiring them. And therefore\nthe One Light, in its universal shining, works two effects, being\nlustre and life to such as welcome it, but darkness and death to those\nwho turn from it. It is man's awful prerogative that he can distil\npoison out of the water of life, and can make it impossible for himself\nto receive from tender, universal Goodness anything but destruction.\n\nThe singer closes his song with the reiterated vow that his songs\nshall never close, and, as in the earlier part of the psalm, rejoices\nin the confidence that his single voice shall, like that of the\nherald angel at Bethlehem, be merged in the notes of \"a multitude\npraising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLVI.\n\n 1 Hallelujah!\n Praise Jehovah, my soul.\n 2 I will praise Jehovah while I live,\n I will harp to Jehovah as long as I exist.\n\n 3 Trust not in nobles,\n In a son of Adam, who has no deliverance [to give].\n 4 His spirit goes forth, he returns to his earth,\n In that same day his schemes perish.\n\n 5 Blessed he who has the God of Jacob for his help,\n Whose hope is on Jehovah his God!\n 6 Who made heaven and earth,\n The sea--and all that is in them;\n Who keeps troth for ever;\n 7 Who executes judgment for the oppressed;\n Who gives bread to the hungry.\n Jehovah looses captives;\n 8 Jehovah opens the eyes of the blind;\n Jehovah raises the bowed down;\n Jehovah loves the righteous;\n 9 Jehovah preserves the strangers;\n Orphans and widows He sets up;\n But the way of the wicked He thwarts.\n 10 Jehovah shall be King for ever,\n Thy God, O Zion, to generation after generation.\n Hallelujah!\n\n\nThe long-drawn music of the Psalter closes with five Hallelujah\npsalms, in which, with constantly swelling diapason, all themes of\npraise are pealed forth, until the melodious thunder of the final\npsalm, which calls on everything that has breath to praise Jehovah.\nPossibly the number of these psalms may have reference to the five\nbooks into which the Psalter is divided.\n\nThis is the first of the five. It is largely coloured by earlier songs,\nbut still throbs with fresh emotion. Its theme is the blessedness of\ntrust in Jehovah, as shown by His character and works. It deals less\nwith Israel's special prerogatives than its companions do, while yet it\nclaims the universally beneficent Ruler as Israel's God.\n\nThe singer's full heart of thanksgiving must first pour itself out\nin vows of perpetual praise, before he begins to woo others to the\ntrust which blesses him. Exhortations are impotent unless enforced by\nexample. Ver. 2 is borrowed with slight variation from Psalm civ. 33.\n\nThe negative side of the psalmist's exhortation follows in vv.\n3, 4, which warn against wasting trust on powerless men. The same\nantithesis between men and God as objects of confidence occurs in\nmany places of Scripture, and here is probably borrowed from Psalm\ncxviii. 8. The reason assigned for the dehortation is mainly man's\nmortality. However high his state, he is but a \"son of Adam\" (the\nearth-born), and inherits the feebleness and fleetingness which\ndeprive him of ability to help. \"He has no salvation\" is the literal\nrendering of the last words of ver. 3_b_. Psalm lx. 11 gives the same\nthought, and almost in the same words. Ver. 4 sets forth more fully\nman's mortality, as demonstrating the folly of trusting in him. His\nbreath or spirit escapes; he goes back to \"his earth,\" from which he\nwas created; and what becomes of all his busy schemes? They \"perish\"\nas he does. The psalmist has a profound sense of the phantasmal\ncharacter of the solid-seeming realities of human glory and power.\nBut it wakes no bitterness in him, nor does it breathe any sadness\ninto his song. It only teaches him to cling the more closely to the\npermanent and real. His negative teaching, if it stood alone, would\nbe a gospel of despair, the reduction of life to a torturing cheat;\nbut taken as the prelude to the revelation of One whom it is safe to\ntrust, there is nothing sad in it. So the psalm springs up at once\nfrom these thoughts of the helplessness of mortal man, to hymn the\nblessedness of trust set upon the undying God, like a song-bird from\nits lair in a grave-yard, which pours its glad notes above the grassy\nmounds, as it rises in spirals towards the blue, and at each gives\nforth a more exultant burst of music.\n\nThe exclamation in ver. 5 is the last of the twenty-five \"Blesseds\"\nin the Psalter. Taken together, as any concordance will show,\nbeginning with Psalm i., they present a beautiful and comprehensive\nideal of the devout life. The felicity of such a life is here\ngathered up into two comprehensive considerations, which supplement\neach other. It is blessed to have the God of Jacob on our side; but\nit is not enough for the heart to know that He bore a relation to\nanother in the far-off past or to a community in the present. There\nmust be an individualising bond between the soul and God, whereby\nthe \"God of Jacob\" becomes the God who belongs to the single devout\nman, and all the facts of whose protection in the past are renewed in\nthe prosaic present. It is blessed to have Jehovah for one's \"help,\"\nbut that is only secured when, by the effort of one's own will, He\nis clasped as one's \"hope.\" Such hope is blessed, for it will never\nbe put to shame, nor need to shift its anchorage. It brings into any\nlife the all-sufficient help which is the ultimate source of all\nfelicity, and makes the hope that grasps it blessed, as the hand that\nholds some fragrant gum is perfumed by the touch.\n\nBut the psalmist passes swiftly from celebrating trust to magnify\nits object, and sets forth in an impressive series the manifold\nperfections and acts which witness that Jehovah is worthy to be the\nsole Confidence of men.\n\nThe nine Divine acts, which invite to trust in Him, are divided into\ntwo parts, by a change in construction. There is, first, a series\nof participles (vv. 6-7_b_), and then a string of brief sentences\nenumerating Divine deeds (vv. 7_c_-9). No very clear difference in\nthought can be established as corresponding to this difference in\nform. The psalmist begins with God's omnipotence as manifested in\ncreation. The first requisite for trust is assurance of power in the\nperson trusted. The psalmist calls heaven and earth and sea, with all\ntheir inhabitants, as witnesses that Jehovah is not like the son of\nman, in whom there is no power to help.\n\nBut power may be whimsical, changeable, or may shroud its designs in\nmystery; therefore, if it is to be trusted, its purposes and methods\nmust be so far known that a man may be able to reckon on it. Therefore\nthe psalm adds unchangeable faithfulness to His power. But Power,\nhowever faithful, is not yet worthy of trust, unless it works according\nto righteousness, and has an arm that wars against wrong; therefore\nto creative might and plighted troth the psalmist adds the exercise\nof judgment. Nor are these enough, for the conception which they\nembody may be that of a somewhat stern and repellent Being, who may be\nreverenced, but not approached with the warm heart of trust; therefore\nthe psalmist adds beneficence, which ministers their appropriate food\nto all desires, not only of the flesh, but of the spirit. The hungry\nhearts of men, who are all full of needs and longings, may turn to this\nmighty, faithful, righteous Jehovah, and be sure that He never sends\nmouths but He sends meat to fill them. All our various kinds of hunger\nare doors for God to come into our spirits.\n\nThe second series of sentences deals mainly with the Divine\nbeneficence in regard to man's miseries. The psalmist does not feel\nthat the existence of these sad varieties of sorrow clouds his\nassurance in God's goodness. To him, they are occasions for the most\nheart-touching display of God's pitying, healing hand. If there is\nany difference between the two sets of clauses descriptive of God's\nacts, the latter bring into clearer light His personal agency in\neach case of suffering. This mighty, faithful, righteous, beneficent\nJehovah, in all the majesty which that name suggests, comes down to\nthe multitude of burdened ones and graciously deals with each, having\nin His heart the knowledge of, and in His hand the remedy for, all\ntheir ills. The greatness of His nature expressed by His name is\nvividly contrasted with the tenderness and lowliness of His working.\nCaptives, blind persons, and those bowed down by sorrows or otherwise\nappeal to Him by their helplessness, and His strong hand breaks the\nfetters, and His gentle touch opens without pain the closed eyes\nand quickens the paralysed nerve to respond to the light, and His\nfirm, loving hold lifts to their feet and establishes the prostrate.\nAll these classes of afflicted persons are meant to be regarded\nliterally, but all may have a wider meaning, and be intended to hint\nat spiritual bondage, blindness, and abjectness.\n\nThe next clause (ver. 8_c_) seems to interrupt the representation\nof forms of affliction, but it comes in with great significance in\nthe centre of that sad catalogue; for its presence here teaches that\nnot merely affliction, whether physical or other, secures Jehovah's\ngracious help, but that there must be the yielding of heart to Him,\nand the effort at conformity of life with His precepts and pattern,\nif His aid is to be reckoned on in men's sorrows. The prisoners will\nstill languish in chains, the blind will grope in darkness, the bowed\ndown will lie prone in the dust, unless they are righteous.\n\nThe series of afflictions which God alleviates is resumed in ver. 9\nwith a pathetic triad--strangers, widows, and fatherless. These are\nforlorn indeed, and the depth of their desolation is the measure of the\nDivine compassion. The enumeration of Jehovah's acts, which make trust\nin God blessed in itself, and the sure way of securing help which is\nnot vain, needs but one more touch for completion, and that is added\nin the solemn thought that He, by His providences and in the long run,\nturns aside (_i.e._ from its aim) the way of the wicked. That aspect\nof God's government is lightly handled in one clause, as befits the\npurpose of the psalm. But it could not be left out. A true likeness\nmust have shadows. God were not a God for men to rely on, unless the\ntrend of His reign was to crush evil and thwart the designs of sinners.\n\nThe blessedness of trust in Jehovah is gathered up into one great\nthought in the last verse of the psalm. The sovereignty of God to\nall generations suggests the swift disappearance of earthly princes,\nreferred to in ver. 4. To trust in fleeting power is madness; to\ntrust in the Eternal King is wisdom and blessedness, and in some\nsense makes him who trusts a sharer in the eternity of the God in\nwhom is his hope, and from whom is his help.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLVII.\n\n 1 Hallelujah!\n For it is good to harp unto our God,\n For it is pleasant: praise is comely.\n 2 Jehovah is the builder up of Jerusalem,\n The outcasts of Israel He gathers together;\n 3 The healer of the broken-hearted,\n And He binds their wounds;\n 4 Counting a number for the stars,\n He calls them all by names.\n 5 Great is our Lord and of vast might,\n To His understanding there is no number.\n 6 Jehovah helps up the afflicted,\n Laying low the wicked to the ground.\n\n 7 Sing to Jehovah with thanksgiving,\n Harp to our God on the lyre,\n 8 Covering heaven with clouds,\n Preparing rain for the earth;\n Making the mountains shoot forth grass,\n 9 Giving to the beast its food,\n To the brood of the raven which croak.\n 10 Not in the strength of the horse does He delight,\n Not in the legs of a man does He take pleasure.\n 11 Jehovah takes pleasure in them that fear Him,\n Them that wait for His loving-kindness.\n\n 12 Extol Jehovah, O Jerusalem,\n Praise thy God, O Zion.\n 13 For He has strengthened the bars of thy gates,\n He has blessed thy children in thy midst.\n 14 Setting thy borders in peace,\n With the fat of wheat He satisfies thee;\n 15 Sending forth His commandment on the earth,\n Swiftly runs His word;\n 16 Giving snow like wool,\n Hoar frost He scatters like ashes;\n 17 Flinging forth His ice like morsels,\n Before His cold who can stand?\n 18 He sends forth His word and melts them,\n He causes His wind to blow--the waters flow;\n 19 Declaring His word to Jacob,\n His statutes and judgments to Israel.\n 20 He has not dealt thus to any nation;\n And His judgments--they have not known them.\n\n\nThe threefold calls to praise Jehovah (vv. 1, 7, 12) divide\nthis psalm into three parts, the two former of which are closely\nconnected, inasmuch as the first part is mainly occupied with\ncelebrating God's mercy to the restored Israel, and the second takes\na wider outlook, embracing His beneficence to all living things. Both\nthese points of view are repeated in the same order in the third part\n(vv. 12-20), which the LXX. makes a separate psalm. The allusions to\nJerusalem as rebuilt, to the gathering of the scattered Israelites,\nand to the fortifications of the city naturally point to the epoch\nof the Restoration, whether or not, with Delitzsch and others, we\nsuppose that the psalm was sung at the feast of the dedication of the\nnew walls. In any case, it is a hymn of the restored people, which\nstarts from the special mercy shown to them, and rejoices in the\nthought that \"Our God\" fills the earth with good and reigns to bless,\nin the realm of Nature as in that of special Revelation. The emphasis\nplaced on God's working in nature, in this and others of these\nclosing psalms, is probably in part a polemic against the idolatry\nwhich Israel had learned to abhor, by being brought face to face with\nit in Babylon, and in part a result of the widening of conceptions as\nto His relation to the world outside Israel which the Exile had also\neffected. The two truths of His special relation to His people and of\nHis universal loving-kindness have often been divorced, both by His\npeople and by their enemies. This psalm teaches a more excellent way.\n\nThe main theme of vv. 1-6 is God's manifestation of transcendent\npower and incalculable wisdom, as well as infinite kindness, in\nbuilding up the ruined Jerusalem and collecting into a happy band\nof citizens the lonely wanderers of Israel. For such blessings\npraise is due, and the psalm summons all who share them to swell the\nsong. Ver. 1 is somewhat differently construed by some, as Hupfeld,\nwho would change one letter in the word rendered above \"to harp,\"\nand, making it an imperative, would refer \"good\" and \"pleasant\"\nto God, thus making the whole to read, \"Praise Jehovah, for He is\ngood; harp to our God, for He is pleasant: praise is comely.\" This\nchange simplifies some points of construction, but labours under\nthe objection that it is contrary to usage to apply the adjective\n\"pleasant\" to God; and the usual rendering is quite intelligible and\nappropriate. The reason for the fittingness and delightsomeness of\npraise is the great mercy shown to Israel in the Restoration, which\nmercy is in the psalmist's thoughts throughout this part. He has the\nsame fondness for using participles as the author of the previous\npsalm, and begins vv. 2, 3, 4, and 6 with them. Possibly their use\nis intended to imply that the acts described by them are regarded as\ncontinuous, not merely done once for all. Jehovah is ever building\nup Jerusalem, and, in like manner, uninterruptedly energising in\nprovidence and nature. The collocation of Divine acts in ver. 2\nbears upon the great theme that fills the singer's heart and lips.\nIt is the outcasts of Israel of whom he thinks, while he sings of\nbinding up the broken-hearted. It is they who are the \"afflicted,\"\nhelped up by that strong, gentle clasp; while their oppressors are\nthe wicked, flung prone by the very wind of God's hand. The beautiful\nand profound juxtaposition of gentle healing and omnipotence in vv.\n3, 4, is meant to signalise the work of restoring Israel as no less\nwondrous than that of marshalling the stars, and to hearten faith by\npledging that incalculable Power to perfect its restoring work. He\nwho stands beside the sick-bed of the broken-hearted, like a gentle\nphysician, with balm and bandage, and lays a tender hand on their\nwounds, is He who sets the stars in their places and tells them as a\nshepherd his flock or a commander his army. The psalmist borrows from\nIsa. xl. 26-29, where several of his expressions occur. \"Counting a\nnumber for the stars\" is scarcely equivalent to numbering them as\nthey shine. It rather means determining how many of them there shall\nbe. Calling them all by names (lit., He calls names to them all) is\nnot giving them designations, but summoning them as a captain reading\nthe muster-roll of his band. It may also imply full knowledge of\neach individual in their countless hosts. Ver. 5 is taken from the\npassage in Isaiah already referred to, with the change of \"no number\"\nfor \"no searching,\" a change which is suggested by the preceding\nreference to the number of the stars. These have a number, though it\nsurpasses human arithmetic; but His wisdom is measureless. And all\nthis magnificence of power, this minute particularising knowledge,\nthis abyss of wisdom, are guarantees for the healing of the\nbroken-hearted. The thought goes further than Israel's deliverance\nfrom bondage. It has a strong voice of cheer for all sad hearts, who\nwill let Him probe their wounds that He may bind them up. The mighty\nGod of Creation is the tender God of Providence and of Redemption.\nTherefore \"praise is comely,\" and fear and faltering are unbefitting.\n\nThe second part of the psalm (ver. 7-11) passes out from the special\nfield of mercy to Israel, and comes down from the glories of the\nheavens, to magnify God's universal goodness manifested in physical\nchanges, by which lowly creatures are provided for. The point of time\nselected is that of the November rains. The verbs in vv. 8, 9, 11,\nare again participles, expressive of continuous action. The yearly\nmiracle which brings from some invisible storehouse the clouds to\nfill the sky and drop down fatness, the answer of the brown earth\nwhich mysteriously shoots forth the tender green spikelets away up on\nthe mountain flanks, where no man has sown and no man will reap, the\nloving care which thereby provides food for the wild creatures, owned\nby no one, and answers the hoarse croak of the callow fledgelings\nin the ravens' nests--these are manifestations of God's power and\nrevelations of His character worthy to be woven into a hymn which\ncelebrates His restoring grace, and to be set beside the apocalypse\nof His greatness in the nightly heavens. But what has ver. 10 to do\nhere? The connection of it is difficult to trace. Apparently, the\npsalmist would draw from the previous verses, which exhibit God's\nuniversal goodness and the creatures' dependence on Him, the lesson\nthat reliance on one's own resources or might is sure to be smitten\nwith confusion, while humble trust in God, which man alone of earth's\ncreatures can exercise, is for him the condition of his receiving\nneeded gifts. The beast gets its food, and it is enough that the\nyoung ravens should croak, but man has to \"fear Him\" and to wait on\nHis \"loving-kindness.\" Ver. 10 is a reminiscence of Psalm xxxiii. 16,\n17, and ver. 11 of the next verse of the same psalm.\n\nThe third part (vv. 12-20) travels over substantially the same ground\nas the two former, beginning with the mercy shown to the restored\nIsrael, and passing on to wider manifestations of God's goodness. But\nthere is a difference in this repeated setting forth of both these\nthemes. The fortifications of Jerusalem are now complete, and their\nstrength gives security to the people gathered into the city. Over\nall the land once devastated by war peace broods, and the fields that\nlay desolate now have yielded harvest. The ancient promise (Psalm\nlxxxi. 16) has been fulfilled, its condition having been complied\nwith, and Israel having hearkened to Jehovah. Protection, blessing,\ntranquillity, abundance, are the results of obedience, God's gifts\nto them that fear Him. So it was in the psalmist's experience; so,\nin higher form, it is still. These Divine acts are continuous, and\nas long as there are men who trust, there will be a God who builds\ndefences around them, and satisfies them with good.\n\nAgain the psalmist turns to the realm of nature; but it is nature\nat a different season which now yields witness to God's universal\npower and care. The phenomena of a sharp winter were more striking\nto the psalmist than to us. But his poet's eye and his devout heart\nrecognise even in the cold, before which his Eastern constitution\ncowered shivering, the working of God's Will. His \"commandment\" or\nWord is personified, and compared to a swift-footed messenger. As\never, power over material things is attributed to the Divine word,\nand as ever, in the Biblical view of nature, all intermediate links\nare neglected, and the Almighty cause at one end of the chain and the\nphysical effect at the other are brought together. There is between\nthese two clauses room enough for all that meteorology has to say.\n\nThe winter-piece in vv. 16, 17, dashes off the dreary scene with a few\nbold strokes. The air is full of flakes like floating wool, or the\nwhite mantle covers the ground like a cloth; rime lies everywhere, as\nif ashes were powdered over trees and stones. Hail-stones fall, as if\nHe flung them down from above. They are like \"morsels\" of bread, a\ncomparison which strikes us as violent, but which may possibly describe\nthe more severe storms, in which flat pieces of ice fall. As by magic,\nall is changed when He again sends forth His word. It but needs that He\nshould let a warm wind steal gently across the desolation, and every\nsealed and silent brook begins to tinkle along its course. And will not\nHe who thus changes the face of the earth in like manner breathe upon\nfrost-bound lives and hearts,\n\n \"And every winter merge in spring\"?\n\nBut the psalm cannot end with contemplation of God's universal\nbeneficence, however gracious that is. There is a higher mode of\nactivity for His word than that exercised on material things. God\nsends His commandment forth and earth unconsciously obeys, and\nall creatures, men included, are fed and blessed. But the noblest\nutterance of His word is in the shape of statutes and judgments,\nand these are Israel's prerogative. The psalmist is not rejoicing\nthat other nations have not received these, but that Israel has.\nIts privilege is its responsibility. It has received them that it\nmay obey them, and then that it may make them known. If the God\nwho scatters lower blessings broad-cast, not forgetting beasts\nand ravens, has restricted His highest gift to His people, the\nrestriction is a clear call to them to spread the knowledge of the\ntreasure entrusted to them. To glory in privilege is sin; to learn\nthat it means responsibility is wisdom. The lesson is needed by\nthose who to-day have been served as heirs to Israel's prerogative,\nforfeited by it because it clutched it for itself, and forgot its\nobligation to carry it as widely as God had diffused His lower gifts.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLVIII.\n\n 1 Hallelujah!\n Praise Jehovah from the heavens,\n Praise Him in the heights.\n 2 Praise Him, all His angels,\n Praise Him, all His host.\n 3 Praise Him, sun and moon,\n Praise Him, all stars of light.\n 4 Praise Him, heavens of heavens,\n And waters that are above the heavens--\n 5 Let them praise the name of Jehovah,\n For He, He commanded and they were created.\n 6 And He established them for ever and aye,\n A law gave He [them] and none transgresses.\n\n 7 Praise Jehovah from the earth,\n Sea-monsters, and all ocean-depths;\n 8 Fire and hail, snow and smoke,\n Storm-wind doing His behest;\n 9 Mountains and all hills,\n Fruit trees and all cedars;\n 10 Wild beast and all cattle,\n Creeping thing and winged fowl;\n 11 Kings of the earth and all peoples,\n Princes and all judges of the earth;\n 12 Young men and also maidens,\n Old men with children--\n 13 Let them praise the name of Jehovah,\n For His name alone is exalted,\n His majesty above earth and heaven.\n 14 And He has lifted up a horn for His people,\n A praise for all His beloved,\n [Even] for the children of Israel, the people near to Him.\n Hallelujah!\n\n\nThe mercy granted to Israel (ver. 14) is, in the psalmist's\nestimation, worthy to call forth strains of praise from all\ncreatures. It is the same conception as is found in several of\nthe psalms of the King (xciii.-c.), but is here expressed with\nunparalleled magnificence and fervour. The same idea attains the\nclimax of its representation in the mighty anthem from \"every\ncreature which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth,\nand such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,\" whom John\nheard saying, \"Blessing and honour and glory and power unto Him\nthat sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.\"\nIt may be maintained that this psalm is only a highly emotional\nand imaginative rendering of the truth that all God's works praise\nHim, whether consciously or not, but its correspondence with a\nline of thought which runs through Scripture from its first page\nto its last--namely, that, as man's sin subjected the creatures to\n\"vanity,\" so his redemption shall be their glorifying--leads us to\nsee prophetic anticipation, and not mere poetic rapture, in this\nsummons pealed out to heights and depths, and all that lies between,\nto rejoice in what Jehovah has done for Israel.\n\nThe psalm falls into two broad divisions, in the former of which\nheaven, and in the latter earth, are invoked to praise Jehovah.\nVer. 1 addresses generally the subsequently particularised heavenly\nbeings. \"From the heavens\" and \"in the heights\" praise is to\nsound: the former phrase marks the place of origin, and may imply\nthe floating down to a listening earth of that ethereal music;\nthe latter thinks of all the dim distances as filled with it. The\nangels, as conscious beings, are the chorus-leaders, and even to\n\"principalities and powers in heavenly places\" Israel's restoration\nreveals new phases of the \"manifold wisdom of God.\" The \"host\" (or\n_hosts_, according to the amended reading of the Hebrew margin) are\nhere obviously angels, as required by the parallelism with _a_. The\nsun, moon, and stars, of which the psalmist knows nothing but that\nthey burn with light and roll in silence through the dark expanse,\nare bid to break the solemn stillness that fills the daily and\nnightly sky. Finally, the singer passes in thought through the lower\nheavens, and would fain send his voice whither his eye cannot pierce,\nup into that mysterious watery abyss, which, according to ancient\ncosmographry, had the firmament for its floor. It is absurd to look\nfor astronomical accuracy in such poetry as this; but a singer who\nknew no more about sun, moon, and stars, and depths of space, than\nthat they were all God's creatures and in their silence praised Him,\nknew and felt more of their true nature and charm than does he who\nknows everything about them except these facts.\n\nVv. 5, 6, assign the reason for the praise of the heavens--Jehovah's\ncreative act, His sustaining power and His \"law,\" the utterance of\nHis will to which they conform. Ver. 6_a_ emphatically asserts, by\nexpressing the \"He,\" which is in Hebrew usually included in the\nverb, that it is Jehovah and none other who \"preserves the stars\nfrom wrong.\" \"Preservation is continuous creation.\" The meaning of\nthe close of ver. 6_b_ is doubtful, if the existing text is adhered\nto. It reads literally \"and [it?] shall not pass.\" The unexpressed\nnominative is by some taken to be the before-mentioned \"law,\" and\n\"pass\" to mean _cease to be in force_ or _be transgressed_. Others\ntake the singular verb as being used distributively, and so render\n\"None of them transgresses.\" But a very slight alteration gives the\nplural verb, which makes all plain.\n\nIn these starry depths obedience reigns; it is only on earth that a\nbeing lives who can and will break the merciful barriers of Jehovah's\nlaw. Therefore, from that untroubled region of perfect service\ncomes a purer song of praise, though it can never have the pathetic\nharmonies of that which issues from rebels brought back to allegiance.\n\nThe summons to the earth begins with the lowest places, as that to\nthe heavens did with the highest. The psalmist knows little of the\nuncouth forms that may wallow in ocean depths, but he is sure that\nthey too, in their sunless abodes, can praise Jehovah. From the ocean\nthe psalm rises to the air, before it, as it were, settles down on\nearth. Ver. 8 may refer to contemporaneous phenomena, and, if so,\ndescribes a wild storm hurtling through the lower atmosphere. The\nverbal arrangement in ver. 8_a_ is that of inverted parallelism, in\nwhich \"fire\" corresponds to \"smoke\" and \"hail\" to \"snow.\" Lightning\nand hail, which often occur together, are similarly connected in\nPsalm xviii. 12. But it is difficult to explain \"snow and smoke,\"\nif regarded as accompaniments of the former pair--fire and hail.\nRather they seem to describe another set of meteorological phenomena,\na winter storm, in which the air is thick with flakes as if\ncharged with smoke, while the preceding words refer to a summer's\nthunderstorm. The resemblance to the two pictures in the preceding\npsalm, one of the time of the latter rains and one of bitter winter\nweather, is noticeable. The storm-wind, which drives all these\nformidable agents through the air, in its utmost fury is a servant.\nAs in Psalm cvii. 25, it obeys God's command.\n\nThe solid earth itself, as represented by its loftiest summits which\npierce the air; vegetable life, as represented by the two classes\nof fruit-bearing and forest trees; animals in their orders, wild\nand domestic; the lowest worm that crawls and the light-winged bird\nthat soars,--these all have voices to praise God. The song has been\nsteadily rising in the scale of being from inanimate to animated\ncreatures, and last it summons man, in whom creation's praise becomes\nvocal and conscious.\n\nAll men, without distinction of rank, age, or sex, have the same\nobligation and privilege of praise. Kings are most kingly when they\ncast their crowns before Him. Judges are wise when they sit as His\nvicegerents. The buoyant vigour of youth is purest when used with\nremembrance of the Creator; the maiden's voice is never so sweet as\nin hymns to Jehovah. The memories and feebleness of age are hallowed\nand strengthened by recognition of the God who can renew failing\nenergy and soothe sad remembrances; and the child's opening powers\nare preserved from stain and distortion, by drawing near to Him in\nwhose praise the extremes of life find common ground. The young man's\nstrong bass, the maiden's clear alto, the old man's quavering notes,\nthe child's fresh treble, should blend in the song.\n\nVer. 13 gives the reason for the praise of earth, but especially\nof man, with very significant difference from that assigned in vv.\n5, 6. \"His name is exalted.\" He has manifested Himself to eyes that\ncan see, and has shown forth His transcendent majesty. Man's praise\nis to be based not only on the Revelation of God in Nature, but on\nthat higher one in His dealings with men, and especially with Israel.\nThis chief reason for praise is assigned in ver. 14, and indeed\nunderlies the whole psalm. \"He has lifted up a horn for His people,\"\ndelivering them from their humiliation and captivity, and setting\nthem again in their land. Thereby He has provided all His favoured\nones with occasion for praise. The condensed language of ver. 14_b_\nis susceptible of different constructions and meanings. Some would\nunderstand the verb from _a_ as repeated before \"praise,\" and take\nthe meaning to be \"He exalts the praise [_i.e._, the glory] of His\nbeloved,\" but it is improbable that praise here should mean anything\nbut that rendered to God. The simplest explanation of the words is\nthat they are in apposition to the preceding clause, and declare\nthat Jehovah, by \"exalting a horn to His people,\" has given them\nespecially occasion to praise Him. Israel is further designated as \"a\npeople near to Him.\" It is a nation of priests, having the privilege\nof access to His presence; and, in the consciousness of this dignity,\n\"comes forward in this psalm as the leader of all the creatures in\ntheir praise of God, and strikes up a hallelujah that is to be joined\nin by heaven and earth\" (Delitzsch).\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CXLIX.\n\n 1 Sing to Jehovah a new song,\n His praise in the congregation of His favoured ones.\n 2 Let Israel rejoice in his Maker,\n Let the children of Zion be glad in their King.\n 3 Let them praise His name in [the] dance,\n With timbrel and lyre let them play to Him.\n 4 For Jehovah takes pleasure in His people,\n He adorns the meek with salvation.\n 5 Let His favoured ones exult in glory,\n Let them shout aloud on their beds--\n 6 The high praises of God in their throat,\n And a two-edged sword in their hand;\n 7 To execute vengeance on the nations,\n Chastisements on the peoples;\n 8 To bind their kings in chains\n And their nobles in bonds of iron;\n 9 To execute on them the sentence written--\n An honour is this to all His favoured ones.\n Hallelujah!\n\n\nIn the preceding psalm Israel's restoration was connected with the\nrecognition by all creatures, and especially by the kings of the\nearth and their people, of Jehovah's glory. This psalm presents the\nconverse thought, that the restored Israel becomes the executor of\njudgments on those who will not join in the praise which rings from\nIsrael that it may be caught up by all. The two psalms are thus\nclosely connected. The circumstances of the Restoration accord with\nthe tone of both, as of the other members of this closing group.\n\nThe happy recipients of new mercy are, as in Psalms xcvi. and\nxcviii., summoned to break into new songs. Winter silences the birds;\nbut spring, the new \"life re-orient out of dust,\" is welcomed with\nmusic from every budding tree.\n\nChiefly should God's praise sound out from \"the congregation of His\nfavoured ones,\" the long-scattered captives who owe it to His favour\nthat they _are_ a congregation once more. The jubilant psalmist\ndelights in that name for Israel, and uses it thrice in his song.\nHe loves to set forth the various names, which each suggest some\nsweet strong thought of what God is to the nation and the nation to\nGod--His favoured ones, Israel, the children of Zion, His people,\nthe afflicted. He heaps together synonyms expressive of rapturous\njoy--rejoice, be glad, exult. He calls for expressions of triumphant\nmirth in which limbs, instruments, and voices unite. He would have\nthe exuberant gladness well over into the hours of repose, and the\nnight be made musical with ringing shouts of joy. \"Praise is better\nthan sleep,\" and the beds which had often been privy to silent tears\nmay well be witnesses of exultation that cannot be dumb.\n\nThe psalmist touches very lightly on the reason for this outburst of\npraise, because he takes it for granted that so great and recent mercy\nneeded little mention. One verse (ver. 4) suffices to recall it. The\nvery absorption of the heart in its bliss may make it silent about the\nbliss. The bride needs not to tell what makes her glad. Restored Israel\nrequires little reminder of its occasion for joy. But the brief mention\nof it is very beautiful. It makes prominent, not so much the outward\nfact, as the Divine pleasure in His people, of which the fact was\neffect and indication. Their affliction had been the token that God's\ncomplacency did not rest on them; their deliverance is the proof that\nthe sunlight of His face shines on them once more. His chastisements\nrightly borne are ever precursors of deliverance, which adorns the meek\nafflicted, giving \"beauty for ashes.\" The qualification for receiving\nJehovah's help is meekness, and the effect of that help on the lowly\nsoul is to deck it with strange loveliness. Therefore God's favoured\nones may well exult in glory--_i.e._, on account of the glory with\nwhich they are invested by His salvation.\n\nThe stern close of the psalm strikes a note which many ears feel\nto be discordant, and which must be freely acknowledged to stand\non the same lower level as the imprecatory psalms, while, even\nmore distinctly than these, it is entirely free from any sentiment\nof personal vengeance. The picture of God's people going forth to\nbattle, chanting His praises and swinging two-edged swords, shocks\nChristian sentiment. It is not to be explained away as meaning the\nspiritual conquest of the world with spiritual weapons. The psalmist\nmeant actual warfare and real iron fetters. But, while the form of\nhis anticipations belongs to the past and is entirely set aside\nby the better light of Christianity, their substance is true for\never. Those who have been adorned with Jehovah's salvation have\nthe subjugation of the world to God's rule committed to them. \"The\nweapons of our warfare are not carnal.\" There are stronger fetters\nthan those of iron, even \"the cords of love\" and \"the bands of a man.\"\n\n\"The judgment written,\" which is to be executed by the militant\nIsrael on the nations, does not seem to have reference either to\nthe commandment to exterminate the Canaanites or to the punishments\nthreatened in many places of Scripture. It is better to take it as\ndenoting a judgment \"fixed, settled, ... written thus by God Himself\"\n(Perowne). Ver. 9_b_ may be rendered (as Hupfeld does) \"Honour [or,\nmajesty] is He to all His favoured ones,\" in the sense that God\nmanifests His majesty to them, or that He is the object of their\nhonouring; but the usual rendering is more in accordance with the\ncontext and its high-strung martial ardour. \"This\"--namely, the whole\nof the crusade just described--is laid upon all Jehovah's favoured\nones, by the fact of their participation in His salvation. They are\nredeemed from bondage that they may be God's warriors. The honour and\nobligation are universal.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM CL.\n\n 1 Hallelujah!\n Praise God in His sanctuary,\n Praise Him in the firmament of His strength.\n 2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds,\n Praise Him according to the abundance of His greatness.\n 3 Praise Him with blast of horn,\n Praise Him with psaltery and harp,\n 4 Praise Him with timbrel and dance,\n Praise Him with strings and pipe.\n 5 Praise Him with clear-sounding cymbals,\n Praise Him with deep-toned cymbals.\n 6 Let everything that has breath praise Jah.\n Hallelujah!\n\n\nThis noble close of the Psalter rings out one clear note of\npraise, as the end of all the many moods and experiences recorded\nin its wonderful sighs and songs. Tears, groans, wailings for sin,\nmeditations on the dark depths of Providence, fainting faith and\nfoiled aspirations, all lead up to this. The psalm is more than an\nartistic close of the Psalter; it is a prophecy of the last result\nof the devout life, and, in its unclouded sunniness, as well as in\nits universality, it proclaims the certain end of the weary years\nfor the individual and for the world. \"Everything that hath breath\"\nshall yet praise Jehovah. The psalm is evidently meant for liturgic\nuse, and one may imagine that each instrument began to take part in\nthe concert as it was named, till at last all blended in a mighty\ntorrent of praiseful sound, to which the whirling dancers kept time.\nA strange contrast to modern notions of sobriety in worship!\n\nThe tenfold \"Praise Him\" has been often noticed as symbolic of\ncompleteness, but has probably no special significance.\n\nIn ver. 1 the psalmist calls on earth and heaven to praise. The\n\"sanctuary\" may, indeed, be either the Temple or the heavenly palace\nof Jehovah, but it is more probable that the invocation, like so many\nothers of a similar kind, is addressed to men and angels, than that\nthe latter only are meant. They who stand in the earthly courts and\nthey who circle the throne that is reared above the visible firmament\nare parts of a great whole, an antiphonal chorus. It becomes them to\npraise, for they each dwell in God's sanctuary.\n\nThe theme of praise is next touched in ver. 2. \"His mighty deeds\"\nmight be rendered \"His heroic [or, valiant] acts.\" The reference is\nto His deliverance of His people as a signal manifestation of prowess\nor conquering might. The tenderness which moved the power is not here\nin question, but the power cannot be worthily praised or understood,\nunless that Divine pity and graciousness of which it is the\ninstrument are apprehended. Mighty acts, unsoftened by loving impulse\nand gracious purpose, would evoke awe, but not thanks. No praise is\nadequate to the abundance of His greatness, but yet He accepts such\nadoration as men can render.\n\nThe instruments named in vv. 3-5 were not all used, so far as we know,\nin the Temple service. There is possibly an intention to go beyond\nthose recognised as sacred, in order to emphasise the universality of\npraise. The horn was the curved \"Shophar,\" blown by the priests; \"harp\nand psaltery were played by the Levites, timbrels were struck by women;\nand dancing, playing on stringed instruments and pipes and cymbals,\nwere not reserved for the Levites. Consequently the summons to praise\nGod is addressed to priests, Levites, and people\" (Baethgen). In ver.\n4_b_ \"strings\" means stringed instruments, and \"pipe\" is probably that\nused by shepherds, neither of which kinds of instrument elsewhere\nappears as employed in worship.\n\nToo little is known of Jewish music to enable us to determine whether\nthe epithets applied to cymbals refer to two different kinds. Probably\nthey do; the first being small and high-pitched, the second larger,\nlike the similar instrument used in military music, and of a deep tone.\n\nBut the singer would fain hear a volume of sound which should\ndrown all that sweet tumult which he has evoked; and therefore he\ncalls on \"everything that has breath\" to use it in sending forth\na thunder-chorus of praise to Jehovah. The invocation bears the\nprophecy of its own fulfilment. These last strains of the long series\nof psalmists are as if that band of singers of Israel turned to the\nlistening world, and gave into its keeping the harps which, under\ntheir own hands, had yielded such immortal music.\n\nFew voices have obeyed the summons, and the vision of a world\nmelodious with the praise of Jehovah and of Him alone appears to us,\nin our despondent moments, almost as far off as it was when the last\npsalmist ceased to sing. But his call is our confidence; and we know\nthat the end of history shall be that to Him whose work is mightier\nthan all the other mighty acts of Jehovah, \"Every knee shall bow, and\nevery tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God\nthe Father.\"\n\n THE END.\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\n\nObvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.\n\nInconsistent hyphenation is as in the original.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3: Psalms XC.-CL.","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":128363}